FYI Daily

It's happening to millions, maybe you. It's happening to New York Magazine writer Michael Wolff, 58: witnessing a loved one's inexorably slow, modern-medicine-propped decline and suffering that endlessly stops short of death.

In a moving, angry, don't-miss read, Wolff chronicles how his mother, 86, survives medical crisis after crisis, each time with less and less of her mental faculties and physical abilities. Her misery mounts, her family's stress skyrockets about where she'll live and how she'll be cared for, and the costs to everyone involved -- including the American people, thanks to Medicare -- defy the imagination.

"Human carnage," he calls it.

"The traditional exits, of a sudden heart attack, of dying in one’s sleep, of unreasonably dropping dead in the street, of even a terminal illness, are now exotic ways of going. The longer you live, the longer it will take to die," he w writes...  Read more

The first time the loved one in your care falls, it's unnerving. But it can get downright scary when the falls happen repeatedly -- as is surprisingly common. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan has had the latest in a series of falls, breaking several ribs. News of the fall, which happened in March at her home, became public when she missed an event at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, because her recovery time was slower than expected, reports CNN.

In 2008, Reagan, now 90, was hospitalized for two days after a fall at home. Later that same year, she broke her pelvis. As is common in patients with a fractured pelvis, Reagan didn't see a doctor for a week after the fall, when persistent pain finally drove her to seek help. Older adults often dismiss falls or keep them secret for fear of losing independence.

Last year, Senator Marco Rubio caught her before she hit the ground when she lost her balance at a speech...  Read more

Scientists in Israel have figured out a way to turn human skin cells into healthy heart cells, which could lead to a whole new method of treating heart failure.

Lior Gepstein, Professor of Medicine and Physiology at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and team took skin cells from two heart failure patients, both over the age of 50. Then they reprogrammed them, using three genes and a molecule called valproic acid to turn them into heart cells, or cardiomyocytes.

Then the new heart cells were developed into heart muscle tissue using existing cardiac tissue. According to Science 2.0, the two types of heart tissue were beating together within 48 hours.

"The tissue was behaving like a tiny microscopic cardiac tissue comprised of approximately 1000 cells in each beating area," said Gepstein.

The best part? The cardiac tissue from the heart failure patients performed as well as similar tissue derived from healthy, young volunteers...  Read more

In a major development, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force has recommended that no man of any age be routinely screened for prostate cancer using the common PSA test. The reason: Its risks -- many false positives and over-treatment that leads to impotence, incontinence, and even death -- outweigh its chief benefit, preventing fewer than one prostate cancer death per every 1,000 men screened.

"There is convincing evidence that the number of men who avoid dying of prostate cancer because of screening after 10 to 14 years is, at best, very small,” wrote the panel, citing large epidemiological studies from the U.S. and Europe.

When the same preliminary decision was announced last fall, it ignited vigorous debate. Many prostate cancer survivors feel that one life saved is worth the false positives and overtreatment, and worry the announcement may persuade insurers to no longer cover it...  Read more

Been told your chronic pain is all in your mind? It might actually be true, according to G. Lorimer Moseley, professor of clinical neurosciences at University of South Australia and Neuroscience Research Australia, and head of the Body in Mind research team.

During the American Pain Society's Annual Scientific Meeting last week, Moseley told the audience that the brain normally stores maps of the body that help it analyze physical sensations and prevent physical harm.

In a normal person the brain's map of the body can help it figure out where there might be danger -- a hand against a hot surface, for instance -- and what it should do in response -- like moving the hand.

For someone with chronic pain, the brain's cortical map may not be accurate anymore. That means that the brain might still be sending up pain and danger flags even when the person isn't in danger.

This is most obvious in people with phantom limb pain...  Read more

Everyone has his or her own story of how Alzheimer's disease or another dementia entered their family's life, but there are often common themes: First, memory and personality changes sneak up on you. Then there's a crisis, and an "uh-oh" moment. It can happen to anyone -- including former teen-dream TV actor and singer David Cassidy, who's begun talking of his mother's dementia to help raise awareness.

‘My mother has been in 24-hour nursing care for seven years now, and I’m lucky to be able to afford it, but many people aren’t that lucky," the former "Partridge Family" star, now 62, told the UK's Daily Mail. ‘People don’t really want to talk about it, but we need to, which is why I’m going to be speaking publicly about it.’

(Coincidentally, Cassidy had been scheduled to perform last month in Miami with the late fellow heartthrob Davy Jones, who died of a heart attack a few months earlier...  Read more

A growing trend at museums around the country is to offer art-appreciation programs for people with Alzheimer's disease. The Kreeger Museum in Washington, D.C., for example, pairs Alzheimer's sufferers with middle school students, reports NPR's "Morning Edition" program.

Each month, small groups focus on specific works in a collection that includes Picasso, Renoir, Miro, Monet, and many others, plus pre-Columbian, Asian and African art.

"There's something about being in the stimulating environment," says Derya Samadi, who runs the Kreeger's Alzheimer's program. "It's there for them; they haven't lost it. They just can't connect to it. So you're just trying to open up channels for them."

Art therapy for Alzheimer's can, of course, be done in many different ways, not necessarily through a formal museum program. The Kreeger program is interesting because it's multi-generational, bringing together students with older adults who have dementia...  Read more

It's a big week for Alzheimer's disease, reports USA Today:

• A roadmap: The landmark National Alzheimer's Plan will get finalized. The Plan -- long lobbied for by prominent activists including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whose late husband had Alzheimer's -- plots out steps that the government and private sector can take to eradicate the disease by the stated goal of 2025.

Among its early efforts: An $8 million study of an insulin nasal spray that's based on the diabetes-Alzheimer's connection, and training for doctors and other health providers on best-practices for Alzheimer's care to patients and their families.

• A gathering: An Alzheimer's Research Summit is currently convening at the National Institutes of Health, for scientists worldwide to gather and compare notes on research progress. Given recent advances in discovering early physiological evidence of disease, scientists have fresh optimism about developing interventions that get to work long before the first symptoms of disease become evident to families...  Read more

Maybe you've heard of the cursed clan in Columbia thought to have more members with Alzheimer's than any family on earth, thanks to a genetic mutation that causes cognitive impairment in the 40s and full-blown dementia by 51. All eyes in the Alzheimer's research community are on a new, $100 million, five-year clinical trial aimed at preventing the development of disease in 300 members of this family.

It's “the first to focus on people who are cognitively normal but at very high risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told the New York Times.

Within two years, researchers hope to have a read on whether the intervention is making a difference. That finding would have implications for research toward preventative drugs for those who have more conventional Alzheimer's disease. Only a very small percentage of cases have the genetic...  Read more

Ever heard of TimeSlips? It's a novel (if not new) way of communicating with people with dementia, based on storytelling instead of memories.

NPR reported on a recent session in Seattle, where about 15 older adults showed up to look at vibrant photos and make up stories about what might be happening in them.

Suddenly, a waterskiing man in a photo has a whole backstory: The guy is retired, has several ex-wives, and the new wife and their four kids are waiting to be taken out to dinner. Who cares if it's not accurate? The storytellers are smiling and engaged instead of frustrated and stressed because they can't remember things. As TimeSlips puts it, the program replaces "the pressure to remember with the freedom to imagine."

It's also a way for caregivers to communicate with their family members...  Read more