For 80 (!) years physicians have prescribed testosterone to men without being certain if it actually had any effect other than raising testosterone levels. The only FDA-approved indication for testosterone is pathological hypogonadism, in which there’s an actual disorder of the male reproductive system that results in the body not producing enough testosterone. Examples are testicular […]
Category: Aging
130/80: What The New High Blood Pressure Guidelines Mean For You
You might not have known it, but last Monday, November 13, 2017, you may have awakened with high blood pressure (hypertension). Don’t feel alone. A massive increase in the number of people with hypertension occurred overnight when the definition of high blood pressure was officially changed from 140/90 (and higher) to 130/80 (and higher). I’m […]
Health Screening Offers: Should You Bother?
Like most people, you’ve received one of those brochures in the mail with a headline screaming something like “Health Screening Can Save Your Life!” They’re filled with photos of happy, healthy people on golf courses or with their grandchildren and are liberally sprinkled with quotes like, “Dan’s alive today because an ultrasound revealed his aneurysm.”
Doctors Die Differently
With everything being written about our changing healthcare climate, you’re probably also seeing articles about end-of-life care. During a person’s final weeks or months, costs escalate from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and all too often for little more than a minor extension of misery. It puts a new spin on Dylan Thomas:Do […]
Disappointments With Testosterone
For 80 (!) years physicians have prescribed testosterone to men without being certain if it actually had any effect other than raising testosterone levels. The only FDA-approved indication for testosterone is pathological hypogonadism, in which there’s an actual disorder of the male reproductive system that results in the body not producing enough testosterone. Examples are […]
Worrisome Dementia Report For Women and Steps To Take
We’ve always known there was a higher rate of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in women than in men, initially attributed to the fact that women live longer and that the decline in mental function occurred with age. This turned out to be wrong. At 65, a woman has a greater than one-in-six chance of […]
Nutritional Supplement Shotgun Therapy
I once had a new patient arrive with her forms completed, a stack of medical records under her arm, and a large bulging gym bag in tow, saying “I brought all the supplements I’m taking. I’m hoping you can suggest a few I might not need.” One by one, she placed bottles and jars of […]
My Memory’s Just Not The Same…Is This Worrisome?
Immediate answer: The newest research shows that your own impression of your memory–not anyone else’s, and not any particular test–could be the very first sign of mental decline as you age. Longer answer: We all have episodes of forgetfulness no matter how old we are. Ask any high school senior confronted with the SAT vocabulary […]
WTF Happened To My Sex Drive?
I don’t mean to catch you mid-croissant on this topic, but I want to report the latest research on a woman’s libido and its relationship to her masturbation activities. If you’re a woman in your mid-40s or older, partnered or not, straight or gay, you may have noticed something about your sex drive you’re not […]
No More Colonoscopies! (For Most of Us)
If you’re approaching 50, you’re facing issues unique to your next half century. Oh, sure, there are lots of good things to anticipate, like joining AARP for discounts on Depends or joining one of their affordable bus tours to the Dells. You can even fantasize about retirement, though it may be years and years away. […]
A Final Commonly Missed Diagnosis: Functional Symptoms
This missed diagnosis is a bit more complicated. It’s not one specific condition, like a slightly underactive thyroid or gluten intolerance. It’s about you and your doctor’s tunnel vision, the “if your only tool is a hammer, then everything around you is a nail” sort of thinking. Functional symptoms constitute a huge spectrum of missed […]
Younger Than 45? You May Press Delete Now
Ours being a youth-oriented culture is a cliché. Yet at a certain point in our lives we may neither know nor care who the Grammy winners were, be indifferent to the screen resolution of the latest iPad, and in the mirror realize those pricey anti-aging supplements aren’t working as magically as advertised. All this is […]
I Think My Mind Is Going
It’s fairly common, actually. You walk into a room suddenly befuddled, wracking your brain, desperate to remember just why you came to this room in the first place. Or you’re telling someone about a movie you just saw the night before, really enjoyed, and now you’re clawing at your cerebral cortex trying to extricate the title, the actor, the name of the theatre.
Can We Slow Down Aging?
Ever notice how people age? Some people just look younger or older than their actual age. We see an old friend after an absence of a few years and think, “Jeez! Did he age!” and wonder what might have befallen him to press the fast-forward button on the aging process.
Meet Elaine
So twice a year I head to Florida to visit my 88-year-old aunt. Except for the fact she’s a Fox News Republican, we enjoy each other’s company by agreeing to avoid political arguments. I might add she’s a former nightclub singer and makes a mean martini.
Will Alzheimer’s Skyrocket?
In 2006, the very dark comedy Idiocracy played local theatres for what seemed like a few hours before disappearing into DVD bins and obscure cable channels. Its Rip van Winkle story involves a not particularly bright Army librarian, recruited into a Pentagon hibernation program, awakening centuries into the future and finding himself the most intelligent person in America.
Hair Problems
Whether you realize it or not, every day you lose some hair. Your body then replaces it with some new strands as part of the many renewal processes that are built into our systems. As you age, the reappearance of new hair gradually slows. This phenomenon is more noticeable in men, whose “male-pattern baldness” is genetically determined and can begin as early as age 20. For women, hair normally thins after age 50, and significant hair loss before that age is rare. Hair loss can also be tied to a wide variety of conditions not related to your family history, such as nutritional deficiencies, side effects of illnesses or a particular drug, child birth, hormonal shifts, or periods of increased stress.
Aging
Now it’s the baby boomers turn, as that vast generation starts to come to grips with the uncomfortable possibility of growing old and actually dying. Evidence of a surge of interest in anti-aging is everywhere: in the numerous “anti-aging” book titles; in the physicians (unhappy with the HMO grind) who’ve become “specialists” in “Anti-Aging Medicine”; in the emergence of cosmetic surgery as a standard big-ticket household expense.
Anti-Aging Supplements
In a previous health tip, I discussed what I considered to be the pointlessness of spending your hard-earned money seeing a specialist in anti-aging medicine. This tip is for those curious about anti-aging supplements. But first, a quick list of the current theories about why our bodies age: Genetic Genes are probably overrated, but if […]
Anti-Aging Industry
I just received a flyer announcing the 16th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine to be held next month in Washington, DC. The way this brochure reads (“3000 participants, 300 exhibitors, 60 speakers, global market of anti-aging products to reach $115.5 billion by 2010, your Gateway to Opportunity”), you’d think any doctor failing to become […]