According to a new University of Georgia study older adults can decrease their risk of disability and increase their likelihood of maintaining independence by 41% by participating in a walking exercise program. The study, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy, also found that walking program participants increased their peak aerobic capacity by 19% when compared to a control group and increased their physical function by 25%. Study co-author M. Elaine Cress, professor of kinesiology and researcher in the UGA Institute of Gerontolog, said, “In the past decade, researchers have focused on the benefits of strength training in maintaining independence, but until now we didn’t have good evidence using an objective performance measure that a walking program would improve physical functioning. Our study found that walking offers tremendous health benefits that can help older adults stay independent.” The researchers randomly assigned 26 low-income adults aged 60 and older to either a walking exercise group, which met three times a week for four months, or a nutrition education control group. Initially, the group would walk for 10 minutes continually. As the weeks progressed, they increased their walking time to 40 continuous minutes. Each session began with a 10-minute warm-up and ended with a 10-minute cool-down that included balance and flexibility exercises.

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Two years of hard work came to fruition 16 JUL in a move that could benefit thousands of veterans who suffer from Lou Gehrig’s disease. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will grant a service-connected disability, the highest category of disability, to all veterans with ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease that affects veterans at a rate at 1.6 times the general population. The news came during a conference call among Dr. James Peake, secretary of Veterans Affairs, Sen. Lindsey Graham and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Tom Mikolajcik, who suffers from ALS and spoke from his Mount Pleasant home. Mikolajcik cried when he heard the news. He deflected credit for the policy change and praised Peake and South Carolina legislators, including Graham, Rep. Henry Brown and Sen. Jim DeMint. “This will impact thousands of veterans,” Mikolajcik said. “This is a reason to have hope — hope meaning helping other people endure.” ALS strikes about 15 Americans daily, shutting down nerve cells responsible for movement. Limbs weaken and atrophy before paralysis spreads to the trunk of the body. Seventy percent of people with ALS die within five years. Previously, only veterans of the first Gulf War received full benefits for ALS. The new designation should take effect in AUG 08.

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For the third consecutive year, the Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal 2009 calls for big hikes in enrollment fees, deductibles and pharmacy co-pays in its Tricare health insurance program .It’s not hard to see why. Military health care costs have ballooned from $19 billion in 2001 to $43 billion this year, almost 10% of the entire defense budget. At this rate, health care will hit $65 billion by 2015. Clearly, something must be done. But so far, the Pentagon and Congress have been talking past each other. Defense officials say they need fee hikes to raise revenue and to discourage people who have other health care options from using Tricare in the first place. “Health care costs are eating us alive” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told House lawmakers 6 FEB. “We really need to work with the Congress.” To date, however, Congress hasn’t said much more than no to fee hikes. That’s like ignoring your credit card bill and hoping your bank won’t notice. Congress has sat by for more than a decade, ever cognizant of soaring health care costs, but not once raising Tricare fees, which haven’t changed since the program’s inception in 1995. Not even to adjust for inflation.

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This year, according to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 186,000 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about 28,000 will die from the disease. According to phase-I clinical results published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on 22 JUL, a new drug, abiraterone, dramatically shrunk the size of tumors and offered lasting benefits for prostate patients, compared with existing treatments. Researchers found that this experimental drug showed significant benefits for men who had exhausted all other treatments. Though it is in early development, many cancer doctors are optimistic about abiraterone. Cougar Biotechnology Inc., who sponsored the trial, says the drug could be approved for sale in the U.S. as early as 2011, if all goes well. Initial findings suggest more patients with advanced prostate cancer respond to abiraterone than other drugs in development. There is also evidence the tumors shrink more on this drug and that benefits last longer, in some cases, a year and a half. Prostate cancers are fueled by testosterone. This drug lowers the levels of testosterone below what can be achieved with other drugs. The next step is a much larger, international clinical trial, which is currently enrolling patients. The goal is to determine whether the many benefits of this drug translate into prolonged survival for patients, the way it has for current trial users. [Source: ABC Medical News John McKenzie article 23 Jul 08 ++]

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On 23 JUL House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) held a press conference to announce the introduction of H.R. 6562, the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2008. The bill restores equity to all Vietnam veterans that were exposed to Agent Orange. It would clarify the laws related to VA benefits provided to Vietnam War veterans suffering from the ravages of Agent Orange exposure. From 1991 to 2002, the VA granted hundreds, if not thousands of disability claims filed by Navy blue water veterans suffering from one of the many diseases that VA recognizes as related to Agent Orange exposure. These benefits were awarded based on VA rules providing that service in the waters offshore Vietnam qualified the veteran for the presumption of exposure to Agent Orange. In FEB 02 VA did an about face and required veterans to have ‘actually served on land within the Republic of Vietnam … to qualify for the presumption of exposure to’ Agent Orange. As a result, all pending and new disability claims filed by Navy blue water veterans for an Agent Orange-related disease were denied unless there was proof that that the veteran actually set foot on Vietnamese soil. In addition, the VA began to sever benefits that had been granted to Navy blue water veterans prior to the 2002 change in VA rules.

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The husband of Anne Parks– a military policeman exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange during two tours in Vietnam — paid 30 years of premiums on their Defense Department Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) insurance policy the couple believed would allow her to pay the bills and live comfortably after his death. When he died in 2006, Parks learned that the law allows the government to significantly cut — and in many cases eliminate — that Defense Department insurance payment if the surviving spouse elects to receive a Veterans Affairs benefit (DIC) established to compensate for the loss of a family member whose death was service-related. DoD refunded the Parks’ premiums, but it paid no interest on the money, which was counted as income and taxed. Called an “offset,” the dollar-for-dollar cut was created to limit how much compensation payments cost the government. Nearly 57,000 surviving spouses of military retirees argue that the benefits are separate. One is insurance, bought and paid for through premiums, and the other is a federal benefit for surviving dependents.

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As promised, the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense has filed an appeal in a case in which it accuses the Veterans Affairs Department of putting veterans at risk for suicide and mental health issues through shortfalls in care. In June, Judge Samuel Conti of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled that the case was out of his jurisdiction because Veterans for Common Sense could not prove that the problems cited — delays in benefits, lost records, long waits for doctors’ appointments, not enough oversight and veterans turned away from hospitals with suicidal thoughts — applied to every veteran, and were therefore not systemic. However, Conti said in his ruling that those problems need to be tended to, and that individual veterans could sue VA. He said the power to change the system ultimately rests with Congress and VA. But Veterans for Common Sense, in conjunction with Veterans United for Truth, appealed because they believe the courts do have jurisdiction and can force change. They have requested an expedited hearing, citing new statistics that show a veterans’ suicide hotline receives 250 calls a day from people in distress. The case brought to light several problems within the system, including an e-mail from a woman who oversees mental health workers at a Temple, Texas, VA facility in which she said her center did not have the resources necessary to diagnose veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and advised them instead to diagnose “adjustment disorder” — a short-term diagnosis no longer applicable to veterans who have had symptoms for more than six months. The case also disclosed an e-mail that showed more than 1,000 veterans in VA’s care attempt suicide every month. “For these reasons, plaintiffs believe they should continue to fight, that their cause is valid, and that Judge Conti was incorrect in holding that the courts are without power to grant veterans a remedy,” [Source: AirForceTimes Kelly Kennedy article posted 29 Jul 08 ++]

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The House Military Construction-Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee on 12 JUN unanimously approved a $72.7 billion fiscal 2009 funding bill that would provide a large increase in spending for veterans programs for the second year in a row.

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Principal Investigator Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, Ph.D is seeking veterans who served in the Persian Gulf Theater of Operations during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm between AUG 90 and JUL 91 with Gulf War Illness to participate in a 12-month research study. Gulf War Illness includes symptoms that started during or after Gulf War participation and are present for at least six months. Symptoms may include fatigue, muscle or joint pain, sleep problems, memory problems and/or others. The research is to see if CoEnzyme Q10 can improve symptoms and benefits quality of life for affected veterans. Participants will receive CoEnzyme Q10, a nutritional supplement, and a placebo, an inactive pill, during alternate periods of their participation in the study. Monetary compensation, lab work, diet profiles, and study drugs, will be provided. Those desiring to participate should contact Study Coordinator Janis Ritchie, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0995 Tel: (858) 558-4950 ext 203 or email jbritchie@ucsd.edu. [Source: "CA VFW VSO Scott Langhoff email 16 Jun 0 ++]

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Veterans benefits are one of the most popular causes in Congress. But Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics are routinely buffeted by the annual uncertainties of the increasingly dysfunctional budget process on Capitol Hill. Now veterans advocates have proposed a controversial fix. For years, veterans groups have argued, in vain, for making veterans health care funding automatic, as it is for Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. In recent months, however, a coalition led by the 1.4 million-member Disabled American Veterans (DAV) has switched tactics. Instead of seeking politically unpalatable mandatory funding, the group is proposing that VA health care be funded through an obscure legislative mechanism called “advance appropriations.” In contrast to mandatory or entitlement funding, the advance-appropriations process does let Congress vote on funding levels–but it does so a year in advance of the regular budget cycle. So while Congress debates most programs’ appropriations for fiscal 2009, it is setting aside almost $30 billion worth of advance appropriations for 2010. This money funds an eclectic mix of programs ranging from Section 8 housing subsidies to education grants to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. No matter how delayed or disrupted funding may be for the rest of the federal government, these advance-appropriations programs are guaranteed to get their money on time, at the start of each fiscal year. “The VA has had a hideous problem for a decade” with tardy funding bills, said John M. Bradley, a longtime Hill staffer who is now with the Disabled American Veterans. “Advance appropriations are a very attractive potential vehicle.”

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