The Nymbl startup has raised $2.8 million in seed capital with $1.55 million added in its latest funding round, reports American Inno . Denver-based Nymbl has created a smartphone solution to provide personalized balance training to help older adults cut their fall risk and continue to live independently. The Nymbl Training app guides users through dual-task training combining mental and physical exercises to enhance balance. Nymbl co-founder Tom Virden said the company's primary customers include residents of senior living communities and Medicare beneficiaries, and it sells its services directly to communities and insurers. Nymbl is offered as a perk to senior community residents. "By putting this technology on a phone, it allows people to do it 10 minutes a day in their home, when they want to do it," Virden said. "We finally have a scalable solution for balance." The latest seed funding comes as Nymbl plans to scale its offerings in both the senior living and Medicare sectors.

A study in Frontiers in Physiology by the University of Birmingham in Britain found older adults with little past exercise training can still build muscle through resistance exercises, reports Safety and Health Magazine . The researchers compared eight "untrained older male" participants between 60 and 80 to seven "male master endurance athletes" in the same age range who trained more than twice annually for at least the previous 20 years. Both cohorts performed weight training using an exercise machine, and were given isotope tracers to characterize protein growth, in addition to undergoing muscle biopsies 48 hours before and after training. Surprisingly, "both groups had an equal capacity to build muscle in response to exercise," according to the university. "Our study clearly shows that it doesn't matter if you haven't been a regular exerciser throughout your life, you can still derive benefit from exercise whenever you start," said Birmingham's Leigh Breen. "Obviously a long-term commitment to good health and exercise is the best approach to achieve whole-body health, but even starting later on in life will help delay age-related frailty and muscle weakness."

A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease suggests magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could help prevent a misdiagnosis of Alzheimer's following traumatic brain injury (TBI), reports United Press International . Brain MRI scans of 40 TBI patients who later developed memory problems showed most damage was concentrated in the ventral diencephalon, with the least amount of damage in the hippocampus. The former is associated with learning and emotions, while the latter is associated with memory and emotions, and is the area most impacted by Alzheimer's. Washington University in St. Louis Professor Cyrus Raji said the MRI scan the team employed to quantify brain volumes "is useful because it can be applied on the same type of MRI scans we obtain in the clinic with no special type of imaging required."

Four new devices promise to improve quality of life for older adults while relieving their caregivers of some of their burden, reports the San Diego Union Tribune . Electronic Caregiver includes a fitness band-style medical alert bracelet that lets users connect to an emergency response center at the click of a button, with a global-positioning system to help agents track the wearer's location while another button allows users to connect to a doctor for health consultations. The tool also signals medication reminders and medical test checks. Meanwhile, Pixie Smart Pads can monitor for urinary tract infections, with nurses checking their readings and notifying caregivers if an infection is suspected. The Aira guidance system for persons with impaired vision has an app they can use on a smartphone or Horizon Smart G\lasses to get directions, learn what they are reading, and remain safe. Users connect to agents and direct their smart glasses or phone's camera toward what they are looking at, then request help either via voice or text message. Finally, the DFree bladder monitor can ease toileting care, using a small ultrasound machine attached to the lower abdomen with medical tape or reusable holding pads to prevent incontinence. A bathroom visit reminder is communicated via smartphone or tablet, and bathroom visit frequency is analyzed so users can plan out their travel and activities.

A study published in the American Economic Journal may offer clues for halting an economic downturn driven by mass U.S. workforce retirements, reports Forbes . Economists led by the Vanguard Group's John Ameriks determined an absence of job flexibility to be a key driver of older Americans' departure from the labor pool. "For many, labor force participation near or after normal retirement age is limited more by a lack of acceptable job opportunities or low expectations about finding them than by unwillingness to work longer," said the researchers. A survey of 2,772 individuals revealed a strong, pervasive desire for employment among older Americans. "One third of current non-workers . . . report being willing to work again at the time of the survey, even if they could not choose the number of hours worked, as long as they could find a job that has similar characteristics to the last job they had," the team noted. "Many of them also report being willing to take a significant wage reduction to have such a job opportunity. Allowing for flexibility not only increases the acceptance rate at the reference wage (by 20 percentage points at the time of the survey), it also increases the wage reduction workers are willing to accept."

The Senate Special Aging Committee is set to hold a special field hearing on "Alzheimer's and Other Cognitive Diseases: An Arizona Perspective" on Nov. 1. The site will be the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. Present will be Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) along with such witnesses as Roberta Diaz Brinton, director of the Center For Innovation In Brain Science at the University of Arizona, Tucson; Lisa Capp, a previous Alzheimer's disease caregiver; and Alireza Atri, Director of the Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz. Then, on Nov. 6, the Senate Special Aging Committee will hold a special hearing on protecting veterans against scams. The site will be the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Witnesses will include LaVerne Foreman, an Army and Air Force veteran who was scammed by a fake veteran's charity; W. Dewayne Richardson, district attorney with the Fourth Circuit Court District of Mississippi; and Carroll Harris, acting inspector in charge of the Communications, Governance, and Strategy Group at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) have proposed legislation to make generic drugs more affordable for seniors, reports the Miami Herald . The sponsors said low-cost generic medications saved Medicare beneficiaries more than $90 billion last year, but those savings are in peril because a growing number of these medications have been re-categorized as more costly brand-name drugs. Kuster and McKinley added that their bipartisan bill would help counter these changes to lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors on Medicare Part D. The measure would ensure automatic coverage under Medicare of lower-cost generic drugs immediately after rollout, as well as categorize generic drugs as "generic-only" so users will not be charged the higher brand rate. The bill also would establish a dedicated pricing category for specialty generic drugs.

Politico Pro reports that a bipartisan group of legislators on Wednesday reintroduced the CONNECT for Health Act, a wide-sweeping measure that expands payment for telehealth services. Some provisions of the bill, originally introduced two years ago, made it into the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act. They not only allow Medicare Advantage plans to offer telehealth coverage as a basic benefit, but also remove some geographic restrictions for telestroke and end-stage renal disease treatment. The update would remove geographic restrictions on payment for various services and would allow patients to get coverage for treatment they receive at home. The bill was unveiled by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) According to Wicker, the updated legislation reflects input that the Congressional Telehealth Caucus gathered from a recent request for information on telehealth expansion. The bill has support from such groups as the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the American Telemedicine Association, and the Alliance for Connected Care.

A Weill Cornell Medicine study in Nature found a salt-heavy diet can induce brain changes that could lead to reduced cognitive performance and the development of dementia over time, reports SlashGear . This finding concerns nitric oxide, which has a key role in maintaining the health of the brain's vascular system. The compound dilates blood vessels to improve blood flow and lower blood pressure, but foods high in salt may cause a decrease in the amount of nitric oxide, which may trigger the tau protein in the brain to start accumulating. Tau buildup has been associated with cognitive deterioration and the development of Alzheimer's. Mice fed a high-salt diet exhibited tau accumulation that caused dementia, rather than a lack of blood flow in the brain stemming from lowered nitric oxide. Still, the drop in nitric oxide due to large amounts of salt triggered tau instability, leading to the accrual.

The Broome County Office for Aging in New York hosts a program to smooth the transition from outdoor to indoor walking exercise routines for seniors as winter sets in, reports WBNG . The program has been around for more than two decades, and the office has begun to encourage participants to establish personal goals. "We encourage everyone who participates to try and get out and walk at the participating schools 25 times through the winter as a personal goal," said the Office for Aging's Sofia Rittenhouse. "We do provide a walking log for them so that they can keep track of their progress." The program seeks to promote the benefits of consistent senior activity. "Daily exercise, and walking in particular, help us with things like reducing high blood pressure, reducing stress, keeping our muscles strong, keeping us flexible," noted Rittenhouse. She added that the program's benefits can extend outside of physical wellness. "If you can find a partner, a buddy that you want to get out to the school and walk with every day, it's a social opportunity," Rittenhouse said.