Know the signs of coronary heart disease…

…from an article by the World Health Organization Worldwide, a substantial number of men and women who have coronary artery disease die within 28 days after experiencing symptoms; of these, two-thirds die before reaching a hospital. It is critical that everyone recognizes the warning signs of a heart attack, which may include: Chest discomfort.  Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain. Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach. Shortness of breath.  Often comes along with chest discomfort. But it also can occur before chest discomfort. Other symptoms.  May include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or light-headedness. Women account for nearly half of all heart attack deaths.  As with men, women's most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain. If you feel that you are experiencing heart attack symptoms, do not delay. Minutes matter!  Call 9-1-1 immediately.  While waiting for an ambulance, chew one adult-strength (325 mg) aspirin tablet:  Aspirin reduces the risk of death by up to 23% if administered when a heart attack is suspected, and for 30 days thereafter. The use of aspirin as a heart attack first aid could potentially save 10,000 lives each year. “3.8 million men and 3.4 million women worldwide die each year from coronary heart disease.” — World Health Organization

Heart attack risk rises after loss of loved one

…an article from the National Institute of Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an affiliate of Harvard University A person's risk of suffering a heart attack increases by approximately 21 times in the first 24 hours after losing a loved one, according to a study lead by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The study published Jan. 9 online in the journal Circulation found the risk of heart attack remained eight times above normal during the first week after the death of a loved one, slowly declining, but remaining elevated for at least a month. Researchers interviewed approximately 2,000 patients who suffered myocardial infarctions, or heart attacks, over a five-year period. Patients were asked a series of questions about potentially triggering events, including losing someone close to them in the past year. While there is widespread anecdotal evidence that the death of a loved one can lead to declining health in survivors, few studies have looked at the acute effect of bereavement and grief on myocardial infarction. "Bereavement and grief are associated with increased feelings of depression, anxiety and anger, and those have been shown to be associated with increases in heart rate and blood pressure, and changes in the blood that make it more likely to clot, all of which can lead to a heart attack," says lead author Elizabeth Mostofsky, MPH, ScD, a post-doctoral fellow in the cardiovascular epidemiological unit at BIDMC. "Some people would say a 'broken heart' related to the grief response is what leads to these physiologic changes," says senior author Murray Mittleman, MD, DrPH, a physician in the Cardiovascular Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of BIDMC's cardiovascular epidemiological research program.  "So that emotional sense of the broken heart may actually lead to damage leading to a heart attack and a physical broken heart of a sort." Mostofsky and Mittleman think that being aware of the heightened risk can go a long way toward "breaking the link between the loss of someone close and the heart attack." "Physicians, patients and families should to be aware of this risk and make sure that someone experiencing grief is getting their physical and medical needs met," says Mittleman. "And if an individual develops symptoms that we're concerned might reflect the beginnings of heart attack, we really need to take it very seriously and make sure that that patient gets appropriate evaluation and care." Providing appropriate psychological interventions for someone who is grieving is also important. Mostofsky says, "We do think it's plausible that social support during that increased time of vulnerability would help mitigate the risk of heart attack."

Five tips for boomer-friendly retail design…

…an article found on an American website, but very useable in Canada While many retailers are focusing on young, technology savvy shoppers these days, they can’t afford to ignore older baby boomers who account for roughly one in every four consumers and possess much of America’s personal wealth and spending power. What does that mean when it comes to designing your store? Appealing to this generation of 48 to 66-year-old shoppers takes some finesse. You don’t want to make boomers feel old. Nor do you want to shut out the younger generations. The key is figuring out “those hidden things boomers respond to that everyone benefits from,” says Seanette Corkill a Vancouver, Wash., retail design consultant. Here are five strategies to help make your stores boomer-friendly: 1. Adjust your lighting Getting lighting right is critical for any store and any customer, but it’s especially important for older shoppers. Jenny Wall, owner of Moose Mountain Trading Company, a Steamboat Springs, Colo., store that specializes in women’s sweaters, added spotlights and sconces to the overhead ambient lighting to make sure older shoppers didn’t have to strain their eyes. “The aging eye perceives color differently,” says Corkill.  “It tends to see more yellow.” Corkill suggests avoiding lighting with too high a temperature, which could increase the yellowness of your store and make it look less attractive. She also cautions against angling spotlights too much, causing them to point across and into shoppers’ eyes rather than down at objects. While such invasive light can be blinding to more sensitive, older eyes, it makes the shopping experience less pleasant for shoppers of any age. 2. Keep merchandise uncluttered and accessible Think carefully about how you organize your merchandise. Younger customers may not mind walking into a store crammed with stuff, but a boomer might be repelled by too much inventory on display, says Corkill. “It’s not a garage sale.” Where you place merchandise matters to boomers, too, of course. Linda Cahan, a West Linn, Ore., retail design consultant, recommends that retailers always place products targeted to boomers at least two feet above the floor. “Younger people will bend, whereas older people will not want to,” she says. “Don’t put extra-larges on the bottom.” 3. Tidy up your space You always want to keep a clean store, but tidiness is especially important to older customers. Alice Cunningham, who owns the Olympic Hot Tub Co. makes sure the hot tubs in her five Seattle area showrooms are carefully wiped down and that customers have clean, warm towels to dry their hands after dipping them in the water. “Women boomers, especially, are crazy about cleanliness,” she says. Wall, a 57-year-old boomer herself, agrees that her older shoppers value the polished look of her clothing store. “Quality is important,” she says. “We try to fold and straighten and have things together.” 4. Avoid fine print on signs and price tags Boomers naturally appreciate large, easy-to-read type on price tags and signs. If your customer has to pull out her glasses to read a tag, that doesn’t bode well, Corkill says. “They’ll just skip over what they can’t read, and that means lost opportunity to influence a sale.” But you don’t want to go too far and put giant fonts on everything. That might offend older customers, as well as signal to younger people that your store is for their parents’ generation. “You’ve got to make it workable for everybody,” Corkill says. “You don’t want to delineate yourself so specifically that you alienate others.” You might be tempted to get fancy with swirling, elaborate fonts, but it’s safer to go with a simple font for price tags and signage. That way, customers won’t struggle to make out prices or words, and your store will have an overall cleaner look. 5. Greet customers when they walk in the door The older the customer, Cahan says, the more personal interaction they usually want when they go shopping. “When somebody 45 or up walks into a store, they don’t just want to be acknowledged; they need to be acknowledged,” she adds. “Otherwise, they will get annoyed.” Making that personal connection can go a long way toward building long-term relationships with boomer customers.  At Moose Mountain Trading Company, Wall and her sales staff offer older customers tips on how to accessorize or wear certain items. “We do it in a way that’s not pushy, but that’s more educational and fun,” she says.

Baby boomers put pension plans under pressure

The leading edge of Canada’s baby boom is turning 65. Just don’t expect their pension plans to blow out the candles. Wheezing and winded from years of volatile stock markets, historically low interest rates and staggering billion-dollar deficits, traditional pension plans have been struggling to catch their breath from the 2008 financial crisis. There’s a growing sense in the pension industry that the days of hoping for higher interest rates and stronger market returns are at an end, said Laura Lynch, a senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson. “Many of the Canadian pension plans are getting close to their retirement years,” Lynch said. “Like the members of the plans, who as they get close to retirement cannot stomach the same levels of volatility, companies are finding that they also cannot stomach the volatility.” The first of the baby boom generation reached 65 in 2011, while those aged 60 to 64 proved the fastest growing of all age groups, expanding at a rate of 29.1 per cent from 2006 to 2011, the latest census figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada indicate. For the first time, the census found, there were more people age 55 to 64 — an age at which people typically start leaving the workforce — than were age 15 to 24, an age when people typically start their working careers. That’s a scary omen for pension funds that are dependent on workers to help fill the coffers. And that ratio will continue to decline, said Laurent Martel, a senior demographer at Statistics Canada. “The number of those leaving the labour force will be even more important in the forthcoming years as this large cohort of baby boomers will leave the working-age population,” Martel said.