When older adults wear their hearing aids for the first time, they are flooded with sounds they haven’t heard in months or years and the experience is not entirely positive. Research has shown that noises such as air conditioners, wind, and background conversations can be painful, irritating and difficult to ignore, so much so that… Continue reading Helping People Adjust to Hearing Aids
Category: Senior Health
Aging is part of the cycle of life. Senior living can be full of health, growth, and well-being. Learn more about senior health and key health issues here.
Preventing Unnecessary Hospitalizations of Frail Older Adults
A study from Indiana University and Regenstrief Institute researcher-clinicians reports on the first year of the implementation of OPTIMISTIC, an acronym for Optimizing Patient Transfers, Impacting Medical quality and Improving Symptoms: Transforming Institutional Care. The team developed and implemented this innovative program to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations of nursing facility residents. Their paper, “The OPTIMISTIC approach:… Continue reading Preventing Unnecessary Hospitalizations of Frail Older Adults
Mature Motorists Worse at Texting and Driving
A Wayne State University interdisciplinary research team in Detroit has made a surprising discovery: older, more mature motorists, who typically are better drivers in many circumstances, are much worse than their younger counterparts when texting while driving. The study was published online in December 2014 inAccident Analysis and Prevention and is scheduled to be published… Continue reading Mature Motorists Worse at Texting and Driving
Coping with The Dangers of Winter Driving
Having your car break down in normal weather is frustrating enough, but being trapped in a blizzard is a frightening experience that can have dangerous or even fatal consequences. In this season of snowy holidays, you run the risk of being stuck in your car during a severe blizzard for hours or even days. But… Continue reading Coping with The Dangers of Winter Driving
Can Financial Incentives Solve Persistent Senior-Health Issues?
A unique, interview-style study has zeroed in on financial and educational issues that need more attention as older adults go from hospital to rehabilitation centers to home – and too often back again. A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University found that the participants in the interviews called for better attention in preventing errors… Continue reading Can Financial Incentives Solve Persistent Senior-Health Issues?
Aging and Depression: Are You at Risk?
The link between aging and depression is no secret nowadays. The problem can affect virtually any person, for any number of reasons and in even more ways. That why when it comes to mental health and aging well, it’s critical to understand the causes, symptoms, and treatments for depression so that you can develop… Continue reading Aging and Depression: Are You at Risk?
Better Balance Means a Better Life
Editor’s note: Falling is an especially serious problem for older people; it can lead not only to injury but also to a loss of mobility and the ability to live independently. Here, the experts from the National Institute on Aging share ways to improve balance and less the likelihood of falls. As always, talk with… Continue reading Better Balance Means a Better Life
Cheaper Private Health Care = More Medicare Spending
When private prices for health care services decrease, Medicare spending increases, according to a study led by the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California and published online by Health Services Research on November 27th 2014. The finding raises the possibility that physicians and hospitals may be… Continue reading Cheaper Private Health Care = More Medicare Spending
Many Seniors Aren’t Getting Dementia Tests
Millions of seniors with signs of cognitive impairment haven’t seen a doctor about them, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. The researchers said the findings indicate that up to 1.8 million seniors over 70 aren’t evaluated for cognitive symptoms. A failure to do that, the investigators said, could mean that some… Continue reading Many Seniors Aren’t Getting Dementia Tests
Grip Strength and Life Expectancy
Researchers from the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit (MRC LEU) at the University of Southampton in the UK have shed new light on how grip strength changes across the lifespan. Previous work has shown that people with weaker grip strength in midlife and early old age are more likely to develop problems such as… Continue reading Grip Strength and Life Expectancy
Running Keeps You Young
Seniors who run regularly can walk as efficiently as 20-somethings, according to a study done at the University of Colorado Boulder and Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA However, older people who walk for exercise rather than jog expend about the same amount of energy walking as older, sedentary adults, and expend up to 22… Continue reading Running Keeps You Young
Surprise! With Age, We Sometimes Learn More Than Younger People.
Older people can actually take in and learn from visual information more readily than younger people do, according to research done at Brown University and reported in the Cell Press journal “Current Biology” on November 26th 2014. This surprising discovery is explained by an apparent decline with age in the ability to filter out irrelevant… Continue reading Surprise! With Age, We Sometimes Learn More Than Younger People.
Hearing Aids: What’s New – And Right for You
By Jennifer Gehlen, Educational Specialist at Siemens Hearing Instruments After a certain age, we sometimes avoid invitations to what we anticipate will be noisy social gatherings. This isn’t because we’ve suddenly lost interest in our friends and family — rather, we’d like to avoid the frustration and embarrassment of not being able to hear and… Continue reading Hearing Aids: What’s New – And Right for You
Older Brain Plasticity Is in a Different Place
A widely presumed problem of aging is that the brain becomes less flexible — less plastic — and that learning may therefore become more difficult. Now a study led by Brown University researchers contradicts that notion with a finding that plasticity did occur in seniors who learned a task well, but it occurred in a… Continue reading Older Brain Plasticity Is in a Different Place
Half of Elderly People Are Happy to Try New Foods
Elderly people are regarded as traditional consumers, but a study done by AZTI: The Safe Consortium in Spain found that there are more and more elderly people who are happy to accept new foods. However, these consumers insist that the new proposals should be similar to or evoke traditional products and flavors and, at the… Continue reading Half of Elderly People Are Happy to Try New Foods
A Newly Discovered Culprit in Aging
Researchers have zeroed in on a protein, found in both humans and insects, that plays a key part in systemic inflammation and chronic inflammatory disorders. Both those conditions are associated with aging as well as many cancers. The discovery, by investigators from the Carnegie Institute of Science, in Washington, DC, used fruit flies to focus… Continue reading A Newly Discovered Culprit in Aging
Older Trauma Patients Would Benefit from Palliative Care
Half of older adults who sustain injuries severe enough that they could die in the hospital or become unable to function independently are not asked in the intensive care unit (ICU) if they wish to speak with palliative care specialists about their preferences for end-of-life care, according to a study done at Rutgers University. The… Continue reading Older Trauma Patients Would Benefit from Palliative Care
Valve Replacement Is Often Low Risk for Older Patients
Patients who are 90 years or older and have a narrowed heart valve can safely be given a valve replacement, according to new research. The operation to do this, known as aortic valve replacement (AVR), has only a low risk of death, or a stroke during the procedure. In the study, four out of five… Continue reading Valve Replacement Is Often Low Risk for Older Patients