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By Brian Fitzgerald
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SAR Associate Professor Robert Wagenaar, director of the Center for Neurological Rehabilitation, demonstrates a component of the sophisticated virtual reality system he and his colleagues developed. It is used to investigate the effects of visual stimulation on people with Parkinson’s disease, and to help researchers understand more about the neurological impact of rhythm on the brain. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky |
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Gerontology and geriatrics are rapidly growing fields today because
of the increasing need for professionals knowledgeable about the physical,
social, and psychological effects of aging. BU’s well-established
tradition of leadership in this area began in 1875, when the University’s
two-year-old School of Medicine launched its Home Medical Service, in
which medical students provide care to the elderly at their homes and
to patients at Jewish Memorial Hospital.
At present the program serves
some 600 frail and isolated older adults in the Boston area. Several
other BU schools and colleges are also involved
in the care of the elderly and in the scientific study of the biological,
psychological, and sociological phenomena associated with aging.
In addition
to primary medical care and case management for homebound seniors, MED’s
geriatric section provides several clinical training programs whose participants
serve some 2,000 seniors in local hospitals,
nursing homes, and outpatient
clinics. As part of the school’s Home Nursing Program, for example,
students provide 550 nursing home residents with primary care for one
year under the supervision of faculty physicians.
The School of Social
Work’s Institute for Geriatric Social Work,
which was established in 2002 with a $4.4 million grant from Atlantic
Philanthropies, trains social workers to serve the growing number of
Americans over the age of 65, a population expected to double to 70 million
by 2050. See www.bu.edu/igsw for more information.
Gerontology studies
Founded in 1974, the BU Gerontology Center was New
England’s first
university center on aging. It helps further research, educational training,
and practice in the study of aging, offering several certificate programs
and pre- and postdoctoral traineeship programs, and drawing on faculty
and courses from seven BU schools and colleges.
Directed by Rebecca Silliman, a School of Public Health and MED professor
and chief of MED’s geriatrics section, the center offers an annual
Summer Institute on the Charles River Campus in June, has a well-maintained
reference library, and recently launched a new project called Caring and
Connecting, which aims to develop and evaluate an online educational community
for caregivers and providers from different disciplines. See www.bu.edu/gerontology
for more information.
Research in the field of
gerontology and aging ranges from the search for a “longevity gene” to
probes into the effects of Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s diseases on the elderly.
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Thomas Perls, a MED professor and director of BU’s New England Centenarian Study (right), the world’s largest genetic study of people over the age of 100, talks with Nelson McNutt at his home in Weston, Mass. McNutt was born June 11, 1899. Photo by Fred Sway |
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Thomas Perls, an associate professor at the School of Medicine, directs
the New England Centenarian Study (NECS) at Boston Medical Center, the
world’s largest genetic study of people over 100 years old. Perls
and his NECS researchers discovered a “genetic booster rocket”
for longevity after analyzing the genomes of 308 centenarians and their
siblings. They pinpointed a region on human chromosome 4 that is likely
to contain a gene or genes associated with extraordinary life expectancy.
“With scientists at a company called Centagenetix in Cambridge,”
says Perls, “we’ve been working to find the gene that plays
a role in lifespan.” See www.bu.edu/gerontology
for more information.
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases take a huge toll on the
elderly, affecting memory, motor skills, and even sight: CAS Associate
Psychology Professor Alice Cronin-Golomb’s research, supported by
the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer’s Association,
focuses on the effects of visual deficits that accompany increasing age,
including those associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Robert Wagenaar, an associate professor and chairman of SAR’s department
of rehabilitation sciences, Terry Ellis, a clinical assistant professor,
and Ying Hui Chou (SAR’05), a doctoral student at SAR’s Center
for Neurological Rehabilitation, are investigating new therapeutic interventions
for Parkinson’s patients that hold promise to restore more normal
walking patterns and may help delay the initiation of intensive regimens
of medication and subsequent deterioration in quality
of life.
Based on observations that rhythmic stimulation, either aural or visual,
seems to help Parkinson’s patients walk more normally, the researchers
are using a sophisticated virtual reality system to precisely control
the visual environment. They hope to learn more about the neurological
impact of rhythm on the brain, and develop more effective therapies for
people with Parkinson’s.
The Schools of Public Health and Dental Medicine are also conducting several
studies that are contributing to knowledge about the effects of aging.
Lisa Fredman, an associate professor of epidemiology at the School of
Public Health, points out that the growth of the elderly population has
led to a dramatic rise in the number of informal caregivers, and many
of these unpaid helpers are themselves elderly persons. With a $2 million
grant from the National Institute on Aging, Fredman is conducting a multistate
study of 1,069 elderly women caregivers to evaluate the amount of stress
and depression in their lives and whether this affects their physical
well-being.
SDM Associate Professor Elizabeth Krall is exploring theories on how patients
might preserve density in the jaw’s alveolar bone. Periodontal disease
in the elderly often begins with the decline of this bone, which surrounds
the teeth. When the bone wastes away, it can cause teeth to loosen in
their sockets, leaving them vulnerable to infections and root caries.
Krall and her colleagues have gathered strong evidence that calcium and
vitamin D supplements can be useful in slowing the progression of both
alveolar bone loss and tooth loss.
Krall’s findings imply that some of the same therapies used to treat
or prevent osteoporosis, deterioration of bone in the hips, back, and
limbs, might be valuable in combating periodontal disease.
14
November 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations