March 31, 2009
CANADA: Super pill could slash heart attacks and strokes
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Daily dose combines five different medicines
CALGARY, Alberta / Calgary Herald / Health / Seniors / March 31, 2009
By Sharon Kirkey, Canwest News Service
Canadian researchers say a single, daily pill combining five medicines could potentially cut by half the number of heart attacks and strokes in middle-aged people.
The pill--called Polycap --is a cocktail of three blood-pressure-lowering drugs(thiazide, atenolol and ramipril), Aspirin to reduce clotting and simvastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug.
In tests of more than 2,000 people in India, each component of the pill did what it was supposed to do, and there was no evidence of increasing side-effects with five active components in one pill.
The 12-week study wasn't designed to see whether the "polypill" actually reduced heart attacks, stroke and death. That requires a bigger study with longer followup.
But the findings suggest the pill could potentially reduce cardiovascular heart disease by 62 per cent and stroke by 48 per cent, researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton and St. John's Medical College in Bangalore, India, write in the journal The Lancet. The study was presented Monday at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Florida.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.
The study is a "first and crucial step" toward realizing the dream of combining several different drugs into one pill to treat many of the cardiac risk factors, says Dr. Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
"We're not all the way there yet. We do need a larger study. . . . But it's a big step toward having a simple pill that could provide this broad cardio-protection to tens of millions of people worldwide."
Polycap is manufactured by Cadila Pharmaceuticals in India, which paid for the study. The five ingredients in the pill are available in generic form. Cannon estimates the polypill would cost about $20 a month.
In an accompanying commentary, he worries the availability of a "single magic bullet" for the prevention of heart disease could lead people to think popping a pill would solve all their problems.
"The worry, of course is, would they just take this and sit in front of a TV and not exercise and gain even more weight?"
The study involved 2,053 people, ages 45 to 80, without cardiovascular disease but with one risk factor for it, such as hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes or smoking.
Participants were randomly assigned to get Polycap (412 people) or to one of eight other groups testing different combinations of the drugs.
Polycap lowered blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol and the clotting ability of the blood "in the same way as if I were taking the (five) pills separately," says Dr. Koon Teo, professor of medicine at McMaster and a cardiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences.
The team says the drop in blood pressure with Polycap could theoretically lead to about a 24 per cent lower risk of heart disease and a 33 per cent lower risk of stroke in people with average blood pressure levels.
Cannon says the major appeal of the polypill is its simplicity.
"It's obviously simpler to take one pill than to remember, this one has to be taken twice, this one has to be taken once in the morning and whatnot."
But the concept is controversial: critics have warned giving a polypill to everyone, or people at only moderate risk of heart disease, could sap health budgets, expose healthy people to the risk of side-effects and "medicalize" a large proportion of the population.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
UK: Sleep problems linked to suicide
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LONDON, England / BBC News / Health / March 31, 2009
Adults who suffer chronic sleep problems may be more likely to try to commit suicide, US research suggests.
Doctors are being warned to be vigilant if a patient reports disturbed sleep - even if they have no history of mental health problems.
The reason for the link is unclear.
The more types of sleep disturbances people had, the more likely they were to have thoughts of killing themselves, or actually try to do so.
The study will be presented at a World Psychiatric Association meeting.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 877,000 people worldwide die by suicide every year. For every death up to 40 suicide attempts are made.
Scientists have consistently linked sleep disturbances to an increased risk of suicidal behaviour in people with psychiatric disorders and in adolescents.
But it has been unclear whether the association also exists in the general adult population.
Sleep disturbance
A University of Michigan team examined the relationship over one year between sleep problems, and suicidal behaviour in 5,692 Americans. During the course of the year 2.6% of the sample had suicidal thoughts, and 0.5% were recorded as making a suicide attempt.
They looked at three types of sleep problems - difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep and waking at least two hours earlier than desired.
======================================
Adults who suffer chronic sleep problems may be more likely to try to commit suicide, US research suggests.
Doctors are being warned to be vigilant if a patient reports disturbed sleep - even if they have no history of mental health problems.
The reason for the link is unclear.
The more types of sleep disturbances people had, the more likely they were to have thoughts of killing themselves, or actually try to do so.
The study will be presented at a World Psychiatric Association meeting.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 877,000 people worldwide die by suicide every year. For every death up to 40 suicide attempts are made.
Scientists have consistently linked sleep disturbances to an increased risk of suicidal behaviour in people with psychiatric disorders and in adolescents.
But it has been unclear whether the association also exists in the general adult population.
Sleep disturbance
A University of Michigan team examined the relationship over one year between sleep problems, and suicidal behaviour in 5,692 Americans. During the course of the year 2.6% of the sample had suicidal thoughts, and 0.5% were recorded as making a suicide attempt.
They looked at three types of sleep problems - difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep and waking at least two hours earlier than desired.
======================================
INSOMNIA * On any given night one in three people will be stuggling with insomnia * Women twice as likely to be affected * 10% of people have clinical insomnia * Can be treated with techniques such as cognitive behaviour therapy====================================== The researchers took account of factors such as substance abuse, depression, anxiety disorder, and physical illness, as well as social factors such as marriage and financial status. People with two or more symptoms of insomnia were 2.6 times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those whose sleep was not disturbed. Early morning waking was the single trait most strongly linked to suicidal behaviour. Lead researcher Dr Marcin Wojnar said: "The presence of sleep problems should alert doctors to assess such patients for a heightened risk of suicide even if they don't have a psychiatric condition. "Our findings also raise the possibility that addressing sleep problems could reduce the risk of suicidal behaviours." Underlying link Dr Wojnar said it was possible that sleep disorders and suicidal thoughts were both the manifestation of a troubled psyche, or that poor sleep drove people to thoughts of suicide. But he also suggested there could be an underlying physiological link between the two which was not clear. Experts have suggested that a lack of sleep might affect the way the brain works, leading to poor judgement and less ability to control impulses. It is also suspected that both sleep disorders and suicidal thoughts might be linked to an imbalance in the chemical serotonin, which plays a key role in regulating mood. Dr Daniel Freeman, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said the study showed that insomnia was very common, and could have a significant effect on psychological well-being. He said: "It is very plausible that suicidal thoughts, which happen when we are depressed and find it hard to think our way out of our problems, have been linked to insomnia. "However it needs to be remembered that insomnia is very common and suicidal thoughts less so. Most people with insomnia manage the effects very well. "Insomnia only triggers severe problems for people with a pre-existing vulnerability." Sleep important Dr Neil Stanley, a sleep expert at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said: "This study reinforces the fact that good sleep is vital for good physical, mental and emotional health. "Poor sleep has long been linked with an increased risk of depression, but this study suggests that the increased risk of suicidal behaviour is not necessarily linked to depression and thus can affect those that doctors might not feel are at risk. "It is another demonstration of the importance, both as an individual and as a society, of getting good sleep." © BBC MMIX
USA: Top court dismisses tobacco company's appeal of $79.5M judgment
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TORONTO, Ontario / CBC News / World / March 31, 2009
The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by tobacco company Philip Morris USA over $79.5 million US in punitive damages that were awarded to the widow of a longtime smoker.
In Tuesday's one-sentence ruling, the top court said the appeal was dismissed as "improvidently granted."
Philip Morris, whose parent company is Altria Group Inc., argued in the appeal the Oregon Supreme Court had defied an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case.
Tuesday's ruling did not decide on the merits of the dispute.
Oregon's top court has repeatedly upheld a verdict against Philip Morris USA from a fraud trial in 1999.
Tuesday's ruling leaves in place the verdict in favour of Mayola Williams, whose husband Jesse died of lung cancer after smoking two packs of Marlboros cigarettes a day for 45 years. During the 10-year court battle, the judgment's value has grown to about $145 million with interest.
Williams argued the award was appropriate because it punishes Philip Morris' misconduct for a decades-long "massive market-directed fraud" that misled people into thinking cigarettes were not dangerous or addictive.
Punitive damages are money intended to punish a defendant for its behaviour and to deter repetition. Williams said her husband never gave any credence to the surgeon general's health warnings about smoking cigarettes because tobacco companies insisted they were safe.
The cigarette maker, however, argued a jury can punish the company only for the harm done to Williams, not to other smokers.
With files from the Associated Press
Copyright © CBC 2009
Tuesday's ruling leaves in place the verdict in favour of Mayola Williams, whose husband Jesse died of lung cancer after smoking two packs of Marlboros cigarettes a day for 45 years. During the 10-year court battle, the judgment's value has grown to about $145 million with interest.
Williams argued the award was appropriate because it punishes Philip Morris' misconduct for a decades-long "massive market-directed fraud" that misled people into thinking cigarettes were not dangerous or addictive.
Punitive damages are money intended to punish a defendant for its behaviour and to deter repetition. Williams said her husband never gave any credence to the surgeon general's health warnings about smoking cigarettes because tobacco companies insisted they were safe.
The cigarette maker, however, argued a jury can punish the company only for the harm done to Williams, not to other smokers.
With files from the Associated Press
Copyright © CBC 2009
UK: Fatigue impacts arthritis patients
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LONDON, England / Press Association / March 31, 2009
Rheumatoid arthritis patients have their lives disrupted more by tiredness than stiffness and pain, research has shown.
Yet fatigue is an unsung symptom that 40% of patients never discuss with their doctors, the findings suggest.
A survey of 100 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in England found that for 71% tiredness was the symptom that most affected their daily lives. Only 2% of those questioned said they were not affected by tiredness or fatigue, and more than a third believed it could not be treated.
The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS), which carried out the survey, on Tuesday launched a booklet aimed at addressing the problem of fatigue. "Fatigue: Beyond Tiredness" helps sufferers recognise the symptoms of fatigue and take steps to manage it.
Ailsa Bosworth, chief executive of the NRAS, said: "Chronic or ongoing fatigue in RA is not like tiredness. It can last for days and no amount of sleep will relieve it. The research revealed that the main reason people don't discuss fatigue with their healthcare professional is because they feel it is a symptom of RA they just have to put up with.
"This is simply not the case. We hope that this booklet will encourage patients to discuss fatigue during consultations and make small changes to their lives to help manage it."
The booklet offers advice on diary planning, sleep, diet, exercise, relaxation techniques, talking to specialists and complementary therapies.
According to the survey, 31% of RA sufferers feel there is no treatment for fatigue and 40% never discuss the problem with health professionals.
Professor Peter Taylor, consultant rheumatologist at Charing Cross Hospital in London, said: "Fatigue is a devastating symptom of rheumatoid arthritis which is often prominent when inflammation of the joints is at its worst and which can also be made worse by some painkillers."
Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease that affects around 487,000 people in the UK.
Copyright © 2009 The Press Association
UK: Ten dietary tips from those aged 100+
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LONDON, England / BBC News UK / Magazine / March 31, 2009
Stephen Dowling
BBC News Magazine
Britain's oldest woman Florence Baldwin, who turns 113 on Tuesday, puts her longevity down to a daily fried egg sandwich. It's one of many dietary tips from those who have reached three figures.
Everyone wants to live to a ripe old age - and it doesn't take a dietary expert to know that eating healthily does that ambition no harm.
But ask anyone who has actually reached the magic 100 how they got there, and their dietary tips don't always square with the official advice. So we asked Dr Elisabeth Weichselbaum, of the British Nutrition Foundation, to cast an eye over a selection of centenarians' staples.
1. HERRING AND ORANGE JUICE
Dutch woman Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, who lived to the ripe old age of 115, swore her longevity was down to a daily dose of herring and a glass of orange juice.
Herring is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, "which are really good for your heart and the whole cardiovascular system," says Dr Weichselbaum. "And that can help you avoid heart attacks for a long time."
"Orange juice - if you only drink a glass a day - provides you with Vitamin C and a lot of antioxidants."
2. VEGETABLES
The traditional mealtime exhortation to "eat your greens" has the ultimate champion - "120-year-old" Israeli Arab Mariam Amash, who has allegedly notched up six score years thanks to lots of vegetables.
No admonishment from Dr Weichselbaum, who says: "Green vegetables provide you a lot of important vitamins and minerals like iron and carotene and dietary fibre, and vegetables reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Make sure you eat a full range of coloured vegetables in a balanced diet."
3. CUSTARD CAKES
One out of left-field by Japanese centenarian Mitoyo Kawate, who ascribed some of her 114 years to a regular intake of custard cakes. Japanese custard's health-giving qualities (we're basically talking a straight-up-and-down recipe of sugar, water, butter and vanilla extract) do not figure prominently in the world's good eating guides. An oversight?
The brow of Dr Weichselbaum furrows: "It depends on how many she'd eaten. It's probably not the custard cakes that made her live so long, but if it was as part of a balanced diet then there's no need to cut out the sweets."
Mrs Kawate, it appears, has gone to her grave giving custard the credit for all the hard work green tea and sashimi were doing.
4. ALCOHOL
There's no shortage of volunteers happy to lay the secret of a long life on the odd tipple. Lucy d'Abreu, for instance, who passed away in Scotland aged 113, believed it was her "customary sun-downer of brandy and dry ginger ale" that helped her avoid an early death.
According to Dr Weichselbaum, alcohol in moderation "has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease but it can increase the risk of some forms of cancer." Perhaps it was the ginger ale...
5. SAUSAGE IN BREAD
Rural Ukrainian Hryhoriy Nestor's greatest extravagance was a slice of sausage in a bread roll - he ate a simple diet of home-made food like cabbage and sausage and warm potato and herring. He never married and led an active life on his farm in the west of Ukraine to the last.
Dr Weichselbaum is resistant to the suggestion of sausage as a lifesaver. "I would say eat processed meat in moderation - eat sausages in moderation in a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables."
6. BREAD, DRIPPING, SALT
Yorkshirewoman Ada Mason's longevity tip is a one-woman two-fingered salute to the healthy-eating brigade. She lived to 111 thanks to "eating bread and dripping every day - lots of it with lots of salt on," according to her grand-daughter.
"In this case I'd say if she ate a lot of this she managed to become 111 despite the dripping and salt," exclaims Dr Weichselbaum. "Dripping is not only pure fat but high in saturated fats which raises the risks of heart disease, and the lots of salt leads to high blood pressure which is also a heart disease risk."
7. PORRIDGE
The traditional Scottish breakfast has many a cheerleader in the healthy eating camp, and Scot Annie Knight was no stranger to an oat-based start to the day - she claimed it helped her reach the age of 111.
"Food like this should make up a third of our diet," says Dr Weichselbaum. "Porridge is a great source of fibre - and if you have it with milk it's a great source of calcium too."
8. BOILED RICE AND CHICKEN
No booze for retired silkworm breeder Yukichi Chuganji, who lasted until the respectable age of 114 despite an aversion to vegetables. Meat and milk were on the list, but his favoured dish was boiled rice with pieces of chicken.
"Rice is a great source of starch, and if it's wholemeal rice it's a very good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals," says Dr Weichselbaum. But she adds: "It is important to have a variety of vegetables in your diet." That's you told, Mr Chuganji.
9. COTTAGE CHEESE
Sakhan Dosova is, Kazakhstani authorities say, the world's oldest woman. She has allegedly just turned 130 - a good 16 years older than the next-oldest person on the list. She stays away from sweets and instead is partial to cottage cheese.
"Cottage cheese is a good source of calcium, which is great for your bones and teeth," says Dr Weichselbaum. "Its fat content is relatively low compared to other cheeses - it contains about half of the fat you find in cheddar cheese. I can't really comment on bacterial strains they may have used in this region."
10. DONKEY MILK
You might have a to wait a while to find this in the aisle of your local Tesco, but apparently Ecuadorian Maria Esther de Capovilla's age of 116 was down to her regularly drinking the milk from the family donkey as a child.
Cue the sound of heads being scratched at the British Nutrition Foundation... "I can't really comment on this," Dr Weichselbaum admits.
• But how crucial is diet to a long life? Experts agree that the food you eat can only go so far in affecting your life span.
Dr Aubrey de Grey, whose Methuselah Foundation is funding research into regenerative medicine for aging through stem cell and gene therapy research, cautions against adopting the centenarian diet plan wholesale.
"My favourite answer is one given by the person who has lived the longest, Jeanne Louise Calment. She was asked what's your secret every year for years from a million journalists. When she was 120 she said it was because she gave up smoking - when she was 117!
"The problem is we don't really know. There are things we know shorten your life, such as smoking and if you're overweight."
The average number of people dying at, for instance, the age of 85, is less today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. But people now living to a grand old age - 100 years and over - are doing so thanks to things in early life, such as their mother's good nutrition when carrying them and lack of stress in very early life, says Dr de Grey.
It's these early factors which are likely to have the most dramatic effect, rather than popping supplements and cod liver oil, he says.
Good food and exercise only build on the start we get in life. And even if it may not be as important as what happened very early on, Dr de Grey says, the members of this long-lived club also seem to share another trait.
"If there's one thing we can say about centenarians, it's that nothing bothers them."
© BBC MMIX
Stephen Dowling
BBC News Magazine
Britain's oldest woman Florence Baldwin, who turns 113 on Tuesday, puts her longevity down to a daily fried egg sandwich. It's one of many dietary tips from those who have reached three figures.
Everyone wants to live to a ripe old age - and it doesn't take a dietary expert to know that eating healthily does that ambition no harm.
But ask anyone who has actually reached the magic 100 how they got there, and their dietary tips don't always square with the official advice. So we asked Dr Elisabeth Weichselbaum, of the British Nutrition Foundation, to cast an eye over a selection of centenarians' staples.
1. HERRING AND ORANGE JUICE
Dutch woman Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, who lived to the ripe old age of 115, swore her longevity was down to a daily dose of herring and a glass of orange juice.
Herring is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, "which are really good for your heart and the whole cardiovascular system," says Dr Weichselbaum. "And that can help you avoid heart attacks for a long time."
"Orange juice - if you only drink a glass a day - provides you with Vitamin C and a lot of antioxidants."
2. VEGETABLES
The traditional mealtime exhortation to "eat your greens" has the ultimate champion - "120-year-old" Israeli Arab Mariam Amash, who has allegedly notched up six score years thanks to lots of vegetables.
No admonishment from Dr Weichselbaum, who says: "Green vegetables provide you a lot of important vitamins and minerals like iron and carotene and dietary fibre, and vegetables reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Make sure you eat a full range of coloured vegetables in a balanced diet."
3. CUSTARD CAKES
One out of left-field by Japanese centenarian Mitoyo Kawate, who ascribed some of her 114 years to a regular intake of custard cakes. Japanese custard's health-giving qualities (we're basically talking a straight-up-and-down recipe of sugar, water, butter and vanilla extract) do not figure prominently in the world's good eating guides. An oversight?
The brow of Dr Weichselbaum furrows: "It depends on how many she'd eaten. It's probably not the custard cakes that made her live so long, but if it was as part of a balanced diet then there's no need to cut out the sweets."
Mrs Kawate, it appears, has gone to her grave giving custard the credit for all the hard work green tea and sashimi were doing.
4. ALCOHOL
There's no shortage of volunteers happy to lay the secret of a long life on the odd tipple. Lucy d'Abreu, for instance, who passed away in Scotland aged 113, believed it was her "customary sun-downer of brandy and dry ginger ale" that helped her avoid an early death.
According to Dr Weichselbaum, alcohol in moderation "has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease but it can increase the risk of some forms of cancer." Perhaps it was the ginger ale...
5. SAUSAGE IN BREAD
Rural Ukrainian Hryhoriy Nestor's greatest extravagance was a slice of sausage in a bread roll - he ate a simple diet of home-made food like cabbage and sausage and warm potato and herring. He never married and led an active life on his farm in the west of Ukraine to the last.
Dr Weichselbaum is resistant to the suggestion of sausage as a lifesaver. "I would say eat processed meat in moderation - eat sausages in moderation in a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables."
6. BREAD, DRIPPING, SALT
Yorkshirewoman Ada Mason's longevity tip is a one-woman two-fingered salute to the healthy-eating brigade. She lived to 111 thanks to "eating bread and dripping every day - lots of it with lots of salt on," according to her grand-daughter.
"In this case I'd say if she ate a lot of this she managed to become 111 despite the dripping and salt," exclaims Dr Weichselbaum. "Dripping is not only pure fat but high in saturated fats which raises the risks of heart disease, and the lots of salt leads to high blood pressure which is also a heart disease risk."
7. PORRIDGE
The traditional Scottish breakfast has many a cheerleader in the healthy eating camp, and Scot Annie Knight was no stranger to an oat-based start to the day - she claimed it helped her reach the age of 111.
"Food like this should make up a third of our diet," says Dr Weichselbaum. "Porridge is a great source of fibre - and if you have it with milk it's a great source of calcium too."
8. BOILED RICE AND CHICKEN
No booze for retired silkworm breeder Yukichi Chuganji, who lasted until the respectable age of 114 despite an aversion to vegetables. Meat and milk were on the list, but his favoured dish was boiled rice with pieces of chicken.
"Rice is a great source of starch, and if it's wholemeal rice it's a very good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals," says Dr Weichselbaum. But she adds: "It is important to have a variety of vegetables in your diet." That's you told, Mr Chuganji.
9. COTTAGE CHEESE
Sakhan Dosova is, Kazakhstani authorities say, the world's oldest woman. She has allegedly just turned 130 - a good 16 years older than the next-oldest person on the list. She stays away from sweets and instead is partial to cottage cheese.
"Cottage cheese is a good source of calcium, which is great for your bones and teeth," says Dr Weichselbaum. "Its fat content is relatively low compared to other cheeses - it contains about half of the fat you find in cheddar cheese. I can't really comment on bacterial strains they may have used in this region."
10. DONKEY MILK
You might have a to wait a while to find this in the aisle of your local Tesco, but apparently Ecuadorian Maria Esther de Capovilla's age of 116 was down to her regularly drinking the milk from the family donkey as a child.
Cue the sound of heads being scratched at the British Nutrition Foundation... "I can't really comment on this," Dr Weichselbaum admits.
• But how crucial is diet to a long life? Experts agree that the food you eat can only go so far in affecting your life span.
Dr Aubrey de Grey, whose Methuselah Foundation is funding research into regenerative medicine for aging through stem cell and gene therapy research, cautions against adopting the centenarian diet plan wholesale.
"My favourite answer is one given by the person who has lived the longest, Jeanne Louise Calment. She was asked what's your secret every year for years from a million journalists. When she was 120 she said it was because she gave up smoking - when she was 117!
"The problem is we don't really know. There are things we know shorten your life, such as smoking and if you're overweight."
The average number of people dying at, for instance, the age of 85, is less today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. But people now living to a grand old age - 100 years and over - are doing so thanks to things in early life, such as their mother's good nutrition when carrying them and lack of stress in very early life, says Dr de Grey.
It's these early factors which are likely to have the most dramatic effect, rather than popping supplements and cod liver oil, he says.
Good food and exercise only build on the start we get in life. And even if it may not be as important as what happened very early on, Dr de Grey says, the members of this long-lived club also seem to share another trait.
"If there's one thing we can say about centenarians, it's that nothing bothers them."
© BBC MMIX
MALAYSIA: Free medical treatment for senior citizens
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PENANG, Malaysia / The Star / March 31, 2009
By Foong Pek Yee in Kuala Lumpur
The Government plans to provide free medical treatment to elderly Malaysians in third class wards, covering ward and treatment charges.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the move would extend the ministry’s care to those aged 60 and above.
Some two million patients are admitted to the ministry’s hospitals annually and up to 70% are third class (the cheapest) admissions.
Liow said the move, expected to cost the Government “millions of ringgit,” could be implemented upon approval by the Cabinet.
Feedback has shown that many of the elderly have difficulty settling their medical fees and the ministry had considered this when reviewing its medical fees under the Medical Act, he said.
Copyright © 1995-2009 Star Publications (M) Bhd (Co
CHINA: Chinese seniors say they're under siege
. WASHINGTON, DC / USA Today / March 31, 2009
By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
Yao Min, 80, joins residents of the Jiade Apartments for the Aged in east Beijing on March 17 at the complex's gate to protest alleged harassment at the retirement home. Residents say their water supply has been cut.
BEIJING — It's been anything but a peaceful retirement for the seniors who live in the Jiade Apartments for the Aged in east Beijing. Their water was shut off six weeks ago. Windows were smashed, and the power goes off all the time, say residents, including Han Yuelan, 78. Unidentified men regularly show up, threatening to evict the tenants.
"You can't talk reason with these people," Han says. "They just want to scare us away." Wang Yan, the retirement home's founder, says she and Jiade's residents are the victim of strong-arm tactics by local officials and property developers who want them to move so they can build something new — and get a better return on their land. The confrontation, which follows battles at other retirement homes around the capital, has become the latest battleground in China's struggle to balance the rights of its citizens with the need for economic growth amid the global financial crisis.
The problem is exacerbated by a rapid increase in China's senior population and a shortage of places for them to live. Some protests have erupted. More than 40 Jiade residents, some in wheelchairs or needing walkers or canes, blockaded the gate one recent afternoon to prevent officials from entering the property. "Problems like Jiade are very common in Beijing," says Gu Quanwen, who runs a forum for retirement home directors in the Chinese capital.
"Officials focus only on economic development, such as real estate and other profit-making sectors. There is not enough attention paid to retirement homes." Gu says his Aidi Apartments for the Aged in Changping, northeast of Beijing, face rising rents from the landowners and may have to move. In communist China, sometimes the owner of a property is a state-run enterprise or arm of the government. Cui Xuemei, the director of the Badachu Apartments for the Aged in west Beijing, says the air force is trying to squeeze her business out. Whenever there is a festival or public holiday, "and the rest of the world is celebrating, then our electricity and water are cut off," complains Cui, 48. "The landlord is trying to force us out, as they want a tenant (who will) pay 50% more than us." Cui knows she faces an uphill battle with China's powerful military but is determined to stay and even expand the business. "Every time I meet city officials, they are surprised I am still running this place," she says. The Chinese air force did not respond to requests for comment.
Aging population China has 160 million citizens over 60, equal to about 12% of its population, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The proportion of over-60 residents is projected to grow steadily until it composes about a quarter of the population by 2050, according to China's National Committee on Aging. Unlike developed nations such as the USA, "China is getting old before it gets rich," says Yang Tuan, an expert on aging at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Some steps are being taken to ease the demographic crunch. Last month, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu warned that China's aging population will surge this year, especially those over 80. A $585 billion stimulus package will be tapped to build needed retirement homes in Beijing, says Wei Xiaobiao, an official at the municipal social welfare department. The city's 336 retirement homes, a mix of public and private institutions, offer 40,000 beds, double the number a decade ago. At least 80,000 more are needed, Wei says. The government plans to provide 15,000 more beds this year by offering subsidies, but hitting that target will be tough "as it gets harder and harder to find land in Beijing," Wei says.
The concept of retirement homes is somewhat new in China. Since the days of Confucius, Chinese tradition has emphasized respect for the elderly. But the country's strong embrace of capitalism in recent decades, combined with the country's one-child policy, have changed family life and put a higher premium on land, says Wei's colleague Lu Haiyan, director of social welfare. Chen Jie, director of the Xiangshan Apartments for the Aged, says there has been a sea change in the attitude toward retirement homes. "Even just a few years ago, people felt it was shameful to send your parents to a home," says Chen, 45. Now, people "are too busy to care for them, and the old people themselves want to reduce their burden."
Struggle to stay open Several homes seem doomed. The Jiade home for seniors is surrounded by newly cleared ground, construction sites and an entertainment complex. Wang and her husband, Xin Wen, are appealing to city authorities to stop the harassment. Other retirement homes have closed. "We help relieve society and families of the burden of elderly care, yet the government uses their administrative power to threaten us," says Xin, who is appealing a court ruling that the retirement home must move because of a late rent payment last year.
Recently, Wang says, 10 men parked cars at the complex's entrance and intimidated residents, demanding they leave. Li Haitao, a representative of the local village committee who works for a company developing the land around Jiade, denies any harassment. "The Jiade owners are stirring up this problem, but the court has said this is our land. So Jiade should be organizing the old people to move out, not complaining we have no humanity," Li says. Wei criticizes the "excessive measures" the Jiade's owners say are being used against them, but he says his department cannot get involved. Regardless of Jiade's fate, Ke Jinbi, 92, a former miner who lives there, says the core problem is likely to get worse.
"In China, there is less respect for the elderly now," he says.
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY
By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
Yao Min, 80, joins residents of the Jiade Apartments for the Aged in east Beijing on March 17 at the complex's gate to protest alleged harassment at the retirement home. Residents say their water supply has been cut.
BEIJING — It's been anything but a peaceful retirement for the seniors who live in the Jiade Apartments for the Aged in east Beijing. Their water was shut off six weeks ago. Windows were smashed, and the power goes off all the time, say residents, including Han Yuelan, 78. Unidentified men regularly show up, threatening to evict the tenants.
"You can't talk reason with these people," Han says. "They just want to scare us away." Wang Yan, the retirement home's founder, says she and Jiade's residents are the victim of strong-arm tactics by local officials and property developers who want them to move so they can build something new — and get a better return on their land. The confrontation, which follows battles at other retirement homes around the capital, has become the latest battleground in China's struggle to balance the rights of its citizens with the need for economic growth amid the global financial crisis.
The problem is exacerbated by a rapid increase in China's senior population and a shortage of places for them to live. Some protests have erupted. More than 40 Jiade residents, some in wheelchairs or needing walkers or canes, blockaded the gate one recent afternoon to prevent officials from entering the property. "Problems like Jiade are very common in Beijing," says Gu Quanwen, who runs a forum for retirement home directors in the Chinese capital.
"Officials focus only on economic development, such as real estate and other profit-making sectors. There is not enough attention paid to retirement homes." Gu says his Aidi Apartments for the Aged in Changping, northeast of Beijing, face rising rents from the landowners and may have to move. In communist China, sometimes the owner of a property is a state-run enterprise or arm of the government. Cui Xuemei, the director of the Badachu Apartments for the Aged in west Beijing, says the air force is trying to squeeze her business out. Whenever there is a festival or public holiday, "and the rest of the world is celebrating, then our electricity and water are cut off," complains Cui, 48. "The landlord is trying to force us out, as they want a tenant (who will) pay 50% more than us." Cui knows she faces an uphill battle with China's powerful military but is determined to stay and even expand the business. "Every time I meet city officials, they are surprised I am still running this place," she says. The Chinese air force did not respond to requests for comment.
Aging population China has 160 million citizens over 60, equal to about 12% of its population, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The proportion of over-60 residents is projected to grow steadily until it composes about a quarter of the population by 2050, according to China's National Committee on Aging. Unlike developed nations such as the USA, "China is getting old before it gets rich," says Yang Tuan, an expert on aging at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Some steps are being taken to ease the demographic crunch. Last month, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu warned that China's aging population will surge this year, especially those over 80. A $585 billion stimulus package will be tapped to build needed retirement homes in Beijing, says Wei Xiaobiao, an official at the municipal social welfare department. The city's 336 retirement homes, a mix of public and private institutions, offer 40,000 beds, double the number a decade ago. At least 80,000 more are needed, Wei says. The government plans to provide 15,000 more beds this year by offering subsidies, but hitting that target will be tough "as it gets harder and harder to find land in Beijing," Wei says.
The concept of retirement homes is somewhat new in China. Since the days of Confucius, Chinese tradition has emphasized respect for the elderly. But the country's strong embrace of capitalism in recent decades, combined with the country's one-child policy, have changed family life and put a higher premium on land, says Wei's colleague Lu Haiyan, director of social welfare. Chen Jie, director of the Xiangshan Apartments for the Aged, says there has been a sea change in the attitude toward retirement homes. "Even just a few years ago, people felt it was shameful to send your parents to a home," says Chen, 45. Now, people "are too busy to care for them, and the old people themselves want to reduce their burden."
Struggle to stay open Several homes seem doomed. The Jiade home for seniors is surrounded by newly cleared ground, construction sites and an entertainment complex. Wang and her husband, Xin Wen, are appealing to city authorities to stop the harassment. Other retirement homes have closed. "We help relieve society and families of the burden of elderly care, yet the government uses their administrative power to threaten us," says Xin, who is appealing a court ruling that the retirement home must move because of a late rent payment last year.
Recently, Wang says, 10 men parked cars at the complex's entrance and intimidated residents, demanding they leave. Li Haitao, a representative of the local village committee who works for a company developing the land around Jiade, denies any harassment. "The Jiade owners are stirring up this problem, but the court has said this is our land. So Jiade should be organizing the old people to move out, not complaining we have no humanity," Li says. Wei criticizes the "excessive measures" the Jiade's owners say are being used against them, but he says his department cannot get involved. Regardless of Jiade's fate, Ke Jinbi, 92, a former miner who lives there, says the core problem is likely to get worse.
"In China, there is less respect for the elderly now," he says.
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY
USA: Retirement Often Happens Unexpectedly
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WASHINGTON DC / US News & World Report / March 31, 2009
We like to think that if we plan and save throughout our working lives, a secure retirement is within reach. But retirement often happens unexpectedly. A lay off, health problem, or the illness of a relative can derail retirement plans in an instant.
Few people make it to age 40 without a sudden event shocking their finances. A new survey of 1,200 adults between ages 40 and 79 found that 57 percent had already experienced a major life crisis such as a job loss (18 percent), divorce (29 percent), death of a spouse or life partner (10 percent), a serious illness or long-term disability for you or a spouse (24 percent), or the illness or disability of a child (7 percent). Only about 43 percent of those surveyed made it to middle age or older unscathed, AARP Financial Inc. and Boston Research Group found.
The emotional toll of any of these events can be devastating. So can the financial toll. “Life crises are the perfect storms of personal finance— where the need for consequential and frequently urgent financial decisions meets an emotional hurricane,” says Richard Hisey, president of AARP Financial Inc. Unexpected job loss or a serious illness took the most obvious financial toll in the survey. About half of those who experienced job loss said they were unprepared to deal with the financial consequences.
The number of seniors who need or want to work during the traditional retirement years is rapidly growing. About 433,000 unemployed Americans age 65 and older were actively seeking employment in February, more than twice as many as in November 2007, just before the recession began. Another 1.3 million adults age 55 to 64 were unemployed. “This is a daunting economy for older people. A lot of older people are coming to see us that are scared or bewildered,” says Cynthia Metzler, president and CEO of Experience Works, a nonprofit organization that helps older people retrain for new jobs. “We have people who are in their 80s who are taking on new jobs.”
Baby boomers need to find a way to take back control of their retirement plans by preparing for the current job situation and creating a back up plan while still employed in case one of these unforeseen events should threaten retirement plans. Last year the Planning to Retire blog told 7 personal stories of unplanned retirement including a telecommunications manager forced into early retirement, an occupational therapist who scaled back her work hours to help care for her mother, and a 57-year-old guest lecturer who became unable to work due to Alzheimer's disease. Also, check out these 4 tips for getting an unexpected retirement back on track.
Copyright © 2009 U.S.News & World Report LP
We like to think that if we plan and save throughout our working lives, a secure retirement is within reach. But retirement often happens unexpectedly. A lay off, health problem, or the illness of a relative can derail retirement plans in an instant.
Few people make it to age 40 without a sudden event shocking their finances. A new survey of 1,200 adults between ages 40 and 79 found that 57 percent had already experienced a major life crisis such as a job loss (18 percent), divorce (29 percent), death of a spouse or life partner (10 percent), a serious illness or long-term disability for you or a spouse (24 percent), or the illness or disability of a child (7 percent). Only about 43 percent of those surveyed made it to middle age or older unscathed, AARP Financial Inc. and Boston Research Group found.
The emotional toll of any of these events can be devastating. So can the financial toll. “Life crises are the perfect storms of personal finance— where the need for consequential and frequently urgent financial decisions meets an emotional hurricane,” says Richard Hisey, president of AARP Financial Inc. Unexpected job loss or a serious illness took the most obvious financial toll in the survey. About half of those who experienced job loss said they were unprepared to deal with the financial consequences.
The number of seniors who need or want to work during the traditional retirement years is rapidly growing. About 433,000 unemployed Americans age 65 and older were actively seeking employment in February, more than twice as many as in November 2007, just before the recession began. Another 1.3 million adults age 55 to 64 were unemployed. “This is a daunting economy for older people. A lot of older people are coming to see us that are scared or bewildered,” says Cynthia Metzler, president and CEO of Experience Works, a nonprofit organization that helps older people retrain for new jobs. “We have people who are in their 80s who are taking on new jobs.”
Baby boomers need to find a way to take back control of their retirement plans by preparing for the current job situation and creating a back up plan while still employed in case one of these unforeseen events should threaten retirement plans. Last year the Planning to Retire blog told 7 personal stories of unplanned retirement including a telecommunications manager forced into early retirement, an occupational therapist who scaled back her work hours to help care for her mother, and a 57-year-old guest lecturer who became unable to work due to Alzheimer's disease. Also, check out these 4 tips for getting an unexpected retirement back on track.
Copyright © 2009 U.S.News & World Report LP
UK: NHS services for older people 'need urgent attention'
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HEREFORD, England / 24dash.com / Communities / Health / March 31, 2009
By Jon Land
NHS services for older people with mental health problems need "urgent attention", a watchdog said today.
People over 65 are often discriminated against because of their age and can find themselves excluded from specialist services, according to the Healthcare Commission.
Its report found that some elderly people were shut out of services on the basis of cost while others were not referred on by their GP.
Experts examined six mental health trusts expected to be at the high, mid and low end of performance.
Overall, more than 600 people were spoken to, including staff, carers, patients and social workers.
National data on accessing mental health services was also analysed for the study, although the report's authors noted that such data was lacking.
Two trusts were found to be treating people on the basis of need rather than age but other trusts were lagging behind.
The report said: "Most trusts were struggling to make progress, and older people were denied access to the full range of mental health services that are available to younger adults.
"In particular, there was poor access to out-of-hours and crisis services, psychological therapies and alcohol services."
Around 40% of older people who visit their GP are estimated to have a mental health problem, as are 50% of older people in hospital and 60% of those in care homes.
More than a quarter of admissions to mental health inpatient services are for people over the age of 65.
Today's report - Equality in Later Life - noted that mental health problems among older people will become more of an NHS burden in the future.
With an increasingly ageing population, more and more people will suffer from diseases like dementia, which currently costs the UK economy more than GBP17 billion a year.
At present, around 700,000 people in the UK have dementia but this figure is expected to rise to more than a million by 2025.
The Healthcare Commission study found that older people were not often given access to out-of-hours services or those aimed at helping people suffering a mental health crisis.
Such services mostly only took referrals for people under the age of 65, or for conditions other than dementia, it said.
"Even when there was no explicit policy about discrimination on the basis of age, staff often reported that although the rules did not prevent referring older people, in actual practice accessing the full range of services for older people was often not possible," the report went on.
Although access to services for alcohol and substance misuse were "theoretically available", they were either offered in a way that was not appropriate for older people or were simply unavailable for referrals.
When it came to psychological therapies, services were often poor, the Commission noted.
One trust reported a waiting list of six months for an assessment while another trust found that, in an audit of 1,300 referrals to psychological therapies from GPs, only 49 were for people over the age of 65.
Some staff said patients deemed to be high risk to the public were given priority, as were those where Government targets applied.
Most trusts had made some progress in identifying issues surrounding age discrimination but others had a long way to go, the report found.
Patients and carers were generally positive about the support and training available but some felt they were pushed "from pillar to post"
when attempting to contact someone about the care on offer.
Anna Walker, chief executive of the Healthcare Commission, said: "There needs to be a fundamental shift towards providing care based on a person's clinical need rather than their age."
Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: "It's scandalous that older people are often denied access to vital mental health services because they're deemed too old."
A second study from the Commission, also published today, found that almost half of people under 65 needing specialist mental healthcare still do not have an out-of-hours number if they are in a crisis.
Meanwhile, 55% of people with schizophrenia have not been offered recommended psychological therapies.
The study, which looked at all 68 NHS specialist community mental health trusts in England, found some improvements in 2007/08 compared with a similar report in 2005/06.
However, it said there was "significant room" for improvement before all trusts were meeting best practice and guidelines issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice).
In the 2007/08 report, 54.7% of patients said they had an out-of-hours contact, up from 49.5% in 2005/06.
A third of trusts were found to have improved performance in this area.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope said: "We are developing a new strategy for mental health services for all age groups.
"This will herald a dynamic new approach to mental health for everyone.
"In the meantime we are already improving access to psychological therapies with funding rising to £178 million a year."
Mind's Chief Executive Paul Farmer said: "Mental health care isn't just about going to the doctor for a prescription, it involves a range of services of which emergency out-of hours care is a crucially important part.
"Considering that everyone is meant to have round the clock access to crisis care, it is truly shocking that nearly half of mental health service users don't even have a contact number to call when they are in need. Crisis care is the A&E of mental health treatment - it's like not knowing how to dial 999."
"Although there have been some improvements, four in ten people still do not have a copy of their care plan, which sets out what treatment and care they should be receiving.
"Care plans should be given out automatically, and making sure this happens is one of the simplest improvements healthcare professionals can make. At a time when health care is moving towards greater patient choice and involvement, the most basic level of involvement still isn't happening."
"The situation is even worse for older people - one Trust reported that only 4% of referrals for talking therapies were for older people, while in some areas emergency crisis care isn't even available for the over 65s.
"This is more evidence that in mental health care, there is a culture of de-prioritising older people, who are picking up the leftovers of what treatment is available. Mental health care should be allotted according to need, not according to age."
Source: 24dash.com
© 2009 24dash.com
People over 65 are often discriminated against because of their age and can find themselves excluded from specialist services, according to the Healthcare Commission.
Its report found that some elderly people were shut out of services on the basis of cost while others were not referred on by their GP.
Experts examined six mental health trusts expected to be at the high, mid and low end of performance.
Overall, more than 600 people were spoken to, including staff, carers, patients and social workers.
National data on accessing mental health services was also analysed for the study, although the report's authors noted that such data was lacking.
Two trusts were found to be treating people on the basis of need rather than age but other trusts were lagging behind.
The report said: "Most trusts were struggling to make progress, and older people were denied access to the full range of mental health services that are available to younger adults.
"In particular, there was poor access to out-of-hours and crisis services, psychological therapies and alcohol services."
Around 40% of older people who visit their GP are estimated to have a mental health problem, as are 50% of older people in hospital and 60% of those in care homes.
More than a quarter of admissions to mental health inpatient services are for people over the age of 65.
Today's report - Equality in Later Life - noted that mental health problems among older people will become more of an NHS burden in the future.
With an increasingly ageing population, more and more people will suffer from diseases like dementia, which currently costs the UK economy more than GBP17 billion a year.
At present, around 700,000 people in the UK have dementia but this figure is expected to rise to more than a million by 2025.
The Healthcare Commission study found that older people were not often given access to out-of-hours services or those aimed at helping people suffering a mental health crisis.
Such services mostly only took referrals for people under the age of 65, or for conditions other than dementia, it said.
"Even when there was no explicit policy about discrimination on the basis of age, staff often reported that although the rules did not prevent referring older people, in actual practice accessing the full range of services for older people was often not possible," the report went on.
Although access to services for alcohol and substance misuse were "theoretically available", they were either offered in a way that was not appropriate for older people or were simply unavailable for referrals.
When it came to psychological therapies, services were often poor, the Commission noted.
One trust reported a waiting list of six months for an assessment while another trust found that, in an audit of 1,300 referrals to psychological therapies from GPs, only 49 were for people over the age of 65.
Some staff said patients deemed to be high risk to the public were given priority, as were those where Government targets applied.
Most trusts had made some progress in identifying issues surrounding age discrimination but others had a long way to go, the report found.
Patients and carers were generally positive about the support and training available but some felt they were pushed "from pillar to post"
when attempting to contact someone about the care on offer.
Anna Walker, chief executive of the Healthcare Commission, said: "There needs to be a fundamental shift towards providing care based on a person's clinical need rather than their age."
Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: "It's scandalous that older people are often denied access to vital mental health services because they're deemed too old."
A second study from the Commission, also published today, found that almost half of people under 65 needing specialist mental healthcare still do not have an out-of-hours number if they are in a crisis.
Meanwhile, 55% of people with schizophrenia have not been offered recommended psychological therapies.
The study, which looked at all 68 NHS specialist community mental health trusts in England, found some improvements in 2007/08 compared with a similar report in 2005/06.
However, it said there was "significant room" for improvement before all trusts were meeting best practice and guidelines issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice).
In the 2007/08 report, 54.7% of patients said they had an out-of-hours contact, up from 49.5% in 2005/06.
A third of trusts were found to have improved performance in this area.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope said: "We are developing a new strategy for mental health services for all age groups.
"This will herald a dynamic new approach to mental health for everyone.
"In the meantime we are already improving access to psychological therapies with funding rising to £178 million a year."
Mind's Chief Executive Paul Farmer said: "Mental health care isn't just about going to the doctor for a prescription, it involves a range of services of which emergency out-of hours care is a crucially important part.
"Considering that everyone is meant to have round the clock access to crisis care, it is truly shocking that nearly half of mental health service users don't even have a contact number to call when they are in need. Crisis care is the A&E of mental health treatment - it's like not knowing how to dial 999."
"Although there have been some improvements, four in ten people still do not have a copy of their care plan, which sets out what treatment and care they should be receiving.
"Care plans should be given out automatically, and making sure this happens is one of the simplest improvements healthcare professionals can make. At a time when health care is moving towards greater patient choice and involvement, the most basic level of involvement still isn't happening."
"The situation is even worse for older people - one Trust reported that only 4% of referrals for talking therapies were for older people, while in some areas emergency crisis care isn't even available for the over 65s.
"This is more evidence that in mental health care, there is a culture of de-prioritising older people, who are picking up the leftovers of what treatment is available. Mental health care should be allotted according to need, not according to age."
Source: 24dash.com
© 2009 24dash.com
March 30, 2009
ALBANIA: Old custom of 'sworn virgins' dying out
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SHKODRA, Albania / Agence France Presse / March 30, 2009
Drane Markgjoni is one of Albania's last "sworn virgins" -- an age-old custom in which women assume the role of a man and are accepted as such by their family and society.
"My life has been a dog's life," lamented the 87-year-old, gazing away in her modest home in Shkodra, in northern Albania, where religious paintings mix with photographs of her deceased loved ones.
Yet the octogenarian insisted she had no "regrets".
She quickly smiled again as she recalled memories of a destiny shaped by the weight of tradition and the exacting conditions imposed by the post-World War II communist regime of Enver Hoxha.
Drane Markgjoni
AFP/File/Gent Shkullaku
Dressed in old pants and a dark jacket, with her white hair trimmed short, Markgjoni, who never learned to read or write, tried to protect herself from the cold in her icy home.
She was born in Bajram Curri, in the north of the country. From the cradle, her marriage was arranged in line with the custom of the time.
But on her wedding day in 1949, her husband fled Albania for neighbouring Yugoslavia, a common occurrence during the difficult post-war period. Several hours later, Hoxha's police arrested all the men from his family.
Markgjoni suddenly found herself alone with the women and children of her husband's family. She said the marriage was never consummated.
And that is when she decided to "convert", adopting "the role of the man of the house" in line with the centuries-old Albanian tradition of sworn virgins.
The decision meant renouncing forever her gender, pushing aside the possibility of being like other women, of having another husband, bearing children and, of course, engaging in any sexual relations.
"I didn't have any other choice," she said, recalling how she was deported to the south of the country with the women and children of her fiance's family.
'In the old times, you could trust men'
For 12 years, she lived the life of a man, working on building sites, carrying cement bags and even sharing dormitories with men, where she was accepted without any trouble.
Such women who become "the man of the house" are labelled a "virgin" in Albania.
Working shoulder to shoulder with men, they enjoyed wide respect and their choice was considered a "supreme sacrifice", explained Aferdita Onuzi of the Anthropology Institute in Tirana.
Onuzi, an ethnologist, said the last cases of women who decided to become "virgins" date back to the 1960s.
The phenomenon also occurs in Kosovo and was found in both Christian and Muslim families. During Albania's 50 years of communism up until 1990, however, authorities nearly put an end to the practice.
Onuzi estimated that fewer than 10 "virgins" were still alive in Albania.
There were two ways to become a "virgin", she explained: a girl decides to take over man's duties when all males in the family are dead or gone, or to become a "virgin" to avoid a marriage with a man arranged at birth.
An uncle of such young woman generally negotiates with a "fiancee's" family to find a solution, said Onuzi.
If the reasons for refusing the marriage were not considered valid, the young woman's family had to give the fiance's family a bullet to kill her, according to the ethnologist.
"To remain without a husband proves the strength of one's character. You have to be very determined," Markgjoni said.
"In the old times, you could trust men, travel with them. But now, women are considered an object. And women only think of how to pester their men," she said.
Markgjoni has also been marked by deep faith in the Roman Catholic church, something she says has helped her cope in life.
"It is they who give me strength," she said as she reached out and touched the religious images above her bed.
Copyright © 2009 AFP.
Drane Markgjoni
AFP/File/Gent Shkullaku
Dressed in old pants and a dark jacket, with her white hair trimmed short, Markgjoni, who never learned to read or write, tried to protect herself from the cold in her icy home.
She was born in Bajram Curri, in the north of the country. From the cradle, her marriage was arranged in line with the custom of the time.
But on her wedding day in 1949, her husband fled Albania for neighbouring Yugoslavia, a common occurrence during the difficult post-war period. Several hours later, Hoxha's police arrested all the men from his family.
Markgjoni suddenly found herself alone with the women and children of her husband's family. She said the marriage was never consummated.
And that is when she decided to "convert", adopting "the role of the man of the house" in line with the centuries-old Albanian tradition of sworn virgins.
The decision meant renouncing forever her gender, pushing aside the possibility of being like other women, of having another husband, bearing children and, of course, engaging in any sexual relations.
"I didn't have any other choice," she said, recalling how she was deported to the south of the country with the women and children of her fiance's family.
'In the old times, you could trust men'
For 12 years, she lived the life of a man, working on building sites, carrying cement bags and even sharing dormitories with men, where she was accepted without any trouble.
Such women who become "the man of the house" are labelled a "virgin" in Albania.
Working shoulder to shoulder with men, they enjoyed wide respect and their choice was considered a "supreme sacrifice", explained Aferdita Onuzi of the Anthropology Institute in Tirana.
Onuzi, an ethnologist, said the last cases of women who decided to become "virgins" date back to the 1960s.
The phenomenon also occurs in Kosovo and was found in both Christian and Muslim families. During Albania's 50 years of communism up until 1990, however, authorities nearly put an end to the practice.
Onuzi estimated that fewer than 10 "virgins" were still alive in Albania.
There were two ways to become a "virgin", she explained: a girl decides to take over man's duties when all males in the family are dead or gone, or to become a "virgin" to avoid a marriage with a man arranged at birth.
An uncle of such young woman generally negotiates with a "fiancee's" family to find a solution, said Onuzi.
If the reasons for refusing the marriage were not considered valid, the young woman's family had to give the fiance's family a bullet to kill her, according to the ethnologist.
"To remain without a husband proves the strength of one's character. You have to be very determined," Markgjoni said.
"In the old times, you could trust men, travel with them. But now, women are considered an object. And women only think of how to pester their men," she said.
Markgjoni has also been marked by deep faith in the Roman Catholic church, something she says has helped her cope in life.
"It is they who give me strength," she said as she reached out and touched the religious images above her bed.
Copyright © 2009 AFP.
KUWAIT: Swelling and Joint Pain Symptoms of Arthritis
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KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait / Arab Times / March 30, 2009
By Rena Sadeghi, Arab Times Staff
“Arthritis is a disease which currently affects a large number of people. Arthritis which means inflammation (swelling) of the joint exists in a variety of forms but two of the most common forms are rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis,” said Dr Samer Abdullah, Head of Rheumatology and Physical Medicine Department at the New Mowasat Hospital, Salmiya.
He was speaking during a lecture held on March 29 at the Radisson SAS Hotel on arthritis, specifically tackling rheumatoid arthritis. “Rheumatoid arthritis,” he said, “affects different joints in the body. It causes inflammation of the membrane lining the joint, which can trigger pain, stiffness, swelling, and can lead to joint damage. “Over time, the damage the rheumatoid arthritis causes to joints typically results in pain and loss of movement,” he added.
Dr Abdullah also spoke on the causes of rheumatoid arthritis. “It is not yet known what causes rheumatoid arthritis. It is autoimmune that is somehow triggered in people who have an inherited tendency for the disease,” stated Dr Abdullah. “The body attack itself causing damage to the joints,” he added.
The primary symptoms of RA include inflammation of the joints, swelling, difficulty moving, and pain in joints. Other potential symptoms include loss of energy, loss of appetite, fever, and anemia. A diagnosis for rheumatoid arthritis typically comes from a rheumatologist, who takes into account a pattern of symptoms, your medical history, x-rays, lab test, and physical exam. Physicians often conduct a lab test to screen for “rheumatoid factor”, and antibody found in the blood for approximately 80 percent of people with rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr Abdullah also spoke on osteoarthritis. “The knee is one of the most joints affected by this disease. In Osteoarthritis the articular cartilage begins to degrade. After a long period of time the cartilage can become completely “worn away” and the bone begins to rub together,” explained Dr. Abdullah.
“In the Rheumatology and Physical Medicine Department we provide an advanced treatment of osteoarthritis by viscosupplementation therapy, involving injecting a clear gel-like substance directly into the knee joint. These medications help to restore of the lubrication lost by the damaged cartilage and thus improve symptoms, he added.
Dr Abdullah had his medical training and qualification in France, University of Paris, where he specialized with some of the most prominent medical practitioners in his specialty. He also performed post graduate clinical attachments in USA (Harvard University), Germany and China. As a prominent member of the Rheumatology and Physical medicine society, Dr Abdullah is recognized locally in Kuwait, as well as abroad.
Dr Abdullah is specialized in the conservative treatment of musculoskeletal diseases: bone, joint and spine diseases, rheumatic autoimmune disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, back and neck pain, etc.
Source: Arab Times
March 29, 2009
USA: How Old Are You Really? Can You Pick Up a Pencil?
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NEW YORK, NY / The New York Times / Week in Review / March 29, 2009
By Neil Genzlinger
Considerable attention has fallen lately on RealAge, a wildly popular online questionnaire that claims to calculate your body’s true age by factoring in your diet, medical history, exercise habits and less obvious indicators of longevity like how many close friends you have. Critics complain that the test is used by pharmaceutical companies to identify potential customers and bombard them with e-mailed ads.
Related Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers (March 26, 2009) Well Blog: A Better Health QuizNo one, though, has warned about the danger inherent in the questionnaire itself: the mere act of slogging through its more than 85 questions could subtract years from your life. And the test gives short shrift to the adage “You’re as young as you feel” — few questions address what might be thought of as one’s mental age. Below, a more focused quiz that should save you precious hours: 1. Which of the following best describes your overall physical condition? _ Healthy _ Healthy-ish _ Awash in toxic assets 2. Today, you could fit into the garment you wore to your high school prom: _ Easily _ With the aid of a tailor or seamstress _ With the aid of a tailor or seamstress and a dietitian _ With the aid of a time machine 3. The last time you ate a Pop-Tart was: _ When I was 6 _ When I was 15 _ Am currently eating a Pop-Tart 4. Your main form of exercise is: _ Jogging _ Treadmill _ Wii Fit _ Filling out online questionnaires 5. To the best of your knowledge, the current host of NBC’s “Tonight Show” is: _ Jay Leno _ Conan O’Brien _ Johnny Carson _ Jack Paar 6. When you hear the word “vampire,” you think of: _ “Twilight” _ “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” _ “Dark Shadows” _ Bela Lugosi 7. The trendiest thing you have done on your computer lately is: _ Tweet _ Get a Facebook page _ Get a MySpace page _ Switch from CompuServe dial-up to AOL dial-up 8. Until you had to cut back because of the current recession, you had: _ A gym membership _ A personal trainer _ A yoga class _ A strength coach _ A girdle 9. Until you had to cut back because of the current recession, you had: _ A broker _ A pet _ A religion _ Friends _ Children 10. How many United States presidents have been younger on their Election Day than you are now? _ One _ Two _ Three _ All of them SCORING: Add one year to your biological age for every answer that makes you sound older. Subtract one year for every answer that makes you sound younger. Adjust results up or down after consulting with your physician. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
HONG KONG: Long-Awaited 'Ashes of Time Redux' Opens This Weekend
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BEIJING, China / China Daily / Life / Entertainment / Films / March 29, 2009
Fifteen years ago, when as his career was just starting to take off, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai made a martial arts movie, his only one so far. An adaptation of Louis Cha's famous martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Heroes, Ashes of Time it was, as his films would later be, a vague and strikingly beautiful piece of work. With the original negatives lost and multiple versions now floating around the world, Wong had long wanted to return to Ashes of Time for a restored, remastered and definitive cut. The result is Ashes of Time Redux.
Film Director Wong Kar-wai, born in Shanghai, China on July 17, 1958, has lived in Hong Kong since the age of five.
Set in ancient China, Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) is a fallen swordsman driven by greed toward both friend and foe. He is a perpetual loner and afraid of love after having his heart broken but the bounty hunters who work for him, like "Blind Swordsman" (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Hung Chi (Jacky Cheung), discover the intangible secret of true love and teach him precious lessons.
Wong's film had stunning photography, from a palette that included searing acid yellows and scorched ambers and reliant on reflected light and layered images.
Shot in China's remote Gobi Desert, it featured possibly the most impressive cast ever assembled in Hong Kong cinema. Even the production crew, which includes action choreographer Sammo Hung, production designer William Chang Suk-ping and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, are now all legends in their own fields.
The film is no traditional Wu Xia movie, though - it remains the most abstract of Wong's works and a poetic dream on unreturned love and memory.
The film is set in five parts, representing four seasons in the Chinese almanac, Lichun, Jingzhe Xiazhi and Bailu. Wong clarifies the central narrative while intensifying the film's most inspiring moments, including a vital scene in which Maggie Cheung delivers her sorrowful soliloquy. The biggest change is the soundtrack: gone are the synthesizer tracks, replaced by lush orchestral movements with cello by Yo-Yo Ma.
In Ashes of Time Redux, Wong has streamlined the narrative without losing the essence of the original work. It is an aural and visual feast that will doubtless prove as timeless as its star, the late Leslie Cheung.
The long-anticipated movie opens this weekend.
Source: China Daily
Film Director Wong Kar-wai, born in Shanghai, China on July 17, 1958, has lived in Hong Kong since the age of five.
Set in ancient China, Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) is a fallen swordsman driven by greed toward both friend and foe. He is a perpetual loner and afraid of love after having his heart broken but the bounty hunters who work for him, like "Blind Swordsman" (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Hung Chi (Jacky Cheung), discover the intangible secret of true love and teach him precious lessons.
Wong's film had stunning photography, from a palette that included searing acid yellows and scorched ambers and reliant on reflected light and layered images.
Shot in China's remote Gobi Desert, it featured possibly the most impressive cast ever assembled in Hong Kong cinema. Even the production crew, which includes action choreographer Sammo Hung, production designer William Chang Suk-ping and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, are now all legends in their own fields.
The film is no traditional Wu Xia movie, though - it remains the most abstract of Wong's works and a poetic dream on unreturned love and memory.
The film is set in five parts, representing four seasons in the Chinese almanac, Lichun, Jingzhe Xiazhi and Bailu. Wong clarifies the central narrative while intensifying the film's most inspiring moments, including a vital scene in which Maggie Cheung delivers her sorrowful soliloquy. The biggest change is the soundtrack: gone are the synthesizer tracks, replaced by lush orchestral movements with cello by Yo-Yo Ma.
In Ashes of Time Redux, Wong has streamlined the narrative without losing the essence of the original work. It is an aural and visual feast that will doubtless prove as timeless as its star, the late Leslie Cheung.
The long-anticipated movie opens this weekend.
Source: China Daily
UK: Caught in the caring trap between kids and parents
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LONDON, England / Guardian / The Observer / Society / Social Care / March 29, 2009
Three million Britons are supporting their children as well as parents who need long-term care. As people live longer, the number facing that responsibility is set to triple within 30 years. So should families bear it alone, or should the state help? Gaby Hinsliff reports on the pressures squeezing the 'sandwich generation' and talks to Esther Rantzen who is leading a charity's efforts to help the nation's beleaguered carers
By Gaby Hinsliff, The Observer
After a life largely spent, as she puts it, "galloping up a down escalator", the veteran charity campaigner Esther Rantzen shows little sign of slowing down. Nonetheless, at the age of 69 she is increasingly pondering the realities of ageing.
"My mother died at 93, my father at 90, so I have got a year or two ahead of me. So far my kids are viewing that with equanimity," she says wryly. "Obviously there may come a time when I will give rise to concern over whether I can cope and what sort of support they want and I need.
"The last thing older people want is to limit the lives and lifestyle of their children and grandchildren, because I am very aware that we have to put the next generation's needs before our own."
The dilemmas of the working mother are constantly debated in Britain. But the guilt, the tensions and the rewards of the working daughter - and of her ailing parent - are much more rarely discussed. Rantzen wants to change that.
This week, the That's Life presenter and founder of ChildLine will begin chairing a commission set up by 4Children, the national children's charity, on the future of the family. The commission will break new ground by focusing not only on relationships between parents and young children, but also on those between adults and their elderly parents - and on the growing number of families in which, because people are living longer, four or five generations co-exist.
This is the world of the "sandwich generation", old enough to have parents or even grandparents who need looking after but still young enough to have dependent children. With an ageing population and many women delaying motherhood until later in life, more and more families are now likely to find themselves - as Rantzen herself was - torn between the two.
"My mum began to get more frail: there was only my sister and me, and my sister was in Australia - much as she would have loved to help - so I was the one on the doorstep, and my children at the time also needed care and attention," she says. "And then I became a widow, of course. So I know something of the stresses."
A YouGov poll commissioned by 4Children, released today, found that 28% of respondents with children and parents admitted feeling "torn" between the two competing demands - rising to a third of women, who still do the majority of caring for parents.
Asked what kinds of families most needed more government help, 61% cited those with elderly relatives, compared with only 25% who thought families with children deserved more support.
The findings reflect warnings from the UK's official statistician, Karen Dunnell, in her annual report on population trends last December, that an ageing population means that "children caring for their parents will be increasingly old themselves, and potentially caring for their children or grandchildren at the same time as their ageing parents".
It also suggests that a generation that has grown used to state help with child-raising, such as longer maternity leave and free nursery places, may simply not accept being left to muddle through with ageing parents by themselves.
By 2037, according to the charity Carers UK, 9 million Britons will be caring for elderly parents - affecting not just families but also the workplace, which will have to cope with employees asking for time off. Imelda Redmond, the chief executive of Carers UK, points out that their requirements are likely to be a lot less predictable than those of young working mothers: "At least we know children will go to school when they're five."
Adults caring for an elderly parent, however, do not know whether they are facing years of increasingly intensive nursing or a relatively short illness: they may have to cope regularly with unexpected hospital admissions or crises.
As a result, she argues, employers are now seeing senior women they retained during their childbearing years quitting in their fifties because they cannot reconcile their careers with caring for ageing parents. "What is really sad is that some of these will have just got back into work 10 or 15 years ago after having children, but now they are out again."
The question facing Rantzen's commission - and politicians in the run-up to the next general election - is how to respond. Will families fracture under such new strains? Or is it working life that will have to give?
For many families, of course, elderly grandparents are not a burden but a lifeline. The charity Grandparents Plus calculated that grandparents save the nation £3.9bn a year by providing free childcare for their grandchildren, with one in four families turning to them at least once a week.
Its call last week for grandparents to be paid for looking after their own grandchildren via the tax credits system, currently available only to subsidise professional carers such as nurseries, is expected to be studied by the commission - whose members range from Jean Ogden, co-founder of Grandparents Plus, to novelist Rachel Johnson, the sister of London mayor Boris Johnson.
Click to continue reading
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
USA: 82-year-old proves it’s never too late to learn
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NAPLES, Florida / Naples Daily News / March 29, 2009
By Katherine Albers
The greatest day of Frances Trivigno’s life was 82 years in the making.
“It was the most thrilling thing in my life,” she said of receiving her high school diploma. “It’s been a long time coming, but I have been on a high ever since.”
Frances Trivigno, 82, secures her mortar cap before the Adult & Community Education GED Graduation Ceremony at Golden Gate High School's auditorium on March 19, 2009. David Albers/Staff
Trivigno, 82, received her General Education Diploma (GED) during the Adult & Community Education GED Graduation Ceremony at Golden Gate High School last week.
Trivigno attended parochial school as a child, but begged her mother to move to public high school — during World War II — like her friends.
“From the minute I got there, I was lost in the shuffle,” she said. “I was out of sorts there. And I ended up falling into the wrong crowd.”
Trivigno left school as a teenager and enrolled in secretarial school. She met and married her husband, Frank. The two of them raised three children and owned their own business, Frank and Fran’s Showcase Jewelers of Wantagh, on Long Island in New York.
But Trivigno said getting her GED was always in the back of her mind through the years. “I started (to work towards getting it) at 80. I decided now’s the time to do it,” she said.
Trivigno was driving past the Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology, 3702 Estey Ave., and decided to go in. “I was just going to ask questions,” she said with a laugh. “I ended up signing up for classes.” Trivigno said she would go to the gym in the morning and then go to school, working from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to prepare for the GED exam, which tests students in five subjects.
“People think it is like a regular classroom, but it’s not. You have to do it yourself. You have a book and there is a teacher in the room if you have questions,” she said. “But my teacher was awesome. ... I admire her, Miss Linda. And everyone called me Miss Frances.”
GED instructor Linda Bonas said Trivigno is special to her, too.
“I love all of my students, but there is something special about (Frances),” she said. “I think it is because of her age. She is so vital. She sees her learning as a lifetime process. And even when she struggled, she never gave up.”
Louis Cureton, a GED instructor at Lorenzo Walker, called Trivigno a “very dedicated person” who had an excellent rapport with her fellow students.
“She wanted that diploma so very much,” he said. “Sometimes she would get discouraged. Every time she finished a test, she would say, ‘I don’t think I passed.’ Of course she did. She worked really hard. ... She was very determined.”
Trivigno took her last test in May 2008 and then waited anxiously for her diploma to arrive in the mail, which she finally received in July. “It was thrilling,” she said. “I went to school all excited.” While showing off her new diploma, Bonas suggested that Trivigno participate in the graduation ceremony, but Trivigno said she was not interested at first.
“I thought it would be good for her to be there,” Bonas said. “It would be good for the other students to see her there.”
Eventually, Trivigno relented. “Miss Linda said I had to go. She told me that when she was having a hard time with the other students, she told them about me,” she said. If her enthusiasm about her graduation is any indication, she made the right choice.
“When they called my name, everyone cheered,” she said. “My three children were there. My friends were there. After it was over, we had a fantastic party going.”
Robert Breitbard, administrator of adult and community education in Collier County, said he is in awe of Trivigno and her fellow graduates.
“When this test is given to high school graduates, 60 percent don’t pass on their first try,” he said. “So many times you are determined to do something and life gets in the way. How do you drive yourself to do what they did? Frances is representative of so many of our GED graduates. She was focused and nothing got in her way.”
Trivigno said she plans to frame her diploma and put it on her wall. Her advice to other Collier County students who will graduate in a few months is to stick with their studies.
“It’s worth it. The teachers you have are excellent. You can’t do any better,” she said. “They work hard. It is not easy.”
As for college plans, Trivigno said she doesn’t have any.
“All I wanted was my high school diploma,” she said. “I am proud of myself. I stuck with it. ... God was good to me.”
© 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Frances Trivigno, 82, secures her mortar cap before the Adult & Community Education GED Graduation Ceremony at Golden Gate High School's auditorium on March 19, 2009. David Albers/Staff
Trivigno, 82, received her General Education Diploma (GED) during the Adult & Community Education GED Graduation Ceremony at Golden Gate High School last week.
Trivigno attended parochial school as a child, but begged her mother to move to public high school — during World War II — like her friends.
“From the minute I got there, I was lost in the shuffle,” she said. “I was out of sorts there. And I ended up falling into the wrong crowd.”
Trivigno left school as a teenager and enrolled in secretarial school. She met and married her husband, Frank. The two of them raised three children and owned their own business, Frank and Fran’s Showcase Jewelers of Wantagh, on Long Island in New York.
But Trivigno said getting her GED was always in the back of her mind through the years. “I started (to work towards getting it) at 80. I decided now’s the time to do it,” she said.
Trivigno was driving past the Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology, 3702 Estey Ave., and decided to go in. “I was just going to ask questions,” she said with a laugh. “I ended up signing up for classes.” Trivigno said she would go to the gym in the morning and then go to school, working from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to prepare for the GED exam, which tests students in five subjects.
“People think it is like a regular classroom, but it’s not. You have to do it yourself. You have a book and there is a teacher in the room if you have questions,” she said. “But my teacher was awesome. ... I admire her, Miss Linda. And everyone called me Miss Frances.”
GED instructor Linda Bonas said Trivigno is special to her, too.
“I love all of my students, but there is something special about (Frances),” she said. “I think it is because of her age. She is so vital. She sees her learning as a lifetime process. And even when she struggled, she never gave up.”
Louis Cureton, a GED instructor at Lorenzo Walker, called Trivigno a “very dedicated person” who had an excellent rapport with her fellow students.
“She wanted that diploma so very much,” he said. “Sometimes she would get discouraged. Every time she finished a test, she would say, ‘I don’t think I passed.’ Of course she did. She worked really hard. ... She was very determined.”
Trivigno took her last test in May 2008 and then waited anxiously for her diploma to arrive in the mail, which she finally received in July. “It was thrilling,” she said. “I went to school all excited.” While showing off her new diploma, Bonas suggested that Trivigno participate in the graduation ceremony, but Trivigno said she was not interested at first.
“I thought it would be good for her to be there,” Bonas said. “It would be good for the other students to see her there.”
Eventually, Trivigno relented. “Miss Linda said I had to go. She told me that when she was having a hard time with the other students, she told them about me,” she said. If her enthusiasm about her graduation is any indication, she made the right choice.
“When they called my name, everyone cheered,” she said. “My three children were there. My friends were there. After it was over, we had a fantastic party going.”
Robert Breitbard, administrator of adult and community education in Collier County, said he is in awe of Trivigno and her fellow graduates.
“When this test is given to high school graduates, 60 percent don’t pass on their first try,” he said. “So many times you are determined to do something and life gets in the way. How do you drive yourself to do what they did? Frances is representative of so many of our GED graduates. She was focused and nothing got in her way.”
Trivigno said she plans to frame her diploma and put it on her wall. Her advice to other Collier County students who will graduate in a few months is to stick with their studies.
“It’s worth it. The teachers you have are excellent. You can’t do any better,” she said. “They work hard. It is not easy.”
As for college plans, Trivigno said she doesn’t have any.
“All I wanted was my high school diploma,” she said. “I am proud of myself. I stuck with it. ... God was good to me.”
© 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.
USA: Pharmacist, 80, puts new definition on retirement
.
PHOENIX, Arizona / The Arizona Republic / March 29,2009
By Srianthi Perera
Gloria Christovich thought she'll do "all kinds of hobbies" after she retired from her career as a pharmacist in Michigan and moved to Arizona in 1999 to join her daughters in the Southeast Valley.
But nearly 10 years later, at age 80 and coping with rheumatoid arthritis, the Gilbert resident finds herself working in her field, albeit at a much lower step on the career ladder.
"I have no interest in beautiful needlepoint," Christovich said. "There had to be more to life than this."
The "more to life" is mixing IVs at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa as a pharmacy technician, a job that she has held since a few months after moving here. She was offered the job after one phone call and an interview.
"I guess they called my previous work because they hired me at (age) 70," Christovich said, surmising that it was "because I put my heart in my work."
A pharmacist needs a doctorate of pharmacy degree, but a pharmacy tech doesn't need a degree - just a license - and can learn on the job, said Nancy Neff, director of public relations at the hospital.
"She did not want to take the Arizona Pharmacy Boards, but still wanted to work, hence her role as a pharm tech," Neff said. "I just didn't mind," Christovich said. "It's less responsibility because the pharmacist gets the blame," she joked.
Judy Tanner, her supervisor, said Christovich was an inspiration to the team.
"She is a very lively, energetic and fun-loving person. She grew up in a time of work ethic that you came in and worked very hard and went home. She's very dependable," Tanner said.
Christovich is the oldest employee in the pharmacy department, but young at heart, Tanner said. She never lets arthritis get her down, she said.
"She fits in very well and everybody loves her," she said. "She keeps us laughing all the time."
In February, the staff even threw a surprise birthday party at her home. They put together a Memory Book with comments and photos.
"It was moving," Tanner said. "Everyone was so appreciative of her for what she's been in their lives and not only at work. We all hope that we can learn from her and emulate her as we get older."
"You should put your heart into your job," Christovich said. "I don't expect anyone to give me anything for nothing - you should work for it . . . .My dad and mom worked very hard to make a living."
Christovich's husband died in 1993, and her two daughters live in Chandler and Gilbert. She lives with her grandson and drives herself.
Without any retirement in sight, Christovich is determined to keep working.
"I'm going to go on forever," she said. "What am I going to do - sit home alone? That isn't my life and I never did it."
Copyright © 2009, azcentral.com
March 28, 2009
JAPAN: From a shady past to helping others
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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Life in Japan / Features / March 28, 2009
Gates from hell: Hidemori Gen stands in front of
the entrace of Kabukicho in Shinjuku. Gen's
"Japan Social Minority Center" an NPO rescue center,
is located within. WILL ROBB PHOTO
Ex-bad guy runs rescue center for those on the run
By Manami-OkasakiContributing Writer
Kabukicho is Tokyo's infamous entertainment district and suburb of sleaze. A heavily populated square of sleepless activity northeast of Shinjuku Station, it is home to a haphazard mix of movie theaters, hostess bars, strip clubs, and seedy nightclubs. An illicit atmosphere permeates the air.
Safe haven: At his office Gen gives advice and help to many people on the run and those in trouble who don't know where to go or whom to turn to. Will Robb Photo
Toward the back entrance of the garishly neon-lit Kabukicho area, nestled between love hotels, host bars, and the predominantly Korean district of Shin Okubo, sits the Japan Social Minority Center, an NPO rescue center run by philanthropist, author, and public speaker Hidemori Gen. Age: 52.
The center caters to those on the run and those in trouble who don't know where to go, whom to turn to. The Japan Social Minority Center, staffed by three, is also dubbed a kakekomidera after the temples that used to shelter runaway women in the Edo Period. The center also provides advice for people in seemingly desperate situations.
A counseling service of sorts, its proprietor Gen also has a wide network of lawyers and safe-houses he avails himself of in order to help people. Through the center's glass doors come people who are in trouble with loan sharks, stalkers, yakuza, and pimps. Women also come to escape abusive relationships and domestic violence.
Gen has run this center for seven years and is well-known in many sectors in Japan largely because of his books — nine of which are non-fiction anecdotes and memoirs, or motivational manuals, three of which are manga comics. The profits from book sales, along with donations from the general public, enable him to run the center.
Many of the people who come to the center are, he says, "often unable to go to the police, because their cases will be ignored, or are youngsters who can't approach their parents."
Gen has also appeared on television numerous times and gives regular talks.
Meeting Gen at the center, a simple, cafe-like office, the atmosphere is incongruously domestic. The fresh-faced, upbeat 52-year-old Osakan speaks with a thick Kansai dialect and exudes a larger-than-life demeanor that causes one to instantly warm to him.
"This year there are a lot of suicide-related inquiries," he says of people coming to the center for advice, "and of course domestic violence victims, but when I say violence in the home it is often from the children to the parents. Then there are hikikomori," he says of a growing number of people who hole up in their rooms, sometimes for years, "and kids running away, people getting chased by loan sharks and those with other money problems."
His personal motto is to "never reject anything that comes my way, and to not chase those who leave."
"My job is to fix people's wings so they can fly away. I want them to forget me as soon as possible. The reason being, when they meet me it is when things are at their worst. When they get better I want them to move on.
"Sometime they might mail me to let me know they have a kid, or give me a donation, but I never reply. I don't want to remind them that I helped them"
Naturally, not everyone is happy with what Gen is doing. Over the years, he has had "over 100 assailants" come in and threaten him with weapons. He has come close to being stabbed.
The location, he admits, inevitably leads to problems. "Kabukicho has a lot of people, and with this many people, many are bound to be solitary and lonely."
There more. Click to continue
"Helping people is my goal. Even helping one person is meaningful.
"Even if things are difficult, I really understand when people feel like the underdog and I understand people's weaknesses."
With a chuckle, Gen adds, "I am like a baku," referring to the Japanese mythological tapir-like creature that devours nightmares. "But, instead of consuming nightmares, I eat violence, and it makes me powerful!"
(C) The Japan Times
Gates from hell: Hidemori Gen stands in front of
the entrace of Kabukicho in Shinjuku. Gen's
"Japan Social Minority Center" an NPO rescue center,
is located within. WILL ROBB PHOTO
Ex-bad guy runs rescue center for those on the run
By Manami-OkasakiContributing Writer
Kabukicho is Tokyo's infamous entertainment district and suburb of sleaze. A heavily populated square of sleepless activity northeast of Shinjuku Station, it is home to a haphazard mix of movie theaters, hostess bars, strip clubs, and seedy nightclubs. An illicit atmosphere permeates the air.
Safe haven: At his office Gen gives advice and help to many people on the run and those in trouble who don't know where to go or whom to turn to. Will Robb Photo
Toward the back entrance of the garishly neon-lit Kabukicho area, nestled between love hotels, host bars, and the predominantly Korean district of Shin Okubo, sits the Japan Social Minority Center, an NPO rescue center run by philanthropist, author, and public speaker Hidemori Gen. Age: 52.
The center caters to those on the run and those in trouble who don't know where to go, whom to turn to. The Japan Social Minority Center, staffed by three, is also dubbed a kakekomidera after the temples that used to shelter runaway women in the Edo Period. The center also provides advice for people in seemingly desperate situations.
A counseling service of sorts, its proprietor Gen also has a wide network of lawyers and safe-houses he avails himself of in order to help people. Through the center's glass doors come people who are in trouble with loan sharks, stalkers, yakuza, and pimps. Women also come to escape abusive relationships and domestic violence.
Gen has run this center for seven years and is well-known in many sectors in Japan largely because of his books — nine of which are non-fiction anecdotes and memoirs, or motivational manuals, three of which are manga comics. The profits from book sales, along with donations from the general public, enable him to run the center.
Many of the people who come to the center are, he says, "often unable to go to the police, because their cases will be ignored, or are youngsters who can't approach their parents."
Gen has also appeared on television numerous times and gives regular talks.
Meeting Gen at the center, a simple, cafe-like office, the atmosphere is incongruously domestic. The fresh-faced, upbeat 52-year-old Osakan speaks with a thick Kansai dialect and exudes a larger-than-life demeanor that causes one to instantly warm to him.
"This year there are a lot of suicide-related inquiries," he says of people coming to the center for advice, "and of course domestic violence victims, but when I say violence in the home it is often from the children to the parents. Then there are hikikomori," he says of a growing number of people who hole up in their rooms, sometimes for years, "and kids running away, people getting chased by loan sharks and those with other money problems."
His personal motto is to "never reject anything that comes my way, and to not chase those who leave."
"My job is to fix people's wings so they can fly away. I want them to forget me as soon as possible. The reason being, when they meet me it is when things are at their worst. When they get better I want them to move on.
"Sometime they might mail me to let me know they have a kid, or give me a donation, but I never reply. I don't want to remind them that I helped them"
Naturally, not everyone is happy with what Gen is doing. Over the years, he has had "over 100 assailants" come in and threaten him with weapons. He has come close to being stabbed.
The location, he admits, inevitably leads to problems. "Kabukicho has a lot of people, and with this many people, many are bound to be solitary and lonely."
There more. Click to continue
"Helping people is my goal. Even helping one person is meaningful.
"Even if things are difficult, I really understand when people feel like the underdog and I understand people's weaknesses."
With a chuckle, Gen adds, "I am like a baku," referring to the Japanese mythological tapir-like creature that devours nightmares. "But, instead of consuming nightmares, I eat violence, and it makes me powerful!"
(C) The Japan Times
CUBA: Retirement age boosted as population goes gray
.
HAVANA, Cuba / Associated Press / March 28, 2009
By Will Weissert
Like much of Cuba's work force, Alfredo Congas is going gray.
The chain-smoking 61-year-old retired last March after 42 years as a hotel doorman and rum-company driver. Now he's back working 12-hour shifts as a security guard to supplement his minuscule pension.
"I'm here without a cent in my pocket," said Congas, whose new job brings his total income — pension plus paycheck — to the equivalent of $23.45 a month, about $4 more than the average state wage.
Sweeping poverty forces most of Cuba's 2.2 million retirees to get new jobs that enable them to keep a steady income and supplement their pensions. Many barely scrape by, wandering the streets selling peanuts and newspapers or guarding parked cars at hotels for tourists' change.
Now even that is harder to do. Faced with an aging population and a life expectancy of 77.3 years, nearly the same as the U.S., Cuba's government has raised the retirement threshold by five years, to 60 for women and 65 for men, delaying the second jobs many have counted on to make ends meet in their old age.
Josefina Petrona, 87, a member of a circle of elderly adults, exercises in Old Havana. Government has raised the retirement age for women to 60 and for men to 65.
About 90 percent of Cubans have government jobs, and now both sexes must work at least 30 years, not 25, to get a full pension.
"Retirement in Cuba was already no picnic. Now it's more complicated," said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a state-trained economist turned political dissident.
The overhaul, to be fully phased in by 2015, means Cuba's retirement age will exceed Latin America's average of 59 for women and 62 for men, according to Carmelo Mesa-Lago, an expert on the Cuban economy at the University of Pittsburgh.
The island's population is aging faster than the rest of the region — some 17 percent will be 60 or older by 2010, compared with 9 percent across Latin America today, according to U.N. data. A quarter of Cubans will top 60 by 2025, a point the rest of the region won't reach until 2050.
As Cuba's work force shrinks, the ratio of workers to retirees has narrowed from seven-to-one in 1970 to three-to-one today. Had the country not raised its retirement age, the ratio would have been two-to-one by 2025, the government said.
"More needs to be done, but what else can you do? You can't turn the screw even more," Mesa-Lago said.
State pensions, though small, were once enough to live on in this communist country, where housing and health care are free and the government subsidizes food, utilities and transportation.
But the Soviet Union's collapse cost Cuba huge amounts of income in subsidies and trade, crippling the economy and sparking widespread shortages that still persist. A U.S.-dollar-fueled black market mushroomed; prices soared and Cuba's peso plunged from 1 to the dollar to 22 to the dollar today.
The minimum monthly pension was worth about $92 in 1989. Adjusted for inflation, it is now the equivalent of $9.50.
"I'm going to keep working, keep fighting," said Antonio Valdes, a 63-year-old graphic designer who earns $19.30 a month. "The elderly who don't know how to do that are screwed."
Many countries are making tough decisions to keep funding social security programs as populations skew older. The U.S. retirement age is slated to increase to 67 by 2027.
A handful of former Iron Curtain countries have privatized their once-troubled pension systems, as well as raising retirement ages and slashing benefits to stretch resources. Several Latin American nations have followed a private-account model pioneered by Chile in 1981.
But privatization isn't an option in Cuba's command economy, where there are no 401Ks or pooled pension funds invested to draw earnings, and most forms of free-market enterprise are illegal.
Instead, a 1994 tax law requires Cuban state firms to contribute 14 percent of each worker's salary to a national social security pot. It also obligates employees in profitable sectors such as tourism to contribute an additional 5 percent.
Still, contributions cover less than 60 percent of current pension costs, with the rest financed by unspecified areas of the federal budget, Mesa-Lago said. While the government doesn't say how much it spends, in 2006 he estimated the sum approached 6.3 percent of gross domestic product.
The funding crunch has grown more urgent since last year's hurricanes caused more than $10 billion in damage, leaving nearly 1 million homeless, crippling farming and forcing costly food imports. Cuba's budget deficit ballooned to $4.2 billion.
The government says 3 million people attended town-hall meetings to discuss the potential retirement age increase last year, with 99.1 percent supporting it. Workers who attended say many complained, but didn't dare oppose the measure in a public show of hands.
"I'm not prepared for this," said Grace, 52, a high school chemistry teacher who supports her 23-year-old son and 86-year-old mother on a monthly wage worth about $25. She asked to be identified by her middle name only, to avoid problems at work.
Now, she'll have to defer retirement and plans to tutor for extra income for two more years.
Much of what the government saves by delaying retirement, it will dole out in bigger pensions. Payments are rising to 60 percent of an employee's peak five years of earnings, from 50 percent. Workers also earn an additional 2 percent for each year on the job after 25 years.
But for some Cubans, the decision to keep older citizens working rather than cracking down on younger, job-ditching countrymen is shaking their faith in the communist revolution.
While Cuba guarantees "full employment" and reports an official jobless rate of 1.6 percent, low salaries mean that many young people no longer seek formal jobs, even though neighborhood-watch committees are supposed to discourage unemployment. Instead, they live with their parents and work on the black market, failing to pay into the pension system at all.
A 34-year-old nurse, who declined to be named for fear her comments would hurt her husband's army career, said the retirement reform leaves her even "more disillusioned."
"I'm young," she said, her eyes welling with tears. "But I'm less optimistic than before."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press
Josefina Petrona, 87, a member of a circle of elderly adults, exercises in Old Havana. Government has raised the retirement age for women to 60 and for men to 65.
About 90 percent of Cubans have government jobs, and now both sexes must work at least 30 years, not 25, to get a full pension.
"Retirement in Cuba was already no picnic. Now it's more complicated," said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a state-trained economist turned political dissident.
The overhaul, to be fully phased in by 2015, means Cuba's retirement age will exceed Latin America's average of 59 for women and 62 for men, according to Carmelo Mesa-Lago, an expert on the Cuban economy at the University of Pittsburgh.
The island's population is aging faster than the rest of the region — some 17 percent will be 60 or older by 2010, compared with 9 percent across Latin America today, according to U.N. data. A quarter of Cubans will top 60 by 2025, a point the rest of the region won't reach until 2050.
As Cuba's work force shrinks, the ratio of workers to retirees has narrowed from seven-to-one in 1970 to three-to-one today. Had the country not raised its retirement age, the ratio would have been two-to-one by 2025, the government said.
"More needs to be done, but what else can you do? You can't turn the screw even more," Mesa-Lago said.
State pensions, though small, were once enough to live on in this communist country, where housing and health care are free and the government subsidizes food, utilities and transportation.
But the Soviet Union's collapse cost Cuba huge amounts of income in subsidies and trade, crippling the economy and sparking widespread shortages that still persist. A U.S.-dollar-fueled black market mushroomed; prices soared and Cuba's peso plunged from 1 to the dollar to 22 to the dollar today.
The minimum monthly pension was worth about $92 in 1989. Adjusted for inflation, it is now the equivalent of $9.50.
"I'm going to keep working, keep fighting," said Antonio Valdes, a 63-year-old graphic designer who earns $19.30 a month. "The elderly who don't know how to do that are screwed."
Many countries are making tough decisions to keep funding social security programs as populations skew older. The U.S. retirement age is slated to increase to 67 by 2027.
A handful of former Iron Curtain countries have privatized their once-troubled pension systems, as well as raising retirement ages and slashing benefits to stretch resources. Several Latin American nations have followed a private-account model pioneered by Chile in 1981.
But privatization isn't an option in Cuba's command economy, where there are no 401Ks or pooled pension funds invested to draw earnings, and most forms of free-market enterprise are illegal.
Instead, a 1994 tax law requires Cuban state firms to contribute 14 percent of each worker's salary to a national social security pot. It also obligates employees in profitable sectors such as tourism to contribute an additional 5 percent.
Still, contributions cover less than 60 percent of current pension costs, with the rest financed by unspecified areas of the federal budget, Mesa-Lago said. While the government doesn't say how much it spends, in 2006 he estimated the sum approached 6.3 percent of gross domestic product.
The funding crunch has grown more urgent since last year's hurricanes caused more than $10 billion in damage, leaving nearly 1 million homeless, crippling farming and forcing costly food imports. Cuba's budget deficit ballooned to $4.2 billion.
The government says 3 million people attended town-hall meetings to discuss the potential retirement age increase last year, with 99.1 percent supporting it. Workers who attended say many complained, but didn't dare oppose the measure in a public show of hands.
"I'm not prepared for this," said Grace, 52, a high school chemistry teacher who supports her 23-year-old son and 86-year-old mother on a monthly wage worth about $25. She asked to be identified by her middle name only, to avoid problems at work.
Now, she'll have to defer retirement and plans to tutor for extra income for two more years.
Much of what the government saves by delaying retirement, it will dole out in bigger pensions. Payments are rising to 60 percent of an employee's peak five years of earnings, from 50 percent. Workers also earn an additional 2 percent for each year on the job after 25 years.
But for some Cubans, the decision to keep older citizens working rather than cracking down on younger, job-ditching countrymen is shaking their faith in the communist revolution.
While Cuba guarantees "full employment" and reports an official jobless rate of 1.6 percent, low salaries mean that many young people no longer seek formal jobs, even though neighborhood-watch committees are supposed to discourage unemployment. Instead, they live with their parents and work on the black market, failing to pay into the pension system at all.
A 34-year-old nurse, who declined to be named for fear her comments would hurt her husband's army career, said the retirement reform leaves her even "more disillusioned."
"I'm young," she said, her eyes welling with tears. "But I'm less optimistic than before."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press
USA: Lawmakers consider taxes on healthcare benefits
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LOS ANGELES, California / The Los Angeles Times / National / March 28, 2009
The idea, once nearly taboo, is on the table as both parties look at a costly overhaul of healthcare. But many fear that new taxes could jeopardize the employer-based system most Americans rely on.
By Noam N. Levey
Reporting from Washington
Faced with mounting budget deficits and the enormous cost of overhauling the nation's healthcare system, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing increasing openness to an idea that once seemed unthinkable: putting taxes on some healthcare benefits.
The idea of taxing medical insurance benefits has long worried many lawmakers, who are concerned that new taxes could jeopardize the employer-based health system most Americans rely on.
Even now, the idea is fiercely opposed by many in Congress and in organized labor. But House and Senate lawmakers now crafting legislation to cover some 46 million uninsured people as part of a sweeping health overhaul are viewing the taxes as something that could be part of a grand compromise, according to senior lawmakers and staff in both parties.
"Members of Congress are seriously looking at the way health insurance is handled for tax purposes," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) said this week. Waxman, a leading congressional liberal and ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), is helping to write healthcare legislation in the House.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is drawing up legislation in that chamber, also said there is growing interest in examining whether all health benefits should be tax-free.
"People know we have to fund the system," Baucus said in an interview, noting a change from the fall, when he suggested consideration of the tax break in his health plan. "There are going to be trade-offs, give-and-take among every group." So far, congressional leaders have been very guarded in their comments about taxing benefits and have revealed no details publicly.
But the discussions thus far have focused mainly on taxing high-income workers or those with expensive health packages.
Increasing interest in the idea comes at a time when several senior officials in the Obama administration, including the president's influential budget director, have signaled possible support for the idea.
A number of Republicans also are interested in looking at the tax break. "That's a large pot of money that could be used to create access to healthcare," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said this week.
American workers currently pay no taxes on the value of health benefits provided by their employers, an arrangement that is the foundation of the country's employer-based healthcare system.
For decades, that system -- which allows employers to deduct the value of the health benefits on their taxes -- encouraged businesses to provide workers with health insurance. More than 160 million workers get their insurance through work. But because Americans who buy their own insurance with after-tax dollars do not get a similar tax break, the system has been criticized as unfair.
Some also contend the tax breaks provide little incentive for employers or employees with the most generous plans to control costs.
Additionally, the tax break has been costly, depriving the federal government of $246 billion in potential tax revenues in 2007, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
As a presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed eliminating the tax break and instead giving Americans tax credits to buy insurance on their own, a concept long favored by many Republicans.
That has always been controversial, however, particularly for labor unions, which have often negotiated better health benefits for their members in lieu of higher wages.
As a candidate last year, Barack Obama pilloried McCain, accusing him of threatening to take away Americans' health coverage.
Now, however, Obama and his congressional allies are under pressure to find ways to pay for their ambitious healthcare agenda, which by some estimates could cost more than $1 trillion.
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have already rejected Obama's proposal to cut tax deductions for taxpayers making more than $250,000 a year, which the White House estimated could generate about $318 billion over 10 years.
And although many lawmakers argue that creating a more efficient healthcare system could ultimately save money, most agree those savings are years away.
"Unless someone can write a really big check, there really is no other source of money that we can tap," said Len Nichols, an economist who heads the health policy program at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.........
Click here to read the full report
Many lawmakers remain adamantly opposed to taxing any health benefits, however.
Noam N. Levey
noam.levey@latimes.com
Copyright 2009 Los Angeles Times
JAPAN: Public funds may go to caregivers, subsidy for building homes for elderly
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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Kyodo News / March 28, 2009
The government and the ruling coalition are considering using taxpayer money to boost the salaries of caregivers in an attempt to alleviate the staffing shortage in the nursing industry, sources said.
The new measure will be included in fresh economic stimulus steps so the government can disburse the money by the end of fiscal 2009 next March, the sources said Thursday.
The amount of public funds needed to cover the measure will be around ¥100 billion a year, or ¥15,000 to ¥20,000 a month per caregiver, the sources said, without elaborating on caregiver numbers.
The government and the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc is also considering subsidizing the construction of special nursing homes for the elderly to boost the construction industry and create new jobs, the sources said.
(C) The Japan Times
March 27, 2009
NETHERLANDS: Court finds in favour of referee refusenik
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AMSTERDAM, Holland / Nieuws uit Amsterdam / March 27, 2009
A 52-year-old social assistance recipient who has refused a number of jobs should not have been denied income, the Amsterdam Court has ruled. The ruling further erodes the so-called ‘work first’ approach, which consists in discouraging welfare take-up by making claimants do menial jobs for their benefits.
Strictly speaking, the man was no longer a social assistance recipient, but had been seconded by the Welfare Agency to Pantar, which was to make him work in return for a minimum wage. The man was offered a number of jobs, including working as a guide and referee for sports clubs and assembling light fittings.
Photo from Pantar website
The court ruled that the claimant may well be a difficult person, but that Pantar cannot cut his income for refusing to do jobs that he is overqualified for. Pantar’s reasoning that it is better for the man to work than to sit at home was dismissed as ‘too simplistic’.
Since 2004, welfare agencies have saved vast sums of money reducing the number of social assistance recipients through the work first approach. Earlier, a court in Arnhem found in favour of a ‘weed refusenik’ who refused to work in park maintenance because he was overqualified.
The Amsterdam ruling was announced on Indymedia by journalist Louis van Overbeek, who has published extensively on the work first approach.
Source: Nieuws uit Amsterdam
Strictly speaking, the man was no longer a social assistance recipient, but had been seconded by the Welfare Agency to Pantar, which was to make him work in return for a minimum wage. The man was offered a number of jobs, including working as a guide and referee for sports clubs and assembling light fittings.
Photo from Pantar website
The court ruled that the claimant may well be a difficult person, but that Pantar cannot cut his income for refusing to do jobs that he is overqualified for. Pantar’s reasoning that it is better for the man to work than to sit at home was dismissed as ‘too simplistic’.
Since 2004, welfare agencies have saved vast sums of money reducing the number of social assistance recipients through the work first approach. Earlier, a court in Arnhem found in favour of a ‘weed refusenik’ who refused to work in park maintenance because he was overqualified.
The Amsterdam ruling was announced on Indymedia by journalist Louis van Overbeek, who has published extensively on the work first approach.
Source: Nieuws uit Amsterdam
EUROPE: High temperatures in cities increase hospitalisation for the elderly
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BRUSSELS, Belgium / European Commission, Environment DG / March 27, 2009
High summer temperatures have a clear impact on rates of admission to hospital for elderly patients with breathing problems, according to new research. Although data reveals considerable variation among cities across Europe, admission rates for respiratory causes among the 75+ age group were more than twice the admission rate for all ages in all cities.
Data on hospital admissions, heat, humidity and pollution levels in 12 European cities during summer months over a three-year period were analysed as part of the EU funded study PHEWE1. The total population of these cities is around 25 million.
The researchers computed a 'maximum apparent temperature' or 'Tappmax' for each city, as daily mean, taking both temperature and humidity into account. For example, Dublin had a Tappmax of just 14.7°C while Valencia's was 29.5°C. In most cities, each degree increase over 90 per cent of the Tappmax led to an increase in respiratory related hospital admissions for all ages, but especially in the 75+ age group. Humidity is included in the index because it influences the body's ability to cool itself through evaporation and perspiration. Tappmax was calculated for the period April-September, the hottest part of the year.
Although previous research has shown that the death rate for cardiovascular conditions, such as heart attacks and strokes, rises in heat waves, this study did not find a rise in rates of hospital admission for these causes. This suggests that during periods of high temperature, many deaths from acute causes such as heart attack and stroke occur rapidly before patients can be admitted to hospital. By contrast, respiratory problems tend to peak later, up to three weeks after a high temperature event, giving patients more chance to receive medical attention in hospital.
With the latest IPCC Assessment Report predicting an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer heat waves in Europe, climate change is expected to contribute to an increasing burden of disease and premature death, especially in sectors of the population less able to adapt to these changing conditions such as the elderly.
A rising proportion of between 5 and 10 per cent of the population in the cities included in the study is in the 75+ age group, so the findings have important implications for public health.
Preventative measures are needed to reduce the additional burden during the summer months on elderly people, who have pre-existing chronic health problems and so are more vulnerable. Their bodies also have a less effective thermoregulatory (heat regulating) system for coping with increases in heat stress and pollution.
The Environment DG is one of 36 Directorates-General (DGs) and specialised services which make up the European Commission. Its main role is to initiate and define new environmental legislation and to ensure that measures, which have been agreed, are actually put into practice in the Member States. The Environment DG is based largely in Brussels and has around 550 staff.
© 1999-2009 Environmental Expert S.L.
UK: New Research Highlights Dramatically Reduced Risk Of Developing Dementia
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CHEVY CHASE, MD, USA / ScienceDaily / March 27, 2009
People with memory problems are less at risk of developing dementia than previously thought, a new study led by the UK's University of Leicester and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust reveals.
The five year research published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica analysed data from 41 studies and dovetails with a Government focus to establish memory clinics in every town in the UK.
The research led by Dr Alex Mitchell from the University of Leicester Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine was carried out with Dr. Shiri-Feshki of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
Dr Mitchell said: “This new research suggests that people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) appear to have a lower risk of progressing to dementia than previously believed.
“Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an important disorder of memory and related areas found in about 1 in 6 people seen in general practice. The condition can occur in mid or late life and until recently most doctors told people with MCI that their risk of developing dementia was up to 15% per year making deterioration almost inevitable within 5 to 10 years.
“Our research found that the proportion of people who progressed was 10% per year in high risk groups and in fact only 5% per year in low risk groups. Moreover only a minority (20-40%) of people developed dementia even after extended follow-up and the risk appeared to reduce slightly with time.
“These results should be seen as positive for those with memory problems even for those that struggle with the kind of memory tests given by the GP or in a memory clinic. There is a large effort to find out who is most at risk of further decline as well to find strategies that might slow down such progress.”
GPs have often been reluctant to give a diagnosis of MCI because of its consequences but this current finding should encourage clinicians to identify people with memory problems. Many such individuals stay stable for a long period and a substantial number also improve.
There are at least 1 million people in the UK with MCI without dementia. In February the U.K. government announced funding for a specialised memory clinic in every town giving important focus on this often overlooked condition.
Source: ScienceDaily.
USA: $20,000 won't take you far into retirement
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WASHINGTON DC / USA Today / Personal Finance / March 27, 2009
Q: I have $20,000 and would like to retire next year at age 65. What investment can I buy to make that happen?
A: These kinds of questions are difficult to answer because everyone's financial situation is so different.
I don't know what your monthly expenses are, how much you might receive from Social Security or whether you have any pensions. I also have no idea what kinds of things you want to do in retirement, such as travel.
But I do know that $20,000 won't carry you far into retirement. And there aren't many investments that would be suitable for a 65-year-old that would turn $20,000 into enough money to fund a 25-year retirement.
Unless you can live on about $1,400 a year (around $120 a month) in addition to Social Security, or you don't plan to live long, you might consider putting off retirement to keep working. Again, that depends on the variables mentioned above.
I can't think of a way to stretch $20,000 over 25 years. I suppose you could roll the dice and try to hit some stock that would skyrocket and put you on Easy Street. But that's not a great investment plan, because you could lose your entire nest egg if the gamble doesn't pan out.
Let's work through the math. You're most likely looking at a 5% average long-term annual return on a diversified basket of stocks and bonds. And that is probably too aggressive, because you're not in the position to risk your capital. But let's use 5% to prove a point.
And let's say you will be retired for 25 years. I don't know how healthy you are, but these days it's possible to live to 90.
As a best case, putting the $20,000 initial investment, 5% average annual return and 25 years of retirement into a financial calculator, you're looking at an annual return of $1,419 a year. Yes, a year. Clearly, that's not going to work too well unless Social Security is ample and you don't need much to live on.
You might consider working longer and finding ways to lower your cost of living. But again, there might be variables to your situation I don't know about. All these things need to be considered before you quit your job and retire.
Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com.
Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Q: I have $20,000 and would like to retire next year at age 65. What investment can I buy to make that happen?
A: These kinds of questions are difficult to answer because everyone's financial situation is so different.
I don't know what your monthly expenses are, how much you might receive from Social Security or whether you have any pensions. I also have no idea what kinds of things you want to do in retirement, such as travel.
But I do know that $20,000 won't carry you far into retirement. And there aren't many investments that would be suitable for a 65-year-old that would turn $20,000 into enough money to fund a 25-year retirement.
Unless you can live on about $1,400 a year (around $120 a month) in addition to Social Security, or you don't plan to live long, you might consider putting off retirement to keep working. Again, that depends on the variables mentioned above.
I can't think of a way to stretch $20,000 over 25 years. I suppose you could roll the dice and try to hit some stock that would skyrocket and put you on Easy Street. But that's not a great investment plan, because you could lose your entire nest egg if the gamble doesn't pan out.
Let's work through the math. You're most likely looking at a 5% average long-term annual return on a diversified basket of stocks and bonds. And that is probably too aggressive, because you're not in the position to risk your capital. But let's use 5% to prove a point.
And let's say you will be retired for 25 years. I don't know how healthy you are, but these days it's possible to live to 90.
As a best case, putting the $20,000 initial investment, 5% average annual return and 25 years of retirement into a financial calculator, you're looking at an annual return of $1,419 a year. Yes, a year. Clearly, that's not going to work too well unless Social Security is ample and you don't need much to live on.
You might consider working longer and finding ways to lower your cost of living. But again, there might be variables to your situation I don't know about. All these things need to be considered before you quit your job and retire.
Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com.
Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
JAPAN: Drivers to be tested on cognitive ability starting at age 75
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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Kyodo News / March 27, 2009
The outline of a cognitive test that drivers aged 75 or over will be required to take from June when renewing their licenses was released Thursday by the National Police Agency.
The test is intended to reduce the number of traffic accidents involving elderly drivers by measuring their cognitive level.
The test, at a cost ¥650 per person, will last 30 minutes and consist of three questions the NPA drew up in consultation with experts on dementia.
Elderly drivers will first be asked to write the current date and time. They will then be shown 16 illustrations, for example of animals, for a short time and asked to describe in writing what they have seen. They will also be asked to draw a picture of a clock indicating a particular time.
Based on the results, a driver's memory and judgment will be categorized according to three levels — showing no sign of declining, slightly declining or declining, the NPA said.
The cognitive test will be followed by a 1 1/2-hour lecture and one hour of driver training.
Those whose cognitive levels are judged to be declining will be advised to consult their families or doctors to decide whether to stop driving.
An identical cognitive test on 129 elderly drivers the NPA tried out last summer found memory and judgment were declining in 2 percent of drivers and slightly declining in 24 percent. The remainder had no deterioration in their cognitive function.
(C) The Japan Times
IRAN: Researchers says steaming hot tea linked to cancer
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LONDON, England / BBC News / Health / March 27, 2009
Drinking steaming hot tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal (gullet) cancer,
Iranian scientists say.
Drinking steaming hot black tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal (food tube) cancer, Iranian scientists have found. The British Medical Journal study found that drinking black tea at temperatures of 70C or higher increased the risk.
The risk is linked to regularly consuming very hot drinks
Experts said the finding could explain the increased oesophageal cancer risk in some non-Western populations.
Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to eliminate the risk.
The oesophagus is the muscular tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.
Oesophagus cancers kill more than 500,000 people worldwide each year and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the commonest type.
Tobacco and alcohol are the main factors linked to the development of oesophageal cancers in Europe and America nations.
But it has not been clear why other populations around the world have high rates of the disease although there has been a theory that regularly drinking very hot drinks damage the lining of the gullet.
A litre a day
Golestan Province in northern Iran has one of the highest rates of OSCC in the world, but rates of smoking and alcohol consumption are low and women are as likely to have a diagnosis as men. Tea drinking, however, is widespread.
The University of Tehran researchers studied tea drinking habits among 300 people diagnosed with OSCC and compared them with a group of 570 people from the same area.
Nearly all participants drank black tea regularly, on average drinking over a litre a day.
================================
Writing in the BMJ, the researchers led by Professor Reza Malekzadeh, said: "Our results showed a noticeable increase in risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma associated with drinking hot tea.
Professor Reza Malekzadeh
"A large proportion of Golestan inhabitants drink hot tea, so this habit may account for a substantial proportion of the cases of oesophageal cancer in this population."
Previous studies from the UK have reported people prefer their tea to be about 56-60C - cool enough not to be risky.
In a BMJ editorial, David Whiteman from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia said: "The mechanism through which heat promotes the development of tumours warrants further exploration and might be given renewed impetus on the basis of these findings."
Dr Whiteman advised tea-drinkers to simply wait a few minutes for their brew to cool from "scalding" to "tolerable".
Oliver Childs, a spokesman for Cancer Research UK, said: "Tea drinking is part of many cultures, and these results certainly don't point to tea itself being the problem.
"But they do provide more evidence that a regular habit of eating and drinking very hot foods and drinks could increase your risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus."
He added: "People in this region of northern Iran often drink very hot tea as part of their daily routine. We're a nation of tea lovers in the UK, but we don't tend to drink tea at such high temperatures and we usually add milk, which cools it down."
© BBC MMIX
Drinking steaming hot black tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal (food tube) cancer, Iranian scientists have found. The British Medical Journal study found that drinking black tea at temperatures of 70C or higher increased the risk.
The risk is linked to regularly consuming very hot drinks
Experts said the finding could explain the increased oesophageal cancer risk in some non-Western populations.
Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to eliminate the risk.
The oesophagus is the muscular tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.
Oesophagus cancers kill more than 500,000 people worldwide each year and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the commonest type.
Tobacco and alcohol are the main factors linked to the development of oesophageal cancers in Europe and America nations.
But it has not been clear why other populations around the world have high rates of the disease although there has been a theory that regularly drinking very hot drinks damage the lining of the gullet.
A litre a day
Golestan Province in northern Iran has one of the highest rates of OSCC in the world, but rates of smoking and alcohol consumption are low and women are as likely to have a diagnosis as men. Tea drinking, however, is widespread.
The University of Tehran researchers studied tea drinking habits among 300 people diagnosed with OSCC and compared them with a group of 570 people from the same area.
Nearly all participants drank black tea regularly, on average drinking over a litre a day.
================================A regular habit of eating and drinking very hot foods and drinks could increase your risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus - Oliver Childs, Cancer Research UK================================ Compared with drinking warm or lukewarm tea (65C or less), drinking hot tea (65-69C) was associated with twice the risk of oesophageal cancer, and drinking very hot tea (70C or more) was associated with an eight-fold increased risk. The speed with which people drank their tea was also important. Drinking a cup of tea in under two minutes straight after it was poured was associated with a five-fold higher risk of cancer compared with drinking tea four or more minutes after being poured, There was no association between the amount of tea consumed and risk of cancer. Because the researchers had relied on study participants to say how hot their tea was, they then went on to measure the temperature of tea drunk by nearly 50,000 residents of the same area. This ranged from under 60C to more than 70C, and reported tea drinking temperature and actual temperature was found to be similar. Tea lovers
Writing in the BMJ, the researchers led by Professor Reza Malekzadeh, said: "Our results showed a noticeable increase in risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma associated with drinking hot tea.
Professor Reza Malekzadeh
"A large proportion of Golestan inhabitants drink hot tea, so this habit may account for a substantial proportion of the cases of oesophageal cancer in this population."
Previous studies from the UK have reported people prefer their tea to be about 56-60C - cool enough not to be risky.
In a BMJ editorial, David Whiteman from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia said: "The mechanism through which heat promotes the development of tumours warrants further exploration and might be given renewed impetus on the basis of these findings."
Dr Whiteman advised tea-drinkers to simply wait a few minutes for their brew to cool from "scalding" to "tolerable".
Oliver Childs, a spokesman for Cancer Research UK, said: "Tea drinking is part of many cultures, and these results certainly don't point to tea itself being the problem.
"But they do provide more evidence that a regular habit of eating and drinking very hot foods and drinks could increase your risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus."
He added: "People in this region of northern Iran often drink very hot tea as part of their daily routine. We're a nation of tea lovers in the UK, but we don't tend to drink tea at such high temperatures and we usually add milk, which cools it down."
© BBC MMIX
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