UK team gets $1.5 million NIH grant to continue success with cell-level study of Alzheimer's disease factor

University of Kentucky researchers have provided the first direct evidence that activated astrocytes could play a harmful role in Alzheimer's disease.

A UK news release explains, "The astrocyte is a very abundant non-neuronal cell type that performs absolutely critical functions for maintaining healthy nervous tissue. However, in neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease, many astrocytes exhibit clear physical changes often referred to as 'astrocyte activation.' The appearance of activated astrocytes at very early stages of Alzheimer's has led to the idea that astrocytes contribute to the emergence and/or maintenance of other pathological markers of the disease."

UK researchers gave mice gene therapy at a very young age and assessed them 10 months later. The astrocyte activation improved brain function and preserved cognitive function. The research, published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience, has led to a five-year, $1.5 million National Institutes of Health funding grant to the researchers and the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging to further this line of study. Chris Norris, an associate professor in the UK College of Medicine Department of Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, is the senior author of the study. (Read more)
 

Open enrollment period for 2012 Medicare Part D continues now through Dec. 7

The open enrollment period for 2012 Medicare Part D began this week and will continue through Dec. 7. The open period is a time for seniors and persons with disabilities to take advantage of prescription drug benefits or, if they've been previously enrolled in the program, to modify their existing plans. The Part D program, now in its sixth year, was set up to assure those 65 and older, or those with disabilities, easy access to their medications.

According to the Medicare Rx Access Network of Kentucky, nearly 11 million Americans over 65 gained comprehensive prescription drug coverage as a result of Medicare Part D's implementation including 63 percent of Kentucky’s seniors. Currently, more than 40 million people with Medicare -- 90 percent of all beneficiaries and 89 percent of Kentucky seniors – now have comprehensive prescription drug coverage.

For additional information on the Medicare Part D program, or to view and compare Medicare plans, go here.

Some strategies for seniors as Kentucky observes Fall Prevention Awareness Day Saturday, Sept. 22

Kentucky has joined 45 other states in proclaiming Saturday, Sept. 22 as Fall Prevention Awareness Day. In 2011, fall-related injuries among the elderly in the Bluegrass were associated with $266 million in hospital charges, according to Julie Lasslo, Kentucky Safe Aging Coalition coordinator at the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center.

"Falls come at an immeasurable impact on the quality of life for many seniors," Lasslo writes in the Lexington Herald-Leader, noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one-third of Americans are hospitalized due to falls. She says such falls are not an inherent part of the aging process and some simple strategies can prevent them:

# Engage in a physical activity regime that includes balance, strength training, and flexibility.
# Consult with a health professional about getting a falls risk assessment.
# Have medications periodically reviewed.
# Get an annual eye exam.
# Store frequently used items at waist level.
# Remove clutter from stairwells, hallways and walking paths.
# Install and use handrails in stairwells and bathrooms.
# Remove throw rugs.
# Place double-sided tape under area rugs and loose carpet.
# Keep your home well-lit and consider using a night light.

For more information, go to Nofalls.org.

Female life expectancy in several Eastern Ky. counties declined

The life expectancy of the average U.S. female increased 1.7 years from 1999 to 2009 -- 79.6 to 81.3 years. Good news on the whole, but Daily Yonder reporters Bill Bishop and Robert Gallardo went a little farther in their analysis of the data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. They found that rural women hardly kept up, and some even lost ground in the decade while their urban sisters obviously gained from widespread health advances.

Bishop and Gallardo report, "The solid gain in longevity was matched in only 168 rural or exurban counties, or 6.5 percent of all the counties outside the cities." That is, while women in most of the nation were living longer lives, in many rural counties -- some 622 of them, in fact -- their longevity shortened in the same decade. Several of those counties were in Eastern Kentucky. The 622 counties represent some 24 percent of rural counties and exurban counties (or counties in a metro area where more than half live in rural census tracts), women lived shorter lives in 2009 than in 1999. You can see a similar map and charts for rural men here. (Click on the above map for a larger image)

As the Yonder writers point out, "The map shows that rural and exurban women are not keeping up with the health advances enjoyed in the rest of the country. In more than 95 percent of rural and exurban counties, changes in female longevity in the last 10 years failed to match the gains experienced in the rest of the country." The largest decreases in female life expectancy between 1999 and 2009 were clustered in Oklahoma, Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama and Georgia. (Read more)

Expert: Health care landscape already changed, despite what Supreme Court decision is this week

Whether or not the federal health-care reform law is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow, initiatives are already in place that will change the way health care is delivered, an expert said at a Lexington conference Tuesday. Gregg Nunziata, senior director at research and consulting firm The Advisory Board in Washington, D.C., "said the burgeoning number of baby boomers entering retirement, the ever-accelerating advances in technology and the increasing public health crisis that finds more and more Americans with chronic illness such as diabetes, are fundamentally changing how health care works in America," reports Mary Meehan for the Lexington Herald-Leader. As people age, they are "demanding a different kind of care, and they will be living long into their golden years," he said. When they become seniors, who already tend to cast their vote, they will become a powerful voting bloc.

Health officials are looking at ways to cut down on costs, which is necessary because "the government is the major funding source, and the major funding source is broke," Nunziata said. To cut costs, the government and insurers are looking at new ways to pay for health care. One example is the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare scoring hospitals based on their performance and paying them accordingly. "A low score could reduce payments by only 1 percent or 2 percent," Meehan reports, but that can translate to a multi-million dollar loss. "Every hospital is being judged and Washington is keeping score," he said.
Bundling payments is another method being tried, in which one flat fee covers all of the care that is provided in a procedure. "The idea would be to force more efficient and cost-effective care by encouraging cooperation," Meehan reports. (Read more)

Health-care system not ready to deal with baby boomers as they get old, expert says at seminar on aging

When it comes to dealing with aging baby boomers, the nation's health-care system isn't ready to deal with them, Dr. Gregg Warshaw, left, said at the University of Kentucky's Summer Series on Aging in Lexington yesterday. "We've made progress," he said, but "We have a lot more to do, and we are running out of time." (Photo by Jonathan Palmer)

Warshaw's figures show "patients with five or more chronic conditions account for about 68 percent of spending on Medicare," Mike Wynn reports for The Courier-Journal. "Around 141 million people suffered with chronic conditions in 2010, and that number is expected to jump by 30 million in the next two decades."

The shift from primary-care doctors to specialists is another big, expensive problem that is hurting the quality of health care for seniors, Warshaw argued. Ageism and frustrations over health networks are also challenges. "Like a lot of things in American medicine right now, we know the answers to those questions," he said. "We just don't know how to get from here to there."

Warshaw, who is the director of the Geriatric Medicine Program at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, was one of more than 350 professionals who attended the seminar, hosted by the UK College of Public Health. (Read more)