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New study identifies key cellular mechanisms behind vascular aging in mice

We are as old as our arteries, the adage goes, so could reversing the aging of blood vessels hold the key to restoring youthful vitality? The answer appears to be yes, at least in mice, according to a new study led by investigators at Harvard Medical School.

22 Mar 2018

New technologies help seniors age in place — and not feel alone

Nancy Delano, 80, of Denver has no plans to slow down anytime soon. She still drives to movies, plays and dinners out with friends. A retired elder care nurse who lives alone, she also knows that "when you reach a certain age, emergencies can happen fast." So, when her son, Tom Rogers, talked to her about installing a remote monitoring system, she didn't hesitate.

12 Mar 2018

Bowel care ranks top concern for individuals with spinal cord injury, study shows

Cardiovascular physiology researcher Victoria Claydon's latest study, published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, focuses on the results of her multi-national study, which surveyed almost 300 participants with spinal cord injuries at or above the mid-thoracic level (middle of the chest ).

9 Mar 2018

Experimental treatment improves invisible symptoms of a man with spinal cord injury

An experimental treatment that sends electrical currents through the spinal cord has improved "invisible" yet debilitating side effects for a B.C. man with a spinal cord injury.

19 Feb 2018

Upsurge of suburban poor discover health care’s nowhere land

The promise of cheaper housing brought Shari Castaneda to Palmdale, Calif., in northern Los Angeles County, about nine years ago.

9 Feb 2018

New CRISPR gene-editing technique can correct majority of mutations that cause DMD

Scientists have developed a CRISPR gene-editing technique that can potentially correct a majority of the 3,000 mutations that cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) by making a single cut at strategic points along the patient's DNA, according to a study from UT Southwestern Medical Center.

6 Feb 2018

Community health centers caught in ‘Washington’s political dysfunction’

As lawmakers face another deadline this week for passing legislation to keep the federal government open, one of the outstanding issues is long-term funding for a key health care safety-net program.

5 Feb 2018

Home care agencies often wrongly deny Medicare help to the chronically ill

Colin Campbell needs help dressing, bathing and moving between his bed and his wheelchair. He has a feeding tube because his partially paralyzed tongue makes swallowing "almost impossible," he said.

18 Jan 2018

Postcard from Sacramento: Alzheimer’s ‘looks like me, it looks like you’

Until last year, Jackie Coleman was a disability rights lawyer — a good one, too.

16 Jan 2018

Researchers to evaluate hygiene robot in the field of elderly care

Researchers at CTF, Service Research Center at Karlstad University, will study how a hygiene robot - an intelligent shower - is perceived and received among care staff and residents in service homes in Karlstad, Sweden.The Health and care administration at Karlstad municipality will, as one of the first municipalities in Sweden, install and evaluate an intelligent shower.

21 Dec 2017

The long goodbye: Coping with sadness and grief before a loved one dies

For years before her death at age 96, Nancy Lundebjerg's mother underwent a long, slow decline. Arthritis made it hard for Margaret Lundebjerg to get around. After two hip surgeries, she needed a walker when she was out and about.

21 Dec 2017

When nursing homes push out poor and disabled patients

Anita Willis says the social worker offered her a painful choice: She could either leave the San Jose, Calif., nursing home where she'd spent a month recovering from a stroke — or come up with $336 a day to stay on.

20 Dec 2017

Clinician re-examines evidence on re-use of catheters and UTIs in people with spinal cord injuries

People with spinal cord injuries rely on catheters to empty their bladder. When a well-respected publication concluded that catheters could be reused without an increased risk of infection, it didn't sit right with a Vancouver clinician and researcher.

13 Dec 2017

An overlooked epidemic: Older Americans taking too many unneeded drugs

Consider it America’s other prescription drug epidemic. For decades, experts have warned that older Americans are taking too many unnecessary drugs, often prescribed by multiple doctors, for dubious or unknown reasons.

12 Dec 2017

SLU scientists provide promising approach in designing new drugs for DMD

In a paper published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, Saint Louis University researchers report that a new drug reduces fibrosis (scarring) and prevents loss of muscle function in an animal model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), providing a promising approach in designing new medications for those suffering from DMD.

8 Dec 2017

Early intervention may be crucial to successful treatment of Friedreich's ataxia

New research published today in Disease Models & Mechanisms indicates that early intervention should be a key target in the development of new therapeutics for Friedreich's ataxia, as current treatments may be administered too late to target the disease effectively.

8 Nov 2017

Academics to raise awareness about dangers of pressure ulcers

COMMUTERS are being asked to take a seat – to raise awareness about the dangers of a condition which affects hundreds of thousands every year.

6 Nov 2017

Single infusion of wildtype HSPCs halts cellular damage caused by neuromuscular disorder in mice

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that a single infusion of wildtype hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) into a mouse model of Friedreich's ataxia (FA) measurably halted cellular damage caused by the degenerative disease.

25 Oct 2017

Fires prey on frail residents living on their own

They were asleep when the fire reached their home. Charles Rippey, 100, and his wife, Sara, 98, had been married 75 years. They died together, after a caregiver struggled to save them but couldn't get them out in time.

13 Oct 2017

New insights into rare-among-rare genetic bone disorder

I have been writing about conditions that cause out-of-place bone formation for over 10 years – since the discovery of the gene in 2006 for the rare bone disorder, FOP (fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive). But it was while interviewing geneticist Eileen Shore, PhD last spring about another bone disorder, progressive osseous heteroplasia, or POH, that it really hit me how much more rare POH is compared to FOP.

10 Oct 2017