Antihypertensive medications that stimulate rather than inhibit type 2 and 4 angiotensin II receptors can lower the rate of dementia among new users of these medications, new research suggests. Results from a cohort study of more than 57,000 older Medicare beneficiaries showed that the initiation of antihypertensives that stimulated the receptors was linked to a … Read more
People with high stress levels have a significantly higher risk for acute stroke than their counterparts with low stress, but the risk lessens if they feel in control of work and home life, a new study suggests. The benefit was greatest among those who believed they had more control at work, compared with those whose … Read more
Adolescents later diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN) likely embark on the trajectory to AN with undisclosed dieting for weight loss at about age 14, a study of teens and parents found. In the interview-based study, both adolescents and their parents described a similar prediagnosis sequence of behavioral changes occurring over roughly 1 year to 18 … Read more
Heart failure associated with illegitimate use of the psychostimulant methamphetamine (MethHF) is increasing in the US and around the world across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, a literature review indicates. MethHF is associated with increased severity for HF, longer inpatient stay, and more readmissions, compared with non-MethHF, the data show. Clinicians “need to consider methamphetamine … Read more
Individuals who are middle-aged and older and who sleep 5 hours or less a night may be at risk for an array of serious and chronic health conditions, ranging from heart disease to cancer, results of a large study show. Researchers at University College London in the United Kingdom and Université Paris Cité, France, found … Read more
Cardiovascular health (CVH) scores that include sleep predicted CV disease risk among older US adults, supporting the American Heart Association (AHA)’s recent inclusion of sleep in its own checklist. Sleep duration is now considered “an essential component for ideal heart and brain health,” according to the AHA’s updated checklist, now called Life’s Essential 8. “Our … Read more
Long-term antidepressant use is tied to an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cerebrovascular disease (CV), coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality, new research suggests. Investigators drew on 10-year data from the UK Biobank on over 220,000 adults and compared the risk of developing adverse health outcomes among those taking antidepressants … Read more
Good nutrition is foundational to preventing chronic disease and helping people live a healthier life, and yet physicians responding to a Medscape Medical News survey said they believe that only about half of their patients would benefit from counseling on diet. In the online survey of 1005 physicians, doctors said that 55% of their patients … Read more
The more components of metabolic syndrome a person has in midlife seems to raise their risk of dementia, although that relationship seems to go away after age 70, a post hoc analysis of data from a major European cohort study has found. A team of European researchers reported online in the journal Diabetes Care that … Read more
The covered study in this summary was published in bioRxiv.org as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Key Takeaways Using the Layer-wise Relevance Propagation algorithm and various structural MRI modalities (T1-weighted, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery [FLAIR]and susceptibility-weighted magnitude images [SWI]), brain age can be estimated. The structural abnormalities found were changes in the … Read more