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Join the Penn Memory Center’s Felicia Greenfield November 14 at The Aging Mind 102: Dealing With Dementia.

The free informational forum “will explore the journeys of LGBT older adults who have been impacted by dementia or cognitive decline.”

“Join us to learn about the neruological aspects of dementia, behavioral interventions, financial issues, and end-of-life planning,” a flyer reads. Light refreshments will be served.

What: Dealing With Dementia
When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, November 14
Where: The United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern NJ, 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pa.

To register, contact the LGBT Elder Initiative at 215-720-9415 or info@lgbtei.org.

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As people are living longer than ever before, society needs to make an investment in the elderly, according to a new report.

“Comprehensive public-health action on ageing is urgently needed, and there is something that can be done in every setting, no matter what the level of socio-economic development,” declared the World Health Organization’s World Report on Ageing and Health, released last week.

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A planned University of Pennsylvania program using dance to promote cognitive health was featured by the American Public Health Association.

Penn Memory Center (PMC) researchers plan to partner with First Corinthian Baptist Church in West Philadelphia to provide senior citizens with group dancing sessions, PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish said in the interview. The idea spawned from the interest adults were showing in a similar program used at a local middle school to target obesity.

“What we found is that many of the young people were coming with parents or grandparents, and we discovered that’s an opportunity to get older adults dancing, too,” Karlawish told The Nation’s Health. “Certainly, physical activity is related to weight management, but it’s also related to brain health. The researchers at Penn have developed ways using line-and related dance activities to engage groups in physically and socially engaging activities.”

Click here to read the entire article.

Credit: Julie Kertesz/Flickr

Join The Penn Memory Center this fall for one of two sessions of “Cognitive Comedy Workshop.”

The free workshop, held 10 a.m. to noon at The Ralston House (3615 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.), highlights the relationship between cognition and long-form improvisation, as taught by local and East Coast improv comedians.

The course will be held for beginners. Meet, greet, talk, learn the basics, play games, do improv exercises, and finally act out scenes. Through listening, word association, and natural comedy instinct, you can find yourself confident, hilarious, and healthy!

Tobi Akindoju stands outside First Corinthian Baptist Church, the focal point of his research. (Terrence Casey / Penn Memory Center)

An elderly person’s cognitive health is largely dependent on his or her environment, and West Philadelphia is several large steps away from being an age-friendly neighborhood, according to recent research.

The neighborhood’s necessary improvements — including a decrease in crime and an increase in age-friendly transportation options — were highlighted in a community health mapping project recently presented at the University of Pennsylvania by Tobi Akindoju.

A patient’s medical future is a greater cause of stigma than an actual diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study.

The negative beliefs associated with Alzheimer’s — that patients will become unruly in social situations or abandon personal hygiene, for example — are related to the prognosis rather than the diagnosis, researchers said.

“Alzheimer’s disease label was generally not associated with more stigmatizing reactions,” the study’s authors wrote. “In contrast, expecting the symptoms to get worse…resulted in higher levels of perceived structural discrimination, higher pity, and greater social distance.”

Jason Karlawish, co-director of the Penn Memory Center, recently spoke of his work and the center’s mission during an interview with the Alliance for Aging Research.

“My research goal is to help not just patients but society to live with a new vision of Alzheimer’s disease,” he said. “Many more people will have it, and the simple fact is we are going to have to learn to live with Alzheimer’s. It’s going to be a part of the human condition for the foreseeable future.”

Read the complete interview at AgingResearch.org.

When facing their own mortality, people tend to reevaluate their top priority in life. Is it enough simply to exist? Or is a life without happiness or comfort worth the pain and suffering that comes with terminal illness?

This was one issue tackled by a panel of University of Pennsylvania medical experts during “Reimagining the End of Life,” moderated by health journalist Jackie Judd Wednesday afternoon.

Credit: Military Health

Conventional wisdom tells us that exercise can help strengthen all of our muscles — including our brains. Study after study has reinforced this wisdom.

So Dr. Kaycee Sink was understandably surprised when her recent study found no connection between physical activity and cognitive health.

Dr. Julie Schneider presents her study results August 25, 2015.

Vascular health could play a major role in diagnosing and preventing dementia, according to a study presented recently at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Julie Schneider, Professor of Pathology and Neurological Sciences and Associate Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University in Chicago, declared that the scientific community needs to reevaluate its approach when it comes to studying neurodegenerative diseases.

“We have to think more broadly about dementia and aging,” she said during her August 25 presentation. “We need to start thinking about other targets.”