We’ll Have the Bacon Cheeseburger, Hold the Bacon, Hold the Dementia.

1. We’ll Have the Bacon Cheeseburger, Hold the Bacon, Hold the Dementia.

It’s not exactly a news flash that red meats, especially processed red meats like bacon and sausage, are bad for your health. A Harvard study in 2010, for instance, linked processed meats with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, and the World Health Organization labeled processed meats as a carcinogen in 2015. But if you’re still on the fence about eating processed meat, here is a new study that might tip you off.?

A new study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, published in the journal Neurology, has found that people who eat more red meat, especially processed red meats like bacon, sausage and bologna, are more likely to have a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia when compared to those who eat little red meat. The researchers followed a group of 113,771 people with an average age of 49 for over four decades, with about 10% of the study group reporting dementia or cognitive decline. In assessing the impact of eating red meat on cognitive health, the researchers held constant for age, sex, and other typical cognitive factors - and found that people who consumed processed red meats had about a 15% higher risk of dementia than those who did not. Even consuming unprocessed red meat was associated with faster brain aging in global cognition, with 1.61 years for each additional serving per day, and in verbal memory with 1.69 years for each additional serving per day.?

We’re a little sad about this – we love our pepperoni pizza here at TNSB – but unlike some people these days, we will follow the science, and steer clear of the butcher aisle.??

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2. Anti-Ageist We Are.

Coming out of the Century Summit, there was broad agreement among speakers and attendees that we had much work to do in order to bring the generations together. Distance and lack of familiarity between the generations is the handmaiden of ageism, so conference participants made a strong call to action to support more efforts like CoGenerate, Generations United, and Hey Auntie! – to name just three of many – and to increase the number of conversations and efforts in this area. So now comes Ashton Applewhite, with a new initiative called YODA – Youngers + Olders Dismantling Ageism. It’s an idea to launch conversations across generations and ask questions such as:?

• Where is my age an advantage, and where is it held against me??
• How does bias against olders perpetuate bias against youngers, and vice versa?
• How does age sustain existing hierarchies, who benefits, and how might we subvert them???

At TNSB, we are all in on intergenerational conversation, but even if we weren’t, Ashton had us at “Yoda”. Could there be a better name for this effort? Yoda, according to Star Wars canon, was roughly 900 years old when he died in Return of the Jedi, and he was kicking Sith lord butt almost up to the very end. But more relevant to our cause here, Yoda also believed in intergenerational friendship. It is no accident that he died in the arms of his friend Luke Skywalker. AARP has asked in polling whether you have a friend 15 years younger or older and only 39% of people responded in the affirmative. But Luke and Yoda? Friends only 875 years apart.

Shameless Self Promotion #1.

Want to see intergenerational activity in action? Watch the latest episode of GrandPeople, where we tell the story of the Heart of LA Eisner Intergenerational Orchestra. You’ll laugh; you’ll cry. It’s a roller coaster of emotions in just 2 minutes and 30 seconds of video.??

3. 50 Over 50.

As a rule here at TNSB, we don’t like lists very much. Once you get past all of David Letterman’s Top Tens, the Book of Lists, and Richard Nixon’s Enemies List, we don’t have much use for them.?

But we’re going to make a brief exception for the new Forbes 50 Over 50 list which features an extraordinary cross section of women over the age of 50 from across the globe. Peruse it at your leisure but here are three women who stood out for us:?

• Su Min.??If the list was titled “One Over 50”, we’d probably vote to have Su Min on it.?In 2019, in her late 50s, Su, a factory worker and dumpling seller, walked out on her abusive husband, and kept walking - reinventing herself as?the “road trip auntie”.?Following a dream to travel around China, she began a journey that would crisscross 10 Chinese provinces and encompass more than 180,000 miles.? Her stories made her a “travel influencer and feminist icon” and led director Li Yinchuan to use her as the inspiration for the 2024 film, “Like a Rolling Stone.”?
• Urmila Asher.?If you think starting over in your late 50s is impressive (and we do), then you will be bowled over by Urmila Asher, a viral cooking YouTuber and retail food store owner.?At the age of 75, she launched an entirely new career, starting with a Gujarati-style pickle business, but eventually expanding her sales to other Gujarati delicacies and selling across Mumbai.?Since then, Urmila has been on everything, from TEDx to YouTube to MasterChef India, sharing her amazing creations and spreading her homemade recipes. Learn more about her YouTube creations here.????
• Loretta Dignam.?Like so many women in menopause, Loretta Dignam felt inadequately supported by the health care system. So, at the age of 56, she did something about it, founding the Menopause Hub, Ireland’s first and only dedicated menopause clinic. The Menopause Hub offers women access to OB-GYNs who provide both hormone therapy and non-hormonal treatment, all part of an effort “...to make menopause mainstream by smashing the taboo and de-stigmatizing menopause, so that women can optimize their health and vitality during their menopausal years and can continue to live the life they love.”?

Shameless Self Promotion #2.

Speaking of menopause, that’s the topic of today’s episode of Century Lives, the 51%. There are very few givens when it comes to menopause - and many unanswered questions. Should you treat menopause with hormones? Do hormones cause breast cancer? Do hormones cause heart disease? What about non-hormonal alternatives? Shouldn’t you just stop complaining???

In this episode, we’ll explore these questions and the outdated attitudes that have held back research and treatment of women for decades.?We meet Dr. Marcia Stefanick of Stanford who worked on the Women’s Health initiative, the first major research exploration of menopause, and talk to Dr. Joann Pinkerton of the University of Virginia and Dr. Wen Shen of Johns Hopkins, two inspiring physicians who have devoted their careers to improving women's health at midlife. Check it out here.