Getting Your Zzzzzzz's: How sleep affects health & aging

The sleeplessness affecting about one-third of all older Americans is not a natural part of aging and can lead to serious health disorders

Sleep, Health, and Aging

As people grow older, getting a good night's sleep remains essential to maintaining good health. Insomnia is a common complaint in older adults, and although occasional sleep complaints may not be associated with age, chronic sleep difficulties are experienced more often by older adults than by younger adults

Masculine Vitality: Pros and Cons of Testosterone in Treating the Andropause

As our population ages, concerns about frailty and disability, as well as the all-too-human desire to remain young for as long as possible have led increasing numbers of women and men to the questionable practice of restoring diminishing hormone levels. Hundreds of thousands of American men are creating a massive uncontrolled and possibly life-threatening experiment by taking so called "anti-aging" testosterone replacement therapies

Stress: Putting the Brain Back Into Medicine

Throughout the life course stress plays a major role in health and disease. Although it has long been known that the brain orchestrates the many ways that the body responds to these experiences, a gap exists between health care providers who focus from the head up and those who focus on the head down

Is There an Anti-aging Medicine?

A warning against the growing "hype" of so-called "anti-aging" medicine is being sounded by a blue-ribbon panel of experts on gerontology and medicine, after one of the most comprehensive reviews to date of scientific evidence

Promoting Men's Health: Addressing Barriers to Healthy Lifestyle and Preventive Health Care

The workshop upon which this report is based drew prominent behavioral and social researchers in men's health and related fields together to develop a consensus about men's health care needs and the ways society and our culture create barriers to the development of healthy lifestyles. It examines the sources of denial and how it and related attitudes can be changed, and develops recommendations to address clinical practice, intervention, communications, and policy issues related to men's health. Identifies gender as a significant factor influencing public health

Unjust Desserts: Financial realities of older women

In every society throughout the world it is typically a woman's job to cook the food, raise the children, and care for their aging parents. Women are the caregivers and housekeepers for their working spouses. The sad truth is that these contributions to society are not given a monetary value. A report that discusses the fact that women over 65 are twice as likely to be poor as men over 65.Unjust Desserts is a collaborative effort of the AARP and the International Longevity Center-USA

Caregiving Recruitment Training

A 2007 recipient of our Community College Caregiver Training Initiative grant, Piedmont Virginia Community College Workforce Services (PVCC), received funding to develop a comprehensive, 48-hour curriculum for aspiring home health aides to participate in a noncredit certificate program, and to convene an advisory board of local experts on aging to develop modules for certification in a variety of specialized areas of caregiving. In a phone interview, the ILC asked Lyn van der Sommen, M.D., director of the program, to give her impressions of its first year and her thoughts for the future

Old and Poor in America

Education, ethnicity, gender, living arrangements and age group all contribute to an older individual's risk of being poor or near poor

Walk to a Healthy Future

Proposes a new national commitment to walking and formation of walking partnerships and clubs to fight the epidemic of overweight Americans