Fewer Brain 'Tangles' May Mean Smarter Old Age

Differences in the brains of elderly people may help explain why some develop dementia while others are among the "super aged" -- people who maintain sharp mental focus and ability well into old age. Read more

Exercise, Education Keep You Sharp in Old Age

(HealthDay News) -- If you want your mind to stay sharp when you're 90, here's what you'll need to do. Read more

Home-Based Program Extends Seniors' Lives

(HealthDay News) -- A home-based program for seniors that includes occupational and physical therapy, as well as some minor home modifications, can help people live longer, new research found. Read more

Rapid Weight Loss in Seniors Signals Higher Dementia Risk

(HealthDay News) -- Losing weight rapidly late in life seems to signal a greater risk of experiencing some form of dementia, new research suggests.For older adults, "basically, we saw that if you are thinner or are losing weight at a faster rate, then you are at a higher risk of developing dementia," said study author Tiffany F. Hughes, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Read more

Health Tip: Depression Among Seniors

(HealthDay News) -- Depression affects more than 6 million people aged 65 or older in the United States, but only about 10 percent of them are treated, the Cleveland Clinic says.

The clinic offers this list of risk factors for depression in seniors:

• Living alone without much social interaction.
• Having persistent pain or illness.
• Being overly afraid of dying.
• Having a family history or personal history of depression or suicide attempts.
• Having had a recent bereavement, such as the death of a close family member.
• Having problems with drugs or alcohol.
• Taking certain medications, alone or combined with other medications.
• Problems with body image after a surgery or major illness, such as cancer or heart disease.

Adapting Gait May Help Elderly Avoid Falls

(HealthDay News) -- Repeatedly exposing people to situations where the footing is unstable helped train them to maintain their balance on slippery floors and avoid falls, says a University of Illinois at Chicago study.

The research improves understanding of how the brain develops fall prevention strategies that can be used in a variety of situations. And experts say such training might prove particularly helpful for elderly people, who are at increased risk for falls that can lead to serious complications, disability and death.

The study included eight volunteers who trained on a moveable platform that could be operated to disrupt a person's balance and a group of seven who did no training on the platform. All participants were asked to walk on a vinyl surface that had one slippery spot that they couldn't see.

No one in the group that had been trained fell on the slippery floor, and seven of the eight never lost their balance. Those who hadn't been trained had more trouble coping with the slippery surface.

The trained volunteers were better at controlling the landing foot -- the foot that's on the ground when someone starts to slip. They could slow the movement of the landing foot as it began to slide forward, whereas the landing foot of the untrained participants went out from under them much faster, the study found.

"Controlling this foot, which is sliding forward, plays an important role in maintaining stability and prevents a backward fall," study co-author Yi-Chung Pai said in an American Physiological Society news release.

Pai and colleague Tanvi Bhatt also found that the trained participants unconsciously changed their gait when they began to slip. They used a flatter landing foot and bent the landing knee more, which helped reduce the velocity of the slip, the researchers said.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, included young adult volunteers. Research is now being conducted with older adults.

More information
The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about falls and older adults.

Stay Upbeat, Healthy to Thrive in Senior Years

(HealthDay News) -- Want to enjoy your golden years to the fullest?

Then have a positive outlook, keep stress low, don't smoke, but have a drink now and then. Oh, also make at least $30,000 a year and have no chronic health issues.

That's the magic formula to thriving in old age, according to a study in the October issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. Unfortunately, few seem to follow it.

The findings come from a decade-long survey of 2,432 older Canadians about their quality of life, conducted by researchers from Portland State University, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Oregon Health & Science University, and Statistics Canada. Those who had excellent health over an entire 10 years were considered "thrivers."

"Many of these factors can be modified when you are young or middle-aged," study co-author David Feeny, a senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, said in a news release issued by his organization. "While these findings may seem like common sense, now we have evidence about which factors contribute to exceptional health during retirement years."

By the end of the 10 years included in the study, only 8 percent of the respondents were considered thrivers. Meanwhile, 47 percent were considered as not having a high quality of life or excellent health. Thirty-six percent had died, and 9 percent were institutionalized.

"Even though the study was conducted in Canada, the findings are certainly applicable to the United States and other industrialized nations," study co-author Dr. Bentson McFarland, a professor of psychiatry, public health and preventive medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, said in the same news release. "Our population here in the United States is similar demographically to Canada's, and both health care systems rely on the same underlying technologies."

More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about healthy aging.