Archive for the ‘aging’ Category
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 09:55 | Comments Off
FDA to Review Bone Drugs After Studies Report Hip BreaksCategories: Wall Street Journal, aging
There have long been safety questions — and lawsuits — over whether bone-building drugs like Merck’s Fosamax can actually increase the chance of femur fractures. Today, the FDA said it was going to take another look at the safety issues.
In a posting on its Web site, the FDA said a 2008 examination of data from makers of osteoporosis drugs containing bisphosphonates didn’t show that women taking the medications had an increased risk of fracturing their femurs — the bone just ..read more
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Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 03:28 | Comments Off
Pfizer Experimental Bone Drug Shows Mixed Results In StudyCategories: Wall Street Journal, aging
Last we heard of Fablyn, an experimental bone drug for the treatment of postmenopausal women, U.S. regulators were holding off on approval after FDA staff and outside reviewers raised concerns and Pfizer, the pill’s maker, was shopping it around to other companies.
Today’s New England Journal of Medicine reports that the drug met the goals of a key study. Fablyn prevented certain fractures in postmenopausal women and reduced the risk of breast cancer, said the study, sponsored by Pfizer. However, the ..read more
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Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 11:01 | Comments Off
Checklists, Complexity and Health Reform -
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 01:21 | Comments Off
Should Older People Pay More for Health Insurance?
Older people are more likely than younger people to need expensive medical care. So should they pay higher premiums for health insurance to reflect their higher health costs? If so, how much more?
On the individual market, people in their 50s can now pay five or six times as much as twentysomethings, according to a story in this morning’s WSJ on the whole age/premiums issue.
The big health-care bills in Congress would still allow variation, but the range would be capped. Under ..read more
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 14:05 | Comments Off
MacArthur Genius Award: Reducing Falls in the ElderlyCategories: Wall Street Journal, aging
For a 75-year-old with high blood pressure, the risk of death or serious disability resulting from a fall is just as high as the risk of death or serious disability caused by a stroke. But a generation ago, doctors thought of falling as an inevitable risk, not something they could do anything to prevent as part of caring for patients.
That’s how Mary Tinetti, a geriatrician at Yale med school, laid things out for us when we got her on the ..read more
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 00:38 | Comments Off
Alzheimer’s Cases to Climb Sharply With Longer LifespansCategories: Wall Street Journal, aging
The number of people living with memory-robbing Alzheimer’s disease grew 10% globally between 2005 and 2009 to 35 million, according to a report today by U.K.-based Alzheimer’s Disease International.
And, mostly because people are living longer, this number is expected to continue climbing to 115.4 million in 2050, according to the report, which surveyed nations around the world.
Some other countries, like the U.K., have a national Alzheimer’s plan in place, according to Harry Johns, the head of the Alzheimer’s Association, one ..read more
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Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 23:25 | Comments Off
Health Reform: AARP, Astroturf, and the Co-op Public PlanCategories: Wall Street Journal, aging
Here’s some of the news this morning from the health care debate:
Some of the elderly growing increasingly worried that an overhaul will come at a cost to Medicare, even though President Obama has repeatedly said that it will not, according to the New York Times.
AARP, the 40-million member organization that represents older Americans, has seen dissension among its members about health-care reform and 60,000 have quit the group since July 1, reports the WSJ. While Obama has mentioned AARP’s ..read more
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Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 00:28 | Comments Off
What Seniors Don’t Know About Prescription Drugs and DrivingCategories: Wall Street Journal, aging
Most people who are 55 and older take one or more prescription drugs that may affect their ability to drive safely — but most of them are unaware of the risks, according to a new survey.
In all, 69% of those surveyed took a medicine that could impair driving, because of possible side effects such as dizziness, drowsiness or blurred vision. But only 28% of respondents were aware of those issues. Only 18% had been warned about the possible driving risks ..read more
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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 07:52 | Comments Off
Is the Mediterranean Diet Good for Your Brain?Categories: Wall Street Journal, aging
There’s a lot of research about how the Mediterannean Diet is good for you in all kinds of ways. But does it fend off cognitive decline and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s? A study published a few years back suggested it does; two more studies, published today in JAMA return to the subject with conflicting results.
In one study, researchers followed nearly 2,000 elderly people for who started off without cognitive impairment and found that those who adhered more closely to ..read more
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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 01:42 | Comments Off
GOP Senator: End-of-Life Counseling Is Not a ‘Death Panel’Categories: Wall Street Journal, aging
Sarah Palin made headlines when she used the phrase “death panel” in a statement on the national health-care debate.
That was just the latest in what’s become an ongoing series of comments that may spring from a provision in one of the big health bills introduced this year. (Read it for yourself on p. 424 of the bill.)
But the provision has nothing to do with “death panels” or euthanasia, Johnny Isakson, a Republican Senator from Georgia, tells the Washington ..read more


