older age

Consider Loneliness in Senior Health Assessments

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Researchers evaluated six years of data on 1,604 people 60 and older and found that 43% were classified as lonely. Compared with other study participants, those individuals were more prone to have their mobility decline, lose upper body strength, have trouble climbing stairs and decrease their daily activities. Loneliness also was associated with an increased risk of death, the study said.

A separate study of 8,594 adults 45 and older found that those between age 45 and 65 who live alone have significantly increased risk of mortality — and particularly cardiovascular-related death — than those who don’t live alone. That study also was published online June 18 in Archives of Internal Medicine.

via Doctors asked to consider loneliness in senior health assessment – amednews.com.

Bruce Krasting on Social Security

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The SSTF has stated that the date in which the TF falls to zero will be 2033. The actual termination date of the TF is much closer than that. It could come as early as 2023. Anyone who is 55 or older should be worried about this. Based on current law, all SS benefit payments must be cut by approximately 25% when the TF is exhausted. This will affect 72 million people. The economic consequences will be severe. The drop in SS transfers translates into a permanent drag on GDP of 2%. In other words, when this happens, the country will be unable to have any significant positive growth for a long time to come.

via Bruce Krasting: Bernanke – My Goal is to Wreck Social Security.

TF = Trust Fund

Y’all better start planning for a much smaller Social Security payout.  Interesting viewpoint in this blog post.  Ignore at your own risk.

Omega-3s Linked to Lower Amyloid Levels

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People who had a lot of omega-3 fatty acids in their diets tended to have lower plasma levels of beta-amyloid proteins, possibly reducing their risk of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers said.

In a cross-sectional study of more than 1,200 cognitively normal individuals older than 65, omega-3 fatty acid intake was significantly predictive of plasma levels of the 40- and 42-residue forms of beta-amyloid protein (AB40 and AB42, respectively), according to Nikolaos Scarmeas, MD, of Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues.

via Medical News: Omega-3s Linked to Lower Amyloid Levels – in Neurology, Alzheimer’s Disease from MedPage Today.

Reduced Total Lung Capacity and Mortality

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Background: Pulmonary restriction is associated with increased mortality in adults, especially those who are elderly. Previous studies, however, have used the FVC as a surrogate for the total lung capacity (TLC). We evaluated the association between a reduced TLC, mortality, and health-care resources use and compared this association with a reduced FVC.

Conclusions: Reduced TLC is strongly associated with mortality in adults who are elderly. Reduction of the FVC is a weaker risk factor for mortality.

via Association of Reduced Total Lung Capacity With Mortality and Use of Health Services.

More Financial Scammers Are Targeting Seniors :: Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

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As America ages, regulators are seeing more and more financial abuse of people 50 years of age or older. The North American Securities Administrators Association NASAA, the association of state securities regulators, reportedly filed 1,241 such enforcement actions in 2010, the latest year for which data has been compiled – more than double the 506 enforcement actions filed in 2009 “Financial Scammers Prey on Seniors,” by Anne Teresen, Wall Street Journal.

via More Financial Scammers Are Targeting Seniors :: Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog.

50-Year-Olds Get New Knees in Record Numbers

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During the past three decades there has been a dramatic, 130-fold increase in knee replacement surgeries, particularly among individuals in their 50s, a Finnish study found.

via Medical News: 50-Year-Olds Get New Knees in Record Numbers – in Surgery, Orthopedics from MedPage Today.

Knee replacement cost – cost of knee replacement surgery.

After reading about the dramatic increase in the number of knee replacements I did a Google search for “average cost knee replacement” without the quotation marks in the search string.  At the top of page one was the second link above.

Taiwan anyone?

The Advantages of the Middle-Age Brain -TIME.com

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A study in the British Medical Journal lit up the Internet last week with the conclusion that cognitive decline begins at age 45. While it’s true that some innate skills like memory and speed of reasoning fall off as we age, other aspects of intelligence related to learning and experience actually improve.

via Patricia Cohen: The Advantages of the Middle-Age Brain | TIME Ideas | TIME.com.

Positive proof the older brain improves with time.  I found an article on some positive aspects of the aging brain.

Now if I could only remember where I put my car keys…

Older Women Have 2X Mortality Risk First Year Post Hip Fx

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Medical News: Mortality High in Year After Hip Fracture – in Orthopedics, Orthopedics from MedPage Today

Older women who experience a hip fracture have a twofold increase in mortality risk in the first year after the fracture, researchers found.

During the 12 months following the fracture, 16.9% of the women died, compared with 8.4% of controls, for an odds ratio of 2.3 (95% CI 1.9 to 2.8), according to Erin S. LeBlanc, MD, of Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, Ore., and colleagues. They researchers adjusted for potential confounders such as age, bone mineral density (BMD), and coexisting conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and stroke.

And the increased mortality risk during the first year remained after further adjustment for specific hip fracture risk factors such as total hip BMD (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.9 to 3.1), the researchers reported online in Archives of Internal Medicine.