Scientists ‘reverse ageing process’

Belfast Telegraph, Thursday, 1 October 2009

A way to reverse ageing has been discovered which allows withered muscle to rebuild itself by turning back a “biological clock”.

The effect has already been demonstrated on human muscle tissue in the laboratory.

Scientists in the US believe the breakthrough could lead to new treatments that rejuvenate and strengthen ageing bodies or combat degenerative diseases.

Their findings also underline the importance of staying active for older people, since this reduced age-related muscle loss.

Professor Irina Conboy, from the University of California at Berkeley, said: “Our study shows that the ability of old human muscle to be maintained and repaired by muscle stem cells can be restored to youthful vigour given the right mix of biochemical signals.”

Previously the same team had shown that molecular “messages” from muscle cells alter with age to affect tissue repair. As people get older, their ability to restore and rebuild lost muscle is weakened.

The US researchers, working with colleagues from the Institute of Sports Medicine and Centre of Healthy Ageing at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, compared muscle tissue samples from around 30 healthy men. Half the volunteers were young 21 to 24-year-olds and half aged between 68 and 74.

At the start of the study, samples of muscle tissue were surgically removed from the participants' thighs. The men then had the leg from which the biopsies were taken immobilised in a cast for two weeks so that their muscles atrophied.

After the casts were removed, the men exercised with weights to rebuild their wasted muscles. The scientists found that during the exercise period the muscles of younger volunteers had four times more regenerative stem cells engaged in tissue repair than those of older participants. Old muscle also showed signs of damaging inflammation and scarring.

Analysis of the samples revealed for the first time a biological pathway involved in muscle repair that relied on an enzyme called mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). The enzyme, a type of active protein, stimulated a biological “switch” on muscle stem cells called Notch that triggered growth.

Recession pulls U.S. senior citizens back to work: survey

Reuters, Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:39pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The worst U.S. economic recession in 70 years is forcing senior citizens out of retirement, leaving them fighting for jobs in a weak labor market or risk homelessness, according to a private study.

Eugene Salvino, 57, fills out a job application at a job fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 4, 2009. Salvino's job of 37 years was eliminated a year and a half ago and he's been unable to find a position. (REUTERS/Jason Cohn)

The study by Experience Works, released on Tuesday, showed 46 percent of the 2,000 low income people over 55 years who participated needed to find work to keep their homes. Nearly half of them had been searching for work for more than a year.

Experience Works is the nation's largest nonprofit provider of community service, training and employment opportunities for older workers. The study was conducted in the past two months and covered 30 states and Puerto Rico.

"These people are at the age where they understandably thought their job-searching years were behind them," said Cynthia Metzler, president and CEO of Experience Works.

"But here they are, many in their 60s, 70s and beyond, desperate to find work so they can keep a roof over their heads and food on the table."

According to the study, many of the participants had no intention of working past their 60th birthday, but had to change plans after being laid off or following the death of a spouse. Over a third of the participants had retired.

Ninety percent of respondents 76 years and older planned to continue working for the next five years.

Huge medical bills due to a personal illness or that of a spouse were also reasons for coming out of retirement, the survey found. The longest and deepest economic slump since the 1930s is making finding a job for the low-income elderly workers a difficult challenge.

According to Labor Department data, there were 2 million unemployed workers over the age of 55 in August, an increase of 69 percent from the same period last year. Between August 2008 and August this year, the number of unemployed workers 75 years and older increased by 33 percent.

The unemployment rate among workers 55 years and older was 6.7 percent in August after shooting to a record 7.1 percent in July. The national unemployment rate was at 9.7 percent in August, the highest in 26 years.

The Experience Works study found that 46 percent of the elderly jobseekers were sometimes forced to choose between paying rent, buying food or medication. Almost three-quarters believed their age made it harder to compete for jobs with younger workers.

"This study underscores the need to create policies that remove barriers to employment for older workers and provide additional programs and services specifically aimed at helping older people re-enter the work force or remain working," said Metzler.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Man, 24, loses 82-year-old wife

BBC News

An 82-year-old Argentine woman who attracted media attention last month when she married a 24-year-old man has died as a result of heart problems.

Adelfa Volpes was admitted to hospital soon after she and her new husband, Reinaldo Waveqche, returned from their honeymoon in Brazil.

She died in a sanatorium in Santa Fe, the city where the couple were married.

Ms Volpes had rejected criticism over the age difference with the groom, who is the son of one of her best friends.

"I don't want to resign myself to the idea that I lost her," a disconsolate Mr Waveqche told EFE news agency.

The couple were married on 28 September in a civil service after several years of engagement, and later walked through a local church surrounded by reporters.

Their love is said to have blossomed when Mr Waveqche went to live with his future bride after his mother's death, when he was 15.

Overweight elderly don't have higher death rates

Reuters, Thu Jun 28, 2:44 PM ET

After the age of 80, carrying a few extra pounds may not subtract years from your lifespan, a new study from Japan shows.

Among a group of 80-year-olds followed for four years, the researchers found that underweight individuals were more likely to die from cancer, heart disease or pneumonia than normal-weight or overweight people. "Overweight status was associated with longevity and underweight with short life," Dr. Yutaka Takata and colleagues from Kyushu Dental College in Kitakyushu City conclude.

While being overweight has been tied to a greater risk of heart disease, studies have also found that being underweight with heart disease may carry an increased risk of morbidity and mortality, Takata and his team note.

To better understand the controversial relationship between body mass index (BMI) and mortality from heart disease, as well as all-cause mortality, the researchers looked at men and women who were 80-years-old.

Fifty-two were underweight, with an average BMI of 17.2; another 468 were normal-weight, with BMIs averaging 21.8; and 155 were overweight, with an average BMI of 27.3. Just five people in the study were obese (with a BMI of 30 or greater), so they were included in the overweight group. People with BMIs between 18.5 and 25 are considered normal weight, while individuals with BMIs of 25 or greater are classified as overweight.

Mortality rates from heart disease, pneumonia and cancer for normal-weight and overweight individuals weren't significantly different, the researchers found. But underweight men and women were nearly four times as likely to die from any cause compared with as overweight individuals, and nearly 18 times more likely to die from cancer. Heart disease mortality in the underweight group was almost four times greater than among normal-weight individuals.

Other studies have found a protective effect of extra pounds among older individuals, Takata and his colleagues note; for example, among elderly US men, the lowest mortality is seen among men with BMIs of 26 and among women with BMIs of 29.6. While Takata and his colleagues attempted to control for the effects of illness, it is still possible that existing disease accounted for some of the increased mortality risk seen among the underweight individuals, they note.

"It is likely that only mild obesity (but not severe obesity) or overweight status in older people and in patients with heart disease may be associated with a lower mortality rate from any disease, as well as with lower mortality from cardiovascular disease," the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, June 2007.

An active brain may help keep Alzheimer's at bay

Reuters, By Megan Rauscher, Thu Jun 28, 12:24 PM ET

The results of a new study support a number of previous studies that have shown that staying mentally active reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and the mild impairments that precede the condition.

As part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project in Chicago, more than 700 elderly subjects who were an average of 80 years old underwent yearly testing to detect any mental declines. The subjects were tested for up to 5 years and provided information on any current and past problems with their memory or thought processes.

They were also asked about their activities, such as visiting a library or museum; reading newspapers, books or magazines; attending a concert, play or musical; and writing a letter," Robert S. Wilson told Reuters Health.

Ninety of the study subjects developed Alzheimer's disease. In the current issue of the medical journal Neurology, Wilson of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and colleagues report that the frequent participation in activities that involve mental processes was associated a 50-percent reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease.

A mentally inactive person in old-age was 2.6-times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than one who was mentally active, the team found.

This relationship remained after controlling for past mental issues, lifespan socioeconomic status, current social and physical activity, and also low mental function at the beginning of the trial, investigators report. Frequent mental activities also protected against mild impairments.

"Our results suggest that regardless of how mentally active people have been prior to old age, higher level of mental activity in old age reduces the risk of developing an Alzheimer's disease-like dementia and...impairment," Wilson said.

Brain autopsy performed in 102 subjects who died during the study failed to show a correlation between level of mental activity and neuropathology findings.

It is likely, Wilson said, that mental inactivity is "truly a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and not simply an early consequence of the disease" -- because mental activity was not related to Alzheimer's disease pathology "and people with early Alzheimer's disease symptoms did not show accelerated decline in mental activity."

The findings of this study underscore the importance of being mentally active in old age, the clinicians conclude.

SOURCE: Neurology 27, 2007.

More vitamin D can put more pep in seniors' steps

By Charnicia Huggins Tue Jun 26, 12:20 PM ET

Yahoo.com

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Declining physical performance among some Dutch seniors may not be a simple consequence of aging, it may actually be due to a vitamin D deficiency, results of a new study suggest.

"Physicians and the general public should be made more aware of the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, and more effort should be concentrated on the early detection and treatment of people with suboptimal levels of vitamin D," study co-author Dr. Paul Lips, of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and his colleagues write.

Previous research has shown that low vitamin D status is not uncommon among seniors, which may be explained by their decreased exposure to sunshine, reduced dietary consumption of vitamin D, and reduced capacity to naturally synthesize the vitamin. This deficiency is known to result in bone loss and fractures, among other bone and muscle-related problems.

The extent to which an individual's vitamin D status can affect his or her physical performance, however, has not been as well explored.

To investigate, Lips and his colleagues analyzed data on 979 seniors, 65 years or older, who were involved in the ongoing Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam.

They found that the study participants' vitamin D status was indeed associated with their physical performance, even after the seniors' age, the presence of chronic diseases, extent of alcohol consumption and various other factors were taken into account, they report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

For example, nearly half (47 percent) of the seniors had low vitamin D levels at the start of the study, and their deficiency was associated with poorer physical performance than their peers. Over the 3-year study, these vitamin D-deficient adults were also twice as likely as their peers to exhibit a decline in physical performance, such as taking longer to rise from a sitting position.

In light of these findings, "public health strategies should be aimed at this group," the researchers conclude.

The findings can also be generalized to other groups of older Dutch Caucasians, as well as to younger people, who may simply be better able to compensate for their vitamin D deficiency and subsequent decline in physical performance.

Vitamin D deficiency is not unique to the Dutch population, however. Dr. Nancy S. Wellman, a spokesperson for the American Society for Nutrition, told Reuters Health that "vitamin D is one of the most common shortfall nutrients in diets of older Americans."

"It is not found naturally in many foods," she explained.

To address this problem, Wellman, a professor and director of the National Resource Center on Nutrition, Physical Activity & Aging, at Florida International University, advises seniors to drink milk or orange juice that is fortified with vitamin D and calcium, since "both are needed for bone health."

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, online June 2007