Michael "Mick" Smyer, former provost and emeritus professor of psychology at Bucknell University, is now the founder and CEO of Growing Greener, an initiative dedicated to mobilizing older adults to take action on climate change.

In this season 4 finale, we discuss strategies for navigating conversations about climate change with those around you. We also examine why older adults are particularly vulnerable to climate change and the importance of intergenerational engagement on this critical issue. Smyer introduces Growing Greener and how it empowers individuals to shift from climate anxiety to meaningful action.

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Visit CSU's Center for Healthy Aging website in between seasons to keep up with events and programming.

Anita Bundy, an occupational therapist at CSU, discusses the vital role of play throughout life – from childhood to older adulthood. She explains how "risky play" helps children develop physically, cognitively, and emotionally, and how play remains important for older adults. Through sports and social activities, play helps adults and caregivers balance the "dignity of risk" with the "duty of care," offering opportunities for achievement, competition, and successful aging.

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Read more about Bundy's research on CSU's SOURCE.

Nancy Murray, an economic development specialist with Larimer County, joins to discuss an Opportunity Now grant aimed at addressing Colorado's caregiver shortage. With over 684,000 annual openings projected nationwide for home health aides, Murray explores challenges of low wages and high turnover while sharing her vision for the transformative CareCorps program. Tune in to learn how you can support this local effort in Northern Colorado.

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Interested in partnering? Email murrayno@co.larimer.co.us.

Assistant Professor Julie Silver Seidle, an occupational therapist specializing in older adulthood, shares insights from her 2020 dissertation about the emotional and physical challenges caregivers face during bereavement. She also explores resilience and finding identity and purpose post-caregiving.

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Read Silver Seidle's dissertation, "Life After Caregiving" on ProQuest.

Assistant Professor Julie Moreno and recently graduated Ph.D. student Amanda Latham of CSU's Toxicology program join to discuss the surprising cognitive impacts of urinary tract infections. This episode explores how UTIs can lead to delirium and neurodegeneration, the role of the brain’s immune cells in this process, and why the Dunklin Hartley guinea pig is an ideal model for studies of the aging human brain. In spring 2023, Moreno’s lab received a pilot grant from the Center for Healthy Aging to conduct this research, and the preliminary results are shared today.

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Find Latham's tuberculosis publication in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Read about the Hartley guinea pig as a model of human brain aging in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A.

Grace Borlee, an assistant professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, describes an intergenerational learning project in which MIP students were paired with older adult volunteers to complete a lab experiment. The pilot project explores the benefits of intergenerational learning for both students and older adults, how students can practice communicating their science, and some learnings on how to recruit community volunteers for research participation.

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Learn more about the CURE Lab and their Spring 2024 lab here.

Aga Burzynska, an associate professor at CSU and director of The BRAiN Lab, shares her latest research, published in Neurobiology of Aging, which studied 141 adults aged 20 to 80. Burzynska's team found that myelin, the protective insulation around nerves, peaks in our 40s and 50s before gradually declining. This decline, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, is linked to reduced memory performance with age. We delve into these findings and what they mean for understanding the aging brain and neurocognitive decline. 

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Find the publication here.

Dr. Saranya Wyles, a dermatologist from the Mayo Clinic, delves into the science of skin aging and the reasoning behind common age-related skin concerns, like wrinkles, age spots, and skin thinning and sagging. She shares a basic skin care routine (with just three products!) that everyone should use to maintain skin health with age – as well as her advice for navigating cosmetic procedures to reverse signs of aging. The episode ends with the next generation of skin care: regenerative dermatology, exosomes, and 3D bioprinting to create models of skin aging.

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Find Dr. Wyles' feature on the Today Show.

Learn about (plated)™ Skin Science in the New York Social Diary.

Regional Director Lily Griego from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services discusses recent initiatives impacting adults in Colorado, including the HHS's mission to address maternal care, mental health destigmatization, and rural health care accessibility, along with the Inflation Reduction Act's role in reducing health care costs for older adults.

Further reading:

• Strengthening Maternal Health
• SAMSHA Announces $39.4 Million in Funding Opportunities for Grants to Help Advance the President’s Unity Agenda
• Biden-Harris Administration taking actions to improve the health of rural communities
• Fact Sheet: One Year In, President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act
• Fact Sheet: Advancing Health Equity Across HHS
• SAMSHA Announces $36.9 Million in Behavioral Health Funding Opportunities 
• ASPE Office of Health Policy: Insulin Affordability and the Inflation Reduction Act

Associate Professor of Communication Studies Meara Faw explores the complexities of caregiving, including statistics on its prevalence, the challenges faced by care partners, and the unique needs they encounter. Faw shares insights from her research on improving caregiver and care-recipient well-being, including interventions like B-Sharp and the performing arts. Also discussed is the 2023 Surgeon General's report on loneliness and its impacts on health.

Dr. Greg Gahm – a geriatrician, Corporate Medical Director for Vivage Senior Living, and an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at CU Anschutz – discusses the long-term care industry over the decades, including the different types of long-term care available, standards of care provided, and the impact of the pandemic on cost dynamics and staffing structures. If you're just getting introduced to long-term care, this is the episode for you.

Amidst the ongoing debate over whether Presidents Biden and Trump are "too old" to run for president again, our season 4 premiere offers a compelling panel discussion. At the crossroads of healthy aging, anti-ageism, political science, and principles of democracy, this episode revisits a thought-provoking conversation originally aired on President's Day 2024. Explore with us the the extent to which age should impact your decision-making at the 2024 ballot box. Perspectives by:

• Karrin Anderson, moderator and Professor of Communication Studies.
• Manfred Diehl, University Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies.
• Christine Fruhauf, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies.
• Lucas Brady Woods, State Capitol Reporter at KUNC.
• Nick DeSalvo, ASCSU president and political science student.

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View the PDF containing our public opinion survey data.

Fill out the podcast feedback form! Your response will help hosts plan future episodes.

Today's episode revisits every guest from season 3 of living healthy longer and their answers to the S3 standing question: Can you identify a major challenge in your field that must be overcome to see real improvements in healthspan or healthy aging research?

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Fill out the podcast feedback form! Your response will help our host plan future episodes.

Sign up here to participate in healthy aging studies at CSU.

Join CSU's Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging newsletter listserv.

Dr. Kate E. Creevy is a board-certified small animal veterinary internist at Texas A&M University with a primary research interest in canine longevity and healthspan. Creevy – a founder of the Dog Aging Project – shares some interesting findings about diet, cognitive function and physical activity from the first data release of 27,000 pet dogs enrolled in DAP.

According to the CDC, health disparities are "preventable differences in the burden of disease...that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations."

Ronica Rooks, a professor of health and behavioral sciences at CU-Denver, joins to discuss racial and ethnic health disparities affecting older adults. Gentrification and social determinants of health are explored, as well as Rooks' studies on working and volunteering as strategies to stave off dementia risk.

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"Key Data on Health and Health Care by Race and Ethnicity" by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"Minority Population Profiles" from HHS Office of Minority Health.

2023 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures from the AA.

Learn about the 3-30-300 rule on Wild Ideas Worth Living.

Ava Segal is the founder and CEO of Steadi Systems, a health-tech startup out of Golden, CO that is providing solutions for better balance health and awareness. In this episode, Segal discusses the importance of balance fitness and introduces us to Steadiplay: an engaging balance training tool she invented for her doctoral research at Colorado School of Mines.

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Find Segal on LinkedIn or email her at ava@steadisystems.com. 

Watch Steadiplay in action here.

Is it possible that researchers can find signs of future cognitive decline in muscles before the brain ever shows a deficit? Shelby Osburn, a postdoctoral researcher in CSU's Healthspan Biology Lab, thinks yes. In this episode, Osburn describes her recent proposal to examine the fascinating relationship between skeletal muscle and Alzheimer's disease.

Greg Ebel, a professor and director of CSU's Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, discusses his lab’s history of surveillance and prevention strategies for arboviruses (West Nile, dengue and Zika viruses), and how that work poised his team to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020.

About five years ago, some patients in Denver were suffering from a stubborn lung disease that, despite ongoing treatments, was not responding to antibiotics. Patients' symptoms kept worsening, and Drs. Alan Schenkel and Ed Chan were curious.

Tune in to hear them describe NTM infection, a lung disease that is becoming more common in adults over the age of 50. What are nontuberculous mycobacteria, and what is it about certain people’s immune responses that make them more susceptible to NTM infection than others?

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Read more about NTM from the American Lung Association.

Associate Professor of Pathobiology Candace Mathiason introduces us to the weird ways of prions and how they can be used as models for Alzheimer’s disease in humans. Mathiason describes her past research in retroviruses and the approach her lab is taking to develop tests that can detect Alzheimer’s earlier in the disease’s progression.

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Learn more about prions from the NIH and the CDC.

Read about CSU's history in chronic wasting disease research from The Coloradoan.