Olga Kotelko is an athlete who excels in a number of track and field events, winning medals and beating the competition in contests all over the world.

She can also bench press weights that would challenge any man.

She’s been a runner for many years.

One other thing: Olga Kotelko is 92 years old.

She has the physique, the strength and the stamina of someone 20 or more years younger.

She is so extraordinary that scientists who study the mysteries of aging are trying to unlock the secret of her longevity.

In our First Hour, a documentary portrait of Olga the Magnificent by John Chipman and a conversation about the secrets of aging or not.

Click here to listen to the broadcast.

Marcia Stefanick talks about the medical differences between men and women and how the different chemical makeups of the different sexes can affect a person’s health and longevity. During the final quarter of the Stanford Mini Med School, some of the most timely and important topics in contemporary medicine and the biosciences are addressed. Stanford Mini Med School is a series arranged and directed by Stanford’s School of Medicine, and presented by the Stanford Continuing Studies program.

This area of the CAKEns website is available only to registered members. To renew your membership, simply click here and choose the appropriate subscription.  The Members Forum has a host of great ongoing conversations around the area of aging.  Join today and get involved!

The video is in four parts, due to its length, and can be viewed at the following links:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

For more information about the PATH Clinic, you can contact peggyhobbs@cdha.nshealth.ca

Thanks to the Geriatric Medicine Research Unit for hosting these videos on their YouTube channel! There are other videos there on topics such as driving and dementia, frailty, and more.

The researchers studied data from over 600 people aged 65+, who had no active diagnosis of depression. The subjects were given follow up interviews over a period of four years. Approximately 5 percent of the patients had an episode of major depression during that time.

The article reports report: “People with low-level depressive symptoms, who perceive that they have poor quality social support from other people, and with a past history of depression, were at particularly high risk to develop major depression within the one-to-four year time period of the study,” Lyness said. “This is good news, as we in the field are just learning how to prevent depression in particular high-risk groups. Future work will be able to test whether any of a variety of treatments – perhaps psychotherapy, perhaps medication, perhaps other things such as exercise – will help to prevent depression in persons suffering from the risks we identified in this study.”

Read the full article here.

Telomere

In short:

“Telomeres are the tails of chromosomes; they are an indicator of history and replicative potential of the cell. Research in the last three decades indicates that telomeres are key factors in several biological fields such as cancer and ageing. Because of the long lifespan of humans and their short telomeres, attrition in telomere length may be a major determinant of human ageing not only at cellular level, but also at organ and perhaps systemic levels. The research contributed to the understanding of how telomeres protect chromosomes from degradation and identified telomerase, the enzyme that preserves telomere length and integrity.” (read the full article here)

Recent studies carried out by the prize recipients have shown that the enzyme telomerase has restorative capabilities for telomeres and can help keep these cells in a healthy condition. Dr. Jean Pierre Baeyens, of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics says “…the ageing process remains a large domain of research and all mechanisms are not depicted yet. These recent discoveries are a real step forward to attract young scientist to the new fields of research and clinical practice in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.”

Click here to watch a video of the Nobel Prize announcement, with a short explanatory presentation of the work.

Nexium (esomeprazole_magnesium) pills

Proton-pump inhibitors are the most potent inhibitors of gastric acid available today.

The article notes:

“Laura Targownik, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, said the use of PPIs – which work by decreasing the amount of acid the stomach produces – has increased because they are effective and generally safe. “We don’t have a lot of other medications for these conditions,” she said. In recent years, there have been a number of safety concerns raised in relation to PPIs. Their use, and long-term use in particular, has been associated with a higher risk of hip fractures, heart attacks and infections such as Clostridium difficile and pneumonia. Dr. Targownik, who specializes in gastroenterology, said those risks must be kept in perspective and balanced against the benefits of the drug. What is essential for patients and physicians alike, she said, is to ensure that use is appropriate, particularly long-term use…“If there is a valid indication, then continue using PPIs. So I advise their use – with caution,” Dr. Targownik said.”

The Science Daily article reports: “Antidepressants showed the strongest statistical association with falling, possibly because older drugs in this class have significant sedative properties. Anti-psychotics/neuroleptics often used to treat schizophrenia and other psychoses and benzodiazepines such as valium were also significantly associated with falls.

Prescribing medications to seniors has increased substantially over the past decade, according to the study. For example, the BC Rx Atlas, recently published by UBC researchers, shows that more than one in seven people aged 80 or older filled at least one antidepressant prescription in 2006. In addition, determining which medication classes are associated with falls remains a challenge since seniors are often on multiple medications for multiple health conditions, with new drugs entering the market on a regular basis, says Marra.”

Read the complete article here.

Juanita Wood transmits her blood pressure readings to a clinic at her retirement community where she lives. Her husband, Arthur, seen in the mirror, uses a similar device, though he also keeps a written tally. Photo: Washington Post

“Every morning at 10 a.m. sharp, Juanita Wood, 87, taps “okay” on a screen to start up a device that takes her blood pressure and transmits the information to her medical clinic. At 10:30 a.m., her husband, Arthur, 91, touch-starts his own device, neatly lined up next to hers. The machine calculates his blood pressure and weight and sends them off, along with a blood sugar count that he enters by hand.

The Woods, of Catonsville, Md., are participants in one of several pilot projects that home health-care providers, retirement communities and others are conducting to see if high-tech but simple devices can help doctors closely monitor aging patients at home in a way that will help control problems before they escalate and cut back on the need for costly long-term care and hospital admissions — especially repeat hospital visits for chronic conditions.”

Programs such as these are not designed for diagnosis – there is not doctor remotely assessing you. Instead, they are designed to help elderly patients stay on top of their own medical condition, and be alert to changes that could indicate a more serious problem.

Read the full article here.

Dr. Melissa Andrew, a geriatrician working at the research unit, describes social vulnerability as a variety of factors that make people susceptible to illness, disease, decline in their ability to do things for themselves, or even death. The factors  can include low education, low income, lack of family supports, social isolation, not being able to participate in community activities, living in a community with high unemployment and having few opportunities for socializing.

This work on social vulnerability  is of vital importance as it has shown that for each additional social vulnerability factor a person had, the likelihood of death increased 5-8%. Working with data from 7000+ Canadian over the age of 65, she has also shown that the older a person is, the higher their level of social vulnerability. Click here to read the work of Dr. Andrew and her colleagues  at the open journal PLoS ONE.

The research unit has invested in a series of videos to explain  the importance and impact of their work in areas such as social vulnerability,  dementia, and frailty. You can see all the videos here.