Six months ago, the inaugural edition of The Aging Almanac went out to a few dozen people, a good number of whom I’m related to — thanks for reading Mum and Dad! We have come a long way. The Aging Almanac now reaches thousands of readers a month, and more than 560 of you have subscribed. Thank you for reading, sharing, commenting and emailing your feedback and personal stories. I’m acutely aware of the deluge of content that lands in your inboxes, and very grateful that you choose to spend your time with me.
The Aging Almanac is taking a couple of weeks off after a busy reporting season, but I want to leave you with a taste of what’s to come, and some lessons from the last six months. Over the past few weeks, I have been in Chicago, reporting on the importance of primary care for older adults with expert insight from the teams at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Rush University Medical Center. Then London, to report on the UK hospice sector and one of the NHS’s signature dementia care programs. I’m looking forward to launching a new recurring series about aging outside the United States, where we might learn from the experience of others.
We’re also coming up to Medicare enrollment season amid cuts to Medicare drug subsidies, so insurance has been on my mind. These are stories I’ll bring you in full over the coming weeks. If there is someone in your life who would benefit from these or any of the Almanac’s earlier articles, please do hit the share button and send it to them.
The goal of the Almanac is to give readers an evidence-based guide to a complex season of life. Time comes for us all, but how can we work longer, plan better, care for ourselves and others, and make informed decisions about health, money, housing and caregiving? For those who joined recently — the more than 500 of you who weren’t here at the start — I recommend reading the piece that set out what this newsletter is for, and why I write about aging. I’ve added the link to that here.
As I’ve expanded my reporting across these subjects, it’s become abundantly clear that the challenges we face as we age are more connected than we care to admit. Some examples: diet feeds cognition, caregiving can be terrible for your own health, and a single fall can have ripple effects on your housing, finances and family all at once. The trouble can compound the way credit card interest does. Equally, early preparation and small consistent lifestyle changes can have big payoffs: planning decisions made and shared before a crisis, a walk every day, a change to what’s on the plate, a grab rail or better lighting, seeking out new friendships and interests.
And as I’ve tried to learn about you, the audience, it’s clear that many of you are caregivers looking for guidance and support while caring for loved ones. With that in mind, I have recently reorganized the website to make articles easier to browse by topic, in addition to chronologically via the full archive. Please visit and pick up on the pieces you may have missed. I would also love to hear from you - readers can share stories, ask questions and suggest avenues of investigation by sending an email to agingalmanac@substack.com.
One of the most-read pieces of the last six months was an interview about the emotional realities of caregiving with clinical psychologist Allison Applebaum, PhD.
Applebaum is a professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where she leads the Steven S. Elbaum Family Center for Caregiving. In the weeks since I sat down with Applebaum, and in an exceptionally difficult government funding environment, she has received a notice of grant funding from the National Cancer Institute to test a communication skills program for caregivers of patients with advanced cancer. An earlier version of the training reduced anxiety and distress among caregivers of brain tumour patients and left them better prepared. Congratulations Allison!
The Aging Almanac will return to its usual Thursday morning schedule on August 27.
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