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To Stay at Home, Seniors Will Embrace Technology
Tweet Share on Facebook March 28, 2008 Comment (1)Granny is ready for gadgetry. According to a report released Friday by AARP, older people are willing to use devices—like those that regulate lights and temperature, detect when someone has fallen, or monitor blood pressure—if doing so will help them continue living in their own home. "Here's a population who did not grow up with this technology but is willing to use it to maintain independence, choice, and control," says Elinor Ginzler, AARP's senior vice president for livable communities. The reason, she explains, is that the stakes are high.
Seniors' family caregivers also see a benefit to implementing techie solutions. More than 80 percent of those surveyed said technology could "make them feel the person they care for is safer" and offer peace of mind. But both the seniors and their caregivers agreed that cost is a concern: Eighty percent of the former and 75 percent of the latter are willing to pay no more than $50 per month for safety technologies such as fall detectors and other devices for their home.
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Protecting My Mind From the Fate of My Grandmother's
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2008 Comment (2)My grandmother lost her memory—and ultimately her independence—over the course of almost two decades. Before she died of congestive heart failure at 89, she would routinely ask my dad if he was George, her husband (and my grandfather), who had died years earlier. "No, Mom, I'm Gregory, your son," he'd say, seeking a flicker of recognition. Grandma Sally would mull this over a few moments, size up my dad, then jab him in the arm, giggling, as if he'd tried to pull one over on her. Somehow, as her mind slipped away, she'd become docile, even silly—the near antithesis of the stern woman she was with cognition intact. Reflecting on this surreal shift and her memory's prolonged departure, I can't help but wonder if such a chapter might await my parents—or me.
According to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the odds, unfortunately, are pretty good. Using neuropsychological testing and in-depth interviews of 856 elderly subjects and their families, researchers surmised that more than 1 in 3 people over 70 have some degree of cognitive impairment, though not necessarily the full-blown dementia that robbed my grandmother of the ability to live independently. That suggests nearly all of us will either know a cognitively impaired person or be that person. "It could be mild impairment in areas including memory, judgment, orientation, language, or problem solving," explains the lead study author, Brenda Plassman, a memory researcher at Duke University. (Such a description would certainly apply to my grandmother, who for years before her dementia became obvious would regularly forget to turn the stove off after cooking, causing my grandfather's refrain: "I'm afraid she'll burn the house down!") Twelve percent of impaired subjects progressed to dementia each year, Plassman found.
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My Dog May Be Good for My Health
Tweet Share on Facebook March 7, 2008 Comment (8)I admit it: My 4-pound toy poodle, Sage, wears sweaters and T-shirts. Riding in a shoulder bag designed for little dogs like him, he has grown used to accompanying me everywhere: to family cookouts, the supermarket, the post office, even to the mall. I like having him around. As a medical reporter, I'm a bit skeptical when I see reports like the one last month that showed that owning a cat lowers your risk of heart attack. But as Sage's doting owner, I find the growing body of research into the health benefits of having a pet intriguing, to say the least.
Given that people do gain healthwise from having a strong social network, it makes sense that having an animal companion would also do some good, says Alan Beck, a professor and director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine. "Do animals cure everything? Of course not," Beck says. But people relate to animals by nurturing, caring for, and talking to them—much as they do with other humans, so "it's not surprising that people who have relationships with animals actually report benefits," he says.
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Am I Going Bald? It's a Bit Early to Say
Tweet Share on Facebook February 27, 2008 CommentAbout 15 minutes into my last haircut, the hairdresser stared at my reflection in the mirror and impassively mentioned my hair was thinning right above the temples. My heart skipped a beat. I was incredulous, mainly because my hair isn't thinning at all, though I do have a fairly pronounced widow's peak. Besides, this was the first time he had cut my hair, so how could he really tell? Still, like a magician, he seemed to conjure out of thin air a new product for sale that I could massage into my scalp to help regrow the phantom hair—or at least postpone the terminus of my youth. Thanks a lot.
But what if there was a way to find out if male pattern baldness—also known by its scarier medical appellation, androgenic alopecia—was in the cards in the years ahead? Would it really be worth knowing?
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Diabulimia—a Young Diabetics' Eating Disorder
Tweet Share on Facebook February 27, 2008 Comment (5)We're smack in the middle of the National Eating Disorders Association's Awareness Week, and I'm wondering why I'm not familiar with the term diabulimia, a behavior highlighted in a study published today in the journal Diabetes Care. Though the Associated Press reported the trend last year, I suspect I'm not the only one who would've been hard pressed to explain that it's practiced by people—almost exclusively young women—with type 1 diabetes who can achieve significant, rapid weight loss by intentionally skipping doses of insulin. That hormone helps their bodies take up fuel from the bloodstream and tame erratic blood sugar. The price of thinness is especially high for this group: The Diabetes Care study found that women with type 1 diabetes who intentionally forgo their insulin medication have a threefold increased risk of premature death and higher rates of complications—including kidney dysfunction and foot problems—than those who don't.
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Still Time (and Good Reason) to Get a Flu Shot
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2008 Comment (3)Perhaps you've heard the news that this year's flu vaccine doesn't do a very good job of protecting against this year's flu—and have thought that a good excuse to skip getting a shot. Not a smart move, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccine does provide protection against one of the three flu strains making people sick this year, and it gives "cross protection" against the others—meaning the illness, should you get it, will be milder and the risk of complications lower.
How completely a vaccine works depends on how accurately scientists predict which strains will circulate in a given year and match that to the vaccine. Three virus strains are included in each of the two types of flu vaccine: a shot containing killed virus, and FluMist, a nasal spray containing weakened live virus. Of the 5 to 20 percent of the population who get the flu each year, more than 200,000 people end up hospitalized, and about 36,000 die, according to the CDC. The flu shot is recommended for such high-risk groups as children ages 6 months to 5 years, pregnant women, those ages 50 and older, those with chronic medical conditions (such as heart disease, asthma, and diabetes), those living in long-term-care facilities and nursing homes, healthcare workers, and those who provide care for or come in regular contact with high-risk groups. The nasal spray is an option for healthy people ages 2 to 49 who are not pregnant.
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Deciphering Unexpected Deaths in a Diabetes Study
Tweet Share on Facebook February 7, 2008 Comment (8)On Monday, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health shut down part of a $300 million study called ACCORD that had been following more than 10,000 very high-risk diabetic patients at 77 medical centers for as long as seven years. All had not only long-standing diabetes but also two or more other major cardiovascular risks such as obesity, smoking, or a previous heart-disease history. An unexpectedly large number of deaths had occurred among patients who were being aggressively treated to bring their blood sugar level below currently recommended standards. There were 257 deaths, about 25 percent higher than the 203 deaths in patients who got the usual care. (Because all patients were carefully monitored and managed, the annual death rate for both groups, about 1.4 percent and 1.1 percent respectively, was far below the 5 percent typical of other patients at similarly high risk.)
