News by Subject Medicine & Health

Hearing loss has a profound impact on older people, as it can lead to anxiety, restricted activity, and perhaps even cognitive decline and dementia. Research in Japan led by the University of Tsukuba examined associations of hearing loss with outdoor activity limitations, psychological distress, and memory loss in people aged 65 and over. All three conditions were significantly worse when there was hearing loss. The findings support early interventions such as use of hearing aids.

In the journal Neurobiology of Aging, UC Riverside psychology Chandra Reynolds asserts that those carrying the APOE4 gene score lower on IQ tests during childhood and adolescence. And the effect was stronger in girls than in boys. APOE4 carriers are up to three times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease, which occurs in people 65 and older.

The risk factors for stroke and dementia are the same, and a growing body of evidence demonstrates that preventing stroke can also prevent some dementias. Now, a group of experts led by Western University Professor, Dr. Vladimir Hachinski and international collaborators Matthias Endres, Martin Dichgans and Zaven Khachaturian are calling on the global community to come together to take action on preventing dementia by preventing stroke. 'The evidence for doing so is incontestable; the time to act is now,' the authors write.

Apathy is the most common neuropsychiatric symptom of dementia, with a bigger impact on function than memory loss -- yet it is under-researched and often forgotten in care.

Learning several new things at once increases cognitive abilities in older adults, according to new research from UC Riverside. After just 1.5 months learning multiple tasks in a UCR study, participants increased their cognitive abilities to levels similar to those of middle-aged adults, 30 years younger. Control group members, who did not take classes, showed no change in their performance.

The abnormal accumulation of proteins in the brain is a biological marker for Alzheimer's disease, but the ways in which these proteins spread may help explain why the prevalence of Alzheimer's is higher in women than in men.

Sleep disturbances are a frequent complaint of women in the menopause transition and postmenopause. A new study demonstrates that women with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) who are receiving hormone therapy have poorer sleep quality and greater fatigue than women of the same age with preserved ovarian function. Study results are published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).