More on shingles: Viewer discretion advised

by Madeleine Kolb January 13, 2011

The concept couldn’t be simpler: the best way to avoid illness is to prevent it. To avoid getting the flu this winter, get a flu shot. And while you’re at it, get vaccinated for other diseases for which you’re at risk which—for those over 50 or 60—include shingles. Several days ago, I wrote about the obstacles [...]

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Don’t get shingles, get the vaccine now

by Madeleine Kolb January 7, 2011

Two days ago standing at the prescription counter at CVS, I nearly lost it. I got very  frustrated and was taking it out on the young pharmacist at the counter. The more he tried to explain that CVS no longer carries the shingles vaccine, the more irate I became. Finally, I got a grip. I stopped [...]

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Why Dr. Frances Kelsey has The Right Stuff

by Madeleine Kolb December 27, 2010

“The Right Stuff ” is a term popularized by author Tom Wolfe in his rollicking, uproarious, roller-coaster-ride of a book by the same name:  a book about the seven original astronauts selected for Project Mercury. They were men who had what it took to climb into a massive rocket loaded with explosive fuel and blast off into [...]

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Why on earth do old people jump out of airplanes anyway?

by Madeleine Kolb December 13, 2010

Have you noticed all the stories lately about old people undergoing some trial, a sort of self-imposed hazing to show that they’re Not Over the Hill or that they’ve Still Got What It Takes. The trial needs to be something which *** seems active and *** is dangerous but is not extremely likely to kill [...]

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The Stop Diabetes Campaign continues

by Madeleine Kolb December 1, 2010

  Type 2 diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S. and in much of the world. Currently, one in 10 Americans has diabetes. If present trends continue, one in three will suffer from the disease by the year 2050, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Type 1 diabetes–the form which rocker [...]

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Women over 50 rock

by Madeleine Kolb November 27, 2010

As a woman grows older, it’s easy for her to feel unappreciated, patronized, stereotyped and long past her prime. After all our culture bombards us with daily messages that we’ve become flabby, wrinkly, and generally unattractive. And just forget about being sexy—those days are long gone! So it was a great pleasure to stumble across this post [...]

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3 Things you need to bring to the doctor’s office

by Madeleine Kolb November 12, 2010

My second pregnancy lasted a long, long time. The baby was big and getting bigger every day. Six months went by, then seven, then eight. Finally, one morning—two weeks and one day after my so-called due date—I woke up with some tentative contractions. I waited. More contractions. At last, I was in labor. When I called my doctor, [...]

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Why taking the train is the only way to fly

by Madeleine Kolb November 7, 2010

Over the last three weeks my BF Dick and I have traveled a lot. We’ve traveled by plane and train across the U.S. and by automobile on shorter trips in the eastern part of the country.  Our trips By car to a town in Maryland near Washington, DC where I competed in a Toastmasters’ Humorous Speech Contest [...]

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Can we talk? About breasts?

by Madeleine Kolb October 21, 2010

Woman Nursing a Child by Pierre-Auguste Renoir How did all of us—men but mostly women—get to be so weird about women’s breasts? About the size, shape, and firmness or sagginess? How did we become so obsessed with the way breasts look and so up-tight about their function, which is simply to nourish an infant? Take [...]

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Blogging, aging, and life

by Madeleine Kolb October 11, 2010

Today I want to share a handful of wonderful blogs about growing older. It is a diverse group, offering a mix of challenging life experience, such as the illness and death of a parent; personal experience of the second 50 years; cultural pressure to stay forever young;  musings on what’s essential and not so important after [...]

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