Celebrate Life :: Health and Disease

Celebrate Life
by author Al Keith

"One of the wonderful things about being alive is that it is never too late. Not too late to write a book, to learn a new challenge, to travel, to build a house or make new friends!" says author Phyllis Whitney, who wrote her 70th book at the age of 85. Wise individuals throughout the ages have been trying to tell us that the past may be a marvellous teacher, but there is no substitute for making the most of the present! Now is the time to savour every opportunity for pleasure and fulfillment.

Our later years can be the most creative and satisfying periods of our lives, if we live them with vigour and enthusiasm. "Life is a great adventure, or it is nothing, as Helen Keller put it. The renowned writer and lecturer overcame the loss of sight, hearing and speech to master several languages and lecture throughout the world.

These days, emergency medicine and improved nutrition enable most of us to enjoy our later years in far better health than in previous generations. It’s not surprising, then, that increasing numbers of 55-plus men and women are taking up new careers, immersing themselves in fulfilling hobbies or giving of their time and experience in important volunteer work.

The vigour and enthusiasm projected by many active "elderly" individuals is personified by women like Jo-Ann, a widow and retired office manager from Vancouver. At the age of 67, she virtually "fled" the stifling control of her well-meaning daughter. Together with her friend Gladys, who was 64 at the time and a former postal employee, she moved to the Okanagan Valley to run a boarding kennel for pets.

"Life is change," says Gladys. "If we had listened to the warnings of friends and family, we would’ve ended up as quivering masses of flesh. Instead, Jo-Ann and I are having the time of our lives." With a smile, she quotes Henry Emerson Fosdick: "It is magnificent to grow old–if one keeps young!"

Ron Lawrence, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, stresses that while hobbies are important at any age, they take on added significance in our later years. "Hobbies enhance self-esteem and confer a sense of identity," he emphasizes. If you don’t have a hobby yet, check out your library. You’ll find books on hobbies for every age, temperament and talent.

Rebekah, 71, and a widow, used to operate a popular fashion boutique. She recalls, "When my husband was still alive, we both were determined to pack a maximum of zeal in our later years." She shrugs. "But then Carl died of a heart attack seven years ago, and all my dreams died with him." That’s when Rebekah stopped exercising and put on quite a bit of extra weight. And her arthritis got so bad that she needed a cane for walking.

"I fell a couple of times while getting used to the cane, and that’s when my son started hinting that I might be better off in a nursing home. That was my wake-up call!" Rebekah, who had enjoyed oil painting in earlier, happier days, joined a local group of amateur painters who travel to scenic locations to paint local landmarks. She made several friends among her painting "buddies" and says she feels 10 years younger.

Doris felt betrayed and cast adrift when she was forced into early retirement from her public service job. And it was with some reluctance that she accepted the invitation of a friend to join her on a bicycle tour through the French wine country. Not only did Doris get to taste some great wine, but her European jaunt gave her a brand-new outlook on life. She also made new friends and is already planning a bicycle tour through Vermont with two of them. With a new attitude, Doris now manages a busy local crisis line three times a week. "Volunteering is a loving way to affirm that we all need one another," she says.

The moment regrets take the place of dreams, we begin to age quickly. In the words of author Betty Nickerson: "...think hard and deep about what you want the rest of your life to mean to you...what you want to achieve. List your heart’s desire. This is the first day of the rest of your life...fill it with light!"

Retired and living alone, Al Keith writes on health and outdoor subjects. At 70 plus, he still thrives on challenges such as exploring the BC coastline by kayak - his favourite form of transportation.

Source: alive #241, November 2002

Special Advertising Feature

The Collagen Connection - Special Advertising Feature provided by Naka
How can we ensure that our vital collagen is plentiful and remains strong as we age to support joint and skin health?

Looking, Feeling and Performing Your Best
Do you remember how you felt when you were really young? The reason everything seemed to work so well back then was because your body invested a lot of time and energy on repairs. It was as if you had a full-time mechanic on the premises.

Get Physical With Blended Drinks
Getting old does not necessarily mean getting sick. Obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure are not a function of chronological age. In fact they have more to do with lifestyle than genes--although both play a role..

Three Steps for Lifelong Health
Exercise, a whole foods diet and supplements are what you need to avoid spending your retirement in the doctor's office. They say there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes.

Ankylosing Spondylitis
Ankylosing spondylitis is an illness that took my whole lifetime to mature and five years to battle into submission. The symptoms and causes, like almost all so-called incurable diseases, piled up, stone upon stone, beginning to create my tombstone.

Lasting Longevity
Until recently, most people believed growing old and dying was unavoidable. However, it now appears the assumption many of us held as children, that "I will never grow old and die," was not quite as absurd as our parents thought. Different cultures have varied definitions of aging.

Age-Less Exercise
If there is an anti-aging pill, it has to be exercise--age-less exercise. Proper exercise has been shown to slow aging through reduced cholesterol, high blood pressure, stress levels, insulin levels and osteoporosis risk..

Age With Vitality
There's truth in the old saw "we dig our graves with our teeth." Heart disease, stroke, many cancers, kidney disease, diabetes and other disorders emerge from the way we live. Particularly what we eat. Nature has genetically programmed humans with a potential 120 years of life, yet most succumb long before..

Age-Defying Exercise
I'm amazed by the number of people who blame genetics for developing disease and disability or for premature death. Natural health supplements can oppose the degradation of lean mass, improve response to exercise and support muscle function, growth and development.

The Browning Effect
Imagine if you will the intricate network that makes up the human body. Think of the organs and tissues, the numerous hormones, neurotransmitters, peptides and amino acid.

You've Got the Power
For most of us, the obstacles that we struggle to overcome in our lives are very private. We often don't even let our hardships register on our faces as we go about our daily work routines. Most likely they don't get splashed across newspaper headlines or television screens, either.

Laughter: A Priceless Prescription
When Norman Cousins was editor of the Saturday Review, he became seriously ill with a brain tumou.

Longevity
Probably no one understands baby boomers as well as David Foo.

Aging, Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine
How many times have you heard someone make a birthday toast with the wish, "Live long and prosper?" You've probably thought of this as nothing more than a good-humoured gesture.

Herbs for Longevity
We're all aging all the time. As we grow older, our metabolism--the body's chemical and physical changes from producing energy from food and oxygen in cells--becomes less efficient.

Successful Aging
Life expectancy has increased dramatically over the past century, from 47 years in 1900 to approaching 80 years today.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...
Can you stand in front of the mirror and really look at yourself? What about with no clothes on? Do you like and accept what you see? Or do you wince and remind yourself t.

Anti-Aging: Immortality or Bunk?
The concept of anti-aging is cropping up all over the place. Popular books, high-profile doctors and purveyors of drugs and nutritional supplements all claim to have the inside track on anti-aging. But what does it really mean? To kick off this new column, let's take a look at what anti-aging is-and isn't..

How is Your Mental Muscle?
Certain conditions also greatly accelerate this aging, while hyperten.

Mind Over Cancer
Examining the biology of beliefNot a day goes by thatthe word "cancer" doesn't scare thousands of Canadians. Like a dreaded scourge, it hovers over us, presumably just waiting to claim its next victim.

Diet, Exercise And Supplements Help Keep Your Heart Young
In most industrialized countries, the incidence of cardiovascular disease goes up with age. Canada is no exeption-heart disease is the number-one cause of death in this country. However, this may have more to do with lifestyle factors such as diet, inactivity and stress than with aging.

Preventing Medication Mishaps in Seniors
People are living longer than ever before. For example, a Canadian born in 1960 can expect to live 20 years longer than one who was born in 1900.

Clear Vision, Sharp Hearing: Sense the Differences
Although memory loss heads the list of concerns among aging Canadians, vision and hearing loss are far more likely to afflict us as we get older. These common changes can impair your ability to drive, read and enjoy simple pleasures.

Movement
If we could bottle the benefits of physical exercise, we would have one of the most powerful anti-aging remedies known. Physical activity rejuvenates virtually every organ in your body, adding energy to your days and years to your life.

How to Slow Cellular Aging-Fast!
Did you know your body's cells host visitors from another time and place? The mitochondria, energy-producing factories in every one of your cells, are descendants of independent, free-living organisms. Mitochondria have unique DNA, separate and distinct from cellular DNA.

The Power Within Illness
The culture we live in most often views illness as a "bad thing. This is no more than an opinion-an opinion that, unfortunately, often leads to a self-fulfilling outcome.

Foods for Longevity
Eating a nutritious diet high in raw organic produce, whole grains, and clean water can slow the aging process and fight degenerative disease. Here we show how to combine foods to create a diet that targets the body systems most susceptible to aging and disease-reproductive, circulatory, musculo-skeletal, and digestive.

Pessimist or Optimist-Live Long Enough to Find Out
Is your glass half empty or half full? Research suggests that if you are an optimist and judge the glass half full, then you are more likely to live a longer, happier, and more satisfying life.

Joy and Happiness: The Same or Very Different Emotions?
Happiness, according to the Oxford English dictionary, is based on luck or good fortune. Joy on the other hand, is described as a vivid emotion of pleasure. Thus, happiness depends on circumstance; joy, on our emotional well-being.

Health Really Is a Laughing Matter
No matter what you're planning for the year ahead, if health is a priority, then laughing should be one as well. A good guffaw, or even a goofy giggle, is not only your best medicine, but a free, easy, and powerful way to prevent disease, relieve stress, and increase emotional health.

Head Colds
A friend of mine told me recently that her boyfriend had come down with a col.

Stories We Live By
For many people, the word "trauma" triggers images of terrible events afflicting the innocent: abuse, the death of loved ones, war, or natural disasters. The consequences of trauma on emotional health are well known and include mild to severe depression, anxiety, and panic attacks to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Muscle Mass Mastery
If we're not careful, by retirement, we could lose one-third to one-half of our muscle tissue. This debilitating condition, called sarcopenia, is now considered one of the top biomarkers of aging: its specific physical traits are used to measure the progress of aging.

Spring Into Your Autumn Years
People with a positive attitude toward aging can adjust very well when individual circumstances change. Their positive outlook allows them to adapt to the inevitable physical and biochemical changes of the body that are associated with the natural processes of aging. With a healthy outlook on the golden years, even unpredictable setbacks and disabilities can be managed successfully.

The Healing Truth
As many people who live with cancer know, the discovery of the disease marks the beginning of a new chapter in life. Researchers and healers continue to discover the role attitudes and emotions play in the healing process.

Not Now, Grim Reaper ... Another Time, Perhaps
Woody Allen said, "I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

Thanks to tremendous gains in life expectancy - at an all-time high average of 79.

Laugh and Smile Your Way to Health
Want a totally free, simple way to boost your spirits and your health with no prescription needed? Then you want to laugh and smile as much as possibl.

Practice Mental Calisthenics
I asked my friend Dennis why he's so optimistic about life and physically active at age 79. He regularly walks, hikes, exercises, and swim.

Finding Joy
I'll never forget the day I discovered the sheer joy that is found within even the saddest of times. It was in Mumbai, India, nearly forty years ago. My father's business had been completely decimated. We'd been living day to day, not knowing how we'd get our next meal..

An Attitude of Gratitude
My favourite holiday is Thanksgiving. I love the fall, the food, and the friends and family that are all associated with Thanksgiving. Every year at our Thanksgiving table we share with each other the things we are most thankful for.

The Fountain of Youth
The fountain of youth is at our fingertips. Fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants, little free-radical scavengers that just may be our fountain of youth. Antioxidants exert many positive effects on the body.

Cancer Diagnosis
A number of years ago one of the most popular songs on the radio instructed us to "don't worry, be happy. It was a nice sentiment-but we understand that life is not that simple. I fear that in writing this month's column on emotional health and breast cancer that it may sound like "don't worry, be happy. I assure you it isn't..

Clear Vision, Sharp Hearing: Sense the Differences
Although memory loss heads the list of concerns among agingCanadians, vision and hearing loss are far more likely to afflict us as weget older.These common changes can impair your ability to drive, read and enjoy simplepleasures. Fortunately, you can do several things to preserve your eyesightand hearing..

Three Steps to Happiness
Happiness is our natural state of being. It is who we are. Happiness is obvious in little childre.

Love and Health are a Perfect Match
Through self-love we may come to know and accept ourselves in a healthier way. Many women's magazines suggest a warm bubble bath once a week equals self-love. While this perception may leave us a bit cleaner, it does not, in itself, translate to greater health.

Metabolic Aging
Everybody wants to live a long and healthy life. If you carry excess body fat on your frame, though, you may be setting yourself up for a shorter lifespan than the one you were aiming for.

Forever Young
All of us want to have longer and healthier lives, and while some of us are dealt a better hand than others in life's genetic lottery, there are many ways we can maximize the potential we are born with.

Locus of Control
We consider many of life's experiences as good, bad, or somewhere in between. We credit our accomplishments in life to luck or personal effort or, again, somewhere in between.

Swallowing Emotions
From the mind/body perspective, physical illnesses may be expressions of basic psychological wounds, developing out of the emotional defences we construct to avoid feeling pain.

Laughing Matters
According to Dr. Billy Strean, professor of physical education at the University of Alberta and certified laughter coach, "When you laugh, your brain chemistry changes and everything starts to work the way it's supposed to.

Saying No to Negativity
Recently, my friend Jim started complaining again about his boss and his job. "If you tried to have a positive attitude for a change, I suggested, "you'd be happier and feel better about life. "Oh, that's a bunch of bull, Jim replied..

Community Connection
Community" was a concept that most people took for granted a few generations.

Integrative Medicine
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Andrew Weil, a pioneer and world-renowned leader in the field of integrative medicine. After teaching and writing about natural and preventive medicine for over 35 years, Dr. Weil provides a unique approach to health care, which encompasses body, mind, and spirit.

What Do I Do With All These Feelings?
With Christmas having come and gone, many of us may be suffering from a post-holiday hangover-not just from the drinking, but from the spending, the eating, the partying and the dealings with family, too. So what exactly do we do to not get depressed and discouraged?The key lies in the ability to process our emotions..

Does Obesity Really Affect How We Age?
As we age, we tend to notice a loss of muscle mass, strength, bone mass, and energy potential. Meanwhile, body fat increases, skin wrinkles, mood changes occur, and immunity declines. New scientific research is shedding light on why we age and how we may be able to slow the process.

Age Gracefully in the Garden of Eden

Laugh Your Way to Better Health
We've all heard the bromide, "Laughter is the best medicine," but are we getting a regular dose? Besides our positive emotions and the discharge of endorphins, natural pain-killers released by the body when we laugh, there are many physical benefits to be gained by a laughter.

De-Stressing Our Children This Holiday Season
When we think of the holiday season, weconjure up images of beautifully wrappedpresents, out-of-town relatives, and delicious food. Yet, even though the holidayseason can be filled with joy and abundance, this time of year can also bequite stressful for adults and children.

One Century and Counting
On August 14, alongside a room full of friends at the Azure nightclub in Vancouver, Doug McIntyre marked his centurion year with dancing, cake, and a heartfelt speech.

The Power of Love
It's not just an old-fashioned love song. Relationships have the power to nurture our wellness more than any other factor. The added benefit, of course, is that we can literally improve the health of all those involved-including ourselves. Tell the special people in your life that you appreciate them.

Immunity Gets Personal
In The Immune Power Personality (Dutton,1995), Henry Dreher outlined how character traits can build resistance to disease. Since then a range of experts have supported Dreher's conclusions. What are some of these traits and how can we foster them?

Healing with The Mind
In the 17th century the philosopher and scientist Descartes ("I think, therefore I am) proposed the separation of the mind from the body.

Boys will be Boys?
We all know that the average life expectancy of your garden-variety man is about five years less than the female. By being a little more proactive about your health and politely reminding your inner bad boy to grow up, you might be well on your way to outliving us ladies!

What's your expiry date?
To know the date of your death well in advance would be a rare gift. Or would it?

Seven Tips for Deriving Energy from Your Relationships
We all want to be physically healthy, but if our emotional life is unbalanced, efforts to reach our full health potential may be thwarted. Following these simple tips and surrounding yourself with positive relationships will re-energize you and pave the way to achieving your full health potential.

The Zen of Blacktop
How many times have we read articles extolling the soul-soothing attributes of nature? Many of us have come to believe we can only reach inner peace by leaving the city life behind. The sanctimonious gurus saying we can recharge the soul only through nature's retreats can be put to rest. Those living within the vortex of the city can find peace, too.

Happiness Equals Success
Does success bring us happiness or is it the other way around? In this chicken or egg debate, we often hear that success hatches happiness. The research revealed that happy people are more successful in marriage and work and enjoy better mental and physical health.

The Value of Volunteering
When you ask people why they volunteer, they usually tell you that they feel enriched by their activities and that it just feels good to do good. A 1991 report from Volunteer Ontario confirms that volunteer work lowers blood pressure, strengthens the immune system, and enhances self-esteem.

Moving on Up!
Just about everyone goes through an occasional bout of feeling down. Along with a better diet and daily exercise, adding a few tried and true mood boosters to your nutritional and herbal supplement program often makes a noticeable difference in a short period of time.

Antiaging or Healthy Aging?
With the growing number of baby boomers entering their golden years, interest in antiaging is at an all-time high. Although we may not be able to stop the aging process, healthy aging can help minimize the effects of time by optimizing our health along the way.

Move It or Lose It
Aging is inevitable. It is possible, however, to curb many of the effects of aging with regular physical activity. We all want to maintain quality of life and good health as we age, and exercise is essential to maintaining good health. The less we move, the more susceptible we are to various conditions and diseases, and thus the vicious cycle of inactivity begins.

A Fine Balance
There are signs not a result of normal aging that indicate an elderly person may be experiencing problems with drugs or alcohol. Such signs can include loss of appetite, confusion, anxiety, falling, sleepiness, sadness, irritability, unexplained chronic pain, and bruises.

Supplementing the 50+
While entering the realm of seniorhood, our risk of many age-related health problems, such as macular degeneration, osteoarthritis, and mental deterioration increases. Here are several supplements that nutritional scientists are advising we include in our daily health programs to enhance the quality and quantity of our elder years.

Why Act Your Age When You're Young at Heart?
The Red Hat Societ is a social group whose main responsibility is to have fun. The group's mission is to gain higher visibility for women aged 50 and older and to reshape the way they are viewed by today's culture.

Laugh and Play-Every Day
Take steps to actively incorporate play into your daily or weekly activities. Start small and work up to something bigger. It will enhance the quality of your life and the lives of those close to you. Plus, you'll be more fun to be around.

Did You Hear the One About...?
Just as many of us have forgotten how to laugh, scientists have begun to study the benefits of laughter. Dr. Lee Berk of Loma Linda University in California has researched laughter extensively and has shown that not only is the immune system boosted, but natural killer cells-which fight certain types of cancer-are increased when we laugh.

Create a Brighter Tomorrow
A positive vision of your future will keep you going and help you to learn, grow, and persevere. It will help you to boost your immunity to short-term failure and find the silver lining in temporary setbacks.

Forever strong

Add longer walks to your exercise routine

Mid-life mindsavers

Realistic relationships

Hysterical medicine

Can-do Attitude

Standards for Supplements

A Month of Awareness and Prevention

Exercise and Youth

Gym Safety Tip for Senior Citizens

Healthy Aging

Wheeling and Mealing
Volunteering can improve the state of your own health while adding to the quality of the lives of others. In fact, helping others is proven to be one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. Meals on Wheels provides great opportunities for this kind of exchange.

How Do You Get to Work?

Change is Good

Move Your Mood

Active Healing

Teenage Irony

Live Leaner, Live Longer?

That's What Friends are For

Pets in Pants

Keeping an Eye on Blood Sugar

Attract a Positive State of Mind
What did you say to yourself the last time you looked in the mirror? Did you think about how wonderful you are and how good you look? Or did you say and think something negative? What you say to yourself can have as much impact on your health as careful eating and proper exercise.

Avoid the Surgeon's Knife
Lattes in hand, my friend Natalie and I were at an urban coffee bar catching up. A pretty woman in her thirties with two kids and a flashy but stressful job, Natalie confessed she felt saggy and tired and was longing to regain her youthful spark.

Love's labours tossed
Whee-Valentine's Day. As holidays go, it's not exactly a rip-snorter, is it? But hey, I'm all for breaking out my credit card yet again and supporting the florists and candy-makers.

Deepak Chopra
Deepak Chopra isn't exactly known for being a man of few words. The New Delhi-born, California-based health guru is notorious for giving talks that last three to four hours and for peppering his speeches with personal anecdotes and self-deprecating jokes.

Canine Wisdom
One of my best teachers, Jessie, was also one of my best friends. She was with me right up until her 98th year-dog years, that is.

The Lessons of Spring
Spring is a sensuous teacher. Every year she steps out of the darkness and cold and seductively dances around us. She embraces us with her light and warmth. She intoxicates us with her fragrance. Like a potent elixir, spring revives our hope. She breathes life into death and teaches us the lessons of renewal and rebirth.

The Science of Feeling Great
Most people think of their metabolism as affecting their ability to gain or lose weight. But our metabolism also affects mood and the way we feel. The truth of the matter is that we feel our best when we maintain the production and function of neurotransmitters-essential elements of brain metabolism.

Escape from the Space Invaders!
Every morning and evening, Monday to Friday, I commute-with my face stuffed into someone's armpit or an elbow jabbing my ribs. I realized very quickly that, with my personal space being compromised this way, the need for a sanctuary at home was crucial for maintaining my sanity.

The Upside of Ulcerative Colitis
Some health conditions are a little classier than others. My friend has a plastic leg called Ursula, which she's removed and chastised for not performing well in Pilates-now that's classy. My disease involves gurgly guts, painful gas, bloody toilet tissue, and diarrhea-that's not classy.

Healthy at 100
If you're reading this magazine, you're already on a path to better health. Sometimes, by reminding ourselves of where we've come from, we realize just how much progress we've made.

Slow Down and Just Smell the Coffee
The majority of people today unwittingly exacerbate their stress response by consuming too many caffeinated beverages-especially coffee.

Look on the Bright Side
Recall a day when you woke up in the morning feeling positive? I bet you had a great day. Want more of that?

Celebrate Life
Oscar Wilde once said, "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. The question is, are you merely surviving from day to day, or are you grasping everything you can from life?

Fabulous Over 50
Earlier this year, the Toronto Star ran an article about the perfect baby boomer couple who lives such a well-balanced life, complete with daily urine dehydration checks, that you're awed - until you get to the end of the article and discover the kicker: the whole story's a joke.

As Young as You Feel?
Sometimes it's easy to forget I'm getting older. I look in the mirror and there I am, same as always. I mention something about my teenager and people say that they can't believe I'm old enough to be the mother of a 13-year-old.

Living an Authentic Life
In a world where success is defined by money, and happiness is just a weight-loss plan away, many of us have lost sight of our most valuable asset: our true selves. By living authentically, however, we can reach our potential and experience true happiness.

The Power of a Positive Mindset
I'm often asked for simple tips for achieving optimal health. Here are my three top tips: 1. Make the decision to change; 2. believe in yourself; and 3. apply the necessary strategies to get you there!

Helper's High
Is it good to be good? People express their compassion in different ways. Some volunteer with people. Others volunteer with animals. Although all good works produce health benefits, including improved immunity and reduced anxiety and depression, different activities have different ripple effects.

Volunteering-If It Feels Good, Do It!
Now that January's out of the way-the bills are paid, my sanity's relatively intact, the gift wrap's finally put away-I'm ready to tackle one of my goals for the year, which is to take on some kind of volunteer work.

A Conversation with k.d. lang
k.d. lang has sung with the best-Tony Bennett, Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn-not bad for a girl from Consort, Alberta, population 739.

Worrying Ourselves to Death
Have you ever tried counting your worries? While drafting this article I managed to squeeze in worries about my gobbled-down breakfast, my half-baked plans for the rest of the day, and what I can do to ease pain in various aching body parts-to name but a few ever-nagging worries.

Sunday Dinner
In the many years that have elapsed since moving out of my childhood home, Sunday dinner held about as much meaning as dinner any other day of the week. I ate whatever I could scrounge up, or went to a restaurant, or, for a rather debauched period, just ate chips in front of the TV until it was time to go to the nightclub again.

Building a Health Reserve
Hoping to be a healthy elder? Then stock your health bank as faithfully as your financial one. Healthy aging requires preparation. This month's Research Watch discusses what you need to know to build up your health reserves for a long and healthy life.

Elder Care in Canada
The lobby at the New Vista Care Home in Burnaby, British Columbia, is alive with chatter and laughter. A comfortable lounge area invites visitors to sit, but I wait my turn by checking out the sign that spells out the home's mission.

The Sandwich Generation
When Naz Deravian became a mom for the first time, she found herself embracing her new baby girl, Luna, and her new role, with utter joy. But the 36-year-old actor was also worried about her own mom, who at the time was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Eat Well-Age Well
Getting older isn't what it used to be. Seniors are staying active well into their golden years, people are retiring later, and 60 is the new 40. The latest generation of retirees is more active and health-conscious-and living the motto "a rolling stone gathers no moss.

Imagine Your Way to Better Health
In my darker moments-when bills, work, and deadlines all conspire against me-I have a fantasy. In it, I return to a remote spot on the Mediterranean coast where gentle waves lap against a sleepy shoreline and vast, open skies arch overhead. Everything is blue, sensual, and calm.

What is Gratitude?
"Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing. Television character Bart Simpson's dinner table blessing is inappropriate, but we relate to it. Like Bart, we are often ungrateful because we feel a sense of entitlement. This Thanksgiving let's put gratitude on the menu.

Healthy Aging
Eat less, exercise more, get enough sleep, and avoid stress. Even after all this advice, our arsenal against aging isn't necessarily complete without longevity-boosting nutritional supplements.

Sampling the Fountain of Youth
I caught the end of a stand-up comedian's routine the other night while channel surfing. He joked that plastic surgery "makes you look young in the same way that a drag queen looks like a woman. There's just something a little off...

Seniors on the Go
A couple of noon hours a week, George Martin can be found at a downtown Vancouver fitness class, balancing on top of a big, bright stability ball or doing multiple sets of bicep curls with heavy weights. At 78 Martin keeps up with the best of them.

All I Want for Christmas
When I asked my daughter about what to write for December's column, her immediate reply was "snowmen. While that's probably not the ideal basis for an entire article, it did get me thinking.

Tune into Your body's Rhythm
What images come to mind when you hear or see the word meditation? How many of those images include movement? For the average person, not many.

Volunteers for the Environment
We are so closely connected to other forms of life on our planet that survival without them is unthinkable. And although we have the power of intellect, we can never consider ourselves as superior. On the contrary, we need these species in order to survive.

Long Live Healthy Aging
Read the news, though, and instead of a positive spin on longevity you might catch yet another tale about how the aging of the baby boomers is doing nothing but straining publicly funded services.

Empowering the Feminine
Although its origins are uncertain, one theory is that belly dancing was performed to strengthen women’s abdominal muscles for childbirth.