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Dr. Small: Hearing Loss Affects Mental Health
Hearing loss affects an estimated one in three adults aged 65 and older, and experts say its impact goes far beyond difficulty following conversations. Untreated hearing decline can strain relationships, disrupt mood, and even contribute to anxiety and cognitive...
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Poor Kidney Health Linked to Dementia, Alzheimer's
Your brain health might be linked to how well your kidneys are working, a new study says. People with impaired kidney function have higher levels of proteins in their blood that are linked to Alzheimer's disease, researchers reported Dec. 4 in the journal Neurology. "Our...
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Quick Head Injury Treatment Lowers Alzheimer's Risk
Folks who overlook a concussion might find themselves at greater risk for Alzheimer's disease down the line, a new study says.Receiving prompt treatment within one week of a serious head injury can reduce the later risk of Alzheimer's by up to 41%, researchers recently...
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Driving Pattern Changes May Signal Cognitive Decline
Researchers say changes in folks' driving patterns could be an early signal of cognitive decline. "We found that using a GPS data tracking device, we could more accurately determine who had developed cognitive issues than looking at just factors such as age, cognitive test...
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Eating Alone Linked to Worse Nutrition for Seniors
Seniors who eat alone tend to have poorer nutrition and be more prone to frailty and unhealthy weight loss compared to those who eat with others, new Australian research shows. "Food is more than the nutritional benefit it provides. Sharing a meal is an important social...
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Your Butt's Shape May Predict Frailty, Diabetes Risk
Researchers are standing behind new data on how people's posteriors reflect changes linked to aging and diabetes. Shrinkage or inflammation of the gluteus maximus muscles of the buttocks may reflect frailty, sitting time, fat deposition and diabetes risk, and these changes...
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Untreated Sleep Apnea May Double Parkinson's Risk
Add one more malady to the potential risks from untreated sleep apnea: Parkinson's disease. A new study involving 11 million U.S. veterans finds that a person's odds of developing Parkinson's nearly doubled if they were diagnosed with sleep apnea but hadn't used a continuous...
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Novo Nordisk GLP-1 Drug Alzheimer's Trials Fail
Novo Nordisk's closely-watched Alzheimer's trials of an older oral version of its semaglutide drug failed to help slow the progression of the brain-wasting disease, the firm said on Monday, a blow to the obesity drug giant that sent its shares sliding. The trials, which Novo...
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Chest CT Could Triple Lung Cancer Death Prevention
Three times as many lung cancer deaths could be prevented if everyone eligible for screening got a chest CT scan, a new study says. Only about 1 in 5 U.S. adults eligible for lung cancer screening received it in 2024, researchers reported Nov. 19 in the Journal of the...
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How to Stop Waking During the Night to Pee
The need to urinate during the night, affects one-third of adults over the age of 30 and half of those over the age of 50. Known as nocturia, it is considered a medical problem if you have to pee more than twice during the night or have trouble going back to sleep. A common...
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Cold Snaps, Heat Waves Kill Thousands Annually
Cold snaps and heat waves have contributed to tens of thousands of deaths in the United States over the past quarter-century, a new study says. More than 69,000 U.S. deaths occurred between 1999 and 2024 where extreme cold or heat were listed as an underlying or contributing...
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Nonhormonal Options for Symptoms of Menopause
Shilpa Gajarawala struggled with hot flashes, night sweats, sleep problems and brain fog. But given her history of breast cancer, treating these menopausal symptoms with hormone therapy wasn't an option. "For two years, I tried to kind of power through," said the 58-year-old...
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Stem Cells From Fat Tissue Repair Spine Fractures
Japanese researchers are testing a surprising, minimally invasive way to repair spine fractures. A team at Osaka Metropolitan University found that stem cells from fat tissue can repair breaks similar to those common in people with the bone-weakening disease...
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Daily Self-Hypnosis Decreases Hot Flashes
Self-hypnosis might help some women in menopause find relief from hot flashes. Hot flash frequency and intensity decreased by more than 50% among women who listened to a daily audio hypnosis session, researchers reported Nov. 11 in JAMA Network Open. "All sessions were...
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Researchers Uncover Pancreatic Cancer Warning Sign
Pancreatic cancer is known as a silent killer, showing few symptoms until it reaches its deadly final stages. But researchers think they've found a warning sign that could help detect pancreatic cancers at an earlier, more treatable stage. Enlargement of the pancreatic duct -...
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Vitamin D3 Cuts Second Heart Attack Risk by Half
Customizing vitamin D3 levels for heart attack survivors can cut the risk of another heart attack by 50%, according to new research. Researchers at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City found that developing personalized vitamin D3 treatment plans and carefully monitoring...
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Why the Shingles Vaccine May Reduce Dementia Risk
A large new study has revealed a possible explanation for why the shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of developing dementia. Researchers found that the vaccine helps prevent reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus - the same virus that causes chickenpox and shingles -...
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Cholesterol Drug Cuts First Heart Attack Risk by 36%
Adding Amgen's cholesterol drug Repatha to standard therapy reduced major cardiovascular events by 25% for at-risk patients who have never had a heart attack or stroke, according to results from a large study presented on Saturday. In the study of more than 12,000 patients,...
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Survey Reveals What People Fear Most About Aging
The U.S. population is getting older fast and many Americans are unsure what aging will look like for them, a new national survey shows. The share of U.S. adults ages 65 and older has jumped from 12.4% in 2004 to 18% in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That rise is...
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Tobacco Still Top Cancer Killer
Tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of cancer death in the U.S., despite a dramatic decline in smoking, a new American Cancer Society report says. More than 80% of lung cancer deaths are linked to tobacco, according to data from the inaugural release of the...
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Just 3,000 Steps Daily Slows Alzheimer's Decline
A new study found that taking as few as 3,000 to 5,000 steps daily can slow the decline of Alzheimer's disease in people at increased risk by as much as three years. The study, published in Nature Medicine, involved older patients who had biological signs of the illness,...
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Family Recordings Might Ease ICU Delirium
A comforting voice from home might be enough to soothe ICU patients on ventilation, a new study says. As many as 4 in 5 ICU patients on mechanical ventilation develop delirium, or sudden confusion, panic, upset and anger. But playing recorded messages from a family member can...
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Skipping Sleeping Pills Better for Seniors' Health
Middle-aged adults and seniors would age more gracefully - and save a few bucks - if they lay off prescription sleep medications, a new study says. Avoiding sleep drugs would reduce older Americans' lifetime rate of falls by nearly 9% and brain decline by 2%, researchers...
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Study: Home Exercises Ease Knee Arthritis Pain
Home exercises can effectively ease knee pain caused by cartilage tears and arthritis, apparently with or without physical therapy, a new study says. The stretching and strengthening exercises provided about the same amount of pain relief whether or not a person got real or...
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Man Lives 271 Days With Pig Kidney, Sets Record
A 67-year-old New Hampshire man has set a medical milestone after living more than nine months with a gene-edited pig kidney, doctors announced Monday. The experimental transplant, performed by surgeons at Mass General Brigham, lasted 271 days, the longest anyone has...