Why We Don’t Take Care of Ourselves
Negative stereotypes about aging lead to the adoption of less healthy lifestyle choices that turn the negative stereotypes into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Take Home Message:
Watch for signs of negative belief systems about aging in medical records.
Especially in the older population.
NIHSeniorHealth: Alcohol Use and Older Adults – Table of contents
This is a nice little informational website from the NIH. The first video features a 77 year young woman who developed alcoholism late in life after a lung cancer diagnosis. She got up to a liter of wine daily when it became a problem.
Posting of this link does not imply agreement with the stated position.
I try to avoid politics at all costs.
But these guys must not be French.
The highlighted bold is me. I keep reading this FDA recommendation just to make sure I understand what they are trying to say. I think the recommendation says the FDA found no cause and effect between the use of biphosphonates and leg fractures so keep taking your medication. But if your leg breaks, your physician will instruct you to stop taking the medication she prescribed for you to help prevent bone loss and fractures.
I’m glad the FDA cleared up this issue, don’t you?
BACKGROUND: Atypical subtrochanteric femur fractures are fractures in the bone just below the hip joint. Diaphyseal femur fractures occur in the long part of the thigh bone. These fractures are very uncommon and appear to account for less than 1% of all hip and femur fractures overall. Although it is not clear if bisphosphonates are the cause, these unusual femur fractures have been predominantly reported in patients taking bisphosphonates.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Patients should continue to take their medication unless told to stop by their healthcare professional. FDA recommends that healthcare professionals should discontinue potent antiresorptive medications (including bisphosphonates) in patients who have evidence of a femoral shaft fracture. See the FDA Drug Safety Communication below for additional information.
I got this news release in an email the other day. I have reproduced the release in its entirety for your reading enjoyment
NIA NEWS
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Older men may be at risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease, earlier in life than older women, according to a study appearing today in Neurology.
Primarily funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, the study raises the question of whether there may be a gender difference in the development and progression of MCI.
Scientists evaluated the cognitive health of 1,969 dementia-free older people and found 16 percent showed signs of MCI, a condition usually marked by memory problems or other cognitive problems greater than those expected for their age. Prevalence was greater among the older participants, and it was consistently higher in men than women across all age ranges.
Ronald C. Petersen, Ph.D., M.D., and his team at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., conducted the research, which was also supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), also part of the NIH. Additional funding was provided by the Robert H. and Clarice Smith and Abigail van Buren Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program and the Rochester Epidemiology Project, also supported by NIA.
“Because evidence indicates that Alzheimer’s disease may cause changes in the brain one or two decades before the first symptoms appear, there is intense interest in investigating MCI and the earliest stages of cognitive decline,” said NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D. “While more research is needed, these findings indicate that we may want to investigate differences in the way men and women develop MCI, similar to the way stroke and cardiovascular disease risk factors and outcomes vary between the sexes.”
The researchers conducted in-person evaluations of 1,969 randomly selected people from all 70- to 89-year-olds living in Olmsted County, Minn. The group was evenly split between men and women. Each individual received a neurological evaluation and neuropsychological testing. A panel then reviewed those data plus other information, such as health history and occupation/education levels, to reach a diagnosis. Sixteen percent were diagnosed with MCI; these individuals displayed either amnestic MCI, where memory is impaired, or non-amnestic MCI, where different cognitive problems arise, such as with language.
Results of the study indicated that:
The researchers noted that estimates of MCI prevalence vary in studies conducted around the world but generally fall into a range of 11 to 20 percent. The Mayo team’s evaluation of participants included detailed in-person assessments that helped to capture the subtle changes in daily function that may mark the onset of MCI, Petersen said. The researchers also noted that the study’s limitations include a relatively low participation rate by Olmstead County residents and the fact that the population is predominantly white. Thus, these findings may not apply to other ethnic groups.
The NIA leads the federal government effort conducting and supporting research on the biomedical, social and behavioral issues of older people. For more information on aging-related research and the NIA, go to www.nia.nih.gov. The NIA provides information on age-related cognitive change and neurodegenerative disease specifically at its Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center site at www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers. To sign up for e-mail alerts about new findings or publications, please visit either website.
The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit www.nimh.nih.gov.
The NIH—The Nation’s Medical Research Agency—includes 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
Maintaining strong social relationships may help slow the approach of death, a meta-analysis showed.
In a pooled analysis of 148 studies, having strong social relationships was associated with a 50% greater likelihood of surviving through follow-up (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.59), according to Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and colleagues.
The magnitude of the association puts social relationships on a par with quitting smoking and beyond obesity and physical inactivity in terms of relationship with mortality, the researchers reported in the July issue of PLoS Medicine.
Conclusion Low levels of vitamin D were associated with substantial cognitive decline in the elderly population studied over a 6-year period, which raises important new possibilities for treatment and prevention.
Low levels of vitamin D appear to be associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline among older people, according to researchers.
In an observational study conducted among more than 800 Italians ages 65 and older, severe vitamin D deficiency was associated with a 60% increase in the risk of substantial cognitive decline (by a standard measure), according to David Llewellyn, PhD, of the University of Exeter in Exeter, England, and colleagues.
The findings — if confirmed by further studies and randomized clinical trials — “open up important new possibilities for treatment and prevention,” Llewellyn and colleagues wrote in the July 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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