Retiring? A City Can Help Keep You Young, Age You Faster - AARP Bulletin

by: Candy Sagon | from: AARP Bulletin | April 8, 2011

If you want to look and feel younger than your years, maybe you need to move to another city. Like Salt Lake City, San Francisco or Austin, Texas.

Those are the top three cities in RealAge.com's list of the 10 "youngest" cities in America — metropolitan areas with such healthy lifestyles that on average their residents are physically at least two years younger than their chronological age — and many are years younger than that.

RealAge is a website cofounded by Michael Roizen, M.D., chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic, and internist Keith Roach, M.D., with Weill Medical College of Cornell University. The site offers an online health assessment that has been taken by 27 million people since 1999. 

Respondents are asked about their health habits from sleep to smoking to stress. Sample information from 1,000 men and women in each of the 50 largest metropolitan areas was used to come up with the 10 "youngest" and "oldest" cities, based on the health of their residents. The data were adjusted for age differences, so that a city that attracts retirees wasn't penalized when compared with a college town full of young adults.

And the youngest city in terms of health? Salt Lake City. It topped the list because its residents are gung ho for fitness and loathe smoking.

On the other hand, residents of Knoxville and Nashville may need to start worrying. Those two Tennessee cities are numbers one and three on the list of metro areas most likely to make you old before your time, with Greensboro/Winston-Salem/Highpoint, N.C., coming in second.

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Europe's Economy to Undergo Vast Changes with Aging Population

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The aging population of baby boomers in Europe has many implications, but one of the most important is the way that this demographic will impact national economies. Experts are predicting that a significant loss of workforce coupled with high unemployment and deficit, many countries will completely restructure, according to The Guardian.

The prediction, coined "declinology," is a relatively new concept. Literature and studies are now being released that reveal that China, India and Brazil, with their growing populations, will likely surpass Europe in terms of economic power.

This is largely due to a lack of future workers in European countries - a recent report released by the bank HSBC has found that birth rates in the continent are too low to replace aging baby boomers in the workforce, according to The Telegraph.
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Public to Select Five Winners of ‘Launch Pad’ Contest; Voting Starts Today at Encore.org

SAN FRANCISCO – January 25, 2011 – Voting opens today at Encore.org for the first-ever Launch Pad contest , which aims to help people over age 45 turn creative ideas for solving problems in their communities into working solutions.

Twenty-five finalists (see list below) were selected from more than 1,000 submissions nationwide. The public can now vote online for the five who will receive $5,000, plus resources and support from the larger Encore.org community. Winners will be announced in early March.

Launch Pad is a project of Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, and sponsor of The Purpose Prize, which invests in five social innovators over 60 each year who are making extraordinary contributions to the greater good. Civic Ventures promotes encore careers – which combine purpose, passion and a paycheck – in many other ways, including advice and resources on Encore.org.

The first finalist, James Robinson of Huntsville, Ala., was selected by the public through online voting last week. The other 24 finalists were chosen by a Civic Ventures selection committee, headed by Alexandra Céspedes Kent, director of The Purpose Prize.

“With this contest, we hope to help people in the second half of life who are eager to put their experience to use for the greater good,” Kent says, “and show the world what those in their encore careers can do.”
Here are the finalists and their ideas:

David Buck, 51, Minneapolis
Will work to expand SHiFT Midternships, a pilot that offers internships for people in midlife who need real work experience to help them transition to new jobs.

Michael Caldwell, 60, Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Will promote economic redevelopment in Cleveland’s inner-city neighborhoods by helping low-income people start businesses.

Esther Cantu, 68, San Antonio, Texas
Will recruit volunteers serve as mentors for Spanish-speaking school-aged children who have not yet learned English.

Anne Cheung, 59, South Amboy, N.J.
Will develop a Chinese Cancer Support Group for patients in the Chinatown area of Flushing, Queens, New York.

Robert Deissig, 65, New York City
Will provide free career transition services for U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers returning from deployments.

Cathy Elser, 61, Yonkers, N.Y.
Will engage older adults in the fight against childhood obesity by using a program proven to increase healthy behaviors in children.

Rachel Emmer, 51, Evergreen, Colo.
Will help teach residents of Section 8 (government subsidized) housing about gardening and how to choose healthy foods.

Susan Evans, 68, San Francisco, Calif.
Will recruit and enroll retired nurses to teach healthy cooking classes to kids at Boys and Girls Clubs.

Ellen Freudenheim, 61, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Will create a pilot program for low-income women in Brooklyn that uses text messaging on cell phones to communicate vital messages about pregnancy, AIDS and other health topics.

Anthony Genia, 68, Lauderdale, Minn.
Will develop a Native American youth entrepreneur training curriculum aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty on reservations.

Linda Grotberg, 66, Wimbledon, N.D.
Will work to make small farms sustainable by helping local farmers make homegrown fuel using straight sunflower oil.

Rita Hubbard, 52, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Will teach baby sign language to low-income parents before their children (who are able to hear) can speak with the goal of increasing parent-child interaction and enhancing future school performance.

L. Patricia Ice, 57, Jackson, Miss.
Will help undocumented immigrants plan for the management of their property and the care of their family members who remain in the United States, in case of deportation.


Vicky Jekich, 52, Boise, Idaho
Will improve patient access, especially in rural communities, to creative arts therapy – which uses dance, music and other forms of artistic expression to improve physical and mental health.

Irene Martinez, 55, Orange, Calif.
Will work to break the cycle of violence and poverty in immigrant communities by teaching women to change the way family violence is perceived.

Lynn McGee, 57, Brandon, Miss.
Will establish Delta Community Health House Network, a cost-effective primary care delivery system designed to treat the underserved in their communities.

Nancy Fernandez Mills, 63, Stockbridge, Mass.
Will provide education in Spanish to local low-income Hispanics, with the goal of preventing diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension.

Milton Morgan, 72, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Will provide free Internet access and one-on-one computer instruction for fellow senior residents in affordable housing facilities.

Robert Morrow, 79, Stockton, Calif.
Will provide training to child care providers and agency outreach staff on how to identify and refer children with special needs.

Ron Moulton, 63, Cambridge, Mass.
Will create Project Managers for Good, which will match corporate project managers with nonprofit projects that benefit the developing world.

James Robinson, 47, Huntsville, Ala.
Will provide independent living services to homeless young people who may be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.

Rhonda Rundle, 60, Los Angeles, Calif.
Will recruit a corps of encore volunteer coaches to encourage public high school students to prepare for, apply to and enroll in college.

Shekinah Shakur, 57, Los Angeles, Calif.
Will recruit and train midwives and other childbirth experts in inner-city communities affected by high infant mortality rates.

Janine Vanderburg, 57, Denver, Colo.
Will provide training for retirees and others with corporate sales backgrounds to help them become nonprofit, campaign and community fundraisers.

Rod Wilson, 65, Lexington, Ken.
Will organize advocacy services for residents of assisted living, particularly those without family to advocate for their care.
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About Civic Ventures (www.encore.org)
Civic Ventures is a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.

The Crucible « ChangingAging.org

by Dr Bill Thomas

This is the second in a series of posts on some new ideas I am working on.

The paragraphs below begin to introduce the concept of the crucible as an instrument of social change.

For most people most of the time, private problems issues remain private and public issues remain public. Sometimes, however, a society encounters the problem of a huge number of people (members of a single generation) moving from one life stage to to the next within a condensed period of time. When this happens, difficulties surrounding growth and change cease to be solely private matters and erupt forcefully into public life. Public issues cease to become impersonal and distant and intrude forcefully into individuals’ private lives. I use the word “crucible” accurately describes the intense conflict and uncertainty that accompany these historical passages.

Because of its size, and position in the unfolding of world history, the Post War generation was endowed with an unprecedented capacity for creating“crucible” experiences. When one adolescent becomes angry with her parents she might slam the door to her room. When millions of adolescents “question authority,” thousands of them are apt to band together and attempt to levitate the Pentagon. One teenager might sneak a cigarette behind the barn. A massive generation of young people can create an entire counter culture laced with sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. The Post War generation’s size and influence made its fitful transition from childhood to adulthood a matter of urgent concern for the nation as a whole. This First Crucible nearly set American society on fire.

The Post War Generation’s Second Crucible is destined to become even more consequential than its first. Even as they edge into late adulthood, members of the Post War generation continue to idealize youth, vigor and productiveness. Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick. The Second Crucible will erupt as the Post War generation crashes into the end of adulthood and begins to grapple with aging and elderhood. The scale of this collision, the speed at which it will unfold and the decisions it will force on young and old alike. In the private sphere, individuals will feel alienated from their own changing minds and bodies in ways they have not experienced since puberty. In the public realm, we are already beginning to see the outlines of an intergenerational conflict that pits the young against a massive generation of people who continue (against all evidence) to believe that they are still stardust.

Posted By Dr. Bill Thomas on January 6th, 2011 | Category: Aging, Cult of Adulthood, Longevity

The Crucible « ChangingAging.org

Unconventional Wisdom - An FP Special Report | Foreign Policy

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by James K. Galbraith

The most dangerous conventional wisdom in the world today is the idea that with an older population, people must work longer and retire with less.

This idea is being used to rationalize cuts in old-age benefits in numerous advanced countries -- most recently in France, and soon in the United States. The cuts are disguised as increases in the minimum retirement age or as increases in the age at which full pensions will be paid.

Such cuts have a perversely powerful logic: "We" are living longer. There are fewer workers to support each elderly person. Therefore "we" should work longer.

But in the first place, "we" are not living longer. Wealthier elderly are; the non-wealthy not so much. Raising the retirement age cuts benefits for those who can't wait to retire and who often won't live long. Meanwhile, richer people with soft jobs work on: For them, it's an easy call.

Second, many workers retire because they can't find jobs. They're unemployed -- or expect to become so. Extending the retirement age for them just means a longer job search, a futile waste of time and effort.

Third, we don't need the workers. Productivity gains and cheap imports mean that we can and do enjoy far more farm and factory goods than our forebears, with much less effort. Only a small fraction of today's workers make things. Our problem is finding worthwhile work for people to do, not finding workers to produce the goods we consume.

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Baby Boomers Turn 65, With Another Milestone to Redefine - NYTimes.com

Image via CrunchBaseBy DAN BARRY

In keeping with a generation’s fascination with itself, the time has come to note the passing of another milestone: On New Year’s Day, the oldest members of the Baby Boom Generation will turn 65, the age once linked to retirement, early bird specials and gray Velcro shoes that go with everything.

Though other generations, from the Greatest to the Millennial, may mutter that it’s time to get over yourselves, this birthday actually matters. According to the Pew Research Center, for the next 19 years, about 10,000 people “will cross that threshold” every day — and many of them, whether through exercise or Botox, have no intention of ceding to others what they consider rightfully theirs: youth.
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OMG Social Security!? - The Boston Globe

Image via WikipediaBy Heather Boushey

IF YOU watch the political debates in Washington, you’d think that the future of Social Security matters only to today’s retirees. But the Social Security’s future solvency is most germane to the 40-and-under crowd.

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RLTV - TV for Boomers and Older Individuals

Image via Wikipediaby Lowell Dempsey

There has been plenty of coverage lately on the importance of the youth vote on Election Day. It's as though politicians think older voters - one in three Americans - can be taken for granted.

The readers of Aging And Disability In America probably don't know John Erickson, but they should. John is the Chairman of RLTV and founder of Erickson Retirement Communities, and is leading the way in making sure that the voices of Americans 55 and older are heard.  People 55+ - and that includes John himself - make up one-third of America and care deeply about not only issues that affect them personally, but also how today's decisions will affect the future for their children and grandchildren.

John's rallying call to this powerful group of 70 million Americans can be found here:

http://johnerickson.tv

He's also led the way on RLTV with Prime Votes, an initiative to help inform boomers and seniors about the important issues in the mid-term elections.  Prime Votes features nightly updates with Sam Donaldson and John Palmer as well as two national forums hosted by Cokie Roberts to air this week on RLTV and C-SPAN.

More about Prime Votes, as well as John's discussion of many important national issues, can be found at the johnerickson.tv site.