SWEDEN: Several elderly show well preserved memory functions, say researchers

UMEA, Sweden  /  Umea University  /  Integrative  Medical  Biology  /  April  27,  2012

Maintain your brain:  The secrets to aging success

Aging may seem unavoidable, but that's not necessarily so when it comes to the brain. So say researchers in the April 27 issue of the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences explaining that it is what you do in old age that matters more when it comes to maintaining a youthful brain not what you did earlier in life.

"Although some memory functions do tend to decline as we get older, several elderly show well preserved functioning and this is related to a well-preserved, youth-like brain," says Lars Nyberg of Umeå University in Sweden.

Education won't save your brain -- PhDs are as likely as high-school dropouts to experience memory loss with old age, the researchers say. Don't count on your job either. Those with a complex or demanding career may enjoy a limited advantage, but those benefits quickly dwindle after retirement.

Engagement is the secret to success. Those who are socially, mentally and physically stimulated reliably show better cognitive performance with a brain that appears younger than its years.

"There is quite solid evidence that staying physically and mentally active is a way towards brain maintenance," Nyberg says.

The researchers say this new take on successful aging represents an important shift in focus for the field. Much attention in the past has gone instead to understanding ways in which the brain copes with or compensates for cognitive decline in aging. The research team now argues for the importance of avoiding those age-related brain changes in the first place. Genes play some role, but life choices and other environmental factors, especially in old age, are critical.

Elderly people generally do have more trouble remembering meetings or names, Nyberg says. But those memory losses often happen later than many often think, after the age of 60. Older people also continue to accumulate knowledge and to use what they know effectively, often to very old ages.

"Taken together, a wide range of findings provides converging evidence for marked heterogeneity in brain aging," the scientists write. "Critically, some older adults show little or no brain changes relative to younger adults, along with intact cognitive performance, which supports the notion of brain maintenance. In other words, maintaining a youthful brain, rather than responding to and compensating for changes, may be the key to successful memory aging."

More information: Nyberg et al.: "Memory aging and brain maintenance."http://dx.doi.org/ … .2012.04.005 

© Medical Xpress 2011-2012 


____________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

SWEDEN: Stress, Depression Linked to Accelerated Aging

NEW YORK, NY / Medscape News Today / Psychiatry / March 1, 2012

By Fran Lowry

Shortened telomere length, which is known to be associated with aging, is also associated with depression and hypocortisolism, new research shows.

These findings confirm earlier research showing shorter telomere length in depressed patients in comparison with nondepressed individuals from the general population, according to lead author Mikael Wikgren, PhD, from Umeå University in Sweden.

Dr. Mikael Wikgren 

"It also goes on to suggest that this difference is related to a dysregulated stress response, which is a stress response pattern which has been tied to chronic stress," he told Medscape Medical News. "This, in turn, underlines the important role stress regulation plays in depressive illness, and, in view of telomere length being considered a marker of biological aging, suggests that stress accelerates aging."

The study is published in the February 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Established Link

Dr. Wikgren's earlier work established that telomere length was associated with depression. In the current study, he and his group sought to investigate how telomere length related to biological and psychological measures of stress and whether these were related to the shorter telomere length seen in depressed patients.

The researchers measured telomere length in the leukocytes of 91 study participants who had recurrent major depressive disorder and 451 control participants. The mean age of the study participants was 59 years. Most of the depressed patients had suffered from depression for an average of 28 years.

The participants also underwent a dexamethasone suppression test to assess the reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is a very important regulator of the stress response, most known for regulating cortisol.

Participants also filled out psychometric self-report questionnaires.

High Stress, Low Cortisol

As expected, telomere length was significantly shorter among depressed patients compared with control participants (P = .001).

Telomere length was also shorter in both depressed and control participants who showed low cortisol levels on the dexamethasone suppression test. However, it was shortest in the depressed patients.

This hypocortisolemic state was associated with a family history of affective disorders among the depressed patients and with high C-reactive protein levels among the control participants.

The researchers also found that telomere length was inversely associated with higher levels of stress as measured with the perceived stress questionnaire.

"Hypocortisolism has been found in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, burnout, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, disorders which share symptoms of fatigue, pain, and increased stress sensitivity," Dr. Wikgren said.

Traditionally, too much cortisol has been thought to be harmful, but more and more research is showing that the opposite is true, he added. "When you experience chronic stress, cortisol levels go down. A hyporesponsive HPA axis evolves over time when under stress, so an initially hyperreactive HPA axis gradually evolves into a hyporesponsive HPA axis."

Beyond Emotional Distress

Commenting on this research for Medscape Medical News, John H. Krystal, MD, the Robert L. McNeil Jr Professor of Translational Research and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, said the current findings provide further evidence that stress and psychiatric disorders may have profound effects on health that go beyond emotional distress and functional impairment.

Dr. John Krystal

"We are learning a great deal about the functions of telomeres in processes like cellular aging and cancer," Dr. Krystal, who is also the editor of Biological Psychiatry, said.

"From this perspective, the importance of helping people to identify these life problems and to get effective treatment for them may be an important part of preserving their overall medical health. In other words, the average doctor routinely measures blood pressure, EKG, and glucose levels, but if we want to protect against some health problems, we may also need to measure depression and to assure that depressed people obtain the treatment they need."

This research was funded by the Swedish Research Council, Umeå University, and the County Councils of Västerbotten and Norrbotten, Sweden. Dr. Wikgren and Dr. Krystal have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

 Copyright © 1994-2012 by WebMD LLC
____________________________________________________________

Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

Seniors World Chronicle's Fascinating Face of Aging for January 21, 2012

Swedish Poet Tomas Transtromer, 80, winner of 2011 Nobel for Literature, who
"gives us fresh access to reality through his condensed, translucent images." 
Two of his works - The Half-Finished Heaven and New and Collected Poems - 
were recommended by the Nobel Prize Committee. Reuters / The AtlanticWire
___________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

SWEDEN: Seniors in Sweden 'stayin' alive' with exercise

STOCKHOLM, Sweden / MedicalXpress / December 12, 2011

By Pia Ohlin, Agence France Presse


The disco beat of 'Stayin' Alive' pulses through the room as Lennart Zetterqvist heaves dumbbells out to his side, zipping through the paces of a workout class with a twist: it's for seniors aged 90 and up.

Zetterqvist, the baby of the group at 90, is part of a growing group of pensioners in Sweden who are determined to stay in shape and remain active as they age.

"In the past people wanted to take life easy when they retired. Now they want to be active and keep fit until they're 100," says Kristoffer Sjoeberg, a personal trainer who leads the group of old-timers through their weekly class at the Sickla Haelsocenter health club on the outskirts of Stockholm.

Anne-Marie Novotny, a spry and vivacious 91-year-old in a pink tee-shirt, overdoes it a touch on the abdominal exercises.

"I just had a liver operation so I'm going to take it easy for the next few minutes," she says, adding that until last spring she hadn't exercised since she finished school in 1938.

She was one of 16 pensioners over the age of 90 who accepted the local municipality's offer of a free weekly gym class.

The idea is that keeping older people fit means they can continue to live independent lives -- and stay out of hospitals and elderly care homes, which in Sweden's cradle-to-grave welfare state are funded by municipalities.

"We focus a lot on strength and balance, and we've seen a big improvement since we started this class in March. Back then most of the people came with canes or walkers, now almost none of them do," Sjoeberg says.

"I sometimes forget to take my cane with me nowadays!" exclaims Alice Wettergren, 92.

While this group is exceptional -- it's the only one for the 90-plus crowd in Sweden -- it illustrates a growing trend as Sweden, like the rest of Europe, grapples with an ageing population.

According to the Seniorbarometern study published in September, there are 1.8 million pensioners out of Sweden's population of nine million, and the group is expected to grow by another 850,000 by 2015. UN projections forecast that seniors will account for 25 percent of the population by 2050.

"These are no couch potatoes, they're much more active than the average Swede," the head of the study, Linus Blom, told AFP.

Among those aged 59 and up, 38 percent say they do some form of exercise every day. One in six say they are considering buying a membership at a gym.

-- 'Best and cheapest medicine' --

And since 2000, the number of people over the age of 65 who have completed the Stockholm Marathon has increased four-fold.

"This is just a mirror of today's society: older people are living healthier, longer lives and they want to stay active much longer," Stockholm Marathon organiser Thomas Enstroem told AFP.

As far as runners go, few can beat Herbert Liedtke.

It took three strokes in the past year to get the now 95-year-old to give up sprinting in international masters competitions.

After driving a taxi for 40 years and never exercising, Liedtke took up running at the age of 69 on a whim when he tagged along with colleagues 15 years his junior to their regular track workout.

"I had never run a day and I outran all of them," he recalls with a proud grin, standing ramrod straight in sweat pants and runners in the kitchen of his retirement home where his cluster of medals hangs in the doorway.

At 85, in 2001, he set a new world record for 400-metres in his age category in Australia. (And as at every other competition, he insisted on doing a headstand on the winners' podium.)

Blom noted that those now entering retirement are the post-war "baby boomers", many of whom have stronger finances than previous retirees and who are expected to make up a key market for gyms and health clubs.

Bodil Hedenstroem is a case in point.

At 71, she attends workout classes three to four times a week at the upscale Sturebadet health club in central Stockholm.

"I need this! I can't go without it," says the tall, slender blonde, adding she and her husband often take cycling or hiking holidays.

"I feel more limber, my balance is better and I notice my stamina is better," she explains.

Goeran Murvall, the doctor who came up with the idea for the 90+ workout group, says keeping seniors thinking positively is as important as the exercise.

He wanted to get them "dreaming about next year's hiking trip, or holiday in the Alps, or 'how I'm going to climb down into the sailboat one more summer'."

"The elderly need to believe in the future and set new goals," he says, adding: "Physical activity, especially for seniors, is the best and cheapest medicine there is."

Personal trainer Sjoeberg cautions that today's younger generations are going to need to think about exercising even more than today's senior citizens.

"This generation of seniors was much more active for many years," he says.

They walked and cycled more every day, and as pastimes on weekends picked mushrooms or berries in the woods or skied in the forests.

"Now, the younger generations sit still so much in front of the computer and television and they drive everywhere. So they need to exercise so that they can live to be 90 and have a good life when they are 90," he says.

(c) 2011 AFP

© Medical Xpress 2011
____________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

SWEDEN: Aging Spoiled Brats Exposed in 'Avalon'

NEW YORK, NY / The Huffingston Post / Entertainment / September 21, 2011

By Linda Hassler
Freelance Writer, Documentary Producer

A 31-year old Swedish director has taken a swipe at a segment of Sweden's older generation in his first feature film, Avalon. The film premiered last week at the 2011 Toronto Int'l Film Festival. Its three main characters are all over 60, and they behave very, very badly. The story unfolds over one week in the coastal summer resort town of Bastad. The three have just a week to open a swank nightclub, Avalon, in time for the two-week tennis season.

Bastad is where Bjorn Borg has slammed his way to many victories, whipping up frenzied, boozed-up crowds. It's also where this film's director, Axel Petersén, (below) grew up. He describes it:

Bastad is a seaside town that swells to about 15,000 in the summer. People come here to party, to go crazy. You either go crazy or you go home. I know these people. I worked in the bars, and my family and relatives still live there. My inspiration for the film was right in front of me, these decadent, pleasure-seeking characters. They've never grown up since the wild partying of the 80s.



My aunt, Léonore Ekstrand, is one of them. I asked if she'd play the female lead, Jackie, and she said 'yes' although she'd never acted. I also knew I wanted the Swedish actor Johannes Brost in the lead, playing Janne, because Brost's reputation on and off screen is exactly what I was writing about.

The story begins when Janne, a charming nightclub promoter who's been in jail for some infraction, arrives with his blasé older sister, Jackie, to help his friend Klas (Peter Carlberg) open Avalon. Although the two men are partners, the un-cool Klas is financing the whole thing as Janne is broke.

With heaps of work still to do, a roof and furniture to build, a kitchen to install, Janne and Jackie are not particularly concerned. They hang out at the beach, play backgammon and bridge, take drives in the countryside (which is beautiful and no small part of the film), leaving preparations mainly to Klas and his hired help. Janne will be the front man for the club. For him, the party has begun. Right: Axel Petersén

The fun comes to a halt when Janne accidentally backs his car into a scaffolding, killing a young male worker. Only Jackie sees the accident as she was in the car. They leave the body and go tell Klas their secret. None of the three considers calling the police. The accident would stain their club opening.

Instead, Klas promises a large wad of money to two upscale young golfers who dispose of the body. When the young man's girlfriend comes looking for him, they give away nothing. She waits for days, then leaves defiantly, suspecting them of wrongdoing as the lad's cell phone remained in his quarters. I asked Petersén if this isn't unusual behavior:

No, this is typical of this selfish older crowd. They avoid responsibility; they exercise control over everything they touch. As in this situation, they have no respect for the law or for youth. In Sweden there's a feeling among younger people that these older people don't care about us and are blocking us.  

I'm getting really curious now. "From what?" I ask.

"From making changes in this country. Changes we want to happen."

"What age is your president?" I ask.

"Oh, he's not even 50, so that's normal. But there are others in culture, industry and business who have been running things here in Sweden. They won't get out of the way and let younger viewpoints get through."

Despite his personal views of this age group, Petersén likes his aunt, who is never without a drink in her hand. "She played herself and hugely influenced the film," he says. "She's also an expert bridge player." While making the film, Petersén says he learned to admire Brost (below left), not just as an actor.


Although he has heavy bags under his eyes and a permanently down-turned mouth, he is boy-ish and still has sex appeal. To have a 65-year-old whose mindset is younger than mine is extremely fascinating.

Another clue to the director's personal relationship to this film is its ending. During Avalon's raucous opening night, money flows like vodka. After drinking, smoking and snorting through the crowd, Janne commits a second surprise crime. Then he and his accomplices, Jackie and Klas, romantically flee into the sunrise, ever the escapists. In the final wordless scene, Sweden's drab and chilling national anthem plays in the background. To Swedes, who will recognize this music, it makes this final scene ironic and iconic at the same time.

Petersén suggests Americans may have a similar culture in the Hamptons. Maybe he's read F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
__________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

SWEDEN: Nursing home hushed sex abuse claims

.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden / The Local / Society / May 12, 2011

Despite repeated reports from employees that an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer's was the victim of sexual abuse by another patient, the head of a nursing home in northern Sweden declined to inform the police, according to a report by Sveriges Television (SVT).

It took up to five days after the abuse came to light before a report was filed and relatives were informed, according to SVT's Uppdrag Granskning programme broadcast on Wednesday evening.

The man accused of perpetrating the abuse is in his eighties and faced a court in Luleå in northern Sweden on Wednesday. He was today brought to justice with a litany of abuse. The elderly man denied the crimes.

The court ruled that he undergo a so-called Section 7-examination before the trial concludes. Section 7 refers to a personal examination by psychiatrists.

After finally having been informed of the abuse, the spouse of the female victim asked that she move accommodation but was told that it was not necessary.

"No", said a manager. He would not be able to do anything," her husband told Uppdrag Granskning.

According to SVT, the nursing home has not informed her husband nor her family that the man accused of perpetrating the abuse is still resident in the same department as the woman.

The head of the nursing explained that it was not possible to divulge the information:

"No, not as it is two customers who are staying with us and there is a privacy issue. But we must ensure that this does not occur."

The responsible nurse at the home agrees that the home is not at liberty to tell.

"We can not violate the Official Secrets Act."

TT/The Local/pvs (news@thelocal.se)

SWEDEN: Midlife overweight may increase risk of dementia

.
STOCKHOLM /  Karolinska Institutet / Research / May 3, 2011

A novel study from Karolinska Institutet shows that being overweight or obese during middle age may increase the risk of certain dementias. The research is based on data from the Swedish Twin registry and published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Currently, 1.6 billion adults are overweight or obese worldwide, and over 50 percent of adults in the United States and Europe fit into this category. The recent study, which was lead by Dr Weili Xu at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, contribute to the growing evidence that controlling body weight or losing weight in middle age could reduce your risk of dementia.

The researchers studied information from the Swedish Twin Registry on 8,534 twins aged 65 or older. Of those, 350 were diagnosed with dementia and 114 had possible dementia. Information on participant's height and weight had been taken 30 years earlier. Participants were grouped according to their BMI, a measure of total body fat: underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Being overweight was defined as having a BMI between 25 and 30 and obesity was defined as a body mass index of higher than 30. In the study, 2,541 twins, or nearly 30 percent, were either overweight or obese during middle age.

The study showed, that people who were overweight or obese at midlife had an 80 percent higher risk of developing dementia, Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia compared to people with normal BMI. The results remained the same after considering other factors, such as education, diabetes and vascular disease. A total of 26 percent of those with no dementia were overweight, compared to 36 percent of those with questionable dementia and 39 percent of those with diagnosed dementia. Three percent of those with no dementia were obese, compared to five percent of those with questionable dementia and seven percent of those with diagnosed dementia.

The researchers also analyzed the data in twin pairs where one twin had dementia and one twin did not and found that there was no longer a significant relationship between overweight and obesity and dementia.

"This suggests that early life environmental factors and genetic factors may contribute to the link between midlife overweight and dementia", says Dr Weili Xu.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging, the Swedish Research Councils, the Swedish Brain Power, the Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation, the Gun and Bertil Stohnes Foundation, the Swedish Dementia Fund, the Loo and Hans Ostermans Foundation for Geriatric Diseases. Weili Xu is also affiliated to the Aging Research Center in Stockholm, a co-operation between Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University.

© Karolinska Institutet

SWEDEN: Couple survives disaster honeymoon

.
DUBLIN, Ireland / The Independent / And Finally / April 5, 2011

Honeymoons aren't always easy for newlyweds, but one couple from Sweden has had to deal with six natural disasters.

Stefan Svanstrom of Stockholm said that he set out on a four-month honeymoon with his wife Erika and their baby girl on December 6 and immediately got stranded in Munich, Germany, due to one of Europe's worst snowstorms.

Stefan and Erika Svanstrom of Stockholm

After that, he says, they experienced the devastation of a cyclone in Cairns, Australia, and the flooding in Brisbane, and narrowly escaped the bush fires in Perth.

Just before arriving in New Zealand, Mr Svanstrom said the 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch and at the couple's last destination, Tokyo, they felt Japan's largest quake since records began.

Press Association

©Independent.ie

SWEDEN: Elderly man lay dead for over three years

.
STOCKHOLM / The Local / Society / March 26, 2011

An elderly man was found dead in his apartment in Tumba in southern Stockholm last Wednesday with police believing that he could have been dead for over three years without anyone having noticed.

The man, who is reported by the Aftonbladet daily to have been born in 1928, was found when a broadband technician turned up to complete an installation in the building and found the apartment door unlocked.

"Two men went into the apartment and found the man dead. They called me and we discovered that we had lain there a while," project leader Thomas Martinsson told the newspaper.

"It is very tragic," Åsa Johannesson at Flemingsberg police said.

Exactly when the man died can not be established for certain but police found unopened mail from late 2007 and the food in the fridge was dated early 2008.

Furthermore the man's advanced state of decay indicated that he had been dead for around three years.

The man's pension had continued to be deposited to his account and his bills had been paid by direct debit throughout the time he lay dead in his apartment.

The man is reported to have relatives and police are trying to get in touch with his next of kin, a son.

"He lived alone but there are relatives. But they obviously had no contact," Åsa Johannesson said.

The police have confirmed that there is no suspicion of any crime having been committed.

Copyright The Local Europe AB

SWEDEN: Swedish parties court elderly voters in poll race

.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden  / Times of Malta / AFP / World News / September 9, 2010

As pension reforms spark outrage across debt-ridden Europe, the two coalitions facing off in Sweden’s tightly-fought September 19 poll are wooing older voters who could swing the result.

Both the ruling centre-right coalition and the left-leaning opposition have vowed to boost the quality of life for older citizens. “It’s a rather simple math­ematical calculation,” said Goeran Eriksson, a political analyst at the Svenska Dagbladet.

A Swedish woman looking at an election poster with Goran Hagglund, the leader of the Christian Democratic party, which is part of the ruling centre-right coalition, in Stockholm, yesterday. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

 “At the moment, 1.7 million voters are retired” out of more than seven million potential voters, “and in the coming four years, large numbers of people will be leaving the labour market,” as the population ages, he said. He stressed the elderly also tend to “honour the duty of voting. You can be sure that they will actually vote.”

Pensioners, who even have their own – albeit tiny – party, are also good at getting their message across, Peter Esaiasson, a political scientist at Gothenburg University, told daily Dagens Nyheter.

“Young people’s organisations are not as skilled at organising and not as skilled at pushing their issues,” he said.

Unlike many other European nations where the economic crisis has led governments to slash benefits and push back the retirement age, Sweden’s economy is strong enough to sustain new pledges of tax-cuts and beefed-up benefits to retirees, analysts and economists here say.

Sweden was hard hit by the global financial crisis but emerged from recession in the second quarter of 2009 and is today considered one of the strongest in Europe.

The ruling coalition, made up of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s Moderate Party, and the Liberal, Centre, and Christian Democrat parties, has said it wants to lower pensioners’ income taxes by 7.5 billion kronor next year.

The so-called red-green opposition of the Social Democrat, Green and formerly communist Left parties, has meanwhile vowed to slash pensioners’ income taxes by 10 billion kronor as early as next year.

The opposition has also pledged to lower the maximum fee for hired help at home and ensure easier access to such services, and to fund activities in retirement homes.

The small far-right Sweden Democrats party has also latched on to the idea in an attempt to win more than four per cent of the vote and enter Parliament for the first time.

It has promised “a Sweden where the older generation can enjoy the fruits of the welfare society it has helped build up”, vowing massive tax cuts for the elderly and secure retirement homes.

The party has also put pensioners at the centre of a controversial campaign ad which shows a race in the dark between an elderly woman and a group of women in burqas pushing prams.

The slogan of the ad, which was modified after a private network refused to air the original, promised to safeguard pension funding at the expense of immigration.

One of the reasons pensioners’ income tax is such a hot topic, Mr Eriksson explained, is that the centre-right government won the last election by promising to slash taxes for workers, but left the pensioners out of its widespread cuts.

Already in the 2006 campaign, the Left branded the tax-cuts for workers a “pensioners tax”, although the term did not really catch on before this year’s election race.

“Now it has become a major political issue,” Mr Eriksson said.

Copyright: Allied Newspapers Limited

SWEDEN: Research shows how Insulin reduces inflammation, risk of diabetes

.
CHEVY CHASE, Maryland / Science Daily / Science News / Health / May 9, 2010

Recent decades have seen a huge increase in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This is a result of people being less active and eating fattier diets, which can lead to obesity and, in turn, diabetes. In a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, researchers have discovered properties of insulin which reduce inflammation caused by obesity and can therefore lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

When you put on weight, your fat tissue grows and begins to produce a wealth of inflammatory molecules. The increase in these inflammatory molecules leaves the fat tissue in a state of chronic inflammation. This plays an important role in the development of insulin resistance, an early stage of type 2 diabetes, where the body is unable to regulate blood sugar levels using its own insulin.

"It's still not entirely clear why obesity causes insulin resistance," says Emelie Wallerstedt from the Institute of Medicine at the University of Gothenburg. "Inflammation could be part of the reason why obesity leads to type 2 diabetes."

Research has shown that both obesity and insulin resistance are affected by inflammatory conditions in the body. Previously it was believed that fat tissue served merely as a depository for fat, but now scientists know that it is also an important organ for the release of a wide range of different substances, including inflammatory molecules. In the thesis, the researchers managed to identify the properties of the inflammatory molecule IL-6.

"IL-6 impairs insulin signalling, but the insulin signalling itself can also inhibit and 'turn off' the IL-6 signal and inflammation," says Wallerstedt. "The protein PKCdelta also plays an important role in the regulation of the IL-6 signal, and we have shown that if we disable the function of this molecule, the inflammation decreases."

A greater understanding of these signalling mechanisms could make it possible in the future to develop medicines that can "turn off" the inflammation and so reduce the risk of insulin resistance and other obesity-related disorders. [rc]

Story Source:
Adapted from materials provided by
University of Gothenburg, via AlphaGalileo.
 
Copyright © 1995-2009 ScienceDaily LLC

SWEDEN: 'Don't separate elderly couples,' says Minister

. STOCKHOLM, Sweden / The Local Sweden / Society / April 7, 2010 Public health minister Maria Larsson has called for a new law forcing local councils to jointly house older couples following a spate of high profile cases in which people requiring elderly care have been separated from their partners. As minister with responsibility for elderly care, Larsson said she was tired of councils that shirked their responsibility. "There have been too many case of late where things haven't worked, which has led to a point that necessitates binding legislation," she said. "Municipalities need to be obliged to find solutions that match the wishes of elderly people." The issue has come to the fore after a number of older couples were denied the right to joint municipal care, with councils often citing a lack of space and resources. In Eskilstuna in central Sweden, for example, Arne and Gunnel Kojefors, 94 and 86, are fighting for the right to continue living together after 63 years under the same roof. "It seems we can get a home each, so we can visit each other daily. But it's not the same as living together. It should be a human right for a couple to live together for as long as the possibility exists," Arne Kojefors told Aftonbladet. The council's decision to keep them apart is based on the fact that Arne has been deemed healthy enough to continue living alone with some home help, whereas his wife suffers from senile dementia and requires more comprehensive care, the newspaper reports. Maria Larsson, the Christian Democrat cabinet minister, stressed that legislation takes some time to prepare and would not be presented prior to this September's general election. Liberal Party leader Jan Björklund expressed his intention on Thursday to urge his partners in the governing Alliance to make the joint home care guarantee an election promise. But Larsson said she didn't see the guarantee as an election issue. "There's no opposition to the proposal," she said. [rc] The Local E-Mail: news@thelocal.se Copyright The Local Europe AB

SWEDEN: Growing older = Becoming more original

. GOTHENBURG, Sweden / United Press International / Health News / April 7, 2010 The differences among human beings become greater as they age, a Swedish researcher said. Bo Eriksson, a doctoral student at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, says older people are usually thought of as a rather homogenous group -- ill, lonely and unable to take care of themselves. However, differences among people actually grow with age and stereotypes of the aged are not based on reality, Eriksson said. "The perception of old people having similar interests, values and lifestyles can lead to age discrimination," Eriksson said in a statement. "However, I found that, as people age, these stereotypes become more and more untrue." Eriksson studied the 70th to 90th years of life of participants in the H-70 study -- a group of randomly selected individuals born in 1901 and 1902 and tracked over their entire lifetimes. The study found social mechanisms strengthened one's identity, helping maintain self-esteem through successful responses to challenges and promoting conversational support that may help promote longer life. "Taken together, these mechanisms also contribute to increased everyday activity, which has some beneficial physical effects," Eriksson said. [rc] © 2010 United Press International, Inc

SWEDEN: Loneliness Among Older People, Subject of Study

. EAST SUSSEX, England /Medical News Today / July 4, 2009 Professor Bo Malmberg and Professor Gerdt Sundström at the School of Health Sciences in Jönköping, Sweden have studied loneliness among older people. A common stereotype about older people is that loneliness is typical for older women, rather than for older men. One problem with this stereotype is that feelings of loneliness are not particularly common among either men or women in the Nordic countries. "Some studies show a lower prevalence among women and some a lower among men. We use several national and local surveys to analyze gender differences in perceived loneliness. Longitudinal surveys, which enable us to analyze changes during ageing,", say Bo Malmberg and Gerdt Sundström Older people who still live at home in communities in Scandinavian welfare states are either married or living alone, with the latter group reporting more of a sense of loneliness. Two mar­riages out of three end in the death of the husband, and if marital status is excluded from the equation, most of the differences in loneliness between the genders disappear. Yet, in the 80+ age group, (the few) men who live alone report a higher frequency of loneliness than women in the same category. At that age, most men are still married, but most women are living alone. These patterns are even more pronounced in the 90+ age group. "We interpret the results as the outcome of selection mechanisms and that they may reflect male-female differences in marital adaptation. Those men who survive and live alone are more often from a working-class background and in poor health, while women who live alone are socially and health-wise a more heterogeneous group", says Bo Malmberg and Gerdt Sundström. There may also be a difference in marital back­ground, colouring the way men and women see their situation: men more often have had their wives as their only confidant, whereas women have a wider social network and may even see their new solitary life as a relief. [rc] Source: Vetenskapsradet

SWEDEN: Widowed, Without Life Partner in Mid Life, at Higher Risk of Dementia

. STOCKHOLM, Sweden / Medical News Today / July 3, 2009 Researchers in Sweden have found that people who have the APOE Alzheimer's gene and who live alone in middle age after being widowed or separated from a life partner, are at higher risk of developing dementia. The study is the work of Dr Krister Hakannson, a research fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues, and is published in the July 2 online issue of the BMJ. Hakannson and colleagues set out to discover if having a life partner in mid life was linked to cognitive function later in life. For the study they used data from random population samples from nearly 1,500 people in Finland that was taken at 5 year intervals starting in 1972 and up to 1987. 73 per cent of the participants were then examined again in 1998 when they were aged between 65 and 79, for signs of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. The results showed that: * Participants living with a partner in mid life (mean age 50.4), were less likely than single, separated or widowed participants, to show cognitive impairment in later life (at age 65 to 79). * Those widowed or divorced in mid life and still without a life partner at follow up, had three times the risk compared with those who were married or cohabiting. * Those widowed both at mid life and later life had over 7 times the chance (odds ratio 7.67, ranging from 1.6 to 40.0) for Alzheimer's disease compared with married or cohabiting people. * But the highest increased risk was in those those participants who carried the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene and who had lost their partner in mid life and were still without a life partner at follow up. * Adjusting for several potential confounders from mid life had little effect on the results. The authors concluded that: "Living in a relationship with a partner might imply cognitive and social challenges that have a protective effect against cognitive impairment later in life, consistent with the brain reserve hypothesis." However, they added that: "The specific increased risk for widowed and divorced people compared with single people indicates that other factors are needed to explain parts of the results." But a combination of social as well as genetic factors might explain the dramatic increase in risk of getting Alzheimer's for carriers of the APOE gene who remain widowed for a long time after losing their life partner in mid life, they said. [rc] "Association between mid-life marital status and cognitive function in later life: population based cohort study." Krister Hakansson, Suvi Rovio, Eeva-Liisa Helkala, Anna-Riitta Vilska, Bengt Winblad, Hilkka Soininen, Aulikki Nissinen, professor, Abdul H Mohammed, Miia Kivipelto. Source: BMJ. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today

SWEDEN: Early identification of dementia increasingly difficult

. GOTHENBURG, Sweden / Universtiy of Gothenburg / Sahlgrenska Academy / May 15, 2009 If grandma seems to forget things, will she end up demented? These days, memory loss is one of the very few symptoms that may signal which 70-year-olds risk developing dementia. This is shown in a doctoral thesis at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Several of the tests previously used to predict which elderly individuals risk developing dementia do not seem to work any longer. The thesis shows that memory loss is the only factor that can still be used to indicate who is at risk, although not among the very old. The study compared nondemented 70-year-olds examined in the early 1970s with nondemented 70-year-olds examined in the year 2000. The results show that those who were examined in 2000 scored much higher on psychological tests than those examined 30 years earlier. This finding clearly indicates that such tests can no longer be used to predict future dementia. * In the early 1970s, several different tests could be used to predict people's risks of developing dementia, but today it seems like psychiatric evaluation of the memory is the only useful test. In addition, it is more difficult to predict dementia the higher the person's level of education, says physician Simona Sacuiu, PhD, the author of the thesis. The follow-up of the 70-year-olds five years later showed that 5% had developed dementia. Those with memory problems showed an increased risk of developing dementia, although not everybody with poor memory developed dementia. Consequently, the link between forgetfulness and future dementia is more complex than commonly thought. Memory loss among elderly individuals may, but doesn't have to be, an early sign. * In order to effectively detect dementia at an early stage, we need a useful tool that includes several types of tests, but the tests need continuous adjustments since the elderly of today perform much better at standardised psychological tests than previous generations, says PhD Sacuiu. Examinations of a group of nondemented 85-year-olds show that the link between memory problems and dementia is not as clear in this age group. The 85-year-olds' ability to find words, to copy a geometric figure and to take quick decisions were some qualities that were evaluated in a psychiatric assessment. More than 300 individuals participated in the study, of which 17% had developed dementia three years later. * We can't say that memory loss is the only meaningful sign of future dementia among 85-year-olds, since other symptoms, such as difficulties finding words or drawing a geometric figure, were needed for their risk of developing dementia to increase, says Sacuiu. The H70 study H70, short for Health 70, is a unique population study at the Sahlgrenska Academy. The study was started in 1971 with an assessment of 70-year-olds. The individuals were followed up regularly for 30 years. A new H70 study was started in the year 2000. Its participants will be followed up again during 2009 at age 79. The study includes data on over 2000 residents of Gothenburg, Sweden. The participants have been examined both physically and mentally, and have made it possible for several research teams to pinpoint various trends in physical and mental health in the ageing population. Researcher Simona Sacuiu, MD, PhD, E-mail simona.sacuiu@neuro.gu.se Doctoral thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Medicine) at the Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit. © University of Gothenburg

SWEDEN: Blood Glucose Control More Important For Patients With Diabetes Than Previously Believed

. CHEVY CHASE, Maryland / ScienceDaily / Science / Health / May 14, 2009 It is even more important than previously believed that patients with diabetes accurately maintain their blood glucose levels at a normal, low level. Even small improvements can make a great difference in the long term. These are the conclusions of a thesis recently presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The studies have been carried out by statistical analysis of patients’ records for patients at several diabetes clinics in western Sweden. A large American study is also included in the thesis. New statistical methods and extensive data collection have made it possible to analyse and study in detail the effects of treatments in a long-term perspective. “Our results show that the risk of complications 10-15 years after the start of treatment probably decreases significantly following even small improvements in blood glucose control. If the treatment of all Swedish diabetes patients could be even slightly improved, we believe that tens of thousands of cases of injuries to the eyes, kidneys, heart, nerves and brain could be prevented”, says physician Marcus Lind, author of the thesis. The thesis also shows by analysis of many patients’ records from diabetes clinics in western Sweden from the period 1996-2004 that modern insulins give better control of blood glucose levels than older insulins. The records for patients who changed during the period of study from the older types of insulin (known as “regular” and “NPH” insulin) to the more modern types of insulin glargin (distributed under the trade name “Lantus®”) and lispro (distributed under the trade name “Humalog®”) were analysed particularly carefully. “The analysis shows that the long-acting insulin glargin gives patients in normal diabetes care better blood glucose control than they would have achieved if they had continued with the NPH insulin. Similarly, the rapidly acting insulin lispro gives better blood glucose control than the traditional regular insulin”, says Marcus Lind. Patients’ records for just over 4,000 patients from several hospitals in western Sweden were examined in the studies of insulin glargine, and just over 1,000 records for insulin lispro. Adapted from materials provided by University of Gothenburg, via AlphaGalileo. Copyright © 1995-2009 ScienceDaily LLC

SWEDEN: Heart Muscle Renewed Over Lifetime, Study Finds

. NEW YORK, NY / The New York Times / Science / April 3, 2009 By Nicholas Wade In a finding that may open new approaches to treating heart disease, Swedish scientists have succeeded in measuring a highly controversial property of the human heart: the rate at which its muscle cells are renewed during a person’s lifetime. Tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, which lasted until 1963, generated a radioactive form of carbon, carbon-14. The carbon-14 in carbon dioxide is breathed in by plants, turned into glucose (see equation) and enters the human diet. In the body, the carbon-14 is incorporated into new DNA, and once a new cell is made, its DNA does not change. The level of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has dropped each year since 1963 (see graph), so the exact amount in a cell marks the year the cell was born. From a cell's birth date, researchers can calculate how quickly different tissues such as the intestine, brain and heart are renewed. The finding upturns what has long been conventional wisdom: that the heart cannot produce new muscle cells and so people die with the same heart they were born with. About 1 percent of the heart muscle cells are replaced every year at age 25, and that rate gradually falls to less than half a percent per year by age 75, concluded a team of researchers led by Dr. Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The upshot is that about half of the heart’s muscle cells are exchanged in the course of a normal lifetime, the Swedish group calculates. Its results are to be published Friday in the journal Science. “I think this will be one of the most important papers in cardiovascular medicine in years,” said Dr. Charles Murry, a heart researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. “It helps settle a longstanding controversy about whether the human heart has any ability to regenerate itself.” If the heart can generate new muscle cells, researchers can hope to develop drugs that might accelerate the process, since the heart fails to replace cells that are killed in a heart attack. The dogma that the heart cannot generate new muscle cells has been challenged since 1987 by a somewhat lonely skeptic, Dr. Piero Anversa, now of the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Anversa maintains that heart muscle cells are renewed so fast that a person dying at age 80 has replaced the heart four times over. Many other researchers have doubted this assertion. Dr. Jonas Frisén of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Camilla Svensk Cell turnover rates can easily be measured in animals by making their cells radioactive and seeing how fast they are replaced. Such an experiment, called pulse-labeling, could not ethically be done in people. But Dr. Frisen realized several years ago that nuclear weapons tested in the atmosphere until 1963 had in fact labeled the cells of the entire world’s population. The nuclear blasts generated a radioactive form of carbon known as carbon-14. The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has gradually diminished since 1963, when above-ground tests were banned, as it has been incorporated into plants and animals or diffused into the oceans. In the body, carbon-14 in the diet gets into the DNA of new cells and stays unchanged for the life of the cell. Because the level of carbon-14 in the atmosphere falls each year, the amount of carbon-14 in the DNA can serve to indicate the cell’s birth date, Dr. Frisen found. Four years ago he used his new method to assess the turnover rate of various tissues in the body, concluding that the average age of the cells in an adult’s body might be as young as 7 to 10 years. But there is a wide range of ages — from the rapidly turning over cells of the blood and gut to the mostly permanent cells of the brain. Dr. Frisen has successfully applied his method to the heart muscle cells, but had to navigate a series of technical obstacles created by the special behavior of the cells. Many have two nuclei, instead of the usual one, and within these double nuclei the DNA may be duplicated again. “I was really impressed at the level of rigor they put into this analysis,” Dr. Murry said, calling it a “scientific tour de force.” The finding that heart muscle cells do regenerate, though at a considerably slower rate than Dr. Anversa predicted, is a “reasonable conclusion to a hotly contested issue,” Dr. Murry said. “Anversa went out on a limb, and I think he was partly right.” Dr. Loren Field, a heart expert at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said he had found that heart muscle cells regenerated in mice at the same rate that Dr. Frisen had found in people. Despite the controversy created by Dr. Anversa’s claims, there has long been agreement that there is a low but detectable rate of cell renewal in the heart, Dr. Field said. The goal now, in his view, is “to try to tickle the system to enhance it.” Dr. Anversa, for his part, said he was “ecstatic” at Dr. Frisen’s confirmation of his view that the heart could generate new muscle cells, but suggested that the new measurements might have underestimated the rate at which new cells are formed. Since heart muscle cells contract 70 times a minute, they seem likely to need renewing more often than Dr. Frisen’s measurements suggest, he said. “Now let’s discuss the magnitude of the process, and that will let us think about how we can apply this concept to heart failure,” Dr. Anversa said. Dr. Frisen said he did not agree that the rate of regeneration had been underestimated. He said it would now be worth trying to understand how the regeneration of heart muscle cells was regulated. A zebrafish, for instance, can regenerate large regions of its heart after injury, and possibly a similar response could be induced in people. It could also be that the heart does generate many new muscle cells after a heart attack but that the cells fail to establish themselves. Drugs that kept any such new cells alive could be helpful, Dr. Frisen said. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

SWEDEN: Extending India a hand in health care

. NEW DELHI, India / Press Information Bureau / February 11, 2009 Sweden's Minister for Elderly Care and Public Health, Ms. Maria Larsson, and India's Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding last week February for bilateral cooperation in the field of health care and public health, it was stated officially here today. India's cabinet of union ministers approved the proposal today. Source: PIB, Government of India.

SWEDEN: Elderly Couple Praises 'Chinese Spectacular'

Sven-Olof and Britta Lerdén at the Chinese Spectacular in Stockholm
on April 3, 2008
(Pirjo Svensson/Epoch Times Sweden)

By Pirjo Svensson and Sarah Matheson
Epoch Times Staff

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Epoch Times), April 6, 2008:

A warm and appreciative audience welcomed the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular's final performance at the Circus Theatre in Stockholm on Thursday. The applause was loud and long for "Power of Awareness," a performance that shows people in China standing up for a child and mother who believe in truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.

One elderly couple, Sven-Olof Lerdén, 82, and his wife Britte, 79, and said they were both surprised and happy after seeing the first half of the show.

"I remember overwhelming image impressions that get etched onto the retina, unbelievable precision in the dancing and excellent costumes," said Mr Lerdén, a former marketing director at quite a number of companies, including Johnson& Johnson.

Mrs. Lerdén said she was very impressed by the dancers. "It was surprising and even better than what I had thought. I have always been interested in dancing and ballet. There is all the reason to take part and be present every second, actually," she said.

Mrs Lerdén was given a flyer the day before the show and asked her husband to buy tickets. She said she thought it was nice to see a Chinese cultural performance since she has always wanted to go to China.

When asked what they thought about the Chinese Embassy's attempts to stop the show, Mr Lerdén replied, "That would have made us terribly disappointed."

Mr and Mrs Lerdén both said they would very much like to come and see the performance again next year.

The next stop on the European leg of the Divine Performing Arts tour is the town of Bucharest in Romania on April 7 and 8. A second performance group is currently touring Australia.

www.DivinePerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Chinese Spectacular.
Complete coverage