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If you’ve got elderly relatives visiting over the holidays, you can help make your big dinner as tasty as possible for them, with a couple of easy tweaks.
As people age, their sense of taste can diminish, due to dry mouth, certain medications, or conditions like stroke or diabetes. Even dental problems can interfere with taste perception, as can a sense of smell that’s not as sharp as it used to be.
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About.com Longevity
So, recently I’ve discovered that I can actually refinish wood furniture. For a while I went through a phase where I wanted to paint everything, and I certainly still think paint has its place, but there are certainly plenty of cases where it’s nice to be able to see the grain of the wood you’re working with. Wood grain from actual trees is incredibly intricate and each piece of furniture is bound to be unique in this regard — no two trees are exactly alike, after all.
For some reason, though, until I actually tried it, my conceptualization of refinishing furniture was that it was this weird esoteric thing that only professionals with very specialized tools could do. But this is far from being true…really, it’s just a lot of work to refinish something, and the majority of that work is in getting the old finish (or old paint, if someone has painted the piece) off. Which is sort of the un-fun part for a lot of people, I guess.
But I can now say that refinishing is, much to my pleasant surprise, not actually THAT difficult. It just takes persistence to get through the old finish and get ALL of it off so it doesn’t interfere with whatever new treatments you plan to apply to the wood.
Anyway, the very first thing I refinished (a few months ago) was a night stand I got at Goodwill. I was tired of not having anywhere to put my glasses or water at night and the bedroom just looked kind of spartan with only the platform bed and the two Ubiquitous Ikea MALM Dressers in it.
Thus began my quest to find a nightstand that would (a) fit nicely in my bedroom, (b) be interesting-looking, (c) be durable (as in, hopefully made of actual wood rather than that pressboard stuff that eventually just seems to disintegrate), and (d) not cost a lot (given the fact that I’m both currently between jobs and a cheapskate even when I AM employed).
So, I checked at various thrift stores in the area…it took something like four trips to find something that fit all my quest criteria. Below is a “before” picture of the piece — this was taken when I first got it home, before I’d done anything to modify it:
I am not a furniture historian, but based on the shiny finish, curvy brass handle, and construction style (solid wood with veneers) I would place the origins of this thing somewhere between mid-1970s and mid-1980s. It also gave off a sense of being “hotel furniture”…something about the reverberation of the drawer when I opened and closed it, as well as the fact that the drawer had obviously been repaired several times in a manner that was sturdy but ugly.
The things I saw in it that I liked were the fact that it was indeed solid wood. Veneered solid wood, but the veneer was actually decently thick and the wood underneath looked to be in good shape overall (there was some water damage but it was superficial and sanded out easily). The picture below shows the piece from the back — I ended up removing that thin piece of paneling (which was rather weakly nailed on) over the back, as I discovered it wasn’t really adding anything structural to the unit.
The veneer thickness is also visible in this photo…and it’s another aspect of the unit that made me think both “hotel furniture” and “1980s construction at the very latest”, seeing as it’s a fair bit thicker than what you’re likely to see these days in comparable pieces. I was also lucky it was as thick as it was seeing as I ended up doing a heck of a lot of sanding!
The finish was in terrible condition (you can’t see it easily from the “before” picture above, but the shiny stuff was really dinged up in places). I can’t stand that really shiny finish anyway (at least not on wood). though, so I was prepared to deal with that.
Here the unit is after full stripping and sanding (and after I removed the back panel). I used mineral spirits, two different kinds of paint scraper, and lots of coarse sandpaper (attached to a sanding block) to get it to this point. Personally I think it already looks better here than it did when I brought it home!
Here is the first iteration of staining/decoration. I used Dark Mahogany gel stain over the whole piece, then sanded it off the top and bottom shelf. I then painted some stripes on the drawer…mostly to hide the wood filler I used to plug up the holes where the old handle used to attach.
At this point it looked…tidier, but still not quite what I was after, visually speaking. It didn’t feel like something that would fit in my house yet. Plus the color still looked slightly wrong somehow.
For a while I was stumped as to where to go next…but then my imagination kicked in, and I found myself making up a story about a nondescript little night-stand which had somehow fallen through a dimensional portal from an alternate-history timeline (where it had been owned by a sort of grandfatherly astronomer sort of guy) and ended up in a mid-grade hotel, where it had sat for nearly 30 years enviously listening to the travelers who came through and stayed in its room chattering about their interesting trips throughout the world.
With that in mind, I now had a bit more of an aesthetic plan…that is, I wanted some sort of astronomy motif worked in, and I wanted to add some distressing to the wood, and I wanted the overall effect to be somewhat amusingly anachronistic. (If that makes any sense. The art module in my brain isn’t exactly very well wired to the language module, in a manner of speaking, so this stuff might be coming out oddly).
Anyway, this (above) was my first attempt at realizing the imagined biographical aspirations of the Little Nightstand That Could. While the result was…heading in the right direction, my (first ever-in-my-life) attempt at decoupaging the top of the piece failed pretty miserably. I failed to add enough glue to the back side of the paper (on which I’d printed out, via Google Image Search, an old drawing of an armillary sphere) so when I added glue to the top it got all wrinkly and I couldn’t get rid of the bubbles…and then things started tearing, so I had to rip everything off and start over.
I also tried painting a border around the top panel (where the decoupage was)…this again was kind of like what I was imagining, but the execution wasn’t quite right. And the bottom shelf just looked terrible completely covered with opaque grey paint.
Finally, my third decoupage attempt came out sufficiently neat-looking — no bubbles this time, and I managed to seal the edges pretty well.
I also reduced the size of the decoupaged area considerably from my original plan, which allowed me to sand off some of the finish on the top again (to what I think was a pretty nifty effect…sort of a streaky/blotchy but not overly haphazard look when combined with a few judiciously placed grey painted bits).
I also sanded the front of the drawer to fade out some of the reddishness of the mahogany stain and was VERY happy with how that turned out.
I don’t know what kind of wood this drawer is made of but the grain is very pretty and the way it managed to sort of “hold on” to little bits of everything I’d smeared on it led to something even cooler-looking than I’d anticipated.
Then I sanded off a bunch of the grey paint on the bottom shelf too…and that completed the look. A few coats of polyurethane later, the new-old nightstand was in my bedroom, where it now sits quite happily, holding water glasses and other typical bedside miscellany, and generally looking as if it belongs exactly where it is.
Existence is Wonderful
(For the liveblog of the meeting as it unfolds, see here.)
Earlier this year, the biogerontologists of the San Francisco Bay Area held the first of a series of biannual research meetings, the Bay Area Aging Club. More or less right on schedule, the next meeting is in a couple of weeks on Saturday, December 4th.
It’s now the slightly more official-sounding Bay Area Aging Meeting, but the format is the same: A full day of talks from labs from all around the Bay Area, with lunch, and an opportunity to network with the large and growing local community of researchers in biogerontology and allied subjects. Last time the meeting was at UCSF; this time it’s at Stanford.
Here’s the initial event announcement from Stuart Kim. Note the registration link, which contains more detailed information about time and location. Registration is free.
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Animal studies support a cancer-promoting role for fat, and in humans, epidemiological data strongly suggest that dietary fat intake may be associated with incidence and mortality of cancers of the breast, colon, rectum, and prostate. There are also data implicating fat in cancers of the ovaries, uterus, pancreas, and lung, but the evidence is not as strong. There is still a debate as to whether it is total dietary fat, specific fats, or total calories that are involved in carcinogenesis. In any event, cancers of breast, colon, and prostate are highest in North America and western Europe and lowest in Asia, and are directly related to the intake of total fat in the diet even when adjusted for total calories. (more…)
Much of cell death is genetically programmed by the process called apoptosis. In apoptosis, when the cell is damaged, the DNA initiates cell destruction, or suicide, and the cell is slowly broken into small packages that are removed by phagocytic cells, and there is no inflammation. In cancer, not only does proliferation occur, but apoptosis is blocked, resulting in accumulation of abnormal cells.
Scientists are beginning to investigate mechanisms of restoring and inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. Several approaches are being sought; one is to introduce apoptosis signals, allowing the cancer cells to die while rescuing the normal cells. Another is to reintroduce into the cancer a normal gene involved in setting off apoptosis, such as the normal p53 gene; a third method is to shut off proliferation genes (such as mutated Ras), which by itself inhibits apoptosis. If the mutated Ras gene is shut down, apoptosis will start up again and cancer cells will die.
Cancer kills people because the tumor both invades and metastasizes. Approximately 30% of patients newly diagnosed with a cancer have detectable metastatic disease. About another 30% have occult metastases (micrometastases) that will become evident in time. Thus, 60% of cancer patients will have multiple dormant metastases and will ultimately fail therapy and die of the cancer. The formation of metastases begins early in the growth of the primary tumor and increases with time. Small metastases up to 1 mm in size receive nutrition by diffusion but need to have new blood vessels (neo-vascularization) to grow larger. There has been a long search for the angiogenic ‘switch.’ Some target molecules and new therapies are being developed to thwart this neovascularization.
Cancer traditionally was classified as being either a carcinoma or a sarcoma named for the presumed cell of origin: epithelial (carcinoma) or mesenchymal (sarcoma). Recent evidence has demonstrated that most if not all neoplasms arise from immature stem cells that then differentiate along normal cell lines, but mutate and acquire the properties of autonomous growth as described previously. We now realize that carcinomas of the lung, breast, and stomach do not arise from well-differentiated ‘normal’ cells in these organs but from stem cells that begin to differentiate in the di- rection of these tissues but then become autonomous and have impaired apoptosis. These cells lose their normal self-limiting capacity and acquire properties that allow them to enter the circulation and spread to other organs. These cancer cells are the ‘seed,’ and if other organ’s ‘soil’ supports their growth, metastases grow distant to the primary site. Cancers of the lymphatic system or blood-forming cells are termed hematopoietic malignancies. Lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma are the most common of the hematopoietic malignancies. Thus, a neoplasm is usually named by what the cells resemble and where they arise. A cancer of the lung implies that the cells resemble lung cells and arise in that organ. An osteosarcoma resembles bone cells and is found in bone. Leukemia resembles white cells and is found in the bone marrow. It is still useful to classify cancer cells as a carcinoma, a sarcoma, or hematopoietic, as there are specific tumor markers (proteins on the cell surface) that are present on the tumor cells and that can be detected by the pathologist using different immunohistochemical staining techniques. The treatment depends on the cell of origin.
Cancers can have very different metastatic potential that depends upon their histologic type and intrinsic aggressiveness. It appears that metastasis occurs soon after the primary tumor vascularizes. Metastasis is a process separate from tumor formation. The genetic changes that lead to tumor formation do not by themselves cause erosion and metastases (see Table bellow). Invasion involves substances such as proteases, adhesion receptors, and motility cytokines. Metastases also involve these.
Progression of cancer and the positive and negative
influences on its growth and spread
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Multiple losses are common as people age, including deaths of spouse, family, and friends. A less obvious form of loss involves the change in relationship quality with a spouse or friend who may be experiencing physical or cognitive impairment. These losses, as well as the awareness of one’s own mortality, often trigger a review and evaluation of unrealized dreams, lost opportunities, and unresolved relationships. This review may activate negative thoughts and maladaptive schema that impede the recovery process. In addition, the loss of meaningful relationships may isolate the older adult and reduce the opportunities for support and social interactions with others.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy interventions that seek to address these concerns can be helpful in reversing the negative spiral and engaging the individual in a more positive and adaptive response. For example, cognitive interventions that identify negative thoughts and challenge their accuracy will facilitate a more positive grief reaction and process. If the person believes that ‘I can’t survive alone,’ ‘My life is a total failure,’ or ‘I’ll never be happy again,’ then the person will find it difficult to interpret experience accurately. Cognitive techniques, such as ‘examining the evidence’ and ‘generating alternative thoughts,’ will facilitate a more positive recovery from loss and bereavement. In combination with behavioral techniques, such as increasing pleasant events and interactions with others, Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps move the person into a more problem-solving and adaptive response.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an approach to treatment of psychological problems that emphasizes the relationship among cognitive processes (thoughts or beliefs), emotions, and behavior. The assumption is that what one believes about an event or experience impacts how one feels and behaves in that situation. Similarly, the activities or behaviors that one engages in will affect mood and thoughts. Thus, a depressed person is often trapped in a downward spiral of negative thoughts that lead to depressed feelings and disengagement from meaningful and pleasant activities. The approach to treatment assumes that changes in thoughts and behaviors will result in changes in mood. The process of treatment is active and directive, with the therapist and patient working collaboratively to identify and change negative or dysfunctional thoughts and increase participation in meaningful activities. The goal of CBT is to teach the skills needed to change the dysfunctional thinking and behaviors that contribute to negative mood. Thus, Cognitive behavioral interventions therapy emphasizes the teaching of coping skills for dealing with problems rather than ‘curing’ the problem. The expected consequence of teaching these skills is an increase in patients’ sense of self efficacy, competency, and coping abilities. These skills equip them to deal not only with present problems, but also with future problems. The leading figures in the development of general cognitive therapy approaches to treatment of mood disorders are Albert Ellis, Donald Meichenbaum, and Aaron Beck.
Given the widespread use of technology in most occupations, one important issue concerns how the influx of technology will affect jobs for older workers and employment opportunities and the productivity for them. This issue is particularly important for today’s cohort of older workers, as they have not had the same exposure to technology that younger people have had. However, despite cohort differences, technology will continue to be a pertinent issue for future generations of older adults, as technology is dynamic and continuing to develop at an unprecedented rate. (more…)
