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Walking pneumonia means a person with pneumonia is highly likely to get well at home and not develop complications. Still, walking pneumonia is considered a significant infection and requires prompt and appropriate treatment. Doctors usually prescribe antibiotics and rest.
The most common type of heart failure in older adults is heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This is caused by the heart’s left ventricle not being able to relax, which means less blood enters the chamber, so less gets pumped out. Prevention and treatments continue to evolve, but include controlling blood pressure, addressing weight gain with exercise and diet, not smoking, and curbing alcohol intake.
Many men have questions regarding the testing and screening processes for prostate cancer, such as whether prostate-specific antigen tests are still the standard, when it is time for a biopsy, and what new technologies are available to help with a more accurate diagnosis. Harvard Medical School prostate cancer expert Dr. Marc Garnick provides the answers.
Accomplished senior athletes face the same obstacles as most other older adults—seeking motivation, overcoming injuries and setbacks, and finding the best exercise routines to meet their goals. Here, seasoned competitors from the National Senior Games—the world’s largest multi-sport event for seniors—share their tips and strategies for how they stay active, healthy, and driven.
The FDA called for the food industry to voluntarily cut the amount of sodium in processed, packed, and prepared foods. Those products provide about 70% of the sodium in the typical American diet.
Exposure to chemicals called phthalates, found in commonly used plastics, may be linked to a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
A draft guideline from a national panel of experts recommends that people without heart disease who are 60 and older should not take low-dose aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke.
About two-thirds of people over 65 have periodontal disease, which is linked to a higher risk of heart disease. Shared risk factors such as smoking and an unhealthy diet may explain the association, but bacteria and inflammation could be a common thread. The bacteria responsible for periodontal disease can travel to blood vessels throughout the body and have been found in the fatty debris (atherosclerosis) that clogs arteries located far from the mouth—and in blood clots from people who have experienced heart attacks.
For people over 60, aiming for a blood pressure target below 130/80 mm Hg may prevent more cardiovascular problems than aiming for the higher target suggested by some physicians. Some feared that the more intensive treatment required to reach the lower target might cause more adverse side effects (such as dizziness and falls) in older people. But side effects do not appear to differ among people taking intensive versus standard therapy.
For people with stable angina, which occurs in about two-thirds of people with heart disease, optimal medical therapy is almost always the best treatment. It includes all the medications a person needs to get cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar into a healthy range. Certain medications, including beta blockers, calcium-channel blockers, and nitrates, also help relieve the discomfort of angina.