Healthy Seniors News & Features

Brilliant at math, she became one of the first living "computers” NASA hired to help with meticulous calculations needed in a world where actual computers were rare, huge, and slow.

The proportion of folks 65 and older who use pot stands at 4.2%, up from 2.4% in 2015, according to figures from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Among patients who had turned 80 within the past two weeks, just over 5%  received bypass surgery. In contrast, the rate was 7% among patients who were about to turn 80 in the next couple weeks.

The jump in longevity comes as deaths from opioid overdoses dropped for the first time in 28 years, as did deaths from six of the 10 leading causes.

Data were collected in 2000 when participants had an average age of 40, and the follow-up took place 10 years later. At both points, participants were asked about the discrimination they experienced in various situations.

The scientists analyzed plasma -- the cell-free, fluid part of blood -- from more than 4,200 people between the ages of 18 and 95, and found a link between 373 proteins and aging.

Former President Jimmy Carter was discharged from the hospital after getting treated for a urinary tract infection.

The 86-year-old was first evaluated on Friday at a hospital in Washington, D.C., after feeling unwell. She was then transferred to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. By Saturday, her fever and chills had lessened after receiving intravenous antibiotic therapy and fluids, the spokeswoman said.

Vitamin D deficiency is linked with poor muscle health in older adults, a new study finds.

Life expectancy has declined over the past three years, driven down by increasing rates of suicides and drug overdoses.

Each year, more than 300,000 people in the United States aged 65 or older are hospitalized for a broken hip, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Former President Jimmy Carter, 95, is recovering from a minor pelvis fracture after he fell at his home in Plains, GA.

Dog ownership decreases a person's overall risk of premature death by 24%, according to researchers who conducted a review of the available medical evidence.

Almost 1 in 10 U.S. seniors doesn't have enough food to eat, a new study shows.

The studies also found the more positive one's outlook, the less one's risk for heart trouble or death.

The tickle treatment is called transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS). The procedure involves placing custom-made clips containing electrodes on the part of your ear called the tragus; that's the small, pointed tip above your ear lobe.

Frailty is not just a byproduct of aging, but a standalone medical condition, researchers report.

Between 2009 and 2017, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 1,364 people in Washington had used the law to end their lives. Last year, in California, 337 people chose to die under the state’s End of Life Option Act.

People happy with themselves and their well-being tend to live longer and healthier lives than those who are perpetually down in the dumps, British researchers report.

In New York City, for example, people living in East Harlem have an average life expectancy of 71.2 years. A few blocks away, on the affluent Upper East Side, people live to 89.9.

Many people believe that financial difficulties happen only in the late stages of dementia, but they can happen early and the changes can be subtle, the senior study author said.

For both men and women, the death rate due to falls per 100,000 people roughly doubled between 2000 and 2016, according to the study.

Increasing numbers of people 65 and older have skipped medication they couldn't afford, taken less medication than prescribed, or delayed filling a prescription, says lead author Robin Cohen, a CDC statistician.

The device would rely on an emerging technology called "auditory attention decoding" (AAD). AAD simultaneously monitors a person's brainwaves and the sound around them.

The robopets stimulate conversations and trigger fond memories of pets or past experiences, the study’s lead author said.