Finding Yourself in the Empty Nest by Christina Fain Undeniably, the infamous midlife crisis is not a myth, but we tend to associate this with balding men driving red convertibles. We don’t have an image of women navigating this time of life, not even a funny one! This transitional period affects women, specifically mothers, on Read more
All Joking Aside, Laughter Is Healthy for You by J’Nel Wright Why did the chicken cross the road? It doesn’t matter as long as it’s funny. Not only does a good gag make us giggle, experts say laughter is actually good for our health. If you are debating between downloading the latest chick flick versus Read more
Ultra Orthodox Jews Suffer Depression from Caregiving A new study conducted by Band-Winterstein, Edelstein, et. al and recently published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, demonstrates that even Ultra Orthodox Jews are prone to the depressive symptoms often found in caregivers. In this study, 68 female Ultra Orthodox Jewish caregivers (UOJ) and 44 male UOJ Read more
A new article published this week in Psychology and Aging (Mantantzis, Konstantinos, Maylor, et. al.) found that providing glucose as an energy source through a sugar drink helped increase heart rate associated with higher task engagement. More importantly, the increase in glucose levels also improved cognitive performance on a memory test at various levels of Read more
Knowing that your loved one has dementia is difficult enough, but when that person refuses to accept their changing needs and abilities, it creates an even greater burden on the family. Sometimes it’s the caregiver who refuses to accept the declining behavior of a loved one, but more often, it is the person with dementia who fails to see the warning signs. Read more
My euphoria is soon interrupted by a group of men walking past me. “Wait! something’s not right.” I suddenly realize that they didn’t turn to take a second look. As a matter of fact, they barely took a first look. I’m a little insulted but I’m not about to let that ruin my day. Denial is a great survival technique. I suddenly felt old. For the first time ever, I felt really old. I walked the rest of the way home, mourning the loss of my je ne c’est pas quoi. All the while trying to tell myself that I was just being silly. As soon as I fell in the front door, I dropped my bags and ran for the nearest mirror. I stood in the bathroom, looking at my face. I pressed my hands against both cheeks and pulled slightly toward the back of my ears just to see how loose my skin was. Surely, this couldn’t be happening. Not already! But it was. Read more
