July 2008
Confidence in “Comfortable”
Retirement is Declining,
Survey Says
Nutrition for Longevity:
Dietary Changes
for Healthy Aging
Building the Health Care
Workforce within
an Aging Society
Eliminating Barriers for
Older Workers to
Stay in the Workforce
Potential for a Vaccine against Alzheimer’s Disease?
Celery and Green Pepper
Provide Hope for
Alzheimer’s Disease
Guidelines Issued for
Screening Men for Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis Medication
Use in Long-Term Care
Residents with Fractures
Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit, a resource guide by The National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), offers strategies for enhancing health in older adults through the arts. For full story, click here.
The 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey, conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, finds that Americans’ confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement has dropped to its lowest level in seven years, reflecting worries about health costs, the economy, and home values. For full story, click here.
More and more frequently, older adults are expressing interest in foods that increase longevity and help keep them looking and feeling healthy. Fortunately, current studies show that diet can affect longevity very powerfully and many people are seeing exciting results from simple dietary changes. For full story, click here.
To improve the quality of care and the quality of life for long-term care residents, a growing movement known as "culture change" is working to transform the long-term care environment. Read the results of a national survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund to learn more about the extent of the culture change movement. For full story, click here.
A new report from the Institute on Medicine provides a comprehensive overview and a benchmark plan to develop a well-prepared geriatric health care workforce that can better address the needs of an aging population. For full story, click here.
To prevent projected dramatic declines in the workforce following the retirement of the Baby Boomer Generation, the “Incentives for Older Workers Act” has been introduced to eliminate barriers for older Americans who want to stay in the workforce longer.
For full story, click here.
Researchers from the Memory and Aging Center at The University of California at San Francisco have set up a web-based educational video channel. The videos shown are intended to educate patients, caregivers and health care professionals about the various forms of neurodegenerative diseases. For full story, click here.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that is accompanied by dementia and severe loss of functioning. New research demonstrates the possibility of a successful vaccination for Alzheimer’s Disease. For full story, click here.
Recent research suggests that a chemical found in both celery and green pepper can help those suffering from brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. This chemical, Luteolin, was previously shown to have important anti-inflammatory properties. For full story, click here.
Researchers have found that people with signs of systemic inflammation lose more bone mineral density than those with lower levels of inflammation. This longitudinal study was the first to comprehensively document the associations between inflammation and bone loss in older adults. For full story, click here.
In May 2008, the American College of Physicians (ACP) issued new clinical practice guidelines for screening men for osteoporosis. The new guidelines recommend that clinicians assess risk factors for osteoporosis in older men.
For full story, click here.
Researchers at the Harvard Medical School recently published the results of an exploratory study that examined osteoporosis medication use among high-risk patients living in long-term care communities. They discovered that few patients, upon entering a long-term care community because of a fracture, receive osteoporosis medications.
For full story, click here.
Researchers at the 55th American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting in Indianapolis reported that resistance training benefited older cancer survivors by improving both strength and ability in performing daily tasks. For full story, click here.
The American Association of Retired Persons’ (AARP) Public Policy Institute recently published a document of each state’s health care profile by comparing state-level and national data on more than 30 indicators. See where your state ranks.
For full story, click here.
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