8 Ways to Preserve Your Family Memories

Credit: Adobe Stock 

How to save precious images so future generations can enjoy them
By Claire Zulkey for Next Avenue 

Does that box of unsorted family photos in your closet give you a gnawing feeling? Always wonder what you’re supposed to do with your old slides? Make it a winter project to organize and annotate your family images and records, not just for your current family but for future generations.

After all, said genealogy consultant Maureen “The Photo Detective” Taylor, “It’s your identity. It’s who you are. And you can’t see where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been.”

These eight tips from genealogists will guide your journey and give you some shortcuts:

1. The most urgent memories to preserve are old home movies. “These are deteriorating every day — you lose the colors on them,” said Scott Fisher, who hosts the radio show Extreme Genes. Services like LegacyBox make it a snap. An added bonus of digitizing old films is that they can be turned into frameable stills, which is how Fisher came away with a cherished photo of himself with his grandfather, brother and father, the latter of whom died young.

2. If you have an old photo album, don’t give into temptation to remove photos for framing or distributing. “If you take that album apart you’ve lost the context of the photos,” said Taylor. Instead, to preserve the album, take a piece of unbleached muslin — that hasn’t been treated with fabric softeners — wrap the album up to keep all the loose pieces together and store it in an acid-free box, easily found at places like the Container Store. If you have old loose photos, Taylor prefers storing them in individual polypropylene sleeves, including a piece of acid-free paper to include any known information about the image.

3. Back up your images to at least two cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Documents such as church or hospital records or old letters can be shared with services such as FamilySearch, MyHeritage, or Ancestry. “If something did happen to your house and these things went up in flames, they’re not lost forever,” said Fisher.

You don’t need a fancy scanner to upload your old photos and records: Google PhotoScan is a free app that works on your smartphone. If you have lots of photos, you can take them into a FamilySearch center to access one of its automatic feed scanners. Fisher also suggests hosting a family reunion and renting a high-speed scanner for a weekend — a great opportunity for generations to share their stories (and split the scanner cost). “Everybody walks away with copies of everybody’s digitized pictures without giving up possession of them,” Fisher said.

4. Recruit younger relatives to interview the older ones so you can gain greater family context on video or audio. “They have amazing stories that will be lost forever if we don’t get them on tape,” said A.J. Jacobs, author of It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree, who adds that asking “What kind of trouble did you get into as a kid?” often yields great answers.

“If you can afford it or have time yourself, it’s great to transcribe these interviews for easy searching and reference later,” Jacobs suggested.

5. Store your hard copies carefully. Make sure photos and documents are off the floor (in case of floods), and if possible, out of basements or attics and away from vents and rooms that share an outside wall where temperature or moisture fluctuations can cause damage.

6. Tie in contemporary photos on social media to your family archives. Taylor recommends the iPhone app MemoryWeb which syncs with various social media and cloud applications and lets you tag subject headings, names and locations. “It’s really handy,” she said. “When I sync my photos, it prompts me to tag faces and locations it recognizes from my feed.”

Since it’s so easy to drag and drop hundreds of digital photos to the cloud, leave a simple trail for family who may discover them one day. “In each folder devoted to a trip or occasion, I have a simple Word document that lists a bunch of facts to help contextualize,” said Jacobs, including details like “These photos are from our trip to Hawaii in 2016. We stayed at X Hotel. We got to meet Goofy.”

7. Leave a record behind telling your family heirloom’s stories. After discovering an old nickel-plated coffee pot, Fisher was tempted to throw it away until he found some notes his grandmother jotted down in the 1950s. “It was a wedding gift to her parents in Sweden in 1883. It’s the oldest heirloom from that side of the family. Suddenly that’s pretty interesting,” said Fisher. To keep the history paired with his belongings, Fisher created an album with snapshots of family heirlooms and a few sentences explaining their origins.

While Taylor cautions against throwing away photos taken before 1925 or so — “People didn’t take click-a-minute photographs they way they do today,” — she is totally pro-weeding. Taylor doesn’t see the point in holding onto old landscape photos and asks: “Do you really need all your parents’ vacation photos?”

You can also offload your archives and share the wealth with your family members. “Give them their childhood back,” Taylor said. A service like Snapfish, Shutterfly or Chatbooks can easily autopopulate books of uploaded images for you to order to give as gifts.

8. If these options aren’t appealing, contact your local historical society to see if it would be interested in your family trove. But don’t feel compelled to keep things just to keep things. In the spirit of Marie Kondo (author of the bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up), Fisher said, “If something doesn’t give you joy anymore, it’s time to move it on.”

© Next Avenue - 2018. All rights reserved.

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Fiftysomething Diet: 6 Steps to a Healthier Fall Soup

Credit: Thinkstock

Our foolproof formula lets you cook and serve it in 30 minutes


By Maureen Callahan for Next Avenue

With nights turning cooler, it’s the perfect time for soup suppers, those big pots of warming goodness that fill you up with little fuss.

Forget store-bought varieties that tend to taste like a salt lick and can raise your blood pressure. We’re talking about simple homemade soups that are easy on cleanup (one pot) and offer a world of big, bold flavors.

Worried about spending too much time in the kitchen? Here’s our Fiftysomething formula that lets you simmer common pantry ingredients into satisfying soup in about 30 minutes. (Note: If you’re nervous about “winging it” with this loose six-step process, don’t worry. We’ve also provided links to step-by-step recipes from healthy cooking gurus Eating Well and Cooking Light.)

The Formula

1. Start with aromatics Building flavor into any soup starts first by sauteeing aromatic vegetables in small amounts of healthy oils such as olive or canola. One chopped onion and a few tablespoons of oil in a soup pot is a perfect soup starter. If time permits, add other aromatics such as chopped carrots, celery and garlic. Saute just one, or all the aromatics, over medium heat for four to five minutes.

2. Toast a few spices Next, stir 1 to 2 tablespoons of a favorite spice blend into the cooked aromatics and let the spices toast, over medium heat, for one to two minutes. Try a Mexican spice blend (chili powder, cumin and dried oregano) for chili-style soups. Or use curry powder or a curry spice blend (curry powder, turmeric, cinnamon) if you’re partial to Indian dishes like this Fall Vegetable Curry soup. The idea is to let spices toast into the oil to flavor the whole soup.

3. Add a low-salt broth Once the aromatics and spices are done, add a quart (4 cups) of stock to the soup pot and bring it to a boil. Homemade chicken and vegetable stocks are tastier, but the convenience factor of store-bought stock is a plus for quick soups. Just be sure to scan nutrient fact panels of packaged broths to find varieties with at least one-third less sodium.

4. Stir in lots of vegetables When the stock comes to a boil, stir in four cups (about one pound) of chopped assorted in-season vegetables. Choose from root vegetables like carrots and turnips. Or mix and match mild flavored fall favorites like sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cauliflower, spinach and tomatoes. Steer clear of anything with too strong a taste (broccoli, Brussels sprouts) that might overpower other flavors. Sometimes you might want to focus on one favorite vegetable, like sweet potatoes, for a healthy version of Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque.

5. Add small amounts of lean, quick-cook meats Stir in meats, if you are using them, at the same time as vegetables so they have plenty of time to cook through. Best choices are small quantities (one half to one pound of meat per pot of soup) of chopped healthier cuts like turkey tenderloins, low-fat sausages, or boneless skinless chicken thighs. Chopped pork tenderloin is a good bet too as you’ll see with this healthy Pork, White Bean & Kale Soup. Or try this Turkey & Squash Soup. Once you’ve added the vegetables and meats of your choice, simmer soup for 25 to 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and go to step six.

6. Stir in some complex carbs Boost the filling fiber of the soup you’re creating with a last minute addition of a cup of whole grains or legumes. To save time, opt for already cooked brown rice, wheat berries, canned beans or chickpeas, as in this Chickpea and Sausage Minestrone. As an alternative, go meatless on occasion and let complex carbs be the stars of your soup as with this Tomato and Lentil Soup or a classic Split Pea Soup with Rosemary.


© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.



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Want to Age Better? Join a Choir

A groundbreaking study examines the health benefits of making music as we age

Credit: Getty Images

By Deborah Quilter for Next Avenue


Twenty years ago, when academic researcher Julene Johnson wanted to study how music might help the aging process, she couldn’t get funding. Johnson, a professor at the Institute for Health & Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, suspected that music might improve memory, mood and even physical function.

And, she thought, what could be more perfect than choral music? Your instrument is already in your body, and you are bathed in beautiful sound by fellow music makers. Singing in a group is fun, so there’s plenty of reason to come back week after week: You get to see your friends and exercise your vocal cords and brain all at once.

Fast forward to 2010, when Johnson won a Fulbright scholarship to study the impact of singing in the quality of life of older adults in Finland.

Why Finland?

Because there, children study arts, but they don’t stop when they get older, as so many people do in the United States. They keep singing or making music throughout their lives. In fact, in one city (population 125,000) there were more than 50 choirs — six of which were dedicated to older adults. Because of its emphasis on cradle-to-grave musical expression, Finland seemed the perfect place to study the effect of music on aging.

Music as a Force for Good

In Finland, Johnson saw the effects up close, including how making music together can build group cohesion toward a common goal.

Vocal music even played a pivotal role in Finnish history, Johnson notes. “Music was used as a political force,” she says. When Finland was ruled by Russia, citizens would meet and talk about politics. They planned how to change the future at singing festivals, which eventually led to the country’s independence.

When Johnson returned to the U.S., she was determined to learn more. So when the National Institutes of Health called for proposals to identify novel ways to promote independence and well-being in older adults, she applied for, and receive, a grant founding her Community of Voices study, the largest of its kind.

Johnson hypothesized that music participation is a cost-effective way to promote health, independence and well-being to help an increasingly diverse population of older people remain active and independent. Other studies have found that older adults who sing in choirs tend to have high rates of well-being and mood, but they didn’t address whether those effects can be attributed to choral singing or to the self-selection of the participants.
The Community of Voices Study

Johnson’s study — large, rigorous and randomized — would really put the hypothesis to the test. Involving 390 participants from 12 senior centers in the San Francisco Bay area, the Community of Voices study is unique in a few ways.

For starters, it is the first to test the effects of an arts-based intervention for older adults on improving key measures of health and well-being: cognitive health, physical functioning, emotional well-being and social connectedness.

Another difference is the deliberate recruitment of ethnically-diverse older adults. By 2030, nearly half of people over 65 are expected to come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

After participants were recruited, they were screened and given assessments that would be remeasured at six and 12 months. Participants needed to be 60 or older and have adequate vision and hearing and fluency in English or Spanish. People with significant cognitive impairment were excluded. Of the nearly 400 participants, 55 percent had not sung in a choir as an adult.

Serious About Singing in a Choir

The Community of Voices program also was different from the passive singalong approach to choruses that you might expect to see in senior centers because it was designed to include physical, social and cognitive components as well as performances.

Professional choir conductors and accompanists designed the musical program. Directors made certain adjustments for age, such as changing the key to allow for aging voices to sing without strain. But the 90-minute rehearsals involved learning new songs, paying attention to the conductor and synchronizing personal singing parts with the rest of the choir. The repertoire included Latin, African-American and Filipino music, show tunes that were tailored to each choir.

Rather than sitting the whole time, choir members stood or moved to different parts of the room. A 15-minute warm-up at the beginning of each session included vocal work, breathing and stretching movements. There was also a 10-minute refreshment break.

Measuring Outcomes

Each choir met once a week for a year, and performed three to four times in public. The average age was 71, females represented 76 percent of participants,and two-thirds were non-white. Researchers collected data about falls and the use of health care services every three months, and focused on three primary outcomes:

• Cognitive function: Attention and executive function were tested.
• Lower body strength: Participants were given a timed sit-to-stand test to assess their ability. 
• Emotional well-being: Participants were rated on the frequency of depressive symptoms including feeling down, having little interest in things, trouble sleeping, being tired, having poor appetite, feeling bad about themselves, having trouble concentrating or moving slowly. 

Participants were also tested for verbal learning and memory, social engagement, social support, loneliness, walking speed, balance and falls. 

Another key attribute was measured — self-efficacy — which Johnson defined as “people feeling like they have the power to do things for themselves.” In addition to literally building strength to sing louder, Johnson notes that singing can help people find their voice metaphorically speaking.

“The voice is a way of self-expression,” she says. “They can speak up to their landlords.”

The last Community of Voices choir is soon to finish its run for the study, and the data is still being collected and tabulated. One thing is for sure, though: The choirs were a hit. Once they finished participation in the study, all the previous choirs have continued to sing.

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.



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Making Communities Friendlier for Those With Dementia

That's the goal for the ambitious Dementia Friendly America initiative
By Beth Baker for Next Avenue

Volunteers pass out laminated bookmarks with the 10 signs of Alzheimer's at the local supermarketCredit: Courtesy of Paynesville (MN) ACT on Alzheimer's

Can a strong community network help ease the challenges faced by people with dementia and their families? That’s the hope of a national volunteer-driven initiative known as Dementia Friendly America (DFA).

“Our goals are to foster dementia-friendly communities that will enable people who are living with dementia and their care partners to thrive and to be independent as long as possible,” says Olivia Mastry, who’s guiding the effort. “The side benefit is that it’s beginning to normalize [Alzheimer’s], to reduce the stigma. It’s created an environment that’s allowed people to talk about this disease.”

Mastry comes to the issues from personal experience. She and her husband cared for her mother-in-law, who had dementia, the last four years of her life. “That’s given me deep context and understanding of what this takes,” she says, “The caregiver role is so big it can be made easier by an entire community coming together.”
A New Initiative

DFA next month will make live a web portal that offers communities a roadmap to create a dementia-friendly environment in many sectors of life, from churches to banks, government agencies and supermarkets.

“From a pure business perspective it makes a lot of sense for us to do this kind of work,” says Frank Fernandez of BlueCross/BlueShield Minnesota (BC/BS Minnesota), which insures many older adults. “Beyond that, the work aligns with our mission, which is to make a healthy difference in people’s lives.”

BC/BS Minnesota, one of 50 organizations on the DFA national council, is offering educational brown bag lunches to its employees and training its customer service representatives to better equip them to talk to people with dementia and their caregivers. It also contributed $750,000 to ACT on Alzheimer’s, a statewide initiative on which DFA is modeled.

Mastry adds that DFA will help communities find local funding to launch such efforts. But even without funding, she stresses, organizing can begin.

“If there is a champion in the community, you can do it,” she says. “Communities can really move this. So we’re trying to encourage them to take that first step.”

Here is a sampling of what communities around the country are doing to become dementia-friendly:

Minnesota’s first dementia-friendly canine

Credit: Courtesy of Paynesville (MN) ACT on Alzheimer's

Rural Challenge: Identify Those Who Need SupportIn 2014, Paynesville, Minn., population 2,400, launched an ambitious multi-pronged effort to reach out to an estimated 200 local people who have dementia. “The most difficult challenge we have is finding the people,” says Linda Musel, co-chair of Paynesville Area ACT on Alzheimer’s.

They began by surveying residents. “We went to every faction we could think of — bankers, lawyers, caretakers, government, teenagers — and we surveyed them,” says Musel. Some 90 people showed up at their first organizing event, a big turnout for a small town. The group decided to focus on educating the public and assisting caregivers.

They offer a class called “Dementia Friends,” which helps people overcome their fears and uncertainty about communicating with folks who have dementia. They also provide classes to emergency medical personnel and firefighters, who requested specialized training.

To reach young people, the group purchases relevant books for school libraries and teaches classes at the high school.

“We were surprised in our survey that the teens said, ‘That’s my grandma. Mom and Dad whisper about this, but they don’t tell us what’s going on.’ They want to help too,” Musel says.

Advocates also faithfully go to the town’s only supermarket on Wednesdays: senior discount day. They assist with shopping to relieve caregivers and pass out literature, including bookmarks with the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s, and let people know how to find support.

For their part, local ministers organized an Alzheimer’s Awareness Sunday. Caregivers often feel their loved one is not welcome at church, Musel says, and part of their educational effort is simply to remind people to smile and be welcoming.

Denver: Entrepreneurs Develop Technology for Connecting

One unusual dementia-friendly initiative is in Denver, Colo., led by Amanda Cavaleri, 27. Denver is one of DFA’s pilot communities, along with Tempe, Ariz.; Santa Clara County, Calif.; Prince George’s County, Md.; Knoxville, Tenn. and the state of West Virginia.

Cavaleri (see her TED Talk), whose expertise is new technology for older adults, has brought together key players who are interested in dementia-friendly efforts: Prime Health, made up of 1,000 health care administrators, physicians, entrepreneurs, investors, technologists and academics; the Colorado Technology Association; Catalyst, a digital health consortium; Jiminy Wicket, which promotes intergenerational croquet for people with dementia and Cavaleri’s nonprofit Connect the Ages, an intergenerational digital storytelling program.

“We wanted to see if there was interest from the entrepreneurial community and there was,” she says, including many who had family experience with dementia. “We chose to focus on the ‘extreme user’ — someone who is home alone, with dementia.”

Such individuals face many challenges, she explains — changes in depth perception, vision and cognition.

“We’re trying to figure out how we can help entrepreneurs so they can partner with home health organizations or communities,” says Cavaleri. “How can they receive funding and help them be successful and lower health care costs and improve quality of life?.”

Cavaleri works to create opportunities for elders, including those with dementia, to tell their stories. “Reminiscing is a really good tool to help people with dementia feel safe emotionally and have more stable behaviors,” she says.

Students meet face to face with people in retirement communities who have dementia, and capture their oral histories. Another pilot project that engages students is the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

Cavaleri hopes DFA will eventually spark monthly coffee shop gatherings where caregivers, people with dementia and students can go to interact with each other, to participate in storytelling and reminiscing.

“We’re able to pass down these older adults’ knowledge and experience,” she says. “For both older and younger, it’s an avenue to systemically reducing isolation and building purpose — and hopefully attract some young talent for the longevity workforce.”

West Virginia – Statewide Pilot

Of DFA’s initial pilot programs, West Virginia is the only statewide initiative. “As I learned more about the work in Minnesota and the experiences with the medical community, it seemed like a natural fit for West Virginia,” says Helen Matheny, with the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute in Morgantown, who is leading the effort.

The initiative builds on partnerships already in place with AARP, the Alzheimer’s Association and other groups related to senior care and healthy lifestyles, she says. Phase one will be to raise awareness statewide and build capacity for doing dementia-friendly work in many sectors. In 2016, they hope to begin implementing programs in local communities.

“First we’re going to educate our citizens about the prevalence and the economic impact of dementia,” she says. “In addition we’re going to target four specific areas: faith communities, legal and financial services, businesses and emergency response personnel.”

They also will use social media to connect people with local resources.

“The idea is not to reinvent the wheel,” Matheny says. “We have a lot of resources readily available, so we want to be a convener and help facilitate getting residents to the right resources and tools that they need.”



© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.



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How to Become a Boomer Tech Genius

Credit: Thinkstock

Humorous and helpful ideas to get savvy about electronics and apps

By Barbara Crowley for Next Avenue

(Editor’s Note: This article is a reader-submitted essay.)

I believe my generation, the boomers, will change the way the world views aging.

I think we’ll do this by railing against getting old, whereas the generations before us just sat back and accepted it.

Suppliers of cosmetics, plastic surgery, pharmaceuticals and vitamin supplements have voluntarily joined our cause. Actually, these businesses don’t see it so much as a cause, but as a potentially lucrative demographic — now tagged the “grey market.”

For most of these businesses, the focus is “anti-aging.”

I take issue with that term. The dictionary definition of “anti” is “opposed to.” Can you really be opposed to aging? Like you have an option and can cast your vote?

Is There An Aging App?

The technology industry, on the other hand, doesn’t really care if the boomers age. They just want us all to do it with a mobile app.

Tech innovators in the aging and caregiving arena believe that smartphones, smart homes, smart cars and big data will improve the lives of aging adults and their caregivers enormously.

I believe they are right. I just don’t know how to use that stuff very well.

I’m not tech-frightened. I consider myself a tech-curious-eager adopter. I’m excited for the future. I look forward to Rosie the Robot finally coming to live at my house! I will wear newfangled digital devices that track my heart rhythms and space-age socks that can decipher whether I am about to fall down and break a hip, or rat me out if I don’t take my medication. These devices will keep me safe and help me live longer.

Still, technology can be complicated and not always intuitive, especially for those of us who used typewriters and pay phones during our formative years.

My Solution: Adopt-a-Genius

So how can we attain tech savvy and then keep up with upgrades?

One idea: When I go to the Apple Store, a “Genius” helps me with a question about my iAnything and all the words coming out of his/her mouth make perfect sense. Then I go home and forget what I learned. So maybe the solution for both United States economic growth and older adults who struggle to make their technology work is to literally adopt an Apple “Genius.” It’s perfect!

The “Genius” gets free room and board and uses the money saved to pay off student loans. We adoptive boomers benefit by having a live-in IT person who doesn’t roll their eyes when you ask how to post a photo to Instagram like your real kid does.

Finding Tech Instruction

I am pretty sure Apple won’t implement my “Adopt a Genius” program anytime soon (unless they can get us to agree to their Terms and Conditions).

So here are a few practical options to help us navigate the world of technology:
Oasis Connections: They partner with local libraries, job help centers, senior centers and faith-based organizations to help bridge the “digital divide.”
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute: Some of the most popular classes at this wonderful organization provide instruction on computers, smartphones and other mobile devices.
In New York City, try Older Adults Technology Services, which provides hands-on training to improve computer skills and learn how to search for reliable health information, city services. It also encourages social engagement, which is a good thing, too.

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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Why I Took Off My POW/MIA Bracelet After 44 Years

By Joan M. Burda for Next Avenue

By the Numbers: POW/MIA Bracelets. 

In 1972, when I was a student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, a small ad in the BG News offered the chance to buy a POW/MIA bracelet. The going price at the time: $4. I bought two.

The bracelets arrived in a small package. I sent one to my sister, Janet, and put the other on my right wrist. Mine was engraved with a name: Capt. Charles Bifolchi (later promoted to Major). And the date he went missing in Vietnam: 1-8-68. Thus began a 44-year relationship with a man I never met.

Bifolchi’s mom sent me a letter telling me about her son. He was from Quincy, Mass. He wasn’t married when his plane went down. She enclosed a newspaper clipping bearing a grainy photo of the young man she prayed for every day. I wrote back and promised I would wear the bracelet until he came home. 

Over time, I learned more about what happened to the person whose name I wore on my wrist. And I waited. 

Charles Bifolchi was on a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance mission — the navigator on a RF-4C Phantom reconnaissance jet with the 16th Tactical Recon Squadron at Than Son Nhut Airbase in South Vietnam — when the base lost radar and radio contact. The wreckage was located the next day but it was too dangerous to recover the crew. Bifolchi was 25.

Keeping an MIA Commitment

Capt. Bifolchi became part of my life. I wondered if he were still alive. I wondered if he would ever come home. From time to time, I would look at the bracelet and talk to him. 

I envied my sister when she watched the soldier whose name was on her bracelet walk off a plane of returning POWs. 

As decades passed, people would notice the bracelet and ask, “Are you ever going to take that off?” Others would ask if I knew him and then say, “Why do you still wear it?” The answers were always easy: I owed him that much. I promised his mother. I wanted to make sure that he was remembered, thought about.

During the mid-’70s, while I was in law school at Pepperdine University in California, I worked at Disneyland in security. The dress code limited jewelry to class and wedding rings and watches. My bracelet did not fall into an allowable category. But no one told me to take it off. 

Most of the people who worked in the department were former military or active duty military working part-time jobs. Some were in the reserves. They all understood the significance of that bracelet.

Fixing What’s Broken

The original bracelet broke in half in 1980. I carried it with me in my pocket until I could figure out a way to repair it.

A few years later, I was in Washington, D.C., visiting The Vietnam Memorial and found my answer. I walked along the remarkable slab of black granite looking for the panel with Bifolchi’s name among the 60,000. I found it and stood there touching the bracelet and tracing his engraved name.

At the end of the wall, a Vietnam vet sat behind a table displaying a variety of flyers, photos and information. One of the flyers caught my eye — it was about POW/MIA bracelets. There was an order form and instructions.

I filled out the form and mailed it with the information on my bracelet and explained what happened to it. Ten days later, a small package arrived — and with it my new metal bracelet. I took the original out of my pocket and placed the new one on my right wrist and silently renewed my promise to Capt. Bifolchi and his mother to wear it until he came home. Decades passed. 

Waiting and Hoping

There have been times when I removed the bracelet for medical procedures. Once, a TSA agent required me to remove it before going through security at the Akron airport. She did not know the significance of the bracelet; the other agents at the checkpoint knew, and their displeasure was apparent on their faces.

People continued to ask when I was going to take my bracelet off. My answer, as before, was always the same: when Capt. Bifolchi came home.

For many years, I scanned newspaper articles about the recovery of remains in Vietnam. But the names never matched the one on my bracelet. When the Internet arrived, finding information became easier. I found information — comments from people who knew him — but no news. I waited and hoped.

Found at Last

In March 2016, my spouse came home and handed me a sheet of paper. “They found him,” she said.

It was a press release dated Oct. 26, 2006. I had missed it. He had been home for 10 years.

Bifolchi’s remains were recovered sometime between 1993 and 2000. A positive identification was made after his Aunt Louise provided a DNA sample. She died in December 2005 without knowing the results. The military notified the family in June 2006.

His big brother, George Bifolchi, a retired Air Force officer and Vietnam veteran, traveled to Hawaii to escort him home.

On Oct. 27, 2006, Charles Bifolchi was interred at Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honors. It would have been his 63rd birthday.

It was time for me to say goodbye. 

Saying Goodbye to Capt. Bifolchi

It was a hot and humid day when I took a cab to Arlington. I walked along Eisenhower Boulevard looking for Section 66, Grave 6820-2. After a bit of searching, I found the white stone that bears his name.

I introduced myself and apologized for taking so long to come. I told him about the bracelet and the promise I made to his mother. It didn’t seem odd to stand there talking to him — I’d been doing it most of my life.

I knelt before his headstone, took the bracelet off my wrist, laid it to rest and said my final words to Charles Bifolchi. I know he heard me.



Read more Veterans Day stories from Next Avenue.



© Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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How to Keep Off Extra Pounds During the Holidays

Credit: Thinkstock

These seven practical steps can make a difference
By Rashelle Brown for Next Avenue

With the holidays right around the corner, your calendar is probably already filling up with friendly parties, formal dinners and family gatherings. All of that celebrating can take a toll on the body. Polls and scientific studies estimate that many Americans gain between one and five pounds during the holiday season.

This wouldn’t be so bad, except that most of us won’t lose that weight over the next year. By the time we reach our fifties and beyond, the accumulation of those holiday pounds can pose a significant health risk. To help you enjoy this holiday season without gaining extra weight, here are seven tips you and your family can use:

7 Practical, Everyday Tips

These seven tips are specific little things that are easy to implement throughout the holiday season and will help keep you from consuming more calories than you burn.

1. Eat before attending events. Knowing that you have a holiday party coming up in the evening, you might think it’s a good idea to eat less throughout the day, but that’s actually setting yourself up for an overindulgence disaster. By eating healthy meals and snacks throughout the day, you’ll ensure a constant supply of energy and reduce the likelihood of party-time cravings and the associated bingeing.

Your best buffer against consuming a ton of empty calories at a party is to eat a fiber- and nutrient-dense meal or substantial snack right before you head to the party. Some good options are a lightly dressed salad with plenty of veggies and legumes, a bowl of bean soup or a healthy whole grain pilaf.

2. Employ the every-other rule with alcohol. One of the biggest calorie culprits at holiday gatherings is that cup of cheer. Alcoholic drinks can contain 80 to 500+ calories per serving and, what’s worse, studies have shown that drinking alcohol makes it likely you’ll consume more food calories as well. One of the tactics I describe in my weight-loss book, Reboot Your Body: Unlocking the Genetic Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss, is what I call the “every-other” rule, which requires you to drink a full glass of water between every alcoholic beverage you consume. Doing this makes you feel fuller and keeps you hydrated, which can be important for regulating hunger signals.

3. Go green, and red and orange. Some holiday events are more formal affairs, involving sit-down dinners rather than roaming appetizer platters. In those instances, you can greatly reduce the number of calories you consume by opting for the plant-based entrée and by starting with a large salad free of meats, cheeses and creamy dressings. By filling up on fibrous vegetables, legumes and whole grains, you’ll be less likely to overeat when the dessert tray comes rolling by.

4. Double down on exercise. Another good way to fight holiday weight gain is by offsetting extra calories consumed with more calories burned. If you already exercise regularly, now is the time to ramp up your routine, either by adding more minutes or by upping the intensity.

If you don’t exercise, but are healthy enough to do so, then starting now — rather than waiting for Jan. 1 to roll around — is a good idea. If you can’t dedicate a big chunk of time to exercise every day, look for ways to work more activity into your normal daily routine. Breaking up a workout into two shorter sessions is one good strategy, but doing many short bouts of exercise throughout the day is just as effective in terms of the calorie burn. These short “activity snacks” can also be a good way to re-energize whenever you find yourself feeling sluggish.

5. Rethink your holiday traditions. There’s no doubt that food and drink are important elements of many holiday traditions, but I encourage you to ask yourself whether they should be the central elements of those traditions. Imagine a holiday season that places more emphasis on the gathering and fellowship among friends and family and less emphasis on the meals and treats.

At my family’s gatherings, many things change from year to year, but one thing remains the same: There is always too much of everything. By taking a more moderate approach and limiting your holiday smorgasbord to a very few delicious traditional dishes, you can actually create a greater sense of enjoyment. With less competition on the buffet table, guests can slow down and better appreciate what’s in front of them.

6. Start your day by setting your intentions. This is a quick and easy strategy to implement, and by doing it every day it becomes powerfully effective. When you first wake up, before you do anything else, take one or two minutes to set your healthy habit intentions for the day. Think about the events you’ll be attending and how you plan to navigate them. Remind yourself that the holiday season is about connecting with others and practicing gratitude and compassion, and that the overconsumption of food and drink doesn’t need to be a part of that.

7. Share your goals with family and friends. One of the keys to behavior change I write about in my book is building a strong social network to support your healthy habits. By telling others about your healthy holiday goals you gain two advantages. First, you reduce or eliminate potential obstacles; once your friends and family know about your goals, they’ll be less likely to put you in tempting situations and more likely to offer emotional support. Second, by making your intentions known to others, you add an important accountability check against your actions. You won’t be as likely to grab another cookie or glass of champagne in front of a friend who’s part of your accountability circle.

By implementing these tips, you can create and participate in a holiday season that’s festive, full of enjoyment, and missing nothing but the extra pounds.

I don’t know about you, but this holiday season I’m looking forward to a Jan. 1 that doesn’t involve an emergency weight loss plan!



© Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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They're Trendy but Are They Really Healthy?

They are getting a lot of attention and may even be good for you

By Maureen Callahan for Next Avenue

Credit: Thinkstock

In the never-ending parade of new food products that make headlines every year, there are always a few that catch on and become trendy, almost fashionable. They are options that beg to be included in any healthy diet.

The question is: Are they worth bringing to the table? Put another way, will they help you age more gracefully and do they have unique nutritional benefits?

Here’s a look at seven of the trendiest edible offerings that people are talking about around the water cooler, at book clubs and in the coffee shop, along with details on what they do and don’t offer when it comes to health, nutrition and disease prevention:

1. Lollipop Kale

The new “it” veggie of the produce bin might be labeled lollipops, or kale sprouts or KalettesTM, depending on where you shop. Whatever the moniker, nutritionists agree that crossing two superstars of the vegetable world — Russian Red Kale and Brussels sprouts — is definitely a win-win when it comes to health.

What you’ll get in 1.5 cups: Just 45 calories, but a full day’s supply of Vitamin K, almost half the required vitamin C and a good dose of vitamin B6.

What they taste like: A little bit sweet, a little bit peppery, a little bit nutty, with mild notes of that distinctive brassica (Brussels sprouts) vegetable flavor.

How to eat them: The beautiful red-green mini leaves look nice in a salad like this Orange Kalettes Salad from Tozer Seeds, the British company that created the cultivar. The savory “lollipops” are also good sautéed or roasted.

2. Grass-Fed Beef

Rich in heart-healthy omega 3 fats and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a type of fat that is showing promise in the prevention of cancer, grass-fed beef is also lower in fat and saturated fat than its grain-fed cousin.

According to the American Grassfed Beef Association (AGBA), a sirloin steak from a grass-fed steer has about one-half to one-third the amount of fat as one raised on grain. And that adds up, says AGBA: “If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to grass-fed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year — without requiring any willpower or change in eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you’ll lose about six pounds a year.”

If that sounds good but you’re put off by the higher price tag of grass-fed beef, not to worry. “Lean beef that’s 10 percent fat or less — whether it’s grass-fed beef or another type of beef — can be part of a heart-healthy diet,” says Dr. Rekha Mankad, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist.

3. Bone Broth

While long, slow-simmered stovetop stocks made with roasted bones and vegetables have always been around, paleo and detox diet proponents are making them trendy again by calling them bone broths. Nourishing bone broths. The name, they say, is meant to separate these homemade elixirs from mass-produced broths cluttered with additives and devoid of gelatin and other good nutrients that leech from meat bones that are slow simmered. (Ironically, the trend is so hot that big soup companies are now mass-producing boxed “bone broths.”)

Is bone broth nourishing? Yes. Is it lower in sodium that boxed varieties? Most of the time. Is it a superfood that tames inflammation? Not really. It’s just one food, one healthy diet choice.

With soup weather here, try this homemade beef bone broth recipe or homemade chicken stock. Called bone broth or stock, they’re both the same, and both good for you.

4. Coconut Sugar

As the “all things coconut” craze heats up, the caramel-colored sugar made from the sap of the coconut palm is riding a wave of popularity. It’s not really a new sweetener, just new to Westerners. Used in South Asia for thousands of years, coconut sugar has a flavor similar to brown sugar. But that’s not all that’s similar. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) says coconut palm sugar provides just as many calories and carbohydrates as regular sugar: about 15 calories and 4 grams of carbohydrate per teaspoon.

“It is OK for people with diabetes to use coconut palm sugar as a sweetener, but they should not treat it any differently than regular sugar,” the ADA says.

What about those health claims that say coconut sugar is low on the glycemic index (a scale that measures how blood sugar levels react to carbohydrates)? Holistic medicine specialist Dr. Andrew Weil takes issue. “This is irrelevant,” says Weil. “The glycemic index does not directly apply to sweeteners.” Weil’s bottom line: Sugar is sugar, whether it’s from a natural source or not. Go easy on it if you want to stay healthy.
5. Raw Sauerkraut

Hot dog topper and traditional side dish for pork chops, fermented white cabbage has long been recognized for potential cancer-fighting benefits. But who knew? This German staple is now getting a second health look, not for its cabbage content but for the good-for-you (or your immune system and digestive tract) probiotic bacteria produced during fermentation. (Here’s a good review of probiotics from WebMD if you need it.)

Why raw sauerkraut? Canned and bottled sauerkrauts are typically heat treated, which destroys probiotic bacteria. So the only way to nab the beneficial bugs is with unpasteurized or raw cultured sauerkraut, the kind usually found in whole food or health food supermarkets.

More good news for raw sauerkraut: A preliminary study finds the probiotic strains it harbors, called lactobacilli, might help prevent the body’s absorption of some pesticides.

6. Matcha Green Tea

In Manhattan, matcha is the “new java,” a hipper caffeinated brew and an ingredient chefs are using to create all kinds of sweet and savory treats. It’s also the tea of choice in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. But among “food as medicine” proponents, the star feature of matcha is that it contains three times as many as catechins (substances that studies show might do everything from fighting cancer to preventing heart disease, to helping with weight loss) as regular green teas. The reason: This tea isn’t steeped from green tea leaves, but is actually ground up tea leaves. When Matcha is harvested, the leaves are ground into a beautiful bright green powder that is then whisked into water. Make it at home.

But if you’re hitting the local tea or coffee shop for your fix, be aware. “Sweetened tea beverages introduce calories, fat and other ingredients that get away from the basic premise that the tea leaf may be responsible for any health benefits,” Dr. Howard Sesso tells Harvard Health Publications. Sesso is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

7. Natto

Heralded as “the breakfast of champions” by many Japanese, paleo diet enthusiasts are singing the praises of the fermented soybean mixture called natto. For starters, it’s healthy for the heart. It’s a natural blood thinner, it lowers blood pressure and it’s super-rich in vitamin K2, a hard-to-get nutrient that helps prevent osteoporosis and keep bones strong. In other words, natto might offer multiple benefits for many of the common lifestyle ills that plague a fiftysomething body.

There’s just one hitch. While Japanese diners are in love with all forms of natto — there’s natto ice cream, natto toast, natto sushi — the slippery texture and stinky aroma are not an easy sell to Westerners, says one Japanese fan.

If natto is a no-go for you, Weil says there might be some other options. “I think all of these fermented soy foods are healthy — miso, natto, tempeh,” he says. “Adding fermented foods in general to the diet is good.”

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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4 Life Lessons From Tony Bennett and Other 89-Year-Olds

Bennett and Dick Van Dyke are going strong and happy

By Liz Fedor for Next Avenue

Tony with his son Danny, 2007 Grammy Awards

Singer Tony Bennett, at 89, isn’t resting on his laurels.

He recently released a new album, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern. In an interview with NPR, he recalled how much he loved singing for his relatives as a boy. “It created a passion in my life that exists to this moment as I speak to you, that is stronger now at 89 than in my whole life,” Bennett said. “I still feel that I can get better somehow. And I search for it all of the time.”

Bennett’s not the only 89-year-old who is defying stereotypes of older age. Actor Dick Van Dyke just wrote a memoir titled Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging. Queen Elizabeth continues to carry out the royal responsibilities she inherited in 1952. And Marilyn Hagerty, my friend and former colleague, continues to write regularly for the Grand Forks, N.D., Herald.

Their daily lives offer four lessons for all people of all ages:


Lesson 1: Spend Time with People of Different Generations

 With her sky-high shoes, infamous meat dress and outlandish theatrics, Lady Gaga stands opposite Bennett on the pop star spectrum. Yet Bennett saw an opportunity for an interesting collaboration, so he reached across their 60-year age gap and created a hit album of jazz standards and toured the country with the artist he calls ‘Lady.’

By working with artists who are younger than he is, Bennett is living in the present and learning how younger people interact with each other.

Lesson 2: Don’t Bow to Pressures to Retire

Actors, writers and professors are among the professionals who are leading the way to prove that there isn’t one right age for people to retire.

Like Queen Elizabeth, who hasn’t bothered to respond to speculation about her retirement, so are a slew of women in the public sector. Janet Yellen, 69, plays a key role in guiding the nation’s economy in her post as chair of the Federal Reserve System. Following deadly ISIS attacks in Paris, two American women have important roles in proposing U.S. policy to combat terrorism at home and around the globe: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president, is 68, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is 82.

Lesson 3: Look for the Silver Lining

On his new album, Bennett sings, “A heart full of joy and gladness will always banish sadness and strife. So always look for the silver lining.”

During the many years I’ve known Grand Forks Herald columnist Marilyn Hagerty, she has always exemplified this attitude. I’ve watched her lose her husband and daughter, overcome breast cancer and pick up the pieces after her home was flooded. Despite her sorrow, she perseveres by being out and about in the world and moving forward. She enjoys her grandchildren, regularly plays bridge, cheers at college games and volunteers at her church. But Hagerty has loved being a journalist her entire life, so she makes time to report and write informative and wry columns laced with her self-deprecating humor.

People like Hagerty and Bennett focus on what they physically can do; they don’t dwell on what they can’t do.

Lesson 4: Indulge Your Passion

In his new book, Keep Moving, Van Dyke writes about how he danced in celebration of his 89th birthday: “I shimmied and shook, my hips going right and then left, my arms and wrists undulating like long snakes.”

When someone told him, “You don’t act your age at all,” Van Dyke concluded that “old age is part fact, part state of mind, part luck.”

He loves to dance, so he indulges that passion. And to ensure that he can keep dancing, he works out daily by walking on a treadmill and lifting weights.

Van Dyke has another wise piece of advice for people of all ages: Don’t worry. “The less you worry, the better your attitude is, and a positive, worry-free, guilt-free attitude is key to enjoying life at any age — especially old age.”

 © Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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4 Myths About Brain Health and How to Stay Sharp

What your doctor may not know, but you should

By Leslie Kernisan, MD for Next Avenue

Credit: Thinkstock

Want to stay mentally sharp for as long as possible?

I certainly do, and I’m guessing you do, too: an AARP survey found that 87 percent of respondents reported being very concerned about this issue.

And in April, a highly influential nonprofit released a new report whose recommendations represent the best available medical knowledge on how our brains change as we age and what we can do about this.

The report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is called “Cognitive Aging: Progress in Understanding and Opportunities for Action.” The full report is a pretty lengthy and comprehensive review. But in a series of shorter related materials, the IOM highlights some practical approaches we can all take to maintain better brain health — whether for ourselves or for an older loved one. It also provides tips on compensating for some common problems related to cognitive aging.

Here are the highlights I consider most important:

Cognitive Aging Happens to Everyone

The IOM defines cognitive aging as “a process of gradual, ongoing, yet highly variable changes in cognitive functions that occur as people get older.”

This process is not considered a disease. Rather, it’s a natural process of age-related changes in the brain. Like other aspects of aging in the body, it tends to happen a little differently for every person, in part due to things like genetics, lifestyle and environmental factors.

In Alzheimer’s, there is extensive neuron loss, and the disease is chronic and progressive. The IOM’s related “Cognitive Aging Action Guide for Individuals and Families” provides a distilled summation.

The action guide also lists four common myths about brain health and aging, and provides the corresponding facts you should know. I’ve paraphrased them below.

Myths and Facts About Cognitive Aging

Myth: Maintaining cognitive health means preserving your memory.
Fact: Cognitive health is far more than having a good memory. It also involves decision-making, attention and problem-solving.

Myth: Cognitive function always declines with age.
Fact: Aging can have positive and negative effects on cognition.

Myth: Brain neurons die as you age, so there is no way to prevent cognitive decline.
Fact: In the absence of disease, neuron death is minimal.

Myth: There is nothing you can do to improve your cognitive health.
Fact: There are actions individuals and families can take to help support their cognitive health and adapt to age-related cognitive changes.

6 Ways to Protect Your Brain as You Age

In its full report, the IOM devotes 120 pages to reviewing the factors that affect cognitive aging, along with interventions that might improve brain health. It summarizes the most important suggestions for the public in its handy action guide, and I’ve paraphrased them below (the first three are the most important):

1. Be physically active.
2. Reduce your cardiovascular risk factors (including hypertension, diabetes and smoking).
3. Manage your medications by reviewing them with a clinician and learning about their effects on cognitive health.
4. Be socially and intellectually active.
5. Get adequate sleep.
6. Learn to prevent delirium, a decrease in cognitive function that can be triggered by hospitalization, medications or certain illnesses.

Risky Medications and Delirium Prevention

All six of these recommendations are important and useful. But two particularly caught my eye, because they are actions that we especially focus on in geriatrics: medication management and delirium prevention.

Now I hate to say this, but I think you should know the truth: We geriatricians focus on them in part because they are often overlooked by our doctor colleagues. Most clinicians are very busy and usually have not had special training in modifying healthcare to be a better fit for older adults.

The IOM’s “Action Guide for Health Care Providers” spells out what doctors should be doing in those areas. For instance, it mentions that the use of over-the-counter anticholinergics should be assessed. (This is a topic I covered recently in a Next Avenue blog post.)

We hope that many health providers read this IOM action guide and modify their work accordingly.

But here’s an insider tip from me to you: When you find out that expert organizations feel the need to remind doctors to do something, that’s a sign that doctors aren’t doing it reliably. Which means it is smart to be proactive and remind your doctors to help you.

For more information about avoiding risky medications, see this list of online resources.

Why Seniors Get Delirium

Delirium is an incredibly common and important health complication that affects seniors.

It’s basically a state of worse-than-usual mental function that can be brought on by some illness or stress on the body or mind. It is the reason older adults are often confused after surgery, but can also be the only outward sign of a potentially serious infection in someone living at home.

Delirium is associated with all kinds of bad health outcomes, including longer hospital stays, health complications and even acceleration of cognitive decline. But you can help prevent it, or at least make sure it gets noticed and managed promptly. Here’s where to learn more:
HospitalElderLifeProgram.org: A great program and website founded by Dr. Sharon Inouye, a geriatrician who is the leading researcher on delirium in older adults. (She was also part of the committee that worked on this cognitive aging IOM report.) Information tailored for families is here.
HealthinAging.org: This is the health information site affiliated with the American Geriatrics Society, and it includes a comprehensive section on delirium.

Driving and Finances in Seniors

The IOM reports that cognitive aging can affect an older adult’s ability to manage complex tasks such as driving and finances. It notes that victims of financial elder abuse lose billions every year. (My guess is that many of those victims are suffering from more than cognitive aging, but yes, this is a serious problem.)

Hence, the IOM has created related resource lists to help people be proactive about preventing, detecting, and addressing problems with finances and driving. See “Online Resources Related to Elder Financial Abuse” and “Online Resources Related to Older Adult Driving.”

Nutrition and Other Approaches for Brain Health

In preparing this report, the IOM conducted a comprehensive review of different approaches that have been studied in relation to cognitive health. So if you are wondering about a particular approach that’s not mentioned above, chances are it is covered in the full report.

The summary on the effect of various diets, including the Mediterranean diet, is here and the summary regarding vitamins, including antioxidants, starts here.

Basically, for now the IOM has concluded that some of the dietary approaches have promise but we need more research to confirm their effectiveness. The report also concludes that the medical literature doesn’t convincingly support vitamin supplementation to prevent cognitive decline.

If You or a Relative Has Alzheimer’s

Part of the purpose of the IOM report is to draw attention to cognitive aging as a health issue that is distinct from dementia and deserves its own attention from the public, practicing clinicians and researchers.

This is a reasonable position. That said, if you’re concerned about brain health for someone with a dementia diagnosis, you should know this: The cognitive aging recommendations listed above do improve the brain health of people with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

Why? Because the recommendations are basically about how you can optimize brain health and brain function; they apply whether a person has experienced brain aging or extra damage from a disease.

If we can all do better in helping people optimize their brain health and in compensating for any cognitive aging, our society will be a better place for aging Americans.

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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Growing Older Has Its Benefits

6 good reasons to celebrate your age

By Bart Astor for Next Avenue

Credit: Thinkstock

“Don’t trust anyone over 30,” Bob Dylan warned us. Then he turned 31 and changed his tune. When Gloria Steinem was asked her age some 41 years ago, the audience gasped at her response. Steinem chided them: “Folks, this is what 40 looks like.”

As children we measured our years in fractions: “I’m three and a half!” rounding it off to four as soon as we could. My father did the same much later on, only in reverse, insisting that he was not almost 96, but 95 and three-quarters. In middle age, we don’t use fractions; we use euphemisms such as “50-plus” or “third age.” And you’re not “old” now until you hit 85.

More Upsides Than Downsides

What’s with this desire to deny our actual age — especially as we grow older? Certainly there are some downsides to aging, but I argue that there are considerably more upsides. And not just that hackneyed joke about it being better than the alternative.

For starters, you can finally collect that Social Security check you contributed to all those years.

Then there’s Medicare — a terrific, wonderfully affordable health insurance program. For most low- and middle-income people, the cost is just about a hundred bucks per month, not counting prescription drug coverage. It’s not perfect (I’d love to see more doctors accept new Medicare patients, which won’t happen until the reimbursement rates are more in alignment with costs, and I’d love to see vision and dental care included), but for the most part, I’m thrilled with my coverage.

Then there are the discounts. You can go skiing for half the cost. Free, if you’re 85 or older. You can ride the Metro in Washington, D.C., and the New York City subway for about half the regular price, even in rush hour. Movie theaters offer senior rates. And there are thousands of discounts available to those who are over 65. AARP membership brings with it even more benefits.

A Positive Outlook

Those are just the financial benefits. Study after study has shown that older folks — those of us in our 60s and 70s — report higher self-esteem, greater emotional stability and a more positive outlook on life than those who are younger.

Another privilege of age: accepting help. Recently a gaggle of us oldsters attempted to put up a beach tent. Our fingers weren’t as strong as they used to be, so we were struggling with some rusty hardware when a group of younger people came over and gave us the oomph we needed. It’s amazing to see the number of people who will come forward to lend a hand.

Sure, ageism is alive and well, in particular holding back people in the hiring arena. But, as best-selling author and Next Avenue contributor Kerry Hannon points out: “Companies are realizing that it’s strategically smart to pay to more attention to recruiting and retaining workers age 50 and older.” Hannon adds that employers are well aware that workers 50 and older are more loyal and not as likely as younger workers to job jump.

And if you’re not getting enough respect at home, maybe it’s time to travel overseas? In many parts of the world, age is revered. It’s time we start doing the same and embracing our age. It’s time we stand up and declare our pride in being older.

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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