Genetic Testing – Do You Want to Know?

General Posted by anthony Date November 27, 2013

As you sit around the Thanksgiving table, an interesting conversation you might entertain is whether you would like your genes analyzed for $99 to see if there is some hereditary disposition you might have for disease thanks to those relatives you’re sitting with around the table. Genetic testing costs are coming down. But do you want to know what’s in store? 23andMe, Inc. is a privately-held company dedicated to helping individuals understand their own genetic information using recent advances in DNA analysis technologies and web-based interactive tools. 23andMe enables individuals to gain deeper insights into personal ancestry, genealogy and inherited traits. 23andMe was founded in April 2006 by Linda Avey, Paul Cusenza, and Anne Wojcicki.åÊ The name 23andMe refers to the fact that human DNA is organized into 23 pairs of chromosomes. 23andMe connects individuals to their unique, paired set of 23 chromosomes.

23andMe has more than 400,000 genotyped customers.
To date, the company has collected more than 200 million phenotypic data points (individual survey responses).
On an average week the company collects approximately two million new survey responses from our active online research community.

I came across them in an article in Fast Company that poses some interesting ethical dilemmas. The author, after some convincing, had her adopted daughter’s genes tested. Here is what she found out.åÊ “And there it is, screaming out at me from my computer screen. My daughter, who is learning to read and tie her shoes, has two copies of the APOE-4 variant, the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s. According to her 23andå_Me results, she has a 55% chance of contracting the disease between the ages of 65 and 79.” Here’s more snippets from the article. “In 2008, Congress passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which makes it illegal for health insurers and employers to hold a person’s genetic information against her. (YET) The confines of GINA don’t yet extend to long-term-care insurance. Several states have banned the discriminatory use of genetic information in all areas, but there is not yet any sweeping federal protection.”åÊ The article suggests that “a long-term-care insurance company might in the future ask a potential customer if she had genetic testing, and if the results linked her to a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease.” According to the article, upon learning of their APOE-4 status, people are six times more likely to alter their long-term-care insurance. Don Taylor, an associate professor of public policy at Duke who has published research on the implications of genetic testing and insurance in Health Affairs, predicts that our current long-term-care insurance system is about to break. “They’re losing their shirts,” he says, pointing to the fact that Genworth temporarily stopped selling new policies completely in its biggest market, California. “Whatever we have now is not going to come close to existing when your daughter is old enough to buy it.” But nobody yet knows what might replace it. So there you have it. All kind of issues from privacy to would you want to know to the implications for buying insurance or even having insurance. Read the article then tell me what you think.åÊ åÊ

Holiday Perfect Time to Have End of Life Conversation (Really!)

General Posted by anthony Date November 26, 2013

Ninety percent of Americans know they should have a conversation about what they want at the end of life yet only 30 percent have done so, according to a national survey by The Conversation Project that found that 9 in 10 Americans want to discuss their loved onesÛª and their own end-of-life care, but only approximately 3 in 10 have actually had these conversations. Holidays are the perfect time to have end of life conversations. So punch up the eggnog and think about these issues. This season is the best time to talk about these issues because it is one of the few times all family members gather together. Eldercare Locator launched its 11th Annual Home for the Holidays campaign to encourage families to take time this holiday season to discuss critical end-of-life issues with their loved ones. The campaign, which includes the release of a new guide that covers everything from how to initiate conversations to the right questions to ask about health, legal, financial and end-of-life issues, is available for download at www.n4a.org and www.eldercare.gov. The new guide prepares families for the conversation, offering helpful tips and topics for consideration.åÊ Topics include all things health and legal related, such as lists of doctors, health conditions, medical records, durable power of attorney, trusts, advance directives, wills and how to research and locate important financial documents. End-of-life topics for discussion include naming one person to make final decisions, values and ideals around quality of life and care and the types of medical treatment that may be available. To learn more about community resources that may be of assistance to older adults, get connected with your local agency by visiting www.eldercare.gov or calling 800.677.1116. To learn more about The Conversation Project visit theconversationproject.org.

Only Two Percent of Boomers Have Dental Insurance Benefits

General Posted by anthony Date November 25, 2013

There have increasingly been studies showing the relationship between dental health and overall health. For example, associations between periodontitis and diabetes have emerged in recent years, as well as oral conditions such as xerostomia associated with the use of prescription drugs.

Oral Health America has issued a report entitled State of Decay: Are Older Americans Coming of Age Without Oral Healthcare? It shows that only 2 percent of baby boomers turning age 65 will have access to dental insurance benefits.

There is persistent lack of oral health coverage across much of the nation. Forty-two percent of states (21 states) provide either no dental benefit or emergency coverage only through adult Medicaid Dental Benefits. Thirty-one states (62 percent) have high rates of Dental Health Provider Shortage Areas (HPSAs), meeting only 40 percent or less of dental provider needs.

This is shocking but thirteen states (26 percent) have 60 percent or more residents living in communities without water fluoridation (CWF). Hawaii (89.2 percent) and New Jersey (86.5 percent) represent the highest rates of citizens unprotected by fluoridation.

The current workforce is aging, and many dental professionals will retire within the next decade. åÊA lack of geriatric specialty programs complicates this problem, and few practitioners are choosing geriatrics as their field of choice. Emergency room visits that were dental related among adults over 65 rose from 1 million from 1999-2000 to 2.3 million during 2009-2010.

Access to dental care is one of the greatest challenges facing older adults and their caregivers.

Access to dental coverage for older adults is limited. It was not addressed in the Affordable Care Act.

Dental insurance coverage is a primary indicator of whether or not an individual visits the dentist.

Close to 70 percent of older Americans do not have dental insurance.

In addition to increasing access to care, providers, payers, dental program administrators now must demonstrate improved quality of care, improved health outcomes, and lowered costs.

The report offers these solutions:

1.Create Payment Options for Older Adult Dental Care

2.Mitigate Dental Provider Shortages by Improving the Primary Healthcare Workforce

3.Expand Water Fluoridation to all Communities at CDC-recommended levels

4. Include Robust Strategies to Improve Older Adult Oral Healthcare in State Plans

5. Educate Older Adults, Care Advisors and Caring Institutions to Improve the Mouth Health of Older Adults

Oral Health America has created a web portal, www.toothwisdom.org, a user-friendly online tool that connects older adults and their caregivers with local resources. This website offers reliable oral care information from oral health experts across the country, so readers can learn why itÛªs so important to care for their mouths as they age. This is one of those other elephants in the room of Obamacare. Long-term care financing of course is the other. We are learning more and more about the health impact of poor oral health so pay attention to this. Plan for care and more importantly make that appointment even if you have to pay out of pocket. Your health is at-risk.

Retire at 73. Another Reason Young People Need to Pay Attention to Aging Issues

General Posted by anthony Date November 22, 2013

This Millenial is the exception.

At a recent publicity summit that I attended, I pitched the media on a story angle centering on the need for younger people, even Millenials, to start preparing for aging sooner in life. Turns out I was not far from the mark. Just a week later came a survey from Millennial Branding and PayScale that finds that 28 percent of those born after 1982 have had to move home. That is three times higher than for Generation X (born between 1965-1981) and six times higher than Baby Boomers (1946-1964).

Dan Schawbel, the founder of Millennial Branding told AOL Jobs in an interview: “Millennials are delaying adulthood and this is how it’s going to be from now on. All the data suggests a permanently different economy. This is the first American generation that won’t have the same quality of life as the previous generation.”

The Opportunity Nation, as reported in the Associated Press, reported that almost 6 million young people, almost 15 percent of those aged 16 to 24, are neither in school nor working and 54 percent of college graduates under 25 are unemployed or doing a job that doesn’t require a college degree.

NerdWalletconducted a study that examined the financial profile of a typical college graduate and found that while retirement is certainly not impossible, for most it will have to wait until their early to mid 70s. According to NerdWallet: ÛÏGiven an average life expectancy of 84, this will leave only 10-12 years for people to spend in retirement. The main reason for this is that although the median college graduate leaves with a seemingly manageable $23,300 debt load, 7% of a studentÛªs earnings go toward yearly loan payments of $2,858 for the first ten years of his or her career. This prevents any meaningful contributions toward retirement. In fact, by the age of 33, when the typical college grad has finally paid off their standard 10-year loans, he or she can only be expected to have saved $2,466 for retirementÛÓover $30,000 less than if the student had graduated with no debt.Û

The lost savings directly attributable to student debt is $115,096, nearly 28% of total retirement savings.

Kudos to NerdWallet for echoing what I have been preaching and I quote ÛÒ ÛÏbeing conscious of this problem and tailoring financial and career planning accordingly can go a long way toward achieving retirement objectives. There are many factors that influence the ultimate age at which people are able to retire, but there are a few variables that have a particularly large impact. Making above-average yearly contributions to a retirement account, working for an organization with a decent 401(k) match, and making sure to invest money in index tracking mutual funds are three ways to help add years to retirement.Û

So yes, everyone needs to be thinking about aging issues sooner in life. This one is of course about financial health. In an earlier blog, we explored physical health citing a study that showed that nine risk factors, most of which can be traced to adolescence, account for most cases of young-onset dementia (YOD) diagnosed before the age of 65 years.åÊ

And if you want to get into the third leg of my educated aging stool ÛÒ emotional aging ÛÒ take a look at my caring.com blog in which we uncovered some new age biases. Princeton University professors uncovered prescriptive prejudice, which are beliefs about how older adults should act. They found three key ideas:

Succession, the idea that older adults should move aside from high-paying jobs and prominent social roles to make way for younger people
Identity, the idea that older people should not attempt to act younger than they are
Consumption, the idea that seniors should not consume so many scarce resources, such as healthcare

I am thinking some of these come from Millenials and Gen XÛªers who maybe need to spend a little more time around boomers and seniors to see just what we have to bring to society.

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