Michigan has organized a new task force to crack down on physical abuse, financial exploitation, emotional abuse, and neglect of older adults, reports Fox 17 . More than 30 organizations, including law enforcement, state agencies, and advocacy groups, have pledged to be involved. Residents are urged to report signs or suspicion of senior abuse to the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. The state previously formed a 1998 Supreme Court Task Force on Guardianships and Conservatorships and a 2007 Governor's Task Force on Elder Abuse.

A study published in Cancer found preventive medications are regularly prescribed during the last year of life of older adults with cancer, even though their delivery of meaningful benefits is unlikely, reports Medical Xpress . For older people with cancer, the benefit of each additional drug gradually declines, while the risk of harm is elevated as the disease progresses. Benefits may be especially limited for preventive drugs, because such medications frequently take several years to achieve their goal. For persons with advanced cancer, the added value of starting or continuing preventive drugs seems low, given that their remaining life expectancy may be too short to realize any of the intended benefits. The researchers determined among 151,201 older adults who died with cancer, the average number of drugs they took rose 6.9 to 10.1 throughout the last year of life, and the percentage of individuals using 10 or more drugs climbed from 26 percent to 52 percent. Administration of preventive drugs — like antihypertensives, platelet aggregation inhibitors, anticoagulants, statins, and oral antidiabetics — was often continued until the last month of life. The implication is that reducing the use of preventive medications in people with advanced cancer near the end of life may lessen unnecessary side effects, improve the individual's quality of life, and lower their financial costs.

A study published in Diabetes Care suggests people taking drugs for Type 2 diabetes may be warding off Alzheimer's, reports EurekAlert . Psychologists at the University of Southern California (USC) learned that persons with untreated diabetes developed Alzheimer's symptoms faster than non-diabetics. "Among people with diabetes, the difference in their rate of developing the signs of dementia and Alzheimer's is clearly tied somehow to whether or not they are on medication for it," said USC's Daniel A. Nation. The researchers compared the "tau pathology," or the progression of the brain tangles that signal Alzheimer's. They analyzed data on 1,289 people 55 and older, including biomarkers for diabetes and vascular disease, brain scans, and a range of health indicators, such as performance on memory tests. Some participants had a decade's worth of data, while others had one or four years' worth. Among 900 of those subjects, 54 had type 2 diabetes but were not being treated, while 67 were getting treatment. The majority of participants, 530, had normal blood sugar levels, while 250 had prediabetes. "It is possible that the medicines for treating diabetes might make a difference in the progression of brain degeneration," Nation said. "But it's unclear how exactly those medications might slow or prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease, so that is something we need to investigate."

A study published in Nature Medicine found aged brains from people lacking dementia have much higher rates of neurogenesis than those of persons with Alzheimer's, reports Stat . Study author María Llorens-Martín at Spain's Universidad Autónoma de Madrid said the molecular marker of neuron birth known as DCX does very poorly during tissue fixation, in which minuscule slices from a brain donated for postmortem study are prepared for analysis. She was aware that new neurons were present because after not finding them in samples that had undergone a long fixation time, her team again examined samples from the same brain that were fixed quickly. These exhibited clear molecular signs of having undergone neurogenesis until right before death — no matter what age it occurred — including the presence of doublecortin, a protein associated with neuronal migration. The Madrid team's findings correspond with a widely held view that healthy, adult brains produce new neurons, but at a rate that declines with age. The fact that certain seniors whose brains were full of amyloid plaque when they died, yet had no signs of dementia, suggests that although inflammation destroys neurons, high levels of neurogenesis may be replacing those cells to compensate.

Baby boomers are working longer and postponing retirement for reasons that include a desire to remain engaged in the workplace, or to enlarge their retirement account, reports Forbes . The U.S. Census Bureau predicts older adults will outnumber children for the first time in American history in a few decades, which makes understanding "age-friendly industries" critical. Increasing employment for persons aged 65 and 69 in healthcare and retail trade was cited by research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "To keep talent and attract new hires, hospitals and outpatient clinics are offering a variety of flexible work arrangements, including part-time schedules, telecommuting, and job sharing," noted longevity and diversity specialist Carol Hymowitz. "Others are rehiring retirees as contract workers." Among healthcare positions worth considering for baby boomers are medical assistants, medical billing, coding specialists, and massage therapists. For older workers desiring more income, consulting in their area of experience and expertise has much earning potential. The Small Business Administration said "consulting or contracting is a particularly attractive form of business ownership to older people — you can work anywhere, and start-up costs are low."

The Endocrine Society has released a new guideline for diabetes treatment in older adults recommending simplified drug regimens and looser glycemic targets to improve adherence and prevent treatment-related complications, reports Healio . The guideline concentrates on treatment approaches considering overall health and quality of life of older diabetics. Regular screening for prediabetes and diabetes is advised, with collaboration between an endocrinologist or diabetes care specialist and the primary care provider, a multidisciplinary team, and the recipient to tailor treatment goals. Also recommended is periodic cognitive screening to identify undiagnosed cognitive impairment in the older population. The guideline authors urge initial cognitive screening at time of diagnosis or entry into a care program, with repeat screening every two to three years following a normal screening test result. Assessment of cognitive impairment and cognition should be performed in older persons with complaints. Medication regimens should be simplified and glycemic targets customized to be more lenient, with the goal to improve compliance and prevent complications related to treatment among older adults with a history of cognitive impairment. The guideline recommends lifestyle modification as the first-line treatment for hyperglycemia in ambulatory older adults, while other recommendations include evaluating nutritional status for signs of malnutrition, and a protein- and energy-rich diet. Metformin is the initial recommended oral medication.

Geriatric assessments requiring doctors to evaluate physical and mental fitness, as well as emotional and social well-being, among older adults are being considered as beneficial to dealing with cancer treatment, reports the Associated Press . Such tests also account for the subject's desire for life-extending care regardless of how much time might be left. New guidelines from the American Society of Clinical Oncology urge the assessments for those 65 and older, particularly before making decisions about chemotherapy. Yet most cancer treatments stem from studies on younger persons, leaving doctors with limited insight on how treatments will affect seniors. The assessments require 15 to 30 minutes or more; recent research demonstrated they can accurately predict how subjects will fare during and after treatment. Older subjects who get chemotherapy and have other health problems are more susceptible to falls and delirium and at a higher risk for losing independence. The University of North Carolina's Hyman Muss stresses the evaluations' importance, but admits insurance coverage can be a problem.

New research published in Autophagy recommends scientists seeking a cure for Alzheimer concentrate on the role of proteins in the brain that cause the disease, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers determined the gamma secretase complex controls autophagy in a single-celled organism amoeba, which shared a common ancestor with humans around 1 billion years ago. The retention of this role in autophagy highlights its critical importance in cell health, with implications that researchers should explore this process to develop new Alzheimer's treatments. Using the amoeba, Dictyostelium, as a model to probe the gamma secretase complex's role, the study's authors deleted individual proteins from the complex and tracked changes in cell function. They determined when proteins from the complex were deleted, the process of autophagy was inhibited, and cells could not recycle proteins. "These findings suggest that the role of the gamma secretase complex is conserved across a huge evolutionary distance, indicating a fundamentally important role in maintaining healthy cells," says Royal Holloway, University of London Professor Robin SB Williams. "From this, we propose that researchers looking to find new approaches to treat . . . Alzheimer's disease should focus on restoring normal levels of autophagy in neurons of Alzheimer's disease sufferers to block the death of brain cells in these persons."

The repeated failure of drugs targeting Alzheimer's are adding credibility to efforts by academics and smaller biotechnology companies to better understand the disease's biological mechanisms and investigate alternative drugs, reports the Wall Street Journal . Among the more promising research projects are those focusing on the possible roles played by inflammation, the immune system, viruses, and tau. "The idea of finding that one drug that will hit that one receptor and cure Alzheimer's disease is fool's gold," contends University of Southern California Professor Lon Schneider. "We're unlikely to get anywhere unless we understand and are able to grapple with the heterogeneity of the disease." Genetic and brain-imaging data has revealed that plaques affect Alzheimer's and should not be dismissed as a research area. Although Biogen and Eisai disclosed that one plaque-targeting drug, aducanumab, they were testing failed, they have embarked on a late-stage trial of another compound also designed to clear plaques. For its part, Denali Therapeutics is developing drugs that target inflammation and other aspects of the brain to treat Alzheimer's. Alector, meanwhile, is working on drugs to restore functioning of the brain's immune system, because the company thinks mutations associated with the immune system are causing deterioration of connections between neurons typical of people with Alzheimer's.

A study published in Neurology suggests a regular exercise regimen in one's 40s can reduce the chances of developing dementia decades later, reports Runner's World. The researchers found women with high levels of physical activity cut their risk of developing dementia by 52 percent, with such activity more protective against vascular causes of dementia, whereas mental activity appears to help stave off Alzheimer's. The study monitored 800 Swedish women for 44 years, and 194 developed some form of dementia in the course of the study. Women with a high level of mental activities were 34 percent less likely to develop dementia. Mental activities included reading and writing, artistic work, singing, and manual activities such as needlework or gardening. Physical activities included habitual walking, consistent running, or engaging in competitive sports. Although the study's authors are not precisely sure how exercise helps promote cognitive health, they think it may be associated with its beneficial effect on cardiovascular risk factors and stroke, since improved blood flow can help protect against vascular dementia.