The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a drug treatment engineered for postmenopausal women with a high risk of bone fractures, reports Philly Voice . Evenity, or romosozumab, increases a person's ability to form new bones, which the FDA noted is essential for those suffering from bone-deteriorating diseases. Doses are administered in two monthly back-to-back injections, with the FDA classifying "high risk" women as those with a history of fractures, or who have multiple risk factors that could lead to fracture, or who have unsuccessfully tried other osteoporosis treatments. Evenity's safety and efficacy was verified in two clinical trials enlisting more than 11,000 subjects with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Evenity's effectiveness stops after 12 doses, so users should not exceed that number, the FDA advises. The agency recommends those requiring further treatment at that point should start therapy for bone breakdown. "Evenity may increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death so it's important to carefully select users for this therapy, which includes avoiding use in those who have had a heart attack or stroke within the previous year," cautioned Hylton Joffe with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research's Division of Bone, Reproductive, and Urologic Products.

A study by University of Alberta (U of A) neuroscientists published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease identified different factors for maintaining healthy memory and avoiding memory decline for people 55 and older. Medical Xpress reports that the researchers used machine learning to analyze data from a long-term study. They found adults with healthy memory were more likely to be female, educated, and enjoy more social activities. They also were more likely to engage in new cognitive activities, like using a computer or learning a second language. Healthy memory was associated with lower heart rate, higher body mass index, more self-maintenance activities, and living companions in people 55 to 75, while adults older than 75 exhibited faster gait and fewer depressive symptoms. Persons with declining memory tended to pursue fewer new cognitive activities. "These modifiable risk and protective factors may be converted to potential intervention targets for the dual purpose of promoting healthy memory aging or preventing or delaying accelerated decline, impairment, and perhaps dementia," suggested U of A's Peggy McFall.

Neuropsychologist John DenBoer, founder of the Smart Brain Aging company, says his firm helps delay the onset of dementia and alleviate its severity through the SMART Memory Program, reports Forbes . The program is a structured cognitive intervention platform engineered to help reduce dementia in its early stages. At present, the company offers two programs, Brain U Clinic and Brain U Online. Brain U Clinic is provided one-on-one with a healthcare professional in a clinical environment, and it is currently available in multiple clinics in the Southwest United States. "Brain U Online is an online training program for your brain," DenBoer notes. "Research has shown that when we engage in new and novel learning and challenge our brains on a consistent basis, we are able to help protect and maintain the brain function that we have." Brain U Online assigns users specific training exercises a few days per week, with enrollees sometimes electing to be placed into virtual classrooms with others. DenBoer assures that virtual classrooms encourage socialization, which can positively affect brain health.

A pilot study by University of Southern California (USC) Professor Kyle Konis published in Clinical Interventions in Aging examined how natural lighting affects older adults with dementia and Alzheimer's, reports USC News . The study examined about 80 participants across eight memory care communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, indicating that early morning exposure to natural light improved residents' mood, positively impacting depression and psychoactive symptoms. Konis observed that redesigning the environment for better lighting is one way to ameliorate cognitive delay and behavioral issues without adding medications to residents' drug regimen. Konis hopes to continue studying the effect of daylighting, which could inform how developers and communities approach designing for this demographic.

The U.S. Department of Justice has arrested and charged 24 individuals across the United States for targeting seniors with a scam involving back, shoulder, wrist, and knee braces, reports CBS News . Those charged include doctors, owners of call centers, telemedicine firms, and medical equipment companies. Medicare's anti-fraud unit announced it is taking action against 130 medical equipment companies implicated in the scam, who billed the program a total of $1.7 billion. Federal officials said the telemarketers would reach out to older Americans offering "free" orthopedic braces, also promoted through TV and radio ads; beneficiaries who expressed interest would be connected to call centers based in the Philippines and Latin America. The call centers would confirm the victims' Medicare coverage and transfer them to telemedicine companies for consultations with physicians, who would write prescriptions for braces, regardless of whether the victims needed them or not. The call centers would collect prescriptions and sell them to medical equipment companies, which would send the braces to the victims and bill Medicare. The equipment companies would receive $500 to $900 per brace from Medicare and pay kickbacks of nearly $300 per brace. "The breadth of this nationwide conspiracy should be frightening to all who rely on some form of healthcare," declared Don Fort with the Internal Revenue Service.

Older Americans continue to take too many antibiotics, despite warnings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reports the New York Times . A new CDC study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society estimates that doctors write enough antibiotic prescriptions for every older adult to receive at least one. Antibiotic overuse contributes to a major public health threat by creating drug resistance, with the CDC noting 2 million Americans get antibiotic-resistant infections each year, which end in 23,000 annual fatalities. Moreover, antibiotics interact badly with many drugs older adults take, like statins, blood thinners, and kidney and heart medications. Worse, certain antibiotics carry worrying side effects in themselves. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration are especially concerned with fluoroquinolones like Cipro, whose documented side effects include mental distress.

A study published in PLOS ONE found cycling can improve older adults' mental abilities and well-being, reports The Conversation . Participants either cycled on a conventional pedal bike or on an electrically assisted "e-bike," or maintained their regular non-cycling regimen as a control group. Mental abilities, mental health, and well-being were scored before and after the eight-week cycling period. One measurement was taken via the "Stroop test," in which participants were shown the name of a color-printed on a card in a different color script, and asked to name the color of the ink that the word was printed in. The task quantifies how accurately someone is able to minimize distraction from the written word when reporting the ink color. After eight weeks, both pedal and e-bike cycling groups, as opposed to the non-cycling controls, were better at ignoring the written word, suggesting an improvement in mental function. Moreover, e-bike users spent more time cycling on average each week than the pedal cyclists, with many observing that they felt they could go further on the e-bike, as they could rely on the motor to get them home if they could not manage it on their own.

Mixed pathologies in people diagnosed with dementia are a major scientific obstacle, because researchers cannot tell whether any individual condition, or all of them collectively, are responsible for memory loss, reports the New York Times . There also exists the possibility that these abnormalities themselves are symptoms of a yet-to-be-determined cause of dementia, says Roderick A. Corriveau at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. A lack of insight into managing mixed pathologies is the key reason they were mostly ignored until recently. According to University College London's John Hardy, "Everybody knows about it. But we don't know what to do about it." Cambridge University's Carol Brayne says the fact that the older a person gets, the more prone he/she is to dementia is a significant factor. Also gaining interest in scientific circles is the possibility that something in the brain may be triggering a flood of abnormalities, which if proved could lead to effective anti-dementia treatment.

A study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found fewer than 40 percent of 859 community-dwelling older adults reported adverse drug events (ADEs) to family physicians, while the doctors of those who did provide such information often omitted it from the health record, reports the American Academy of Family Physicians . Older adults who did not report ADEs said they thought the symptoms were caused by old age and did not want to bother their doctor. The ADE instrument used by the researchers had an accuracy of 75 percent in distinguishing ADEs from non-ADEs, along with a sensitivity of 29 percent and a specificity of 93 percent. "We were surprised that only 39 percent of subjects reported adverse drug events to their family physician," said the Royal College of Surgeons' Caitriona Cahir. Meanwhile, family physicians only documented ADEs from the previous six months in the medical records for 10 percent of the subjects studied. Cahir added that in view of the complexity of identifying ADEs in older people who have various comorbidities and are taking several medications, they may have difficulty differentiating between symptoms caused by their individual medications or their underlying medical conditions.

Baby boomers are healthier and more affluent than previous senior generations and are less likely to compromise on the residences they want in retirement, reports Multi-Housing News . With these factors in mind, the senior living industry should consider several design issues for this demographic. Boomers have a clear taste for creative, insightful, and impeccably executed design that meets both aesthetic and physical needs. Furthermore, designs will need to compensate for residents' aging senses through such options as large, readable signage; materials that optimize acoustics; and smell- and stain-proof textiles. Moreover, adaptable and multifunctional spaces are a must. Features that enable this kind of flexibility must be seamlessly incorporated into design to boost ease of use. Furnishings must enhance livability and be easy to use, on top of having an attractive design. Finally, living spaces for senior communities should be programmed appropriately and continuously to appeal to residents' current and changing interests and to encourage engagement.