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

-Take Your Vitamins: Why You May Need To Add B12 To Your Regimen

-Game Changer? Possible New Breakthrough To Fight Alzheimer’s

-On The Road: Travel And Learn From Road Scholars

-Hand It Over: Where To Recycle Personal Medical Devices

-Fight Club: Advice For Ensuring A Safe (And Lasting) Hospital Discharge

-Tailor Made: Legendary Brooklyn Tailor Martin Greenfield

-The Last Word

Take Your Vitamins: Why You May Need To Add B12 To Your Regimen: When Personal Health columnist Jane Brody from the New York Times recommends something, you tend to listen. Brody, at 75, is the living embodiment of a senior citizen being smart about her health and aging. In a recent column, Brody raises the question as to whether or not you need to start taking a B12 vitamin supplement, rather than just relying on the B12 you ingest from your daily diet. Turns out, as you age, your body may be less likely to absorb sufficient amounts of B12 from your food. Since this nutrient is critical to your cognitive health and well being, might it be time to add B12 to your vitamin routine? To find out, Read Here.

Game Changer? Possible New Breakthrough To Fight Alzheimer’s: September is World Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. As the recent death of Gene Wilder reminds us, Alzheimer’s afflicts millions of people every year.  In fact, as the 6th leading cause of death in the US, more people die of Alzheimer’s than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. However, the latest word from Alzheimer’s researchers may be a source of hope for patients and families. A new drug in the early stages of testing, aducanumab, seems to be able to attack the toxic brain plaques that are thought to cause Alzheimer’s. If upcoming clinical trials can confirm these early results, this could be a game changer in the way we treat Alzheimer’s. To read, and hear, about this potentially life-altering research, check out this NPR report.

On The Road: Travel And Learn From Road Scholars: It’s back to school time. But for those of us not tied to the academic calendar, learning and intellectual endeavors can take place any time of year. And for those who like to travel while they learn, there is one seminal organization that combines them both for you: Road Scholar. Previously known as “ElderHostel,” this 40-year-old organization uses the world as its classroom and takes expeditions of senior learners to over 150 countries. With opportunities for intergenerational trips and the ability to meet new travel companions if you’re a solo traveler, Road Scholar may be just what you need for your “semester abroad” in the school of life. Want to learn more? Read Here.

Hand It Over: Where To Recycle Your Personal Medical Devices: How many pairs of old glasses are stuffed into your junk drawer? What are you doing with the walker your parent previously used that now sits idle? Is there a way to donate the single hearing aid that lost its mate? If these questions feel relevant to you, then perhaps it’s time to educate yourself about recycling your no-longer-needed personal medical devices. Organizations all over the country can put your discards, often very expensive discards, to good use. Syndicated columnist Jim T. Miller recently outlined your recycling options for a piece he published in the Huffington Post. So gather up your items, and Read Here. 

Fight Club: Advice For Ensuring A Safe (And Lasting) Hospital Discharge: In today’s financially pressured healthcare environment, the interests of a hospital may not always neatly align with the health and well being of a patient. This is especially true at discharge, when the hospital may face economic pressure to have the patient leave, even if the patient’s health is fragile or post-hospital plans are still in formation. Judith Graham, an award-winning health journalist now writing a column for Kaiser Health News, has advice for those of you facing such situations. In a recent column, she provides a number of important and easy to implement suggestions for older patients and their families. Her recommendations ensure that the needs of the patient have primacy in the discharge process. Because the last thing you need when leaving the hospital is an unresolved problem that could lead you right back to re-admission. Read her column Here. 

Tailor Made: Legendary Brooklyn Tailor Martin Greenfield: In a nod to New York Fashion Week, meet 88-year-old Martin Greenfield, the legendary Brooklyn tailor. Greenfield’s arrival in the US in 1947 was part of the sweep of history: He was liberated from Auschwitz as a 15-year-old sole survivor of his family and personally shook the hand of Dwight D. Eisenhower as he departed the camp and left to make his own way in the United States. Arriving in Brooklyn, Greenfield became a master tailor: one of his first major clients was, in fact, Eisenhower, needing a custom suit for his presidential run. Since then, his impressive client list has included many additional presidents (including President Obama) and such other luminaries as Paul Newman and Patrick Ewing. Former President Bill Clinton is also a client. With the election coming up, the only question is: Can Greenfield construct a woman’s suit? Meet Martin Greenfield Here.

THE LAST WORD: “It’s time to follow our hearts, while we still have some legs,” journalist Ron Fournier on the announcement of his retirement last week.