People who use drugs with anticholinergic effects, including certain antidepressants, drugs for urinary incontinence and common antihistamines, are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease. This is shown in a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in BMC Medicine.

Researchers at King’s College London have discovered that an immune protein best known for protecting the body against infection also plays an important role in maintaining healthy bones.

Bournemouth University surveyed nearly 31,000 adults in 35 countries about their use of AI large language models such as ChatGPT. The results found:

41% of people in the UK and 60% globally would be happy to using AI for counselling services

One quarter of UK adults, and 50% glabally, would be happy to delegate the role of teaching their children to AI. 

Globally, 45% of people would trust AI models to take on the role of their doctor. 

Three quarters of people surveyed said they would use an AI chat tool as a companion and a friend. 

People with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder die on average ten to 20 years earlier than the general population. The main causes of this are cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, which are triggered or exacerbated by a lack of exercise. Now, an international team of scientists led by MedUni Vienna is calling for physical activity to be recognised as an integral part of psychiatric treatment and is also describing specific steps for successfully integrating it into practice. The review has been published in the renowned journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Aging in later life is often portrayed as a steady slide toward physical and cognitive decline. But a new study by scientists at Yale University suggests an alternate narrative — that older individuals can and do improve over time and their mindset toward aging plays a major part in their success.

Analyzing more than a decade of data from a large, nationally representative study of older Americans, lead author Becca R. Levy, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), found that nearly half of adults aged 65 and older showed measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both, over time.

The improvements were not limited to a small group of exceptional individuals and, notably, were linked to a powerful but often overlooked factor: how people think about aging itself.

“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” said Levy, an international expert on psychosocial determinants of aging health. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”

The findings are published in the journal Geriatrics.