In the News

The Hill featured a column coauthored by Mireille Jacobson on how low-cost letters to physicians, including letters notifying them when a patient has died, could reduce inappropriate opioid prescribing. “The initial study found that in the three months after receiving the letter, opioid prescribing decreased by nearly 10 percent compared to the control group. The recent follow-up study found that after one year, those who received the letter wrote 7 percent fewer prescriptions than clinicians who hadn’t received the notification, showing that the letter had long-term effects on prescribing behavior.”

Los Angeles Times and Yahoo News featured Donna Benton on retirement and homelessness. “Everywhere you turn, gas bills are going up and people on fixed incomes could end up having to choose between the gas bill and housing,” she said.

Daily Beast featured Jennifer Ailshire on USC Leonard Davis School research focused on “Super Agers.” “We are seeing with this group of [SuperAgers] that they’re quite extraordinary. They really diverge from adults who don’t make it to those old ages,” Ailshire said. “They just look healthier all throughout their lives.” 

Being Patient interviewed Valter Longo regarding fasting to prevent Alzheimer’s.

Medical News Today spoke with Mara Mather about the emotional regulation of older individuals. “A concern I have is that readers may get the impression that older adults, in general, are worse than younger adults at managing their emotion. … To the contrary, previous research indicates that emotional well-being typically improves through adulthood, with the lowest emotional well-being seen among young adults. And in the current study, the older adults felt more empathy and positive emotions when viewing the pictures than younger adults,” she noted. “The brain patterns that the authors focus on do not relate to these age-related positivity effects. Instead, they are associated with individual differences among these older adults.”

Medical News Today featured a study led by Caleb Finch and Max Thorwald on amyloid accumulation in Alzheimer’s versus normal aging. “We were surprised to find extensive overlap between cognitively normal and Alzheimer’s patients for the soluble or non-aggregated form of amyloid proteins,” Thorwald said. “We also found that the precursor to this protein was reduced in Alzheimer’s brains compared to cognitively normal [brains].”

STAT quoted Caleb Finch in a story on the apparent links between air pollution and neurodegenerative diseases. “Population-based studies have come into complete agreement on three continents — North America, Western Europe, and Asia — that air pollution above a certain level predicts a higher risk of dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s, and cognitive decline. That’s now proven by at least 10 major studies,” Finch said.