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

-Break Free: Understand The Basics Of Bone Health

-Expense Account: Do You Know The Costs Of Long Term Care?

-Controversy Abounds: Transgender Seniors In Nursing Homes

-Consulteering: Rethinking The Road To Retirement

-Camp MOMA: Prime Time Access to MOMA for NYC Seniors

-Around The World: 100 Years of Global Aging

-The Last Word

Break Free: Understand The Basics Of Bone Health: While it’s widely assumed that osteoporosis is a natural part of aging, that’s actually not true.  What is true is that May is National Osteoporosis Month.  It’s therefore a good time to learn the facts and actions you can take to sustain bone health and avoid bone breaks. It’s been estimated that 54 million US adults are at risk for osteoporosis and that ½ of our adult population is at risk for breaking a bone. Seniors who break bones, especially hips, are at increased risk for isolation, institutional living and even additional illness or earlier death. The importance of strong bones cannot be overemphasized. To learn some basics about good bone health, Read This.

Expense Account: Do You Know The Costs Of Long Term Care?   While no one can predict your future, the chances of your needing help as you age, either in your home, in an outpatient setting or even in an institution, are fairly high. The help you need might be casual and low key, so that your costs will be modest, but it might be catastrophic- leading to significant expenses for you and perhaps your loved ones. How much might it cost? Surprisingly, a new study reports that most people vastly underestimate the costs of long term care. That’s a big problem- for an individual and his/her family, and for society at large. Are you one of those uninformed consumers? If so, you need to Read This.  

Controversy Abounds: Transgender Seniors in Nursing Homes: Recent news stories have highlighted the challenges that transgender persons face in going about their everyday lives. For seniors who are transgender, and already vulnerable from the usual sorts of challenges older persons face, the barriers to health, well being and safe living conditions can be enormous. Most transgender seniors have not gone through surgical transition, thus leaving them open to harassment, discrimination and even ignorance in health care settings. Many avoid medical care for just that reason. The possibility of living in a nursing home may pose a real threat to their integrity and identity, yet many have no alternatives. This is a tragic situation that goes well beyond the men’s or ladies’ room. To better understand the nature of this challenge, Read This.

Consulteering: Rethinking The Road To Retirement: Seems like it may be time to say goodbye to the stereotypical images of retirement: the gold watch and the Florida winter getaways are quickly being replaced with consulting gigs, volunteer commitments and adventure travel. As one “retiree” has said, it’s now the age of “Consulteering.” Emotionally, it’s no easy task to go from a demanding work life to a life of leisure, and fewer people these days can even afford to do that. Moreover, today’s seniors are likely to be looking for meaning in their lives and ways to contribute and stay connected to the vital world around them. So how are today’s seniors doing this? Open up your LinkedIn profile and Read This. 

Camp MOMA: Prime Time Access To MOMA For NYC Seniors: Attention all New York City seniors: Camp MOMA registration is here! With the worthy goal of engaging older New Yorkers with modern and contemporary art, The Museum of Modern Art in NYC has created its Prime Time program. Open to individuals 65 and older, this program recognizes that it’s essential to create museum, community and online programming for the over one million senior citizens currently residing in NYC (with that number expected to rise 50% by 2040). For the summer of 2016, the museum Prime Time offerings will include sessions on drawing, architecture tours of NYC, iphone photography and introductions to contemporary art.  Registration opens on May 31st. So pull out your camp trunk and Read This.

Around The World :100 Years Of Global Aging: Population trends around the world tell us one clear thing: people are living longer in every country of the world.  This is to be celebrated, as technology and economic gains, along with significant public health advances, have facilitated longer lives around the world. However, a large gap still exists between the median ages of developed countries and those less developed. And of more concern: Some developed countries, especially Japan, are growing older at unsustainable levels. Low birth rates and aging populations mean fewer workers and more dependent seniors. The pressures from these demographic changes could help ease immigration concerns as well as open up the workplace more broadly for women. But this will be difficult terrain to travel. For a glimpse of our aging planet, take out your globe and Read This. 

THE LAST WORD: “At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” Ann Landers