In Brief
By Andy Humm
Platinum Possibility
Patients over 65 in the early stages of lung cancer can get a “substantial survival benefit” from a treatment called “platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy,” says Dr. Carmel Pape, a Toronto researcher. The National Cancer Institute of Canada found that those given such treatment had a 66 percent survival rate over five years versus 46 percent for people who had surgery alone.
Of Teens and Greens
Who are the real environmentalists among us? A British survey has found that young people who shame their elders for abusing the environment actually do less recycling and energy-saving than people over 65.
The London Telegraph reports that Britons “born and raised in a time of post-war austerity” were much more apt to recycle, choose showers over baths, turn off the tap while brushing their teeth, use energy-saving appliances and light bulbs, etc.
The study, by the opinion-polling firm YouGov, determined that 18-to-24-year-olds “are far more concerned about their careers and financial security than [about] the environment,” even though they also see themselves as more caring about it than almost anyone else.
Staying on the Job – But Which?
Seventy-one percent of adults surveyed for Merrill Lynch say they want to keep working after reaching retirement age, with many hoping to take on some new type of work. Though 84 percent of the companies included in the survey say they anticipate their older workers will cut back to part-time schedules, this was in fact the goal of no more than 17 percent of the adults surveyed, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Despite a growing labor shortage in the United States, 25 percent of those over 60 said they were having a hard time finding a job, four-fifths believing their age was the reason.
With many companies facing an exodus of some of their most highly trained workers who are looking for a change, retention inducements at some firms include special health savings accounts to “bridge the gap between early retirement and Medicare,” and investment counseling as employees “move away from traditional pensions.”
Steve Moode, 64, of Chicago, who went from working in human resources in the corporate world to running an employee-benefits program at a hospital, told the Tribune: “I’m not a multimillionaire. I still get apprehensive and I worry if I’ll have enough and that’s part of what keeps me working.”
The AARP says that workers over age 50 constituted 13 percent of the labor pool in the United States in 2000; will be 25 percent by 2010.
A new study by HSBC of people in 20 countries around the world finds that 72 percent believe mandatory-age retirement should be abolished.
Aromasin v. Tamoxifen
No, not a lawsuit, but two competing drugs for women with “hormone-sensitive postmenopausal early breast cancer.” A new Intergroup Exemestane (Aromasin) study, reported in Senior Journal, concludes that women with early breast cancer who took Aromasin after two or three years of tamoxifen “were 17 percent more likely to be alive and 25 percent less likely to have their cancer return” than those who just took tamoxifen for five years.
Charles Coombes, director of medicine at Imperial College, London, heading the study, said that Aromasin was “the only anti-hormonal therapy that has been shown to demonstrate improved overall survival over tamoxifen alone.”
Dr. Stephen Jones, the Baylor, Texas, oncologist who is the lead American researcher, says that what all this means is that women with breast cancer “are moving closer to the goal of longer survival.”
Binge Drinking: Not Just College Students
And it’s worse in some parts of the country than others. Nationally about 4 percent of those over the age of 60 engage in binge drinking, but in Marin County, California, for instance, “8 percent of older adults … binge drink,” according to Nicholas Trunzo, director of the Division of Aging at that state’s Department of Health and Human Services. To qualify as a binge drinker you have to consume five or more drinks within two hours.
Since one of the effects is a loss of balance, older people are particularly at risk for falling and breaking bones that will take a long time to heal. The alcohol can also dilute the effect of medications.
Have a Heart – a Senior One
More than 20 percent of those in need of a heart transplant die waiting for one. But a new study out of the University of Alberta published in the Journal of Cardiac Surgery offers hope. Researchers found that transplants from donors more than 50 years old worked out just as well over the long term as those from younger people.
Within the first 30 days after transplant, however, the older hearts served less well, with 17 percent of recipients dying versus 7 percent of those who received younger hearts. After one year and five years the survival rates between younger and older transplanted hearts was roughly comparable, encouraging researchers to recommend expanding the pool of donors.
The Sex Life of Women of a Certain Age
For women from 40 to 69, sexual satisfaction seems to be linked with their mental health, weight, and income, a study from the University of Arizona at Tucson has found. About three-quarters of 2,109 California women in that age group were having sex, and two-thirds said they were “at least somewhat satisfied” with their sex lives, Reuters reports.
African-American women were 32 percent less likely than whites to be sexually dissatisfied.
In terms of frequency, 71 percent had sex in the past year, 37 percent monthly or less, 33 percent weekly or more. Higher rates of sexual activity were found among those who had highger income and more education as well as those who drank moderately, weighed less, and enjoyed better overall health.
Older Pops, Preemie Babies
There is much attention on the risks associated with older women bearing children, but a new study out of Italy that covered 1.5 million mothers in their 20s giving birth for the first time found that their chances of having a child prematurely increased as the father’s age increased, and that the risk was higher among mothers aged 20 to 24.
“Men aged 45 to 49 were nearly twice as likely to father infants born before 32 weeks if the mother was between 20 and 24 years old, compared to fathers aged 25 to 29,” Reuters reports. Older men are more likely to have “accumulated more potentially harmful genetic mutations” owing to long-term exposure to pollution.
