A 2016 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found 36 percent of seniors regularly take at least five different prescribed drugs at the same time, which can sometimes have severe side effects, reports Healthline . "As geriatricians, we're trained to take off medications first before we put more on," says California-based geriatrician Elizabeth Landsverk. "But often once medications are on, unless there's a blatant problem, they don't come off." Landsverk adds that medications are usually continued because doctors do not want to override drugs given by another doctor. Another unintended reason for overmedication of seniors may involve persons wanting a quick solution for a problem and doctors wanting to help them quickly without thoroughly considering possible side effects.

A new Los Angeles program uses electronic monitoring bracelets to help find missing seniors who have been diagnosed with dementia or autism, reports Fox News . More than 250 Los Angeles residents have been given the devices since October, which have saved the lives of at least four missing people. The LA Found program was launched after Nancy Paulikas, a 55-year-old woman will Alzheimer's, died after wandering off from her husband during a visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2016. LA Found has seniors wear the bracelets voluntarily so they can be tracked with electronic receivers carried in the patrol cars and helicopters of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. University of California, Los Angeles Professor John Villasenor says the program's benefits outweigh the privacy issues associated with electronic monitoring. According to the Alzheimer's Association, 60 percent of people with dementia will wander at some point.

A study published in EClinicalMedicine found cilostazol and isosorbide mononitrate, two drugs used to treat heart disease and angina, are tolerable for people who have suffered stroke or vascular dementia, reports ScienceDaily. The researchers enrolled 57 participants who had experienced a stroke caused by damaged small blood vessels, who took the two drugs individually or together for up to nine weeks, in addition to the usual stroke prevention treatments. The findings imply the drugs are safe for use in such individuals in the short term. Moreover, the treatments also seem to help improve blood vessel function in the arms and brain and may improve thinking skills. "The results of this trial show promise for treating a common cause of stroke and the commonest cause of vascular dementia, since currently there are no effective treatments," said Professor Joanna Wardlaw at the University of Edinburgh's Center for Clinical Brain Sciences.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted Illinois State University Professor Nathan Mortimer $293,000 to investigate the link between the immune system and Alzheimer's, reports The Pantagraph . The two-year grant will fund research in Mortimer's laboratory to examine the amyloid beta (A-beta) protein, which is believed to build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. "One of the big questions in the field is what is A-beta and why is it there?" Mortimer notes. "If it only exists to build up into plaques, which can interfere with normal function and cause Alzheimer's disease, why would it last through millions of years of evolution?" How the protein operates within the immune system will comprise a large focus of the research, which could help neuro-biologists understand the association between the immune system and brain inflammation in people with Alzheimer's. Mortimer's work demonstrated that when A-beta is removed from fruit flies, the insects could not develop an immune response to infection, while the addition of human A-beta causes development of an autoimmune disease in the flies.

A recent Bankrate.com survey of 2,553 adults estimated that at least half of parents said they have had to dip into their retirement savings to support their adult children financially, reports USA Today . Seventeen percent of respondents said these costs reduced their savings by "a lot," and 34 percent said they gave up their financial future "somewhat." The study's authors blame helicopter parenting and costly, prolonged education for this trend. Most respondents agreed that children should start paying their own bills at age 18, while children 18 or 19 should be paying for their car and insurance, cellphone bills, subscription services, travel costs, and credit card bills. Meanwhile, adult children had differing opinions about how their parents should be supporting them, with millennials thinking this support should extend to student loans and health insurance. Although a majority of baby boomers are willing to cover health insurance until ages 23 to 38, they felt millennials should rely on themselves to pay for travel, car payments, and housing costs. Households with incomes of $50,000 to more than $80,000 put the average age their adult children should start paying off their student loan debt on their own at 23, while those with household incomes of less than $30,000 listed the average age at 24.

Older Americans Month kicks off May 1, and the Administration for Community Living (ACL) will be leading the observance. The 2019 theme will be "Connect, Create, Contribute," with older adults being encouraged to: connect with friends, family, and services that support participation; engage in activities that promote learning, health, and personal enrichment; and contribute time, talent, and life experience to benefit others. A dedicated ACL webpage will include suggestions, resources, and materials to help all concerned #ConnectCreateContribute.

The Louisiana state House of Representatives has approved of a bill that would fine telemarketers or scammers using a phone, e-mail, or text messages to target potential victims, bolstering safeguards for people 65 and older in particular, reports WBRZ . HB305, authored by Rep. Reid Falconer (R-La.), will help protect victims by increasing the amount of damages they can seek when a deceptive act is committed against a person 65 or older or someone with a disability via such communications. "I've got a father who's 86 years old and has Alzheimer's," Falconer said. "A company sold him an insurance policy that he has no need for." Victims will need to fight companies in court, but the new law stipulates a judge could award a maximum penalty of $10,000 against the malefactor. Falconer said this should give attorneys incentive to pursue violators.

A study presented at the AACE Annual Scientific and Clinical Congress determined older adults with type 2 diabetes had higher one- and two-year fracture risks than adults without diabetes, although the risks evened out at the 10-year mark, according to Healio . The researchers assessed data from the Framingham Original and Offspring Cohorts for 2,105 women and 1,130 men who underwent a baseline osteoporosis study around 1990. Seven percent of women and 13 percent of men in the group had type 2 diabetes, of whom 63 percent of the women and 51 percent of the men reported taking drugs for the disease. Over a nine-year mean follow-up, 37 percent of women and 11 percent of men with type 2 diabetes suffered a fracture, compared to 30 percent of women and 16 percent of men without diabetes. At one year, the risk for fracture among diabetic women more than doubled compared to non-diabetics. Every five years of diabetes duration boosted the two-year risk for fracture, as did use of diabetes medications. No statistically significant associations between type 2 diabetes and long-term fracture incidence were observed. "Our next steps will be to look at specific medication use, to look at different markers of disease severity, and to look at other risk factors for fracture in diabetics," said Harvard Medical School Professor Elizabeth J. Samelson.

A study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found weekly exercise and stretching can improve safe driving abilities among older adults, reports Medical Xpress . "Research shows that exercise doesn't have to be strenuous to produce positive results," said AAA's Jake Nelson. "You can spread out the time you spend being physically active over the course of your day and week. A few minutes at a time can be sufficient." U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for physically able older adults include 2.5 to five hours of moderate-intensity exercise each week, or 75 minutes to 2.5 hours of high-intensity physical activity. The regimen should include balance training and aerobic and muscle strengthening activities. Older adults should consult their doctor before starting a new exercise regimen. Getting at least seven hours of sleep every night, at minimum, also can help older adults stay alert behind the wheel.

A study of healthy older adults published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society shows that just one session of exercise boosts activation in the brain circuits associated with memory, reports ScienceDaily . The team used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the brain activity of healthy participants 55 to 85 as they performed a memory task that involves identifying famous and non-famous names. This triggers a neural network related to semantic memory, which is known to degrade over time with memory loss. The test was performed minutes after a session of moderately intense exercise on an exercise bike and on a separate day after a rest interval. Participants' brain activation while correctly recalling names was significantly better in the brain's middle frontal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus after exercise compared to after rest. Higher activation of the hippocampus also was observed on both sides of the brain. "Just like a muscle adapts to repeated use, single sessions of exercise may flex cognitive neural networks in ways that promote adaptations over time and lend to increased network integrity and function and allow more efficient access to memories," said University of Maryland Professor J. Carson Smith.