Baby Boomer Life Tips

Baby Boomers: Forums

Children born in the baby boomer age were born between 1946 and 1964. This range of 18 years presents people of many ages—the oldest baby boomers are 62 and the youngest are 44 years old.

Forums can provide a plethora of information for baby boomers of all ages, including medical information and business information. Some of the topics are:

Pain and inflammation

Home business

Woodstock and other music topics

Caring for aging parents

Senior living

Cancer, diabetes and other health issues

Home décor

Retirement topics

Making an income while traveling

A baby boomer may want to research any of these topics, but one of the more common topics, especially for older baby boomers, is health topics. Baby boomers can log onto forums to find discussions about certain health issues and get online support for a particular health problem. They can also read about how other people got over certain medical hurdles, including rehabilitation for medical problems and issues.

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Baby Boomers: Health Issues

A baby boomers born at the early end of the baby boomer generation is now in his or her 50s and 60s. Though baby boomers are much healthier than their parents, and tend to live longer, age related health issues can still crop up.

Some of the health related issues include increased cholesterol levels, arthritis, and diabetes. Some of these health issues, if left unchecked can lead to more severe health issues, such as aneurysms and knee replacement surgery.

It is important for anyone over 55 to get their cholesterol checked, make sure their heart is in good condition, and have other issues such as diabetes and arthritis under control, either through diet or medications. Men should have their prostrate checked regularly for prostrate issues and cancer. Women should have a mammogram every month.

Another thing that should be checked regularly, via a CT scan, is for aneurysms. Aneurysms can be present in both men and women, but are present in men five times more than in women. Risk factors include weight, diabetes, smoking and genes.

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Baby Boomers: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm and its Complications

Many of the baby boomers are hitting the 60-year mark. One of the common medical problems for people that are about 60 years old (predominantly men), is abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). While anyone can have an aneurysm, there is a certain group of people who are at a higher risk:

• Men 60 years old or older (five times more likely to have an aneurysm than women)

• Smokers

• Overweight people

• People with high blood pressure

• People with high cholesterol

• Genetics

Whether a person is male or female, anyone 60 years or older should have a CT scan done to check for aneurysms, especially if the age is combined with any of the above risk factors.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery, while risky (as is any surgery), is usually successful. There are very little risk factors for an otherwise healthy person undergoing this surgery. The danger lies in allowing the aneurysm becoming larger than 5cm or if the aneurysm breaks open. Chances of death once an aneurysm breaks open is exponentially higher.

If an aneurysm breaks and the patient lives through the break and the surgery, the shock to the body may cause other complications, such as adult respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS) and renal failure. Both complications can be fatal, though ARDS has a higher fatality rate than renal failure. With special treatment using a ventilator, ARDS can be overcome.

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