When a baby comes into the world, the umbilical cord usually gets thrown away. But now scientists have discovered that they can reverse memory and learning problems in mice by using infusions of a protein found in human umbilical cord blood.
One of the keys to keeping your brain nice and plump and in proper working order is avoiding soda – and not just the sugar-sweetened kind, either. Drinking sodas, whether regular or diet, is bad for brain health, 2 recent studies show. [1]
One study showed that people who drank diet soda every day were three times more likely to have a stroke or develop dementia over 10 years compared with those who didn’t consume any diet soda.
The symptoms of autism generally begin to emerge in a person between 12 and 18 months of age. Oftentimes, babies develop normally until this age, but then they start regressing and lose skills. Now, a recent study suggests it may be possible to spot autism on an MRI scan months before symptoms start. [1]
Geraldine Dawson, a clinical psychologist and autism researcher at Duke University who was not involved in the new work, says:
Researchers say they’ve uncovered a link between gut bacteria and the onset of Parkinson’s disease. The findings suggest a new way of treating one of the world’s most debilitating diseases.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delayed a safety rule aimed at ensuring that pesticides (which are linked to human health problems) are safely applied by adult agricultural workers. This, just days after 50 farm workers in California were sickened by pesticide poisoning. [1]
The findings of a Yahoo News/Marist poll show that people over the age of 69 generally don’t have positive views of marijuana. While the majority of younger Americans increasingly view marijuana as a legitimate medication and relatively acceptable recreational substance, the older crowd has been slower to adopt these views.
We know (or think we know) that high blood glucose, or hyperglycemia, is linked to diabetes and obesity. But now scientists have also recently discovered a link between excess blood sugar and Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers have established a “tipping point” link between excess blood glucose and the disease, meaning that people who eat a lot of sugar could be more likely to go on to develop Alzheimer’s. [1]
Omar Kassaar, a biologist at the University of Bath in the U.K., said in a press release:
Let’s just admit it: If all GPS devices suddenly stopped working, there would be a lot of lost and stranded people on the road. Today, adults may have learned how to read a map, but most kids haven’t the foggiest idea of how to accomplish this task. Researchers are pointing out that without putting this skill to use, we’re starving parts of our brain from much-needed exercise.
Chlorpyrifos is a pesticide that has the potential to harm both children and farm workers, but the EPA – the same agency that drew these conclusions – says it will not ban the chemical.
On March 26, 2017, EPA chief Scott Pruitt rejected his agency’s own chemical safety experts who, under Barack Obama, had recommended that chlorpyrifos – one of the nation’s most widely used insecticides – be permanently banned from agricultural use nationwide because of the danger it poses to farm workers. [1]
(ANTIMEDIA) On Tuesday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg dropped a stunner when he announced to the attendees of F8, Facebook’s annual developers’ conference, that the tech giant is developing technology that will allow users to communicate using only their minds. The technology will come in the form of implantable chips that will create a brain-computer interface (BCI).
