Taking antihypertensive medications may lead to a significantly increased risk for serious fall injuries among older adults with hypertension and multiple comorbidities, according to an articlepublished online February 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine. The risk may be doubled for those individuals who have had a previous fall in the past year.

He continued, "For patients, it's not so simple. Most patients are on 10-plus medicines by the time they're 70, and it's been absolutely, unequivocally shown that when you're on 10-plus meds, the side effects start to creep up. If you fall, your morbidity goes skyrocketing. So anything you gain with blood pressure lowering starts to become eroded with what you lose with the blood pressure falling."

"What this article really brings forward, and it's not unique, is that the benefit of decreased cardiovascular events is completely integrated with the greater risk of falls," Daniel E. Forman, MD, chair of the American College of Cardiology Geriatric Cardiology Section, director of the exercise testing laboratory and cardiac rehabilitation at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Medscape Medical News in a telephone interview.
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Older patients who undergo anesthesia and surgery have a significantly increased risk for dementia, a large population-based study shows.

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Anne Robbs, Editor

Great benefit of wine!! 
Gotta read this...

"Resveratrol improves the health of mice on a high-fat diet and increases life span."

It was always postulated that resveratrol had benefits, but the question was proving the mechanisms involved and moving beyond the realm of "old wives tale" and into the science of the process.

Understanding how resveratrol works would move pharmacists forwards into the possibilities of an anti-aging drug, although most people would probably prefer to pop a cork rather than a bottle of pills, there are many diseases such as alzheimer's that could potentially be retarded with more focused treatment. It seems that mice lacking the longevity gene known as SIRT1, don't seem to show benefits from resveratrol.

Although its actions had in the past been attributed to its action on the SIRT1 gene, the naturally occurring molecule in red wine seems to have other effects on dozens of proteins and previous evidence had pointed researchers towards its effect on another gene known as AMPK. This research in mice, yeast, worms and flies, called into question the intelligence of creating an SIRT1 targeting drug, since resveratrol seemed to have other benefits. Due to these findings, Pharma company Sirtris halted its 2011 clinic trial of resveratrol.

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The influence of aquariums on weight in individuals with dementia.


Placing a large fish tank in the dining area of extended-care facilities significantly increased appetite and weight gain in residents with severe dementia, who are at risk of excessive weight loss, according to a study in the current issue of Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders. Patients with advanced dementia are often given appetite-stimulating medications to maintain a healthy weight, but they can have serious side effects.

Residents in all three facilities increased their food consumption by approximately 6.9 ounces a day and gained an average of 2.2 pounds over the study period. The average weight of residents at the start of the study was 158.4 pounds and 160.6 pounds at the end. A weight loss of approximately 1.9 pounds was recorded in eight residents. The fish tanks had a calming effect, allowing residents to connect with nature and focus on eating, researchers said.

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Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with higher risk of vascular disease, which, in turn, may increase the risk of cognitive impairment

The study findings are in line with previous research and with accepted guidelines. According to Dr. Sabia, drinking fewer than 2-3 drinks a day for men and 1-2 drinks for women is "probably not deleterious" for cognitive outcomes. But these "safe limits" may be too high for older people because of the physiologic and metabolic changes related to aging, said Dr. Sabia. She pointed to recent evidence from a UK Royal College of Psychiatrists report (page 8) that suggests that the upper limit for those older than 65 years is 1.5 units per day or 11 units per week (1 unit = 8 grams). Some countries have specific consumption guidelines for the elderly. For example, said Dr. Sabia, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends that people older than 65 years not consume more than 7 drinks a week, and that they have no more than 3 drinks on any given day.
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Meditation in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may slow progression to Alzheimer's disease
"This study suggests that an intervention with meditation and yoga may impact the areas of the brain that are most susceptible to developing dementia," lead author Rebecca Erwin Wells, MD, MPH, who was at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, at the time of the study, told Medscape Medical News. Dr. Wells, who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, noted that although this was a small, preliminary study, she is "very excited" about the findings.
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Anne Robbs, Editor

 
A GREAT FALL PREVENTION PROGRAM IS HELPING SENIORS STAY IN THEIR HOMES, SAFELY

A community-based fall prevention program effectively reduced the risk for falls among older adults, researchers said here.

The evidence-based program, called Step Up to Stop Falls, includes exercise, home assessment/modification, and community and/or healthcare provider education, according to Mary Gallant, PhD, MPH, at the University of Albany School of Public Health in Rensselaer, N.Y., and colleagues.

Exercise participants in the program saw significantly higher Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) scores, Gallant reported at the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting.

In addition, among those participants who had their homes inspected or modified, 60% resolved 100% of identified hazards, they added.

Finally, participants in the community educational programs demonstrated a significant increase in their belief that they could do things to reduce the risk of falls. Women were more likely than men to have actually done something in the past year to achieve that goal, the authors said.

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Alzheimer's Risk Tied to Banned Pesticide

 

Exposure to the notorious pesticide DDT may play a role in development of Alzheimer's disease, a small case-control study suggested...those study participants in the highest tertile of serum DDE level had quadruple the risk of carrying an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis (odds ratio 4.18, 95% CI 2.54-5.82 versus the lowest tertile), the researchers reported online in JAMA Neurology.

The researchers cited findings from recent federal surveys that found 75% to 80% of participants had measurable levels of DDE in serum. Other researchers not involved in the study cautioned that it was small, preliminary, and not designed to establish causality.

Huntington Potter, PhD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, told MedPage Today that it was essentially "a pilot study." But Potter, as well as authors of an accompanying editorial in JAMA Neurology, noted that it was important for suggesting a specific environmental factor that may contribute to Alzheimer's disease risk -- something that has long been hypothesized but with few specific clues for where to look.

 "Richardson and colleagues have provided both a wake-up call to explore environmental influences and pointed us to a first area to assess -- pesticides, which have already been implicated in other human illnesses," wrote Steven DeKosky, MD, of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, of the Mount Sinai Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in New York City, in the editorial.

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Can a video game really diagnose Alzheimer's?
Akili Interactive Labs wants to try a different approach: The Boston-based startup recently signed a deal with Pfizer ($PFE) to see if its mobile video game platform can help diagnose early signs of Alzheimer's.  Akili plans to file the mobile app with the FDA, and, if approved, the game would be the first therapeutic app cleared in the U.S.
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Vitamin E May Slow Functional Decline in Mild Alzheimer's

"Our study indicates that vitamin E could be recommended to improve functional outcomes, such as activities of daily living, for all levels of Alzheimer's disease starting with mild stages and gives good confidence that it is safe,"

The study, conducted at 14 Veterans Affairs medical centers, assessed the effect of vitamin E alone or with memantine on functional decline in 613 patients (97% men) with mild to moderate AD. At baseline, all of them were receiving an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor — most often donepezil (65%) and galantamine (32%).
By random assignment, 152 patients received 2000 IU of α-tocopherol per day, 155 received 20 mg of memantine per day, 154 received the combination of vitamin E and memantine, and 152 received placebo. They were followed for a mean of 2.3 years.

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Anne Robbs, Editor

I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO DO THIS: 

"Virtual reality games can improve cognitive decline and
are better than traditional exercise"


There is research now claiming that virtual reality games can improve cognitive decline and are better than traditional exercise.   OK, ditch than exercise bike and invest in WII or PlayStation Move consoles with games like WII fit, bowling and cyber cycling.  These so-called “excergames” tend to increase the appeal of exercise by shifting away from some of the unpleasant aspects of working out and toward motivating features such as competition and 3-D scenery.  It’s fun while improving your body as well as you brain!

“We anticipated that seniors would enjoy cybercycling, which they did, but we did not anticipate such a robust and significant cognitive effect from cybercycling compared with traditional exercise,” lead investigator Cay Anderson-Hanley, PhD, from Union College, Schenectady, New York reported. “This gives us hope that more can be done to boost participation in exercise and increase the benefit of a workout through innovative excergames.”

Trials were completed on seniors and it showed that exercise can make a meaningful difference in brain health later in your life as well as yielding additional cognitive benefit.  In the study, older adults who cybercycled 2 to 3 times a week for 3 months had significantly greater cognitive benefit for the same effort as those who rode a traditional bike.  One explanation for the greater benefit found with cybercycling compared with traditional cycling is the added mental exercise required like navigating a 3-D landscape, anticipating turns and competing with others required additional focus, expanded divided attention and decision making.

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