Coffee drinking linked to longer life

Good news for coffee lovers: drinking two to three cups of coffee a day is linked with a longer lifespan and lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared with avoiding coffee. The benefits apply to ground, instant and even decaffeinated coffee, according to Australian research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The health effects of coffee have been heavily […]

How do weighted blankets boost sleep?

A new study shows that using a weighted blanket at bedtime increases melatonin in young adults. This hormone increases in response to darkness, and some evidence suggests that it promotes sleep. While previous research has shown that weighted blankets may ease insomnia, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Researchers recruited 26 young men and women to examine if the […]

Care gap: Hospital readmission rate for younger women is higher than for younger men after a heart attack

In a new study of younger heart attack victims in Ontario, Canada, researchers found that the healthcare system delivers high quality care for younger heart attack survivors; however, there are still disparities between men and women. Cardiovascular and all-cause hospital readmission rates are higher in young women than young men. This underscores the need for ongoing efforts to improve prevention strategies, as […]

Orthopedic surgery patients do fine without opioid painkillers

Opioid-based painkillers have become a mainstay of post-operative care in orthopaedics but carry a risk of addiction. Now a new study by researchers at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), suggests patients can recover from orthopaedic surgery just as well without using opioid-based painkillers. The findings, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), could have positive implications […]

One in three Alzheimer’s disease family caregivers has persistent symptoms of depression

More than 60% of family caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) experienced at least mild depressive symptoms already at the time the individual with AD was diagnosed. In one third of them, depressive symptoms worsened during a five-year follow-up. The study carried out at the University of Eastern Finland included 226 family caregivers of individuals with AD. Depressive symptoms […]

Immunotherapy before targeted therapy improves survival in advanced melanoma

Researchers reported a 20 percent advantage in the two-year overall survival rate for subjects with advanced melanoma and a mutation in the BRAF gene, specifically a BRAF V600 mutation, who were initially treated with immunotherapy (72 percent survival rate) compared with subjects initially treated with targeted therapies (52 percent survival rate). The findings from the DREAMseq trial were published on September 28, 2022 in […]

Getting under the skin of an autoimmune disorder

Supporting actors sometimes steal the show. In a new study published today in Cell, researchers headed by Prof. Ido Amit at the Weizmann Institute of Science have shown that supporting cells called fibroblasts, long viewed as uniform background players, are in fact extremely varied and vital. A subset of these cells, according to the study, may lie at the origins of […]

Rheumatic fever and household overcrowding

Research led by the University of Otago in New Zealand has uncovered the strongest evidence yet that household overcrowding is a major risk factor for acute rheumatic fever and streptococcal infections of the skin. Their research is published in two companion articles in the international medical journal The Lancet Regional Health — Western Pacific. Lead researcher Professor Michael Baker of the […]

Most long COVID patients should see a Rheumatologist

A McMaster University-led study has found that most people infected with the SARS-CoV2 virus recover within 12 months, irrespective of the severity. However, although 75 per cent had recovered at the 12-month mark after becoming ill with the virus, 25 per cent of patients still had at least one of the three most common symptoms, including coughing, fatigue and breathlessness. […]

COVID-19 increases risks of neurological problems

Persons infected with the COVID-19 virus are at an increased risk of developing  neurological conditions in the first year after infection, researchers reported on Sept. 22 in Nature Medicine. “Our study provides a comprehensive assessment of the long-term neurologic consequences of COVID-19,” said senior author Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Director of […]