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"Two other "objectives" were to increase the use of OxyContin by elderly patients and to convince doctors that they could "aggressively" treat patients with opioid narcotics, especially OxyContin. The company instructed its sales reps to tell doctors they could "start with and stay with" OxyContin for the treatment of patients over the long term, according to the corporate documents. The reps were to say not only that OxyContin was safe but that there was "no maximum daily dose or ceiling" on the amount patients could ingest if they still suffered pain." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"We do know, however, from the PROSPER study that high-risk elderly patients with no previous history of heart disease have no fewer heart attacks when they are treated with a statin for three years. But they do develop significantly more cancer. Furthermore, the first statin introduced to the market, Mevacor, is now available as a generic drug, lova-statin, which costs less than half as much as the brand-name drugs and has never been shown to be any less effective at preventing heart attacks in people over the age of 65." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.)

"Vincent Indianapolis Hospital demonstrated the dramatic benefits of CoQIO on ejection fraction, heart muscle ATP content, and outcome in elderly patients scheduled for high-risk bypass surgery. In this experiment, ten out of twenty patients were randomly selected to take 100 mg of CoQIO daily for two weeks before surgery and for a month afterward. Bypass surgery generates free radicals and interferes with ATP metabolism. Heart muscle tissue samples obtained at the start of surgery revealed 50 percent more CoQIO and ATP in the supplemented patients." - Stephen Sinatra, M.D. and James C., M.D. Roberts, Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before It's Too Late (Get the book.)

"Don't Forget B12 for Memory Research shows tremendous potential for B12 to reverse mental decline in elderly patients. In one study, 61 percent of patients with mental impairment had complete recovery with supplementation; investigators speculate that those who did not recover had suffered from a deficiency for so long that damage to the nervous system had become irreversible. Then there's Alzheimer's, a terrible condition for which we currently have no cure." - Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why (Get the book.)

"We don't like to use beta blockers for elderly patients because they might cause mental confusion. There are different types of beta blockers available that you can talk to your doctor about. When appropriate, the medication should be of the cardio-selective type. Standard, non-cardio-selective beta blockers can trigger asthma attacks. If you have asthma and take one of the standard medications, you could get worse. In heart failure, Coreg is the drug of choice if you don't mind spending an extra $100 a month. It also functions as an antioxidant." - Stephen Sinatra, M.D. and James C., M.D. Roberts, Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before It's Too Late (Get the book.)

"That includes the shep trial; the annual cardiovascular event rate among 4,149 nondiabetic elderly patients decreased from about 3.5 percent to 2.5 percent consequent to treating their systolic hypertension, but for the 583 with type 2 diabetes it decreased from just over 6 percent to about 4 percent, a slightly more credible benefit." - Nortin M. Hadler MD, Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (Get the book.)

"One European study involved thirty-eight elderly patients with congestive heart failure who were taking traditional medical therapies, including digitalis, diuretics, and anti-arrhythmic agents. Twenty-one were treated with oral L-carnitine at a dose of 1 gram twice daily for forty-five days. The seventeen controls were placed on placebo. Although both groups demonstrated improvement in NYHA classes, the L-carnitine group experienced a significant reduction in the incidence of cardiac arrhythmias, particularly premature ventricular contractions." - Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., The Sinatra Solution Metabolic Cardiology (Get the book.)

"Deaths have been reported in studies of vascular dementia with donepezil, galantamine, and other drugs, particularly neuroleptics (antipsychotics), for behavioral symptoms in elderly patients taking them. It is often difficult to know if an apparent increase in deaths in a drug study represents a deviation from chance. After all, many older people are enrolled in such studies and a certain percentage will die unrelated to any drug effect. Nevertheless, we desperately need a better post-FDA approval surveillance system to track the long-term dangers of drugs." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.) "He preferred the term presbyophrenic dementia to describe elderly patients with memory loss, disorientation, and verbal dysfunction. Seen in this light, Kraepelin's creation of Alzheimer's disease established a diagnostic territory over which the Munich lab could reign. Besides elevating Alzheimer's work over Fischer's, the designation of the disease category lent credibility and clout to Kraepelin's lab and created justification for supporting further research into diseases of society's aging citizens." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.) "Just as Socrates was able to help the two travelers shape their own expectations of Athens, the medical community stands at the gateways of their patients' futures, assisting people with memory challenges and their families in developing a concept of what to expect as they age. Many elderly patients come to their doctors harboring fear, terror, and angst about their memory loss that are generated from the public myth we have of Alzheimer's disease, which remains largely negative and simplistic." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.) "Fran is a composite patient who saw the doctor I have become: a committed healer for my elderly patients. Frank and Fran can have real implications for how our society cares for our aging men and women in the twenty-first century. I am enacting Fran's story with other patients in my own clinical practice and encouraging my colleagues to do so as well. Every aspect of Fran's successful aging plan is real. My patients in Cleveland are: ?Eating healthier diets ?" - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"For example, as reported in several 2007 studies in the Archives of Internal Medicine, elderly patients taking certain drugs, including Prozac and Paxil, had increased risk of fragile bones and fractures from falls. A variety of effective natural therapies are available for these disorders, including diet and nutrition, nutritional supplements, meditation, exercise, and psychotherapy. These are all described in Chapter 7. Special care must be taken when providing any intervention in an older patient, particularly when there are other conditions involved." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"This caught my attention because stroke is a fairly common problem among my elderly patients, and though most strokes are minor, some are tragic, leaving patients trapped in a permanent state of severe disability. I remembered one patient in particular, Mrs. Rose, who had spent the last year and a half of her life in a nursing home, wheelchair-bound, unable to feed herself or take care of her basic needs independently. Even though the stroke had left Mrs." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.)

"In this study, 30 to 90 mg of DHEA per day was administered to six middle-aged and elderly patients over a period of four weeks. Results showed significant improvements in symptoms of depression and memory performance. St. John's Wort for Depression—An Overview and Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. Linde K; et al. British Medical Journal, 1996 August 3, 313(7052):253-258." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"Quite frankly, this is a side effect that we count on with our elderly patients who complain of constipation. Bowel tolerance is an individual thing. If you are uncomfortable, reduce the dosage to get the cardiovascular benefits without the laxative effect. Don't take extra magnesium if you suffer from kidney failure. The kidneys may not be able to excrete the mineral, which could contribute to a toxic buildup in the body. Nattokinase and Lumbrokinase Hyperviscosity refers to sticky or sludgy blood." - Stephen Sinatra, M.D. and James C., M.D. Roberts, Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before It's Too Late (Get the book.)

"All through the 1990s, even as the Beers List grew in length, and in esteem, the number of elderly patients receiving Beers List drugs grew. In a 2004 study of 765,000 patients, researchers found that 21 percent of elderly patients had filled prescriptions for drugs that "are known to cause harm or induce harmful side effects in those over 65 years of age." Even more dramatic was the increase in drug-drug interactions and the elderly." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"In fact, Paolisso and colleagues [111] have shown magnesium supplementation to improve glucose tolerance in nondiabetic elderly and improve insulin response in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes. It is possible that decreased magnesium levels may represent a marker rather than a cause of the disease." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.) "Moderate exercise improves glucose metabolism in uncontrolled elderly patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Isr. J. Med. Sci. 30, 766-770. 61. Ross, R., Dagnone, D., Jones, P. J. Ft., Smith, H., Paddags, A., Hudson, R., and Janssen, I. (2000). Reduction in obesity and related comorbid conditions after diet-induced weight loss or exercise-induced weight loss in men—a randomized controlled trial. Ann Intern Med, 133, 92-103. 62. Irwin, M. L., Yasui, Y., Ulrich, C. M., Bowen, D., Rudolph, R. E., Schwartz, R. S., Yukawa, M., Aiello, E., Potter, J. D., and McTieman, A. (2003)." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.) "Dietary supplementation in elderly patients with fractured neck of the femur. Lancet 335, 1013-1016. 48. Heaney, R. P. (2007). Effects of protein on the calcium economy." In "Nutritional Aspects of Osteoporosis 2006" (B. Dawson-Hughes, and R. P. Henry, Eds), pp. 191-197. Elsevier, Amsterdam. 49. Devine, A., Criddle, R. A., Dick, I. M., Kerr, D. A., and Prince, R. L. (1995). A longitudinal study of the effect of sodium and calcium intakes on regional bone density in postmenopausal women. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 62, 740-745. 50. Marcus, R. (2001). Osteomalacia." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.) "Effects of calcium supplements on femoral bone mineral density and vertebral fracture rate in vitamin D-replete elderly patients. Osteoporos. Int. 4, 245-252. 33. Recker, R. R., Hinders, S., Davies, K. M., Heaney, R. P., Stegman, M. R., Kimmel, D. B., and Lappe, D. J. (1996). Correcting calcium nutritional deficiency prevents spine fractures in elderly women. J. Bone Miner. Res. 11, 1961-1966. 34. Dawson-Hughes, B., Harris, S. S., Krall, E. A., and Dallal, G. E. (1997). Effect of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on bone density in men and women 65 years of age or older. N. Engl. J. Med." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.)

"The Evaluation of Losartan In The Elderly (ELITE II) study randomized 3,152 elderly patients over age sixty with heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction to the ARB losartan or the ACE inhibitor captopril.27 There were no differences in mortality (11.7% vs. 10.4%), although fewer patients stopped medication in the ARB group (9.7% vs. 14.7%), primarily because of dry cough with the ACE inhibitors. These drugs do not help African Americans with left ventricular dysfunction, however. A recent study in the U.K. followed patients prospectively using a database of 1.18 million patients." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.) "The antipsychotic drugs developed for schizophrenia are actually used just as much or more in elderly patients with dementia. One study of all the studies of antipsychotics for the treatment of behavioral problems in demented patients found data on 3,353 patients randomized to an antipsychotic and 1,757 randomized to placebo that revealed a 1.2% absolute increase in the death of those patients on antipsychotics. The authors concluded that treatment of demented patients with antipsychotics may be associated with an increased risk of death." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.) "The FDA, however, has sent no such letter to American doctors, many of whom are unaware of the risks and the recommendation to cease using atypical antipsychotics for behavioral symptoms in demented elderly patients. I recommend that patients with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia should not be given antipsychotic drugs unless they have clear forms of psychosis (e.g., seeing or hearing things that are not there or having frank delusions or incorrect beliefs) as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.) "This practice seems to be particularly common in elderly patients. Trazodone (Desyrel) and ami-triptyline (Elavil) are two examples that are commonly used for such patients. However, their efficacy has not yet been established, and they can have negative side effects. Elavil has the most anticholinergic side effects of any of the antidepressants (confusion, dry mouth, trouble urinating). Desyrel can cause priapism (a painful and sustained erection that may require a trip to the emergency room)." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.)

"In one study, vitamins C and E reduced coronary death and death due to all causes in elderly patients.158 In another, an antioxidant supplement significantly lowered risk for myocardial infarction (heart attack) in men and women over 55.159 A Finnish study showed no significant effect of an antioxidant supplement on death due to coronary artery events;161 however, only 3 percent of the people actually used an antioxidant supplement. In the very large U.S." - Tori Hudson, N.D., Women's Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine: Alternative Therapies and Integrative Medicine for Total Health and Wellness (Get the book.)

"We usually start with 500 mg each dose and often will start with 1 g per dose, especially for cases of arthritis, for schizophrenics, for alcoholics, and for a few elderly patients. However, with elderly patients it is better to start small and work it up slowly. Very few can take more than 6 g per day of the nicotinamide. With nicotinic acid it is possible to go much higher. Many schizophrenics have taken up to 30 g per day with no difficulty. The dose will alter over time, and if on a dose where there were no problems, they may develop in time." - Abram Hoffer, PhD, MD, FRCP(C) and Dr. Jonathan Prousjy, DPHE, DSC, ND, FRSH, Naturopathic Nutrition: A Guide to Nutrient-rich Food & Nutritional Supplements for Optimum Health (Get the book.)

"Another study tested vinpocentine against a placebo in elderly patients with cerebrovascular (circulation in the brain) and central nervous system degenerative disorders, and similarly good results were found. Vinpocentine so far has not been shown to be helpful with Alzheimer's, but it may improve blood flow in the brain. Then there's vitamin B12, which is essential for the proper functioning of the brain. B12 plays an important role in creating and maintaining the protective coating around neurons, called the myelin sheath." - Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why (Get the book.)

"This large study concluded that cognitive training resulted in improved cognitive abilities in elderly patients. Coenzyme Q10 Modulates Cognitive Impairment Against Intracerebroven-tricular Injection of Streptozotocin in Rats. Ishrat T; Khan MB; et al. Behavioural Brain Research, 2006 July 15, 71(1):9-16. Results indicated that coenzyme Q10 (CoQIO) study has a neuroprotective effect against cognitive impairments and oxidative damage in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of rats infused with streptozotocin. The Psychopharmacology of European Herbs with Cognition-Enhancing Properties." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"With the disembodied government now footing the bill, the doctor was no longer charging his elderly patients directly, and it no longer mattered as much whether he drove a Cadillac or a Chevy. Medicare also made it possible for physicians to discover how much their competitors were charging. Physicians were barred by law from fixing fees, but they could now find out what prevailing rates were simply by going to their local medical societies, which had the Medicare data on what usual, customary, and reasonable rates were in their region." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"In one study of elderly patients the average level of vitamin D was 18 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter) when normal is between 50 and 80. Almost 60 percent of them were under 20 ng/ml.Those with the lowest vitamin D levels had the most depression and the worst performance on objective tests for dementia and cognitive function.48 We know that vitamin D levels drop precipitously in winter, that this is associated with seasonal affective disorder, and that giving vitamin D supplements can prevent this.49 •r New insights into brain development in the womb link vitamin D deficiency with autism." - Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Get the book.)

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