Aging News and Research

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Website for family caregivers to find senior care facilities

AgingCare.com, a website and community forum for people taking care of elderly parents, has created a directory tool that lets family caregivers find senior care facilities in their local area. The directory, www.agingcare.com/Find-Senior-Care/ is free to use, and quickly connects caregivers with local senior care services and providers. The Directory includes assisted living facilities, home health care services, nursing homes, hospice, geriatric care managers and independent living residences.

24 Sep 2009

Acetaminophen can prevent age-related problems

Recent studies conducted by Dr. Eric Blough and his colleagues at Marshall University have shown that use of the common pain reliever acetaminophen may help prevent age-associated muscle loss and other conditions.

24 Sep 2009

Two Yale faculty members awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant for extraordinary commitment to research

Two Yale faculty members have been named MacArthur Foundation Fellows for 2009, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced. Mary Tinetti, M.D., the Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health and Richard O. Prum, the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology will each receive a five-year, $500,000 "genius" grant to spend as they see fit.

24 Sep 2009

NIH grants $2.5M for the study of physical forces on cell function

The National Institutes of Health today announced an award of $2.5 million to a team led by Boston University biomedical engineer Bela Suki that will study the role of physical forces on cell function, with the goal of understanding the possible roles of these forces in diseases like atherosclerosis, neuro-degenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, aging and cancer.

24 Sep 2009

Utah medical ethics expert chairs NIH review of embryonic cells

University of Utah medical ethics expert Jeffrey R. Botkin will chair a federal panel that will review scientists' requests to conduct government-funded research using embryonic stem cells left over from couples who used "test-tube fertilization" to have babies.

23 Sep 2009

MMI to provide sign language interpreters for deaf or hard-of-hearing patients

Under a voluntary resolution agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), deaf or hard-of-hearing patients at the Mid-Maryland Musculoskeletal Institute (MMI) of Frederick, Md., will be screened and provided with sign language interpreters whenever interpreter services are necessary for effective communication. MMI is an 11-physician orthopedic practice with offices in Frederick and Hagerstown, Md., serving approximately 1,000 patients per month.

23 Sep 2009

Pros and cons of the estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate

As many as 26 million Americans live with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at least 10.4 million (or 40%) don't even know they have it. Enter the estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR), which has become the preferred method for identifying people with CKD.

23 Sep 2009

There is no evidence to support the use of any test for ovarian cancer: NBOCC

In an Australian first, leading experts and organizations have agreed a position statement on screening for ovarian cancer, Australia's leading cause of death from gynecological malignancy.

23 Sep 2009

Researching the causes of Alzheimer's disease

The standard explanation for what causes Alzheimer's is known as the amyloid hypothesis, which posits that the disease results from of an accumulation of the peptide amyloid beta, the toxic protein fragments that deposit in the brain and become the sticky plaques that have defined Alzheimer's for more than 100 years.

23 Sep 2009

Declining performance of muscles linked to harmful byproducts of air we breathe

If you think the air outside is polluted, a new research report in the September 2009 issue of the journal Genetics (http://www.genetics.org) might make you to think twice about the air inside our bodies too. That's because researchers show how about 3 percent of the air we breathe gets converted into harmful superoxides, which ultimately harm our muscles.

23 Sep 2009

Poor money management: A sign of developing Alzheimer's disease

New research finds poor money management skills may indicate that a person with mild memory problems will soon develop Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the September 22, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

22 Sep 2009

Importance of residual thymopoiesis in aged adults

Doctor Manuel Leal is managing the Experimental Immune Virology Laboratory (in Virgen del Rocío University Hospital and Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBIS), where clinic and basic science researchers work) where he leads a project to establish the functional nature of the thymus gland in adults. So far, it has been proven that this gland keeps on producing lymphocytes in the old age (Ferrando-Martínez et al. AGE, in press), which is a novelty because until very recently it was considered that this organ lost its immune capacity after the puberty.

22 Sep 2009

Researcher can anticipate immune response in Alzheimer's patients

A researcher who is working on a vaccine for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has demonstrated that it is possible to test and measure specific immune responses in mice carrying human genes and to anticipate the immune response in Alzheimer's patients. This continuing research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev could one day lead to specific Alzheimer's vaccines that reduce plaque, neuronal damage and inflammation associated with the disease.

22 Sep 2009

Signaling molecules have different effects on key inhibitory protein

Researchers have identified a mechanism that may keep a well known signaling molecule from eroding bone and inflaming joints, according to an early study published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

22 Sep 2009

Older adults with vitamin D deficiency at a greater risk of heart disease and death

A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows vitamin D plays a vital role in reducing the risk of death associated with older age. The research, just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, evaluated the association between vitamin D levels in the blood and the death rates of those 65 and older. The study found that older adults with insufficient levels of vitamin D die from heart disease at greater rates that those with adequate levels of the vitamin.

22 Sep 2009

First Edition: September 21, 2009

Today's headlines indicate that President Obama's weekend media blitz will set the stage for this week's health policy action.

21 Sep 2009

Nutritional supplement leader Garden of Life acquired by Atrium Innovations

Atrium Innovations Inc. (TSX: ATB), a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of science-based and professionally supported products for the health and nutrition industry, announced today the purchase of Garden of Life, Inc., a leading formulator, distributor and marketer of nutritional supplement products.

21 Sep 2009

Public offer to holders of Pharming Group's convertible bonds

Biotech company Pharming Group NV ("Pharming" or the "Company") (NYSE Euronext: PHARM) today announces that it has made a public offer to the holders of convertible bonds (issued in 2007) to convert their bonds into a combination of cash and shares.

21 Sep 2009

EPIC's stock dividend postponed due to joint venture

EPIC Corporation, a financial services company, announced the formation of a joint venture, Hallmark Heritage, LLC, with Level 3 Capital Partners, LLC, and Senior Care Group, Inc.; the formation of Senior Care Communities Trust, Inc., and, in light of entering into the joint venture, EPIC's board of directors postponed the stock dividend announced in May 2009.

21 Sep 2009

ICTs play a major role in the health care sector

Today the GridTalk project launches its 8th GridBriefing at the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) conference in Barcelona. The report covers how information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly computing grids, are used in the health and biomedical sectors of European research. EGEE has supported this research community since the project's birth and it is the second largest user group after physics research.

21 Sep 2009