The 5 Good Boomer Reads for the week of August 23, 2018:
- The Fitness Myth of 10,000 Steps
- Men Headed to Extinction
- Aging in Place Gets an App
- Boomer Marijuana Use Doubles in a Decade–Really?
- My Journey Into Medicare
Now, let’s get into our stories for this week:
Surprise! The 10,000 Step Daily Goal is Bad Science
But don’t throw out your fitness band just yet. The Guardian says the 10,000 step idea is the result of a 1960s Japanese fitness marketing campaign to sell a step counter. There was some rough research, but not at a level that the 10,000 step marker has any real meaning.
Researchers are now beginning studies to compare 10,000 steps against 5,000 steps and 20,000 steps and a number of other variables to see what really produces fitness. Some ideas surround the intensity of activity as well as the period of activity.
Everyone agrees that exercise is a very important component of a healthy lifestyle, so your not off the hook yet. More research will come out on the length of time, the intensity of the activity, and the type of activity or steps.
Men Are Becoming Extinct
According to an article in GQ, infertility has risen the last 40 years. And the infertile rise has been fast: sperm count is down 50% in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in 40 years. To top it off, we mean are producing less semen.
So what does this mean? Well, mid-20th Century men were producing 200 million sperm at each count of coitus, men now produce 100 million sperm on average.
To paraphrase Senator Dirksen, a million here, a million there, and it all adds up to…never-mind, we produce far more than necessary for now. But another 40 years of an ever-accelerating downward trend could result in a zero bottom line (yep, I said that).
Remember that news shock about BPA and Pthalates? Yeah, the chickens have come home to roost. And there’s plenty more bad news from other chemical and environmental sources.
Silvernest matches boomer homeowners with housemates
Aging in place is a major trend in Boomers and now there’s an app for that.
Silvernest is a Denver-based online roommate matching service. Think of AirBNB for a longer term tenant. The startup recently received $3 million in Series A funding for business expansion and they’ve got big ideas.
What does a roommate matching app do? Well:
- identity verification
- background checks
- lease creation
- automated payments
- mediation
- legal support
With services such as these, aging in place becomes a more realistic situation and relieves us Boomers of spending more time than necessary with that son- or daughter-in-law.
Boomer Marijuana Use Doubles In a Decade
Hey Kids, the ’60s are back! The headlines scream that Boomer marijuana use doubles in a decade–but how true is that?
Well, it’s complicated. Yes, Boomer marijuana use has doubled in a decade, but it’s still not reached double-digit percentages of the generation.
Researchers at NYU School of Medicine and the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing did a follow-up study based on their earlier 2006-2007 study. They found 9% of Boomers 50-64 were using marijuana, a doubling of the 2006-2007 figures. The researchers also found a 7x growth (2.9%) among adults 65+. *
BUT…these are still very small numbers compared to the number of adults admitting to marijuana use in their past, 54.5% 50-64 and 22.4% 65+.
So this growth figure is not shocking or cause for alarm, it’s still a very small number
* Survey based on 17,608 sample size of adults 50+.
My Journey Into Medicare
OK, more action on starting Medicare. This week I visited my doctor for a quick check-up on his perspective.
Problem is, my doctor has retired. He’s literally gone fishing, bought a boat and everything. I suppose it would help if I showed up more often than once a decade when I get sick, but the issue now is I need a new doctor. So I went to visit my past doctor’s clinic, which had moved since the last time I visited. Yeah, I really need to be better at seeing the doctor.
So the clinic has a bunch of doctors to choose from. I could select male or female; fairly young to moderately aged; or flip a coin and see what happens. I chose a male doctor who appeared to be in young middle-age.
What I look for in a doctor is a partner in health. I don’t like simply treating the symptoms, I prefer an active approach with a conservative bent. Pills are OK when necessary, but I prefer they not be the first choice in a health situation, I’d rather start with exercise and diet. And I got the right new doctor right off the bat.
The first thing the new doctor said was to hold my horses and wait until Medicare kicks in next month. He says there’s an entire process for creating a baseline that Medicare requires, so we should just wait and follow that procedure when my eligibility kicks in.
For now we just wait a few weeks and then see what’s in store. More later
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