Millions Of Baby Boomers Will Retire And Age Solo

Visit any retirement community on a Saturday or Sunday and you will find lots of visitors milling around the common areas, coming and going from individual apartments, ushering loved ones into cars and whisking them off to lunch in a nearby restaurant or eating in the dining hall as guests.

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The Power of Perspective

Ellen Langer challenges the idea that the limits we put on ourselves, as we age, are real. Opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of presuming impossible, can lead to better well-being, at any age. We need to realize that our perspective on aging is often based on old assumptions,

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The Best Diet for the Inflammation of Aging

One of the most recognized consequences of aging is a decline in immune function, illustrated by vulnerability to dying from the flu and poor response to vaccinations. But, about 20 years ago, a paper was published showing that the immune cells of 80-year-olds produced significantly more pro-inflammatory signals. As I discuss in

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Think You Are Too Old To Follow Your Dreams? Think Again!

  When Kerry Hannon told me last year that she was writing a book about older entrepreneurs, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Her book, Never Too Old to Get Rich, was released a few days ago, I devoured it immediately, and it didn’t disappoint. In fact, I

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Who’s going to create a better narrative of old age in America?

Most Americans aren’t optimistic about getting older, and think the source of the problem is aging itself. So do most policy wonks, framing population aging as a set of choices about how to care for an avalanche of “frail and needy elderly.” MIT’s Joseph F. Coughlin and I don’t share

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Getting More Colorful with Age

I often say, “I want to get more colorful with age.” What do I mean by that? Just as the leaves change in the Fall and get more colorful over time, I want to get more colorful as I age, and to blend with others to create more beauty than

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You Have a Choice

The cat’s out of the bag and there’s no going back. Your grandmother’s belief that how she ages was primarily determined by genes and a little bit of luck, well, that belief has gone the way of the eight-track player. According to the MacArthur Foundation’s 10-year study on aging, approximately

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Less Ageism = Less Alzheimer’s. It’s That Clear

What affliction do Americans fear most? Alzheimer’s disease. I’m one of them, unless so many bones give out that I have to be carried around in a shovel. But facts comfort me. Abundant new data shows that our fears are way out of proportion to the threat—and that those fears themselves put

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The Last Unchallenged Stereotype, Part 1

In our youth-obsessed culture, it’s easy to buy into the negative stereotypes of aging. It is this discrimination that convinces us that aging is mostly about decline. And yet, research continually tells us that how we age is mostly up to us, and that our perception of aging influences our

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Oh, To Be Young Again…Not

Oh, to be young again…Really? Recently, a friend sent me letters I had written to her during our first year in college. In one letter, I wrote: “I went to a meeting last night that will change my life forever. I learned about institutional racism:  we are all racists.” The

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