.
BEIJING, China / Shanghai Daily / National News / February 26, 2011
THE country’s growing population of elderly people is presenting an increasing challenge to the country’s social insurance system, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said yesterday.
It said that by the end of 2015, the over-60s were expected to constitute 15 percent of the population.
To improve the quality of life for its senior citizens, China is to take steps to establish a mature social security system to cover both cities and suburbs, and eliminate older people’s worries about medical care and retirement pension.
This year, the ministry is expanding the number of people who can enjoy the country’s urban retirement pension scheme. Meanwhile more than 190 million social security cards are being issued across the country, which will help elderly people pay a proportion of their medical care fees, the ministry said.
The situation is more acute in Shanghai where, up to the end of last year, people aged over 60 made up about 23 percent of the population. By 2030, that is expected to reach 29 percent, according to the Shanghai Committee on Aging. Officials say the aging population in Shanghai has been developing more rapidly than in the rest of the country.
One major problem is that the city’s seniors’ home resources are not able to cope with the growing senior population.
City officials said that more than 90 percent of Shanghai seniors will have to stay at home for the final years of their life. But the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau promises to improve services for seniors in communities, ensuring them a better life at home.
This year, the bureau will add 40 canteens for seniors in communities and 20 senior service centers, covering more than 260,000 people. Meanwhile, there will be an additional 5,000 beds at nursing homes.
Copyright © 2001-2011 Shanghai Daily Publishing House.
February 26, 2011
February 24, 2011
JAPAN: Old age doesn't have to stink, especially if you can hold your nose!
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TOKYO / The Japan Times / Life in Japan / February 24, 2011
Dr. Arihisa Fujimaki
Dr. Arihisa Fujimaki, 67, is the director of Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) Hospital in Tokyo. An expert in reconstructive microsurgery, this orthopedic surgeon regularly performs operations to re-attach fingers, toes, hands and the occasional foot. Fujimaki is a hero to many, from construction workers who get nails stuck in their hands to ramen shop owners who slice off their fingers. On a typical morning, Fujimaki sees more than 80 elderly patients, who visit him for injections to help heal their aching knees and backs. Conversation is a large part of treatment as many of his patients live alone, and to them Dr. Fujimaki is like the son they always wanted to have — even if it's just for a few minutes every other day.
Old age doesn't have to stink, especially if you can hold your nose! Every day we have the chance to make old age better for us. Exercise is key, but so is nutrition. Hip fractures are a lot less common in the Kanto and Tohoku areas than in Kansai, the western part of Japan. The reason is that more people in Kanto eat natto (fermented soybeans). Natto contains lots of Vitamin K, which helps make bones stronger and prevents osteoporosis.
Neighborhood hospitals are social clubs. We operate like a community center for the neighborhood elderly, who stop by daily to chat with their friends and to do some exercises in our rehabilitation rooms.
Dr. Arihisa Fujimaki. JUDIT KAWAGUCHI PHOTO
Our hospital is like a stand-up comedy club, except our comics are sitting or lying down. Here is a typical conversation between three of our regulars, who are in their late 70s and 80s: "Gosh, where is Tanaka-san? How come she's not here yet?"
"I know. I worry about her, too. She never misses a day."
The following day Tanaka-san comes in and apologizes: "Sorry Doc. Yesterday I was feeling sick so I couldn't come. I stayed at home all day. It was terrible!"
Every day is like this!
If you ever chop off a body part, don't put it on ice! A common mistake is to put the body part on ice but that's the last thing you'd want to do. Let's say you just sliced off a finger. First, stop the bleeding by wrapping cloth around the hand and applying pressure. Lift up the hand so the blood stops flowing there. Next, rinse the chopped-off finger in lukewarm water, wrap clean gauze around it and put it in a plastic bag. Then put the bag into iced water. Never let the chopped-off body part touch ice, as that would damage the blood vessels to the point that reattachment could be impossible. After an accident, the golden number of hours is six, so you want to get to a hospital as soon as possible. Within 12 hours, you're probably still OK and the body part can be attached without nerve or muscle damage.
Exercise now so you'll be able to move later too! Unless we keep our muscles strong, we're jeopardizing our chances of long and independent lives. Half squats are the perfect exercise. I do 100 every day, and I don't take elevators. In our hospital, we have two staircases and some sections of the floors are not connected, so if I want to go from the doctors' room on the 4th floor to see some patients, first I must go down two floors and then walk up two. I do this a dozen times a day, so my legs get plenty of exercise.
It's easy to lose something, but it's very hard to get it back. Fingers are not so easy to attach. I need two hours per finger so a whole hand is a 10-hour operation. We must connect the bones with wires, maybe add stainless-steel parts, some screws and a plate here and there. Then we continue with tendon suture, stitching the arteries, veins and nerves. It's all done under the microscope, so you need good eyes. Once done, the hand is as good as new!
Sometimes pronouncing the unbearable is the nicest thing one can say. "There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry." This is the worst thing for a patient to hear, but we must tell them. People want to know the truth because they need time to prepare for death.
Cancer is not a death sentence. I had colon cancer 19 years ago, but, knock on wood, I'm perfectly well. The key is to detect cancer early, so going for yearly health checks is important. You also need some luck and a positive attitude.
When given a choice, most people would prefer to pass away in their own homes. This is the biggest challenge Japan faces now: How to deal with the increasing number of people who prefer home care and refuse hospitalization. We need more doctors and nurses to make house calls.
Find a sport you can love for as long as you're alive. I've been skiing since childhood, but it's only recently that I've been competing. It's fun! Since 2001, I've been participating in the Japan Masters Ski Championships, where with some luck I might end up 30th among 90 skiers. In the giant slalom of smaller local races, I can finish between third and 10th place in the over 65 age group. Since 2005, I've been volunteering as the official medical doctor for the National Winter Sport Festivals, so I travel all over Japan with the teams. As I age, life gets easier and more wonderful.
Judit Kawaguchi loves to listen. She is a volunteer counselor and a TV reporter on NHK's "journeys in japan" Learn more at: morinoske.com Twitter: judittokyo
(C) The Japan Times
(C) The Japan Times
February 22, 2011
JAPAN: Top telecom company developing sensors for seniors
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TACOMA, Washington / The News Tribune / AP Technology / February 22, 2011
Japan's top telecoms company is developing a simple wristwatch-like device to monitor the well-being of the elderly, part of a growing effort to improve care of the old in a nation whose population is aging faster than anywhere else.
By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer in Tokyo
Japan's top telecoms company is developing a simple wristwatch-like device to monitor the well-being of the elderly, part of a growing effort to improve care of the old in a nation whose population is aging faster than anywhere else.
The device, worn like a watch, has a built-in camera, microphone and accelerometer, which measure the pace and direction of hand movements to discern what wearers are doing - from brushing their teeth to vacuuming or making coffee.
Nippon Telegraph and Telegram Corp. Communications Science Laboratories staff imitates to brush his teeth during a demonstration of a wearable sensor attached to a wristwatch-like device during the NTT Research and Development Forum in Tokyo. Japan's top telecom company NTT says using this technology, what an elderly person is doing during each hour of the day can be shown on a chart.
AP Photo
In a demonstration at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s research facility, the test subject's movements were collected as data that popped up as lines on a graph - with each kind of activity showing up as different patterns of lines. Using this technology, what an elderly person is doing during each hour of the day can be shown on a chart.
The prototype was connected to a personal computer for the demonstration, but researchers said such data could also be relayed by wireless or stored in a memory card to be looked at later.
Plans for commercial use are still undecided. But similar sensors are being tested around the world as tools for elderly care.
In the U.S., the Institute on Aging at the University of Virginia has been carrying out studies in practical applications of what it calls "body area sensor networks" to promote senior independent living.
What's important is that wearable sensors be easy to use, unobtrusive, ergonomic and even stylish, according to the institute, based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Costs, safety and privacy issues are also key.
Despite the potential for such technology in Japan, a nation filled with electronics and technology companies, NTT President Satoshi Miura said Japan is likely falling behind global rivals in promoting practical uses.
Worries are growing the Japanese government has not been as generous with funding and other support to allow the technology to grow into a real business, despite the fact that Japan is among the world's most advanced in the proliferation of broadband.
More than 90 percent of Japan's households are equipped with either optic fibers or fast-speed mobile connections.
"But how to use the technology is the other side of the story," Miura said in a presentation. "We will do our best in the private sector, but I hope the government will help."
Nintendo Co.'s Wii game-console remote-controller is one exception of such sensors becoming a huge business success. But that's video-game entertainment, not social welfare.
George Demiris, associate professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, in Seattle, says technology for the elderly is complex, requiring more than just coming up with sophisticated technology.
Getting too much data, for instance, could simply burden already overworked health care professionals, and overly relying on technology could even make the elderly miserable, reducing opportunities for them to interact with real people, he said.
"Having more data alone does not mean we will have better care for older adults," Demiris said in an e-mail.
"We can have the most sophisticated technology in place, but if the response at the other end is not designed to address what the data show in a timely and efficient way, the technology itself is not useful," he said.
© Copyright 2011 Tacoma News, Inc
TACOMA, Washington / The News Tribune / AP Technology / February 22, 2011
Japan's top telecoms company is developing a simple wristwatch-like device to monitor the well-being of the elderly, part of a growing effort to improve care of the old in a nation whose population is aging faster than anywhere else.
By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer in Tokyo
Japan's top telecoms company is developing a simple wristwatch-like device to monitor the well-being of the elderly, part of a growing effort to improve care of the old in a nation whose population is aging faster than anywhere else.
The device, worn like a watch, has a built-in camera, microphone and accelerometer, which measure the pace and direction of hand movements to discern what wearers are doing - from brushing their teeth to vacuuming or making coffee.
AP Photo
In a demonstration at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s research facility, the test subject's movements were collected as data that popped up as lines on a graph - with each kind of activity showing up as different patterns of lines. Using this technology, what an elderly person is doing during each hour of the day can be shown on a chart.
The prototype was connected to a personal computer for the demonstration, but researchers said such data could also be relayed by wireless or stored in a memory card to be looked at later.
Plans for commercial use are still undecided. But similar sensors are being tested around the world as tools for elderly care.
In the U.S., the Institute on Aging at the University of Virginia has been carrying out studies in practical applications of what it calls "body area sensor networks" to promote senior independent living.
What's important is that wearable sensors be easy to use, unobtrusive, ergonomic and even stylish, according to the institute, based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Costs, safety and privacy issues are also key.
Despite the potential for such technology in Japan, a nation filled with electronics and technology companies, NTT President Satoshi Miura said Japan is likely falling behind global rivals in promoting practical uses.
Worries are growing the Japanese government has not been as generous with funding and other support to allow the technology to grow into a real business, despite the fact that Japan is among the world's most advanced in the proliferation of broadband.
More than 90 percent of Japan's households are equipped with either optic fibers or fast-speed mobile connections.
"But how to use the technology is the other side of the story," Miura said in a presentation. "We will do our best in the private sector, but I hope the government will help."
Nintendo Co.'s Wii game-console remote-controller is one exception of such sensors becoming a huge business success. But that's video-game entertainment, not social welfare.
George Demiris, associate professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, in Seattle, says technology for the elderly is complex, requiring more than just coming up with sophisticated technology.
Getting too much data, for instance, could simply burden already overworked health care professionals, and overly relying on technology could even make the elderly miserable, reducing opportunities for them to interact with real people, he said.
"Having more data alone does not mean we will have better care for older adults," Demiris said in an e-mail.
"We can have the most sophisticated technology in place, but if the response at the other end is not designed to address what the data show in a timely and efficient way, the technology itself is not useful," he said.
© Copyright 2011 Tacoma News, Inc
February 21, 2011
TURKEY: Respect and honour
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ISTANBUL, Turkey / Today's Zaman / Columnists / February 21, 2011
By Charlotte Mcpherson
For the most part, elderly people are respected. You will see younger people offering their seat on the bus to an older person. It is still common not to contradict an older person in front of others.
Perhaps you have noticed that different people will use different titles for you. It all depends on age and education. Certain names are used as signs of respect. Here are the basic ground rules: A person who is in her 20s or 30s will be addressed by children and youth by adding the title “abla” (older sister) or “ağabey” (big brother) after their name. Shop vendors and taxi drivers may also call just you “abla” or “ağabey” as a sign of respect. If you are older you will be referred to as “teyze” (aunt) or “amca” (uncle).
In Turkish culture it is rude to call a new acquaintance who you have just met by his or her first name. The polite form to use is to put “bey” (sir) or “hanım” (madam) after their first name. If you are a teacher, you will be called by your first name and then “hoca” (teacher).
The other day I was in the supermarket and the young Turkish man at the checkout counter wanted to practice his English with me. When he handed me my change he called me “lady.” Naturally this struck me as funny, but I did not laugh. I knew that he had done a literal translation and was trying to be polite. In English a simple “thank you” or “thanks, ma’am” is fine.
Throughout the Middle East and Asia you will observe how important honor is in the society. Turkish culture is strongly hierarchical. Individuals are ranked according to status.
Age is of great importance in determining status.
Sometimes this can be offensive to Westerners in their 40s and 50s who still feel like they are 21. Special respect is given to older people. By this I mean in absolute terms any individual past middle age.
Significantly older could also be determined by the age difference between you and your parents. It is true in Turkey that determining relative status by age also depends on the older person’s perception of himself as I hinted above.
Portrait of an elderly Turkish man with hands together. © 2011 Erik Annis
The foreign guest needs to be careful to use the right title at the right time. Let me just give an example: A visitor in his 20s with all honorable intentions addressing a person in his 40s as “brother” when that man may prefer to be called “uncle” can prompt some teasing from his friends. The general rule is until the foreigner knows just how that person prefers to be treated in regard to age, he should show more honor than less. It is better to err on the conservative side.
Although some young adults may indicate that showing respect is not as important as it used to be and that it is a show, generally speaking, showing respect is still important. Other people who are normally honored are people with power based on individual reputation, family, fame, wealth and political or religious leadership.
For example, an employer is usually treated deferentially by an employee. A teacher is honored by a student. Westerners can make the mistake of being too friendly with their employees or students and lose control of boundaries and discipline, as their students or employees are not used to this type of relationship.
It is important to know how and when to honor others. A visitor, particularly from a Western background, can easily overlook or ignore the standard ways of affirming status. This may cause humiliation for the person of special status. A visitor who overlooks the deferential behavior to show respect and honor will be seen as being rude.
When refusing a request, it can be done in a manner that avoids personal offense. Westerners who are used to being more direct must learn to not give straight refusals and a frank “no.” Such direct replies cause the person who has made the request to lose face. It is best to give an answer that takes the embarrassment from the one asking and puts the blame on an outside cause. This can be hard for us Westerners who value frankness and directness.
Often Westerners interpret polite and indirect answers as being dishonest. Beware! These two points can lead to cultural clashes between Turks and Westerners.
© Feza Gazetecilik A.Ş.
ISTANBUL, Turkey / Today's Zaman / Columnists / February 21, 2011
By Charlotte Mcpherson
Unlike much of the West, Turkey is a culture where “old-fashioned” manners are still practiced.
For the most part, elderly people are respected. You will see younger people offering their seat on the bus to an older person. It is still common not to contradict an older person in front of others.
Perhaps you have noticed that different people will use different titles for you. It all depends on age and education. Certain names are used as signs of respect. Here are the basic ground rules: A person who is in her 20s or 30s will be addressed by children and youth by adding the title “abla” (older sister) or “ağabey” (big brother) after their name. Shop vendors and taxi drivers may also call just you “abla” or “ağabey” as a sign of respect. If you are older you will be referred to as “teyze” (aunt) or “amca” (uncle).
In Turkish culture it is rude to call a new acquaintance who you have just met by his or her first name. The polite form to use is to put “bey” (sir) or “hanım” (madam) after their first name. If you are a teacher, you will be called by your first name and then “hoca” (teacher).
The other day I was in the supermarket and the young Turkish man at the checkout counter wanted to practice his English with me. When he handed me my change he called me “lady.” Naturally this struck me as funny, but I did not laugh. I knew that he had done a literal translation and was trying to be polite. In English a simple “thank you” or “thanks, ma’am” is fine.
Throughout the Middle East and Asia you will observe how important honor is in the society. Turkish culture is strongly hierarchical. Individuals are ranked according to status.
Age is of great importance in determining status.
Sometimes this can be offensive to Westerners in their 40s and 50s who still feel like they are 21. Special respect is given to older people. By this I mean in absolute terms any individual past middle age.
Portrait of an elderly Turkish man with hands together. © 2011 Erik Annis
The foreign guest needs to be careful to use the right title at the right time. Let me just give an example: A visitor in his 20s with all honorable intentions addressing a person in his 40s as “brother” when that man may prefer to be called “uncle” can prompt some teasing from his friends. The general rule is until the foreigner knows just how that person prefers to be treated in regard to age, he should show more honor than less. It is better to err on the conservative side.
Although some young adults may indicate that showing respect is not as important as it used to be and that it is a show, generally speaking, showing respect is still important. Other people who are normally honored are people with power based on individual reputation, family, fame, wealth and political or religious leadership.
For example, an employer is usually treated deferentially by an employee. A teacher is honored by a student. Westerners can make the mistake of being too friendly with their employees or students and lose control of boundaries and discipline, as their students or employees are not used to this type of relationship.
It is important to know how and when to honor others. A visitor, particularly from a Western background, can easily overlook or ignore the standard ways of affirming status. This may cause humiliation for the person of special status. A visitor who overlooks the deferential behavior to show respect and honor will be seen as being rude.
When refusing a request, it can be done in a manner that avoids personal offense. Westerners who are used to being more direct must learn to not give straight refusals and a frank “no.” Such direct replies cause the person who has made the request to lose face. It is best to give an answer that takes the embarrassment from the one asking and puts the blame on an outside cause. This can be hard for us Westerners who value frankness and directness.
Often Westerners interpret polite and indirect answers as being dishonest. Beware! These two points can lead to cultural clashes between Turks and Westerners.
© Feza Gazetecilik A.Ş.
SINGAPORE: Only 14% ready to retire, money wise
.
SINGAPORE / The Straits Times / Singapore / News / February 21, 2011
By Linette Lin
ONE in three Singaporeans plans to retire/was already retired before he reached 60 years of age, two years earlier than the current statutory retirement age of 62 years old in Singapore, according to Nielsen's Global Aging Report.
Only 14 per cent of the Singapore consumers surveyed admitted they are financially ready for retirement. ST Photo: Samuel He
However, only 14 per cent of the Singapore consumers surveyed admitted they are financially ready for retirement - the lowest when compared to the Asia Pacific (22 per cent) and global (18 per cent) averages.
In Singapore, 82 per cent said personal savings would be their primary source of retirement income.
Travel is Singapore consumers' most favoured post-retirement activity, leading with 73 per cent, followed by volunteer work (51 per cent) and joining a club and participating in its activities (49 per cent).
More than 26,000 consumers in 53 countries throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America took part in Nielsen's Global Aging Report.
Copyright © 2011 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
SINGAPORE / The Straits Times / Singapore / News / February 21, 2011
By Linette Lin
ONE in three Singaporeans plans to retire/was already retired before he reached 60 years of age, two years earlier than the current statutory retirement age of 62 years old in Singapore, according to Nielsen's Global Aging Report.
Only 14 per cent of the Singapore consumers surveyed admitted they are financially ready for retirement. ST Photo: Samuel He
However, only 14 per cent of the Singapore consumers surveyed admitted they are financially ready for retirement - the lowest when compared to the Asia Pacific (22 per cent) and global (18 per cent) averages.
In Singapore, 82 per cent said personal savings would be their primary source of retirement income.
Travel is Singapore consumers' most favoured post-retirement activity, leading with 73 per cent, followed by volunteer work (51 per cent) and joining a club and participating in its activities (49 per cent).
More than 26,000 consumers in 53 countries throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America took part in Nielsen's Global Aging Report.
Copyright © 2011 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
February 20, 2011
UK: Florence, last Great War veteran in Britain, turns 110
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LONDON / The Independent / News / People / February 20, 2011
Norfolk woman is one of only three people still alive who served in 1914-18 conflict
By Tom Peck and Rob Hastings
The revels were not quite as wild as on Armistice Day. Still, there was plenty to celebrate yesterday when the world's last surviving female veteran of the First World War celebrated her 110th birthday.
Florence Green, from King's Lynn, Norfolk, was 17 years old when she joined the Women's Royal Air Force, in the late summer of 1918. Come the 11th day of the 11th month, she was working as a waitress at RAF Marham, when the pilots greeted news of the German surrender by clambering into their planes and bombing nearby RAF Narborough airfield with bags of flour. Narborough, not to be outdone, retaliated with their own daring raid, this time dropping bags of soot.
Photograph courtesy: legionlive.org.ok
Yesterday the Air Force marked Mrs Green's birthday with the delivery of a rather more traditional nature: a cake. At 110, Mrs Green joins a highly exclusive club of "supercentenarians" – only around one in 1,000 of those with a letter from the Queen on the mantelpiece push on to this next landmark.
When asked what it's like to be 110, Mrs Green, who lives with her daughter May, quite the spring chicken at just 89, was rather philosophical: "It's not much different to being 109," she said, which seems plausible, though of course very few get to find out. Of the flying flour and soot war of Norfolk, 1918, she said simply: "It seems like such a long time ago now." To put it into context, she married her husband Walter, a railway porter, in 1920, and they had three children together. He died 50 years later, and that was 41 years ago.
Mrs Green was only identified as a surviving war veteran in 2008, when a researcher of gerontology found her service record, listed under her maiden name, Patterson, at the National Archives. Though she never saw the front line, her service in the WRAF qualifies her for veteran status. She is now one of just two surviving Britons from the conflict. The other, Claude Stanley Choules, served in the Royal Navy and now lives in Australia. His own 110th birthday is on 3 March.
The WRAF in which Mrs Green served was founded only months before she joined up. Its original intent was to provide female mechanics in order to free up men for service. But the organisation saw huge enrolment, with women volunteering for positions as drivers and mechanics and filling other wartime needs.
"Because the war was a manpower-intensive beast and lots of the young men ended up in France or Egypt fighting the dastardly Hun, as they were called at the time, there was a shortage of manpower, so the powers that be turned to woman power," said Sebastian Cox, head of the air historical branch of the RAF. "Women working was a much less common thing in 1918; they were only a very small percentage of the working population. But once you had conscription from 1916, unless the men were in a reserved occupation, such as down the mines or building aircraft or in the steel works, they were liable to be conscripted. So women took over the other jobs. The RAF needed women for tasks that would normally have been done by men, including waitressing in the officers' mess: before the war that would have been a bloke."
The demographic difficulties were not, for Mrs Green at least, without their upside: "I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates," she said in an interview in 2008. "I had the opportunity to go up in one of the planes but I was scared of flying. I would work every hour God sent. But I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time. In many ways, I had the time of my life.'
History certainly records RAF Marham as a busy place to have served, as the battle in the skies grew in significance as the war progressed. FE2bs, RE7s, BE2s – wooden aircraft with engines less powerful than those on most modern motorbikes – set off for bombing raids throughout the day. Today it is the base for four squadrons of Tornadoes, ground-attack aircraft that have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The pilots of these supersonic jets have rather different concerns than their First World War counterparts.
"These First World War airplanes only had engines of 70 to 150 horsepower," Mr Cox said. "They were pretty flimsy affairs. They were subject to the vagaries of the weather much more than modern aircraft. You wouldn't take off if the wind was too strong, for example."
Other than Mrs Green and Mr Choules, only one veteran of that great conflict is still alive: an American ambulance driver named Frank Buckles, who turned 110 earlier this month. When inevitably he passes on, he will be eligible for burial in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC. There, each year, on Remembrance Sunday are read the lines of the English poet Laurence Binyon: "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old."
In the meantime, it is nice to remember the few like Mrs Green who have grown old, not with poppies and sombre ceremonies, but a slice of birthday cake.
©independent.co.uk
LONDON / The Independent / News / People / February 20, 2011
Norfolk woman is one of only three people still alive who served in 1914-18 conflict
By Tom Peck and Rob Hastings
The revels were not quite as wild as on Armistice Day. Still, there was plenty to celebrate yesterday when the world's last surviving female veteran of the First World War celebrated her 110th birthday.
Photograph courtesy: legionlive.org.ok
Yesterday the Air Force marked Mrs Green's birthday with the delivery of a rather more traditional nature: a cake. At 110, Mrs Green joins a highly exclusive club of "supercentenarians" – only around one in 1,000 of those with a letter from the Queen on the mantelpiece push on to this next landmark.
When asked what it's like to be 110, Mrs Green, who lives with her daughter May, quite the spring chicken at just 89, was rather philosophical: "It's not much different to being 109," she said, which seems plausible, though of course very few get to find out. Of the flying flour and soot war of Norfolk, 1918, she said simply: "It seems like such a long time ago now." To put it into context, she married her husband Walter, a railway porter, in 1920, and they had three children together. He died 50 years later, and that was 41 years ago.
Mrs Green was only identified as a surviving war veteran in 2008, when a researcher of gerontology found her service record, listed under her maiden name, Patterson, at the National Archives. Though she never saw the front line, her service in the WRAF qualifies her for veteran status. She is now one of just two surviving Britons from the conflict. The other, Claude Stanley Choules, served in the Royal Navy and now lives in Australia. His own 110th birthday is on 3 March.
The WRAF in which Mrs Green served was founded only months before she joined up. Its original intent was to provide female mechanics in order to free up men for service. But the organisation saw huge enrolment, with women volunteering for positions as drivers and mechanics and filling other wartime needs.
"Because the war was a manpower-intensive beast and lots of the young men ended up in France or Egypt fighting the dastardly Hun, as they were called at the time, there was a shortage of manpower, so the powers that be turned to woman power," said Sebastian Cox, head of the air historical branch of the RAF. "Women working was a much less common thing in 1918; they were only a very small percentage of the working population. But once you had conscription from 1916, unless the men were in a reserved occupation, such as down the mines or building aircraft or in the steel works, they were liable to be conscripted. So women took over the other jobs. The RAF needed women for tasks that would normally have been done by men, including waitressing in the officers' mess: before the war that would have been a bloke."
The demographic difficulties were not, for Mrs Green at least, without their upside: "I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates," she said in an interview in 2008. "I had the opportunity to go up in one of the planes but I was scared of flying. I would work every hour God sent. But I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time. In many ways, I had the time of my life.'
History certainly records RAF Marham as a busy place to have served, as the battle in the skies grew in significance as the war progressed. FE2bs, RE7s, BE2s – wooden aircraft with engines less powerful than those on most modern motorbikes – set off for bombing raids throughout the day. Today it is the base for four squadrons of Tornadoes, ground-attack aircraft that have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The pilots of these supersonic jets have rather different concerns than their First World War counterparts.
"These First World War airplanes only had engines of 70 to 150 horsepower," Mr Cox said. "They were pretty flimsy affairs. They were subject to the vagaries of the weather much more than modern aircraft. You wouldn't take off if the wind was too strong, for example."
Other than Mrs Green and Mr Choules, only one veteran of that great conflict is still alive: an American ambulance driver named Frank Buckles, who turned 110 earlier this month. When inevitably he passes on, he will be eligible for burial in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC. There, each year, on Remembrance Sunday are read the lines of the English poet Laurence Binyon: "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old."
In the meantime, it is nice to remember the few like Mrs Green who have grown old, not with poppies and sombre ceremonies, but a slice of birthday cake.
©independent.co.uk
February 18, 2011
IRAN: Omega-3 in food may cut depression in seniors
INVERNESS, Scotland / Food & Behaviour Research / Nutraingedients / February 18, 2011
By Stephen Daniells
Daily supplements of omega-3 fatty acids may improve measures of depression in seniors with mild to moderate depression, according to new findings from Iran.
Writing in the peer-reviewed European Archives of Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience, researchers from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences report that six months of supplementation with 300 mg of both eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) resulted in significant improvements in depression scores, as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale-15.
“In this study, low-dose omega-3 PUFAs had some efficacy in the treatment of mild to moderate depression in elderly participants,” wrote the researchers.
Jury’s still out?
The link between omega-3 and mood is complex and data to date is contradictory. For example, researchers from Norway reported that regular and long-term intake of omega-3 fatty acid-rich cod liver oil may protect people from symptoms of depression.
The role of omega-3 in depression is controversial but there is biological plausibility.
The study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, followed 21,835 subjects aged between 40 and 49 and 70 and 74 years, and found that the prevalence of depressive symptoms was 29 per cent lower in regular cod liver oil users than the rest of the population.
Moreover, a joint Anglo-Iranian study reported that depression ratings were cut by 50 per cent following daily one gram supplements of EPA, an effect similar to that obtained by the antidepressant drug fluoxetine, according to findings published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
"To our knowledge this is the first report of EPA monotherapy in major depressive disorder," wrote the researchers from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Swallownest Court Hospital in Sheffield (UK).
When the researchers provided the omega-3 supplement in combination with fluoxetine, depression ratings were cut by 81 per cent.
Despite this growing number of studies, the science overall is unsufficient to support a link between omega-3 and depression, said the British Medical Journal's Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) in February 2007.
"Despite observational evidence linking depression with reduced intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, there is no convincing basis for using these nutrients as a (means of alleviating) the condition," stated the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.
The review also states that, when used in combination with antidepressant drugs, there is also only limited evidence.
New data
The new Iranian study adds to the ongoing debate, and concludes that omega-3 fatty acids were “clinically more effective in treating depression in comparison with the placebo”.
The researchers recruited 66 over-65 year olds and randomly assigned them to receive an omega-3 supplement – one gram of fish oil per day, providing 300 mg of both EPA and DHA – or placebo for six months.
Results of the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study indicated that “after adjusting for cholesterol, BMI, and history of thyroid dysfunctions, a statistically significant difference was seen in GDS-15 scores between both groups”, said the researchers.
Actions
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from fish oil include EPA and DHA. EPA is proposed to function by increasing blood flow in the body. It is also suggested to affect hormones and the immune system, both of which have a direct effect on brain function. DHA, on the other hand, is involved in the membrane of ion channels in the brain, making it easier for them to change shape and transit electrical signals.
Source: European Archives of Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience
“The effect of low-dose omega 3 fatty acids on the treatment of mild to moderate depression in the elderly: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study”
Authors: Y. Tajalizadekhoob, F. Sharifi, H. Fakhrzadeh, M. Mirarefin, M. Ghaderpanahi, z. Badamchizade, S. Azimipour
Copyright Calligrafix 2010
By Stephen Daniells
Daily supplements of omega-3 fatty acids may improve measures of depression in seniors with mild to moderate depression, according to new findings from Iran.
“In this study, low-dose omega-3 PUFAs had some efficacy in the treatment of mild to moderate depression in elderly participants,” wrote the researchers.
Jury’s still out?
The link between omega-3 and mood is complex and data to date is contradictory. For example, researchers from Norway reported that regular and long-term intake of omega-3 fatty acid-rich cod liver oil may protect people from symptoms of depression.
The role of omega-3 in depression is controversial but there is biological plausibility.
The study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, followed 21,835 subjects aged between 40 and 49 and 70 and 74 years, and found that the prevalence of depressive symptoms was 29 per cent lower in regular cod liver oil users than the rest of the population.
Moreover, a joint Anglo-Iranian study reported that depression ratings were cut by 50 per cent following daily one gram supplements of EPA, an effect similar to that obtained by the antidepressant drug fluoxetine, according to findings published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
"To our knowledge this is the first report of EPA monotherapy in major depressive disorder," wrote the researchers from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Swallownest Court Hospital in Sheffield (UK).
When the researchers provided the omega-3 supplement in combination with fluoxetine, depression ratings were cut by 81 per cent.
Despite this growing number of studies, the science overall is unsufficient to support a link between omega-3 and depression, said the British Medical Journal's Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) in February 2007.
"Despite observational evidence linking depression with reduced intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, there is no convincing basis for using these nutrients as a (means of alleviating) the condition," stated the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.
The review also states that, when used in combination with antidepressant drugs, there is also only limited evidence.
New data
The new Iranian study adds to the ongoing debate, and concludes that omega-3 fatty acids were “clinically more effective in treating depression in comparison with the placebo”.
The researchers recruited 66 over-65 year olds and randomly assigned them to receive an omega-3 supplement – one gram of fish oil per day, providing 300 mg of both EPA and DHA – or placebo for six months.
Results of the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study indicated that “after adjusting for cholesterol, BMI, and history of thyroid dysfunctions, a statistically significant difference was seen in GDS-15 scores between both groups”, said the researchers.
Actions
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from fish oil include EPA and DHA. EPA is proposed to function by increasing blood flow in the body. It is also suggested to affect hormones and the immune system, both of which have a direct effect on brain function. DHA, on the other hand, is involved in the membrane of ion channels in the brain, making it easier for them to change shape and transit electrical signals.
Source: European Archives of Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience
“The effect of low-dose omega 3 fatty acids on the treatment of mild to moderate depression in the elderly: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study”
Authors: Y. Tajalizadekhoob, F. Sharifi, H. Fakhrzadeh, M. Mirarefin, M. Ghaderpanahi, z. Badamchizade, S. Azimipour
Copyright Calligrafix 2010
February 9, 2011
USA: Government announces fresh $750 Million Investment in Prevention
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WASHINGTON / U.S. Department of Health & Human Services / News / February 9, 2011
New health care law provides new funding to reduce tobacco use, obesity and heart disease, and build healthier communities
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced a $750 million investment in prevention and public health, funded through the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the new health care law. Building on $500 million in investments last year, these new dollars will help prevent tobacco use, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and cancer; increase immunizations; and empower individuals and communities with tools and resources for local prevention and health initiatives. Photo source:
“Prevention is something that can’t just happen in a doctor’s office. If we are to address the big health issues of our time, from physical inactivity to poor nutrition to tobacco use, it needs to happen in local communities,” said Sebelius. “This investment is going to build on the prevention work already under way to help make sure that we are working effectively across the federal government as well as with private groups and state and local governments to help Americans live longer, healthier lives.”
The Prevention and Public Health Fund, part of the Affordable Care Act, is designed to expand and sustain the necessary capacity to prevent disease, detect it early, manage conditions before they become severe, and provide states and communities the resources they need to promote healthy living. In FY2010, $500 million of the Prevention Fund was distributed to states and communities to boost prevention and public health efforts, improve health, enhance health care quality, and foster the next generation of primary health professionals. Today, HHS posted new fact sheets detailing how that $500 million was allocated in every state
Continue reading
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
WASHINGTON / U.S. Department of Health & Human Services / News / February 9, 2011
New health care law provides new funding to reduce tobacco use, obesity and heart disease, and build healthier communities
“Prevention is something that can’t just happen in a doctor’s office. If we are to address the big health issues of our time, from physical inactivity to poor nutrition to tobacco use, it needs to happen in local communities,” said Sebelius. “This investment is going to build on the prevention work already under way to help make sure that we are working effectively across the federal government as well as with private groups and state and local governments to help Americans live longer, healthier lives.”
The Prevention and Public Health Fund, part of the Affordable Care Act, is designed to expand and sustain the necessary capacity to prevent disease, detect it early, manage conditions before they become severe, and provide states and communities the resources they need to promote healthy living. In FY2010, $500 million of the Prevention Fund was distributed to states and communities to boost prevention and public health efforts, improve health, enhance health care quality, and foster the next generation of primary health professionals. Today, HHS posted new fact sheets detailing how that $500 million was allocated in every state
Continue reading
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
February 6, 2011
SINGAPORE: Older isn't necessarily wiser
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SINGAPORE / AsiaOne News / Health / February 6, 2011
OLDER people have more trouble detecting social gaffes committed by others, the result of a decline in how they perceive emotions, according to a New Zealand study.
Using video clips from the British sitcom "The Office", researchers at the University of Otago compared the ability of older and younger adults to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate behaviour. The authors hope the study may help to understand the ageing process and how to deal with it.
"If you look at recognition of expressions of faces, or of bodies, or of voices, we get worse as we get older," said Ted Ruffman, an associate professor at the university's Department of Psychology who took part in the study.
University of Otago psychology researcher Associate Prof Ted Ruffman. Copyright: University of Otago/ Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
"At least by 60 years of age, but even in middle age, there's some evidence that we get worse. So we started to wonder about what's the cause of this and how broad are the declines, would we find them in all other aspects of social understanding," he told Reuters.
In the study, published in the US journal Psychology and Aging, 121 participants half over 60 years of age and the rest aged 18 to 35 were shown video clips and asked to rate whether the behaviour of character David Brent, played by comedian Ricky Gervais, was socially appropriate.
Participants also took tests to gauge how well they recognised emotions expressed facially, vocally and through body language, along with tests of their cognitive ability.
Those over 60 were not as good as young adults at judging when Brent committed a gaffe, which took place in roughly half the video clips, Ruffman said.
"The difference isn't huge but it's there, and related to worsening emotional recognition," he added.
Previous Otago research has shown that people over 60 are worse at recognising anger, sadness and often fear on the faces of others. They also are not as good at detecting dangerous faces as younger people are.
Ruffman said the study was the first to examine age differences in detecting social gaffes from appropriate behaviour while measuring emotional recognition skills.
"The implication is that difficulties in spotting faux pas are related to difficulties in the social world," he said.
Copyright ©2011 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
SINGAPORE / AsiaOne News / Health / February 6, 2011
Using video clips from the British sitcom "The Office", researchers at the University of Otago compared the ability of older and younger adults to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate behaviour. The authors hope the study may help to understand the ageing process and how to deal with it.
University of Otago psychology researcher Associate Prof Ted Ruffman. Copyright: University of Otago/ Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
"At least by 60 years of age, but even in middle age, there's some evidence that we get worse. So we started to wonder about what's the cause of this and how broad are the declines, would we find them in all other aspects of social understanding," he told Reuters.
In the study, published in the US journal Psychology and Aging, 121 participants half over 60 years of age and the rest aged 18 to 35 were shown video clips and asked to rate whether the behaviour of character David Brent, played by comedian Ricky Gervais, was socially appropriate.
Participants also took tests to gauge how well they recognised emotions expressed facially, vocally and through body language, along with tests of their cognitive ability.
Those over 60 were not as good as young adults at judging when Brent committed a gaffe, which took place in roughly half the video clips, Ruffman said.
"The difference isn't huge but it's there, and related to worsening emotional recognition," he added.
Previous Otago research has shown that people over 60 are worse at recognising anger, sadness and often fear on the faces of others. They also are not as good at detecting dangerous faces as younger people are.
Ruffman said the study was the first to examine age differences in detecting social gaffes from appropriate behaviour while measuring emotional recognition skills.
"The implication is that difficulties in spotting faux pas are related to difficulties in the social world," he said.
Copyright ©2011 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
February 5, 2011
CAMEROON: Japanese reach out to CAA
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BUEA, Cameroon/ Cameroon Association on Ageing / February 5, 2011
The Cameroon Association on Ageing (CAA) held a one-day seminar on sanitation and hygiene - the elderly and their environment. The seminar, organized to create awareness on some of the key issues in promoting a healthy and active life in small communities, was attended by elderly people from different rural communities around the region, students of geriatric nursing and social workers. This was done through reports and testimonies citing examples from different countries as well as the active participation of NGOs working for the elderly in Cameroon.
The Friends of International Federation on Ageing (FOIFA), of Akita City in Japan has reported that at the seminar Mr. Raymond Kale, President CAA, explained to participants the activities of his organization and its partners like Friends of IFA Japan (FOIFA), Forestry, Agriculture, Animal and Fishery Network (FAAFNET) and Care for the Elderly Widows and Orphans (CEWO). He also presented a summary report on his visit to Akita, highlighting on the generosity of FOIFA, its members, the people of Akita City as well as the health and care system for the elderly in Japan.
"We are thankful to Members of FOIFA Japan and Doctor Hisashi Hozumi in particular for their untiring support most especially financially to help us carry out our projects," Mr. Raymond Kale wrote to FOIFA.
CAA received money and clothing collected from FOIFA members and from the people and shops in Akita City. These donations have helped CAA activities related to the elderly and ageing. These include elder abuse and violence, access to human rights principles, equality and inclusion.
Cash donations were made to the coordinator of Care for the Elderly Widows and Orphans (CEWO). Photo courtesy: International Federation on Ageing.
Two students of geriatric nursing at the St. Francis Medical School, Buea, spoke about about a sensitization program carried out as a follow-up solution after an outbreak of cholera in the region. They had visited homes of elderly to advise them on hygiene and sanitation to avoid contracting diseases.
CAA's President Mr. Kale gave gifts of money and clothing to representatives of elderly groups or associations, students of geriatric nursing as well as to the representative of CEWO. Thanks were extended to FOIFA, its members and the people of Akita City.
Copyright© 2011 Friends of IFA Japan
BUEA, Cameroon/ Cameroon Association on Ageing / February 5, 2011
The Cameroon Association on Ageing (CAA) held a one-day seminar on sanitation and hygiene - the elderly and their environment. The seminar, organized to create awareness on some of the key issues in promoting a healthy and active life in small communities, was attended by elderly people from different rural communities around the region, students of geriatric nursing and social workers. This was done through reports and testimonies citing examples from different countries as well as the active participation of NGOs working for the elderly in Cameroon.
The Friends of International Federation on Ageing (FOIFA), of Akita City in Japan has reported that at the seminar Mr. Raymond Kale, President CAA, explained to participants the activities of his organization and its partners like Friends of IFA Japan (FOIFA), Forestry, Agriculture, Animal and Fishery Network (FAAFNET) and Care for the Elderly Widows and Orphans (CEWO). He also presented a summary report on his visit to Akita, highlighting on the generosity of FOIFA, its members, the people of Akita City as well as the health and care system for the elderly in Japan.
CAA received money and clothing collected from FOIFA members and from the people and shops in Akita City. These donations have helped CAA activities related to the elderly and ageing. These include elder abuse and violence, access to human rights principles, equality and inclusion.
Cash donations were made to the coordinator of Care for the Elderly Widows and Orphans (CEWO). Photo courtesy: International Federation on Ageing.
Two students of geriatric nursing at the St. Francis Medical School, Buea, spoke about about a sensitization program carried out as a follow-up solution after an outbreak of cholera in the region. They had visited homes of elderly to advise them on hygiene and sanitation to avoid contracting diseases.
CAA's President Mr. Kale gave gifts of money and clothing to representatives of elderly groups or associations, students of geriatric nursing as well as to the representative of CEWO. Thanks were extended to FOIFA, its members and the people of Akita City.
Copyright© 2011 Friends of IFA Japan
February 3, 2011
INDIA: Bhimsen Joshi, singer of India, died on January 24, aged 88
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LONDON / The Economist / Culture / February 3, 2011
MUSIC seemed to require him to use every part of his body. From a slow, mesmerised, almost motionless start his eyes would roll upwards, foreshadowing the ascent of the notes that emerged from his distended, gaping mouth. His hands flailed, as though reaching for some imagined object just out of his grasp.
Perhaps Bhimsen Joshi was trying to bring back to earth a soaring note from one of his magnificent taans, the series of rapid melodic passages with which great classical singers in the Hindustani tradition of northern India demonstrate how skilled they are.
Few could sing them like he could, his sonorous voice ranging effortlessly over three octaves as he explored the nuances of ragas—Indian music’s tonal settings for improvisation and composition, each associated with a season or a time of day. Yet those who packed concert halls to listen to him sing, as Indians did for over six decades, rarely mentioned his technique. Instead, they would talk about how he had made them feel, on a night long ago at the Dover Lane music conference in Calcutta, or under a tent in the grounds of Modern School on New Delhi’s Barakhamba Road, when he sang a raga of the monsoon—and suddenly the skies were full of thundering black rainclouds, even though it was bone dry and bitterly cold.
It was on nights like these that Indians fell in love with this strange man, whose contortions defied the best efforts of those in charge of microphone placement. For nobody could match the extraordinary ability of Bhimsen—always Bhimsen to his listeners—to capture the essential character of a raga, whether playful or grave, and send audiences out into the night humming, with the music under their skin, almost stunned with the force of something they could not quite comprehend.
Related topics
India
That was what made generations of homesick Indian students turn to him on freezing winter nights in south London or Cambridge, Massachusetts, when home seemed unbearably far away and the darkness demanded nothing less than the master singing a sombre raga of the late night. But his voice meant a great deal even to those Indians who had little time for classical music. Millions of homes in Maharashtra woke up to him singing the abhangs, or hymns, of the medieval Marathi saint-poets on the early-morning programme on All India Radio’s Bombay station. A much-loved television campaign promoting national unity, which opened with his singing, ensured that even those who grew up with rap rather than ragas knew, and loved, that voice.
His childhood, in the culturally fertile Dharwad region in the state of Bombay in British India, was suffused by music: the devotional songs his mother sang as she went about her chores; the azaan, or calls to prayer, from the nearby mosque. But his love for music crystallised when, at 11, on a scratchy 78rpm record, he heard Abdul Karim Khan, the great master of the Kirana school, which melodiously blended elements of the music of both north and south. That was how he wanted to sing.
The railway boy
Spurred by music, then, he ran away from home, travelling ticketless on the trains that snaked across India from the home town of one great master to another, relying on his singing to melt ticket-inspectors’ hearts. Passengers, too, threw him small coins for his songs. By 1936 he had persuaded Sawai Gandharva, a disciple of Abdul Karim Khan, to teach him the intricacies of the Kirana style of singing. In 1941 he gave his first public performance; by 1946 he was famous.
His style picked up influences from all over India. True, he had the Kirana school’s tunefulness. But those intricate taans owed something to the Jaipur school, even to the style of Faiyaz Khan of Agra. For Bhimsen Joshi was really interpreting Hindustani music in his own way. A good singer, he said, was a bit like a thief, incorporating what he liked best about others’ styles into his own. He sang where he could, too, in the early years: bhajans, or devotional songs, for All India Radio’s Lucknow station for 25 rupees a day, and occasional songs for films later.
It was hard work. A glass of rich buffalo milk in the morning; then four hours singing a raga in the lowest octave as the first part of up to 20 hours of practice. But milk was not all he drank. People told other kinds of stories about Bhimsen concerts, the ones where he was repeatedly announced but didn’t appear for hours. It was only by the late 1970s that he overcame his problems with liquor.
His drinking, like his love for fast cars, was of a piece with the man: slightly reckless, fully immersed in whatever he was doing. His singing, he said, reflected his personality. He reckoned that everyone’s should. Don’t sing like me, he would urge his students. Sing like yourselves, find your own voice.
His favourite composition, in a raga named after a town linked in Hindu mythology to the god Krishna, used words in praise of a 12th-century Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, the saviour of the poor. But there was not one sectarian note in Bhimsen Joshi. He loved the syncreticism of Hindustani music, with its mixture of Hindu and Muslim influences. Music had no religion or caste, he often said. The religion of music was music.
Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2011.
LONDON / The Economist / Culture / February 3, 2011
MUSIC seemed to require him to use every part of his body. From a slow, mesmerised, almost motionless start his eyes would roll upwards, foreshadowing the ascent of the notes that emerged from his distended, gaping mouth. His hands flailed, as though reaching for some imagined object just out of his grasp.
Few could sing them like he could, his sonorous voice ranging effortlessly over three octaves as he explored the nuances of ragas—Indian music’s tonal settings for improvisation and composition, each associated with a season or a time of day. Yet those who packed concert halls to listen to him sing, as Indians did for over six decades, rarely mentioned his technique. Instead, they would talk about how he had made them feel, on a night long ago at the Dover Lane music conference in Calcutta, or under a tent in the grounds of Modern School on New Delhi’s Barakhamba Road, when he sang a raga of the monsoon—and suddenly the skies were full of thundering black rainclouds, even though it was bone dry and bitterly cold.
It was on nights like these that Indians fell in love with this strange man, whose contortions defied the best efforts of those in charge of microphone placement. For nobody could match the extraordinary ability of Bhimsen—always Bhimsen to his listeners—to capture the essential character of a raga, whether playful or grave, and send audiences out into the night humming, with the music under their skin, almost stunned with the force of something they could not quite comprehend.
Related topics
India
That was what made generations of homesick Indian students turn to him on freezing winter nights in south London or Cambridge, Massachusetts, when home seemed unbearably far away and the darkness demanded nothing less than the master singing a sombre raga of the late night. But his voice meant a great deal even to those Indians who had little time for classical music. Millions of homes in Maharashtra woke up to him singing the abhangs, or hymns, of the medieval Marathi saint-poets on the early-morning programme on All India Radio’s Bombay station. A much-loved television campaign promoting national unity, which opened with his singing, ensured that even those who grew up with rap rather than ragas knew, and loved, that voice.
His childhood, in the culturally fertile Dharwad region in the state of Bombay in British India, was suffused by music: the devotional songs his mother sang as she went about her chores; the azaan, or calls to prayer, from the nearby mosque. But his love for music crystallised when, at 11, on a scratchy 78rpm record, he heard Abdul Karim Khan, the great master of the Kirana school, which melodiously blended elements of the music of both north and south. That was how he wanted to sing.
The railway boy
Spurred by music, then, he ran away from home, travelling ticketless on the trains that snaked across India from the home town of one great master to another, relying on his singing to melt ticket-inspectors’ hearts. Passengers, too, threw him small coins for his songs. By 1936 he had persuaded Sawai Gandharva, a disciple of Abdul Karim Khan, to teach him the intricacies of the Kirana style of singing. In 1941 he gave his first public performance; by 1946 he was famous.
His style picked up influences from all over India. True, he had the Kirana school’s tunefulness. But those intricate taans owed something to the Jaipur school, even to the style of Faiyaz Khan of Agra. For Bhimsen Joshi was really interpreting Hindustani music in his own way. A good singer, he said, was a bit like a thief, incorporating what he liked best about others’ styles into his own. He sang where he could, too, in the early years: bhajans, or devotional songs, for All India Radio’s Lucknow station for 25 rupees a day, and occasional songs for films later.
It was hard work. A glass of rich buffalo milk in the morning; then four hours singing a raga in the lowest octave as the first part of up to 20 hours of practice. But milk was not all he drank. People told other kinds of stories about Bhimsen concerts, the ones where he was repeatedly announced but didn’t appear for hours. It was only by the late 1970s that he overcame his problems with liquor.
His drinking, like his love for fast cars, was of a piece with the man: slightly reckless, fully immersed in whatever he was doing. His singing, he said, reflected his personality. He reckoned that everyone’s should. Don’t sing like me, he would urge his students. Sing like yourselves, find your own voice.
His favourite composition, in a raga named after a town linked in Hindu mythology to the god Krishna, used words in praise of a 12th-century Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, the saviour of the poor. But there was not one sectarian note in Bhimsen Joshi. He loved the syncreticism of Hindustani music, with its mixture of Hindu and Muslim influences. Music had no religion or caste, he often said. The religion of music was music.
Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2011.
USA: Hard of Hearing or is Everyone Else Mumbling?
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia / Suite101 / Health & Wellness / February 3, 2011
Learn the signs and symptoms of hearing loss, a common condition that few people recognize in themselves in early stages, suggests
Katrena Wells
SeniorsHealth Features Writer
Approximately 35 million people in the United States have some type of hearing loss. Many people suffer hearing loss due to a variety of reasons; however, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Senior Health educational series on hearing loss, less than 40% of people aged 70 and older have had their hearing tested in the last five years. Those who discover a hearing loss may find more options than expected for reversing or dealing with this common condition.
Signs and Symptoms of Hearing Loss
Suddenly losing the ability to hear is often noticed by the person who has become hard of hearing as well as those around her. However, many times the loss of one’s hearing occurs gradually, often over years, as with a type of hearing loss called presbycusis. Another common type of hearing loss in seniors involves tinnitus. This type of hearing problem is often described as ringing or hissing in the ears, yet many times a person with tinnitus has learned to tune out or ignore the constant noise that only he can hear.
Photo by Oregon Advisory Council on Hearing Aids
Examples of signs that a person may have hearing loss include:
• frequently asking other people to repeat what they are saying
• misunderstanding conversations and responding inappropriately
• feeling as if others are mumbling rather than speaking clearly
• having difficulty hearing in settings with background noises or where multiple conversations are occurring simultaneously
• straining to hear others speaking
• turning up the volume on the television or radio to a level that others feel is too loud
• frequently hearing ringing, roaring, or hissing sounds
• feeling as if certain sounds are too loud
• not hearing someone else speak clearly if one cannot see his or her lips as he or she talks
Hearing Loss May Affect Relationships and Social Activities
The person who is hard of hearing has often learned to compensate for the loss of hearing and may not realize to what extend his or her hearing is affected. High frequency sounds are often affected first, which may result in difficulty hearing the voices of women and children in particular. The person who is hard of hearing will often ensure that she is close to and facing the person with whom she is talking but may be unable to hear someone who is speaking behind her or who is in another room. Others who have a hearing deficit may compensate by avoiding conversations in crowded areas such as restaurants or worship services.
Many times the person with hearing loss may experience strained relationships. At times the person may be accused of not listening, being confused or having early Alzheimer's, being unreasonable, or making up false information. For example, a constant battle may erupt regarding the volume on the TV. Another example might be a heated discussion when a spouse in another room says, “Did you get your tooth fixed?” The person with a hearing deficit might hear “Did you get toothpicks?” An argument might quickly escalate as to why the spouse did not put toothpicks on the grocery list when he knew that she was going to the dentist.
Unfortunately, hearing deficits may affect many areas of a person's life, particularly when coupled with other common issues with aging, such as problems with sight. For example, a senior may be unable to clearly hear directions given by a healthcare provider. If the written directions are too small for him to see, he may take medications improperly, miss important appointments, or misunderstand directions for treatment. Hearing loss can also lead to dangerous situations, such as the inability to hear a smoke alarm.
Hearing Loss in Seniors
Hearing loss is a common problem in older adults, yet it may be unrecognized by the person who is hard of hearing. The loss of hearing may affect many areas of the person’s life and can cause strained relationships or lead to misunderstandings. Knowing the most common signs of a hearing deficit may encourage a person to set up an appointment to have his or her hearing tested and then explore options for treatment.
Readers may also wish to read:
• What Causes Hearing Loss?
• Hearing Loss Linked to Diabetes – A Guide for Seniors
• Diabetes Information That Could Save a Life...Even if You Don't Have Diabetes
• Swimmer’s Ear – Risks, Symptoms, and Treatments
• Ear Candles May Cause Injuries
• Inner Ear Anatomy and Physiology – The Basics
• Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease or is Confusion Normal With Age
• Safe Use of Medications and OTC Meds
Sources:
• American Diabetes Association's "Diabetes and Hearing Loss" accessed on February 1, 2011.
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s “Causes of Hearing Loss in Adults” accessed on February 3, 2011.
• National Institute of Health’s SeniorHealth “Hearing Loss” accessed on February 1, 2011.
• National Institute of Health’s “Hearing Disorders and Deafness” accessed on February 3, 2011.
Copyright: Katrena Wells, Author
VANCOUVER, British Columbia / Suite101 / Health & Wellness / February 3, 2011
Katrena Wells
SeniorsHealth Features Writer
Approximately 35 million people in the United States have some type of hearing loss. Many people suffer hearing loss due to a variety of reasons; however, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Senior Health educational series on hearing loss, less than 40% of people aged 70 and older have had their hearing tested in the last five years. Those who discover a hearing loss may find more options than expected for reversing or dealing with this common condition.
Signs and Symptoms of Hearing Loss
Photo by Oregon Advisory Council on Hearing Aids
Examples of signs that a person may have hearing loss include:
• frequently asking other people to repeat what they are saying
• misunderstanding conversations and responding inappropriately
• feeling as if others are mumbling rather than speaking clearly
• having difficulty hearing in settings with background noises or where multiple conversations are occurring simultaneously
• straining to hear others speaking
• turning up the volume on the television or radio to a level that others feel is too loud
• frequently hearing ringing, roaring, or hissing sounds
• feeling as if certain sounds are too loud
• not hearing someone else speak clearly if one cannot see his or her lips as he or she talks
Hearing Loss May Affect Relationships and Social Activities
The person who is hard of hearing has often learned to compensate for the loss of hearing and may not realize to what extend his or her hearing is affected. High frequency sounds are often affected first, which may result in difficulty hearing the voices of women and children in particular. The person who is hard of hearing will often ensure that she is close to and facing the person with whom she is talking but may be unable to hear someone who is speaking behind her or who is in another room. Others who have a hearing deficit may compensate by avoiding conversations in crowded areas such as restaurants or worship services.
Many times the person with hearing loss may experience strained relationships. At times the person may be accused of not listening, being confused or having early Alzheimer's, being unreasonable, or making up false information. For example, a constant battle may erupt regarding the volume on the TV. Another example might be a heated discussion when a spouse in another room says, “Did you get your tooth fixed?” The person with a hearing deficit might hear “Did you get toothpicks?” An argument might quickly escalate as to why the spouse did not put toothpicks on the grocery list when he knew that she was going to the dentist.
Unfortunately, hearing deficits may affect many areas of a person's life, particularly when coupled with other common issues with aging, such as problems with sight. For example, a senior may be unable to clearly hear directions given by a healthcare provider. If the written directions are too small for him to see, he may take medications improperly, miss important appointments, or misunderstand directions for treatment. Hearing loss can also lead to dangerous situations, such as the inability to hear a smoke alarm.
Hearing Loss in Seniors
Hearing loss is a common problem in older adults, yet it may be unrecognized by the person who is hard of hearing. The loss of hearing may affect many areas of the person’s life and can cause strained relationships or lead to misunderstandings. Knowing the most common signs of a hearing deficit may encourage a person to set up an appointment to have his or her hearing tested and then explore options for treatment.
Readers may also wish to read:
• What Causes Hearing Loss?
• Hearing Loss Linked to Diabetes – A Guide for Seniors
• Diabetes Information That Could Save a Life...Even if You Don't Have Diabetes
• Swimmer’s Ear – Risks, Symptoms, and Treatments
• Ear Candles May Cause Injuries
• Inner Ear Anatomy and Physiology – The Basics
• Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease or is Confusion Normal With Age
• Safe Use of Medications and OTC Meds
Sources:
• American Diabetes Association's "Diabetes and Hearing Loss" accessed on February 1, 2011.
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s “Causes of Hearing Loss in Adults” accessed on February 3, 2011.
• National Institute of Health’s SeniorHealth “Hearing Loss” accessed on February 1, 2011.
• National Institute of Health’s “Hearing Disorders and Deafness” accessed on February 3, 2011.
Copyright: Katrena Wells, Author
February 2, 2011
USA: Medical Detectives Find Their First New Disease
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NEW YORK / The New York Times / Health / Research / February 2, 2011
By Gina Kolata
Louise Benge’s medical problems started when she was 25. Walking became excruciating. Her calves got hard as rocks, and every step was agony. Her hands started hurting, too. And the condition, whatever it was, only got worse over the next two decades.
Ms. Benge’s family doctor in Mount Vernon, Ky., was at a loss, as were a vascular specialist, a hand specialist and a kidney specialist. Her two sisters and two brothers had the problem too, but no doctor could figure out why.
It was clear from X-rays why Ms. Benge could barely walk: The blood vessels in her legs, feet and hands were accumulating calcium deposits like the scales that can form inside water pipes. The deposits had grown so thick that blood could hardly squeeze through. But calcium was only in the blood vessels of her legs and hands; her heart’s vessels were spared, so she was not in immediate danger of dying.
A doctor prescribed weekly infusions of a drug, sodium thiosulfate, Ms. Benge said, thinking it might bind to the calcium so her body could flush it out. But the drug did not work — it only made her vomit.
Finally, Ms. Benge’s family doctor sent her medical history to a detective agency of sorts, the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National Institutes of Health. Set up in the spring of 2008, the program relies on teams of specialists who use the most advanced tools of medicine and genomics to try to figure out the causes of diseases that have baffled doctors.
The idea was that understanding rare diseases can give insights into more common ones, said Dr. William A. Gahl, director of the program.
And, he said, there was another reason.
“Patients who have rare diseases are often abandoned by the medical community,” Dr. Gahl said. “We don’t know how to treat if we don’t have a diagnosis. The way our society treats abandoned individuals is a measure of our society. It speaks to how our society treats the poorest among us.”
With Ms. Benge and her siblings, the researchers have their first newly discovered disease. It is caused, they report on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, by a mutation in a gene that prevents calcium from depositing in blood vessels.
Now that they know the cause of the disease, the researchers have ideas for how to treat it. And the discovery also has implications for more common diseases, like heart disease and osteoporosis, in which calcium is deposited inappropriately.
The unraveling of Ms. Benge’s mystery disease began the week of May 11, 2009, when Ms. Benge, who is 56, and her sister Paula Allen, who is 51, arrived at the tall red-brick clinical center on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.
The Office of Undiagnosed Diseases had been hearing from thousands of patients, Dr. Gahl said, 1,700 of whom sent their medical records. “Many had been to Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, and some had been to all three and been there more than once,” he said.
Dr. Gahl and his colleagues were looking for people with unusual symptoms or unusual clues to what might be wrong. For example, they are now investigating a mystery disease in a young girl with uncontrollable muscle contractions that make it hard for her to talk, walk and use her hands; one that gave a young boy symptoms that look like Parkinson’s disease; and one that gives a middle-aged woman shards of keratin, a hair protein, coming out of her hair follicles.
Ms. Benge and her sister had symptoms like no one had ever seen. X-rays and M.R.I. images of their legs, hands and feet showed blood vessels so clogged with calcium that blood could get through only by squeezing into tiny vessels that had sprouted to circumvent the blockages. And those tiny vessels just were not able to supply enough blood.
Because there were five affected siblings, the researchers decided to take a genetic approach, using techniques not available at most major medical centers. The parents were fine, and that indicated the disease might be caused by a recessive gene — each parent would have one copy of the mutated gene and one copy of the intact gene, and each child with the disease would have two copies of the mutated gene, one inherited from each parent.
That led the investigators to a stretch of DNA with 92 genes. From there, the researchers zoomed in on the gene that was the culprit. A mutation had stopped it from functioning.
Cells use the gene to make extracellular adenosine, a common compound that in this case was needed to suppress calcification. No one had known about this metabolic pathway, said Dr. Manfred Boehm, a vascular biologist at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The discovery is very important, said Dr. Dwight Towler, a bone endocrinologist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not part of the study, because it can help researchers understand signals for calcification in different parts of the body.
“You notice they don’t have problems everywhere,” he said of Ms. Benge and her siblings. That is because bone calcification and blood vessel formation are exquisitely coordinated, and different parts of the body use similar, yet subtly distinct, mechanisms.
The disease also fits in with a growing understanding of the close relationship between blood vessel cells and bone cells. Researchers say it could lead to new insights into heart disease, in which calcium deposits in coronary arteries, and heart valve disease, in which calcium can deposit in heart valves. Sometimes, said Dr. Towler, actual bone, with marrow, forms in valves.
It also could help illuminate the relationship between osteoporosis, in which bone is lost, and heart disease. In osteoporosis, as people lose bone, calcium often accumulates in arteries. It is as if the calcium that is not being deposited in bones is going into blood vessels instead.
The researchers have now identified nine people from three families who have the newly discovered disease: Ms. Benge’s family, a patient in San Francisco and a family in Italy. Now they are working on treatments. The simplest might be to give a bisphosphonate, an osteoporosis drug. With the gene mutation and decreased levels of adenosine, patients end up with high levels of an enzyme, alkaline phosphatase, needed to make calcium deposits. Bisphosphonates bring down levels of that enzyme.
The investigators are putting together plans to test bisphosphonates and submitting them to ethics boards for approval.
“We hope to know in three or four months whether we can go forward,” Dr. Gahl said.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
NEW YORK / The New York Times / Health / Research / February 2, 2011
By Gina Kolata
Louise Benge’s medical problems started when she was 25. Walking became excruciating. Her calves got hard as rocks, and every step was agony. Her hands started hurting, too. And the condition, whatever it was, only got worse over the next two decades.
Ms. Benge’s family doctor in Mount Vernon, Ky., was at a loss, as were a vascular specialist, a hand specialist and a kidney specialist. Her two sisters and two brothers had the problem too, but no doctor could figure out why.
It was clear from X-rays why Ms. Benge could barely walk: The blood vessels in her legs, feet and hands were accumulating calcium deposits like the scales that can form inside water pipes. The deposits had grown so thick that blood could hardly squeeze through. But calcium was only in the blood vessels of her legs and hands; her heart’s vessels were spared, so she was not in immediate danger of dying.
A doctor prescribed weekly infusions of a drug, sodium thiosulfate, Ms. Benge said, thinking it might bind to the calcium so her body could flush it out. But the drug did not work — it only made her vomit.
Finally, Ms. Benge’s family doctor sent her medical history to a detective agency of sorts, the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National Institutes of Health. Set up in the spring of 2008, the program relies on teams of specialists who use the most advanced tools of medicine and genomics to try to figure out the causes of diseases that have baffled doctors.
And, he said, there was another reason.
“Patients who have rare diseases are often abandoned by the medical community,” Dr. Gahl said. “We don’t know how to treat if we don’t have a diagnosis. The way our society treats abandoned individuals is a measure of our society. It speaks to how our society treats the poorest among us.”
With Ms. Benge and her siblings, the researchers have their first newly discovered disease. It is caused, they report on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, by a mutation in a gene that prevents calcium from depositing in blood vessels.
Now that they know the cause of the disease, the researchers have ideas for how to treat it. And the discovery also has implications for more common diseases, like heart disease and osteoporosis, in which calcium is deposited inappropriately.
The unraveling of Ms. Benge’s mystery disease began the week of May 11, 2009, when Ms. Benge, who is 56, and her sister Paula Allen, who is 51, arrived at the tall red-brick clinical center on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.
The Office of Undiagnosed Diseases had been hearing from thousands of patients, Dr. Gahl said, 1,700 of whom sent their medical records. “Many had been to Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, and some had been to all three and been there more than once,” he said.
Dr. Gahl and his colleagues were looking for people with unusual symptoms or unusual clues to what might be wrong. For example, they are now investigating a mystery disease in a young girl with uncontrollable muscle contractions that make it hard for her to talk, walk and use her hands; one that gave a young boy symptoms that look like Parkinson’s disease; and one that gives a middle-aged woman shards of keratin, a hair protein, coming out of her hair follicles.
Ms. Benge and her sister had symptoms like no one had ever seen. X-rays and M.R.I. images of their legs, hands and feet showed blood vessels so clogged with calcium that blood could get through only by squeezing into tiny vessels that had sprouted to circumvent the blockages. And those tiny vessels just were not able to supply enough blood.
Because there were five affected siblings, the researchers decided to take a genetic approach, using techniques not available at most major medical centers. The parents were fine, and that indicated the disease might be caused by a recessive gene — each parent would have one copy of the mutated gene and one copy of the intact gene, and each child with the disease would have two copies of the mutated gene, one inherited from each parent.
That led the investigators to a stretch of DNA with 92 genes. From there, the researchers zoomed in on the gene that was the culprit. A mutation had stopped it from functioning.
Cells use the gene to make extracellular adenosine, a common compound that in this case was needed to suppress calcification. No one had known about this metabolic pathway, said Dr. Manfred Boehm, a vascular biologist at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The discovery is very important, said Dr. Dwight Towler, a bone endocrinologist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not part of the study, because it can help researchers understand signals for calcification in different parts of the body.
“You notice they don’t have problems everywhere,” he said of Ms. Benge and her siblings. That is because bone calcification and blood vessel formation are exquisitely coordinated, and different parts of the body use similar, yet subtly distinct, mechanisms.
The disease also fits in with a growing understanding of the close relationship between blood vessel cells and bone cells. Researchers say it could lead to new insights into heart disease, in which calcium deposits in coronary arteries, and heart valve disease, in which calcium can deposit in heart valves. Sometimes, said Dr. Towler, actual bone, with marrow, forms in valves.
It also could help illuminate the relationship between osteoporosis, in which bone is lost, and heart disease. In osteoporosis, as people lose bone, calcium often accumulates in arteries. It is as if the calcium that is not being deposited in bones is going into blood vessels instead.
The researchers have now identified nine people from three families who have the newly discovered disease: Ms. Benge’s family, a patient in San Francisco and a family in Italy. Now they are working on treatments. The simplest might be to give a bisphosphonate, an osteoporosis drug. With the gene mutation and decreased levels of adenosine, patients end up with high levels of an enzyme, alkaline phosphatase, needed to make calcium deposits. Bisphosphonates bring down levels of that enzyme.
The investigators are putting together plans to test bisphosphonates and submitting them to ethics boards for approval.
“We hope to know in three or four months whether we can go forward,” Dr. Gahl said.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
February 1, 2011
USA: World's oldest woman dies at 115 in Texas
.
JACKSONVILLE / Inquirer.net / Agence France Presse / February 1, 2011
The world's oldest woman died Monday in her Texas home at the age of 115, her caretaker told AFP.
Eunice Sanborn (July 20, 1896 – January 31, 2011) held the title of world's oldest person for less than three months after the death of Eugenie Blanchard, a nun from the French West Indies on November 4, 2010.
While an organization which tracks and verifies supercentenarians listed Sanborn's age as 114, her family claims the US Census Bureau erroneously recorded her birth year as 1896 rather than 1895.
Sanborn celebrated her 115th birthday on July 20.
Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, she moved to Texas after her first husband, Joseph Orchin, died.
Although she never worked outside the home, Sanborn stayed busy with community activities her entire life. She was an active member of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville and sang in the choir there for many years.
Sanborn has credited her long life and good health to her belief in Jesus Christ and her salvation.
Her "adopted" son David French – a longtime friend of Sanborn who first met her when he was five years old – and his wife Rena provided 24-hour care for Sanborn so that she could remain in her home.
Rena French said Sanborn died at 6 a.m.
Besse Cooper of the US state of Georgia – born August 26, 1896 – is now the world's oldest woman, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Cooper was born Besse Brown in Sullivan County, Tennessee, the third of eight children. She graduated from East Tennessee Normal School and was a teacher in her native Tennessee before moving to Georgia.
She married Luther Cooper in 1924, and was widowed in 1963.
She has credited her longevity to minding her own business and not eating junk food. She lives in the Walton Regional Medical Center Nursing Home in Monroe, Georgia.
As of her 114th birthday, Cooper has 4 children, 11 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great-grandchild.
Source: Inquirer.net, Makati City, Philippines
JACKSONVILLE / Inquirer.net / Agence France Presse / February 1, 2011
The world's oldest woman died Monday in her Texas home at the age of 115, her caretaker told AFP.
Eunice Sanborn (July 20, 1896 – January 31, 2011) held the title of world's oldest person for less than three months after the death of Eugenie Blanchard, a nun from the French West Indies on November 4, 2010.
While an organization which tracks and verifies supercentenarians listed Sanborn's age as 114, her family claims the US Census Bureau erroneously recorded her birth year as 1896 rather than 1895.
Sanborn celebrated her 115th birthday on July 20.
Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, she moved to Texas after her first husband, Joseph Orchin, died.
Although she never worked outside the home, Sanborn stayed busy with community activities her entire life. She was an active member of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville and sang in the choir there for many years.
Sanborn has credited her long life and good health to her belief in Jesus Christ and her salvation.
Her "adopted" son David French – a longtime friend of Sanborn who first met her when he was five years old – and his wife Rena provided 24-hour care for Sanborn so that she could remain in her home.
Rena French said Sanborn died at 6 a.m.
Besse Cooper of the US state of Georgia – born August 26, 1896 – is now the world's oldest woman, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Cooper was born Besse Brown in Sullivan County, Tennessee, the third of eight children. She graduated from East Tennessee Normal School and was a teacher in her native Tennessee before moving to Georgia.
She married Luther Cooper in 1924, and was widowed in 1963.
She has credited her longevity to minding her own business and not eating junk food. She lives in the Walton Regional Medical Center Nursing Home in Monroe, Georgia.
As of her 114th birthday, Cooper has 4 children, 11 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great-grandchild.
Source: Inquirer.net, Makati City, Philippines
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