Latest news with #MaastrichtUniversity
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
A Study Has Revealed The Biggest Risk Factors For Getting Early Dementia, And Knowledge Is Power
A recent study by the University of Exeter and Maastricht University published in JAMA Neurology has identified some of the factors that can lead to early cases of dementia ― some of which may surprise you. The data analyzed the behaviors of over 350,000 participants younger than 65 across the United Kingdom to evaluate young-onset dementia, which occurs before age 65. The researchers found there are 15 common issues that can contribute to the early development of the condition. A few have to do with genetics and other elements outside our control, but many others are modifiable. The study is meaningful to experts because it 'looks at young-onset dementia risk factors in a way that has only been done in late-onset dementias previously,' according to Dr. Kevin Bickart, an assistant professor in neurology at the University of California Los Angeles Health's David Geffen School of Medicine. The study features 'a very large sample that was prospectively followed from healthy baseline to a dementia diagnosis with lots of data collection.' Here's what to know: The biggest risk factors for young-onset dementia: Related: "This Has Taken Me Years And Years And YEARS To Figure Out": This Woman's Clever Way To Tell If Someone Is Your Real Friend Is Being Called The Most Accurate Thing Ever Related: 25 Eye-Opening Confessions From A Trauma Therapist That Changed The Way I Think About Mental Health The large-scale study looked at 39 possible risk factors and determined that 15 of them made the biggest difference when it came to developing dementia before the age of 65. Those include: Social isolation Lower formal education Lower socioeconomic status Carrying two copies of the APOE gene (a marker that influences Alzheimer's risk) Vitamin D deficiency Hearing impairment Alcohol use disorder No alcohol use (abstinence) Depression High C-reactive protein levels Lower handgrip strength (physical frailty) Orthostatic hypotension (a form of low blood pressure) Stroke Diabetes Heart disease Although some recognized risks are out of many people's control ― like being a carrier of the APOE gene or your socioeconomic status ― others can be managed through lifestyle changes. What you can do to lower your risk of early-onset dementia. Overall, the study results are consistent with what medical experts have been advising patients for years. Dr. Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, an assistant professor of psychiatry and of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, recommended three 'lifestyle measures' that folks may want to consider when trying to lower their risk of young-onset dementia ― starting with physical exercise. 'An active daily exercise practice can have far-reaching benefits, which include enhanced neurocognitive function,' Fesharaki-Zadeh said, adding that physical activity can boost neurogenesis (the formation of new neurons and synapses), vasculogenesis (the creation of new blood vessels) while also providing inherent mood benefits. Next, focus on eating nourishing foods. Fesharaki-Zadeh championed a Mediterranean-based diet, mentioning its well-documented benefits. 'Such dietary practice, which includes food groups such as green leafy vegetables, olive oil, salmon and blueberries, is rich in vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, as well as antioxidants ― all neuroprotective factors,' he explained. Fesharaki-Zadeh recommended cognitive, mood and social stimulation to keep your mind sharp. For cognitive stimulation, this could look like learning a new language or attending a seminar, listening to music or dancing. Basically, anything that engages your mind will help it stay healthy. Mood stimulation, on the other hand, relates to stress reduction practices, 'such as mindfulness and yoga,' Fesharaki-Zadeh said. As for social stimulation, it's pretty simple: Try to connect with other humans face-to-face and actually talk to them as much as possible. 'In the era of pandemic and now post-pandemic, quality social connections should increasingly be encouraged and practiced,' Fesharaki-Zadeh said. While these habits don't cover the whole list of dementia risk factors, they are a pretty solid article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in Goodful: Therapists Are Revealing The Moments That Made Them Break Their "No Judgment" Rule, And I'm Honestly Speechless Also in Goodful: 19 "Garbage" Modern Trends People Refuse To Partake In Despite Their Popularity Also in Goodful: Medical Professionals Are Sharing "Mundane" Things That Actually Make So Many People Sick
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
A Study Has Revealed The Biggest Risk Factors For Getting Early Dementia, And Knowledge Is Power
A recent study by the University of Exeter and Maastricht University published in JAMA Neurology has identified some of the factors that can lead to early cases of dementia ― some of which may surprise you. The data analyzed the behaviors of over 350,000 participants younger than 65 across the United Kingdom to evaluate young-onset dementia, which occurs before age 65. The researchers found there are 15 common issues that can contribute to the early development of the condition. A few have to do with genetics and other elements outside our control, but many others are modifiable. The study is meaningful to experts because it 'looks at young-onset dementia risk factors in a way that has only been done in late-onset dementias previously,' according to Dr. Kevin Bickart, an assistant professor in neurology at the University of California Los Angeles Health's David Geffen School of Medicine. The study features 'a very large sample that was prospectively followed from healthy baseline to a dementia diagnosis with lots of data collection.' Here's what to know: The biggest risk factors for young-onset dementia: Related: "This Has Taken Me Years And Years And YEARS To Figure Out": This Woman's Clever Way To Tell If Someone Is Your Real Friend Is Being Called The Most Accurate Thing Ever Related: 25 Eye-Opening Confessions From A Trauma Therapist That Changed The Way I Think About Mental Health The large-scale study looked at 39 possible risk factors and determined that 15 of them made the biggest difference when it came to developing dementia before the age of 65. Those include: Social isolation Lower formal education Lower socioeconomic status Carrying two copies of the APOE gene (a marker that influences Alzheimer's risk) Vitamin D deficiency Hearing impairment Alcohol use disorder No alcohol use (abstinence) Depression High C-reactive protein levels Lower handgrip strength (physical frailty) Orthostatic hypotension (a form of low blood pressure) Stroke Diabetes Heart disease Although some recognized risks are out of many people's control ― like being a carrier of the APOE gene or your socioeconomic status ― others can be managed through lifestyle changes. What you can do to lower your risk of early-onset dementia. Overall, the study results are consistent with what medical experts have been advising patients for years. Dr. Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, an assistant professor of psychiatry and of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, recommended three 'lifestyle measures' that folks may want to consider when trying to lower their risk of young-onset dementia ― starting with physical exercise. 'An active daily exercise practice can have far-reaching benefits, which include enhanced neurocognitive function,' Fesharaki-Zadeh said, adding that physical activity can boost neurogenesis (the formation of new neurons and synapses), vasculogenesis (the creation of new blood vessels) while also providing inherent mood benefits. Next, focus on eating nourishing foods. Fesharaki-Zadeh championed a Mediterranean-based diet, mentioning its well-documented benefits. 'Such dietary practice, which includes food groups such as green leafy vegetables, olive oil, salmon and blueberries, is rich in vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, as well as antioxidants ― all neuroprotective factors,' he explained. Fesharaki-Zadeh recommended cognitive, mood and social stimulation to keep your mind sharp. For cognitive stimulation, this could look like learning a new language or attending a seminar, listening to music or dancing. Basically, anything that engages your mind will help it stay healthy. Mood stimulation, on the other hand, relates to stress reduction practices, 'such as mindfulness and yoga,' Fesharaki-Zadeh said. As for social stimulation, it's pretty simple: Try to connect with other humans face-to-face and actually talk to them as much as possible. 'In the era of pandemic and now post-pandemic, quality social connections should increasingly be encouraged and practiced,' Fesharaki-Zadeh said. While these habits don't cover the whole list of dementia risk factors, they are a pretty solid article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in Goodful: Therapists Are Revealing The Moments That Made Them Break Their "No Judgment" Rule, And I'm Honestly Speechless Also in Goodful: 19 "Garbage" Modern Trends People Refuse To Partake In Despite Their Popularity Also in Goodful: Medical Professionals Are Sharing "Mundane" Things That Actually Make So Many People Sick
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Brain Implant Lets Man with ALS Speak and Sing with His ‘Real Voice'
A man with a severe speech disability is able to speak expressively and sing using a brain implant that translates his neural activity into words almost instantly. The device conveys changes of tone when he asks questions, emphasizes the words of his choice and allows him to hum a string of notes in three pitches. The system — known as a brain–computer interface (BCI) — used artificial intelligence (AI) to decode the participant's electrical brain activity as he attempted to speak. The device is the first to reproduce not only a person's intended words but also features of natural speech such as tone, pitch and emphasis, which help to express meaning and emotion. In a study, a synthetic voice that mimicked the participant's own spoke his words within 10 milliseconds of the neural activity that signalled his intention to speak. The system, described today in Nature, marks a significant improvement over earlier BCI models, which streamed speech within three seconds or produced it only after users finished miming an entire sentence. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] 'This is the holy grail in speech BCIs,' says Christian Herff, a computational neuroscientist at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study. 'This is now real, spontaneous, continuous speech.' The study participant, a 45-year-old man, lost his ability to speak clearly after developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neuron disease, which damages the nerves that control muscle movements, including those needed for speech. Although he could still make sounds and mouth words, his speech was slow and unclear. Five years after his symptoms began, the participant underwent surgery to insert 256 silicon electrodes, each 1.5-mm long, in a brain region that controls movement. Study co-author Maitreyee Wairagkar, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis, and her colleagues trained deep-learning algorithms to capture the signals in his brain every 10 milliseconds. Their system decodes, in real time, the sounds the man attempts to produce rather than his intended words or the constituent phonemes — the subunits of speech that form spoken words. 'We don't always use words to communicate what we want. We have interjections. We have other expressive vocalizations that are not in the vocabulary,' explains Wairagkar. 'In order to do that, we have adopted this approach, which is completely unrestricted.' The team also personalized the synthetic voice to sound like the man's own, by training AI algorithms on recordings of interviews he had done before the onset of his disease. The team asked the participant to attempt to make interjections such as 'aah', 'ooh' and 'hmm' and say made-up words. The BCI successfully produced these sounds, showing that it could generate speech without needing a fixed vocabulary. Using the device, the participant spelt out words, responded to open-ended questions and said whatever he wanted, using some words that were not part of the decoder's training data. He told the researchers that listening to the synthetic voice produce his speech made him 'feel happy' and that it felt like his 'real voice'. In other experiments, the BCI identified whether the participant was attempting to say a sentence as a question or as a statement. The system could also determine when he stressed different words in the same sentence and adjust the tone of his synthetic voice accordingly. 'We are bringing in all these different elements of human speech which are really important,' says Wairagkar. Previous BCIs could produce only flat, monotone speech. 'This is a bit of a paradigm shift in the sense that it can really lead to a real-life tool,' says Silvia Marchesotti, a neuroengineer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The system's features 'would be crucial for adoption for daily use for the patients in the future.' This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on June 11, 2025.
Scientific American
12-06-2025
- Health
- Scientific American
Brain Implant Lets Man with ALS Speak and Sing with His ‘Real Voice'
A man with a severe speech disability is able to speak expressively and sing using a brain implant that translates his neural activity into words almost instantly. The device conveys changes of tone when he asks questions, emphasizes the words of his choice and allows him to hum a string of notes in three pitches. The system — known as a brain–computer interface (BCI) — used artificial intelligence (AI) to decode the participant's electrical brain activity as he attempted to speak. The device is the first to reproduce not only a person's intended words but also features of natural speech such as tone, pitch and emphasis, which help to express meaning and emotion. In a study, a synthetic voice that mimicked the participant's own spoke his words within 10 milliseconds of the neural activity that signalled his intention to speak. The system, described today in Nature, marks a significant improvement over earlier BCI models, which streamed speech within three seconds or produced it only after users finished miming an entire sentence. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. 'This is the holy grail in speech BCIs,' says Christian Herff, a computational neuroscientist at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study. 'This is now real, spontaneous, continuous speech.' Real-time decoder The study participant, a 45-year-old man, lost his ability to speak clearly after developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neuron disease, which damages the nerves that control muscle movements, including those needed for speech. Although he could still make sounds and mouth words, his speech was slow and unclear. Five years after his symptoms began, the participant underwent surgery to insert 256 silicon electrodes, each 1.5-mm long, in a brain region that controls movement. Study co-author Maitreyee Wairagkar, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis, and her colleagues trained deep-learning algorithms to capture the signals in his brain every 10 milliseconds. Their system decodes, in real time, the sounds the man attempts to produce rather than his intended words or the constituent phonemes — the subunits of speech that form spoken words. 'We don't always use words to communicate what we want. We have interjections. We have other expressive vocalizations that are not in the vocabulary,' explains Wairagkar. 'In order to do that, we have adopted this approach, which is completely unrestricted.' The team also personalized the synthetic voice to sound like the man's own, by training AI algorithms on recordings of interviews he had done before the onset of his disease. The team asked the participant to attempt to make interjections such as 'aah', 'ooh' and 'hmm' and say made-up words. The BCI successfully produced these sounds, showing that it could generate speech without needing a fixed vocabulary. Freedom of speech Using the device, the participant spelt out words, responded to open-ended questions and said whatever he wanted, using some words that were not part of the decoder's training data. He told the researchers that listening to the synthetic voice produce his speech made him 'feel happy' and that it felt like his 'real voice'. In other experiments, the BCI identified whether the participant was attempting to say a sentence as a question or as a statement. The system could also determine when he stressed different words in the same sentence and adjust the tone of his synthetic voice accordingly. 'We are bringing in all these different elements of human speech which are really important,' says Wairagkar. Previous BCIs could produce only flat, monotone speech. 'This is a bit of a paradigm shift in the sense that it can really lead to a real-life tool,' says Silvia Marchesotti, a neuroengineer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The system's features 'would be crucial for adoption for daily use for the patients in the future.'
NDTV
28-04-2025
- Health
- NDTV
How This 77-Year-Old Woman Has A Body As Fit As That Of A 25-Year-Old
A 77-year-old woman has secured the first position in the 75-79 age group at the 2025 Boston Marathon. Jeannie Rice completed the marathon, her 134th, in 4 hours, 27 minutes, and 17 seconds. Ms Rice's aerobic fitness and endurance capacity are on the same level as a 25-year-old woman, according to a report published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. What her body tells us about ageing is that age doesn't have to limit physical abilities. Asked how she managed to train consistently over 30 years, she said, "I love running and being an example for younger athletes," adding, "I feel as young as when I was 50, and I'd like to be doing this well into my 80s. That's my personal goal." She added that she has a rich social life and enjoys going out to dance. She said, "A lot of runners are so serious they don't do anything socially. But I like to have fun. I'm the last one to go home." Ms Rice is considered a "medical marvel." She has often turned heads not only for breaking world women's records in her age group but also for outperforming the fastest men in that category. Not only this, she has the highest VO2max (maximum oxygen uptake), a measure of aerobic fitness, ever recorded for women over 75. High VO2max was probably the primary physiological characteristic explaining her success across an array of running distances, the study said. Ms Rice, for her age, showed a very high cardiorespiratory fitness, as indicated by a VO2max of 47.9 mLkg-1min-1, the study added. Untrained women of this age group typically have a VO2max of 17.5-27.4 mL kg 1 min-1, it added. Bas Van Hooren, an assistant professor of nutrition and movement sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said that researchers are examining Ms Rice to learn how people can maintain their fitness as they age, despite lower levels of physical activity frequently observed in the elderly. Mr Hoorens said that researchers study Ms Rice's body fat, muscle structure, and how well her body uses energy while running at her marathon pace. He said Ms Rice proves it's never too late to start exercising.
