Echapters
Living Life Loving Life Young & Old
The next Australia
Emily Millane
“Despite being home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, Australia likes to think of itself as being young. When Australians travel overseas they marvel at ‘the history’ of the places they visit: the architecture, the art, and the customs that were all there before Australia was colonised …”
Brain health
Stephen MacFarlane and Daniel O’Connor
“The human brain is the most complex object in the known universe. Such is its complexity, that even the number of brain cells (neurons) within it remains in dispute, with common estimates ranging from between 86 billion to over 100 billion …”
Skin ageing
Peter Berger
“What is this covering that we call the skin – this amazing envelope that contains some of the most extraordinary mechanisms in the entire body? It is not just the ‘giftwrap of life’, but an efficient organ of the body that guards, nourishes and protects it 24 hours a day …”
Women at midlife
Amanda Vincent and Helena Teede
“Why should we teach wellbeing in schools? Today’s youth face many challenges, including pressures from school, peer groups, parents, marketing, and incessant ‘digital connectedness’ promoted by social media …”
Seeing to the end
Michael Coote
“Rage against the dying of the light’, so wrote the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, to his dying father in 1951. He is referring to his father’s impending death, but he uses the imagery of loss of facility and senses to convey this …”
Hearing impairment
Stephen OLeary
“The rhythms of life: conversation, the roll of the train, rain on the roof and the pulse of music. For most of us, these are taken for granted; sound is how we sense the world, how we interact with others …”
Young at heart: Looking after your
cardiovascular system
Ian Hamilton-Craig
“Like any other ‘machine’, the better you care for your heart, the more likely it is going to go on serving you well. So, in this chapter we are going to look at the ways in which you can best look after your cardiovascular system, at this stage of your life …”
A guide to waterworks for men
Adam Landau and Mark Frydenberg
“Seeing a urologist often involves discussing things that men may have been bothered by for some time, but have managed to ignore. Conditions such as weakening of erections and slowing of the urinary stream are often thought to be part of the ageing process …”
Retirement and ageing:
A reordering of priorities
Tara Sklar
“Suppose we could live forever? How would we prioritise our time? Would we retire? In Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman playfully and beautifully describes different theories of time …”
Funding retirement
Carsten Murawski
“A few years ago, a survey asked several hundred Americans what they feared more: death, or running out of money during retirement. Three out of five respondents stated the latter …”
Maintaining harmony in families with later life decisions
Susan A. Blashki
“My interest in older people began quite early in my own life for three reasons. The first because my mother became seriously ill in her late fifties and I already had to learn to start to understand the role of being a carer – especially the role of carer of a parent …”
