by Michael Grounds Our age is when we wish we’d been more careful when we were younger. When we were younger was when we didn’t care about how we’d be when we were old. Nowhere is this more true than in our skin. The chickens come home to roost in the form of lines, wrinkles, [...]
‘Things Go Wrong’
Things go wrong with the skin
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Things Go Wrong with the Memory
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009by Michael Grounds Not many of us get to a great age with our wits entirely intact. All of us, I suspect, live in fear that we will lose our marbles and spend our last years in confusion. The good news is that those who do lose their memory and get confused don’t mind it [...]
Things Go Wrong with the Bowel
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009by Michael Grounds Quite a number of nasty things other than cancer can go wrong with the bowel, but most of them have long since been dealt with by the time we reach the age of wisdom (that’s us). Two things afflict our generation: diverticulosis and cancer. I’ll deal with diverticulosis next month. The nastiest [...]
Constipation
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009by Michael Grounds Constipation is a great nuisance in older people. What we really want is to sit on the toilet once a day, do a quick poo, clean up, and get on with the day. Here are some tips. When our digested food gets to the large bowel, or colon, it is a [...]
Things Go Wrong: Polymyalgia Rheumatica
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009by Michael Grounds Here’s a funny cause of blindness, a disease with a name meaning lots of aching muscles. It also causes inflammation of arteries, but I will deal with the aches first. PMR mostly attacks older folk, so this is for us. For no apparent reason you find yourself aching when you wake, and [...]
Macular Degeneration
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009by Michael Grounds In the back of the eye, visible through the pupil with an ophthalmoscope, is a little red spot with a yellow centre called the macule, which means little spot. It is the part of the retina with which we look at things, and if it degenerates reading becomes progressively more difficult. Look [...]
The Eyes
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009by Michael Grounds Apart from cataract, which I dealt with last month, there are four major things which spoil the eyes as we age. Anything else is very rare. Presbyopia, which means “seniors’ vision”, is as common as grey hair. The lens of the eye has a variable focus, focussed on the horizon at rest. [...]
Cataract
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009by Michael Grounds Things go wrong with the eyes as you get older. This month I’ll deal with cataracts: next month presbyopia, glaucoma and macular degeneration. Cataract is a condition where the lens develops opaque scars inside it, gradually making it hard to see things. It “clouds the vision” but you don’t see clouds. [...]
Female sexual function
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009By Michael Grounds One of the delights of life is that women like men. They even enjoy a morning kiss from a man who is inevitably in need of a shave. They are so desirable, and by lovely reciprocation they are desirous. That’s a man’s view, of course. Some woman might like to write hers. [...]
Cancer of the Lung
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009By Michael Grounds As we age we are more likely to develop a cancer, including lung cancer. Some cancers are only seen in children, and may be due to a fault in foetal development. Testicular cancer is not seen in men over 40. Most cancers are due to prolonged exposure to an irritant, the most [...]