News tagged with 'Elderly'

If you were born in 2007, your life expectancy just went up to nearly 78 years, the highest it’s ever been, the government reports today.

According to newly published research, you may begin to show the signs of Alzheimer’s disease and memory problems in your 50s if you inherit a common gene variant known as, ApoE4. What's perplexing is that not everyone with the gene develops Alzheimer's disease.   

Unveiled at the annual meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association in Vienna, Austria, brain research into the disease include the old antihistamine, dimebolin, and an vaccine that reduced the number of tau tangles by 40 percent.  Also vitamin D and curcumin research looks promising. 

Supplements of omega-3 fatty acids or DHA along with moderate alcohol consumption, may help fight the ravages of Alzheimer's disease, these three studies find, although the results were mixed. 

Mice bred to develop Alzheimer's disease, showed a reversal of the disease when fed the equivalent of five cups of coffee a day. The caffeine cut the amount of beta amyloid which leads to plaque in the brain, characteristic of human Alzheimer’s disease. 

The CDC reports about 47,000 falls a year among the elderly result from walkers not being properly fitted to the person. Canes and pets are a close second reason a person suffers a spill, which can lead to a hip fracture and a nursing home.  

Staying on the job longer, may offset the mind-robbing effects of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new British study, which shows that cognitive reserves can be modified later in life. This study adds weight to the “use it or lose it” concept. 

It is a drug that appears to return the bone building process in the elderly to that of  a young persons. Forteo, by Eli Lilly, reduced the healing time from a difficult and painful pelvic fracture by half, say University of Rochester Medical Center researchers. The drug could save money and lives.   

The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act hopes to restore some dignity to the elderly who find themselves injured by a home, yet unable to have their day in court because of language agreed to in the small print of a nursing home contract.  

The daughter of an elderly couple, named in a Minnesota Department of Health investigation into nursing home abuse, is having a hard time finding out what happened. A Bush administration 11th hour rule change makes it easier for the industry to keep secrets.  

Two teenage girls are facing years in jail and thousands in fines, charged with abusing and sexually humiliating elderly Alzheimer's disease and dementia nursing home patients who couldn't fight back. Other teens allegedly watched and said nothing.

Nursing homes inspected by federal inspectors last year turned up 94 percent in violation of some health or safety standard. The for-profit homes had the worse record, while a breakdown of states showed Rhode Island had the fewest violations.  A five star rating system should be available on the web soon to rank facilities.

In surprising results out of University of Oxford, researchers found elderly, at the low end of normal in vitamin B12, showed the greatest amount of brain shrinkage over a five year period. Meats, salmon and mollusks contain the most B12. Estimates are nearly half of us are deficient.

A new study finds regular to moderate exercise can help to boost memory function in older people while delaying the onset of dementia.

A Medicare bill opposed by the White House won final congressional approval on Wednesday, with the help of Sen. Edward Kennedy who returned to the Senate for the first time since having brain surgery.