This story is about banning erectile dysfunction ads on tv because they are regarded as offensive and a bad influence on children. How ridiculous! Although, I do believe that ED manufacturers need to be more responsible to consumers in providing information about safer sex and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, I do not believe these advertisements should be banned. These ads show older couples who love and respect eachother. It shows intimacy in a very positive light and doesn't cheapen sexuality or make it tawdry. These ads also raise awareness and acceptance of older sexuality. Sexual expression is an important part of a loving relationship, no matter what their ages.
If commercials such as these between two healthy, couples in love offends someone or is believed to be a bad influence on children, you should really talk openly to children about the facts of life and what love is. These ads are a good example of what a healthy relationship should be. Attempts to ban these messages and images are disgraceful and offensive to older adults and seniors and it also continues to hide older sexuality and intimacy from the public landscape which results in further denial , embarrassment and revulsion of society.
SageHealth Network
May 9, 2009
*******Carol Costello - Contributor, CNN's American MorningFiled under: Controversy
May 7, 2009
Rep. Jim Moran wants to limit the time of day ads for erectile dysfunction medicine can air on TV.
From CNN’s Bob Ruff
You’ve all seen them. Those ubiquitous TV ads where a simple little pill transforms a man suffering from erectile dysfunction, or ED, into a virile tiger who puts a smile on the face of his now beaming wife.
Well, Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) has seen them too, and you’d be hard pressed to see a smile on his face when he talks about the ads.“A number of people,” he says, “have come up, including colleagues, and said I’m fed up. I don’t want my three or four-year old grandkid asking me what erectile dysfunction is all about. And I don’t blame them.”
Enter H.R. 2175. That’s a bill that Rep. Moran introduced last month that would prohibit any ED ads from airing on broadcast radio and TV between 6AM and 10PM. The bill advises the Federal Communications Commission to treat these ads as “indecent” and instruct stations to restrict their broadcast to late night and overnight hours.
So, could it be adios to all of those “Viva Viagra” commercials that play on network television on weekends and during the evening? Could the same be said for the Cialis couple sitting in outdoor tubs looking out at the sunset? And could Levitra also be shunned to the overnight hours?
CNN asked Pfzier, which makes Viagra, the first pill available by prescription to treat ED, what they thought of Rep. Moran’s bill.
“Pfizer is committed to responsible advertising… In line with our policies and the policies of the industry, Viagra advertising is aired in shows most likely to reach men suffering from erectile dysfunction. ED can be a signal for other serious medical issues, including high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
We asked several people on the streets of Atlanta for their opinions.
Nikia Clark, a mother of a 2-year-old, thinks “it’s a great idea.” She’s concerned that as her child gets older, she doesn’t want him “seeing those kinds of commercials… on regular network shows.”
Janice Habersham agrees. She says while the “ads are tastefully done” they shouldn’t be aired at “the time when children are watching TV.”
On the other hand, Bruce Jackson says ED ads “should be run 24 hours a day.” And Louis Tesser says banning the ads “is clearly unconstitutional… it’s a viewpoint. It’s something that people are interested in, and you can’t change that.”
Rep. Moran does have some perspective on the issue. “While it’s not as important as the economy, or what’s happening militarily around the world, it is an intrusion into the quality of life that we like to experience.” He says that his bill is “a shot across the bow” of the drug companies. “You know enough is enough. This is inappropriate.”
Click here for source and video:
http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/07/erectile-dysfunction-ads-too-hot-for-tv/
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Just Say No to Aging?
Newsweek
April 14, 2009
Imagine that you could rewind the clock 20 years. It's 1989. Madonna is topping the pop charts, and TV sets are tuned to "Cheers" and "Murphy Brown." Widespread Internet use is just a pipe dream, and Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Montana are on recent covers of Sports Illustrated.
But most important, you're 20 years younger. How do you feel? Well, if you're at all like the subjects in a provocative experiment by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, you actually feel as if your body clock has been turned back two decades. Langer did a study like this with a group of elderly men some years ago, retrofitting an isolated old New England hotel so that every visible sign said it was 20 years earlier. The men—in their late 70s and early 80s—were told not to reminisce about the past, but to actually act as if they had traveled back in time. The idea was to see if changing the men's mindset about their own age might lead to actual changes in health and fitness.
Langer's findings were stunning: After just one week, the men in the experimental group (compared with controls of the same age) had more joint flexibility, increased dexterity and less arthritis in their hands. Their mental acuity had risen measurably, and they had improved gait and posture. Outsiders who were shown the men's photographs judged them to be significantly younger than the controls. In other words, the aging process had in some measure been reversed.
I know this sounds a bit woo-wooey, but stay with me. Langer and her Harvard colleagues have been running similarly inventive experiments for decades, and the accumulated weight of the evidence is convincing. Her theory, argued in her new book, "Counterclockwise," is that we are all victims of our own stereotypes about aging and health. We mindlessly accept negative cultural cues about disease and old age, and these cues shape our self-concepts and our behavior. If we can shake loose from the negative clichés that dominate our thinking about health, we can "mindfully" open ourselves to possibilities for more productive lives even into old age.
Consider another of Langer's mindfulness studies, this one using an ordinary optometrist's eye chart. That's the chart with the huge E on top, and descending lines of smaller and smaller letters that eventually become unreadable. Langer and her colleagues wondered: what if we reversed it? The regular chart creates the expectation that at some point you will be unable to read. Would turning the chart upside down reverse that expectation, so that people would expect the letters to become readable? That's exactly what they found. The subjects still couldn't read the tiniest letters, but when they were expecting the letters to get more legible, they were able to read smaller letters than they could have normally. Their expectation—their mindset—improved their actual vision.
That means that some people may be able to change prescriptions if they change the way they think about seeing. But other health consequences might be more important than that. Here's another study, this one using clothing as a trigger for aging stereotypes. Most people try to dress appropriately for their age, so clothing in effect becomes a cue for ingrained attitudes about age. But what if this cue disappeared? Langer decided to study people who routinely wear uniforms as part of their work life, and compare them with people who dress in street clothes. She found that people who wear uniforms missed fewer days owing to illness or injury, had fewer doctors' visits and hospitalizations, and had fewer chronic diseases—even though they all had the same socioeconomic status. That's because they were not constantly reminded of their own aging by their fashion choices. The health differences were even more exaggerated when Langer looked at affluent people: presumably the means to buy even more clothes provides a steady stream of new aging cues, which wealthy people internalize as unhealthy attitudes and expectations.
Langer is not advocating that we all don uniforms. Her point is that we are surrounded every day by subtle signals that aging is an undesirable period of decline. These signals make it difficult to age gracefully. Similar signals also lock all of us—regardless of age—into pigeonholes for disease. We are too quick to accept diagnostic categories like cancer and depression, and let them define us. Doing so preempts the possibility of a healthful future.
That's not to say that we won't encounter illness, bad moods or a stiff back—or that dressing like a teenager will eliminate those things. But with a little mindfulness, we can try to embrace uncertainty and understand that the way we feel today may or may not connect to the way we will feel tomorrow. Who knows, if we're open to the idea that things can improve, we just might wake up feeling 20 years younger.
Original link: http://www.globalaging.org/elderrights/us/2009/just.htm
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Older Lovers at Increasing Risk for Aids Virus: Experts
By Steven Edwards, Calgary Herald
March 3, 2009
Canada
The number of people over 50 with the AIDS virus appears to be rising, but public health campaigns remain largely focused on the young, global experts warned Tuesday.
One reason for the increased incidence is "older" people are more likely to have unprotected sex than younger people, the experts say in an article published in the World Health Organization's Bulletin.
This is coupled with the belief the over 50s are having more sex than people of that age group in decades past because of the availability of erectile-dysfunction drugs like Viagra and Cialis.
"It's certainly true that we in public health concentrated our attention and efforts in terms of the AIDS epidemic and screening on younger individuals because those are the ones who are at most risk," said Dr. George Schmid, a scientist with WHO's HIV/AIDS department in Geneva, and one of nine authors of the article.
"But it doesn't mean that people who are 50 and older are at no risk, and we think there is an under-appreciated number of individuals in that age group who are becoming infected."
In The Unexplored Story of HIV and Aging, the experts say the extent of the problem is difficult to define because "older individuals" are rarely included in government population health surveys. But there also has been insufficient discussion of the issue even at the patient-care level.
"Physicians don't think the (over-50s) are at risk, so they don't ask, or else they may be a bit uncomfortable asking," said Schmid. "Patients are somewhat uncomfortable talking about these things, as well."
Erectile dysfunction drugs have been around for about a decade, extending the sex life of an increasing number of people.
But the experts say the increased sexual activity may be "extending the HIV epidemic" into old age.
"No study has been done of their possible impact on the HIV epidemic, although their use in industrialized countries has been associated with risky sexual practices," the experts write.
Many separate studies have shown older people are more likely than younger ones to shun "safer" sex -- which can increase the risk of HIV infection.
The experts say a greater focus on the problem will lead to earlier diagnoses. The global average life expectancy after diagnosis is four years in those over 65, compared to 13 in people infected between the ages of five and 14. Part of the short life expectancy, however, would be due to a person's waning immunity with age, the experts say.
Public Health Agency of Canada does not separate data about HIV infection rates for people older than 49 in its HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 2007, the most recent available.
"Seniors are not a target population" of federal HIV/AIDS programs, which focus on eight "at-risk" groups, including homosexual men, women, youth and intravenous drug users, said one PHAC official. But literature is available to all age groups.
March 3, 2009
Canada
The number of people over 50 with the AIDS virus appears to be rising, but public health campaigns remain largely focused on the young, global experts warned Tuesday.
One reason for the increased incidence is "older" people are more likely to have unprotected sex than younger people, the experts say in an article published in the World Health Organization's Bulletin.
This is coupled with the belief the over 50s are having more sex than people of that age group in decades past because of the availability of erectile-dysfunction drugs like Viagra and Cialis.
"It's certainly true that we in public health concentrated our attention and efforts in terms of the AIDS epidemic and screening on younger individuals because those are the ones who are at most risk," said Dr. George Schmid, a scientist with WHO's HIV/AIDS department in Geneva, and one of nine authors of the article.
"But it doesn't mean that people who are 50 and older are at no risk, and we think there is an under-appreciated number of individuals in that age group who are becoming infected."
In The Unexplored Story of HIV and Aging, the experts say the extent of the problem is difficult to define because "older individuals" are rarely included in government population health surveys. But there also has been insufficient discussion of the issue even at the patient-care level.
"Physicians don't think the (over-50s) are at risk, so they don't ask, or else they may be a bit uncomfortable asking," said Schmid. "Patients are somewhat uncomfortable talking about these things, as well."
Erectile dysfunction drugs have been around for about a decade, extending the sex life of an increasing number of people.
But the experts say the increased sexual activity may be "extending the HIV epidemic" into old age.
"No study has been done of their possible impact on the HIV epidemic, although their use in industrialized countries has been associated with risky sexual practices," the experts write.
Many separate studies have shown older people are more likely than younger ones to shun "safer" sex -- which can increase the risk of HIV infection.
The experts say a greater focus on the problem will lead to earlier diagnoses. The global average life expectancy after diagnosis is four years in those over 65, compared to 13 in people infected between the ages of five and 14. Part of the short life expectancy, however, would be due to a person's waning immunity with age, the experts say.
Public Health Agency of Canada does not separate data about HIV infection rates for people older than 49 in its HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 2007, the most recent available.
"Seniors are not a target population" of federal HIV/AIDS programs, which focus on eight "at-risk" groups, including homosexual men, women, youth and intravenous drug users, said one PHAC official. But literature is available to all age groups.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Success for Senior Speed Dating Event
April 9, 2009
(Scarborough, ON): Companion Connections, a social networking event for 55+ was held at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre in Scarborough on Saturday, April 4, 2009. The event was a huge success and participants spent an enjoyable afternoon making new friends and possible love matches. In total, 34 participants attended and 21 matches were made, a good indication of how receptive this age group is to the matchmaking process.
Companion Connections is modeled on a typical speed dating event in which women stay seated and men rotate every 6 minutes. If individuals hit it off and both indicate an interest in the other by checking their name, their personal contact info will be given to their match. Contact info is only given out if both parties have checked off each other’s name. This fun, exciting and innovative introductory event allows participants to meet up to 20 other single seniors in one day. St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre has also built in a safety feature to ensure participants’ safety and wellbeing by doing follow ups with all matches. Participants’ experiences were very positive and indicated a need for such a social event. One male participant, aged 68, stated, “The experience was good in terms of getting out and meeting interesting people and some you’d like to see more than once. I had a good time.”
The purpose of Companion Connections is to bring together groups of people from across the city to meet and expand their social horizons. Henry, 68, reported, “It was worth the drive from downtown. I put a lot of ‘yeses’ on my sheet.’” Speed dating also seems to be more of social phenomenon in addition to a matchmaking event for the older set. Margot, 62, stated, “This was the first time I ever heard about speed dating for 55+. I called my friend and said, ‘you have to go with me!’”
When individuals get older, it becomes more of a challenge to meet others outside their everyday circle of family and friends. Social networks tend to be more static than dynamic after retirement. A fact echoed by Sharon, 62, who explained, “When you get older, the tendency is to stay with the norm and stay reclusive. There are no opportunities to reach out and meet people. This opportunity was perfect.”
Companion Connections was collaboration between St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre and several partners in the non profit and for profit sectors. Special thanks go out to Steeles Deli Warehouse in Thornhill, Ontario, who provided the participants with lunch and also helped promote the event. Other agencies that helped promote Companion Connections to their clients include North York Seniors Centre, Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living, Taylor Place, Markham Seniors Centre, West Hill Community Services, Scarborough Support Services, Harmony Hall Centre for Seniors and Revera Living.
Judging by the positive feedback from clients and partners, St. Paul’s has scheduled another event for early September 2009. There are also plans to schedule future events for multicultural groups.
For more information on Companion Connections or recreation events, please contact St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre at 416-493-3333.
(Scarborough, ON): Companion Connections, a social networking event for 55+ was held at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre in Scarborough on Saturday, April 4, 2009. The event was a huge success and participants spent an enjoyable afternoon making new friends and possible love matches. In total, 34 participants attended and 21 matches were made, a good indication of how receptive this age group is to the matchmaking process.
Companion Connections is modeled on a typical speed dating event in which women stay seated and men rotate every 6 minutes. If individuals hit it off and both indicate an interest in the other by checking their name, their personal contact info will be given to their match. Contact info is only given out if both parties have checked off each other’s name. This fun, exciting and innovative introductory event allows participants to meet up to 20 other single seniors in one day. St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre has also built in a safety feature to ensure participants’ safety and wellbeing by doing follow ups with all matches. Participants’ experiences were very positive and indicated a need for such a social event. One male participant, aged 68, stated, “The experience was good in terms of getting out and meeting interesting people and some you’d like to see more than once. I had a good time.”
The purpose of Companion Connections is to bring together groups of people from across the city to meet and expand their social horizons. Henry, 68, reported, “It was worth the drive from downtown. I put a lot of ‘yeses’ on my sheet.’” Speed dating also seems to be more of social phenomenon in addition to a matchmaking event for the older set. Margot, 62, stated, “This was the first time I ever heard about speed dating for 55+. I called my friend and said, ‘you have to go with me!’”
When individuals get older, it becomes more of a challenge to meet others outside their everyday circle of family and friends. Social networks tend to be more static than dynamic after retirement. A fact echoed by Sharon, 62, who explained, “When you get older, the tendency is to stay with the norm and stay reclusive. There are no opportunities to reach out and meet people. This opportunity was perfect.”
Companion Connections was collaboration between St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre and several partners in the non profit and for profit sectors. Special thanks go out to Steeles Deli Warehouse in Thornhill, Ontario, who provided the participants with lunch and also helped promote the event. Other agencies that helped promote Companion Connections to their clients include North York Seniors Centre, Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living, Taylor Place, Markham Seniors Centre, West Hill Community Services, Scarborough Support Services, Harmony Hall Centre for Seniors and Revera Living.
Judging by the positive feedback from clients and partners, St. Paul’s has scheduled another event for early September 2009. There are also plans to schedule future events for multicultural groups.
For more information on Companion Connections or recreation events, please contact St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre at 416-493-3333.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Aging Baby Boomers and Seniors Are at Risk for HIV
By Pj Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times
January 15, 2009
Jane Fowler thinks it’s about time college students had “the talk” with their grandparents. She doesn’t mean grandmothers and grandfathers explaining the facts of life. She wants kids to explain safe sex to their elders.
It’s part of a broader message the 72-year-old has advocated for more than a decade. Ever since she contracted HIV when she was in her 50s, Fowler has made it her mission to help aging Baby Boomers and members of her generation avoid her mistakes.
“Once people get past their own embarrassment and understand grandparents today are still sexually active, they realize I’m right,” said Fowler, who spoke at a recent safe-sex event at Kansas State University. “Their grandparents face the same risks of sexually transmitted diseases as they do.”
The over-50 crowd is a relatively small segment of the nation’s at-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases. Approximately four times as many HIV diagnoses occurred in people ages 25 to 44 as in those 50 and older, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, medical experts agree that older Americans often are among the most overlooked and, therefore, one of the more vulnerable populations.
Little funding
They point out that most funding for preventive education over the last two decades has been aimed at the traditional high-risk populations, such as teenagers, gay people and urban residents.
Others, however, say that many Baby Boomers were young enough when the public first became aware of the AIDS crisis that they should have gotten plenty of exposure to safe-sex campaigns.
Many older patients feel uneasy discussing sexual behavior with their physicians, according to AARP research. Young doctors, too, can be uncomfortable talking about STD risks with people old enough to be their parents or grandparents, according to a recent study backed by the National Institutes of Health.
Considering that people are living longer than previous generations have, and enjoying extended sex lives because of hormone therapy and erectile-dysfunction drugs, there’s a growing concern that the Baby Boom generation and their elders don’t understand that getting older doesn’t make one immune.
That concern is fueling a national push among public health officials and educators for more prevention efforts aimed at those who are firmly in their golden years.
In Arizona, volunteers regularly have passed out free condoms at community centers, and state health workers in Florida host safe-sex programs in retirement communities. In Broward County, Fla., the Senior HIV Intervention Project recruits retirees throughout the region to become “safe-sexperts” who can persuade their neighbors to get tested for STDs.
At the University of Michigan Health System, enough patients were concerned about the effect of aging on intimacy that a clinic was opened in Ann Arbor in 2006 devoted to dealing with the sexual concerns of the 60-and-older crowd. And in Ohio, Professor Nancy Orel and staff at Bowling Green State University have preached about the risks of casual sex and offered free HIV tests.
Talk to grandparents
Orel sells the idea of using condoms and getting tested for HIV as part of serving as a role model for their younger loved ones. But to the under graduate students taking her gerontology classes at Bowling Green, the roles are reversed. One of the assignments Orel gives is for students to go home, find out what their grandparents know about HIV and discuss safe-sex practices.
“Initially, some of the students are hesitant. But a lot of them are surprised at how open the conversations can be,” said Orel, director of the university’s gerontology department.
A study published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that most of the 3,005 American adults surveyed, age 57 to 85,continued to have sex two to three times each month.
But, since turning 50, only 38 percent of the men and 22 percent of the women had had a discussion with their doctors about sex, according to the report funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Edward O. Laumann, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies human sexuality and is one of the study’s authors, said older Americans should know better than to have unprotected sex. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic started, he pointed out, many of them were young enough to have been bombarded by public education efforts.
“Educating them isn’t going to affect anything, Laumann said, “and it’s a waste of money, particularly when there’s other vulnerable groups that need the resources anyway.”
Part of the problem with figuring out exactly what risks older Americans face comes from a lack of testing data, said Spencer Lieb, senior epidemiologist at the Bureau of HIV/AIDS at the Florida Department of Health.
He said that although the number of HIV and AIDS patients in the over-50 age group nationwide had grown in recent years, some of the increase was attributed to people who are living longer with the virus or disease, thanks to improvements in therapy treatments.
But without widespread testing, “we don’t really know what the true prevalence [of STD infection] is in this group,” Lieb said. “There’s reason to think, at least anecdotally, this is a combustible situation that is being overlooked.”
January 15, 2009
Jane Fowler thinks it’s about time college students had “the talk” with their grandparents. She doesn’t mean grandmothers and grandfathers explaining the facts of life. She wants kids to explain safe sex to their elders.
It’s part of a broader message the 72-year-old has advocated for more than a decade. Ever since she contracted HIV when she was in her 50s, Fowler has made it her mission to help aging Baby Boomers and members of her generation avoid her mistakes.
“Once people get past their own embarrassment and understand grandparents today are still sexually active, they realize I’m right,” said Fowler, who spoke at a recent safe-sex event at Kansas State University. “Their grandparents face the same risks of sexually transmitted diseases as they do.”
The over-50 crowd is a relatively small segment of the nation’s at-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases. Approximately four times as many HIV diagnoses occurred in people ages 25 to 44 as in those 50 and older, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, medical experts agree that older Americans often are among the most overlooked and, therefore, one of the more vulnerable populations.
Little funding
They point out that most funding for preventive education over the last two decades has been aimed at the traditional high-risk populations, such as teenagers, gay people and urban residents.
Others, however, say that many Baby Boomers were young enough when the public first became aware of the AIDS crisis that they should have gotten plenty of exposure to safe-sex campaigns.
Many older patients feel uneasy discussing sexual behavior with their physicians, according to AARP research. Young doctors, too, can be uncomfortable talking about STD risks with people old enough to be their parents or grandparents, according to a recent study backed by the National Institutes of Health.
Considering that people are living longer than previous generations have, and enjoying extended sex lives because of hormone therapy and erectile-dysfunction drugs, there’s a growing concern that the Baby Boom generation and their elders don’t understand that getting older doesn’t make one immune.
That concern is fueling a national push among public health officials and educators for more prevention efforts aimed at those who are firmly in their golden years.
In Arizona, volunteers regularly have passed out free condoms at community centers, and state health workers in Florida host safe-sex programs in retirement communities. In Broward County, Fla., the Senior HIV Intervention Project recruits retirees throughout the region to become “safe-sexperts” who can persuade their neighbors to get tested for STDs.
At the University of Michigan Health System, enough patients were concerned about the effect of aging on intimacy that a clinic was opened in Ann Arbor in 2006 devoted to dealing with the sexual concerns of the 60-and-older crowd. And in Ohio, Professor Nancy Orel and staff at Bowling Green State University have preached about the risks of casual sex and offered free HIV tests.
Talk to grandparents
Orel sells the idea of using condoms and getting tested for HIV as part of serving as a role model for their younger loved ones. But to the under graduate students taking her gerontology classes at Bowling Green, the roles are reversed. One of the assignments Orel gives is for students to go home, find out what their grandparents know about HIV and discuss safe-sex practices.
“Initially, some of the students are hesitant. But a lot of them are surprised at how open the conversations can be,” said Orel, director of the university’s gerontology department.
A study published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that most of the 3,005 American adults surveyed, age 57 to 85,continued to have sex two to three times each month.
But, since turning 50, only 38 percent of the men and 22 percent of the women had had a discussion with their doctors about sex, according to the report funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Edward O. Laumann, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies human sexuality and is one of the study’s authors, said older Americans should know better than to have unprotected sex. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic started, he pointed out, many of them were young enough to have been bombarded by public education efforts.
“Educating them isn’t going to affect anything, Laumann said, “and it’s a waste of money, particularly when there’s other vulnerable groups that need the resources anyway.”
Part of the problem with figuring out exactly what risks older Americans face comes from a lack of testing data, said Spencer Lieb, senior epidemiologist at the Bureau of HIV/AIDS at the Florida Department of Health.
He said that although the number of HIV and AIDS patients in the over-50 age group nationwide had grown in recent years, some of the increase was attributed to people who are living longer with the virus or disease, thanks to improvements in therapy treatments.
But without widespread testing, “we don’t really know what the true prevalence [of STD infection] is in this group,” Lieb said. “There’s reason to think, at least anecdotally, this is a combustible situation that is being overlooked.”
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Finally....Speed Dating for Seniors
Speed dating is coming to St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre in Scarborough! The popular social phenomenon that has been such a huge hit with the younger set is now finally available to older adults and seniors 55+.
St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre is hosting Companion Connections, a new social event specifically designed for 55+adults on Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 1:00-3:00-pm. Companion Connections is a unique way for older adults and seniors to meet peers and establish new friendships. The goal is to form new friendships and social connections among those 55+ years of age by working collaboratively with several seniors’ agencies.
Companion Connections is modeled on a typical speed dating event in which women stay seated and men rotate every 7-10 minutes. If individuals hit it off and both indicate an interest in the other by checking their name, their personal contact info will be given to their match. Contact info is only given out if both parties have checked off each other’s name. This fun, exciting and innovative introductory event enables participants to meet 20 other single seniors in one evening.
St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre’s Executive Director, Larry Burke, emphasizes the importance of social events for 55+ audiences. “We’re excited to host this unique collaboration with several partner agencies to encourage socialization among older adults and seniors,” Burke states. “We're looking forward to a successful gathering of individuals who are interested in expanding their social circles and creating new relationships in a welcoming and safe setting.”
Participants will enjoy an afternoon of fun, friends, and goody bags to take home. Refreshments will be generously provided by Steeles Deli Warehouse in Thornhill, Ontario, a long time supporter of St. Paul’s. Transportation is available through a participating seniors’ centre or St. Paul’s Transportation Department for a small fee. Seats are on a first come, first serve basis and will fill up quickly. The last day to register for the event is Saturday, March 21st.
Companion Connections aims to encourage meaningful relationships for older adults and seniors. Other agencies that have pledged to promote the event to their clients span the GTA: North York Seniors Centre, Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living, Taylor Place, Markham Seniors Centre, West Hill Community Services, Scarborough Support Services, and Harmony Hall Centre for Seniors. St. Paul’s staff is so optimistic that the event will be a success, they have scheduled a second date in September 2009 and there are plans to schedule future events for multicultural groups.
For more information and to reserve your space, please contact Michele Cauch at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre 416-493-3333 ext 271.
St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre is hosting Companion Connections, a new social event specifically designed for 55+adults on Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 1:00-3:00-pm. Companion Connections is a unique way for older adults and seniors to meet peers and establish new friendships. The goal is to form new friendships and social connections among those 55+ years of age by working collaboratively with several seniors’ agencies.
Companion Connections is modeled on a typical speed dating event in which women stay seated and men rotate every 7-10 minutes. If individuals hit it off and both indicate an interest in the other by checking their name, their personal contact info will be given to their match. Contact info is only given out if both parties have checked off each other’s name. This fun, exciting and innovative introductory event enables participants to meet 20 other single seniors in one evening.
St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre’s Executive Director, Larry Burke, emphasizes the importance of social events for 55+ audiences. “We’re excited to host this unique collaboration with several partner agencies to encourage socialization among older adults and seniors,” Burke states. “We're looking forward to a successful gathering of individuals who are interested in expanding their social circles and creating new relationships in a welcoming and safe setting.”
Participants will enjoy an afternoon of fun, friends, and goody bags to take home. Refreshments will be generously provided by Steeles Deli Warehouse in Thornhill, Ontario, a long time supporter of St. Paul’s. Transportation is available through a participating seniors’ centre or St. Paul’s Transportation Department for a small fee. Seats are on a first come, first serve basis and will fill up quickly. The last day to register for the event is Saturday, March 21st.
Companion Connections aims to encourage meaningful relationships for older adults and seniors. Other agencies that have pledged to promote the event to their clients span the GTA: North York Seniors Centre, Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living, Taylor Place, Markham Seniors Centre, West Hill Community Services, Scarborough Support Services, and Harmony Hall Centre for Seniors. St. Paul’s staff is so optimistic that the event will be a success, they have scheduled a second date in September 2009 and there are plans to schedule future events for multicultural groups.
For more information and to reserve your space, please contact Michele Cauch at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre 416-493-3333 ext 271.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Seniors Learn the Ins and Outs of Safe Sex
By Rebecca Dellagloria, the Miami Herald
February 11, 2009
Most people don't want to think about it: Grandma and Grandpa having sex.
But they do. A lot. And it's not always safe sex.
On Tuesday, groups of apt and sexually active seniors spent the day at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in Northeast Dade, learning about the risks of unprotected sex in between relishing the ins and outs of getting it on.
Miami Metrozoo ambassador Ron Magill kept the crowd roaring, with his candid photos of animals getting down in the wild, and demonstrations of the distinctive sounds of tortoises experiencing coital bliss.
He passed around a penis bone from a large walrus, called an oosik and almost two feet long. He showed pictures of a frog ménage à trois (''If you've ever had a fantasy about being with multiple partners, you want to come back as a frog,'' Magill quipped). He described how flamingos need an audience to perform and how Metrozoo often uses mirrors to get them in the mood.
An interesting tidbit: the blue whale has the largest penis of any mammal, measuring 10 feet when erect.
''God bless Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and all those other things,'' Magill said.
``Animals have a bone in their penis. We got ripped off.''
Behind the levity, however, was a serious lesson: Unprotected sex among seniors is leading to a rise in AIDS/HIV and other dangerous sexually transmitted diseases.
Indeed, during the past decade, AIDS cases among those 50 and older have risen by 500 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, about one in 10 Americans diagnosed with AIDS are 50 years or older, according to 2007 data from the Florida Department of Health.
`IT'S TABOO'
But discussing sex isn't always easy among the senior set.
''We're from the old school, you never talk about sex. It's taboo,'' said Hy Posner, 85, of North Miami Beach. ``It's more wide open now, it's good.''
The JCC's health fair, dubbed ''A Sexy Affair,'' brought the risks of unprotected sex out into the open. In addition to Magill and a talk by Miami psychiatrist Dr. Marc Agronin on sexuality and aging, the fair featured a Claymation video, an animated 12-minute spot using clay figures as characters. A group of seniors from the center produced the video, which depicts a real-life, boy-meets-girl -- or in this case, Morty meets Ethel -- scenario. Two seniors find romance at a dance, and eventually discuss taking the relationship to the bedroom.
Neither have thought about the need to use condoms.
''I just read an article about infectious diseases, STDs and all that stuff,'' the female lead tells her friend over the phone. ``I read that the number of seniors with STDs is increasing.''
PRECAUTIONS
Julie Chesley, 83, one of the producers of the video, Sex and the Seniors, said she wanted to get the message out about taking precautions after reading about the rise of sexually transmitted diseases among those over 50.
''People were unaware you can get a disease at this stage in life,'' said Chesley, of Aventura. `If talking about AIDS helps one person, then our movie was a success.''
The group wrote the script, built the sets and sculpted the characters from clay, including a character who brags about her sexy cleavage and her dyed blonde locks. The animated figures openly talk about using condoms, how soon to have sex when dating, and getting checked for STDs.
The discussion opened some eyes. One 93-year-old woman, Rose, said she didn't realize women could contract STDs after menopause.
'You get these condo jockeys, they go out with a prostitute, they take care of all the ladies in the building, and then you have a problem,'' Chesley said. ``We laugh about this, but one of our members does have a certificate saying he is disease free. I can't tell you his name, because everyone will want to call him.''
Original link: http://www.globalaging.org/health/us/2009/safesex.htm
February 11, 2009
Most people don't want to think about it: Grandma and Grandpa having sex.
But they do. A lot. And it's not always safe sex.
On Tuesday, groups of apt and sexually active seniors spent the day at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in Northeast Dade, learning about the risks of unprotected sex in between relishing the ins and outs of getting it on.
Miami Metrozoo ambassador Ron Magill kept the crowd roaring, with his candid photos of animals getting down in the wild, and demonstrations of the distinctive sounds of tortoises experiencing coital bliss.
He passed around a penis bone from a large walrus, called an oosik and almost two feet long. He showed pictures of a frog ménage à trois (''If you've ever had a fantasy about being with multiple partners, you want to come back as a frog,'' Magill quipped). He described how flamingos need an audience to perform and how Metrozoo often uses mirrors to get them in the mood.
An interesting tidbit: the blue whale has the largest penis of any mammal, measuring 10 feet when erect.
''God bless Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and all those other things,'' Magill said.
``Animals have a bone in their penis. We got ripped off.''
Behind the levity, however, was a serious lesson: Unprotected sex among seniors is leading to a rise in AIDS/HIV and other dangerous sexually transmitted diseases.
Indeed, during the past decade, AIDS cases among those 50 and older have risen by 500 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, about one in 10 Americans diagnosed with AIDS are 50 years or older, according to 2007 data from the Florida Department of Health.
`IT'S TABOO'
But discussing sex isn't always easy among the senior set.
''We're from the old school, you never talk about sex. It's taboo,'' said Hy Posner, 85, of North Miami Beach. ``It's more wide open now, it's good.''
The JCC's health fair, dubbed ''A Sexy Affair,'' brought the risks of unprotected sex out into the open. In addition to Magill and a talk by Miami psychiatrist Dr. Marc Agronin on sexuality and aging, the fair featured a Claymation video, an animated 12-minute spot using clay figures as characters. A group of seniors from the center produced the video, which depicts a real-life, boy-meets-girl -- or in this case, Morty meets Ethel -- scenario. Two seniors find romance at a dance, and eventually discuss taking the relationship to the bedroom.
Neither have thought about the need to use condoms.
''I just read an article about infectious diseases, STDs and all that stuff,'' the female lead tells her friend over the phone. ``I read that the number of seniors with STDs is increasing.''
PRECAUTIONS
Julie Chesley, 83, one of the producers of the video, Sex and the Seniors, said she wanted to get the message out about taking precautions after reading about the rise of sexually transmitted diseases among those over 50.
''People were unaware you can get a disease at this stage in life,'' said Chesley, of Aventura. `If talking about AIDS helps one person, then our movie was a success.''
The group wrote the script, built the sets and sculpted the characters from clay, including a character who brags about her sexy cleavage and her dyed blonde locks. The animated figures openly talk about using condoms, how soon to have sex when dating, and getting checked for STDs.
The discussion opened some eyes. One 93-year-old woman, Rose, said she didn't realize women could contract STDs after menopause.
'You get these condo jockeys, they go out with a prostitute, they take care of all the ladies in the building, and then you have a problem,'' Chesley said. ``We laugh about this, but one of our members does have a certificate saying he is disease free. I can't tell you his name, because everyone will want to call him.''
Original link: http://www.globalaging.org/health/us/2009/safesex.htm
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