Elder Care (Everybody)

Conditions such as diabetes, heart attack and vascular diseases commonly diagnosed in people with spinal cord injuries can be traced to abnormal post-injury neuronal activity that causes abdominal fat tissue compounds to leak and pool in the liver and other organs, a new animal study has found.

A drug approved to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension may be effective at managing hypertension and end-organ damage in patients with sickle cell disease, according to a new study. An early phase randomized clinical trial involving 130 patients with sickle cell disease found that the drug, called riociguat, was found to be safe to use and well tolerated in these patients and significantly improved their blood pressure. Preliminary efficacy data suggested the medication might improve heart function.

Health researchers identify patients at risk for preventable death in the year after pregnancy.

A changing climate may be linked to growing death and disability from stroke in regions around the world, according to a new study. Researchers found over three decades that non-optimal temperatures, those above or below temperatures associated with the lowest death rates, were increasingly linked to death and disability due to stroke. The study does not prove that climate change causes stroke. It only shows an association. The study also did not examine other risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

Scientists have successfully grown 'mini kidneys' in the lab and grafted them into live mice, revealing new insights into the metabolic defects and a potential therapy for polycystic kidney disease.

Global life expectancy increased by 6.2 years since 1990, according to a new study. Over the past three decades, reductions in death from leading killers fueled this progress, including diarrhea and lower respiratory infections, as well as stroke and ischemic heart disease. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, however, it derailed progress in many locations.

A stroke often impacts a person's ability to move their lower body from the hips down to the feet. This leads to diminished quality of life and mental health in addition to increased susceptibility to falls. But now, researchers are exploring new treatment methods to help bridge the service delivery gap, and recovery outcomes, for patients after a stroke.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may serve as a future tool for neurologists to help locate where in the brain a stroke occurred. In a new study, AI processed text from health histories and neurologic examinations to locate lesions in the brain. The study looked specifically at the large language model called generative pre-trained transformer 4 (GPT-4).

Neighborhoods with more adversity have up to twice the increased risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a new study.

Reserachers found that people who were more active in their free time had a lower chance of having various types of chronic pain 7-8 years later. For example, being just a little more active, such as going from light to moderate activity, was associated with a 5% lower risk of reporting some form of chronic pain later. For severe chronic pain in several places in the body, higher activity was associated with a 16% reduced risk. The researchers found that the ability to tolerate pain played a role in this apparent protective effect. That explains why being active could lower the risk of having severe chronic pain, whether or not it was widespread throughout the body.

A new analysis involving over 13,000 people has found changes to blood vessels in the brain that can increase the risk of stroke and dementia are common in people with a range of heart conditions, regardless of whether they have experienced a stroke.

Researchers have identified a new potential target for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease -- PDE4B. The researchers observed that AD mice showed memory deficits in maze tests, but memory was unimpaired in AD mice with genetically reduced PDE4B activity.

Lewy body disease may be more common in middle-aged people than previously thought, according to a recent study. In the study, almost one in ten of over 50-year-olds were found to have tissue markers of Lewy body disease in the brain.

Nontraditional risk factors such as migraines are as important as traditional risk factors like high blood pressure for adults younger than ages 35-45, finds new study.

Air pollution and night-time outdoor light each were associated with harmful effects on brain health, finds new study.