Foods to keep your heart, brain, and bones healthy.

Is there such a thing as a longevity diet? Increasingly, studies suggest the answer is yes.

Around the world, certain groups of people enjoy exceptionally long lives. Consider the lucky people of Okinawa: These Pacific Islanders have an average life expectancy of more than 81 years, compared to 78 in the United States and a worldwide average of just 67. Closer to home, members of the Seventh Day Adventists, who typically eat vegetarian diets, outlive their neighbors by four to seven years on average.

Stuck in the Middle with You

If youre caring for an elderly parent -- or parents -- and your own children at the same time, youre probably overwhelmed, overworked, overscheduled, and exhausted. Youre also part of a growing cultural phenomenonknown asthe sandwich generation. As todays parents have children later in life, it often means that their childrearing and other family responsibilities collide head-on with the growing needs of aging parents. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP),...

Read the Stuck in the Middle with You article > >

The residents of the San Blas islands, meanwhile, off the coast of Panama, very rarely suffer from high blood pressure and heart disease. Indeed, research shows that their rate of heart disease is only nine per 100,000 people, compared to 83 per 100,000 among nearby mainland Panamanians.

What makes these groups so fortunate? A growing body of findings suggests that diet is one of the important contributors to longevity and a healthy life. WebMD examined the research and talked to the experts. Heres whats on the menu of people who enjoy long and healthy lives.

Most of us know to go easy on saturated fat, the kind found in meat and high-fat dairy products. Saturated fats have been shown to raise blood cholesterol levels into the danger zone. Just as important is what you should be eating. For heart health and longevity, you should eat:

Plenty of fruits and vegetables: Plant-based foods are abundant in fiber and many vitamins and minerals. Packed with nutrients, theyre also relatively low in calories. Studies consistently show that diets plentiful in fruits and vegetables help people maintain a healthy weight and protect against cardiovascular disease.

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Eating for Longevity

STAMFORD -- At the Longevity LLC gym on Research Drive last week, Christian Tapia held up boxing mitts and let 9-year-old Daniel Sweeney swing away.

Tapia, a certified personal trainer, corrected Daniel for dropping his arms between punches, which reduces healthy cardiopulmonary exertion.

"There you go," Tapia said. "Your big brothers will have to watch out."

The workout alternated periods of cardiopulmonary exercises such as boxing, which are more strenuous, with less taxing exercise using nylon traps to build upper body strength.

"I feel stronger," Daniel said.

After spending a little more than a decade building a client base for his personal training and massage therapy services, Tapia reached his long-held goal last year of opening his own office and workout facility at 100 Research Drive along a strip of road dominated by home improvement and other service businesses.

"This has always been the light at the end of the tunnel," Tapia said. "I still visit clients in their homes but I've always wanted to have my own location."

Tapia said his clients start with all levels of fitness and include all ages, but a significant group of customers are adolescents.

Tapia said that better performance and resistance to injury for all athletes is strongly linked to proper strength and flexibility among the correct muscle groups.

"I see a lot of student-athletes who are multi-sport athletes who come to me and are not training their muscle groups in the right way," Tapia said. "There is a proper way to train from sport to sport."

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The Dart: Starting early on living longer

Public release date: 1-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Valerie Wencis valerie_wencis@hms.harvard.edu 617-432-8024 Harvard Medical School

New research reinforces the claim that resveratrola compound found in plants and food groups, notably red wineprolongs lifespan and health-span by boosting the activity of mitochondria, the cell's energy supplier.

"The results were surprisingly clear," said David Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and the study's senior author. "Without the mitochondria-boosting gene SIRT1, resveratrol does not work."

The findings are to be published May 1 in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Over the last decade, Sinclair and colleagues including Leonard Guarente at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have published a body of research describing how resveratrol improves energy production and overall health in cells by activating a class of genes called sirtuins that are integral to mitochondrial function. The cell's power supplier, mitochondria are essential not just for longevity but for overall health.

Sinclair and colleagues had studied sirtuins in a variety of model organisms: yeast, worms, flies and mice. For the first three organisms they were able to thoroughly knock out SIRT1 and show that cells lacking the gene don't respond to resveratrol. But no one had been able to demonstrate the effect in mice, which die at birth without the SIRT1 gene.

In order to solve this obstacle, Nathan Price and Ana Gomes, graduate students in the Sinclair lab, spent three years engineering a new mouse model. These mice, seemingly normal in every way, were designed so that SIRT1 would systemically switch off when the mice were given the drug Tamoxifen.

"This is a drug inducible, whole body deletion of a gene," said Sinclair. "This is something that's rarely been done so efficiently. Moving forward, this mouse model will be valuable to many different labs for other areas of research."

The results were plain: when mice were given low doses of resveratrol after SIRT1 was disabled, the researchers found no discernable improvement in mitochondrial function. In contrast, the mice with normal SIRT1 function given resveratrol showed dramatic increases in energy.

More here:
More evidence for longevity pathway

May 1, 2012

By

PLYMOUTH The United States Department of Justice may sue the city of Plymouth on behalf of a military reserve officer and city employees claims for longevity pay. A news release from City Attorney Sean Surrisi Monday states that there is a question as to whether a city ordinance in effect since 1989 differs from a federal law enacted in 1994 protecting civilian job rights and benefits for veterans and reserve troops who may be absent from their jobs during military service. The employee, who was not named by Surrisi, did receive prorated longevity pay from the city for time actually worked. However, the employee also claims entitlement to longevity pay for the entire year of 2010-11 under terms of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). This Act applies to both governmental and private employers, and supersedes any conflicting local law that reduces, limits, or eliminates any rights or benefits of a service member. The release from the city stated that The U.S. Department of Labor has its own rules and regulations interpreting USERRA, which provide, in part, that an employee who is absent from a position of employment by reason of service is not entitled to greater benefits than would be generally provided to a similarly situated employee on non-military furlough or leave of absence. Surrisi said Monday that the city had been in discussion with the branch of reserves that the employee serves under and also with the U.S. Department of Labor over the past year about the issue. The city maintains that its ordinance does not conflict with USERRA and that the employee in question was treated no better or no worse than any non-military employee on a leave of absence. The city complies with all federal, state, and local laws when figuring payroll, said Plymouth Clerk-Treasurer Toni Hutchings. Our ordinance states that the proration of longevity pay is in the interest of fiscal responsibility and fairness. City officials also brought up Indianas Ghost Employment statute. This statute prohibits a governmental entity from paying an employee for work that has not been performed. Officials question whether making the employees requested longevity payment would violate that statute. Plymouth mayor Mark Senter said that he is proud of Plymouth employees who serve in the military, but that he must support city ordinances. As mayor, the people of Plymouth have given me a trust to enforce their ordinances and my administration must prove faithful in serving as well, said Senter. Surrisi further stated in the news release that the USERRA allows for enforcement actions to be brought on the service members behalf by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Department of Justice has been in contact with the city for some time and may file suit in the near future. In this case, a court will determine whether the longevity pay is due in light of differing local, state, and federal laws.

See the article here:
U.S. Dept. of Justice may sue city

It all started circa 1960 in several areas of the Mediterranean region, specifically the Greek island of Crete, other areas of Greece and southern Italy. Researchers were drawn to these areas because the adults living there had very low rates of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, as well as very long life expectancy. For examples, the natives of Greece had a rate of heart disease that was 90 percent lower than that of Americans at the time. (Mind you, heart disease and cancer are still currently two of the top killers of Americans.)

In addition to a physically active lifestyle, these Mediterranean natives consumed a diet that was rich in grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts. In fact, more than 60 percent of the calories in their diets in the 1960s were supplied by these high-fiber, nutritionally-dense plant foods. The majority of the fat in the diet was provided by olives and olive oil, and fish and seafood was enjoyed at least twice a week. (Note: the latest recommendation from the USDA is to consume at least two fish meals, especially fatty fish such as salmon, weekly to increase longevity.)

Following this traditional 1960s Mediterranean Diet, foods from animal sources were limited as well as sweets. Water was abundantly consumed throughout the day and low to moderate amounts of wine were enjoyed, typically only with meals. Equally important, meals were enjoyed with friends and family.

Fast forward to the present, ongoing research continues to support the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a study that found that this type of eating style was unhealthy.

With the warmer weather and budding of plants around us, May is the perfect month to start enjoying more of a plant-based, Mediterranean diet and lifestyle. Here's some tips:

Cheers!

Follow Joan on Twitter at: joansalgeblake

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The Key To Longevity: Eat Mediterranean-Style

25-04-2012 16:41 Tim shows the LONGEVITY TIGWELD 200DX Pulse Settings. He is using 30 cps pulse to take the heat out of .040 cold rolled metal and get a great weld. Check out for all LONGEVITY WELDING EQUIPMENT!

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TIG Welding on High Pulse Setting using the LONGEVITY TIGWELD 200DX Review - Video

MILWAUKEE, April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Northwestern Mutual released today the Longevity & Preparedness Study that reveals Americans appear to be startlingly unprepared financially to live into their 70s, 80s and 90s. The study is the second in a series of research exploring the state of planning in America.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/53658-northwestern-mutual-longevity-preparedness-study

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120425/MM93718 )

The study asked people, based upon their current financial plan, how prepared they feel to live to age 75, 85 and 95. Findings revealed that only slightly more than half of Americans surveyed (56%) feel financially prepared to live to the age of 75. Less than half (46%) indicated that they feel financially prepared to live to the age of 85. And barely more than one-third (36%) said they feel prepared to live to age 95.

This stands in contrast to current longevity data. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), average life expectancy in the U.S. has increased to 78.2 years (75.7 for men and 80.6 for women). For couples age 65 today, there is a 50 percent likelihood that one partner will live to age 94, and one out of 10 couples will have a partner that lives to be 100 or older[1].

"This research indicates that many Americans are financially unprepared to live long lives," said Greg Oberland, Northwestern Mutual executive vice president. "With longevity comes an increased need to proactively manage your personal finances, which includes a solid risk management strategy. No matter what age you'll live to, it's important to protect the dollars you'll eventually depend on to provide an income in your retirement years."

Northwestern Mutual's Lifespan Calculator is an online quiz that gives you a sense of your own life expectancy. Taking 13 different lifestyle factors into account, such as diet, drinking, smoking and stress, the tool calculates how long you might live. Social networkers on Facebook can download the new Lifespan Calculator Facebook application to compare their life expectancy score with that of other Facebook friends.

Women, Young Americans Report Feeling Least Prepared

When it comes to certain segments, the findings are even more revealing. Women who on average life five years longer than men feel significantly less financially prepared to live longer lives.

The research indicates:

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Northwestern Mutual Research Indicates Many Are Financially Unprepared to Live Beyond Average Life Expectancies

BOULDER, CO--(Marketwire -04/26/12)- The Center for Productive Longevity (CPL), which serves as the bridge between people 55 and older and the opportunities that enable them to continue in productive activities, today announced the results of the first in a series of four meetings, "Spotlight on Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Baby Boomers." During a time of high unemployment and low economic growth, CPL initiated the 2012 series to stimulate the interest of Baby Boomers in new-business creation.

The first event was held at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, MO, a focal point for entrepreneurship in America, and attracted almost 100 participants to engage in interactive discussion and dialogue about entrepreneurship. Sponsors of the event included the Kauffman Foundation, AARP, the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) and CPL.

Written evaluations from the event indicated that almost all participants have a strong desire to start a new business; 97 percent stated they are more likely to create a new business as a result of attending the daylong meeting.

These responses mirror a national trend where increasingly more Baby Boomers are starting their own businesses. In fact, according to the Kauffman Foundation, from 1996 to 2011 the number of Baby Boomers starting a business increased by nearly seven percent, the largest increase among all age groups. For people 20-44, the number of people starting a new business actually fell about five percent during that same time period.

"There is a wide range of individual, economic and societal benefits for the Baby Boomers to start new businesses," says William Zinke, 85, founder and president of CPL. "People are living longer, yet often retiring earlier, and recent AARP studies confirm that 80 percent of Baby Boomers indicate their intent to continue working after leaving regular career jobs."

Additional feedback from the meeting found that 87 percent of attendees stated that the event increased their awareness and understanding of the benefits and opportunities provided by entrepreneurship "very much" or "a great deal." Seventy-seven percent indicated that they were "a great deal" or "very much" more likely to pursue programs or courses on entrepreneurship as a result of attending the event.

Speakers from the March meeting included Benno C. Schmidt, Jr., Interim President & CEO, Kauffman Foundation and former President, Yale University; Bruce Merrifield, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce and Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurship, the Wharton School; Mary Beth Izard, author of BoomerPreneurs; Jerry Kelly, CEO and Co-Founder, Silpada Designs; and Danny O'Neill, President and Founder, Roasterie.

Human Resource Services, Inc. (HRS) created CPL as a non-profit to serve as the bridge between people 55 and older and opportunities that enable them to continue as productive contributors. The economic benefits of enabling people 55+ to continue working include providing them with needed income, contributing to -- instead of drawing from -- entitlement programs, reducing unemployment and increasing national economic growth.

The next "Spotlight on Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Baby Boomers" meetings are scheduled to be held at Babson College in Wellesley, MA on September 14, Northwestern University/Kellogg School of Business in Chicago on October 11, and the University of Denver on November 15. To register, visit http://www.ctrpl.org/entrepreneurship-meeting/overview. Follow the Center for Productive Longevity on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CTRPL.

About the Center for Productive LongevityThe mission of CPL is to be the bridge between people 55 and older and their engagement in productive activities, paid and volunteer, where they are qualified and ready to continue adding value. It is imperative that we recognize the value added by an aging workforce. Visit http://www.ctrpl.org for more information.

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Baby Boomers Are Fastest Growing Segment in Entrepreneurial Wave

The check is in the mail for nearly 30,000 state workers who, on Friday, were issued cash bonuses for doing nothing more than showing up for work.

The April payment of the biannual longevity payments totaling $18.3 million is back in the news because the Legislature and administration continue to play the chicken and egg game.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has often criticized the practice, contends the Legislature must first enact a measure canceling bonuses for nonunion supervisors and high-ranking administrators. Some earn salaries in excess of $100,000 per year and pocket tens of thousands more in bonuses. Once thats done, the administration can then, in future negotiations with employee unions, end this practice completely.

But lawmakers, and, most recently, Senate President Don Williams, D-Brooklyn, have told us that benefits for nonunion supervisors and administrators are based on the benefits negotiated with the unions. Union members earn bonuses ranging from a few hundred dollars to $1,000 or $2,000. Its the upper echelon bonuses that need to be canceled first, lawmakers claim, otherwise the state might be sued.

So, as state officials pretend to resolve the issue of which comes first, the chicken or the egg, taxpayers remain on the hook, paying more than $18 million Friday to 29,781 eligible union and nonunion state employees with 10 or more years of service. Theyll get another bonus in October as long as they keep showing up.

There was a time when longevity bonuses were needed to attract qualified workers to state service. But that time has long since passed and so has the need for an incentive.

Thats our opinion. Wed like to hear yours. Send your comments to letters@norwichbulletin.com.

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Our View: Incentive of longevity payments no longer needed

Aging Americans are often viewed as an enormous financial burden. They are racking up outsized healthcare and retirement obligations that are bankrupting the federal and state governments. Upwards of 10,000 baby boomers are reaching traditional retirement age each day, signing up for Medicare and Social Security, and for those with low incomes, using Medicaid services. Beyond lots of plans and even more talk, there is no overall government strategy in place to deal with these expenses.

[See Choosing Your Mutual Fund Lineup.]

But these very same people are also the dominant consumer-spending force in the U.S. economy and will continue to be for decades. In 2010, more than 32 percent of the nearly 309 million people in the United States were 50 or older. That's nearly 100 million people, with roughly 60 percent of them between the ages of 50 and 64, and 40 percent age 65 and older. Beyond lots of plans and even more talk, there is no overall business strategy in place to capitalize on this market.

"There's such a different orientation in dealing with these issues, depending on where you are," says Jody Holtzman, senior vice president for thought leadership at AARP. "In Washington, all you hear from the pundits is that they all sound like a bunch of Chicken Littles. The sky is falling. There's a fiscal train wreck coming. What they're really saying is that we can't afford all these old people."

But in the private sector, Holtzman adds, businesses and nonprofit organizations look at a market of 100 million people and see things differently. "There, you don't see this as a problem. You see it as an opportunity," he says.

Despite this different mindset, Holtzman says, businesses have tended to see older consumers as parts of different commercial silos and not as part of a powerful and unified new market. So, there are senior housing projects, lots of healthcare products, some efforts at age-friendly home remodeling, travel and leisure services, and a boatload of retirement investment services. But companies have been dealing with this in a compartmentalized way.

[See The Fiduciary Debate: Should You Care?]

For Holtzman, and naturally for AARP, it makes good sense to break down silo walls and help build a unified market for providing products and services to seniors. He and other colleagues have coined the phrase "longevity economy" to describe the age wave in business terms and generate some buzz.

Recognition is the first challenge, Holtzman says. This requires business to see the aging space in terms of a market, identifying the scale of opportunity and the consumption and financial variables that will drive business growth. "That very construct allows you to identify business opportunities that you didn't see before," he says.

"For small companies and particularly the venture community that will provide the capital for their growth," he explains, having this broader viewpoint is needed "for them to move from simply opportunistically focusing on an individual opportunity to seeing this as a larger investment theme, and to be proactive about it."

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What the Longevity Economy Could Mean for You

Oliver Krug, pictured on an earlier visit to Australia, was back in Sydney promoting the brand. Picture: Graham Hely Source: The Sunday Telegraph

AS it marches towards its 170th anniversary, Krug can proudly reflect on its standing in the world of champagne.

Sixth-generation Olivier Krug, on a visit to Sydney to reinforce the label's much-vaunted global reputation, consistently reminded the luncheon gathering of fizz fanatics at Quay that the foundation stone of its success has been the high bar it has set for quality.

Last year, for instance, Krug, one of the jewels in the crown of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy liquor and luxury goods group, pulled the pin at the last moment on the release of its 1999 Clos du Mesnil bubbles which would have commanded about $1400 a bottle.

With 12,000 bottles having already been presold globally, this, in effect, meant Krug turning its back on an $18 million bonanza.

Although the wine had earlier been given the green light, a review six months later led to a re-evaluation that ended up knocking the release of the celebrated sparkler on the head.

Yes, it was a big call,Monsieur Krug admitted over superb gastronomic fare created by Quay's Peter Gilmore to complement the star-studded champagne line-up.

But it was the right call, as well, because we eventually agreed that the wine didn't quite measure up to the high benchmark we set for Clos de Mesnil.

The dilemma facing Krug is what to do with 1999 Clos de Mesnil maturing in the company's Reims cellars. More than likely, it will be earmarked for future non-vintage Grande Cuvee consideration.

Krug timed his visit to present the 2000 Clos du Mesnil ($1400), a rare 100 per cent chardonnay-based wine hailing from a 1.85ha vineyard in the heart of Champagne.

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Raise a glass to longevity

Black men in South Florida have made tremendous strides in longevity, according to new estimates released Thursday. Those born in 2009 could expect to live 7 years longer than those born two decades earlier.

But researchers with the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation who calculated lifespans in every U.S. county in 1989, 1999 and 2009 also said there was troubling news. The numbers show women's lifespan gains have slowed to a crawl nationwide. Also, how long one might live varies hugely among counties in the same state, hinting at differences in healthcare access.

Florida, for example, claims the nation's highest life expectancy: the 85.9-year lifespan projected for white females in Collier County, which includes Naples. Then there's rural Baker County, up in the state's upper northeast corner, where black men are estimated to live 62.4 years 23.5 years less than Naples' white women.

In four Florida counties, all in the Panhandle, women's longevity estimates dropped by several months from 1989 to 2009 a trend echoed in hundreds of counties nationwide. Dr. Ali Mokdad, the head of the institute's U.S. County Peformance Research Team, said this means girls born in these places three years ago will live shorter lives than their mothers.

"This should be a wake-up call for all of us, and should rally people in their communities. These are disparities we should not ignore," Mokdad said from Atlanta, where the data were released at a health care journalists' conference.

The biggest culprit? The institute team, based at the University of Washington in Seattle, blamed health risks stemming from poor lifestyle choices: smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise.

South Florida public health experts agreed. "Unfortunately in our healthcare delivery system today, we focus more on medical intervention than health promotion," said Cecilia Rokusek, executive director of education, planning and research for Nova Southeastern University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. People need to begin working on healthy aging in midlife or younger, not in their 80s and 90s, she said.

Rokusek thinks the increase in healthcare education targeting minorities over the past decade helped boost black male longevity. Those alive in 2009 are now projected to have an average life expectancy of around 73 years in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, above the state average.

Dr. Richard C. Palmer, of the College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University in Miami, said black men also benefitted tremendously from better blood pressure drugs, as they are more likely to be hypertensive. But he noted that many minorities and people living in rural areas continue to have shorter lives than their white or urban counterparts, an observation born out in the new estimates.

In his own research, Palmer found rural doctors were less likely to discuss health prevention with their patients. And life experiences can affect health habits: "One black man, who remembered segregation as a child, told me he wouldn't go to doctors as an adult because he didn't trust them," Palmer said.

See more here:
Black men show big gains in longevity | How long will you live?

Black men in South Florida have made tremendous strides in longevity, according to new estimates released Thursday. Those born in 2009 could expect to live 7 years longer than those born two decades earlier.

But researchers with the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation who calculated lifespans in every U.S. county in 1989, 1999 and 2009 also said there was troubling news. The numbers show women's lifespan gains have slowed to a crawl nationwide. Also, how long one might live varies hugely among counties in the same state, hinting at differences in healthcare access.

Florida, for example, claims the nation's highest life expectancy: the 85.9-year lifespan projected for white females in Collier County, which includes Naples. Then there's rural Baker County, up in the state's upper northeast corner, where black men are estimated to live 62.4 years 23.5 years less than Naples' white women.

In four Florida counties, all in the Panhandle, women's longevity estimates dropped by several months from 1989 to 2009 a trend echoed in hundreds of counties nationwide. Dr. Ali Mokdad, the head of the institute's U.S. County Peformance Research Team, said this means girls born in these places three years ago will live shorter lives than their mothers.

"This should be a wake-up call for all of us, and should rally people in their communities. These are disparities we should not ignore," Mokdad said from Atlanta, where the data were released at a health care journalists' conference.

The biggest culprit? The institute team, based at the University of Washington in Seattle, blamed health risks stemming from poor lifestyle choices: smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise.

South Florida public health experts agreed. "Unfortunately in our healthcare delivery system today, we focus more on medical intervention than health promotion," said Cecilia Rokusek, executive director of education, planning and research for Nova Southeastern University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. People need to begin working on healthy aging in midlife or younger, not in their 80s and 90s, she said.

Rokusek thinks the increase in healthcare education targeting minorities over the past decade helped boost black male longevity. Those alive in 2009 are now projected to have an average life expectancy of around 73 years in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, above the state average.

Dr. Richard C. Palmer, of the College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University in Miami, said black men also benefitted tremendously from better blood pressure drugs, as they are more likely to be hypertensive. But he noted that many minorities and people living in rural areas continue to have shorter lives than their white or urban counterparts, an observation born out in the new estimates.

In his own research, Palmer found rural doctors were less likely to discuss health prevention with their patients. And life experiences can affect health habits: "One black man, who remembered segregation as a child, told me he wouldn't go to doctors as an adult because he didn't trust them," Palmer said.

See the original post here:
New estimates show black men gain, women lose in longevity race

Posted: Apr. 17, 2012 | 5:33 p.m.

The Clark County Commission on Tuesday ratified a three-year contract agreement with firefighters that county officials say will save taxpayers about $60 million over 25 years.

The deal, which runs from July 1 to June 30, 2015, eliminates longevity pay for new hires, where county staff expects to reap most of the savings, and freezes cost-of-living adjustments for the first two years with the option of allowing either party to renegotiate the third year.

Last week, union members approved the agreement, the third consecutive accord in 18 months to include major financial concessions.

Commissioners praised county staff and the union for reaching an agreement and used the discussion to publicly support firefighters caught in the cross hairs because of a few accused of abusing sick leave and overtime.

"It's time for people to recognize that our fire department does a darn good job; these are good men and women," Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said. "You should never discriminate or paint everyone with a broad brush. I'm hoping to get past the spitting on people and derogatory comments made to our firefighters."

Commissioner Tom Collins invited people to visit a firehouse.

"Go out on a call and watch them save a life, put a bloodied body back together from a car wreck or get somebody's heart beating again," Collins said. "Not just anybody knows how to do that, and that's worth something."

County officials have said they spend about $25 million a year on overall longevity pay, originally used to attract employees and reward them annually for their years of service after eight years.

Longevity pay made up about 8 percent of firefighter pay and 15 percent of battalion chief pay, according to the most recent employee compensation report.

See the original post:
County Commissioners Approve Firefighters Contract

Two South Tampa galleries celebrate their longevity this month in different ways: One is hosting a celebratory exhibit of works by gallery artists; the other is opening a new location across Tampa Bay.

For both it's a celebration of vision, verve and pluck.

In 1987, Cathy Clayton opened the art gallery that bears her name at 4105 South MacDill Ave.

Armed with a degree in art education from the University of South Florida and experience she gained from working a few years at a gallery in Tampa, she was equipped to plunge into the challenging market of selling art.

"I actually ended up representing a lot of the professors who taught me, like George Pappas; or professors who were there at the school while I was there, like Bruce Marsh and Jeffrey Kronsnoble," she said.

Mark Feingold, who also has a degree in art education and 10 years experience in helping put up exhibits at the Tampa Museum of Art, joined Clayton in 1994. He helped promote the framing aspect of the business and rapidly moved into bigger jobs such as managing the gallery, curating exhibits and selecting artists.

"Cathy and I share the same sensibilities about artists and art so she has always included me in her work," Feingold said. "We usually agree on things."

One of the things they agree on is not to follow trends or fads.

"I think we have longevity because we've consistently represented not only professional and talented artists, but we also consistently represented a certain aesthetic," Clayton said. "We don't represent an artist that we wouldn't have in our own collection. We never sold art as an investment. We see art as an investment in beauty and in the culture of Florida and in helping these local artists to thrive and succeed."

A lot of the gallery artists have been with Clayton for 20 years some longer. That kind of long-term presence was something Feingold thought about while conceiving the current exhibit which celebrates the gallery's 25th anniversary.

Read the original post:
Galleries reflect artistic eyes of curators

carly weeks From Monday's Globe and Mail Published Monday, Apr. 02, 2012 12:01AM EDT Last updated Monday, Apr. 02, 2012 6:38AM EDT

Want to know how long youll live? A new online longevity calculator may have the answer.

The calculator, created by Ontario scientists, asks questions about a persons smoking, drinking, eating, physical activity and other factors to predict his or her lifespan.

Although there are many similar tools online, this calculator is based on real data on factors contributing to deaths in Ontario.

The calculator was created as part of a new report published Monday that found 60 per cent of deaths in Ontario are linked to five controllable lifestyle factors: smoking, alcohol, diet, physical activity and stress.

I was taken aback, even though I work in this field, said Doug Manuel, lead author of the report and senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

If people changed even one bad habit, they could gain several years of life, according to the report published online Monday by the ICES and Public Health Ontario.

For the report, researchers examined responses from Ontario health surveys, which question people about habits, such as diet. Using a database at ICES, they were able to see what happened to survey respondents over time and the age at which they died, helping them determine the relationship between health risk factors and longevity.

Dr. Manuel and his colleagues decided to create the life expectancy calculator as a tool to help Ontarians see how their lifestyle may affect their health. Its available online at rrasp-phirn.ca/risktools.

The calculator doesnt guarantee accuracy and cant account for people with pre-existing medical conditions. But, in general, it reveals how behaviour, such as the amount of exercise you

View original post here:
How long will you live? Just crunch the numbers

Digging into an eight-decade landmark study on longevity, the author finds that stress brought on by hard work can keep you happy and healthy.

Phatic-Photography/Shutterstock

More than a half century after Dr. Terman collected his data on work and occupational success, we looked into the long-term consequences on health and longevity. Would Paul's easygoing, free-flowing approach to his career as a bookstore manager be a benefit or a curse? Would John's dedication to physics lead to a stressful but long life like that of fellow physicist Norris Bradbury, or was Bradbury's very long life an anomaly -- an exception to the rule?

We gathered together our research assistants, filling our computer programs with a whole host of relevant information, including the personality indexes we had constructed and validated earlier. We recorded how much alcohol they drank, the participants' reports of their ambition, and even their parents' reports. Most importantly, we used the death certificates to see how long they lived.

The results were very clear: Those with the most career success were the least likely to die young. In fact, on average the most successful men lived five years longer than the least successful.

Especially convincing about this finding is that the men who were independently rated by Dr. Terman as most successful more than a half century ago were the ones least likely to die at any given age in the decades that followed. Some studies in this field of research might be inadvertently biased by the classifications or judgments used by the epidemiologists, but in this case, we did not have to do any job classifications or make any judgments -- we simply relied on those careful categorizations Terman and his associates had made decades ago.

WHY THE SUCCESSFUL LIVE LONGER

Conscientiousness, as we have established, is a strong predictor of longevity, and it turns out that the professionally successful Terman subjects were indeed more conscientious than their peers. But conscientiousness didn't explain everything: those with a successful career lived much longer even after taking their conscientiousness into account.

Unsurprisingly, ambition predicted career success. More to the point, ambition, coupled with perseverance, impulse control, and high motivation, was not only good for achievement but was part of the package of a resilient work life. It is not a coincidence that Edward Dmytryk was a prominent director and lived a long life or that Norris Bradbury headed a powerful agency and lived a long life. Symphony conductors, company presidents, and bosses of all sorts tend to live longer than their subordinates.

Complementing our own analyses, the sociologist Glen Elder and his colleagues looked at career changes between 1940 and 1960 and found evidence that the Terman participants who moved among various jobs without a clear progression were less likely to live long lives than those with steadily increasing responsibilities in their field. Usually this increasing responsibility brings more challenges and a heavier workload, but paradoxically this is helpful to long-term health.

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The Kind of Stress That Doesn't Kill You, but Makes You Stronger

Public release date: 29-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Samantha Martin 44-015-179-42248 University of Liverpool

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a new method to detect proteins associated with longevity, which helps further our understanding into why some animals live longer than others.

The team looked at the genome of more than 30 mammalian species to identify proteins that evolve in connection with the longevity of a species. They found that a protein, important in responding to DNA damage, evolves and mutates in a non-random way in species that are longer-lived, suggesting that it is changing for a specific purpose. They found a similar pattern in proteins associated with metabolism, cholesterol and pathways involved in the recycling of proteins.

Findings show that if certain proteins are being selected by evolution to change in long-lived mammals like humans and elephants, then it is possible that these species have optimised pathways that repair molecular damage, compared to shorter-lived animals, such as mice.

The study, led by Dr Joao Pedro Magalhaes and postgraduate student, Yang Li, is the first to show evolutionary patterns in biological repair systems in long-lived animals and could, in the future, be used to help develop anti-ageing interventions by identifying proteins in long-lived species that better respond to, for example, DNA damage. Proteins associated with the degradation of damaged proteins, a process that has been connected to ageing, were also linked with the evolution of longevity in mammals.

Dr Magalhaes, from the University's Institute of Integrative Biology, said: "The genetic basis for longevity differences between species remains a major puzzle of biology. A mouse lives less than five years and yet humans can live to over 100 for example. If we can identify the proteins that allow some species to live longer than others we could use this knowledge to improve human health and slow the ageing process.

"We developed a method to detect proteins whose molecular evolution correlates with longevity of a species. The proteins we detected changed in a particular pattern, suggesting that evolution of these proteins was not by accident, but rather by design to cope with the biological processes impacted by ageing, such as DNA damage. The results suggest that long-lived animals were able to optimise bodily repair which will help them fend off the ageing process."

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The research is published in the American Aging Association's journal, AGE.

Originally posted here:
Study suggests why some animals live longer

Those looking for a magic elixir to keep them healthy and happy need look no further than their bank account. Wealth and, more broadly, socioeconomic status play powerful roles in determining how long we live.

"It's clear that those who have less wealth will have fewer years to live than those with more wealth," says James Smith, senior economist at the research group Rand. The connection is so widely accepted that researchers have given it a name: "the wealth gradient in mortality." What's far more complicated to understand is why the connection exists, and whether wealth causes better health, or vice versa.

The longest-running longitudinal study of health, run by George Vaillant, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, found education to be one of the biggest determinants of longevity, along with behavioral factors -- excessive drinkers were more likely to die young, for example. Out of the 500-plus Harvard students and inner-city Boston men the study has followed since 1937, the Harvard students have lived an average of 10 years longer than the inner-city men, says Vaillant. In fact, three in 10 of the Harvard students reached age 90, compared with the 3% to 5% one would expect.

Among the inner-city men who attended college, health was just as good as that of Harvard students who attended college but not graduate school, says Vaillant. "(The Boston men) went to terrible colleges by Harvard standards, but they did get 16 years of education, and that absolutely evened the playing field," says Vaillant. People who go to college tend to drink less, smoke less, and are less likely to be obese, he adds, all factors that contribute to longevity. In fact, after controlling for education and other factors, Vaillant found that income alone had little effect on longevity.

People who pursue higher education, explains Vaillant, tend be more focused on the future, which probably also helps them make healthier choices. "In order to get an education, especially if you're poor, you have to think you have a future," he says.

Indeed, says Smith, one hypothesis is that "more-educated people are more forward-looking, and when they make decisions, they take into account the future more than uneducated people. A lot of things you might do don't have an immediate negative impact -- excessive drinking, smoking and doing drugs can (feel good in the short-term) -- but the fact is, it's going to kill you in the future." Another possibility is that people with higher levels of education are more likely to maintain their health, have better access to health care, and follow doctors' directions when it comes to taking pills or other instructions.

Smith's research also suggests that causality doesn't just run one way; health contributes to wealth, as well. "Because you are healthy and able to work, you are wealthier," he explains. At the same time, poor health often takes a toll on a person's wealth, either because it prevents one from working or because of expensive medical treatments. Taken together, researchers at the University of Chicago estimate that the gains in life expectancy between 1970 and 2000 resulted in an additional $3.2 trillion a year in national wealth.

Meanwhile, as income disparities continue to grow in this country, so do life expectancy disparities. According to an analysis by the Social Security Administration, life expectancy for 65-year-old men in the top half of the earnings distribution has increased by five years, to 21.5 more years. For those in the bottom half of the earnings distribution, life expectancy has increased just over one year, to 16.1 more years.

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Do rich people live longer?

ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2012) Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a new method to detect proteins associated with longevity, which helps further our understanding into why some animals live longer than others.

The team looked at the genome of more than 30 mammalian species to identify proteins that evolve in connection with the longevity of a species. They found that a protein, important in responding to DNA damage, evolves and mutates in a non-random way in species that are longer-lived, suggesting that it is changing for a specific purpose. They found a similar pattern in proteins associated with metabolism, cholesterol and pathways involved in the recycling of proteins.

Findings show that if certain proteins are being selected by evolution to change in long-lived mammals like humans and elephants, then it is possible that these species have optimized pathways that repair molecular damage, compared to shorter-lived animals, such as mice.

The study, led by Dr Joao Pedro Magalhaes and postgraduate student, Yang Li, is the first to show evolutionary patterns in biological repair systems in long-lived animals and could, in the future, be used to help develop anti-aging interventions by identifying proteins in long-lived species that better respond to, for example, DNA damage. Proteins associated with the degradation of damaged proteins, a process that has been connected to aging, were also linked with the evolution of longevity in mammals.

Dr Magalhaes, from the University's Institute of Integrative Biology, said: "The genetic basis for longevity differences between species remains a major puzzle of biology. A mouse lives less than five years and yet humans can live to over 100 for example. If we can identify the proteins that allow some species to live longer than others we could use this knowledge to improve human health and slow the aging process.

"We developed a method to detect proteins whose molecular evolution correlates with longevity of a species. The proteins we detected changed in a particular pattern, suggesting that evolution of these proteins was not by accident, but rather by design to cope with the biological processes impacted by aging, such as DNA damage. The results suggest that long-lived animals were able to optimise bodily repair which will help them fend off the aging process."

The research is published in the American Aging Association's journal, Age.

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Why some animals live longer than others