A new program offers help for caregivers of people with Alzheimer's and other dementia.

It's 8 o'clock in the morning and 18 "bone-builders" in Ashland are bouncing through hallways at The Grove, keeping their muscles warm and heart rates high in between exercises.

"I have a few trains," Jim Estep says as he leads a visitor into a dark shed where he used to park a motor home.

Perhaps you've noticed you're less likely to forget where you parked your car after a brisk tennis match than after a trip to the library. There's a reason for that, says a new study: In healthy seniors and those with emerging memory problems, even a single brief bout of vigorous exercise and the release of norepinephrine that comes with it can enhance memory of what came just before it.

Eighty-seven-year-old Dorella Johnson is tired.

With age comes wisdom. "And once I figured that out, I knew I had to make my body as wise as my brains," says Donna Sousa-Wright.

The burden that the baby boomer population is expected to place on health care, housing and other services locally and nationwide is the topic of a presentation Sunday at Southern Oregon University.

Medical and social workers are setting up a network and training system to help dying people define their own end-of-life choices — so families and caregivers can move forward knowing where death should take place, who should be there, how pain should be handled and where money should go.

Ashland chiropractor John Kalb read many of the books on attaining an active, healthy old age before he decided to put his slant on the subject — "Winning at Aging: Your Game Plan for a Healthy Living."

People with Alzheimer's and dementia may be losing mental capacities, but that doesn't mean — like the rest of us — they shouldn't have pleasure, attention and fun.

Jim Collier grew up in Iowa with the message that a good boy cleans his plate, gets rewarded with a big dessert and makes mom happy.

You wobble slightly stepping off a curb, then down you go. In the second or two before you hit the pavement, you wonder what happened to that great sense of balance you used to have.

Rolling his wheelchair down the hall after exercise class recently, Herman Kapla paused to assess the results of the vigorous new workout program at the St. Paul, Minn., nursing home where he lives.

Although most people think longevity is solely related to genes, it really depends on genes, attitude and lifestyle. Centenarians attribute their long lives to eating well, being optimistic and keeping busy. The Census Bureau estimates that by 2050, there will be 1.1 million people 100 years or older. Do you want to be one of them?

Falls can be devastating for senior citizens, causing serious health problems and even death. But a policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research finds there's much more that can be done for seniors to help prevent falls.