Medications

Over the last several weeks we’ve spotlighted the concern about excessive sun exposure (causing skin cancer and requiring cautionary behavior) along with the dangers posed by excessive heat. This is all in anticipation of the extreme heat many of us are likely to face this summer (and some of us…

Last summer, we wondered if we were all experiencing the hottest summer on record. Well, as it turns out, we were. New research published in the journal Nature confirmed that in the Northern Hemisphere, the temperatures reached last summer were the highest experienced in 2000 years. Of course, record-keeping on…

Not so long ago, receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s was a devastating piece of news. Usually, such a diagnosis came after specific symptoms of cognitive decline appeared. Physicians had little to offer beyond recommendations for getting your affairs in order (assuming you still had decision-making capacity when the diagnosis was…

The trends are worrisome. Even before the start of the pandemic in 2020, data showed that alcohol use among adults 65 and over was on the rise. Then the pandemic exacerbated this trend. According to data from the CDC, from 2020-2021 deaths due to alcohol were greater than 178,000, and…

We’ve quoted the statistics before: One out of every four older adults has a fall every year, and one out of every five falls results in a serious injury, including hip fractures (95% of hip fractures are due to a fall) and head injuries leading to death. We previously highlighted…

Last summer, we reported on the FDA approval of Leqembi, a medication that slows down cognitive decline in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment or early Alzheimer’s Disease. While the medication is now covered by Medicare, patients who want access still have to demonstrate a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and still have…