Depression Harder On The Hearts Of Younger Women

A study conducted by investigators at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, showed that more than 25% of women aged 55 years and younger who underwent coronary angiography and who were depressed were much more likely to die of heart disease, suffer a myocardial infarction (MI), or require revascularization.

Stress Hormone Linked To Short-Term Memory Loss As We Age, Animal Study Suggests

A new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, reports a potential link between stress hormones and short-term memory loss in older adults. The study reveals that having high levels of cortisol—a natural hormone in our body whose levels surge when we are stressed—can lead to memory lapses as we age.

Antidepressants Not Tied To Heart Defects During First Trimester Of Pregnancy

Antidepressant use during the first trimester of pregnancy was not associated with a greater risk of cardiac malformations in the offspring, a large cohort study showed according to Krista Huybrechts, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues.

False Negative Results Found In HER2 Testing For Breast Cancer

Researchers  at Norris Cotton Cancer Center Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center retested tumor samples from a large group of women and found that 22 out of 530 women had their tumor type incorrectly classified (4%), which precluded them from effective treatment options. The repercussions of incorrectly identifying a cancer’s subtype are considerable. “While it is comforting that only four percent of these women were misclassified initially, this is an enormous issue for those who fall into this group,” said one researcher.

Improve Your Diet, Drop Your Diabetes Risk, And Vice Versa

Lead author Sylvia H Ley, PhD, of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, said they found that diet was associated with diabetes “independent of weight loss and increased physical activity,” indicating that ” improving diet quality alone has significant benefits.”