Concentrated blueberry supplement increases cognitive function in older adults, study finds
March 7, 2017
“Drinking concentrated blueberry juice improves brain function in older people, according to research by the University of Exeter.
In the study, healthy people aged 65-77 who drank concentrated blueberry juice every day showed improvements in cognitive function, blood flow to the brain and activation of the brain while carrying out cognitive tests.
There was also evidence suggesting improvement in working memory.”
The belt-like wearable device is a high-tech Israeli response to a serious and costly health problem faced by the world’s older population.
“When his elderly mother fell and broke a hip for the second time, former Israeli Air Force pilot and industrial and management engineer Amatsia Raanan searched for a product to prevent this most common serious injury in older people.
‘Through her suffering I learned about the epidemic of hip fractures,’ Raanan tells ISRAEL21c.
Each year, nearly 3 million seniors worldwide are hospitalized due to hip fractures. Many of them experience a drastic deterioration in quality of life. And the direct annual cost of treating hip fractures exceeds $15 billion in the US healthcare system alone.
Rather than focus on better ways to treat the broken bone, Raanan decided to leverage cutting-edge technology to protect the pelvis upon impact and avoid injury in the first place. He and three cofounders developed Hip-Hope, a smart wearable device designed as a belt.”
“Medication management is an important issue for seniors and their families. Failure to properly manage medications can threaten the lives of seniors, highlighting the emphasis families must place on ensuring seniors take their medications in strict adherence to their instructions.
Polypharmacy, or the taking of multiple medications for different conditions, can be a potential health hazard for the thousands of seniors who must manage health conditions with prescription drugs. Harmful drug interactions are a result of the confusion that can arise when seniors take multiple medications at the same time. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists estimates that more than 34 percent of senior citizens are prescribed medications by more than one physician and 72 percent use medications they were prescribed more than six months prior. Many people also have begun ‘pharmacy shopping’ to save money. According to a study published in 2010 in American Nurse Today, 44 percent of men and 57 percent of women older than age 65 take five or more medications per week, with some taking as many as 10.
Medication confusion is one risk, but older adults also metabolize medications differently than young people. As a result, they may be more susceptible to overdose or other ill effects. Families looking to help seniors effectively manage their medications should consider the following tips.
• Keep a running list of medications. Maintain a list of all medications being taken, noting both prescription and over-the-counter medications and any supplements and herbs. Provide a copy to any new doctors you visit and any new pharmacies you patronize.”
Strength training can benefit muscles and bones throughout life
By Lori Weinzatl, Ministry Rehab Services
March 3, 2017
“Strong bones and strong muscles go together. And both are essential to good health, mobility and independence in old age. That’s the conclusion of recent studies linking sarcopenia and osteopenia to an increased risk of falls, fractures and the possible need for long term care of older adults.
Sarco refers to muscle; osteo means bone and penia, loss.
Osteopenia and osteoporosis (a more severe loss of bone density) have long been known to pose threats to older men as well as women. Recent research has found that sarcopenia is also a hazard. And the combination of bone and muscle loss is more debilitating than either on its own.
For most humans, both muscle mass and bone density reach their peak by age 30 and decline gradually thereafter, becoming more noticeable around age 60 or 70.
But it’s not just the size of your muscles that counts; it’s their strength and ability to function–grip strength, walking speed, balance, mobility. And these, too, decline with advancing age.
Reduced muscle mass can co-exist with lower bone density or it can cause those changes. When muscles are strong, they exert a strong mechanical force on the bones around them, giving the bones what they need to stay dense and strong. Conversely, weak muscles lead to weaker bones.”
UTA Researchers Using Shakespeare & Robots To Help Seniors
By Ken Molestina, CBS 11 News
February 27, 2017
“Researchers at the UT Arlington Research Institute in Fort Worth, known as UTARI, are trying to figure out how high-tech robots can offer much needed therapy to an aging American population.
Dr. Julienne Greer, an Associate Professor of Social Robotics and Performance, says they are using something called participatory art to help robots interact with senior citizens.
Participatory art is described as a type of exercise with emphasis on fine arts.
The content of the art is said to enhance a person’s cognitive skills, as well as offer companionship for older adults.
UTARI researchers have taught their robot to recite Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 along with a human.
‘We want the older adults to feel engaged in an art form,’ said Professor Greer. ‘We are very hopeful the same positive results that happen in human to human model will happen with the human to robot model.'”
“For months, Teresa Christensen’s 87-year-old mother, Genevieve, complained of pain from a nasty sore on her right foot. She stopped going to church. She couldn’t sleep at night. Eventually, she stopped walking except when absolutely necessary.
Her primary care doctor prescribed three antibiotics, one after another. None worked.
“Doctor, can’t we do some further tests?” Teresa Christensen remembered asking. “I felt that he was looking through my mother instead of looking at her.”
Referred to a wound clinic, Genevieve was diagnosed with a venous ulcer, resulting from poor circulation in her legs. A few weeks ago, she had a successful procedure to correct the problem and returned home to the house where she’s lived for more than 50 years in Cottage Grove, Minn., a suburb of St. Paul.
Would her mother benefit from seeing a geriatrician going forward, wondered Christensen, her mother’s primary caregiver, in an email to me? And, if so, how would she go about finding one?
I reached out to several medical experts, and they agreed that a specialist in geriatrics could help a patient like Genevieve, with a history of breast cancer and heart failure, who’d had open heart surgery at age 84 and whose mobility was now compromised.”
Today, I had the privilege of attending a free group training on Hands-Only CPR in Loveland, CO, a “Heart Safe City.” I met Tommy Lucero, a young man who, according to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, “Went into cardiac arrest during baseball practice in 2014 and was revived by two coaches. He has fully recovered and is a senior this year” at Thompson Valley High School (the same high school my daughter attended).
He would have died without the CPR. “Shortly after the incident, the Lucero family joined the then-newly formed Loveland Heart Safe initiative to help save lives. Since then, the partnership has raised money, knowledge and awareness.”
What is Hands-Only CPR? According to the American Heart Association website, “Hands-Only CPR is CPR without mouth-to-mouth breaths. It is recommended for use by people who see a teen or adult suddenly collapse in an ‘out-of-hospital’ setting (such as at home, at work or in a park). It consists of two easy steps:
