MarcAgronin.com

Dr. Marc E. Agronin, MD

Wall Street Journal

WSJ: It’s Time to Rethink the Bucket-List Retirement

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In the search for the next big adventure, retirees are too often missing out on the most fulfilling aspects of later life For many seniors, the bucket list has become the ultimate celebration of aging. Healthier, heartier and richer than generations of retirees before them, they’re spending their golden years chasing once-in-a-lifetime … [Read more...] about WSJ: It’s Time to Rethink the Bucket-List Retirement

How to Build Your Own Geriatric Team

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MARC AGRONIN: Recently, a woman in her 80s came to my office panic-stricken over a diagnosis of dementia. Her doctor had done a cursory exam of her cognition, bestowed the damning diagnosis, and prescribed twice the recommended starting dose of a medication for her memory. She then began suffering from severe appetite loss and nausea. Missing … [Read more...] about How to Build Your Own Geriatric Team

How Technology Will Revolutionize Long-Term Care

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MARC AGRONIN: Henry went viral. Over 1.7 million viewers and counting have witnessed this wheelchair-bound nursing-home resident being provided with his favorite music piped into headphones from an iPod. This clip, from Alive Inside, a movie about the Memory and Music project that brings donated iPods to individuals in nursing homes, is one … [Read more...] about How Technology Will Revolutionize Long-Term Care

Let’s Close the Alzheimer’s Diagnosis-Disclosure Gap

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MARC AGRONIN: “Frank, but not blunt” is how one textbook on medical ethics advises its doctor-readers to impart bad news to a patient. Most doctors today are generally good at this approach, girded by in-depth tests, scans and tissue samples that confirm the diagnosis. Gone is the doctor’s paternalism of days past when serious diagnoses like cancer … [Read more...] about Let’s Close the Alzheimer’s Diagnosis-Disclosure Gap

A Humane Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide

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MARC AGRONIN: Since the inception of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act in 1994, approximately 750 individuals having taken their own lives with the assistance of a physician, representing 60 to 70 of those who sought out and received a lethal but legal prescription. Routine data collected from these individuals indicate consistently that the most … [Read more...] about A Humane Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide

Why Older Job Seekers Must Have an Online Presence

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MARC AGRONIN: What one tip would I give to older Americans who are currently out of work, but who would like to find full-time employment? Manage your digital footprint. I had a good laugh recently when I witnessed my 12-year-old son, Sam, fiddling with a VCR machine and trying to insert the tape upside down. This once-ubiquitous machine was a … [Read more...] about Why Older Job Seekers Must Have an Online Presence

Let’s All Stop Trying to Be Young Forever

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MARC AGRONIN: What is one element of growing older that has surprised me? The new normal. A friend once related to me that when his mother moved into an assisted-living facility, her first complaint was having to spend so much time with all of the “old ladies” there. This was a surprising statement coming from a woman in her 90s, but it typified … [Read more...] about Let’s All Stop Trying to Be Young Forever

Why Your Grandmother Should Use Social Media

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MARC AGRONIN: Consider this a baptism by Facebook FB +1.31{9b8438f5bc691300781eae7abc85395c1261bdad65db9476774cd2cf5af6cbf6}. Grandma goes onto the Internet and sets up a rudimentary Facebook profile, excited to begin perusing her grandchildren’s pages. A new world opens up—although perhaps not the one she expected—as she begins to take in all of … [Read more...] about Why Your Grandmother Should Use Social Media