Here at AgingOptions, we run across articles from time to time that make us want to shout “Amen!” in heartfelt agreement. That was our reaction when we read this Judith Graham article on the Kaiser Health News website. Her premise: the American medical system, Graham asserts, provides poor service to seniors, because it is rife…
Memorial Day is our annual reminder that we in the U.S. owe a debt of gratitude to our armed forces veterans that we can never adequately repay. One of the ways we seek to show that gratitude to the millions of men and women who have served in our nation’s military branches is to provide…
Picture this: two senior adults are sitting side by side. They’re the same gender, about the same age, and in similar health. One appears sad, downcast, even gloomy – the other is cranky, angry and chronically irritated. Which one would you guess is at greater risk of developing serious health problems? Anger Management: Anger Causes…
An unnerving article we discovered last year in the New York Times asked a penetrating question: could the rise in rates of depression and suicide be somehow linked to increasing use of common prescription drugs, some of which are also available over the counter? This inquiry was prompted by a 2018 report showing that m0re…
The typical hospital emergency room can be a chaotic place. Trauma victims, people suffering from drug overdoses, families bringing in sick kids, and a host of others facing various medical crises are all being served – eventually – by a harried staff of doctors, nurses and orderlies doing their best to keep people moving through…
About a million Americans will have knee replacement surgery this year, and roughly 600,000 will have their hip joints replaced. For years the consensus in the medical community has been that the best place to undergo post-surgical rehabilitation is in a rehab center, typically a short-stay skilled nursing facility. But new research suggests otherwise: there’s…
About a month ago we told you about this featured report on National Public Radio concerning screening for dementia. Why, the report asked, is testing for cognitive impairment not being administered to everyone age 65 and older? We thought about the NPR report a few days ago when we discovered this related story on the…
Imagine this scenario. You call the office of your new primary care physician and schedule your annual checkup, assuming Medicare will cover the cost. The appointment goes well and the exam seems thorough. Then to your surprise, a few days after the appointment you get a bill for $400. Assuming it’s a billing mistake, you…
We just discovered a provocative news article from National Public Radio that sheds some important light on the increasing problem of cognitive decline. “In the U.S.,” NPR reports, “older people with dementia are usually told they have Alzheimer’s disease. But a range of other brain diseases can also impair thinking and memory and judgment.” That’s…
What if you heard of an epidemic that was causing up to 125,000 deaths each year in the U.S.? What if this epidemic was also responsible for 10 percent of all hospitalizations in the country, and was costing the American health care system well over $100 billion annually? And what if you discovered that this…