MATURE MARKET HEADLINES POSTED 12/4/98
Heart Health Requires Lifelong Effort
Researchers at the University of Michigan believe that in order to stave off heart disease, one should understand how the heart changes as it ages, because heart disease doesn't occur suddenly. It's a progression that occurs over time and is influenced by gradual changes that weaken the heart.
These changes begin early in life with arterial stiffening in the teen years. By age 20, your maximum heart rate begins to slow by one beat a year and by age 30, you begin to produce less of a protein that regulates how long each beat lasts, which means your heart must work harder on each beat to keep up its normal output.
"Aging itself is not a disease and it is not unhealthy to age, but it does place some limitations on the heart. Those limitations cannot be reversed, but they can be attenuated. You can't make an old heart look like a young heart, but you can make an old heart look younger," said Marvin O. Boluyt, assistant research scientist with the University of Michigan Division of Kinesiology. Boluyt is co-author of "Cardiovascular Aging in Health," a chapter in the newly published book "Advances in Organ Biology," edited by E. Edward Bittar. Published by JAI Press of Stamford, Conn., "Advances in Organ Biology" is a collection of chapters by scientists specializing in heart failure. The book focuses on new advances that have been made in defining one aspect of heart disease: the changing metabolism.
Boluyt and co-author Dr. Edward G. Lakatta, chief of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Science at the Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore, examine the normal changes the heart goes through in the aging process. The changes---such as reduced protein levels that slow the heartbeat---aren't threatening by themselves. However, coupled with a history of illness and a sedentary lifestyle, these changes in the heart could throw a healthy, but stressed, heart into turmoil.
There are primarily two ways your heart changes with age: everyday wear and tear (such as by disease and hormonal changes), and changes that occur naturally (such as the change in protein that regulates the heart beat). Lifestyle changes and medication are the most effective means in prevention of heart disease, while gene therapy is beginning to show promise for some types of heart disease, Boluyt said.
"Exercise and a healthy lifestyle don't prevent all of the age-related changes, but they do reverse or prevent some of the changes that occur, such as reversing the decrease of a key protein level (exercise can boost the levels of a key protein called SR calcium ATPase). That's been shown very clearly in studies done on rats," he said. Increased levels of SR calcium ATPase can increase the reserve capacity of the heart, which decreases with age. The larger the reserve capacity of the heart, the better it is at dealing with a sudden insult. Thus, exercise not only reduces the chances of having a heart attack, it also can increase the chances of surviving a heart attack, Boluyt said.
Heart disease is a mix of many diseases that take a toll on the heart as it ages, but especially after age 60 when the chances of developing heart disease and heart failure steadily rise. Even without a history of heart disease or high blood pressure, the chances of developing heart disease later in life increase with age. "Even if you take away all of the diseases, the heart still changes with age. Those changes are not necessarily bad. Those changes by themselves would not impair the heart, but they reduce the reserve capacity of the heart so that it is less able to deal with a heart attack," Boluyt said.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Cardiac Disease Still A Heart-Breaker"
"New Blood Test Predicts Heart Attack Risk"
"Doc Dispels Cardiac Myths In A Heart Beat"
"Cholesterol Drug Lowers Heart Disease Risk"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
Health-related Depression Higher for Men
Depressed men who have congestive heart failure are more likely than their women counterparts to perceive themselves as physically limited in performing daily tasks, according to a Norwegian study reported by the Center for the Advancement of Health. Writing in the fall issue of The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine (Vol. 28, No. 3), Terje A. Murberg, MSc, of Stavanger College, Stavanger, Norway, and colleagues report that "men may be more attentive to symptoms of functional limitations and perceive these symptoms as more psychologically invasive than do women."
The researchers examined 85 men and 34 women with congestive heart failure, a condition that can leave patients with chest pain, short of breath, and physically debilitated. The patients completed questionnaires assessing both their levels of depression and ability to perform a range of daily tasks. Their physicians also completed similar assessments. Overall, 32 percent of the men, but 62 percent of the women, reported mild to severe symptoms of depression. This probably reflects women's greater willingness to report depressive symptoms in general rather than any difference in the way congestive heart failure affects men and women, the researchers say.
Physicians' ratings of the patients' functional abilities did not predict their level of depression, the researchers say. Instead, it was the patients' perceptions of their own abilities that was more closely tied to their symptoms of depression - an effect that was much stronger for men than for women. Some men, however, reported that they experienced few daily limitations in their activities, despite the fact that their physicians assessed their symptoms of heart failure as severe.
"These findings may simply reflect that some men have high tolerance for congestive heart failure symptoms," the researchers say. It is also possible that men find it less socially acceptable to complain about their health and do not report all their symptoms. Women, say Murberg and colleagues, may have a more realistic appreciation of their condition. Their ratings of their functional ability more closely matched their physicians' ratings.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Heart Risks Doubled in Depressed Males"
"FDA Takes Stock of New Depression Drug"
"Prayer Versus Elder Depression"
"Hospital Stay Longer for Female Heart Patients"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
Worldwide Gains in Life-Expectancy
Major increases in life expectancy in many parts of the world during the past 100 years have
set the stage for health-care challenges in the 21st century for both developed and developing
countries, according to a study released by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. The International Brief, "Gender and Aging: Mortality and Health (IB/98-2)" is the second in a series of four international profiles focusing on gender and aging.
"Countries around the world are confronting the challenges posed by aging populations," said
Census Bureau analyst Kevin Kinsella, co-author of the brief with Yvonne Gist. "While the pace
of aging varies, all nations are, or soon will be, facing important issues regarding health care for
their expanding older populations. Most issues will affect elderly women who greatly outnumber
elderly men in most nations." In more than half of all developed countries, women's life expectancy at birth is at least 80 years, which is seven years higher on average than men. In developing countries, the average gender gap in life expectancy at birth is only three years.
The study said cardiovascular disease is the primary killer at older ages in developed
countries and more recently has become the top cause of death in developing countries.
Other highlights from the report:
- Practically all nations have shown continued improvement in life expectancy, with recent exceptions in Africa, due to the impact of HIV/AIDS.
- The gender gap in life expectancy is widening in most of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, but tends to be narrowing in other countries.
- Life expectancy at age 60 in Japan rose nine years for women and nearly seven years for men between 1950 and 1990.
- Women who reach older age can expect to live more disability-free years than their male counterparts.
- The number of widows is rising rapidly in most parts of the world, as is the number of never-married older women.
The brief, produced with financial support from the Office of the Demography of Aging at
the U.S. National Institute on Aging, uses statistics from the International Database in the
Census Bureau's International Programs Center. A brief on demographic dimensions was published
earlier this year, and upcoming profiles will focus on caregiving and the economic status of
elderly women. The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely, relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in 1790.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Older Women's Market Is Sleeping Giant"
"300 Million Worldwide Suffer Deafness"
"WHO Looks Into Global Depression"
"Global Impotence Pegged at 47 Million"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
P&G's Actonel Drug Battles Osteoporosis
Data from two new studies show that Actonel (risedronate) reduced the incidence of vertebral fractures by up to 70 percent at 12 months, built and prevented the loss of bone mass, and showed gastrointestinal tolerability similar to placebo in men and women on chronic corticosteroid therapy. The studies were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).
Actonel, invented and developed by Procter & Gamble (P&G), is in the final stages of development for the prevention and treatment of corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis (CIO) and post-menopausal osteoporosis (PMO) by P&G and Hoechst Marion Roussel.
Corticosteroids are widely used to treat chronic, non-infectious inflammatory diseases such as
rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and lupus. More than 30 million Americans are estimated to
suffer from these conditions. In high doses, corticosteroids can damage bones, causing
corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis (CIO). In fact, more than 40 percent of patients treated with
long-term corticosteroid therapy may develop fractures. Hip fractures are associated with a 30% increase in mortality. This underscores the importance of building and maintaining bone mass.
"Men and women with CIO have more than double the risk of experiencing bone loss and fractures
than people with post-menopausal osteoporosis," said David Reid, M.D., University of Aberdeen, UK, who presented the analysis at the ACR meeting. "These new data give us hope that there may be an
important new medication that can help men and women taking corticosteroids reduce the risk of
vertebral fractures associated with CIO."
Results from the studies demonstrate that patients taking 5 mg of Actonel maintained or
increased bone mineral density, and that Actonel 5 mg significantly reduced the incidence of vertebral
fractures by 70% vs. the control group at 12 months. "These studies suggest that taking just calcium or calcium with vitamin D may not be enough to significantly increase bone mass," said Stanley Cohen, M.D., Clinical Associate Professor at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, who also presented the study results at the meeting. "Patients on chronic corticosteroid therapy should consider that over-the-counter dietary supplements, when taken alone, might not be enough to protect them from bone loss resulting from chronic corticosteroid therapy."
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Nasal Spray Medicine Fights Osteoporosis"
"Calcium - Vitamin D Combo Reduces Bone Loss"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
Ergo-Card Offers Elder Players New Deal
The Kansas-based, New Deal Playing Card Company has designed a new deck of playing cards that fits the natural curvature and grip requirements of an elder's hand. The "Ergo Cards" are ergonomically designed decks of cards that have a "form following function wave" on the top and bottom of the cards that allows easier grip and simpler shuffling, says the cards's creator, Lance Rake, a University of Kansas Associate Professor of Design.
"Two years ago, my father returned from Florida with a peculiar picture of a deck of playing cards that belonged to a friend". The friend was such an avid player that she wore the ends of her cards into a wavy curve from continuous shuffling. "My father was amazed at how comfortable these cards were in his arthritic hand."
Professor Rake spent the next few months dealing with a new design concept for playing cards. He designed and re-designed dozens of decks until he matched the ergonomic form and comfort of the old, worn deck that gave him the first spark of inspiration. From there his "New Deal Playing Cards" were born and the wavy wonders are fast becoming a big hit in toy, gift, and sport stores.
"New Deal's ErgoCards" are currently being sold in nearly 400 stores in over 40 states. At a suggested retail price of $4.95, Professor Rake says its one "heckuva deal" for the avid card player.
Playing cards have been around for over 500 years, but this is the first time anyone has thought about designing the cards to fit the shape of your hand.
The New Deal Playing Card Company is located in Lawrence, Kansas. The company's toll-free phone number is: 1-888-2-NU-DEAL.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Arthritis Prevalence Rises as Boomers Age"
"Center for Assisted Living Launches Website"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
| |
