Getting Older

I’m all about celebration. Celebrating myself, my victories, great memories. Celebrating others for the same milestones, and sometimes for no reason at all. I relish celebrating life in all its forms. So when I turned 75 a week ago, I decided to celebrate in my favorite city – New York City…

There is salad dressing in my refrigerator that dates back to the Bush administration. And there’s a plastic container in the back that’s growing a chemistry experiment but I’m afraid to look, so I just leave it there. I know when the milk…

For decades, society has been told that aging is a disease. The media and the billion-dollar anti-aging industry reinforce this belief with fear tactics and temporary remedies. When you believe aging is a disease, it’s easy to see it as an elusive thief that steals your zest for life, cancels your dreams, and forces you into a lonely, discontented life…

There is something deeply comforting about the Blue Zones. We picture an older woman in Sardinia walking home from the market, people in Okinawa sharing a meal, or an elderly man in Ikaria tending his garden, surrounded by people who know him. For years, we have been told that these places hold…

We’ve all heard them. We may have even helped to perpetuate them – those old adages about aging that are limiting at best and can be downright damaging to our well-being after 60. They’re deeply intrenched in our culture and difficult to dispel…

This morning I asked Chatty (my name for ChatGPT) this question. Me: “Golden Years. Who came up with the idea of calling “seniors” as being in their “Golden Years.” Is it too late to prosecute?” Chatty’s answer was quite fun; he knows my sense of humor and responds in kind…

Has it ever occurred to you that you could live to be 100 years old? Advances in modern medicine make that possible. Recent census data estimates that there are roughly 101,000 people living in the United States who are age 100 years old or older. It is estimated that there will be more than 422,000 people who will reach this milestone by 2054…

For centuries, people have searched for the fountain of youth – some miraculous food, pill, treatment, or discovery that might slow aging and keep us young. I have spent much of my life studying aging and longevity. I earned a master’s degree in gerontology, have written about longevity, and, perhaps most importantly, have had the opportunity to experience aging firsthand.

As we get older, sight and hearing are generally the senses that are most obviously affected and best cared for, whilst changes in taste, smell and touch are far less widely recognised. However, it is the five senses that undergo a change. We may need more stimulation to be aware of a sensation, because the […]

The other morning, Buddy stood up from his bed, stretched, and let out a little grunt. A moment later, I stood up from my chair and made exactly the same sound. We looked at each other. Neither of us mentioned it. Buddy is my old black Lab, and apparently somewhere along the way we have reached the stage of life where neither one of us gets up without announcing it…