A new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports backs a growing body of evidence that aluminum plays a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD), reports ScienceDaily . Researchers determined that aluminum co-located with phosphorylated tau protein, present as tangles within neurons in the brains of early-onset or familial AD. This builds upon findings in earlier studies, which highlighted widespread co-localization of aluminum and amyloid-ß in brain tissue in familial AD. "It is of interest and perhaps significance with respect to aluminum's role in AD that its unequivocal association with tau is not as easily recognizable as with amyloid-ß," explained Keele University Professor Christopher Exley. "There are many more aggregates of aluminum with amyloid-ß than with tau in these tissues and the latter are predominantly intracellular." Keele's Matthew John Mold added that the new findings "may suggest association of aluminum with extracellular senile plaques precedes that with intracellular aggregates of tau. These relationships with both amyloid-ß and tau may account for the high levels of aluminum observed in the brain tissue of donors with familial AD versus those without a diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease."

An organization in Utah aims to protect Asian American seniors from hate crimes by escorting them while they shop for groceries and other essentials, reports ABC4 . The Asian Link Project is a group of volunteers who will accompany Utah's Asian seniors to area supermarkets. "You know a lot of older Asian American residents live alone, and they may be away from family; so if they do need someone one to just go to the grocery store with them, if they need someone to just go to out shopping on a Saturday, and Sunday is usually when people are out and about, and we just don't want them living in fear stuck at home," says Asian Link co-founder Carrie Shinpace. The project is vetting volunteers, and Shinpace notes support for the project has been both overwhelming and uplifting. "It is important to show how strong the Asian community is and how much we have each other's backs," she says.

A study published in CMAJ , the journal of the Canadian Medical Association, associated higher exposure to thiazides with higher rates of incident keratinocyte carcinoma and melanoma among older adults, reports Medical Xpress . Adults 66 years and older with a first prescription for an antihypertensive medication were matched by age and sex to two unexposed adults prescribed a nonantihypertensive medication within 30 days of the index date. Included in the cohorts were 302,634 adults prescribed an antihypertensive medication and 605,268 unexposed subjects. The researchers observed a link between thiazide exposure and elevated rates of incident keratinocyte carcinoma, advanced keratinocyte carcinoma, and melanoma. "We found consistent dose-dependent increases in skin cancer risk associated with thiazides but not with other antihypertensive classes," the authors noted. "Clinicians may consider alternatives to thiazide diuretics to treat hypertension in patients at high risk for skin cancer."

Using the health records of more than 236,000 U.S. patients, researchers have estimated the risks of developing neurological and psychiatric ailments in the six months after a COVID-19 diagnosis, reports Health News Today . According to the study in The Lancet Psychiatry , participants had received COVID-19 diagnoses between Jan. 20 and Dec. 13, 2020, and the overall incidence of neurological or mental health diagnoses was 34 percent. In the six months post-diagnosis, 13 percent received their first diagnosis of a neurological or psychiatric condition, with anxiety, mood, substance misuse, and insomnia the most common disorders. Neurological disorders occurred with less frequency, with 2.1 percent of participants experiencing an ischemic stroke, 0.7 percent developing dementia, and 0.6 percent suffering a brain hemorrhage. Patients who experienced more severe COVID-19 had a greater risk of mental health and neurological diagnoses. Subjects who experienced delirium or encephalopathy during their illnesses had the highest overall risk during the following six months (62 percent). "The study cannot reveal the mechanisms involved but does point to the need for urgent research to identify these, with a view to preventing or treating them," said the University of Oxford's Maxime Taquet.

The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) warns that many American seniors are not getting their hearing checked regularly, and too many doctors are not encouraging them to do so, reports the Grayson Record . AMAC CEO Rebecca Weber said about half of all seniors older than 75 have hearing loss, and roughly one-third of those 65 to 70 cannot hear as well as they did when they were younger. A national poll of more than 2,000 adults aged 50 to 80 years found 80 percent said their primary care doctor had not inquired about their hearing in the past two years, and almost the same number had not had their hearing professionally checked over the same period. "Age-related hearing loss can have wide-ranging consequences, and can be addressed with assistive technologies, yet these data show a major gap in detection, and disparities between groups," said the University of Michigan's Michael McKee. Weber recommends that seniors get their hearing checked even if they are not experiencing obvious loss. "It's a good thing to find out as soon and as often as need be that your hearing is what it should be at your specific age," she said. The Healthy Hearing Website recommends that people 60 and older have a baseline hearing test and get rechecked every several years.

A new study published in Sleep suggests older adults who received positive airway pressure therapy prescribed for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be less likely to develop dementia, reports the National Herald . "We found a significant association between positive airway pressure use and lower risk of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia over three years, suggesting that positive airway pressure may be protective against dementia risk in people with OSA," said University of Michigan (U-M) Professor Galit Levi Dunietz. The investigators analyzed Medicare claims of more than 50,000 beneficiaries 65 and older who had been diagnosed with OSA. They considered whether people who used positive airway pressure therapy were less likely to receive a new diagnosis of dementia or mild cognitive impairment over the next three years, versus those who did not. "If a causal pathway exists between OSA treatment and dementia risk, as our findings suggest, diagnosis and effective treatment of OSA could play a key role in the cognitive health of older adults," said U-M's Tiffany J. Braley.

Columnist Paul Brandus writes in MarketWatch that the job market is improving for older Americans after a battering from the pandemic. The U.S. Labor Department reported 7.4 million job openings nationally as of Feb. 28, up from 7.1 million a month earlier and the most since January 2019. Openings in the food services and accommodation industries climbed to 761,000 in February from 657,000 a month prior, while openings in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector increased to 137,000 from 81,000. In point of fact virtually every jobs category has openings, although Brandus notes that ageism remains persistent. Older applicants need a compelling cover letter, and Brandus recommends having "a template in your computer that you can tweak for each company you're applying to." The same strategy should apply to resumes, and he suggests applicants averse to chronological resumes should draft one that highlights their skills and achievements. He further advises older job seekers to take advantage of platforms like Facebook and Twitter to highlight "things that show your skill set and how you work with others." LinkedIn accounts are also sources that employers tap for background information on prospective workers, and Brandus suggests seekers should post photos as well as "anything that you think an employer would appreciate seeing, such as recommendations and testimonials from others."

An investigation by KMVT News found seniors in Southern Idaho were defrauded of nearly $1 billion by online scams last year. Shawna Wasko at the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) Office on Aging said the rampant loneliness and isolation of the pandemic created ideal conditions for seniors' exploitation by scams, specifically phone scams. "Seniors will talk to people they don't know who call them on the phone where the younger generation will just hang up on them or will not answer," she noted. Compounding the problem is many seniors' refusal to admit victimization, because Wasko said "they are ashamed. They are afraid their kids will think they need to go to a home now because they were duped." The CSI Office on Aging's Lorae Conklin said scammers always seek to exploit national disasters, and current scams targeting seniors involve COVID vaccines. The Office's research estimates that one out of every 10 seniors is a target of a scam, and their best course of action is to hang up if someone they do not know calls and asks them for money.

Fierce Healthcare reports that President Biden's budget request for the next federal fiscal year includes more money invested to strengthen public health infrastructure and increase research funding. The first item involves a request for $10.7 billion, topping the 2021 enacted level by $3.9 billion. The funding will help support research, prevention, and recovery services. The administration also is urging targeted investments for "populations with unique needs, including Native Americans and older Americans." Also requested is $6.5 billion to launch the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. It would provide major increases in federal research and development spending on diseases like Alzheimer's and diabetes. The third request is for $8.7 billion for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to boost public health capacity in states and territories, by training new epidemiologists and public health experts and building "international capacity to detect, prepare for, and respond to emerging global threats."

The Hill reports that Moderna Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks this week said the company should be able to supply booster shots for COVID-19 variants by the end of 2021, as initial testing indicates the boosters supply a confident level of protection. The U.S. National Institutes of Health last week started testing a Moderna booster against a variant first found in South Africa. The mutation seems to be more infectious than previous strains and could possibly circumvent some of the safeguards from therapeutics and vaccines, although preliminary evidence has shown current vaccines provide an adequate level of protection against variants. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci said, "NIAID has continued its partnership with Moderna to evaluate this variant vaccine candidate should there be a need for an updated vaccine."