Some cognitive changes are to be expected with aging; however, in addition to avoiding serious illness to the extent it is preventable and avoiding injuries to the brain, there’s a lot that can be done to help prevent cognitive decline. Edward Marcantonio, professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is quoted.
A recent study by researchers in England published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience found that sleep is important to maintaining the health of our brain’s nerve cells, or neurons, in that it allows them to independently rest and repair themselves. Robert Thomas, associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is quoted.
Sarah Wakeman, instructor in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted in an article about treating addiction as a chronic condition. Kenneth Duckworth, assistant professor of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is also quoted.
Genetic editing of human embryos “has tremendous value” to help solve important scientific questions, and should proceed despite potential worries about use of the technique in the clinic, an influential bioethics group said today in a statement. George Church, professor of genetics, is quoted.
About one in 30 women who get a common type of vaginal surgery to address urinary incontinence will need repeat procedures within 10 years to remove or replace mesh slings inserted to prevent leaking urine, a study finds. Quoc-Dien Trinh, assistant professor of surgery, and Christian Meyer, research fellow in surgery, both at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, co-authored an editorial on the study.
This is the second in a three-part series about the different ways the global Ebola outbreak has changed the United States. Ken Sands, associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is quoted.
Seventh-graders in Rhode Island started school this year under a new mandate rarely seen in the country: Girls and boys must be vaccinated against HPV — the human papillomavirus — a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cancer. Melissa Gilkey, assistant professor of population medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, is quoted.
Stephen Elledge, the Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has won a Lasker Award for his work on DNA repair.
Diabetes affects up to 14 percent of the U.S. population—an increase from nearly 10 percent in the early 1990s—yet over a third of cases still go undiagnosed, according to a new analysis. David M. Nathan, professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
