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Johns Hopkins scientists have uncovered hidden warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease that may appear up to a decade before memory loss begins. Brain scans revealed that two regions involved in memory and emotion start shrinking before the hippocampus, the area doctors typically examine for signs of Alzheimer’s. These early changes are linked to abnormal tau protein buildup and could provide a powerful new way to identify people at risk.

Scientists have uncovered a hidden warning sign in routine heart scans that could predict sudden cardiac death before it strikes. The AI-powered discovery outperformed conventional screening methods, potentially revealing thousands of people at risk of a fatal heart malfunction that doctors might otherwise miss.

A simple change to your daily routine could make a surprising difference in how you feel, both physically and mentally. University of Missouri researchers found that older adults who followed consistent daily schedules reported less physical pain and fewer symptoms of depression, even when they struggled with insomnia. Keeping regular times for sleeping, eating, and other activities may help regulate the body's internal clock, which influences mood, sleep, and overall health.

Scientists have developed a promising new fiber supplement that improves gut health in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) without worsening bloating, pain, or other digestive symptoms. The specially designed blend also improved gut-related anxiety and produced surprisingly rapid changes in gut bacteria, potentially offering a new way to manage IBS.

Stanford researchers have discovered that hidden patterns of brain activity can predict Alzheimer’s risk years before memory problems appear, potentially offering an earlier warning than traditional biomarkers. The same patterns also reveal which brains are unusually resistant to aging, raising hopes for future treatments that could help protect memory.

A new study suggests that the right kind of exercise could help protect young adults from early knee osteoarthritis following ACL surgery. Researchers found that a four-month supervised rehabilitation program improved pain, muscle strength, and quality of life without damaging knee cartilage. The findings challenge fears that exercise worsens injured knees and could transform how patients recover from ACL reconstruction.

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INTRODUCTION: The aging population increases type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence and consequently heightens related complications, including dementia and microvascular disease. This study examined the relationship between diabetic retinopathy (DR) and cognitive decline in adults with T2DM.

Aging alters both brain structure and electrophysiology, which can be measured non-invasively by structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and event-related potentials (ERPs). On average, gray matter declines steadily from early adulthood, whereas white matter increases into midlife before declining. With respect to ERPs, the well-established P300 response shows reduced amplitude and delayed latency from early adulthood onward. Few studies test whether structural MRI and ERP measures correlate...

Aging research has increasingly recognized the need for accurate biomarkers of aging, with aging clocks emerging as a powerful tool to quantify the degree of age-related biological change. However, broad clinical implementation and the establishment of wide use of these biomarkers of aging remain ongoing. Resilience reflects a dynamic property of physiological homeostasis and offers a complementary lens to functionally interpret aging. Resilience does not capture the ground state the biological...

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Yale researchers have discovered that certain prescription drugs, healthy diets, and exercise can measurably slow biological aging, while popular anti-aging supplements appear largely ineffective. Their analysis of 51 studies could transform how scientists evaluate anti-aging treatments, although whether these biological changes actually extend life remains uncertain.

Smiling may not always make you happier, and new research suggests that forcing yourself to smile repeatedly could actually make you feel worse. In a University of Florida study involving more than 1,100 participants, researchers discovered that while a single artificial smile can provide a small mood boost, repeatedly faking smiles can erase that benefit or even reverse it.

A new study reveals that viral infections may leave behind hidden damage to the immune system long after symptoms disappear. Researchers found that mice recovering from an acute infection experienced lasting changes to their spleens and weakened immune responses, potentially leaving them more vulnerable to future threats. Surprisingly, prior vaccination completely prevented these harmful changes in the mouse model.

A study of more than 750,000 pregnancies found that early exposure to Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar drugs was not linked to increased pregnancy complications when used for weight loss, but was associated with a higher risk of premature birth when prescribed for diabetes. The surprising difference suggests that diabetes itself may be driving the risk, although researchers caution that the drugs' safety during pregnancy remains uncertain.

A major study of nearly 1,900 older adults suggests that stopping statins after age 70 may be relatively safe in the short term for people who have never experienced a heart attack or stroke. However, a higher rate of serious cardiovascular events or death during longer follow-up raises questions about the risks of discontinuing these widely prescribed medications.

Aging reduces the quality and quantity of sleep, and sleep disruption is predictive of neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. Sleep loss could affect brain health through disruption of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation, which is important for brain homeostasis. In young adults, large CSF flow waves appear during non-rapid eye movement sleep; however, whether sleep-dependent brain fluid physiology changes in aging is not known. Here we imaged large-scale CSF flow and hemodynamics in young...

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Asymmetry on the left-right axis is an organizing principle of the human brain that is important for diverse cognitive and behavioural functions. Advances in neuroimage analysis, genomics and large-scale data collection in the past decade have transformed our understanding of the biological foundations and multivariate nature of brain asymmetry. In this Review, we synthesize evidence across scales - from functional and macro-anatomical asymmetries and their inter-relations to microstructural,...

CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that reference genome choice impacts the identification and interpretation of specific Alzheimer's Disease-associated genes, despite overall reproducibility of genome-wide differential expression signatures, underscoring the critical importance of reference selection in Alzheimer's Disease transcriptomic studies.