It’s Time for Seniors to Step Into Better Health, Fitness

Regular walking, a favorite exercise for seniors, is one of the most effective forms of activity that delivers substantial health benefits and improves heart health, the American Heart Association has said. The latest addition to the American Heart Association’s tools for persuading people to exercise is walking clubs, which are being formed across the United States.

Walking is easy to start and continue, and has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity. By joining or forming an American Heart Association Walking Club, participants can connect with others who share their goals, lifestyles, schedules and hobbies – and do it for free. An American Heart Association study revealed that American adults are 76 percent more likely to take a walk if another person is counting on them.

“I encourage our patients to engage in regular exercise, including moderate-to-vigorous intensity walking programs, and the American Heart Association’s new Walking Clubs are a great resource,” said Barry A. Franklin, Ph.D., Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Laboratories at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.

According to an American Heart Association survey, 15 percent of American adults achieve the association’s recommended level of moderate aerobic exercise, which is 150 minutes per week. Walking for as little as 30 minutes a day will improve circulation, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and promote weight loss.

For more information about walking clubs, visit www.mywalkingclub.org.

Silent Strokes Are a New Suspect in Determining Seniors’ Memory Loss

In some cases, memory loss among seniors may be due to so-called “silent strokes,” new research suggests. Such strokes, which may not cause any noticeable symptoms, result in small pockets of dead brain cells and are found in about 25 percent of older adults, the study team noted.

“The new aspect of this study of memory loss in the elderly is that it examines silent strokes and (brain) shrinkage simultaneously,” said study author Dr. Adam Brickman, of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

 The research, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, appeared in the journal Neurology. All the study participants underwent MRI brain scans, as well as testing to gauge their capacities in terms of memory, language skills, thinking speed and visual perception.

 The brain scans revealed that 174 of the 658 participants had experienced silent strokes, and the investigators found that these seniors did not perform as well on the memory exams. This finding held regardless of whether the part of the patient’s brain responsible for memory (the hippocampus) was found to be relatively small or not.

“Given that conditions like Alzheimer’s disease are defined mainly by memory problems, our results may lead to further insight into what causes symptoms and the development of new interventions for prevention,” Dr. Brickman noted. “Since silent strokes and the volume of the hippocampus appeared to be associated with memory loss separately in our study, our results also support stroke prevention as a means for staving off memory problems.”

For more about the research visit http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.aspx?Docid=660249  

Alzheimer’s Drug May Be First to Prevent the Disease’s Progression

There is potentially good news in the research for combating the incurable disease that affects as many as 5.4 million Americans. A new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer’s disease, based on the findings of a study by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.

When given to mice with Alzheimer’s, the drug – known as J147 – improved memory and prevented brain damage caused by the incurable disease. The new compound could be tested for treatment of the disease in humans in the near future, according to researchers.

“J147 enhances memory in both normal and Alzheimer’s mice and also protects the brain from the loss of synaptic connections,” said David Schubert, the head of Salk’s Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, whose team developed the new drug. “No drugs on the market for Alzheimer’s have both of these properties.”

Although it is unknown whether the compound will prove to be safe and effective in humans, the Salk researchers said their results suggest the drug may hold potential for treatment of people with Alzheimer’s. Because of the broad ability of J147 to protect nerve cells, the researchers believe that it also may be effective for treating other neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease,

Huntington's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), as well as stroke.

The potential for a groundbreaking Alzheimer’s medication is providing a glint of sunlight in the otherwise gloomy outlook for those who have the incurable dementia.

For more information about the study, visit http://www.salk.edu/news/pressrelease_details.php?press_id=532.

Statins Appear to Reduce Risk of Depression in Heart Patients

New research that seems to indicate a double benefit from taking a statin. Seniors – the primary users of cholesterol-lowering statins – may look forward to less depression if they have been prescribed the drugs for heart disease, according to recently released research. That new long-term study finds that these statin users are much less likely to suffer depression than non-users.

The study, led by Mary Whooley, M.D., a physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, was published recently in the digital edition of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Dr. Whooley and her research team evaluated 965 heart disease patients for depression and found that the patients who were on statins were significantly less likely to be clinically depressed than those who were not.

They then followed the 776 patients who were not depressed – 520 who were using statins and 256 who were not – for an additional six years. Of those taking statins, 18.5 percent developed depression, compared with 28 percent of those not on the drugs.

Put another way, the patients who took statins were 38 percent less likely to develop depression than patients who did not. As the study went on, Dr. Whooley said, the difference between the two groups became more pronounced, with the patients on statins becoming less likely to develop depression and the patients not on statins becoming more likely to become depressed over time.

“This would suggest that statins may have some kind of long-term protective effect against depression, perhaps by helping to prevent atherosclerosis in the brain, which can contribute to depressive symptoms,’’ Dr. Whooley said.

For more on the study, check out www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/02/11574/statins-linked-lower-depression-risk-heart-disease-patients.

Knee Replacement for Seniors Also Lowers Risk of Death and Heart Failure, Study Says

There’s no doubt that knee replacement is a big step, but it could pay benefits down the road in more than just mobility. Senior patients needing a total knee replacement because of osteoarthritis have new reasons to undergo the surgery, some doctors have said.

Research presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons showed that the operation not only repairs the knee, it also lowers the patient’s probability of heart failure and death.

The purpose of the study, however, was to compare differences in cost and health outcomes between osteoarthritic patients who undergo joint replacement therapy and those who do not. They found that it did cost Medicare a little more for the patients who received the total knee replacement than for those who did not.

There were significant positives in the osteoarthritis total knee replacement group: 

·         The risk of mortality was half that of the non-total knee replacement group and 

·         The congestive heart failure rate also was lower, at three, five and seven years after surgery.

“These patients had improved survivorship and reduced risk for cardiovascular conditions,” said Scott Lovald, Ph.D., MBA, lead investigator and senior associate at Exponent, Inc.“More specifically, total knee replacement in osteoarthritis patients may reduce patient mortality by half. There are few health care investments that are so cost effective.”

 To see more about the study, check out http://www6.aaos.org/news/pemr/releases/release.cfm?releasenum=1044.

New Research Indicates Virtual Colonoscopies

There is good news for the millions of older Americans who have developed a dread for a colonoscopy. A new study, led by a physician from Mayo Clinic in Arizona, shows that virtual colonoscopy – less invasive than the traditional kind – is an option for seniors. The American College of Radiology Imaging Network study published in Radiology now indicates that virtual colonoscopy is comparable to standard colonoscopy for people older than 65.

A colonoscopy is commonly performed for early detection of colon cancer. In the standard procedure, a long, flexible tube is used to view the lining of the colon. After prepping to cleanse the colon, the patient is sedated for the procedure and then generally goes home to rest for the remainder of the day. Virtual colonoscopy, known formally as computerized tomographic CT colonography, uses advanced imaging software to produce a three-dimensional view of the colon and rectum. No sedation is required, but the procedure requires the same cleansing preparation as standard colonoscopy.

C. Daniel Johnson, M.D., chairman of the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and co-author of the study, said virtual colonoscopies may be considered for a patient who:

·         has had a difficult time with previous colonoscopy procedures;

·         are on anti-coagulant drugs;

·         have a colon obstruction;

·         are unwilling to have a standard colonoscopy.

Colorectal cancer is the third-most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute.

For more on the study, see www.mayoclinic.org/news2012-sct/6720.html.

Study Shows Smoking Causes More Rapid Cognitive Decline in Older Men

Cigarette smoking in men – especially older men – appears to be the cause of a more rapid cognitive decline, according to a report published in Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Smoking is increasingly recognized as a risk factor for dementia in the elderly and the number of dementia cases worldwide. In an earlier report on the study, the authors found that when smokers are compared with nonsmokers, the smokers have poorer memory and greater decline in reasoning over five years. Long-term ex-smokers – 10 years or more – did not show faster cognitive decline. They were more comparable to nonsmokers.

Séverine Sabia, Ph.D., of University College London, and colleagues used the Whitehall II cohort study, which is based on employees of the British Civil Service. “Our results show that the association between smoking and cognition, particularly at older ages, is likely to be underestimated, owing to higher risk of death and dropout among smokers,’’ the authors said.

To check out the study, go to http://archpsyc.amaassn.org/cgi/content/short/archgenpsychiatry.2011.2016.