Seniors/Aging News

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An extract from Chinese club moss shows promise as a treatment for people with Alzheimer's disease, researchers report after analyzing combined data from multiple trials conducted in China.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Chuck Jackson has lived his entire life the same way four generations of his family have before him: with a death sentence from Alzheimer's disease hanging over his head.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired U.S. Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor made a rare public appearance on Wednesday with emotional testimony in Congress in which she told how Alzheimer's disease had forced her to bring her husband to work with her.

WASHINGTON - The first woman on the Supreme Court is now the nation's most prominent Alzheimer's caregiver.

CHICAGO - Results from a large government experiment are dimming hopes that two common painkillers can prevent Alzheimer's disease or slow mental decline in older people.

MONDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Contrary to prior studies, a new trial shows that daily use of two popular pain-relieving drugs, Celebrex and naproxen, does not prevent cognitive decline in people with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients with Parkinson's disease who have a poor response to brain stimulation therapy may improve if the electrodes are repositioned, even by just a few millimeters.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Giving elderly people either Aleve or Celebrex, two anti-inflammatory painkilling drugs, did nothing to ward off the mental decline associated with the onset of Alzheimer's disease, researchers said on Monday.

(HealthDay News) -- It's important for a person diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease to continue to perform the daily tasks of life -- as best as the person can.

FRIDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- Flavonoids, compounds found in many fruits and vegetables, may be able to battle the ravages of Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.

WASHINGTON - Agents selling private health insurance plans to the elderly and disabled would be barred from cold-calling, door-to-door solicitations and pitching their products outside hospital waiting rooms or pharmacies, under a federal rule proposed Thursday.

(HealthDay News) -- The shoes you wear can play a big part in how steady you are on your feet, which is a big concern for many seniors.

WEDNESDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- New treatments for a type of depression in the elderly related to blood vessels -- called vascular depression -- are under development, and researchers have discovered why some patients with this condition fail to respond to current medications.

WEDNESDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults following a medication regimen are less likely to miss doses when reminded by an electronic pillbox that both beeps at the appointed drug-taking time and announces the number of pills to take and how to take them, new research reveals.

WEDNESDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- Senior citizens with disabilities are twice as likely as their non-disabled counterparts to being taking at least one prescription drug deemed inappropriate for people 65 or older, according to new research.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The risks of developing Alzheimer's disease differ between the sexes, with stroke in men, and depression in women, critical factors, according to a French study.

MONDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- People who use the painkiller ibuprofen regularly for five years may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease as they age, a new study suggests.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older people with low blood levels of vitamin D and high blood levels of parathyroid hormone are more likely to be depressed, Dutch researchers report.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who took the painkiller ibuprofen for more than five years had a 40 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Low levels of vitamin D in elderly people may lead to increased depression and other psychiatric problems, Dutch researchers said in a study released Monday.

SATURDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- Two new studies show that anticholinergics, a commonly prescribed group of drugs, may cause elderly people to "slow down" in their daily physical activities.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Elderly people who took commonly prescribed drugs for incontinence, allergy or high blood pressure walked more slowly and were less able to take care of themselves than others not taking the drugs, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.

(HealthDay News) -- People with Alzheimer's disease should be kept busy, both mentally and physically. This can be a challenge.

FRIDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- There's a significant difference in sleep disturbances experienced by Alzheimer's disease patients and the sleep woes of their caregivers, new research shows.

THURSDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- Depression in women and stroke in men are critical factors in the development of Alzheimer's disease, French researchers report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. outbreak of measles since 2001 is unfolding in 10 states, with at least 72 people ranging from infants to the elderly becoming ill -- most of them unvaccinated, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

WEDNESDAY, April 30 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with mild Alzheimer's disease who took 800 milligrams of the drug tarenflurbil twice a day had less decline in functional ability than those who took a placebo, according to a British phase II trial.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nursing home residents with dementia appear to be less likely to receive pain medication than other residents, even though they have just as many painful health conditions, a new study suggests.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Five years of cancer care for America's elderly cost Medicare $21.1 billion, a figure that will swell as the baby boomer generation ages, U.S. government researchers said on Tuesday.