Category: Ageing

Categories : Ageing Diet and NutritionTags :

A Mediterranean Diet Doesn’t Keep Dementia at Bay

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It has been suggested in a number of studies that eating a healthy diet may reduce a person’s risk of dementia. A new study published in the journal Neurology has found, however, that both the conventionally recommended diet and the Mediterranean diet are not linked to a reduced risk of dementia.

The Mediterranean diet features a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, fish and healthy fats such as olive oil, and a low intake of dairy products, meats and saturated fatty acids. “Previous studies on the effects of diet on dementia risk have had mixed results,” said study author Isabelle Glans, MD, of Lund University. “While our study does not rule out a possible association between diet and dementia, we did not find a link in our study, which had a long follow-up period, included younger participants than some other studies and did not require people to remember what foods they had eaten regularly years before.”

For the study, researchers identified 28 000 people from Sweden. Participants had an average age of 58 and did not have dementia at the start of the study. They were followed over a 20-year period. During the study, participants filled out a seven-day food diary, a detailed food frequency questionnaire and completed an interview. By the end of the study, 1943 people, or 6.9%, were diagnosed with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

Researchers examined how closely participants’ diets aligned with conventional dietary recommendations and the Mediterranean diet. After adjusting for age, gender, and education, researchers did not find a link between following either a conventional diet or the Mediterranean diet and a reduced risk of dementia. Dr Glans noted that further research is needed to confirm the findings.

Nils Peters, MD, of the University of Basel in Switzerland, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, said, “Diet on its own may not have a strong enough effect on memory and thinking, but is likely one factor among others that influence the course of cognitive function. Dietary strategies will still potentially be needed along with other measures to control risk factors.” A limitation of the study was the risk of participants misreporting their own dietary and lifestyle habits.

Source: American Academy of Neurology

Categories : AgeingTags :

The Emerging Link between Polypharmacy and Dementia

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Photo by Myriam Zilles on Unsplash

According to new research published in the journal Aging and Disease, people with dementia are likely to have taken more than three medications for other health conditions in the five years directly before their diagnosis.

The study is the first to provide an in-depth exploration of the links between evolving polypharmacy and a dementia diagnosis. Researchers analysed the records of more than 33 000 dementia patients in Wales between 1990 to 2015.

Experts in e-health used machine learning techniques to identify potentially damaging patterns in a patient’s medicine usage, and how these patterns evolve in the run-up to diagnosis.

They found that in the 20 years leading up to them being diagnosed, the proportion of patients taking three or more medications rose from 5.5% (for the period 16 to 20 years prior to diagnosis) to 82.16% among those less than five years from a diagnosis.

Researchers also found that as the development towards dementia progressed, the patterns of polypharmacy shifted from being clearly distinct to being more closely associated with particular medical conditions.

And of those closest to their diagnosis, almost two-thirds (66.55%) were found to be taking multiple medicines for a combination of respiratory or urinary infections, arthropathies and rheumatism, and cardio-vascular disease. A further 22% of patients were found to be taking medicines for infections, arthropathies and rheumatism, cardio-metabolic disease and depression.

The study was supported by the Health Data Research UK and conducted by an international team of researchers from the University of Plymouth, Aptuit (an Evotec company), Swansea University Medical School, and the University of Oxford.

Study leader Professor Shangming Zhou at the University of Plymouth said: “Given the rise in dementia cases internationally, the need to understand how patterns of polypharmacy evolve before and after a dementia diagnosis are important for devising a safe treatment programme for each patient. Our aim in this study was to help doctors find ways to prescribe multiple items of dementia medication safely and without reducing their effectiveness. The use of machine learning has been vital in helping us understand how these patterns develop, and our hope is we can now use this knowledge to treat patients.”

It has previously been established that when multiple types of preventative medication are being prescribed, the benefits of the drugs may be reduced and the chances of harm from drug interaction and side effects increased.

Those requiring hospital treatment who are taking multiple medications are also known to have a higher likelihood of re-admission within three months after being discharged.

Source: EurekAlert!

Categories : Ageing GeneticsTags :

Genes that Influence Longevity Differ Between the Sexes

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DNA repair
Source: Pixabay/CC0

There is an elaborate interplay between genes, sex, the environment during growth, and age and how they influence variation in longevity, according to a study published in the journal Science. These findings are an important step in understanding why some people live longer than others and provide a basis for future studies to improve a healthy lifespan.

Robert Williams, PhD, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), along with Johan Auwerx, MD, PhD, at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, began a program in 2016 to define genetic factors involved in agieng and lifespan. “Finding common molecular pathways that control differences in rate of aging is critical to our understanding of how individuals differ in their health and lifespan,” Dr Williams said. “Such insights may help us work out ways to intervene rationally.”

Drs Williams and Auwerx received DNA of over 12 000 mice from the National Institute of Aging. Each of the 27 574 genetically heterogeneous mice studied is a full sibling, sharing half its genetic inheritance with each other mouse in the programme, and each has a known lifespan, making them an ideal system to study.

The research team analysed the genes of over 3 000 mice, all of them genetic brothers or sisters which were allowed to live until their natural death. Comparing their DNA to lifespan, the researchers defined stretches of DNA in genomes that affect longevity. The results show the DNA segments, or loci, associated with longevity are largely sex-specific, with females having a region in chromosome 3 that affects lifespan. When the males who died early due to non-aging-related reasons were removed from the analysis, additional genetic signals started to emerge, suggesting some genetic variations only affect lifespan after a certain age.

In addition to finding genetic determinants of longevity, the researchers explored other contributors. In general, bigger mice die younger. The researchers found that some, but not all, of the genetic effects on longevity are through effects on growth. One of the non-genetic effects may be how early access to food affects growth. They observed that mice from smaller litters tended to be heavier adults and live shorter lives. Mice from larger litters that had to share their mother’s milk with more siblings, grew more slowly and lived longer on average. The researchers corroborated these trends of early growth versus longevity in large human datasets with hundreds of thousands of participants.

Beyond characterising how longevity is affected, the researchers worked to find genes most likely to play a role in longevity determination. They measured the effect of DNA variation on how genes are expressed and compared their analyses with multiple human and non-human databases. From this they nominated a few genes likely to modulate aging rates. They then tested the effects of manipulating these genes in roundworms and found that a subset of gene perturbations did in fact affect the lifespan. The results of this study will be a rich resource of aging genes that will hopefully guide the design of therapies that not only extend lifespan, but also healthspan.

Source: University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Categories : Ageing Metabolic DisordersTags :

Resilient Mindset Helps Older People with Type 2 Diabetes

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Old man
Source: JD Mason on Unsplash

New research suggests that psychological resilience, ie having attitudes and behaviours that help people bounce back after stressful challenges, may help older individuals with type 2 diabetes to experience fewer hospitalisations and have better physical functioning, lower disability, better mental quality of life, and a lower likelihood of becoming frail.

The study, published in published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, recruited 3199 participants, average age 72.2 years, 61% female, 61% white, and followed them for 14 years. The association of resilience with some metrics (grip strength and self-reported disability) varied based on recent hospitalisation history, and results suggested that some associations may differ based on race/ethnicity.

“This study suggests that individuals who report being psychologically resilient also report fewer aging-related concerns,” said lead author KayLoni L. Olson, PhD, of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. “This study is preliminary but points to the potential role of psychological resilience in helping individuals feel better mentally and physically, which can ultimately enhance their later years of life.”

Source: Wiley

Categories : AgeingTags :

Video Games Designed for the Elderly Boost Cognition

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Scientists have developed a variety of games designed to boost older adults’ cognitive capacity. Co-creator Professor Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, said the games can be an “experiential medicine”. The games adapt to the players’ skill on the fly, and were shown to confer benefits on many important cognitive processes such as short-term memory, attention and long-term memory.

Each game uses adaptive closed-loop algorithms that Dr Gazzaley’s lab pioneered in the widely cited 2013 Neuroracer study published in Nature, which first demonstrated it was possible to restore diminished mental faculties in older people with just four weeks of training on a specially designed video game. The most recent game, which uses drumming, is described in in PNAS.

Watch a short video showing how the games Neuroracer and Body Brain Trainer, developed by the Neuroscape Center, improve cognitive function for multitasking and working memory, and can even be beneficial for conditions like ADHD, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.

These algorithms get better results than commercial games by automatically adjusting in difficulty according to the players’ skills. The games using these algorithms recreate common activities, such as driving, exercising and playing a drum, and use the skills each can engender to retrain cognitive processes that decline with age.

“All of these are taking experiences and delivering them in a very personalised, fun manner, and our brains respond through a process called plasticity,” said Prof Gazzaley at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and who is founder and executive director of Neuroscape. “Experiences are a powerful way of changing our brain, and this form of experience allows us to deliver it in a manner that’s very accessible.”

The lab’s most recent invention is a musical rhythm game, developed in consultation with drummer Mickey Hart, that not only taught the 60 to 79-year-old participants how to drum, but also improved their ability to remember faces.

The eight-week program used visual cues to train people how to play a rhythm on an electronic tablet, with an algorithm matching difficulty to the player’s ability. The cues disappeared over time, forcing the players to memorise the rhythmic pattern.

When the participants were tested at the end to see how well they could recognise unfamiliar faces, electroencephalography (EEG) data showed increased activity in a part of the brain on the right side (the superior parietal lobule) that is involved both in sight reading music and in short-term visual memory for other tasks. The researchers said the data indicate that the training improved how people bring something into memory and then take it back out again when they need it.

A second game, the Body Brain Trainer, published recently in NPJ Aging, improved blood pressure, balance and attention in a group of healthy older adults with eight weeks of training, as well as a key signature of attention that declines with age. The game also included a feedback mechanism.

“We had people wearing a heart rate monitor, and we were getting that heart rate data and feeding it into the game,” said Joaquin A. Anguera, PhD, associate professor of neurology at UCSF and director of the Clinical Division at Neuroscape. “If they weren’t working hard enough, the game got harder.”

Neuroscape published the results of a third study last year in Scientific Reports on a virtual reality spatial navigation game called Labyrinth that improved long-term memory in older adults after four weeks of training.

“These are all targeting cognitive control, an ability that is deficient in older adults and that is critical for their quality of life,” Prof Gazzaley said. “These games all have the same underlying adaptive algorithms and approach, but they are using very, very different types of activity. And in all of them we show that you can improve cognitive abilities in this population.”

Source: University of California – San Francisco

Categories : AgeingTags :

‘SuperAger’ Brains Remain Free of Alzheimer’s Signs

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Plaques and neurons. Source: NIAH

According to a study which was published in The Journal of Neuroscience, neurons in the entorhinal cortex (a brain area responsible for memory) were significantly larger and healthier in 80+ year olds who have exceptional memory, also known as ‘SuperAgers’.

Their neurons were larger than those of cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and even those decades younger than SuperAgers. These neurons also did not harbour tau tangles, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

“The remarkable observation that SuperAgers showed larger neurons than their younger peers may imply that large cells were present from birth and are maintained structurally throughout their lives,” said lead author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the SuperAging trajectory.”

The study of SuperAgers with exceptional memory was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that comprises larger and healthier neurons in the entorhinal cortex that are relatively clear of tau tangles.

The Northwestern SuperAging Research Program studies unique individuals known as SuperAgers, 80+ year-olds who show exceptional memory at least as good as individuals 20 to 30 years their junior.

“To understand how and why people may be resistant to developing Alzheimer’s disease, it is important to closely investigate the postmortem brains of SuperAgers,” A/Prof Gefen said. “What makes SuperAgers’ brains unique? How can we harness their biologic traits to help elderly stave off Alzheimer’s disease?”

Scientists studied the entorhinal cortex of the brain because it controls memory and is one of the first locations targeted by Alzheimer’s disease. The entorhinal cortex comprises six layers of neurons. Layer II, in particular, receives information from other memory centres and is a very specific and crucial hub along the brain’s memory circuit.

In the study, scientists show that SuperAgers have large, healthier neurons in layer II of the entorhinal cortex compared to their same-aged peers, individuals with early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger. They also showed that these large layer II neurons were spared from the formation of tau tangles.

These findings together suggest that a neuron spared from tangle formation can maintain its structural integrity, and the inverse is true: Tau tangles can lead to neuronal shrinkage.

Participants in the SuperAger study donate their brains for research.

For the study, scientists examined the brains of six SuperAgers, seven cognitively average elderly individuals, six young individuals and five individuals with early stages of Alzheimer’s. Then they measured the size of neurons in layer II of the entorhinal cortex (compared to layers III and V). They also measured the presence of tau tangles in these cases.

For reasons that remain unknown, cell populations in the entorhinal cortex are selectively vulnerable to tau tangle formation during normal aging and in early stages of Alzheimer’s.

“In this study, we show that in Alzheimer’s, neuronal shrinkage (atrophy) in the entorhinal cortex appears to be a characteristic marker of the disease,” Gefen said.

“We suspect this process is a function of tau tangle formation in the affected cells leading to poor memory abilities in older age,” A/Prof Gefen said. “Identifying this contributing factor (and every contributing factor) is crucial to the early identification of Alzheimer’s, monitoring its course and guiding treatment.”

Future studies are needed to understand how and why neuronal integrity is preserved in SuperAgers. A/Prof Gefen wants to focus on probing the cellular environment.

“What are the chemical, metabolic or genetic features of these cells that render them resilient?” she asked. She also plans to investigate other hubs along the memory circuit of the brain to better understand the spread of or resistance to disease.

Source: Northwestern University

Categories : Ageing Cardiovascular DiseaseTags :

More Older Adults Should Monitor Blood Pressure at Home

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Blood pressure cuff
BP cuff for home monitoring, Source: Pixabay

Only 48% of people age 50 to 80 taking blood pressure medications or have a health condition affected by hypertension regularly check their blood pressure at home or other places, found a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

A somewhat higher number (62%) say a health care provider encouraged them to perform such checks. Poll respondents whose providers had recommended they check their blood pressure at home were three and a half times more likely to do so than those who didn’t recall getting such a recommendation.

The findings underscore the importance of exploring the reasons why at-risk patients aren’t checking their blood pressure, and why providers aren’t recommending they check — as well as finding ways to prompt more people with these health conditions to check their blood pressure regularly. This could play an important role in helping patients live longer and maintain heart and brain health, the study’s authors say.

Past research has shown that regular home monitoring can help with blood pressure control, and that better control can mean reduced risk of death; of cardiovascular events including strokes and heart attacks; and of cognitive impairment and dementia.

A team from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical centre, conducted the research. The data come from the National Poll on Healthy Aging and build on a report issued last year.

The poll, based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by Michigan Medicine and AARP, asked adults aged 50 to 80 about their chronic health conditions, blood pressure monitoring outside of clinic settings, and interactions with health providers about blood pressure. Study authors Mellanie V. Springer, M.D., M.S., of the Michigan Medicine Department of Neurology, and Deborah Levine, M.D., M.P.H., of the Department of Internal Medicine, worked with the NPHA team to develop the poll questions and analyze the findings.

The data in the new paper come from the 1,247 respondents who said they were either taking a medication to control their blood pressure or had a chronic health condition that requires blood pressure control — specifically, a history of stroke, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease or hypertension.

Of them, 55% said they own a blood pressure monitor, though some said they don’t ever use it. Among those who do use it, there was wide variation in how often they checked their pressure — and only about half said they share their readings with a health provider. But those who own a monitor were more than 10 times more likely to check their blood pressure outside of health care settings than those who don’t own one.

The authors note that blood pressure monitoring is associated with lower blood pressure and is cost-effective. They say that the results suggest that protocols should be developed to educate patients about the importance of self blood pressure monitoring and sharing readings with clinicians.

Source: Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

Categories : AgeingTags :

Why Elderly Drivers May Hit the Brake Instead of the Accelerator

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Driver at the wheel of a car
Photo by Why Kei on Unsplash

Researchers in Japan have found that older participants have longer reaction times, slower decision times, and greater brain activation in the parts of the brain involved with inhibition and switching tasks. These findings, published in the journal Brain Behavioural Research, illuminate the causes of accidents involving elderly drivers who press the brake instead of the accelerator.

With one of the oldest populations in the world, Japan is concerned about cognitive decline in drivers resulting in accidents. The police require drivers over 75 to take periodic cognitive tests. However, few studies have investigated executive functions and brain activity among older adults in terms of foot responses during braking and accelerating.

To address this gap, a group led by Professor Nobuyuki Kawai of the Graduate School of Informatics at Nagoya University in Japan scanned the brains of elderly people and students while performing pedal-pressing simulations. The researchers were particularly interested in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with inhibition and switching responses.

To simulate the response of a person’s feet and hands when driving a car, they created a new task in the laboratory called the bimanual and bipedal response selection and response-position compatibility task. During this task, a signal directed participants to press the left or right button with their left or right foot, or their left or right hand. Sometimes participants pressed the pedal in front of them, whereas at other times they had to press it diagonally. This was done to allow the researchers to assess how the participants responded in situations where the cognitive load was higher. Administering this task to both university students and elderly participants, the researchers then monitored blood flow in their brains. The results were published in Behavioural Brain Research.

They found that older participants had longer reaction times, slower decision times, and greater brain activation than younger people. Furthermore, pressing the diagonal pedal required longer reaction times and greater brain activation than pressing directly ahead in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Interestingly, this was only found when people were asked to use their feet but not their hands. In short, older people had to do more active thinking than younger people when deciding which ‘pedal’ to press with their feet.

“This indicates that the cognitive load is higher when pushing the pedal diagonally with the foot, such as when pressing the brake,” explains Professor Kawai. “When you push a diagonal pedal with your foot, you are using the frontal lobe more than when you push the pedal straight in front. In particular, the left dorsolateral frontal lobe, which is important for response switching, is more active when the foot is pressed at an angle than when the pedal is pressed straight. In these tasks, older adults have higher neural activity throughout the frontal lobe than college students.”

This study’s findings suggest that to compensate for the decline in cognitive functions, greater brain activation may be necessary in elderly people. Older people may struggle in situations with a high cognitive load, such as parking a vehicle in a narrow space. “This study suggests that the performance of older adults is vulnerable in these situations,” Professor Kawai explains. “Elderly drivers should not be overconfident that their driving is fine. Even elderly people who are normally able to drive without any problems, when a cognitive load is applied, such as when switching from one parking space to another or when talking to a passenger, things may be different and there is a chance of pressing the wrong pedal. We believe that it is important to educate elderly drivers about this fact.”

Source: Nagoya University

Categories : Ageing Injury & TraumaTags :

A Biomarker for Male Hip Fracture Risk

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Photo by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz on Unsplash

In new research published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, elevated blood levels of a certain chemokine, or small signalling protein, that promotes osteoclast formation were linked with a higher risk of hip fracture in men.

To maintain bone health, a balanced activity of various bone cell types including bone-forming osteoblasts and bone-resorbing osteoclasts has to take place. When osteoclasts dominate without adequate bone formation to compensate, osteoporosis results.

The study included 55 men and 119 women who had experienced a hip fracture an average of 6.3 years after their blood was collected. The participants were matched individually to controls who did not develop hip fractures.

The researchers found higher levels of the chemokine CXCL9 in the pre-fracture blood samples of men with subsequent hip fractures compared with their non-fracture controls. In women, the researchers saw no such.

“The unexpected difference in the results between men and women in our study may be explained by how changes in sex hormone levels during aging could influence the level and effects of CXCL9 differently in older men and women,” explained corresponding author Woon-Puay Koh, MBBS, PhD, from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

“Our findings open the exciting possibility that early interventions targeting CXCL9 or CXCL9-CXCR3 signalling could be beneficial in preventing hip fractures in older men,” added co-corresponding author Christoph Winkler, PhD, also from NUS.

Source: Wiley

Categories : Ageing GeneticsTags :

When it Comes to Longevity, Physical Activity Beats Genes

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Photo by Adam Birkett on Unsplash

Although low physical activity and greater time spent sitting are well known to be linked to a higher risk of death, a study published in Journal of Aging and Physical Activity showed that a genetic predisposition to longevity was not a substitute for sitting less and greater physical activity, which can benefit even those not gifted with such genes.

“The goal of this research was to understand whether associations between physical activity and sedentary time with death varied based on different levels of genetic predisposition for longevity,” said doctoral student Alexander Posis, lead author of the study.

In 2012, as part of the Women’s Health Initiative Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health study (OPACH), researchers began measuring the physical activity of 5446 women aged 63 and older, following them through 2020 to determine mortality. Participants wore a research-grade accelerometer for up to seven days to measure how much time they spent moving, the intensity of physical activity, and sedentary time.

Higher levels of light physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were found to be associated with lower risk of death. Higher sedentary time was associated with higher risk of mortality. These associations were consistent among women who had different levels of genetic predisposition for longevity.

“Our study showed that, even if you aren’t likely to live long based on your genes, you can still extend your lifespan by engaging in positive lifestyle behaviours such as regular exercise and sitting less,” said Assistant Professor Aladdin H. Shadyab, PhD, senior author. “Conversely, even if your genes predispose you to a long life, remaining physically active is still important to achieve longevity.”

Given the ageing adult population in the United States, and longer time spent engaging in lower intensity activities, the study findings support recommendations that older women should participate in physical activity of any intensity to reduce the risk of disease and premature death, wrote the authors.

Source: University of California – San Diego