Survival strategies

There Are Health Related Benefits to Working Past Age 65

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“Our perceptions of working after age 65 have changed over time, and these data suggest that most older adults who are still able to work after the traditional retirement age derive health-related benefits from doing so,” said poll director Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., a primary care physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and associate professor of internal medicine at U-M. “As we learn more about how loneliness, lack of social connection and isolation intertwine with physical and mental health in older adults, the role of work is important to consider.”Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan. “As more Americans work later in life, poll shows positive health impacts, especially for those over 65.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250211141049.htm (accessed February 12, 2025)

National Poll on Healthy Aging Team. The Intersection of Work, Health, and Well-Being. University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. January/February 2025. Available at https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/25186

It’s 8:00 AM…yes, I’m Thinking About Drinking

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Alcohol use is ubiquitous in the United States, with 84% of adults reporting use at some point. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a serious and persistent disease at the extreme end of alcohol use that contributes heavily to the burden on the healthcare system, with more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year due to the condition. About 6% of people in the United States have AUD. However, only 7.6% of patients with AUD seek treatment, although several pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment options are available. Stephen Soreff. Rapid Rx Quiz: Alcohol Use Disorder Treatments – Medscape – Dec 30, 2024. https://reference.medscape.com/viewarticle/1002119

  • Overall mortality rates increased from 10.7 (95% CI, 10.6-10.8) per 100,000 in 1999 to 21.6 (95% CI, 21.4-21.8) per 100,000 in 2020, representing a significant twofold increase.
  • Adults aged 55-64 years demonstrated both the steepest increase and highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020.
  • American Indian and Alaska Native individuals experienced the steepest increase and highest absolute rates among all racial groups.
  • The West region maintained the highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020, despite the Midwest showing the largest increase. Edited by Lora McGlade. US Alcohol-Related Deaths Double Over Two Decades, With Notable Age and Gender Disparities – Medscape – November 21, 2024. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/us-alcohol-related-deaths-double-over-two-decades-notable-2024a1000l98?

Nearly 500 years ago, Swiss physician and chemist Paracelsus expressed the basic principle of toxicology: “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.” This is often condensed to: “The dose makes the poison.” It means that a substance that contains toxic properties can cause harm only if it occurs in a high enough concentration. https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/health-and-safety/the-dose-makes-the-poison/

Dry January? If you’re doing this trendy behavior you know you drank too much this past holiday season.

Cancer warnings on alcohol? No one will read them.

Trust your intuition. If you’ve ever felt like you drink too much alcohol then you do.

1-800-662-HELP or text 988 for SAMHSA’s National Helpline.

Smartphones, Ultra-Processed Foods, Diminished Family Bonds and Mental Wellness

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As mental well-being has remained largely static across the world since 2021, so too have the rankings of countries. At the top of the rankings are many Latin American and African countries while much of the core Anglosphere ranks in the bottom quartile. With national wealth indicators such as per capita GDP negatively correlated with average mental well-being scores (see our 2021 report), this year we have made substantial progress in our understanding of why this is so. Two key findings published in Rapid Reports in 2023 show that younger age of first smartphone ownership and ultra-processed food consumption are two major contributors to our mental health challenges. In wealthier countries, the age of first smartphone ownership is much younger and ultra-processed food consumption much higher. Other contributing factors are the relatively diminished family relationships in wealthier countries that are highlighted in our 2022 annual report. The Mental State of the World in 2023 – https://mentalstateoftheworld.report/2023_read/

Another Sunday morning, just reading and connecting the dots.

I’ve downloaded several of these reports and plan to do a deep dive later.

Read these reports and think about it.

Now do something about it.

How To Feel Young at 70 (you read articles like this one)

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Sofiya Milman is director of Human Longevity Studies at the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She studies people known as “superagers” —95 and older. “As a group, they have a very positive outlook on life” and are notably resilient, like Jaffe, she told me.

Qualities associated with resilience in older adults include optimism and hopefulness, an ability to adapt to changing circumstances, meaningful relationships, community connections, and physical activity, according to a growing body of research on this topic. A Centenarian Thrives Living Alone, Active and Engaged – https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/centenarian-thrives-living-alone-older-adults/

Hilda Jaffe 102 lives alone and is thriving.

I need to improve my level of physical activity if I want to become a superager.

Humans are Difficult

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That day at the Costco checkout, I paid for my groceries at a human-powered cash register and received the tiny oxytocin boost that comes from a random interaction with strangers, the kind that Mehret Biruk is always raving about, those small insignificant moments of connection that add to the richness of life…

This interaction made me realize that much of what I explore in this newsletter is about embracing inefficiencies—making phone calls instead of texting, planning your route ahead of time instead of relying on a GPS, waiting to check your email from a desktop instead of on-the-go, letting people know that you can’t always be instantly available across various communication platforms.

We live in a world obsessed with optimization. An era of contactless everything. This holiday season, lean into the inefficiencies. Make eye contact with strangers. Take your AirPods out of your ears and make small talk with the cashier instead of scanning your own groceries. Chat with the kind humans handing out samples at Costco. Choose human connection, however uncomfortable that may be. You might be pleasantly surprised. Humans are difficult – https://substack.com/@carmellaguiol

Choose human connection.

GLP-1 – Compounded or Brand-Name?

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Caroline Apovian, MD, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

“Doctors who are obesity medicine specialists like myself in academic centers do not prescribe compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide,” she said.

Many of the compounded prescriptions, she said, come from telehealth virtual–only companies interested in profits.

GLP-1 Prescribing Decisions: Compounded or Brand-Name? – Medscape – November 14, 2024 – https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/glp-1-prescribing-decisions-compounded-or-brand-name-2024a1000krd?

To be clear, all of my GLP-1 posts are not anti-pharma. If you can afford these medications and they work for you on your weight loss journey that’s great. Just be aware of the possible side effects and the fact these medications are for life. You will regain all that you’ve lost if you stop taking the drug.

Here’s the link to Complications? What Complications? (just another GLP-1 receptor agonist post)

Would You Pay $700.00 a Month to Live in One of These?

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Large enough to fit a twin mattress!

Sleep on it: the $700 San Francisco ‘pod’ with privacy curtains and charging ports

A company that rents “sleeping pods” in downtown San Francisco for $700 a month has had 300 people apply for its remaining 17 beds, the company’s CEO said. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/31/san-francisco-sleeping-pods-affordable-housing-crisis?

Mmm…no.

Dietary Approaches to Obesity Treatment

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There is no single diet that can universally fit everyone for weight loss benefit.

Parmar RM, Can AS. Dietary Approaches to Obesity Treatment. [Updated 2023 Mar 11]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574576/ — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574576/

Words of Wisdom from a former 370 pound human.

What worked for me may not work for you.

Keep searching for what works for you.

Find the differences that make a difference.

Good luck.

Would You Pay $850.00 a Month to Live in One of These?

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The image above shows a proposed apartment in Denver, which would cost about $850 – less than half the current median rent in the city of $1,771. Are ‘micro-apartments’ converted from offices the answer to the housing crisis? https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2024/10/22/empty-offices-become-tiny-apartments-housing-crisis/75784459007/

I actually visited some micros in Providence RI.

One of the nation’s most beautiful historic shopping arcades was restored as 48 affordable micro-lofts, rents starting at $550 per month, and 17 small retail spaces in Providence, Rhode Island. The Micro Lofts at the Arcade Providence, completed in 2012, helps keep young professionals and artists downtown and is a major step in revitalizing the city. Micro Lofts at the Arcade Providence – https://www.cnu.org/what-we-do/build-great-places/micro-lofts-arcade-providence

If I were a lot younger, single, had a job in a CBD and not set in my Old Man Ways I would consider micro-living. I might even try a repurposed recycled wind turbine.

wind turbine tiny house

all images courtesy of Vattenfall and Business in Wind

During Dutch Design Week 2024, Superuse and Vattenfall showcase the discarded wind turbine part they’ve transformed into a furnished tiny house powered by solar panels. The design studio and energy company convert a nacelle, which is the top part of a wind turbine or the container of the engine, into a compact and movable furnished home, and visitors to the Dutch event can see it firsthand between October 19th and 27th, 2024, in Eindhoven. discarded wind turbine vessel turns into solar-powered tiny house by superuse and vattenfall — https://www.designboom.com/technology/superuse-vattenfall-discarded-wind-turbine-solar-powered-tiny-house-dutch-design-week-2024-10-24-2024/

I keep telling The Boss all I’m trying to do is to make our retirement income last as long as we last.

Rejected. Again.