Many Americans experience a “winter funk” as the days grow shorter and temperatures turn colder, a new American Psychiatric Association poll reports. Two-fifths of Americans (41%) said their mood declines during the winter months, according to the APA’s Healthy Minds Poll. Midwesterners and Northeasterners are most affected, where 52% and 46%, respectively, said they tend… read on > read on >
In 1972, Britain bumped up the total school years mandated for its children from 15 to 16 years. That created a “natural experiment”: Would Britons who got that extra year of education fare any better, neurologically, as they aged? Unfortunately, the answer is “no.” “This surprised us,” said study co-author and brain researcher Nicholas Judd,… read on > read on >
Folks are more likely to drive drowsy than drive drunk, even though both raise the risk of a fatal crash, a new survey shows. About 4 in 10 adults say they’ll find alternative transportation when they haven’t gotten enough sleep, according to the poll from the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). By comparison, nearly 7 in… read on > read on >
Canadian researchers have found that about 1 in every 3 people newly diagnosed with cancer experienced at least one emergency department visit sometime during the three months prior to their diagnosis. Many of the visits ended up being caused by symptoms related to the cancer, noted a team led by Dr. Keerat Grewal, an emergency… read on > read on >
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Current treatments sometimes fail to help people with “wet” age-related macular degeneration — and researchers now think they know why. Wet AMD is caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye. The vessels leak fluid or bleed, damaging the retina and causing vision loss.… read on > read on >
Banning menthol cigarettes could help convince smokers quit the habit, a new study finds. People who prefer menthol cigarettes would rather buy nicotine gum or other nicotine replacement therapies than switch to traditional tobacco cigarettes, researchers reported recently in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. In addition, menthol cigarette smokers were less likely to use… read on > read on >
Many people turn to mindfulness meditation to help them manage their chronic pain, a practice that’s been used for centuries. However, it’s been an open question whether meditation is simply functioning as a placebo, rather than actually quelling pain. Now, a new study involving brain scans has revealed that’s not the case. Mindfulness meditation engages… read on > read on >
Alzheimer’s disease patients prescribed fistfuls of daily drugs are at greater risk of harm, a new study warns. Patients with Alzheimer’s prescribed five or more daily medications suffer from more symptoms, falls and hospitalizations, and they are at greater risk of death, researchers found. “They also experienced more functional decline, required more assistance with activities… read on > read on >
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Menopausal women with frequent hot flashes and night sweats are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, a new study warns. Middle-aged women who regularly suffer those well-known symptoms of menopause are 50% more likely to wind up with type 2 diabetes, researchers reported recently in the journal JAMA Network Open. “There’s a growing body… read on > read on >
Huntington’s disease is a devastating, fatal neurological illness with little means of treatment, but a new study in mice offers a glimmer of hope. Huntington’s occurs when inherited genes cause key proteins to fold and clump together within brain cells. Over time, this severely hampers brain function and patients lose the ability to talk, walk,… read on > read on >
