Good morning and welcome to agebuzz… Headlining today’s topics:

-Trip Advisor: Foreign Places Suitable For Retirement

-Check Up: Common Challenges With Senior Medications

-Take Care: When To Hire A Professional Care Manager

-Your Best Shot: Essential Shots For Older Persons

-Make A Move: Senior Hospital Patients Need To Get Out Of Bed

-Out Of The Park: At 94, She’s The Oldest Working Park Ranger

-The Last Word

Trip Advisor: Foreign Places Suitable For Retirement: Retirement for many is a time of travel and exploration. And some even take it a step further by relocating to a new country, at least on a part-time basis. Finding a new retirement location that’s safe, affordable and welcoming to Americans may take some searching, but here’s a start: The website Live and Invest Overseas has compiled a list for 2016 of the best foreign retirement locations. Examining a variety of factors, including climate, health care, taxes and conversations with expats, the list includes countries near and far, exotic and more ordinary. Need to satisfy your sense of adventure? Find the list Here.

Check Up: Common Challenges With Senior Medications: On her website, Better Health While Aging, Dr. Leslie Kernisan provides sound advice and info about a range of medical issues affecting elderly patients. Recently, she focused on the many problems seniors face when taking multiple medications. From side effects to drug interactions to costs and schedule complications, Dr. Kernisan highlights multiple factors patients and their caregivers need to consider as they cope with a plurality of prescriptions.  What does Dr. Kernisan prescribe in response? Read Here.

Take Care: When To Hire A Professional Care Manager: Caring for an aging relative is never easy. Doing so from a distance, or from an unexperienced perspective, can make the job even harder. Sometimes a professional helping hand can make all the difference, and that’s what professional Geriatric Care Managers provide. With expertise across a range of issues, these certified professionals can help assess the need for care, plan and coordinate help, monitor or oversee ongoing situations and even advocate for a patient or family in trying circumstances. The help is not cheap-often running hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But to secure expert help on the ground, especially in an urgent situation? That may be priceless. Curious if this might make sense for your circumstance? Find out Here.

Your Best Shot: Essential Shots For Older Persons: You hear it every year: the reminders to get your annual flu shot. Inoculation against seasonal flu is essential for older persons, who are particularly vulnerable to the perils of being afflicted with influenza. But there are also a range of other shots that seniors need to consider so as to protect themselves from roaming health hazards. The National Institute for Aging has an easy to scan list of what shots to get, how often to get them and how long they each last. Are you up to date? Make sure by reading Here.

Make A Move: Senior Hospital Patients Need To Get Out Of Bed: It’s been estimated that on average, older hospital patients spend a mere 43 minutes a day out of bed and walking around. The gist? They spend the overwhelming majority of their hospital stay sedentary in bed, which is not healthy and can lead to collateral damage beyond whatever brought them to the hospital in the first place. As one geriatric nurse has said: “The bed is not your friend.” But patients in ACE (Acute Care for Elders) units, available in certain hospitals around the country, are encouraged to be up and about. It’s not rocket science- it’s just common sense that can lead to shorter hospitalizations and fewer re-admissions. To learn more about the burdens of bedrest for hospitalized seniors, Read Here.

Out Of The Park: At 94, She’s The Oldest Working Park Ranger: Today, August 25th, the National Park Service celebrates its centennial- 100 years strong of amazing national parks. Almost as amazing is 94 year old Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest working national park ranger in the US. Stationed at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Redmond, California, Ms. Soskin has her own impressive history: the great granddaughter of a slave, she’s had a varied career in academia, social activism, business and now a park ranger. Determined to make sure our country remembers the history of African Americans and their contributions to our country, Betty states, “What gets remembered is determined by who is in the room doing the remembering.” You surely won’t forget who Betty Reid Soskin is when you Read Here.

THE LAST WORD: “Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.” Art Buchwald