MATURE MARKET HEADLINES POSTED 4/8/99
Use of Red Chinese Cholestin is Peaking
If you're wondering why the use of Red Chinese Cholestin is peaking among Americans, here are some answers. More and more consumers believe that Cholestin is the new miracle drug for lowering "bad" cholesterol. A type of red yeast fermented on rice, used in Chinese cuisine and sold in the United States as the dietary supplement Cholestin, has been shown to lower the level of blood cholesterol for some people. That's good news because elevated levels of certain types of cholesterol in the blood have been associated with a higher risk of heart attack. But don't run down to your local health food store, not just yet anyway.
The American Heart Association (AHA) urges individuals with elevated cholesterol levels to consult with their physician before introducing Cholestin into a cholesterol lowering regimen. That's because no long-term studies show the red yeast rice to be as safe and effective as diet and/or cholesterol-lowering prescription drugs. "Elevated cholesterol levels need to be evaluated and monitored closely by a physician so that appropriate steps can be taken to lower individuals' level of LDL cholesterol ("bad cholesterol") in their blood," says AHA's Thomas A. Pearson, M.D.
The first step for most people is to make some changes in their diet. For example, lower the amount of saturated fat. Then increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products consumed says Pearson. Most dietary saturated fat is derived from animal products, such as red meat, butter, cheese and whole milk. If diet alone does not help to lower the LDL cholesterol in an individual's blood, there are several prescription medications that can be used. For example, prescription statin drugs are a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs.
"Red yeast rice, a strain of pulverized rice fermented with red yeast, is a Chinese condiment that has been used for many years contains several naturally occurring statins including lovastatin, a very effective agent for lowering cholesterol levels," says Pearson. Although Cholestin is less expensive than some of the prescription drugs, many health care plans do cover statin drugs, but will not cover dietary supplements. That's because, according to Pearson, comprehensive studies have been done only on the prescription statins. No one knows for sure that the naturally occurring statins behave in exactly the same way.
Here's the point. "Individuals who may feel more comfortable with ingesting a food product than a prescription drug may not realize that the red yeast fermented on rice used in Chinese cooking is used in much smaller quantities than the food supplement sold in the United States. Therefore, people may be venturing into the unknown by using the substance in much higher amounts than were used in Chinese cooking," says Pearson.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Cholesterol Drug Lowers Heart Disease Risk
Elders' High Cholesterol Gets Low Priority
Link to Alzheimer's Linked to Strokes
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
Pre-retirees Say Not Working Isn't Working
Can't wait for your early retirement plans to rescue you from the drudgery of work? Counting the years, months, or days until retirement? Well, be careful of what you wish for because your wish just might come true. Yes, you just might find your early retirement dream is really a nightmare. At least that's what more and more retirees are saying these days.
A long-established trend of early retirement among American men has come to an abrupt halt, says the National Council for the Aging, citing a new report from The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Many older Americans are leaving the workforce gradually, moving from full time work to "bridge jobs" (part-time, short-term) before they withdraw fully from employment. These changes reflect both a desire to remain "economically active" and, in some cases, to bring in needed income.
The study is particularly important, said EBRI president Dallas Salisbury, because of the planned increase in Social Security normal retirement from age 65 to 67 and the possibility of even more increases in the ages of eligibility for Medicare and Social Security. Many older Americans would like to continue working, and both public and private employer policies are beginning to adapt to this trend. "If employers are willing to structure compensation and job characteristics to meet the needs of these potential employees," said Salisbury, "society can tap a growing pool of older, experienced, and willing workers for years to come."
The study found that from one-third to one-half of older full-time career workers will hold a part-time or short-term job before finally leaving the workforce. For such workers, retirement is a long-term process. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study by the University of Michigan and the National Institute on Aging, the EBRI study reports that since the mid-1980s, workforce participation rates for older women have increased significantly. In addition, many more older men and women are working today than the pre-1986 trends would have suggested.
These changes in retirement behavior are consistent with societal changes that have altered the relative attractiveness of work and leisure in late life. Take a look at the social changes driving this new retirement, oops, I mean "work" trend.
- Mandatory retirement has been outlawed for most American workers.
- Social Security no longer penalizes working after age 65.
- Pension coverage is beginning to de-emphasize age-specific retirement incentives.
- Americans are living longer and healthier lives.
- Many adults look forward to staying productive after age 65.
Here's the point. Social changes are dove-tailing with the new desires of older workers. And that new partnership is redefining retirement and the late-life work ethic. America is starting to retire to something rather than just retire from something.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Retirement Doesn't Work
Retirees Wrestle Wrongs of Retirement Rites
Ready, Aim, Retire ... oops. Back to Work?
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
Memory Study Tests Vitamin E and Donepezil
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is launching a nationwide treatment study targeting individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition characterized by a memory deficit, but not dementia. NIA studies have already confirmed that MCI is different from both dementia and normal age-related changes in memory. That's good news because early evaluation and treatment of MCI might prevent further cognitive decline, including development of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
The upcoming Memory Impairment Study will test the usefulness of two drugs to slow or stop the conversion from MCI to AD. The trial will evaluate placebo, vitamin E, and donepezil, an investigational agent approved by the Food and Drug Administration for another use. Vitamin E (a-tocopherol) is thought to have antioxidant properties, and was shown in an earlier study to delay important dementia milestones, such as patients' institutionalization or progression to severe dementia, by about seven months.
"While cognitive testing may reveal people with MCI to have a significant memory problem, their other cognitive functions remain normal and are for the most part unaffected by MCI," says Dr. Leon Thal, University of California at San Diego. "Prior to today, most treatments tested for slowing memory decline have been evaluated in patients with well-defined AD. What we hope to accomplish in this trial is to test agents that delay or stop further memory deterioration or the onset of AD in persons with MCI."
Normal memory loss generally associated with aging is characterized by misplacing an item, forgetting someone's name, or forgetting to pick up something at the store. Memory loss associated with MCI is more severe and involves continuing problems in delayed recall of information. Abnormal memory loss, associated with dementia, is characterized by even more severe problems, such as disorientation, an inability to recall very recent events, and general confusion. A number of other conditions, diseases, and medications
can cause many of the symptoms associated with dementia, making correct clinical evaluation essential.
Investigators have long been interested in MCI in part because a significant number of people over the age of 65 with the condition eventually develop AD, as many as 12-15 percent of them per year. Only 1 percent per year of healthy people over the age of 65 develop AD. While individuals who eventually develop dementia go through a phase of mild cognitive impairment, some individuals with MCI may never convert to the clinical stages of AD. The Memory Impairment Study is sponsored by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego with grant funding from the National Institute on Aging and contributions from Pfizer Inc. and Eisai Inc. Additional support is from Roche Vitamins Inc.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Memory Loss May Be All In Your Head
Link to Alzheimer's Linked to Strokes
Alzheimer's Research Is Everybody's Business
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
No Break from Stress for Working Women
The combination of high job stress and large family responsibilities spells significant and persistent increases in blood pressure for white-collar women who hold a university degree, a new Canadian study shows. And unlike men, their elevated blood pressure persists at home after working hours.
In the Canadian study, it was only among white-collar women who have university degrees that a significant association was observed between blood pressure and stress on the job and at home. "The effect of this double exposure on the blood pressure of university women seems to be the sum of both effects, on the job and at home," says Chantal
Brisson, PhD, who headed the team of scientists from several Québec City
research institutes. "We found the increase was present through work, evening,
and night, suggesting a persistent effect beyond the work setting."
The women in the sample wore monitors that took readings for 24 hours of
diastolic and systolic blood pressure every 15 minutes during the day and
evening hours and every 30 minutes between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.. The data were
correlated with diaries in which each woman noted her physical activity and any
stressful events before and at the time of each blood pressure reading.
The researchers found that two or more children significantly contributed to
increased blood pressure, but one child did not. The proportion of housework
performed by the women in combination with the volume of housework they did
had a significant effect on their blood pressure.
The Québec scientists point out that by contrast, earlier research found that
men's blood pressure tends to decrease in the evening after work. The study
results are reported in the March issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
The research was supported by grants from the National Health Research and
Development Program of Canada, the Medical Research Council of Canada, the
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Québec, and the Saint-Sacrement Hospital
Foundation.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Search for Origin of Stress Is In Vein
All Stressed Up and No Place to Blow
Sources of Stress Vary for Men and Women
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
People Who Work Long, Live Long
Frederick William Sunderman, 100, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is recognized as America's Oldest Worker following a five month search sponsored by Green Thumb, Inc., in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration on Aging.
Selected because of his age, distinguished career, and devotion to the furtherance of medical education, Dr. Sunderman, still works an eight hour day, editing the Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science which he started twenty-eight years ago organizing seminars, workshops and scientific field trips for the Association of Clinical Scientists. He has taught in the medical schools of eight universities.
A remarkable professional life, which spans over eight decades, Dr. Sunderman is credited for treating the first diabetic coma patient in the U.S., organized the country's first clinical laboratory at Pennsylvania Hospital, invented two instruments for measuring serum electrolytes, pioneered analytical procedures in clinical laboratories, was Medical Director of Explosive Research for the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, helped set up the medical department at Brookhaven National Laboratories for nuclear research, served as medical consultant for the space project at Redstone Arsenal from 1947 to 1969, and, was chief of the clinical pathology department at the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta.
Music became an integral part of Dr. Sunderman's life from the age of five. His mother bought him a violin, engaged a teacher to give him lessons, and frequently reminded him that "practice makes perfect." He regularly hosts musical evenings in his home, and he has played in chamber music concerts most of his life, including a performance at Carnegie Hall.
Over the past decade, Dr. Sunderman has attempted to identify scientifically factors in mitigating the effects of old age. He has looked at heredity, diet, lack of stress, living in a non-toxic environment, and a happy home life as contributing factors. "No easy answers are to be found," he says. "With it all, I am convinced that one of the most important items for longevity is the maintenance of a daily work schedule."
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Gerontologists Seek Longevity Prescription
Is Longevity An Equal Opportunity Event?
Seniors Volunteer for Longer Life
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
View More Headlines
AgeVenture News Service, 21946 Pine Trace, Boca Raton, FL 33428 USA
Dr. David Demko, Editor
E-mail:newsdesk@demko.com
the media may use these headlines free-of-charge