All Articles on Healthy Aging

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  Healthy aging: Never too early—or too late

  Advice based on your current decade of life.
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  High-dose vaccine may protect seniors better

  Thanks to a new flu vaccine being distributed this flu season, seniors are getting more protection against serious seasonal flu viruses.
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  Caring for someone with dementia? These tips may help.

  If you’re a caregiver for someone with dementia, you know how challenging your role can be. This is especially true with progressive conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, where deterioration of brain function can affect a person’s behavior.
• No magic bullet, but cautious optimism in journey to halt dementia

  Last month brought good news for those interested in preventing or delaying dementia—which is predicted to triple between now and the year 2050, affecting 115 billion people worldwide.
• Allen Foundation drives traumatic brain injury study forward

  The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has awarded a new $2.37-million grant to help Seattle-area researchers embark on an important research effort designed to investigate the lasting effects of traumatic brain injuries—an area that has long been filled with question marks for physicians and scientists.
• Dementia risk tied to blood sugar level, even with no diabetes

  A joint Group Health–University of Washington (UW) study in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that higher blood sugar levels are associated with higher dementia risk, even among people who do not have diabetes. Blood sugar levels averaged over a five-year period were associated with rising risks for developing dementia, in this report about more than 2,000 Group Health patients age 65 and older in the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study.
• Pneumococcal vaccine being tested in older adults

  Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH, is leading a study of pneumococcal vaccine in older adults at six Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) across the nation, including at Group Health. Dr. Jackson, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute, leads the Seattle-area VTEU. Dr. Jackson and her colleagues plan to see if a higher dose of a pneumococcal vaccine will create a stronger immune response in older adults who received an earlier-generation vaccine against pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases.