As of Jan. 1, the first baby boomers turned 65. What can American society expect as boomers retire, age and continue to be active? How will this affect the stigma of growing old?

As the birthday celebrations commence, University at Buffalo faculty experts are available to comment on tips and trends related to aging in America. Topic areas include elder law, geriatric medicine, hearing loss, mental health, television viewing and designs for living.

The thoughts of the UB faculty members are summarized below. For more information or to search the UB Faculty Experts blog, go to the Newstips website.

Will hearing aids become a fashion statement? Rock music takes its toll.

Richard Salvi, PhD, UB professor of communicative disorder and sciences, otolaryngology and neurology and director of the UB Center for Hearing and Deafness, is an expert in deafness and hearing loss.

According to Salvi, “baby boomers now have reached an age where hearing loss and tinnitus become major health problems. Many have already lost much of their hearing and developed tinnitus (ringing in the ear) due to many years of listening to loud rock music.

“Hearing aids, not yet considered a fashion statement, will by necessity become a necessary part of the boomers dress code as the prevalence of age-related hearing loss begins to accelerate beyond age 65. While hearing aid technology and miniaturization have steadily advanced, restoring the hearing of our youth remains a formidable challenge,” he says.

“Hearing health care costs are skyrocketing due to noise exposure and aging. The Veterans Administration ranks hearing loss as one of its Top 5 major disabilities. In 2010, the Veterans Administration paid out more than $1 billion for tinnitus disability claims alone. The trends in the VA are a reflection of those in the general population.”

Severe to profound hearing loss and tinnitus associated with aging and noise exposure are not just hearing problems; they can lead to social isolation, anxiety and depression contributing to an overall decline in one’s general health, Salvi says.

Near-death continues to be a reality on TV

Today’s television lineup includes many reality shows about ESP, “true-ghost” stories and the wonder of near-death experiences. Are they aimed at the elderly? Pop culture expert Elayne Rapping, PhD, professor emerita of American studies, says that whether they are aimed at the elderly or not, her hunch is that’s who is watching them. “After all,” she says, “TV supports wishful thinking and shows that entertain the connection between the here and the hereafter may be more enticing to an aging population than to those who don’t plan on leaving the earthly plane anytime soon.”

Seniors / Aging From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

The study focused on words called “function words.” These aren’t nouns and verbs; they’re the words that show how those words relate. They’re hard to explicitly define, but we use them all the time – words like the, a, be, anything, that, will, him, and and. How we use these words constitutes our writing and speaking style, says study coauthor James Pennebaker of the University of Texas at Austin.

“Function words are highly social and they require social skills to use,” he says. “For example, if I’m talking about the article that’s coming out, and in a few minutes I make some reference to ‘the article,’ you and I both know what the article means.” But someone who wasn’t part of that conversation wouldn’t understand.

Pennebaker, Molly Ireland, and their colleagues examined whether the speaking and writing styles couples adopt during conversation with each other predict future dating behavior and the long-term strength of relationships. They conducted two experiments in which a computer program compared partners’ language styles.

In the first study, pairs of college students had four-minute speed dates while their conversations were recorded. Almost every pair covered the same topics: What’s your major? Where are you from? How do you like college? Every conversation sounded more or less the same to the naked ear, but text analysis revealed stark differences in language synchrony. The pairs whose language style matching scores were above average were almost four times as likely to want future contact as pairs whose speaking styles were out of sync.

A second study revealed the same pattern in everyday online chats between dating couples over the course of 10 days. Almost 80 percent of the couples whose writing style matched were still dating three months later, compared with approximately 54 percent of the couples who didn’t match as well.

What people are saying to each other is important, but how they are saying it may be even more telling. People aren’t consciously synchronizing their speech, Pennebaker says. “What’s wonderful about this is we don’t really make that decision; it just comes out of our mouths.”

INTERACTIVE APPLICATION: Are you wondering whether you and your partner have matching language styles? Visit James Pennebaker’s “In Synch: Language Style Matching” application online to find out!

Source:
Keri Chiodo
Association for Psychological Science

Psychology / Psychiatry From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/214793.php

“That edge sounds good. It sounds adaptive. It sounds like perception is enhanced and that it can keep you safe in the face of danger,” says Alexander Shackman, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

But it sounds like there’s also a catch, one that Shackman and his coauthors – including Richard Davidson, UW-Madison psychology and psychiatry professor – described in the Jan. 19 Journal of Neuroscience.

“It makes us more sensitive to our external surroundings as a way of learning where or what a threat may be, but interferes with our ability to do more complex thinking,” Davidson says.

Faced with the possibility of receiving an unpleasant electric shock, the study’s subjects showed enhanced activity in brain circuits responsible for taking in visual information, but a muted signal in circuitry responsible for evaluating that information. Remove the threat of shock (and thus the stress and anxiety) and the effect is reversed: less power for vigilance, more power for strategic decision-making.

The shift in electrical activity in the brain, captured by a dense mesh of sensors placed on the scalp, may be the first biological description of a paradox in experimental psychology.

It has long been known that imminent danger can enhance the ability to detect faint stimuli in the environment, such as the crackle of a leaf signaling the approach of a predator. But it is equally clear that the stress and anxiety aroused by a threat can profoundly disrupt the ability to think clearly and perform more complex “executive” tasks.

“In the last few years, theorists have hypothesized that this paradox might reflect several systems working in conjunction: one responsible for the rapid detection of external stimuli, the other responsible for the slower, more reflective evaluation of that incoming information,” Shackman says. “Stress upsets the balance of those systems.”

In fact, as the senses go into overdrive, they are probably confounding the rest of the brain all the more.

“Your ability to do more complex tasks is disrupted just as the amount of information you’re receiving through your eyes and ears is enhanced,” Shackman says. “You’re having trouble focusing on the information coming in, but your brain is taking in more and more potentially irrelevant information. You can have a viscous feedback loop, a sort of double-whammy effect.”

The resulting confusion favors quick, reflexive actions, the “survival instincts” often mentioned by trauma survivors – Noise? RUN! – in a way that was likely adaptive in the dangerous environments in which the ancestors to modern humans evolved.

“In our evolutionary past, the dangers we faced were really survival-threatening,” Davidson says. “That’s not so much the case now. Because of the nature of our brains, we can use our neural capacity to create our own internal danger. We can worry about the future and ruminate about the past.”

Either one is likely to present a real hurdle to effective decision-making under stress.

“This is part of a growing body of evidence showing that stress does have important consequences for the brain, not just something that arouses the body – tension in your muscles or butterflies in the stomach,” says Davidson, who studies the effects of meditation as director of UW-Madison’s Center for Investigating Healthy minds.

“One of the things we would expect is that if we use an antidote like systematic meditation training to learn to control stress it would not just calm the body, but improve our ability to engage in complex analytical activity,” he says.

Jeffrey S. Maxwell of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory joined Shackman as lead author of the study, which was funded by the Department of Defense, National Institutes for Health and National Science Foundation.

Source:
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Anxiety / Stress From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/214065.php

Students can combat test anxiety and improve performance by writing about their worries immediately before the exam begins, according to a University of Chicago study published in the journal Science.

Researchers found that students who were prone to test anxiety improved their high-stakes test scores by nearly one grade point after they were given 10 minutes to write about what was causing them fear, according to the article, “Writing about Testing Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom.” The article appears in the Jan. 14 issue of Science and is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation.

The writing exercise allowed students to unload their anxieties before taking the test and accordingly freed up brainpower needed to complete the test successfully brainpower that is normally occupied by testing worries, explained the study’s senior author, Sian Beilock, an associate professor in psychology at the University.

In other research, Beilock has shown that pressure-filled situations can deplete a part of the brain’s processing power known as working memory, which is critical to many everyday activities. Working memory is lodged in the prefrontal cortex and is a sort of mental scratch pad that allows people to “work” with information relevant to the task at hand. When worries creep up, the working memory people normally use to succeed becomes overburdened. People lose the brain power necessary to excel.

Beilock is one of the nation’s leading experts on “choking under pressure” a phenomenon in which talented people perform below their skill level when presented with a particularly challenging experience. Her recently published book, Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To, gives advice on how to avoid choking in situations ranging from high-stakes exams to important business presentations and athletic competitions.

“Despite the fact that people are often motivated to perform their best, the pressure-filled situations in which important tests, presentations and matches occur can cause people to perform below their ability level instead,” Beilock said.

Joining Beilock on the study was her graduate student Gerardo Ramirez, an Institute of Education Sciences predoctoral fellow at UChicago.

Other research has shown that expressive writing, in which people repeatedly write about a traumatic or emotional experience over several weeks or months, is an effective technique for decreasing worries in depressed individuals.

In the current research, the scholars wanted to determine if students could benefit from writing in the classroom, so they first tested college students to determine if writing about their anxieties improved their performance on a mathematics test.

“We reasoned that if worries lead to poor test performance, and writing helps regulate these worries, then giving students the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about an impending examination would enhance test performance,” Beilock said.

Anxiety / Stress From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/213690.php

For the husband/wife who snores all night, because he/she is at home asleep with me and not with someone else and it means that I have a family.

For the teenager who is complaining about doing dishes, because that means he/she is at home & not on the streets, and doing dishes usually means that we have eaten.

For the taxes that I pay, because it means that I have an income and that my kids will have a school.

For the mess to clean after a party, because it means that friends have surrounded me.

For a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing, because it means my family has a home.

For all the complaining I hear about the government, because it means that we have freedom of speech and it means that my children will grow in a land which they can change for the better.

For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.

For my huge heating bill, because it means my family is warm.

For the person behind me in synagogue/church/mosque that sings off key, because it means that I can we have the freedom to worship as we choose and it means that I can hear.

For the pile of laundry and ironing, because it means my family has clothes to wear, clean water to wash them in, and a home to keep them in.

For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day, because it means I have been capable of working hard and that I have a job.

For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours, because it means that I am alive and able to arise and share the day with my family.

Remember that the ideas in our heads as parents rule our world every bit as much as the ideas in the heads of our kids rule their world! As parents we must be very careful to not let unwanted ideas into our head because they will very certainly rule our world in some very unwanted ways if we let them occupy our thoughts. This list is a very small beginning for you to use in training the focus of your thoughts about your family. Please feel free to add to this with some ideas you have written for yourself.

Parenting With Dignity – featured on ABC’s 20/20 – Five rules for parents (books and videos about raising responsible, independent kids)

Well, let me tell you, I do not believe that there is a simple answer to that question because there are just about as many answers as there are kids! There is one thing that I do know to be the truth about being able to carry on a conversation with a young person; it is almost impossible to talk with a child with whom you do not already have a relationship! It is virtually impossible to discuss important issues with a child who views you as a stranger. Summer gives us an opportunity to build relationships with our kids.

Along those lines, I am convinced that the best way to build a relationship with a child is through the medium of play. A wonderful side effect of playing with kids is that playing is fun for adults too… it is an excuse to extend childhood! Like my grandfather used to say, “You can only be young once but you can make immaturity last a lifetime!”

Play does not have to be complicated nor organized. Look for opportunities to play with your kids daily. On a hot day, pick up some water balloons on the way home from work and start a water balloon fight. Get squirt guns to cool a hot summer evening. Start the barbeque and create your own gourmet burgers. While the barbeque is warming up and the burgers are cooking, start a neighborhood game of baseball in the street using a homemade ball made with a wadded up wet sock (that way no windows get broken.)

Stop by the local Good Will or used sporting goods shop and pick up an old set of used golf clubs. Pick up some Whiffle Balls and then when you get home set up a golf course around your yard or around the neighborhood by stapling or taping paper plates to various trees, light poles, fence posts, corners of buildings, and other usable landmarks. Write the numbers one through nine on the paper plates. You now have a new golf course. To play you start at plate #9 and hit your ball toward the landmark labeled #1. To score on a hole your ball must be hit to within a club length of the object. Count your “strokes” just like in golf. The person with the lowest total strokes after 9 holes is the winner. This game can be a blast when played in a forest, in a yard or it six or seven back yards that join. Enlist the neighbors to play with you. Set “tee times” and develop handicaps. The possibilities are endless. Post scores, make up impromptu leader boards and develop your course ground rules. Follow the lead of the kids.

Create a neighborhood newspaper on your computer. Put kids in charge of publishing it and have them interview neighbors about upcoming events in their respective families.

Get out the video camera and make a music video. Pick a song to use as the theme and then shoot footage to make a statement that matches what the song says. Let your hair down and get into it with your kids. Let them shoot you in everyday life and put music to what they have shot. You might really learn something about the way that the kids see you and your family life.

Get the ingredients for making ice cream sundaes and break them out as an evening family activity. Set the ingredients up in the garage or on the porch and let your kids invite a bunch of their friends over to join in. Sit around in lawn chairs and enjoy the company as you eat the treats.

Set up a Badminton court in the back yard and leave it set up throughout the summer. In free moments challenge your kids to a game. Create new games and set up courts and fields. Take some chalk and create a shuffle board game on the sidewalk using sticks as your implements and slide plastic coffee can lids as your pucks.

Set up a Horseshoe game in the back yard. Get a dartboard and set it up on the back porch or in the kitchen. Start building a big puzzle and leave it set up in the living room; work on it during spare time. Play Cribbage, Gin Rummy, Chess or Checkers. Play tennis, swim, hike, ride bikes, take a walk in a park, go fishing, get creative and find ways to play with your kids.

What will happen when you establish a spirit of play with your kids is that you will find that it will become easier and easier to talk with them. When people are in the act of playing it is almost impossible to be silent. The natural talk that surrounds play will break the ice. Once the talk becomes natural it becomes much easier to talk about important topics. When play becomes a regular part of life in your family then, when feel you have something that you really need to talk to your kids about it will not seem so odd or forced. You will have established a communication channel via the interaction of playing with your kids! In the meantime you will have had a delightful time laughing and playing with someone you love… your kids!

Parenting With Dignity – featured on ABC’s 20/20 – Five rules for parents (books and videos about raising responsible, independent kids)

We have little control over family deaths, emergencies or accidents, but we can see some of the circumstances under which our daily life. One of the biggest stress factors in our lives is often work. Since most of us can not afford to quit, some stress management can go a long way.

Stress management can help you control your emotions and the way you deal with the stress can not be avoided. It can help you relax and reduce the fear occurs to you. It can also help you stay healthy. Continued periods of extreme stress will eventually take its toll on your health. They develop a lower level of resistance against the disease make you vulnerable to almost every disease that comes along.

Tips on stress management

There are two very important aspects of life that really help you manage the daily stress. These are a lot of sleep and a lot of exercise. Getting enough sleep can refresh your body to regenerate and energy. The lack of stress can worsen sleep because your body does not produce enough energy to deal with it.

Exercise also plays an important role in stress management. Exercise may help you relax, which in turn will help you get the sleep you need. Being in good physical shape will help you with adverse situations much better. It relieves the tension in the muscles and raises your level of endorphins, which is a chemical substance that improves the mood. As in a good mood and a positive attitude are great opportunities to combat stress.

A balanced diet contributes to a healthy body and a healthy body deals with stress differently from a body that is sick. They should be healthy food and exercise for your energy, rather than to eat large amounts of sugar or drink large amounts of caffeine. Avoid alcohol, if possible. An occasional glass of wine for dinner is probably good, but too much alcohol interrupts good sleep and contributes to depression.

Stress management requires that you take some time to be able to. Even if it’s only fifteen minutes on the day, give yourself some time to reflect and relax. Maybe it’s nothing more than a long bubble bath, but it is important to do something. Try what you some small treat each day. Lock your bedroom door and read or some light candles and some deep breathing. Everything you can do to your mind will help you with effective stress management.

For more information on stress depression and where you can go to get help, please visit my website at http://www.liveer.com

Primary children caregivers, such as grandparents, are faced with various pitfalls, namely emotional, medical, financial, and legal challenges. The initial step in the determination of needed support revolves around legal questions, such as adoption, guardianship and adoption. Without legal bearings, grandparents many find it difficult to take medical decisions or enroll grandchildren in educational institutions. State financial assistance is available in some states, through sources such as social security, temporary assistance to needy families, foster care, or Medicaid might be available. Inquire with private heath insurance companies if grandchildren are allowable for inclusion in your policy, if you have one. Local Social Services Departments contain information on Medicaid eligibility, or try State Children’s Health Insurance Programs.

Grandparents might be eligible for relief programs under Federal Relief Programs, such as earned credits on income tax, child tax, and health coverage. Every year the tax laws and their requirements change therefore getting assistance when filing taxes is crucial, especially to make sure that all relief credits open to you are made available. For further assistance on child and other taxes relieves, visit the local IRS office in person or visit the IRS website. Childcare is obtainable through Child Care Aware. This service aids in locating experts in child care through the Child Care Resource and Referral services. This resource will aid in locating providers of Child Care Referrals, child care that is appropriate State licensing information, as well as other helpful information. Financial assistance to pay for child care may be available to grandparents, through Child Care Aware brochures.

Emotional support for the grandchildren as well as the grandparents is available within their communities, as atypical problems spanning behavioral, educational, and psychological issue arise as a result of grandparents raising grandchildren, as it is quite different to look after grandchildren in comparison to you own kids. Both the grandparents and grandchildren may be undergoing confusion, disappointment and anger at the absence or inability of the parents/children not being available. By seeking faith community help from sources such as individual counselors, support agencies, other relatives, it eases the burden.

I call such a relationship, a “lifelong soul mate relationship.”

I know that you hope for such a lifelong soul mate relationship, but I suspect that you believe that it is only possible for you in some abstract kind of way. You may even believe that such a relationship is not possible outside of fairy tales.

It is possible for you to have a lifelong soul mate relationship, and there is simple first step to achieving this.

The first step is to see if a relationship, or a prospective relationship has the potential to be a lifelong soul mate relationship.

With regard to achieving a soul mate relationship all people can be divided into three categories. These are: (1) those in relationships that will never become lifelong soul mate relationships, (2) those in relationships that can become lifelong soul mate relationships, and (3) those currently not in a relationship.

(1) Relationships that will never become lifelong soul mates.

No matter how much you want your relationship to work, if your partner does not want it to work, then it won’t. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Many people actually do not want to be a lifelong soul mate, preferring instead a much lesser relationship. If your partner is one of these, you have a simple choice to make, Settle for a relationship that falls far short of being a lifelong soul mate relationship, or get a new relationship. The choice is yours. The rules for having a lifelong soul mate relationship will help you judge your current relationship to see if there is any possibility of it becoming such a relationship.

(2) Those relationships that have the potential to become lifelong soul mate relationships.

These are relationships where both parties are committed to the relationship, committed to a future together, and both are interested in deepening the relationship. The chances of this type of relationship becoming a lifelong soul mate relationship are good. And remember the rules for achieving this relationship are easy to follow.

(3) Those that are not currently in a relationship

For those that are not yet in a relationship the lifelong soul mate rules can be used to judge any prospective partner, increasing the likelihood that any relationship that you are about to enter into will be a lifelong soul mate relationship.

So, take the first step to a lifelong soul mate relationship, and decide which of the above three categories your relationship fits into.

Living with high levels of stress, can put your entire health at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your emotional stability, as well as your physical health. It tapers with your ability to think clearly, function effectively, and enjoy life.

Causes of Stress
Stress may be because of any physical, chemical, or emotional factors that cause bodily or mental unrest and that may even cause physical sickness. Stress also has effects on the immune system. Chronic (long-term) stress has the effect of “wearing down” the immune system, leading to an increased susceptibility to colds and other infections.

Physical and chemical factors that can cause stress include trauma, infections, toxins, illnesses, and injuries of any sort. Emotional causes of stress and tension are numerous and varied.

How to Manage Stress
Stress is a daily part of our life; it would be absolutely foolish to think that we can eliminate it from our lives completely. What we can do is to manage it and not let it cripple us.

Learn to say “no” : This is the most important step, know your limits and stick to them. Whether in your personal or professional life, refuse to accept extra responsibilities that you know will cause you distress.

Avoid people who stress you out : If someone constantly causes stress in your life and you can’t turn the relationship around, limit the amount of time you spend with that person or end the relationship entirely.

Take control of your environment : Avoid environments that stress you, if traffic’s got you tense, take a longer but less-traveled route. If shopping is an unpleasant chore, do your grocery shopping online or ask someone to help out.

Avoid heated topics : If you get upset over religion or politics, avoid talking about them. If you repeatedly argue about the same subject with the same people you are bound to be stressed.

Know your limits: evaluate your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. If you’ve got too much on your plate, drop tasks that aren’t truly necessary to the bottom or eliminate them entirely.

Express instead of bottling up- If something or someone is bothering you, communicate your concerns in an open and polite way. If you don’t voice your feelings, resentment will build creating unnecessary stress.

Compromise- When you ask someone to change their actions, be willing to do the same. If you both are willing to bend a little, you’ll find a middle ground.

Be more assertive- If you need something ask for it. Deal with problems head on, doing your best to anticipate and prevent them.

Manage your time better- Poor time management can cause a lot of stress. When you’re stretched too thin and running behind, it’s hard to stay calm and focused. But if you plan ahead, you can avoid these stress-inducing pitfalls.

Don’t try to control the uncontrollable- Many things in life are beyond our control— particularly the behavior of other people. Rather than stressing out over them, focus on the things you can control.

Look for the Brightside- When facing major challenges; try to look at them as opportunities for personal growth.

Share your feelings- Talk to a trusted friend or a therapist. Expressing what you’re going through can be very therapeutic, even if there’s nothing you can do to alter the stressful situation.

Learn to forgive- Let go of anger and resentments. Free yourself from negative energy by forgiving and moving on.

Include relaxation time-Include rest and relaxation in your daily schedule. Don’t allow other obligations to encroach. This is your time to take a break from all responsibilities and recharge your batteries. Make time for leisure activities that bring you joy, whether it be stargazing, playing the piano, or working on your bike.

Create a Support system- A strong support system will buffer you from the negative effects of stress. Spend time with positive people who enhance your life

Exercise regularly. Physical activity plays a key role in reducing and preventing the effects of stress. Make time for at least 30 minutes of exercise, three times per week. Nothing beats aerobic exercise for releasing pent-up stress and tension.

Eat a healthy diet- Start your day right with breakfast, and keep your energy up and your mind clear with balanced, nutritious meals throughout the day.

Reduce caffeine and sugar- The temporary “highs” caffeine and sugar provide often end in with a crash in mood and energy. By reducing the amount of coffee, soft drinks, chocolate, and sugar snacks in your diet, you’ll feel more relaxed and you’ll sleep better.

Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs- alcohol or drugs may provide an easy escape from stress, but the relief is only temporary. Later the stress simply piles on plus your health starts to suffer.

Get enough sleep-Feeling tired will increase your stress because it may cause you to think irrationally.