10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL May 18, 2016
Grow stronger, live longer Should Medicare
Here’s yet another reason to
try to stay fi t: Seniors with more
muscle mass have a lower risk
of death.
That’s according to research-
ers who spent eight years sur-
veying 6,400 patients with
cardiovascular disease. They
divided the patients into four
groups: high muscle/high fat,
high muscle/low fat, low mus-
cle/high fat and low muscle/low
fat. The winners (those with
improved survival odds) were
those with the high muscle/low
fat combination. The level of fat
doesn’t matter as much as the
muscle mass to reduce risk of
death.
The study jibes with one from
two years ago that determined
that BMI levels aren’t as impor-
tant as body composition -- in
other words, muscle mass.
How do seniors gain muscle
mass? It’s not easy, as we tend
to start losing muscle at about
age 40.
The fi rst step to build muscle
is to consult your doctor before
you change your diet or start
any new kind of exercise. Ask if
the following changes are cor-
rect for you:
Protein -- While it helps build
muscle, seniors shouldn’t get
too much because it can stress
the kidneys. This is where your
doctor can help calculate how
much you should get in a day.
Carbs -- We need to burn
these for energy. Without car-
bohydrates you’ll use protein
for energy, instead of using your
protein to build muscles.
Water -- You need the right
amount to help absorb the nu-
trients in your food. Again, your
doctor can calculate it for you.
Measure the amount of water
you should have in a day and
keep it handy on the counter or
in the fridge.
Working Out -- The Centers
for Disease Control and Preven-
tion has put a 126-page book
online called “Growing Stron-
ger” for seniors who want to
start strength training. Look for
it at www.cdc.gov.
Read the label!
Acetaminophen, a commonly
used over-the-counter pain re-
liever and fever reducer, has
been shown in research trials to
reduce the ability to spot errors.
That can be serious, depending
on what the user is doing while
taking the drug.
In double-blind clinical tri-
als, those taking acetaminophen
didn’t notice any difference in
their ability to see errors, but the
test results told a different story:
There really were slower reac-
tions and mistakes. (The par-
ticipants’ task was to hit one of
two buttons when certain letters
appeared on a screen.)
Acetaminophen is an active
ingredient in hundreds of over-
the-counter and prescription
medicines. If you take a pain re-
liever, be sure to read the pack-
age label to see if it contains ac-
etaminophen, especially if you
have liver problems. In 2013,
the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration issued a warning about
acetaminophen causing serious
skin diseases, including rash
Age be Raised to 67?
There’s a movement afoot
that, if it gains traction and be-
comes law, could affect many of
us. Researchers have once again
studied the ramifi cations of in-
creasing the age of Medicare
eligibility to 67. The purpose,
of course, would be to save the
government money.
Here are a few of the things
the study discovered from the
records of more than 200,000
seniors:
* Overall medical spending
dropped by a third when seniors
switched to Medicare because
the government pays providers
less than private insurers.
* While the government will
save money, actual health-care
spending will go up. A previous
2011 study concluded that while
the government would save $5.7
billion (in 2014), seniors age 65
and 66 would have increased
costs out of pocket of $4.5 bil-
lion. The current study agrees.
* A Congressional Budget Of-
fi ce looked at the potential gov-
ernment savings in 2013, and
concluded that the government
could save $19 billion between
2016 and 2023.
* Seniors generally would
stay with the same health-care
providers, who will get less
money for the same services,
probably 30 percent less. Those
providers will continue to see
existing patients because they’ll
be dealing with volume in the
number of patients.
So what does this mean to
us?
Seniors would need to spend
two more years on private insur-
ance. To keep employer-provid-
ed insurance, we’d need to stay
employed for two more years.
If we were planning to retire
and have Social Security as all
(or at least part) of our income,
we’re not likely to be able to
afford the high cost of medical
insurance, as it seems to go up
each year as we get older.
Bottom line: This topic isn’t
going away. It’s one to keep an
eye on.
and blisters. In 2015, the FDA
amended the required warning
on packages to expand on the
possibility of liver damage.
One consumer product that
contains acetaminophen goes
much farther in its label warn-
ing and says not to take it with
other drugs, limit use of caf-
feine, avoid alcohol, and more.
This should be a warning to
all of us. Just because something
is available over the counter
doesn’t mean it’s safe in all situ-
ations. And even if we’ve taken
a drug for a long time without
harm, we need to start reading
labels every time because the
information in them might have
changed.
To keep up with new informa-
tion from the FDA, have updates
sent to you by email. Go online
to fda.gov and put Get Email
Updates in the search box.
Choose your preferred topics
and fi ll in your email address.
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If you had been hoping to go
to the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services website and
take a look at its new hospital
ratings, you’ll be disappointed.
It doesn’t exist yet. The very day
before the site was to launch, it
was delayed.
It seems that Congress, along
with the hospital industry,
pushed to stop the launch in
its tracks. For the survey, hos-
pitals are rated for more than
100 measures of care, but the
information is often confusing.
(Or perhaps they’re afraid the
information will make them
look bad.) For example, hospi-
tals objected to a Medicare pa-
tient death rate being known to
women trying to choose a hos-
pital for having a baby. Another
objection was that a hospital’s
death rate might be because the
patients are low income.
Hospitals called 60 senators
and more than 200 representa-
tives and asked for the delay
so the information can be reas-
sembled.
We have ratings on CMS for
various patient surveys, and
those are of value. The higher
the number of stars, the lower
the death and readmission rates.
We have a star rating system for
nursing homes -- covering health
inspections, staffi ng, quality
measures and more. There’s one
for Home Health Compare that
includes a patient survey rating.
The new rating system for
overall hospital quality was
meant to make the informa-
tion about hospitals easier to
understand, with over 60 of the
measurements being condensed
into the star system, with ratings
from one to fi ve stars.
Initially the CMS told Con-
gress that the website would be
running by July. Now they’ve
backtracked and say it might be
after July if they’re still working
on the data.
If you want to view the other
ratings, go online to cms.gov
and put ratings in the search
box.
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