Researches have found an enzyme in foods like broccoli and cucumbers that can slow some of the chronic conditions that come with age. The findings are limited to mice, but testing will begin with people. To read more about this click here.
Male Contraceptive Injection Shown to Be Safe and Efficacious
Over the past 20 years, researchers have been investigating the potential for male hormonal contraceptives. In a trial including 270 men, U.S. researchers found the male contraceptive injection to be 96% effective. Some mild side effects were reported, but 75% of men participating in the study said they would be willing to use the form of contraception again. For the link to the full article, please click here.
Birth Control and Links to Depression
A Danish prospective cohort study on one million women has shown a link between hormonal contraceptives and depression. Women who took "the pill" were found to be a quarter more likely to be prescribed an anti-depressant than a non-user of the pill. The risk rose to 80% for girls aged 15 to 19.
Please click here for the full article published by the University of Copenhagen.
Diagnosing Alzheimer's: Looking for a better way to detect disease early
The Aging Well Institute's associate Wendy Qiu, the principal investigator of the Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry and Aging at Boston University, has been featured in a five part series on Alzheimer's research at Boston University. Wendy's research focuses on finding an early and inexpensive diagnostic tool for Alzheimer's disease. Read more about Wendy's research here.
Zika Virus Outbreak in Miami - Potential Public Health Impact →
Zika is a term that has been heard all over the world in the past few months. It seemed like a far away disease causing horror to those we have never met-until now. The Zika virus has spread to Miami, Florida, and will most likely pop-up in other areas of the United States and the world. David Hamer, a BU School of Public Health professor and researcher, was recently interviews regarding the disease, its effects, and how much we have left to learn.
http://www.bu.edu/today/2016/zika-virus-miami/
Population-based resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates to pyrazinamide and fluoroquinolones: results from a multicountry surveillance project →
With 9.6 million new cases and 1.5 million deaths estimated in 2014, tuberculosis represents a major global health problem and ranks alongside HIV as a leading cause of infectious-disease-related deaths. Although global incidence has been falling slowly during the past decade, the number of people affected every year remains daunting. Among the most serious obstacles to successful prevention and treatment of tuberculosis are the inadequate identification of individuals with latent tuberculosis infection who are at highest risk of developing the disease, insufficient capacity of health systems to rapidly identify and diagnose all tuberculosis cases (especially those with drug resistance), inappropriate management of contacts of infectious cases, long duration of treatment (especially for drug-resistant tuberculosis), concurrent infection with HIV, and worldwide spread of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains that are resistant to the most effective antituberculosis agents.
To accelerate global progress in the control of tuberculosis, new drugs and shorter, easily administered regimens are needed to treat all forms of tuberculosis, including multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Stroke and t-PA — Triggering New Paradigms of Care (NEJM Editoral) →
Today, health systems have been reconfigured to permit speedy access to stroke care. But this response is a recent phenomenon, dating to the 1995 publication of a research article on recombinant tissue plasminogen activator.
Screening for Impaired Visual Acuity in Older AdultsUS Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement →
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) makes recommendations about the effectiveness of specific preventive care services for patients without obvious related signs or symptoms. It concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for impaired visual acuity in older adults. (I statement).
