In 2013, the most recent year for which we have data, there were about 2.8 million traumatic brain injury-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly two-thirds of concussions take place in children and teens and although most patients’ symptoms disappear within two […]

The Precision Medicine Initiative, a long-term research endeavor involving the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and multiple other research centers, aims to understand how a person’s genetics, environment, and lifestyle can help determine the best way to prevent or treat disease.  Last year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) changed the initiative’s name to the […]

Recently, a technology that edits genomes was used in China to genetically modify pigs.  The result for the consumer would be pigs that are better adapted to cold weather while carrying around 24% less fat.  The technology, called CRISPR, an acronym for clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,  has two components. First, CRISPR is […]

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, are calling for senolytic drugs to make the leap from animal research to human clinical trials. Senescence refers to biological aging and senolytic drugs are designed to selectively kill the cells that cause aging. As we age, we accumulate senescent cells, which are damaged cells that resist […]

Last week the Alzheimer’s Association held its international conference in London.  As a result, news about the study of dementia was all over the media this week.  Dementia is defined as a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired […]

If you’ve ever been to CrossFit, you’ve done a HIIT workout.  HIIT is the acronym for high intensity interval training.   The concept has been around for a long time, but recent research suggests that a HIIT workout may help people of any age become healthier. A new study of old mice that ran on treadmills […]

Although it is early in the summer season, it will be time to get your flu shot before you know it.  Every year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) determines the most prevalent strains of influenza and creates a vaccine to prevent the dominant strains. The World Health Organization has already made recommendations for the […]

Actress Carrie Fisher’s cause of death was released this week and it was revealed that sleep apnea was a contributing factor to her death.  Sleep disorders, including sleep apnea, have become a significant health issue in the United States. It is estimated that 22 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, with 80% of the cases […]

You may not have heard about compressed morbidity, but it’s an important concept related to health and quality of life.  James Fries, a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, was the first to discuss compressed morbidity or the idea that we can compress the time horizon between the onset of chronic illness […]

We all know the risk factors for heart disease – using tobacco, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle. These risks get a lot of play in the media, because they have been identified as circumstances that can lead to narrowed or blocked blood vessels, the precursors to heart attack, stroke and other […]