News by Subject Medicine & Health

The Singapore Chinese Health Study has shown that both moderate-to-large weight gain and weight loss in mid-life and old age were associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality, and particularly for cardiovascular disease mortality.

The cost of heating and cooling the home, and increasing social isolation are significant factors in health risk of older adults during extreme weather, according to a new study by the University of Warwick.

Moderate to severe loneliness can persist across adult lifespans, but UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers found it is particularly acute in three age periods: late-20s, mid-50s and late-80s. Wisdom proved a protective factor.

Researchers found that excitatory neurons -- those that are more likely to trigger an action (as opposed to inhibitory neurons, which are less likely to prompt neural activity) -- are more vulnerable to accumulations of abnormal tau protein, which is increasingly being implicated in Alzheimer's disease.

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) describes the quality of end of life care in nearly 500 US hospitals, utilizing nearly 13,000 bedside nurses as informants of quality. The study has been published online first. It will also be in a future issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

An annual physical typically involves a weight check and questions about unhealthy habits like smoking, but a new study from UC San Francisco suggests health care providers may be overlooking a critical question: Are you depressed or anxious?

scientists at UC San Francisco have zeroed in on a possible genetic mechanism for this highly durable phenomenon, that -- while it does not preclude the influence of other biological, social and environmental factors -- suggests an important role for the second X chromosome, which is present in female mammals. The X chromosome contains many genes related to the brain, and it is crucial for survival.

Research in mouse cells identifies defective metabolic pathway in aging immune T cells. The pathway is critical for switching T cells from dormancy into illness-fighting mode. In experiments, researchers restored lagging T-cell function by adding small-molecule compounds. Findings suggest possible mechanism behind weakened immunity common in the elderly.