Glynn and her colleagues administered the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale to 2,906 participants aged 60 or older in the Long Life Family Study, an international study that follows family members across two generations. Participants ranked from 0 to 5 how tired they thought or imagined that certain activities — such as a leisurely 30-minute walk, light housework or heavy gardening — would make them. Follow-up for this work concluded at the end of 2019, to avoid any increased mortality impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave the team an average of 2.7 years of data on each participant. After accounting for a variety of factors that influence mortality, such as depression, pre-existing or underlying terminal illness, age and gender, the team found that participants who scored 25 points or higher on the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale were 2.3 times more likely to die in the 2.7 years after completing the scale, compared to their counterparts who scored below 25.
University of Pittsburgh. “Feelings of fatigue predict early death in older adults.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124084616.htm (accessed January 27, 2022).
Survival strategies
Research Roundup on Aging – nature.com
Frailty measures, microbial ‘fountains of youth’, screening for social isolation, and other highlights from studies into ageing.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00076-9
Aging fascinates me now that I am an aging older adult. I didn’t pay much as much attention to aging when I was younger.
The App That Helps Me Be a More Patient Centered Physician — A Country Doctor Writes:
One of the most rewarding things I do in my clinic happens on my iPhone. When I sit down with a middle aged patient to talk about their cardiovascular risk, I open the risk calculator created by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. I talk my way through as I enter […]
The App That Helps Me Be a More Patient Centered Physician — A Country Doctor Writes:
The risk calculator is quite useful but I re-blogged this post for its link to the Hale study, which was news to me. This study published in 2004 showed older people between the ages of 70 and 90 who followed a Mediterranean diet have 50% lower rate of all-cause and cause-specific mortality than people who dine on the SAD Western diet. The four primary risk factors were diet, moderate alcohol intake, physical activity, and non-smoking.
Lifestyle matters.
Exercise Alters Brain Chemistry – May Protect Aging Synapses
When elderly people stay active, their brains have more of a class of proteins that enhances the connections between neurons to maintain healthy cognition.
University of California – San Francisco. “Exercise alters brain chemistry to protect aging synapses: Enhanced nerve transmission seen in older adults who remained active.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220107100955.htm (accessed January 8, 2022).
I was about to write a snarky comment but I forgot what it was.
Journal Reference – Kaitlin Casaletto, Alfredo Ramos‐Miguel, Anna VandeBunte, Molly Memel, Aron Buchman, David Bennett, William Honer. Late‐life physical activity relates to brain tissue synaptic integrity markers in older adults. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 2022; DOI: 10.1002/alz.12530
CDC COVID Rules Are a Dumpster Fire
If you’re confused by the CDC’s new isolation guidelines, you’re not the only one.
America’s COVID Rules Are a Dumpster Fire — https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/cdc-new-isolation-guidelines-confusing/621192/
Great title, good article. Just don’t expect any confusion on the topic to clear up after reading the full article.
Dumpster fire!
Going Back to the Office? (You Can’t. Not now. Not Ever)
People with talent and high-value skills, like most technology workers, aren’t returning to traditional offices.
How to lure employees back to the office? You can’t. Not now. Not ever. — https://www.zdnet.com/article/they-really-arent-going-back-work-from-home-is-here-to-stay/
I started working from home in 2006. I love reading articles on topics I already know a lot about.
The future of knowledge work will be a hybrid. A small percentage (like myself) will WFH 100% of the time and an even smaller percentage will work in an office 100% of the time. Most will travel to their offices a few times a month and WFH the rest of the time.
I drove a 2006 Ford Taurus for nearly 15 years and didn’t pass 80,000 miles. (short commute)
My business casual attire consists of jeans and a tee shirt.
Coffee is cheaper and tastes a lot better than office coffee too.
Diet Quality and Covid-19 Risk/Severity
Poor metabolic health and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors have been associated with higher risk and severity of COVID-19.
A dietary pattern characterized by healthy plant-based foods was associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19.
We found evidence of a synergistic association of poor diet and increased socioeconomic deprivation with COVID-19 risk that was higher than the sum of the risk associated with each factor alone.
Merino J, Joshi AD, Nguyen LH, et al
Diet quality and risk and severity of COVID-19: a prospective cohort study
Gut 2021;70:2096-2104. — https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/11/2096
In six countries, plant-based diets or pescatarian diets were associated with lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19. These dietary patterns may be considered for protection against severe COVID-19 In 2884 front-line healthcare workers from six countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, USA), individuals who reported following plant-based diets and plant-based diets or pescatarian diets that were higher in vegetables, legumes and nuts, and lower in poultry and red and processed meats, had 73% and 59% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19, respectively.
Kim H, Rebholz CM, Hegde S, et al. Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case–control study in six countries
BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2021;4:doi: 10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000272 — https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/4/1/257
Eat your vegetables!
Diet-induced Alteration of Intestinal Stem Cell Function (in mice)
“The first thing we noticed was that the small intestine increases greatly in size on the high-calorie diet,” says study leader Anika Böttcher. “Together with Fabian Theis’ team of computational biologists at Helmholtz Munich, we then profiled 27,000 intestinal cells from control diet and high fat/high sugar diet-fed mice. Using new machine learning techniques, we thus found that intestinal stem cells divide and differentiate significantly faster in the mice on an unhealthy diet.” The researchers hypothesize that this is due to an upregulation of the relevant signaling pathways, which is associated with an acceleration of tumor growth in many cancers. “This could be an important link: Diet influences metabolic signaling, which leads to excessive growth of intestinal stem cells and ultimately to an increased risk of gastrointestinal cancer,” says Böttcher.
Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health. “New link between diet, intestinal stem cells and disease discovered.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211119155604.htm (accessed November 27, 2021).
I wonder what Dr. Lustig would say about this study?
Dr. Robert Lustig – The Sugar Pandemic – 2012 Presentation at Yale University and Dr. Robert Lustig on Sugar.
Dead at Just 49 Years Old
Because the birth-cohort effect in cancer suggests that exposures early in life, during childhood or young adulthood, may be crucial, some have begun looking closely at changes to the microbiome. “We know that diet and lifestyle significantly shape our microbiome. They also significantly shape our immune system, which we need to fight off the development of cancer. And so we are hypothesizing that it’s a complex interplay among the microbiome, diet, lifestyle and your immune system,” Ng says.
The Colon Cancer Conundrum — https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03405-6
My cousin died from metastatic colon cancer at age 49.
Get tested.
The Myth of Retirement – 11.21.21
I think a lot of Americans who are preparing to retire now are going to have to rethink their plans. Because there’s no way the money that they’ve saved and the income streams that they anticipate receiving are going to be sufficient given the much higher cost of living that we’re going to be experiencing. And this is not just going to be a few percent a year. We’re talking double-digit increases in the cost of living for many, many years in a row.
Peter Schiff, chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital
A hedge against inflation in retirement is to keep working. My patented solution is twofold: Build a nest egg while working, and work for as long as possible, either doing what you’ve been doing, or doing something new and interesting and fun. Full-time is great, but even a part-time gig is great, and for all kinds of reasons, not just money, and even if you have plenty of money and don’t need to work.
Wolf Richter
Retirement math now is simple. If you can, work longer and save more.
The SupremeCmdr – The Myth of Retirement
Remember The Lobsterwoman!
lifeunderwriter.net 
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