older age

People who think positively about aging are more likely to recover memory

/ SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments

A new study has found that older persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a common type of memory loss, were 30% more likely to regain normal cognition if they had taken in positive beliefs about aging from their culture, compared to those who had taken in negative beliefs.

Yale School of Public Health. “People who think positively about aging are more likely to recover memory.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230412131116.htm (accessed April 18, 2023).

Journal Reference – Becca R. Levy, Martin D. Slade. Role of Positive Age Beliefs in Recovery From Mild Cognitive Impairment Among Older Persons. JAMA Network Open, 2023; 6 (4): e237707 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.7707

I cannot believe how wonderful the aging process is said no one ever.

Sharp Rise in Drug Overdose Deaths in Seniors

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

The researchers used data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to calculate annual overdose deaths from 2002 to 2021 among people aged 65 and older.

Overall, they found that fatal overdoses quadrupled from 1060 in 2002 (three per 100,000) to 6702 (12 per 100,000) in 2021, with the highest rates in Blacks (30.9 per 100,000).

In 2021, about 13% of overdoses were intentional, 83% were unintentional, 4% were undetermined, and less than 1% were homicide. Older women accounted for 57% of intentional overdoses and 29% of accidental overdoses.

Sharp Rise in Drug Overdose Deaths in Seniors – Medscape – Mar 30, 2023 — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/990297?src=rss

Depression and Accelerated Biological Aging

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

“These patients show evidence of accelerated biological aging, and poor physical and brain health,” which are the main drivers of this association, says Breno Diniz, a UConn School of Medicine geriatric psychiatrist and author of the study, which appears in Nature Mental Health on March 22.

Diniz and colleagues from several other institutions looked at 426 people with late-in-life depression. They measured the levels of proteins associated with aging in each person’s blood. When a cell gets old, it begins to function differently, less efficiently, than a “young” cell. It often produces proteins that promote inflammation or other unhealthy conditions, and those proteins can be measured in the blood. Diniz and the other researchers compared the levels of these proteins with measures of the participants’ physical health, medical problems, brain function, and the severity of their depression.

University of Connecticut. “Depressed, and aging fast: Older adults with late-in-life-depression age biologically older than their chronological peers..” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230322190947.htm (accessed March 25, 2023).

Journal Reference:

Johanna Seitz-Holland, Benoit H. Mulsant, Charles F. Reynolds III, Daniel M. Blumberger, Jordan F. Karp, Meryl A. Butters, Ana Paula Mendes-Silva, Erica L. Vieira, George Tseng, Eric J. Lenze, Breno S. Diniz. Major depression, physical health and molecular senescence markers abnormalities. Nature Mental Health, 2023; 1 (3): 200 DOI: 10.1038/s44220-023-00033-z

Social Frailty

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Social frailty is a corollary to physical frailty, a set of vulnerabilities (including weakness, exhaustion, unintentional weight loss, slowness, and low physical activity) shown to increase the risk of falls, disability, hospitalization, poor surgical outcomes, admission to a nursing home, and earlier death in older adults.

For seniors who want to think about their own social vulnerability, consider this five-item index, developed by researchers in Japan.

(1) Do you go out less frequently now than last year?

(2) Do you sometimes visit your friends?

(3) Do you feel you are helpful to friends or family?

(4) Do you live alone?

(5) Do you talk to someone every day?

Being ‘Socially Frail’ Comes With Health Risks for Older Adults — https://khn.org/news/article/socially-frail-older-adults-health-risks/

I passed the quiz.

2/3 Diet and Lifestyle, 1/3 Genetics

/ SupremeCmdr / 4 Comments

What can Okinawans tell us? Why does Ogimi and elsewhere on the island have a history of long life? That comes down to three main factors—diet, social practices, and genetics—explains Craig Willcox, a professor of public health and gerontology at Okinawa International University and a co-principal investigator of the Okinawa Centenarian Study, which has been investigating Okinawan longevity since 1975.“

About two-thirds of longevity is related to diet and way of life, the rest is genetics. Generally speaking, you need the genetic rocket booster if you want to get into the hundreds, not just a good diet,” Willcox says. “We haven’t looked into whether or not Okinawa has a genetic advantage over other parts of Japan, but longevity does run in families here.”

This island unlocked the secret to long life—and knows how to get through tough times — https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/uncover-the-secrets-of-longevity-in-this-japanese-village

Older Okinawans clinging to the islands’ traditionally healthful diet still boast the longest life expectancy in Japan, the country with the world’s longest-living people. But younger islanders, who grew up coveting the America they peeked at inside the bases here, began gobbling up hamburgers, fried chicken and pizzas as soon as their incomes permitted them to do so.

Urasoe Journal; On U.S. Fast Food, More Okinawans Grow Super-Sized — https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/world/urasoe-journal-on-us-fast-food-more-okinawans-grow-super-sized.html

I need to go to the grocery store today.

  • Sweet potatoes
  • Bitter melon
  • Seaweed
  • Fish

Vitamin D and Dementia

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Researchers at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK explored the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and dementia in more than 12,388 participants of the US National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, who had a mean age of 71 and were dementia-free when they signed up. Of the group, 37 per cent (4,637) took vitamin D supplements.

In the study, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, the team found that taking vitamin D was associated with living dementia-free for longer, and they also found 40 per cent fewer dementia diagnoses in the group who took supplements.

University of Exeter. “Taking vitamin D could help prevent dementia: Taking vitamin D supplements may help ward off dementia, according to a new, large-scale study..” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230301101511.htm (accessed March 1, 2023) — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230301101511.htm

Journal Reference:

Maryam Ghahremani, Eric E. Smith, Hung‐Yu Chen, Byron Creese, Zahra Goodarzi, Zahinoor Ismail. Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia: Effects of sex, APOE , and baseline cognitive status. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, 2023; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1002/dad2.12404

Meet Bobi, the World’s Oldest Dog

/ SupremeCmdr / 1 Comment

At 30 years and 266 days old, a Portuguese dog named Bobi was crowned the world’s oldest dog ever on February 1, breaking an almost century-old record, per Guinness World Records (GWR). The previous titleholder, an Australian cattle dog named Bluey, was born in 1910 and lived for 29 years and 5 months. 

Meet Bobi, the World’s Oldest Dog — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-bobi-the-worlds-oldest-dog-180981601/

See for yourself.

Bobi is 164 years old in human years. See https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/how-to-calculate-dog-years-to-human-years/

Food Addiction

/ SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments

Addiction to Highly Processed Food Among Older Adults — https://www.healthyagingpoll.org/reports-more/report/addiction-highly-processed-food-among-older-adults

Read the press release here – https://ihpi.umich.edu/news/1-8-americans-over-50-show-signs-food-addiction-u-m-poll-finds

Read more about the Yale Food Addiction Scale here – https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/fastlab/yale-food-addiction-scale/

Step 1: I admit I am powerless over pizza.

The picture above is a normal size slice at Benny’s. The tall beer can was strictly in the picture to provide perspective. For more about Benny’s see https://garyskitchen.net/worship-the-whale/.