December 20, 2024 • 37 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Christine Healy of Seniorly about being alone during the holiday season.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? You remember when social media was truly social?
Hey John, how's it going today? Well, this show is
all about you. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike,
(00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and Bronze Roofing Repair or Replacement. Bronze Roofing
has you covered? And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
All right, if it's once, man, if it's not one thing,
it's about fifteen around here. I just went over to
pull about eight pages of of stuff off the printer,
only to be warned that the waste toner box. I
don't know where it is or what it is, but
it's full, so I can't print over there. What I'll
(01:11):
do is meander through this segment and then I will
choose to print to a different printer and hope that
works before segment two, because we've got a couple of
really good interviews coming up. The first after we get
through this segment will be with a doctor who is
going to talk about the relationship between balance and hearing
(01:35):
and how other factors can influence both of those as
we get a little older. It's no secret that as
we get older, at least for a lot of us,
and my hand goes up in the air, our hearing
isn't what it should be or could be. Sometimes that's
just the way it is. Sometimes, Oh, I could just randomly,
(01:58):
let's just talk about being involved professionally in the shooting
sports for a very long time before ear protection was
really sophisticated. That's part of what my problem is. A
lot of years guiding waterfowl hunts on the Katie Prairie
when it was an amazing place to be and it
still is to some degree, but not nearly to the
(02:21):
extent that it was back toward the last quarter of
the last century. There's also at the bottom of the
hour coming up a discussion of mental health issues on
the rise among seniors and things that we can do
it about, especially around the holidays that can be very
rough for a lot of people, people who either lost
(02:44):
someone near and dear to them around the holidays over
the past several years or maybe somebody who has only
recently this year, this might be the first Christmas without someone,
and that's very difficult. You find couples, specifically among seniors,
when one of them goes the next year really of
(03:07):
birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, all of those become unwieldy.
They're very complicated to navigate for someone who has not
done that in who knows. They might have been married
twenty thirty, forty fifty years and that's a long time.
That's a lot of holidays to spend with the same person,
(03:28):
and it just all of a sudden that person's missing,
and it becomes difficult. I talk to you about you're
going nowhere, right, will You're kind of like me, You're
going to be a homebody? Oh? Yeah, yeah, And I
don't mind that a bit, not one bit at all.
I'm perfectly happy to be around the house. And I'm
taking all of next next week off, by the way,
in case you're wondering, And next year I might take
(03:51):
some other days off besides just the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays,
because I looked up and realized that I had a
significant amount of time still available for I've got all
kinds of days left for twenty twenty four vacations. There's
just not enough twenty twenty four left to handle them,
(04:11):
and I don't want to start burning up twenty twenty
five stuff too early. That's my thought. As I go through.
I'll usually take a few days around spring break just
to kind of be able to hang out with my
son and maybe do something with the whole family, and
then I just kind of grind on through because I
genuinely like what I do here. I really do like
(04:31):
coming in and talking about things that matter to me,
things that I hope matter to you. And I'm going
to make a concerted effort, and so as will they
attention Will to get more of you involved during the
program and not just in emails afterward. Will has graciously
(04:52):
volunteered to take phone calls during this show. Why are
you shaking your head? Will? I'm not shaking my eyes.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Saw it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I saw it left right, left right? That doesn't that
didn't happen? Were you just real happy? Yeah? Okay, good? Yes,
I think it will work out. I think it will
add a lot to the program, and it even enables
us to perhaps include a feature of some sort. Will
you could be part of that feature. You realize that,
(05:21):
don't you Where we could find a caller to ask
you a question to learn more about the workings of
a witty, clever, learned, intelligent young man. Wow, And we'll
find that guy sooner or later. Oh, man, I'm sorry,
(05:47):
we'll oh that on International Human solidarity. Say so right there? Oh,
I'm so sorry. Will Now you know I'm talking about you.
I really do. I really do respect your opinions. I do,
and I'd like to hear more of them. And that way,
maybe somebody could call and ask you a question, perhaps
(06:07):
about someone in their own family who's in your age
group that they don't understand or just I don't know.
We'll figure that out, but that could have legs, we'll see.
So for starters, let's start with the texas iaq dot net.
Highs and Lows in Haikup go to texas iaq dot
net to learn more about their highly efficient and effective
ductwork cleaning. Are you ready will for this final? Well? Actually,
(06:31):
this will be the final episode or the final installation
of Highs and Lows in Haikup for twenty twenty four. Wow,
So no pressure on me, right, No, let's make a
good Doug highs and lows in Haiku. Here we go
low's going lower, but only for a few days. Who
(06:53):
knows after that? You love a plying to ambiguity. You
love it, Doug. That's if if nothing else, the weather
here is ambiguous. It's it's it's difficult to to guess
more than about forty eight hours out.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
That's true, that's true. I'll give you that. You know what,
Maybe I'm just feeling good today. Maybe I'm feeling some
sort of solidarity with you.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Did you know because we are both humans and yeah
we're well, we're not international, we're both good old, just
red blooded Americans.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well, how about this laid on me? Merry Christmas to
you too. By the way, I'm gonna give you a
nine day. That's a pity nine, and you're I'm going
to give you a nine to day.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Take it? I will.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I'll take that. That's a merry Christmas. Yeah, a little
something something, Yeah, fair enough, I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
All right. I am gonna go well, first, i'm gonna
tell you about a late health. Then I'm gonna go
try and print these papers out at a different printer
because I have no idea how to fix the one
that's got the red light on it. A Late Health
that's a place you could go. If you've got a
red light on an enlarged, non cancerous prostate, that's kind
of a stretch. I guess what they do with those
through a process called prostate artery embolization, is identify the
(08:16):
artery that's providing oxygenated blood to that organ and then
shut it off. They plug it up, They build a dam.
No more blood goes to that prostate, No more symptoms
come from that prostate. The symptoms go away as the
prostate shrinks up. They do similar procedures for head pains.
They do similar procedure for ugly veins. That's an easy one.
(08:38):
That's kind of a no brainer for them. That's a simple,
simple fix. If you've got ugly veins on your legs
or wherever they may be, you can get those knocked
out of there with a very simple hour or two
in the office at a late Health. Everything they do
they do in their own clinics around town, so that
you don't have to worry about being in a hospital
somewhere and dealing not only with the exp but with
(09:00):
the concern that you might bring something home. You didn't
go in there with a Late Health's been around a
long time. Doctor Andrew Doe has been on this show
many times talking about what they do over there and
how finally they can tune up something that might be wrong.
Even some headpaints can be alleviated with vascular procedures. It's
pretty amazing, really, And they do regenerative medicine as well,
(09:23):
which is great for chronic pain. Much of what they
do is covered by Medicare and Medicaid, so find out
about that before you pull your wallet out. A Lighthealth
dot com ala te a Latehealth dot Com seven to
one three five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight. Very
simple to remember, write it down or dial it up
seven to one three five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
What's life without a net?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I suggest you go to bed, sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Just wait until the show's over. Sleepy back that Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues, All.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Right, welcome back fifty plus on this absolutely drop dead
gorgeous Friday. What a beautiful friday before a big chunk
of holidays. I would venture to guest with Christmas falling
on a Wednesday, With Christmas falling on a Wednesday. There
are going to be more people taking the entire week
off next week than are in the office buildings around town.
(10:31):
Would you say that's a safe bet?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Will?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, I love this time of year, especially when I
got to come into work.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Nobody's on the road. I could have taken off December,
I think pretty much, but I just, once again, I
feel I would feel like I was betraying my audience.
And I'm not a big, fancy important radio guy, but
I do like sharing this time with you all. And
next year it's going to be even better because Will's
(11:01):
gonna have to get one of them. You're gonna have
to get kind of like a cone of silence. Did
you ever watch Get Smart? Do you know what that is?
Tone of silence? Yeah? You know what Get Smart is?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I know it Gets Smart. So when you receive the
phone calls, he and his assistant what was her name,
ninety nine? Is that right?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I think that's right. She was Agent ninety nine, I believe,
and the two of them when they had something important
to talk about and there were other people in the room,
they would go into the cone of silence, which was
the hokiest looking a little. It was just goofy, but
nonetheless for comedic purposes it was perfect. And so you
could just get this like a giant trash can to
(11:40):
put over your head when you answer the phone call,
so my mic won't pick up your conversation. And then
we could just we can just beautifully, flawlessly meld these
people into the program and let them become a part
of this fifty plus machine. If you will make.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Sense, Yeah, it makes sense. They got over explained it. No,
Now I'm gonna go. You know what, that's what I
might try and find you for Christmas. Is just the
right trash can to use as your cone of silence.
I could even have it embossed with.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Your name on it or something. Wow, you upside down?
You do that for me? I would will by a
trash can with your name on it, and we'll put
it upside down, because when you turn it over to
take the call, that's when people will be wondering who's
in the can? Who's there?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Not?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Who's in the can will be you, You and a
treasured guest making a phone call to the program. To
add something significant and noteworthy and thought provoking to the
whole conversation. In school.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, I didn't get.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
To the markets, by the way, and they look really
really good. Oh, they looked good across the board. And
this is just a few minutes ago. Everything was coming
up roses if they were green, coming up leaves, spring
a field of spring flowers, that's what they were. And
except for well, oil was up a few drops a barrel,
(13:11):
but that wasn't any big deal. And gold actually had
jumped up thirty five dollars an ounce as of just
a few minutes ago was trading at two thousand, six
hundred and forty dollars. And now that's still that's a
lot of money. That's still one hundred and forty bucks
above the million dollar bar standard, the million dollar bar.
(13:32):
That's I just I don't need many gold bars. Will
do you play the lottery at all?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Like never?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
No.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I mean sometimes I'll get scratchers for Christmas, but that's
about But you don't invest your own money in them. No,
that's probably smart, it really is, you know. Every now
and then, if it's if just some wild and crazy number,
I'll get drawn into it and buy one ticket and
that's about it. And it really doesn't matter how many
(14:00):
millions it is. I think one of them right now
is like seven or eight hundred million something like that.
And then the other one, when I was in a
gas station a couple of days ago, was it forty
something million? And I said, give me one of those
big ones, and what the heck, give me one of
the little ones too, because forty something million would would
be plenty to make me feel pretty comfortable for the
(14:23):
rest of my life. I think I could get to
the to the Rainbow Bridge on forty mil.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
What do you think, I think that's an incredible amount
of money.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It is, well, yes it is. It is an incredible
amount of money will. And you know what's crazy is
there are and God bless every one of them, there
are people who have so much money will that they
donate that kind of dough to charities and the world
is a better place for them, it really is. And
I you know, I'm happy there in the world because
(14:54):
you and I can't drop forty mil a on a
new school library somewhere, or a wing of a university somewhere,
or a stadium. All that stuff that somebody's got to
pay for it. And thank goodness for all those highly
successful people. I know a few of them, I really do,
(15:14):
and they're they're very generous, most of them. I think
the people who are least generous are the ones who
have a little bit of money and start feeling like,
I don't know, I don't want to get into all that.
I know some people who have enough money that they
could do more than they're doing, and they don't because
they're just kind of stacking it up for themselves and
(15:34):
that's their money. I'm not gonna knock them for that,
I guess. I just I don't know. I feel compelled
sometimes to do nice things for people, and unsolicited to
I try to, I can't. I see these social media
videos where these social media influencers who are making boatloads
(15:57):
of money are turning around and going back out and
doing these just little fun videos and handing people five hundred,
one thousand, ten thousand dollars. I don't know where they
hang out. I kind of wouldn't mind walking down the
street and having somebody hand me a thousand dollars for
just being a nice guy. But in any event, they're
(16:18):
doing that, and I applaud them for that. I can't.
I could drop off five or ten dollars with somebody
and not hurt for that, and I've done that recently
as a matter of fact, people who's whose work seems
unappreciated by most. That's the people I target for. Hey,
here's a little something extra. I wish I could do more,
(16:38):
but you know, maybe go grab yourself a burger in
uh school library news. Now, I'm gonna have to hold
onto that until toward the end of the program. We
are we in case you can't tell, we missed doctor
call and I'm not sure where she is. She didn't
answer her phone, So we'll hold onto that one for
a couple of weeks from now. Perhaps in this next
(17:00):
segment we're gonna end up talking to fingers crossed. I guess, huh. Well,
we're calling her though, and I bet you she'll answer.
Christine Hawley from a group called Seniorly. It's senior with
an L Y at the end, and they are all
about helping you and me and everybody else find the
right place to live as seniors. But they've also recently
(17:22):
finished a big study on seniors and depression, and Texas
unfortunately didn't finish too high up the list. We got
to take a little break here on the way out.
Let me tell you about ut Health Institute on Aging,
the amazing collaborative about which I have spoken now for
the better part of eight years, maybe nine, I don't know.
It might be more. I'm not really sure. They're mostly
(17:44):
providers in the med center, but of a significant number
of them, I don't know the exact percentage, but a
significant number also come out to outline clinics and hospitals
to see patients. So it makes it very convenient for
those of us who are a little hesitant to drive
into town and drive into the med center. It's very
chaotic down there. I get it, and so do they,
(18:06):
and that's why they come out to where you can
more comfortably meet with them, because they are specially trained
in how their specific education can be applied to seniors.
That's us. We are different than everybody else. We're much
different from everybody else. Starting at about fifty and younger,
(18:28):
our bodies have changed. We need different strategies, different protocols
to fix what breaks, and all of these this entire
collaborative of providers have that education that can benefit us.
Go to the website, look at all the resources there. First,
you'll be shocked and amazed at how much good information
for seniors is there. It doesn't cost you a dime,
(18:49):
and then you can start looking for providers to help
fix whatever's ailing you. You got loose lug nuts, you
got your leaking oil, whatever the problem is, somebody on
that list is going to know exactly how to fix you.
As a senior, ut dot edu slash aging, uth dot
edu slash aging.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash them, check his
fluids and spring on a fresh code O wax. This
is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Welcome back. Nice for listening to fifty plus today, dude,
appreciate it. Will and I will be out next week.
Are you? Are you taking the week off?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Will?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Or no?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I have to come in a few days. All right, Well,
at least it's easier. You don't have to sit here
and work the whole board for the whole hour. Welcome
back on this beautiful Friday. We are going to talk
in this segment about the kind of the why and
when and how of working to improve our mental health
and to help me. I'm going to enlist Christine Healey
from a group called c that Help Seniors All over
(20:02):
this country of ours find just the right place to live.
Welcome aboard Christine.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Happy Friday everyone.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I'm thrilled that it's Friday. Believe me, it makes sense.
I guess that depression around the holidays would hit seniors
really hard because so many of them are grieving the
loss maybe of a family member, a spouse, or even
just a longtime friend, and the holidays kind of remind
us of those people and for most of us how
much joy they brought to our lives. So, since we're
(20:30):
early days away from Christmas, let's kind of start there.
What advice would you offer seniors who are dealing with
kind of fresh grief right now?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Oh gosh, Well, first off, I want to thank you
all for giving time and.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Space to this topic.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
They're absolutely right, the holidays can be a tough time.
Many of us are just so caught up in kind
of the joy and togetherness, but for lots of aging
and older adults, that can be a time that is
filled with recent grief, with reminders of grief, isolation, lawe, holiness.
And you know, I work for a company called Seniorly.
As you mentioned, we are all about community. So my
(21:07):
big theme for the holidays is trying to engage in
some sense of community, and for every older adult that's
going to look different. So one of the things that
I'm sure many of us have noticed over maybe the
last thirty years is that older adults and their adult
children aren't always living in the same area, so we
(21:28):
might be physically distanced from our loved ones, and that
can be a tough thing.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
To negotiate during the holidays.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
So it's really important all year long to kind of
find your community, to find your tribe, whatever that looks like.
It might be, you know, a religious organization, your church
or temple, your mosque.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
For some older adults it's.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
You know, I'm sure you know you you have a
pickleball court somewhere in your town.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I haven't tried it myself.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Don't don't get into it. Yeah, but but we really
need to surround ourselves with people, and I think that's
one of the most important things to kind of helping
to safeguard not only physical health but mental health as
we get older.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So my number one.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Piece of advice for whether you're supporting.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
A parent or a loved one.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Or whether you yourself are kind of looking at the
holidays wondering kind of how to how to get from
point A to point B is get out of your house,
you know again, whether it's go to the mall and
sit there and watch little kids, you know, having fun
with Santa, or going to your church or going to
a book club.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Really, you know, finding a way to engage with people
around you is really really important.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's not you're not going there to try and develop
a long lasting relationship. You're just going there to feel
some sort of community, some sort of sense of belonging.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Nactually exactly, yeah, and it's not. I mean you need
to do both.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
And so you know, my own father has is dealing
with the recent loss of his wife, and you know
we've been talking a lot about like what are you
going to do on a weekly basis to keep yourself
engaged and around people, because it's really easy to just
stay at home. So I think it's something we need
to pay more attention to throughout the year, but especially
you know, during this time.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Just get out there.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
My family's doing. Yeah, my family's dealing with it similarly,
And I was really pleased. This is my mother in law,
her husband passed a year ago, like between Christmas and
New year's and so this will be the first first
Christmas without him. Yeah, when we're all going up there
to be with her, and we were kind of worried
(23:46):
because she had withdrawn a bit. And then my wife
was talking to her the other night, said, Hey, how
you been mom? Where are you been?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I went to this dinner at one of the neighborhood
family's houses. Okay, perfect.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
Would Yeah, And sometimes it's just you know, taking advantage
of people's generosity, you know, my similar to your mother
in law. My dad has had countless invitations to go
over to people's houses for dinner and just hasn't taken
them up on it.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
So sometimes it's just a matter of saying yes.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, and nobody's gonna I don't know whether they feel
like they're going to be judged or they're going to
be looked at differently than they used to be, or
anything like that. But if somebody's issuing you at invitation,
they're doing that probably because they truly would like to be.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
With Yeah, you got absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So let's let's look at some things that kind of
specifically put Texas down the list of mental health. I'm
sorry to thirty third. Really, Christine did you do that
to us, So.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
It wasn't me.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
I promise that seniorly conducts regular studies on kind of
the state of health of older adults across the country,
and one of the more recent ones that we did
was looking at the state of mental health among older
adults age sixty five. So we looked at kind of
five different metrics. We took data from the Census Bureau
and the CDC, and those five metrics, we looked at
(25:09):
kind of the amount of social and emotional support.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
That older adults get on a weekly basis.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
We looked at the number of you know, i'll call
them mentally unhealthy days, but how seniors are reporting their
experience of their day. We looked at the rate of depression,
We looked at the rate at which older adults are
living alone, and then we looked at just the kind
of structural resources, so how many mental health specialists are
(25:34):
there relative to the older population. And so from those
five metrics, we developed a state ranking, and you know,
Texas it just to make you feel a little bit better,
Oklahoma came in at forty seven, Texas came in Texas
came in at thirty three.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So no, we don't need some participation.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, and I'll talk a little bit about some
of the key drivers for Texas's ranking. So again, thirty
three is middle of the package, and there are so
many other things where Texas ranks really well for older adults,
so I want to make sure that we kind of
emphasize that too. But the kind of level of social
(26:19):
support that older adults are experiencing in Texas, it's a
little bit lower than other states. So in particular, the
number of adults sixty or older who are saying, you know,
they can access social or emotional support is about sixty percent,
which doesn't sound that bad, but it's thirty ninth in
(26:40):
our state ranking. So you know, we look at comparative
states like Maine or Vermont and those.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
States are close to eighty percent.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
So what we want to see is just a better
social infrastructure for older adults.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
All right, fair enough, Before we run out of time
and we're about to I want to ask this question
because this is the time of year when people will
be thinking about maybe inviting somebody over, if we're going
to spend the holidays with somebody who's in that position,
or have an opportunity to do something like that. What
are a couple of specific things to say to them
to maybe get them out of their own house, and
to not say to people who've just lost somebody dear
(27:15):
to them.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
Yeah, so, I mean, I think the best advice is
to be yourself, open your heart, open your home. Do
not shy away from mentioning. You know, if there's a
loved one who recently pass ask about them, ask about
what they love to do during the holidays. You know,
people who are grieving do want to remember their loved ones,
they want to hold.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Space for them.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
So I guess my best piece of advice is don't
tiptoe around it, embrace embrace that experience as part of
the holiday season.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And yeah, Christine Healey from seniorly Sie and I are
l y. That's all you have to do, you much,
you guys. Yeah, I look at the website a pretty
good bit earlier and I saw a lot of things
that really intrigued me. I may give you a call
back after the show. Actually, I want to talk to
you about something.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Absolutely. I am here for you.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Wonderful go look at that. That's where you can find
that study as well. Yes, happy holidays to you too
as well. Christine thank you so much for your time. Alrighty,
we have got to take this last little break of
the program. When we do finish this break, I'll come
back and kind of wrap up. I'm not going to
try to wrap up the whole year in six or
eight minutes. Well, we'll just lighten it up a little bit.
(28:30):
We'll get into holiday spirit around here. More fifty plus
right after this old guys rule.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
And of course, women never get old if you want
to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Okay, I think that sounds like a good plan.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Fifty plus continues. Here's more with Doug.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Going through about ten pages of material that I have
accumulated this week alone and trying to figure out what
makes sense to really talk about going into this holiday season,
the travel season, if you will, one word of advice
to any of you who have not but are scheduled
(29:21):
to visit the Orlando Airport anytime soon. Know that some
of the airlines are sending out notification that you might
want to show up about well, guess how early they're
being advised to show up before their flight times will
because of the TSA and shortages and airline personnel and
(29:43):
equipment issues and all that garbage that should have been
addressed twenty years ago, or hours or not quite four.
But how about three. My plane's supposed to leave at
three o'clock. They want me there at noon. And when
I get there and wait until three o'clock, there's gonna
be a little notice, it says delayed. Probably half the
(30:07):
country has got some stuff. Well, the northern half of
this country, where it gets cold enough to be an issue,
already experiencing some delays with flights and whatnot. It's not
my favorite time of the year to fly, I gotta
tell you, especially going north. Now, if I'm going to
the Bahamas, I'm all over it. I'll get myself to Lauderdale.
(30:28):
I'll get myself to Miami and jump on a little
nine seedar and ease on over to the Bahamas somewhere
and drop in and do some bone fishing. I could
stand that right now. I could stomach that anywhere in
the Caribbean. I don't think we're gonna have a snow delay.
We're not gonna have to de ice the wings. I did, however,
(30:48):
Well it's somewhat cliche and corny, but actually did on
a flight. Where was it I think it was in Honduras,
a little puddle jumper that we had to take to
get out close enough to get in the boat to
go to the lodge from which we would fish, and
somebody so helped me. There were only like eight seats
(31:08):
on the plane, and somebody boarded carrying a live chicken.
Oh wow, yeah, carry on luggage, I guess, or breakfast
or lunch. If push had come to shove, if we'd
have gone down like Gilligan's Island, at least we'd have
had that one chicken. Maybe he was a pet chicken. Oh,
(31:28):
I'm sure it was. If you had a chicken, what
will you name it?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
You know, my old school, back when I was you know,
K through eighth, don't.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Tell me, y'all were the fighting chickens. No, we were gone,
but we did. In seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
I built a chicken coop there and we had chickens
and we named our rooster. I can't wait Leonardo to
crunchy to crunchy. Yeah, like Aprio crunchy. I don't get
it because chicken is you know, deep fried and crunchy.
Deep fried chicken is crunchy. No, no will oh.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Speaking of little animals, I saw a story right before
I came on out in California. I think it is.
I'm pretty sure it is squirrels. I guess because they
don't have enough oak trees in California. Squirrels have taken
to eating what will this is gonna have taken to eating?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Drum roll, please and go. I'm gonna say, pumbs up.
What rats? Rats?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
The squirrels are eating rats. It's rednnivore. Yeah, how about that.
Gotta fill your cheeks with something bad, bad time to
be a rat. La. I guess. I think La was
on the list of the top five or six rat
infested cities. I know Chicago was there. New York City
finished surprise low the last time they did that survey,
(33:03):
which I don't know why they even bothered doing that. Honestly,
there's no reason for that anymore. Oh my word, Yeah,
that caught my eye. I have a yard full of squirrels.
And the reason I have a yard full of squirrels,
and so help me, this is true. Will we have
four oak trees in the front yard, as does as
did when built almost every house in my neighborhood. That's
(33:26):
just that was the standard procedure when these houses were built.
Two at the curb in a very narrow space, and
then two in the middle of the front yard, and
then whatever you did with your backyard was your business.
I have about a forty foot crape myrtle back there
right now. They used to have two of them that big,
but we had to take one out. It was just
too big. We couldn't grow grass back there, and still
(33:46):
hardly can. Bottom line is in those oak trees. Well,
I don't know where they're coming from, probably from halfway
around the neighborhood. Our oak trees drop more acorns than
any other tree in the neighborhood. If you stand in
my front yard this morning, I just I just ran
the blower through there a couple of days ago. Okay,
(34:07):
got all the concrete cleared of those acorns. And this
morning I look again. They're two hundred of them on
the sidewalks. Maybe four hundred, I don't know, And I
don't know why, because if you look left or right,
north or south, east or west, up and down the sidewalk,
up and down the street, no acorns none. These people
(34:28):
wouldn't have to sweep up their acorns.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
But maybe once a year, maybe your neighbors are all
getting together in the middle thrown of my yard.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, throwing them in your yard? No, I hadn't thought
of that. There's one who might do something like that.
Oh yeah, you got beef with one of your neighbors.
Oh no, No, I don't have any beef with any
of my neighbors. They're all good people, they really are.
They really are. But nobody ever has them. They just don't. Man,
And maybe there might be five houses in the neighborhood
that have excessive acorn. I don't know what the corn abundance.
(35:01):
If it was a disease, what would it be called,
don't you?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I think you did. I don't know what it would be.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
All right, Well, let's not worry about that. In good news,
scientists up at the University of Oregon have created these
tiny little sensors that can help heal broken bones in
weeks rather than months, and much of that acceleration depends
on exercise programs that are tied to these tiny little sensors,
(35:32):
interpretations of how the bones are healing and what level
of activity will best expedite the process of healing. It's fascinating,
it really is, you know, because you think about it.
If you've broken a bone, have you ever broken a bone.
I'm only sprained. Oh, I've had three breaks, I think
something like that, one major and then two minors. And
(35:55):
the bottom line is there's rehab that goes along with
that to help strength and regain muscle strength, and help
the bone heal by healing everything around it. And this
just makes it happen all the faster. One more from
the Good News Science Desk. Scientists at Stanford have taken
an everyday bacterium that's found on our skin and then
(36:18):
turned it into a topical vaccine against tetanus. W about that.
You just rub it on your skin and poof, no tetanus,
no more tetanus shuts. Eventually, it's not only effective in
that in these trials so far, it's also really inexpensive
to create because our bodies already make it and they
(36:40):
just they probably put it in a bunch of petroleum
jelly or something to whatever the point five, you know
how those things. So if you get a puncture wound,
you just just grab some of this stuff and rub
it on your skin and you're gonna be all right. Huh.
I hope it helps the next few generations. I don't
know that I'm gonna live long enough to do this.
(37:01):
At least, maybe that will help. If you think about it,
medicine and proven like it is now, all of this stuff.
If nothing else, it might help some of these twenty
five and thirty and thirty five and almost forty year
olds move out of their parents' houses so they won't
have to worry about health insurance. To get that, they'll
just get a tube of it from the pharmacy. It'd
(37:22):
be like neosporn, only it'll kill tetanus. That's kind of cool.
Oh holy cow, just seconds seconds. M No, I don't
like any of this. I'm gonna save it all for
when I get back, because there's some good stuff if
I have time to do it. We will see you
guys on January second. Thank you all for joining us
(37:43):
this year. Ideos
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? You remember when social media was truly social?
Hey John, how's it going today? Well, this show is
all about you. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike,
(00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and Bronze Roofing Repair or Replacement. Bronze Roofing
has you covered? And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
All right, if it's once, man, if it's not one thing,
it's about fifteen around here. I just went over to
pull about eight pages of of stuff off the printer,
only to be warned that the waste toner box. I
don't know where it is or what it is, but
it's full, so I can't print over there. What I'll
(01:11):
do is meander through this segment and then I will
choose to print to a different printer and hope that
works before segment two, because we've got a couple of
really good interviews coming up. The first after we get
through this segment will be with a doctor who is
going to talk about the relationship between balance and hearing
(01:35):
and how other factors can influence both of those as
we get a little older. It's no secret that as
we get older, at least for a lot of us,
and my hand goes up in the air, our hearing
isn't what it should be or could be. Sometimes that's
just the way it is. Sometimes, Oh, I could just randomly,
(01:58):
let's just talk about being involved professionally in the shooting
sports for a very long time before ear protection was
really sophisticated. That's part of what my problem is. A
lot of years guiding waterfowl hunts on the Katie Prairie
when it was an amazing place to be and it
still is to some degree, but not nearly to the
(02:21):
extent that it was back toward the last quarter of
the last century. There's also at the bottom of the
hour coming up a discussion of mental health issues on
the rise among seniors and things that we can do
it about, especially around the holidays that can be very
rough for a lot of people, people who either lost
(02:44):
someone near and dear to them around the holidays over
the past several years or maybe somebody who has only
recently this year, this might be the first Christmas without someone,
and that's very difficult. You find couples, specifically among seniors,
when one of them goes the next year really of
(03:07):
birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, all of those become unwieldy.
They're very complicated to navigate for someone who has not
done that in who knows. They might have been married
twenty thirty, forty fifty years and that's a long time.
That's a lot of holidays to spend with the same person,
(03:28):
and it just all of a sudden that person's missing,
and it becomes difficult. I talk to you about you're
going nowhere, right, will You're kind of like me, You're
going to be a homebody? Oh? Yeah, yeah, And I
don't mind that a bit, not one bit at all.
I'm perfectly happy to be around the house. And I'm
taking all of next next week off, by the way,
in case you're wondering, And next year I might take
(03:51):
some other days off besides just the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays,
because I looked up and realized that I had a
significant amount of time still available for I've got all
kinds of days left for twenty twenty four vacations. There's
just not enough twenty twenty four left to handle them,
(04:11):
and I don't want to start burning up twenty twenty
five stuff too early. That's my thought. As I go through.
I'll usually take a few days around spring break just
to kind of be able to hang out with my
son and maybe do something with the whole family, and
then I just kind of grind on through because I
genuinely like what I do here. I really do like
(04:31):
coming in and talking about things that matter to me,
things that I hope matter to you. And I'm going
to make a concerted effort, and so as will they
attention Will to get more of you involved during the
program and not just in emails afterward. Will has graciously
(04:52):
volunteered to take phone calls during this show. Why are
you shaking your head? Will? I'm not shaking my eyes.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Saw it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I saw it left right, left right? That doesn't that
didn't happen? Were you just real happy? Yeah? Okay, good? Yes,
I think it will work out. I think it will
add a lot to the program, and it even enables
us to perhaps include a feature of some sort. Will
you could be part of that feature. You realize that,
(05:21):
don't you Where we could find a caller to ask
you a question to learn more about the workings of
a witty, clever, learned, intelligent young man. Wow, And we'll
find that guy sooner or later. Oh, man, I'm sorry,
(05:47):
we'll oh that on International Human solidarity. Say so right there? Oh,
I'm so sorry. Will Now you know I'm talking about you.
I really do. I really do respect your opinions. I do,
and I'd like to hear more of them. And that way,
maybe somebody could call and ask you a question, perhaps
(06:07):
about someone in their own family who's in your age
group that they don't understand or just I don't know.
We'll figure that out, but that could have legs, we'll see.
So for starters, let's start with the texas iaq dot net.
Highs and Lows in Haikup go to texas iaq dot
net to learn more about their highly efficient and effective
ductwork cleaning. Are you ready will for this final? Well? Actually,
(06:31):
this will be the final episode or the final installation
of Highs and Lows in Haikup for twenty twenty four. Wow,
So no pressure on me, right, No, let's make a
good Doug highs and lows in Haiku. Here we go
low's going lower, but only for a few days. Who
(06:53):
knows after that? You love a plying to ambiguity. You
love it, Doug. That's if if nothing else, the weather
here is ambiguous. It's it's it's difficult to to guess
more than about forty eight hours out.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
That's true, that's true. I'll give you that. You know what,
Maybe I'm just feeling good today. Maybe I'm feeling some
sort of solidarity with you.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Did you know because we are both humans and yeah
we're well, we're not international, we're both good old, just
red blooded Americans.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well, how about this laid on me? Merry Christmas to
you too. By the way, I'm gonna give you a
nine day. That's a pity nine, and you're I'm going
to give you a nine to day.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Take it? I will.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I'll take that. That's a merry Christmas. Yeah, a little
something something, Yeah, fair enough, I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
All right. I am gonna go well, first, i'm gonna
tell you about a late health. Then I'm gonna go
try and print these papers out at a different printer
because I have no idea how to fix the one
that's got the red light on it. A Late Health
that's a place you could go. If you've got a
red light on an enlarged, non cancerous prostate, that's kind
of a stretch. I guess what they do with those
through a process called prostate artery embolization, is identify the
(08:16):
artery that's providing oxygenated blood to that organ and then
shut it off. They plug it up, They build a dam.
No more blood goes to that prostate, No more symptoms
come from that prostate. The symptoms go away as the
prostate shrinks up. They do similar procedures for head pains.
They do similar procedure for ugly veins. That's an easy one.
(08:38):
That's kind of a no brainer for them. That's a simple,
simple fix. If you've got ugly veins on your legs
or wherever they may be, you can get those knocked
out of there with a very simple hour or two
in the office at a late Health. Everything they do
they do in their own clinics around town, so that
you don't have to worry about being in a hospital
somewhere and dealing not only with the exp but with
(09:00):
the concern that you might bring something home. You didn't
go in there with a Late Health's been around a
long time. Doctor Andrew Doe has been on this show
many times talking about what they do over there and
how finally they can tune up something that might be wrong.
Even some headpaints can be alleviated with vascular procedures. It's
pretty amazing, really, And they do regenerative medicine as well,
(09:23):
which is great for chronic pain. Much of what they
do is covered by Medicare and Medicaid, so find out
about that before you pull your wallet out. A Lighthealth
dot com ala te a Latehealth dot Com seven to
one three five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight. Very
simple to remember, write it down or dial it up
seven to one three five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
What's life without a net?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I suggest you go to bed, sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Just wait until the show's over. Sleepy back that Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues, All.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Right, welcome back fifty plus on this absolutely drop dead
gorgeous Friday. What a beautiful friday before a big chunk
of holidays. I would venture to guest with Christmas falling
on a Wednesday, With Christmas falling on a Wednesday. There
are going to be more people taking the entire week
off next week than are in the office buildings around town.
(10:31):
Would you say that's a safe bet?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Will?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, I love this time of year, especially when I
got to come into work.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Nobody's on the road. I could have taken off December,
I think pretty much, but I just, once again, I
feel I would feel like I was betraying my audience.
And I'm not a big, fancy important radio guy, but
I do like sharing this time with you all. And
next year it's going to be even better because Will's
(11:01):
gonna have to get one of them. You're gonna have
to get kind of like a cone of silence. Did
you ever watch Get Smart? Do you know what that is?
Tone of silence? Yeah? You know what Get Smart is?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I know it Gets Smart. So when you receive the
phone calls, he and his assistant what was her name,
ninety nine? Is that right?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I think that's right. She was Agent ninety nine, I believe,
and the two of them when they had something important
to talk about and there were other people in the room,
they would go into the cone of silence, which was
the hokiest looking a little. It was just goofy, but
nonetheless for comedic purposes it was perfect. And so you
could just get this like a giant trash can to
(11:40):
put over your head when you answer the phone call,
so my mic won't pick up your conversation. And then
we could just we can just beautifully, flawlessly meld these
people into the program and let them become a part
of this fifty plus machine. If you will make.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Sense, Yeah, it makes sense. They got over explained it. No,
Now I'm gonna go. You know what, that's what I
might try and find you for Christmas. Is just the
right trash can to use as your cone of silence.
I could even have it embossed with.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Your name on it or something. Wow, you upside down?
You do that for me? I would will by a
trash can with your name on it, and we'll put
it upside down, because when you turn it over to
take the call, that's when people will be wondering who's
in the can? Who's there?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Not?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Who's in the can will be you, You and a
treasured guest making a phone call to the program. To
add something significant and noteworthy and thought provoking to the
whole conversation. In school.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, I didn't get.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
To the markets, by the way, and they look really
really good. Oh, they looked good across the board. And
this is just a few minutes ago. Everything was coming
up roses if they were green, coming up leaves, spring
a field of spring flowers, that's what they were. And
except for well, oil was up a few drops a barrel,
(13:11):
but that wasn't any big deal. And gold actually had
jumped up thirty five dollars an ounce as of just
a few minutes ago was trading at two thousand, six
hundred and forty dollars. And now that's still that's a
lot of money. That's still one hundred and forty bucks
above the million dollar bar standard, the million dollar bar.
(13:32):
That's I just I don't need many gold bars. Will
do you play the lottery at all?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Like never?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
No.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I mean sometimes I'll get scratchers for Christmas, but that's
about But you don't invest your own money in them. No,
that's probably smart, it really is, you know. Every now
and then, if it's if just some wild and crazy number,
I'll get drawn into it and buy one ticket and
that's about it. And it really doesn't matter how many
(14:00):
millions it is. I think one of them right now
is like seven or eight hundred million something like that.
And then the other one, when I was in a
gas station a couple of days ago, was it forty
something million? And I said, give me one of those
big ones, and what the heck, give me one of
the little ones too, because forty something million would would
be plenty to make me feel pretty comfortable for the
(14:23):
rest of my life. I think I could get to
the to the Rainbow Bridge on forty mil.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
What do you think, I think that's an incredible amount
of money.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It is, well, yes it is. It is an incredible
amount of money will. And you know what's crazy is
there are and God bless every one of them, there
are people who have so much money will that they
donate that kind of dough to charities and the world
is a better place for them, it really is. And
I you know, I'm happy there in the world because
(14:54):
you and I can't drop forty mil a on a
new school library somewhere, or a wing of a university somewhere,
or a stadium. All that stuff that somebody's got to
pay for it. And thank goodness for all those highly
successful people. I know a few of them, I really do,
(15:14):
and they're they're very generous, most of them. I think
the people who are least generous are the ones who
have a little bit of money and start feeling like,
I don't know, I don't want to get into all that.
I know some people who have enough money that they
could do more than they're doing, and they don't because
they're just kind of stacking it up for themselves and
(15:34):
that's their money. I'm not gonna knock them for that,
I guess. I just I don't know. I feel compelled
sometimes to do nice things for people, and unsolicited to
I try to, I can't. I see these social media
videos where these social media influencers who are making boatloads
(15:57):
of money are turning around and going back out and
doing these just little fun videos and handing people five hundred,
one thousand, ten thousand dollars. I don't know where they
hang out. I kind of wouldn't mind walking down the
street and having somebody hand me a thousand dollars for
just being a nice guy. But in any event, they're
(16:18):
doing that, and I applaud them for that. I can't.
I could drop off five or ten dollars with somebody
and not hurt for that, and I've done that recently
as a matter of fact, people who's whose work seems
unappreciated by most. That's the people I target for. Hey,
here's a little something extra. I wish I could do more,
(16:38):
but you know, maybe go grab yourself a burger in
uh school library news. Now, I'm gonna have to hold
onto that until toward the end of the program. We
are we in case you can't tell, we missed doctor
call and I'm not sure where she is. She didn't
answer her phone, So we'll hold onto that one for
a couple of weeks from now. Perhaps in this next
(17:00):
segment we're gonna end up talking to fingers crossed. I guess, huh. Well,
we're calling her though, and I bet you she'll answer.
Christine Hawley from a group called Seniorly. It's senior with
an L Y at the end, and they are all
about helping you and me and everybody else find the
right place to live as seniors. But they've also recently
(17:22):
finished a big study on seniors and depression, and Texas
unfortunately didn't finish too high up the list. We got
to take a little break here on the way out.
Let me tell you about ut Health Institute on Aging,
the amazing collaborative about which I have spoken now for
the better part of eight years, maybe nine, I don't know.
It might be more. I'm not really sure. They're mostly
(17:44):
providers in the med center, but of a significant number
of them, I don't know the exact percentage, but a
significant number also come out to outline clinics and hospitals
to see patients. So it makes it very convenient for
those of us who are a little hesitant to drive
into town and drive into the med center. It's very
chaotic down there. I get it, and so do they,
(18:06):
and that's why they come out to where you can
more comfortably meet with them, because they are specially trained
in how their specific education can be applied to seniors.
That's us. We are different than everybody else. We're much
different from everybody else. Starting at about fifty and younger,
(18:28):
our bodies have changed. We need different strategies, different protocols
to fix what breaks, and all of these this entire
collaborative of providers have that education that can benefit us.
Go to the website, look at all the resources there. First,
you'll be shocked and amazed at how much good information
for seniors is there. It doesn't cost you a dime,
(18:49):
and then you can start looking for providers to help
fix whatever's ailing you. You got loose lug nuts, you
got your leaking oil, whatever the problem is, somebody on
that list is going to know exactly how to fix you.
As a senior, ut dot edu slash aging, uth dot
edu slash aging.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash them, check his
fluids and spring on a fresh code O wax. This
is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Welcome back. Nice for listening to fifty plus today, dude,
appreciate it. Will and I will be out next week.
Are you? Are you taking the week off?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Will?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Or no?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I have to come in a few days. All right, Well,
at least it's easier. You don't have to sit here
and work the whole board for the whole hour. Welcome
back on this beautiful Friday. We are going to talk
in this segment about the kind of the why and
when and how of working to improve our mental health
and to help me. I'm going to enlist Christine Healey
from a group called c that Help Seniors All over
(20:02):
this country of ours find just the right place to live.
Welcome aboard Christine.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Happy Friday everyone.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I'm thrilled that it's Friday. Believe me, it makes sense.
I guess that depression around the holidays would hit seniors
really hard because so many of them are grieving the
loss maybe of a family member, a spouse, or even
just a longtime friend, and the holidays kind of remind
us of those people and for most of us how
much joy they brought to our lives. So, since we're
(20:30):
early days away from Christmas, let's kind of start there.
What advice would you offer seniors who are dealing with
kind of fresh grief right now?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Oh gosh, Well, first off, I want to thank you
all for giving time and.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Space to this topic.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
They're absolutely right, the holidays can be a tough time.
Many of us are just so caught up in kind
of the joy and togetherness, but for lots of aging
and older adults, that can be a time that is
filled with recent grief, with reminders of grief, isolation, lawe, holiness.
And you know, I work for a company called Seniorly.
As you mentioned, we are all about community. So my
(21:07):
big theme for the holidays is trying to engage in
some sense of community, and for every older adult that's
going to look different. So one of the things that
I'm sure many of us have noticed over maybe the
last thirty years is that older adults and their adult
children aren't always living in the same area, so we
(21:28):
might be physically distanced from our loved ones, and that
can be a tough thing.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
To negotiate during the holidays.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
So it's really important all year long to kind of
find your community, to find your tribe, whatever that looks like.
It might be, you know, a religious organization, your church
or temple, your mosque.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
For some older adults it's.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
You know, I'm sure you know you you have a
pickleball court somewhere in your town.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I haven't tried it myself.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Don't don't get into it. Yeah, but but we really
need to surround ourselves with people, and I think that's
one of the most important things to kind of helping
to safeguard not only physical health but mental health as
we get older.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So my number one.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Piece of advice for whether you're supporting.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
A parent or a loved one.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Or whether you yourself are kind of looking at the
holidays wondering kind of how to how to get from
point A to point B is get out of your house,
you know again, whether it's go to the mall and
sit there and watch little kids, you know, having fun
with Santa, or going to your church or going to
a book club.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Really, you know, finding a way to engage with people
around you is really really important.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's not you're not going there to try and develop
a long lasting relationship. You're just going there to feel
some sort of community, some sort of sense of belonging.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Nactually exactly, yeah, and it's not. I mean you need
to do both.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
And so you know, my own father has is dealing
with the recent loss of his wife, and you know
we've been talking a lot about like what are you
going to do on a weekly basis to keep yourself
engaged and around people, because it's really easy to just
stay at home. So I think it's something we need
to pay more attention to throughout the year, but especially
you know, during this time.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Just get out there.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
My family's doing. Yeah, my family's dealing with it similarly,
And I was really pleased. This is my mother in law,
her husband passed a year ago, like between Christmas and
New year's and so this will be the first first
Christmas without him. Yeah, when we're all going up there
to be with her, and we were kind of worried
(23:46):
because she had withdrawn a bit. And then my wife
was talking to her the other night, said, Hey, how
you been mom? Where are you been?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I went to this dinner at one of the neighborhood
family's houses. Okay, perfect.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
Would Yeah, And sometimes it's just you know, taking advantage
of people's generosity, you know, my similar to your mother
in law. My dad has had countless invitations to go
over to people's houses for dinner and just hasn't taken
them up on it.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
So sometimes it's just a matter of saying yes.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, and nobody's gonna I don't know whether they feel
like they're going to be judged or they're going to
be looked at differently than they used to be, or
anything like that. But if somebody's issuing you at invitation,
they're doing that probably because they truly would like to be.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
With Yeah, you got absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So let's let's look at some things that kind of
specifically put Texas down the list of mental health. I'm
sorry to thirty third. Really, Christine did you do that
to us, So.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
It wasn't me.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
I promise that seniorly conducts regular studies on kind of
the state of health of older adults across the country,
and one of the more recent ones that we did
was looking at the state of mental health among older
adults age sixty five. So we looked at kind of
five different metrics. We took data from the Census Bureau
and the CDC, and those five metrics, we looked at
(25:09):
kind of the amount of social and emotional support.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
That older adults get on a weekly basis.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
We looked at the number of you know, i'll call
them mentally unhealthy days, but how seniors are reporting their
experience of their day. We looked at the rate of depression,
We looked at the rate at which older adults are
living alone, and then we looked at just the kind
of structural resources, so how many mental health specialists are
(25:34):
there relative to the older population. And so from those
five metrics, we developed a state ranking, and you know,
Texas it just to make you feel a little bit better,
Oklahoma came in at forty seven, Texas came in Texas
came in at thirty three.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So no, we don't need some participation.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, and I'll talk a little bit about some
of the key drivers for Texas's ranking. So again, thirty
three is middle of the package, and there are so
many other things where Texas ranks really well for older adults,
so I want to make sure that we kind of
emphasize that too. But the kind of level of social
(26:19):
support that older adults are experiencing in Texas, it's a
little bit lower than other states. So in particular, the
number of adults sixty or older who are saying, you know,
they can access social or emotional support is about sixty percent,
which doesn't sound that bad, but it's thirty ninth in
(26:40):
our state ranking. So you know, we look at comparative
states like Maine or Vermont and those.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
States are close to eighty percent.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
So what we want to see is just a better
social infrastructure for older adults.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
All right, fair enough, Before we run out of time
and we're about to I want to ask this question
because this is the time of year when people will
be thinking about maybe inviting somebody over, if we're going
to spend the holidays with somebody who's in that position,
or have an opportunity to do something like that. What
are a couple of specific things to say to them
to maybe get them out of their own house, and
to not say to people who've just lost somebody dear
(27:15):
to them.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
Yeah, so, I mean, I think the best advice is
to be yourself, open your heart, open your home. Do
not shy away from mentioning. You know, if there's a
loved one who recently pass ask about them, ask about
what they love to do during the holidays. You know,
people who are grieving do want to remember their loved ones,
they want to hold.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Space for them.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
So I guess my best piece of advice is don't
tiptoe around it, embrace embrace that experience as part of
the holiday season.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And yeah, Christine Healey from seniorly Sie and I are
l y. That's all you have to do, you much,
you guys. Yeah, I look at the website a pretty
good bit earlier and I saw a lot of things
that really intrigued me. I may give you a call
back after the show. Actually, I want to talk to
you about something.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Absolutely. I am here for you.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Wonderful go look at that. That's where you can find
that study as well. Yes, happy holidays to you too
as well. Christine thank you so much for your time. Alrighty,
we have got to take this last little break of
the program. When we do finish this break, I'll come
back and kind of wrap up. I'm not going to
try to wrap up the whole year in six or
eight minutes. Well, we'll just lighten it up a little bit.
(28:30):
We'll get into holiday spirit around here. More fifty plus
right after this old guys rule.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
And of course, women never get old if you want
to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Okay, I think that sounds like a good plan.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Fifty plus continues. Here's more with Doug.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Going through about ten pages of material that I have
accumulated this week alone and trying to figure out what
makes sense to really talk about going into this holiday season,
the travel season, if you will, one word of advice
to any of you who have not but are scheduled
(29:21):
to visit the Orlando Airport anytime soon. Know that some
of the airlines are sending out notification that you might
want to show up about well, guess how early they're
being advised to show up before their flight times will
because of the TSA and shortages and airline personnel and
(29:43):
equipment issues and all that garbage that should have been
addressed twenty years ago, or hours or not quite four.
But how about three. My plane's supposed to leave at
three o'clock. They want me there at noon. And when
I get there and wait until three o'clock, there's gonna
be a little notice, it says delayed. Probably half the
(30:07):
country has got some stuff. Well, the northern half of
this country, where it gets cold enough to be an issue,
already experiencing some delays with flights and whatnot. It's not
my favorite time of the year to fly, I gotta
tell you, especially going north. Now, if I'm going to
the Bahamas, I'm all over it. I'll get myself to Lauderdale.
(30:28):
I'll get myself to Miami and jump on a little
nine seedar and ease on over to the Bahamas somewhere
and drop in and do some bone fishing. I could
stand that right now. I could stomach that anywhere in
the Caribbean. I don't think we're gonna have a snow delay.
We're not gonna have to de ice the wings. I did, however,
(30:48):
Well it's somewhat cliche and corny, but actually did on
a flight. Where was it I think it was in Honduras,
a little puddle jumper that we had to take to
get out close enough to get in the boat to
go to the lodge from which we would fish, and
somebody so helped me. There were only like eight seats
(31:08):
on the plane, and somebody boarded carrying a live chicken.
Oh wow, yeah, carry on luggage, I guess, or breakfast
or lunch. If push had come to shove, if we'd
have gone down like Gilligan's Island, at least we'd have
had that one chicken. Maybe he was a pet chicken. Oh,
(31:28):
I'm sure it was. If you had a chicken, what
will you name it?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
You know, my old school, back when I was you know,
K through eighth, don't.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Tell me, y'all were the fighting chickens. No, we were gone,
but we did. In seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
I built a chicken coop there and we had chickens
and we named our rooster. I can't wait Leonardo to
crunchy to crunchy. Yeah, like Aprio crunchy. I don't get
it because chicken is you know, deep fried and crunchy.
Deep fried chicken is crunchy. No, no will oh.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Speaking of little animals, I saw a story right before
I came on out in California. I think it is.
I'm pretty sure it is squirrels. I guess because they
don't have enough oak trees in California. Squirrels have taken
to eating what will this is gonna have taken to eating?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Drum roll, please and go. I'm gonna say, pumbs up.
What rats? Rats?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
The squirrels are eating rats. It's rednnivore. Yeah, how about that.
Gotta fill your cheeks with something bad, bad time to
be a rat. La. I guess. I think La was
on the list of the top five or six rat
infested cities. I know Chicago was there. New York City
finished surprise low the last time they did that survey,
(33:03):
which I don't know why they even bothered doing that. Honestly,
there's no reason for that anymore. Oh my word, Yeah,
that caught my eye. I have a yard full of squirrels.
And the reason I have a yard full of squirrels,
and so help me, this is true. Will we have
four oak trees in the front yard, as does as
did when built almost every house in my neighborhood. That's
(33:26):
just that was the standard procedure when these houses were built.
Two at the curb in a very narrow space, and
then two in the middle of the front yard, and
then whatever you did with your backyard was your business.
I have about a forty foot crape myrtle back there
right now. They used to have two of them that big,
but we had to take one out. It was just
too big. We couldn't grow grass back there, and still
(33:46):
hardly can. Bottom line is in those oak trees. Well,
I don't know where they're coming from, probably from halfway
around the neighborhood. Our oak trees drop more acorns than
any other tree in the neighborhood. If you stand in
my front yard this morning, I just I just ran
the blower through there a couple of days ago. Okay,
(34:07):
got all the concrete cleared of those acorns. And this
morning I look again. They're two hundred of them on
the sidewalks. Maybe four hundred, I don't know, And I
don't know why, because if you look left or right,
north or south, east or west, up and down the sidewalk,
up and down the street, no acorns none. These people
(34:28):
wouldn't have to sweep up their acorns.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
But maybe once a year, maybe your neighbors are all
getting together in the middle thrown of my yard.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, throwing them in your yard? No, I hadn't thought
of that. There's one who might do something like that.
Oh yeah, you got beef with one of your neighbors.
Oh no, No, I don't have any beef with any
of my neighbors. They're all good people, they really are.
They really are. But nobody ever has them. They just don't. Man,
And maybe there might be five houses in the neighborhood
that have excessive acorn. I don't know what the corn abundance.
(35:01):
If it was a disease, what would it be called,
don't you?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I think you did. I don't know what it would be.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
All right, Well, let's not worry about that. In good news,
scientists up at the University of Oregon have created these
tiny little sensors that can help heal broken bones in
weeks rather than months, and much of that acceleration depends
on exercise programs that are tied to these tiny little sensors,
(35:32):
interpretations of how the bones are healing and what level
of activity will best expedite the process of healing. It's fascinating,
it really is, you know, because you think about it.
If you've broken a bone, have you ever broken a bone.
I'm only sprained. Oh, I've had three breaks, I think
something like that, one major and then two minors. And
(35:55):
the bottom line is there's rehab that goes along with
that to help strength and regain muscle strength, and help
the bone heal by healing everything around it. And this
just makes it happen all the faster. One more from
the Good News Science Desk. Scientists at Stanford have taken
an everyday bacterium that's found on our skin and then
(36:18):
turned it into a topical vaccine against tetanus. W about that.
You just rub it on your skin and poof, no tetanus,
no more tetanus shuts. Eventually, it's not only effective in
that in these trials so far, it's also really inexpensive
to create because our bodies already make it and they
(36:40):
just they probably put it in a bunch of petroleum
jelly or something to whatever the point five, you know
how those things. So if you get a puncture wound,
you just just grab some of this stuff and rub
it on your skin and you're gonna be all right. Huh.
I hope it helps the next few generations. I don't
know that I'm gonna live long enough to do this.
(37:01):
At least, maybe that will help. If you think about it,
medicine and proven like it is now, all of this stuff.
If nothing else, it might help some of these twenty
five and thirty and thirty five and almost forty year
olds move out of their parents' houses so they won't
have to worry about health insurance. To get that, they'll
just get a tube of it from the pharmacy. It'd
(37:22):
be like neosporn, only it'll kill tetanus. That's kind of cool.
Oh holy cow, just seconds seconds. M No, I don't
like any of this. I'm gonna save it all for
when I get back, because there's some good stuff if
I have time to do it. We will see you
guys on January second. Thank you all for joining us
(37:43):
this year. Ideos
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