The Georgia Senate has advanced additional rules for reporting COVID-19 infections in nursing and assisted-living communities, giving a welcome boost to legislation for senior care in the state, reports the Rome News-Tribune . The measure would fortify training for staff in senior-care communities and enlarge the number of staff to be on site at any given time to monitor residents — in addition to raising fines for violations or if a community causes a resident's death. Senate lawmakers have modified the bill to add extra requirements for communities to publicly disclose when residents or staff test positive for the coronavirus. They also would have to stock a week's worth of protective supplies like masks and gowns and have every resident and staffer tested within 90 days of the legislation's enactment. The bill would require at least one direct-care staff member for every 15 senior residents during waking hours, and one for every 20 residents at nighttime. The bill also seeks to tighten staffing and training standards for memory care centers.

A study published in Gut suggests a link between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cognitive decline, reports CNN . The researchers analyzed 1,742 people with IBD who were 45 or older, compared to more than 17,400 healthy individuals. Subjects were tracked for up to 16 years, and those with IBD had a 4.1 percent higher incidence of dementia, and were diagnosed more than seven years earlier than those without IBD. The overall incidence of dementia was 5.5 percent among persons with IBD, versus 1.4 percent among those who lacked the disease. Individuals with IBD were at highest risk for Alzheimer's dementia and vascular dementia, while the association between IBD and dementia was the same for men and women. The risk for dementia also rose with the increasing severity and duration of IBD. Earlier studies determined that people with IBD who are in remission and asymptomatic can still have lingering inflammation, and the new study's authors believe both inflammation during symptoms and inflammation during remission could contribute to dementia. Bing Zhang at the University of California, San Francisco said one possible explanation for the IBD-dementia link is that IBD could damage intestinal bacteria that help produce and release neurological messengers that help regulate inflammation.

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health this week launched the MENTAL Health Challenge, which is aimed at combating the social isolation and loneliness that senior adults, people with disabilities, and veterans are experiencing during the COVID-19 era and beyond. In total, $750,000 in prizes will be awarded for the development of an online system that offers recommendations for activities, programs, and resources to assist users connect to others and engage with their community based on their own personal interests, abilities, and needs. The winning system will be announced at CES this January and will ultimately become the centerpiece of a national public awareness campaign. "We need a multi-pronged public health approach to change the way we address social isolation, especially among our most at-risk populations," remarked U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams. "This approach must include the development of innovative solutions to combat the harmful physical and mental health effects of social isolation and the role technology has in promoting better connections for all."

Older adults are having a harder time coping with isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of social distancing, which could adversely affect their health, reports Click2Houston . University of Texas Health's Carmel Dyer warned that prolonged isolation can cause seniors' immune systems to decline and reduce chemical stimulation in the brain, leading to depression. "An older adult could say they feel depressed, or they don't feel depressed," he noted. "Instead, they want to sleep all of the time, they are not eating, the memory will change suddenly." One way to mitigate isolation is to get seniors more involved. "As much as folks can take advantage of the technology, the Zoom calls, have them call their friends, have them write letters," Dyer said. Virtual connection resources are another option.

The Alzheimer's Association is lauding the June 18 signing by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of legislation that sets up statewide coordination of Alzheimer's disease programs and policies, reports Florida Politics . The bill establishes a dementia director position within the state Department of Elder Affairs to oversee policies and programs for addressing Alzheimer's disease. "This is a big win for our Florida seniors," said Michelle Branham with the Florida region of the Alzheimer's Association. "Gov. DeSantis has made it clear that Alzheimer's is a top priority under the State Health Improvement Plan and this piece of legislation is critical for its success. We thank Gov. DeSantis for his leadership and commitment to our senior population." Under the legislation, the dementia director will assist the Alzheimer's Disease Advisory Committee in designing the Alzheimer's disease state plan; support Florida's memory disorder clinics; enable public education on Alzheimer's disease; coordinate dementia research programs; and gather data on the impact of Alzheimer's on the state.

One of the earliest warning signs of dementia to look for in a loved one is asking a particular question regarding language, reports the Daily Express . The Alzheimer's Society said persons with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may manifest the disorder as either behavioral variant FTD, progressive non-fluent aphasia, or semantic dementia. The early signs of semantic dementia involve difficulties with language that progressively worsen, with people losing their vocabulary and understanding of what objects are. This results in someone asking the meaning of familiar words. Other examples include difficulty finding the right word, leading to descriptions instead; using less precise words (like "animal" instead of "cat"); and trouble recognizing familiar people or common objects. A review in Neurocase also found that FTD is associated with a wide range of abnormal eating behaviors like hyperphagia, fixations on one kind of food, and even ingestion of inanimate objects.

Brookings Institute Fellow Martin Neil Baily and Benjamin H. Harris with the Kellogg School of Management write in CNN Business that the COVID-19 pandemic could have a worse impact on retirement for older American workers than the Great Recession. "The sheer magnitude of the current layoffs will mean that many older workers will lose their jobs and may never find another one," say the authors. "According to a late-May Census Bureau survey, approximately 40 percent of households with people in their 60s reported losing wages during the pandemic. And if prior experience is any guide, older workers will have a disproportionately hard time regaining their lost income." Baily and Harris add that the Federal Reserve's decision to lock in ultra-low interest rates for the foreseeable future, while necessary, will exacerbate matters for retirement savers, who "will see lower returns on their savings — and some workers will be less inclined to contribute to a retirement account." The authors say policymakers can aid older workers, by first renewing a push to make the labor market more welcoming by bolstering anti-discrimination laws. Expanding Earned Income Tax Credit eligibility, which is currently barred from people 65 and older, will help boost salaries for older workers with low earnings by up to 8 percent. Baily and Harris also suggest that states offer near-universal retirement saving accounts, and that Congress restructure retirement tax incentives so middle-class workers get more for each dollar saved in an IRA or 401(k).

A startup in Raleigh, N.C., has introduced a novel approach for dealing with Alzheimer's driven by artificial intelligence (AI), as part of a project launched by the Women's Alzheimer's Movement Prevention Center at Cleveland Clinic, reports WRAL TechWire . uMETHOD's patented ExtND METHOD can reportedly prevent Alzheimer's by enabling doctors to tailor treatment plans to individuals. The technique applies proprietary AI to interpret data from blood and urine tests, including demographics, medical history, and lifestyle. The AI then matches data against current Alzheimer's research to produce individual care plans. "Researchers . . . have long recognized that Alzheimer's disease . . . will need personalized combinations of treatments to improve patient outcomes," said uMETHOD Health CEO Vik Chandra. He added that federal regulatory approval is unnecessary. "We are a decision support software and do not need FDA approval," said Chandra. "Our treatment recommendations are provided to healthcare professionals who use them in the care of their patients."

Independent living communities across Pennsylvania are beginning to permit visitors as the state moves forward on its coronavirus reopening plans, reports PennLive . "We would certainly recommend these operators assess their facility and its potential exposure and take steps to protect residents," said a state health department spokesperson. "In addition, certainly if there is a location that is dealing with concerns, the department would work with them to determine what the best approach would be." Such places are devoted to seniors who are capable of living on their own but want to reside in a community setting. They are neither nursing nor assisted living communities, which are restricting visitors until at least 28 days after their county moves into the green phase. On June 12, Messiah Lifeway's Messiah Village in Upper Allen Township started allowing non-essential visitors, encouraging all visits to take place outdoors or within the resident's apartment or cottage. Masks and social distancing also are advised. "Residential living residents are independent and live on their own in cottages and apartment buildings at Messiah Village, so Messiah Lifeways has tried to balance that independence with our responsibility to do what we can to protect everyone on campus," said Messiah Lifeways' Kim Valvo.

The results of the Wireless Innovation for Seniors with Diabetes Mellitus clinical trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that older adults with type 1 diabetes who use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices can significantly lower the occurrence of hypoglycemia and severe hypoglycemic events while also reducing hemoglobin A1c, reports Medical Xpress . The trial involved 203 men and women older than 60 at 22 clinical centers, with about half receiving insulin via an insulin pump and the other half getting multiple daily injections of insulin. Half were randomly assigned to a group using a CGM device, and the other half to a control group using the standard finger-stick method with test strips for blood glucose monitoring. The amount of time glucose levels were in a hypoglycemia range was shortened from 73 minutes per day at the start of the study to 39 minutes per day in the group using CGM over six months. In the controls, the average minutes per day in hypoglycemia was 68 at the start of the study and 70 minutes over the study period. CGM users were much less likely to have a severe hypoglycemic event compared to controls. Moreover, regular CGM use increased the amount of time in target range by more than two hours daily.