Woman’s ‘Dystextia’ Stroke Sign: ‘Some is where!’

Smartphone autocorrect is famous for scrambling messages into unintelligible gibberish but when one man received this garbled text from his 11-week-pregnant wife, it alarmed him: “every where thinging days nighing,” her text read. “Some is where!” Though that may sound like every text you’ve ever received, the woman’s husband knew her autocorrect was turned off. Fearing some medical issue, he made sure his 25-year-old wife went immediately to the emergency room. When she got there, doctors noted that she was disoriented, couldn’t use her right arm and leg properly and had some difficulty speaking. A magnetic resonance imaging scan — MRI — revealed that part of the woman’s brain wasn’t getting enough blood. The diagnosis was stroke. Fortunately, the story has a happy ending. A short hospital stay and some low-dose blood thinners took care of the symptoms and the rest of her pregnancy was uneventful. Click here to read about how texting pedestrians risk injuries The three doctors from Boston’s Harvard Medical School, who reported the case study online in this week’s Archives of Neurology, claim this is the first instance they know of where an aberrant text message was used to help diagnose a stroke. In their report, they refer to the woman’s inability to text properly as “dystextia,” a word coined by medical experts in an earlier case. Dystextia appears to be a new form of aphasia, a term that refers to any trouble processing language, be it spoken or written. The authors of the Archives paper said that at least theoretically, incoherent text messages will be used more often to flag strokes and other neurological abnormalities that lead to the condition. “As the accessibility of electronic communication continues to advance, the growing digital record will likely become an increasingly important means of identifying neurologic disease, particularly in patient populations that rely more heavily on written rather than spoken communication,” they wrote. Even though jumbled texts are so common, Dr. Larry Goldstein, a neurologist who is the director of the stroke center at Duke University, said he also believes it’s possible they can be used to sound the alarm on a person’s neurological state, especially in a case like this where the text consisted of complete words that amounted to nonsense rather than the usual autocorrected muddle. “It would have been very easy to dismiss because of the normal problems with texting but this was a whole conversation that wasn’t making sense,” Goldstein said. “I might be concerned about a patient based on a text like this if they were telling me they hadn’t intended to send a disjointed jumble but they weren’t able to correct themselves.” In diagnosing stroke, Goldstein said both patients and medical professionals tend to discount aphasic symptoms, even in speech, but they can often be the first clue something is up. In this woman’s case, other signs were there. Her obstetrician realized in retrospect that she’d had trouble filling out a form earlier in the day. She had difficulties speaking too which might also have been picked up sooner if a recent upper respiratory infection hadn’t reduced her voice to a whisper. But unlike this woman, most people leave their autocorrect turned on. If we relied solely on maddeningly unintelligible text messages to determine neurological state, neurologists might have lines out the door.

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Link between pot, psychosis goes both ways in kids

Marijuana (cannabis) use may be linked to the development of psychotic symptoms in teens - but the reverse could also be true: psychosis in adolescents may be linked to later pot use, according to a new Dutch study. "We have focused mainly on temporal order; is it the chicken or the egg? As the study shows, it is a bidirectional relationship," wrote the study's lead author Merel Griffith-Lendering, a doctoral candidate at Leiden University in The Netherlands, in an email to Reuters Health. Previous research established links between marijuana and psychosis, but scientists questioned whether pot use increased the risk of mental illness, or whether people were using pot to ease their psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions. "What is interesting in this study is that both processes are going on at the same time," said Dr. Gregory Seeger, medical director for addiction services at Rochester General Hospital in upstate New York. He told Reuters Health that researchers have been especially concerned about what tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active property in pot, could do to a teenager's growing brain. "That's a very vulnerable period of time for brain development," and individuals with a family history of schizophrenia and psychosis seem to be more sensitive to the toxic effects of THC, he said. A 2010 study of 3,800 Australian teenagers found that those who used marijuana were twice as likely to develop psychosis compared to teens who never smoked pot (see Reuters Health article of March 1, 2010 here:). But that study also found that those who suffered from hallucinations and delusions when they were younger were also more likely to use pot early on. CHICKEN v. EGG For the new study, published in the journal Addiction, the researchers wanted to see which came first: pot or psychosis. Griffith-Lendering and her colleagues used information on 2,120 Dutch teenagers, who were surveyed about their pot use when they were about 14, 16 and 19 years old. The teens also took psychosis vulnerability tests that asked - among other things - about their ability to concentrate, their feelings of loneliness and whether they see things other people don't. Overall, the researchers found 940 teens, or about 44 percent, reported smoking pot, and there was a bidirectional link between pot use and psychosis. For example, using pot at 16 years old was linked to psychotic symptoms three years later, and psychotic symptoms at age 16 were linked to pot use at age 19. This was true even when the researchers accounted for mental illness in the kids' families, alcohol use and tobacco use. Griffith-Lendering said she could not say how much more likely young pot users were to exhibit psychotic symptoms later on. Also, the new study cannot prove one causes the other. Genetics may also explain the link between pot use and psychosis, said Griffith-Lendering. "We can say for some people that cannabis comes first and psychosis comes second, but for some people they have some (undiagnosed) psychosis (and) perhaps cannabis makes them feel better," said Dr. Marta Di Forti, of King's College, London, who was not involved with the new research. Di Forti, who has studied the link between pot and psychosis, told Reuters Health she considers pot a risk factor for psychosis - not a cause. Seeger, who was also not involved with the new study, said that there needs to be more public awareness of the connection. "I think the marijuana is not a harmless substance. Especially for teenagers, there should be more of a public health message out there that marijuana has a public health risk," he said. Griffith-Lendering agrees. "Given the severity and impact of psychotic disorders, prevention programs should take this information into consideration," she said.

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Early Childhood Obesity Rates Might Be Slowing Nation-Wide

About one in three children in the U.S. are now overweight, and since the 1980s the number of children who are obese has more than tripled. But a new study of 26.7 million young children from low-income families shows that in this group of kids, the tidal wave of obesity might finally be receding. Being obese as a child not only increases the risk of early-life health problems, such as joint problems, pre-diabetes and social stigmatization, but it also dramatically increases the likelihood of being obese later in life, which can lead to chronic diseases, including cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Children as young as 2 years of age can be obese--and even extremely obese. Early childhood obesity rates, which bring higher health care costs throughout a kid's life, have been especially high among lower-income families. "This is the first national study to show that the prevalence of obesity and extreme obesity among young U.S. children may have begun to decline," the researchers noted in a brief report published online December 25 in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. (Reports earlier this year suggested that childhood obesity rates were dropping in several U.S. cities.) The study examined rates of obesity (body mass index calculated by age and gender to be in the 95th percentile or higher--for example, a BMI above 20 for a 2-year-old male--compared with reference growth charts) and extreme obesity (BMI of more than 120 percent above that of the 95th percentile of the reference populations) in children ages 2 to 4 in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The researchers, led by Liping Pan, of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, combed through 12 years of data (1998 to 2010) from the Pediatric Nutritional Surveillance System, which includes information on roughly half of all children on the U.S. who are eligible for federal health care and nutrition assistance. A subtle but important shift in early childhood obesity rates in this low-income population seems to have begun in 2003. Obesity rates increased from 13.05 percent in 1998 to 15.21 percent in 2003. Soon, however, obesity rates began decreasing, reaching 14.94 percent by 2010. Extreme obesity followed a similar pattern, increasing from 1.75 percent to 2.22 percent from 1998 to 2003, but declining to 2.07 percent by 2010. Although these changes might seem small, the number of children involved makes for huge health implications. For example, each drop of just one tenth of a percentage point represents some 26,700 children in the study population alone who are no longer obese or extremely obese. And if these trends are occurring in the rest of the population, the long-term health and cost implications are massive. Public health agencies and the Obama Administration have made battling childhood obesity a priority, although these findings suggest that early childhood obesity rates, at least, were already beginning to decline nearly a decade ago. Some popular prevention strategies include encouraging healthier eating (by reducing intake of highly processed and high-sugar foods and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption) and increased physical activity (both at school and at home). The newly revealed trends "indicate modest recent progress of obesity prevention among young children," the authors noted. "These finding may have important health implications because of the lifelong health risks of obesity and extreme obesity in early childhood.

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One in 12 in military has clogged heart arteries

Just over one in 12 U.S. service members who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had plaque buildup in the arteries around their hearts - an early sign of heart disease, according to a new study. None of them had been diagnosed with heart disease before deployment, researchers said. "This is a young, healthy, fit group," said the study's lead author, Dr. Bryant Webber, from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. "These are people who are asymptomatic, they feel fine, they're deployed into combat," he told Reuters Health. "It just proves again the point that we know that this is a clinically silent disease, meaning people can go years without being diagnosed, having no signs or symptoms of the disease." Webber said the findings also show that although the U.S. has made progress in lowering the nationwide prevalence of heart disease, there's more work that can be done to encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and reduce their risks. Heart disease accounts for about one in four deaths - or about 600,000 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new data come from autopsies done on U.S. service members who died in October 2001 through August 2011 during combat or from unintentional injuries. Those autopsies were originally performed to provide a full account to service members' families of how they died. The study mirrors autopsy research on Korean and Vietnam war veterans, which found signs of heart disease in as many as three-quarters of deceased service members at the time. "Earlier autopsy studies... were critical pieces of information that alerted the medical community to the lurking burden of coronary disease in our young people," said Dr. Daniel Levy, director of the Framingham Heart Study and a senior investigator with the National Institutes of Health. The findings are not directly comparable, in part because there was a draft in place during the earlier wars but not for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn. When service is optional, healthier people might be more likely to sign up, researchers explained. Still, Levy said the new study likely reflects declines in heart disease in the U.S. in general over that span. Altogether the researchers had information on 3,832 service members who'd been killed at an average age of 26. Close to 9 percent had any buildup in their coronary arteries, according to the autopsies. And about a quarter of the soldiers with buildup in their arteries had severe blockage. Service members who had been obese or had high cholesterol or high blood pressure when they entered the military were especially likely to have plaque buildup, Webber and his colleagues reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. More than 98 percent of the service members included were men. "This study bodes well for a lower burden of disease lurking in young people," Levy, who wrote an editorial published with the report, told Reuters Health. "Young, healthy people are likely to have a lower burden of disease today than their parents or grandparents had decades ago." That's likely due, in part, to better control of blood pressure and cholesterol and lower rates of smoking in today's service members - as well as the country in general, researchers said. However, two risks for heart disease that haven't declined are obesity and diabetes, which are closely linked. "Obesity is the one that has not trended in the right direction," Levy said. "Those changes in obesity and diabetes threaten to reverse some of the dramatic improvements that we are seeing in heart disease death rates," he added.

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Obesity declining in young, poorer kids: study

The number of low-income preschoolers who qualify as obese or "extremely obese" has dropped over the last decade, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. Although the decline was only "modest" and may not apply to all children, researchers said it was still encouraging. "It's extremely important to make sure we're monitoring obesity in this low-income group," said the CDC's Heidi Blanck, who worked on the study. Those kids are known to be at higher risk of obesity than their well-off peers, in part because access to healthy food is often limited in poorer neighborhoods. The new results can't prove what's behind the progress, Blanck told Reuters Health - but two possible contributors are higher rates of breastfeeding and rising awareness of the importance of physical activity even for very young kids. Blanck and her colleagues used data on routine clinic visits for about half of all U.S. kids eligible for federal nutrition programs - including 27.5 million children between age two and four. They found 13 percent of those preschoolers were obese in 1998. That grew to just above 15 percent in 2003, but dropped slightly below 15 percent in 2010, the most recent study year included. Similarly, the prevalence of extreme obesity increased from nearly 1.8 percent in 1998 to 2.2 percent in 2003, then dropped back to just below 2.1 percent in 2010, the research team reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Whether kids are obese is determined by their body mass index (BMI) - a measure of weight in relation to height - and by their age and sex. For example, a four-year-old girl who is 40 inches tall would be obese if she was 42 pounds or heavier. A two-year-old boy who is 35 inches tall qualifies as obese at 34 pounds or above, according to the CDC's child BMI calculator. (The CDC's BMI calculator for children and teens is available here:.) The new findings are the first national data to show obesity and extreme obesity may be declining in young children, Blanck said. "This is very encouraging considering the recent effort made in the field including by several U.S. federal agencies to combat the childhood obesity epidemic," said Dr. Youfa Wang, head of the Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity in Baltimore. Blanck said between 2003 and 2010 researchers also saw an increase in breastfeeding of low-income infants. Breastfeeding has been tied to a healthier weight in early childhood. Additionally, states and communities have started working with child care centers to make sure kids have time to run around and that healthy foods are on the lunch menu, she added. Parents can encourage better eating by having fruits and vegetables available at snack time and allowing their young kids to help with meal preparation, Blanck said. Her other recommendations include making sure preschoolers get at least one hour of activity every day and keeping television sets out of the bedroom. "The prevalence of overweight and obesity in many countries including in the U.S. is still very high," Wang, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health in an email. "The recent level off should not be taken as a reason to reduce the effort to fight the obesity epidemic.

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Should Seniors Live Alone or With Family?

Put Grandma in the garage? Yes. But a garage transformed into a well-appointed studio apartment with skylights and a patio for morning coffee. Home remodeling for those who can afford it is one answer to a growing issue: How do you take care of family members in their late-retirement and twilight years? And then, a tougher question: When a home solution won't work, what assisted-living or nursing home options are available? [See The Best Places to Retire in 2012.] Growth of multigenerational households (mostly grandparents, parents, and minor children, but also other extended-family relationships) accelerated during the economic downturn. Some families shared quarters because the unemployment rate (a 30-year high) forced some out-of-work adult children to move back home. Sometimes it was the senior generation that needed a housing solution because they were no longer able to physically or financially go it alone. The rate of this change is worth noting. In 2008, 6.2 million intergenerational households resided in the United States. That's 5.3 percent of all households. That number jumped to 7.1 million households, or 6.1 percent, by 2010. The two-year increase marked a faster rate of growth than the previous eight years combined, according to AARP's Public Policy Institute. Even if the economy improves, it's a trend that looks to stick as families address graying baby boomers who may be facing an underfunded retirement, according to aging and financial professionals. In the best and worst of times, the benefit of companionship and shared household duties, such as childcare, can't be dismissed. For some families, living together is not a solution to a problem but an exercise in bonding. There are also different cultural interpretations of the social value of multigenerational households. But for many families, finances are certainly a factor in their decision to merge under one roof. Kevin Young, a certified financial planner with Young Wealth Management in Davis, Calif., sees an increasing number of "sandwich generation" clients in his tax practice. "They're taking care of aging parents and children at the same time, sometimes working multiple jobs to accomplish that," he says. [See How to Avoid Being a Financial Burden on Your Children.] Young says some boomers and their parents are still playing retirement savings catch-up as corporate America (and the public sector too, in some cases) shifts from defined benefits such as pensions to market-reliant 401(k)s and other individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Others just dropped the ball and didn't save enough. Options. George Yedinak, editor and publisher of trade newsletter and blog Senior Housing News, sees an industry boom coming to meet the needs of multigenerational and senior housing. This includes concepts such as Greenhouse Project (modest stand-alone homes that include high levels of healthcare), senior villages, co-housing (unrelated seniors sharing space to reduce costs), in-law apartments, and other communal living solutions. Yedinak notes that regulation of these housing models isn't currently as comprehensive as regulation nursing homes and other traditional care facilities. Regulation catch-up could bring a mixed impact--more scrutiny of care but also reduced incentive for industry growth. As for home modifications, those are on the rise, too. "Those living in single-family homes will invest capital in their homes as more parents move in with their adult children. Using home office spaces, basements, attics and other existing solutions will make way for more formal renovations including the 'grannie apartment' as either an add-on or standalone," he blogs. "Unlike additions for bathrooms or kitchens, the resale value of 'grannie' renovation should be discounted greatly. Others may opt for pre-fab cottages or PODs as solutions that can be moved, stored, or re-sold when a senior needs to move to a more comprehensive care community." The longevity conundrum. Healthcare presents a mixed picture for boomers; active lifestyles and treatment developments are helping stave off some disease, but longer living also raises the odds of multiple serious conditions in advanced years and the need for body maintenance, such as joint replacement. Some households are able to accommodate parents with physical issues and the care industry is responding with more flexibility, often traveling to see patients. But eventually, no matter how welcoming younger generations are to opening their homes to the seniors, they may just not be able to handle the level of care needed. The home versus care-facility debate welcomes a whole new round of cost concerns. According to Genworth Financial's 2011 Cost of Care Survey, while the cost to receive care in an assisted living facility or nursing home increased over the past year, the cost to receive care in the home, Americans' preferred long-term care setting, remained unchanged. Nationally, the median annual cost of long-term care in an assisted living facility is $39,135, an increase of 2.4 percent from 2010. The comparable cost for a private nursing home room rose 3.4 percent, to $77,745. At $18 per hour for homemaker services and $19 an hour for home-health aide services, the median hourly cost to receive care in the home remained flat over the past 12 months. [See Should You Buy Long-Term Care Insurance?] Aging consultancy Age Wave says some older Americans cling too much to the notion of independence in their own home and don't fully weigh the costs and benefits of retirement facilities. Based on a study, the group offers a list of five myth-busters that may help families make these tough decisions: -- My current home will be the best place to live in retirement. Many retirees believe remaining in their house gives them the most freedom and independence. But the reality is that by staying at home, they spend twice as much time doing housework and shopping as someone in a retirement center. -- My current home is the best option to lead an active life and stay connected. Among those over 80, nearly half report suffering from loneliness--twice the rate of younger adults. Depression, alcohol abuse, and obesity can follow. -- Home is less expensive. Among homeowners older than 65, 84 percent have paid off the mortgage. Still, a house is expensive. Taxes, utilities, upkeep, and insurance really add up. -- It would be easy to get any care I might need at home. This may be true. But home-health care can further isolate anyone unable to get out. It is also expensive and can add to burdens on extended family. -- Retirement centers are filled with people who are sick and dying. This may be the most off-putting myth. Today's centers are not where old people go to die. This is partly because most centers require new residents to be in good health and be able to live independently when entering the community. Let's talk. Families are challenged to communicate their needs and desires for a housing solution. Cultural differences certainly determine the "acceptance" of multiple generations in a single household, but for the most part, the concept has moved in and out of trend in the United States. Needless to say, it's a touchy subject. In a Metlife Mature Market Institute online survey of 2,123 Americans ages 21 to 65, conducted from June 29 to July 20, 2011, nearly half--46 percent across generations--believe children have a responsibility to provide financial support to their own parents or in-laws if they experience financial difficulty later in life. For many, this means allowing a parent to live with them if he or she is not healthy enough to live alone without caregiving (58 percent overall call this a strong or absolute responsibility), or allowing a parent to live with them if he or she is having financial trouble (50 percent). At the same time, however, many parents say they would not accept financial assistance from their children in old age. The sad truth is that they may not have much choice. Better to discuss these issues now, when all the stakeholders can play a role in determining what "home" will look like in the future.

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The arduous art of the chocolate taster

First study the colour, then the nose, the structure and taste: as for any good wine, tasting chocolate is both a treat and a serious art, requiring regular practice to fine-tune the senses. And who better to offer a lesson in chocolate tasting than Pierre Herme, the French master pastry chef? "You start by looking at the texture," he explained at a recent tasting organised in Paris by the "Chocolate Crunchers' Club" -- a 150-strong fellowship created three decades ago to celebrate a common passion for the cocoa bean. "I rough it up a bit first -- crushing it to test its resistance," Herme said, pressing a blade onto various parts of the chocolate bonbon on his plate. Then comes the time to taste, paying close heed to "intensity, acidity, the lightness of the texture, the finish" -- how the flavour lingers after each mouthful -- "and for flavoured chocolates the balance between the chosen aroma and the chocolate itself." Without forgetting the most important of all: "pleasure." Five times a year the club's members gather around some of France's top artisans to taste all manner of cocoa-based treats -- from truffle bars to mousses, biscuits, patisseries and ice creams. The ritual is always the same: each taster needs a small knife, a glass of water and some bread to cleanse the palate. "The knife is essential, especially for chocolate bonbons," explained Claude Lebey, the doyen of French food critics and one of the founders of the club, gathered for the occasion in a Paris mansion. "You have to slice the sweets in two, to see the thickness of the coating. It should offer resistance, but should not be too thick either, or it stops you from tasting what is inside." Lebey confesses to keeping chocolate stashed away in various corners of his apartment so he can indulge in a quick nibble at any moment. "Hmm, the coffee in this one is dosed just right," he mused approvingly, sucking on a bonbon named "Brasilia", created by Jean-Paul Hevin -- a star Parisian chocolatier with his own stores in Japan and Hong Kong. "It's a dark chocolate ganache, but I added a bit of milk to bring out the scent of the coffee," explained Hevin, who uses ground coffee from Colombia and Brazil -- rather than instant as is often the case. The club's expert crunchers sample another bonbon, this one flavoured with Earl Grey tea. "The bergamot could be a little more pronounced," reckoned one taster. "Yes -- but that's risky, bergamot will easily crush any other flavour," tempered another. For Hevin, "getting the right dose between different flavours is particularly difficult, it takes months of work." "Most often I will put the accent on the chocolate, above any other flavour." But sometimes, on a smoked tea bonbon for instance, he does the opposite: "I am a big tea fan, so on this one I pulled out the stops so you can really taste it. I wanted something more powerful, more virile."

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The Baby Boomer Number Game

There are 75 million baby boomers who are on the verge of retirement. For the next twenty years, an average of 10,000 people each day will reach age 65, which has historically been the retirement phase of life. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of people age 65 to 84 in the U.S. grew by 3.3 million. While 13 percent of Americans are currently age 65 or older, that proportion will jump to 18 percent by 2030. The current 40 million senior citizens will balloon to 89 million by 2050. These numbers and their impact are awe-inspiring and a bit frightening. Baby boomers entering retirement age will dramatically change today's business and lifestyle landscape. Baby boomers may stay in the workforce longer than their parents did, both because they need the money and they're not ready to leave behind fulfilling careers. And when they finally do retire, their need for health care and assisted living could permanently alter what retirement living arrangements look like for generations to come. Work. Americans didn't always aim to retire early. Back in 1880, 78 percent of men over age 64 were still in the workforce. In 1934, the official retirement age of 65 was introduced. And by 1990, only 30 percent of men over 64 remained in the workforce. Now the retirement age is increasing again. In today's era of economic uncertainty, many would-be retirees will need to keep working to make ends meet and be considered fortunate if they can find or hold on to jobs. Delaying retirement will certainly improve the finances of individual baby boomers, but could also lead to intergenerational conflict. Older employees who stay on the job longer than expected could be perceived as standing in the way of younger workers who are in search of their chance to contribute to society and make a living. And senior citizens who take up positions far beneath their experience levels could compete with students and recent graduates looking for a first job. As more seniors stay active in or re-enter the workforce, older workers will increasingly report to younger supervisors, which can also create tension if both parties don't learn to effectively communicate with one another. Without sensitivity on both sides and a willingness to work together, conflict is likely and the welfare of the company could be jeopardized. Living arrangements. Once they leave the workforce behind, aging baby boomers will face decisions regarding their living arrangements that will impact family and friends. In the ideal situation, baby boomers will remain able to cope with the responsibilities of home ownership, take care of themselves, and live safely where they are. But they are unlikely to remain healthy enough and sufficiently independent to go it alone indefinitely. As they continue to age, a growing percentage of baby boomers will reach the point where they cannot completely fend for themselves. At that time, moving in with family may be an option. But challenges are bound to arise when family members must adjust their lifestyle to incorporate the quirks and habits of new residents. Parents may face scrutiny in how they raise their children, with unwanted input from the grandparents. And the physical requirements involved in caring for seniors can tax the patience and finances of the rest of the family. When boomers require more attention than can be effectively provided by family members, nursing homes and extended care facilities will need to be considered. For families already challenged due to the economy and demands of raising a family, this can be brutal. Assisted living facilities that provide hands-on personal care for those who cannot live alone, but do not require the full-time coverage provided by a nursing home, cost an average of $3,261 per month, according to a Genworth Financial survey. Nursing homes with semi-private rooms are $5,790 per month, while those with private rooms ring in at $6,390 monthly. Baby boomers changed the world in their youth and as working adults. Their impact continues at a relentless pace and will likely change our notions about retirement as millions move into retirement age.

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Spring/Summer hair trends: five new looks to try

Slicked back Get the hair gel at the ready because slicked-back styles were all over the Spring/Summer 2012 runways, with everyone from Victoria Beckham to Mugler embracing the mullet-influenced style. Labels including Giambattista Valli, Rebecca Taylor, BCBG Max Azria and Viktor & Rolf also kept tresses smoothed off the forehead for a streamlined and almost futuristic look. Candy color Hair color has got bold for this season, with candy colors including purple and pink replacing classic springtime looks such as ombré tresses or beachy blondes. During the Spring/Summer 2012 shows labels including Issey Miyake, Narciso Rodriguez and Thakoon showcased the trend, with the latter painting models locks blue, orange, purple or pink. Models at DSquared2 had pink streaks in their hair, while Peter Som livened up blonde locks with orange strands. Celebrities have taken to the trend too, with Katy Perry and January Jones just some of the big names reaching for the dye. Retro quiffs Having already made an impact during the Fall/Winter season, the quiff has confirmed its staying power and will be back for Spring/Summer 2012 after showing up at shows from the likes of Limi Feu and Rochas. While a retro aesthetic dominated at many presentations, Haider Ackerman showcased punkier varieties and Ohne Titel worked the trend for shorter styles. Meanwhile, Jean Paul Gaultier championed the victory roll for a perfect pin-up look. Futuristic up dos Cone-shaped chignons offered an interesting new silhouette at the Spring/Summer 2012 shows, with Rochas, Narciso Rodriguez and Issey Miyake all sculpting long locks into the most streamlined of shapes which had a science fiction feel. Meanwhile, exaggerated silhouettes were seen at Fendi with its "fobs" (faux bobs), and Diane von Furstenberg embraced dramatic beehives. Be warned: these styles require plenty of hairspray and close attention to detail. Experimental braids Braids were one of the most popular up-do styles on the Spring/Summer 2012 runways, whether in messy fishtail form at Michael Kors or sleek at Peter Pilotto and Danielle Scutt. Low slung braids were seen at Ashish, while romantic plaits were wrapped around the head at Moschino and Valentino. Stars including Dianna Agron have been seen working the fishtail headband trend on the red carpet recently, while Jennifer Lawrence's The Hunger Games alter ego Katniss Everdeen's side French braid has become the subject of numerous YouTube tutorials.

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Tattooist gives nipples, new life, to US cancer survivors

Few tattoo artists tell their clients they could win a wet T-shirt contest.Then again, few tattoo artists are quite like Vincent "Vinnie" Myers. In his shop in a modest strip mall in Finksburg, a half-hour drive from Baltimore, Myers specializes in tattooing nipples and areolas onto women who have undergone breast cancer surgery. Using precisely mixed pigments, he creates a perfect 3-D illusion of the real thing -- and in doing so, enables women who have undergone mastectomies to feel fully like women once again. "It's far more rewarding than anything else I have ever done," said Myers, 49, who has dedicated the last decade of his 28 years as a tattoo artist concentrating on post-op cosmetic tattoos. He has treated around 3,000 breast cancer survivors so far, including many referred to him by surgeons at Baltimore's prestigious Johns Hopkins medical center and other hospitals around the United States. "When it's completed and they see the final results, most women feel very emotional because they realize: 'The thing is over, I'm whole again,'" Myers said. Myers, a Baltimore native, discovered tattooing when he was a US army medic in South Korea in the 1980s. In 2001, a friend asked him if he might tattoo some patients who had undergone breast reconstruction. Typical of the women who have gone under the needle at Little Vinnies Tattoos is Susan, 58, an elegant retiree with a wish "to look as normal as possible." "I'm doing this for me. It makes you feel prettier," she told AFP the other day as Myers pulled on a pair of blue latex gloves and prepared to work is magic. -- 'There's a huge mental impact' -- "Any complications? Any allergies?" the tattooist asked before carefully mixing pigments in tiny pots and joking that Susan "might win" a T-shirt contest once the tattoo is done. "We're going to go with, not peach, but more like taupe, a little bit more blue," he said, before smearing a bit of pigment onto Susan's fair skin to determine if he had mixed the exact color for her complexion. "The perfect reconstructed breast doesn't look like a breast without a nipple," said Myers, whose fee ranges from $350 to $1,000 depending on the complexity of the task at hand. "You get out of the shower in the morning, you look out at yourself in the mirror, and you have no nipples -- there's a huge mental impact," he said. "It's critical that the visual appearance is as close to normal as possible." Hospitals also offer post-mastectomy tattoos, but Myers said they are typically carried out by nurses with no more than "a couple of days" training. On average, it takes Myers two hours to complete his work, during which he will determine the color and size of the areolas of each patient. "They will be some shade of color on the areola itself and a darker shade on the nipples because that is normally darker," he said. "Then you do a kind of grey shadow on the bottom side to highlight the top side so as to give it some depth ... using 'trompe l'oeil' to make it look like it's three dimensional." When he is not in Fricksburg, Myers is often on the road, treating women in New York, Philadelphia, Charleston in South Carolina and the Saint Charles surgical hospital in New Orleans. Myers reckoned that only a handful of his fellow tattoo artists do what he does, and in order to meet a growing demand, he has already trained two others in the secrets of his unique craft. Some 200,000 cases of breast cancer are detected in the United States every year. Half of them require breast reconstruction, even if surgeons using the latest techniques try to retain as much of the nipple area as possible.

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