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If you are one of the estimated 10 million people over age 50 caring for elderly parents this year, consider a different kind of New Year’s Resolution: have “The Talk.” You may have just spent quality, holiday time with them (and saw firsthand how quickly they may be aging). Pick a time for a serious discussion about their health care—followed by some serious paperwork to make those decisions stick.
Why now? Why not? Ask yourself what you would do if the unthinkable happened – a car accident, a stroke – and your parents couldn’t communicate. Would you know what your parents would want you to do? Would their healthcare team even speak with you?
It is a troubling scenario, but all too common, says Maureen Beck, RN, MSN, a gerontological nurse practitioner and co-director of the UT Center for Healthy Aging, part of the UT Physicians clinical practice at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
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The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), the most comprehensive academic health center in The UT System and the U.S. Gulf Coast region, is home to schools of biomedical informatics, biomedical sciences, dentistry, medicine, nursing and public health. UTHealth educates more healthcare professionals than any health-related institution in the State of Texas and features the nation’s seventh-largest medical school. It also includes a psychiatric hospital and a growing network of clinics throughout the region. The university’s primary teaching hospitals include Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital. Founded in 1972, UTHealth’s 10,000-plus faculty, staff, students and residents are committed to delivering innovative solutions that create the best hope for a healthier future.
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The Good, the Bad
and the Fat
Confused by all the “bad fat-good fat” warnings?
Here’s an easy way to tell them apart:
Bad fats (trans and saturated) remain solid at room temperature. A stick of butter remains a stick. A glob of beef fat remains... a glob. Good fats (fish oil, olive oil, canola oil) remain liquid at room temperature.
