What’s the worst part about getting older? Renegade hairs growing where no hairs ever grew before? Getting shorter? Diminishing eyesight and hearing? Maybe.
But those aches and pains can get a person down. Waking up in the morning with a sore back or a sore shoulder or sore feet is the most universal sign of aging. What can you do about it?
Take aspirin or Advil or Tylenol. Get a massage. Use heat and ice alternatively. Maybe acupuncture. In my state (Colorado), a person can buy CBD oil derived from the marijuana plant. But if you decide to go that way, be VERY careful. Use the internet to your advantage. Learn all you can, especially about how much active THC is in the oil. Read the lab reports and be sure the report was generated by a reputable third-party laboratory. Some oils have metals and other harmful ingredients so be aware. And know that your liver has to metabolize CBD and THC, so if you drink alcohol you’re adding even more stress to your liver. And if you can, get your liver enzymes checked at least once a year, it’s a simple blood test.
Hearing loss is a common problem caused by noise, aging, disease, and heredity. People with hearing loss may find it hard to have conversations with friends and family, and may have trouble understanding a doctor’s advice, responding to warnings, and hearing doorbells and alarms. Approximately one in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 has hearing loss, and nearly half of those older than 75 has difficulty hearing.
Older people who can’t hear well may become depressed, or they may withdraw from others because they feel frustrated or embarrassed about not understanding what is being said. Sometimes, older people are mistakenly thought to be confused, unresponsive, or uncooperative because they don’t hear well. It’s difficult to admit to aging and hearing loss, but addressing the issues straight on can change a person’s life.
Hearing problems that are ignored or untreated can get worse. If you have a hearing problem, see your doctor. Hearing aids, special training, certain medicines, and surgery are some of the treatments that can help. Hearing aid technology has advanced lightyears from when we were kids. Who had a grandfather, a neighbor, or a teacher with hearing aids and the huge battery device hanging from the neck. Today hearing aids are so small they can barely be seen by other folk. Most don’t need battery changes because they’re rechargeable. AND they’re not as expensive as they were even a few years ago. Below is a link to an informative website addressing hearing problems in older folk,
Ronnie Self was a rockabilly singer who had one hit, Bop-A-Lena, that made the Billboard charts. The song was released in 1958, and one Friday night my brother and I were getting ready for a Cub Scout meeting and listening to KMYR AM Radio in Denver. The disk jockey played Bop-A-Lena non-stop from 5pm until we left for the meeting, and when we returned, he was still playing Ronnie Self and Bop-A-Lena. Crazy rock and roll rockabilly times in the late 50s. Below is a link to the song,
2021 into 2022: Ways to Help You As You Grow Older
The New York Times has a column, “Well,” that addresses health issues. Here are some insights from the most popular Well stories published in 2021.
For successful aging, recognize your issues and adapt.
The Times personal health columnist turned 80 and took an inventory of her life and decided what she no longer needed to do (color her hair; talk about aches and pains to anyone who will listen) and what she is unwilling to give up (walking her dog in the woods). “Sooner or later, we all must recognize what is no longer possible and find alternatives,” Ms. Brody wrote. In her case, that has meant giving up ice skating, but still taking 10-mile bike rides.
The more your gut microbiome changes, the better. You may be able to predict your likelihood of living a long life by analyzing the trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that inhabit your intestinal tract, People whose microbiome changed needed fewer medications, and they had better physical health, with faster walking speeds and greater mobility. A healthy gut ultimately may lie in your genetic makeup, but we already know the tips for maintaining a health gut: eat more fiber, fruits, and vegetables, and avoid processed foods.
3. “Cognitive Super-Agers” may hold clues to how we can keep our brains in shape. A study from the Netherlands that focused on “cognitive super-agers”: people who approach the end of the human life span with brains that function as if they were 30 years younger. By studying centenarians, researchers hope to identify reliable characteristics and develop treatments that would result in healthy cognitive aging for most of us. Tips are to maintain good vision and hearing, and past research reveals resilience factors such as obtaining a high level of quality education; holding occupations that deal with complex facts and data; consuming a Mediterranean-style diet; engaging in leisure activities; socializing with other people; and exercising regularly.
4. Walking is a powerful way for older folk to exercise. If possible, we should take at least 7,000 steps a day or engage in sports such as tennis, cycling, swimming, jogging, or badminton for more than 2.5 hours per week (based on two aging studies). The key is to move more.
“Something Like Treason” by Bill Sonn. Bill has researched and written a book about an unknown chapter of Americans in World War II. Bill is a trained researcher and a skilled and compelling writer. Check it out at Bill’s website or find it on Amazon.
Before Mayberry and Matlock, Andy Griffith was a comedian, specializing in hillbilly comedy. He had two best-selling 45 rpm singles, “Romeo and Juliet,” which he performed on The Andy Griffith Show with Opie at the kitchen table. His other hit was, “What It Was, Was Football,” which you can hear at the link below. Both are very, very funny.
Inflammation is your body’s way of fighting off infection and healing damaged cells, and inflammation increases with age. Acute inflammation occurs to heal injuries and illness, also infection in the short-term.
Chronic inflammation occurs when your body sends an incorrect signal, then leading to permanent inflammation that lasts much longer. For us older folk, chronic inflammation can affect your body negatively even if you manifest no real symptoms. Many personal habits increase the possibility of chronic inflammation:
Chronic inflammation in seniors isn’t always obvious at first. It can impact your body internally while showing no outward symptoms until the condition worsens. Chronic inflammation is made worse by:
Smoking
Poor diet
Drinking alcohol
Not enough physical activity
Too much stress
Weight gain
Not enough sleep
Be aware of these signs that might indicate chronic inflammation:
Feeling tired all the time
Unexplained muscle aches and joint pain
Stomach issues including constipation or diarrhea
Gaining weight
Headaches
Skin rashes
Unfortunately for older folk, Inflammation is common in seniors and could mean disease that could result in damage to your body. It is important to identify chronic inflammation early on to prevent long-term damage to your body.
Below is an informative article about inflammation in older folk:
Robert Michael Pyle is world-renowned naturalist and a recognized expert on butterflies and the Monarch butterfly migration. His book, Mariposa Road, is a chronicle of his “butterfly year,” similar to the “birder years” in which birdwatchers document all the birds they’re able to see in a single year. Mariposa Road is filled with adventure, fun, traveling and transportation difficulties, technical descriptions, and, most of all, good humor. The book was glowingly reviewed in many publications, including the Wall Street Journal. Below is a very informative review of the book.
The First Butterfly Big Year by Robert Michael Pyle
Robert Michael Pyle’s expansive knowledge of the natural history of North America shines through in his new book Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year, the story of his yearlong journey in search of as many of the continent’s eight hundred species of butterfly as he can find. He makes not one journey, but a series of journeys, from his home in Gray’s River, Washington, which emanate out like the “ray petals of a daisy,” as he tells it. He calls himself “a fool with a butterfly dream,” a dream inspired by similar journeys made by others in search of birds, namely James Fisher and the legendary Roger Tory Peterson, who together wrote Wild America, and Kenn Kaufman who told his tale in Kingbird Highway. So Pyle is not alone, and yet, to his knowledge, no one has ever made such a journey in search of butterflies. His is the first “butterfly big year.”
Pyle, a former Orion columnist, has written an exhaustive description of the places he goes and the people and creatures he encounters (not all of them butterflies). He includes details of the weather, the roads, the fine beers and endless peanuts, the inns and empty parking lots where he sleeps off the day’s hunt. There is precedent for this too in the dutiful record keeping of naturalist-explorers like Lewis and Clark, Edwin Way Teale, and even Charles Darwin. This is Pyle’s great art, his attention to detail in the tradition of the great masters, and we owe him a debt for seeing, for documenting, for making a record of our world as it is. You find on most any page a lovely, spare execution, as in this passage of Pyle’s journey through the Columbia Gorge: “There, in a clearing off Oak Lake Road, we found what we’d come for: a two-banded checkered-skipper, spreading its wings in a nettle patch. Its clean, ivory-on-charcoal speckled pattern stood out sharply at rest, unlike its buzzy gray blur in flight.” Everything happens in this book, and nothing happens at all, like the long, beautiful monotony of everyday life.
Mariposa Road is, in the quietest way, a book about Pyle’s personal life. He writes about his tooth trouble, how he came to a lifelong study of butterflies, and most notably, about his wife Thea’s ongoing battle with cancer. This latter story deserves more attention, and might have helped drive the narrative, but Pyle chooses to lift the veil only a little. Thea is one of the more compelling people in the book, and when she joins Pyle in Florida, his prose takes on a brighter and crisper energy so that you come to realize this: these two are still deeply in love. She finds a rare blue-colored green tree frog, prompting Pyle to exclaim, “She always spots the best stuff.” It’s too bad Thea could not have accompanied Pyle for the entire year.
The book is long and includes an appendix but not an index, which would be helpful to readers using it as a resource. Though Pyle explains his reasons for not including photographs of the butterflies he encounters, readers would benefit from such a visual feast. Still, this book belongs in our hands and on our shelves in the company of other artful records of our place. Perhaps in a hundred years we’ll still be reading Mariposa Road for a glimpse of what we’ve lost, or better, of how far we’ve come in recovering our wild places. For now, read this book not to penetrate deeply, but to skip lightly from place to place down North America’s highways and backwoods roads in search of those beautiful fliers. You’ll arrive. You’ll look to see. You’ll see and be off again, the country rolling by in a kaleidoscope of wingéd colors and fragments and shards of light.
Remembering a Wun’erful Novelty Song
Stan Freberg was an influential writer, performer, and humorist in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The Lawrence Welk show was very popular during those years, and Freberg created a hilarious parody of the show called “Wun’erful Wun’erful.” The 45 rpm record sold a lot of copies and was widely played on the radio. Below is the recording. You won’t be able to stop laughing.
Freberg was famous for his Jeno’s Pizza Rolls TV commercial with Clayton Moore in his original role of the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels in his original role as Tonto. The commercial was filmed in a single long take, remarkable unto itself. Enjoy.
Today’s Topic is Vision and AMD (Age-Related Macular Degeneration Age-Related Macular Degeneration)
If you live long enough, you’re very likely to acquire Age-Related Macular Degeneration, an eye disease affecting more than 100 million Americas (more than glaucoma and cataracts combined). Factors affecting AMD are being overweight, smoking, poor diet, but mostly age. The two types of AMD are dry and wet, and wet AMD is much more serious than dry AMD. Below is a link to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation.
An Extremely Important Book During these Difficult Times
“To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, The Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876” by Bret Baier, chronicles the efforts by President Ulysses Grant to reach a compromise during the election of 1876, which essentially elected Rutherford B. Hayes as president, federal troops left the South, and Reconstruction ended. Prior to the election, the south, weary of reconstruction and occupation, threatened again to secede and leave the union.
Below is a link to a compelling interview with Mr. Baier.
Ray Stevens made a career of writing and recording fun novelty songs, including Ahab the Arab, a song that could never be released today. It’s goofy and juvenile, which is understandable, because the target audience was teenagers spending many hours every day listening to the radio. Ahab reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Driving can become an issue for older folk owing to eyesight deterioration and increased spatial difficulty. As my mother aged, she would figure out a way to drive around Colorado (Denver and Aurora) without making a left turn. It took her longer, but she could turn right on a red light and never had to worry about making a left.
Personally, I backed out of a parking space a few years ago and lightly backed into a truck that was also backing out. From then on, I’ve always parked on the street or pulled through a parking space so I can pull forward when I leave. No more backing out of a parking space for me.
We all need to be very careful about driving at night. I’ll drive at night if my route is well-known to me, and if I’m driving early during the winter, I try not to leave before sunrise, so I Google sunrise time before I plan my trip.
Townes Van Zandt was a talented and prolific songwriter who spent his life writing songs and playing guitar. He was revered by other songwriters who respected his talent and imagination, and he lived simply most of his life, sometimes in a trailer without electricity.
His most famous composition is “Pancho and Lefty,” famously recorded by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, their interpretation reaching number one on the country charts. Preceding this recording, Emmy Lou Harris recorded “Pancho and Lefty” in 1983 to great acclaim.
Van Zandt was a heavy drinker and a heroin addict, sometimes even shooting alcohol into his veins. He ultimately died from his addictions at age 52. The 2000s saw a resurgence of interest in Van Zandt and his music, and his version of “Dead Flowers” appearing in “The Big Lebowski” and “Buckskin Stallion Blues” appearing in “3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.” Many other movies and television shows have featured his songs.
Below is Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard performing “Pancho and Lefty” at Farm Aid 2004.
Getting Old Ain’t for Sissies 