A study in Age and Ageing from the National University of Singapore found that eating nuts from one's 40s onwards could help ward off dementia later, reports The Independent . The authors followed roughly 17,000 people from 1993 to 2016, assessing first their diets and, later, their cognitive function. Those who started eating nuts in their 40s twice weekly or more were more than 20 percent less likely to have memory difficulties when they were over 60, compared with those who ate nuts less than about once monthly. In addition, people who ate nuts once a week had almost the same benefit, as they were 19 percent less likely to have impaired cognitive function in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. A 2019 study in the Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Ageing of nearly 5,000 people older than 55 by the University of South Australia learned that eating just two teaspoons of nuts each day also improved cognitive function. Nut consumption could enhance thinking, memory, and reasoning by up to 60 percent, compared with those who did not have nuts in their diet.

News4JAX reports that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last Friday that the state will have soon inoculated 1 million seniors against COVID-19, and is seeking additional vaccine doses. He said nearly 20 percent of Floridians 64 and older — which he has prioritized for immunization against U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines — has received at least a first dose of the vaccine. "We have places that can do more, and we want them to do more, and if we get more than 266,000 doses next week, we will be able to do a lot more very quickly," DeSantis declared. Florida expected to see more vaccines shipped in last week, but that did not happen. DeSantis said some vaccination sites are ready to handle two to three times as many patients that are currently being served daily. He added that the Biden administration is considering halting the practice of holding second doses in order to get more first shots to the populace. "If you do that, you probably have some more right away for first doses but you got to plan for the second dose," DeSantis stated. "So I would tell seniors Florida is committed to the two-dose regimen for Pfizer and Moderna."

A study in Stroke identified a gene variant in approximately one in 300 people as a significant genetic risk factor for stroke in older adults, reports Health IT Analytics . Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), responsible for about a quarter of ischemic strokes worldwide, is commonly associated with aging and hypertension — but a small number of cases are induced by cysteine altering variants in the NOTCH3 gene. A rare genetic condition called cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy, caused by a NOTCH3 variant, is linked to SVD and a higher risk of stroke. Geisinger investigators reviewed health records, including imaging and genomic sequencing data, of over 300 patients: 118 had a NOTCH3 variant and 12.6 percent had a history of stroke compared with 4.9 percent of those in a control cohort. Stroke risk was significantly higher in those older than 65, and subjects had more white matter lesions on the brain. Given the high population frequency of NOTCH3 variants, the implication is that most individuals with a NOTCH3 variant will develop NOTCH3-associated SVD after age 65. "This study represents a novel and powerful approach to studying the genetic basis of neurologic disease," said Geisinger's Ramin Zand. "Geisinger's unique resources, its electronic health records, and focus on precision medicine allows us to leverage this data to provide better care for all of our patients."

Florida Sen. Audrey Gibson (D) has introduced a bill that would require certain healthcare workers to receive better training about dementia and Alzheimer's disease, reports Florida Politics . The measure would mandate that some employees of nursing communities, home healthcare providers, hospices, assisted living communities, and adult day care centers complete at least one hour of Department of Elder Affairs-approved dementia-related training within 30 days of commencing employment. Under current law, all employees at such venues must receive "basic written information about interacting with persons with Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder" when they start work. Moreover, people who work closely with Alzheimer's patients are legally obligated to receive one hour of training about the disorder. Gibson's proposal would require employees who work directly with Alzheimer's sufferers or those with related ailments to complete at least three hours of approved training — which must include an overview of Alzheimer's, information about related disorders and patient-centered care, and content about dementia-related behaviors. Some care workers also would be required to receive four hours of approved continuing education on the topic each year. The measure also would de-license providers whose employees fail to complete training, as well as require the state's Department of Elder Affairs to craft a curriculum for training or approve a separate training program. Furthermore, the completion of training is contingent on providers earning a certain score on an assessment for each included topic area.

CBS News reports that Texas Tech University trauma surgeon Brittany Bankhead-Kendall found post-COVID lungs look worse than any smoker's lung ever seen on x-rays. "For all the survivors and the people who have tested positive this is . . . going to be a problem," she said. Bankhead-Kendall explained that patients who have had COVID-19 symptoms exhibit a severe chest x-ray every time, and asymptomatic subjects have a severe chest x-ray 70 percent to 80 percent of the time. X-rays of a normal lung, a smoker's lung, and a COVID-19 lung show the healthy lungs are clean with a lot of black, mainly air. White lines in the smoker's lung indicate scarring and congestion, while the COVID lung is saturated with white. "Even if you're not feeling problems now, the fact that that's on your chest x-ray — it sure is indicative of you possibly having problems later on," Bankhead-Kendall said. Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health's Amesh Adalja said some people with severe COVID-19 could suffer ill effects for years to come. "Even if you survive, you still may be left with some severe complications that make it very hard for you to go back to your baseline functioning," he noted.

A six-year Dutch study found dementia and Alzheimer's disease may not be an unavoidable part of aging, reports Connect FM . The researchers looked at centenarians to determine that despite high levels of amyloid beta, they were still cognitively sharp and performed well on cognitive tests, suggesting resilience against memory loss. "A person between 70 and 95 years old is exposed to the same dementia risk as a person who lives between age 100 and 102," said Henne Holstege of Amsterdam University Medical College. The scientists suggested protective factors associated with cognitive performance could include education, frequent cognitive activity, and even IQ, but Lenox Hill Hospital's Gayatri Devi explained that "there could be protective immunologic and cardiovascular risk factors that help keep their brains resilient and cognitively functional even in old age." While the Dutch study reveals insights on aging and cognitive function, it remains a complex phenomenon in need of further investigation. "Dementia and Alzheimer's tend to be multifactorial conditions, meaning that a mix of genetics, age, environment, lifestyle behaviors, and medical conditions that coexist together and can lead a person toward or away from cognitive decline," noted Richard Isaacson at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

USA Today reports that about 259,250 people with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia were expected to die last year in the United States, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Federal data reviewed by the association shows that about 38,000 more people with dementia died unexpectedly through the end of November. Experts suggested some people may have died from undiagnosed cases of COVID-19, as many dementia patients live in congregate care communities that have been epicenters for the virus. Possible underlying factors include a lack of COVID testing, screenings interpreted as false negatives, or declining levels of care during the pandemic. Another possibility is reduced access to medical care caused their ailments to worsen. Perhaps the most significant driver in the increase of deaths of dementia patients is the protocols to keep the coronavirus from spreading and alternations in routine — including a lack of visitors and isolation. Colin Ford with the Michigan chapter of the Alzheimer's Association hopes the COVID-19 vaccines will help alleviate these problems.

Stateline leaders in Illinois recently initiated the "Valentine's For Seniors" program so local seniors can receive notes of love and appreciation during the upcoming holiday, reports WTVO-TV . The cards will go to those residents of long-term care communities and will be collected through Feb. 10. "The unfortunate consequence of doing everything possible to reduce the health risk for our senior citizen community is that many of our residents in nursing and assisted-living communities have been left feeling isolated and alone," said Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Ill.). "This program is about safely reaching out to our senior citizens and doing what we can to bring joy to a community who have felt extremely secluded during this pandemic."

A study in Science Translational Medicine details how researchers developed an automated method that can track the development of harmful tau protein clumps related to Alzheimer's disease in the brain, reports EurekAlert . The authors determined that tau primarily manifested in the rhinal cortex before spreading elsewhere, suggesting that targeting the protein there could potentially retard disease progression. Massachusetts General Hospital's Justin Sanchez and colleagues developed an automated anatomic sampling method that uses positron emission tomography imaging to monitor tau in the brains of 443 adult participants, including 55 with Alzheimer's. They learned that tau accrual first emerged in the rhinal cortex independently from amyloid-beta before expanding to the temporal neocortex. A two-year trial with 104 subjects indicated that people with the highest initial levels of tau or amyloid-beta showed the most tau proliferation throughout the brain by the study's conclusion. "These findings suggest that the rhinal cortex is a biomarker of downstream tau spread . . . with potential utility for therapeutic trials in which reduction of tau spread is an outcome measure," the authors said.

WJTV-12 reports that seniors and disabled people in Vicksburg, Miss., can get a free ride to COVID-19 vaccination appointments through NRoute public transit, with the Board of Mayor and Alderman having approved a plan to pay the delivery service $4 per person to cover the cost. Leaders with NRoute said seniors desiring vaccination should notify the service at least five days ahead to be added to the schedule. Due to guidelines on COVID-19 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the transportation system will likely use its vans, and only two passengers will be allowed to ride at a time. No date has thus far been set for the service to start.