CANADA: Ministers Vow To Continue Fight Against Elder Abuse

SASKATOON (Canada Press), November 30, 2007: Canada's secretary of state for seniors says elder abuse is not something people like to acknowledge takes place. Marjory LeBreton made the comment Friday as federal, provincial and territorial ministers for seniors wrapped up a day-and-a-half meeting in Saskatoon with a commitment to work together to address the problem. LeBreton says elder abuse can include physical isolation or financial scams involving strangers or even members of a senior's own family. Estimates suggest between four and 10 per cent of seniors are mistreated - almost all of them women. Senior women living alone have an average income of $19,000 a year, and face poverty rates 10 times greater than senior couples. Source: Canada Press

PAKISTAN: Karachi Senior Citizens Forum Groups Attend To Ailing Aged

KARACHI, Pakistan (Senior Citizens Forum), November 29, 2007: VISITING AILING SENIORS is a programme promoted by Senior Citizens Forum of Karachi, reports Mr. Ali Raza Lakhani, Honorary Secretary of the Forum. Old age persons often become bedridden due to some serious diseases. Many such seniors live a miserable life. They rarely get proper medical treatment nor someone looks after their health. Consequently, they remain in bed for a long time and ultimately pass away in same condition. Such seniors can be motivated to get well and return to normal life if they are treated with love and affection, says the November newsletter of the Forum. If they are regularly visited and encouraged to fight disease, they may ultimately return to normal life. It is therefore necessary that such ailing old age persons are helped in the process of recovery. The SCF is now preparing teams of volunteers to visit the ailing persons at regular intervals. The groups of one or two will meet the ailing seniors and understand the type of sickness and its remedy. They will exchange stories, read newspapers or magazines, discuss important events and generally encourage them to fight disease and recover. The SCF has invited dedicated men and women social workers to join these teams of visitors, says Mr. Ali Raza T. Lakhani. Source: Senior Citizens Forum, Karachi

Russia: Base Labour Pension Increase in Far East

NEW YORK (Global Action On Aging), November 29, 2007:

The Russian government increased the base labor pension allowance in Primorye, in the Far East region of Russia , starting December 1, 2007.

The government increased the base pension level by 300 RUB and by 600 RUB for older persons over 80 years.

According to the report of the Russian Pension Fund, invalids, the Great Patriotic War soldiers, and the aged who were involved in the Leningrad blockade will also receive an increase in their disability pension ranging from 150 RUB up to 900 RUB.

Copyright © 2004 Global Action on Aging

KOREA: In South Korea, It Feels Like A Scandal A Day

ONE OF MANY? In South Korea’s season of scandal, belly dancer Ahn Yoo-jin, foreground, is accused by prosecutors of padding her educational record to get a teaching job. “Competition for survival has become ruthless and morality disregarded,” one expert says.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Cutting corners appears to be pervasive in the hard-charging society.

SEOUL, Korea (Los Angeles Times), November 30, 2007:

In what has become South Korea's autumn of scandal, it sometimes seems no one is immune from accusations of impropriety.

The top executives at Samsung, the country's biggest company, are alleged to have created a bribery network whose tentacles snared politicians and prosecutors, professors and journalists. The front-runner for president is campaigning beneath the dagger of possible fraud charges. Elite schools are reeling under allegations of fixed entrance exams.

And from the upper echelons of the art world to Buddhist temples, South Korean personalities are being ignominiously exposed for having faked their academic credentials to get ahead. If there was a moment that illustrated the pervasiveness of the scandals now roiling South Korea, it came with the indictment this month of Ahn Yoo-jin, accused by prosecutors of inflating her educational record in order to land a teaching job at a college.

Ahn is a professional belly dancer.

"Competition for survival has become ruthless and morality disregarded," says Kim Mun-cho, a Korea University sociologist. "In the competition to be ahead of others, people resort to any means available, resulting in corruption."

Some blame the tendency to shave corners on a cutthroat mentality that developed in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which shook Koreans' faith in an ever-expanding economy. Others contend that South Korea has never shaken off the mutual back-scratching culture of a small society, where the establishment has tight personal connections forged by blood, school or regional ties.

And some suggest that Korean society simply has an unhealthy obsession with success. "Living an ordinary life is not regarded as being successful, and staying still economically is seen as an unbearable retrogression," Kim says. "Korean society demands overachievement."

Whatever the reason, Koreans picking up a newspaper or turning on TV news these days are confronted with seemingly endless stories of bribery and cheating, influence peddling and corruption.

Scandals have always been a hallmark of South Korea's presidential elections, and the campaign that officially began this week for the Dec. 19 vote is no exception. A former business partner of Lee Myun-bak, the front-runner, was extradited to South Korea this month from Los Angeles, amid speculation he would incriminate the candidate in the alleged money laundering and stock manipulation that brought down their financial services company. Prosecutors are expected to decide next week whether to take action.

Meanwhile, the country's top official at the National Tax Service is under arrest on charges that he took $66,000 in cash from one of his deputies as part of a kickback scheme. And a Seoul court is hearing evidence against Byeon Yang-kyoon, President Roh Moo-hyun's former top policy advisor. Byeon is accused of using his influence to have a female friend hired at a Buddhist university as a professor of Western art history. He has argued that he did not know she had apparently faked her university credentials.

The woman, Shin Jeong-ah, was curator of a Seoul museum and co-director of the Gwangju Biennale, the country's premier art event. Now she has been indicted for allegedly enhancing her academic record, including claiming a nonexistent doctorate from Yale University.

The notoriety of Shin's alleged academic fictions during the summer triggered a deluge of similar embarrassing confessions. Among those accused of lying about their educational qualifications are a highly successful Buddhist monk, a prominent architect, a comic book artist, and belly dancer Ahn, whose television appearances, stage performances and chain of schools called Belly Korea had made her a minor celebrity.

"Education is the top priority in South Korea; it gives a person a sense of pride," says Choi Hyang-ok, an administrator at one of Belly Korea's schools, where she says the prevailing mood is that Ahn was a victim of jealous rivals. "That's why many people wonder, 'Should I exaggerate my credentials if I can?' "

Ahn's resume transgressions are small stuff, however, next to the allegations of comprehensive corruption made against the Samsung Group, a corporate behemoth with interests ranging from electronics to construction and shipbuilding.

According to the company's former top lawyer for seven years until 2004, Samsung has crafted a network of bribery that extends to the judiciary, government tax and finance officials, academia and the media. The attorney, Kim Yong-chol, described a system in which cash was handed over in briefcases, or disguised to look like books or CD cases.

Shielding himself behind a respected organization of Roman Catholic priests, Kim told a nationally televised news conference from a Seoul church that even the country's top prosecutors were on Samsung's payroll. The list included the government's nominee for chief prosecutor and the head of the national commission looking into corruption, he said.

All have denied the charges, with Samsung denouncing Kim's allegations as "malicious."

But the company's problems deepened when a former anti-corruption advisor to President Roh came forward to say he had been a target of a Samsung bribe. Lee Yong-chul said that a Samsung executive tried to bribe him in 2004, the roughly $5,000 in cash offered in a package disguised to look like a book. Lee said he refused the money.

Last week, the South Korean parliament passed a bill calling on Roh to appoint an independent investigator to look into the allegations against Samsung. Roh's critics worried he might veto the measure, fearing that a wide-ranging investigation of Samsung could reveal unseemly financial links between the company and his own 2002 campaign for president. But this week he bowed to public pressure and accepted the appointment of the prosecutor.

"I think the bill has many problems both legally and politically," Roh said at a news conference in Seoul, denying that he accepted "congratulatory money" from Samsung. But he said he did not have the political support to veto the bill and had "decided people want to know the truth of the allegations implicating the nation's largest conglomerate."

Few South Koreans seemed overly shocked that one of the country's mammoth business conglomerates -- known as chaebols -- would try to bribe public officials or woo allies in the media with cash and gifts. South Korea's chaebols were built on intimate ties with military governments of the 1960s and have long records of being tainted by corruption. In February, Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor Co., was convicted of embezzling more than $100 million from the company to create a slush fund that prosecutors said was used for bribery.

Chung received a three-year prison term, but his sentence was commuted to community service when the court ruled that his incarceration would have too detrimental an impact on the South Korean economy.

What instead has surprised people is the increasing willingness of whistle-blowers to step forward with detailed allegations against the most powerful people in South Korean society.

"It's the first initiative that's difficult to make," says Father Kim In-kook of the Catholic Priests' Assn. for Justice, an organization respected for its role in opposing the authoritarianism of dictator Park Chung-hee in the 1970s. The priest says whistle-blower Kim Yong-chol came to the church group for protection after other organizations shied away from taking on Samsung.

"There are many people who suffered because of Samsung's corruption and injustice and who could not speak out because they felt weak as an individual," Father Kim says. "Now that two people have come out with courage, others might feel encouraged to give witness and make a better society."

Some observers see a sign of evolution in the scandals' airing.

"Most people believed or suspected this sort of thing was always going on and took it for granted," says Lee Ji-soo of the Center for Good Corporate Governance in Seoul. "The difference this time is that someone has come forward to speak out against it, and there are more people prepared to say that this is not acceptable.

"There is a generational divide in Korea," Lee says. "And the younger generation is saying that Korea can't move forward unless we overcome that old way of thinking to become a more transparent society."

By Bruce Wallace, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Times staff writer Jinna Park contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

AUSTRALIA: Call To Appoint Ambassador For Ageing

SYDNEY (ABC News), November 30, 2007: A peak retirement industry body says the new Minister for the Ageing, Nicola Roxon, must develop policies to assist the rapidly growing number of older Australians. Ms Roxon replaces outgoing Liberal Party minister for the ageing, Christopher Pyne, after the Coalition was defeated by Labor in the federal election. Retirement Village Association chief executive officer Kate Hamond says Ms Roxon should start by appointing an ambassador of the ageing, to oversee the interests of those over 65. "We do have ambassadors for all sorts of things in our society, but older people should be considered and with of course almost 3 million being over 65, it's a fair chunk of society that needs consideration," she said. "The industry has actually doubled in size, the number of residents in Australia has doubled in the past 10 years and they will double again. "Because they are such a significant group in the community - they're aren't sick, they are just older." © 2007 ABC

USA: Suicide More Common Among Elderly Than Any Other Age Group

NEW YORK (International Herald Tribune), November 29, 2007:

Suicide is more common among older Americans than any other age group. The statistics are daunting. While people 65 and older account for 12 percent of the population, they represent 16 percent to 25 percent of the suicides. Four out of five suicides in older adults are men. And among white men over 85, the suicide rate - 50 per 100,000 men - is six times that of the general population.

Illustration by Stuart Bradford

Yet, says Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, "If you consider only major depression as the antecedent of elder suicide, you'll miss 20 to 40 percent of cases in which there is no sign of mental illness."

Kennedy, who is also affiliated with Albert Einstein College of Medicine, recently directed a symposium here on preventing suicide in older adults, designed to alert both mental health and primary care practitioners to the often subtle signs that an older person may try to end it all.

THE WARNING SIGNS In interviews, he and other symposium presenters noted that detecting suicidal impulses in older people often depended on the ability of family members and friends to recognize warning signs and act on them. According to Gregory Brown, a suicide specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, in studies of what preceded elder suicides, "suicide ideation" - the wish to die or thoughts of killing themselves - appears not to have been taken seriously. In 75 percent of cases, the suicide victims "had told family members or acquaintances of their intention to kill themselves," Brown said.

Kennedy put it this way: "This is not simply a doctor's problem. We need to think of elder suicide more as a social problem and look out for individuals at risk."

Primary care practitioners are also crucial to suicide prevention among the elderly because older people, and especially older men, are unlikely to seek out and accept mental health services but are often seen by family doctors and nurses within days or weeks of a suicide.

Among suicide victims 55 and older, 58 percent visited a general physician in the month before the suicide. In fact, 20 percent see a general physician on the same day and 40 percent within one week of the suicide.

While major depression is the main precipitant of suicide at all ages, social isolation is an important risk factor for suicide among the elderly. And older men, more so than older women, often become socially isolated.

Widowers are especially at risk because older men in the current generation tend to depend on their wives to maintain social contacts.

When wives die, their husbands' social interactions often cease.

"Older males who live alone are an endangered species," Kennedy said - particularly "in states like Wyoming, Montana and Nevada, where the social distance is great and firearms are a part of the culture."

Many men are poorly prepared for retirement, and don't know how to fill in the hours and maintain a sense of usefulness when they stop working. "They often sit around watching TV," said Martha Bruce, a professor of sociology and psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in White Plains, New York.

And Kennedy said, "After retirement a lot of older men start drinking heavily, a sign of increased aggression turned inward." He called heavy drinking or binge drinking a risk factor for suicide among the elderly.

A particularly vulnerable time may be after the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease like cancer. Older men who were recently discharged from the hospital are also at high risk, Kennedy said. They need to be periodically screened for depressed mood, loss of interest in life and thoughts of killing themselves.

Serious personal neglect is another warning sign; people can commit a kind of passive suicide by failing to eat, letting themselves become dangerously sedentary or not taking needed medication.

DEALING WITH DEPRESSION Contrary to what many people think, depression is not a normal part of growing older. Nor is it harder to treat in older people. But it is often harder to recognize and harder to get patients to accept and continue with treatment.

"Most people think sadness is a hallmark of depression," Bruce said. "But more often in older people it's anhedonia - they're not enjoying life. They're irritable and cranky."

She added: "Many older people despair over the quality of their lives at the end of life. If they have a functional disability or serious medical illness, it may make it harder to notice depression in older people."

Family members, friends and medical personnel must take it seriously when an older person says "life is not worth living," "I don't see any point in living," "I'd be better off dead" or "My family would be better off if I died," the experts emphasized.

"Listen carefully, empathize and help the person get evaluated for treatment or into treatment," Brown urged. He warned that "depressed older adults tend to have fewer symptoms" than younger adults who are depressed.

The ideal approach, of course, is to prevent depression in the first place. Brown recommended that older adults structure their days by maintaining a regular cycle and planning activities that "give them pleasure, purpose and a reason for living."

He suggested "social activities of any type - joining a book club or bowling league, going to a senior center or gym, taking courses at a local college, hanging out at the coffee shop."

Bruce suggests taking up a new interest like painting or needlework or volunteering at a place of worship, school or museum.

Brown notes that any activity the person is capable of doing can help to ward off depression and suicidal thinking. And he urges older people to talk to others about their problems.

By Jane E. Brody
Copyright © 2007 The International Herald Tribune

INDIA: You Have Healing Magic In Hands - Yoga For Silvers

MUMBAI (Rediff.com), November 29, 2007:

Swiss yoga teacher and best-selling author Gertrud Hirschi assures us there is a mudra or yogic hand gesture for every ailment of the body and mind.

She had herself recouped from chronic asthma through these practices.

In Mudras: yoga in your hands she quotes mudra expert Keshav Dev. He suggests hand 'seals' that may be used in emergencies such as dizziness, nausea or even heart attacks.

It must be remembered, however, mudras are designed in keeping with ayurvedic system of individual constitution. So use only prescribed mudras instead of experimenting wildly with several.

According to the Bihar School of Yoga mudras are based on the biological homunculus map in our brain. The homunculus is a human representation in our brain, highlighting the areas represented by different parts of our body. It was intriguing to find that the human hand has the largest neuronal (nerve) representation. Amongst the fingers, the thumb enjoys the largest.

In human evolution, the intricate use of the hand -- released from walking by our ability to stand upright -- spurted further cerebral achievements. Mudras, in effect, exploit this understanding of the powerful effect of our hands in our brains. So, they tweak our inner self, create a cascade of bio-chemical reactions that encourage natural healing.

Those interested in learning further about the healing powers of mudras may refer to Mudras for Healing by Acharya Keshav Dev (published by Vivekanand Yogashram, Rs 225) and Health at your Fingertips by Dr Dhiren Gala (Navneet publishers, Rs 35).

General dos and don'ts for holding a mudra

Mudras are ideally held in a meditative fashion. Sit in any comfortable meditative pose, with eyes shut. You may also use them while doing your pranayama practice. Follow the same instructions for both hands, unless otherwise instructed. Each mudra must be held for a minimum of five minutes and maximum of 15 minutes. Only a mudra expert, after detailed analysis of individual ailment and constitution, may advise longer duration for any mudra.

Surya mudra (sun mudra)

To do this mudra (please see photograph), press down your ring finger firmly so the tip almost reaches the base of your thumb. Hold it down with your thumb. Hold the other fingers out. Do this for both hands. Hold for five minutes. For enhancing the heating effect, do it during the pitta (fire) time between 10 am and 2 pm.

Avoid: If having inflammatory condition like fever.

Benefits: It helps control diabetes. It impacts weight loss powerfully by boosting metabolism. It removes excess mucus from the body. It rectifies hypothyroidism, constipation. It complements treatment for cataract. Great way to combat lethargy.

Text: Shameem Akthar, a yoga acharya trained in the tradition of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, shows you five classic mudras.
Photographs: Jahnavi Sheriff

Catch more of Shameem's yoga writings and about her upcoming workshops at jaisivananda.blogspot.com

Harmony Foundation recently published Shameem Akthar's book, Yoga for Silvers.

CHINA: Official Stresses Opposition To Discrimination In Test

BEIJING (ChinaView - Xinhua), November 29, 2007: A Chinese personnel official on Thursday reiterated opposition to discrimination, especially against Hepatitis B carriers, in the upcoming civil servant test. The Chinese government issued a week ago rules to ensure fair, transparent enrollment of civil servants. The rules ban employers of civil servants from setting "requirements that are unrelated to the nature of posts". Vice Minister of Personnel Yang Shiqiu reassured an applicant of the national civil servant examination in December that "Hepatitis B carriers who are ruled out after medical examination to be Hepatitis B patients would be considered eligible candidates." Chinese job hunters, including those seeking government posts, have long complained of discrimination on the grounds of sex, age, religion, race or physical disability. This year, more than 800,000 applicants will sit for the civil service examination in December, according to a statement on the ministry's website. Editor: Mu Xuequan Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency.

FINLAND: Ageing Population Weighs On Economy

HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters), November 29, 2007: The Finnish government said on Thursday it had cut its expectations for central government surpluses for the remainder of its term, citing labour shortage and the effects of an ageing population. When Finland's new centre-right government started its four-year term in early 2007, it set as one of its key aims reaching a central government surplus of 1 percent by 2011; but it now says it would manage only a slight surplus in 2011, if economic growth is as projected. "To reach the (1 percent) surplus target, we need policies which help (the) economy grow 1 percentage point faster," Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen told Reuters in a telephone interview. The government's baseline assumption is gross domestic product (GDP) growth to average 2.7 percent in 2008 to 2011. "The only thing which has changed is that this year's population forecasts from Statistics Finland have changed for the worse," Katainen said. Statistics Finland raised life expectancy estimates. "We have hope, even though the situation is enormously challenging. If we can get faster growth, we can manage," he said of meeting the higher surplus target. Katainen cited lowering taxes as being an important structural change boosting economic growth. The government said a higher surplus could be reached only if economic growth were stronger than projected, but also said risks to lower growth existed, including labour shortage and ageing population. STATE DEBT Finland's old-age dependency ratio -- the proportion of pensioners to workers -- is projected to reach 41 percent by 2025, the highest in Western Europe. By 2025, the Finnish Centre for Pensions forecasts that pension outlays would rise to above 15 percent of national income, growing at a rate nearly three times the EU average. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen expressed more confidence in meeting its surplus target. "We are planning to live up to it," Vanhanen told Reuters on the sidelines of an environmental conference in Helsinki. The government said despite the lower surplus projections, Finland would fulfil its EU Stability and Growth Pact obligations in the medium term. Public sector surplus is expected to be 2.5 percent by 2011, with pension funds accounting for it, Katainen said. The government would use any surpluses to pay down debt, Katainen said. "Now we have to pay back state debt as much as humanly possible, when the times are good." Public sector debt would go down to 28 percent of GDP, the government said. Finland has experienced strong economic growth in recent years with its economy growing at twice the average for the euro zone, but the growth has started to slow. Daily Turun Sanomat first reported on the new governemnt report on Thursday morning. By Terhi Kinnunen & Sakari Suoninen Additional reporting by Tarmo Virki Editing by Ralph Boulton © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

INDIA: Quadriplegic Achiever Among Finalists For CNN Heroes Honours

S. Ramakrishnan developed a 20-building campus in India committed to train and teach the disabled.
Photo: Palani Mohan/ Getty Images for CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN), November 27, 2007:

When S. Ramakrishnan was a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and aspiring naval candidate, he fell from a rope during a physical fitness test and severed his spinal cord.

When he woke up from a coma, he found himself paralyzed from the neck down, and for 32 years he has been dependent upon caretakers. Twenty months in recovery gave Ramakrishnan ample opportunity for introspection, and he decided to build a haven for severely disabled children and adults in India instead of becoming an engineer.

Named after one of Ramakrishnan's doctors, Amar Seva Sangam has become one of India's largest centers for disabled people and serves thousands of people in 330 villages in Tamil Nadu.

The program occupies a 20-building campus on 40 acres with a mission to help disabled people of all ages live more meaningful lives. The program empowers the disabled through vocational training, operates a school for hundreds of disabled children and offers another specialized school for children with cerebral palsy and mental retardation.

Click to see earlier news report from CNN

Source: CNN
____________________________________________________________________

Related Report
CHENNAI (Chennaitv.blogspot.com), November 28, 2007:

S. Ramakrishnan of Ayikudy, India, a quadriplegic man who runs one of that nation’s largest centers for the disabled has been chosen as one of the 18 finalists of “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” which celebrates ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things.

The show, hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour will air live globally on CNN/U.S., CNN International and CNN en Espanol on Dec. 6 at 9 p.m.

The 18 honorees, each of whom have already been bestowed with a $10,000 cash prize, will be saluted at the December 6 gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City that will include performances from Grammy Award winners Mary J. Blige and Sheryl Crow and a duet by Grammy Award winner Norah Jones and acclaimed performer-producer Wyclef Jean.

Revealed during the telecast, the winner in each of the six categories will be awarded an additional $25,000.

Ramakrishnan is paralysed from the neck down. He can only sit up for four hours a day. For the rest of the time he lies on a bed unable to move. Even basic needs like wiping his nose have to be carried out by a nurse who rarely leaves his side.

Day to day living is a huge challenge for him, yet he has transformed the lives of thousands of disabled people in the towns and villages of Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu.

In 1975 Ramakrishnan was a promising engineering student. While travelling to an interview for naval officer selection, he met with an accident that changed his life for ever. As he lay paralysed in a hospital bed despairing for his future, his doctor talked about the work he might do to help other disabled people. When he returned home, Ramakrishnan decided to do just that.

The Amar Seva Sangam (named after the doctor) was established in 1981 but it was ten years later, when Ramakrishnan met chartered accountant Sankara Raman, that the project really took off. They put together a financial proposal and with Raman's contacts attracted both national and international funding to build a centre for the disabled on a 30-acre site on the edge of Ramakrishnan's village, Ayikudy.

The institution Amar Seva Sangam has received numerous awards from the state and central governments and various NGOs. The most noteworthy award came in 2002 -- the 'Best Institution in the service of the disabled and uplift of rural poor' -- which was given by President A P J Abdul Kalam.

See www.amarseva.org
Posted by vj at 4:43 AM on chennaitv.blogspot.com
http://chennaitv.blogspot.com/2007/11/s.html

PAKISTAN: Karachi To Get Centres For Senior Citizens

KARACHI (The Post - Associated Press of Pakistan), November 29, 2007: The City Government of Karachi has decided to setup Senior Citizen Welfare Development Centres in all the towns of Karachi in coordination with Senior Citizen Advisory Council. This was stated by Naib Nazim Karachi, Nasrin Jalil while talking to a 25-member delegation of Senior Citizen Club Wednesday. She said the City Government had appealed to philanthropists to assist in setting up these centres. Initially, two such centres were being setup in Gulberg and Malir Towns and an MoU in this regard had been signed between CDGK's Community Development Department and Senior Citizen Advisory Council. The Senior Citizen Club has been set up on the 60th birth anniversary of Pakistan and people of 60 years or above could get free membership. Nasrin Jalil congratulated the club's office-bearers and pointed out that in this fast moving era, the younger generation could not have spare time for their elders and, therefore, under such conditions the significance of Senior Citizen Club had grown. She told the delegation that centres for senior citizens would have facilities of reading room, free medical check up and a resting place. Senior citizens could come to the centres, read newspapers and magazines and use indoor recreational facilities so that they do not feel lonely. Source: The Post, Lahore

USA: Obesity Epidemic Shows Signs of Plateauing

Rates Stable Among Women for 2005, '06

WASHINGTON DC (Washington Post), November 29, 2007:

The obesity epidemic that has been spreading for more than a quarter-century in the United States has leveled off among women and may have hit a plateau for men, as well, federal health officials reported yesterday.

While the proportion of adults who are obese remains high at more than 30 percent, the rate in 2005 and 2006 was statistically unchanged from the last time government researchers took a national snapshot two years earlier.

The findings confirm earlier indications that the increase in obesity among women had stalled and suggests that the same trend may have begun among men.

"This is encouraging," said Cynthia L. Ogden of the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the new data. "I think we can say that obesity in women is stabilizing, and I'm optimistic that we may be seeing a leveling off in men, as well."

If both trends continue, it could mean that the effort to stem the nation's growing girth could be starting to pay off, Ogden and others said.

"This doesn't show we've turned the corner on obesity, but we might be at the corner," said William H. Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "The first step in controlling any epidemic is halting a rise in the number of cases, and this suggests that might be happening."

But experts quickly cautioned that it is too soon to declare victory, noting that the lull could be fleeting and that about 72 million adults are still considered obese.

"This is still the biggest health problem of our time," Gary D. Foster, director of obesity research and education at Temple University, who is president of the Obesity Society, said. "It's not time to relax. We've got to continue to take the problem seriously and be aggressive about finding effective prevention and treatment strategies."

The proportion of Americans who are obese has increased dramatically in the last 25 years, doubling among adults and tripling among children since 1980. Because obesity increases the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other major health problems, the rapid rise has alarmed health experts.

Ogden and her colleagues reported last year that the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing program tracking obesity and other major health issues, showed that the increases may have stalled for American women in 2003 and 2004. But they said more data were needed to confirm whether the shift was real.

The latest data collected from a nationally representative sample of 4,400 Americans age 20 and older showed that, while the proportion of women who were obese increased from 33.2 percent in 2003 and 2004 to 35.3 percent in 2005 and 2006, that difference was not statistically significant, and the rate has been stable since 1999.

Among men, Ogden and her colleagues found that the rate increased from 31.1 percent to 33.3 percent, but that change, too, was not statistically significant. But because the rate was still up compared with 1999, Odgen said more data are needed to confirm the stall.

"I'm optimistic, but I'm wary about the trend for men until we see more data," she said.

Ogden said the reasons that the epidemic might be easing were unclear, but some have speculated that the nation may have reached a saturation point, where most of those predisposed to obesity have already got there.

"Maybe we've gotten as heavy as we can," she said.

Efforts to get people to exercise more and eat better may also be starting to pay off, the CDC's Dietz said.

"I think people are paying attention more to nutrition and physical activity around the country," said Dietz, citing data released last week showing a rise in exercise rates and indications that eating patterns are improving and more employers are focusing on helping employees control their weight.

It is also unclear why women appear to be leading the way, outpacing men at first in gaining weight but now leveling off while men catch up. But experts said women tend to lead the way in issues related to health.

"Women are well-known to be the early adopters of health-related behaviors," Dietz said. "They also play a key role in most families in terms of what kinds of foods come into the house and how it is prepared."

Ogden noted that obesity rates vary by age, with adults ages 40 to 59 having the highest. About 40 percent of men in this age group are obese, compared with 28 percent of those 20 to 39 and 32 percent of men 60 and older. Among women, 41 percent of those 40 to 59 are obese, compared with 30.5 percent of women 20 to 39 and about 34 percent of women age 60 and older.

There are also large racial disparities among women. Approximately 53 percent of non-Hispanic black women and 51 percent of Mexican-American women ages 40 to 59 are obese, compared with about 39 percent of non-Hispanic white women of the same age.

Several researchers noted that childhood obesity rates are continuing to increase.

"As more obese children reach adulthood, it is conceivable that obesity levels will begin to rise again," David B. Allison, director of the clinical nutrition research center of the University of Alabama at Birmingham wrote in an e-mail.

In response, the federal government this week is announcing plans to expand efforts to combat obesity among young people, including $10 million to build new school playgrounds.

Click Here for the report

By Rob Stein
© 2007 The Washington Post Company

USA: Unnecessary CT Scans Expose Patients To Excessive Radiation

SAN FRANCISCO (USA TODAY), November 29, 2007: Overuse of diagnostic CT scans may cause as many as 3 million excess cancers in the USA over the next two to three decades, doctors report today. Researchers say they're not trying to discourage all use of CT scans -- CT stands for computed tomography -- which superimpose multiple X-ray images to make 3-D pictures. Rather, they say, CT scanning is an invaluable tool in many cases. The problem is that doctors too often overlook its risks. "About one-third of all CT scans that are done right now are medically unnecessary," says David Brenner of Columbia University, lead author of the study reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine. CT scans offer an unparalleled window into the human body, and their use has grown dramatically in recent decades as doctors use them to identify ailments in the head, abdomen and heart. Today, about 62 million CT scans are performed nationwide every year, up from 3 million in 1980, the authors say. Medical exposure to radiation, mainly through CT scans, has replaced environmental radon as the dominant source of radiation exposure for the U.S. population, the doctors say. "On average, we now get double the radiation exposure we got in 1980 because of increased CT scans," Brenner says. "Virtually anyone who presents in the emergency room with pain in the belly or a chronic headache will automatically get a CT scan. Is that justified?" University of New Mexico radiologist Fred Mettler, who was not part of the study, agrees that CT scans are overused. "We're always behind on CT scans because of demand from clinicians," he says. As many as 5 million scans are now done in children, who are 10 times more sensitive to radiation than adults. The increase was driven by technical advances that allow doctors to capture images in less than a second, eliminating the need for anesthesia to keep a child from moving. And the use of the scans continues to grow, Brenner says. Doctors are scanning smokers and ex-smokers for early-stage lung cancer, a highly controversial practice; they're using non-invasive "virtual" colonoscopies to check for colon cancer; and CT angiography is now being tested as a possible complement to ordinary angiography as a way to diagnose blockages in arteries leading to the heart. In critiquing a study on CT angiography at an American Heart Association meeting in Orlando last month, Michael Lauer of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute called that practice into question. He said there is no evidence of benefit from the technology, and a real concern for harm. New machines being developed by Philips and Toshiba for CT angiograms, however, may be safer because they emit 80% less radiation than standard CT scanners, Brenner says. Brenner and his co-author, Eric Hall, also of Columbia, say many doctors don't realize that just a scan or two can bathe a patient in roughly the same amount of radiation as the atomic bomb delivered to the Japanese survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki standing a mile or two from ground zero. And many people receive multiple scans over a lifetime. The amount of radiation delivered during a single CT scan can range from 1,000 to 10,000 millirems, depending on the machine and the protocol. Japanese survivors a mile or two from ground zero received about 3,000 millirems on average. The cancer rates in the new study were drawn directly from a joint $1 billion study of the bomb survivors financed by the United States and Japan. By Steve Sternberg Copyright 2007 USA TODAY

AUSTRALIA: 60s Icon Twiggy, Now 58, Offers Fashion Advice To Women 45+

SYDNEY (Stuff.co.nz), November 28, 2007:

In the 1960s Twiggy was envied by girls around the world when she pioneered the waif look. Now, some 40 years later, she's trying to help those same baby boomer women to look fashionable.

The original supermodel, who is now 58, is writing a book offering fashion advice to women over 45 called Those Fabulous 40s, 50s and 60s.

"I'm always meeting women who are over 45 who are saying: `I don't know how to dress and I don't want to be a frump, I don't want to look like mutton dressed as lamb. Oh help me, what do I do?'," Twiggy told Australian Associated Press.

"I realised there's a whole group of baby boomers who need some help. And now I'm busy writing, hopefully turning the over-45s into stylish, wonderful women."

Twiggy says she also plans to start writing her autobiography next year, adding that her new projects leave her no time to appear as a judge on America's Next Top Model.

After five seasons with the popular reality show, cycle nine, which premieres on FOX8 on December 4, will be her last.

"I've loved every second, I really have," she said. "It's lovely to give these kids a shot."

Twiggy, who was born Lesley Hornby, was just 16 when she was discovered and became a 1960s pop icon, known for her large eyes, long eyelashes, and thin build.

She said she never wanted to be a model. "I was this funny shy little skinny thing," she said. "You've got to remember back then that new look hadn't happened because I was like the new look. Models before me didn't look like me. The big model before me was Jean Shrimpton, who I absolutely idolised, but I didn't look anything like her. So although there might have been an unspoken dream: `Oh wouldn't it be lovely to be a model', I was very shy and very insecure."

These days, she said, it seems every young girl wants to be the next Kate Moss. "It's interesting, because when I was a little girl, little girls wanted to be ballerinas or film stars. Now most little girls want to be a supermodel," she said.

While she made the waif look famous, Twiggy said the current issue of size zero models was a very series problem. "For me, it's weird because I was very skinny when I was 16, when I modelled," she said. "But I was naturally thin, and I think a lot of the young models are naturally skinny. "But even so, the fashion industry has to watch it because a couple of girls died last year and when girls are dying that ain't funny.

"I do think the fashion world became obsessed beyond comprehension about this size zero. . . and I think it has to be addressed because, in the end, the influence on young teenagers is very important."

A mother herself, Twiggy said parents also have to keep an eye on their daughters and encourage them to eat healthily.

"I'm a very healthy English size 10 and I love my food," she said. "I always have actually."

Her book is due in stores in time for the Northern Hemisphere summer next year, and she hopes to bring it to Australia. "Hopefully, I'll be over to promote my book," she said. "I love Sydney. I was there this time last year, actually, and it was lovely."

© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2007.

JAPAN: Workforce May Shrink By Millions By 2030, Study Estimates

TOKYO (The Japan Times - Kyodo News), November 29, 2007: Japan's potential workforce could decline by some 10.7 million between 2006 and 2030 unless more women, young and senior citizens are encouraged to take up and keep jobs, according to a government panel's estimate released Wednesday. The panel at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry aims to draw up policy recommendations in December to stem the anticipated decrease in the workforce, a trend that could seriously hurt the nation's economic growth, ministry officials said. The population of those aged 15 and older who are working or willing to work will slide from 66.57 million in 2006 to 62.17 million in 2017 before falling to 55.84 million in 2030, according to the estimate. The number of workers aged between 15 and 29 is estimated to drop by 4.01 million between 2006 and 2030 due to the falling birthrate. Provided that effective employment measures are taken, the anticipated decrease in the overall workforce between the same period should be curbed to about 4.80 million, less than half the 10.7 million fall projected under a scenario that foresees little progress despite such measures, according to the panel. The panel calls for more efforts to help women find re-employment after leaving work due to childbearing and rearing, as well as more measures to employ senior citizens. The panel believes that Japan's real economic growth will likely slow down to 0.7 percent per year between 2017 and 2030 in the absence of effective employment efforts. But if adequate measures are taken, the growth rate should rise to 1.9 percent. (C) The Japan Times

U.K.: Fear of Winter Bills Causing Older People To Risk Their Health

LONDON, England (Age Concern), November 28, 2007: New figures from the Office for National Statistics today revealed there were 22,300 excess winter deaths of older people last year. With the Met Office predicting a colder winter this year, we are urging older people to claim the benefits, such as Pension Credit, and help with heating available to help them stay warm and well, says Age Concern. With the average fuel bill having risen over 60% in the last four years, and with predictions of further price hikes in the New Year, it is understandable that many older people worry about affording high fuel bills. The average bill has risen from £572 in 2003, when the current Winter Fuel Payments were established, to £924 today. Yet by not heating their home adequately older people could be putting their health at risk. In the previous six years alone, there were almost 150,000 excess winter deaths of people aged 65 plus. Cold-related illnesses, such as pneumonia, contributed to many thousands of these deaths. The charity is warning that millions of pensioners are missing out on benefits, such as Pension Credit, which could help to make it easier to pay their bills. Many older people are unaware that in addition they may be able to claim help with energy efficiency, insulation and heating improvements. Some men aged 60-65 may also be missing out on the Winter Fuel Payment because it isn’t paid automatically to them as they aren’t yet receiving their State Pension. As part of its year-long Your Rights benefits campaign, Age Concern is urging people to get in touch to find out what they could claim. The charity can provide free advice and information about what money benefits and help with heating they may be entitled to, and can help to make claiming simple. Age Concern is also calling on the Government to provide more money for vulnerable older people. The charity wants to see the annual Winter Fuel Payment increased by £100, the Basic State Pension raised to at least £119 per week, and automatic benefits payments introduced, so all pensioners can afford to heat their homes. The charity is also urging energy companies to do everything they can to protect vulnerable customers from price increases. Factfile: • Nearly 90 per cent of all excess winter deaths are of people over the age of 65. • Almost one in three older people live in homes with inadequate heating or insulation making their homes more difficult to heat and/or keep warm. • More than 1 in 4 people living in fuel poverty are over 70 years old • Average annual energy bills are now almost £1,000. This will absorb 16 per cent of the income of a single pensioner dependent on the pension credit minimum guarantee and the £200 Winter Fuel Payment.

USA: Insulin Regulates Secretion Of Antiaging Hormone Klotho

BOSTON (PhysOrg.com), November 28, 2007: Dr. Carmela Abraham, a professor of biochemistry and medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), reports this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences new findings on Klotho, an anti-aging gene that is associated with life span extension in rodents and humans. Dr. Abraham’s interest in Klotho stems from her studies comparing the expression of genes in young and old brains. Dr. Abraham and her colleagues observed that the levels of Klotho in the brain showed a striking decrease with aging. The association between Klotho and aging prompted Abraham’s group to investigate the regulation of Klotho further. These studies lead to the observation that secretion of Klotho is regulated by insulin. The Klotho protein sits in the membrane of certain cells but is also found circulating in serum and cerebrospinal fluid, which indicates that it is secreted. The fact that Klotho is secreted suggested that enzymes that act like scissors must be involved in the liberation of Klotho from the cell membrane. Dr. Ci-Di Chen, an assistant professor working in Dr. Abraham’s group, then sought to identify the enzymes responsible for Klotho release and also investigated other factors that may affect the release of active Klotho. To their surprise, they found that insulin, a hormone usually associated with diabetes, increases significantly the levels of secreted Klotho. The reason this finding is important is because excess insulin has been previously implicated in a biochemical pathway that is associated with a decreased life span and elevated oxidative stress. In addition, this observation provides a potentially pivotal link between Klotho and sugar metabolism, and raises an intriguing relationship between Klotho and type II diabetes, commonly known as late onset diabetes. The authors are proposing a novel mechanism of action for Klotho whereby insulin increases Klotho secretion, i.e., activity, and in turn, the secreted Klotho inhibits insulin’s actions in the cell, which are known to be detrimental when insulin is in excess. Sonia Podvin, Earl Gillespie and Dr. Susan Leeman, all from Boston University School of Medicine, also participated in the study. Following these findings, the Abraham laboratory is now studying various ways to increase the level of Klotho to those levels found in young individuals. “The findings reported here may lead to new research designed to regulate the aging process, in other words, compounds that would increase Klotho could become the next “fountain of youth,” said Abraham. Source: Boston University

USA: High BP May Heighten Effects Of Alzheimer's Disease

CHEVY CHASE, Maryland (ScienceDaily), November 28, 2007: Having hypertension, or high blood pressure, reduces blood flow in the brains of adults with Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. "While hypertension is not a cause of Alzheimer's disease, our study shows that it is another hit on the brain that increases its vulnerability to the effects of the disease," said study co-author Cyrus Raji, scientist and M.D. and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh where the study was conducted. Hypertension is a condition in which the blood circulates through the arteries with too much force. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, approximately 50 million Americans have hypertension. People with hypertension are at elevated risk for heart attack, stroke and aneurysm. Recently, there has been mounting evidence tying cardiovascular health to brain health. "This study demonstrates that good vascular health is also good for the brain," said co-author Oscar Lopez, M.D., professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. "Even in people with Alzheimer's disease, it is important to detect and aggressively treat hypertension and also to focus on disease prevention." For the study, the researchers used arterial spin-labeled magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can measure blood flow in the brain, to image 68 older adults. Arterial spin-labeled MRI is a novel, noninvasive technique that requires no external contrast agent. The patient group included 48 normal individuals, including 38 with hypertension and 10 without; 20 Alzheimer's patients, including 10 with hypertension and 10 without; and 20 adults with mild cognitive impairment, 10 with hypertension and 10 without. Mild cognitive impairment, which affects brain functions such as language, attention and reasoning, is a transition stage between normal aging deficits in the brain and greater levels of dementia. The MRI results showed that in all patient groups blood flow in the brain was substantially decreased in patients with hypertension compared to those without. Cerebral blood flow was lowest among the Alzheimer's patients with hypertension, but the normal group with hypertension showed significantly lower cerebral blood flow than the normal group without hypertension. "These results suggest that by changing blood flow to the brain, hypertension--treated or untreated--may contribute to the pathology of Alzheimer's," Raji said. Co-authors are C. Lee, M.D., W. Dai, Ph.D., J.Becker, Ph.D., L. Kuller, M.D., H. Gach, Ph.D., et al. Source: Radiological Society of North America

GERMANY: Elderly Too Benefit From Newer Heart Stents

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), November 28, 2007: Stents coated with the drug sirolimus are safe and effective for treating elderly heart patients with blocked coronary arteries, according to a new report. For elderly patients undergoing angioplasty with insertion of stents to prop open their coronary arteries, the risks are 2- to 4-fold higher than for younger patients, the authors explain in the American Heart Journal. The so-call sirolimus-eluting stents, which go by the brand name Cypher, have been shown to reduce the chance of arteries becoming blocked again, and therefore the need for another operation. However, so far, there has been limited experience using the stents in patients older than 75 years. Dr. Marcus Wiemer from University Bochum, in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany and colleagues compared outcomes in 954 patients older than 75 years with 5801 younger patients enrolled in the German Cypher Registry. The team found that the mortality rate in the hospital was higher in the older patients (1.0 percent) than in the younger patients (0.3 percent), but there was no significant difference in heart attacks or the need for repeat procedures. After 6 months, the overall mortality was 3-fold higher in the elderly group, but both groups showed significant improvement in symptoms, the report indicates. The investigators say even between octogenarians and patients younger than 80 years old, there were no differences in hospital deaths or major adverse coronary events after 6 months. These results provide "strong evidence that sirolimus-eluting stent implantation in the elderly and in very old patients is feasible and ... should be recommended," the authors conclude. "A common concern of doctors and patients that the elderly will have more problems or side effects during or after interventions" was not seen in this study, Wiemer told Reuters Health. He explained that even these newer stents don't improve the prognosis for people with coronary artery disease, "but we can improve the symptoms significantly." Angina caused by coronary disease is not only painful, "it causes fear of death," he continued. To deny elderly patients treatment that eases these symptoms is "unethical." SOURCE: American Heart Journal, October 2007.

INDIA: Lives Unlived In The Grey Zone

Old Is Not Gold

For the burgeoning population of senior citizens, life is bleak

OPEN SPACE
By Sankar Ray

MUMBAI (The Hindustan Times),
November 28, 2007:

THE POPULATION of old people in Asia, including India and China, is expected to cross 1,249 million by 2050, meaning almost one in every four human beings in the world's largest continent will be old.


This estimate is according to the World Population Prospects: the 2006 Revision of the UN Population Division.

Demographers even in other UN bodies saythe estimate is ‘exaggerated'. The UNFPA exercise in 2002 estimated the total world population of the aged at 605 million - 374 million in developing countries and 231 million in the developed countries. Even going by the UNFPA database of 2002, by 2020 the number of aged in the developing world would go up to around 706 million and 317 million in the developed economies.

The plight of older people is worsening, agree demographers, particularly of those living in rural areas. Another recent UN report - World Economic and Social Survey 2007: Development in an Ageing World - states with concern that "Eighty per cent of the world's population do not have sufficient protection in old age to enable them to face health, disability and income risks". The scenario is worst for the South where about 342 million older people currently lack adequate income security'.

The majority of old people in India are deprived of pension benefits and hence are a burden to their families. The tradition of revering the aged has been petering out in the last five to six decades with the joint family system disintegrating due to economic reasons. The inevitable advent of nuclear families as its outcome brings marked changes in cultural values. Nuclear families opt for reduced family size and modified family structures. And these family patterns have also to contend with the social trauma as well.

Needless to say, the ageing of the population is part of a demographic transition the shift from high to low birth and death rates - particularly in developing countries. People today live longer although child births too have declined by half over the last 50 years.

Younger generations are apathetic towards the joint family system and opt for nuclear families. The proliferation of old age homes is an obvious eventuality although most old-age homes are worse than prisons, at least in India.

The overwhelming majority of older persons in the developing economies are women simply because they live longer than men do. Older women are generally poorer or less literate than men. Factors like discrimination, restrictions on freedom of movement and association and lack of access to financial and legal resources contribute to their exploitation and abuse. For working women things are only marginally better.

The UNFPA executive director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid referred to an Indian study on the distressed widows among the old, quoting one hapless widow: "I have lived alone since my husband's death seven years ago… my children migrated…they have never bothered to inquire about me...I have no income and hardly any contact with anyone…I will die like this…I have no life and am lonely and frail".

More and more old women, the UNFPA chief said, were abused, more so when they were widowed.

Professor Robin Blackburn in a recent paper, A Global Pension Fund, in the New Left Review, expressed concern that "2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day, with probably the majority of the elderly falling within this category. The poorest 10 per cent of the world population receive only 0.7 per cent of the global income, while the richest command some 54 per cent". Even $1 a day for the adults in many parts of India may keep poverty at bay.

However, political parties and even trade unions in India pay little attention to organising action programmes to protect the aged. Writing essays or presenting papers on poverty or estimation of percentage of people languishing below the poverty line will do nothing to ameliorate poverty.

Rather some NGOs that are often criticised for misusing national and foreign funds help the abject poor fight poverty. Some trade unions, including the ones led by the Left, backed by the media, cry hoarse for pensioners very often.

Furthermore, there are more than 70 associations of pensioners. But the aged - the ‘Living Dead' remain as Thomas Gray portrayed them in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard as "mute inglorious", awaiting agonisingly for their end.

Sankar Ray writes on social, political and environmental issues

Copyright HT Media Ltd. 2007

USA: Any Old Broken Bone Could Mean Osteoporosis

SAN FRANCISCO, California (USA Today), November 28, 2007: No matter the circumstances, if you're 65 or older and break a bone, your risk of having osteoporosis and suffering more fractures is greater than that of someone who has yet to break a bone after his 65th birthday, scientists report today. Their finding contradicts the widely held belief that only bones broken in a fall from a standing height or lower are related to the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis. Bones broken in falls from greater heights or in car crashes, so-called high-trauma fractures, don't count as red flags for osteoporosis, although there is little scientific evidence to support that view. One of the main problems is that the concept of high trauma is fuzzy, says lead author Dawn Mackey. The magnitude, velocity and direction of the force applied to bone can vary from car crash to car crash and fall to fall, so the impact on bone of low-speed collisions isn't necessarily greater than the impact on bone of slipping on ice and hitting the pavement, Mackey's team writes. Yet the former is generally considered high trauma, while the latter is not. The researchers analyzed data from two studies. One followed 8,022 women for about nine years; the other followed 5,995 men for about five years. All were at least 65 at the start. Overall, 264 women's and 94 men's first broken bones were considered to be high-trauma fractures, while 3,211 women's and 346 men's first broken bones were low-trauma ones. Whether their first fractures were high or low trauma, women who'd broken a bone were about a third more likely to sustain another fracture during the course of the study than women who did not have an initial fracture. In addition, the scientists write in the Journal of the American Medical Association, women who sustained either high-trauma or low-trauma fractures were equally likely to have low bone-mineral density, considered the gold standard for diagnosing osteoporosis. Although there were too few fractures among the men to quantify the risk of another fracture, the authors observed similar trends. But the presumption, Mackey says, has been that anyone, weak bones or not, could suffer a fracture in a car crash or a fall from a ladder. When you break a bone in that kind of an accident, you've earned it, or so many doctors believe, says Mackey, an epidemiologist at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco. As a result, she says, older people who have a high-trauma fracture don't receive the same sort of workup for osteoporosis that, say, peers who slip on the ice and break a hip do. Doctors don't think osteoporosis drugs can prevent high-trauma fractures. And clinical trials of drugs designed to treat osteoporosis may be overlooking valuable information by ignoring such fractures. "Fractures previously defined as due to high trauma, such as those from a blunt injury in a motor vehicle crash or a fall from a chair, can no longer be dismissed as being unrelated to osteoporosis," Mayo Clinic osteoporosis researcher Sundeep Khosla writes in an accompanying editorial. SOME FACTS ABOUT OSTEOPOROSIS • The first symptom is a fracture. • Osteoporosis causes 1.5 million fractures each year in the USA. • As many as half of all women and a quarter of all men older than 50 will break a bone as a result of osteoporosis. • Exercise, a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D and, in some cases, medication are prescribed to slow bone loss. Sources: * The Journal of the American Medical Association * National Institutes of Health Click to read USA TODAY report By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY Copyright 2007 USA TODAY

U.K.: Population Will Almost Double, Say Government Figures

Government figures predict UK population could be anything from 63 million to 108 million by 2081.
Photograph: Image Source/Getty Images

LONDON, England (The Guardian),
November 28, 2007:

Britain's population could almost double to 108 million within 75 years, according to government projections published yesterday, Alan Travis, home affairs editor reports.

The Office for National Statistics said that, based on high estimates of growth in immigration, fertility and longevity, the current population of 60.5 million could rise to 75 million by 2031 and 108.7 million by 2081.

But the projections drawn up by the Government Actuary's Department to help Whitehall plan pension and welfare provision also show that in a scenario of low fertility, low life expectancy and low migration, the population would increase to 66 million by 2056 and then dip to 63 million by 2081.

The ONS says its "principal projection", the one it thinks most likely, is that Britain's population will reach 71 million within 25 years, 78 million within 50 years and 85 million by 2081.

Statisticians have tentatively estimated that 69% of Britain's future population growth is likely to come directly or indirectly from migration including a rising birth rate attributed to a growing number of young migrants.

The figures were published as migration experts said the next significant flow of workers could be Poles who have been working in the Irish construction sector making their way to the London Olympics site.

The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, told MPs the projections showed what might happen in 75 years' time unless action is taken now. "Frankly, it underlines the need for the swift and sweeping changes we are bringing to the immigration system in the next 12 months, which will include the introduction of an Australian-style, points-based system, so only those that Britain needs can come to work and study.

"I think it shows we are right to set the points score for new migrants by considering not only the good of the economy but the realities of immigration's wider impact."

The migration advisory committee has been set up to advise ministers on how an inflow of people can fill skills shortages, while the migration impacts forum was established to monitor the wider social impact of migration.

The points system will not only restrict the inflow of migrants from outside the European Union but also lay down a new framework for those coming to Britain for family reunion purposes and as students.

The shadow home secretary, David Davies, said the projections confirmed Conservative claims that the population is likely to grow rapidly and said the government needed to wake up to the factors that were driving population change.

The ONS projections were published as parliament heard that the latest figures show there are 40,000 Bulgarians and Romanians living in Britain, far below the unofficial 58,000 estimate. The figures, drawn from the Labour Force Survey carried out in June, include about 35,000 who have registered to work under various Borders and Immigration Agency schemes.

Prof David Blanchflower, of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, told the House of Lords economic affairs committee that the next significant flow of migrants to Britain was likely to be of Poles and other east European migrants coming from Ireland to London's Olympic sites. He suggested that the next wave of workers from east Europe was likely to be less skilled than those who have come so far: "The anecdotal evidence is the young man who came to Britain after EU accession went back home and then came back with his brother, and they then went back and brought back their father and mother."

Prof Janet Dobson of University College London said weekend reports that schools had been asked to cope with more than 200,000 east European migrant children in the last three years were wide of the mark. Slough, which had one of the highest migrant populations, had 258 new pupils from Poland in the last 18 months. She told peers the total figure was more likely to be in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands.

The National Association of Head Teachers said the impact of new migrants had been particularly acute in small rural schools which lacked the resources to cope with new arrivals.

The education experts who gave evidence agreed that lack of data from schools meant it was difficult to assess the impact of migration on education.

Numbers
The official prediction that Britain's population could almost double over the next 75 years certainly makes an eye-catching headline. But there is such a wide variation between the "high scenario" and the "low scenario" published by the Office of National Statistics that their figures range between 108 million by 2081 at the top and 64 million by the same date at the bottom. The biggest single factor in where the final figure will lie is thought to be migration and the "high" variant assumes that the population will increase by 250,000 a year due to migration.

That seems unlikely as it is 60,000 higher than the net figure of 190,000 a year who came after Poland joined the EU in the biggest ever migration to the UK. But if Turkey (71 million) and Ukraine (41 million) join the EU with unfettered access to the UK, that could change significantly.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

INDIA: National Depository Is Recordkeeping Agency For Pension Scheme

NEW PENSION SYSTEM: D. Swarup (right), Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), with C. B. Bhave, Chairman and Managing Director, National Securities Depository Ltd.(NSDL), addressing a press conference in New Delhi. Photo: Kamal Narang

NEW DELHI (The Hindu), November 28, 2007:

India's Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) moved another step forward towards operationalising the New Pension Scheme (NPS) by appointing National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) as the Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA).

PFRDA Chairman D. Swarup announced here today that “We have signed an agreement with National Securities Depository, appointing it as Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) for the New Pension Scheme (NPS) for all Central Government employees recruited since January 1, 2004.”

The pension fund, he said, was expected to grow by about Rs. 1,000 crore annually with about one lakh employees joining the scheme each year. All 19 states will participate. The three Left ruled states Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal have opted to keep out.

Under the NPS, the pension fund regulator has already appointed State Bank of India (SBI), UTI Asset Management Company (UTI-AMC) and the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) as pension fund managers through a competitive bidding process. While LIC has already incorporated its pension fund, SBI and UTI-AMC are expected to complete the process December 15.

Once the scheme’s architecture becomes fully operational, the NPS corpus of Central Government employees is to be distributed among the three fund managers based on the initial investment management fee and transaction-based charges quoted by them.

According to NSDL Chairman C. B. Bhave, the depository has been appointed CRA for 10 years. Apart from setting up call centres to provide information to account holders, NSDL will issue ‘Permanent Retirement Account Number’ (PRAN) on the pattern of the PAN card to each pension account holder, provide annual statements and act as an operational interface between the PFRDA and the fund managers.

As per the scheme, the Government and its employees were to contribute 10 per cent each of the employee’s monthly salary in the pension fund. The Government was expected to transfer the funds to the three fund managers by June 1, 2008, to make the system operational, Mr Swarup said.

Mr. Swarup pointed out that to start with, only two options would be offered as per government investment norms for non-government provident funds. Apart from risk-free and assured returns through investment in government bonds and securities, the other option would be five per cent direct investment in stock markets and 10 per cent in equity linked mutual funds, while the balance amount would be in government security related funds, he said.

However, once the PFRDA Bill, pending in Parliament since March 2005, received approval, the pension regulator would offer the employees more options, including investment of up to 50 per cent in stock markets, and also allow private sector employees to join the scheme.

Out of the total pension funds, SBI would get 55 per cent, UTI-AMC 40 per cent and the remaining five per cent would be administered by the LIC through their separate companies, of which 26 per cent stake could be offloaded to foreign investors, Mr. Swarup said.

As for the charges by NSDL, Mr. Swarup said the Government would bear all the expenses, including Rs. 350 as annual charges per account, Rs. 50 as a one-time charge and Rs. 10 per transaction in respect of its employees covered under the NPS. The new system would result in zero pension liability on the Central and state governments over a period of 30-33 years, he said.

© Copyright 2000 - 2007 The Hindu

NEW ZEALAND: Older Workers The Answer For Employers

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (New Zealand Herald), November 28, 2007:

Older workers are helping to keep the economy humming along, with more people aged over 55 now going to work.

Government figures show that the labour force participation rate - the number of people in the country actually in work - rose to a record high of 68.8 per cent in the June quarter. And that the growth has been largely driven by people who have been under-represented in the labour market, particularly women, ethnic minorities and older workers (people aged 55 and over).

But employers could do a lot more to help themselves and older people who are keen to contribute and return to the workforce, says the owner of one recruitment firm.

Jane Kennelly of Frog Recruitment

Jane Kennelly, of Frog Recruitment, says employers are missing out on highly skilled people with plenty to offer, people with good industry contacts and the experience and wisdom often only found in older people.

"There is an untapped workforce out there that organisations might want to factor into their thinking," she says. "The older worker will become a dominant force in the next few years as the labour market becomes even tighter."

Figures from Statistics New Zealand's report NZ's Ageing Population shows that in five years' time, the median age of the population is likely to be about 43 and that the number of people aged 65 and over in the labour force will treble from an estimated 38,000 six years ago to 118,000 by 2026.

In short, if present birth rates and immigration trends continue, there just won't be enough younger people to meet the needs of employers.

Kennelly says companies that think they can continue to get away with ignoring older job applicants may need to review their candidate selection procedures.

Age discrimination laws prevent companies from making hiring decisions based on age but Kennelly says there are companies out there who say they prefer younger people so they can "mould them and fold them".

"One client even tried it on me, asking that we didn't send them older workers, but we send the people we believe are the best for the job," says Kennelly. "They try and say they need younger people to fit their culture." She also says some job advertisements are written to put off older workers from applying for jobs at all. She says phrases such as "energy and flexibility" or "a high degree of fitness" are real turn-offs for older job hunters.

"There is this whole new set of language that is starting to come through about how to attract people to organisations," she says. "And this language isn't particularly attractive to the older worker."

One 55-year-old job hunter told Kennelly that he had sent his CV to 47 companies and not had an interview. "He had a great CV, impeccable credentials and good reference checks - but no one was interested," says Kennelly. "It is almost criminal isn't it? I think some of the people who got his CV were typically a lot younger. Some HR people have said that interviewing an older person is like interviewing their parents."

Kennelly says her survey of HR managers showed that 26-year-olds are 12 times more likely to make a job shortlist and get an interview than a 50-year-old.

However, some companies are welcoming older workers as government figures show the number of over-55s in work rose slightly in the year to September by 1.4 per cent to 41.4 per cent. However, it also says the participation rate for older workers is below the national average due to retirement.

Kennelly says her survey data shows that while New Zealand companies recognise the growing importance of older workers, many are not geared up to deal with them. Part-time options are a real drawcard but too many companies want full-timers, with job sharing options often not available.

"Which is a shame, as older workers will increasingly become a dominant force," says Kennelly. "They are well-connected, online, technically savvy - they are the largest purchasers of denim and iPods in the world. There are a few myths out there."

But there is no doubt that as people get older, their health becomes an issue.

"We are an ageing society, but we have a mature workforce we can capitalise on. But with that comes the challenges of managing them effectively in the workforce. The majority of workplaces don't believe they have the strategies in place to maximise opportunities in this area. "As a result, organisations are now starting to focus on developing dedicated strategies to deal with the older workforce."

Survey respondents say they believe older workers keep stability and provide a good balance to younger staff members.

"Overseas research shows that older workers are likely to stay in jobs for longer and have lower levels of absenteeism than younger workers," says Kennelly. "Older workers are also generally past the age of having young dependent children, and have less social commitments than their younger counterparts, resulting in fewer sick days. The direct result for employers is lower turnover costs, reduced absenteeism and increased staff loyalty, all of which impacts directly on profitability."

She says to take advantage of the pool of older workers, employers need to tailor their employment conditions to fit their needs. "Some of the benefits and job perks that appeal to a younger worker may not have the desired effect on older people. If a firm were to offer free health insurance, then that would be a big benefit. The firms who recruit older workers now will be the ones who do well and have the staff to deliver the goods in future."

A Retirement Commission report called The Ageing Workforce and the Argument for Phased Retirement, and written by Judith Davey, puts the case that if workforce participation by older workers is to be encouraged then more flexible and innovative working conditions, which suit their needs and circumstances, could be explored.

Davey says: "If older workers are unable to balance their responsibilities to family and work and employers are unwilling to provide flexibility, then many older workers may be forced to forgo participating in paid employment, removing valuable skills from the workplace and significantly impacting on their future financial wellbeing.

"Phased retirement is one way to meet the needs of older workers while prolonging some degree of workforce participation. An abrupt break between working full-time and then not working at all is becoming less common.

"Many older workers reduce their working hours and responsibilities gradually, to make the transition from work to retirement a smoother and more manageable process."

Davey says there are benefits for workers and employers in phased retirement. For workers, reducing participation in paid work allows them time to pursue leisure and family activities and adjust and prepare for the financial changes retirement brings.

"For employers, retaining older workers allows valued knowledge and experience to remain with the company and be used to mentor and train younger, less experienced workers.

"However, phasing of retirement and the retention of older workers past traditional retirement age needs to be considered in the context of tax, superannuation and benefit provisions for retirees and part-time workers."

By Steve Hart
Copyright ©2007, APN Holdings NZ Limited

CHINA: Over 120,000 Couples To Get Married in Shanghai on 8/8/08

Thousands of couples in China are keen to tie the knot on auspicious date, report CHINA DAILY's Shang Ban in Shanghai, Qiu Quanlin in Guangzhou and Chen Jia in Beijing

BEIJING (China Daily), November 27, 2007:

August 8, 2008 is more than just a date. For one, it marks the day of the opening ceremony for the highly anticipated Beijing Olympics. It is also considered a lucky day for marriage. For Chinese couples looking to tie the knot, the combination of eights adds up to a potentially successful union.

Newlywed couples walk on the red carpet during a mass wedding ceremony in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province on October 1, 2007, China's National Day. [Xinhua]

"The Olympic year is meaningful to all of us," He Lina, secretary-general of the Shanghai Wedding Celebration Association, said. "According to our Chinese tradition, eight is an auspicious number, good for weddings." That specific date aside, 2008 itself is considered by Chinese a good year to get hitched.

In Shanghai alone, nearly 120,000 young couples have so for decided to marry next year, some 30 percent more than this year, He said. Shanghai's big hotels are also braced for an expected lift in business.

"Considered the 'metal year' in the Chinese lunar calendar, next year is good for weddings. A lot of couples want to hold ceremonies in our hotel," Angel Mao, a representative for Shangri-la, Shanghai, said.

Huang Meizi, a manager of the Guangzhou-based Dongfang Hotel in southern China, said the hotel had so far received three wedding banquet bookings for August 8.

Liu Shiyan, from the Liwan district marriage registration center in Guangzhou said two other dates were also popular among couples. "Besides August 8, other days such as November 11 and January 11 are regarded good ones for marriage. We have received many bookings since the online booking service opened last month," Liu said.

But not everyone believes in number superstition, or the claim the Olympics has something to do with the expected marriage surge. "A marriage surge stimulated by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sounds groundless," Shi Kangning, secretary-general of the Committee of Matchmaking Service Industries under the China Association of Social Workers, told China Daily.

"The wedding surge of 2008 is a chain reaction of the birth surge in the 1980s, because next year, about 280 million youngsters in China will have reached the age of getting married." Shi said the wedding ceremony market would "not be too hot" from June to October as it would be hard for many couples to secure bookings in hotels with a rating of three stars and over. The hotels will be full because of the Olympic Games, Shi said. "Matchmaking companies are not allowed to organize collective weddings in the name of Olympic Games," Shi said.

The manager of the Beijing Matchmaking website Zhang Keqin told China Daily the cost of wedding ceremonies will increase next year, but declined to release his 2008 cost list. Zhang said prices will be negotiated with clients.

Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn.

SINGAPORE: Developing A Trojan Cure For Diabetes

Kidney Dialysis Foundation and National University of Singapore sign up for a $750,000 project to develop one SINGAPORE (Today), November 28, 2007: A cure for diabetes may be on the horizon, as the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF) work towards developing one in the next few years, with fresh funding. The two signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) yesterday to collaborate on research to prevent, treat and cure kidney and kidney-related diseases. The KDF will provide and solicit funding for the KDF-NUS Kidney Research Fund. So far, it has received $900,000 to be dispensed over three years. The first project to be supported is diabetes stem cell research that aims to cure diabetes, which statistics show is a leading cause of kidney disease. For this project, $750,000 will be committed. The project will be led by Sir Roy Calne, Emeritus Professor at Cambridge University. The aim of the project is to introduce a safe virus - the Lenti virus - carrying the human insulin gene into the liver cells of diabetic animals, and eventually apply this treatment to human patients. The virus acts like a "Trojan wooden horse" and the hope is that the liver cells will be persuaded to act like the pancreas, producing insulin, said Prof Calne, a visiting professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. There are risks involved, he added - for diabetics may have a weak heart or troubled kidneys, and the procedure may put stress on other organs. Sydney-based researcher, Professor Ann Simpson, has succeeded in curing diabetes in rats and mice using a similar virus and gene, but the surgery is extensive, said Prof Calne. The NUS team will be working with her and other scientists at Cambridge to find a less invasive way to apply the treatment to humans. The team hopes that, by the end of three years, they will be able to cure diabetes in larger animals, mainly pigs, and find ways to work with human beings at minimal risk, said Prof Calne. Dr Gordon Ku, chairman of the KDF, said that with Singapore's population projected to grow to 6.5 million, there could be some 1,625 new patients requiring kidney dialysis every year. The $900,000 donation came from Dr Ku and five of his close businessmen friends. He hopes this will spur others to follow suit, and added that the funds for research and for patient subsidy would remain separate. By Alicia Wong Copyright ©2005 MediaCorp Press Ltd

AUSTRALIA: Wholegrains Help Reduce Heart Attack, Say Researchers

SPIT JUNCTION, NSW, Australia (GoGrain), November 28, 2007: If you are a man and consume plenty of wholegrain cereals for breakfast you probably have a lower risk of heart failure, compared to a man who never or rarely eats wholegrains for breakfast. The authors of an article in the October edition of Archives of Internal Medicine explain that the lifetime risk for heart failure is about 20 per cent for both men and women at 40 years of age. Previous studies already indicate that high wholegrain consumption is linked to a lower risk of hypertension (high blood pressure), coronary heart disease and high blood cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) - and lower mortality in general. This new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, looked at the link between breakfast cereal consumption and new cases of heart failure among 21,376 males whose average age was 53.7 years. All the males had been taking part in the Physicians Health Study I. They estimated cereal consumption by using a food frequency questionnaire and incident heart failure was calculated by annual follow-up questionnaires for 19.6 years (average). Of the participants, 1,018 experienced heart failure during the follow-up period. Included were 362 of 6,995 males who did not eat any cereal, 237 of 4,987 who consumed one serving per week of cereal or less, 230 of 5,227 who consumed two to six cereal servings per week, and 189 of 4,167 who consumed at least seven cereal servings per week. The writers concluded that their data “demonstrate that a higher intake of wholegrain breakfast cereals is associated with a lower risk of heart failure." They believe this link is due to the beneficial effects of wholegrains on heart failure risk factors such as heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. "If confirmed in other studies, a higher intake of wholegrains along with other preventive measures could help lower the risk of heart failure," they concluded. Source: Arch intern Med, 2007 Copyright © 2006 Go Grains Health and Nutrition Pty Limited

JAPAN: Hardworking Husbands Look To Their Marriages

Shuichi Amano, right, founded a husbands' association. Yoshimichi Itahashi, 66, left, joined five years ago. Photo: Nancy Donaldson/Washington Post

FUKUOKA, Japan (Cincinnati Post), November 27, 2007:

Salarymen -- the black-suited corporate warriors who work long hours, spend long evenings drinking with cronies and stumble home late to long-suffering wives -- have danger waiting for them as they near retirement: divorce.

A change in Japanese law this year allows a wife who is filing for divorce to claim as much as half her husband's company pension. When the new law went into effect in April, divorce filings across Japan spiked 6.1 percent. Many more split-ups are in the pipeline, marriage counselors predict. They say wives -- hearts gone cold after decades of marital neglect -- are using calculators to ponder pension tables, the new law and the big D.

Skittishly aware of the trouble they're in, 18 salarymen, many of them nearing retirement, gathered at a restaurant here recently for beer, boiled pork and marital triage.

The evening began with a defiantly defeatist toast. Husbands reminded themselves of what their organization -- the improbably named National Chauvinistic Husbands Association -- preaches as a sound strategy for arguing with one's wife.

"I can't win. I won't win. I don't want to win," they bellowed in unison, before tippling from tall schooners of draft beer.

The pork was scrumptious and the mood jolly, but throughout the dinner meeting there was an undertow of not-too-distant domestic disaster.

"The fact that a wife can now get 50 percent has ignited guys to think about their fragile marriages," said Shuichi Amano, 55, founder of the association and a magazine publisher in this city of 1.3 million in western Japan. The word chauvinist in the group's name, Amano says, is not intended to refer to bossy men. Instead, it invokes the original meaning of the Japanese word meaning a top assistant to the emperor.

Men near the end of their corporate lives, he said, are especially edgy. "To be divorced is the equivalent of being declared dead -- because we can't take care of ourselves," Amano said.

When his wife told him eight years ago that she was "99 percent" certain she was going to dump him, Amano said, the only things he then knew how to do in the kitchen were to fry eggs and pour boiled water over noodles. Since then, in addition to learning how to listen and talk to a wife he had ignored for two decades, Amano said, he has learned how to take out the trash, clean the house and cook.

Marriage in Japan is going through an increasingly rough patch. In 1980, about three-quarters of Japan's college-educated women were married by age 29. Now, seven out of 10 are single at that age. In the past 20 years, the percentage of women in this elite demographic category who do not want to marry at all has almost doubled -- to about 29 percent.

This wariness is a rational response to the isolation and drudgery of being a wife in Japan, according to Hiromi Ikeuchi, a family counselor with the Tokyo Family Laboratory. "I don't think it is the fault of men," she said. "It is the corporate culture that expects men to work late."

Japan's divorce rate had been rising steadily for decades. Then, in 2003, the law was passed granting a divorcing wife the right to as much as half of her husband's pension. But the pension provision did not go into effect until this April.

Ikeuchi said the situation is particularly worrisome for married men nearing retirement -- men who are soon to return full time to the bosom of families they have financially supported but emotionally ignored.

"This husband who comes back is an alien," she said. "For a wife to accept this alien is going to be very, very difficult."

While many experts agree that there is a marriage crisis brewing in Japanese, the response of men has been tepid.

The National Chauvinist Husbands Association has been widely covered in the Japanese news media in the past five years. But it has recruited just 4,300 members in a country of about 60 million men. Most married men in Japan are simply not paying attention, Ikeuchi said.

"They have no conception if their wife is happy."

The husbands association ranks its members on a scale of 1 to 10.

A "1" is a well-meaning but clueless guy who has done little more than show up at a group meeting.

A "10" is a husband who has reached a Zen-like state of being able to show his wife through his daily behavior that he truly loves her -- and even manages to spit out the words "I love you."

So far, the husbands association has unearthed only one "10." Two years ago, Yoshimichi Itahashi, 66, did something new -- he bought his wife Hisano a birthday present.

"Up until my 60th birthday, he had not given me anything at all," she said. "But on my 60th, he sent me 60 flowers."

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post