Older workers are critical to maintaining the strength of the Minnesota labor pool, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune . This fact should prompt employers to reconsider workers in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, especially as a workforce shortage unfolds. A citizens commission established as part of a Courageous Conversations project led by the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs has been investigating the impact of Minnesota's aging workforce on local economies and vitality. A recurring theme is that older adults often want and need to stay employed, and employers rate them as some of their finest and most steadfast workers. The commission recommends employers view retirement as a period of transition rather than cessation, and offer flexible work options like part time or job sharing. Also suggested for employers is offering leadership development and skills training, and performing the work necessary for forging new connections, in view of demographic shifts. Businesses also should check and update their human resources practices so more diverse candidates are considered, and stay in constant communication with older workers to measure their views on employment after retirement.

A study in Aging Cell found the diabetes drug metformin did not help exercising seniors build muscle mass, reports ScienceDaily . Older adults who took metformin while engaged in rigorous resistance training had smaller increases in muscle mass compared to a placebo group. University of Kentucky Professor Charlotte Peterson said metformin's anti-inflammatory properties made it seem a logical choice, as chronic inflammation in muscles may influence the ability to increase muscle mass. "In older adults age 65 and up who have lost significant muscle mass and function over prior decades, we thought metformin might combat muscle inflammation and thereby boost the muscle regrowth response to resistance training," explained University of Alabama at Birmingham Professor Marcas Bamman. "Instead, metformin impaired the adaptations such that the placebo group experienced greater increases in muscle mass and muscle quality than the metformin group." It was originally theorized that metformin would alter macrophage metabolism into a reparative phenotype by triggering a kinase called AMPK, but Peterson noted AMPK also represses mTORC1, a key muscle growth regulator. "Metformin's inhibition of that pathway is likely the reason that the metformin group did not see the same gains in muscle mass as the control group," she concluded.

A study in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association found older adults are taking more psychoactive medications than they did in previous years, reports Pharmacist.com . The researchers calculated that anticonvulsant use increased 450 percent for older community-dwelling Americans from 1996 to 2013, and use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) rose 300 percent, opioid use increased 140 percent, and benzodiazepine use climbed 50 percent. Generally, more than half of older adults used at least one psychoactive medication in 2013, and about 10 percent used three or more psychoactive drugs. According to the American Geriatric Society's Beers Criteria, older adults at risk of falls should not take such medication. "Medication use in older adults, specifically psychoactive medication, is one of the modifiable risk factors that can be targeted to lower the risk of falls," noted Yara Haddad with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study did not cite specific SSRIs or indications. "Many SSRIs, for example, can be prescribed safely for mood conditions without increasing the risk of falls," said University of San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor Kelly Lee. "On the other hand, gabapentin and pregabalin, which are classified as anticonvulsants, are used frequently for pain or anxiety disorders in older adults."

A study in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society found older adults with asthma or concurrent asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — but not COPD alone — are less likely to go into the hospital for obstructive lung disease if they take an inhaled corticosteroid, reports Pulmonology Consultant . The researchers analyzed data on persons 66 or older from Ontario who satisfied a validated case definition of physician-diagnosed COPD and/or asthma between 2003 and 2014. All participants were administered a new inhaled corticosteroid. Twenty-seven percent of the 87,690 participants with asthma had concurrent COPD, while 25 percent of the 150,593 individuals with COPD had concurrent asthma. Inhaled corticosteroids were tied to fewer hospitalizations for obstructive lung disease in those with asthma alone, and concurrent COPD attenuated this benefit. A similar connection was noted in persons with both COPD and asthma, but not in those with COPD alone. Moreover, subjects with COPD only had a marginally higher risk of hospitalization for pneumonia with their receipt of inhaled corticosteroids — an association not observed in the other cohorts.

Biogen has surprisingly announced plans to submit an Alzheimer's drug that the company previously dismissed as a failure for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, reports STAT . The drugmaker claims a "new analysis of a larger dataset" showed that the experimental medication, aducanumab, reduced clinical decline in subjects with early Alzheimer's on multiple effectiveness measures. This counters Biogen's March decision to discontinue studies of the treatment, based on the recommendation of an independent monitoring board. Included in the new analysis is additional data that became available after earlier evaluation designated the trials as "futile." Biogen said the new data indicates aducanumab to be "pharmacologically and clinically active," and that its further reduction of clinical decline is founded on the results of the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes survey. "We are hopeful about the prospect of offering . . . the first therapy to reduce the clinical decline of Alzheimer's disease and the potential implication of these results for similar approaches targeting amyloid beta," said Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos.

A study published in The Gerontologist found having a pet, especially after the loss of a spouse or loved one, can help reduce feelings of depression and loneliness in older adults, reports DogTime.com . The investigators compared individuals who suffered the loss of a spouse to those who stayed married, then measured how effects of spousal loss differed for those who had a pet at the time of the death or divorce. All subjects who lost their spouse exhibited depression, but those who did not have a pet experienced significant increases in depression and loneliness than those who had pets. However, subjects with pets were no more lonely than older adults who did not experience such a loss. Florida State University Professor Dawn Carr observes, "Experiencing some depression after a loss is normal, but we usually are able to adjust over time to these losses. Persistent loneliness, on the other hand, is associated with greater incidents of mortality and faster onset of disability, which means it's especially bad for your health. Our findings suggest that pets could help individuals avoid negative consequences of loneliness after a loss."

A study published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests certain personality traits displayed during adolescence can predict the risk of receiving a dementia diagnosis later, reports Newsweek . According to researchers, high school students who exhibited higher levels of maturity and calmness were less likely to develop dementia in older age, or develop the condition later. Teenagers that displayed more impulsivity were more likely to be diagnosed with the condition, and develop it earlier. The investigators quantified 10 personality traits in a group of 82,232 adults who would have been high school students in 1960, then identified 2,543 who had been diagnosed with dementia between 2011 and 2013. The authors observed significant correlations between certain personality types and dementia risk, even when accounting for height, weight, income, occupation, and socioeconomic status. The findings led to the suspicion that "the adolescent personality traits associated with later-life dementia are similar to those observed in studies of older persons. Personality phenotype may be a true independent risk factor for dementia by age 70 years, preceding it by almost five decades and interacting with adolescent socioeconomic conditions."

Technology startups are attracting sizable venture capital to reach the underserved older American market, reports Considerable . One notable startup is Papa, which promotes "grandkids on-demand" by pairing seniors with college students who help with everyday activities or provide companionship. Siren, meanwhile, makes sensor-equipped smart fabric socks to detect and alert doctors of foot inflammation. Eargo makes stylish hearing aids, while Willow offers more natural-fitting disposable underwear. Also drawing investment is WHILL, for products like its personal electric wheelchair, and Rowheels, for better manually-controlled wheelchair propulsion systems. The Cake digital service allows consumers to plan and store end-of-life decisions like wills, advance directives, and medical interventions, estate planning, and memorial services. Finally, the startup Rendever is advancing virtual reality technologies to help older adults combat feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Experts warn hospitals' fall prevention efforts to avoid penalties from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are so excessive as to create an "epidemic of immobility," reports Kaiser Health News . Hospitalized persons who could benefit from activity are all too often recommended to stay bedbound, with bed alarms and a deficit of assistive staff exacerbating this situation. This is especially harmful for seniors, who are often weak to start with. The University of San Francisco-California's Kenneth Covinsky found 33 percent of persons 70 and older are even more impaired when they leave the hospital. He adds that CMS' stepped-up enforcement of penalties for falls has produced "a climate of fear of falling," in which nurses "feel that if somebody falls on their watch, they'll be blamed for it." The increased weakness caused by remaining bedbound also is likely to ensure damage if the person falls. Throughout the nation, efforts are underway to encourage hospitalized people to get up and move, often inside special wings designed to preserve the independence of seniors and prevent hospital-acquired disabilities.

USA Today observes that more businesses are allowing variable hours and work-from-home options to attract workers in a tight labor market. However, as adoption grows, a sizable share are struggling to make it work mainly because they haven't put the necessary technology and tools in place to ensure seamless communication with co-workers and clients. Cali Williams Yost, CEO of Flex + Strategy Group, laments, "We're asking people to work differently but not telling them how to do it." A spring survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 57 percent of organizations offer flexible schedules versus 52 percent in 2015. A separate Flex + Strategy poll revealed that "98 percent of companies provide some form of fluctuating hours based on a broad definition that could include letting employees leave occasionally to pick up kids at school or go to the doctor."