A study published in the British Medical Journal found no association between statin use and a reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) or death in healthy people older than 75, reports Medical Xpress . Statins were associated with a reduction in CVD and death from any cause in those with type 2 diabetes up to 85 years old. The investigators identified 46,864 people aged 75 years or older with no CVD history between 2006 and 2015. Participants were split into those with and those lacking type 2 diabetes and as statin non-users or new users. In non-diabetics, statin treatment was not tied to a reduction in CVD or "all cause mortality" in both old and very old age groups, although the risk of CVD in both cohorts was higher than the risk thresholds suggested for statin use in guidelines. Statins were associated with significantly reduced levels of CVD and all cause mortality in diabetics age 75 to 84, but this effect tapered off after age 85 and disappeared by age 90. The researchers stress that the study's outcomes do not support widespread statin use in old and very old populations.

Los Angeles County officials this week launched a program to help locate people with autism, Alzheimer's, or dementia who may go missing, reports the Los Angeles Times . The L.A. Found program employs bracelets that can be tracked by sheriff's deputies via radio frequency. The program also establishes a new office for coordinating a countywide response when somebody wanders off. A relative or caregiver of an individual with a cognitive impairment can apply for a bracelet through L.A. Found. Once approved, they can buy a $325 bracelet from the nonprofit organization Project Lifesaver. The bracelet emits a silent electronic tone to a receiver that can pick up the signal within one mile on the ground, or within two to five miles from helicopter, and lead searchers to within inches of the device. "This technology literally enables lost loved ones to communicate their location to us," says L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that 60 percent of people with dementia will wander off at some point, with traffic and the potential for drowning posing serious hazards.

A study published in Neuron clarifies how the abnormal tau protein that clumps in the neurofibrillary tangles that characterize Alzheimer's disease can disrupt the normal function of neurons, reports ScienceDaily . Under certain conditions, tau can cohere into microscopic droplets and interact with proteins in the nuclear pore complex. Using people with Alzheimer's and cellular models of tau-based neuropathology, the researchers determined the Alzheimer's-associated form of tau directly interacts with the nucleoporin known as Nup98, causing it to be mislocated into the cytoplasm and promote tau accumulation in neurofibrillary tangles. The nuclei of neurons from individuals with Alzheimer's also took up large test molecules, suggesting leakage in nuclear pore complexes. The structures also contracted in number and became unevenly distributed throughout the nuclear membrane. Neurons from mice genetically coded to develop tau brain tangles exhibited similar leakage, allowing large dye molecules to pass into the nuclei. "If we can block the interaction between tau and the nuclear pore, it might allow existing neurons to become more functional in subjects; so one of our next steps will be determining whether or not that is possible," says Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Professor Bradley Hyman.

A study published in PLoS Medicine found the cognitive ability of people with Alzheimer's can shift with the seasons, reports HealthDay News . The researchers' analysis of data on about 3,400 people with Alzheimer's in the United States, Canada, and France determined their cognitive ability is better in the late summer and early fall compared to winter and spring. "There may be value in increasing dementia-related clinical resources in the winter and early spring, when symptoms are likely to be most pronounced," suggests the University of Toronto's Andrew Lim. The team estimated that improvements in average thinking skills in the summer and fall were equivalent to almost five years less in age-related declines in thinking ability. This seasonal variance persisted even after factors such as depression, sleep, physical activity, and thyroid status were accounted for. There also were seasonal variations in levels of Alzheimer's-related proteins and genes in cerebrospinal fluid and the brain. "By shedding light on the mechanisms underlying the seasonal improvement in cognition in the summer and early fall, these findings also open the door to new avenues of treatment for Alzheimer's disease," concludes Lim.

A new "Across the States Report" from AARP reveals that 46 of 50 U.S. states saw a decrease in the number of nursing community residents between 2011 and 2016. Approximately 1.3 million Americans lived in nursing communities on an average day, occupying about 81 percent of the 1.7 million spots available, according to the report. Some residents may be better suited to communities that provide different levels of care, AARP notes. Approximately 12 percent of residents had low care level needs in 2014. On average, nursing community residents received about four hours of care per day in 2016. The report also indicated that the 85+ population is projected to triple between 2015 and 2050. In comparison, the population younger than age 65 will increase by only 12 percent. This demographic shift will have a profound impact on family caregiving. The caregiver support ratio compares the number of people aged 45-64, which is peak caregiver age, to the number of people aged 80 and over, which is peak care need. Currently, there are about seven people aged 45-64 for every person aged 80 and over. By 2050, that ratio will drop to three to one.

The U.S. Labor Department estimates that people 55 and older continue to remain unemployed longer than their younger peers when they lose a job, while hourly pay starts to decline as they enter their 60s regardless of educational attainment, reports the Portland Press Herald . "We have this labor shortage, and we hear about the skills shortage," says the AARP's Susan Weinstock. "Older workers can fill those needs if employers will open themselves up to the idea." Theories about what drives people to work longer include better health, higher education, and a transition toward less physically demanding jobs. The incremental elimination of traditional employer pensions and a corresponding increase in 401(k) plans also are discouraging earlier retirements, while a concurrent rise in the Social Security full retirement age has induced people to stay employed longer by giving them higher monthly payments as an incentive. "Productivity is generally associated with wages; that is, the more you can produce, the more you will get paid," says the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank's Ellyn Terry. "Lower wages among older individuals may also reflect people switching to less intensive jobs." Proving ageism is difficult, especially in cases where someone is not hired for a job and age bias is the suspected reason.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is running for U.S. Senate, recently announced a partnership with two local community and technical colleges to connect seniors with college students for free cybersecurity training, reports Axios . This program will help train older men and women in best practices such as improving password security, identifying and avoiding malicious links, and avoiding the downloading of malware. Criminals steal approximately $37 billion a year from senior Americans through cyber scams, according to the latest Bloomberg data.

Danish studies of data on 104,537 people in Copenhagen published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal sought to uncover how certain factors, including a person's age and gender, determined their 10-year risk of developing dementia, while also probing whether participants carried the APOE protein gene, reports MedPageToday . The researchers learned that a confluence of an individual's age, sex, and whether or not they had a common form of the APOE gene could offer a prediction of whether they might develop dementia. Women in their 60s had a 7 percent risk, compared with 6 percent for men. In the 10 years following their 70th birthday, their risk rose to 16 percent and 12 percent respectively, climbing to 24 percent and 19 percent for those 80 and older.

A study published in JAMA Surgery found frail female nursing community residents who undergo breast cancer surgery exhibit high rates of mortality and hospital readmission, in addition to loss of functional independence, reports MedScape . The researchers identified 5,969 female residents from Medicare claims data between 2003 and 2013 who had undergone inpatient breast cancer surgery. They used the Minimum Data Set Activities of Daily Living (MDS-ADL) summary score to analyze preoperative and postoperative function and identified subject characteristics associated with 30-day and 12-month mortality and 12-month functional decline after surgery. The women were 82 years old on average and mostly white, and 57 percent were cognitively impaired. Sixty-one percent underwent axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) with lumpectomy or mastectomy, 28 percent received a mastectomy, and 11 percent had a lumpectomy. Thirty-day mortality was 18 percent in the lumpectomy group, 4 percent in the mastectomy group, and 2 percent in the ALND group. Twelve months after surgery, mortality was highest in the lumpectomy group at 41 percent, followed by 30 percent after mastectomy and 29 percent after ALND. Surgery survivors had a rate of functional decline ranging from 56 percent to 60 percent. The functional MDS-ADL dependency score rose by three points for lumpectomy, four points for mastectomy, and five points for ALND.

President Trump late last week signed an executive order that would make it easier for small businesses to mobilize in associations to provide affordable retirement savings plans. "Today's historic action will provide new retirement security to countless American workers and their families," Trump announced on Friday in Charlotte. "We believe all Americans should be able to retire with the confidence, dignity, and economic security that you want."A White House statement on the signing noted that "regulatory burdens and complexity can be costly and discourage employers, especially small businesses, from offering workplace retirement plans to their employees. Businesses are sensitive to the overall expense of setting up such plans. A recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 71 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses that do not offer retirement plans were deterred from doing so by high costs; 37 percent cited high costs as their main reason for not offering such a plan. Federal agencies should revise or eliminate rules and regulations that impose unnecessary costs and burdens on businesses, especially small businesses, and that hinder formation of workplace retirement plans."