Aging Well For Life

In Episode 41 I share 16 excellent online resources where you can obtain quality trusted information on any health topic that you can think of from Medicare to foot fungus. These are the best, hand-picked resources that I love, use and can stand behind.

CLICK HERE for the PDF Checklist of the best online health & medical resources PLUS a bonus of 17 more great health resources.

medicare.gov

The best jumping off site for obtaining the latest on Medicare is medicare.gov, which is the official us government website. It really does provides a wealth of information and tools for finding doctors, providers, hospitals, plans and suppliers. You can access all of your online forms including those for replacing Medicare cards, changes of address and of course applying for a particular program.

callsamm.com

Be sure to check out the Senior Advisors for Medicare and Medicaid website, SAMM for short, which is the brainchild of Diane Daniels, the national authority on Medicare, an author, podcaster, a Medicare consultant and a past guest on the essential boomer. Diane has over 10 years of health care experience and has created a community to provide the latest essential Medicare information.This is one my favorite resources for keeping up on the latest changes as well as a plethora of tips and valuable information that is very important for keeping you informed and up to date on your Medicare. Be sure to check out the free videos on Medicare. Do you still have questions regarding Medicare? Just shoot her an email to schedule a free consultation?

Click Here for episode 25: Medicare – What You Need to Know Now – A Conversation With Diane Daniels

Click Here for episode 39: The Big Changes to Medicare in 2016 with Diane Daniels

Medicare Q & A Tool

Another great resource is the Medicare Q&A tool located on the American Association of Retired People AARP website. This is a searchable database containing everything that you ever wanted to know about Medicare. You can search using a question or you can peruse questions by categories.The AARP site also has a very useful Medicare Summary Decoder that holds your hand through the process of figuring out what the hell your Medicare statement is all about. It can even help you to spot errors and even fraud on your Medicare account.

The Henry J. Kaiser family Foundation Website

An excellent source for up-to-date information on Health Insurance is The Henry J. Kaiser Family foundation website. The foundation is dedicated to providing the latest non-biased information on health insurance and global health policy. The website is fascinating and very detailed. Check out the consumer resources where they have an excellent video explaining health insurance… a Marketplace Calculator, Health Insurance quiz and health reform FAQs.

healthinsurance.org

healthinsurance.org contains a great set of tools for figuring out how much health insurance is going to cost you. You can obtain insurance quotes and therefore yes, they do sell insurance…so they have a horse in the race but whether you purchase through them or not, the site is a wealth of information on the present state of insurance.

It can be very comforting and beneficial to communicate with other people who are dealing with the same health issues that you are. There are several excellent websites that provide this service. Some provide good old-fashioned message boards that make it very easy to exchange information online. Some of these also enable you to interact directly with health professionals, share and compare medical tests and to even provide valuable information that can be used in actual studies.

PatientsLikeMe.com

PatientsLikeMe.com is a free website where you can connect with other people from around the world who share your same health concerns. It was originally created in 2004 as a resource for people with ALS, Lou Gherigs disease, and has now expanded to cover patients with over 1200 health conditions. Patientslikeme has its own team of researchers from institutions such as Oxford University and Johns Hopkins University.

You can compare treatments, symptoms and experiences with other people just like you. It’s really very cool and informative. They also use the information on the site for research so you are really providing value to mankind via medical research. You can share as much or little information about yourself as you want to. You can meet people and join in on the conversations of others. This is really an excellent resource. Check it out.

HealthBoards.com

Healthboards.com is another free membership site where you can access hundreds of message boards where people post questions and have discussions surrounding hundreds of specific issues. There is a great section of the site called Drug Talk where you can find a plethora of information and discussions covering a comprehensive list of drugs from a to z. You can search by drug names or by the conditions that they treat. You can even create your own blog on the site to share your own experiences and information. 

DailyStrength.org

Would you like to join “…the largest and most comprehensive network of people sharing their knowledge, experiences and support?” than join dailystrength.org. It’s an excellent resource for making friends, journaling, tracking goals, sharing photos and providing support for other members.

There are over 500 support groups covering many different conditions. In this excellent website you can access hundreds of discussion boards, obtain expert advice and even find treatment reviews. And here too, You have complete control over what kind of personal information you want to share. This is another excellent resource, check it out.

Inspire.com

inspire.com is a valuable health resource for both patients AND care-givers. It covers hundreds of both common and rare conditions and has a very high level of user engagement. Their core principals state that “Inspire was created with the belief that patients and caregivers need a safe and secure place to support and connect with one another. We strive to be ethical and transparent, and we never forget that our community is built upon the trust of our members. We place the utmost value on this trust, and maintaining it is our highest priority.”

This is a free membership site which contains many communities, which are groups that focus on a particular health interest. You can participate in the groups and also one on one with friends that you trust. The interface is easy to navigate and like the others, you have complete control over the information that is shared.

There are several websites that provide reliable, unbiased and trustworthy medical and health information covering just any and every topic that may pique your interest. Let’s take a closer look at a few of my favorites.

The Mayo Clinic

MayoClinic.org is an excellent resource for obtaining the latest and greatest medical information. It is owned by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research and is produced by more than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers from the Mayo clinic. Even if you aren’t affiliated in any way with the hospital or school, you will still find this a very valuable resource. This site is very well organized and easy to use. You can drill down as deep as you want to on any particular topic. This site is set up for both the lay person and for medical professionals.

MedLine Plus

MedlinePlus is a website managed by the National Institute of Health. It boasts the world’s largest medical library and is visited often by both consumers and health professionals. There is extensive information on prescription and non-prescription drugs, health information from the media and something that I love, links to thousands of clinical trials. It also has a lot of health & surgery video, tutorials and even games and quizzes. It is updated daily and there are no product or company endorsements and no advertising on the site. It is very easy and intuitive to navigate the site. You’ll definitely want to bookmark this one.

WebMD

webmd.com is great site starting off point for any kind of health related research. It is site whose editorial staff include a medical team of over 100 nationwide doctors and health experts. WebMD provides their users with credible information, supportive communities and in-depth references, which I really like. I especially like the webMD symptom checker where it walks you through the process of diagnosis better than many doctors.

American Association of Retired People - AARP

The AARP website, as mentioned earlier, is also a great source for health and medical information. It has the latest in-depth information on just about every conceivable topic that may be interested to you from Health conditions & treatments, health insurance, healthy living to drugs and supplements. It’s a wonderful resource. You can find an enormous amount of information, even if you’re not a member. If you join than you have access to member discounts on insurance, the award winning AARP magazine and discounts on many products and services.

Are you interested in keeping on top of the latest in medical research? PubMed Central, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Jama Network are the answer to your prayers. 

PubMed Central is a free digital archive of bio-medical and life sciences journal literature.

The New England Journal of Medicine publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial opinion.

 The Jama Network is the most widely circulated peer-reviewed medical journal in the world.

The AARP website, as mentioned earlier, is also a great source for health and medical information. It has the latest in-depth information on just about every conceivable topic that may be interested to you from Health conditions & treatments, health insurance, healthy living to drugs and supplements. It’s a wonderful resource. You can find an enormous amount of information, even if you’re not a member. If you join than you have access to member discounts on insurance, the award winning AARP magazine and discounts on many products and services.

Are you interested in obtaining some alternative viewpoints and information for your healthcare? In my experience you really have to tread lightly when entering the land of holistic medicine. There is a lot of pseudo-science lurking in the shadows, but there is also some good information to be found.

MedlinePlus has an excellent section on complementary and integrative medicine you should check out. What is integrative medicine? It is healing oriented medicine that includes the whole person, body, mind and spirit, including one’s lifestyle. This site provides a common-sense look at alternative medicines and provides some good guidelines for determining what may work for you.

The National Institute of Health and Human Services also has a website providing a ton of information on alternative and integrative health covering all the topics from A-Z and help with finding a practitioner.

You can also try the aforementioned medical sites such as WebMD and MayoClinic.org, each of which has tons of information covering alternative, holistic and complementary medicine.

BenefitsCheckup

Are you, or someone you love, financially vulnerable and struggling to pay for medicine, insurance or food? If so, than benefitscheckup.org is a government sponsored website that you should definitely check out. Through interactive questions it helps you to identify benefit programs that may fit your particular situation. It is a free service of the National Council on Aging. You may be able to get financial assistance with medications, food, utilities, legal help, health care, housing, in-home services, taxes, transportation and employment training.

NeedyMeds.org

Needymeds.org is a wonderful non

In Episode 30, I share the latest information on how to keep your brain sharp well into your senior years. 

It was once thought that gradual and persistent mental and physical decline was the inevitable side effect of growing older. And, we were all taught that exercise could help to slow up the physical decline of our bodies, but our brain was beyond help. It was a lost cause. We now know that this is not the case at all.

3 men go into a hotel for a room for the night. They go to the front desk where the clerk tells them that it will be $30 for one night. So each of the men paid $10 to the clerk and took their bags up to the room. After the 3 men left, the clerk realized that he forgot to give them a discount, which equaled $5 so he gave the bellboy 5 one dollar bills and told him to go upstairs and divide it among the 3 men in the room.

Well, the bellboy knew that there were only 3 men in the room and he was also not very honest so he stuffed $2 into his pocket and proceeded to go to the room and handed each man a $1 bill, making the total spent by each man, $9 instead of $10. So now 3 men x $9 each for the room equals $27 plus the $2 that the bellboy put in his pocket equals $29. What happened to the other dollar?

I will post the answer to this riddle in the show notes to Podcast #41. 

For Episode 39, I’m very excited to bring back Diane Daniels. You may remember her from episode 25 where she gave us the low-down on the present state of Medicare.

Diane is a renowned authority on Medicare and is the founder of the service, Senior Advisors for Medicare & Medicaid.  She is also the Author of The Medicare Survival Guide and the Host of the weekly podcast – Medicare Nation. Heads up boomers! This is important information that will affect you.

Hello fellow boomers and happy 2016! I want to start of the new year by highlighting some of the big changes that occurred in 2015 to Social Security, Medicare and your IRAs that may have a direct effect on your healthcare and your pocketbook in 2016 and beyond. To do this I’m going to bring back some great guests from past shows to share their insights and expertise.

This week’s podcast, # 38, will feature a talk with Chris Stein & Jim Saulnier about some big changes that took place in 2015 to Social Security as well as Qualified charitable distributions or QCD’s and lastly about myRA’s and how they can be a great starter IRA for your grand kids.

Laura, Romey, Lola (in memory) and I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, Pancha Ganapati, Kwanzaa, and a joyful festivus!, I also wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2016.

Just a quick heads up too that I will be taking next week off of my podcast, to celebrate the holidays with my family.

Be sure to catch my highlights of 2015 show which will air on January 5th 2016, where I will talk about the big changes that took place in 2015 that will directly affect you, and your pocket book. I have some great guests lined up so don’t miss it. I also have some exciting changes coming to the Essential boomer that you won’t want to miss.

I want to thank my partner in life, Laura, for her undying support and encouragement of my podcasting venture with the many hours I spent in front of my computer and microphone. I’m am so very lucky to have her in my life. I also want to thank all of my past guests for generously taking the time to share their expertise and wisdom with my incredible boomer audience. I also want to give a big thankyou to all of the people, including all of my podcasting buds who have supported, encouraged and mentored me in this amazing venture. I am so much richer with you in my life. And, I also want to give a huge shout out to my good friend Mr. Dave Hydie for allowing me to use his incredible blues music for the essential boomer. He definitely provides the soul of the essential boomer.

And most of all I want to thank you so very much for listening to my podcast, visiting my website and joining the essential boomer. I am so grateful for your continued support and interest. I love you guys.

Happy Holidays!

Jim & Laura & Romey

In episode 36, I talk about sleep, why it’s so good for us, what can make it go south, and 21 Safe and Simple things that you can easily do to give yourself the best chance to have the highest quality sleep possible.

The importance of good sleep

Sleep is very important for people of every age. There is a close relationship between the quality of sleep you get and the quality of your life…and as we age, it becomes even more important because regular, quality sleep is vital for good concentration and memory, which as you know is often not what it used to be for us boomers. Sleep allows our bodies to repair the   cellular damage that occurs during the day.

Regular quality sleep supports our immune systems to help ward off the legions of viruses and disease that are relentlessly assaulting our bodies. Studies also suggest that poor sleep may contribute to increased inflammation, which may increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Studies also show that people who sleep on an average of seven to eight hours a night live longer and better than the people who experience too little or too much sleep.

In one study, from the Obesity Society, it was shown that just one night of poor sleep could be the equivalent of 6 months of consuming a poor, high-fat diet when it comes to insulin impairment, which can lead to heart disease and diabetes. Imagine what a week of sleep deprivation could do to your body.

Okay, so the big takeaway here is that maintaining a healthy lifestyle and improving longevity depends on establishing and maintaining healthy sleep habits. I’m sure that we’re all on board here.

 So now here’s the rub for us boomers. As we age, it often becomes more difficult to get regular quality sleep. There are many factors that can rob us of a healthy night’s sleep. Heck, just worrying about being able to get a good nights sleep can deprive you of your beauty rest. Quality sleep can be very elusive. The good news is that studies show that the number one, numero uno thing that we can do to improve our sleep is to establish healthy sleep hygiene. Download the free PDF to get the entire list which contains detailed instructions for multiple proven techniques to help you sleep better.

Click Here to get the free PDF - 21 Safe & Simple Ways to Improve Your Sleep

Improving your sleep hygiene with some or all of these tips will go a long way to help you to consistently get a good night’s sleep, but some sleeping disorders and problems require more aggressive means, so if you try everything to improve the quality and quantity of your sleep and it still is a struggle than be sure to see your doctor. There are many advances in the methods for helping people with severe sleeping problems. You don’t want to just give up and live with it because it will adversely affect your health and the quality of your life as well as your partner’s.

Click Here to watch the video Jim’s 10 Minute Cardio Workout

Episode 35 marks a first for the Essential Boomer for I interview my very first repeat guest, Sandy Weiner. A lot of you will remember her from episode 24 when she shared with us boomers the low-down on how to find love after 50. Today, Sandy Weiner is going to tell us all about having great sex after 50, 60, & beyond in both new & long-term relationships.

Sandy is a dating coach, founder of LastFirstDate,  a website devoted to empowering women over 40 to achieve healthy, lasting, loving relationships.

Sandy is also an internationally known TEDx speaker, dating coach, blogger and workshop leader specializing in helping women date as the high value women that they are. She writes for many prestigious publications including the Huffington Post and The Good Men Project, and is the dating expert at Better after 50.

You may have heard her as the host of Last First Date Radio, the acclaimed show about attracting and sustaining healthy relationships in midlife.

In the interview Sandy answers the following questions:

CLICK HERE to contact Sandy Weiner

In episode 34, Chris Crowley, author of the Younger Next Year books, talks about how exercise and a healthy lifestyle can turn back the clock … and he’s living proof! Chris has been very influential to me over the last decade. He is the New York Times best-selling co– author, with Henry S. Lodge M.D., of Younger Next Year – A guide to Living like 50 until you’re 80 and beyond.

This book has been instrumental to me for establishing my adaptive fitness training business. It is my bible and number one source for motivating my boomer and beyond clients to establish an active and healthy lifestyle. I love his no BS, non-negotiable approach to the exercise required to truly turn back your biological clock. Chris has also authored Younger Next Year for Women, Thinner Next Year, The Younger Next Year Journal and a soon to be released book on Fitness.

Beside an author of books and his Younger Next Year blog, he is also an attorney, a keynote speaker and the host of total immersion retreats in Aspen, Colorado. Needless to say retirement is not in his lexicon.

In the interview, Chris answers the following questions:

CLICK HERE to contact Chris Crowley

CLICK HERE to go to the Younger Next Year Blog/Website

CLICK HERE to find out about the Total Immersion and Mini Retreats

CLICK HERE to order Chris’s new book, Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program: Use the Power of Exercise to Reverse Aging and Stay Strong, Fit, and Sexy

CLICK HERE to order any other of Chris’s books

CLICK HERE to go to the Younger Next Year’s Facebook Page

Jim Saulnier is a certified financial planner who specializes in retirement planning and Chris Stein is a Certified Financial Planner and a full-time instructor in the finance department at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Jim and Chris have been working together for almost a decade teaching people throughout northern Colorado about their social security and retirement options. They also have their own radio show, The Retirement and IRA Show which airs every Saturday Morning at 8 Am on 1310 KFKA in Greeley Colorado. The recordings of these shows are also available as podcasts on iTunes. I’ve listened to several of their shows and now I’m hooked. These guys are really knowledgeable and very funny.

In episode 32 I’m very honored to have as my guest Debbie Burak. Debbie is the founder of VeteranAaid.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and assisting veterans and their families with applying for a little known benefit program available through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Debbie Burak is one tough and tenacious woman on a mission to get the word out to inform and assist veterans and their families with this benefit. Debbie’s personal story is heart wrenching and yet she was able to use the power from her heartache to launch VeteranAid.org, the number one most accessed website for assisting veterans and their families with obtaining more information and helping them through the entire process for obtaining this benefit…at no cost to the veteran or their families. Debbie’s efforts and persistence has helped many thousands of veterans and their families to get the benefits that they earned. She is truly an inspiration. She is a hero.