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A three-year study of nearly 4,000 adults ranging from age 19 to 94 found that brain health can improve at any age, challenging the common belief that mental sharpness must decline as we get older. Participants spent just a few minutes a day on brain-training activities, and researchers found measurable gains across multiple aspects of brain health, including thinking clarity, emotional well-being, and sense of purpose.

Learning a musical instrument later in life may help keep the brain younger for longer. In a four-year study, older adults who continued practicing maintained their memory performance and showed less age-related brain shrinkage than those who quit. The benefits were especially noticeable in brain regions tied to memory and learning.

Amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation in the brain is a defining pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Cerebral Aβ burden is regulated not only by central production and degradation but also by its transport and clearance in the peripheral circulation. Blood-borne Aβ carriers provide a potential peripheral route for reducing brain Aβ levels by strengthening the brain-to-blood concentration gradient, representing a therapeutic strategy that does not require direct penetration of the blood-brain...

Maternal sleep deprivation (MSD) is a common but usually unnoticed issue during pregnancy, and in recent years, it has been increasingly recognised as an important prenatal stressor that may adversely influence maternal physiology, placental function, and fetal neurodevelopment. Sleep disturbances during pregnancy, including reduced sleep duration, fragmented sleep, poor sleep quality, circadian disruption, and rapid eye movement sleep restriction, have been associated with altered...

CONCLUSIONS: CT-based body composition changes, atrophy of thigh muscles in particular, are associated with loss of muscle strength and physical performance.

Advances in our understanding of the biology of skeletal muscle ageing are being made at pace, with great potential for these findings to inform the identification of novel treatments for sarcopenia. However, translation of findings from animal models to humans has been hampered by limitations of existing human muscle biopsy studies. Devised to directly address this challenge, the Muscle Ageing and Sarcopenia Study (MASS) Lifecourse is a novel resource for the study of human muscle ageing. This...

Introduction Physical and cognitive impairment constitute large burdens of disease in older adults, but may be preventable through reduction of modifiable risk factors. While chronic stress has been linked to cognitive and physical function separately, few studies have accounted for combined decline. This study assessed associations between exposure to stressful life events (SLEs) and cognitive decline, physical decline, and combined physical and cognitive decline. Methods Data were taken from...

Although its evolutionary origins remain poorly understood, sleep is a highly conserved physiological process crucial to animal life and widely recognized as a major determinant of human healthspan. Sleep disturbances are a major public health concern, particularly among older adults, contributing to impaired cognitive function, chronic disease risk, and reduced quality of life. Age-related sleep disturbances are associated with epigenetic changes, especially altered DNA methylation patterns...

Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCCs) frequently result from oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) infections (HPV-OPSCC). The mechanisms underlying effective immune escape, despite abundant viral antigens, are incompletely understood. Here, we performed single-cell spatial gene expression profiling of HPV-OPSCC to characterize cellular organization and mechanisms of immune resistance. We describe distinct tumor-parenchymal immune foci that differ in cytokine expression, spatial...

Oogenesis requires complex interactions between germline and somatic cell types in the ovary. How did these cell types and their signaling interactions evolve? Here we use the sea star Patiria miniata as a non-chordate deuterostome representative to define the ovarian cell type toolkit in echinoderms. Sea stars continuously produce millions of new oocytes throughout their lifespan, making them a practical system to understand the mechanisms that drive oogenesis from a biomedical and evolutionary...

CONCLUSIONS: When integrating DASSCF into SHF, WT should be as supportive as possible without being too intrusive, allowing older adults to feel strengthened while ensuring their safety and independence.

CONCLUSION: Frailty or pre-frailty increases odds of AF recurrence or persistence at two years, underscoring the potential role of biological aging in influencing the course of AF over time. AF recurrence or persistence was associated with greater hazards of major bleeding, even after adjustment for key clinical factors, suggesting residual risk not captured by measured covariates.

CONCLUSION: An increase in age comes with an increase in care management demands, with concerns affecting the management and strategies adopted in coping with care for older adults. Since the Nigerian society does not support institutionalized homes for older adults, we recommend the utilization of social workers' services in family settings, through providing appropriate care management strategies and services for older adults and their family caregivers.

CONCLUSION: Aging policies must move beyond traditional assumptions of filial support, as empirical evidence uncovers that broader informal ties-particularly instrumental networks-now exert a stronger relative impact on well-being than traditional family care. Furthermore, HCBS is not a one-size-fits-all solution; its benefits are geographically masked, primarily accruing to rural and functionally capable elders. The interplay between formal and informal care features emotional synergy and...

CONCLUSIONS: This study challenges the prevailing assumption that the "digital divide inevitably isolates the older adults from participating in a digitized society." By integrating digital technologies into older adults care services, we demonstrate that smart elderly care is positively associated with bridging technological barriers and addressing the unmet needs of aging populations. These findings further propose a synergistic mechanism-policy innovation, technological adaptation, and...

CONCLUSIONS: Multidomain predictors spanning objective movement behaviours, body-composition indicators, and built-environment measures showed value for identifying education-stratified MoCA-defined MCI in community-dwelling older adults. LightGBM achieved the best overall performance among the candidate models. These findings support the potential utility of integrating behavioural, biological, and environmental information for community-based cognitive-risk stratification, although external...

A child psychologist says grandparents are more important than ever as youth mental health challenges continue to rise. He argues that children need supportive relationships, meaningful conversations, and a sense of purpose—not just pressure to achieve. Grandparents can help by listening, encouraging, and creating positive experiences that strengthen emotional resilience.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising new genetic cause of a rare movement disorder after analyzing nearly 3,000 patients with conditions affecting coordination and muscle control. The team identified mutations in a gene called CD99L2, previously linked only to the immune system, and showed that it plays an essential role in keeping nerve-cell communication running smoothly.

A new experimental vaccine developed by Scripps Research could offer a powerful new way to prevent fentanyl overdoses by stopping the drug before it reaches the brain. Rather than targeting only fentanyl itself, the vaccine trains the immune system to recognize a broad range of fentanyl-related designer drugs, including some of the most dangerous variants.

A new nature-inspired membrane uses perfectly uniform one-nanometer pores to filter molecules with remarkable precision. The technology could transform industries such as pharmaceuticals and textiles by reducing energy consumption, improving water reuse, and delivering separation performance far beyond current filters.