All posts tagged: chronic disease

Healthy diets may slow chronic disease and aging in older adults

Healthy diets may slow chronic disease and aging in older adults

Published by Jenni Sidey

Healthy eating in older age may do more than support general wellness. A long Swedish study found that diets tied to brain and heart health slowed the buildup of chronic disease, while inflammatory eating patterns appeared to push that burden higher. Growing older often brings new health challenges. Heart disease, dementia, depression and diabetes become more common with age. For many older adults, these conditions do not appear alone. They build over time, creating a complex web of chronic illness that affects daily life, independence and well-being. Now, a major long-term study from Sweden suggests that diet may influence how quickly those diseases accumulate. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet found that healthy eating patterns slowed the buildup of chronic diseases in older adults over 15 years. In contrast, diets linked to inflammation appeared to speed that process up. The findings followed more than 2,400 older adults and examined how four different dietary patterns affected aging and disease progression. “Our results show how important diet is in influencing the development of multimorbidity in ageing populations,” said co-first …

Brain training game offers drug-free relief for chronic nerve pain

Brain training game offers drug-free relief for chronic nerve pain

Published by Jenni Sidey

A small trial of an interactive brain-training game has offered early hope for people living with chronic nerve pain. The technology, called PainWaive, teaches users to shift brainwave patterns linked to ongoing pain. It may one day provide a drug-free, at-home option for people who need more than pills. The system was developed by researchers at UNSW Sydney. A recent trial led by Professor Sylvia Gustin and Dr. Negin Hesam-Shariati from the NeuroRecovery Research Hub showed promising results. PainWaive uses an EEG headset and tablet-based game. The headset tracks brain activity in real time. As users adjust their brainwaves, the game responds on screen. The goal is to guide abnormal pain-linked activity toward a healthier pattern. Targeting Pain At Its Source Neuropathic pain happens when nerves or the nervous system send faulty pain signals. It can feel like burning, stabbing, stinging, or electric shock. For many people, it does not respond well to common treatments. Study procedure. Participants (P1-P4) were randomly assigned to one of four baseline durations (7, 10, 14, and 17 days). (CREDIT: …

Red meat once helped human evolution but now carries serious risks

Red meat once helped human evolution but now carries serious risks

Published by Jenni Sidey

Red meat has long occupied a near-mythic place in the story of human evolution. It is often cast as the food that helped make us human, feeding bigger brains, stronger bodies, and more complex societies. But a sweeping new review in The Quarterly Review of Biology argues that the story no longer ends there. The same food source that may once have helped early humans survive is now tied to chronic disease, environmental damage, and a global food system whose scale looks nothing like anything in the human past. In the review, Juston Jaco, Kalyan Banda, Ajit Varki, and Pascal Gagneux from the University of California, San Diego pull together evidence from archaeology, anthropology, nutrition, epidemiology, and molecular biology. Their conclusion is not that meat was a mistake. It is that modern red meat consumption has drifted far from its original biological and ecological setting. “The nature, scale, and context of red meat consumption today differ drastically from those of our evolutionary past,” the authors write. As Homo sapiens increasingly relied on animal-derived foods—whether hunted …

Better fitness in your 40s and 50s linked to a longer, healthier life

Better fitness in your 40s and 50s linked to a longer, healthier life

Published by Jenni Sidey

Researchers have found that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) during midlife provides a greater benefit than just living longer. It also means that the onset of serious illnesses is delayed. This is one of the main points of a new study published in JACC, the American College of Cardiology’s flagship journal. The study found that those who had higher levels of CRF during middle age not only lived longer, but also experienced major chronic diseases later in life and spent more years living in good health. When looking at these results, it is important to separate living longer from living longer without any major chronic disease, such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, etc. Cardiorespiratory fitness, or CRF, refers to how efficiently your heart and lungs supply oxygen for physical activities. For many years, it has been established that individuals with higher levels of CRF have a lower risk of dying from heart disease or other illnesses that might result in an early death. Now we see that CRF in midlife is also related to what …