Medications commonly prescribed to ease dementia symptoms such as agitation, anxiety, and delirium — benzodiazepines and antipsychotics — may carry major unintended risks for people with dementia receiving hospice care, a new study finds.

A long-studied metabolic hormone, FGF21, also acts as a stress hormone—a discovery that helps explain how psychological stress causes metabolic dysregulation and drive physical disease, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the Butler Columbia Aging Center. 

The same chemical reaction that makes a piece of freshly toasted bread delicious also happens in our bodies, with far less appetizing consequences. We’re talking about the Maillard reaction, where sugars react with protein to form brown, sticky compounds in a process called glycation. Glycation is increasingly suspected to be a hidden driver of obesity, diabetes and accelerated aging. Researchers in the Kapahi lab have found a way to tame it in mice by feeding them a combination of glycation-lowering compounds.