New research from the University of Chicago investigates what happens to men’s and women’s sexual function and relationships after a heart attack in an effort to help clinicians develop better care guidelines for patients.
Starting dialysis treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) should be a shared decision made by an informed patient based on discussions with a physician and family members. However, many older dialysis patients say they feel voiceless in the decision-making process and are unaware of more conservative management approaches that could help them avoid initiating a treatment that reduces their quality of life, according to a study led by Tufts University researchers.
More than 550,000 adults 55-years-old and older are arrested and detained every year--and that number is increasing rapidly. Yet we know very little about the special health burdens in this population. In a first of its kind study, researchers report that two-thirds of incarcerated older adults experience at least one health-related distressing symptom, such as a chronic disease, physical pain, or emotional suffering.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center have identified RNA-based biomarkers that distinguish between normal, aging hematopoietic stem cells and leukemia stem cells associated with secondary acute myeloid leukemia (sAML), a particularly problematic disease that typically afflicts older patients who have often already experienced a bout with cancer.
Using a new mouse model, researchers have found that stiffer arteries can also negatively affect memory and other critical brain processes. The findings, which may eventually reveal how arterial stiffness leads to Alzheimer’s and other diseases involving dementia, will be presented at the American Physiological Society’s Inflammation, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease conference.
Psoriasis is a much-misunderstood disease, often kept under wraps by sufferers who want to hide their skin lesions. This week, Dr. Sara Ferguson, a dermatologist at Penn State Medical Group in State College, separates fact from myth about psoriasis and the various treatment options.
Why do some people want to live a very long time, while others would prefer to die relatively young? In a latest study, a team of researchers including Vegard Skirbekk, PhD, at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, investigated how long young and middle-aged adults in the United States say they want to live in relation to a number of personal characteristics. The results showed that more than one out of six people would prefer to die younger than age 80, before reaching average life expectancy. There was no indication that the relationship between preferring a life shorter or longer than average life expectancy depended on age, gender or education.
While even the best wines eventually peak and turn to vinegar, a new study by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine suggests a paradoxical trend in the mental health of aging adults: They seem to consistently get better over time.
A new paper co-authored by a UC Santa Barbara researcher reveals that Latinos age at a slower rate than other ethnic groups. The findings, published in the current issue of Genome Biology, may one day help scientists understand how to slow the aging process for everyone.
For older adults, having more or closer family members in one’s social network decreases his or her likelihood of death, but having a larger or closer group of friends does not, finds a new study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
Analysis of almost 3,000 pairs of Danish twins shows that they live longer than the general population. The authors believe it reflects the benefits of lifelong social support.
In a new study published today in the journal Cogent Psychology, researchers from the University of Surrey examined the way sun safe messages are conveyed to young women, and found that visual communication using technology to age participant's faces to emphasis sun damage and premature ageing is most effective.
Articles published today by UAB and its Geroscience Network collaborators explore new interventions in aging processes as part of an effort to increase the healthy, independent years of life for the elderly.
Mayo Clinic, along with other members of the Geroscience Network, has published six manuscripts that map strategies for taking new drugs that target processes underlying aging into clinical trials. Researchers believe that these agents hold promise for treating multiple age-related diseases and disabilities. The articles appear today in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A – Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.
A UCLA study is the first to show that Latinos age at a slower rate than other ethnic groups. The findings may one day help scientists understand how to slow the aging process for everyone.
A study by researchers at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior has found that a healthy diet, regular physical activity and a normal body mass index can reduce the incidence of protein build-ups that are associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
In the study, 44 adults ranging in age from 40 to 85 (mean age: 62.6) with mild memory changes but no dementia underwent an experimental type of PET scan to measure the level of plaque and tangles in the brain. Researchers also collected information on participants’ body mass index, levels of physical activity, diet and other lifestyle factors. Plaque, deposits of a toxic protein called beta-amyloid in the spaces between nerve cells in the brain; and tangles, knotted threads of the tau protein found within brain cells, are considered the key indicators of Alzheimer’s.
• In a large study of male veterans, both low and high HDL cholesterol levels were associated with higher risks of dying compared with intermediate levels, forming a U-shaped curve.
• The beneficial properties of HDL cholesterol were attenuated, but remained significant, in the presence of kidney disease.
• In long-term analyses of 2 clinical trials that included patients with chronic kidney disease, a lower blood pressure target than the currently guideline-recommended goal of 140/90 mm Hg was safe and associated with protection against premature death
Researchers at Mayo Clinic have reported a causal link between senescent cells — cells that accumulate with age and contribute to frailty and disease — and osteoarthritis in mice.
Maintaining proper levels of an essential helper molecule is crucial for optimal muscle function. Some athletes are already taking supplements to increase synthesis of this compound, called NAD, with the hopes of reversing the natural decay associated with aging of the mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouses. However, this is the first study to directly investigate the consequences of NAD deficiency on muscle function.
Becoming a volunteer later on in life can result in good mental health and wellbeing, according to researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Birmingham.
However, the study which is published in the BMJ Open online, found these effects did not apply before the age of 40, suggesting that the association with volunteering may be stronger at certain points of the life course. The results also point to the need for further efforts to engage middle aged and older people in volunteering activities.
Researchers from the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute and Birmingham’s Third Sector Research Centre reviewed over 66,000 responses by British adults to questions posed through the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).
Older adults in assisted-living facilities experience limits to their rights to sexual freedom because of a lack of policies regarding the issue and the actions of staff and administrators at these facilities, according to research conducted by the Gerontology Institute at Georgia State University.
Working or volunteering can reduce the chances of chronic health conditions leading to physical disability in older Americans, according to researchers at Georgia State University and Florida State University.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center (ADCC) has been awarded an estimated $8.8 million over five years from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to continue its mission of investigating mechanisms, diagnostics, treatments and strategies for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and related dementias including Parkinson’s disease (PD), Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD), Lewy Body dementia (LBD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).
New insights on age-related diseases may hold the key to both delaying aging and, in the process, reducing the occurrence of diseases including cancer. These findings have been reported by a team from Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Everon Biosciences in the journal Aging.
Poor communication systems at nursing homes can lead to serious injury for residents who are not tended to in a timely manner. A new smartwatch app being developed at Binghamton University could help certified nursing assistants (CNAs) respond to alerts more quickly and help prevent falls.
Older military veterans frequently show improvements in pain intensity over time. However, opioids, some mental health conditions and certain pain diagnoses are associated with lower likelihood of improvement, according to research reported in The Journal of Pain.
In a series of experiments at the University at Buffalo, the embryonic stem cell gene Nanog kicked into action dormant cellular processes that are key to preventing weak bones, clogged arteries and other telltale signs of growing old.
How can we predict if a new haircut will look good without physically trying it? Or explore what missing children might look like if their appearance is changed? A new personalized image search engine developed by a University of Washington computer vision researcher lets a person imagine how they would look with different hairstyles or appearances.
Physical declines begin sooner in life than typically detected, often when people are still in their 50s, according to a Duke Health study that focused on a large group of U.S. adults across a variety of age groups.
According to a new study by NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, patient characteristics and outcomes differ for people who fall outdoors versus indoors.
New findings published today by a team of researchers led by Dr. Andres Lozano at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre (KNC) of Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) have provided further insight into the effects of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Working memory can be thought of as short-term memory, temporarily holding ideas and recent events in the mind for quick recall. Working memory often declines with age; it may also be susceptible to interactions between age and alcohol use. Frontal theta power (FTP) and posterior alpha power (PAP) are electrophysiological measures of brain activity associated with cognitive effort and maintenance of visual information. This study looks at alcohol effects on FTP and PAP during a working memory task in younger and older social drinkers.
Understanding the effects of age and disease on sexual wellbeing is crucial as sexual health is increasingly associated with vitality. In a new study published in The American Journal of Medicine, researchers looked at the role metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease play in postmenopausal women's sexual health. They found that metabolic syndrome was strongly associated with decreased sexual activity, desire, and sexual satisfaction and that specific cardiovascular events were linked to reduced rates of sexual activity, but not with sexual desire or satisfaction.
More seniors are getting help from family, friends and hired helpers to keep them in their homes, despite disabilities that keep them from total independence, a new study finds. Half of disabled seniors in a long-term study got in-home help in 2012, up 20 percent from the late 1990s.
Why do women have lower rates of heart failure than men for most of their lives? University of Guelph researchers have uncovered a possible clue – an actin binding protein called “CapZ” that also protects against heart attacks.Now they’ll be studying how its levels are affected by gender and aging, backed by a prestigious Catalyst Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Their research may lead to new therapeutic treatments for reducing heart problems and extending lives of both men and women.
Just as improved diet and medical care have resulted in increased life expectancy in humans, advances in nutrition and veterinary care have increased the life span of pet cats. The result is a growing population of ageing cats; in the USA, for example, it is estimated that 20% of pet cats are 11 years of age or older.
In a study of nearly 3,000 people, Einstein researchers have found that those who live 95 years or more are able to stave off age-related disease, with serious sickness compressed into only a few years late in life.
A European study led by Umeå University Professor Lars Nyberg, has shown that the dopamine D2 receptor is linked to the long-term episodic memory, which function often reduces with age and due to dementia. This new insight can contribute to the understanding of why some but not others are affected by memory impairment. The results have been published in the journal PNAS.