A fortysomething neighbor of mine recently posted a Facebook update in which he noted, "I have fourteen years today." He didn't have to explain that he was marking his years of sobriety, which is one indication of just how much former First Lady Betty Ford -- who died Friday at age 93 -- changed the world in a way that's particularly important for boomers.

Back in 1978, when Ford entered a treatment program at Long Beach, Calif., Naval Hospital to kick an addition to liquor and pills, she shocked the hell out of us. In those days, to many boomers, being a druggie was still a youth counterculture thing, a merit badge of rebellion against the establishment. Getting wasted was a way of showing one's allegiance to outlaw heroes William S. Burroughs and Ken Kesey, of riding that train with Jerry Garcia and joining Lou Reed for a walk on the wild side. Of course, it was all an act of self-delusion; we were just as much conformist consumers of intoxicants as the previous generation, the ones whose scotch-gulping, chain-smoking lifestyle we find so quaintly fascinating on the TV series Mad Men.

Since I wrote a feature about Volunteers in Medicine in April, the organization's altruistically minded doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals have continued to open new clinics, which provide free, no-questions-asked care to people who otherwise might go without. The Vermont-based network of locally financed and controlled clinics now includes 84 facilities in 25 states.

November, for example, saw the opening of the Clinic By the Bay. The San Francisco-based clinic is the first VIM operation in the Bay Area, where it's estimated that at least 100,000 people lack health insurance. The clinic has raised more than $700,000 in funding from donors and has recruited more than 100 volunteer staffers, ranging from physicians to interpreters who can speak languages such as Chinese and Tagalog.

According to a recent poll, about 70 percent of Americans either experience chronic pain or know someone who has it, and four in 10 see backaches and other reoccurring discomfort as simply a normal part of aging.

Nearly half of those polled say they believe that such pain is inevitable, and that there's no treatment to cure it. They may sound like cranky pessimists, but in truth, even aggressive physical therapy, lifestyle changes and pain medications don't always provide relief. One problem is that doctors aren't always sure what is causing the suffering. According to the Cleveland Clinic, a precise cause for acute low back pain, for example, is found in only 20 percent of cases.

Talk is running high over news that a federal judge in Virginia struck down a key element in the health-care reform law today. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson ruled that the government has no constitutional right to force Americans to buy health insurance they may or may not want -- even if it helps provide universal health care.

Hudson's ruling, however, will have no practical effect on the continuing rollout of the health-care reform law because the judge declined the plaintiff's request to freeze implementation of the law, according to The New York Times. The provision requiring people to buy insurance is not set to take effect until 2014, and legal experts say a lengthy court battle is expected to continue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It's an all-too-common Sandwich Generation experience -- an adult child grapples with caring for an ailing parent. But until it happens to you, you may not know how demanding, frustrating and at times joyful it can be.

That's what Elizabeth, a plastic surgery nurse and freelance writer in Albuquerque, discovered when her 81-year-old father moved into her home after he was diagnosed with dementia.

The first of a long and occasionally complex series of changes to your health-care coverage became law last week as, six months after its fractious passage, the federal government's health-care reform legislation began to kick in.

What do you need to know?

1. Insurance companies can no longer cancel your coverage for any reason except fraud. Prior to Sept. 23, if you or your employer made an error in your application, your insurance company could use that as a reason to rescind your policy. No longer. Now a company must prove that you deliberately lied on your application before it can cancel your policy. If your insurance company does rescind your policy, it must give you 30 days' notice before the cancellation takes effect. During that time you can appeal the decision or search for new coverage.

He's starring turn in Woody Allen's newest film, but Sir Anthony Hopkins is getting rave reviews for the elegant figure he now cuts after shedding 75 pounds.

The Oscar-winning actor dropped the weight the old-fashioned way, by cutting calories and upping his exercise routine. Not only did Hopkins celebrate by donating his former wardrobe to charity, the 70-year-old actor also has emerged as proof that it's never too late to get into shape. A website in Wales exults over the new look of its native son, and Web MD.com has advice on how to follow Hopkins' example.

To work or not to work, that's the new question: If you're planning to work past retirement (or are coming out of retirement to work), then there's a bit of arithmetic you need to do to make sure the numbers come out the way you hope they will.

From U.S. News & World Report: "You don't have to be retired to claim your Social Security payments. But if you continue to work and earn too much, some or all of your payments could be temporarily withheld. Workers under their full retirement age can earn up to $14,160 without penalty in 2010. After that, 50 cents of every dollar you earn will be deducted from your Social Security checks."

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a ruling that undoubtedly stunned many boomers who've been hoping that treatments based on embryonic stem cells might eventually spare them from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other age-related diseases.

Lamberth's ruling (here's the full text) essentially blocks the Obama Administration from providing federal funding for research involving embryonic stem cells.

As boomers get older, we tend to worry more about the Big C--and unfortunately, those fears are justified. As this 2007 article from the scientific journal Nature details, scientists have discovered that the biological processes of cancer and aging, while different and separate, are woven from similar molecular threads.

But maybe we don't have to be so fatalistic: A breakthrough announced this week by scientists at Israel's Tel Aviv University holds out the possibility of dramatically improving the chances of surviving many types of cancers that have been difficult to treat.