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In a typical day, your heart beats 100,000 times. And in a lifetime, it beats more than 2.5 billion times. February is American Heart Month, a time to battle cardiovascular disease and educate ourselves on what we can do to live heart-healthy lives. Heart disease, including stroke, is the leading cause of death for men over age 45 and women over age 55 in the United States.

How Does Your Heart Age?
The cardiovascular system, including the heart and arteries, undergoes normal changes as we age. 

• Your heart muscle becomes less efficient and must work harder to pump the same amount of blood through your body.
• The ability to form new blood vessels declines in small arteries.
• Blood vessels lose some of their elasticity and hardened fatty deposits may form on the inner walls, making your arteries stiffer.
• Even the healthiest of hearts may lose up to 30% of cells (myocytes) as it ages. Evidence suggests that loss of a significant number of heart cells may contribute to the decline in cardiovascular health in older people.
  
  

How Can I Improve Heart Health?
Leading an overall healthy lifestyle will help improve your heart health.

• Include physical activity in your daily routine. Try walking, swimming or other physical activities.
• Eat a healthy diet, including plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Excessive sodium raises blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
• If you smoke, ask your doctor to help you quit. Your risk of heart disease will begin to fall almost immediately.
• Don’t let stress get out of control. Develop an action plan to immediately start reducing your stress levels.
• If you’re a caregiver, take time for yourself and your well-being. To give the best care, you must be in the best possible health yourself.

Long-distance caregiving takes many forms. Many caregivers act as information coordinators by helping older adults understand the health care system and insurance. Approximately 7 million adults are long-distance caregivers, caring for aging parents who live an hour or more away.

More and more older people are living alone far from their families. When you live many miles away from your loved one, the separation can complicate caregiving. Concerns about safety, nutrition, and health can be overwhelming.

Following these 5 simple tips can ease the burden and potential guilt of living away from your aging loved one.

• Seek help from people in the community. Build a list of contacts such as the next door neighbor, the primary doctor, and local church.
  
• Search for local resources to help you coordinate care. Geriatric care managers specialize in assessing and monitoring the needs of older adults.
  
• Create a list of prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, along with dosing instructions. Keep it updated for emergency situations.
  
• When you visit, check the home for possible hazards and safety concerns. Clearing out clutter that can cause a fall or adding grab bars to the bathroom can lower the risk of accidents.
  
• Find out if your parent has an advance directive stating his or her health care treatment preferences. Elder-law attorneys help older clients with legal documents for healthcare, legal, and financial decisions.

Many older adults want to remain in their own homes and community. Few long-distance caregivers are able to spend as much time with their loved one as they would like. By using your time efficiently and asking for help, your aging loved one can remain independent for as long as possible.

Aging is a natural process. We all age differently, but similarities exist that can guide you toward a better aging experience. Knowing what changes to expect can enhance your aging experience, leading to a happier and healthier life.

What happens as we age?

*The table above lists only a few changes that occur in the aging process.

Resolve to take action in 2012, educate yourself about proper diet and exercise, and make the most of your life!

Too many Americans expect illness, disability, and dementia to accompany advancing age. Elderly people who base their view of old age on the experience of their parents may expect poor health and never try to improve their health once it begins to deteriorate.

Poor health and loss of independence are not inevitable consequences of aging. Taking ownership of your health along with social support is effective in improving quality of life as you age.

Healthy lifestyles. Research shows the cumulative effect of a healthy lifestyle (e.g. being physically active and not smoking) is more influential than genetic factors in helping older people avoid the deterioration traditionally associated with aging.

Early detection of illness and diseases. Screening to detect chronic diseases early, when they are most treatable, can save lives. However, many older adults have not had all of the recommended screenings. About 36,000 people aged 65 or older die each year of flu. Immunizations can reduce a person’s risk for hospitalization and death from these diseases.

Injury prevention. Falls are the most common cause of injuries to older adults. More than one-third of adults age 65 or older fall each year with 20 to 30% of the falls causing moderate to severe injuries. These injuries decrease mobility and can rob older adults of their independence.

Financial preparation. Later life planning is financial planning focused on the goals in later life such as finding significance after retirement and maintaining independence and personal choice to the end of life.

End of life issues. End of life issues are important because of the substantial burden and impact of dying persons on their family members and society.

With the Obama administration’s recent decision to halt the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, the issue of long-term care is more important than ever. CLASS provided basic long-term care insurance at an affordable cost.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, about 70 percent of individuals age 65 and older will require some type of long-term care services during their lifetimes. Women are more at risk than men, with 79 percent of women turning 65 and needing some long-term care.

Most people do not understand why long term care insurance is needed and only a small percentage has purchased coverage. They do not see long term care as something to plan for in advance. Either they deny that they will need long-term care or they believe, incorrectly, that Social Security, Medicare, or their existing health insurance will cover the costs.

Medical vs. Nonmedical LTC
Long-term care encompasses many levels of assistance and support. These include both medical and nonmedical care. Though long-term care may include advanced medical care, it often consists simply of hands-on assistance by others.

Medical long-term care might include medical support services for people with chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, or Alzheimer's disease. Nonmedical long-term care is designed to assist people with daily tasks such as bathing, eating, dressing, and similar activities. Therefore, long-term care services can vary from helping a 50-year-old stroke victim relearn grooming skills to providing 24-hour skilled nursing care for a 90-year old suffering kidney failure.                                                                                                            

In other words, long-term care
helps to meet both health and personal needs. Whenever a chronic condition, trauma, or illness limits an individual’s ability to carry out basic tasks of self care, long-term care is necessary.

The concept of “squaring the curve” focuses on the ideal lifespan of an older adult. In this lifespan, an individual stays healthy as long as possible with all the aging-related illnesses and causes of death compressed into just a few years at the end of life. While this may feel like an unattainable concept, proper planning in later life can make it a reasonable goal.

How Do You Square the Curve?
From Betty White to Tony Bennett to your own relatives, we all know people who continue working and remain healthy until late in life. Is it genes or lifestyle?

Most experts agree genes are important, but the cumulative effects of what we do and don’t do have the greater impact in later life. Eating, exercise, memory challenges, preventive care, and interacting with others in a supportive environment can all attribute to a long, healthy life.

The challenge for the health care industry is adding healthy years to a life instead of years of decline and dependency. While working toward the squaring of the curve, older adults need to anticipate and plan for the costs of health care during those additional years of life.

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The later life planning team of Marca Life Planning can estimate the personal and financial costs of living to 100. Manage longevity risks and the challenges of chronic conditions such as frailty, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and heart disease.

 

Visit Marca Life Planning and learn about
creating your Later Life Plan!

With 35% of the nation’s wealth held by those over age 65, being aware of how your aging loved one manages his or her finances is important. Financial problems can result from financial abuse or money mistakes from the elder themselves.

The Face of Financial Abuse
Older Americans lose $2.9 billion a year from financial abuse. Half of elder financial abuse comes from cons and robbery by strangers. Sadly, 34% of the culprits are family, friends, and neighbors. The most common crimes are check forgery, stolen credit cards, and asset transfers without consent. Rounding out the perpetrators are the business sector (12%) and Medicare & Medicaid fraud (4%).

Women tend to be more vulnerable and are twice as likely to be victims. The common profile is older adults ages 80 to 89 who live alone and require health or home maintenance.

Just a Mistake?
While one-time oversights can be innocent, multiple mistakes with finances can be warning signs of a bigger problem. Difficulty with financial management can indicate mild cognitive impairment or the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Common problems include forgetting to pay bills, paying bills twice, difficulty with simple math, new interest in get-rich-quick schemes, and inability to understand concepts such as interest rates.

Ways to Protect Finances

• Automatic bill pay and deposit of checks
• Protection on bank accounts against transfers exceeding a certain amount without a co-signer
• Overdraft protection
• Durable power of attorney for finances and medical needs
• Living trust to pay the person’s living expenses 

When addressing the issues, join with other family members for a united approach. Explain to your loved ones that you want the best for them and to keep their finances safe. Since older adults are not in a position to replace their lost money, have the conversation sooner rather than later. Your vigilance can protect your loved ones from the deceit of financial abuse and keep them focused on enjoying their later years.

In the past, doctors typically took the lead and the patient followed. Today, a good patient-doctor relationship is more of a partnership.

When you’re older, it becomes even more important to talk comfortably with your doctor. That’s partly because you may have more health conditions and treatments to discuss. Health has a big impact on your quality of life.

Ask questions if the doctor’s explanations are unclear, bring up problems even if the doctor doesn’t ask, and let the doctor know if you have concerns about a particular treatment or change in your daily life. Taking an active role in your health care puts the responsibility for good communication on both you and your doctor.

Learn about Medical Tests 
Running tests help your doctor find out what is wrong or learn more about your medical condition.

• Why is this test being done?
• Are there any dangers or side effects?
• What will we know after the test?

Discuss Your Diagnosis
If you understand your medical condition, you can make better decisions about treatment.

• How is this condition treated and managed?
• What will be the long-term effects on my life?
• How can I learn more? 

Find Out about Your Medications
Sometimes medications affect older adults differently than younger people.

• What side effects should I pay attention to?
• When will the medicine begin to work?
• Are there foods or activities to avoid when taking this medicine? 

Understand Prescriptions
Doctors and pharmacies can use abbreviations that may not be familiar. Here is a list of common abbreviations.

Asking questions fosters good communication with your doctor. Don’t wait for the doctor to raise a specific question or subject because he or she may not know it’s important to you. Be proactive.

What images come to mind when you think of “senior citizens”? If you think you must slow down as you age, the Sun City Poms would disagree.

The Sun City Poms are a group of ladies who turn aging stereotypes on their heads. For 11 months out of the year, this group performs energetic routines at conventions, sporting events, fundraisers, parades, and on television. They hail from Sun City, Arizona and spread the good news about aging. With an age minimum of 55, the Poms perform choreographed routines around the country that include headstands, pyramids, and splits.

The Poms show that age is just a number. I dare you not to smile while watching these beautiful and graceful women. No matter what their ages, these ladies are “having the time of their lives.”

Additional links about the Sun City Poms:

Official website of the Sun City Poms

Sun City Poms on CBS News (May 2010)

Sun City Poms documentary