Other Recent Articles
Show those aging muscle cells who’s boss
Did you know that even muscle cells decline with age?
It’s true. Worn-out muscle cells don’t burn calories as effectively. Lower muscle mass can lead to weight gain, which can in turn contribute to major health risks such as diabetes, writes Dr. Randal F. Wojciehoski, an emergency medicine physician at Saint Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point, Wis., in the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune.
PDF IRA conversions an option in Wisconsin
If you’re a Wisconsin resident, you can now convert a traditional Individual Retirement Account into a Roth IRA without penalty, regardless of income.
This is an important change that brings Wisconsin law in line with federal tax law changes enacted this year. Previously, Wisconsin residents with incomes of more than $100,000 faced penalties for IRA conversions.
Just how ‘millennial’ are you, anyway?
Do you send texts? Read a daily newspaper? Watch TV for an hour or more each day? Have you created a Facebook profile?
These are just a few of the questions that determine how similar you are to Generation Y or the Millennials, born after 1980. The new Pew Research Center survey consists of 14 simple questions that will show how close you rate in your responses to Generations X, Y and baby boomers.
See what your savings bonds are worth
Savers like to buy and give savings bonds because they’re a fairly safe investment that can offer tax benefits. However, because they’re held for such long periods of time, savings bonds can cause confusion over what they’re worth and when they can be redeemed for the face value – or more.
Fortunately, you can determine how much your bonds are worth without too much trouble.
It’s heart month: Time to live healthier!
One out of every three American women will experience heart disease in her lifetime.
One out of three! Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women age 65 or better, and the second leading cause of death among women ages 45-64.
In fact, a 2007 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2000 baby boomers, both men and women, had more hospitalizations for heart disease than the 45-to 54-year-olds born 10 to 20 years before them, U.S. News & World Report wrote.
The boomer spin on social networking
Nearly half of all baby boomers (47 percent) are using Facebook, MySpace, Eons or another social networking site these days, according to the report Boomers and Social Media.
Although their contacts include family, friends and co-workers of all ages, you aren’t likely to see boomers touting themselves as “fans” or “friends” of a product or service unless they’re particularly passionate about it, the study found.
The report also shows that only 10 percent of boomers use the microblogging site Twitter and even fewer are reading blogs.
Fewer baby boomers have hearing loss
Fewer baby boomers are experiencing hearing loss, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who herself was warned about listening to loud music earlier in life.
“I’m less likely to have a hearing loss when I get to be 70 years old than my grandmother did when she was 70,” said UW researcher Karen Cruickshanks, the author of the study, in a news article.
Overall, boomers have 31 percent less hearing loss than their parents’ generation.
41,000 Wisconsin boomers have glaucoma. Do you?
More than 41,000 Wisconsin residents ages 40 and better have glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness, according to Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute.
Glaucoma damages the optic nerve, affecting peripheral vision, and if left untreated, impacts central vision as well. Vision loss can be reduced through early detection, according to an article in the Milwaukee Courier.
