Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

older-adults

Anticholinergic drugs found to significantly increase risk of cognitive decline, especially among those with Alzheimer’s Disease biomarkers or genetic predisposition

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Com­mon Class of Drugs Linked to Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease (UC San Diego release):

A team of sci­en­tists, led by researchers at Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia San Diego School of Med­i­cine, report that a class of drugs used for a broad array of con­di­tions, from aller­gies and colds to hyper­ten­sion and uri­nary incon­ti­nence, may be asso­ci­at­ed with an increased risk of cog­ni­tive decline, par­tic­u­lar­ly in old­er adults at greater risk for Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD) … cog­ni­tive­ly nor­mal study par­tic­i­pants who were tak­ing at least one anti­cholin­er­gic drug at base­line were 47 per­cent more like­ly to devel­op mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (MCI), often a pre­cur­sor to demen­tia such as AD, while being tracked over a peri­od of up to a decade com­pared to par­tic­i­pants who did not take such drugs. [Read more…] about Anti­cholin­er­gic drugs found to sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase risk of cog­ni­tive decline, espe­cial­ly among those with Alzheimer’s Dis­ease bio­mark­ers or genet­ic pre­dis­po­si­tion

Large study finds that placebo works as well as vitamin D supplements to prevent depression and improve mood

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Large Study Con­firms Vit­a­min D Does Not Reduce Risk of Depres­sion in Adults (Mass Gen­er­al press release):

Vit­a­min D sup­ple­men­ta­tion does not pro­tect against depres­sion in mid­dle-age or old­er adult­hood accord­ing results from one of the largest ever stud­ies of its kind … “There was no sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fit from the sup­ple­ment for this pur­pose. It did not pre­vent depres­sion or improve mood,” says Olivia I. Okereke, MD, MS, of the Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (MGH) Psy­chi­a­try Depart­ment.

[Read more…] about Large study finds that place­bo works as well as vit­a­min D sup­ple­ments to pre­vent depres­sion and improve mood

Study: Hearing aids may help older adults delay dementia, depression, anxiety, and falls

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Hear­ing Aids Linked to Low­er Risk of Demen­tia, Depres­sion and Falls, Study Finds (Michi­gan Health Lab):

“Old­er adults who get a hear­ing aid for a new­ly diag­nosed hear­ing loss have a low­er risk of being diag­nosed with demen­tia, depres­sion or anx­i­ety in the fol­low­ing three years, and a low­er risk of suf­fer­ing fall-relat­ed injuries, than those who leave their hear­ing loss uncor­rect­ed, a new study finds. [Read more…] about Study: Hear­ing aids may help old­er adults delay demen­tia, depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and falls

Study finds promise in smell training to harness neuroplasticity and improve brain health in older adults

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An impaired sense of smell can sig­nal cog­ni­tive decline, but ‘smell train­ing’ could help (The Con­ver­sa­tion):

“As we age, we often have prob­lems with our abil­i­ty to smell (called olfac­to­ry dys­func­tion). Old­er peo­ple might not be able to iden­ti­fy an odour or dif­fer­en­ti­ate one odour from anoth­er. In some cas­es they might not be able to detect an odour at all.

Odour iden­ti­fi­ca­tion dif­fi­cul­ties are com­mon in peo­ple with neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases, includ­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease [Read more…] about Study finds promise in smell train­ing to har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and improve brain health in old­er adults

Could technology help cure depression among older adults? (Short answer: Yes)

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Why tech­nol­o­gy — not med­ica­tion — is the future of treat­ing old­er adults with depres­sion (McK­night’s Long-term Care News):

“The go-to treat­ment for many cas­es of depres­sion is med­ica­tion.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this treat­ment option can cause as many issues as the prob­lem it is try­ing to solve. Anti­de­pres­sants can put res­i­dents at greater risk of falls, neg­a­tive health com­pli­ca­tions and oth­er poor con­di­tions. Some stud­ies indi­cate that anti­de­pres­sants may not be effec­tive for most old­er Amer­i­cans. [Read more…] about Could tech­nol­o­gy help cure depres­sion among old­er adults? (Short answer: Yes)

Next week in LA, and online: Brain Longevity Therapy Training by The Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation

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Heads-up: The Alzheimer’s Research & Pre­ven­tion Foun­da­tion (ARPF), a long­stand­ing sup­port­er of Sharp­Brains events and activ­i­ties, will be con­duct­ing its first Brain Longevi­ty Ther­a­py Train­ing — com­bin­ing pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment with a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process — next week in Los Ange­les, CA (also with a livestream option).

And they are gen­er­ous­ly shar­ing dis­count codes (below) for inter­est­ed Sharp­Brains read­ers. [Read more…] about Next week in LA, and online: Brain Longevi­ty Ther­a­py Train­ing by The Alzheimer’s Research & Pre­ven­tion Foun­da­tion