AGE Blog

Press Release: SENIORS STUCK WAITING FOR WHEELCHAIRS, WALKERS

ageofaustin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:49:57 +0000

SENIORS STUCK WAITING FOR WHEELCHAIRS, WALKERS

Donation drive hopes to help over 170 seniors

Austin, Texas—Over 170 low-income seniors and people with disabilities are waiting for assistance to receive mobility equipment, like wheelchairs, walkers, or shower chairs. The nonprofit organization providing assistance is reaching out to the community for help through a donation drive.

AGE, a senior service organization, collects medical mobility equipment, like wheelchairs, walkers, and shower chairs, for low-income seniors and people with disabilities in Central Texas. In 2011, the HELP (Health Equipment Lending Program) gave over 2500 items to Central Texans, for free, to help them stay safe in the community.

In the last few months, donations have slowed down, leaving 172 low-income seniors languishing on the waiting list. Without these items, seniors may not be able to leave their home, go grocery shopping, and may be at risk for falling in their homes.

The most needed items include: Walkers with seats (cost $100-$200). Wheelchairs (cost $300-$600), Shower chairs (cost $40), and Hand-held showerheads (cost $20).

The nonprofit is hosting a month –long donation drive in February, and calling on the community to collect unneeded items to give to older adults in their community. HELP volunteer Jayne Schurick adds “it’s great that this medical and mobility equipment, donated by local folks, will be put to good use, helping those who need it most. Why send a good item like a walker to the landfill, when there are people here who need it?”

Community members can bring donations to the Historic AGE Building, or to the annual Clear Your Clutter event at Bethany United Methodist Church on January 28^th. All donations are tax-deductible and will make the community safer for seniors.

Video and Photo opportunities available at events:

Saturday, January 29: Clear Your Clutter Day

10am-2pm at Bethany United Methodist (10010 Anderson Mill Road, Austin)

Got lots of clutter? HELP will be collecting mobility assistance devices (wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, shower chairs, etc.) at NAPO-Austin’s 6th annual Clear Your Clutter Day. Please visit http://napoaustin.com/ or www.ageofaustin.org for more info!

Thursday February 2: H.E.L.P for Seniors Month Proclamation

5:30pm at Austin City Hall (301 W. Second Street, Austin, TX)

Join us for the official kick-off event for HELP for Seniors Month at proclamation by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell.

Saturdays in February: Saturday donation drive

10am-1pm at the Historic AGE Building (3710 Cedar Street)

Bring by your gently used wheelchairs, walkers, shower chairs, and other mobility assistance items. All donations are tax-deductible.

Monday February 20: Little Helping Hands volunteer opportunity

10am-1pm at the Historic AGE Building (3710 Cedar Street)

Children of all ages can join us for a creative art project designed to brighten up a senior’s day. Visit Little Helping Hands website to sign up: http://littlehelpinghands.org/volunteer/event-calendar/

CONTACT: Nicole Sarkar

Development Director

Office: 512.451.4611 ext. 223

nsarkar@ageofaustin.org

AGE (Austin Groups for the Elderly) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that has been serving Austin’s elderly, their families, and caregivers since 1986. Our programs include the Health Equipment Lending Program, Elderhaven Adult Day Health Centers of Central Texas, The Caregivers Resource Center, New Connections, Austin Computer Learning Center, and the Historic AGE Building. Visit our website at www.ageofaustin.org.

Large Drop In Leg And Foot Amputations Among Adult Diabetics, CDC

ageofaustin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:36:59 +0000

There has been a large drop in the rate of leg and foot amputations among Americans aged 40 and over with diagnosed diabetes, according to a new study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the February issue of Diabetes Care. The study reports that between 1996 and 2008 the rate of such amputations fell by 65%.

The authors suggest the most likely reason for this large drop in leg and foot amputations among people with diagnosed diabetes is improvements in blood sugar control, foot care and management of diabetes. Reduction in rates of cardiovascular disease is also likely to have contributed, they said.

For their study, the authors used data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey and the National Health Interview Survey.

They report that after adjusting for age, the rate of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations was 3.9 per 1,000 people with diagnosed diabetes in 2008. This compares with a much higher 11.2 per 1,000 in 1996.

Read the full article here.

Report: Men More Than Women Likely to Experience Memory Loss

ageofaustin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:30:52 +0000

Men more than women are at higher risk of developing mild memory loss, according to a new study published in the journal Neurology. The memory dysfunction, called mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, is the stage between normal brain aging and dementia.

The study has stirred interest, as many other studies have found that women are at higher risk of developing dementia than are men.

“Since MCI is a risk factor for dementia, and large numbers of the baby boomer generation are reaching this age, we must prevent or reduce the risk of MCI, or the increased development of dementia will have a tremendous impact on the cost of health care in elderly persons,” said Dr. Rosebud Roberts, lead author of the study and a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

MCI is common in older adults, and often adults realize that their memory or mental function has declined. While research has found that people with MCI are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, MCI will not always develop into the more severe condition of dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Read the full article here.

Seniors are frequent binge drinkers: study; People age 65 and up booze it up more than other age groups

ageofaustin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:44:15 +0000

From The New York Daily News website.

Binge drinking is more common in the United States than previously thought, particularly among young adults, though the most frequent offenders are over 65, said a government study on Tuesday.

One in six Americans, or 17.1 percent of the population, binge drinks, defined as consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in a setting for men and four or more among women, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The latest data for 2010 is an increase over the CDC’s report on the same topic for 2009, which said about 15 percent of US adults, or 33 million Americans, binge drink, a rate that had stayed the same for more than 15 years.

While the most common age group for binge drinking was 18-34, those who reported doing it most often were over 65, said the CDC’s Vital Signs report, which also warned of the health and safety risks of high alcohol use.

Seniors who binge-drink reported doing so 5.5 times per month, compared to an average of four times a month among the rest of the binge-drinking population.

Research:Young birds reveal clues to their future life span

ageofaustin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:54:39 +0000

From MSNBC.com

By Wynne Parry Senior writer

The signs of aging show up in our genes as the protective caps on the ends of packets of our DNA, called chromosomes, gradually wear away over time.

Now, scientists have found that the length of these caps, called telomeres, measured early in life, can predict life span.

Using 99 zebra finches, a small bird also popular as a pet, a team of researchers in the United Kingdom measured the lengths of the telomeres found in the birds’ red blood cells over the course of their lives.

They found that the length of the telomeres at the first measurement, made 25 days after the birds hatched, was the strongest predictor of how long the birds actually lived.

In addition, the birds with the longest telomeres early in life, and throughout the study, were the ones most likely to live into old age, up to 8.7 years old — a “ripe old age” for a finch, said study researcher Britt Heidinger, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow.

Read the full article at MSNBC News.com: website

Book review: ‘The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program’

ageofaustin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:59:38 +0000

From the HuffingtonPost.com

By Lloyd I. Sederer, MD

Remember these eight words: bus, screwdriver, mango, playground, swallow, sun, couch and rectangle.

Wait a few minutes. How many can you recall?

How many words of three letters or more can you make from the following scrambled letters: A-E-L-S-K

How many did you create? There are 18.

How many times this past week did you struggle to remember a name? Or forget where you put something?

Just about everyone has some loss of memory as the decades collect. Don’t confuse normal aging with Alzheimer’s. But some people as they enter their 50s and 60s experience what is called “mild cognitive impairment” (MCI). They are often forgetful, can become a bit confused and display other symptoms suggestive of mild Alzheimer’s — but they can manage. However, MCI heralds a far greater likelihood of developing AD — as great as 15 times more risk. Some regard MCI as a transition to AD.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the demon of older age. A small percentage of people (5 percent) will fall ill to its neurological destruction before the age of 65. But as we age into the 70s, 80s and beyond the numbers affected grow substantially. Today, every 70 seconds a person in the U.S. develops AD; estimates are that this rate will rise to every 30 seconds by 2050 as we all live longer. Not all dementia is due to Alzheimers: vascular dementia (due to blood vessel narrowing or stroke in the brain) accounts for perhaps 40 percent of severe memory problems (and other symptoms). But AD is the greatest threat to our memory — and even more so to our very sense of identity as we grow old.

While there is a genetic risk to developing Alzheimer’s (1 in 5 people carry the gene type APOE-4 that increases the risk of AD), having the risk does not mean you will get the disease. In fact, most experts do not recommend that patients get genetic testing to determine if they have this gene type. Instead, sound advice centers on what we can do to prevent, delay and reduce the impact of AD. In fact, what can be done is principally under our control: It is in how we lead our lives.

Feeling like you need to do something? Well, the prescription is quite clear, useful and even feasible. Enter Dr. Gary Small and his co-author (and spouse) Gigi Vorgan. Dr. Small is an internationally-renowned expert on aging and dementias; he is a professor and director of the UCLA Longevity Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Ms. Vorgan is a professional writer and producer for film and television. Their collaborations have produced books as varied as “The Memory Bible” (a NYT bestseller) and a collection of short stories called “The Naked Lady Who Stood On Her Head.”

Read the full article at The Huffington Post.

TIME: How Grief Can Break Your Heart

ageofaustin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:56:21 +0000

By Alice Park

Grief is a powerful emotion, and the latest research shows just how damaging it can be, especially for the heart.

The sobering results, appearing in the journal Circulation, are the first to compare how grief affects an individual’s heart-disease risk within a period of time. Previous studies have documented that people losing loved ones tend to have more heart problems than those who aren’t bereaved. In the current analysis, lead author Elizabeth Mostofsky and her colleagues took a unique approach by calculating an individual’s “average loss” of loved ones over a year, by asking how many people study participants had lost in the past year and comparing that figure to the number of loved ones that same person lost during the study period in question, which included the most recent day and week preceding a heart attack. Because all the participants were heart-attack patients, that allowed her to calculate the effect that losing a loved one had on each individual’s heart-attack risk.

NBC planning special for Betty White’s 90th birthday, picks up her prank show

ageofaustin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:13:28 +0000

From The Washington Post website

By Associated Press, Published: January 6

PASADENA, Calif. — Betty White says her plans for her upcoming 90th birthday might include “a little vodka on the rocks.”The tireless actress’s big day on Jan. 17 seems to be exciting others more than her. NBC is airing a birthday special for White the day before and has picked up a “Candid Camera”-like prank show featuring senior citizens called “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers.”

“I didn’t accomplish anything,” White said Friday. “It just came up on me. I’m blessed with good health.”

NBC has not yet put “Off Their Rockers,” which White would host, on the schedule. White said she’s on hand to make sure producers don’t make any of the humor mean-spirited. In most of the cases, young people are the butt of the show’s jokes.

“It’s the reverse psychology of the ‘poor old seniors,’” White said. “We’ve got a sense of humor, too, warped as it may be.”

Full article at The Washington Post.

Research: Nicotine Patches Up Early Memory Loss In Study

ageofaustin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:48:29 +0000

From NPR.org: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/01/10/144906236/nicotine-patches-up-early-memory-loss-in-study

by Kristofor Husted

Slapping on a nicotine patch may not just be for smokers trying to kick the habit.

In an intriguing test, researchers tried nicotine patches as a memory booster for nonsmokers with mild declines in their thinking ability, a precursor to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

“There were improvements in attention and memory performance in patients who took the nicotine patch compared to those with the placebo patch,” lead researcher Dr. Paul Newhouse, a Vanderbilt University psychiatrist, tells Shots. “The placebo patients stayed the same or got worse.”

Though the study was modest in size, involving about 70 people over six months, lead researcher Newhouse says it’s the largest trial ever performed looking at how nicotine might improve memory.

Previous research has linked nicotine to improved alertness, coordination and cognitive functioning. The latest work, published in Neurology, suggests it may help improve attention, memory and mental processing in people with mild memory loss.

So how does nicotine affect memory? The chemical actually mimics the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which stimulates nerve cell receptors in the brain. Stimulating these receptors revs up the system involved in attention, learning and memory skills.

Read the full article at NPR.org: website

TIME: How Your Diet May Affect Your Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

ageofaustin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:02:40 +0000

In the first study of its kind, researchers have linked specific vitamins and nutrients in the diet with cognitive performance and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The research, published in the journal Neurology, showed that people with healthier diets — rich in omega-3 fatty acids and a variety of vitamins — had bigger brains and better cognitive function than those whose diets were unhealthier on the whole.

Many previous surveys of people have found that those who report diets high in vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids have slower rates of cognitive decline, compared with people whose diets are lower in these nutrients. But when researchers have conducted randomized trials with elderly patients, giving specific supplements to some and placebos to others, the association between the nutrients and intellectual abilities like memory, language, reasoning and planning fell apart.