Senior Health and Wellness

A new study published by Taylor & Francis identified a risk factor that may affect older consumers’ cognitive health. According to their findings, older adults who have untreated vision problems may be at a higher risk of developing dementia. 

“This study is among the first to evaluate the association between sight problems and cognitive outcomes in older adults through a comprehensive examination of all available population-based studies in English,” said researcher Beibei Xu. “Although the reasons behind this remain unclear, it suggests that diagnosing and treating eye conditions may be beneficial – both to improve a person’s quality of life and also to potentially slow down or stop memory loss.” 

How vision problems can affect cognition

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 16 previous studies that included information on more than 76,000 participants. These studies included long-term information on the participants’ eye health and cognitive health. 

Ultimately, there was a clear link between visual health concerns and dementia. Participants with any kind of sight problem were 137% more likely to experience cognitive impairment than older adults without vision problems. These findings held up regardless of whether the participants were diagnosed with visual problems or self-reported issues with their vision. 

Additionally, the risk of developing cognitive impairment was 41% higher for participants with vision problems, and the risk of dementia was nearly 45% higher for this group. 

While the researchers remain unclear on precisely why this link exists between vision problems and cognitive impairment, they hypothesize that several factors may come into play. They explained that with poorer vision, older adults may struggle to take in information, their senses are generally more dulled, and they may have a hard time with visual perception. All of these things can impact long-term cognitive function. 

Now, the team hopes that these findings encourage older consumers to prioritize their visual health. Preventing or treating long-term eye conditions may help their cognitive function in later life. 

“Finding ways to prevent or delay the onset of dementia could help reduce its devastating impact on the lives of affected individuals and their families, especially in light of the growing burden of the disease,” said Xu. “Identifying modifiable risk factors is the first critical step for developing effective interventions to achieve this goal. 

“Our new results highlight the importance of regular eye examinations for older adults – enabling any potential problems with their vision to be spotted and treated early. They also suggest that any self-reported changes to a person’s eyesight should not be ignored.” 

A new study conducted by researchers from Penn State explored how different generations fare when it comes to chronic medical conditions. According to their findings, older adults are more likely than earlier generations to struggle with several health concerns. 

“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were beginning to see declines in life expectancy among middle-aged Americans, a reversal of more than a century long trend,” said researcher Steven Haas. “Furthermore, the past 30 years has seen population health in the U.S. fall behind that in other high-income countries, and our findings suggest that the U.S. is likely to continue to fall further behind our peers.” 

Health risks for older adults

The researchers analyzed data from participants over the age of 51 enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study. They were most interested in understanding how many older people have more than one of the nine major types of chronic conditions: cancer, cognitive impairment, heart disease, diabetes, high depressive symptoms, high blood pressure, arthritis, lung disease, and stroke. 

The study showed that older adults were both more likely to have multiple chronic health conditions, and experience them at earlier ages than previous generations. The researchers found that Baby Boomers, who were born between 1948 and 1965, were the most likely to fall into this category. 

They also learned that high blood pressure and arthritis were the two most common chronic conditions that the participants reported throughout the study. Additionally, the team has reason to believe that depression and diabetes were largely responsible for this surge in health concerns among the different generations. 

The researchers also explained that current medical technology allows consumers to be diagnosed with conditions that may have previously gone undetected for several years, which could also explain why this generation of older adults is experiencing more health concerns. Now, the researchers want to do more work in this area to better understand the specifics behind these health concerns. 

“Later-born generations have had access to more advanced modern medicine for a greater period of their lives, therefore we may expect them to enjoy better health than those born to prior generations,” said researcher Nicholas Bishop. “Though this is partially true, advanced medical treatments may enable individuals to live with multiple chronic conditions that once would have proven fatal, potentially increasing the likelihood that any one person experiences multimorbidity.” 

Maintaining healthy habits is important for older adults’ physical and mental well-being. Now, a new study explored the cognitive benefits associated with older consumers sticking to a healthy diet and exercise routine.

According to the researchers, consumers over the age of 80 can help prevent cognitive impairment if they maintain healthy lifestyles. This was also true for consumers with the APOE ε4 gene, which is commonly linked with Alzheimer’s. 

“In this study, we observed that healthier lifestyle was associated with better cognitive function among the oldest old regardless of APOE genotype,” the authors wrote. “Our findings may inform the cognitive outlook for those oldest old with high genetic risk of cognitive impairment.” 

Staying healthy has cognitive benefits

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from over 6,100 participants enrolled in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey aged 80 or older. The team evaluated the participants’ lifestyles, including what their typical diet and exercise routine looked like and whether or not they smoked. They also assessed the group’s long-term cognitive function and tested for the APOE ε4 gene. 

The researchers learned that following a healthy lifestyle is the key to maintaining cognitive function into older age. While the APOE ε4 gene made participants nearly 20% more likely to experience problems with cognitive function than other variations of the gene, the team believes that sticking to a healthy lifestyle can make significant differences in older consumers’ brain health. 

Having a moderately healthy lifestyle lowered the risk of cognitive impairment by nearly 30%, while participants with the healthiest lifestyles were 55% less likely to struggle with cognitive impairment. 

A new study conducted by researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center explored the brain benefits associated with getting regular exercise. According to their findings, exercise led to better blood flow to the brain for older consumers with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). 

“This is part of a growing body of evidence linking exercises with brain health,” said researcher Rong Zhang, Ph.D. “We’ve shown for the first time in a randomized trial in these older adults that exercise gets more blood flowing to your brain.” 

Brain benefits of exercise

To understand the cognitive benefits associated with exercise, the researchers had 70 participants with MCI between the ages of 55 and 80 involved in the study. For one year, the participants either completed an aerobic exercise routine three to five times per week or went through a stretching regimen for the same amount of time. Then, the researchers analyzed results from MRI brain scans, cognitive exams, and fitness tests. 

While less than 50 participants made it to the end of the study, the researchers found that vigorous exercise was beneficial for brain health and function; however, those involved in the stretching routine didn’t experience any cognitive changes. By exercising regularly, the participants' cardiorespiratory fitness improved, which helped their body process more oxygen during physical activity. Improving this area of physical fitness led to better blood flow to the brain.

This is important because getting proper blood flow to the brain has been found to be associated with a lower risk of dementia and MCI. Because these participants were already struggling with MCI, knowing that exercise helped to improve blood flow may encourage older consumers with cognitive impairments to be more physically active. 

Though the researchers didn’t observe any improvements to the participants’ memory or overall cognitive abilities, they attribute that to the length of the study and believe that these findings are the first step towards seeing better outcomes. 

“There is still a lot we don’t know about the effects of exercise on cognitive decline later in life,” said researcher C. Munro Cullum, Ph.D. “MCI and dementia are likely to be influenced by a complex interplay of many factors, and we think that, at least for some people, exercise is one of those factors.”