Where Did Your Memory Go?

Has someone in your family asked why you are repeating the same question that you asked ten minutes earlier?  Are you surprised when it's hard to call up the birthday of one of your adult children?  Have you faced the embarrassment of forgetting the names of persons who just introduced themselves to you?

You are not alone. 

The Journal, Nature Neuroscience, published recently some information about what is happening to our aging brains.  Apparently structural changes in our brain occur over the course of our lives.  These changes interfere with our capacity to sleep which in turn reduces the capacity of our brain to store our memories for the long term. We need sleep to consolidate our memories.  Without it, we older persons have trouble remembering.

What can be done about this frightening situation? Scientists need to find ways to improve our sleep patterns -- particularly the "slow wave phase" that makes up about a fourth of our sleep time.  The quality of our sleep is affecting our memory.  As we age, the part of our brain behind the forehead is shrinking; this is called "natural atrophy." Due to this shrinkage, older persons get lower quality sleep. And the aging brain is unadequate to process our newly gathered information. .. . so that we remember it.

What, if anything, can we do about it? More later on this blog. 

Susanne Paul
Global Action on Aging

New Research Focus on LGBT Seniors

 

Today people with HIV are living well past their 50s. They are aging alongside other LGBT baby boomers, many of whom have been out of the closet for decades and are demanding services as they enter retirement age.

The result is an increased effort to study LGBT seniors and address their concerns. Both the National Institutes of Health and AARP have funneled research resources toward LGBT adults.

Early last decade, Rainbow Research, an LGBT interest group, emerged within the Gerontological Society of America.  It  also took part in 2006 and 2010 in a Met Life study focused on LGBT seniors.

Researchers first looked at the needs of 1,000 LGBT baby boomers. A follow-up study then compared 1,200 LGBT boomers against 1,200 from the general population.

"It was one of the very few studies that allowed us to compare LGBT people with heterosexuals," a researcher pointed out.

One of the lead authors of the Met Life study, and a co-founder of the Rainbow Research group, was Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Institute for Multigenerational Health.

Fredriksen-Goldsen, 55, an out lesbian, also received funding in 2009 from the NIH and the National Institute on Aging to conduct a national survey on the needs of LGBT seniors. More than 2,500 LGBT adults ranging in age from 50 to 95 took part.

 

Why wasn't funding earlier in coming? Fredriksen-Goldsen explains, "A lot of it has been just very rampant invisibility colliding with the stereotype that LGBT people aren't seniors."

Her latest project is to study the specific needs of LGBT seniors in San Francisco. Her first task was to study the responses from 295 San Francisco residents who took part in the federally funded Caring and Aging with Pride research project. She was in San Francisco recently to present her findings.  A report based on her work can be downloaded from the task force's website at http://www.sf-hrc.org/index.aspx?page=201 .

Most of the respondents, some 85 percent, were white, and 70 percent were male. The majority lived alone, didn't have children, and were renters. More information is needed on LGBT seniors of color and transgender people, said Fredriksen-Goldsen.   The task force plans to put particular focus on reaching LGBT adults in those communities when it launches the online survey, which will be in English, Spanish, and Chinese, in late February. It plans to prepare a final analysis by July.

"I haven't had an opportunity before to work as closely and go into the kind of depth as we are going to go in San Francisco," said Fredriksen-Goldsen. "We really want to understand what is happening within very specific communities among LGBT adults.

 

For more specific information, check out the link above for greater details.  And, please comment.

 

Susanne Paul

Global Action on Aging

 

 

 

 

Assisted Suicide -- An Ethical and Legal Dilemma

January 27, 2013

California newspapers recently covered a poignant event that took place near San Luis Obispo.  A park ranger stopped an older man as he left the beach parking lot after closing time. The man, George Taylor, 86, had cuts around his neck and on his wrists. He was disoriented and there was a body in the back seat with a plastic trash bag cinched around its neck. The man said that he and his wife, who was 81 years old, had a suicide pact.  He said that he had "failed." 

"Is that a mannequin?" the ranger asked, scanning the car with his flashlight.

Taylor said that it was his wife, 81-year-old Gewynn Taylor, and that she had been dead since the sun went down. He and Gewynn, his wife of 65 years, had a suicide pact, he said, and he had failed. The news writer asks the difficult question that many would raise, "Where does justice lie for those who, with no apparent motives other than love, help family members fulfill their last wishes and end their lives?" 

California prosecutors have decided not to bring charges in similar cases. In other instances, assisted suicide convictions can result in light sentences. Recently an Orange County social worker received three years' probation for a final meal--Oxycontin crushed into yogurt-- to an 86-year-old veteran who wanted to end his life.

Both George and Gewynn Taylor had been active in local causes and were acquainted with the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the doctor who advocated euthanasia.   George Taylor, who was charged with the illegal act of assisting suicide, pleaded guilty last month. The Judge, Ginger E. Garrett,  sentenced him to two days in jail — time that he had already spent jail following his arrest.

At his hearing, the news reporter wrote that the soft-spoken, slender Taylor, a retired Los Angeles firefighter, expressed gratitude but had no further comment.  Overall, the State lowered the charges and the judge showed sympathy. The reporter learned that the couple had informed their daughter of their agreement.  "There was nothing wrong with their thinking. They were active people who always promised one another that if they couldn't lead their lives the way they felt they should, then that would be the end of it."

What do you think about the Taylors' pact?  Do you agree with the judge's decision?  Should the State have prosecuted?  Was mercy shown? Please send your comments.

Susanne Paul for Global Action on Aging

 

 

 

Hiding HIV/AIDS in Liberia

January 25, 2013

Dear Global Action on Aging Friend,

More than half of new HIV cases in Liberia go untreated today.  Why?  According to plusnews.org, "stigma, discrimination and difficulty in reaching health clinics" prevented over 15,000 persons with the disease from getting treatment.  Social issues undercut treatment.  How?  AIDS Program managers explain that when someone gets AIDS, their community, family and even employers will "isolate" them.  And how many Liberians are facing this stigma?  A recent health survey pointed out that "1.5% of Liberia's 3.5 million people are HIV-positive, with 60% being women and girls."  We can be certain that older persons figure among the victims of this dread disease. 

What can be done to turn this situaiton around?  Surely the upcoming meeting of the Commission on that Status of Women at the United Naitons should discuss this issue and develop strategies for addressing this growing epidemic.  Please comment. 

Susanne Paul
Global Action on Aging