A new analysis based on two long-term aging studies--one of Roman Catholic nuns, the other of Japanese American men--provides what may be the most compelling evidence yet that dementia commonly results from a blend of brain ailments, rather than from a single condition. This is often the case even when an Alzheimer's diagnosis has been given, say the researchers.

A team led by Dr. Lon White, with the University of Hawaii and the Veterans Affairs-affiliated Pacific Health Research and Education Institute, analyzed data on more than 1,100 people who had taken part in the Nun Study or the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Both studies followed hundreds of aging adults and included brain autopsies upon their death.

High-risk prescribing and preventable drug-related complications in primary care are major concerns for health care systems internationally, responsible for up to 4 per cent of emergency hospital admissions.

Now a major study of drug prescribing has shown that intervening in primary care health practices can significantly reduce rates of high-risk prescribing of drugs.

The results of the study have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, led by NHS Tayside and the University of Dundee, has also shown that the change in prescribing patterns can lead to significant reductions in related emergency admissions to hospital, although the researchers say this finding requires further examination.

In a cutting-edge treatment for Alzheimer's disease, EPFL scientists have developed an implantable capsule that can turn the patient's immune system against the disease.

It's an age-old quandary: Are we born "noble savages" whose best intentions are corrupted by civilization, as the 18th century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended? Or are we fundamentally selfish brutes who need civilization to rein in our base impulses, as the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued?

After exploring the areas of the brain that fuel our empathetic impulses -- and temporarily disabling other regions that oppose those impulses -- two UCLA neuroscientists are coming down on the optimistic side of human nature.

"Our altruism may be more hard-wired than previously thought," said Leonardo Christov-Moore, a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA's Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Research conducted by scientists at the University of York has revealed how recreational ketamine abuse damages the bladder.

In two studies, one of which is published today, the team shows how ketamine present in urine causes damage to the epithelial lining of the bladder, allowing urine to penetrate into underlying tissues which causes inflammation and extreme pain. In some cases this pain can be so extreme that patients need to have their bladder removed (cystectomy).

A recent analysis of popular music reveals that while older age and aging are represented both negatively and positively in music lyrics, negative representations predominate.

Most of the music texts were generated from a young person's perspective and their imaginings of old age.

While negative and positive emotions can influence health and well-being, further research is needed to explore what impact negative texts in popular music may have on older individuals.

New research shows that, as paint dries, small particles team-up to push away large ones
This newly discovered physical mechanism separates particles according to size, creating 'self-layering' coatings
Could be used to improve the performance of a range of everyday goods, made by industries from beauty to agriculture.

New research published today in the journal Physical Review Letters has described a new physical mechanism that separates particles according to their size during the drying of wet coatings. The discovery could help improve the performance of a wide variety of everyday goods, from paint to sunscreen.

On an African plateau surrounded by flat-topped trees as far as the eye could see, wind whistled through the acacia thorns like someone blowing across a bottle. Kathleen Rudolph was more concerned with the ants raining down on her from the trees. The hat, long sleeves and garden gloves the University of Florida researcher wore for protection didn't help.

The acacia ants she studies, Crematogaster mimosae, use their fearsome bite to defend their host trees against large animals such as elephants and giraffes that eat the trees' leaves. Even elephants' thick skin can't protect them from the ants, which bite them inside their trunks.

"They really seem to have a knack for finding your soft tissue," Rudolph said. "It's a nasty business."

Patients with a rare, genetic form of diabetes often are misdiagnosed as having type 2 diabetes because the two share symptoms.

But new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that treating such patients with therapies designed for type 2 diabetes is potentially harmful and that treatment guidelines need to change. The underlying problems in patients with the genetic form of the disease -- called maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY1) -- are very different from those in type 2 diabetes. And treating MODY1 patients with drugs for type 2 diabetes appears to lead to destruction of insulin-secreting beta cells that regulate blood sugar, the scientists found.