The Key to Longevity: Organ Reserve
The more lean muscle one maintains throughout life, the better his/her organs will function. Like muscles, our organs abide by the “use it or lose it” principle. Optimal organ function correlates with maximum longevity and excellent health, so says Mark Sisson. He states, “The aging process in America should really be called ‘the process of physical decline largely due to inactivity’”. Sisson, a healthy lifestyle guru, is the author of the Primal Blueprint and the blog marksdailyapple.com. He subscribes to the Paleo-style of nutrition (meaning meats, lots of veggies, fruit and avoiding grains, sugars and processed foods) and replacing typical cardio workouts with brief, intense strength sessions and occasional all-out sprints for better fitness benefits.
Sisson maintains that when we ask our organs to keep up with an active lifestyle, we’re strengthening them to better withstand the demands of daily life and the natural aging process. When our activity levels diminish, as often happens when we age, we’re sending signals that tell our muscles and organs to atrophy and decrease functionality. The unfit have lower bone-density, less lung capacity and heart stroke volume than the fit. Because organs and the systems of body rely on each other to function best, people are vulnerable to the often fatal effects of the weakest link. An accident victim or surgery patient who is unfit and has a heart operating at only 45 percent of potential capacity will often fare differently than a fit person with excellent heart enduring the same ordeal.
The good news is that we can continue to build muscle strength into advanced old age. The BBC reported that French researchers, writing in the Journal of Physiology, say adding the amino acid leucine to old people's diets could help them keep muscle. Leucine is found in meat, soy beans and legumes, among other foods. Emory University concurs that moderate program of strength training promises real-world benefits to everyone, including couch potatoes and even frail older people. Benefits include reduced risk of osteoporosis – since strength training is an excellent weight-bearing exercise that encourages new bone growth – as well as increased stamina. Stronger bodies mean better immunity, as well as more zest for other recreational activities and daily living tasks. ~Helen Rickman
Does Your Workplace Have Soul?
Ecumen was recently named for the 5th straight year as a Best Place to Work by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. At Ecumen, we believe in building our brand "from the inside out.," meaning that we have to have an innovative, empowering, honor-filled culture on the inside. Our brand (our culture) is our soul.
Below is an article that Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts wrote in 2005 for the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. It's entitled "Does Your Workplace Have Soul?" It's as timely today as it was in 2005.
One of life’s enriching experiences is to work in an organization that has soul. While such places value and elevate people – not in a “who gets the employee of the month parking space” kind of way, but in a much more authentic way that exudes “we are human beings in this together.” At workplaces with soul, you don’t find dreaded cases of Sunday night anxiety or people arriving on Monday to step on others for personal gain. A workplace with soul doesn’t segregate profit and purpose. It sees them as mutually reinforcing, a way to a greater good. While even workplaces with soul aren’t perfect, such places are truly “Great Places to Work.”
So how can we nurture a workplace’s being and attract high-quality people who can continue enriching its value and contributions for the next generation? While financial reward and quality benefits are one component, gold loses its glitter quickly if there is no soul.
A Bigger Purpose: To be a workplace of choice, its people must intrinsically know they are making a difference and creating a legacy. At Ecumen, an affiliate of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we work to enhance “home” and expand choices for those we serve – older adults and their families. Improving home and choice guides all that we do. Soul, however, isn’t just for faith-based organizations. At Medtronic, its employees are driven by the purpose of developing medical technologies that “alleviate pain, restore health and extend life.” And, at General Mills, a core value is building leading brands that their customers trust, and which make lives easier, healthier and more fun. All great workplaces are shaped by people driven by purpose beyond the bottom line.
Clear the Runway: Ideas improve outcomes. If you show me a workplace lacking ideas, you’re showing a workplace that teeters on emotional and financial bankruptcy. Without ideas, Saint Paul’s El Burrito Mercado wouldn’t have grown from a small store with a few employees to an organization of more than 100 people who share great Latino food and culture across the region. At Ecumen, we cannot transform elder housing and services without ideas. One way we have opened the runway to let people fly with ideas is through an on-line “innovation station.” Patterned after amazon.com, it lets people across our multi-state network share ideas and build upon them. It’s an incubator for progress in which everyone lends a
Listen, Learn & Act: Working in a place where your thoughts don’t matter is deflating. Great workplaces ask what their people think, they learn from that feedback and they act upon it. The Business Journal’s process of surveying employees of vying “Great Places to Work” companies is a great tool because it gathers information – not from a promotions department or marketing agency – but from employees themselves.
At Ecumen, we have an internal survey process to gauge how we are doing as a workplace of choice. Among the results that have flowed from that research are a recognition and reward program tied to innovation, enhanced benefits, and processes that make it easier for people to do their jobs. These aren’t top-down changes; they have occurred through two-way communication and collaboration. At great places to work you don’t see “suggestion boxes” gathering dust, or patronizing “leaders” who pat ideas and employees on the head, but never act on what’s presented. Rather you see people who contribute, collaborate, create and, consequently, flourish.
Have a Life: Creating positive change takes tremendous energy. To nurture the soul of an organization, I fundamentally believe that its people must have a nourishing life outside the walls of work. While I and many others in our organization gain tremendous satisfaction from our vocation, our vocation is not what defines our full being. That being has a great many other parts, such as family, faith, friends, and fun. If the other parts of life that make life worth living are neglected, not only do you suffer, but so do the people whom you serve and work with.
I am extremely proud to be part of one of the Business Journal’s “Great Places to Work.” But I am even more proud to work in an organization that has tremendous soul.
Older Workers and Reinventing Retirement
Do you think the traditional retirement marker society put out there of 65 is history? This writer thinks so.
America needs to keep talent in the workforce. A couple of years ago, we polled baby boomers, most told us that they plan to work beyond 65. The three main reasons: economics, socialization and intellectual growth. And, of course, the recession didn't help many with the economics of retirement.
Want to share with you two resources - one local and one national:
1. Ecumen alum Jill Evans who is with the Southern Initiative Minnesota Foundation has shared a great upcoming conference for our readers in Minnesota: The Older Workers Success Conference on September 23rd in Albert Lea, Minn. SMIF is headed by former U.S. Rep. Tim Penny and there's a tremendous line-up of speakers and content. Details here.
2. Encore.org offers a new job finder website that scours more than five million listings to find jobs in nonprofit, environmental, health, education, social service and governmental organizations.
Encore.org is published by Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank that is leading the call to engage millions of experienced individuals in becoming a force for social change. Civic Ventures focuses on creating pathways to encore careers that provide continued income doing work that is personally fulfilling and helps address some of society’s biggest challenges.
What do you think President Obama Needs to Say Tonight?
What do you think President Obama has to say in tonight's speech to help America turn the corner to meaningful, effective health care reform?
One thing I'd love to see the President introduce is several specifics that are easy to understand; the benefits to Americans of those specifics and the costs of not acting on those specifics. Right now the whole discussion is just too unwieldy and then the simplicity of inane soundbites takes over. As a If we have some key specifics, than we can move to a debate of ideas and further shape those ideas.
Senator Klobuchar Issues Support for The CLASS Act
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Kathryn Roberts, Ecumen CEO, (above with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar) recently participated in a town hall meeting on long-term care with the Senator. Minnpost.com had an interesting interview with Sen. Klobuchar on health care reform last week. In it, she spoke on innovation in long-term care. Kudos to her for supporting The CLASS Act:
MinnPost: What is something that is missing from this discussion right now?
Klobuchar: As Congress considers health care reform, eldercare is the elephant in the room. It needs to be better addressed. Both Minnesota and the nation will soon experience major changes as the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement age and as ever more Americans live into their 80s and beyond. By the year 2035, Minnesota's population over age 65 will more than double, as will our population 85 and older. The well-being and financial security of families depends not only on access to affordable medical services, but also access to affordable, reliable long-term care — including care that allows seniors to live independently as long as possible.
I would hope that Senator [Edward] Kennedy's CLASS Act, which provides an optional self-directed insurance plan for long-term care, would be included in health reform. The CLASS Act would help provide a safety net for individuals that need long term care, and save taxpayer dollars. I also have several proposals that help to provide better information and choices for long-term care insurance, making it easier for people to access long-term care services and understand their long-term care insurance policies.
We also know that most eldercare comes from informal, unpaid caregivers — and we must help provide resources and support for these caregivers. My bill, the AGE Act, helps provide a tax credit to these informal caregivers and establishes a National Caregiving Resource Center to provide better access to information for caregiving services. Making elder care a priority in health care reform is good for our seniors, our families and our businesses. And because providing care to seniors at home is far less expensive than in a nursing home, it's also good for all of us as taxpayers.
Until Long-Term Care Do Us Part . . . It Shouldn't Be This Way
Nicholas Kristof, N.Y. Times columnist, had a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching story from America's fragmented long-term care "system." See excerpt below. Do any of you know people who have faced this? If so, would you share your story in the comments below . . . thank you.
My friend M. — you’ll understand in a moment why she’s terrified of my using her name — had to make a searing decision a year ago. She was married to a sweet, gentle man whom she loved, but who had become increasingly absent-minded. Finally, he was diagnosed with early-onset dementia.
The disease is degenerative, and he will become steadily less able to care for himself. At some point, as his medical needs multiply, he will probably need to be institutionalized.
The hospital arranged a conference call with a social worker, who outlined how the dementia and its financial toll on the family would progress, and then added, out of the blue: “Maybe you should divorce.”
“I was blown away,” M. told me. But, she said, the hospital staff members explained that they had seen it all before, many times. If M.’s husband required long-term care, the costs would be catastrophic even for a middle-class family with savings.
Eventually, after the expenses whittled away their combined assets, her husband could go on Medicaid — but by then their children’s nest egg would be gone, along with her 401(k) plan. She would face a bleak retirement with neither her husband nor her savings.
A complicating factor was that this was a second marriage. M.’s first husband had died, leaving an inheritance that he had intended for their children. She and her second husband had a prenuptial agreement, but that would not protect her assets from his medical expenses.
The hospital told M. not to waste time in dissolving the marriage. For five years after any divorce, her assets could be seized — precisely because the government knows that people sometimes divorce husbands or wives to escape their medical bills.
“How could I divorce him? I loved him,” she told me.
“I explored a lot of options with an attorney here in town,” she added. “The attorney said, ‘I don’t see any other options for you.’ It took about a year for me to do the divorce, it was so hard.”
So M. divorced the man she loves. I asked him what he thought of this. He can still speak, albeit not always coherently, and he paused a long, long time. All he could manage was: “It’s hard to say.”
September Vital Aging Network Forum: Alzheimer's Awareness
September VAN Forum
Alzheimer's Awareness: What can you do to prevent, understand, and treat dementia?
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 Featured Speakers:
Catherine Johnson, Licensed Psychologist, Associated Clinic of Psychology
Lori La Bey, Alzheimer's Speaks
Have you ever forgotten where you parked your car? Is it normal aging or an early sign on Alzheimer's? Catherine Johnson will help us sort it out. You will learn:
- Characteristics of normal, healthy aging.
- Lifestyle strategies to prevent cognitive decline.
- How to detect signs and symptoms of dementia to support early diagnosis.
- Ways to enhance the therapeutic response to dementia treatments.
As Lori La Bey struggled with her mother's diagnosis, she experienced first hand the effects Alzheimer's can have on one's life. Through story telling, she will give you practical tips and techniques for dealing with dementia. You will learn how to identify stress triggers, reduce combative behaviors, create remarkable moments, and diminish the turbulence as you walk through the maze of Alzheimer's disease.
Questions? Call VAN at 651-917-4652
The White House's Aging Czar (er. Leader) Kathy Greenlee
When I think of Czars, I think of Russia. I wish we'd stop calling our public officials czars . . . Anyway, I copied the word from Matt Sedensky, Associated Press reporter on aging, who recently interviewed Kathy Greenlee, assistant secretary for aging in the Department of Health and Human Services. Pictured above to the left, she's the country's top political appointee on issues facing an aging America.
A couple of key points from her remarks:
- "Aging is such a unifying topic," she said. [She's so right, we're all doing it.]
- Among the issues Greenlee is most passionate about is keeping seniors in their homes and communities, if they choose, and out of nursing homes, which most want to avoid.
- "To move forward and expand community services, we have to have a whole lot of things happen in each individual state." [Minnesota is primed to lead the nation on long-term care innovation; we've led in health care before, and I have no doubt that if we put our minds and willpower together, we'll be a state that can show the way for the rest of the country in aging.]
You can read Matt's full interview here.
The CLASS Act: Senator Kennedy's Last Act
“We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make,”
- Senator Ted Kennedy
Before Senator Kennedy died, he contributed The CLASS Act, legislation that would empower people with long-term care needs. By including that legislation in health care reform, Congress can honor the Lion of the Senate and make a future that is improved for those of us living in it.
Onward.
Hurricane Hazel, the 88-year old mayor of 6th largest city in Canada
Hazel McCallion has been mayor of Mississauga Ontario, population 668,000, since 1978. When she was re-elected in 2006 for her 11th consecutive term, it was with 98% voter approval. She is affectionately known as "Hurricane Hazel" by the media and supporters alike for her fresh, outspoken style and no-nonsense approach to politics. Her method is grounded in the belief that a city ought to be run like a business. Thanks to this business model approach, Mississauga is one of the few debt-free cities in Canada. Hazel sees her Christian faith as a guide to her concern for the public good, as well as the source for her physical energy. She likes to be independent and take care of her household herself: "I do my own cleaning, grocery shopping, gardening…the assumption is that people in my position have others doing all these things for them but I like to be self sufficient. Housework and gardening are great forms of exercise and keep one humble."
Enjoy this YouTube of her Honor, Mayor McCallion - she evens plays hockey!
~Helen Rickman