Studies of elder

In another open study of elderly men and women, one of 30 subjects developed generalized weakness in association with a serum sodium concentration of 125 mmol/1 and a serum potassium concentration of 3.1 mmol/1 (52). 

Sundbeck, G., Lundberg, P-A., Lindstedt, G., Jagenburg, R., and Eden, S., Incidence and prevalence of thyroid disease in elderly women Results from the longitudinal population study of elderly people in Gothenburg, Sweden. Age Ageing 20,291-298 (1991). 

In our balance studies O) we found that while mean zinc balance of a group of subjects appears to provide meaningful results, data of Individual subjects Is less reliable. While mean zinc balance In one study of elderly men consuming 15 mg of zinc per day was 0.1 mg/day. Individual subjects appeared to retain or lose as much as 1.8 mg of zinc dally. 

Vogel GW, Morris D. The effects of estazolam on sleep, performance, and memory a longterm sleep laboratory study of elderly insomniacs. J Clin Pharmacol 1992 32 647-51. 

Not surprisingly, much of the research on cocoa has been done in the Netherlands, a country famous for its hot cocoa. A study of elderly Dutch men indicates that eating or drinking cocoa is associated with lower blood pressure and reduced mortality. Interestingly, the reduction in the death rate was not associated with lower blood pressure. The researchers speculate that cocoa s rich content of biofiavonols, which are potent antioxidants, may be responsible for that very desirable benefit. 

Hyponatremia, defined as a plasma sodium concentration of 133 mmol/1 or under, has been investigated in a prospective study of elderly patients with hip fractures. ACE inhibitors were the most frequently used drugs (five... 

When selecting a NSAID, it is prudent to consider the potential effect of seemingly minor elevations in SBP. In the one study of elderly treated hypertensive patients with OA, a 3.1 mm Hg increase in mean SBP was measured after 6 weeks of therapy in a rofecoxib-treated group compared to a celecoxib-treated group [128]. Russell et al. estimated the impact of this increase in mean SBP on the occurrence and associated costs of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke over a 4-year period [185]. They estimated that a 3.07 mm Hg increase in mean SBP might be associated with 21, 800 additional CHD events and 22,100 additional stroke events. Treating patients with these events was estimated to cost US 650 million. 

Levesque LE, Brophy JM, Zhang B, Levesque LE, Brophy JM, Zhang B.The risk for myocardial infarction with cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors a population study of elderly adults. Annals of Internal Medicine 2005 142 481-489. 

In laboratory animal studies of elderly third-gene-ration diethylstilbestrol-exposed, female mice, an increased risk of uterine cancers, benign ovarian tumors, and lymphomas was found. Elderly third-generation diethylstilbestrol-exposed male mice were at an increased risk of certain reproductive tract tumors. Both the female and male mice studied were the offspring of female mice exposed to diethylstilbestrol before birth (in the womb). 

Hendrie HC, Hall K S, Hui SL et al 1995a Apolipoprotein E genotypes and Alzheimer disease in a community study of elderly African-Americans. Ann Neurol 37 118-120 Hendrie HC, Osuntokun BO, Hall KS et al 1995b Prevalence of Alzheimer s disease and dementia in two communities Nigerian Africans and African Americans. Am J Psychiatry... 

Flavonoids from other sources, e.g. tea, onions and apples, have also been linked with a reduced risk of death from CHD. A study of elderly men in the Netherlands has shown that the higher the intake of dietary flavonoids from these sources, the lower the risk of CHD. If the flavonoid intake was greater than 30 mg per day then the relative disk of death from CHD was less than half that in men who consumed less than 19 mg of dietary flavonoid. 

Exercise. Remember, one of the great benefits of exercise is improved sleep. A study of elderly patients published in the Journal of the Amen-can Medical Association in 1997 showed that when they engaged in walking and other low-impact aerobics for just four days a week, they enjoyed an hour more sleep each night. Exercise is especially helpful if you re suffering from insomnia related to stress, anxiety, or muscle tension. Don t exercise right before bed, however. Exercise warms you up and energizes you, so ideally you ll do it mid- to late afternoon. 

Similarly, in an observational cohort study of elderly survivors of acute myocardial infarction, the rate of bleeding was higher in patients receiving warfarin with aspirin (0.08 per patient year), or the triple drug combination of warfarin and aspirin with either clopidogrel or ticlopidine (0.09 per patient-year), than in patients receiving aspirin alone (0.03 per patient-year). ... 

Schneeweiss S, Patrick AR, Stunner T, Brookhart MA, Avom J et al. 2007. Increasing levels of restriction in pharmacoepidemiologic database studies of elderly and comparison with randomized trial results. Med. Care 45 S131-S142. 

Endocrine Thyroid Thyroid abnormalities are common during lithium treatment 20% develop hypothyroidism and 40% develop goiter if untreated [33 ]. In one study of elderly people (over 65 years old) taking lithium (n=79), 28 were hypothyroid [34 ]. This compares with a rate of only 7.1% of a matched non-lithium-treated control group (n = 85), a rate that is similar to that of the general population. This effect is not mediated by production of antithyroid antibodies, since antibodies were present in 27% of the patients who were tested, a rate that is similar to that in non-lithium-treated patients in this age group. The lack of association with antithyroid antibodies in lithium-related thyroid dysfunction is true for all age groups [35 j. 

This was evaluated as part of the cross sectional study of elderly subjects living in Randers. All the participants had a careful physical examination of the neck, and a random sample (n=106) had the thyroid volume and structure examined by sonography. 

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