Our travel plans, like those of so many, were upended by the big Christmas storm. I pictured us cozy at home by the fire, but the gas fireplace needs electricity to ignite and that was an on-again, off-again thing at the holiday. So much for a Norman Rockwell Christmas.
On the other hand, we have a roof over our heads, and so far no crazy dictator is bombing the neighborhood. Much to be thankful for.
Including Le Weekend. Have you seen this movie on Prime? It’s all about the joys and perils of love after sixty, which it addresses in ironic, stylish and unpredictable ways. Lindsay Duncan stars as an unsatisfied woman willing to set boundaries and take chances. I highly recommend watching this movie when your power is on.
What else happened this month? A whole lot.
Gray Hair: NextTribe published an article about The Gray Whisperer, a stylist who charges between three and ten thousand dollars to turn women’s blah gray hair into beautiful gray hair. I found this amusing given the arch attitude of certain gray-haired ladies on social media, some of whom cite Jane Fonda as an example of a woman who “owns” her gray. Jane “owns” it alright. She should; she paid enough for it. Fonda is a customer of the Gray Whisperer and gets her hair dyed silver at great expense. So it’s shameful to dye your hair blond (even if it’s a business decision), and praiseworthy to dye your hair gray? Hmmm….
Weight and Age: Do you know about Old School Anti-Ageism Clearinghouse and their weekly Office Hours? It’s a Zoom event where folks gather to exchange anti-ageism ideas and resources. I signed on one week and mentioned the concept that larger body size can be protective for older people (an idea I came across in Dr. Carl Lavie’s book, The Obesity Paradox). Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks, was on the call and later repeated that idea on another forum, where she got all kinds of pushback. She asked if I would write a blog about weight and age. Turns out there is evidence in peer reviewed medical journals that conditions affecting older persons including kidney failure, stroke, and coronary artery disease are mediated by higher body weight. In addition, BMI, which is a poor measure of health for anyone, is especially worthless for older persons. Lower BMI in olders often means loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia), a known health issue for older persons. This subject is definitely worth an essay. Look for that blog in the New Year.
More about HRT: After my fourth blog on the subject of HRT, I thought I’d written plenty about it. Then I read a recent New York Times article, “Welcome to the Menopause Gold Rush,” about the burgeoning business in prescribing HRT online. Lots of venture capital money going into this sector, which strives to close the gap between Boomer women’s demand for HRT and the reticence of family physicians to prescribe it. These new companies must be charging women big bucks to be attracting VC money. Doctors working for these new companies are writing articles in the popular press making claims about HRT that may be overly optimistic. More to come on this subject after all.
“Anti-Aging” Products: The same NYT article that talked about HRT included a discussion of highly priced “anti-aging” products, which the author referred to as the new Pink Tax. Was that a coincidence, or had the journalist read my blog of a few months ago, “The New Pink Tax?” Not sure whether to be flattered, annoyed, or neither.
Menopause: Is it Cultural or Biological? Another subject that came up during Old School Office Hours is the question of whether menopause as we experience it is a cultural phenomenon. According to a 1995 book, women in Japan experience few of the symptoms we associate with menopause in the West. More recent studies consider possible hormonal differences. I plan to read up on this interesting topic, hoping there is data about the experience of Asian ancestry women in menopause in the US, and women of non-Asian ancestry in menopause in Japan. Stay tuned on that one.
FDA and Public Policy on Drugs for Olders: Some of you know that I had a 35 year career in biotechnology, running interference between biotech companies and FDA. A few years ago I was consulting at a cancer research facility when FDA came out with guidance requiring the inclusion of older persons in clinical studies of cancer drugs, recognizing that these drugs are highly likely to be prescribed for older persons.
What about expanding that requirement to other drugs? Has that happened? Will it happen?
And what about the related issue of overprescribing to older persons?
Another topic for an upcoming blog.
Many essays to write, in addition to several books currently in draft to revise and publish next year. I won’t be bored in 2023, and I hope you won’t either. There are so many good books to read, and so many excellent books remain to be written—including yours!
Sending you all best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year. And please keep the pen moving (or the keys clicking)!
See you in 2023.
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