Tag: Healthy Aging

Sensory impairment and health expectancy in older adults

Out of the five physical senses, impairment in vision and hearing, especially simultaneously, may have the greatest impact on the health of older adults. These impairments are associated with poor health outcomes, such as limitations in physical function and activities of daily living (ADLs), social isolation, cognitive decline, depression, poor self-rated health (SRH), communication difficulties,

Osteoarthritis linked to higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have investigated the link between osteoarthritis and mortality in an epidemiological study. It was shown that the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was higher for people with osteoarthritis than for the rest of the population. Using population registers, the researchers studied approximately 469,000 people living in Skåne, Sweden,

What to call someone who uses heroin?

A first-ever study to ask people who use heroin what they want to be called finds “people first” language often best, and language suggesting misuse or dependence generally worst. In the ongoing opioid crisis, many researchers and clinicians now use “person first” terms such as “person with substance use disorder” instead of loaded labels like

Long-term statin use associated with lower glaucoma risk: Study finds that people who used statins for five years or more had a 21 percent lower chance of primary open-angle glaucoma

A new study brings the connection between statin use and risk of glaucoma into sharper focus. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found that using statins for five or more years is associated with lower risk of primary open-angle glaucoma. Results of the study were published recently in JAMA Ophthalmology. Glaucoma, a leading cause

Study ties poor sleep to reduced memory performance in older adults

A new study has found that variability in night-to-night sleep time and reduced sleep quality adversely affect the ability of older adults to recall information about past events. The study also found unexpected racial differences in the type of sleep patterns tied to lower memory performance across both younger and older African American research participants.

Growing life expectancy inequality in US cannot be blamed on opioids alone

A new University of Michigan study challenges a popularized view about what’s causing the growing gap between the lifespans of more- and less-educated Americans — finding shortcomings in the widespread narrative that the United States is facing an epidemic of “despair.” Some influential studies have argued that growing life expectancy inequality is driven by so-called

Broken brain cells repaired in dementia mouse model: If translated to humans, results suggest new directions for combating cognitive decline in elderly

Dysfunctional neurons in the hippocampus of adult female mice modeling dementia can be repaired and reconnected to distant parts of the brain, reports a new study published in JNeurosci. The similarity between the mouse model and the human condition underscores the therapeutic potential of targeting these cells in dementia patients. The hippocampus generates new brain

Artificial intelligence tool vastly scales up Alzheimer’s research: Machine learning tool automates pathologists’ work to identify disease markers

Researchers at UC Davis and UC San Francisco have found a way to teach a computer to precisely detect one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease in human brain tissue, delivering a proof of concept for a machine-learning approach to distinguishing critical markers of the disease. Amyloid plaques are clumps of protein fragments in the

Study identifies better, cheaper ways to stem arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh: Some solutions are 100 times cheaper than others, costing as little as $1 per person

In what has been called “the largest mass poisoning of a population in history,” some 40 million people in Bangladesh are drinking water that contains unsafe levels of arsenic. The naturally occurring element seeps into groundwater reached by shallow wells, and from there it has a huge impact on the health and lives of Bangladeshis;

Researchers define Alzheimer’s-like brain disorder: LATE symptoms resembles Alzheimer’s disease but has different cause

A brain disorder that mimics symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease has been defined with recommended diagnostic criteria and guidelines for advancing future research on the condition. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center and scientists from several National Institutes of Health-funded institutions, in collaboration with international peers, described the newly-named pathway to dementia, Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy,

Scientists propose new theory on Alzheimer’s, amyloid connection

Worldwide, 50 million people are living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, every 65 seconds someone in the United States develops this disease, which causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. It has been more than 100 years since Alois Alzheimer, M.D., a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist, first reported the

Potential treatment for NEC in preemies: Scientists discover how to prevent disease in an animal model, offer a new direction toward treatment strategy

Cutting-edge discovery in the lab of Catherine Hunter, MD, from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago offers a new direction toward treatment of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) — a devastating intestinal emergency that occurs in up to 10 percent of premature infants. NEC is a leading cause

People with happy spouses may live longer

Research suggests that having a happy spouse leads to a longer marriage, and now study results show that it’s associated with a longer life, too. The study was published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “The data show that spousal life satisfaction was associated with mortality, regardless of individuals’ socioeconomic

Predictors that determine toxic fats in the liver

Accumulation of fat in the liver, known as fatty liver disease, is experienced by over 5.5 million Australians, including more than 40% of all adults over the age of 50. Fatty liver develops from a combination of both genetic and environmental causes, which influence the age of onset and severity of the disease. Experts are