Zostavax vaccine is now available in Australia. This vaccine helps to prevent the viral illness known as shingles. From November 2016 it will be offered free to people between the ages of 70 and 79. Others can be vaccinated by their general practitioner at their own expense. I will be be the first in the queue. I’ve had shingles. I don’t …
Continue reading “Zostavax vaccine against shingles, anyone?”
Playlists of favourite music and the hormone oxytocin featured in a Catalyst* program broadcast last week on ABC TV. In the program, men and women with brain damage were transformed as they listened to music. People with brain damage are not the only ones affected in this way. Music, it seems, boosts oxytocin whenever we listen to music we like.
Fear of ageing struck unexpectedly. The effect paralysed me. It began the day I stepped backwards off a curb and tore my gastrocnemesis (calf) muscle.
A cold virus laid me low for almost two weeks. My life has been on hold. Items on my ‘to do’ lists have been ignored. No visits from grandchildren. No housework – a bonus. I cancelled coffee dates. No blog post. I ignored the work I had planned.
A doula is ‘a woman who gives support, help, and advice to another woman during pregnancy, birth of the baby and afterwards’.
Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven has made what appears to have been a hasty announcement. He said last week that the university will fully-fund scholarships for two Indonesian students.
Ageism, like sexism, knows no boundaries. The health system is a prime example of ageism in action. This week an article in the Medical Journal of Australia’s Insight online caught my eye. (‘Polypharmacy a shared duty’, by Charlotte Mitchell.) The article quotes a recent study in Queensland and Victoria. Subjects were 1220 people over 70. …
Continue reading “Ageism and over-prescribing”
Karen Hitchcock’s essay Dear Life: On Caring for the Elderly is compassionate, respectful and beautifully written. As a study of ageism in our society, it is also seriously scary. The author is a physician who works in a major Melbourne hospital. Her patients are mostly elderly. She has a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Writing and is …
Continue reading “Karen Hitchcock – On Caring for the Elderly”
There are many causes of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. In Australia, more than 332,000 people currently suffer from Alzheimer’s alone. As the population ages, the incidence of dementia also is expected to increase. As a person’s symptoms of dementia increase, more and more short-term memory is lost. The person will live much more in the …
Continue reading “Dementia and selective memory in fiction”
Root canal treatment has taken up most of my spare thinking time in the last couple of weeks, When I wasn’t worrying about my tooth, I had a wonderful time at the Fringe World, Arts and Writing Festivals in Perth.
