Menstruation, menopause can affect your lifespan
Women who start menstruation and menopause later in life are more likely to live to 90, a new study finds.
Published this month in the journal Menopause, the research finds women who got their periods at 12 years of age or older and experienced menopause — naturally or surgically — at 50 or older had higher odds of hitting that nonagenarian mark.
The study, conducted by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, involved more than 16,000 ethnically diverse women.
Brain changes in kids with autism, ADHD, OCD A team of Toronto researchers has found common brain changes in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD.) The MRI-based study from the American Journal of Psychiatry involved brain imaging in 200 kids with autism, ADHD, OCD or no diagnosis. In the children with any of the three conditions being studied, the team found impairments in the white matter in the main tract connecting the right and left hemi- spheres of the brain when compared to healthy children.
Vitamin D a brain booster Vitamin D — the sunshine vitamin — plays a big role in maintaining healthy bones and muscles. But what about brain health? Duke-NUS Medical School and Duke University researchers measured the baseline vitamin D levels of more than 1,000 elderly people in China and assessed their cognitive abilities over two years. The study found low vitamin D levels are associated with cognitive decline — reinforcing similar findings from earlier studies.
More proof being active matters A study of middle-aged men spanning nearly half a century reveals that having a low exercise capacity is second only to smoking when it comes to someone’s risk of death.
The 45-year research from the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology hammers home the benefits of being physically active.
“Low physical capacity is a greater risk for death than high blood pressure or high cholesterol,” said lead author Dr. Per Ladenvall, a researcher in the department of molecular and clinical medicineat University of Gothenburg in Sweden.