Factors that can help clinicians distinguish signs of normal aging versus Alzheimer disease.
Website: https://www.mdmag.com/peer-exchange/early-diagnosis-dementia/aging-and-alzheimer-disease
Category Archives: Health
Research: Older Adults’ Memory Benefits From High-Intensity Workouts (No Change W/ Moderate)
From a MedicalXpress.com online release:
Researchers suggest that intensity is critical. Seniors who exercised using short, bursts of activity saw an improvement of up to 30 percent in memory performance while participants who worked out moderately saw no improvement, on average.
Researchers at McMaster University who examine the impact of exercise on the brain have found that high-intensity workouts improve memory in older adults.
Studies: Surging Number Of Deaths From Heart Failure Tied To Aging Population, Obesity Rates
From a Wall Street Journal online article:
The rapid aging of the population, together with high rates of obesity and diabetes in all ages, are pushing both the rate and number of deaths from heart failure higher, the study said. Most deaths from heart failure occur in older Americans, but they are rising in adults under 65, too, the study showed.
The findings help explain why a decadeslong decline in the death rate from cardiovascular disease has slowed substantially since 2011 and started rising in middle-aged people, helping drive down U.S. life expectancy.
Deaths from heart failure, one of the nation’s biggest killers, are surging as the population ages and the health of younger generations worsens.
The death rate from the chronic, debilitating condition rose 20.7% between 2011 and 2017 and is likely to keep climbing sharply, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Cardiology.
To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/heart-failure-deaths-rise-contributing-to-worsening-life-expectancy-11572411901
Dementia Studies: Healthy Sleep, Diet And Exercise Changes Boost Cognition
From a Wall Street Journal online article:
Mr. Chambers, a 48-year-old physical therapist in Jersey City, N.J., modified his sleep, diet and exercise routines. Eighteen months later, his performance on a battery of cognitive tests improved, particularly in areas like processing speed and executive function, such as decision-making and planning.
Most surprising, says Dr. Isaacson, is that the MCI patients who followed at least 60% of their recommendations showed cognitive improvement. However, MCI patients who followed less than 60% of the recommendations experienced cognitive declines similar to the control groups, he notes.
Mr. Chambers is among 154 patients in a study, published Wednesday in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, that doctors say shows encouraging results. Among healthy patients, people who made changes in nutrition and exercise showed cognitive improvements on average. People who were already experiencing some memory problems also showed cognitive improvement—if they followed at least 60% of the recommended changes.
To read actual study: https://els-jbs-prod-cdn.literatumonline.com/pb/assets/raw/Health%20Advance/journals/jalz/JALZ_2985-1572445934507.pdf?mod=article_inline
To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the -link-between-diet-exercise-and-alzheimers-11572427802
Ethics Of Lying About A Terminal Cancer Diagnosis Explored In Movie “The Farewell”
From a New Scientist online review:
The prevailing narrative of “battling cancer” in Western society has its own issues, with its discourse of personal triumph that values individual responsibility and determination. But the alternative – to lie outright – might seem inconceivable, particularly to those accustomed to the norms of Western culture. It is, however, a common practice in China, rooted in the belief that telling a person about their diagnosis can make their condition deteriorate quicker.
The plot line of The Farewell is familiar to me. Like Billi’s Nai Nai, my aunt was diagnosed with metatastic lung cancer. Nobody in the family told her – nor did the doctors when she later underwent surgery to remove a tumour. The last time I saw her was in north-eastern China a few years ago. Her once-plump figure had shrunk to a wiry frame. She was in her early 70s, in good spirits, but a far cry from the feisty matriarch who used to dominate conversations.
The Farewell is a heartfelt film, punctuated by moments of unexpected – and unexpectedly uplifting – humour. In a darkly comical scene in a printing shop, Nai Nai’s younger sister demands that the results of a medical report be doctored to edit out references to cancerous nodules and replaced with the nebulous term “benign shadows”.
Health: Important Facts Regarding Flu Vaccines And Influenza Virus
From a The Week online article:
The disease kills 12,000 Americans during mild flu seasons and up to 56,000 in severe ones, with 90 percent of the victims over 65 years old.
Although the U.S. has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, only 45 percent of adults and 63 percent of children get flu shots each year. Scientists estimate that if the vaccination rates were boosted to between 80 and 90 percent, it could effectively stop seasonal flu from spreading because of herd immunity.
How does the vaccine work?
The flu vaccine contains inactive or weakened versions of three or four different strains of the influenza virus. Most people receive the vaccine via injection, but there is also a nasal spray available. The weakened viruses can’t cause serious illness, but they trigger and train the immune system to fight off the invading microorganisms. White blood cells generate an army of antibodies, which attack and destroy the vaccine viruses by attaching themselves to parts of the virus known as antigens. The vaccine antigens have the same shape as real flu antigens, so the immune system now has antibodies that match up with the real flu virus. That experience teaches the immune system to recognize future flu infections and quickly make antibodies to attack the invading viruses. It takes about two weeks after receiving the vaccine to develop immunity, which is why doctors recommend getting it early in the flu season, which begins in October and can last as late as May.
To read more: https://theweek.com/articles/874101/flu-vaccine-everything-need-know
Health Care Technology: Facebook Unveils Tool For “Preventative Health”
From a The Verge online article:
The tool is simply called Preventive Health, and is now available to Facebook users in the United States. It takes a user’s age and sex from their Facebook profile and provides them with a list of recommended screenings based on those two data points.
“Let’s say you’re 52 years old,” Freddy Abnousi, Facebook’s head of health care research, tells The Verge. “One of the things that will come to you — based on the American Cancer Society’s recommendations — is that you should have a colorectal cancer screening.” Abnousi says that the app will then give you more information about what kinds of tests are available, from a colonoscopy to a stool test or a CT scan. Abnousi hopes that users will then take what they’ve learned and talk to their primary care physician about what would be best for them. Users can also adjust the age and sex in the tool to get different screening recommendations without having it affect anything on their profile.
To read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/28/20936541/facebook-preventative-health-cancer-heart-disease-flu-tool
Dementia Care: “MapHabit” Wins Top Technology Award From National Institute On Aging
From a National Institute on Aging online release:
First place prize awarded to MapHabit: This mobile software provides behavior prompts with customizable picture and keyword visual maps to assist memory-impaired people with accomplishing activities of daily living. The care management platform employs different interfaces depending on whether the user is a person with impaired memory, caregiver or long-term care community manager. Caregivers can monitor adherence to medication schedules or track other activities.
MapHabit, Inc., is the first place winner of the Improving Care for People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Using Technology (iCare-AD/ADRD) Challenge, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The Atlanta-based MapHabit team, led by Stuart Zola, Ph.D., will receive the $250,000 first prize for their mobile device application that helps people with dementia follow simple commands to perform daily tasks, such as taking pills and brushing teeth, and also provides feedback to caregivers. NIA is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Health Surveys: “World Alzheimer Report 2019” Reveals The Attitudes And Perceptions To Dementia
From the The 2019 World Report:
At the core of the 2019 report are the results of a global survey, commissioned by ADI and undertaken by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Almost 70,000 people globally engaged with the survey, making it the biggest of its kind ever undertaken.
LSE developed the survey to target four key groups:
(1) people living with dementia, (2) careers, (3) healthcare practitioners and (4) the general public, with analysis being provided in three categories: knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.
In the survey analysis we highlight the behavioural element first, giving prominence to the voices and experiences of people living with dementia as direct assessment of actual behaviour is central to discrimination and is the closest representation of the true impact of stigma on people living with dementia.
Read the report: https://www.alz.co.uk/research/WorldAlzheimerReport2019-Summary.pdf
Health Studies: Immune System Cells Rewire And Repair During Sleep
From a Sleep Review Magazine online release:
The current study points to the role of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that signals arousal and stress in the central nervous system. This chemical is present in low levels in the brain while we sleep, but when production ramps up it arouses our nerve cells, causing us to wake up and become alert. The study showed that norepinephrine also acts on a specific receptor, the beta2 adrenergic receptor, which is expressed at high levels in microglia. When this chemical is present in the brain, the microglia slip into a sort of hibernation.
New research shows that immune cells called microglia—which play an important role in reorganizing the connections between nerve cells, fighting infections, and repairing damage—are primarily active during sleep.
The findings, which were conducted in mice and appear in the journal Nature Neuroscience, have implications for brain plasticity, diseases like autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia, which arise when the brain’s networks are not maintained properly, and the ability of the brain to fight off infection and repair the damage following a stroke or other traumatic injury.
To read more: http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/2019/10/during-sleep-immune-cells-rewire/?ref=cl-title
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