A study published in Clinical Gerontologist finds a positive association between use of medical cannabis by those older than 60 with self-reported improvements in subjects' health-related quality of life, reports the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) . The researchers also reported significant improvement in healthcare utilization scores and pain symptoms. "Many seniors likely experimented first-hand with cannabis during their youth and are now returning to it as a potential therapy to mitigate many of the health-related symptoms that come with older age, including chronic pain," said NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano. "Many seniors are well aware of the litany of serious adverse side-effects associated with available prescription drugs, like opioids, and they perceive medical cannabis to be a viable alternative."

An Economist/YouGov survey suggests older Americans are more concerned about taking a pay cut if they lose their job, reports YouGov . While 21 percent of adult Americans under 30 years old say it would be very hard to find a new job that pays as much as they are earning now, that sentiment is echoed by 23 percent of those aged 30 to 44, 30 percent of those aged 45 to 64, and 37 percent of those over 65 years old. New positions also are likely to be low-paying, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics noting that low-wage industries experienced the highest monthly increase in employment in July. Moreover, Americans over 45 are more likely to say they would probably have to take a pay cut if they lost their job.

According to the Wall Street Journal , Medicare could approve coverage of some "breakthrough" medical devices the same day that FDA green-lights them, under a proposed rule published Sept. 1 in the Federal Register. The Trump administration plan aims to address the nearly year-and-a-half gap between FDA approval and CMS coverage decisions on new medical devices. The president signed an executive order last fall to improve Medicare service, and CMS Administrator Seema Verma said Monday that this proposal "would give seniors immediate access" to novel products targeting life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or disorders. Coverage approval would coincide with the start date of FDA market authorization and remain in place for 4 years. The rule also probably would expand Medicare reimbursement for breakthrough devices, by changing the criteria that determines whether they are reasonable and necessary to diagnose or treat a medical issue. Public comment on the proposal will be accepted for 60 days.

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found marijuana use is growing among baby boomers in the United States, especially men, reports NBC News . The researchers analyzed cannabis use from 2016 to 2018 among 171,507 adults 55 and older from 19 states and two territories. Men 60 to 64 reported the highest rates of marijuana use, with 12.6 percent of survey respondents saying they used the drug in the past 30 days in 2018, versus 8.9 percent in 2016. Over the same period, use nearly doubled among men 65 to 69 and in men ages 70 to 74. Use among women reflected less change. Cannabis use also rose among older adults in states where marijuana has and has not been legalized for recreational use. Possible explanations for why marijuana use is expanding among boomers include greater willingness to admit to use due to a reduced stigma; increased availability of cannabis; lowered inhibitions against use; and proliferating assertions of medicinal benefits. There is worry that marijuana use in older adults might heighten the risk of drug interactions in combination with certain medications, while an increased risk of confusion, dizziness, falls, and other accidents has been reported as well.

A study in the International Journal of Aging and Human Development found older adults in rural settings are less likely than those living closer to urban centers to access available services in health, nutrition, and transportation, reports News-Medical . The authors determined that older adults — defined as anyone over 60 years old — living in a fully rural environment are 2.5 times less likely to receive any type of service compared to those living in a mostly rural setting. Such services include meal delivery programs, farmer's market voucher aid, in-home care, health management programs, and transportation. "Where people lived influenced what services they got more than their needs or disabilities," noted Washington State University Professor Raven Weaver. Moreover, this situation could be worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. "The lack of direct personal contact, not receiving health checkups . . . are increasing with COVID and social distancing," Weaver said. "This study shows where the biggest holes are in the systems aimed at helping older adults age in place."

New studies presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Research Conference associated vaccinations against influenza and pneumonia with lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, reports WTOP-FM in Washington, D.C. One study indicated that people who received at least one flu shot had a 17 percent reduced risk of Alzheimer's, and linked an additional 13 percent reduction to more frequent flu vaccination. A second study implied that people 65 to 75 years old getting vaccinated against pneumonia lowered Alzheimer's risk by up to 40 percent, depending on individual genes. "The vaccines for the flu and pneumonia may be protective because the two diseases that they were designed to prevent are known to affect the brain and every time people have one of those infections, they may experience challenges with their memory and thinking," said Ana Nelson of the Alzheimer's Association National Capital Area Chapter. "And, a number of previous studies have suggested that these types of events, especially repeated events over time, might increase someone's risk for Alzheimer's."

A study from the University of East Anglia published in the Journal of Nutrition shows that greater consumption of dietary vitamin C can build muscle mass in middle-aged and older adults, reports The Conversation . Vitamin C generates carnitine, a crucial substance that supplies energy for muscles to function, as well as collagen. It is also an antioxidant that can help to offset radical molecules, which increase with age and can contribute to the breakdown of muscle cells. The study involved more than 13,000 men and women in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Norfolk cohort, aged 42 to 82. The researchers estimated the proportion of skeletal muscle in the body and dietary vitamin C intake. Participants who consumed the most vitamin C in their diet had the greatest muscle mass. Women stood out: those in the highest category of vitamin C consumption had muscle mass 3 percent greater than those in the lowest category. Both under- and over-65 subjects exhibited similar patterns, suggesting vitamin C is critical in both middle and older age. Furthermore, those with sufficient levels of blood vitamin C had greater muscle mass than those in the insufficient category.

Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that promises to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease without expensive scans or in-person testing, reports Technology Networks . The AI can not only diagnose the disorder at negligible cost with over 95 percent accuracy, but also can explain its conclusions so doctors can double-check accuracy. "We're . . . making it far easier to explain to patients why the AI came to the conclusion that it did, while diagnosing patients," said the institute's K.P. Subbalakshmi. She and her students designed an explainable AI engine that employs attention mechanisms and a convolutional neural network to create an algorithm that accurately identifies Alzheimer's telltales and detects subtle, previously missed linguistic indicators. They trained the algorithm using texts produced by healthy subjects and known Alzheimer's sufferers as they described a drawing of children stealing cookies from a jar. Subbalakshmi and her team then used tools from Google to render each individual sentence as a unique vector representing a specific point in a 512-dimensional space. By using those vectors in conjunction with handcrafted features, the AI was gradually able to spot similarities and differences between sentences spoken by healthy or unhealthy subjects, ascertaining the probability that any given text was to have been produced by someone with Alzheimer's.

Anna Del Priore, 107, contracted the Spanish flu as a child AND recently recovered from COVID-19 ahead of her 108th birthday in September, reports NBC's The Today Show . Del Priore lives in Middleton, N.J., at the Sunrise Senior Living community of Brighton Gardens. Her younger sister, 105-year-old Helen, also has recovered from both viruses. "Anna is a true inspiration to me and many others," says Laura Halle, Del Priore's caregiver at Brighton Garden. "She is extremely sweet and has such compassion for others. She is always laughing and finds joy when she can make you laugh." When interviewed, Del Priore did have some advice for anyone hoping to live as long as she and her sister have. The former seamstress said, "Be good to others, keep good friends, be honest, love God — and I eat lots of hot peppers!"

Utah Rep. Ben McAdams (D) last week announced a bipartisan initiative to protect seniors from having their money and personal information stolen, reports ABC 4 . The Stop Seniors Scam Act aims to bring together private and government agencies to stop fraud before it claims victims. Among the legislation's backers are AARP, Amazon, Best Buy, the Consumer Federation of America, MoneyGram, the National Consumers League, the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, Target, Walmart, and Western Union. McAdams said more than 17,000 Utah seniors were victims of fraud last year, incurring more than $9 million in losses. He remarks, "I'm glad the private sector is joining us in the fight against those who target some of our most vulnerable citizens to steal their hard-earned money and personal information."