Health Day, citing a new government study, reports that almost 5 percent of aging Baby Boomers in the United States are abusing drugs. Approximately 4.3 million adults over the age of 50 are smoking marijuana, abusing prescription medication and engaging in other illicit drug activity. The driving force behind the...
Archives: January 2010
Our Blog Added to Alltop
I am very pleased to report that our blog has been added to Alltop. What is that you ask? Alltop helps you answer the question, ÛÏWhatÛªs happening?Û in ÛÏall the topicsÛ that interest you. You may wonder how Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine is good...
Doctors Don’t Talk About End of Life Care
The January 11 online edition of Cancer reveals that there is general lack of communication between physicians and terminally ill patients regarding end of life care. As reported in Health Day, a national sample of almost 4,100 physicians who treat cancer patients was taken. Physicians were given a hypothetical example...
Vitamin B Shows Promise for Alzheimer’s
Researchers at MIT found during clinical trials that a three-nutrient cocktail of B vitamins, phosopholipids and antioxidants was found to promote the growth of certain brain synapse connections that typically erode during the early stages of Alzheimer’s. The nutrients develop the fatty molecules that form brain cells and synapses. Over...
Study Suggests Assisted Living Affordable Only to Wealthy
David Stevenson, an assistant professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston has been studying assisted living facilities and has found, not surprisingly that assisted living facilities are most often located in areas with higher levels of income, education and home values. The findings indicate that people with...
Obesity Poses Same If Not Greater Risks Than Smoking
Researchers at Columbia University and The City College of New York published a study in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that showed that the quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) lost to obesity are equal to, or greater than, those lost because of smoking. From 1993 to...
Medicare Part D Options Changing
Here is a good post from McKnight’s on Medicare Part D Choices seniors and long term care residents face.
Alcoholism in the Elderly a Growing Problem
Elderly people with drinking problems consume significantly more alcohol than their younger counterparts according to a study presented at the Gerontological Society of America. Younger alcoholics typically consume between 25 and 35 drinks per week, according to a report from Ohio State University. Older adults binge drink an average of...
GOA – Nursing Home Deficiencies Understated
Here is something scary. The Government Accountability Office has issued a report that finds that general weaknesses in the nursing home survey process contribute to the understatement of deficiencies at nursing homes. Shortcomings of current surveys includes too many tasks, problems with guidance on identifying deficiencies, workforce shortages, surveyor inexperience,...