In this guest post by Maria Torroella Carney, MD, FACP, learn what contributes to aging and what can be done to encourage healthy aging.

According to multiple published reports, comedian Jay Leno is asking a California court to grant him authority over the financial affairs of his wife Mavis, who is apparently suffering from severe dementia.

In his first Law Day address, New York’s Chief Judge complained of the steady erosion of civics knowledge, and the resultant decline in civility, warning that, “The Framers knew that the consequence of constitutional ignorance, and being guided by passion rather than reason, was armed mobs.”

In this season of gratitude, it’s appropriate to recall the “four freedoms” — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want — articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the threshold of World War II and illustrated so memorably in Norman Rockwell’s iconic renditions.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?” – Rabbi Hillel

Have you ever woken up in the morning, sun shining through the windows, clear beautiful blue sky, maybe some birds are singing, the aroma of coffee wafting from the kitchen, all is well and then–all of a sudden–it hits you like a ton of bricks… all is NOT well. In that first few minutes of awakening you forgot your troubles, be it a sickness, a death, a job less, a lost love, a pandemic…