Woodstock -- Were You There?

I never made it to Woodstock. By 1969 I was through with musical events filled with masses of stoned people. From a California perspective it seemed as though the era had ended. The hippies had gone home and masses of nuts and crazies were arriving from God-forsaken backwoods communities with long hair and a yin for acting self-absorbed and cool. I hated them.

But George Thoren has just written a great short story about what it was like to travel from a small conservative Southern California town to Woodstock, NY in 1969. Read it and you can almost smell the haze of sickly-sweet smoke as the bands start up. George finagled his way to the front -- right behind the wood fence, near where this image was taken. His story takes you back in time, to a place where people cared for each other -- and complete strangers.

Read George's The Road to Woodstock by clicking this link.

Dementia in Aging Tracked to High Cholesterol

People as young as 40 with borderline or high cholesterol levels are at increased risk for developing Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia when they grow old and feeble

Researchers tracked nearly 10,000 people for four decades, starting when the participants were between 40 and 45. After controlling for weight, hypertension and diabetes, researchers discovered a significant link between borderline-high cholesterol and dementia, according to the study.

Participants in the study who had high cholesterol, or a value of 240 or more, had a 66 percent greater risk of developing dementia later in life. People with borderline-high cholesterol, between 200 and 239, had a 25 percent spike in risk.

Dementia workers and assisted living homes are preparing now for the influx of Boomers to arrive soon! More than 106 million Americans have borderline-high cholesterol levels, according to the American Heart Association. That’s big business for residential care facilities.

The first step to lowering high cholesterol is to use a three-pronged approach of daily exercise, stress reduction and nutrition – or take the easy way and head to the doctor and get a prescription for statin drugs. A diet rich in olive oil, nuts, whole grains, fiber, fresh fruit, vegetables is best. Limit your red meat intake to almost none. Maybe none is better.

Supplements such as plant sterols and red yeast rice are also effective when taken in conjunction with a healthy diet. A recent study showed that red yeast rice decreased the body's production of cholesterol and lowered a person's LDL, or bad, cholesterol by 27 percent over a three-month period.

So if you want to avoid some stranger making wiping your butt and spooning your food in your old age, the time is now to start eating tons of yummy food like red yeast rice, or oat bran, oatmeal and fish oil. hmmm sounds real good huh?.

Click here to find out more about symptoms of dementia.

Silent Strokes Cause Dementia

"Silent strokes, ( strokes that don't result in any noticeable symptoms but cause brain damage) are common in people over 60, and especially in those with high blood pressure, according to a study published in the July 28, 2009, print issue of Neurology®.

These strokes are not truly silent, because they have been linked to memory and thinking problems and are a possible cause of a type of dementia," said study author Perminder Sachdev PhD, of the University of New South Wales, Sydney,Australia. "High blood pressure is very treatable, so this may be a strong target for preventing vascular disease." Apparently people with high blood pressure were 60 percent more likely to have silent strokes than those with normal blood pressure.

Many people thought I was crazy for suggesting that my mom's high blood pressure was the cause for her dementia. A CAT scan proved the multi-infarct strokes. Of course, her dementia got worse when she started forgetting to take her high blood pressure pills. So please, if you have high blood pressure, get plenty of exercise and take your high blood pressure medicine. To find out more about dementia in an aging parent click here:

Boomers Should Attend High School Reunions

Many times as we grow old and grumpy we’re tempted by attempts to reconnect us with our past. And, fearing that they’ll find us old, ugly and uninteresting, we avoid the like the plague. We stay home, carefully wrapped in our cozy warm lives, and tell ourselves we don’t need to see those old friends and acquaintances. But we do, we really do. Let me try and tell you why.

We’re grown up now. What people we knew in high school think of us now doesn’t really matter. We now have the ability to be our grown-up selves amongst them. We don’t need their approval. If they think we’re weird, it doesn’t matter, because chances are, we’re not going to see them again anyway.

High school reunions give you an opportunity to go outside your comfort zone and spend an evening with people who were special, and maybe not so special, in your life during high school. It’s a time to make amends and ask for forgiveness. It’s a time to ask that old high school girlfriend to dance.

That’s right! Get out there and shake your booty! Every woman will dance with you now, not a chance of getting turned down. And if you do get turned down, chances are someone new will ask you to dance. It’s all about opening yourself to your past, to the world, and to new experiences.

Nothing is more fun and liberating than dancing at these events.

Doing the Dirty Dog, the Frug, the Jerk, the Popeye, the Hitchhike -- and all those ancient dances that appeared on Hullabaloo, or American Bandstand. Let yourself go and you’ll be surprised how easy it becomes to overcome all the rigid high school taboos, and liberate yourself. In doing so, you’ll liberate others around you who’ll want to join in on the fun. They may be tied up in the high school rigidity they associate most of the high school attendees with. Seeing you making an ass of yourself will free them – and you’ll have done your good deed.

Every truly good semi-religious high school reunion experience comes with a caveat. Here are a few that have worked for me:

1. Don’t take your spouse. You’ll spend the evening worrying about whether they’re happy or bored, and they’ll pull you away from your main goal of totally connecting with your past – the people, the feelings and the memories.
   

2. Don’t drink too much. This is a chance to be the person you are now while facing the people you knew in your past. If you depend on alcohol you’ll miss out on half of what goes on and that defeats the whole purpose. Limit yourself to one drink, or two.
   

3. Don’t hold any grudges. This is a time for forgiveness, and just as you’d like others to forgive you for mistakes you made in your past, it’s equally important for you to forgive them. If they still hold a grudge against you. Forgive them and move on to better things.
   

4. Don’t rely on being with a group of friends you knew in high school. Staying with your old group is really fun and comfortable. But it’s also really limiting. This event may only last an evening. You’ve got to make the most of the time by allowing yourself to meet as many people as possible. You may and probably won’t ever see them again.
   

So if you have a chance to shake your booty at a high school reunion -- don’t let it go by. Don’t be shy. Take a chance on yourself and experience something outside your comfort zone. You may just have the time of your life.

Colonoscopy Experience

Like Woodstock and the Summer of Love, a colonoscopy experience is a rite of passage experience that defines your humbling entrance to old age. It's a crude and burning "welcoming" to the age of being past middle-age. It's the humiliating beginning of geezerhood. In this story, Dave Barry writes it better than I ever could. With all credit due to Dave, I must add a caveat. Don't make the mistake I did and drink your purge fluid late at night so that you're up all night strapped to the toilet blowing off chunks of the the enamel behind you. . .

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis . Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep', which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies.

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.

Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, and then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by Abba. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' has to be the least appropriate.

'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me. 'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.

I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, Abba was shrieking 'Dancing Queen! Feel the beat from the tambourine' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that it was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

Dementia in an Aging Parent

Realizing and actually internalizing that your aging parent is exhibiting symptoms of dementia may be hard. But if they've forgotten to pay their bills, or taken their money out of the bank and hidden it, or if you've heard about their strange behavior from another person, then it is usually time for you to take action and at least find out if they have dementia, or a chemical imbalance that's causing their bizarre behavior.

The first step you can take is to accompany them to a doctor and have them go a complete physical examination. Before you go, check their medicine cabinet and night stand and make a complete list of all their prescriptions. Sometimes side effects from prescription drugs can create dementia-like effects.

Normally, the doctor will take a blood test. One of the things he checks for is potassium level. Low potassium can affect memory and cognitive ability and make people act a little strange.

The blood test will also check for syphilis. I realize it seems absolutely ludicrous to think your elderly parent would have a venereal disease such as syphilis. But it must be completely ruled out before the doctor can go on to test for the next possible cause. The affects of syphilis on the brain over time can result in dementia-like symptoms. Giving approval for the syphilis test is the start of the little indignities that will occur when your parent is suspected of having dementia. These indignities are the way older people with dementia symptoms are often treated by the medical community and the general public at large. You may find that it's difficult for anyone to show genuine compassion for your aging parent and their frail mental condition. This inability of showing compassion from others may make you aware that your own role in looking after your aging parent's well-being is increasing, and this increase in responsibility may be scary, at least it was for me.

Memory Field Test

To test for dementia a doctor can perform a memory field test. The doctor will explain to your parent how he will make the test. During a casual conversation, he will list three items that your parent should try to remember. In my mom's case, it was a red Cadillac, Elvis, and a birthday cake. Then he'll engage your parent in some other conversation and ask them a few difficult questions such as "Who is the current President of the U.S.A?" or "Who is the Vice-President?" After this distraction, he'll ask your parent to repeat those three key items (red Cadillac, Elvis, and a birthday cake) he mentioned earlier. If your parent fails to remember two of the three, the doctor will probably recommend further testing at a hospital that tests geriatric patients for memory and mental problems. If he doesn't recommend further testing, be sure to ask him why he doesn't.

CAT Scan

Sometimes, if your parent fails the field test, the doctor may recommend a CAT scan to find any undetected strokes or tumors that may be causing the abnormalities in their behavior. If your doctor doesn't recommend this, ask about it. A CAT scan can see through layers in your parent's brain and search for an undetected stroke. Recent studies have found that silent, small strokes may be present in as many as 80% of people with dementia. If your parent has high blood pressure, this is especially applicable, as their arteries may harden with age and small pieces may break off and cause tiny clots in the vein. These micro strokes in the brain are called infractions. They can short-circuit the brain's wiring, causing dementia. This form of dementia is known as multi-infarct dementia. While you can't undo the damage of these strokes, you can see that your parent takes the correct drugs to help prevent future strokes - and, hopefully, slow your parent's mental decline.

The doctor visit is the beginning of many steps you can take in a proactive approach to determine if your parent is suffering from chronic dementia, or if an imbalance of drugs or minerals is adversely affecting their internal chemistry. From my experience it is you that will have to take the lead role, as your aging parent may be unable to, and from my experience, the doctor may be unwilling to.

The doctor may be able to isolate the problem, or he may recommend a geriatric evaluation, or, as happened in my case, he may just put his hands out as if to say "What do we do now?" If this happens, I recommend that you line up your own geriatric evaluation at a local hospital. If your aging parent is on Medicare, a geriatric evaluation is usually paid for.

Click here if you want to learn more about dementia in an aging parent. You'll also find free forms and checklists for taking care of an aging parent at www.boomer-books.com

Boomer Tales -- The San Francisco Haight Ashbury Anti-War Experience

Take a little trip back to 1967 to the Haight Ashbury when free love and the Diggers lived side-by-side. When the Avalon Ballroom was featuring concerts from the Family Dog and Mouse and Kelley were making the posters while high on . . .

This is a little story about my first trip to San Francisco, when the world was changing, and the Doors were still performing songs from their first album, when light shows were billed on the posters as part of the act and when hippies danced to the music.

I hope that this story may open a little door in your mind to help you want to write a story of your boomer experience, so that we can post it on:
http://www.boomer-books.com/boomertales.html .

Share your experiences, and what you learned (now that you're older and wiser) with others. Write it and send it to me at bill@boomer-books.com.