When Lapses Are Not Just Signs of Aging

Who hasn’t struggled occasionally to come up with a desired word or the name of someone near and dear? I was still in my 40s when one day the first name of my stepmother of 30-odd years suddenly escaped me. I had to introduce her to a friend as “Mrs. Brody.”

But for millions of Americans with a neurological condition called mild cognitive impairment, lapses in word-finding and name recall are often common, along with other challenges like remembering appointments, difficulty paying bills or losing one’s train of thought in the middle of a conversation.
Though not as severe as full-blown Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, mild cognitive impairment is often a portent of these mind-robbing disorders. Dr. Barry Reisberg, professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, who in 1982 described the seven stages of Alzheimer’s disease, calls the milder disorder Stage 3, a condition of subtle deficits in cognitive function that nonetheless allow most people to live independently and participate in normal activities.

Need Sleep? Stay Out of the Hospital

Delaying a treatment for a few hours in exchange for needed sleep may not sound like a big tradeoff, but hospitals depend on “flow” and limiting a patient’s “length of stay.” They do this not only to accommodate new patients but also to make money. If a room that could empty at 10 a.m. does not empty until 2 p.m., that’s four extra hours a patient has to wait in the emergency department or a lengthy wait time for a patient with a scheduled admission. Perhaps more important to the hospital, a room that could be generating payment from a new patient isn’t earning anything from a patient who is simply waiting to leave.

Gen X vs. Gen Y: Till 'Blank' Do Us Part

With divorce rates on the rise among some age groups in particular, it appears that different generations view divorce very differently. Generation X, those born to the Baby Boomers, are viewed as the children of the divorce boom of the 1970's. Gen X'ers are those who first experienced the reality of being raised while their parents fought out divorce battles when before, divorces were uncommon. They were the generation who grew up being raised in two households and learned with how to deal with step-parents and step-siblings, with very little guidance on how to live a life so different from the way their parents had been raised. As a result of these collective experiences, the views of Gen X'ers, when it comes to divorce, are surprisingly different from those of the next generation.

Those belonging to Generation Y, also referred to as Millennials, are considered to be generally narcissistic, immature and interested in short-term gratification. Whether the description of this generation is warranted or not, statistics reveal that Gen Y'ers are more likely to have shorter marriages that Gen X'ers and are more likely get divorced than the previous generation.