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New Research Finds Nearly Half Of All Dementia Cases Could Be Delayed Or Prevented 

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In a new study from some of the world’s leading experts in dementia, it was found that almost half of the global cases of the disease could be prevented or delayed, specifically pointing out 14 risk factors that exist throughout a patient’s life.

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New Experimental Pill Offers Hope For People With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer 

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A new novel pill is reportedly helping people with advanced pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest, live longer, according to new research recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

“While not curing the cancer, it is a very large step forward,” said Dr. Zev Wainberg of the University of California, Los Angeles, who helped lead the study. 

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The new drug is called daraxonrasib, and it works by blocking a mutated protein that fuels tumor growth in over 90% of pancreatic cancer cases. Pancreatic cancer is also known for being very deadly with very little viable treatment options. 

The pills are meant to be taken daily and have shown to nearly double one’s survival time with fewer side effects in a study that randomly assigned the experimental drug or more chemotherapy to 500 patients with metastatic cancer that have stopped responding to other treatments, according to reports from AP. 

The research showed that those who took daraxonrasib lived for an average of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients. Dr. Wainberg said while this may seem like a small improvement, it marks the first drug to show a substantial advantage over chemotherapy. 

“Having treated pancreatic cancer for 16 years, I actually started crying when first seeing the study results,” Dr. Rachna Shroff of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, said at the ASCO meeting. 

“[I was struck by how] patients stayed on this treatment because it was providing a durable and meaningful benefit to them.”

The pills’ effects eventually decrease but those taking it for significantly longer than the chemotherapy group reported less pain and a better quality of life. Many continued to use the medications after the data was analyzed. Dr. Wainberg stated this means the survival gap may widen as researchers continue to track them. 

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Dr. Brian Wolpin, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presented the findings and said “the drug should become a new standard of care” for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer. Researchers also will explore its use earlier in the disease, including to see if tumor shrinkage might let more patients qualify for surgery,” AP reported. 

He also said the side effects most likely to impact the treatment course were a rash that can become severe and mouth sores. 

The Food and Drug Administration is planning to expedite their review of the drug because of its success. It was developed thanks to funding from Maker Revolution Medicines. The agency is granting “expanded access” to the drug for patients who meet the criteria. 

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms due to the fact that it’s hard to detect before it starts spreading throughout the body. The American Cancer Society estimates around 67,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the US this year with more than 52,000 people dying from the disease. 

Pancreatic cancer is also harder to treat and doesn’t respond to chemotherapy the same way other cancers do. This drug is leaving a lot of experts very optimistic about the future of treating this deadly disease, as well as other cancers.

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Teenagers In America Are Getting Less Sleep Than Ever, According To New Study 

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Teenagers living in the United States are sleeping less than ever before, according to a new study from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. The findings were recently shared in publication Pediatrics, and showed a consistent decline in sleep across all age groups considered to be teenage. 

Rachel Widome, lead author on the study and professor at the university’s School of Public Health, said: 

“Some barriers to sleep faced by teens have existed across generations, such as the increased homework and extracurricular demands that come with high school, social pressures to stay up late with peers, and jobs.” 

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“Other issues are new in recent years, such as increasingly ever-present screens and social media as well as recent society-wide stressors such as the pandemic, social unrest, or militarized policing.”

The study also showed demographic gaps in its sleep outcomes. For example, Black and Latino teenagers are becoming even less likely to get adequate sleep when compared to other groups, the same is shown for adolescents whose parents have lower levels of education. 

Older adolescents were seen to have the greatest impact. Sleep time was shown to steadily decline as teenagers got older with both sleep duration and the feeling of getting enough rest dropping significantly with age. 

Researchers in the study utilized data from Monitoring the Future, a long-running national survey that represents over 400,000 US students in grades eight, 10, and 12 over the span of 32 years (1991 to 2023). Participants involved responded to two main questions: how often they slept at least seven hours per night and how often they believed they were getting enough rest. 

Insufficient sleep is a major issue especially for growing teenagers. It’s attributed with daily exhaustion and inhibited functioning while also leading to much larger long-term issues like mental health problems, struggles in school, and chronic illnesses later in adulthood, reports show.

The main root cause that’s being identified is deep and growing feelings of social isolation and burnout. Aim Ideas Lab, a mental health research group that helps connect young people with proper resources, recently published student-led findings that showed about two-thirds of teenagers in California reported experiencing burnout and anxiety. 

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The students also found that about a quarter of students believe only about two days out of the week do they find they have enough time to meet their basic needs like sleeping, eating, and taking care of their personal hygiene. 

Jolie Delja, the executive director of Aim Youth Mental Health, stated that the respondents “connected this directly to relentless academic pressure. They asked for time to slow down, and the chance to learn and practice coping skills like breathing and mindfulness during calm moments, not just crisis ones.”

“Schools and communities do not need to invent entirely new solutions. They need to give students more time and space for the people, activities, and coping tools that already help them manage stress, including getting more sleep.”

Past studies have also revealed that teenagers who do go to bed earlier and/or sleep longer than others tend to have sharper mental skills and do better in school. 

Widome explained that while there may not be one direct nationwide solution to this problem, there are plenty of structural approaches that could help a lot of young people so they can truly take care of themselves, including starting the school day later. 

“Earlier starts are in direct conflict with preset rhythms of adolescent circadian biology,” she said. 

“A nation of sleep-deprived adolescents is not inevitable. We should embrace a culture of sleep, where sleep is actually valued and where we commit to enacting policies and other interventions that promote healthy sleep for everyone.”

HPV vaccine

New Study Emphasizes The Importance Of Men And Boys Getting The HPV Vaccine 

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The HPV vaccine is widely known, and has been historically framed, as protection against cervical cancer in women. Now, according to a large new study published in JAMA Oncology, young men and boys who received the human papilloma virus, HPV, vaccine had around half the risk of developing related cancers compared to those who were unvaccinated. 

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The study wants parents of both young men and women to do the research to learn more about what HPV is in general, the cancers it’s linked to, and the benefits of the vaccine. 

CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and adjunct associate professor at George Washington University who was previously Baltimore’s health commissioner, recently spoke to the publication regarding this new study. 

“HPV is an extremely common virus transmitted through intimate skin-to-skin contact. The vast majority of those who are sexually active will be exposed to it at some point in their lives.”

“This applies to both men and women. According to the National Cancer Institute, nearly all sexually active people are infected with HPV within months to a few years of starting sexual activity,” Dr. Wen explained to CNN. 

“About half of these infections are with a high-risk HPV type that increases the likelihood of developing cancers. Most infections go away on their own as the immune system clears them, but some persist and can cause cellular changes that can become cancerous over time.”

Wen explained that HPV is linked to a range of cancers in both men and women. In women, it’s most commonly linked to cervical cancer, but it can also cause other cancers in the vagina and vulva. In men, HPV is linked to cancers of the penis, anus, head, and neck. 

“Over 90% of anal cancer is caused by HPV. Oropharyngeal cancer, also called throat cancer, is highly associated with HPV as well, with about 70% attributed to HPV. And more than 60% of penile cancer is caused by HPV,” Wen pointed out. 

The study that Wen is citing utilized a global database of over 615,000 men aged 9 to 26 who received the nonvalent HPV vaccine and over 2 million who did not. The researchers analyzed about half a million individuals from each group that were concluded to be comparable. 

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“They found that men who were vaccinated had a significantly lower risk of developing HPV-related cancers. Overall, vaccination was associated with about a 46% reduction in risk, meaning those who received the vaccine had roughly half the risk compared with those who were unvaccinated,” Wen said. 

“The benefit was seen across different groups studied. Those vaccinated between ages 9 and 14 had about a 42% lower risk, while those vaccinated between 15 and 26 had about a 50% lower risk.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends routine vaccination of preteens at 11 or 12-years-old. The HPV vaccine can be given at the same time as other vaccines. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends routine HPV vaccination for all adolescents starting between 9 and 12-years-old. Getting your children vaccinated during their earlier years “focuses on the goal to vaccinate before any exposure to HPV occurs.

According to the AAP, there is no known downside to starting HPV vaccinations early. The immune response is strong at younger ages, and there has not been evidence of significant waning protection,” Wen cited. 

To parents who may be skeptical, Wen emphasized the importance of speaking with their medical provider, but also that the main component of this vaccine is its ability to prevent cancer later in life. 

“This vaccine is about preventing cancer. It protects against infections that can lead to serious disease many years later. We now have strong evidence that it benefits everyone. The safety profile of the vaccine is well-established, and the effectiveness in preventing HPV-related disease is very high. As a mom of two children, choosing vaccination is an opportunity to reduce the risk of serious illness for our children in the future.”

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 AI Toys Are On The Rise, Experts Want Them More Strictly Regulated 

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Developmental psychologists from the University of Cambridge have recently performed a study in which they analyzed the impact of toys that use artificial intelligence on children. The researchers concluded that these products need to be more tightly regulated as they struggle with social and pretend play, misunderstand kids, and react inappropriately to certain emotions. 

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AI toys that have the ability to “talk” to kids need to be “more tightly regulated to ensure psychological safety by limiting toys’ ability to affirm friendship and other sensitive relational areas with young children,” according to Dr. Emily Goodacre, a developmental psychologist at the University’s faculty of education.

“Because these toys can misread emotions or respond inappropriately, children may be left without comfort from the toy, and without emotional support from an adult, either,” said Dr. Goodacre. 

“A recurring theme during focus groups was that people do not trust tech companies to do the right thing. Clear, robust, regulated standards would significantly improve consumer confidence,” Professor Jenny Gibson, the study’s co-author, said. 

One of the toys they looked at is known as Gabbo, a soft plushie with a computer screen face. The Guardian reported that during the research, a three-year-old boy named Josh kept asking the toy “Are you sad?” until it replied it was “feeling great. What’s on your mind?” Josh said: “I’m sad,” to which the toy replied: “Don’t worry! I’m a happy little bot. Let’s keep the fun going. What shall we talk about next?”

Gabbo is made by Curio, a US company which also helped with the study. The toy was tested with 14 three to five-year-olds. 

“[There’s] wide uncertainty and fear about unknown implications or impacts on children.” Specifically, the team was concerned over how the kids may not be able to fully engage in imaginary play with the toy, as well as where the data from the conversations with the children end up. 

“[The toy] couldn’t quite figure out when the kid was doing something pretend,” said Goodacre. 

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“A child would say: ‘Hey, look, I’ve got you a present’. And it would say: ‘I can’t see the present. I don’t have any eyes.’ As an adult, it’s really obvious that even if I had my eyes closed, I would know that that was pretend play initiation.”

“Playing with AI toys could weaken children’s imaginative muscle,” she said.

“Something both the early years practitioners and the parents we spoke to were quite concerned about was that children don’t have to imagine any more, and that the toy might get them out of the habit of imagining.”

“I would hope that these AI toys could help children to engage in imaginary play … That doesn’t seem to be what we’ve observed so far,” she said. 

“Child safety guides every aspect of our product development, and we welcome independent research that helps improve how technology is designed for young children,” Curio stated. 

“[We] believe research like this helps advance understanding of both the opportunities and current limitations of early AI-powered play experiences”.

“Applying AI in products for children carries a heightened responsibility, which is why our toys are built around parental permission, transparency and control,” they added. 

“Observations such as conversational misunderstandings or limits in imaginative play reflect areas the technology continues to improve through an iterative development process, and further research into how children interact with AI-powered toys is a top priority for Curio this year and in the future.”

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GLP-1s, Like Ozempic And Wegovy, May Increase Risk Of Osteoporosis And Gout 

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Ozempic, Wegovy, and other GLP-1 alternatives have risen in use and popularity throughout the world in recent years. Now, according to new research presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting, these medications could increase the risk of experiencing osteoporosis and gout. 

Dr. John Horneff, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study, said that he initially started looking into this connection after treating some patients who were developing tendon tears after relatively minor injuries, according to NBC News. 

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This initial notice from Dr. Horneff led him, and other experts, to look into whether or not GLP-1s might impact bones or connective tissues. 

“People are taking these medications, and obviously there’s a tremendous amount of upside. But with that, they start to decrease their intake of food and nutrients,” Dr. Horneff said. 

Osteoporosis is a disease that weakens the bones and makes them more prone to breaks or fractures. It’s also a common concern for any older adult who loses a significant amount of weight over a short period of time. Gout, on the other hand, is a painful form of arthritis that occurs when the body has too much uric acid. 

Uric acid increases in the body from a diet highly concentrated in red meat and alcohol, as well as rapid weight loss being a factor. The study wrote how researchers analyzed five years of medical records from more than 146,000 adults with a diagnosis of both obesity and Type 2 diabetes. 

The study also compared patients who took GLP-1 drugs and those who didn’t. Around 4% of GLP-1 users developed osteoporosis, compared to a little over 3% of nonusers, with an increased risk of about 30%. 

Rates of gout were also slightly higher with 7.4% for GLP-1 users and 6.6% for nonusers with an increased risk of 12%. 

“It’s not huge. But within that data that was put in there, you even saw nearly a doubling of the risk of having some sort of bone mineral density issue at five years,” Dr. Horneff said.

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“Weight loss does cause bone loss,” said Dr. Clifford Rosen, a professor of medicine at Tufts University who was not involved in the research but has been studying the impact of GLP-1s on bone health.

“The question we’ve been studying is whether this is a normal compensation of the skeleton, it’s just reshaping itself, or whether this is truly a risk for losing bone that’s more rapid than what would be expected,” Rosen said.

On the opposite side, Dr. Susan Spratt, an endocrinologist, wondered if the increased risk of these conditions was due to rapid weight loss or other mechanisms within the drugs. She mentioned that some studies have shown musculoskeletal benefits with GLP-1 drugs, and she often sees actual improvements in joint pain from her patients taking the medication. 

Dr. Horneff says that in general, more research needs to be done to make a true conclusion, but it’s definitely worth looking into. 

“It’s the same idea as when we always hear about astronauts going up into space and they’re in a gravity-zero environment for too long,” Horneff said. 

“There’s nothing forcing their bones to kind of hold their weight anymore. And a lot of those astronauts come back with low bone density. So the thought is, these patients, their skeleton was used to kind of maintaining one frame, and then all of a sudden, that’s being decreased.”

“For gout, rapid weight loss can lead to a temporary spike in uric acid increasing the risk of gout,” he said. 

Short Sightedness

Why Short-Sightedness Cases Are Increasing Rapidly Around The World 

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Myopia is the term used to describe what is more commonly referred to as short/near-sightedness. Cases of Myopia are increasing rapidly around the world, and a new study is trying to explain why. 

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Researchers from the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry, stated that while our modern tendency to spend more time indoors is definitely a contributor, increased screen time is not the only driver in this unusual increase. 

The team, according to Science Alert, ran lab tests on 34 volunteers, 21 who have myopia, and 13 with standard vision. The participants were given square targets that varied in brightness and contrast to focus on multiple times, one eye at a time. 

Eye behavior that was recorded in patients with myopia showed that activities and tasks that require close-up viewing could be contributing to their short-sightedness due to the way the pupil constricts to limit how much light enters the eye. 

“Myopia has reached near- epidemic levels worldwide, yet we still don’t fully understand why,” said visual neuroscientist Jose-Manuel Alonso.

“Our findings suggest that a common underlying factor may be how much light reaches the retina during sustained near work – particularly indoors.”

The reports show that the researchers wanted to look at three specific behaviors associated with looking at nearby objects: how the eyes focus, how they turn inward, and how the pupils constrict. They made adjustments to accommodate for the ON/OFF pathways in the retina, which is responsible for processing light and darkness. 

Weaker ON pathways have been connected to myopia but the underlying mechanism hasn’t been completely clear, the researchers stated. They also found that contrast matters more than brightness when it comes to the eyes turning inwards and the pupils shrinking. 

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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” said optometry doctoral student Urusha Maharjan.

“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets, or books, the pupil can also constrict, not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image. In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”

So one of the biggest arguments now being made is that blurry vision is not the only factor that triggers or worsens myopia, but also a lack of light, which could help explain why corrective lenses that are too strong can actually hinder an individual with myopia. 

“Our results support the hypothesis that myopia develops in children with poor retinal stimulation,” the researchers report.

This study is just one step in reaching an actual solid conclusion, as it utilized a small sample of people whose eyesight wasn’t measured over time or compared in outdoor versus indoor conditions. 

“This is not a final answer. It’s a hypothesis grounded in measurable physiology that brings together many pieces of existing evidence,” Alonso said.

“More research is needed, but it gives us a new way to think about prevention and treatment.”

The research was published in Cell Reports.

New Simple Blood Test Can Predict Which Breast Cancer Treatment Would Work Best For Patients

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According to a new study, scientists have developed a simple DNA blood test that can predict how well certain breast cancer treatments will work for patients, offering up the most effective options to boost the individual’s chances of beating the disease.

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Scientists Say They Have Fully Reversed Alzheimer’s In Mice 

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Alzheimer’s disease impacts more than seven million Americans, devastating their cognitive ability and overall identity. It’s a highly researched disease that even the biggest minds in science and healthcare are continuing to learn more about. 

Now, a team of American scientists are claiming that they’ve “cured” lab mice suffering from the disease, a monumental step towards the future of fighting Alzheimer’s and, potentially, other cognitive diseases. 

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According to a new paper in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. Scientists from Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), University Hospitals, and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, researchers administered rodents with the compound P7C3-A20 leading to the reversal of Alzheimer’s. 

“The key takeaway is a message of hope — the effects of Alzheimer’s disease may not be inevitably permanent. The damaged brain can, under some conditions, repair itself and regain function.” said Andrew A. Pieper, the study’s principal investigator in a statement. 

This research is a part of a much larger wave of new lab studies that are working to help treat, and even cure, Alzheimer’s and other neurological issues. 

University of Edinburgh neuroscience professor Tara Spires-Jones, who wasn’t part of this study, told the BBC “scientists are closer than ever to a truly life-changing treatment — in as little as five to 10 years; instead of a slow death where people lose themselves. New tests will detect the condition early and innovative treatments will really make your life normal.”

Scientists have been moving closer and closer to understand the causes of Alzheimer’s, looking at factors such as genetics, environment, and other stressors. 

According to Sharon Adaro of Futurism Magazine, “In the P7C3-A20 study, the scientists focused on the impact of the crucial molecule NAD+, a coenzyme important for driving cellular metabolism and which decreases as we age. 

Patients with Alzheimer’s suffer from a significant decrease of NAD+ in the brain, and hence their brain cells have trouble maintaining normal functionality, staving off inflammation, and canceling other physical hallmarks of the disease,” Adaro wrote. 

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In this study, the team looked at two types of lab mice that were genetically bred to be predisposed to Alzheimer’s. The groups were differentiated based on which specific proteins they had that contained mutations causing them to be predisposed. The team injected P7C3-A20 into both groups when they were two months old. 

As the mice aged, they didn’t develop the disease. Additionally, the team injected the compound into a batch of lab mice who were six months old and suffering from an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s. 

After that group received their injections, they completely recovered their cognitive ability as well as NAD+ levels were completely restored to normal levels. 

“We were very excited and encouraged by our results,” said Pieper in the statement. 

“Restoring the brain’s energy balance achieved pathological and functional recovery in both lines of mice with advanced Alzheimer’s. Seeing this effect in two very different animal models, each driven by different genetic causes, strengthens the new idea that recovery from advanced disease might be possible in people with AD when the brain’s NAD+ balance is restored.”

“What’s also good about this study is that P7C3-A20 offers an alternative pathway to boosting NAD+ levels versus taking over-the-counter chemical precursors for NAD+, which can raise NAD+ to such toxic levels that people could develop cancer,” Pieper said.

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Strange Structures In The Blood Of Long Covid Patients Could Be The Cause Of Their Symptoms 

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In a new study, medical researchers have found that unusual microscopic structures in the blood of those suffering from long Covid may be the cause of their symptoms such as brain fog and fatigue. 

A team of medical researchers, led by geneticist Alain Thierry of Montpellier University in France, wrote in a paper that “this study shows a robust association between biomarkers indicative of thromboinflammatory activity and long Covid.”

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“The discovery of these biomarker linkages not only presents a possible novel diagnostic methodology but also novel therapeutic targets, offering prospects for future markedly improved clinical management.”

While a direct reasoning for the symptoms of long Covid lasting for months to years after their initial Covid-19 infection isn’t yet clear, this study offers a window of opportunity for treatment. 

Science Alert reported that back in 2021, physiologist Resia Pretorius of Stellenbosch University in South Africa said microclots could be a reason for the lingering symptoms. Microclots are abnormally persistent blood clots that are smaller than those seen in conditions like stroke, but large enough to impact blood flow. 

In 2022, Thierry and his colleagues showed that patients with long Covid have “elevated levels of neutrophil extracellular traps, also known as NETs.” NETs are “sticky webs of DNA and enzymes released by white blood cells to capture and contain pathogens invading the body,” Michelle Starr of Science Alert reports. 

In typical circumstances, NETs do their jobs and then break down, but when they’re released in larger numbers, they can cause blood flow problems. 

Both Pretorius and Thierry collaborated on this new research, and have combined their previous findings to suggest that NETS and microclots both interact in the blood of long Covid patients. 

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The researchers studied blood samples from 50 patients with long Covid and 38 healthy volunteers. They focused particularly on comparing the differences in microclots and NETs in both groups; who had individuals from France and South Africa. 

It was revealed that patients with long Covid had a noticeably higher number of microclots when compared to the healthy group. An increase in NETs also paralleled the increase in microclots within long Covid patients. 

Something new that the team reported was “the NETs appeared to be physically embedded within the microclots, an association that had never before been reported.”

That particular association was found in all the samples observed from both groups. The impact of this increase was more prominent in the long Covid group.

“This finding suggests the existence of underlying physiological interactions between microclots and NETs that, when dysregulated, may become pathogenic,” Thierry explained.

Now, scientists, researchers, and medical professionals could utilize both microclots and NETs as a biomarker to diagnose long Covid, which has been difficult to diagnose. 

The research has been published in the Journal of Medical Virology.