Health & Healthcare Topic
A Nicotine Patch a Day Keeps the Cognitive Impairment Away
Normally, a nicotine patch on someone’s arm is evidence that they are trying to quit smoking. But, soon, nicotine patches may be appearing on arms of the cognitively impaired.A study published in the journal Neurology reported that transdermal nicotine administration improved the symptoms of cognitive impairment in nonsmoking adults. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 74 nonsmoking adults with mild cognitive impairment received either 15 mg of nicotine or placebo daily for 6 months. (Most smoking cessation patches deliver between 7 and 21 mg of nicotine per day.) At the end of the study period, the subjects showed significant improvement in most measures of cognitive function, including attention, memory, and psychomotor speed.
Diabetes Impairs Cognition
Diabetes is one of the world's most widespread diseases, affecting some 250 million people worldwide and about 60 million new cases diagnosed each year. The know effects and complications of diabetes include changes in large and small blood vessels, which in turn can lead to peripheral neuropathy, loss of vision, renal failure, heart attacks as well as cerebrovascular disease including stroke. Neurological co-morbidities of diabetes have recently begun to attract more interest. They are among the most common but also under-recognized complications of diabetes.
Risks of Personalized Medicine
Anyone who has taken high school biology has probably heard one of the corniest biology jokes around: How do you tell a girl chromosome from a boy chromosome? Pull down its genes. While this has been a useful (if not really funny) mnemonic for teaching students about life science, now individuals are beginning to play genetic versions of I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours by actually examining their genes. Not much more than a decade has passed since the completion of the Human Genome Project, but, already, direct-to-consumer (DTC) genome mapping and genetic testing are available with little more than a cotton swab and an envelope between you and your DNA.
BED-head and Obesity – Food for Thought
It's no wonder many of us make New Year's resolutions having to do with exercise. After all, starting around Halloween time (one can't let the leftover candy go to waste, right?), blurring through Thanksgiving, and continuing on through Hanukkah/Christmas/Kwanza and New Year's Day, most Americans excuse themselves from their normal eating habits to allow for at least a little holiday splurge-eating each year. For some, however, binge-eating behaviors (characterized as consuming large quantities of food in a short period of time until an individual is uncomfortably full) doesn't stop on January 2nd.
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