Baby boomers have found a new path to retirement through "Internet entrepreneurism," reports Forbes . A recent study estimated that nearly one in five people who remain working past age 65 are self-employed, excluding independent contractors. "Many boomers . . . have a lifetime of knowledge and experience that they want to share with others," said Online Trainers Federation founder Dave Smith. Boomers have elected to start a new business at an age when their parents were retired and their grandparents were past their life expectancy, and their growing familiarity and comfort with the Internet is making it surprisingly easy to start such businesses online. Be-At-Ease Solutions founder Beate Probst said this is partly due to the fact that "the technology is available to reach people all over the world with little investment but so much life experience and information." Smith added that profitable companies can be run directly from social platforms. "A 'relational' digital world has made it easy for experts to sell their expertise," he explained. "The older population is full of expertise, so they are perfect candidates to monetize their knowledge through an online business."

According to a study in Nature , Japanese researchers have successfully trialed a nasal spray in mice that targets proteins that cause Alzheimer's disease, reports Good News Network . The spray mitigates dementia-like symptoms in mice while also reducing atrophied brain matter by impeding the tau protein. The vaccine activated the mice's immune systems to produce antibodies that warded off the proteins — an effect that to date has been impossible to replicate in human trials. The mice that received the vaccine were found to have twice as many antibodies than those who had not, and no side effects were observed during or after the trial, for a total of eight months after administration. "Much more research is necessary for the vaccine to be used in humans, but it is an accomplishment that can contribute to the development of a dementia cure," said Kyoto University Professor Haruhisa Inoue.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Professor Sean X. Leng discusses how the phenomenon of aging immune systems — immunosenescence — pertains to the COVID-19 pandemic and how a geroscience approach can help address this challenge, reports Next Avenue . "Because of the decline in immune function, if even one viral particle gets into the airways of an older adult, it may be enough for the virus to survive and grow there because of the decline in immune function," Leng hypothesizes. He adds that immune dysregulation, in which the overproduction of cytokines can cause tissue damage, is another factor. "Older adults have a weaker immune system to start with, so it's easier for the virus to get in and grow there," Leng explains. "And then when this virus starts to kill those remaining immune cells, it will make outcomes for older adults even worse." The geroscience approach aims to help boost the immune functions of older adults and limit the severity of COVID-19. "Instead of focusing only on the virus, we really need to focus on the host, on older adults," Leng argues.

A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests a newly developed tool based on data in electronic health records (EHRs) could identify people with undiagnosed dementia and tag their records for future follow-up, reports the U.S. National Institute on Aging . Earlier research indicated that under-recognition of dementia is a major issue in the aging population, but little has been done to translate findings from models of future risk of dementia into systems for use in primary care settings to detect undiagnosed cases. The researchers devised the EHR Risk of Alzheimer's and Dementia Assessment Rule (eRADAR) by analyzing 4,330 individuals across 16,665 Adult Changes in Thought visits, and determined that 1,015 visits led to a dementia diagnosis. Of these, 49 percent had not already been coded as such in EHR records. The team then studied various markers by diagnosis to identify which ones were key predictors of undiagnosed dementia and to produce the eRADAR model, which returns a score that increases with the likelihood that an individual has dementia. Subjects who had eRADAR scores in the top 5 percent were more than five times as likely than the overall population to have unidentified dementia, suggesting that it would be valuable to screen more individuals with high scores.

Biogen's planned submission of its Alzheimer's drug, aducanumab, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration early this year has been hit with delays, with the latest disclosure indicating that the company plans to submit the application in the third quarter, reports Quartz . Biogen's decision to cancel aducanumab trials on account of insignificant effects, and then restart them following a reconsideration of the initial data, has already sowed doubt. Repeated queries from analysts have yielded little clarity from the drugmaker on the reason for the delayed submission. "Nothing has come up with the data that has changed our interpretation," insisted Biogen's Al Sandrock. He added that the coronavirus' effect on Biogen's employees, many of whom contracted and spread the virus at the company's annual leadership meeting in March, played a part in the delay. Biogen announced that it was planning to continue the "vast majority" of the clinical trials showcased last year, and would have to resort to remote monitoring, telemedicine, and intravenous home infusions to continue testing safely.

Students at the South Florida Fashion Academy (SFFA) are sewing masks for area seniors during the coronavirus pandemic, reports Local10 . The Academy said the program, offered for students ages 11 to 18, was established to "fulfill the lack of programs in our communities geared towards the arts, entrepreneurial skill set, and self-love. SFFA fosters creativity and career focus while educating its students to embrace inclusiveness, sustainability, and a sense of community." Participants have started virtual classes amid the pandemic, although they visit SFFA daily in pairs to sew the masks. "To date, we have sewn approximately 750 masks for local residents and senior citizens at assisted living communities," said SFFA's Taj McGill. Students hope to create and donate 1,000 masks by the end of this month.

Doctors say older adults with COVID-19 exhibit "atypical" symptoms that can impede efforts to ensure timely and appropriate treatment, reports Kaiser Health News . Usual symptoms include fever, insistent cough, and shortness of breath, but seniors may have none of these ailments. Rather, older adults may appear "off" — not behaving like themselves — shortly after infection, sleeping more than usual or not eating. They also may seem unusually apathetic or confused, experiencing vertigo and falls, ceasing to talk, or collapsing. With advanced age, "someone's immune response may be blunted and their ability to regulate temperature may be altered," notes Professor Joseph Ouslander at Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine. "Underlying chronic illnesses can mask or interfere with signs of infection," while "others with cognitive impairment may not be able to communicate their symptoms." The University of Lausanne Hospital Center's Sylvain Nguyen has compiled a list of typical and atypical symptoms in older COVID-19 patients for publication in the Revue Médicale Suisse . Atypical symptoms include changes in usual status, delirium, falls, fatigue, lethargy, low blood pressure, painful swallowing, fainting, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and loss of smell and taste.

Federal stimulus payments are starting to go out to older Americans and those on government benefits, who are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus, reports WTMJ . The funds are being deposited into the same account people get their Social Security and Veterans Affairs benefits in, while paper checks will be mailed later on. AARP said it lobbied to ensure the stimulus bill would not affect Social Security. The organization also wants to see more funds allocated for nursing homes in future relief bills. "We want to make sure there is an ability for family members to virtually visit with their loved ones to be able to see them on video make sure that they're safe," said AARP's Bill Sweeney. "And also, to make sure that the staff and their residents . . . have the personal protective equipment that they need."

A new nonprofit phone app is designed to help epidemiologists track COVID-19 symptoms across the United States in real time, according to U.S. News & World Report . The goal of the "COVID Symptom Tracker" is to quickly identify hotspots that could be helped by the swift dispatch of medical supplies or lockdowns, as well as pinpoint regions where efforts to reopen the economy sooner rather than later might be the most sensible approach. Researchers at Harvard University, Stanford University, and King's College London created the app, which also might yield insight into the pathway of symptoms — and help researchers to better understand why and how rapidly some persons develop serious illness while others stabilize and remain mild. Harvard Medical School Professor Andrew Chan said the COVID Symptom Tracker "is not a contact tracing app, in that we don't collect information about where people have been or who they have been in touch with." Maura Iversen, Dean of Sacred Heart University's College of Health Professions, is confident that the app will be widely accepted. "Americans will feel comfortable and be willing to share," she states, "information as we are pulling together to try to tackle this pandemic."

A study in Arthritis Research & Therapy associated gout with an elevated risk for heart disease among older adults participating in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, reports MedPage Today . Gout also was linked to a higher risk for heart failure hospitalization with both reduced and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction. Previous research associated gout with coronary heart disease and stroke, and the conditions also have many risk factors in common, like obesity, hypertension, and diabetes — which also have been tied to heart failure. "If gout is associated with an increased risk for heart failure, this would support the need for interventions to prevent its occurrence in this population," the researchers wrote. In comparison with REGARDS participants without gout, those with gout were older, more likely to be black and male, more likely to have higher body mass index, and more often had diabetes, high systolic blood pressure, and chronic kidney disease. The risk for all-cause mortality among those with gout was greater among blacks rather than whites, and gout also was associated with higher risks for heart failure hospitalization among both men and women.