Lifeboat Foundation

(HealthDay)—Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is associated with incidence of depression and anxiety, according to a study published online Feb. 7 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

Jong-Yeup Kim, M.D., Ph.D., from Konyang University Hospital in Daejeon, South Korea, and colleagues conducted a retrospective nationwide cohort study using population-based insurance data for 16,224 patients with CRS and 32,448 individuals without CRS, with propensity score matching between the groups. The incidence, survival rate, and hazard ratios of depression and anxiety were calculated for each group.

The researchers found that during the 11-year follow-up, the overall incidence of depression was higher in the CRS versus the non-CRS group (24.2 versus 16.0 per 1,000 person-years; adjusted hazard ratio, 1.54). Higher incidence of anxiety was also seen in the CRS versus the non-CRS group (42.2 versus 27.8 per 1,000 person-years; adjusted hazard ratio, 1.57). Compared with patients with CRS with nasal polyps, patients with CRS without nasal polyps had higher adjusted hazard ratios for developing depression (1.61 versus 1.41) and anxiety (1.63 versus 1.45).

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Discover the world’s best science and medicine | Nature.com

Engineers have developed a tiny robotic capsule that injects insulin once it lands in the stomach.

Scientists improve their ability to scan the universe of would-be drugs.

The global population aged 60 or over is growing faster than all younger age groups and faces the tide of chronic diseases threatening their quality of life and posing challenges to healthcare and economy systems. To better understand the underlying biology behind healthspan — the healthy period of life before the first chronic disease manifestation — the scientists from Gero and MIPT collaborated with the researchers from PolyOmica, the University of Edinburgh and other institutes to analyze genetic data and medical histories of over 300,000 people aged 37 to 73 made available by UK Biobank.

The study published today in Communications Biology was lead by Dr. Peter Fedichev and Prof. Yurii Aulchenko. It shows that the most prevalent chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, dementia, and some others apparently share the common underlying mechanism that is aging itself.

«According to Gompertz mortality law, the risk of death from all causes increases exponentially after the age of 40 and doubles approximately every 8 years», explains Peter Fedichev, founder and CSO of Gero. «By analyzing the dynamics of disease incidence in the clinical data available from UKB, we observed that the risks of age-related diseases grow exponentially with age and double at a rate compatible with the Gompertz mortality law. This close relation between the most prevalent chronic diseases and mortality suggests that their risks could be driven by the same process, that is aging. This is why healthspan can be used as a natural proxy for investigation of the genetic factors controlling the rate of aging, the “holy grail” target for anti-aging interventions».

In a world first, doctors in Sweden say they’ve wired a prosthetic hand directly into a woman’s nerves, allowing her to move its fingers with her mind and even feel tactile sensations.

The hand is an enormous step up from existing prostheses, which often rely on electrodes placed on the outside of the skin — and it could herald a future in which robotic devices interface seamlessly with our bodies.

Last month, researchers at Johan Auwerx’s lab at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) had looked at the connections between RNA-binding proteins and aging. RNA binding proteins (RBPs) play an important part in post-transcriptional control by binding to mRNAfter binding, RBPs can aid in the processing of pre-mRNA as well as mRNA stability, transport and translation [1].

Mitochondria

Upon screening aged animals for RBPs, researchers at the EPFL noticed increased activity of Pumilio2 (PUM2), which can lower the production of some proteins. It does this by binding to specific mRNAs (based on recognition sites) so that it can repress the translation of those mRNAs into proteins.

Taking very small amounts of psychedelic substances on a regular basis – called ‘microdosing’ – may improve psychological and cognitive functioning, but the effects do not exactly match users’ expectations, a new study from Macquarie University suggests.

Microdosing of substances like LSD and psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms) has had a recent surge in popularity, with proponents claiming wide-ranging benefits, including enhanced productivity, concentration, creativity, mood and wellbeing, all without the typical ‘high’ of psychedelics.

This is the first published longitudinal study to test these claims, in which researchers recruited 98 ‘microdosers’ from online forums and tracked their experiences over a six-week period.

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Specific brain networks are at work when we are conscious. New results can help distinguish truly unconscious patients from those who have some degree of consciousness.