In their new book, Falling Short: The Coming Retirement Crisis and What to Do About It (to be published Jan. 2, 2015), authors Charles D. Ellis, Alicia H. Munnell and Andrew Eschtruth call themselves modern-day Paul Reveres. Instead of Redcoats, they’re fearful about our pockets — and how little money we’ll have in them at retirement. “Millions […]

Multiemployer pension plans, often involving unionized workers, were once common in industries like coal mining, trucking and construction. But they’re running out of money. Read the full article at The New York Times.

When researchers ask people to assess their own well-being, people in their 20s rate themselves highly. Then there’s a decline as people get sadder in middle age, bottoming out around age 50. But then happiness levels shoot up, so that old people are happier than young people. The people who rate themselves most highly are […]

Surfing the net, going to museums or joining a club might have an unexpected side effect: improving the ability of older people to understand drug labels and doctors’ instructions, according to a new study in the UK.  “We found that the effects of internet use and cultural activities, along with other social activities, including civic […]

Running may reverse aging in certain ways while walking does not, a noteworthy new study of active older people finds. The findings raise interesting questions about whether most of us need to pick up the pace of our workouts in order to gain the greatest benefit. Read the full article at The New York Times.

One in five older people living in care homes does not drink enough fluid, research suggests. Read the full article at BBC News.

Following a Mediterranean diet might be a recipe for a long life because it appears to keep people genetically younger, say US researchers. Read the full article at BBC News.

In a new study, older learners had retained the mental flexibility needed for a visual perception task but were not as good as younger people at filtering out irrelevant information. The findings undermine the conventional wisdom that the brains of older people lack flexibility, or “plasticity,” but highlight a different reason why learning may become […]

According to a statement released by the Stanford University Center on Longevity and the Berlin Max Planck Institute for Human Development, there is no solid scientific evidence to back up this promise. Signed by 70 of the world’s leading cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists, the statement minces no words: “The strong consensus of this group is […]

A fall from a chair or a bed may not seem like a death sentence — but for an older person it can be. Falls are the leading cause of death from an injury for older Americans. For women, it’s especially bad: Three quarters of those with hip fractures are women. For many, the broken hip starts a chain […]