Older adults can stay healthy longer by avoiding injury at home. As we age, our sense of balance and our vision, hearing, and cognition become less sharp. Aging-related changes greatly increase our risk of injury. In Living Safely, Aging Well, nationally recognized safety expert Dorothy A. Drago spells out how to prevent injury while cooking, gardening, sleeping, driving—and just walking around the house. In the first part of the book, Drago describes the causes of injuries by type—falls, burns, poisoning, and asphyxia—and explains how to decrease the risk of each. She then explores the home environment room by room, pointing out potential hazards and explaining how to avoid them, for example, by installing night lights, eliminating glass coffee tables, and using baby monitors. Lively line drawings make it easy for readers to visualize risks and implement prevention techniques. Living Safely, Aging Well pays special attention to hazards encountered by people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. A chapter devoted to health literacy helps people and caregivers make the best use of the medical care system and a chapter on driving helps evaluate when it is no longer safe to be behind the wheel.

Older adults can stay healthy longer by avoiding injury at home. As we age, our sense of balance and our vision, hearing, and cognition become less sharp. Aging-related changes greatly increase our risk of injury. In Living Safely, Aging Well, nationally recognized safety expert Dorothy A. Drago spells out how to prevent injury while cooking, gardening, sleeping, driving—and just walking around the house. In the first part of the book, Drago describes the causes of injuries by type—falls, burns, poisoning, and asphyxia—and explains how to decrease the risk of each. She then explores the home environment room by room, pointing out potential hazards and explaining how to avoid them, for example, by installing night lights, eliminating glass coffee tables, and using baby monitors. Lively line drawings make it easy for readers to visualize risks and implement prevention techniques. Living Safely, Aging Well pays special attention to hazards encountered by people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. A chapter devoted to health literacy helps people and caregivers make the best use of the medical care system and a chapter on driving helps evaluate when it is no longer safe to be behind the wheel.

In an unprecedented series of studies, Harvard Medical School has followed 824 subjects -- men and women, some rich, some poor -- from their teens to old age. Harvard's George Vaillant now uses these studies -- the most complete ever done anywhere in the world -- and the subjects' individual histories to illustrate the factors involved in reaching a happy, healthy old age. He explains precisely why some people turn out to be more resilient than others, the complicated effects of marriage and divorce, negative personality changes, and how to live a more fulfilling, satisfying and rewarding life in the later years. He shows why a person's background has less to do with their eventual happiness than the specific lifestyle choices they make. And he offers step-by-step advice about how each of us can change our lifestyles and age successfully. Sure to be debated on talk shows and in living rooms, Vaillant's definitive and inspiring book is the new classic account of how we live and how we can live better. It will receive massive media attention, and with good reason: we have never seen anything like it, and what it has to tell us will make all the difference in the world.

For those fortunate enough to reside in the developed world, death before reaching a ripe old age is a tragedy, not a fact of life. Although aging and dying are not diseases, older Americans are subject to the most egregious marketing in the name of "successful aging" and "long life," as if both are commodities. In Rethinking Aging, Nortin M. Hadler examines health-care choices offered to aging Americans and argues that too often the choices serve to profit the provider rather than benefit the recipient, leading to the medicalization of everyday ailments and blatant overtreatment. Rethinking Aging forewarns and arms readers with evidence-based insights that facilitate health-promoting decision making. Over the past decades, Hadler has established himself as a leading voice among those who approach the menu of health-care choices with informed skepticism. Only the rigorous demonstration of efficacy is adequate reassurance of a treatment's value, he argues; if it cannot be shown that a particular treatment will benefit the patient, one should proceed with caution. In Rethinking Aging, Hadler offers a doctor's perspective on the medical literature as well as his long clinical experience to help readers assess their health-care options and make informed medical choices in the last decades of life. The challenges of aging and dying, he eloquently assures us, can be faced with sophistication, confidence, and grace.

"This open access book outlines the challenges of supporting the health and wellbeing of older adults around the world and offers examples of solutions designed by stakeholders, healthcare providers, and public, private and nonprofit organizations in the United States. The solutions presented address challenges including: providing person-centered long-term care, making palliative care accessible in all healthcare settings and the home, enabling aging-in-place, financing long-term care, improving care coordination and access to care, delivering hospital-level and emergency care in the home and retirement community settings, merging health and social care, supporting people living with dementia and their caregivers, creating communities and employment opportunities that are accessible and welcoming to those of all ages and abilities, and combating the stigma of aging. The innovative programs of support and care in Aging Well serve as models of excellence that, when put into action, move health spending toward a sustainable path and greatly contribute to the well-being of older adults."--Provided by publisher.

In this definitive, prescriptive guide to all aspects of aging, the authors-both top experts on aging at Harvard Medical School-offer a complete and highly accessible reference focused on the physical and emotional issues that affect seniors and their loved ones. Here is invaluable advice on a range of topics, from lifestyle choices to retirement and insurance options to coping with loss and other life concerns. Aging Well addresses such increasingly important subjects as: * Safety risks associated with growing older * Alternative medicine and the right questions to ask * Assisting aging parents and other challenges of the "sandwich generation" * Mail-order products for seniors * Healthy-aging research and potential therapies * How to optimize and strengthen your health if your body is affected by illness or disease Aging Well contains what you need to know to help you and your loved ones live fuller, healthier lives, whether you're 40, 50, or older-because aging well is living well.

Do you want to live in your home forever and not worry about your health or your age?Aging in Placeis the perfect resource, offering complete instructions for the safe and healthy way to successfully make that happen. Whether you are a senior citizen who faces the prospect of moving out of your home, an adult who wants to avoid this happening in the future, or a senior adult caregiver, this book is for you. Aging in Place offers assistance in: • Questions to ask your doctor to prepare for your life at home • Building your support system for a peaceful future • A home-safety checklist • Financial issues to consider • And more As aging-in-place concerns become a priority for seniors, useful and accessible information is essential for a healthy and smart transition. This book is an excellent self-assessment, with tips on working with family and local social services for elders. Aging In Place is your reference manual for successfully living at home forever.