Many of you know by now that GMC is a licensed as an assisted living community. What many don’t always understand is the difference between assisted living and skilled nursing. So what is the difference? Read More

“Society sends a strong message that successful aging means living continuously in your own home for as long as possible,” says Stephen Golant, a University of Florida gerontologist and author of Aging in the Right Place. It may take a crisis or major upheaval to make people rethink the matter, Golant says, such as the death of a spouse, a serious fall, a bad car accident or repeated hospitalizations. Read More

In December, the Washington Post published an article about the need for, and use of, geriatricians by those who are retired. “Geriatricians are patient centered,” said Laurie Jacobs, a geriatrician and president of the American Geriatrics Society. “They are internists on steroids – they know about medical problems but know a lot more about people. Read More

We hear the term “successful aging” quite a bit these days, and it’s usually accompanied by advice about exercising or eating healthy or how to look and act younger. That’s all well and fine, but most of us just age anyway. Endurance and stamina decreases naturally with age, and we reduce our level of activity to match. Very few actually run marathons into their 90’s. An increasing number of foods have increasingly bad side effects on older tummies and bowels, so we eat more comfort foods that aren’t good for us but at least they fill us up. Fancy make-up and creams work when one still has some collagen in the skin, but there comes a time when it all just makes one look older than we actually are. So what then? What does successful aging become? Read More

     We all have our own ideas about what constitutes normal aging, but then we also wonder if that new ache or inability or recent fall is cause for concern. Dr. Thomas Gill, a geriatric professor at Yale University, along with three geriatric experts drew on their decades of practice along with the latest medical data to help identify what are often considered signposts of normal aging.  They came up with a guide for folks who practice good health habits and get recommended preventive care along the way.  Dr. Gill acknowledged that “the physiological changes that occur with aging are not abrupt but happen over a continuum as the reserve capacity in almost every organ system declines. Think of it, crudely, as a fuel tank in a car. As you age, that reserve of fuel is diminished.”
While you can find a link here to the full article written by Bruce Horovitz in Kaiser Health News, and I would encourage you to click and read it because it is much more informative, the Cliff Notes version would be this: Read More

Of all the months of the year, December is the one where we all remember and celebrate miracles: the miracle of light in a Jewish synagogue, the miracle of birth in Bethlehem, the miracle of fire that would not burn a saint (Lucia), the miracle of cycles and seasons in the Winter solstice, and renewal and remembrance in Kwanzaa. That is part of what makes this month and this season so special – the rituals of remembrance and renewal that have become traditions. Read More

Hollywood Style Staging:
At 5 AM on the morning of November 11th a truce was signed in a railroad car parked in a French forest near the front lines. An agreement had been reached. Read More

Too many times we spend our days focusing on the pain or aggravations of daily living, and we forget to find small things to be thankful for that are right in front of us. Experts tell us that the effort to change our outlook changes not only our overall mental health but our physical health as well. November is the month to focus on those things and people who make us happy. So let’s begin the month with being thankful!
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Rev. Swindoll, a wise Texas minister, once said: “We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”
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