How To Pick a Home That's Practical for Your Future

LEE MARSHALL

The Globe and Mail

Lauren Mark is 26 years old and may have just bought her retirement home.

In many ways, her 1.5-bedroom, two-floor loft in Mississauga is as perfect for her life now as it will be 50 years from now. A mall is right across the street. The community is friendly; the security guards at the condo ask if she needs help carrying groceries. By the time she isn’t driving any more, Toronto might have finally extended the subway that far west. And on a summer day, it’s almost as good as Florida: “If I go on my balcony, I feel like I’m at a resort,” she says, describing her view of trees, pools and tanning chairs.

Thinking this far ahead isn’t the norm, but as the average life expectancy rises and a greater percentage of Canadians hit retirement age, it may just be the next big thing in design. An emerging initiative called New Aging is all about proactively planning the future you want rather than letting circumstances decide for you.

And if Matthias Hollwich, an architect and author of a New Aging manifesto of sorts that is slated for publication in 2015, has his way, homes and neighbourhoods would be designed to give us what we need at any age so we never have to enter a nursing home.

“Aging is a gift that we receive with life. If you don’t like aging then you are basically dead,” says Hollwich, co-founder of New York architecture firm Hollwich Kushner Architecture DPC. He speaks with the zeal of a revolutionary, a visionary who just wants everyone to live a happy life for as long as possible. To do this, he says we should accept aging early (he is 43 but declared himself old several years ago) and prepare for aging the same way that we would plan a vacation: You wouldn’t take a trip around the world without first considering how to get there, where to stay, who to bring and leave behind, and what you want to experience.

And he applies his theory in his own life: He rents an apartment in Manhattan, but plans to purchase a property with friends by the time he turns 50, a space complete with private studios, a large communal living area and an extra apartment for a caregiver.

A New Aging home adheres to the principles of universal design, which considers the needs of people of every age and ability. For example, entrances, pathways, bathrooms and kitchens should accommodate someone with a walker or in a wheelchair. The philosophy also involves thinking about how the space could transform to meet new requirements over time: Equal-sized (rather than hierarchical) bedrooms would allow a caretaker to stay after kids grow up and move out; a spacious living room could be converted to share space with a bed one day; a future elevator could be added to the blueprints of a new house.

Hollwich and his team have designed several New Aging community prototypes for locations in the Europe, Africa and North America, but these concepts have not been built. However, all of his work is infused with an awareness of aging, including the 1,840-unit apartment building that is under construction in New Jersey, which will feature details such as barrier-free travel, direct access to public transit, kitchen surfaces that are the right height for wheelchairs and fully accessible bathrooms.

Ronny Wiskin, who founded Reliable Independent Living Services in Toronto and specializes in renovations that allow homeowners to age in place, says that building a house for the future is a smart investment. “More and more people are aware nowadays because of this large aging demographic – where we’re looking down the road saying, ‘Holy smokes! Grey is becoming the new blond and how do we help them to live comfortably where they want to live?’” Wiskin says.

Mississauga’s Lauren Mark may not be able to age in place in her condo (it’s too small for raising a family), but she’s thinking she’d rent it out and then move back later in life. “All of the things that you require on an everyday basis are right there – so that was huge when I was looking into buying it,” she says.

Deborah Biondino, a 27-year-old social-media manager, and her husband, Michael Bernardi, bought a townhouse in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, last winter and Biondino has the intention of spending the rest of her life there.

The three-bedroom, 1.5 bathroom townhouse isn’t ideal for someone with limited mobility – but Biondino is already planning renovations. “I want to make the shower bigger and have a seat put in,” she says, adding that she wants to remove the dangerous step and transform the shower so it’s flush with the floor.

All the bedrooms are on the second floor, which might be difficult to access in the far future, but Biondino has already thought of a solution: “The house can definitely have a bedroom put on the first floor. We could put up walls between the dining room and the living room and split that into equal-size rooms,” she says.

Biondino liked the house because, although big enough to accommodate a family, it isn’t so big that it’s difficult to maintain. “I didn’t want too much of a yard space,” she says, “I’ve seen how my grandfather, who has a huge yard, has already started downsizing.”

While New Aging is more an idea than a movement at the moment, Hunter Tura, president and CEO of Bruce Mau Design in Toronto, says the universality of aging means it could become integral to popular design philosophy.

“Sustainability is a great analog to [New Aging],” says Tura, who is working with Hollwich on the New Aging book. “What was once a kind of niche thing now really is a kind of industry standard. … I’d like to see the same thing happen over time to consider the needs of aging people.”

 

 

Encore Jobs a New Trend in Retirement

When Patricia Visser decided to retire after 30 years in publishing and promotions, she had no idea she would be asked for an encore.

The then 60-year-old Toronto mother of five didn’t plan to re-enter the workforce, having saved wisely, sharing household expenses with her youngest daughter and feeling that she was naturally approaching the end of her working life.

“Most of my work was by choice with smaller enterprises. I didn’t want a 30-year job at Bell or Ford,” says Visser, who published entertainment and trade magazines and did marketing for various firms over the years.

Visser didn’t have a company pension plan, but lived modestly in a co-op apartment and saved enough to retire a bit early.

“I thought after 30 years that I’d been working forever,” she recalls with a laugh.

Instead, now 78, Visser has been working since she retired, from health research to helping small publishing startups. She is part of the trend where those ready to retire take “encore jobs” — launching a second act in the workforce rather than taking conventional retirement.

In fact, there are more older workers than ever before. They are staying in the workforce longer — some because they need to, but also because they want to. Today, 3.6 million workers are age 55 and over, representing 20 per cent of Canada’s workforce, an increase of 1.2 million since 2006, according to Statistics Canada.

More than 650,000 people are 65 and over with paying jobs — more than twice the number as in 2006.

In Visser’s case, “that breather from my career didn’t last long — maybe a year or so — before someone called” to see if she’d be interested in doing research into cancer prevention for York University. That led to doing surveys across the country on a wide range of topics like melanoma and even on the recreational drug use of people in their 60s.

“That was a wild one, but it was interesting,” she says.

“I really like working on projects that I think are worthwhile,” notes Visser, who helped a small company publish a special series of books on Canadian prime ministers for elementary school students.

She says the beauty of her encore career is being able to choose her hours and days of work. The extra money — while less than her younger working days — also helps her enjoy other interests like the theatre and symphony.

“Retirement is evolving. You don’t want to sit in a corner playing with your fingers, and I don’t know how to knit. I wanted to stay home and read at first, but it’s a double-edged sword because you get rusty the less you do. So you want to be doing something, even part-time or on contract. It’s having the best of both worlds,” Visser says.

Life expectancy plays a big part in the encore job trend, so “it’s not surprising that this is happening,” says Gordon Betcherman, a University of Ottawa professor of social sciences with a focus on the labour market.

In 1970, the average life expectancy at birth in Canada was 69 years for men and 76 for women. By 2011, it had increased to 79.3 years for men and 83.6 for women.

“You’re likely going to be living longer so if you’re not physically spent and you can find work that is not physically demanding, why not try to keep on doing it,” Betcherman says.

“People are making the decision that they don’t want to sit around for 30 years” after traditional retirement at 65, he says. “And fewer people are able to count on pensions.”

Retirees who spend most of their lives in physical jobs tend to want to leave the workforce entirely, while those who do more knowledge-based work often like the content of their work but may not have liked the organization, Betcherman says, adding many will stay in similar fields or seek out other types of work in which they can draw on their experience.

“The big picture is that this is a good thing, because as the population ages we are going to be looking for workers.”

Statistics Canada followed a group of workers who were between 50 to 64 when they left their jobs. Ten years later, most had gone back to work. Just 32 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women did not.

 

Among those who left their careers in their early 60s, the agency found that 47 per cent of men and 41 per cent of women were re-employed during the next 10 years, and most did so within a year or two.

StatsCan also discovered that men and women who were separated or divorced were more likely than their never-married counterparts to be re-employed after leaving their long-term jobs. However, married men were more likely to be re-employed than never-married men, but married women were less likely to be re-employed.

Compared with Ontario residents, older workers living in Atlantic Canada were less likely to be re-employed after leaving their career, while those living in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Territories were more likely to be re-employed.

“I still want to be part of life and what’s happening,” says Visser. “Older people have a lot to offer.”

Today she works part-time in the Toronto offices of CARP (formerly the Canadian Association of Retired Persons) after a few years recruiting members to the group that advocates on behalf of older people.

Visser says her 60-year-old son — a self-employed web designer who is the same age she was when she supposedly retired — has no intention of leaving the working world anytime soon.

 

by Lisa Wright - Business Reporter - Toronto Star

Health Care May Tarnish Golden Years, Baby Boomers Fear

Baby boomers are getting increasingly antsy about the availability and quality of health care as they age.

That is the message that emerges from a new poll, commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association. The survey of Canadians aged 45-plus shows that 78 per cent of them are worried that they will not be able to access necessary health services like homecare and long-term care in a timely fashion when they need them.

Eighty-one per cent of those polled also expressed worries about the quality of the care they will able to access.

 

In addition, the majority of older Canadians – 61 per cent – lack confidence that hospitals and long-term care facilities can handle the needs of Canada’s elderly population, or that there are enough services to help Canadian seniors live at home longer (60 per cent).

And, of course, money is an issue, with fully half of baby boomers worrying that they won’t be able to afford the health care they need in their golden years. This despite the fact that 68 per cent of those over the age of 65 have supplemental health insurance to help cover services that do not fall under the rubric of medicare.

Dr. Louis Francescutti, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said the survey results underscore the desperate need for a pan-Canadian seniors’ strategy to ensure medicare can meet the needs of the country’s aging population.

“Canada desperately needs a seniors’ strategy and politicians should pay attention during the next federal election,” he said. “This should be an issue one would ignore at their own political peril.”

He said the challenge an aging population poses cannot be understated. In 1971, seniors represented 8 per cent of the population; today they represent 15 per cent; and by the time all baby boomers have reached the age of 65, it will be 25 per cent of the population.

In the poll the CMA commissioned last year – part of what it calls its annual health care report card – 85 per cent of Canadians said they supported a seniors’ strategy. This year, the question was asked to those over the age of 45, and 95 per cent of them were in favour of having a plan.

In the background paper that accompanies the poll, the CMA says the purpose of a seniors’ strategy is to remodel the health system to better meet the needs of the baby boomer demographic. In particular, infrastructure planning would ensure the better use of healthcare dollars so medicare can remain affordable.

The CMA notes that hospital care costs about $1,000 a day, compared to $130 in a long-term care facility, and $55 for homecare. Yet far too many seniors end up in hospital by default because of shortages in other areas.

The physicians’ group estimates that getting elderly patients into the appropriate facility would save the system at least $2.3-billion annually.

The poll also shows that caregivers are increasingly feeling the burden of providing care to aging relatives and friends.

More than one in four Canadians currently provide health care to a loved one. In the survey, 71 per cent of them said this poses serious conflicts with personal and work responsibilities, and 64 per cent said the caregiving functions cause a high level of stress.

The Ipsos Reid poll was conducted by phone between July 17 and July 24 with 1,000 Canadians aged 45 years and older. The results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

André Picard  - and PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER  OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail

 

Short, Intense Bursts of Exercise May Benefit Seniors’ Health, Fend Off Loss of Muscle

High-intensity training has become extremely popular among fitness enthusiasts in the past few years. There is increased interest in performing challenging workouts to enhance fitness and reap the benefits of short intense exercise. Traditionally, this type of training was reserved for athletes to enhance sports performance, but now it has become a common method of fitness training.

The benefits of this type of training are well documented in research. This short intense workout style can increase aerobic capacity faster then steady-state training, and increase fat utilization for energy causing bigger changes in body composition, just to name a few benefits. This has lead to questions about whether older adults can experience the same benefits in a safe way.

Having just returned from speaking at the annual American Council of Sports Medicine (ACSM) convention in Atlanta, Ga., these questions were addressed and discussed with some very enlightening information. Currently the ACSM Guidelines for Older Adults are based on general resistance training guiding principles for developing strength endurance. ACSM recommends a low-to-moderate intensity range of 65% to 75% of one-repetition maximum to boost strength and reduce the risk of injury.

The current guidelines provide an excellent starting point and will provide health benefits, but new research shows that older adults can train at higher-intensity exercise levels then once believed. Research with older adults in high-intensity exercise programs, specifically heavy resistance and powerlifting exercise, have shown excellent fitness gains and functional strength for many activities of daily living.

The aging process typically causes a decrease in muscle mass at a rate of approximately 5% per decade from the age of 40, with a rapid decrease after the age of 65. There has been much discussion as to whether this is the natural aging process or has it been accelerated due to an increased sedentary lifestyle after the age of 60.

A decrease in muscle mass and diminished neuromuscular efficiency causes a reduction in speed, agility, balance, co-ordination and power. The accumulation of these losses greatly affects overall skills, which significantly increases the risk of falls.

Fitness is lost without exercise, however, the good news is that it’s a renewable resource and can be re-gained with activity. Just as a sedentary lifestyle can threaten health, an exercise program with appropriate levels of strength and power training can provide numerous health benefits and stimulate muscle growth even in the later years.

Higher-intensity exercises not only do wonders for the muscular system, they stimulate hormone production. Research indicates seniors that performed power-training workouts with more explosive movement such as throwing a medicine ball or kettlebell swings, had an increased production of the hormones testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factors, which all lead to a muscle growth and more youthful appearance.

 

Strength represents the amount of force a muscle can generate, whereas power is the velocity of force being produced. This represents the speed at which a muscular system can be activated to produce the required movement. Strength training exercises are typically executed at a slow and rhythmic tempo, whereas power training requires speed with controlled movement. For people over the age of 60, age-related loss of muscle power can occur approximately twice as quickly as loss of muscle strength, suggesting that muscle power is a more critical variable in age-related functional decline.

As with any exercise program, current health and fitness is critical to the appropriateness of exercise selection. Medication, lifestyle, injuries, illness and health related concerns determine the starting place and progression of exercise. Older adults should consider working with a certified exercise specialist or participating in a group-exercise program that is specifically designed for them. Current movement function or loss of movement, mobility and strength are considerations in exercise choices. Always consult your physician prior to starting an exercise program.

The big message is that healthy active older adults can perform high intensity exercise with great health and fitness benefits. Grey hair and wrinkles are a natural process of aging, however, when it comes to muscles and physical training the body has a great capacity to adapt even as we age. In fact, some experts argue muscles do not know age.

—Helen Vanderburg is a World Champion synchronized swimmer, fitness trainer, and corporate wellness speaker.

The New Old Age

My late father had a longtime friend, a retired kosher butcher, who lived down the hall in their South Jersey apartment building. Past 90, Manny was older and frailer than my father; he leaned on a cane and could barely see well enough to recognize faces. But every morning, and again in late afternoon, he walked through my dad’s unlocked front door to be sure he was all right and to kibitz a bit.

Manny made the rounds, also looking in on several other aged residents in their so-called N.O.R.C. (naturally occurring retirement community). Unless he was ill himself, he never missed a day.

Manny’s regular reconnaissance missions come to mind when I read about purpose, which is one of those things we recognize without quite knowing how to define. To psychologists, “purpose reflects a commitment to broader life goals that helps organize your day to day activities,” Patrick Hill, a psychologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, told me in an interview.

It’s a hard quality to measure, so researchers rely on how strongly people agree or disagree with statements like these:

“Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.”
“I feel good when I think of what I have done in the past and what I hope to do in the future.”
“I live life one day at a time and do not really think about the future.”
“I sometimes feel as if I have done all there is to do in life.”

It turns out that purpose is, on many counts, a good thing to have, long associated with satisfaction and happiness, better physical functioning, even better sleep. “It’s a very robust predictor of health and wellness in old age,” said Patricia Boyle, a neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago.

She and her colleagues have been tracking two cohorts of older people living independently in greater Chicago, assessing them regularly on a variety of physical, psychological and cognitive measures. The subjects agreed to donate their brains after their deaths.

What have the scientists learned? Let’s start with arguably the most feared disease of old age. Following almost 1,000 people (age 80, on average) for up to seven years, Dr. Boyle’s team found that the ones with high purpose scores were 2.4 time more likely to remain free of Alzheimer's than those with low scores; they were also less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, often a precursor.

“It also slowed the rate of cognitive decline by about 30 percent, which is a lot,” Dr. Boyle added.

In a subset of 246 people who died, autopsies found that many of the purposeful subjects also showed the distinctive markers of Alzheimer's. “But even for people developing the plaques and tangles in their brains, having purpose in life allows you to tolerate them and still maintain your cognition,” Dr. Boyle said.

Purposeful people were less likely to develop disabilities. And they were less likely to die: a sample of 1,238 people followed for up to five years (average age: 78) by Rush researchers found that thos with high purpose had roughly half the mortality rate of those with low purpose.

This protective effect holds through the years, showed a recent study by Dr. Hill, which relied on a national longitudinal study that enrolled 7,100 Americans aged 20 to 75. Those who died, in all age groups, scored significantly lower on purpose-in-life scales. The researchers looked at whether purpose had less effect after retirement, when “you’re starting to lose those structures you had, a natural way to organize your daily life,” Dr. Hill said. Somewhat to his surprise, work status didn’t matter.

In fact, both the Rush and the Carleton teams controlled for a host of other factors known to correlate with well-being — depression or “negative affect,” social relationships, chronic medical conditions and disability, demographic differences — and report that purpose in life, all by itself, appears to have a potent ability to improve and extend lives.

So how can we help older people hang onto a sense of purpose if their strength and mobility declines and their dependence on others increases? I’d like to hear your ideas. Isn’t that one of the most dispiriting aspect of life in nursing homes or assisted living, after all — the sense some residents develop that there’s no reason to live? Older people can stay busy with activities and multiple medical appointments, but many feel that what they do doesn’t matter.

“They want to make a contribution,” Dr. Boyle said. “They want to feel part of something that extends beyond themselves.” Though what provides purpose in one’s life varies, merely taking care of oneself probably doesn’t qualify. People with purpose “have a sense of their role in the community and the broader world,” Dr. Boyle said. She particularly mentioned mentoring, passing one’s memories or experiences on to younger people, as a way to stoke a sense of purpose.

The Jewish Association Serving the Aging, which provides services in metropolitan New York, takes a different tack. The organization’s Institute for Senior Action has trained more than a thousand older people to be “rabble rousers”; graduates have mobilized to restore city funding cut from a center for the elderly, for example.

Or maybe you adapt the things you’ve done and valued all your life. Manny, my dad’s friend, used to make home deliveries from his butcher shop. He was used to regularly visiting members of the small Jewish community in my hometown, hearing about their families and their lives as he dropped off bundles of kosher meat wrapped in paper.

Decades later, when his world had contracted, he was essentially still at it. He was providing a service (he did actually once find a neighbor on the floor and summoned an ambulance), and he was very diligent about it.

I’d call that purpose, wouldn’t you?

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Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions

Baby Boomers Should Start Working Out Now If They Want to be Fit in Senior Years

No one likes to think about getting old and we generally don’t do much to prepare for it. But the truth of the matter is that if you are lucky enough to live into your seventies, eighties and beyond, your fitness level is going to decline.
Some of it comes down to unstoppable biology. But how much and how fast you lose muscle, bone, flexibility and aerobic capacity is also influenced by your individual fitness level going into older age.
So if you want to be sprightly in your seventies, you need to be working out in your forties, fifties and sixties, experts say.
Put another way: If you don’t pay into your fitness bank in middle age, you won’t have much to draw on later. And while you may not mind being too out of shape to go for a run when you are 55, you probably will care if you can’t pull yourself out of a bathtub at 75.
“I think you are on a slippery slope. Or another analogy would be you’re getting closer to the edge of the cliff,” says Dr. Paul Oh, medical director of the cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation program at Toronto Rehab, a hospital in the University Health Network.
“We need to be thinking about prevention all along, but particularly as we hit our middle years.”
In your teens, twenties and thirties, for most people working out is about looking and feeling good, managing stress and keeping weight in check. But later in life, maintaining muscle is critical for independent and active living. In other words, we need to do it to be able to perform myriad functions we all take for granted — until we
You need strong leg muscles for walking, climbing stairs and getting up from the sofa. You need strong core muscles to protect your back. And you need upper body strength to carry groceries, push yourself up out of bed, open a jar or pick up a grandchild.
But adults begin to lose muscle mass as early as age 40, “so it’s important to try to defend it through our adult years,” says Oh.
In the U.S., the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control recommend adults do weight training — with good reason, says Kent Adams, director of the exercise physiology laboratory at California State University Monterey Bay.
“For the boomers, critical to successful aging is strength training, resistance training,” he says, adding that even people who exercise regularly but who focus exclusively on aerobic workouts should broaden their routines.
“Running alone is not suitable for maintaining muscle mass,” Kent says. “From a public health perspective, we would do a lot of good if people would lift weights two or three days a week.”
“We don’t need to become Arnold Schwarzenegger. … But we do need to challenge ourselves and work harder.”
Elaine Cress agrees.
“For a long time, the emphasis was all on heart disease and cardiovascular fitness. But people are really realizing the critical importance of having strength training for precisely this,” says Cress, a former professor of kinesiology and gerontology at the University of Georgia who now lives in Bellingham, Wash.
Cress says performing day-to-day activities will not give you the fitness reserves you will need for later in life.
“You need structured exercise to keep the muscle capacity above what you need in your everyday life. Gardening’s not enough.”
Experts suggest a mix of types of exercise, aimed at maintain strength and bone

Baby boomers may have dreams of spending their twilight years basking in the glow of good health, but a new poll suggests they’ll have to work much harder to make that vision a reality.
The findings come in the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s annual report on the health of Canadians, which opted to focus on the habits of one of the country’s largest demographics.
The online survey found a noticeable disparity between people’s perceptions of their own health and the reality of their medical situation.
While 80% of survey respondents described themselves as healthy, the poll found details of the participants’ health habits told a very different story.
“Stiffness is a factor as you get older,” says Dr. Cy Frank, an orthopedic surgeon with the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute in Calgary. “So you have to do more stretching as you get older, because physiologically your tissues are tightening up.”

Cress suggests finding a reputable yoga or Pilates program, or other types of stretching classes to help you learn how to stretch properly.
For those who don’t have access to or don’t feel comfortable working out at a gym, brisk walking is a good option for an aerobic workout, Oh says.
He suggests a person in their 60s who walks at a pace of about 6.4 kilometres per hour would accrue real health benefits. He recommends 30 minutes of that five times a week. The aim is to exert yourself enough to be a little bit out of breath, Oh says.
“We don’t need to have everybody running around the neighbourhood drenched in sweat, feeling like you’re going to collapse or going to throw up. That’s an unreasonable level of intensity for the vast majority of people,” he insists.
Frank and Adams say there are no hard and fast rules about what types of exercise works best for middle-aged and older adults. It really depends on what kind of shape you are in. But if you haven’t been working out, don’t dive into a super vigorous workout. (That means you, Mr. Middle Aged Hockey Player.)
“You do have to be aware of your different limitations. And what’s good for one person may not be good for another,” Adams says.
Frank sees a lot of damaged knees in his line of work, and admits he often steers people away from running and towards other, less punishing types of aerobic exercise.
“I tend to get them to avoid things that injury them and that hurt. And running hurts quite a few people. So I tend to go with cycling and swimming and non-impact exercises.”
If you haven’t been exercising and feel that maybe it’s too late for you, there’s no excuse for throwing in the towel, Adams says. “It’s never too late to get started. Even the oldest-old can benefit from resistance training.”
For many busy adults, the issue may be finding time. But these experts suggest that if you don’t find the time your body will make it for you eventually.
“If you don’t take time to exercise, you have to take time to be sick and to get better,” Cress says.
They also insist it’s an investment that will pay off. Says Adams: “It’s the closest thing we have to the fountain of youth.”

Losing Weight May Require Some Serious Fun

By Gretchen Reynolds

 

If you are aiming to lose weight by revving up your exercise routine, it may be wise to think of your workouts not as exercise, but as playtime. An unconventional new study suggests that people’s attitudes toward physical activity can influence what they eat afterward and, ultimately, whether they drop pounds.

For some time, scientists have been puzzled — and exercisers frustrated — by the general ineffectiveness of exercise as a weight-loss strategy. According to multiple studies and anecdotes, most people who start exercising do not lose as much weight as would be expected, given their increased energy expenditure. Some people add pounds despite burning hundreds of calories during workouts.

Past studies of this phenomenon have found that exercise can increase the body’s production of appetite hormones, making some people feel ravenous after even a light workout and prone to consume more calories than they expended. But that finding, while intriguing, doesn’t fully explain the wide variability in people’s post-exercise eating habits.

So, for the new study, published in the journal Marketing Letters, French and American researchers turned to psychology and the possible effect that calling exercise by any other name might have on people’s subsequent diets.

In that pursuit, the researchers first recruited 56 healthy, adult women, the majority of them overweight. The women were given maps detailing the same one-mile outdoor course and told that they would spend the next half-hour walking there, with lunch to follow.

Half of the women were told that their walk was meant to be exercise, and they were encouraged to view it as such, monitoring their exertion throughout. The other women were told that their 30-minute outing would be a walk purely for pleasure; they would be listening to music through headphones and rating the sound quality, but mostly the researchers wanted them to enjoy themselves.

When the women returned from walking, the researchers asked each to estimate her mileage, mood and calorie expenditure.

Those women who’d been formally exercising reported feeling more fatigued and grumpy than the other women, although the two groups’ estimates of mileage and calories burned were almost identical. More telling, when the women sat down to a pasta lunch, with water or sugary soda to drink, and applesauce or chocolate pudding for dessert, the women in the exercise group loaded up on the soda and pudding, consuming significantly more calories from these sweets than the women who’d thought that they were walking for pleasure.

A follow-up experiment by the researchers, published as part of the same study, reinforces and broadens those findings. For it, the researchers directed a new set of volunteers, some of them men, to walk the same one-mile loop. Once again, half were told to consider this session as exercise. The others were told that they would be sightseeing and should have fun. The two groups covered the same average distance. But afterward, allowed to fill a plastic bag at will with M&M’s as a thank-you, the volunteers from the exercise group poured in twice as much candy as the other walkers.

Finally, to examine whether real-world exercisers behave similarly to those in the contrived experiments, the researchers visited the finish line of a marathon relay race, where 231 entrants aged 16 to 67 had just completed laps of five to 10 kilometers. They asked the runners whether they had enjoyed their race experience and offered them the choice of a gooey chocolate bar or healthier cereal bar in consideration of their time and help. In general, those runners who said that their race had been difficult or unsatisfying picked the chocolate; those who said that they had fun gravitated toward the healthier choice.

In aggregate, these three experiments underscore that how we frame physical activity affects how we eat afterward, said Carolina O.C. Werle, an associate professor of marketing at the Grenoble School of Management in France, who led the study. The same exertion, spun as “fun” instead of “exercise,” prompts less gorging on high-calorie foods, she said.

Just how, physiologically, our feelings about physical activity influence our food intake is not yet known, she said, and likely to be bogglingly complex, involving hormones, genetics, and the neurological circuitry of appetite and reward processing. But in the simplest terms, Dr. Werle said, this new data shows that most of us require recompense of some kind for working out. That reward can take the form of subjective enjoyment. If exercise is fun, no additional gratification is needed. If not, there’s chocolate pudding.

The good news is that our attitudes toward exercise are malleable. “We can frame our workouts in different ways,” Dr. Werle said, “by focusing on whatever we consider fun about it, such as listening to our favorite music or chatting with a friend” during a group walk.

“The more fun we have,” she concluded, “the less we’ll feel the need to compensate for the effort” with food.

13 Reasons Tea is Good for You

Put down those saucer cups and get chugging — tea is officially awesome for your health. But before loading up on Red Zinger, make sure that your “tea” is actually tea. Real tea is derived from a particular plant (Camellia sinensis) and includes only four varieties: green, black, white, and oolong. Anything else (like herbal “tea”) is an infusion of a different plant and isn’t technically tea.
But what real tea lacks in variety, it makes up for with some serious health benefits. Researchers attribute tea’s health properties to polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) and phytochemicals. Though most studies have focused on the better-known green and black teas, white and oolong also bring benefits to the table. Read on to find out why coffee’s little cousin rocks your health.

1. Tea can boost exercise endurance. Scientists have found that the catechins (antioxidants) in green tea extract increase the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance.
2. Drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack. Tea might also help protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases.
3. The antioxidants in tea might help protect against a boatload of cancers, including breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate and oral cancers. But don’t rely solely on tea to keep a healthy body — tea is not a miracle cure, after all. While more studies than not suggest that tea has cancer-fighting benefits, the current research is mixed.
4. Tea helps fight free radicals. Tea is high in oxygen radical absorbance capacity (“ORAC” to its friends), which is a fancy way of saying that it helps destroy free radicals (which can damage DNA) in the body. While our bodies are designed to fight free radicals on their own, they’re not 100 percent effective — and since damage from these radical oxygen ninjas has been linked to cancer, heart disease and neurological degeneration, we’ll take all the help we can get.
5. Tea is hydrating to the body (even despite the caffeine!).
6. Drinking tea is linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. When considered with other factors like smoking, physical activity, age and body mass index, regular tea drinking was associated with a lowered risk of Parkinson’s disease in both men and women.
7. Tea might provide protection from ultraviolet rays. We know it’s important to limit exposure to UV rays, and we all know what it’s like to feel the burn. The good news is that green tea may act as a back-up sunscreen.
8. Tea could keep waist circumference in check. In one study, participants who regularly consumed hot tea had lower waist circumference and lower BMI than non-consuming participants. Scientists speculate that regular tea drinking lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome (which increases the risk of diabetes, artery disease and stroke), although it’s important to remember that correlation does not equal causation.
9. Regular tea drinking might also counteract some of the negative effects of smoking and might even lessen the risk of lung cancer (good news, obviously, but not a justification for cigs).
10. Tea could be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes. Studies suggest that compounds in green tea could help diabetics better process sugars.
11. Tea can help the body recover from radiation. One study found that tea helped protect against cellular degeneration upon exposure to radiation, while another found that tea can help skin bounce back postexposure.
12. Green tea has been found to improve bone mineral density and strength.
13. Tea might be an effective agent in the prevention and treatment of neurological diseases, especially degenerative diseases (think Alzheimer’s). While many factors influence brain health, polyphenols in green tea may help maintain the parts of the brain that regulate learning and memory.

Though most research on tea is highly positive, it’s not all definitive — so keep these caveats in mind before stocking up on gallons of the stuff:

1. Keep it cool. Repeatedly drinking hot beverages may boost the risk of esophageal cancer. Give tea several minutes to cool off before sipping.
2. The studies seem convincing, but a rat does not a human make. Chemicals in tea may react differently in the lab than they do in the human body. Tannins (and the other good stuff in green tea) may not be bioavailable for humans, meaning tea might not always benefit human health to the same degree as in lab studies suggest.
3. All tea drinks are not created equal. The body’s access to the good stuff in tea might be determined by the tea variety, canning and processing, and the way it was brewed.

The takeaway: at the very least, tea should be safe to consume — just not in excessive amounts. So brew up a batch of the good stuff — hot or cold — and enjoy.

by Laura Newcomer

Poisoned by Sugar

The domino effect of cellular and organ damage from long-term high blood sugar levels will make you think twice before ordering another sugared drink, writes Kasmiah Mustapha

IT is called a silent killer for a reason. With no symptoms or pain, people can suffer from diabetes for years without realising it.
And since many do not realise they are diabetics, when compounded with high blood sugar and an unhealthy lifestyle, their condition can worsen, leading to certain organ failure.
Diabetes is the top cause of cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney failure and foot amputations.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and accounts for 90 per cent of cases worldwide. People with type 2 diabetes can experience either insulin deficiency or insulin resistance.
 One gets insulin deficiency when the body does not produce enough of the hormone. Insulin resistance refers to body cells not reacting to the hormone, resulting in high levels of glucose in the blood.
Universiti Sains Malaysia professor of medicine Datuk Dr Mafauzy Mohamed says a high blood sugar level over a long period of time can damage the small blood vessels in the body. The excess sugar will turn toxic and kill the blood cells, leading to other complications.
“Patients are likely to suffer from oxidative stress which causes protein damage and plays a major role in diabetes complications, both microvascular and cardiovascular,” he says.
“Over time, the nerves will be damaged, leading to foot problems. They are also at risk of kidney failure, vision loss and cardiovascular disease.”
 Dr Mafauzy says diabetics suffer from diabetic nerve damage and poor blood flow which result in numbness in their feet. This can cause complications if they hurt their feet as they won’t be able to feel pain. The wound will take ages to heal. If the patient does not notice it, it may get infected.
 “If the infection spreads, one may have to amputate the affected part of the foot. Sadly, in some cases, the patient may lose a leg because the infection has become worse and amputation has to be done to save his or her life,” he says.

CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGE
High blood sugar can also damage blood vessels in the kidneys, heart and eyes. In the kidneys, it will affect its role to filter waste products which is discharged through urine. Over time, the kidneys can no longer process waste from the blood and protein will be leaked into the urine, a major symptom of kidney failure.
Diabetics are also at risk of vision loss because of the damaged blood vessels in the retina. It can lead to blurred vision, sudden loss of vision and in some cases, total blindness.
Dr Mafauzy says diabetics can manage their condition by eating healthy and doing physical activity. If one has the genetic risks of becoming a diabetic, it is really important to manage one’s weight to avoid getting it early.
For the rest of the population, watching sugar consumption and keeping active will go a long way in delaying or avoiding the disease.
“If they look after their weight, they may get diabetes only when they are in their 60s or 70s. Otherwise, they may get diabetes when they are in their 30s or 40s or even younger,” says Dr Mafauzy.
“If they are overweight, their pancreas has to work extra hard to produce insulin to control blood sugar level. This will stress out the pancreas and over time, it can no longer produce enough insulin. When there is not enough insulin, the blood sugar level will rise.
 “When you control your weight, the pancreas does not have to work hard to release insulin since the blood sugar level will not be high. Insulin is stored in the body. If you don’t need to use it much, there will be plenty on those occasions when the body needs extra. If you keep on using it, there will be nothing left.”
 Speaking at the launch of Forxiga, the latest treatment for controlling blood glucose, Dr Mafauzy says he informs his patients on the need to manage weight and the importance of exercise. They will be told of the complications they may face if they don’t manage their blood sugar well.
“The challenge is in controlling one’s diet and to exercise. Some patients will give excuses of not having the time to exercise or that they like to eat. These patients are in denial. Diabetes can kill if you don’t make the effort to control your habits.”
Forxiga works to improve the blood sugar level by removing excess glucose through urine. Studies show that with Forxiga, the amount of glucose excreted in the urine daily may result in significant weight loss which will benefit diabetics who are overweight or obese.
In Malaysia, 82 per cent of type 2 diabetes patients are either overweight or obese.
MANAGING DIABETES
Eat a balanced diet
Seeing a dietitian every one to two years can be helpful if you have diabetes. The dietitian, along with your diabetes health care team, will help you plan a diet that is just right for you.

Exercise
At least three to four times a week for 20 to 40 minutes each session. A regular exercise programme can improve blood sugar, decrease the risk of heart disease and help you lose weight.
Tell your doctor what kind of exercises you want to do, so adjustments can be made to your medicine schedule or meal plan. Remember it is important to check your sugar level prior to and after exercise.

Maintain a healthy weight
Minimal weight loss can have a major positive effect on blood sugar control in the obese diabetic.

Get plenty of sleep
Keeping a regular schedule and getting enough sleep will help keep blood sugar levels under control.

Quit smoking
Taking away the poisonous ingredients in cigarettes will make your body instantly healthier.

Practice good foot and skin care
Check feet daily for callouses, cracks or skin breakdown. If you notice redness, ulcerations, pus or a foul smell from your feet or if you notice that any of the toes have turned black and cold, notify your doctor immediately.
Also, tell your doctor if you have any swelling in your ankles or feet.

Keep to your schedule
Follow medicine schedule prescribed by your diabetes health care provider. Keep a list of your medicines with you at all times. When travelling, bring enough supplies on your trip.
Keep medicines, syringes and blood sugar testing supplies in your carry-on bag. Do not check in these supplies, in case you lose your luggage.
Bring copies of your prescriptions and consider getting a medical alert bracelet.

Boomers Redefining Grandparenting Role in Hectic Society

The U.S. news media’s response to Chelsea Clinton’s pregnancy announcement this week was innocuous at best and, at worst, breathtakingly stupid.
“President or Grandmother?” the interviewer Charlie Rose wondered aloud, failing to note that no man in the history of time had ever been presented with such a dilemma. NBC’s David Gregory asked whether Hillary’s “new role” would deter her from running for president at all, to which the feminist blog Jezebel sassed back, “I don’t know, David. Did the birth of your three children make you worse at your job?”
So yes, it’s blatantly idiotic (and sexist) to speculate on Hillary’s presidential bid in light of the happy news, and yet … my heart did go out to Chelsea just a little bit. Because like most children of high-functioning baby boomers (Hillary and Bill are the gold standard in this regard), she can pretty much forget about the benefits that some grandparents offer, things like casseroles, hand-knitted booties and free childcare. Many boomers, on the other hand, are reinventing grandparenting, just like they reinvented everything else in their path, and guess what? It involves a lot less schlepping for family and a lot more doing whatever the heck they want. They are the “me” generation after all, and as in all other stages of their lives, they are rocking it.
Take my mother. She spent years begging for a grandchild. And I don’t just mean the occasional “tick-tock” reminder, I mean regular phone sessions pleading with me to get pregnant “for the sake of continuity,” so I didn’t end up “leaving it too late.” When I finally managed to produce a son, via Caesarian section, she was an enormous help – for exactly one week. That’s when her husband flew over and they spent the rest of the visit going to art museums and the theatre. On their last night, when I passed James over, she gave his bottom a sniff and handed him back. “I think you can take it from here,” she said crisply.
And that was that. My mother has not changed a single diaper since. When I take James to her house to visit, I arrange for babysitting during the day so I can do paid work and she can go to yoga and write her novel. She says that once James is a bit older and “more interesting,” she might take him for a day or two, but until then the child-minder down the street will do.
I didn’t make it easier by moving across the Atlantic for a job. And the funny thing is, compared to many of my friend’s boomer parents, my Mum is actually a doting grandmother. She adores her grandson – she “likes” every single picture of him on Facebook and goes gooey when he kisses her screen face on Skype. She’s just not interested in doing the boring stuff. She did it as a mother and now she wants to relax. And in a way, who can blame her?
Some boomer grandparents are so caught up in their glorious golden years they’ve barely registered the latest generation at all. One girlfriend of mine complains bitterly that her husband’s parents, who live a hour’s drive away, have only visited her two-year-old daughter three times since she was born. There’s no rift in the family – they’re just too busy travelling the world, hiking and heli-skiing.
None of my friends leave their children with their boomer grandparents for longer than a night or two, and few even do that. Most boomer Grandmas and Granddads are just too busy – socially, recreationally and professionally – to focus on their grandkids the way their own parents might have. And for my generation of over-anxious “child-centred” helicopter parents, it’s hard not to take this as a personal insult. Haven’t these baby boomers noticed their grandchildren are utterly fascinating and entrancing? Aren’t they dying to hop along to Gymboree and help them to practise their mini cellos?
The problem for contemporary parents, of course, is that while parenthood and middle age have become much worse, old age has never been better. People in their 30s and 40s had to pay off student loans and suffer through an economic crisis in the prime of their earning years. We struggled to buy our first houses in a raging real estate market and now face rising prices for everything from heating bills to groceries to childcare. Cost of living has not kept pace with income levels and we are feeling the pinch. On top of all this, we work longer hours and spend more time with our children than any generation before us. We need a break! But there’s no point in looking to Granny and Gramps, because, unlike us, they’re having a grand old time.
Old age and retirement used to be a tedious void into which grandchildren brought meaning. Now it’s a high point of freedom, health and – until the pension crisis hits – financial stability. Baby boomers are not welcoming their grandkids upon their knee as they sit watching Coronation Street sipping tea because they’re not sitting down at all. They’re running marathons and writing novels and travelling the world.
And running for President. Back in 1992, during her husband’s first campaign, Hillary Clinton famously told Ted Koppel that instead of “staying home and baking cookies,” she decided to fulfill her professional dream of public life. Now, as a grandmother, she will do the same. It’s inspirational to watch today’s grandparents pursuing their dreams, but it’s also exhausting for us, their children. Note to today’s grandkids: You might get a female president, but don’t expect cookies.

Follow Leah McLaren on Twitter: @leahmclaren

You Don’t Have to Give in to Aging: How Strength Training Can Make You Younger

Aging. The very thought can make you cringe. Many people fear the aging process and are willing to go to great lengths to try to halt it. Aging is associated with aches, pains and diseases. Even folks in their 40s are starting to use the excuse: “I’m not getting any younger” to justify their physical limitations. Many think that aches and pains are part of the deal. They expect their bodies to deteriorate. And they can’t be blamed for feeling that way. The media drives home the message that the population is aging, and that we are getting sick and frail. With such a dark cloud around the subject, how can one not be afraid of aging?
 The riddle of the Sphinx is: “What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two footed and three footed?” Any idea? The answer is the human being. We start off on all-four, learn to walk upright on two feet, only to end up needing a cane. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can’t avoid aging, but what if I told you that the process can be slowed down, even partly reversed?
For the past few decades, cardio exercise has been lauded as the king of health maintenance. But recent research shows that strength training can do a lot of good for you. Rest assured I don’t want to start a battle between the two forms of exercise. There are many benefits to aerobic training. It is just time to give strength training the respect it deserves. Men can get the same cardiovascular benefit from 30 minutes of strength training a week as they would from 30 minutes of brisk walking every day.
Reversal of aging
One unfortunate aspect of aging is the loss of muscle tissue and strength. But it is possible to slow down the aging process by improving strength. A 2011 study published in the journal Sport Medicine examined the effects of strength training on aging muscles. It found that strength training increased insulin sensitivity and reduced pain and inflammation from arthritis. The researchers noticed that the effects of aging were reversed!
Better brain
A group of women aged 65-75 participated in resistance and balance training classes in one 2010 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. These women not only improved their lower body power but also improved their selective attention and conflict resolution abilities. As I reported in a previous column, a contracting muscle has a positive influence on other organs.
More active genes
There’s more. In 2007, a team of American and Canadian researchers looked at the effect of strength training on aging genes. They compared 596 aging-related genes of older adults to the ones of younger participants. As expected, the older genes did not perform as well. The older participants then followed a resistance training routine twice a week for six months. After repeating the gene analysis, they saw a significant improvement in gene expression. In short: Increasing your strength will make your genes younger.
Male hormone restoration
Time also tends to decrease the amount of male hormones in the body. This usually results in lower energy levels. But incredibly, just 12 weeks of resistance training significantly increased the level of free testosterone and DHEA, according to a study published this year in the journal of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology.
You don’t have to live in pain or give in to the effects of aging. You can do something about it. Stop using your age as an excuse. Start caring for your muscles. Challenge your muscles twice a week with one to three sets of six to 12 repetitions. Focus on exercises that use a lot of muscles. They will give you a bigger return. If you are unsure where to start, hire a professional. Using the proper technique will help prevent injuries.
Remember– never too early, never too late.
Gilles Beaudin is a registered clinical exercise physiologist at Cleveland Clinic Canada.

Are You Sure You Know How Much You'll Need for Retirement?

By Matthew Frankel

 

When it comes to retirement, a lot of investors have a specific number in mind that they would need to retire in complete comfort. What many people don't know is how to actually come up with an accurate estimate of how much money you'll actually need. Here's a quick guide to help you get started on your planning.

Estimate your annual expensesYou have probably heard of various estimates on how much of your previous income is needed to maintain a similar lifestyle in retirement, and around 75-85% seems to be the consensus. In other words, if your pre-retirement income is $100,000 per year, expect to draw around $75,000-$85,000 from your investments and other income sources.

However, this is not a one-size-fits-all formula. If you were a big saver in your working life, for instance, you are already used to living on a lower percentage of your salary. If you were paying a mortgage and your home is now paid off, that is an expense that no longer needs to be considered. So, it is very possible that the annual income you'll need in retirement is much lower than you think.

In your pre-retirement planning, it helps to try and eliminate as many expenses as possible before you retire (like a mortgage). Sit down and list all of your monthly expenses and consider how they might change once you retire. For example, if you have a long commute to work, you'll certainly be spending a lot less on gas!  Smaller expenses like that can really add up fast.

There have been studies that suggest that post-retirement expenses are not as much as experts think and that overall costs actually decline consistently after retiring. A recent study by the University of Michigan found that post-retirement spending is less than 60% of pre-retirement income, on average, so that is probably a more realistic goal to shoot for.

Don't count on help!While your expenses may be less than you may think, one thing that you should not count on (especially if you are under 40) is Social Security. The SS program may indeed still be around, but likely at either a lower rate or higher retirement age. If Social Security does in fact still exist when you are ready to retire, it should be a bonus, not a core part of your plan.

The same can be said for employer-sponsored pensions. Pensions are an endangered species, especially in the private sector, and just like Social Security, benefit cuts and/or increased retirement ages are becoming the norm.

How you want to investThe idea of equating the word "stocks" with "risk" in retirement is a flawed one. Not all stocks are risky and volatile any more than all corporate bonds are perfectly safe. Now, I would stay away from volatile tech companies, but dividend-paying blue chip stocks should always make up a substantial portion of any retirement portfolio.

Bonds can be great for income, but for retirement investors truly in it for the long haul, the concept of "total return" is what will keep your portfolio growing in perpetuity. The S&P 500, for example, has averages a total return (dividends and share price appreciation) of just under 10% since 1926.  Depending on the time period, an average of around 3-4% has come from dividend yields (income), with the rest coming from growth.

Is the "4% rule" right for everyone?The short answer is "no", but it can be a good starting point. The "4% rule" of retirement essentially says that if you withdraw 4% of your retirement portfolio per year and increase your withdrawals with inflation, your account will last for as long as you do.

The 4% rule should work if you have a healthy mix of investments, specifically, at least half of your money in dividend-stocks that will allow your portfolio to appreciate over time. If you decide that you need $60,000 per year in retirement, your "number" would be $1,500,000. 

This amount could drop tremendously if you end up getting the same Social Security benefits that are around today or if you actually collect a pension in perpetuity, but as I said before, these situations should be thought of as a bonus, not as a core aspect of your retirement planning.

Boomers Not Causing Rise In Youth Unemployment: Study

By Romina Maurina, the Canadian Press

TORONTO - Baby boomers are often criticized for many of today's economic woes, from creating the national debt to driving up tuition costs. But studies are discounting one of the biggest complaints -- that boomers lingering in their jobs are holding up the employment of the next generation.
"(Boomers) do take up a large part of the workforce, but there's absolutely no evidence that they're crowding out jobs that otherwise would be filled by young people," said Tammy Schirle, an economics professor at Wilfrid Laurier University.
"The unemployment rates of youth right now look about normal. A lot of what we hear from young people today is really just based on their expectation, as opposed to this being some unusual period that might relate to what's going on with another group of workers."
According to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 was 13.7 per cent in 2013, down from 15.2 per cent in 2009.
That may seem high when you consider that for those aged 25 to 44, the unemployment rate in 2013 was six per cent, down from 7.4 per cent in 2009. But it's important to note that before the recession hit in 2008, unemployment rates weren't all that different for youth. In 2007, the rate stood at 11.2 per cent, and it was only slightly lower in 1989 at 10.9 per cent.
Overall, the current rate for youth unemployment is within historical averages and is down from a high of 19.2 per cent in 1983, which was the highest unemployment rate for youth since 1976.
Many Gen Y workers - those born between the 1980s to early 2000s - were just unlucky when it came to timing. They left high school and entered university in 2006 and 2007, when unemployment rates were near record lows, and well before the downturn in 2008 created tougher labour conditions for everyone.

The job rebound may be slower than many well-educated and eager grads would like, but the labour market and the economy have a way of adapting, as they did when women first entered the workforce and encountered a similar backlash.
"The idea was that all these women were going to come along and take up the jobs that men needed and were going to be crowding them out, and that just never happened," Schirle said.
"It was that idea that there was some fixed number of jobs and that they had to go to a certain group of people. But that wasn't the case. The economy more generally grew, the structure of jobs changed."
A 2012 study from the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College in the United States found that the greater number of older persons employed led to better outcomes for the young, including reduced unemployment and a higher wage.
The study looked at what is known at the "lump of labour" theory, a hypothesis that dates back to 1851, and suggests that if a group enters the labour market (or remains past their traditional retirement age) others will be unable to find jobs or be given fewer hours.
But the Boston study concluded that there was no "consistent evidence that changes in the employment rates of older workers adversely affect the employment and wage rates of their younger counterparts."
"If anything," it said, "the opposite is true."
As older people stay in labour force, the college said, they are not only workers, but also consumers. The income they earn helps boost consumption, increase demand for goods and services, and in turn, create job opportunities for the young.
Lauren Friese, founder of TalentEgg.ca, a job and career resource website for students and recent graduates that also works closely with employers, says graduating from university and college and entering the workforce has always has been a challenging transition.
While graduates may find it a little more difficult to find work after graduation right now, she said, things tend to eventually work out for the students she deals with.
And the argument that pits younger and older workers against each other isn't helpful, she added.
"There are so many other things that are happening that have changed youth employment (and) that are probably more productive to discuss, because the retirement age is not something you can change," Friese said.
She said employers' perception of Gen Y workers are lazy or entitled, as well as a tendency for employers to compete for a handful of graduates from select universities are larger problems for young workers.
If some work could be done to change employers attitudes on those fronts, she said, it would improve youth's chances of employment.
Judith Leary-Joyce, 64, runs a business consulting company out of the U.K. and as well as a blog called The Second Act, which encourages women to share their stories about how they have thrived as they've grown older.
She says that while she's seen a lack of respect for older people in the past, the current generation of young people see the value of learning from the boomers, an age group that is now healthier, stronger and productive for much longer than ever before.
"There's so much wisdom in very dynamic active people who are absolutely not ready to kick back and relax and play in life," Leary-Joyce said.
"It's not right that we don't share that. For me, it's a sense of giving back now (and) I'm not prepared to stop helping."

How One Hospital is Dealing With Canadas Aging Population

Sandra Martin,
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday January 24th, 2014

To a casual observer, the two-hour surgery seemed like a small construction project – retro-fitting the back porch came to mind. The amazing part was watching Ms. Baker show off her dexterity and stamina two days later as she gamely made it up and down a hospital corridor with the help of a walker.
And then she was discharged, thanks to Sunnybrook’s Home on Day 3 initiative aimed at getting surgery patients in and out more quickly and freeing up beds in a hospital that, like many in urban Canada, typically runs at more than 100-per-cent capacity.
Leaving hospital so soon wasn’t easy for Ms. Baker. Even though she had family support, including moving into a ground-floor bedroom with adjoining bath at her son’s home, she found the aftermath gruelling. Recovering from surgery “is a slow process,” she says. “They need to spend more time on that aspect.”
It’s not perfect, but the “day three” program is one solution for the health-care conundrum about who should get hospital beds, how long they should stay in them and who looks after patients when they are released. Sunnybrook, like all hospitals, is faced with a growing number of aging patients who are living longer than ever and coping with more and more complex needs. At the same time, it is being squeezed by budget cuts. And, just like Ms. Baker, it doesn’t have much time to recover.
Ms. Baker’s short hospital stay and post-operative difficulties are symptomatic of a hospital system that is only just evolving to match the country’s changing demographics.
Back in the mid-1960s, when universal health care was instituted, mandatory retirement meant that people quit working at 65. Most of them conveniently died within the next decade.
Now, we never have to retire and life expectancy is heading into the stratosphere. A 60-year-old man in 2013 will live long enough to celebrate his 87th birthday, according to recent figures from the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. His female counterpart will likely reach 90. Whether either will be in robust health is not nearly so certain: Medical successes in combatting rapacious killers such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes means people are living long enough to be afflicted with dementia, depression and other chronic and complex diseases of old age.
In the 1960s, the average age in Canada was 27; now it is 47. “Our interaction with the health-care system tended to be in and out,” Deb Matthews, Ontario’s Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, says of the past. “If you needed your appendix out, you would go into hospital and get it out and then go home and be healthy again.”
Even “getting out,” though, meant staying in hospital longer, and there were more family members to help us recover when we did leave. Nowadays, a lot of those expectations have been passed on to patients. We are supposed to keep ourselves healthy and active, and to make arrangements ahead of time for post-operative care when we are briskly wheeled through the revolving hospital door.

For the complete article, go to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/the-hospital/how-one-hospital-is-dealing-with-canadas-ageing-population/article16492881/