midlife

Ann Monroe emerged from the glittering Olympic-size pool with water still dripping off her green bathing suit after about an hour of twisting, kicking and completing crunches. Monroe describes herself as an ordinary 92-year-old. She drives, enjoys avocados for dinner, and works out every week at Florida's Homestead Family YMCA's SilverSplash program, a "gray" friendly activity. Read more...

First Jerry Reiser married his high school sweetheart. But that ended after 14 years. A softball umpire introduced him to his second wife. That, too, ended in divorce. Then two years ago, Reiser -- now 58 -- decided he wanted another long-term relationship -- but found singles dances weren't cutting it. He turned to online dating. Reiser quickly received more than 70 matches. He dated a handful Read more...

Researchers in China, who conducted a review of research studies, say a diet that includes flaxseed may help lower cholesterol levels. The review of 28 studies, which involved more than 1,500 people, found cholesterol reduction linked with eating whole flaxseed was stronger in women than men. Study leader Dr. Xu Lin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai says one tablespoon daily Read more...

Aging can be tough. Ailments like osteoporosis, diabetes and memory loss plague many individuals' golden years. While there is nothing any of us can do to turn back the hands of time, maintaining a proper diet can help to make life better for senior citizens. Jackie Carr, a registered dietician at the Brunswick hospital of Southeast Georgia Health System, points out that, as we age, many Read more...

He's an 84-year-old diabetic with one lung that doesn't work. She's his 84-year-old wife, a survivor of a nearly fatal aortic aneurysm. About a dozen years ago, they stared old age in the face and made a decision. Instead of letting themselves go, they would get themselves going. So, Stanley and Josephine Ewasiuk of Clearing, Ill., started attending exercise classes and walking in the Read more...

Beauty's not only skin deep; it's everlasting. Or it can be. So say five Detroit-area women whose style, attitude and, yes, good looks, show that real beauty is ageless. Each of these women, ranging in age from 38 to 95, demonstrate that it's how you live that keeps you younger than your years. Mary Lee Martin, 95, retired school librarian, Detroit Mary Lee Martin doesn't leave her Read more...

Whether someone can reach his or her toes from a sitting position on the floor may be an indicator of heart risk, U.S. and Japanese researchers said. Among people age 40 and older, performance on the sit-and-reach test could be used to assess the flexibility of the arteries. Arterial stiffness often precedes cardiovascular disease and the results suggest that this simple test could become a Read more...

From the hoopla, you'd think 40-something women only recently looked up from their quarterly reports, household chores or pre-teen children to cast an eager eye on verdant pastures of younger men. But long before Courteney Cox prowled the cul-de-sacs of ABC's Cougar Town and tongues wagged over Demi Moore, Madonna or even Elizabeth Taylor, women of a certainage have tangled with the young and the Read more...

Vigorous exercise lowers breast cancer risk in older women, U.S. researchers found. The study, published in the journal BMC Cancer, found women who reported exercising more-than-moderately for seven or more hours a week were 16 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those who did not exercise. However, the study which also surveyed activity at various age levels in the more Read more...

An inexpensive combination of a cholesterol-lowering drug and one to reduce blood pressure can reduce the incidence of heart attacks and strokes by as much as 60 percent, but prompting patients to begin the regimen and then to stay on it is an extremely difficult task, researchers say. Giving the drugs to nearly 70,000 people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes prevented an estimated Read more...