SUMMARY: 106-year-old Virginia McLaurin has lived through 18 different presidents, though she never thought she’d live to see an African-American in the White House, let alone meet him. But thanks to an online campaign, McLaurin was able to fulfill her dream and even bust a move with the president and first lady. The White House commemorated the meeting with a video released on social media.
SUMMARY: For patients over 50, having blood pressure below the commonly recommended targets can drastically reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes. That’s according to a major blood pressure study from the National Institutes of Health, which called the information "potentially lifesaving." Hari Sreenivasan speaks to Dr. Gary Gibbons of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): There’s news out from the National Institutes of Health today that could change the way we deal with blood pressure. Researchers found that, for many patients over 50, blood pressure far below the commonly recommended targets can drastically reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths.
Doctors said the top line of a blood pressure reading should be below 120 for many. Prior recommendations put the number at 140. In fact, the NIH announced the end of a major blood pressure study a year early, saying it was potentially lifesaving information.
Dr. Gary Gibbons is director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at NIH, which sponsored the trial. He joins us now.
Dr. Gibbons, first of all, break this down for us. Why is this significant?
DR. GARY GIBBONS, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Well, as you know, Hari, 70 million Americans have high blood pressure.
It predisposes to the leading causes of death, such as heart disease and stroke. And we knew for a long time that treating high blood pressure was important to prevent these complications. But there was a lot of uncertainty as to how low doctors should go and bringing that pressure down.
The SPRINT study, Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial, was designed to ask and answer that question. And now we have those interim results that make it very clear that being aggressive and intensive treatment regimen that goes to that lower target below 120 millimeters of mercury shows great benefit in reducing the complications such as heart attacks, heart failure and stroke and saves lives.
HARI SREENIVASAN: When you start to say low blood pressure, people are going to start becoming concerned about the elderly, for whom low blood pressure can lead to dizziness or fainting. How do you figure out if 120 is right for you?
DR. GARY GIBBONS: Well, as in all things, that we must balance the benefits against potential harms. And that’s why it’s important for each patient to consult their care provider to see what’s the right target for them.
But it’s important to note that this study included individuals 50 and over, and indeed included — one-fourth of the study sample with age 75 or older. So it was inclusive of the elderly. Indeed, our preliminary analysis suggest that the benefit, we’re seeing across the diverse group of people in the study sample, including those over 75.
So, we think that this may be broadly applicable to those 50 and older who are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Duke University scientists have potentially discovered new avenues for Alzheimer's and dementia treatments.
They observed that in Alzheimer’s, immune cells that normally protect the brain instead begin to consume a vital nutrient called arginine.
By blocking this process with a drug, they were able to prevent the formation of ‘plaques’ in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, and also halted memory loss in the mice.
What's more is that they were researching with a drug that has already begun human trials for cancer treatments—possibly paving the way for clinical trials in the near future.
While no technique that is tested in an animal can be guaranteed to work the same way in humans, the findings are particularly encouraging because, until now, the exact role of the immune system and arginine in Alzheimer’s was completely unknown.
The drug that was used to block the body’s immune response to arginine – known as difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) – is already being investigated in drug trials for certain types of cancer and may be suitable for testing as a potential Alzheimer’s therapy.
This follows on the heels of other recent breakthroughs in possible "plaque fighting" techniques for Alzheimer's patients.
SUMMARY: Lifelong obesity, now common in the U.S., is beginning to change how Americans age. Along Alabama's Gulf Coast, one in three adults is obese, and many who have lived with the negative health effects of excess weight are entering their senior years. Special correspondent Sarah Varney of Kaiser Health News reports on the added costs, disabilities and challenges for older obese patients.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Two major trends are on a collision course in the United States: the aging of the U.S. population and a decades-long surge in obesity.
The elderly population is projected to double to 80 million by 2050. And, as that’s happening, obese individuals are far more likely to become sick or disabled as they age.
Special correspondent Sarah Varney has the story from Alabama, produced in collaboration with our partners at Kaiser Health News.
SARAH VARNEY, Kaiser Health News: Bayou La Batre calls itself the seafood capital of Alabama. Residents here depend on fishing and shrimping for their livelihood. And when they sit down to eat, they like most things fried.
Former Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin has been trying to reverse the nation’s obesity epidemic one patient at a time at her Bayou clinic.
REGINA BENJAMIN, Former U.S. Surgeon General: Bake, boil, and broil. Say that again.
GARI QUALLS: Bake, boil, and broil.
REGINA BENJAMIN: So no more fried shrimp.
SARAH VARNEY: Gari Qualls is 69 years old and a retired crab picker. She spent most of her life seriously overweight and was diagnosed with diabetes age 39.
As obesity became commonplace around the U.S., health care providers like Benjamin began seeing the impacts of the disease all around them.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Finally tonight, building bridges across the generation gap and the technology divide.
The “NewsHour's” Mary Jo Brooks has our report.
COURTNEY KERSHAW: You got it?
DOROTHY STONE: Yes. Yes.
COURTNEY KERSHAW: You work out for the day?
(LAUGHTER)
MARY JO BROOKS (NewsHour): Twice a week, 24-year-old Courtney Kershaw and 89-year-old Dorothy Stone head out on errands. On the day we visited, there was a trip to the nail salon and the grocery store.
Kershaw works for Denver-based concierge business called Capable Living, which provide services for senior citizens who live in their own home. Fees start at $1,000 a month. What’s unique is that the employees are all young people, so-called millennials who were born at the end of the last century.
The goal of the company is not only to provide services, but to build bridges between a generation obsessed with smartphones and selfies with one that was raised in an entirely different era.
COURTNEY KERSHAW: Some of my favorite things were you telling me about when you were my age and how you would fill up the car for 10 cents and go driving around all day.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Next: a provocative piece of writing from one of the country’s leading health care experts.
In the current “Atlantic” magazine, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel argues that the quality of human life begins to drop off by age 75, enough, he says, that he will opt out of medical treatments and let nature take its course.
A trained oncologist, Dr. Emanuel is chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and a former Obama administration policy adviser. He is also older brother to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel. I sat down with him earlier today.
Dr. Zeke Emanuel, thank you for talking with us.
DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL, University of Pennsylvania: It’s my great pleasure.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, you have created quite a stir: “Why I Want to Die at 75.”
Why 75? Why not 85? Why not 70?
DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL: Well, first of all, let’s clarify, I expect to be alive at 75, and I’m not going to kill myself. I don’t believe in legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide, but I am going to stop medical treatments.
And I look at 75, when I look at all the data on physical disability, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, loss of creativity, slowing down of the mind and the body, and 75 seems like that, albeit somewhat arbitrary, moment where you get the maximum chance you’re still going to be vital and alive and vigorous.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So it’s kind of arbitrary.
DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL: I say that, yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you talk about something you call the American immortal. Who is this being?
DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL: My brother. The American immortal are people who want to put off death as long as possible, want to live as long as possible, get every day out of it. They take all these — they change their diet. They exercise like mad. They take protein concoctions and all sorts of other supplements.
And it’s almost a religion for them to live as long as possible. And I think they — in their mind, they will be as vital as they are when they’re, say, 50 all the way to the end. But, of course, we all do deteriorate, we all do slow down, we all do get disabilities.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): ..... Many Americans have strong and nostalgic ties to their colleges and universities. Some of those institutions are reviving those relationships by developing retirement communities for former students and others.
NewsHour special correspondent Spencer Michels reports on one such development, and its residents. It’s part of our Taking Care series.
SPENCER MICHELS (NewsHour): Have you been stung?
RAY GOLDWIRE, Resident, Oak Hammock: Many times.
SPENCER MICHELS: Oh, really?
RAY GOLDWIRE: Yes, and the thing about getting stung, you really sort of get immune to it after a while.
SPENCER MICHELS: Ten years ago, when he was 69, Ray Goldwire and his wife, Ann, moved into a new retirement home in Gainesville, Florida, north of Orlando, and a few years later he began a new hobby: beekeeping.
RAY GOLDWIRE: It’s entirely different from anything I have ever done before, just like I started singing in the chorus this year, because I have never sung before.
SPENCER MICHELS: The Goldwires chose a place to live that they hoped would keep them stimulated in their retirement years. They live with about 400 other residents at Oak Hammock. It’s affiliated with, and close to, the University of Florida Ray Goldwire’s alma mater.
And it’s a far cry from their first try at retirement living.
SUMMARY: At a special housing development in Oregon, families who adopt foster children live side by side with seniors who volunteer their time in exchange for affordable rent. The NewsHour's Cat Wise reports how members of the intergenerational community find support and connection together.
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DERENDA SCHUBERT, Executive Director, Bridge Meadows: One of the beautiful features of Bridge Meadows is that there’s reciprocity among the generations, so the elders are providing love and support to the families, and the families are doing the same, and even the children are giving back to the elders.
SUMMARY: It's estimated that about half of Americans over the age of 65 use the Internet. But for the other half, increasing societal dependence on digital technology threatens to leave behind those who don't go online. NewsHour correspondent Mary Jo Brooks reports on efforts to teach elders how to stay connected through computers.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Now we continue our occasional look at aging and the challenges of long-term care.
Tonight, Hari Sreenivasan reports on a push to make New York City more livable in later years.
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): It's 9:30 in the morning in East Harlem, New York City, and the Thomas Jefferson Pool is springing to life.
WOMAN: Take the plunge. Come on.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Several dozen seniors have come to take the plunge, and take part in the pool's senior swim hours; 72-year-old Maria Pacheco, who takes attendance, comes three times a week.
MARIA PACHECO: People socialize. And being around people their own age -- our age, I should say -- you are not self-conscious of who's looking. And here, nobody's comparing you to anyone else.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The Jefferson Pool was the first to offer the senior swim hours. Now there are 15, with more than 1,000 seniors participating. It's Pacheco's third summer here at Jefferson. It helps keep her days busy.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): Finally tonight, troubling cases of elderly care, or lack of it, at some assisted living centers.
Nearly three-quarters-of-a-million Americans reside in more than 30,000 facilities. They're the subject of an investigation on tonight's Frontline, done in partnership with ProPublica.
A.C. Thompson is co-author of a series of reports for ProPublica and correspondent on tonight's program. He joins us now.
Well, welcome to you.
And first, for purposes of definition, tell us what you were looking into. How are you defining assisted living?
A.C. THOMPSON, Frontline/ProPublica: So, assisted living is the niche of senior housing that's between living at home on your own and living in a nursing home.
So these are people who need some help, they can't live independently anymore, but they don't necessarily need full-on around-the-clock medical care. So in an assisted living facility, it's more like a home, it's more like an apartment, and what you're getting typically is help with your medication, help with your meals, help to get to the bathroom or dressing if you need it.
SUMMARY: In academia, many professors remain working and teaching long past traditional retirement age, leaving younger potential professors shut out from highly coveted full-time, tenured positions. As part of a series on older workers, economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on how institutions are negotiating with aging faculty.
SUMMARY: The average age of Vita Needle's workers is 74 years old, and that's no accident. The manufacturing company has intentionally hired seniors -- a decision that has increased profits and benefited older workers who often have a harder time finding a job. Paul Solman reports on their unique model for doing business.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Now: a Massachusetts company that has found the road to profitability lies with an underemployed group of workers.
Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on this rare hiring policy. It's part of his ongoing reporting Making Sense of financial news.
SUMMARY: Diana Nyad, a 62-year-old swimmer, made her fourth attempt at swimming the distance between Cuba and Florida in order to become the first person to do so without a shark cage. She made it about halfway before being plucked out of the water for her safety. Margaret Warner talks to Nyad about her historic, final effort.
KARL PILLEMER, author, "30 Lessons for Living": You know, I think if there is one thing they know, it's that you have to be responsible for your own happiness.
And that sounds a little like a cliche, but it hit me strongly with one of my first interviewees, who metaphorically grabbed me by the lapels and said, "Young man" -- and it's fun to be called young man at my age -- "in my 89 years, I have learned that happiness is a choice, and not a condition."
And a lot of the elders experienced a turning point, you know, when they were in despair or devastated, and they turned things around in a moment. They believe that younger people are happy because of things. You know, they're going to be happy or they plan to be happy if something happens.
In their view, younger people should learn how to be happy in spite of things, and choose happiness.
