DorlandHealth

When seniors reach a point where they are unable to care for themselves, their risk for death skyrockets, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Self-neglect, defined here as the inability to provide sufficient staple provisions like food, water, shelter and necessary medications, increases the risk for mortality nearly sixfold, according to researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who tracked more than 9,000 elders from the Chicago Health and Aging Project. Controlling for factors like socioeconomic status and general wellness, researchers still identified a strong association between self-neglect and premature death.

In older men the risk of a broken bone is written in the ebb and flow of certain sex hormones, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in September. Under scrutiny are the hormones estradiol and testosterone, along with a substance known as sex hormone binding globulin, all three of which, when present in abnormal levels, can lead to a threefold increase in the risk of breaking a bone. Based on the evidence, the study’s co-author from Oregon Health and Science University called for a revision of the procedures behind the assessment of fracture risk in this population.

Two recent studies have linked lifestyle factors in middle age with the risk of dementia as one gets older. The first, appearing in Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, studied more than 10,000 men and women across four decades in California and Finland. Focusing on cholesterol levels, researchers noticed that higher-than-average readings — between 200 mg/dl and 239 mg/dl — during midlife resulted in a 52 percent increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease later on. By virtue of its ethnically diverse pool, the study asserts that the risk increases congruously across ethnic lines. The second study found that smoking between the ages of 46 and 70 is associated with similar, if not heightened, risks. According to the study published in Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, smokers are 70 percent more likely to develop dementia than nonsmokers. High blood pressure and diabetes were also strongly linked to developing chronic memory loss.

A 20-year study testing the fitness of more than 4,300 participants over 50 found that a modicum of physical activity — as short as a half-hour walk per week — can reduce one’s risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease by half. In devising the study, researchers from Stanford University divided participants into groups based on their average level of activity. The second-least-fit group exercised more than the least-fit group, but only slightly — by the equivalent of 30 minutes of walking per week. Yet the difference in health proved astounding. The least-fit group was twice as likely to die of cardiovascular disease than the second-least-fit group. The study, appearing in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, controlled for unrelated factors like cancer.