The use of packaging plastic continues to rise as the world’s population grows. Environmentalists say compostable and biodegradable packaging is needed now more than ever, particularly when it comes to plastics used to protect our food.  But now, a biodegradable film made from discarded shellfish and trees may fill that need. It’s being developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Lead researcher Carson Meredith is interested in exploring alternatives to crude-oil-based plastics now being used. “Probably about eight years ago, we got involved in what’s referred to as forest-based nanotechnology,” he told VOA news.  This is an emerging area “looking at using wood and other plant resources to extract high performance nano-crystalline materials made out of cellulose and using those in creating light-weight, high strength materials.”

Wood, clamshells, lobsters

What that means, is that the same cellulose fibers found in woody plants used to make paper can also be used to replace plastic packaging material. Meredith’s group found that by combining the plant cellulose with chitin, the hard material that makes up clamshells and the exoskeleton of lobsters, they could create a biodegradable coating.

At the molecular level, chitin and cellulose are oppositely charged — meaning they are attracted to each other. The Georgia Tech scientists used this property when they sprayed very thin, alternating layers of the two materials onto a base. 

“In this case, we chose to use polylactic acid, or PLA, which is also derived from natural materials and is biodegradable,” said Meredith. PLA is a plastic made from renewable sources such as corn starch or sugarcane. It can be a clear film like cellophane or shaped into disposable tableware.

Plastics without crude oil

There is a common misconception that all plastics are made using crude oil. Susan Selke, who directs the Center for Packing Innovation and Sustainability, explained that technically, the term plastic refers to “a long-chain carbon-based structure that is capable of being shaped through an application of heat and pressure.” She continued, “PLA itself is classified as a compostable plastic. So if you put it into a municipal composting program that’s organized to get to the elevated temperatures with lots of moisture, then what happens is that the PLA hydrolyzes. And once it’s hydrolyzed, then it can biodegrade.”

So in the case of the new plastic film, Meredith and his co-authors used a clear flexible PLA base and applied alternating layers of chitin and cellulose nano-fibers that dry into a thin, but durable clear plastic like that used most commonly in grocery stores.

Meredith notes his research shows that the chitin and cellulose “perform much better as two or three thin layers, than they would as independent materials of equivalent thickness.”

The new material is exceptionally good at keeping oxygen out, which would make it useful for food packaging. Meredith says they haven’t formally tested it as a food packing material, but one of the attractions is that this would be a compostable packaging material that would be completely biodegradable.

Green alternative

Moving forward, Meredith hopes to see the new material put to use as a green alternative, although challenges remain. “I think the major challenge for commercializing this would be having a scalable supply chain of raw materials. Right now that largely doesn’t exist,”he told VOA. 

Selke agrees, wondering how cost-effective the material might be. “It’s going to have to compete with other kinds of materials that are designed to do the same kind of thing in improving the barrier.”

Although future obstacles remain, the new material has two key benefits. The plastic itself is completely composed of bio-materials, and is compostable, meaning it can break down without the harmful pollution associated with fossil fuel-based plastics.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for an investigation of a domestic drug manufacturer accused of violating regulations in making a rabies vaccine.

Changsheng Biotechnology has been ordered to stop production and recall the vaccine after the China Food and Drug Administration discovered it had been falsifying production and inspection records.

Premier Li issued a statement Sunday denouncing Changsheng for crossing a moral line, and promised to “resolutely crack down” on any actions that endangers public safety.

There have no reports of injuries from the vaccine, but the news led to a wave of criticism on social media.

Changsheng Biotechnology was forced to stop production of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year after regulators found the vaccine to be defective.

China has been working to restore confidence in its food and drug industries, both at home and abroad, after a series of scandals over the last decade over shoddy and tainted products, the most notorious in 2008, when 300,000 children were sickened when they were given milk powder contaminated with the chemical melamine. Six of the children died.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for an investigation of a domestic drug manufacturer accused of violating regulations in making a rabies vaccine.

Changsheng Biotechnology has been ordered to stop production and recall the vaccine after the China Food and Drug Administration discovered it had been falsifying production and inspection records.

Premier Li issued a statement Sunday denouncing Changsheng for crossing a moral line, and promised to “resolutely crack down” on any actions that endangers public safety.

There have no reports of injuries from the vaccine, but the news led to a wave of criticism on social media.

Changsheng Biotechnology was forced to stop production of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year after regulators found the vaccine to be defective.

China has been working to restore confidence in its food and drug industries, both at home and abroad, after a series of scandals over the last decade over shoddy and tainted products, the most notorious in 2008, when 300,000 children were sickened when they were given milk powder contaminated with the chemical melamine. Six of the children died.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for an investigation of a domestic drug manufacturer accused of violating regulations in making a rabies vaccine.

Changsheng Biotechnology has been ordered to stop production and recall the vaccine after the China Food and Drug Administration discovered it had been falsifying production and inspection records.

Premier Li issued a statement Sunday denouncing Changsheng for crossing a moral line, and promised to “resolutely crack down” on any actions that endangers public safety.

There have no reports of injuries from the vaccine, but the news led to a wave of criticism on social media.

Changsheng Biotechnology was forced to stop production of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year after regulators found the vaccine to be defective.

China has been working to restore confidence in its food and drug industries, both at home and abroad, after a series of scandals over the last decade over shoddy and tainted products, the most notorious in 2008, when 300,000 children were sickened when they were given milk powder contaminated with the chemical melamine. Six of the children died.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for an investigation of a domestic drug manufacturer accused of violating regulations in making a rabies vaccine.

Changsheng Biotechnology has been ordered to stop production and recall the vaccine after the China Food and Drug Administration discovered it had been falsifying production and inspection records.

Premier Li issued a statement Sunday denouncing Changsheng for crossing a moral line, and promised to “resolutely crack down” on any actions that endangers public safety.

There have no reports of injuries from the vaccine, but the news led to a wave of criticism on social media.

Changsheng Biotechnology was forced to stop production of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year after regulators found the vaccine to be defective.

China has been working to restore confidence in its food and drug industries, both at home and abroad, after a series of scandals over the last decade over shoddy and tainted products, the most notorious in 2008, when 300,000 children were sickened when they were given milk powder contaminated with the chemical melamine. Six of the children died.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Too few people with signs of mental decline or dementia are getting checked during routine medical visits or told when a problem is found, says a panel of Alzheimer’s disease experts who offered new guidance Sunday.

The idea is to get help sooner for people whose minds are slipping — even if there’s no cure.

Though mental decline can be an uncomfortable topic for patients and their doctors, the panel says family physicians should do a thorough evaluation when concerning symptoms arise and share the diagnosis candidly.

Patients and family members should push for an evaluation if they’re worried that symptoms might not be normal aging – the difference between occasionally misplacing keys versus putting them in the freezer or being confused about their function.

“By the time you forget what the keys are for, you’re too far gone to participate in your own care. We’ve lost probably a decade” that could have been spent planning, said the panel’s leader, Dr. Alireza Atri, a neurologist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona.  

It’s not just memory that can suffer when mental decline starts, Atri said.

“It’s actually people’s judgment being off, their character and personality being off,” sometimes years before dementia is diagnosed, he said.

The need

About 50 million people worldwide have dementia; Alzheimer’s is the most common form. In the United States, nearly 6 million have Alzheimer’s and almost 12 million have mild cognitive impairment, a frequent precursor.

In 2015, Alzheimer’s Association research using Medicare records suggested that only about half of people who were being treated for Alzheimer’s had been told by their health care provider that they had been diagnosed with the disease.

“All too often, physicians will hear of some symptoms or memory complaints from patients or their spouse and say, `you know, you seem OK to me today,”‘ so check back in six months, said James Hendrix, an Alzheimer’s Association science specialist who worked with the panel. Meantime, the patient may end up hospitalized for problems such as forgetting to take a diabetes medicine because their mental impairment wasn’t caught.

“We hear stories all the time of people taking years to get an accurate diagnosis,” said Nina Silverberg, a psychologist who runs Alzheimer’s programs at the National Institute on Aging, which had no role in the guidelines.

Medicare recently started covering mental assessments as part of the annual wellness visit, but doctors aren’t required to do it and there was no guidance on how to do it, she said. In some cases, it might be as cursory as asking “how’s your memory?”

The panel was appointed by the Alzheimer’s Association and included primary care doctors, aging specialists, nurses and a psychiatrist. Broad guidelines were released on Sunday at the group’s international conference in Chicago; details will be published later this year.

The guidelines do not recommend screening everyone. They outline what health workers should do if people describe worrisome symptoms. That includes: checking for risk factors that may contribute to dementia or other brain diseases, including family history, heart disease and head injuries; pen-and-pencil memory tests; imaging tests to detect small strokes or brain injuries that could be causing memory problems.

Tough topic

Dr. Michael Sitorius, family medicine chairman at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said dealing with mental decline adds to the challenge of caring for often frail elderly patients.

It’s a tough diagnosis to make for many doctors, he said, because medical training focuses on “trying to cure people and Alzheimer’s and dementia are not curable.”

He said he gives his older patients mental tests at their annual checkups — but that sometimes patients or loved ones don’t want to hear the results. In those cases, Sitorius still addresses related issues including depression, safeguarding medication, nutrition and whether patients should continue driving.

He said the new guidelines are a welcome reminder for family doctors to tackle these issues earlier.

“Clearly … we could do better,” he said.

A diagnosis should never be withheld out of fear of making the patient depressed, Atri said.

“We strongly encourage a full disclosure,” including diagnosis, stage and prognosis, he said.

Patient’s story

At her daughter’s urging, Anne Hunt visited her family doctor in 2011 because of increasing forgetfulness. Hunt, 81, who once ran a Chicago cooking school, recalls struggling with memory tests involving letters and numbers that her doctor had her perform.

“I thought, `OK, this is it, I’m a vegetable,”‘ Hunt said. But the test results were inconclusive and there was no diagnosis.

“We didn’t do much about it,” said Bruce Hunt, Anne’s husband, until five years later, when her behavior was clearly worsening — more memory lapses, repeating herself and forgetting where to put things.

She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after an imaging test showed brain changes often seen with the disease. Imaging tests are sometimes used along with mental tests to diagnose the disease or rule out other conditions.

Is it good to know?

“There’s no pill they can take to make it go away, so some people think there’s no point to getting a diagnosis,” but that’s not true, the National Institute of Aging’s Silverberg said. “It really does offer an opportunity to plan.”

Alzheimer’s medicines such as Aricept and Namenda can ease symptoms but aren’t a cure.

Experts say other benefits include a chance to join experiments testing treatments, resolve finances, find caregivers, make homes safer and use memory aids and calendars to promote independent living.

The Hunts joined support groups and a singing ensemble, hoping that trying new things would help them both cope. They were better prepared than some. Long before her diagnosis, they converted a vintage Chicago apartment building into two spacious homes so they could “age in place” with help from one of their daughters and her family.

Anne Hunt said she had wanted to know the truth about her diagnosis.

“Not to know is to wonder why things are happening to you and you don’t understand them,” she said. “I would rather know and have somebody help me figure out how can I control this to the best of my ability.”

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Too few people with signs of mental decline or dementia are getting checked during routine medical visits or told when a problem is found, says a panel of Alzheimer’s disease experts who offered new guidance Sunday.

The idea is to get help sooner for people whose minds are slipping — even if there’s no cure.

Though mental decline can be an uncomfortable topic for patients and their doctors, the panel says family physicians should do a thorough evaluation when concerning symptoms arise and share the diagnosis candidly.

Patients and family members should push for an evaluation if they’re worried that symptoms might not be normal aging – the difference between occasionally misplacing keys versus putting them in the freezer or being confused about their function.

“By the time you forget what the keys are for, you’re too far gone to participate in your own care. We’ve lost probably a decade” that could have been spent planning, said the panel’s leader, Dr. Alireza Atri, a neurologist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona.  

It’s not just memory that can suffer when mental decline starts, Atri said.

“It’s actually people’s judgment being off, their character and personality being off,” sometimes years before dementia is diagnosed, he said.

The need

About 50 million people worldwide have dementia; Alzheimer’s is the most common form. In the United States, nearly 6 million have Alzheimer’s and almost 12 million have mild cognitive impairment, a frequent precursor.

In 2015, Alzheimer’s Association research using Medicare records suggested that only about half of people who were being treated for Alzheimer’s had been told by their health care provider that they had been diagnosed with the disease.

“All too often, physicians will hear of some symptoms or memory complaints from patients or their spouse and say, `you know, you seem OK to me today,”‘ so check back in six months, said James Hendrix, an Alzheimer’s Association science specialist who worked with the panel. Meantime, the patient may end up hospitalized for problems such as forgetting to take a diabetes medicine because their mental impairment wasn’t caught.

“We hear stories all the time of people taking years to get an accurate diagnosis,” said Nina Silverberg, a psychologist who runs Alzheimer’s programs at the National Institute on Aging, which had no role in the guidelines.

Medicare recently started covering mental assessments as part of the annual wellness visit, but doctors aren’t required to do it and there was no guidance on how to do it, she said. In some cases, it might be as cursory as asking “how’s your memory?”

The panel was appointed by the Alzheimer’s Association and included primary care doctors, aging specialists, nurses and a psychiatrist. Broad guidelines were released on Sunday at the group’s international conference in Chicago; details will be published later this year.

The guidelines do not recommend screening everyone. They outline what health workers should do if people describe worrisome symptoms. That includes: checking for risk factors that may contribute to dementia or other brain diseases, including family history, heart disease and head injuries; pen-and-pencil memory tests; imaging tests to detect small strokes or brain injuries that could be causing memory problems.

Tough topic

Dr. Michael Sitorius, family medicine chairman at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said dealing with mental decline adds to the challenge of caring for often frail elderly patients.

It’s a tough diagnosis to make for many doctors, he said, because medical training focuses on “trying to cure people and Alzheimer’s and dementia are not curable.”

He said he gives his older patients mental tests at their annual checkups — but that sometimes patients or loved ones don’t want to hear the results. In those cases, Sitorius still addresses related issues including depression, safeguarding medication, nutrition and whether patients should continue driving.

He said the new guidelines are a welcome reminder for family doctors to tackle these issues earlier.

“Clearly … we could do better,” he said.

A diagnosis should never be withheld out of fear of making the patient depressed, Atri said.

“We strongly encourage a full disclosure,” including diagnosis, stage and prognosis, he said.

Patient’s story

At her daughter’s urging, Anne Hunt visited her family doctor in 2011 because of increasing forgetfulness. Hunt, 81, who once ran a Chicago cooking school, recalls struggling with memory tests involving letters and numbers that her doctor had her perform.

“I thought, `OK, this is it, I’m a vegetable,”‘ Hunt said. But the test results were inconclusive and there was no diagnosis.

“We didn’t do much about it,” said Bruce Hunt, Anne’s husband, until five years later, when her behavior was clearly worsening — more memory lapses, repeating herself and forgetting where to put things.

She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after an imaging test showed brain changes often seen with the disease. Imaging tests are sometimes used along with mental tests to diagnose the disease or rule out other conditions.

Is it good to know?

“There’s no pill they can take to make it go away, so some people think there’s no point to getting a diagnosis,” but that’s not true, the National Institute of Aging’s Silverberg said. “It really does offer an opportunity to plan.”

Alzheimer’s medicines such as Aricept and Namenda can ease symptoms but aren’t a cure.

Experts say other benefits include a chance to join experiments testing treatments, resolve finances, find caregivers, make homes safer and use memory aids and calendars to promote independent living.

The Hunts joined support groups and a singing ensemble, hoping that trying new things would help them both cope. They were better prepared than some. Long before her diagnosis, they converted a vintage Chicago apartment building into two spacious homes so they could “age in place” with help from one of their daughters and her family.

Anne Hunt said she had wanted to know the truth about her diagnosis.

“Not to know is to wonder why things are happening to you and you don’t understand them,” she said. “I would rather know and have somebody help me figure out how can I control this to the best of my ability.”

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Too few people with signs of mental decline or dementia are getting checked during routine medical visits or told when a problem is found, says a panel of Alzheimer’s disease experts who offered new guidance Sunday.

The idea is to get help sooner for people whose minds are slipping — even if there’s no cure.

Though mental decline can be an uncomfortable topic for patients and their doctors, the panel says family physicians should do a thorough evaluation when concerning symptoms arise and share the diagnosis candidly.

Patients and family members should push for an evaluation if they’re worried that symptoms might not be normal aging – the difference between occasionally misplacing keys versus putting them in the freezer or being confused about their function.

“By the time you forget what the keys are for, you’re too far gone to participate in your own care. We’ve lost probably a decade” that could have been spent planning, said the panel’s leader, Dr. Alireza Atri, a neurologist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona.  

It’s not just memory that can suffer when mental decline starts, Atri said.

“It’s actually people’s judgment being off, their character and personality being off,” sometimes years before dementia is diagnosed, he said.

The need

About 50 million people worldwide have dementia; Alzheimer’s is the most common form. In the United States, nearly 6 million have Alzheimer’s and almost 12 million have mild cognitive impairment, a frequent precursor.

In 2015, Alzheimer’s Association research using Medicare records suggested that only about half of people who were being treated for Alzheimer’s had been told by their health care provider that they had been diagnosed with the disease.

“All too often, physicians will hear of some symptoms or memory complaints from patients or their spouse and say, `you know, you seem OK to me today,”‘ so check back in six months, said James Hendrix, an Alzheimer’s Association science specialist who worked with the panel. Meantime, the patient may end up hospitalized for problems such as forgetting to take a diabetes medicine because their mental impairment wasn’t caught.

“We hear stories all the time of people taking years to get an accurate diagnosis,” said Nina Silverberg, a psychologist who runs Alzheimer’s programs at the National Institute on Aging, which had no role in the guidelines.

Medicare recently started covering mental assessments as part of the annual wellness visit, but doctors aren’t required to do it and there was no guidance on how to do it, she said. In some cases, it might be as cursory as asking “how’s your memory?”

The panel was appointed by the Alzheimer’s Association and included primary care doctors, aging specialists, nurses and a psychiatrist. Broad guidelines were released on Sunday at the group’s international conference in Chicago; details will be published later this year.

The guidelines do not recommend screening everyone. They outline what health workers should do if people describe worrisome symptoms. That includes: checking for risk factors that may contribute to dementia or other brain diseases, including family history, heart disease and head injuries; pen-and-pencil memory tests; imaging tests to detect small strokes or brain injuries that could be causing memory problems.

Tough topic

Dr. Michael Sitorius, family medicine chairman at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said dealing with mental decline adds to the challenge of caring for often frail elderly patients.

It’s a tough diagnosis to make for many doctors, he said, because medical training focuses on “trying to cure people and Alzheimer’s and dementia are not curable.”

He said he gives his older patients mental tests at their annual checkups — but that sometimes patients or loved ones don’t want to hear the results. In those cases, Sitorius still addresses related issues including depression, safeguarding medication, nutrition and whether patients should continue driving.

He said the new guidelines are a welcome reminder for family doctors to tackle these issues earlier.

“Clearly … we could do better,” he said.

A diagnosis should never be withheld out of fear of making the patient depressed, Atri said.

“We strongly encourage a full disclosure,” including diagnosis, stage and prognosis, he said.

Patient’s story

At her daughter’s urging, Anne Hunt visited her family doctor in 2011 because of increasing forgetfulness. Hunt, 81, who once ran a Chicago cooking school, recalls struggling with memory tests involving letters and numbers that her doctor had her perform.

“I thought, `OK, this is it, I’m a vegetable,”‘ Hunt said. But the test results were inconclusive and there was no diagnosis.

“We didn’t do much about it,” said Bruce Hunt, Anne’s husband, until five years later, when her behavior was clearly worsening — more memory lapses, repeating herself and forgetting where to put things.

She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after an imaging test showed brain changes often seen with the disease. Imaging tests are sometimes used along with mental tests to diagnose the disease or rule out other conditions.

Is it good to know?

“There’s no pill they can take to make it go away, so some people think there’s no point to getting a diagnosis,” but that’s not true, the National Institute of Aging’s Silverberg said. “It really does offer an opportunity to plan.”

Alzheimer’s medicines such as Aricept and Namenda can ease symptoms but aren’t a cure.

Experts say other benefits include a chance to join experiments testing treatments, resolve finances, find caregivers, make homes safer and use memory aids and calendars to promote independent living.

The Hunts joined support groups and a singing ensemble, hoping that trying new things would help them both cope. They were better prepared than some. Long before her diagnosis, they converted a vintage Chicago apartment building into two spacious homes so they could “age in place” with help from one of their daughters and her family.

Anne Hunt said she had wanted to know the truth about her diagnosis.

“Not to know is to wonder why things are happening to you and you don’t understand them,” she said. “I would rather know and have somebody help me figure out how can I control this to the best of my ability.”

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Too few people with signs of mental decline or dementia are getting checked during routine medical visits or told when a problem is found, says a panel of Alzheimer’s disease experts who offered new guidance Sunday.

The idea is to get help sooner for people whose minds are slipping — even if there’s no cure.

Though mental decline can be an uncomfortable topic for patients and their doctors, the panel says family physicians should do a thorough evaluation when concerning symptoms arise and share the diagnosis candidly.

Patients and family members should push for an evaluation if they’re worried that symptoms might not be normal aging – the difference between occasionally misplacing keys versus putting them in the freezer or being confused about their function.

“By the time you forget what the keys are for, you’re too far gone to participate in your own care. We’ve lost probably a decade” that could have been spent planning, said the panel’s leader, Dr. Alireza Atri, a neurologist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona.  

It’s not just memory that can suffer when mental decline starts, Atri said.

“It’s actually people’s judgment being off, their character and personality being off,” sometimes years before dementia is diagnosed, he said.

The need

About 50 million people worldwide have dementia; Alzheimer’s is the most common form. In the United States, nearly 6 million have Alzheimer’s and almost 12 million have mild cognitive impairment, a frequent precursor.

In 2015, Alzheimer’s Association research using Medicare records suggested that only about half of people who were being treated for Alzheimer’s had been told by their health care provider that they had been diagnosed with the disease.

“All too often, physicians will hear of some symptoms or memory complaints from patients or their spouse and say, `you know, you seem OK to me today,”‘ so check back in six months, said James Hendrix, an Alzheimer’s Association science specialist who worked with the panel. Meantime, the patient may end up hospitalized for problems such as forgetting to take a diabetes medicine because their mental impairment wasn’t caught.

“We hear stories all the time of people taking years to get an accurate diagnosis,” said Nina Silverberg, a psychologist who runs Alzheimer’s programs at the National Institute on Aging, which had no role in the guidelines.

Medicare recently started covering mental assessments as part of the annual wellness visit, but doctors aren’t required to do it and there was no guidance on how to do it, she said. In some cases, it might be as cursory as asking “how’s your memory?”

The panel was appointed by the Alzheimer’s Association and included primary care doctors, aging specialists, nurses and a psychiatrist. Broad guidelines were released on Sunday at the group’s international conference in Chicago; details will be published later this year.

The guidelines do not recommend screening everyone. They outline what health workers should do if people describe worrisome symptoms. That includes: checking for risk factors that may contribute to dementia or other brain diseases, including family history, heart disease and head injuries; pen-and-pencil memory tests; imaging tests to detect small strokes or brain injuries that could be causing memory problems.

Tough topic

Dr. Michael Sitorius, family medicine chairman at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said dealing with mental decline adds to the challenge of caring for often frail elderly patients.

It’s a tough diagnosis to make for many doctors, he said, because medical training focuses on “trying to cure people and Alzheimer’s and dementia are not curable.”

He said he gives his older patients mental tests at their annual checkups — but that sometimes patients or loved ones don’t want to hear the results. In those cases, Sitorius still addresses related issues including depression, safeguarding medication, nutrition and whether patients should continue driving.

He said the new guidelines are a welcome reminder for family doctors to tackle these issues earlier.

“Clearly … we could do better,” he said.

A diagnosis should never be withheld out of fear of making the patient depressed, Atri said.

“We strongly encourage a full disclosure,” including diagnosis, stage and prognosis, he said.

Patient’s story

At her daughter’s urging, Anne Hunt visited her family doctor in 2011 because of increasing forgetfulness. Hunt, 81, who once ran a Chicago cooking school, recalls struggling with memory tests involving letters and numbers that her doctor had her perform.

“I thought, `OK, this is it, I’m a vegetable,”‘ Hunt said. But the test results were inconclusive and there was no diagnosis.

“We didn’t do much about it,” said Bruce Hunt, Anne’s husband, until five years later, when her behavior was clearly worsening — more memory lapses, repeating herself and forgetting where to put things.

She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after an imaging test showed brain changes often seen with the disease. Imaging tests are sometimes used along with mental tests to diagnose the disease or rule out other conditions.

Is it good to know?

“There’s no pill they can take to make it go away, so some people think there’s no point to getting a diagnosis,” but that’s not true, the National Institute of Aging’s Silverberg said. “It really does offer an opportunity to plan.”

Alzheimer’s medicines such as Aricept and Namenda can ease symptoms but aren’t a cure.

Experts say other benefits include a chance to join experiments testing treatments, resolve finances, find caregivers, make homes safer and use memory aids and calendars to promote independent living.

The Hunts joined support groups and a singing ensemble, hoping that trying new things would help them both cope. They were better prepared than some. Long before her diagnosis, they converted a vintage Chicago apartment building into two spacious homes so they could “age in place” with help from one of their daughters and her family.

Anne Hunt said she had wanted to know the truth about her diagnosis.

“Not to know is to wonder why things are happening to you and you don’t understand them,” she said. “I would rather know and have somebody help me figure out how can I control this to the best of my ability.”

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

A group of Pakistani engineering students has developed a voice-operated wheelchair to help those disabled achieve more self-reliance. The chair is getting some traction, as we see in this report from Saman Khan in Lahore, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
…

From: MeNeedIt

A group of Pakistani engineering students has developed a voice-operated wheelchair to help those disabled achieve more self-reliance. The chair is getting some traction, as we see in this report from Saman Khan in Lahore, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
…

From: MeNeedIt

German industry groups warned Sunday, ahead of a meeting between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump, that tariffs the United States has recently imposed or threatened risk harming the U.S. itself.

The U.S. imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminum June 1, and Trump is threatening to extend them to EU cars and car parts. Juncker will discuss trade with Trump at a meeting Wednesday.

Dieter Kempf, head of Germany’s BDI industry association, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper it was wise for the European Union and United States to continue their discussions.

German auto industry

“The tariffs under the guise of national security should be abolished,” Kempf said, adding that Juncker needed to make clear to Trump that the United States would harm itself with tariffs on cars and car parts.

He added that the German auto industry employed more than 118,000 people in the United States and 60 percent of what they produced was exported to other countries from the U.S. 

“Europe should not let itself be blackmailed and should put in a confident appearance in the United States,” he added.

Lowered expectations

EU officials have sought to lower expectations about what Juncker can achieve and downplayed suggestions that he will arrive in Washington with a novel plan to restore good relations.

Eric Schweitzer, president of the DIHK Chambers of Commerce, told Welt am Sonntag he welcomed Juncker’s attempt to persuade the U.S. government not to impose tariffs on cars.

“All arguments in favor of such tariffs are … ultimately far-fetched,” he said.

The German economy had for decades counted on there being open markets and a reliable global trading system, Schweitzer said, but he added of the current situation: “Every day German companies feel the transatlantic rift getting wider.”
…

From: MeNeedIt