Maternal Stroke History Tied to MI Risk in Women

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

A family history of stroke -- especially among female relatives -- may help predict the risk of acute coronary syndromes in women, a large prospective study found.
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A lengthy engagement

by Katherine Frey-The Washington Post

Henry Schalizki, 88, and Bob Davis, 89, first met in 1942 in Rhode Island. They happened to be in the same place at the same time and spent the entire night talking, but oddly enough nothing more happened.

Three years later, the pair crossed paths in Baltimore. A romance that has lasted more than 60 years soon followed.

On June 20, they exchanged vows on the balcony of the presidential suite at the J.W. Marriott in Washington.
Their second encounter is when the sparks began to fly. It was during that run-in at a bar in Baltimore that Schalizki learned Davis had moved to his hometown for work and that he was staying in a seedy boarding house.

Schalizki invited him to stay the night in his guest room, saying, "tomorrow we'll find you something." But that never happened. They fell in love, and Davis "stayed and stayed."
. . . .
Through good times and bad, sickness and health, through Stonewall and Vietnam, through the terms of 12 U.S. presidents, starting with Harry Truman. Through the loss of more friends than they care to count, the two have shared their lives together. And now, their union is legally recognized.

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‘Mom Always Liked You Best’ - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

By Paula Span

(excerpts)
The notion that parents cherish all their children equally — or at least say they do — is so entrenched in our culture that colleagues warned Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist at Cornell University embarking on the first of many studies of family favoritism, that his research would prove futile. No mother, they insisted, would admit to caring more for one son or daughter than another.

So much for that. His team’s interviewers, talking to mothers ages 65 to 75 in the Boston area about their adult offspring, found that most were perfectly willing to name favorites.
. . . . . .
One might file this under “Stuff I’d Just as Soon Not Know,” except that the care of the elderly falls mostly to their children and that one child usually shoulders the bulk of the responsibility. Mothers also express clear ideas about whom they want and expect to take on that role, it turns out, so their partiality has consequences.
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Mindfulness, patience, wonder… and love

from Changing Aging blog post

Years Later, Divorce Complicates Caregiving - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

By Paula Span

My friend Diane Fener, an attorney in Virginia Beach, Va., maintains a busy schedule when she travels to New England to see her parents. “I make the circuit,” she said. She visits her mother, who for two years has lived in the dementia unit of an assisted living facility in Rhode Island. She visits her father in his apartment about a half-hour away in Massachusetts. And his second wife, Ms. Fener’s stepmother, in a nearby nursing home; she, too, has dementia. And the man who was her mother’s second husband for nearly 20 years.

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Bipolar Disorder Tied to Age of Fathers

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Published: September 9, 2008, New York Times Paternal age seems to be tied to the likelihood of having children who develop bipolar disorder as adults, a large study reports. After statistically adjusting for the age of the mother, family history of psychotic disorders, education level and other factors, they found consistently increasing risk as fathers aged. The highest risk was in fathers 55 and older.

New Ageless

Bob Franken in the Pundits Blog It's not only a cliche, but an obsolete one. As a concept, as reality, "Passing the Torch" is passe. Passing the torch from whom? To whom? From one generation to another? Wouldn't that depend on what the meaning of the word "generation" is (sorry, folks, I couldn't resist the cheap shot). Obviously, in any given family unit, we have generations. Parents are one. The kids are another. But it only really works there. In our modern time, the moment we venture out into the society, the lines get so blurry, they become impossible to distinguish. It used to be easy. The gap between the Boomers and their parents was easy to distinguish. The elders celebrated ideals such as patriotism, virginity, other strict religious and moral constraints, doing what you were told. They danced to the muzak of the big bands. Then came the ’60s. The music became rock ‘n’ roll, with all it symbolized. The ruling ethic became rebellion, with free love, feminism, and anti-war movements making it fashionable for kids to challenge authority in every form, in every way. It still is. And those who are no longer kids are benefiting from medical advances that have added decades to overall physical health and sexual attractiveness. Look no further than all the ads for Viagra and other enhancers to realize we now have a circumstance where age is meaningless till much later in life. Some of us are not children anymore, but we're still immature. The old definitions that guide policymakers and trendspotters just don't work anymore. The new Democratic ticket makes the point. Barack Obama is the father of young children. Joe Biden is a grandfather many times over. Still, they speak the same language. They share the very same goal of achieving drastic change in a society whose calcified institutions need to be wrenched from the hands of the malignantly powerful few. In fact, the two of them highlight one of the huge mistakes we make. We tend to disregard the significance of EXPERIENCE. It is an important double-edged sword. Experience can provide a knowledge of what works. Sadly, it can also impart a defeatism about what doesn't. Or at least what has not — thus far. It's probably much more accurate to describe today's 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-, etc., "somethings" not in terms of finite decades, but as part of a continuum. We should all learn from the struggles of the past. We should all engage in the struggles for the future. We are all in this together. With the probability that robust life expectancy will continue to redefine youth, it becomes obvious that we should carry the torch that lights the way together.

The Merry Widower

A review of the book: ASSISTED LOVING True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad. By Bob Morris. 288 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. Review By JAMES PONIEWOZIK Published: July 27, 2008, New York Times Being wholly responsible for the life and well-being of another person can be joyous, as when parents bring home a new baby. It can be heartbreaking, as when adult children find themselves caring for an incapacitated elderly parent. Either way, however, responsibility for another person is a burden: terrifying, all-consuming, draining.

The Last Words

The Last Words By KEVIN BROCKMEIER Published: July 27, 2008, New York Times Magazine Listening to a loved one during his final days.

Integrating Genetics Into Primary Care: Family History Is Key

From Topics in Advanced Practice Nursing eJournal Our healthcare system is shifting from one that reacts to illness to one that prevents illness and discards the "one size fits all" approach. With advances in our understanding of the genetic basis for disease comes public awareness and interest in what these advances have to offer. Public awareness of genetic and genomic information brings the necessity to effectively and responsibly integrate genetics into primary care. Family members share not only genes; but may also share environments, lifestyles, and habits and consequently, they may share risk for disease. Geneticists have long recognized that the gateway to discovering genetic inheritance and disease susceptibility is a thorough recording of family medical history.[3] This article will offer measures to help primary care providers effectively integrate genetics into their practices: eliciting a family history, identifying genetic red flags, and stratifying personal risk based on risk factors.