A study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 68th Annual Scientific Session found seniors with high blood pressure who took drugs to keep their 24-hour systolic blood pressure around 130 mm Hg for three years exhibited less accumulation of harmful brain lesions compared with those taking medications to maintain a systolic blood pressure around 145 mm Hg, reports News-Medical . However, lesion reduction did not lead to significant improvement in mobility and cognitive function, with researchers suggesting three years was too short a time for such benefits to manifest themselves. The study recruited 199 people, average age 81, who had hypertension, with average systolic blood pressure of about 150 mm Hg, along with evidence of cerebrovascular disease on an imaging scan. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive standard blood pressure control, while the other half were administered more intensive blood pressure control. "With the intensive 24-hour blood pressure treatment we reduced the accrual of this brain damage by 40 percent in a period of just three years," said University of Connecticut Professor William B. White. "That is highly clinically significant, and I think over a longer time period intensive reduction of the ambulatory blood pressure will have a substantial impact on function in older persons, as well."

Vanderbilt University Professors Nilanjan Sarkar and Linda Beuscher have tested a robot-guided therapeutic video game in two senior care communities with a total of 15 older adults with and without cognitive impairment, reports EurekAlert . The game involved residents sitting side-by-side facing a large screen, raising their hands in tandem as watch-like devices on their wrists controlled avatars in front of them. The object of the game was to deposit their avatar's books into the correct bin, earning extra points by helping the other player. A little robot would occasionally remind the players of this goal. Fourteen participants kept returning to play the game, gradually increasing the amount of time they wanted to spend with it. "There are not enough younger people to take care of our older generations, and that's why we're designing intelligent, social robots that can talk to them, keep them from becoming isolated, lead them in appropriate physical exercise and help them with memory and cognition," says Sarkar. "It's not the total solution, but it can go far in helping the world's senior generations."

A 10-year study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests a connection between chronic periodontitis and dementia, reports Forbes . South Korean researchers assessed the health records of 262,349 people 50 or older. All participants were categorized as having no chronic periodontitis, or having been diagnosed with the disease. Individuals with chronic periodontitis had a 6 percent higher risk for dementia, versus those without periodontitis. This link bore out even after controlling for behaviors such as smoking, consuming alcohol, and degree of physical exercise. The implication is that chronic bony inflammation may cause systemic inflammation in blood vessels in the brain, or lead to oxidative stress that generates free radicals. These findings are significant because they represent the first investigation to demonstrate that chronic periodontitis could be linked to a higher risk for dementia, even after accounting for lifestyle habits.

A Yale University study published in JAMA Network Open suggests heart-attack prevention campaigns are having a positive impact, as the number of U.S. seniors who suffered a heart attack or died from one has declined dramatically since the mid-1990s, reports WebMD . Analysis of more than 4 million Medicare beneficiaries determined hospitalizations for heart attacks slipped 38 percent between 1995 and 2014, while deaths within 30 days of a heart attack reached an all-time low of 12 percent, down more than 33 percent since 1995. Medicare beneficiaries were studied because people 65 and older have the highest risk for heart attack, and comprise up to 66 percent of this group. According to Yale Professor Harlan Krumholz, this trend stems from efforts to rethink people's lifestyles to reduce heart attacks, as well as to improve care to enhance survival. He also points to improvements to in-hospital care since the 1990s. However, Krumholz cautions, "It's not a time to rest on our laurels or become complacent. We believe there are still improvements possible. We'd like to see heart attacks relegated to the history of medicine."

New guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association no longer recommend daily low-dose aspirin as a preventative for older adults who lack a high risk for existing heart disease, reports CNN . "For the most part, we are now much better at treating risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and especially high cholesterol," said North Carolina cardiologist Kevin Campbell. "This makes the biggest difference, probably negating any previously perceived aspirin benefit in primary prevention." Physicians may consider aspirin for certain older high-risk adults, including those who have problems lowering their cholesterol or managing blood sugars, provided there is no elevated risk for internal bleeding. "Clinicians should be very selective in prescribing aspirin for people without known cardiovascular disease," advised John Hopkins cardiologist Roger Blumenthal. "It's much more important to optimize lifestyle habits and control blood pressure and cholesterol as opposed to recommending aspirin." Three recent studies determined daily low-dose aspirin may raise the risk of internal bleeding and early death among older adults.

Churn in the workplace is causing many employers throughout Maine to turn to older workers, particularly baby boomers, to fill the void left by departing employees, reports the Portland Press Herald . "Employers are starting to get more creative about how they recruit because of the limited workforce these days," notes Debby Olken at KMA Human Resources Consulting. "They're willing to look at all types of people." Flexible schedules are seen as essential to older workers, as even retirees can be enticed back into the workforce if companies are willing to adjust scheduling. Maine's unemployment rate has held steady below 4 percent for more than three years. In January, the statewide average of 3.5 percent was even lower in Cumberland County, which at 3.1 percent rated the lowest unemployment rate in Maine. That ups the pressure on hiring. Career Management Associates CEO David Ciullo says older employees are usually attracted to an in-person experience and the opportunity to work part-time, a flexible schedule if they are to be coaxed into continuing employment, or returning to work after they reach the traditional retirement age.

A study published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series B found older adults feel younger when they feel that they have more control over their daily lives, reports ScienceDaily . The researchers recruited 116 older adults and 107 younger adults to fill out a daily survey for eight consecutive days, to evaluate their daily stresses, physical health, sense of control over their daily lives, and how old they felt. "We found that when older adults felt more in control, they also felt younger," says North Carolina State University Professor Shevaun Neupert. "That was true even when accounting for stress and physical health." Still, an individual's sense of control did not affect self-perceptions of age for young adults, while stress and health declines made young people feel older. "This highlights the importance of having older adults retain some sense of autonomy," concludes Neupert. "It's not just a nice thing to do, it actually affects their well-being."

A study published in Cell suggests Alzheimer's symptoms could be reversed via a treatment that combines daily doses of light and sound, reports Scientific American . The research involved mice genetically altered to exhibit key symptoms and pathology of Alzheimer's, with one batch of mice forming neurofibrillary tau tangles within brain cells, while another batch developed amyloid beta plaques. Both batches also had irregular brain activity in the gamma range of brain waves that oscillate between 30 and 100 times a second. Flickering a light at the mice 40 times a second, or 40 hertz, caused their brains to flicker back, producing gamma waves at a corresponding 40 hertz. Postmortem analysis showed the volume of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the mice exposed the light also shrank. Further tests in which mice were exposed to both the flashing light and a droning sound for an hour a day for seven consecutive days showed amyloid plaques and tau tangles began falling in not only the audio and visual cortices, but the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus as well. "These are the learning and memory centers of the brain," says the Wake Forest School of Medicine's Shannon Macauley. "And there was about a 40 or 50 percent decrease in amyloid and tau levels."

A recent summit on dementia held by the U.S. National Institutes of Health detailed how various brain maladies besides Alzheimer's can cause thinking, memory, and judgment to deteriorate, reports National Public Radio . "There's a host of things that can cause loss of cognitive function," says Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center Professor Julie Schneider. She notes most of these diseases are incurable, but it is essential that families receive the correct diagnosis so they can get the best care and plan for the future. Schneider recalls that medical training in the 1980s and '90s stressed Alzheimer's as the root cause of all dementias. However, later research proved that 20 percent to 40 percent of the country's 5.8-million with dementia also are dealing with some other disease. Among the most common non-Alzheimer's-related causes of dementia are vascular disease, Lewy body disease, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

A report from the National Center for Health Statistics found the American death rate from dementia has more than doubled from 30.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2000 to 66.7 in 2017, according to CNN . The center's Ellen Kramarow said the increasing mortality due to dementia in the United States is most likely caused by the aging populace. "If people live longer, they don't die of other causes, so they live to the point where the risk for dementia is higher," she argued. The researchers analyzed data from death certificates from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, focusing on four types of dementia: Alzheimer's, vascular dementia, unspecified dementia, and other degenerative disorders of the nervous system. Alzheimer's comprised 46 percent of the 261,914 dementia-caused American deaths in 2017. Moreover, 60.4 percent of deaths from dementia in 2017 occurred in long-term care communities, nursing homes, or end-of-life hospices.