The Human Odyssey

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The American Association of Retired People (AARP) has a free monthly e-newsletter called Human Values in Aging, that provides a rich source of information about humanistic gerotology, including brief articles, books and films of interest, weblinks, calendar of events, and quotations on humanism and spirituality in aging.  It is edited by Dr. Harry R. Moody, author of The Five Stages of the Soul: Charting the Spiritual Passages that Shape Our Lives, former Chairman of the Board of Elderhostel, and currently Director of Academic Affairs for AARP.  To read a sample issue, click here. To subscribe to the e-newsletter, click here.

New Group Called "The Elders" Brings Wisdom to World Problems

Yesterday I was watching Charlie Rose on TV and he had Richard Branson, the maverick billionaire, on the show talking about a new philanthropic effort that he is supporting called The Elders.  This consists of a group of twelve individuals who have attained world recognition for their work in supporting peace, justice, health, and other positive values around the globe, including Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, and former president Jimmy Carter.  The idea is that they can use their "1,000 years of collective experience" to help solve existing problems around the world. Their first project was to travel to the Sudan last year to help with the Darfur crisis.  They have recently concluded a trip to Kenya to help mediate the violent partisan dispute over leadership there.  The group is sponsored by a number of individuals and organizations that have raised $18 million thus far to support their efforts.

This strikes me as an extremely worthy enterprise, because it values the elders of our society to generate solutions to age-old problems.  Historically, cultures have often turned to the elders for answers to life's deep problems.  Unfortunately, in our modern age, we have too often put the reigns of control and leadership in the hands of youngsters who have not yet gained the experience necessary to make good decisions.  This project is an acknowledgement that we need to turn once again to our elders to access the wisdom they have in solving the great problems of our world, including war, poverty, human rights abuses, and environmental pollution.  For more information, go to www.theelders.org.   

The "Age 50 Effect" - A Shrunken Heart?

If you're 50 and you plan to give your heart to your honey this Valentine's Day, maybe you should first check to see whether it's gotten any smaller in the last year.  Researchers at St. Francis Heart Center in Roslyn, New York have determined that the human heart undergoes a particularly significant shrinkage around the age of 50.  Their study examined 218 normal individuals aged 20 to 80, who were free of illness, including any cardiac problems.  They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the size of the heart.  Dr. Nathaniel Reichek, director of the study, noted: "It has been recognized for some time that the heart chambers get smaller with age, but what pops out in this work is that there is an inflection point," he said of the 50-year mark, "where rapidly occurring change occurs."  The study leaves many questions, including whether or not it is possible to ameliorate this shrinkage through diet, exercise, or other interventions.  Still, for Valentine's Day, you might throw in a box of chocolates to make up for that extra cardiac shrinkage!

Midlife Crisis May Be Real After All!

In a Jan. 5, 2007 post ("Does Midlife Crisis Really Exist?), I shared information from the McArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development (MIDMAC), suggesting that midlife crisis was a relatively rare occurrence and that most people went through midlife just fine.  Now, however, a new study suggests that midlife crisis may be real after all.  In an article to appear in an upcoming issue of Social Science & Medicine, two researchers analyzed data from two million people in 80 countries, and discovered that depression is most common among men and women in their forties.  In fact, they suggest that happiness follows a U-shaped growth pattern, with young people and elders experiencing the greatest amount of life satisfaction.  It may be that during midlife, individuals feel regrets for not reaching some of their youthful goals (see my Dec. 24, 2007 post on "Lost Possible Selves").  In addition, many people often confront the deaths of friends or relatives in a significant way at this time of life.  However, with entrance into mature adulthood from age fifty on, people tend to embrace life once again.  "For the average person in the modern world, the dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not suddenly in a single year," said one of the researchers, Andrew Oswald, as reported by Reuters News Service. "Only in their fifties do people emerge from this low period."

Large Investment Groups Buy Nursing Homes and Care Declines

The New York Times examined more than 1200 nursing homes purchased by private investment groups in the past eight years, and discovered that, compared to national averages, these homes declined in care given, and scored lower in 12 of 14 indicators used to track ailments of long-term residents.  Homes owned by such investment firms as Warburg Pincus and the Carlyle Group (owners of Dunkin' Donuts), had greater than average incidences in residents of bedsores, easily preventable infections, and unecessary restraints in freedom and mobility.  Investment firms move in and take over unprofitable nursing homes, fire nursing staff and cut back on other resources, begin making money, and then may sell the homes at a big profit.  While this particular strategy benefits investors, it leaves many aged nursing home residents more vulnerable to a range of age-related risks including depression, loss of mobility, and loss of the ability to dress and feed themselves.  A big problem with investor-owned nursing homes is that they often legallly structure their ownership in such a way that it becomes difficult to sue them when residents become ill or die due to neglect.  Because they are privately owned, they are also immune to many of the local, state, and national regulations that apply to publicly owned nursing homes.  They are, therefore, able to function below the radar screens, and above the law.  According to the New York Times, nursing homes received $75 billion in 2006 from Medicare and Medicaid, making them a veritable cash cow for those investment groups that prey on them, cutting expenses, making huge profits, and leaving residents with sub-par living conditions.  To read the entire New York Times article, click here. 

Concepts in Human Development: Lost Possible Selves

In Henrik Ibsen's play Romersholm, a middle-aged tutor named Ulrik Brendel brags to his friends about all the potential creative literary projects that he has inside of him just waiting to be let out.  But one day, he tells his friends that he has just come to a shocking conclusion:  "For five and twenty years I have been like a miser sitting on his locked money chest.  And then today, when I opened it to take out my treasure, there was nothing there.  The mills of time had ground it into dust. There was not a blessed thing left of the whole lot."  Brendel had waited too long to develop this possibility in himself.  Had he begun writing twenty-five years before, when the impulse to create had first impressed itself upon him, he would have over that period of time brought into realization his potential as a literary artist.  Now, however, he had to face what psychologists are calling these days a "lost possible self."  In the October 2007 issue of American Psychologist (a journal of the American Psychological Association), Laura A. King and Joshua A. Hicks write about how people deal with their lost possible selves in an article entitled: "Whatever Happened to 'What Might Have Been.'"  They note that many people have difficulty thinking about their lost possible selves because this often leads to regrets, distress, and a lowered sense of well-being.  These individuals pursue a strategy of not thinking about "what might have been" so that they are able to preserve a sense of happiness in life.  These individuals prefer to focus on the goals that they have chosen to develop in life, and to reap the satisfaction that comes from meeting these goals.  This represents one dimension of maturity in adult development.  However, there are other individuals who are able to handle more complexity in their lives, and these individuals can often reflect upon their lost possible selves and also experience a deep happiness in their lives, despite, or perhaps one might even say, because of, the difficulties and disappointments that they have had to face.  One mother in their study, for example, whose personal life goals were interrupted for a time by the experience of giving birth to a child diagnosed with Down Syndrome, said:  "I was on the road to self-discovery. . . . I was searching for a little more purpose. Being a mother, being a wife, being a nurse was not enough: I wanted to fulfill my destiny. I wanted to continue on the search for self actualization.  Well [my son] came along.  Everything was tested, values, beliefs, friendships, wedding vows, etc. Much growth, difficult growth, lots of confusion, but I am on the other side now . . . I am right back on track and could not be happier.  I'm stronger--I'm more experienced, and God knows, I'm much more compassionate and humble." (p. 630)   The authors of this study conclude that spending too much time focusing on what has been lost correlates to unhappiness, but for the individual who is willing to engage in an honest process of self-exploration, such disappointments concerning "lost selves" can serve as spring to a broader vision of oneself. 

If you are in your fifties, sixties, or beyond, take some time to reflect on one or more of your lost possible selves.  Perhaps you wanted to be a major league baseball player, a nuclear physicist, a surgeon, a best-selling author by the age of forty, a famous politician, a glamorous movie star, a world-class ballerina, or even less lofty but still significant goals:  reaching a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, being the mother or father of happy and successful children, attaining the highest level at your place of work, maintaining perfect health into old age.  Perhaps you know now that it's too late, or simply not possible, to become that thing that you wanted to be so badly.  Are you willing to fully experience the regret of not having reached your goal, of not having fully developed this aspect of yourself?  And can you find a deeper meaning in this loss?  In a sense, losing a possible self is like losing a significant person in our lives.  We need to grieve this loss, but we also need to get on with our lives.  If we are fortunate, we can learn to view this loss as a deepening of our understanding of life's journey, and of how it has made us richer and more complex human beings.  The Germans have a word Torschlusspanik, meaning "the panic of closing doors," to refer to the process of freaking out when we realize it is too late to develop some aspect of ourselves.  Perhaps we need a new word that means something like "the wisdom that comes from closing doors."  The psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist Erik Erikson defined integrity in late adulthood as an acceptance of one's one and only life cycle as something that had to be (Erik Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle, p. 104).  This encounter with our lost possible selves may help us toward this fundamental acceptance of life. And this, according to Erikson, makes it possible for us to face our death as well.

Basil & Spice Features Interview with Thomas Armstrong, Author of The Human Odyssey

Kelly Jad'on, whose blog "Basil & Spice" focuses on "Author & Books Views on a Healthy Life," conducted an interview with me that appeared in her blog yesterday, December 6, 2007 (it has also been syndicated and appears in BlogCritics Magazine).  See her blog for reviews of books and interviews with authors on a host of wellness topics including diet, self-healing, spirituality, nutrition, fitness, and aging.  The full interview appears below:

Interview With Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D.--Author of The Human Odyssey

Posted on Dec 7, 2007 by Kelly Jad'on.

The author of 13 books, Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., has spent his life writing and speaking about human development, with a particular focus on children. He has appeared on The Today Show, CBS This Morning, CNN, and has presented more than 800 keynotes, workshops, and seminars in 42 states and 16 countries.

Dr. Armstrong, until the publication of The Human Odyssey, most of your writing seemed to focus on children and issues which affect their education. True? If so, why the departure?

In the early 1980s I began teaching courses in both adult and child development, and received a doctorate degree in East-West psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1987, where I began working on the idea of creating a psycho-spiritual book on human development. Then I was sidelined by my writings in education. About ten years ago, I came up with the focus of this book, and have been working on it pretty steadily since then.

My writing in education has been motivated by the fact that there is so little understanding among parents and educators about what children really need in order to learn. The No Child Left Behind Act and the general climate of education these days are pretty dismal. Childhood is disappearing as we push adult responsibilities earlier and earlier. For example, play and recess are being taken away, and corporate models of thinking are being institutionalized in classrooms. Kindergarten has become a worksheet wasteland in order to get kids ready for college. Childhood is being bulldozed by what I've called in one of my books (The Best Schools) "the academic achievement discourse."

Is there any stopping it? That is, the disappearance of childhood?

I don’t know. Childhood is a manifestation of the spirit. Spirit is being hacked away in other arenas of society too, through political and military influences, for example.

Yes, I do have hope, I’m an optimist. But I also have a realistic understanding that massive forces are being unleashed against the spiritual side of life these days.

Frances Wickes, a Jungian analyst from the 1940s, illuminates this dynamic in her book The Inner World of Choice. She shared a dream (it may have been her own as a young child) about a fragile flower facing a massive behemoth. The flower prevails and is able to survive against this catastrophic image. I believe that this is the situation we have today. Fragile truth will ultimately win out.

My blog addresses the image of the behemoth in posts such as the recent high rates of suicide in girls, boys beginning to develop eating disorders , infants being terribly abused — these are the warning signs of a disintegrating culture. But it also addresses the strength of the fragile flower by highlighting proactive organizations, programs, and resources that are available to help individuals at each of the twelve stages of life (prebirth, birth, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, late childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, midlife, mature adulthood, late adulthood, and death and dying).

Back up a moment. What were you like as a child?

I was playful and serious at the same time. My father was a physician, but because he had a nervous breakdown and lay around the house for seventeen years, I became an anxious child. He would blow up suddenly without warning. It was like being in a minefield, and I had to be vigilant all the time. Avoiding my father's rage took a lot of work on the reptilian level. Our house was destroyed by an F5 tornado around same time my father had the breakdown, so there were a lot of terrifying moments. But growing up in Fargo, North Dakota, an uncomplicated place to live, was otherwise rather normal for me. I played baseball, had a coin collection, liked to ride my bike, had good friends. I was not a particularly spiritual child, but can remember things like being able to leave my body in a floating state while going to sleep, and producing eidetic imagery (inner images that were as clear as outer perceptions). And, I was always wondering about the ultimate questions of life. My mom even told me not to think about these things so much.

What aspects of your childhood carried through into your field of research today?

I had an aunt who went into education. She became director of the Amsterdam International School, and helped to transform it into a building based on Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner) architecture. I think I was was inspired by her unconsciously. I also had good teachers who recognized my own individuality and reached out to me. That made a difference. I had a voracious love of learning, and enjoyed regular art and music periods. I’m just now rediscovering my art side — painting and doing collages. I drew a lot as a child, then switched and became very verbal. I think my hidden art life is one reason I got so passionate in my writing (e.g., In Their Own Way, The Myth of the A.D.D. Child) about kids labeled learning disabled (LD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who are very artistic but are not having their creative side acknowledged or developed.

Do you have children?

No. I'm working on a novel right now to address the irony of spending so much of my professional life focused on children, yet not having children myself. It's called Childless. My wife is a psychotherapist who works with children and adults in sandplay therapy. So we're both working with kids -- just not having them ourselves. This may sound like rationalizing, but I think there's a certain detachment that people have who don't have children, that they can use in helping to better the lives of all kids. I think of my own teachers in elementary school, many of whom didn't have kids, and yet who helped me (and others) quite a bit.

In The Human Odyssey, you discuss "Adapters" and "Rememberers," using the industrialist Leland Stanford and the poet Emily Dickinson as examples. How are the "Adapter" and the "Rememberer" keys to living life?

"Adapters" are concerned with fitting into the world that is, with all of its demands for conformity, ambition, and street smarts. "Rememberers" are always thinking of what is possible -- they're concerned with what it means to exist, to realize one's potential, to explore the depths of one's being. The fact is, we need to have both of these qualities in order to live a full life. A parent has an obligation to help her children "adapt" to the world's demands, but she must also help her child "remember" who she really is (her gifts, her essence). Some parents focus all the attention on the adapting, and their kids lose their souls. Other parents go the other way, and try to protect their child from the real world, and this also creates an unbalanced personality. In The Human Odyssey, I talk a lot about Odysseus in Homer's epic poem, and how he had both the "adapter "and the "rememberer" in him. That's part of what made him such an archetypal personality.

You're critical of much early childhood education these days. What's the biggest problem?

During early childhood kids shouldn’t have formal lessons in reading, math, or any other subject. This is a time of life when brains are plastic and being dynamically wired to the world; if they are exposed to abstract letters and one-dimensional computer screens, that's what the brain will be wired to. What they need is to be exposed to rich multi-sensory environments.

What should children be doing?

They need to play. During early childhood, play is what nature designed kids to do. Some researchers think that the neocortex actually evolved from play. Materials for play should be simple — puppets, blocks, simple toys, dress up clothes. And they should span the multiple intelligences — artistic, musical, nature-oriented, science exploration, physical play, etc. Books are okay to have in a play environment, but let the children decide what to do with them. It’s their choice. Other good examples involve manipulatives — sink and float, sandboxes, or just allowing them to mess around. These should be open-ended experiences. That’s the essence. They also need the time — not being shuttled from place to place, and they need a safe space in which to play.

Dr. Armstrong, which stage of life are you in? Are you comfortable with it?

At 57 years old, I’m in what I've called in The Human Odyssey, "mature adulthood" (forgive me if that sounds a little self-serving!). Mature adulthood roughly spans ages 50 to 80. For many it is a whole new stage of life because advancements in modern medicine have extended the life span by two or three decades. Some people at this age may feel as if they’re winding it up (based on messages they received from previous generations) but then realize they’ve got 20 or 30 more years to fill. This stage can be a wonderful second childhood, an opportunity to experience the energy and vitality of a child, and the knowledge and experience of an adult. By this age, most of us are no longer looking for a mate, or raising a child, or beginning a career (ages 20-50). I was a latebloomer and didn't find my marriage partner or career until my late thirties. So now that these are going along pretty well, I can focus on more on developing other potentialities that didn't get a chance to develop during my early adulthood, like my art and novel-writing. The ages from 50-80 can be a time to explore oneself (more "remembering" and less "adapting") and be generative by mentoring, grandparenting, teaching, and/or volunteering. One has greater life experience at this stage and greater opportunity to give back to the community.  For those with poverty or health issues, mature adulthood may be a time of more suffering. It is also a time of life when the body begins to break down. It’s not a completely rosy picture. I’m noticing that my friends and I are beginning to talk about health issues just like our elders did.

Our culture says about aging: “Look young physically,” whereas it should be emphasizing “Be young spiritually.” I question people wanting to mess around with their faces and bodies surgically doing face lifts and tummy tucks. It seems to me that they're almost saying: “I want you to think that I’m young, but I’m really not. I’m a liar.” For men it’s more of a virility issue. One of the messages of my book is: "Let's face it. You’re going to get old. Get used to it. Live a balanced life. Nurture your body, mind, and soul." The irony is that during youth people abuse their bodies because there’s no immediate feedback, but they’re laying the seeds for physical problems in their 50s, 60s and 70s. If my book helps even one person in young adulthood take better care of him or herself so that they have a better second half of life than they would have otherwise, then I will be very happy indeed.

The Human Odyssey adds a substantial amount of new information about the Twelve Stages of Life.

In The Human Odyssey, I’ve extended the conversation about human development to include prebirth, birth, death, and the afterlife. It seemed necessary to me that I discuss what many cultures around the world have thought about the stages of life. That's why I added an extra chapter (beyond the twelve stages of life) on the afterlife. Mentioning the afterlife shouldn’t be seen as something flaky or New Age, but rather as something "cross-cultural." Going back to earliest recorded history, cultures have always had maps of the afterlife (for example, the Egyptians built much of their culture around their image of the afterlife). We ought not leave these out of a book on human development. The life cycle is a huge thing to try to get one’s arms around. The more perspectives we can provide, the better we’ll be able to understand this incredible adventure.

I'm very excited about the filmography I've created at the end of the book — 130 movie listings with annotations organized by stage of life. I’ve always been profoundly moved by certain movies. I’ve noticed that the best of them usually deal with the human life span in some way (for example, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane takes us from his childhood to his death in old age). Many of the great films focus on a specific stage of life, like adolescence. Some examples include: Romeo and Juliet , Rebel without A Cause, and Westside Story (which totally blew me away as an eleven year old). I'd like to see people read a chapter from The Human Odyssey, watch a movie on that stage, and then talk about it among friends and/or family.

How should I relate to The Human Odyssey?

I wrote The Human Odyssey because I wanted people to see the big picture of our journey through life, and I wanted them to begin to care about the stages of life in a proactive way. Each person has all twelve stages of life within them -- some of them have been wounded by negative past experiences and need healing. We all know people who are in the different stages of life -- they also need care and support from us -- the infant son that needs human touch, the nephew who is having trouble learning at school, the friend at midlife who just got downsized at work. Our community is represented by all twelve stages -- and we need to care for the individuals in it who are at each stage -- our abused elders, our adolescents at risk, our toddlers who need to be protected from dangerous toys. I hope that people will read the book and then be moved to take positive actions that can transform human lives at each stage of development.

Support the Elder Justice Act in Congress

Everyday we read about elderly people who have been bilked out of their life savings, or stuck in sub-standard housing, or physically abused.  Elder abuse is a significant problem in our society.  In 2006, there were 565,747 cases of abuse reported and research suggests that only 1 in 14 cases ever see the light of day.  These figures are likely to increase dramatically with the aging of baby boomers.  However, as Senator Orrin Hatch R-Utah reports, "We don't have one federal employee working full time combatting elder abuse."  Versions of a legislative act that would begin protecting our senior population have been introduced in Congress since 2003, but, with one exception, they have failed even to make it out of committee, and in that one instance, failed in the Senate.  This year, the Elder Justice Act has been reintroduced in both the House and the Senate (S. 1070 and H.R. 1783).  It will, among other provisions, provide $400 million spread over four years to pay for strengthening state and local adult protective services agencies.  Please write your members of Congress and urge them to support this important measure.  For a state-by-state list of elder abuse resources (including information on reporting elder abuse), click here.  For information on the warning signs of elder abuse, click here. 

Medical Care Crisis Looming Up Ahead for Aging Population

I just finished this fascinating article that was in the April 30, 2007 issue of The New Yorker, on the looming crisis in care for the aged.  It was entitled (with a nod to Anthony Trollope) "The Way We Age Now."  Two things in particular struck my attention in the piece. 

First, was the observation that although the population of aging America is going to skyrocket in the next two decades, the practice of geriatric medicine is actually decreasing.  The number of certified geriatricians fell by a third between 1998 and 2004.  The reasons for this are very similar to the reasons for the decline in the practice of adolescent medicine in the U.S., an issue that I explored in a previous post:  income for geriatric medicine is among the lowest of any of the medical specialties and aging people are difficult to deal with (they complain a lot, their memories are bad, you have to be extra patient with them etc.).  A lot of work for little money.  But what's going to happen when there are millions of us needing medical care that recognizes our special needs as older people, and there are no doctors specialized in geriatric medicine around to fill the bill?

The second thing in the article that fascinated me was the observation that a geriatric doctor often pays more attention to small details than to big medical issues.  A case that was cited in The New Yorker piece was of an eighty-five year old woman who had glaucoma, arthritis, lower back pain, both knees replaced, high blood pressure, surgery for colon cancer, and a lung nodule that needed a biopsy.  What was important to the geriatric physician who examined her that day, however, was not these major medical problems, but instead what she'd been eating, what her feet looked like, how she got up out of her chair, and other relatively insignificant issues.  As the writer, a Harvard Medical School professor named Atul Gawande, pointed out, "The single most serious threat she faced was not the lung nodule or the back pain.  It was falling"  (p. 55).  The geriatric specialist was concerned with the quality of her daily life.  Without good feet, or the ability to get out of a chair easily, she could be only a short step away from a nursing home.  Without proper daily nutrition, social support, or nightly rest, she might lack the energy, interaction, or repose necessary to a functional life.

There was much else in the article that was fascinating (including a run-down of how the body breaks down as we age).  However, these two ideas - the fact that a shortage of geriatric physicians is in our future, and the idea that our lives as older people often hinge on small details - are worth pondering at some length.   

What's Wrong With Aging?

There's been so much in the news lately about anti-aging remedies from anti-wrinkle cream to human growth hormone that I just wanted to speak for the pro-aging side.  What's wrong with aging?   I see the faces of elderly people who have decided to deny their aging with chin lifts, botox injections, and facial implants, and I get this creepy feeling inside.  Why are they avoiding the natural wrinkles, creases, bumps, and sags that come with growing old?  I've always felt that there's something beautiful about the faces of aging people.  When I was a child, I'd see these photos of older Native American leaders in the National Geographic, and even at that young age I felt a deep beauty in their faces.  I'd look at the faces of my grandmother and great-grandmother (who I was privileged to live with for a year), and be in awe.  In some ways, I get the same kind of feeling when I look at ancient trees.  It seems that people in our youth-oriented culture have lost touch with the deep meanings that collect around being old.  It's as if they wanted to eliminate autumn and winter from the four seasons.  It's as if they were saying "let's get rid of the hideous autumn foliage, and withered leaves, so everything can be green all the time."  There's a life-denying quality to those artificially stretched cheeks and foreheads; a kind of tension there that wants to pretend time doesn't exist.  But it does.  What a great honor it is to be a part of this mysterious life process that unfolds, that has been unfolding for as long as there have been living things!

For some incredible photos of aged people, see the exhibition by Mark Story "Living in Three Centuries:  The Face of Age"

The River of Life

The River of Life

by Thomas Campbell (1777-1824)

The more we live, more brief appear
Our life's succeeding stages;
A day to childhood seems a year,
And years like passing ages.

The gladsome current of our youth,
Ere passion yet disorders,
Steals lingering like a river smooth
Along its grassy borders.

But as the careworn cheek grows wan,
And sorrow's shafts fly thicker,
Ye stars, that measure life to man,
Why seem your courses quicker?

When joys have lost their bloom and breath,
And life itself is vapid,
Why, as we reach the Falls of Death
Feel we its tide more rapid?

It may be strange—yet who would change
Time's course to slower speeding,
When one by one our friends have gone,
And left our bosoms bleeding?

Heaven gives our years of fading strength
Indemnifying fleetness;
And those of youth, a seeming length,
Proportion'd to their sweetness.

Tai Chi Protects Against Shingles

Researchers at UCLA have completed a study that suggests performing tai chi on a regular basis may help ward off shingles - a viral infection that causes a painful rash that can lead to complications.  Shingles is caused by the virus herpes zoster, which is the virus that causes chicken pox.  Adults who have had chicken pox in childhood are particularly at risk for shingles because the virus lies dormant in the nerves for decades only to appear as shingles when the immune system has become weakened in later adulthood (most often the disease occurs in people 50 and older).  An estimated 1 million people in the U.S. are afflicted with shingles every year.  Performing tai chi (something that millions of people in China do every day - see video), appears to boost the immune system, thus keeping the dormant virus from breaking out into shingles.  "These are exciting findings, because the positive results of this study also have implications for other infectious diseases, like influenza and pneumonia," said Michael Irwin, who is also director of the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.  For information on other health benefits of tai chi, click here.   For information on performing tai chi moves, click here.