As we baby boomers confront various health issues as we age, it’s good to keep abreast of medical advances that may offer us hope or, in some cases, maybe just a dose of amusement. Interestingly, some of these developments were the stuff of science fiction when we were growing up. Take a look: Silly Putty […]
There’s a lot of research about how chronic stress is bad for our hearts, brains and emotional health, contributes to obesity, and even shortens our lives because it accelerates the aging process. The physiological response to stress goes like this: When confronted with danger (like when our forebears encountered a wooly mammoth), our bodies flood […]
As a medical writer, I get to use a lot of clinical jargon. As a humor blog writer, I get to make up words. And as a baby boomer, I seem to be spending more time dealing with health-related issues. Put it all together, and you have this week’s Boomer Haiku post: made–up medical words […]
I appear to have developed some later-in-life allergies. These aren’t the typical allergic reactions—like sneezing and itchy eyes—to things like pollen, dust or animal dander. Instead, I’m having reactions to a variety of behaviors I encounter. It’s a condition I’ve dubbed age-related asshat allergy syndrome, or AAAS. We can acquire new allergies as we age; […]
Now that the recreational use of marijuana is legal here in Maine (or will be once the newly passed law takes effect), fess up, fellow baby boomers: Did you smoke pot in high school? Do you still partake? I’ll confess: I smoked occasionally in high school and college (yes, I inhaled); I even bought my […]
Picture this (well, you ladies of a certain age, anyway): you’re having your annual mammogram. You’re standing there half naked, with one of your boobs squished flat, holding your breath while the tech zaps it with radiation. Then, the piped-in music—part of the imaging facility’s efforts to enhance the patient experience—begins to play Firefall’s 1976 […]
I just love it when medical science validates my behavior. Too often we hear that things we enjoy aren’t good for us. Well, I’m happy to share some recent findings that affirm the various health benefits of alcohol—the consumption of which has long been integrated into my lifestyle. By now, we’ve probably all heard that […]
I recently had one of those life-can-change-in-an-instant moments. The day started with my annual cardiologist appointment, and I left his office feeling very upbeat about my health. Hubs and I had just put our home on the market a few days prior, and we already had our second showing scheduled for later that day. It […]
At midlife, sometimes I feel like a car that’s out of warranty – that point at which things inevitably start to go awry. You know – leaks, lubrication problems, excessive overheating, smoke from the tailpipe, wear and tear (and I’m not talking about my Subaru). Let’s face it: as we get older, our bodies start […]
Who thinks this stuff up? As a writer specializing in health and medicine, I’ve learned about some rare and unusual medical conditions. But the new International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition, Clinical Modification—affectionately known as ICD-10-CM—takes it to an entirely new level. The ICD-10-CM is a system that assigns a unique code to all the […]
