Category: Senior Life

Last year, I reported that volunteering leads to better health…at any age. A volunteer I highlighted, Ed McNew is now 88 years old. He was, by far, the top signature gatherer for the Veterans Memorial Park & Cemetery Initiative Petition.  He said, at the time, “It gives me purpose, and it’s something I look forward to every day.” 

This year, Ed is an important member of the Build the Great Park Veterans Cemetery steering committee that meets via Zoom weekly, which continues to keep him busy and healthy.

What is happening with Irvine’s renowned Senior Services during this unprecedented COVID-19 era?  We spoke with Sandra Salcedo in a Zoom meeting to find out.

Sandra is Superintendent of the Irvine Community Services Department in charge of Senior Services. For months, she’s been working to solve difficult problems in order to continue providing essential services.

In 2018, I wrote an article about Irvine’s amazing Adult Day Health Services (ADHS) that provides structured adult day programs in a safe and encouraging environment for seniors and disabled adults.

I recently spoke with the program director to learn how and what services they are able to continue to provide in spite of the closure of their facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a 78-year old resident in excellent health who has been reading the medical literature voraciously, I have concluded that the most effective way to stay safe from COVID-19 is certainly to stay at home. 

To be safe, you should assume that everyone outside your immediate household is infected with the virus, whether or not they appear sick or say they are sick.

Some people in their 80s and 70s — and sometimes even younger — claim they are too tired or too debilitated to volunteer for community causes.

I recently interviewed three people who believe otherwise — that it’s just a matter of desire and will, and that the benefits of civic activism are great regardless of any mobility limits you may have.

It has been proven in many studies that exercise is far more than just a “good thing.” Significant exercise almost every day is essential for mental and physical health and to maintain the ability to be happy and productive into your 80s, 90s, and beyond

I was driving home very late one night, north on the I-5, and moved over to the right lane where the ramp to the I-405 splits off with a sweeping curve that goes high in the air.  Suddenly, there were no lane markers.

With Medicare as popular as it is, it is shocking that the Trump administration sent a budget to Congress proposing a cut of roughly $60 billion per year in Medicare funding!

Since the 1980s, the City of Irvine, alone among Orange County cities, has provided a remarkable door-to-door transportation service. TRIPS is now available to all Irvine residents 18 years or older who are unable to drive due to a physical or cognitive disability.

New Year’s Resolutions are usually difficult to implement. Why? Because if they were easy, you probably would have already done so. Therefore, I’d like to summarize some of the motivating, health-enhancing tips I’ve given over the past year.

Being sedentary takes a long time to have its ill effects, and those effects come gradually.  Slowing down comes imperceptibly, day by day. 

It’s hard to believe, but it was in the October, 2017 issue of ICNV that my first article in my Senior Life — Youthful Lifestyle series, appeared..