A study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society has associated statin treatment with higher levels of insulin resistance, reports Endocrinology Advisor . Study participants included 609 individuals 71 years old on average, of whom 152 were statin users and 457 were not. Statin users exhibited higher homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels than nonusers, as well as significantly higher abdominal aortic calcification scores. However, the linkage between statin use and higher abdominal aortic calcification lost significance when stratified by propensity score. When examining statins effect's based on the hydrophilicity or lipophilicity of the particular drug, HOMA-IR was higher in participants receiving hydrophilic and lipophilic statins. Seventy-three percent of hydrophilic statin users in this cohort were receiving rosuvastatin, which has been tied to the highest risk for type 2 diabetes versus other statins. The investigators concluded that statins "may have unintended consequences related to glucose homeostasis that could be relevant in healthy aging. In those individuals with risk factors for diabetes, consideration for choosing non-lipophilic statins and avoidance of rosuvastatin and lipophilic statins may provide the intended cardiovascular protection without the increased incidence of insulin resistance."

A meta-analysis of 15 studies on tai chi published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing determined that the mind-body exercise can lift the mood and quality of life of older adults with cardiovascular disease, reports MinnPost . "There are physical benefits like improved balance, and it's good for mental health too," said University of Arizona Professor Ruth Taylor-Piliae. The studies focused on English- and German-language clinical trials in Asia, North America, and Europe over the last 10 years, covering 1,853 participants mainly in their 60s with high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, or history of stroke. Generally, older adults assigned to tai chi courses reported significantly better quality of life and less depression and psychological strain at than those in control groups. The researchers did not find a statistically significant association between tai chi and reduced anxiety, possibly because few studies measured anxiety. Tai chi appears to yield different benefits to people with cardiovascular disease based on their diagnosis. For example, tai chi participants with coronary heart disease had significantly better psychological quality of life than the controls, while those with high blood pressure reported significantly better physical health quality of life. Meanwhile, tai chi participants with chronic heart failure did not see significant improvement in quality of life, but had less depression and psychological distress versus controls.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that a medication reduction strategy is safe among some older adults treated with antihypertensives, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers considered whether this procedure is viable for people 80 years and older without significant changes in systolic blood pressure (BP) control or adverse events during 12-week follow-up. Participants were randomly assigned to either antihypertensive medication reduction or usual care. At baseline, subjects were administered a median of two antihypertensive medications. At 12 weeks, 86.4 percent of those in the intervention group and 87.7 percent of those in the control group had a systolic BP of less than 150 mm Hg, with medication reduction sustained at 12 weeks in two thirds. The mean change in systolic BP was 3.4 mm Hg in the intervention group compared to the controls, while at least one serious adverse event was reported in 12 participants in the intervention group and seven in the control group. "The findings suggest antihypertensive medication reduction can be achieved without substantial change in BP control in some older patients with hypertension," the researchers concluded.

The National Poll on Healthy Aging found that Americans in their 50s and older were capable home cooks right before the COVID-19 outbreak, yet just 5 percent had ordered groceries online, reports ScienceDaily . Subjects who cooked dinner at home most often before the pandemic were most likely to rate the overall health of their diet as excellent or very good. Those rating their physical health as excellent or very good also were the most likely to express confidence in their cooking skills or to enjoy cooking. Yet one in four respondents said they already ate most or all of their meals alone, even before social-distancing rules were imposed. Solitary diners reported less healthy diets than those who rarely or never ate alone, and 11 percent of older adults ate fast food three times a week or more. This data provides a baseline comprehension of the food shopping, culinary, and dining out habits of older Americans shortly before COVID-19. "Public health guidance to avoid infection will continue to alter food-buying habits for many older people and those with health conditions, so further support for them may be needed to ensure healthy habits continue," said University of Michigan School of Public Health Professor Julia Wolfson. "That could include more assistance with online ordering for no-contact pickup or delivery."

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society examined five personality traits and their association with pre-dementia conditions known as motoric cognitive risk (MCR) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) syndromes, reports Medical Xpress . Those traits included neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness. Among 524 subjects 65 and older who were followed for a median of three years, 38 developed MCR and 69 developed MCI. Openness was linked to a 6 percent reduced risk of developing MCR, whereas neuroticism was associated with a 6 percent higher risk of non-amnestic MCI. None of the personality traits had a connection with MCI overall or with amnestic MCI. "While more studies are needed, our results provide evidence that personality traits play an independent role in the risk for or protection against specific pre-dementia syndromes," said Emmeline Ayers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "From a clinical perspective, these findings emphasize the importance of accounting for aspects of personality when assessing for dementia risk."

The dementia research charity Alzheimer's UK said more research is needed to determine whether the increased number of deaths from dementia in Britain is due to the COVID-19 virus, reports Health Europa . Data from the U.K. Office of National Statistics from March 7 to May 1 showed that dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and "symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions" mainly indicating old age, constitute two-thirds of the total number of non-COVID-19 excess deaths in England and Wales. Compared with the five-year average, the rate of dementia- and Alzheimer's-related deaths was significantly higher in April 2020. Alzheimer's UK also advocates for greater testing of COVID-19 across the United Kingdom, especially in care communities, to ensure the pathogen is not going undiagnosed. "Until testing has significantly increased, we will not be able to draw proper conclusions as to why people with dementia are being disproportionately affected," said Alzheimer's Research UK's Samantha Benham-Hermet.

A study published in JAMA Network Open suggests that randomized cholesterol drug trials least represent older adults and women, who are the ones most likely to be affected by heart disease, reports Greater Milwaukee Today . Older adults are more likely than their young peers to have heart and vascular disease. The researchers analyzed trends in the types of 485,409 people enrolled in 60 studies from 1990 to 2018, revealing that older adults and women are still vastly underrepresented in lipid-lowering therapy trials compared to their disease cost. The percentage of trial participants 65 and older rose from 32 percent from the early 1990s to 42 percent in the most recent trials, yet only slightly more than 30 of the 60 trials conducted reported findings specifically for older adults. "Although we did see an improvement over the years in representation of women and older adults, that progress was rather modest," said Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Professor Erin Michos. "Clearly more still needs to be done to shift the balance to represent our patient demographics."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Avid Radiopharmaceuticals' imaging agent Tauvid for intravenous injection in adults with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer's disease, reports Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network . Tauvid is indicated for positron emission tomography brain scans. "While there are FDA-approved imaging drugs for amyloid pathology, this is the first drug approved for imaging tau pathology, one of the two neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, and represents a major advance for patients with cognitive impairment being evaluated for the condition," said the FDA's Charles Ganley. Imaging with Tauvid was evaluated in two clinical studies, and in the first study evaluators had a high likelihood of correctly evaluating patients with tau pathology, and an average-to-high probability of correctly evaluating subjects without tau pathology in 64 terminally ill patients. The second study determined that reader agreement was 0.87 across a total 241 subjects, and 0.90 and 0.82 in respective subgroups of 82 terminally ill individuals diagnosed after death and 159 persons with cognitive impairment. The drug's ability to detect tau pathology in people in earlier stages of cognitive decline may be lower.

A study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes suggests that even low levels of physical activity (PA) have a beneficial effect in the primary prevention of cancer in older adults, reports Hospital Healthcare Europe . The researchers recruited 1,542 participants, with an average age of 73, who were initially free of cancer and followed them for nine years on average. A total of 254 new cancers were observed over the nine-year follow-up, with leisure-time PA inversely related to cancer incidence, with adjusted hazard ratios of 0.66 and 0.59 for the insufficiently active and sufficiently active groups versus the inactive cohort. The implication is that even subjects designated not sufficiently active still had a reduced risk of cancer compared to those who were inactive. This finding emphasizes the value of PA as individuals age.

A study in Alzheimer's & Dementia associated repetitive negative thinking in later life to cognitive decline and greater accumulation of harmful proteins responsible for Alzheimer's disease, reports CNN . Negative thinking behaviors such as rumination about the past and anxiety about the future were quantified in more 350 people older than 55 over two years, and about one third underwent a positron emission tomography brain scan to measure tau and beta amyloid deposits. Subjects who spent more time thinking negatively had more tau and beta amyloid accrual, worse memory, and more extensive cognitive decline over a four-year period than non-pessimists. Greater cognitive decline also was observed in depressed and anxious people, although tau and amyloid deposits did not increase in those subjects. "This is the first study showing a biological relationship between repetitive negative thinking and Alzheimer's pathology, and gives physicians a more precise way to assess risk and offer more personally-tailored interventions," said Richard Isaacson at New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical Center. The researchers suggest that meditation and other mental training exercises might help promote positive thinking while reducing negative thoughts, and they plan future studies to test this theory.