EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-May-2025 08:09 ET (10-May-2025 12:09 GMT/UTC)

Red meat consumption increases risk of dementia and cognitive decline

Mass General Brigham
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Red meat consumption is an established risk factor for chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found that eating greater quantities of red meat, especially in processed forms, increased risk for dementia, too. Results, published online on January 15, 2025, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, highlight that replacing processed red meat with protein sources like nuts and legumes or fish may decrease dementia risk by approximately 20 percent.

Journal: Neurology
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

Is eating more red meat bad for your brain?

American Academy of Neurology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MINNEAPOLIS — People who eat more red meat, especially processed red meat like bacon, sausage and bologna, are more likely to have a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia when compared to those who eat very little red meat, according to a study published in the January 15, 2025, online issue of Neurology^®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Journal: Neurology

Penn Medicine scientists develop tiny anticancer weapon

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new twist on a decades-old anticancer strategy has shown powerful effects against multiple cancer types in a preclinical study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The experimental approach, which uses tiny capsules called small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), could offer an innovative new type of immunotherapy treatment and is poised to move toward more advanced development and testing.

Journal: Science Advances

Researchers from Pennington Biomedical serve on global commission on clinical obesity that goes beyond BMI in defining obesity as a disease

Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Reports and Proceedings

Three researchers from Pennington Biomedical Research Center served on the Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity, a global group that generated a new approach to diagnosing clinical obesity. The diagnosis is based on evaluations in addition to body mass index, or BMI, such as measures of excess body fat and objective signs and symptoms of ill health at the individual level. The Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity was made up of 56 individuals from around the world, including Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director and George A. Bray, Jr. Endowed Super Chair in Nutrition; Dr. Eric Ravussin, LSU Boyd Professor and Douglas L. Gordon Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism; and Dr. Philip Schauer, Director of the Metamor Institute and United Companies Life Insurance Co./Mary Kay and Terrell Brown Chair.

Journal: The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology

Three-quarters of medical facilities in Mariupol sustained damage during Russia’s siege of 2022

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Three-quarters of medical facilities in Mariupol sustained damage during Russia’s siege of 2022, with some evidence that the attacks may have been intentionally targeted, per study using satellite imagery.

Journal: PLOS Global Public Health

In Marvel and DC movies, rough childhoods do not doom characters to become villains

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a study of characters from the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, the amount of potentially traumatic events a character experienced in childhood—as measured with a real-life questionnaire—had no bearing on whether they were a hero or villain. Julia Wigmore of the University of Calgary, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 15, 2025.

Journal: PLOS One

Study finding Xenon gas could protect against Alzheimer’s disease leads to start of clinical trial

Mass General Brigham
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Most treatments being pursued today to protect against Alzheimer’s disease focus on amyloid plaques and tau tangles that accumulate in the brain, but new research from Mass General Brigham and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis points to a novel—and noble—approach: using Xenon gas. The study found that Xenon gas inhalation suppressed neuroinflammation, reduced brain atrophy, and increased protective neuronal states in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Results are published in Science Translational Medicine, and a phase 1 clinical trial of the treatment in healthy volunteers will begin in early 2025.

Journal: Science Translational Medicine
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, Cure Alzheimer Fund, Massachusetts Center for Alzheimer Therapeutic Science, BrightFocus Foundation, Alzheimer's Association, U.S. Department of Defense, Multiple Sclerosis Society