A 25-year Swedish study found that people who ate full-fat cheese and did not carry a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease were 13% to 17% less likely to develop the condition.
According to Science Daily, researchers followed nearly 25,000 participants, of whom 3,208 developed Alzheimer’s disease over the study period. Those with genetic factors that predisposed them to Alzheimer’s did not appear to benefit from eating full-fat cheese, the researchers noted.
The unexpected link between fat and cognitive protection also extended to people who consumed more than 20 grams of full-fat cream per day. These individuals had a 16% to 24% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to the study published in Neurology. No similar benefit was seen in people who consumed low-fat or high-fat milk, fermented or non-fermented milk, or low-fat cream.
These findings align with earlier research showing that cheese consumption may lower the risk of heart disease and that full-fat dairy does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Because heart disease and dementia share many of the same underlying risk factors — including high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity — the results appear biologically plausible.
Still, the findings challenge long-standing nutritional advice that has traditionally favored low-fat dairy for heart health.
While results from studies in other populations have been mixed, a Finnish study that followed middle-aged men for 22 years also found that cheese consumption was associated with a 28% reduction in dementia risk.
The Swedish researchers took care to screen participants for early signs of cognitive decline. They also noted that some of the apparent benefits of eating full-fat cheese and cream were seen in people who had replaced red or processed meat with these dairy foods.
Experts caution, however, that individual foods should not be viewed in isolation when it comes to reducing dementia risk. Overall dietary patterns matter more. For example, the widely studied Mediterranean diet — associated with lower risks of both dementia and heart disease — includes moderate amounts of cheese along with vegetables, fish, whole grains, and fruit.
Researchers also observed that participants who consumed more full-fat cheese and cream tended to be more educated, were more likely to have a healthy weight, and had lower rates of other dementia-related risk factors such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Full-fat cheese contains several nutrients that support brain health, including fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K2, as well as vitamin B12, folate, iodine, zinc, and selenium. Still, experts emphasize that the findings do not justify eating large amounts of full-fat foods in an effort to prevent dementia. The consistent recommendation remains to eat a balanced diet in moderation and follow proven lifestyle habits that promote overall health and longevity.
If you need another reason to brush and floss, here it is: Research suggests keeping your mouth healthy might also protect your brain and heart.
Two new studies published Oct. 22 in Neurology Open Access linked gum disease and cavities to a higher risk of stroke and brain damage.
In the first study, adults with gum disease were more likely to have white matter changes in their brains.
“Gum disease is associated with a higher chance of inflammation, and inflammation has been tied to atherosclerosis as well as hardening of the small blood vessels, as we saw in this study,” study author Dr. Souvik Sen, a professor of neurology at the University of South Carolina, told CBS News.
In the second study, Sen’s team found that people with both gum disease and cavities had an 86% higher risk of stroke compared to those with healthy teeth and gums.
“If you have cavities on top of gum disease, it is double trouble. It means your risk of stroke or adverse heart event doubles,” Sen explained.
The good news: Regular oral care can make a big difference.
Brushing and flossing daily, along with routine dental visits, were linked to an 81% lower risk of stroke among participants who maintained those healthy oral habits, Sen said.
While the research does not prove that poor oral health directly causes stroke, it adds to growing evidence that inflammation in the mouth may play a role in heart and brain health.
Globally, 3.5 billion people suffer from gum disease or cavities, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Further, more than 795,000 Americans have a stroke each year, according to the American Heart Association. Experts say maintaining healthy teeth and gums could be one simple way to reduce that risk.
Everyone probably knows the phrase “music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,” and new research suggests it may do the same for heart health.
A small study found that blood pressure appears to “synchronize” to patterns in music. British researchers say that might help boost the body’s baroreflex sensitivity — its ability to regulate blood pressure.
The new findings could have wide-ranging implications for health, according to lead author Elaine Chew. She’s a trained pianist and professor of engineering at King’s College London.
“This research raises the intriguing possibility that we could design music therapies to elicit specific biological responses in the future,” Chew explained. “This could be tailored specifically to individuals, bringing us closer to music as precision medicine. In the longer term, one day we may be able to use music to prevent heart disease or slow, arrest, or reverse its progression.”
Chew’s research focused on an aspect of music called “phrase structure.” During a performance, musicians alter the tempo and loudness of music to mark the boundaries of phrases within the piece, creating pleasing musical patterns that people are drawn to.
Some musical pieces have a more predictable phrase structure than others, the researchers noted.
Prior research by the team had already found that predictable phrasing in songs appeared to help regulate breathing and heart rate. They wondered if the same might be true for blood pressure.
To find out, Chew and colleagues tracked the heart activity of 92 people as they listened to nine of 30 recorded piano music tracks, performed by renowned pianists. Participants averaged 42 years of age.
A computer algorithm spotted each selection’s “music tempo and loudness phrase arc boundaries,” the researchers explained in an ESC news release.
They were looking specifically at “entrainment”: The body’s ability to synchronize physiological rhythms to external stimuli, such as music.
In most cases, blood pressure “entrained” to changes in music’s loudness more readily than to changes in tempo, the study showed.
Overall, the predictability of a piece of music’s phrasing was highly linked to a listener’s blood pressure synchronizing with the music, Chew and colleagues noted. This might strengthen the body’s ability to regulate blood pressure in healthy ways, they theorized.
All of this makes intuitive sense, according to Chew.
“Throughout time and across cultures, humans have moved and grooved to music,” she explained. “There are likely to be biological and social advantages to being able to coordinate our actions to an external rhythm, such as people on a boat synchronizing their rowing.”
This sort of coordinated action requires an abiity to anticipate the beginnings and ends of rhythm cycles, Chew said.
“It is this anticipation that likely influences our cardiorespiratory cycles,” she added. “It feels good to synchronize to musical structures — research has found that music uses the same reward system as food, sex and drugs.”
Because these findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
“We found skipping breakfast and having late dinners was associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis,” said lead researcher Dr. Hiroki Nakajima of Nara Medical University in Japan.
“Furthermore, these unhealthy eating habits were found to be linked with the accumulation of other lifestyle risk factors such as physical inactivity, smoking and insufficient sleep,” Nakajima added in a news release.
For the study, researchers analyzed health claims and checkup data from more than 927,000 people in Japan age 20 and older.
The team looked for associations between lifestyle and people’s risk of a hip, arm or leg fracture due to osteoporosis.
Results showed that skipping breakfast increased a person’s risk of a broken bone from osteoporosis by 18%, smoking by 11% and eating dinner late by 8%.
If a person both skipped breakfast and ate late dinner, their risk of osteoporosis and a bone break rose to 23%, researchers found.
Other unhealthy habits that increased risk of broken bones included daily alcohol consumption, a lack of exercise and bad sleep, researchers said.
“These results suggest that preventing osteoporosis and fractures requires not only healthy eating habits but also a broader effort to improve overall lifestyle behaviors,” Nakajima said.
People who skipped breakfast tended to have lower vitamin D and calcium intake, indicating that nutritional deficiencies could be contributing to their risk of osteoporosis, researchers wrote.
“These results indicated that osteoporosis is a lifestyle-related disease,” researchers concluded. “Future research is needed to investigate the relationship between late-night dinners and bone metabolism, as well as intervention studies focusing on guidance regarding skipping breakfast and having late dinners.”
A person’s risk of pancreatic cancer might be tied to the microbes living in their mouths, a new study says.
People have a more than tripled risk of pancreatic cancer if their mouths contain 27 types of bacteria and fungi, including some directly linked to gum disease, researchers reported Sept. 18 in JAMA Oncology.
“It is clearer than ever that brushing and flossing your teeth may not only help prevent periodontal disease but may also protect against cancer,” co-senior author Dr. Richard Hayes, a professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said in a news release.
Pancreatic cancer is considered a “silent killer,” because there are few effective screening methods for catching it early. That makes it a highly lethal cancer, with a five-year survival rate of just 13%, researchers said in background notes.
Previous studies have shown that bacteria can travel through swallowed saliva into the pancreas, increasing cancer risk for those with poor oral health.
However, it’s not been clear which microbes specifically contribute to pancreatic cancer, researchers said.
For the study, researchers analyzed saliva samples taken from more than 122,000 Americans participating in two large-scale studies of cancer screening and prevention.
The team identified 445 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and compared their saliva samples to those taken from a random 445 people who remained cancer-free.
Researchers identified 20 different types of bacteria and four types of fungi that affect pancreatic cancer risk.
They also linked pancreatic cancer to three bacteria already known to contribute to gum disease — Porphyromonas gingivalis, Eubacterium nodatum and Parvimonas micra.
Altogether, the entire group of microbes increased pancreatic cancer risk by nearly 3.5 times, results show.
“By profiling bacterial and fungal populations in the mouth, oncologists may be able to flag those most in need of pancreatic cancer screening,” co-senior author Jiyoung Ahn, a professor of population health and medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said in a news release.
However, researchers noted that because the study is observational, it can’t draw a direct cause-and-effect link between oral health and pancreatic cancer.
The team next plans to explore whether oral viruses might contribute to cancer and how the mouth’s microbiome might affect patients’ chances of survival.
New study suggests exercise can reduce dementia risk
Board-certified rheumatologist Dr. Mahsa Tehrani discusses how weight training could reduce the risk of dementia on ‘America Reports.’
Views: 48
Dementia risk nearly doubles among those with common sleep disorder, study finds.
In the latest evidence of the direct relationship between sleep and health, researchers have found that chronic insomnia can significantly increase dementia risk.
That equates to a three-year acceleration of brain aging, according to the study, which was published in Neurology, the journal from the American Academy of Neurology.
The study followed 2,750 cognitively healthy older adults averaging 70 years of age over a period of more than 5-½ years. Roughly 16% of them suffered from chronic insomnia, according to a press release for the study.
“Chronic insomnia” is defined as a struggle to fall and/or stay asleep — which is different than people trying to pursue the “perfect sleep,” according to study author Diego Z. Carvalho, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
“Chronic insomnia was associated with a 40% increased risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia,” Carvalho, who is also a member of the American Academy of Neurology, told Fox News Digital.
Researchers have found that chronic insomnia can significantly increase dementia risk. (iStock)
Over the course of the study, 14% of the people with chronic insomnia developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia, compared to 10% of those who did not have the sleep disorder.
The researchers were surprised to find that participants with chronic insomnia who reported sleeping more than usual had fewer white matter spots in the brain — areas where small vessel disease may have damaged brain tissue, which have been linked to cerebrovascular disease.
Additional tests also found that this group scored lower in thinking skills. This was after adjusting for other factors like age, high blood pressure, sleep medications and sleep apnea diagnoses.
“Participants with chronic insomnia with perceived reduced sleep duration had poorer brain health, according to brain imaging findings linked to Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular disease,” Carvalho said.
“The study emphasizes that even a short period of chronic insomnia can lead to potential detrimental cognitive effects later in life.”
People who had the APOE ε4 gene, which is linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s, were more likely to show bigger declines in memory and thinking skills, the study found.
Based on these findings, chronic insomnia could be a potentially modifiable risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia, according to Carvalho.
“Chronic insomnia” is defined as a struggle to fall and/or stay asleep — which is different than people trying to pursue the “perfect sleep,” the lead researcher said. (iStock)
“This reinforces the importance of treating chronic insomnia — not just to improve sleep quality, but potentially to protect brain health as we age,” he said. “Our results also add to a growing body of evidence that sleep isn’t just about rest — it’s also about brain resilience.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News in New York, was not involved in the study, but said that it shows an “important association” between sleep deprivation and dementia or cognitive impairment.
waste products during sleep, and that sleep is restorative to brain cells — but we still don’t know whether the effect observed here is directly due to inattention from sleeplessness (on testing) and memory effects that could be short term,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The issue of actual neurodegeneration due to insomnia is probable, but not proven by this study.”
Participants with chronic insomnia who reported sleeping more than usual had fewer white matter spots in the brain — areas where small vessel disease may have damaged brain tissue, which have been linked to cerebrovascular disease. (iStock)
The cognitive decline could be directly due to the insomnia itself or to the breakdown of brain function that occurs as a result, Siegel added.
Dr. Earnest Lee Murray, a board-certified neurologist at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee, confirmed that chronic insomnia has long been known to lead to health concerns, both neurologically and non-neurologically.
“The study emphasizes that even a short period of chronic insomnia can lead to potential detrimental cognitive effects later in life,” Murray, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
“The study also showed chronic insomnia seems to alter the structure of the brain by increasing white matter changes commonly seen in patients with vascular pathology, such as hypertension and diabetes.”
Potential limitations
The study did have some limitations, the researcher noted.
“We did not have instruments to assess the severity of insomnia at baseline or over time,” Carvalho told Fox News Digital. “We lack longitudinal objective sleep data to look at sleep duration estimates over the years.”
“Tracking does not help with your sleep — good sleep practices do.”
The researchers were also unable to adjust for which patients received treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, such as CPAP therapy.
“We also did not have full information on the duration of usage or doses of sleep medication,” Carvalho added.
He also reiterated that the study does not prove that insomnia directly causes brain aging, only that there is an association between the two.
Tips to improve sleep
Anyone suffering from insomnia on a frequent basis should talk with their physician about ruling out potential medical reasons, Lee advised.
“Treatment may include cognitive behavioral therapy, or pharmaceutical therapy may be an option,” he said.
The researchers recommended adopting better sleep practices, including cutting out caffeinated beverages in the afternoon, cutting down on alcohol consumption, avoiding large meals or exercise before going to bed, and reducing exposure to electronics prior to bedtime.
The researcher did warn that pursuit of the “perfect sleep” can sometimes lead to an obsession with excessive tracking of sleep data, leading to “performance anxiety,” which can end up having the opposite effect.
Carvalho also urged caution when it comes to taking a pill for better sleep.
The researchers recommended adopting better sleep practices, including cutting out caffeinated beverages in the afternoon, cutting down on alcohol consumption, avoiding large meals or exercise before going to bed, and reducing exposure to electronics prior to bedtime. (iStock)
“Although sleep medications can help and are available for patients with chronic insomnia, they do not work very well in the long run if good sleep practices are not adopted,” he said. “There is no solution for poor sleep issues that does not start with the patient doing the right things.”
Murray echoed the importance of good sleep hygiene, including not using electronic devices in bed and limiting the amount of light exposure in the room to enhance the quality of sleep.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, GHR Foundation, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, and a grant from Sleep Number Corporation to the Mayo Clinic.
Melissa Rudy is senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.
About 35% of U.S. adults are deficient in vitamin D, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This fat-soluble vitamin is essential for helping the body absorb calcium, supporting bone strength, and boosting immune function. You can get vitamin D naturally from sunlight, fatty fish, fortified dairy products, and supplements.
But experts warn that you can, in fact, get too much of a good thing. High doses of vitamin D can trigger dangerous side effects—including nausea, vomiting, kidney stones, and even death, reports Eating Well.
How Toxicity Happens
Vitamin D deficiency often leads people to overcompensate with supplements, sometimes taking far more than their bodies need. Unlike water-soluble vitamins that flush out easily, vitamin D builds up in fat tissue. Over time, this can cause dangerously high blood calcium levels, especially when very large doses are taken for several months.
“Vitamin D acts like a hormone in the body,” experts note, which is why excess intake can disrupt normal function and damage organs.
Warning Signs of Vitamin D Overload
Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity may include:
Persistent nausea
Vomiting
Weakness
Frequent urination
Confusion
Dehydration
Elevated calcium levels, which can cause kidney stones or organ damage
If left untreated, vitamin D toxicity can progress to kidney failure, irregular heartbeat, and even death. Anyone experiencing these symptoms while taking supplements should seek medical advice immediately.
How Much Is Too Much?
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin D varies by age and health status:
Children, teens, and adults up to age 70: 600 IU daily
Adults over 70: 800 IU daily
In general, experts say you should not exceed 4,000 IU per day from all sources unless directed by a healthcare professional.
Safer Ways to Get Vitamin D
Whenever possible, aim to meet your vitamin D needs through food and safe sun exposure. A simple blood test can reveal your vitamin D levels, allowing your doctor to provide personalized recommendations.
Artificial sweeteners like Equal and Sweet’N Low might help you cut calories, but it might be at the cost of future brain power, according to a new study.
People who consume high amounts of low- and no-calorie sugar substitutes appear to experience faster declines in thinking and memory skills, researchers reported Sept. 3 in the journal Neurology.
Their decline is 62% more rapid than among people consuming the least amounts – equal to about 1.6 years of additional brain aging, results showed.
This link was even stronger in middle-aged folks and people with diabetes, researchers found.
“Low- and no-calorie sweeteners are often seen as a healthy alternative to sugar,” senior researcher Dr. Claudia Kimie Suemoto, an associate professor of geriatrics at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, said in a news release. “However, our findings suggest certain sweeteners may have negative effects on brain health over time.”
For the study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 12,800 adults in Brazil. Their average age was 52, and they were followed for an average of eight years.
Participants completed diet questionnaires at the start of the study, allowing researchers to estimate their intake of aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), saccharin (Sweet’N Low), acesulfame-K, erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol and tagatose.
The study did not track the use of sucralose, the sweetener marketed as Splenda.
Some of these sweeteners can be found in the usual blue or pink packets provided in restaurants. They also are used to flavor ultra-processed drinks, desserts and foods.
The research team divided participants into three groups based on the total amount of sugar substitutes consumed.
They then compared that consumption to participants’ performance on tests of memory, language and thinking skills.
People who consumed more artificial sweeteners had faster declines in thinking and memory as they aged, even if they fell into the middle-intake group, results showed.
People who consumed moderate amounts of sugar substitutes had a brain decline 35% faster than the lowest group, equivalent to about 1.3 years of additional aging, researchers said.
Individually, aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-k, erythritol, sorbitol and xylitol all were associated with a faster decline in overall cognition, particularly in memory, researchers said. Only the sweetener tagatose could not be linked with cognitive decline.
People younger than 60 who ate the highest amounts of sweeteners showed faster declines in language skills and overall brain power, results showed. No link was found among people 60 or older.
Researchers also found that the link to faster brain decline was stronger in people with diabetes.
“While we found links to cognitive decline for middle-aged people both with and without diabetes, people with diabetes are more likely to use artificial sweeteners as sugar substitutes,” Suemoto said.
Researchers speculated that these sweeteners might break down in the body into chemicals that are toxic to the brain or produce more inflammation.
However, they noted that the study was observational and, as such, couldn’t draw a direct cause-and-effect link between sweeteners and brain decline.
“More research is needed to confirm our findings and to investigate if other refined sugar alternatives, such as applesauce, honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar, may be effective alternatives,” Suemoto said.
Medically speaking. Florida making a mistake on vaccines?
This is not a political question, but a medical. Please do not bring politics into this. If you do, I will delete your comment.
Florida is scrapping all vaccine mandates. That includes scrapping immunization requirements, including hepatitis B, polio, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and chickenpox, for all Florida schools.
I agree that with COVID Vaccines that would be the right move, but I disagree with the children’s vaccines.
Joseph Ladapo’s announcement came in conjunction with the establishment of the Florida Make America Healthy Again commission, which will be chaired by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins.
At the press conference in the Tampa suburb of Valrico, Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the commission will focus on tenets that include “individual medical freedom, informed consent, parent rights and also market innovation.”
Folks fighting high blood pressure might receive some help from a household air purifier, a new study says.
Even in areas with relatively low air pollution levels, using a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) purifier at home might significantly lower a person’s blood pressure, researchers reported recently in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“High blood pressure remains one of the most important modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” lead author Douglas Brugge, chair of public health sciences at University of Connecticut Health, said in a news release.
“This research adds to growing evidence that simple interventions, like in-home air filtration, may help improve heart health for people at risk,” he added.
For the study, researchers randomly assigned 154 adults living near highways to use either a HEPA air purifier or a sham device in which the filter had been removed
The participants switched devices after a month and an equal amount of time in between, to give all time with either real or fake air purifiers. Their blood pressure as taken at four times to see how it changed during the study.
After a month using real air purifiers, people experienced a significant 2.8-point drop in their systolic blood pressure, or the pressure in their blood vessels during a heartbeat.
By comparison, people experienced a slight 0.2-point increase in systolic blood pressure after using the fake purifier.
That adds up to an overall 3-point improvement in systolic pressure when using an air purifier, researchers said.
“Overwhelming evidence shows the harmful health effects of (particle pollution) exposure, even at levels below current U.S. standards,” Dr. Jonathan Newman, an associate professor of cardiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, wrote in an accompanying editorial. “As health care professionals, we must educate the public and support policies that protect clean air and improve the health of all Americans.”
Dr. Harlan Krumholz, editor-in-chief of JACC, noted the study shows that even modest improvement in indoor air quality could help some with high blood pressure.
“While more research is needed, these results suggest that what we breathe at home may matter for our cardiovascular health,” he said in a news release.
Oregano is typically a popular garnish for pizza and a variety of Mediterranean dishes, but what other potential uses does this herb have? While oregano is commonly notorious in the culinary world for enhancing the flavor profiles of various types of cuisine, I have found that it can also provide an extensive range of medicinal benefits.
There are three types of oregano: fresh, dried, and in the form of an essential oil. In regard to culinary uses, oregano has become a common ingredient in many Italian, Mexican, and Greek dishes and is often paired with basil as it complements it very well, especially in pizza. Dried oregano is often present in processed foods and drinks such as certain alcoholic beverages, tomato sauces, meat and meat products, condiments and relishes, snack foods, and milk products.
Oregano contains rich sources of antioxidants, which slows the aging of cells and helps fight infection, along with vitamin K, which aids in the promotion of bone growth, maintenance of bone density, and the production of blood clotting proteins. It also provides iron, manganese, vitamin E, iron, calcium, omega fatty acids, manganese, and tryptophan. The high fiber content present in oregano binds to bile salts and cancer-causing toxins present in the colon and eliminates them from the body. As a result, the body is forced to produce more bile salts to break down cholesterol, which will aid in reducing high cholesterol levels and therefore may help decrease the risk of colon cancer.
This herb has been found to possibly contribute to a wide array of medicinal uses. Oregano in the form of an essential oil possesses antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. Some healing uses include treating foot or nail fungus, killing parasites and infections, and alleviating sinus infections and colds. Utilization of oregano essential oil also supplies health benefits to both the respiratory and immune systems. It helps prevent and treat infections including urinary tract infections (UTIs), respiratory, yeast, and parasitic infections, and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. It has shown promise in preventing the onset of food-borne illnesses caused by pathogens such as Listeria, Salmonella, E. coli, and Shigella dysenteric. Additionally, antiseptic characteristics are present in oregano essential oils, which are beneficial in practices of aromatherapy due to the relief of coughs and respiratory illnesses provided through the steam method of this oil. Other aromatic advantages of oregano oil are warding off insects, relieving bug bites and poison ivy rashes, helping with the healing process of cold sores and dandruff, easing sore throats and toothaches, and relieving muscle and joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis, sprains, and cramps. Further benefits of oregano oil include working as an anti-inflammatory agent for osteoporosis and arteriosclerosis and slowing down or preventing the progression of breast cancer. Lastly, different studies on oregano oil have shown that it is used to help treat the following illnesses and conditions: acne, bronchitis, bloating, headaches, heart conditions, allergies, intestinal parasites, earaches, fatigue, and menstrual cramps. However, it is imperative to note that additional research in the future is necessary to back these particular health claims.
Next time you are savoring a slice of pizza or your favorite Mediterranean dish, consider topping it with oregano to reap the numerous health benefits that this herb provides!
You make the call. You Could Live to 100 If You Can Pass This Test.
Lynn C. Allison. Author.
A simple test can help gauge longevity. Research published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging found that grip strength is “an indispensable biomarker for older adults.” Grip strength refers to the measure of force exerted by the hand and forearm muscles when gripping an object. It is a simple yet powerful indicator of overall muscle health, which can reflect the body’s physical condition.
Studies have shown that reduced grip strength is associated with frailty, decreased mobility, and a higher risk of falls among older adults. Furthermore, it can indicate underlying health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or neurological disorders, which often become more prevalent with age.
In a Canadian study, researchers examined the connection between grip strength and mortality in 140,000 adults. They found that poor hand grip strength was linked to a higher risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and death.
Grip is also an indicator of cognitive and mental health. A 2022 study found that increased grip strength was associated with better cognitive function, less depression and anxiety, and higher life satisfaction.
Researchers have found that individuals with weaker grip strength are more likely to experience early mortality, slower recovery from illnesses, and a diminished quality of life. Conversely, those with stronger grip strength tend to enjoy longer, healthier lives.
The simplicity of the grip strength test using a dynameter makes it a convenient and cost-effective tool for assessing aging and longevity across diverse populations.
According to Eat This, Not That! you can test your grip strength at home, without the need for a dynameter, by simply squeezing a tennis ball. Researcher Joshua Davidson, of the University of Derby in England, developed this test.
Grab a tennis ball in one hand and squeeze for as long as you can before being fatigued. Try to squeeze the ball for 15 to 30 seconds. If you can perform this test successfully, it’s one measure that could predict you may live to 100, according to research.
But don’t lose heart if you didn’t pass the test. You can improve your grip strength, says GoodRx. Some of those moves might already be part of your fitness routine. For example, functional exercises –– such as deadlifts, woodchops, and pull-ups on a bar –– engage your hands and other muscle groups.
“Our study highlights the significant burden of cardiovascular disease in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, which disproportionately affect women,” said senior researcher Dr. Heba Wassif, director of cardio-rheumatology at the Cleveland Clinic.
“It is critical to screen for and address cardiovascular risk factors early, at the time of diagnosis and periodically thereafter,” she said in a news release.
Women are two to three times more likely than men to develop rheumatoid arthritis, and about nine times more likely to develop lupus, researchers said in background notes.
Systemic sclerosis also is more common among women than men, researchers said. That autoimmune disease involves the tightening and hardening of skin, potentially affecting the digestive tract, blood vessels and internal organs.
For the study, researchers analyzed data for more than 127,000 heart disease-related deaths among more than 281,000 deaths associated with the three common autoimmune diseases between 1999 and 2020.
Overall, heart disease deaths declined for people with these autoimmune disorders, from 3.9 to 2.1 per 100,000 in women and from 1.7 to 1.2 per 100,000 in men between 1999 and 2020, results show.
However, the death rate remains higher among women compared to men, despite the overall reduction in deaths.
Stroke and clogged arteries were the main causes of heart-related death in autoimmune patients, and women died from both at higher rates than men.
Women also were more than twice as likely to die from irregular heart rhythms or cardiac arrest, researchers found.
People with rheumatoid arthritis had the highest heart-related death rate, results show.
“There is a common perception that people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases primarily die from infections or kidney disease,” lead study author Dr. Issam Motairek, an internal medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic, said in a news release.
“However, our study revealed that one-third of deaths in this population were due to cardiovascular disease, highlighting the significant burden of heart disease in these patients,” he added.
“This study reinforces the need to investigate drivers of these disparities between women and men and how to improve treatment for patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases,” Motairek concluded.
Cancer before age 50 is rare, but increasing, in the United States and researchers want to know why.
A new government study provides the most complete picture yet of early-onset cancers, finding that the largest increases are in breast, colorectal, kidney and uterine cancers. Scientists from the National Cancer Institute looked at data that included more than 2 million cancers diagnosed in people 15 to 49 years old between 2010 and 2019.
Of 33 cancer types, 14 cancers had increasing rates in at least one younger age group. About 63% of the early-onset cancers were among women.
“These kinds of patterns generally reflect something profound going on,” said Tim Rebbeck of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who studies cancer risk and was not involved in the research. “We need to fund research that will help us understand.”
The findings were published Thursday in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
The researchers compared cancer rates in 2019 to what would be expected based on 2010 rates.
Breast cancer made up the largest share of the excess cancers, with about 4,800 additional cases. There were 2,000 more colorectal cancers compared with what would be expected based on the 2010 rates. There were 1,800 more kidney cancers and 1,200 additional uterine cancers.
Reassuringly, death rates were not rising for most cancers in the young adult age groups, although increasing death rates were seen for colorectal, uterine and testicular cancers.
Explanations will take more research. The big databases used for the study don’t include information on risk factors or access to care. Theories abound and a big meeting is planned later this year to bring together experts in the area.
“Several of these cancer types are known to be associated with excess body weight and so one of the leading hypotheses is increasing rates of obesity,” said lead author Meredith Shiels of the National Cancer Institute.
Advances in cancer detection and changes in screening guidelines could be behind some early diagnoses.
For breast cancer, the trend toward women having a first child at older ages is a possible explanation. Pregnancy and breastfeeding are known to reduce risk.
This isn’t happening across the board. Cancer rates in people under 50 are going down for more than a dozen types of cancer, with the largest declines in lung and prostate cancers.
Cigarette smoking has been declining for decades, which likely accounts for the drop in lung cancer among younger adults.
The drop in prostate cancer is likely tied to updated guidelines discouraging routine PSA testing in younger men because of concerns about overtreatment.
Cedars-Sinai investigators are using AI to analyze images from a common heart test to identify signs of valve disease. Image by Getty.
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AI Identifies Heart Valve Disease from Common Imaging Test.
Stephanie Cajigal
Senior Communications Specialist
Anartificial intelligence (AI) program trained to review images from a common medical test can detect early signs of tricuspid heart valve disease and may help doctors diagnose and treat patients sooner, according to research from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.
The work builds upon research published last year showing that an AI program can detect disease in the heart’s mitral valve by analyzing ultrasound images of the heart. For this new study, published in JAMA Cardiology, investigators applied AI to identify tricuspid regurgitation, a condition in which the heart’s tricuspid valve doesn’t close fully when the heart contracts, causing blood to flow backward, which can result in heart failure.
David Ouyang, MD
“This AI program can augment cardiologists’ evaluation of echocardiograms, images from a screening and diagnostic test that many patients with heart disease symptoms would already be getting,” said David Ouyang, MD, a research scientist in the Smidt Heart Institute, an investigator in the Division of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and senior author of the study. “By applying AI to echocardiograms, we can help clinicians more easily detect the signs of heart valve disease so that patients get the care they need as soon as possible.”
Investigators trained a deep-learning program to flag patterns of tricuspid regurgitation in 47,312 echocardiograms done at Cedars-Sinai between 2011 and 2021.
The program detected tricuspid regurgitation in patients and categorized cases as mild, moderate or severe. They then tested the program on echocardiograms that the AI program never saw before from additional patients who underwent echocardiography at Cedars-Sinai in 2022 and patients from Stanford Healthcare. The program predicted severity of tricuspid regurgitation with similar accuracy as cardiologists who evaluated echocardiograms and when compared with results from MRI images.
Sumeet Chugh, MD
“Future studies will focus on obtaining even more specific information about valve disease, such as the volume of blood flowing backward through a valve, and predicting outcomes if patients undergo treatment for heart valve disease,” said first author Amey Vrudhula, MD, a research fellow at Cedars-Sinai.
Investigators in the Smidt Heart Institute are applying AI to a variety of cardiac imaging tests.
“A major advantage of AI algorithms is that they never get fatigued and have the capacity to identify valve abnormalities from large populations of patients, taking personalized cardiology to a whole different level,” said Sumeet Chugh, MD, director of the Division of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology Research.
Other Cedars-Sinai authors involved in the study include Amey Vrudhula, MD; Milos Vukadinovic, BS; Alan C. Kwan, MD; Daniel Berman, MD; Robert Siegel, MD; Susan Cheng, MD, MMSc, MPH.
Other authors include Christiane Haeffele, MD, and David Liang, MD, PhD.
You make the call. Alzheimer’s Signs Can Appear Prior To Middle Age.
Risk factors for dementia could start taking their toll as early as a person’s 20s and 30s, a new study says.
Younger adults who carry known risks for dementia performed worse on memory and thinking tests between ages 24 and 44, researchers report in the May issue of the journal The Lancet: Regional Health Americas.
The findings lay the groundwork for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, researchers say.
This is the first study to look at risk factors of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in a large group of generally healthy younger adults, researchers say.
“Previously, research on Alzheimer’s disease risk factors has focused on individuals aged 50 and older,” lead researcher Allison Aiello, a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Aging Center, said in a news release.
These new results show that well-established risk factors and blood biomarkers for dementia appear to start affecting cognitive function even before middle age, Aiello said.
These risk factors include education level, gender, blood pressure, cholesterol, exercise and body mass index, a measure of body fat based on height and weight, results show. All these are measured using a Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Incidence of Dementia (CAIDE) score.
Researchers also learned that certain Alzheimer’s risk factors are present and related to brain function in people in their 40s or earlier, Aiello added.
These include levels of proteins like amyloid beta and tau that form plaques and tangles in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, along with heart health and immune biomarkers.
“Additionally, we learned that certain Alzheimer’s risk factors — such as cardiovascular health, ATN (amyloid, tau, neurodegeneration), and immune biomarkers — are present and related to cognition in individuals in their forties and even earlier,” Aiello said.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from two waves of a long-term study tracking the health of teenagers as they grow into adults. The study started in 1994-1995, and researchers looked at participants again as they hit ages 24-34 and again at 34-44.
In their early 20s and 30s, participants completed brain function tests of their memory and thinking. Scores on those tests were compared to the participants’ CAIDE score as they approached middle-age.
Results showed that the higher a person scored on CAIDE, the worse they performed on tests of thinking skills at 34 to 44 years old.
“Exploring the relationship between the CAIDE score and cognitive function in young adulthood and early midlife in the U.S., showed that significant associations with cardiovascular risk factors can be observed well before age 50,” Aiello explained.
Researchers also looked at blood tests from the study participants, and found that a combined amyloid/tau score called ATN was linked to people’s brain function prior to middle age.
“Our overall findings suggest that blood-based biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease are linked to differences in cognitive function decades before clinical symptoms and impairments even appear, highlighting the importance of early prevention strategies across the life course,” Aiello said.
“Identifying the early pathways to Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive impairment before older age is critical to slowing the expected rise of Alzheimer’s disease in the coming decades,” she added.
Old wives’ tales about health have been around for generations. Health myths persist because misinformation spreads easily, especially with the popularity of social media. Here is the truth about some of the most common health myths:
• Drink 8 glasses of water daily. According to WebMD, there is no need to count cups. People who drink when they are thirsty stay well-hydrated. In addition, fruit, vegetables, soup, and beverages such as juice, coffee, and tea all contribute to our daily hydration needs.
• Eggs cause heart disease. By now, it’s been pretty well established that eating eggs is good for you, as long as you don’t overdo it. According to Real Simple, all eggs are rich in protein, phosphorus, selenium, chlorine, iron, vitamin A and B vitamins. The B vitamins and choline found in eggs are beneficial to brain health. While eggs do contain cholesterol, experts say that dietary cholesterol does not significantly raise blood cholesterol levels enough to trigger heart disease in healthy people.
• You can catch a cold by being out in cold weather. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, contrary to popular belief, cold weather or feeling chilled doesn’t cause a cold. However, more colds do occur during the cold weather seasons because schools are in session, increasing the risk for exposure to the virus. People also stay indoors more when it’s cold and are in closer proximity to each other, making it easier to pass along germs. The low humidity of winter causes dry nasal passages, which are more susceptible to cold viruses.
• You need a daily multivitamin. You should get most of your daily nutrients from a well-rounded diet that includes lots of fruit, vegetables, nuts, healthy oils and whole grains. But if your doctor feels you are suffering from a deficiency, a vitamin supplement may be needed.
• You need to eat breakfast to lose weight. Not so, say experts from Cornell University who found that people who skipped breakfast didn’t overeat at lunch and dinner and, in fact, ate 400 fewer calories a day.
• Green mucus means infection. One study looked at green mucus samples from people with a cough and no other lung conditions. It found that only about 1 in 10 of those green mucus samples were caused by a bacterial infection. This means that most people with green mucus don’t have a bacterial infection. In short, mucus color alone isn’t a reliable way to say whether you need antibiotics, says GoodRx.
• Sugar makes kids hyper. While sugar isn’t good for children, research shows that it won’t cause them to act out or be unable to focus on their schoolwork.
• Toilet seats can pass along germs. According to WebMD, toilet seats are usually clean. It’s the doorknobs, handles and floors that can be covered with bacteria like E. coli, norovirus and the flu. Use paper towels to cover your hands when opening doors or touching handles and a hand sanitizer afterwards.
• Cracking joints triggers arthritis. While the sound of someone cracking their joints can be annoying, it does not cause arthritis. Experts at the Cleveland Clinic say one reason that your joints may make a cracking noise could be gas escaping from a synovial membrane, or a ligament or tendon passing over another ligament or tendon. However, if you feel regular or severe pain in your joints, seek medical help.
According to Yale Medicine there probably is no malady more common than a headache. Statistics show that 20% of women and nearly 10% of men report experiencing a headache or migraine in the previous three months. While occasional headaches are not cause for alarm, the pain and discomfort can disrupt sleep, and interfere with work and daily life. To avoid the negative effects of headaches, it is important to be aware of triggers, especially some of the lesser-known causes of headaches:
• Blurry vision. According to WebMD, headaches can develop when you try to focus on objects close to your face. This can be due to a genetically flat cornea or short eyeball, but the condition becomes more prevalent after the age of 40. Your optician or ophthalmologist can help with a prescription for eyeglasses, contact lenses or surgery.
• Tension in neck and shoulders. Spending hours hunched over a computer can cause stiffness in your neck and shoulders that brings on headaches. These tension headaches can be relieved by a hot shower, heating pad, or massage. Often over-the-counter medications can reduce the symptoms. Regular stretching and exercise can also help.
• Hunger. If you forgot to eat lunch, you may feel a headache coming on as the afternoon progresses. Keep snacks on hand to stave off low blood sugar levels that can cause headaches. A handful of mixed nuts, or apple slices with peanut butter are good choices.
• No morning coffee. If you skipped your usual morning cup of coffee, your head may start to throb. If you can’t get a cup of Joe, drinking green or black tea or eating some chocolate will help.
• Sex. In rare cases, headaches can be brought on by sexual activity, says the Mayo Clinic. People sometimes experience a sudden, severe headache just before or during orgasm. Most sex headaches are nothing to worry about but have your doctor check for problems with blood vessels that feed the brain.
• Cough headaches. Head pain may be triggered by coughing, sneezing, blowing your nose, laughing or singing. This type of straining may cause a primary headache, which is harmless and will get better without treatment. But if the headache persists, check with your doctor to rule out an underlying cause that could be serious.
• Swollen sinuses. This swelling behind your cheekbones and forehead causes pain that worsens when you bend over. Over-the-counter sinus medication can usually ease the suffering.
• Too much alcohol. Alcohol disturbs your sleep and could cause a throbbing headache the next morning. Make sure to hydrate with water, broth or sports drinks. Avoid taking acetaminophen, which is hard on your liver, especially when you’ve been drinking. If you suffer pounding headaches after sipping red wine, you are not alone. It turns out many people are affected by a flavanol found in red wine that can trigger a painful, pounding headache within 30 minutes to three hours after drinking.
Other causes for headaches include extreme exercise, eating food triggers, such as aged cheese and those that contain nitrates or MSG, or overdoing pain relievers.
In rare cases, a headache may signal something serious, such as a brain tumor. Call 911 if the pain is sudden and severe and you notice any of the following symptoms:
• Numbness or weakness on one side of the body.
• Confusion or garbled speech.
• Vision difficulties.
• Dizziness or loss of balance.
Lynn C. Allison, is an award-winning medical journalist and author of more than 30 self-help books.
Strokes caused by an artery tear are landing five times as many Americans in the hospital these days, a new study says.
Cervical artery dissection involves a small tear in the inner lining of an artery in the neck that supplies blood to the brain.
Blood can clot at the site of the tear. If the clot breaks loose, it can travel to the brain and cause a stroke.
Hospitalizations for this sort of stroke have increased nearly fivefold during the past 15 years, according to findings published April 2 in the journal Neurology.
“Cervical artery dissection is an important cause of stroke, especially in people under 50, so it is crucial to detect it right away,” senior researcher Dr. Shadi Yaghi, a vascular neurologist at Brown University in Providence, R.I., said in a news release.
“Strokes that are not fatal can lead to long-term disability, poor mental health and reduced quality of life,” he said. “Our research found a dramatic increase in the number of hospitalizations for cervical artery dissection, with rates rising steadily year over year.”
These sort of tears in the cervical artery are most often caused by a motor vehicle crash or other accident that causes neck strain, researchers said. However, activities as simple as heavy lifting has been known to cause a cervical artery tear in some people.
For the study, researchers analyzed 15 years of U.S. health data to identify more than 125,000 people hospitalized for cervical artery dissection.
Patients had an average age of 51, and just over half suffered a stroke from their artery tear, results show.
The number of artery tears increased about 10% a year on average, rising from 11 cases per million people in 2005 to 46 cases per million in 2019, results show.
Men and women were equally at risk for suffering an artery tear, but there were differences between races.
Cervical artery dissections increased by 16% a year on average among Hispanic people, compared to 13% for Black people, 12% for Asian people and 8% for white people.
Seniors also have become more prone to these tears, with an average annual increase of 12% among people 65 and older compared to 8% for people under 65, researchers said.
“Possible reasons for this nearly five-fold increase over 15 years include greater awareness of cervical artery dissection by health care professionals, better access to imaging to help identify it and an overall increase in this condition for which a cause has yet to be determined,” Yaghi said.
“Given the rising incidence of cervical artery dissection, our study underscores the importance of finding prevention strategies as well as new treatments to reduce the risk of stroke,” he added.
Aissam Dam, 11, the first person to receive gene therapy in the U.S. for congenital deafness, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.Credit...Hannah Beier for The New York Times
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Gene Therapy Allows an 11-Year-Old Boy to Hear for the First Time.
Gina Kolata visited the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and met with Aissam Dam, his father and the researchers they worked with.
Aissam Dam, an 11-year-old boy, grew up in a world of profound silence. He was born deaf and had never heard anything. While living in a poor community in Morocco, he expressed himself with a sign language he invented and had no schooling.
Last year, after moving to Spain, his family took him to a hearing specialist, who made a surprising suggestion: Aissam might be eligible for a clinical trial using gene therapy.
On Oct. 4, Aissam was treated at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, becoming the first person to get gene therapy in the United States for congenital deafness. The goal was to provide him with hearing, but the researchers had no idea if the treatment would work or, if it did, how much he would hear.
The treatment was a success, introducing a child who had known nothing of sound to a new world.
“There’s no sound I don’t like,” Aissam said, with the help of interpreters during an interview last week. “They’re all good.”
While hundreds of millions of people in the world live with hearing loss that is defined as disabling, Aissam is among those whose deafness is congenital. His is an extremely rare form, caused by a mutation in a single gene, otoferlin. Otoferlin deafness affects about 200,000 people worldwide.
The goal of the gene therapy is to replace the mutated otoferlin gene in patients’ ears with a functional gene.
Although it will take years for doctors to sign up many more patients — and younger ones — to further test the therapy, researchers said that success for patients like Aissam could lead to gene therapies that target other forms of congenital deafness.
It is a “groundbreaking” study, said Dr. Dylan K. Chan, a pediatric otolaryngologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of its Children’s Communication Center; he was not involved in the trial.
The one in which Aissam participated is supported by Eli Lilly and a small biotechnology firm it owns, Akouos. Investigators hope to eventually expand the study to six centers across the United States.
Special earphones being used for Aissam’s hearing test. His form of deafness is rare, caused by a mutation in a single gene, otoferlin. Credit…Hannah Beier for The New York Times
Aissam’s trial is one of five that are either underway (the others are in China and Europe) or about to start.
Deaf Experiences
Gene Therapy: A genetic treatment targeted a particular kind of congenital deafness that allowed an 11-year-old boy to hear for the first time. Soon it will be tried on younger children.
Language in Evolution: Ubiquitous video technology and social media have given deaf people a new way to communicate. They’re using it to transform American Sign Language.
Investigators from all five of the studies will be presenting their data on Feb. 3 at a meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology.
The studies, researchers said, mark a new frontier for gene therapy which, until now, had steered clear of hearing loss.
“There has never been a biological or medical or surgical way to correct the underlying biological changes that cause the inner ear to not function,” Dr. Chan said.
Although otoferlin mutations are not the most common cause of congenital deafness, there is a reason so many researchers started with it. That form of congenital deafness, said Dr. John A. Germiller, an otolaryngologist who is leading the CHOP study, is “low hanging fruit.”
The mutated otoferlin gene destroys a protein in the inner ear’s hair cells necessary to transmit sound to the brain. With many of the other mutations that cause deafness, hair cells die during infancy or even at the fetal stage. But with otoferlin deafness, hair cells can survive for years, allowing time for the defective gene to be replaced with gene therapy.
Aissam’s trial at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is among five that are either underway (the others are in China and Europe) or about to start.Credit…Hannah Beier for The New York Times
There’s an advantage in using gene therapy to allow children to hear. Most of the mutations that affect hearing — there are approximately 150 — do not affect any other part of the body. Some genes are actually unique to the ear.
The inner ear is a small closed compartment, so gene therapy delivered there would not affect cells in other parts of the body, said Manny Simons, chief executive and co-founder of Akouos and senior vice president of gene therapy at Lilly.
But getting the genes to the cochlea, a spiral-shaped cavity close to the center of the skull, is challenging. The cochlea is filled with fluid, is lined with 3,500 hair cells and is encased in a dense dome of bone with a tiny, round membrane. Sound sets off a wave of fluid in the cochlea and stimulates the hair cells to transmit signals to the brain. Each hair responds to a different frequency, enabling a person to hear the richness of sound.
The gene therapy consists of a harmless virus carrying new otoferlin genes in two drops of liquid that are delicately injected down the length of the cochlea, delivering the genes to each hair cell.
Yet despite the promise of otoferlin gene therapy, finding the right patients for the trial was difficult.
One issue is the very idea of treating deafness.
“There is an internal Deaf community that doesn’t see itself as needing to be cured,” said Dr. Robert C. Nutt, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician in Wilmington, N.C., who is deaf.
Some Deaf parents, he added, celebrate when their newborn baby’s hearing test indicates that the baby is deaf too and so can be part of their community.
Making the issue of gene therapy even more complicated is the standard intervention for otoferlin hearing loss: a cochlear implant. The device, which uses electrodes to stimulate auditory nerves in the inner ear, allows patients to hear sounds, especially those needed to understand speech. But the implant does not provide the full richness of sound — and is said to assist in hearing but without restoring it completely.
Dr. John Germiller, an otolaryngologist who is leading the CHOP study.Credit…Hannah Beier for The New York Times
Most babies born with otoferlin deafness get cochlear implants in infancy and are therefore ineligible for the trial. The implants somewhat alter the cochlea, which could hamper the interpretation of gene therapy results.
The Food and Drug Administration, which allowed the CHOP study to go forward, asked that, for safety reasons, the researchers start with older children, not infants, and treat only one ear.
The challenge for the U.S. study was to find older children whose parents would agree to the study, who had otoferlin deafness and who did not have cochlear implants.
Aissam never had cochlear implants. He never had schooling in Morocco to help him develop communication skills. But three years ago, when he was 8, his father, Youssef Dam, a construction worker, got a job in Barcelona, Spain. For the first time, Aissam went to school, enrolling in a school for the deaf, where he learned Spanish Sign Language. Soon after, his family learned of the gene therapy trial.
When Aissam was deemed eligible to be patient No. 1, Lilly and Akouos paid for him and his father to live in Philadelphia for four months, while Aissam received gene therapy and follow-up hearing tests.
No one knew whether the nerve cells that communicate with the hair cells of the cochlea would still be intact and functional in someone who had been deaf for 11 years, Dr. Simons of Lilly said.
It was not even clear what dose of the new genes to give. All that the researchers had to go on were studies with mice. “We were flying blind,” Dr. Germiller said.
Aissam’s results, his doctors said, were remarkable. In an interview at CHOP, his father said through an interpreter — he speaks a North African language from the Amazigh family, commonly known as Berber — that Aissam was hearing traffic noises just days after the treatment. When Aissam had a hearing test two months later, his hearing in the treated ear was close to normal.
But no matter how well the gene therapy works, the researchers recognize that Aissam may never be able to understand or speak a language, Dr. Germiller said. The brain has a narrow window for learning to speak beginning around ages 2 to 3, he explained. After age 5, the window for learning spoken language is permanently shut.
Hearing can still help patients even if they never learn to speak, he noted. They can hear traffic or know when someone is trying to communicate. The ability to hear also can help with lip reading.
Aissam signing to an interpreter during an interview at the children’s hospital.Credit…Hannah Beier for The New York Times
Now that gene therapy has proved safe for Aissam and for another child in Taiwan treated two months after him, researchers at the hospital in Philadelphia are able to move on to younger children. They have two lined up, a 3-year-old boy from Miami and a 3-year-old girl from San Francisco, both of whom got cochlear implants in only one ear, so that the other could be treated with gene therapy.
If the Lilly trial of otoferlin gene therapy is proved to be effective and safe, “there will be a lot of interest in other genes” that cause deafness, said Dr. Margaret A. Kenna, an otolaryngologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Kenna, an investigator in the Lilly trial, added, “It’s been a long time coming.”
“For decades people have been saying, ‘When is this going to work?’” Dr. Kenna said. “I didn’t think gene therapy would begin in my practice lifetime. But here it is.”
The other is supported by Otovia Therapeutics and various programs in China.
A third study is sponsored by Regeneron and Decibel Therapeutics. Researchers in Europe so far have treated one child, who is younger than 2, and in one ear. Another study by Sensorion is expected to start this month.
On a recent frigid morning, Aissam sat in a conference room at CHOP and, with the help of three translators, patiently answered questions about his remarkable experience. He’s a solemn child with a round face and big brown eyes. There was an interpreter for his father, and the sign language team had a Certified Deaf Interpreter — a person who is deaf translated his signs into American Sign Language — and an interpreter who knew American Sign Language and spoke his words.
Their system worked to a certain extent but robbed the conversation of spontaneity and forced Aissam to answer in short sentences or phrases, minimizing the expression of his personality.
But Aissam managed to convey the wonder of hearing.
Noises and voices frightened him initially, he said. But then, as the world of sound opened up, he began to enjoy every sound he heard — elevators, voices, the sound of scissors snipping his hair at a barbershop.
And there was music, which he heard for the first time one day while getting his hair cut.
Asked if there was a sound he particularly liked, Aissam did not hesitate.
“People,” he signed.
Gina Kolata reports on diseases and treatments, how treatments are discovered and tested, and how they affect people.
