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NEWS:
Women Treated For Breast Cancer May Age Faster Than Cancer-Free Women
Women treated for breast cancer may age faster than cancer-free women
NIH study finds radiation shows strongest association, less for surgery and endocrine treatments.
Women diagnosed and treated for breast cancer have increased biological aging compared to women who remain free of breast cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators. Among women diagnosed with breast cancer, the association with faster biological aging was most pronounced for those who received radiation therapy, while surgery showed no association with biological aging. This finding suggests that developing cancer is not what increases the aging effect.
“Of the three treatment classes we looked at, radiation therapy had the strongest associations with the biologic age measures assessed in the study,” noted Jack Taylor, M.D., Ph.D., the senior author on th
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Why Climate Change Might Be Affecting Your Headaches
Recurring headaches are one of the most common nervous system disorders, with an estimated 45 million, or one in six, Americans complaining of headaches each year. People who experience headaches or migraines regularly are probably familiar with different triggers for their headaches—such as consuming alcohol, increased stress, or changes in sleep quality. But what people suffering from headaches might not realize is that climate change can have effects on headaches.
How Can Climate Change Cause Headaches?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, rising global average temperature continue to impact widespread changes in weather patterns, and extreme weather events—such as heat waves and hurricanes—are likely to become more frequent or more intense. Experts suggest that the stress of these events can trigger headaches.
“Not only can experiencing an extreme storm itself be stres
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Belly Fat Hinders Digestive Disease Medications
The mass and composition of our bodies can significantly affect the way medications are metabolized and absorbed. Investigators at Cedars-Sinai found that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients with higher levels of intra-abdominal visceral adipose tissue– a distinctive type of fat inside the abdomen −had lower rates of remission when treated with certain anti-inflammatory medications.
The findings are published in the journal Gastroenterology.
"Even though biologic medications have significantly improved outcomes for our patients with Crohn’s disease orAndres J. Yarur, MD ulcerative colitis, some people do not respond well to these therapies. In our study, we found that the patients with higher amounts of internal abdominal fat were less likely to improve and experience remission from their disease," said gastroenterologist Andres J. Yarur, MD, the corresponding author of the stu
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The Shape of Your Heart Matters
Curious to know if you’re at risk for two common heart conditions? Your doctor may want to check the shape of your heart.
Investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai have discovered that patients who have round hearts shaped like baseballs are more likely to develop future heart failure and atrial fibrillation than patients who have longer hearts shaped like the traditional Valentine heart.
Their findings, published in Med-Cell Press’ new peer-reviewed medical journal-used deep learning and advanced imaging analysis to study the genetics of heart structure. Their results were telling.
"We found that individuals with spherical hearts were 31% more likely to develop atrial fibrillation and 24% more likely to develop cardiomyopathy, a type of heart muscle disease," said David Ouyang, MD, a cardiologist in the Smidt Heart Institute and a researcher in the Division of
