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A step in the right direction: Preventing falls

September is Falls Prevention Awareness Month, making it a good time to talk about something that can affect anyone, but becomes especially important as we age: preventing falls. A fall may seem like a simple accident, but for an older adult, it can have serious and lasting consequences. A fall can result in a broken bone or head injury, but the impact often goes beyond the physical injury. Fear of falling again can cause someone to become less active, withdraw from activities they enjoy, or lose confidence in their ability to live independently. The good news is that many falls are ...

DEAR ANNIE: Family chat disintegrates into political forum

DEAR ANNIE: My entire extended family is in a group chat together. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s useful, but most of the time it’s just noisy. The worst offender is my cousin “Daniel.” At least once a week, he sends political rants, tweets and reels to the chat. It’s wearing on everyone, especially my mom’s side of the family, which sits on the completely opposite end of the political spectrum from him. I don’t know whether to mute it, leave outright or say something. It honestly feels like Daniel enjoys stirring the pot in what used to be a perfectly harmless ...

HINTS FROM HELOISE: Never run your dryer unattended

DEAR HELOISE: I just read a letter from a Massachusetts reader that contained some unfortunate phrasing. It stated that a vent with a lint clog caused the fire — not leaving the house with the dryer running. A fire requires three key factors: heat, oxygen and fuel. While the lint clog may have well been what caught fire, this happened because the dryer was left running, which caused the lint to heat up to its combustion point. After 27 years as a firefighter and another 11 years with our state fire marshal’s office, I’ve seen dryer fires that caused significant property damage. ...

TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH: Major heart devices differ

DEAR DR. ROACH: What’s the difference between a pacemaker and a defibrillator? — T.S.B. ANSWER: Both are implantable devices to treat electrical problems of the heart. A pacemaker is a much older device; the first implantable pacemaker was made in 1958. The heart has an electrical system, which coordinates the mechanical activity of the heart so that blood is pumped out efficiently. Each cardiac muscle cell has an intrinsic rhythm, but specialized cells in the right atrium normally act as a pacemaker to the heart. They respond to nerve stimulation from the sympathetic and vagus ...

Dear Annie: Other sister going for gold in grief over sibling

DEAR ANNIE: I have two sisters, and one of them, “Joanie,” tragically passed away from cancer last year. It’s obviously been hard, but what’s making it harder is my remaining sister. She has always been competitive. And she has somehow turned even grief into a competition. For example, a few weeks ago I mentioned I hadn’t slept the night before out of sadness, and she shot back, “I haven’t slept at all since Joanie died.” I know she’s sad, but I also know this isn’t true. It was the same at the funeral. She insisted on speaking longest and loudest, then collapsed ...