New findings from a Mental Health Index report by Total Brain calculated that 54 percent of employed Americans felt depressed between Feb. 3, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and June 28, according to Fox Business . Forty-nine percent of participants are said to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, 41 percent are struggling with anxiety, and 11 percent are suffering from addiction. Doctors say the pandemic-induced economic strain is especially worrying, as it can create stress triggered by financial instability. Meanwhile, Americans 60 and older reported a 23 percent improvement in feelings of depression between May and June compared to 25 percent of those 20 to 39. There also are indications of a slight decline (27 percent) in the number of women at risk of depression, while general anxiety disorder among women fell 20 percent between May 3 and June 28, coincident with the reopening of the economy and the school year ending. "Extended stress of this magnitude can take some time to recover from," noted Lawrence Weinstein at the American Addiction Centers. "Stress management tools and other online resources may be the best recourse for some to manage life amidst such unpredictability."

A study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association suggests that seniors who retain good sensory function — including being able to identify the smell of roses, paint-thinner, and lemons — were up to half as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, reports Yahoo! News . All 1,800 participants were dementia-free at the study's outset, with 328 developing the condition over the next 10 years. The researchers learned that 27 percent of those with a poor sensory score received a dementia diagnosis later, compared to 19 percent in the middle range and 12 percent with good scores. Participants whose sense of smell declined by 10 percent had a 19 percent greater likelihood of developing dementia, versus 1 percent to 3 percent higher odds for those who experienced the same decline in vision, hearing, or touch. These findings prompted the investigators to speculate whether regions of the brain affected by dementia may also regulate the sense of smell. "Even mild or moderate sensory impairments across multiple domains were associated with an increased risk of dementia, indicating that people with poor multi-sensory function are a high-risk population that could be targeted prior to dementia onset for intervention," explained UCSF's Kristine Yaffe.

Lighting Up Lives recruits high schoolers to provide music recitals for senior home and assisted living community residents in Arizona, and the program has gone virtual to keep entertaining during the pandemic, reports Tucson Local Media . The Lighting Up Lives Youth Musician Recitals YouTube channel has been showcasing past performances with live audiences and studio performances since the onset of COVID-19. Lighting Up Lives held its first virtual concert on Zoom to seniors at Fidelity Care Corner and Normandel Place on July 2. "I think this project is important to me since Arizona has such a large population of elders and retirees," said Lighting Up Lives member and high school junior Michael Xia. "It's best for a kid like me to help them out, especially in a situation like now." Program founder April Zhang admitted that virtual performances lose live interaction with audiences, "but we are looking to go with live performances and get interaction through live streaming platforms to better replicate the experience for the seniors." She said the next step for the organization is "to grow our subscribers on our YouTube channel, consistently to post more content, and invite more musicians from different schools. We want to diversify the kind of instruments we have and the music we play too."

A study in JAMA Neurology found that reduced rapid eye movement (REM) sleep could boost the mortality risk for older adults, reports HCPLive . The Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men Sleep Study and Wisconsin Sleep Cohort, which included more than 4,000 subjects, suggest that lower amounts of REM sleep is linked to a higher risk of all-cause mortality in middle-aged and older adults. Over the 12.1-year period of the first study, which commenced in 2003, there was a 13 percent higher mortality rate for every 5 percent reduction in REM sleep observed. The cohort in the 20.8-year-long latter study confirmed these findings. "Strategies to preserve REM sleep may influence clinical therapies and reduce mortality risk, particularly for adults with less than 15 percent REM," they concluded.

A study in Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine determined that hospitals in the rural United States are ill-prepared to deal with a sudden influx of COVID-19 cases among older adults, reports Docwire News . The researchers assessed the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds in 10 predominantly rural states with the highest older adult populations. Although 19 percent of the American population lives in rural counties, these counties contain only 1 percent of all ICU beds in the country. Counties especially vulnerable to inadequate ICU capacity include Crittenden, Ark.; Cass, Minn.; and Sagadahoc, Maine. Proposed solutions include building new delivery systems, reopening previously closed rural hospitals, and urging local businesses to stock medical supplies.

Tobacco Root Mountains Care Center in Butte, Mont., has established a visitation booth that maintains safety for assisted living residents during the current pandemic, reports NBC Montana . The booth was constructed with plexiglass separating visitor and resident. This allows the resident to go without a mask while still being shielded. It also lets residents enjoy the open air and sunlight. "When we weren't able to go out and do anything . . . this was a wonderful opening for us to be next to our loved ones," said resident Lillian Mehlhoff. The community installed a bench in front of the booth for loved ones to sit on, and it offers an umbrella to visitors on hot days. "It makes my heart so happy to see residents with their family members," said Tobacco Root staffer Jordan Evans.

A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society evaluated the dangers of physical inactivity for older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports News-Medical . Researchers said it takes just five to 10 days of physical inactivity for muscles to start deteriorating, hastening sarcopenia and increasing vulnerability to chronic diseases. Wearable trackers are supplying early estimates of how the epidemic will impact physical activity, with information from 30 million users globally calculating a 12 percent step-count decline in the United States, and an even worse decline in nations. Two weeks of inactivity can decrease muscle strength by 8 percent, with studies indicating that two weeks of rehabilitation exercises failed to help people rebuild muscles. Furthermore, reducing steps to between 1,000 to 1,500 daily elevates blood sugar and increases inflammation. Among the researchers' recommendations is engaging in resistance exercise, which under pandemic conditions can be done at home. They also urged health education for older adults, including recommendations to incorporate light activity into daily routines, with less sitting and more movement.

A study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease explores how a known genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) impacts memory and brain function in cognitively intact older adults with a family history of the disorder, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers probed the gene apolipoprotein E (APOE), which has three allelic variants — e2, e3, and e4. Of these variants, previous studies demonstrated that adults with a single APOE e4 (+APOEe4) gene are more likely to develop AD. The new study applied functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether carrying a +APOEe4 genotype changed brain activity during memory task performance in older adults who may be at risk of AD. "It turns out that the +APOEe4 variant . . . doesn't directly affect memory performance or brain activity in cognitively intact older adults," said McGill's Sheida Rabipour. "Rather, +APOEe4 seems to influence the brain regions and systems that older at-risk adults activate to support successfully remembering past events." Older adults with APOEe4 use different brain regions, such as the parietal cortex, to support successful memory encoding, while those who lack APOEe4 utilize traditional memory-related brain regions, like medial temporal lobes and prefrontal cortex, for the same process. The implication is that +APOEe4, when examined to the exclusion of family history, has a subtle effect on the correlation between brain activity and memory performance.

Career coach Jeff Altman in Forbes offers five examples of career mistakes made by many baby boomers that members of Generation X should avoid. His first warning is to approach reporting to someone from a younger demographic with caution, as it may signal the loss of advancement opportunities. "Freely giving away loyalty to your employer rarely leads to a good outcome," Altman adds, continuing that "people get ahead by being alert to opportunities that generally arrive from outside of their organization." Meanwhile, employees should not take praise by managers as an implicit acknowledgement of their worth to the employer. Instead, they should request written feedback to refer back to if ever a discrepancy arises. Altman's fourth lesson is to take serious responsibility for one's career. "If you step aside and allow your employer to be in charge of your life like many boomers have, you may have to learn the hard way that being nice, being a 'team player' and 'going along' is an abdication of your power and can be viewed as permission to pass you over," he writes. Altman's fifth recommendation is that Gen X workers should maintain and cultivate their industry networks so there are opportunities available should a layoff occur.

A study published in Science by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) isolated two distinct cellular pathways of aging and devised a technique for genetically programming these mechanisms to extend lifespan, reports ScienceBlog . The team looked at aging in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae , seeking clues on the aging paths of skin and stem cells. They learned that cells of the same genetic material and within the same environment can age in markedly different ways through distinct molecular and cellular trajectories. About half the cells gradually showed declining stability of the nucleolus, a region of nuclear DNA where key components of protein-producing factories are generated. The other half exhibited dysfunction of mitochondria, and both types of aging pathways occur early in life and are followed across the entire cell lifespan. Both of these processes are controlled by a master molecular circuit, which the researchers learned to reprogram by modifying its DNA via computer models. The team will test their new model in more complex cells and organisms, and eventually in human cells. "Our study raises the possibility of rationally designing gene or chemical-based therapies to reprogram how human cells age, with a goal of effectively delaying human aging and extending human healthspan," said UCSD Professor Nan Hao.