Five days had gone by since I sent the first email to her. We had met in one of my classes during my training as an integrative health coach. I was worried about her, because she suddenly disappeared, just as class was coming to an end and humanity’s new threat was descending. Then finally I got a response from my 73-year-old friend. She told me she had been struggling with her mental health. I totally understood. Staying mentally fit during COVID-19 is as difficult as staying physically fit.

Mental fitness and physical fitness are symbiotic states: they support one an…

“There is nothing new under the sun.”

“The only constant is change.”[1]

We older adults are familiar with change. We’ve lived long enough and had the diversity of experiences to know that yes, there is nothing new under the sun and yes, change is constant.

But this time, change, well, seems a bit different.

It’s different because we don’t know what we’re changing to, we don’t know what the results of all this change will be. Nobody seems to know.

Do not shake hands. Wear face masks. Practice social or physical distancing. Do not have a gathe…

Today is Memorial Day, when we honor the many sons and daughters of America who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. It’s fitting that this holiday is called Memorial Day (it used to be called Decoration Day) because memory is essential to honor. We can honor only what we remember.

We are also coming to the end of mental health awareness month, and the ability to learn and remember correctly is a feature of mental wellness. We do become increasingly concerned about this ability as we age. According to Harvard Health, the ability to remember changes with ag…

Just a few weeks ago, a senior moment meant a brief lapse in memory or a moment of confusion. Today, due to the public safety guidelines concerning covid-19, a senior moment refers to the growing amount of time senior adults have at their disposal. This blog is not about novel coronavirus, per se. If you want up-to-date info on the virus, I recommend you go here, or here. Rather, this blog is about how you can use this unplanned time during covid-19 as a time of discovery rather than despair.

But it’s hard to talk about anything nowadays without covid-19 being a part o…

All the talk and images of chocolate and chocolate-covered strawberries and other sweet edibles for Valentine’s Day got me thinking about sugar the past week. Sugar tastes good. Sweet foods make you feel good.  But sugar has acquired a bad reputation in recent times. The warning has gone out from leading health organizations to reduce the consumption of sugar. Sugar is identified as a major contributor of the global public health crisis in obesity and heart disease. Is sugar a danger to older adults then?
Sugar’s fall from grace
What happened! Sugar used to be king o…