Would you want to know whether or not you'll have Alzheimer's if you had the opportunity? The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association released new guidelines on the disease, in order to diagnose it earlier in its nascent stages as well as encourage more drug development. Readers and Takeaway listeners shared their own stories about the disease, worrying about the problems associated with early diagnosis. I don't think I would want to know. I sure as hell wouldn't want the insurance companies to know. Early screening and diagnosis sounds like a great way for insurance companies to expand the field of 'pre-existing conditions,'" writes Takeaway listener, Miriam, from Westwood, NJ.

Caring for the elderly has long played an important role in Chinese culture. But rapid economic growth has forced adult Chinese children to abandon their hometowns to find jobs in other parts of the country — often leaving their elderly parents on their own. This cultural shift has led Chinese officials to consider a law that would require adult children to care for their parents.

We frequently talk about retired people living on limited budgets. But what about their adult children?

It turns out that many people with aging parents are struggling financially, and even facing professional setbacks. But are their sacrifices really for the best? And is there a time when they should just cut their aging parents loose to fend for themselves?

What is it like getting older when you’re part of the first generation of gay people to live fully out of the closet? And who cares for you as you exit the world? We explore these issues with Laurie Young, aging policy analyst at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Brenda Austin, a retiree in her late sixties, who lives in New York and has been out of the closet since the 1950s.

The federal government is thinking about implementing a new formula to calculate poverty. The new formula would increase the number of poor from 13.2 percent to 15.8 percent. The striking change comes among the elderly, where under the new measure, 18.7 percent of people 65-years-old and over are under the poverty line. That's 7.1 million Americans and an increase from 9.7 percent.