University of Florida News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. ― A new study from researchers at the University of Florida may have uncovered a critical factor that drives the relentless progression of Alzheimer’s disease ― a discovery that could eventually slow its progression.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida has launched a free, online tool to help caregivers and family members identify drivers age 65 and older who may be at risk for driving problems.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida neurologist Dr. Michael Okun has answered more than 20,000 questions from patients with Parkinson’s disease, typically not about cures or the latest treatments, but about something much simpler — how to live well with the disease. Now Okun has written a book that he hopes will help patients everywhere.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Researchers at the University of Florida have performed deep brain stimulation on a patient with Alzheimer’s disease as part of a clinical trial studying whether the treatment can slow progression of the disease.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Older workers learn more quickly and have more drive than some employers might believe, a new book co-authored by a University of Florida business professor finds.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Institute on Aging has been awarded a major grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging that is expected to total $5.2 million over five years. The award, in renewed support of the UF Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, will fund studies to better understand the biological and behavioral processes that lead to physical disability in older adults, and to develop and test disability prevention and rehabilitation therapies.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The time may have come to scrub the idea that brain plaque — deposits of protein that clog passages between brain cells — might not be all that bad.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — More than 32 million Americans harbor potentially toxic proteins that can attack body tissues and lead to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and scleroderma, according to a new University of Florida study. This is the first accurate estimate of the frequency of the proteins, called autoantibodies, the researchers say. The findings appear online and in an upcoming print edition of the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For patients who have severe narrowing of the aortic valve, a condition known as aortic stenosis, standard treatment is surgical replacement of the damaged valve. But advanced age or medical problems such as lung disease prevent many of those patients from having open chest surgery. In the past, the best such patients could hope for was to control their symptoms with medications.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Heart patients who have stents that prop open blocked arteries often face a dilemma when they need open heart surgery: Continue taking life-saving blood thinners but risk severe bleeding during surgery, or stop taking the medicines and risk a heart attack.