Heart failure is reaching epidemic levels among seniors in the United States, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008.

Beta-alanine (BA), a dietary supplement widely used by athletes and body builders, has been proven to increase the fitness levels of a group of elderly men and women. The research, published in BioMed Central's open access Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, suggests that BA supplementation improves muscle endurance in the elderly.

Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System report that a daily single oral dose of an investigational drug, MK-677, increased muscle mass in the arms and legs of healthy older adults without serious side effects, suggesting that it may prove safe and effective in reducing age-related frailty.

Halting a medication that treats one ailment because it may worsen another is a treatment trade-off decision that elderly patients with multiple medical conditions would rather take part in, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Life can be stressful, whether you're an individual watching the stock market crash or a commuter stuck in traffic. A new study, forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science, examines how stress affects decision-making and finds that older adults alter their behavior more than young adults when under stress — particularly in situations involving risk.

Giving people age 65 and older a dose four times larger than the standard flu vaccine boosts the amount of antibodies in their blood to levels considered protective against the flu, more so than the standard flu vaccine does. The findings from a study of nearly 4,000 people were presented Oct. 26 at a national meeting on infectious diseases.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that an investigational high-dose influenza vaccine demonstrated increased immune responses among adults 65 years of age and older compared with the standard influenza vaccine. The candidate high-dose intramuscular formulation of the influenza vaccine is being developed by sanofi pasteur.

Elderly women can increase muscle strength as much as young women can, a new study from the University of New Hampshire finds, indicating that decline in muscle function is less a natural part of the aging process than due to a decline in physical activity.

A European study suggests that the combination of low plasma levels of antioxidants and blue light exposure from the sun is associated with certain forms of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

In a large group of Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes, depression was associated with a higher death rate from all causes during a two-year study period. The findings are published in the October 2008 Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Nearly 60 percent of the nation's elderly have trouble sleeping, whether it's a lot of tossing and turning or outright bouts of insomnia. While for most people sleeplessness can be annoying at best or unhealthy at worst, for elderly individuals who have suffered from depression in the past, poor sleep may be the first sign that a new bout of depression is coming on.

Sigmoid volvulus has been described since ancient times, but its treatment is still evolving. Several surgical approaches have been used including, resection, non-operative reduction using a colonoscope, sigmoidopexy and mesosigmoidoplasty.