Tag: Staying Current

Studies linking moderate drinking to potential health benefits may have failed to take into account the issue of binge drinking among older “moderate” drinkers, a new study shows.

Previous research, the investigators say, has focused on average drinking levels rather than drinking patterns. And that, the investigators say, hides underlying factors such as heavy episodic or weekend binge drinking.

An element in vinegar can kill even highly drug-resistant bacteria, according to a new study.

The ingredient, acetic acid, can effectively kill even the stubborn Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an international team of researchers from Venezuela, France, and the US reports in the journal mBio®, of the American Society for Microbiology.

Mycobacteria cause tuberculosis, and non-TB mycobacteria are common in the environment, even in tap water, and are resistant to commonly used disinfectants.

Standing in a full-body scanner at an airport isn't fun, and the process adds time and stress to a journey. It also raises privacy concerns. Researchers now report in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters a more precise and direct method for using that "terahertz" (THz) technology to detect explosives from greater distances. The advance could ultimately lead to detectors that survey a wider area of an airport without the need for full-body scanners.  A release from the American Chemical Soceity, which publishes the journal, notes that R.

Instead of going to the doctor’s office for an annual flu shot, patients may eventually give themselves the same treatment via a painless patch.

A study by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine gave the “microneedle patch” to nearly 100 people in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The investigators found that the subjects could successfully apply the patch. If the treatment becomes feasible, it could reduce health care costs and increase the number of people who are vaccinated.

Blood-pressure medications have an unintended and potentially deadly side effect: they increase the risk of serious fall injuries by up to 40 percent.

Yale School of Medicine researchers looked at 4,961 patients older than 70 who had hypertension. Among the participants, 14 percent didn’t take any medication, 55 percent took moderate doses and 31 percent took high doses.

Editor’s Note: Over the last few years, there have been frightening headlines about the dangers of the chemical BPA, many of them focusing on health risks, including possible liver damage. Water bottles and other containers bearing the label “BPA-free” are common in stores and supermarkets– an indication of how widely known the issue is.

Researchers have pinpointed an area in the brain that may be linked to why some people recall more dreams than others.

In a study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, investigators linked the difference between “high dream recallers” and “low dream recallers” to an area of the brain called the temporo-parietal junction. Increased activity in that area, which acts as an information-processing hub, might promote intermittent waking throughout the night. And that, in turn, makes dreams easier to recall.

Resveratrol is already believed to have a number of health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease and fighting the effects of aging. Now, scientists have made an additional discovery about a protein, linked to resveratrol, that keeps cells healthy over a long period of time.

Investigators led by researchers from Northwestern University discovered that the protein SIRT1, which is activated by resveratrol, regulates another protein, (heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), keeping it active.

By the Cleveland Clinic

Replacing worn body parts has become pretty common today. Of course, none of us are The Six Million Dollar Man of 1970s TV fame, and if you’re facing major joint surgery like hip or knee replacement or reconstruction, you may be concerned about what happens after the surgery.

In thinking about what to expect from the recovery process, you may wonder how quick your recovery will be or how much pain you’ll experience.

Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism in the body that regulates a hormone that is essential for a number of crucial functions, including the control of blood pressure.

Researchers are well on the way to making hemp oil good for cooking.

The experts, from the University of York in the UK, have developed hemp plants with a substantially increased content of oleic acid. That development means hemp oil can now be a cooking oil similar to olive oil. The new oil has a much longer shelf life and can be used for industrial as well as domestic purposes.

The research was published in Plant Biotechnology Journal.

Researchers have pinpointed a source of age-related motor decline, and that could lead to targeted treatments to deal with the condition.

The investigators, from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, discovered evidence that so-called “set points” in the nervous system are not inevitably determined during development but can be “reset” with age.

Changes in a process that controls genes appear to be linked to some of the increased risk of cancer seen in older people, according to a new National Institutes of Health study.

It’s long been known that age is a leading risk factor for the development of many cancers. But scientists haven’t known exactly why that’s so. They’ve suspected a process called DNA methylation– the binding of chemical tags, known as methyl groups, onto DNA.

Here's another video from our Third Age Video Collection. Press play to start learning!

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the use of ultrasound to detect and monitor cancer, and the discovery could provide a safer method than the ones already in use.

Ultrasound has some advantages over other detection and monitoring methods such as X-rays, CT scans and MRIs: It’s less expensive and is radiation-free. But it hasn’t provided as clear an image as have the other methods.

It’s well known that inflammation is frequently a cause of disease, but new research indicates that low levels of a pro-inflammatory substance in the brain are crucial for cognition.

Researchers from the University of Texas, San Antonio, found that found that blocking the substance, interleukin-6 , impaired learning in rats. The learning area affected was cognitive flexibility – the ability to change learned thoughts and behaviors in response to a changed environment.

Complications from facelifts can be painful and embarrassing, but a new 3-D technique may change that.

The technique deals with liquid facelifts, in which people remove wrinkles and soften creases by the injection of a gel-like material. Hundreds of patients suffer redness and swelling after the procedure.

Millions of people each year remove wrinkles, soften creases and plump up their lips by injecting a gel-like material into their facial tissue. These cosmetic procedures are sometimes called “liquid facelifts” and are said to be minimally invasive.

The rate of traumatic spinal cord injuries is rising sharply among older people, with the leading cause appearing to be falls, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins.

In fact, the number-one cause of spinal cord injuries overall no longer appears to be motor vehicle crashes, but falls. The injuries suffered in these accidents range from temporary numbness to paralysis. Researchers said their findings indicated that efforts to prevent falls among older people could significantly reduce the number of spinal cord injuries.