Blame it on kinase
The average U.S. adult gains 30 pounds by the time they reach age 50, according to the National Institutes of Health. This weight gain happens even though most people tend to eat less over this time. Researchers have long known that losing weight and maintaining the ability to exercise tend to get harder beginning between ages 30 and 40. And working out pays off less than it used to. NIH scientist Dr. Jay H. Chung and his colleagues think they’ve identified the biological changes that can explain this weight gain. In studies with lab animals, they found that an enzyme known as DNA-PK (DNA-dependent protein kinase) slows down your metabolism, making fat harder to burn. Until further study, however, stick to eating right, staying active, and staying fit.
Time keeps on ticking into the future
Explore the healthcare tools of the future with NIH’s new interactive app. Float through a virtual 3-D operating room to learn about technologies including new imaging tools, robotics, biomaterials, and more. As you hover, click on objects to see the tools that are being developed now. Watch a robot perform surgery. Robots can make stitches that are far tinier than a surgeon’s. They can also bend and twist in ways that a surgeon’s hand can’t. Click on another tool to watch foam expanding inside a blood vessel to block an aneurysm. Download the app for free to your iOS or Android mobile device. Follow the links at https://www.nibib.nih.gov/Surgery-of-Future. Or search “Surgery of the Future” in the education category at the Apple App Store or “NIBIB Surgery of the Future” at the Google Play store.
Coffee sans guilt
Drink coffee. Live long. Two studies published in Annals of Internal Medicine seem to confirm the mortality benefits of higher coffee consumption. The first study (by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and Imperial College London) found that compared to non-coffee drinkers, those who consume the most coffee have a significantly lower risk for death. The study, conducted in 10 European countries, was the largest ever of its kind. The second study (Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California) found that higher coffee consumption was associated with lower risk for death in white and non-white populations. This finding is important because different races have different lifestyles and disease risks. The mortality benefit was the same for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. According to the author of an accompanying editorial, the studies show that a protective effect of coffee is biologically plausible. Polyphenols and other bioactive compounds in coffee have antioxidant properties, and coffee intake is associated with reduced insulin resistance, inflammation, and biomarkers of liver function.
How frequent the Pap test?
Changing cervical cancer screening performance measures to align better with clinical guidelines will help reduce the frequency of unnecessary procedures and more accurately measure the quality of women’s healthcare, according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (July 11, 2017). Current performance measures for cervical cancer screening are based on guidelines from organizations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and they require strict adherence to screening intervals. But they fail to distinguish between overscreening and appropriate screening, and they fail to allow ranges of intervals in appropriate screening definitions.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh used Pennsylvania Medicaid administrative data for women aged 18 to 64 between 2007 and 2013 to determine how frequently screening practices were adherent to traditional performance measures and to alternative measures that distinguished between overscreening and appropriate screening. Distinguishing between appropriate screening and overscreening (i.e., creating a separate overscreening category) decreased appropriate screening by up to 70 percent. However, incorporating ranges of +/-3 months and +/-6 months to appropriate screening definitions increased appropriate screening by up to 11 percent.
A drink a day?
Does drinking a daily glass of wine, beer or cocktail prevent heart attacks and help you live longer? Lots of people would like to think so. But the National Institutes of Health is going to put the issue to the test with a $100 million clinical trial to test the relation between daily alcohol consumption and heart attacks, reports the New York Times. One caveat: Five of the world’s biggest alcoholic beverage manufacturers (Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken, Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Carlsberg) have pledged $67.7 million to a foundation that raises money for the NIH. The NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is overseeing the study.
The stuff of sci fi
The United States is in the midst of what some worry is a baby crisis, reports the Washington Post. The number of women giving birth has been declining for years and just hit a historic low. According to provisional 2016 population data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of births fell 1 percent from a year earlier, bringing the general fertility rate to 62.0 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. The trend is being driven by a decline in birthrates for teens and 20-somethings. The birthrate for women in their 30s and 40s increased – but not enough to make up for the lower numbers among their younger peers.
25 miles to go
An estimated 65 percent of women and 63 percent of men reported walking for transportation or leisure in 2015, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports AHA News. That’s up from 57 percent and 54 percent, respectively, in 2005. Sociodemographic disparities in walking prevalence exist, with the lowest prevalences among non-Hispanic blacks and persons with a high school education or less. Focused approaches to overcome barriers to walking in low socioeconomic status and minority communities, such as policies and practices that improve the safety and quality of community supports for physical activity (e.g. trails and sidewalks), might help reduce the disparities in walking, says CDC.
People ages 50 and older who never smoked, who were not obese, and who consumed alcohol moderately live longer, and live longer free of disability, according to a study in Health Affairs (July 2017). Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, researchers found that compared to the whole U.S. population, those with such a favorable behavioral profile had a life expectancy at age 50 that was seven years longer, and they experienced a delay in the onset of disability of up to six years. These results provide a benchmark for evaluating the massively damaging effects that behavioral risks have on health at older ages and the importance of prioritizing policies to implement behavioral-based interventions, according to the researchers.