New study shows sedentary seniors are older than their chronological age

Getting older will undoubtedly make you slow down a little, but that’s no excuse to stop moving altogether. In fact, being sedentary could advance your biological age by as much as eight years.

In a recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers studied cell function and sedentary time in 1,481 women with an average age of 79. Specifically, they looked at the length of their telomeres, which are sequences of DNA at the end of chromosomes that help protect them from deterioration. (Think of them like the plastic casing on the end of a shoelace.)

10 Reasons to Be Hopeful About the Future of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease and good news? Somehow these two terms don’t fit.

After all, more than five million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., which kills more of us than breast and prostate cancer combined. Some experts estimate that as many as 16 million could be afflicted by 2050.

In 2016 alone, Alzheimer’s and other related dementias have cost America an estimated $236 billion. While that figure is staggering, the real cost to families and caregivers is immeasurable.

Alzheimer's Disease: Your Role as Caregiver

Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease is a balancing act. You keep your loved one safe and comfortable, keep track of his medications and doctor’s appointments, and give him your love and support. But your life matters, too. It’s just as important to keep up with your work, family, and social life.

In your role as a caregiver, do what you can to bewell informed and prepared, and ask for help and support when you need it.

Who Will Care for the Caregivers?

I should have put his socks back on.

The thought kept nagging me as I finished my clinic notes, replaying the afternoon in my head. My final patient of the day — a man with dementia — was a late addition to the schedule, after his daughter, herself a patient of mine, called to report he hadn’t been himself lately. We scheduled him for the last appointment, so she could join after finishing work across town.

Hospitals employ caregiver support centers to support successful patient transitions to home

Clutching a railing for balance, 89-year-old Alan Epstein searched the hospital waiting rooms for families in distress. He paused when he came across a young woman standing alone in the hallway, making a phone call about her grandfather's faltering health.

"Are you aware of the caregiver support center?" Epstein asked when she got off the phone. Just around the corner from the sterile waiting room, he told her, there's a refuge with hot coffee, soft chairs and pleasant company.

8 Tips to Help Caregivers Improve Their New Year

In the New Year, because your loved one’s situation hasn’t changed, you might think that nothing can improve your own situation. But if you are open to change, you may find that the symbolism of the New Year does offer opportunities to make your life better. Resolve to improve your life through better self-care.

Alzheimer’s: Frequent Relocations May Speed Decline

Specialized care is needed at different stages of dementia. Frequently, the only way to provide that kind of care is to move the person to either a memory unit or a family home, while supplementing care provided by family members with paid in-home caregivers. In many cases, it’s simply unrealistic to expect to never have to relocate someone who has dementia. At the same time, frequently moving someone with dementia around can be problematic. While it can be a challenge for anyone, it becomes even more difficult for a person with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

You may get little help from your hospital when looking for a nursing home

At age 88, Elizabeth Fee looked pregnant, her belly swollen after days of intestinal ailments and nausea. A nurse heard a scream from Fee’s room in a nursing home, and found her retching “like a faucet” before she passed out.

The facility where she died in 2012 was affiliated with a respected San Francisco hospital, California Pacific Medical Center, and shared its name. Fee had just undergone hip surgery at the hospital, and her family, pleased with her care, said they chose the nursing home with the hospital’s encouragement.

10 Reasons to Be Hopeful About the Future of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease and good news? Somehow these two terms don’t fit.

After all, more than five million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., which kills more of us than breast and prostate cancer combined. Some experts estimate that as many as 16 million could be afflicted by 2050.

Americans at Work: Caring for Our Elders

This week, our Americans at Work photo essay features images of caregivers at work in eastern Massachusetts, in their offices and in the homes of the elderly clients they serve, made by photographer Amanda Swinhart: “Aging is something most of us do not like to think about. Though subconsciously we are aware of its inevitability, we often avoid imagining our impending aging, and the real possibility that we may have to endure this process alone. Yet, for the men and women in these photographs, along with so many others, aging is no longer something in the distant future; it is an encroaching reality that threatens their independence and strips them of their dignity.

Why Do Humans Still Have a Gene That Increases the Risk of Alzheimer's?

When the former nurse Jamie Tyrone learned that she carried two copies of a gene called ApoE4, she “lost hope and direction,” and her “days were filled with fear, anxiety and sadness.” It meant that as she got older, she would likely develop Alzheimer’s disease, as her father had done before her.

The apoliprotein E gene, or ApoE, comes in three forms—E2, E3, and E4. The last one is the problem. People who carry one copy have a three-fold higher risk of Alzheimer’s than those with none. And those with two copies, as Tyrone carries, have 8- to 12-fold higher risks. Between 51 and 68 percent of them will develop the disease by the time they are 85. The risk is so large that some people who get their genomes analyzed (including James Watson, a co-discoverer of the DNA double helix) deliberately decide to redact their ApoE4 sequence. They’d rather not know.  

Key to good caregiving: A healthy, stress-free caregiver

More than 15 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. For the vast majority, the deeply personal responsibility of caring for a person with a devastating disease constitutes a labor of love.

A staggering 59 percent of family caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias rate their emotional stress as high or very high, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.