Elvis singing ‘It’ll be lonely this Christmas’ is one of the great festive pop songs - although some people prefer the version by MUD.
Thursday 21 December 2017
Friday 15 December 2017
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is not just for Kids
Everyone will have heard about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and most people will assume that this mainly relates to children, and is the cause of why children with the condition find school a challenge. Obviously, such children will grow into adults, and every adult who has ADHD will have had it as a child. While many kids will outgrow it, about 60% will still have it as adults. Adult ADHD is estimated to number about 4% to 5% of U.S. adults, and affect men and women equally1. However, few adults get diagnosed or treated for it.
Read more @ https://goo.gl/m7fHjw
Christmas is a time for Ghost Stories
It’s getting near to Christmas, and while it is a time for Nativities and Santa for many, it is also the time of year when many of us will search the Christmas TV Guide to see if there are any good ghost stories being shown. Stories from MR James, ER Benson and Charles Dickens will be guaranteed to send shivers up our spines. And don’t we love it!?
Read more @ https://goo.gl/fu24Sh.
Tuesday 21 November 2017
Tuesday 17 October 2017
Renting to the Kids
THERE WAS AN INTERESTING LETTER TO GRAHAM NORTON ON 30TH SEPTEMBER, WHERE SOMEONE COMPLAINED ABOUT HER 35-YEAR-OLD SON, WHO IS RENTING A PROPERTY THAT SHE OWNS FROM HER AT £200 BELOW MARKET VALUE. THE SON LIVES THERE WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND AND THEIR CHILD.
Read more @ https://goo.gl/Zgd843
Friday 13 October 2017
Things that go bump in the car part 2
Dr Rob Gandy presents his research on chilling first hand accounts of phantom hitchhikers & road ghosts.
Tuesday 3 October 2017
Tuesday 19 September 2017
Sunday 20 August 2017
Friday 18 August 2017
Stay Cool When The Weather Gets Hot
Stay Cool When The Weather Gets Hot
WOW! IT’S BEEN A GLORIOUS AND HOT MIDSUMMER, WITH MANY TEMPERATURES SOARING TO HEIGHTS NOT SEEN FOR AROUND 40 YEARS. THE BEACHES ARE FULL AND ICE CREAM SALES HAVE GONE THROUGH THE ROOF. SO ISN’T THIS ALL GOOD NEWS?
WOW! IT’S BEEN A GLORIOUS AND HOT MIDSUMMER, WITH MANY TEMPERATURES SOARING TO HEIGHTS NOT SEEN FOR AROUND 40 YEARS. THE BEACHES ARE FULL AND ICE CREAM SALES HAVE GONE THROUGH THE ROOF. SO ISN’T THIS ALL GOOD NEWS?
Supporting the awareness of ADHD
and find out more about ADHD: https://goo.gl/dpfvs2
Sunday 13 August 2017
Pop back to the future
ON THE TELEVISION RECENTLY WAS NEWS THAT SOFT DRINK MANUFACTURERS ARE THINKING INNOVATIVELY ABOUT HOW TO CUT DOWN ON THE AMOUNT OF PLASTIC THAT IS ENDING UP IN REFUSE TIPS AND FLOATING AROUND THE OCEANS KILLING MARINE CREATURES.
Read more: https://goo.gl/YbHTRB
Avoid Fraud and Scams
UNSURPRISINGLY US GBOOMERS ARE SEEN AS A RIPE TARGET BY ORGANISED CRIME AND OTHER SCAMMERS. THEREFORE ALWAYS BE ON THE ALERT WHEN YOU ANSWER THE TELEPHONE. THE FOLLOWING GUIDANCE HAS BEEN ISSUED BY EAST SUSSEX POLICE FORCE1, BUT IS RELEVANT FOR THROUGHOUT THE UK.
Read more: https://goo.gl/cZHifL
Sunday 6 August 2017
Real Life Stories. A Solder's Story. Part IV.
Real Life Stories. A Soldier's Story. Part IV.
THE FRAGRANCE THAT HAD WAFTED ITS WAY THROUGH NORTHERN GERMANY AND IN PARTICULAR SOLTAU, WAS ME, OR RATHER US – ALL OF US! WE WERE THE GUYS FROM 207 SIGNAL SQUADRON, AND WE HAD BEEN ON MILITARY MANOEUVRES FOR 4 WEEKS SOLID.
Real Life Stories. A Solder's Story. Part III
Real Life Stories. A Soldier's Story. Part III.
EVERYTHING WAS GETTING BACK TO NORMAL OVER THE PAST WEEK. SAYING THAT, I HAD BEEN IN SOLTAU FOR A MONTH AND NO TWO DAYS HAD EVER BEEN THE SAME. IT WAS A PATTERN THAT WOULD CONTINUE FOR SOME TIME.
Saturday 10 June 2017
Outcome of General Election for GBoomer
Well, I don’t think anyone saw the result of the 8th June General Election coming! Least of all Theresa May! A hung parliament? I guess that most of the Conservative MPs who lost their seats will have ideas about who they would like to see hung!
But, joking apart, what might this outcome from the General Election mean for us boomers? This column does not get into the dangerous world of party politics, but it is possible to make some observations on what the current situation might mean for us. I throw three thoughts out there and welcome your comments and observations!
Energising of the Young: Of course, all votes are anonymous and therefore we cannot be certain about the characteristics of those who actually voted. But with the turnout up to around 69% many more people got out there and placed their “X” against a candidate. All the signs are that a lot more younger people voted in this election, where in the past they have been seen as quite apathetic towards politics. Jeremy Corbyn talked about getting rid of tuition fees for university students – surely the prospect of avoiding something like £50,000 of debt couldn’t have influenced them? But those of us boomers who were lucky enough to go to university for free, back in the day, cannot begrudge them if they did? They are our children and our grandchildren and if they are saddled with debt from the outset then what does this mean for them later in life?
Dementia Tax: A lot was made of the Conservatives’ proposal to set a ceiling on what (primarily elderly) people should be able to retain after paying for their social care needs. They said that they would up this from the current figure of around £23,000 to £100,000, and that people would not have to sell their houses in their lifetime. This was immediately dubbed the “Dementia Tax” by the politicians of other parties and the media alike; and they all shouted “U-Turn! U-Turn!” at Mrs May when she reacted by making some changes. Yet – notwithstanding any debate about what level any such figure should be set at – the proposal would represent an improvement on the current situation: people who have assets such as a house are already having to pay for their social care so they are already paying a “Dementia Tax”, or whatever you want to call it! Anyone listening to the political arguments might have thought that the Conservatives were introducing a new tax that didn’t currently exist! Also, none of the commentators (as far as I could see) asked the simple question about what would happen to a person’s house when they had gone into care? Yes, it wouldn’t have to be sold to pay for that person’s social care while that person was alive; so does that mean that the house would be left empty for however many years the person was in a residential or nursing home? (Elderly people who go into care homes probably spend around two years on average in the care home before they die). Who would take responsibility for maintaining the property so that it didn’t deteriorate, or find squatters occupying it? Whatever Government is formed, who pays for social care is a question that requires serious debate.
Uncertainty: We are always told that the financial markets don’t like uncertainty. Who does? Clearly the markets reacted negatively to the result; their having expected a comfortable Conservative victory. The pound dropped against other currencies, so this could impact on the cost of what you buy in the supermarket and the money that you spend abroad. Commentators are already asking about the impact on Brexit! There can be a danger that we all get paranoid about this. So my suggestion is that you accept that maybe finances might be squeezed a little, and that the pound might go up and down like a yoyo. We live in “interesting times”, so you should try and concentrate on the things that matter most in your life: your family; your friends; and your health.
Have a good day, and enjoy the fireworks display that will be Westminster over the coming weeks and months!
Join the conversation @ GBOOMER
Sunday 4 June 2017
Possible Breakthrough in Treating Dementia?
There was exciting news in April (2017) in the fight against Dementia1.
Prion disorders, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and dementia, can be the cause of brain cell death. A research team, from the Medical Research Council's Toxicology Unit in Leicester and Cambridge University, has identified that two existing medicines - one a licensed antidepressant and the other an anti-cancer compound - can restore protein production in the brains of laboratory mice. The drugs concerned were the antidepressant trazodone hydrochloride, and the anti-cancer drug dibenzoylmethane (DBN). These drugs were found to block an important pathway linked to brain cell death, caused by prion disorders. As a consequence the drugs could help slow down the effects of dementia.
Professor Giovanna Mallucci
The research team leader, Professor Giovanna Mallucci, said: "We know that trazodone is safe to use in humans, so a clinical trial is now possible. We could know in two to three years whether this approach can slow down disease progression, which would be a very exciting first step in treating these disorders. Interestingly, trazodone has been used to treat the symptoms of patients in later stages of dementia, so we know it is safe for this group. We now need to find out whether giving the drug to patients at an early stage could help arrest or slow down the disease through its effects on this pathway."
But whilst the results could represent a significant step forward, they do not represent a cure. They represent a means of possibly halting these diseases in their tracks. The advantage of using trazodone, in particular, is its existing licence for use in elderly patients, which means that the necessary clinical trials can be progressed more quickly than might otherwise be the case. But, of course, what might be true in mice (and other animals) may not always hold true in people! Nevertheless, these findings are very exciting and GBoomer will look forward to developments as they unfold.
The research team leader, Professor Giovanna Mallucci, said: "We know that trazodone is safe to use in humans, so a clinical trial is now possible. We could know in two to three years whether this approach can slow down disease progression, which would be a very exciting first step in treating these disorders. Interestingly, trazodone has been used to treat the symptoms of patients in later stages of dementia, so we know it is safe for this group. We now need to find out whether giving the drug to patients at an early stage could help arrest or slow down the disease through its effects on this pathway."
But whilst the results could represent a significant step forward, they do not represent a cure. They represent a means of possibly halting these diseases in their tracks. The advantage of using trazodone, in particular, is its existing licence for use in elderly patients, which means that the necessary clinical trials can be progressed more quickly than might otherwise be the case. But, of course, what might be true in mice (and other animals) may not always hold true in people! Nevertheless, these findings are very exciting and GBoomer will look forward to developments as they unfold.
Sunday 21 May 2017
A search for quality.
The boomer generation might only represent a little more than a quarter of the total population, but it has been calculated that they accept for around 45% of global luxury expenditures.
Read more
@GenerBoomer
Thursday 18 May 2017
Tuesday 16 May 2017
Monday 15 May 2017
Sunday 14 May 2017
Monday 8 May 2017
Thursday 4 May 2017
@GenerBoomer
http://gboomer.co.uk/2017/05/04/remember-nice-cup-tea/
Remember to have a nice cup of tea.
http://gboomer.co.uk/2017/05/04/remember-nice-cup-tea/
Monday 1 May 2017
Tuesday 11 April 2017
Friday 24 March 2017
Tuesday 21 March 2017
Is Increasing Life Expectancy A One Way Ticket?
The number of people surviving to the age of 100 in the UK reached 14,570 in 2015, according to Office for National Statistics, quadrupling over the last two decades. In the previous decade alone, the number of centenarians rose by 65%1.
So if you have listened to media commentators over the years you will be forgiven for believing that life expectancy is a one way ticket with successive generations reaching older and older ages. Obviously, good news? Well, politicians and actuaries use these figures to justify pushing back the age of retirement, on the basis that if you are going to have more years in retirement then you need to have put more money into your retirement pot. But as the old adage goes it’s about adding life to years rather than years to life – the quality of life in old age is what is crucial.
However, life expectancy is a statistical calculation based on current rates of death for each yearly age group. And life expectancy has been increasing in part because the people who are old now have been dying at lower rates than their predecessors. But what happens if that were to change?
Recent research in the USA suggests that things are changing and that the Generation Boomers might not have the same life expectancy as their parents2. Anne Case and Angus Deaton – No not the Angus Deayton who was in Have I Got News For You! – point to rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. They highlight that one of the highest spikes is deaths among white non-Hispanics aged 50-54 years is from poisonings. Additional increases are from chronic liver disease, suicide, cirrhosis of the liver, along with poisonings. The overall epidemic surrounding these clusters is addiction as the cited death spikes relate to opioid abuse, alcohol abuse, and heroine abuse.
Generation Boomers have lived through significant family changes brought on from two-parent working households, increased divorce rates, increased career mobility, increased technological advancement, and arguably a need for increased psychological and counselling support. Many will have dabbled with drugs when they were young, and some will still use drugs; the most common of which is alcohol. Drinking is recognised as an issue for the over 50s3 – we all know that a “glass of wine” is a lot bigger now than it was in the 1960s!
How might these factors impact on long-term well-being? Well they are almost certainly likely to reduce life expectancy. It is just that we cannot quantify it. The message is simple – Look after yourself and do things in moderation. There is a range of symptoms associated with addiction, with one or more indicating a problem. These include the following:
- Temporary blackouts or memory loss.
- Inability to stop drinking after drinking one to two servings, or escalating drug use after intoxication.
- Recurring difficulty with relationships, frequent relocating and/or job-changes, feelings of restlessness, irritability, depression, or mood swings.
- Using alcohol or substance to relax, to cheer up, to sleep, to deal with problems, or to feel "normal."
- Headache, anxiety, insomnia, nausea, or bodily shakes from withdrawals.
- Repeated efforts to stop, manage or control addiction without long-term success.
- Flushed skin and broken capillaries on the face; a husky voice; trembling hands; bloody or black/tarry stools or vomiting blood; chronic diarrhea.
- Drinking alone, in the mornings, or in secret and obsessing on how much alcohol or pain pills or drugs you have for next use.
- Measureable consequences from drinking or using such as health problems, broken relationships, lost jobs, financial difficulty, crossing personal moral boundaries, and self-hate.
- Changes in appearance, lying, stealing, cheating, and fixating on next fix.
If you think you have a problem then seek professional help and advice as soon as you can. Do not assume that current trends will continue and that increasing life expectancy is a one-way ticket. If you want to live to be a hundred years old then you have to look after yourself.
References
Sunday 19 March 2017
What was the very first record that you bought, or was bought for you?
Dave Brubeck's "Take Five"? The Muppet's “Mah Nà Mah Nà”?
Let us hear what your very first record was, and tell us if there is a back story behind it. It will be very interesting – and fun – to hear all of your stories. So get your fingers on your keyboards and let us know!!
Friday 17 March 2017
LOVE WRITING?
Want to share experiences, inspire or inform others? Send your story to info@gboomer.co.uk
GBOOMER, giving YOU a voice!
Tuesday 14 March 2017
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