AV Health Moment. Growing Gracefully
Study Finds Many Are Improving In Health As They Age
(New Haven, CT) — New research shows many adults are improving in their health as they age. A study done by Yale University shows close to half of adults age 65 and older had improvements in cognitive function, physical function, or both as they got older. Researchers looked at eleven-thousand participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a federally funded survey of older Americans. Beca Levy, the lead author of the study says many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities but the study found that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common.
AI Helps Solve Unexplained Health Issues
(Boston, MA) — Artificial Intelligence is helping doctors diagnose patients after years of symptoms that have stumped them. Researchers from OpenAI and Boston Children’s Hospital took data from 18 patients and plugged the data into a newly developed AI model. That led to a diagnosis that was confirmed by a lab. Researchers hope the new model will be able to help scores of Americans who have rare diseases of health issues. The study is in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Brain Blood Tests Coming To Detect Alzheimer’s
(Silver Spring, MA) — Brain blood tests will soon be coming to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. The Food and Drug Administration recently gave the green light for the marketing of the first in vitro diagnostic device that tests blood for plaques linked with Alzheimer’s disease in adult patients. Neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson at New York-Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center says this will revolutionize the way Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed and will work similar to how cholesterol tests are done routinely. Experts estimate 47 million Americans have preclinical Alzheimer’s disease and are not yet showing symptoms.
