View clinical trials related to Aging.
Filter by:This is a Stage I randomized, sham-controlled trial on the effects of multimodal musical stimulation on working memory in aging. Neurologically healthy older and younger adults will be tested on working memory and electroencephalography in the first randomized controlled trial of music as a form of brain stimulation, with multimodal musical stimulation and control stimulation conditions. Results will test the causal role of oscillatory mechanisms of the brain on cognition, and will lay the groundwork to the first musical, neurophysiologically targeted, brain-stimulation device for reversing cognitive decline in aging.
Threonine is an essential amino acid and must be obtained from the diet. The body's capacity to maintain adequate mucin synthesis is directly related to the bioavailability of certain amino acids, including threonine, serine and proline (1). Moreover, the rate of mucin synthesis has been demonstrated to be directly related to the availability of dietary threonine in healthy rats (2) and piglets (3,4). Intestinal inflammation is known to increase gastrointestinal threonine uptake and mucin synthesis in enterally fed minipigs (5). Additionally, in animals, mucin function/barrier has been shown to decline with age, leaving them more susceptible to bacterial penetration. Thus, with advancing age (6), a higher dietary supply of threonine may be needed for maintaining intestinal mucosal health. Despite this, the current threonine requirement is based on studies conducted exclusively in young adults. Thus, there is a need to determine the threonine requirement directly in older adults.
This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness and duration of action of DaxibotulinumtoxinA for neck rejuvenation through treatment of platysmal bands. This study will consist of one treatment visit with subjects being randomized to receiving 15 or 20 units of DaxibotulinumtoxinA per platysmal band. Subjects will return for 5 follow-up visits at 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 weeks for evaluation.
The present study is a randomized, placebo-controlled, feasibility study to evaluate efficacy of dietary ingredients in vitality & metabolic factors in healthy individuals. Approximately 54 subjects aged between ≥ 40 and ≤ 60 years will be screened and 36 participants (12 in each arm) are to be randomized. Both the IP and placebo study arms will have 10 completed subjects in each arm after accounting for the screening failure and dropout/withdrawal rate of 30% and 17% respectively (Total 30 completers). The treatment duration for all the study subjects will be 90 days.
The goal of this study is to examine changes in the brain, behavior, and personal experience when music is used to guide learning of finger movement sequences (compared to visual stimuli alone) in healthy older adults. The main research questions this study aims to answer are: 1. Is auditory-based motor training associated with increased structural integrity of brain white matter tracts (connecting auditory-motor regions) compared to motor training with visual cues only? 2. Is auditory-based motor training (as compared to visual clues only) associated with increased brain cortical thickness, and changes in brain activation while performing a task in the MRI and while at rest, in auditory and sensorimotor regions? 3. Does auditory-based motor training lead to greater motor improvement on the trained task compared to a visually cued motor training? 4. Does auditory-based motor training lead to greater improvement on thinking, movement, and self-reported wellbeing measures, compared to visual cues alone? In an 8-week home training, participants will be randomized into either the music-cued motor learning (Experimental Group) or visually cued only condition (Control Group), participants will complete the following measures before-and-after the training is administered at week 1 and in the end of the 8-week trial: - MRI scans (structural and functional) - Behavioral measures (motor, cognition) - Questionnaires administered pre-and-post training (psychosocial functioning). - Questionnaires administered once only (personality traits, musical background) - In between measures, participants will follow an online computer-based training at home of 20 minutes per session, 3 times per week for 8 weeks, for a total of 24 sessions constituting 8 hours of training.
Poor sleep quality can significantly jeopardize the brain health, cognitive functions, daily activities, quality of life, and even be implicated as a key potential contributing factor in the development of accelerated cognitive decline and prodromal dementia. Consequently, research efforts to understand, and therefore potentially model, the effects of sleep quality on cognition and brain health are of great pragmatic values.
Ageing is characterized by a decline in neuromuscular control and a progressive loss of muscle mass, strength and power, leading to reduced mobility, loss of independence, higher hospitalizations rate, and increased all-cause mortality. Several studies suggest a non-linear decay of these age-related changes. Denervation-reinnervation processes, resulting in fewer but larger surviving motor units in advanced age, start as early as age 50-60yr and can be magnified in older adults (>75yr). Significant functional consequences in daily living activities are not usually observed until approximately 50yr. However, after 50yr, muscle strength/power reduction is accelerated and becomes faster than average muscle mass loss. Most observations come from cross- sectional studies and several confounding factors associated with secondary aging, such as physical activity levels, may contribute to (or compensate for) the observed age-related reductions in neuromuscular function. Compared to cross-sectional designs, prospective ones are advantageous in their ability to investigate fundamental mechanisms by excluding inter-subjects variability. In this project, the investigators will characterize longitudinal age-related changes in motor function, physical performance and muscle aerobic metabolism with an integrated approach. The investigators aim to combine classical methods of in-vivo and ex-vivo evaluation of neuromuscular function with innovative approaches for assessing changes and interactions between neural, structural and metabolic variables in two critical phases of ageing: 55-60yrs and 75-80yrs. Within each age-group, subjects will be classified based on their functional capabilities and divided in either active or sedentary. The investigators will describe the 2-yr time course of 1) mechanisms impairing neuromuscular function (denervation-reinnervation processes); 2) interactions between muscle structural changes and neural/metabolic impairments; 3) functional and metabolic changes occurring at whole muscle as well as single fibers level. The results will extend current understanding of physiological determinants of neuromuscular alterations in aging by identifying the course and rate of changes of specific factors that mediate functional loss and disability in older adults.
The LIGHT PAD Trial is a Phase II multi-centered randomized clinical trial to collect preliminary data to test whether daily far red light treatment of the lower extremities in people with PAD improves six-minute walk distance, lower extremity perfusion, and ischemia-related damage in gastrocnemius muscle at four-month follow-up, compared to a sham control. Participants will complete 10 minutes of twice daily home treatment with either far red light or a sham light for four months.
With the increasing regularity and intensity of hot weather and heat waves, there is an urgent need to develop heat-alleviation strategies able to provide targeted protection for heat-vulnerable older adults. While air-conditioning provides the most effective protection from extreme heat, it is inaccessible for many individuals. Air-conditioning is also energy intensive, which can strain the electrical grid and, depending on the source of electricity generation, contribute to green house gas emissions. For these reasons, recent guidance has recommended the use of electric fans as a sustainable cooling alternative. While fans may increase sweat evaporation and heat loss in healthy, young adults, evidence supporting their use in older adults is scarce. Further, studies show that when environmental temperature exceeds skin temperature, fans are not effective and can even exacerbate hyperthermia in older adults. While older adults only account for ~13% of the population, they account for ~40% off all hospitalizations. In the context of sustainable cooling interventions, this is of particular importance given that many hospitals and long-term care homes do not have air-conditioning and rely on ceiling fans to enhance sweat evaporation while participants are bed-resting. While recent biophysical modelling has suggested that pedestal fans likely provide a clinically meaningful cooling effect (proposed to be ≥0.3°C) in temperatures below ~34°C in older adults, the efficacy of ceiling fans in mitigating heat strain in these conditions is currently unknown. To address these knowledge gaps, this randomized crossover trial will evaluate body core temperature, cardiovascular strain, orthostatic intolerance, dehydration, and thermal comfort in adults aged 65-85 years exposed for 8-hours to conditions experienced during indoor overheating occurring during a heat wave in a temperate continental climate (31°C, 45% relative humidity). Each participant will complete two randomized exposures that will differ only in the airflow generated by a ceiling fan: no airflow (control) or standard airflow. Participants will remain in a supine position for the duration of the 8-hour exposure period, except for during hour 7 when they will complete a series of cardiovascular autonomic response tests.
While scientific evidence emphasizes the detrimental effect of sedentary behavior on health, the literature suggests that, on average, older adults spend 75% of their days in a sedentary manner, and often isolated (Petrusevski 2020). This lack of physical activity and social interaction not only leads to an increase in functional limitations and the risk of worsening an existing chronic disease but also elevates the risk of mortality. Furthermore, older adults face progressive functional decline, both in motor and cognitive aspects, as a result of aging, contributing to inactivity and sedentary behavior (Botö 2021). The literature suggests that new technologies such as immersive virtual reality (iVR) and serious games serve as effective means to promote active leisure, thereby breaking isolation and reducing sedentary behavior. The development of these new technologies is also promising for objectively and quantitatively measuring motor and cognitive activity (e.g., kinematics, reaction time). Serious games are defined as games whose primary objective is more focused on learning than entertainment. For instance, they allow the integration of physical and cognitive activity programs into a playful activity, conducive to long-term adherence. Their effectiveness is starting to be studied in hospitalized older adults (Cuevas-Lara 2021), especially as they also help combat age-related functional decline. Indeed, they provide the opportunity to promote and measure activity through enjoyable and self-administered exercises. However, despite the growing interest in serious games, the impact of self-adaptive serious games, compared to traditional (non-adaptive) serious games, on motor skill learning and attention function in older adults remains unclear. This gap in knowledge necessitates a rigorous investigation. Therefore, this randomized controlled trial seeks to address this gap and achieve the following objectives: 1. Compare the effect of a self-adaptive serious game to a non-adaptive serious game on motor skill learning and attention in older adults. 2. Enhance the understanding of how motor skill learning in immersive virtual reality translates to older adults' activities of daily living.