grow older better

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  • Wow – ain’t it great getting older in the good old USA?????

    Today’s news:

    Poor older Americans are missing out on government

    WASHINGTON – Medicare’s low-cost prescription drug coverage for needy senior citizens has been universally hailed as a model of compassionate public policy.

    But volunteers and counselors who help people apply for the special coverage are having a tough time locating the remaining eligible people.

    Of the estimated 4.4 million Medicare beneficiaries that lack prescription drug coverage, nearly 75 percent, roughly 3.3 million people, are believed to be eligible for Medicare’s low-income prescription drug subsidy, according to federal data.

    It’s the latest episode of a recurring problem that has frustrated government officials, researchers and advocates for the poofodecades.Fullll

    ll article HERE

    and in a side article:

    U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty

    WASHINGTON – The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation’s “haves” and “have-nots” continues to widen.

    The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That’s 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period McClatchy’s’s review also found statistically significant increases in the percentage of the population in severe poverty in 65 of 215 large U.S. counties, and similar increases in 28 states. The review also suggested that the rise in severely poor residents isn’t confined to large urban counties but extends to suburban and rural areas.

    Full article HERE

    What has happened since 2000 that has caused so many to drop to poverty levels? My guess is that it’s the republican version of how to ruin a good country… Republicans do not like government and especially do not like any programs that are from the Roosevelt days…but they love their corporate cronies whose salaries and bonuses have risen in this same time frame….

    On top of that we have a costly invasion and occupation of Iraq and war profiteering…So US citizens are getting poorer, not even getting the help they need and the rich-connected are getting richer – at the expense of most of us…

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Pet Food again

    Many of us have pets so I will post the most recent news about the bad pet food – and hope all your pets are fine…

    A few additional foods are being recalled; lawsuits are springing up and people are worried with good reason.

    It seems that the wheat gluten in the dog food contained melamine…used in making plastic!

    An aside here – plastic is becoming more well known as a major source of “much badness.” In San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors approved legislation this past Tuesday “to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets in about six months and large chain pharmacies in about a year.”
    Full article HERE.

    HERE is a CNN article about recent recalls and if you are in Oregon, HERE is a link to a local article that includes Oregon and FDA links for more information.

    Some news sources suggest checking your dry pet food for what gluten – I just did and feel a lot better – none there!

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Unhappy statistics

    In my local paper there is a column in the Sunday Business section with statistics.

    This is from the other day:

    41% of workers say they often or always live pay check to pay check

    55% say they would en an additional $500 per paycheck to live comfortable
    [as people get paid every 1 or 2 weeks that’s about $2000 or $4000 a month needed in addition to what they already earn!]

    21% do not put aside any money each month into savings

    16% work more than one job just to make ends meet

    That’s a very sad commentary on our lives in the USA these days

    When I was a kid – my father worked, my mother stayed home.

    There were 4 of us. We always had a car, pets, food, clothing and they owned the house I grew up in…and Queens College the NYC public college I went to was basically free in those days. I think we paid something like $10.00 a semester.

    How many can say this now when two parents working full time often have trouble making ends meet…

    What happens to the single parents? to the retirees on fixed incomes?

    When I lived back East, there were ongoing discussions on how a town [with mostly residences and not many large businesses] was going to keep raising property taxes and not cause hardships for older homeowners…

    And when you add in utilities like heat and electricity, gas for automobiles – you see a major problem looming…

    Do you choose to eat? be warm? lose your home? pay medical bills? educate your children?

    These are tough issues and they need to be addressed – NOW

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Exercise surprises

    I have been going to my cycling class with great consistency for about one year now. There were a few weeks I did not get there for one reason or another and a few weeks where one class was missed – but overall it’s been 60 minutes of very hard work twice a week on a regular basis.

    Yesterday I saw the best of the results – although at the time it was annoying : -)

    I got a heart rate monitor a few months ago and learned that what my brain thought of as “hard work” was not hard work according to the monitor. To keep my heart rate at my good level, I had to increase either speed or friction on the pedals – UGH!

    Anyway, yesterday I reached some sort of new [for me] levels. I had to work really really hard in class to keep my heart rate up. Why? I assume like all muscles, my heart is now in such better shape than it had been that it now found my “usual” level of work to be too easy…. It’s like lifting weights – when once a certain number of pounds were hard to lift, now many more are needed to tire out say leg muscles.

    So next week I will start off the cycling class knowing I have to work harder….but I won’t be annoyed – I’ll be happy that my heart is healthy….

    Moral – if you are working out – try using a heart rate monitor. You’ll be annoyed but happy with the outcome!

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Who knew what when?

    This is a follow-up to the bad pet food story…

    In this day and age we as consumers have to be very pro-active…

    I’m not sure what on a label would alert people to the bad pet food, but we do know that toxic skin care products and toxic people foods are being sold – and we know that the FDA is not inspecting as much as they should [see news article below.]

    My way to deal with all this is to be sure my immune system and those of my dog and cat are as well taken care of as possible – “just in case”….and if you’ve read my political blog – you know my feelings about this administration and it almost assures us there will be a “just in case” a bit too frequently….

    They knew about the bad pet food on February 20th!

    From the CBC website: full story HERE

    The investigation is focusing on wheat gluten used at two U.S. plants as the likely source of contamination.

    The FDA first learned of a potential problem after receiving complaints on Feb. 20 and followed up by feeding the “cuts and gravy” product to 40 to 50 cats. Of those, seven animals died, said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA’s top veterinarian. He added the contamination appeared more deadly to cats than to dogs.

    I love my pets and my food is not on the list – and I don’t feed pouches and/or wet food to them.

    Turns out the the bad stuff most likely comes from two US plants – not the Canadian manufacturer..interesting?

    We live in a country where people food is bad and pet food is bade…any connection to an administration that has curtailed inspections of food? Hmmmmm

    More that needs investigating – but we know that democrats can multitask and do more than who-knows-how-many investigations at the same time.

    From the AP FEBRUARY 27

    FDA food-safety inspections steadily decreasing

    By Andrew Bridges and Seth Borenstein

    The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — The federal agency that has been front and center in warning the public about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting just half the food-safety inspections it did three years ago.

    The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of high-profile food recalls.

    “We have a food-safety crisis on the horizon,” said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.

    Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food-safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to a database analysis of federal records by The Associated Press.

    Full article HERE

    Guess we should start asking who knew about all this bad food and when did they know it?

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,