MATURE MARKET HEADLINES updated 7/29/99
Dry Eye Problems Increase as Population Ages
If you suffer from dry, itchy eyes, you may be one of the 59 million Americans with a condition called "dry eye syndrome." As our population ages this irritating, and potentially vision-threatening, condition will most likely affect more people, says the American Optometric Association.
"The over-50 population will increase by 10 percent per year over the next five years and, since dry eye syndrome is in many cases related to the aging process, optometrists will likely be hearing more complaints about it," says Robert Houdek, O.D., director of optometric services for CIBA Vision in Atlanta. "As we age we produce fewer tears. This can cause a variety of ocular symptoms such as redness, burning, itching, tearing and sensitivity to light."
Aging is not the only cause of dry eyes, Dr. Houdek says. Other contributors include smoking, a dry environment, long periods of computer work, hormonal changes and taking certain medications such as antihistamines, diuretics or antidepressants.
"Your optometrist will suggest the best alternative for you", says Houdek. Anyone who frequently suffers with dry eye symptoms needs to consult their optometrist. For those who experience mild symptoms only now and then, here are steps that may help.
- Avoid cigarette smoke.
- Install a humidifier if your home is very dry.
- Reduce caffeine intake because it dehydrates your eyes.
- Drink plenty of water.
- Rest eyes frequently during near-vision tasks like reading, sewing, computer work.
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AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Consumer Reports Give Non-Profit HMOs Highest Marks
These days, the anguishing process of choosing a health care plan is enough to make you a little nauseous, if not entirely sick of the whole health care industry. Where can you turn for relief? A new survey by Consumer Reports (CR) magazine gives the nation's HMOs a check-up, then offers tips for picking a winning plan.
The CR survey covered 54 of the largest HMOs in America, and found that non-profit plans with years of experience managing care scored highest in terms of customer satisfaction. The poorest health care performers were mostly for-profit HMOs that are part of large chains run by hospitals or insurance companies.
The survey, based on how 19,000 Consumer Reports magazine subscribers evaluated their interactions with the doctors and HMOs, found few overall problems getting treatment or care. However, members in plans at the bottom of the ratings were three times more likely than those in top-rated plans to say they did not get the care they needed.
The magazine also examined 30 HMO "report cards" sometimes provided to help employees and Medicare and Medicaid recipients pick an HMO. However, most of those "report cards" failed to tell consumers how to judge the truly important aspects of a plan, such as cost information to help users make trade-offs between price and quality of service. "Report cards aren't yet measuring things consumers are interested in," says Dr. Robert Galvin, a health care director for a leading manufacturing company.
The survey findings are reported in an article titled "How Does Your HMO Stack Up?" which appears in the August 1999 issue of Consumer Reports magazine. Readers will find strategies for choosing a health care plan while avoiding some of the common pitfalls such as hidden "out-of-pocket" costs that can transform a so-called "low-cost" plan into a very costly decision. In the opinion of AgeVenture News, this issue of Consumer Reports is a "must read" for those considering an HMO.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
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AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Elder Fitness An Exercise in Self-Confidence
Elders who exercise frequently are really using their heads. Yes, just like most things in life, exercise seems to begin in your head. According to a new study reported by the Center for the Advancement of Health, self-confident elders seem more inclined to exercise than elders who are less confident. That means that an active lifestyle depends just as much on one's mind-set as one's physical ability.
For senior citizens, age, ethnicity, income and fear of crime can impact their confidence and conviction that they can exercise, according to new research conducted by scientists at the Indiana University Center for Aging Research. The study participants were asked whether concerns about crime, lack of sidewalks, poor weather and other factors kept them from walking or exercising more. In addition, they were asked about physiological barriers such as pain, swelling, fear of falling, fear of chest pain or shortness of breath.
Older-age individuals felt more limited in their ability to engage in physical exercise than younger persons, and females had lower confidence that they could engage in physical activity than males. African-American males, with incomes of more than $1,000 a month, had the greatest confidence in their ability to engage in physical activity among all the participants. Individuals who received encouragement to exercise by family, friends and doctors had greater confidence in their ability to engage in physical activity.
Participants who expressed a fear of crime had greater confidence that they would be able to engage in
physical activity than individuals who did not. "It may be that persons who see crime as a barrier identify solutions such as indoor exercise which then eliminate some other environmental barriers and may increase opportunities for social support," Clark said. Nearly half of all respondents were worried that they might experience chest pain or shortness of breath while exercising. This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.
It's like the man said, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". I guess the same logic can be applied to elder fitness. You can lead an elder to the gym but you can't make him exercise. Even if he can, that's not enough. He's got to want to exercise, and it's the "wanting to" that's all in your head. An earlier study, by the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, also investigates the relationship between psycho-social factors and exercise. In that study, researchers identified categories of exercise best suited for various personality types. The UCLA study is reported by AgeVenture News in the first link below (What's Your Fitness Personality?).
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AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Enzyme Linked to Brain Functioning in Alzheimer's
Researchers have identified an enzyme that appears to restore the function of a key player in Alzheimer's disease. The enzyme, known as Pin1, is depleted in brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, according to cell biologist Kun Ping Lu MD PhD, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Affecting an estimated 4 million people nationwide, Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in older people. The disease disrupts memory, thought and language in the brain by damaging synapses and killing nerve cells. Abnormal clumps called plaques and tangled bundles of fibers are the two major hallmarks of Alzheimer's. Plaques can occur in the brain without much change in brain function, but tangles appear to be more directly associated with dementia. Pin1 may play a role in the formation, or prevention, of tangles.
The neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's occur inside individual nerve cells. The tangles are largely composed of the long protein tau. Normally, tau's job is assembling and maintaining the microtubules that stretch from one end of the nerve cell to the other. Microtubules keep the long nerve axons healthy from the muscle to the brain by transporting cell nourishment and structural components.
"There's a lot of evidence over the last two years that shape changes in tau can be lethal to nerve cells and are important in neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer's," says study co-author Peter Davies PhD, Resnick Professor of Alzheimer's Disease Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Pin1 is the first molecule known to change the shape of tau."
In the brains of patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Pin1 is apparently depleted by working overtime to keep fixing tau. When scientists studied the brain AD tissue, most of the available Pin1 was depleted from its usual reservoirs in cells and instead ended up in the tangles with the tau-phosphate molecules. According to this new study, Pin1 may restore the function of tau. The findings are exciting for the research community, and hopeful for the families of AD patients.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Pew Charitable Trusts, Leukemia Society of America, and Department of Energy Breast Cancer Program.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Researchers Crack Alzheimer Gene Code
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Molecular Technology Tackles Alzheimer's
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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