Personal trainers can help people increase their strength and their fitness.

Could a “brain coach” be just as useful in preventing Alzheimer’s’ disease?

A new study suggests that personalized health and lifestyle changes can delay or even prevent memory loss for older adults at high risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia.

People who received personal coaching experienced a ...

Countless corks will pop and wine will flow freely during the upcoming holiday season, but some people will pay a price for even the slightest bit of revelry.

For those unlucky folks, drinking red wine even in small amounts causes a headache, typically within 30 minutes to three hours after imbibing just a small glass.

But researchers now think they’ve cracked the mystery of why s...

TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) — A year after suffering a concussion, teens, especially boys, are more likely than their peers to think about, plan and even attempt suicide, new research finds.

With more concussions, the risk grows. 

Teen boys who reported two or more concussions in the past year were two times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those who h...

Shrinkage of one of the brain's key memory centers appears to herald thinking declines, a new study finds.

The region in question is the hippocampus, a two-sided structure located roughly above each ear and embedded deep within the brain's temporal lobe. It's long been known to play a crucial role in the storage and transference of short- and long-term memory.

The new research was ...

TUESDAY, Nov. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Researchers have found a remedy for the debilitating fatigue faced by many patients with multiple sclerosis (MS): A low-fat diet.

"The results reinforced what we had seen before," said study leader Dr. Vijayshree Yadav, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Ore...

One issue hampering the care of people with multiple sclerosis is assessing just how quickly the neurological illness might progress.

Now, a team at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), say they've spotted at test that could help do just that.

Blood tests showing elevated levels of Nfl, a "biomarker" indicating nerve damage, seemed to predict with high accuracy a wors...

An experimental device that isolates blood flow to the brain has the potential to revolutionize brain research.

The device redirects the brain’s blood supply through a pump that maintains or adjusts a range of variables necessary to maintain the organ, including blood pressure, temperature, oxygenation and nutrients, researchers report.

When tested on a pig brain, the device maint...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS, is debilitating and has no cure.

Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed an environmental risk score that will allow them to assess a person’s risk for developing ALS, as well as their survival after diagnosis.

Toxins such as pesticides and carcinogenic PCBs affect a person's risk of developing and dying fr...

You might be talking to a real person while on Zoom, but it's just not the same to your brain as a face-to-face conversation.

New research using sophisticated imaging tools found that the brain activity of people engaged in conversation looks dif...

Want to do something to protect your thinking skills as you age? Swing that golf club or go for a walk.

A new study found that walking about 3.7 miles or playing 18 holes of golf improved cognitive function. Nordic walking, a type of full-body walking using poles, showed the same benefit.

“These findings underscore the value of age-appropriate aerobic exercise, such as golf, Nordi...

Fluctuating blood pressure can be a harbinger for both dementia and heart disease, a new study finds.

Ups and downs within 24 hours or even over several days or weeks were linked with impaired thinking, researchers from Australia reported.

Higher variations in systolic blood pressure, the top number, were linked with stiffening of the arteries, which is associated with heart disease...

New research has uncovered evidence that remnants of the COVID-19 virus may remain in some patients' guts for months, contributing to the lingering symptoms known as long COVID.

The remnants appear to trigger a drop in levels of the chemical serotonin, which may explain such symptoms as fatigue, brain fog and memory loss.

About 20% of people who have had COVID-19 infections have sy...

After a massive five-year effort, researchers have unveiled an “atlas” that gives an unprecedented look at the intricacies of the human brain.

The atlas, which will be available to researchers everywhere, can be seen as similar to the atlases we all know: a book of maps.

But this one catalogues human br...

Severe inflammation very early in childhood might hamper the development of key brain cells, perhaps setting the stage for conditions such as autism or schizophrenia, new research suggests.

The origins of many neurodevelopment disorders remain mysterious. But the new study of postmortem brain tissue from children who died between the ages 1 and 5 shows how inflammation affects brain cells...

A new guideline from four leading medical organizations should help doctors determine if someone is brain dead.

“Until now, there have been two separate guidelines for determining brain death, one for adults and one for children,” said author Dr. Matthew Kirschen, a critical care physician at the Childr...

Most folks know that certain antidepressants have to be taken for a few weeks before people start seeing improvement, and now a new study sheds light on that delay.

Scientists have discovered this is because of physical changes in the brain that unfold over those first few weeks of using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and lead to greater brain plasticity.

SSRIs incl...

A medication already approved for excessive daytime sleepiness may help ease attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in adults who aren't getting relief from available treatments, according to a small pilot study.

Solriamfetol is a nonstimulant drug that is approved for sleepiness caused by narcolepsy (sudden sleep attacks) and obstructive sleep apnea (marked by bre...

For people with tough-to-treat epilepsy, seizures can be both frightening and dangerous, but a new experimental pill may bring significant relief to over one-third of them.

Dubbed XEN1101, the new drug reduced the frequency of seizures by more than 50%, or even eliminated them, in some patients with focal epilepsy who did not respond to an average of six other drugs.

"I am predictin...

As many doctors and patients hail the advent of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy as the perfect fix for obesity, some experts are urging caution.

The drugs are not well-tolerated by everyone struggling with obesity. For some folks, the weight piles back on as soon as the medication stops. There are also financial and ethical considerations, according to a commentary published onl...

Researchers have developed an antibody that can reduce Alzheimer's-like brain damage in lab mice — inspired by the case of one woman with remarkable resistance to the disease.

The work, by researchers at Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School in Boston, and elsewhere, began a few years ago, with the case of a woman in Colombia who had shown "extreme protection" from Alzheimer's di...

Former pro football players with symptoms of depression or anxiety are far more likely to receive an unverifiable diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) than players without those mental health conditions, a new study reports.

Players with depression are 9.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with CTE, while players with both depression and anxiety are 12 times more likely, th...

Delirium is common after older patients have surgery and can cause serious complications and distress, but its cause has been a mystery.

New research has found that patients who develop postoperative delirium have increased openings in the blood-brain barrier, the layer of cells that prevent substances from entering the brain.

“These findings are significant because we now have a ...

Being exposed to more estrogen throughout life -- or a longer reproductive life span -- may be good for the brain, according to new research that found a lower risk of cerebral small vessel disease in women who had more cumulative exposure.

Cerebral small vessel disease happens from damage to small blood vessels in the brain. It can increase the risk of thinking impairments and dementia....

A new study is strengthening the evidence that stem cell transplants can be highly effective for some people with multiple sclerosis -- sending the disease into remission for years, and sometimes reversing disability.

Researchers found that of 174 MS patients who underwent stem cell transplants -- with cells from their own blood -- two-thirds had no evidence of "disease activity" over 10 ...

Everyone's seen a movie or TV show featuring someone sleepwalking -- eyes half-lidded, bumbling around, tripping over furniture.

But sleepwalkers are actually capable of much more complex behaviors during their restless slumber, a new paper says.

During sleep some people can engage in sex ('sexsomnia'), pig out on junk food, try to cook, have a lively conversation or even hop in the...

People have long talked about having near-death experiences in which they felt they were looking down on themselves while others tried to save them.

Now, researchers have documented some of those experiences. In a study published online recently in the journal Resuscitation,...

Many Medicare patients can't get help close to home for brain and nervous system issues.

Nearly 1 in 5 Medicare recipients in the United States live at least 50 miles from their neurologist.

“Our study found a substantial travel burden exists for some people with neurologic conditions, including people living in areas with fewer neurologists and rural areas,” said study author <...

Any head injury — even a mild one — raises a person's risk of later having an ischemic stroke.

Having multiple injuries increases that risk, even more so than the severity of a single traumatic brain injury (TBI), researchers report.

"Our study found that those who experience two or more head injuries, including even mild head injuries, are at higher risk of subsequent ischemic...

A large number of drugs used to treat everything from multiple sclerosis to blood cancers to rheumatoid arthritis may cause a rare but often-fatal condition called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

But a simple genetic test can determine who has a 10-fold higher risk for developing this condition, which means those patients could discuss safer treatment options with their ...

Bolstering the notion that a strong body equals a strong mind, new research indicates that the more inactive seniors are, the higher their risk for dementia.

The finding stems from a look at the onset of dementia among nearly 50,000 Brits.

All were at least 60 years old when information about typical daily activity routines was entered into the UK Biobank database at some point betw...

Therapies based on a hormone people make while exercising may be the next frontier in treating Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that the exercise-induced hormone irisin may reduce both the plaque and the tau tangles characteristic of the disease.

Before this, this same team developed the first 3D human cell culture models of Alzheimer's disease, ...

Your thinking and memory skills may take a hit decades after recovering from a concussion, a new study indicates.

Scientists who studied male twins, from an average age of 67, found that earlier concussions were tied to lower scores on tests of thinking and memory. These men also had a more rapid decline in their cognitive skills — skills needed for reasoning and the acquisition o...

The two "freezing" episodes that Sen. Mitch McConnell experienced recently weren't strokes or seizures, the Capitol physician said in a new letter released Tuesday.

“My examination of you following your August 30, 2023, brief episode included several medical evaluations: brain MRI imaging, EEG study and consultations...

As it stands, no one blood test or brain scan can definitively diagnose Parkinson's disease.

But researchers report this may soon change if a new blood test continues to show promise.

The test measures DNA damage in the mitochondria of cells, which is known to be higher in people with Parkinson's disease. Earlier research from the same group also showed there is an accumulation of m...

Taking cholesterol-lowering statin medication after a bleeding stroke, or intracerebral hemorrhage, may lower the risk of a subsequent stroke caused by a blood clot, according to new research.

“Previous research has had mixed results on the risk of stroke in people who are taking statins and have already had a bleeding stroke, so we evaluated this further,” said study a...

Doctors plucked a wriggling roundworm from the brain of an Australian woman in the world's first-known case of human infection with a parasite common in some pythons.

The woman, who had been experiencing worsening symptoms for at least a year, is believed to have gotten the infection from foraging and eating grasses where a snake had defecated.

"This is the first-ever human case of ...

The degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) may be striking some at much younger ages than thought possible: New research has uncovered early signs of the condition in amateur athletes who died young after playing contact sports.

The troubling finding was discovered during the brain autopsies of 152 athletes. All had engaged in the type of sports, such a...

Older people who take adult education classes may lower their risk for dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, Japanese research suggests.

Middle-aged folks and older people in adult education classes had a 19% lower risk of developing dementia within five years, the researchers found.

"We also found that nonverbal reasoning performance was well preserved in the adults taking educa...

It might not seem like constipation or difficulty swallowing could signal a neurological problem, but new research suggests that these gut conditions could be an early indicator of Parkinson's disease.

Gastrointestinal symptoms are also thought to precede the development of cerebrovascular disease, including stroke, brain aneurysm or Alzheimer's disease. It has previously been suggested t...

With 2023 predicted to be the hottest year on record, a new study is pointing to another potential consequence of heat waves: faster declines in older adults' memory and thinking skills.

The study, of nearly 9,500 older U.S. adults, found that those with greater exposure to heat waves over 12 year...

Anyone who has quickly slurped up a milkshake or chomped on a snow cone knows the sharp, brief pain of "brain freeze."

Its cause is a mystery, but it's not harmful, according to experts at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

“It is very common and happens more frequently in children,” said