AFAR Media Briefing on Stroke Prevention Thursday, April 5

Recent developments in stroke prevention techniques represent the possibility of revolutionizing stroke prevention and treatment, particularly for older adults with atrial fibrillation (AF), which raises the risk of stroke fivefold. AFAR, with support from an education grant from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer, will be holding a media briefing on April 5th to on new stroke prevention techniques. Please join Richard W. Besdine, MD, Medical Officer, American Federation for Aging Research and Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Services Policy & Practice, Brown University, and Daniel Singer, MD, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health,…

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Richard Besdine, MD, on the Fear of Falling

AFAR Medical Officer Richard Besdine's, MD, latest blog post sounds the alarm about the danger of falling in older adults. Falls are the leading cause of injury for people over 65, resulting in 20,000 deaths each year in the U.S. Even the fear of falling significantly disrupts the well-being of many older adults. Dr. Besdine explores the latest guidelines on prevention and care  in this important area of research. This is the eighth post in Dr. Besdine's series on health care and aging on the AOL Healthy Living site. Read all of his articles here.  

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Grantees in the News: Mark Laubach, PhD, Studies Aging Brains Transitioning between Tasks

On March 13, WNPR reported on a study led by Mark Laubach, PhD, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience. The study assessed working memory, which is critical when managing and moving between multiple tasks, in the aging brain. By monitoring neural activity in young and old rats, Dr. Laubach and his colleagues found that the brains of the older rats were slower to respond to signs that a reward was available than those of younger rats. This was representative of the problems older brains can have recognizing cues to move on to another task when working. Dr. Laubach believes…

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Grantees in the News: Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, to Explore the Distracted Mind

A PBS-sponsored special, The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley, in which Dr. Gazzaley will explore the impact of our multi-tasking, tech-saturated world on the brain, will air throughout March. Dr. Gazzaley will share some of his own research on the distracted brain, as well as tips to preserve attention and focus, especially as we age. A trailer and broadcast schedule are available here. Dr. Gazzaley is the founder and director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is an associate professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry. Read more about his work on…

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Grantees in the News: In Alzheimer’s Disease, Tau Protein is Transmitted Cell to Cell

On February 1, The New York Times reported on two new studies led by AFAR grantees that appear to settle the question of whether Alzheimer's disease progresses through the brain by cell-to-cell transmission or because of variations in the inherent susceptibility of different areas of the brain to the processes of the disease. The studies, led by Scott A. Small, MD, and Karen Duff, PhD, (Columbia University Medical Center), and Bradley T. Hyman, MD, PhD, (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School), used mice genetically engineered to produce the human tau protein characteristic of neuron death in Alzheimer's. Although…

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