Even With Alzheimer’s Pathology, Healthy Lifestyles May Preserve Cognition
Cognitive function was better for older adults with healthy lifestyles even if they had Alzheimer’s or other dementia-related pathologies, autopsy data showed. A 1-point increase in a healthy lifestyle score was associated with better cognitive performance proximate to death (β=0.216, P<0.001), reported Klodian Dhana, MD, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and co-authors. […]
JAK Inhibitor Preserves Beta-Cell Function in Early Type 1 Diabetes
A Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor helped preserve beta-cell function in people with recent-onset type 1 diabetes, the phase II BANDIT trial found. Meeting the study’s primary endpoint, daily baricitinib (Olumiant) maintained a significantly higher average mixed-meal-stimulated C-peptide level at week 48 compared with placebo (0.65 vs 0.43 nmol/L/min, P=0.001), according to Thomas Kay, MBBS, PhD, […]
Food allergy in infancy linked to childhood asthma and reduced lung function
Having a food allergy as a baby is linked to asthma and reduced lung function later in childhood, according to a world first study. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, found that early life food allergy was associated with an increased risk of both […]
Why Do Superagers Have Sharper Memory?
Superagers — people in their 80s who have the memory function of people 30 years younger — had specific characteristics that set them apart, an observational study showed. Superagers had more gray matter volume in the medial temporal lobe, cholinergic forebrain, and motor thalamus than typical older adults and slower total gray matter atrophy over […]
AKI Cleared of Worsening CKD Trajectory
Acute kidney injury (AKI) didn’t predict worsening kidney function in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), a prospective study showed. According to findings from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study, CKD patients hospitalized for AKI saw a statistically insignificant drop in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) during a nearly 4-year follow-up period, reported Chi-yuan […]
Scoliosis Cramps Heart Function in Adulthood
Scoliosis was associated with altered cardiac function and an increase in cardiac events among adults in the U.K. Biobank, researchers found. Compared with peers without scoliosis, those with such sideways spinal curvature exhibited a greater lifetime risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE; HR 1.45, P<0.001), driven by heart failure (HR 1.58, P<0.001) and atrial […]
Poor Sleep After COVID Hospitalization: Dyspnea Is Part of the Equation
Poor sleep may be traced back to lingering shortness of breath and decreased lung function from prior COVID-19 illness in patients requiring hospitalization, the CircCOVID study found. Approximately half a year following hospitalization for COVID-19, 62% of patients reported that they experienced poor sleep quality, while 53% felt their sleep had gotten worse since leaving […]
Discovery of metabolic switch could lead to targeted treatment of obesity, cancer
An Iowa State University research team has discovered a method for modifying the function of an enzyme crucial to fat production, which could lead to more effective treatments for childhood obesity and cancer. While the research was in fruit fly larvae, being able to speed up or slow down lipid metabolism could have significant implications […]
Opinion | Medical Education Has ‘Gone Woke’ — That’s a Good Thing
A Black woman whose kidneys only function at 15% of normal wishes to be evaluated for a kidney transplant. Although this is very reasonable, before 2021, many physicians would have said, “I’m sorry, but your kidney function is not bad enough to be referred for a transplant.” This is because the kidney function calculator used […]
Doctors May Have Found A Way To Reduce The Effects Of Alzheimer’s
A ‘pacemaker’ for the brain has helped a number of Alzheimer’s patients regain some of the cognitive function that they had previously lost because of the disease. The process involves placing tiny electrical wires deep within the frontal lobes of the brain and then applying a small electrical current.