Helping the elderly beat the heat
...e of the Harvard Health Letter offers tips for the elderly to beat this summer's heat. In addition to heading for the air conditioning, staying out of the sun, and wearing loose, light clothes: REVIEW YOUR MEDICATIONS Painkillers, for example, can reduce awareness of the heat. Talk to your doctor about you...Study aims to help elderly recover after surgery
...hat aims to shed light on the best ways of helping elderly people to maintain their physical independence and...oanna Lynch said: "After illness or surgery, frail elderly people respond to rehabilitation programmes with varying degrees of success. This may be due to the ...'Value to the system' determined healthcare for communist East Germany's elderly
Under the communist regime in East Germany, elderly patients' healthcare depended on whether they could contribute to the workforce, says a letter in this week's BMJ. While those working and therefore judged "valuable to the system" could access medical treatment when needed, retired patients were co...Statin therapy may lower mortality in heart failure patients
...ot, coronary artery disease is quite common in the elderly population. Too, because diabetes and impaired kidney function are also common in patients with diastolic failure, statins may improve the outcome of these conditions, possibly explaining some of the benefits observed by his team with statins in dias...Statins protect from death from pneumonia
... year those most at risk are very young children, elderly people and patients with underlying health problems such as AIDS or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (CPOD). The disease is caused by viruses or bacteria, which are becoming resistant to the antibiotics used to treat bacterial pneumonia. Eric M...Vitamin D supplements not effective in preserving bone mineral density in black women
...e extrapolated to women of other ethnic groups, to elderly women, or to greater degrees of vitamin D insufficiency, it lends support to re-examination of optimal vitamin D nutrition for skeletal health in postmenopausal women of other ethnic groups."...Blood pressure poorly controlled in the elderly, especially women
...ine, who was lead author on the article. The very elderly are among the fastest growing segments of the U.S....gs, and the results from clinical trials, the very elderly may have the most to gain from hypertension treatment. We must make identification, treatment and, w...Early warning signs of Alzheimer's show up across cognitive areas years before official diagnosis
...cal AD counterpart. Rather, we think of the normal elderly person, the preclinical AD person, and the early clinical AD patient as representing three instances on a continuum of cognitive capabilities. This presents an obvious challenge for accurate early diagnosis." The data also supported the emerging con...Obesity lowers likelihood of receiving preventive health care
...se correlation between obesity and flu shots among elderly white women and men. However, they found no signif... risk of breast and cervical cancer, and the obese elderly have a higher risk of complications from flu, obese people are less likely to receive clinical preve...Assisted living and in-home care increase as nursing home beds decline
... population rapidly aging, a smaller proportion of elderly and disabled people live in nursing homes today compared to 1990. Instead, far more depend on assisted living residences or receive care in their homes, according to a study published in the August 2005 issue of the Journal of Applied Gerontology. R...Percutaneous aortic valve replacement
...ar of lifestyle changes following heavy surgery in elderly patients. The size of this untreated cohort is expected to increase, reflecting the aging population. However, without replacing the valve, the disease is associated with a very high mortality rate (50 to 60% at one year) beyond the onset of symptoms...Healthcare workers who don't have flu injections could be risking patients' lives
...thcare workers could be risking the lives of frail elderly patients and increasing winter pressures in UK hospitals, according to research published in the latest issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing. Less than eight per cent of nurses and healthcare assistants surveyed in two Liverpool hospitals said they h...Columbia study shows elderly with diabetes at increased risk for falling
...lling is the leading cause of accidental death for elderly people, and a new study from Columbia University M...ns have defined risk factors for falls among frail elderly nursing home residents, which include gait or balance disorder, vision impairment and medications, b...Mayo Clinic boosts immune system
...ccines such as those with chronic disease, or the elderly to mount an effective immune response if they rec...nishes and produces fewer T cells. This leaves the elderly more vulnerable to disease and less able to make effective use of vaccines. However, researchers say...Statins use associated with lower risk of fractures
...lations of women even though many statin users are elderly men with heart disease. The authors suggest that assessing this relationship in a male population would be especially relevant. Richard E. Scranton, M.D., M.P.H., of the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center, Boston, and...Cars, computer chips and heart attacks?
...he GAP rollout at each hospital. The patients were elderly and not very healthy, with an average age around 76 years and high rates of smoking, heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes and previous heart attack. A large percentage had invasive procedures -- angiographies, angioplasties or bypass operatio...Surveillance data suggest that preschoolers drive flu epidemics
..."The data suggest that when kids are sneezing, the elderly begin to die. Three- and 4-year-olds are sentinels that allow us to focus our surveillance systems." Influenza kills tens of thousands of Americans each year. Previous studies have shown decreases in household flu transmission and in adult flu mortal...Prescription drugs can interact with a variety of foods
...drug metabolism, increasing bioavailability. Many elderly patients vacation or spend winters in southern states such as Florida, where they may be more likely to consume grapefruit and other fruits that may interact with prescribed medicines. The components of grapefruit juice believed to be clinically acti...... case reported in the journal, Kurlan describes an elderly woman who had an increasingly difficult time walking. The difficulties began shortly after her husband died, when she tripped and fell, breaking a wrist and bruising her leg. Her inability to walk led her doctor to diagnose Parkinson's disease, and s......rcent per year slower rate of cognitive decline in elderly people, according to a new study posted online today from Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The study will be published in the December print edition of the journal. Fish is a direct source of omega-3 fatty acids, which hav...