Researchers are raising safety concerns about high rates of new opioid use among older adults with COPD, according to a study. Opioids, such as codeine, oxycodone and morphine might be prescribed more frequently among older adults with COPD to treat chronic muscle pain, breathlessness and insomnia. Common side effects of opioids include falls and fractures, confusion, memory impairment, fatigue, constipation, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
Working in mice, researchers showed they could reduce glucose production in the liver and lower blood sugar levels. They did so by shutting down a liver protein involved in making glucose, an approach that may help treat type 2 diabetes.
Nine potentially modifiable risk factors may contribute to up to two-thirds of Alzheimer’s disease cases worldwide, suggests an analysis of the available evidence.
Scientists have identified a pathway that leads to the formation of atypical blood vessels that can cause blindness in people with age-related macular degeneration. The research sheds light on one of the leading causes of blindness in industrialized countries and offers potential targets for treating the disease.
An unresolved inflammatory response is likely to be involved from the early stages of disease development, scientists say. Controlling inflammation is crucial to human health and a key future preventative and therapeutic target. In a recent article, a coalition of experts explains how nutrition influences inflammatory processes and help reduce chronic diseases risk.
Many seniors who visit emergency departments require more assistance with physical tasks than they think they do, which may lead to hospital readmission later on, a new report suggests.
While new measures such as the Silver Support scheme give financial help to the elderly, the responsibility of caring for the elderly still lies with family members, said Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob yesterday. In her speech at a charity lunch, she noted that these schemes are good ways to help seniors with very little savings, but stressed that they are meant only to supplement family …
POLITICIANS are being urged to commit to funding elderly care from general taxation after new research showed that most of those going into a home will die before they reach a new cap on the cost of their care.
Almost 100,000 elderly and disabled people use home care offered by the NSW government, the single biggest provider with 40 per cent of the sector. Now the NSW Government has decided to opt out and transfer services to the private sector.