Alzheimer's Disease Archive

Ask the doctors

Q. Is there any way to tell if you are getting osteoporosis? Are there symptoms?

A. Osteoporosis is a disease that causes your bones to become weak and brittle and more likely to break. Unfortunately, you probably won't have any symptoms until the disease is advanced or you actually experience a fracture. However, there are two visible clues of osteoporosis: changes in your posture (such as a hunched-over appearance) and loss of height. Both of these changes may be caused when your spine becomes curved or compressed from weakness or tiny fractures (called compression fractures) in your vertebrae, the small bones that make up your spine.

Ask the doctors

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Q. Can adults develop food allergies, or is this possible only in children?

A. While food allergies are more common in children, adults can, and sometimes do, develop food allergies. You can become allergic to a food you've eaten without a problem for years, or a childhood allergy that disappeared can re-emerge. Certain foods are more likely to trigger allergic reactions than others, such as tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, milk, and wheat.

Research we're watching

Good news on the cancer front: The cancer death rate dropped 35% between 1991 and 2014 among children and 25% in adults, according to the annual American Association for Cancer Research Cancer Progress Report. And more treatments for the disease are on the horizon. The FDA has recently approved nine new cancer treatments and signed off on expanding the uses of eight existing therapies to treat different types of cancer. Among the new treatments are innovative immunotherapeutics, which help some people with cancer live longer with a better quality of life; an imaging agent that will let surgeons more precisely remove brain tumors; and molecularly targeted agents, which take aim at specific molecules that help cancers grow and spread to other areas of the body. It is hoped that these new treatments will further reduce cancer deaths. To read the full report, go to cancerprogressreport.org.

Ask the doctor

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Q. Is there a way to avoid feeling sleepy after a holiday meal?

A. That's an unusual question: my patients usually ask me about foods to help them sleep. But with the holidays coming, the concern often is reversed. You may be with friends and family that you see only infrequently, and you don't want to nod off during the conversation.

Being resilient is a skill you can learn and sharpen, and it's never too late to give it a try.

 Image: © Ariel Skelley/Thinkstock

The ability to bounce back from stress or adversity is important throughout life, especially in our older years. That's when we face many transitions, such as health problems; job, income, and home changes; the loss of loved ones; and isolation or separation from friends, grown children, and grandchildren. How we adjust to these changes helps determine what life will look like moving forward. "Many people are living longer, and we want to make the most of these years so people can thrive," says Laura Malloy, the Successful Aging program director at the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.

The benefits of resilience

Coping with stress in a positive way is known as resilience, and it has many health benefits. It's associated with longevity, lower rates of depression, and greater satisfaction with life. "There's a sense of control, and it helps people feel more positive in general," Malloy says.

On call

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Q. I have been seeing a lot about brain training programs to improve memory. Do they really work?

A. Brain training programs promise to preserve cognitive abilities, but so far research has not found they can delay or prevent brain decline.

As men live longer, more face the challenge of difficult-to-control high blood pressure.

 Image: © KatarzynaBialasiewicz/Thinkstock

High blood pressure, or hypertension, remains a common health issue for a majority of older men.

In fact, approximately 54% to 67% of men ages 65 and older suffer from the condition, which occurs when your systolic pressure (the top number on a blood pressure reading) is 140 mm Hg or higher, and your diastolic pressure (the bottom number) is 90 mm Hg or higher, according to the American Heart Association.

In the journals

A common laser treatment may help people with a specific type of eye floater, according to a small study published online July 20, 2017, by JAMA Ophthalmology. Floaters are spots in your vision like black or gray specks, strings, flying bugs, or cobwebs. They become more prevalent with age and occur when the jelly-like substance inside the eyes becomes more liquid, shrinks, and separates from the back wall of the eye.

There are three treatments for floaters: observation, where a floater is monitored for changes (for instance, if it moves away from your central vision or the brain adapts and ignores it); vitrectomy surgery to remove the floater; and YAG vitreolysis, which vaporizes the floater with a laser.

Ask the doctors

Q. The July 2017 issue of Harvard Women's Health Watch spoke about the potential problems related to low blood pressure when taking blood pressure medication. My readings meet the definition of low blood pressure outlined in the article, but I don't take any medication. Should I be concerned, and if so, what should I do to raise my blood pressure?

A. In general, blood pressure is deemed too low only if it causes symptoms. A normal blood pressure is defined as a reading below 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), and some experts consider your blood pressure low only if it dips below 90/60 mm Hg. However, a low reading can be normal for some people. Your doctor probably won't be too concerned about it unless it occurs suddenly; you have an underlying health condition that could cause low blood pressure, such as heart failure; or you are experiencing symptoms such as dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting, fatigue, or nausea. Some medications, such as diuretics (water pills), some antidepressants, and beta blockers, among others, can also cause low blood pressure. But since you aren't taking any medication, this is not an issue. If you are having symptoms related to your low blood pressure, this is something you definitely want to mention to your doctor. But if you've always had low blood pressure and you're not experiencing any problems, it's likely that this is normal for your body.

Research we're watching

A research letter published in the July 3 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology says that shingles, a painful rash caused by the varicella-zoster virus (the same virus that causes chickenpox) may be linked to an increased risk of stroke and heart attack.

South Korean researchers used a national medical database to identify diagnoses of shingles, stroke, and heart attack and followed them from 2003 to 2013. They compared 23,213 individuals who had developed shingles during this period and compared their subsequent rates of heart attack and stroke to approximately 23,213 shingles-free individuals. They found that people who had shingles had a 35% higher risk of heart attack and a 59% higher risk of stroke.