A University of Colorado study published in Drugs and Aging saw a 10-fold rise in marijuana-using baby boomers over 10 years, as an option for treating maladies ranging from pain to anxiety to depression, reports CNBC . Approximately 3.7 percent of U.S. adults 65 or older used cannabis in the past year, while 9.4 percent of adults 60 to 64 used marijuana in 2017 — up from 1.9 percent a decade earlier. University of Colorado Professor Hillary Lum predicted the number of older American pot users will rise as more states legalize medical and recreational cannabis. Many study participants reported problems accessing medical marijuana, noting a lack of education among physicians when it comes to treating maladies with marijuana. Some participants did not ask their doctors about cannabis due to the stigma. "I think doctors should be a lot more open to learning about it and discussing it," said one participant. Many subjects said they opted to buy cannabis from recreational dispensaries, which are often more expensive, due to a reluctance to ask their doctors for a medical marijuana card, or because they would have to leave their health insurance network to find another provider that would give them a card.

Automation could force over 100 million women globally to find new occupations by 2030, a new McKinsey Global Institute study cited by the Wall Street Journal forecasts. The research shows technological advancements affect the genders almost evenly, which upends the notion that automation hits predominantly male manufacturing workers the hardest. Advancements could take the form of Alexa-like virtual assistants replacing clerical tasks, for example. Mekala Krishnan, a fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute and one of the report's authors, concurs that secretaries and bookkeepers are especially susceptible to automation. According to the McKinsey study, 72 percent of those jobs in advanced economies are held by females. The study also concedes that many jobs will be partially automated. For instance, a nurse may spend less time in the future on data entry as smart diagnostic machines and voice-recognition technology improve.

Georgia's Berry College is building The Spires, a continuing care retirement community on its Rome campus, to open next summer, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . The Spires will be home to 350 seniors, who will be welcome to roam the college's trails, hang out in the student center, attend school football games or concerts, and enroll in classes for free. Students will be offered paid work at the complex, with pre-nursing majors helping The Spires' nurses, or marketing and accounting majors gaining practical experience. Retirees have already reserved most of The Spires' 170 independent living units, with another 100 units providing additional care as needed as residents age. Part of a trend, other retirement communities have been established on or in close proximity to universities in other U.S. states.

Esya Labs co-founders Dhivya Venkat and Yamuna Krishnan aim to provide tests that can noninvasively diagnose dementia, measure disease progression, and track the effectiveness of new drugs, reports Forbes . Esya is designing precision diagnostics using cell-scanning nanotechnology for early and accurate identification of neurodegenerative diseases, long before the appearance of physical symptoms. Their goal is to enable treatment to begin before damage takes root. Esya plans to measure and monitor disease progression for neurocognitive diseases via a simple blood test or skin biopsy using a patented DNA device, helping pharmaceutical firms with drug development by measuring treatment response. This will facilitate personalized medicine by pre-evaluating the best-suited treatment for individuals. Esya's technology is built by knitting together DNA filaments into sensors, containing devices to measure specific chemicals. "We use this to interrogate living cells in culture to understand how the cells function," Venkat said. "Using our sensor technology we image key chemicals within the Lysosome, building a toolkit of non-invasive biomarkers to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases at the earliest stage."

Creative art therapy can be a boon for people with dementia, reports the Epoch Times . For example, art therapy exposes people to imagery and self-awareness, with participants working with paints and clay. Drama therapy employs performance, role-playing, and improvisation to recreate memories, encourage problem-solving, and cause social skills to resurface. Dance-movement therapy engages rhythm and body gesture, helping to integrate the mind and spirit as well as facilitate nonverbal communication. Music therapy can help ground worried participants, allow tension to be tolerated, and make emotional expression easier. Research has demonstrated that participation in art therapy can lead to significant improvements in mood and cognition, which persist long after the sessions have concluded.

Due to what the Social Security Administration (SSA) is calling "a processing error" that occurred back in January, Kaiser Health News reports that at least 250,000 Medicare beneficiaries may receive bills for as many as five months of premiums they thought they already paid. According to the agency's "frequently asked questions" page on its website, SSA did not deduct premiums from some seniors' Social Security checks and it didn't pay the insurance plans. Kaiser notes, "The problem applies to private drug policies and Medicare Advantage plans that provide both medical and drug coverage and substitute for traditional government-run Medicare." Some seniors will have to find the money to pay the plans, while others could receive cancellation notices.

A report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found older New Yorkers are living longer than ever, with a current life expectancy of 81.2 years, according to the Wall Street Journal . Nine years ago the reported life expectancy of New Yorkers was 80.9 years, and about 50 percent of the city's older residents — those 65 and older — were born outside the country and are more likely to live in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty and less access to medical care. About 21 percent of older New Yorkers live below the federal poverty line, which this year was $12,490 for a single person. In addition, 6 percent of older New Yorkers went without medical care in the past year, and 12 percent refrained from filling a prescription due to cost. A study from the New York University School of Medicine found large life expectancy gaps were more likely in metropolitan areas with more frequent residential racial/ethnic segregation. The gap between neighborhoods in New York City is as much as 27.4 years. According to LiveOn NY's Katelyn Andrews, this finding "emphasizes the convergence of social issues that exist throughout the country and city and how they are exacerbated over time and impact individuals in their older years."

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found U.S. workers younger than 50 were more likely to view the aging labor force negatively compared with their older peers, reports NBC Washington . Roughly 40 percent of respondents 18 to 49 and 44 percent of those 18 to 29 considered the trend bad for American workers, versus only 14 percent of respondents 60 and older. "I don't think in things like information technology and medicine you're as effective a worker at 65 years old as you are at 50," said Southern California resident Katie Otting. "If some 65-year-old is in a position that he's not ready to quit because he wants a better pension and there's someone else ready to take that job, they're not going to replace him." The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 20 percent of Americans older than 65 were employed or actively looking for work last year, up from less than 12 percent 20 years before. A greater preponderance of older workers has led some to think seniors are hindering the nation's economic traction by staying employed. "One of the myths that's out there causing younger and older people to butt heads is the idea that 'Oh, it's because these older people are on the job preventing me from getting the job I want,'" said City University of New York Professor Steve Burghardt.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found an in-home exercise program cut subsequent falls among high-risk seniors by 36 percent, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers examined 344 adults 70 and older who had a history of falls, with an average of three prior falls per participant, as well as symptoms of frailty and limited mobility. Participants performed balance and resistance training exercises in their homes, using simple equipment like free weights, for three times weekly at minimum. Over six months, a physical therapist made five home visits to prescribe exercises and guarantee they were performed properly. Participants who completed the program were less likely to experience repeat falls, and also improved in certain markers of cognitive function. "Older adults who experience falls that require medical attention falls are medically complex and at high risk for both morbidity and mortality, and we demonstrated that exercise is a practical and cost-effective intervention that can improve older peoples' outcomes after a significant fall," said University of British Columbia Professor Teresa Liu-Ambrose.

Japan's government this week announced a decision to cancel a project to reduce the number of dementia sufferers by 20 percent by 2029 due to controversial statements, reports United Press International . Members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party are allying themselves with Abe's critics, who cite a lack of evidence that dementia and Alzheimer's are preventable. These critics say the government's statements mislead the public into thinking that people with dementia are to blame for not taking preventive steps. The Abe administration also stated that dementia-delaying strategies would include greater social interaction among seniors and better exercise, but reports noted such measures would be unprecedented in the developed world. Kyodo News reported that the proposal took issue with welfare spending at a time when Japan's population is rapidly aging.