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Are hypertension and blood pressure changes in early adulthood associated with late-life brain health? According to a new study from UC Davis, the answer is yes, especially for men.
Many younger adults may pay little attention to issues like blood pressure, but it’s a good opportunity for journalists to remind their audience that heart health matters at every age.
Jenna Carlesso and Dave Altimari, reporters with The Connecticut Mirror
Enabling more Americans to live their final years at home should be a win-win, giving older people the comfort of familiar surroundings while saving government programs money on costly nursing home care.
But in Connecticut, a state program to increase the number of long-term care residents on Medicaid who remain in their homes has followed a rocky path.
Julia Yarbough, a former local TV journalist in Chico, CA, addresses attendees during the “The biggest untold story in health care: 53 million family caregivers” session at HJ23.
Caregiving. It seems almost everyone has a story, whether they’re a millennial, baby boomer or older person caring for a parent, spouse or family member with disabilities. A new AARP report found that family caregivers provide a whopping $600 billion worth of uncompensated care across the U.S. annually more than the federal government spends on long term services and supports.
Karen Michel
In the next few months, what I’ll be spending on fixing my teeth will eat up much of what I’ll earn this year, including Social Security benefits. I’m not alone in this dental distress. Those of us 65 and older will, for the most part, need more maintenance and replacement versus younger folks in that most visible part of our anatomy.
Nearly half of us don’t have dental insurance, according to a 2020 University of Michigan poll. Yet issues like dry mouth, root decay and gum disease are more common in older adults, researchers at the American Dental Association found. And the use of multiple medications can also lead to or exacerbate these conditions. That can mean older adults with chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease or arthritis may be more prone to gum disease and other oral problems, but less likely to get dental care than their peers without these conditions, according to the CDC.
Photo courtesy of the National Institute on Aging
If any headline could sum up the state of research into Alzheimer’s disease it may be this: “Study reveals that much still not known about cognitive decline.”
Despite decades of research, there’s so much scientists have yet to learn about this degenerative disease. Risk factors, causes, amyloid plaque, tau tangles, Lecanemab, biomarkers and more are topics of dozens of research studies underway.
