by: I. Edwards WEDNESDAY, Jan. 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Ever notice how hard it is to stay sharp after a rough night of sleep?
A recent study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience points to a surprising reason why: The brain may briefly shift into a sleep-like cleaning mode, even while you’re awake.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say short lapses in attention after poor sleep owe to sudden movements of fluid in the brain, a process usually reserved for deep sleep.
That fluid, called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), helps wash away waste that builds up during the day.
During sleep, this cleaning system works without interfering with thinking. But when people are short on sleep, the study found, the brain may try to activate that system during waking hours, and attention suffers as a result.
“If you don’t sleep, the CSF waves start to intrude into wakefulness where normally you wouldn’t see them,” senior study author Laura Lewis, an associate professor at MIT, said in a news release. “However, they come with an attentional tradeoff, where attention fails during the moments that you have this wave of fluid flow.”
Researchers studied 26 volunteers, testing each person twice: once after a night of sleep deprivation and once after a full night’s rest.
The next morning, participants completed attention tests while lying inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. Researchers tracked the movement of CSF in and out of the brain, as well as heart rate, breathing and pupil size.
During the attention tests, participants had to quickly respond to visual or sound signals. When sleep-deprived, they reacted more slowly and sometimes missed the signals altogether.
Each time attention failed, the same pattern appeared: • Cerebrospinal fluid flowed out of the brain. • Heart rate and breathing slowed. • Pupils became smaller. Once attention returned, the fluid flowed back in.
“The results are suggesting that at the moment that attention fails, this fluid is actually being expelled outward away from the brain. And when attention recovers, it’s drawn back in,” Lewis explained.
Lead author Zinong Yang, an MIT postdoctoral associate, said the brain may be trying to recover from lost sleep by briefly switching into a sleep-like state.
“One way to think about those events is because your brain is so in need of sleep, it tries its best to enter into a sleep-like state to restore some cognitive functions,” she said.
Researchers also found that these attention lapses are tied to areas outside the brain.
“What’s interesting is it seems like this isn’t just a phenomenon in the brain, it’s also a body-wide event,” Lewis added. “It suggests that there’s a tight coordination of these systems, where when your attention fails, you might feel it perceptually and psychologically, but it’s also reflecting an event that’s happening throughout the brain and body,” Lewis added.
Researchers did not identify the specific circuit involved, but they suspect a single control system is involved. That’s the noradrenergic system, which uses the chemical norepinephrine and is known to change activity during sleep.
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By: Todd A. Mahr, MD, Executive Medical Director, American College Of Allergy, Asthma And Immunology
THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) — When people hear about anaphylaxis, they often associate the severe allergic reaction with food allergies. And while food allergies can cause anaphylaxis, allergies to insect stings, medications and latex can also trigger the response.
Anaphylaxis is rare. In most cases, people with allergies develop mild to moderate symptoms, such as watery eyes, a runny nose or a rash. But sometimes, exposure to an allergen can cause the life-threatening allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis.
A second anaphylactic reaction, known as a biphasic reaction, can occur anywhere from 12 to 24 hours after the initial reaction. Unfortunately, how severe your reaction will be is unpredictable. Even if you have only had mild reactions in the past, you might still be at risk for anaphylaxis. And past anaphylaxis does not necessarily predict that all future reactions will be severe.
Future reactions can be milder or more severe than initial or past reactions. Due to this uncertainty, patients at risk for anaphylaxis are urged to carry self-administered epinephrine to be able to treat any future reactions. Patients with allergies to medications typically do not need to carry epinephrine, as these triggers are easier to avoid.
Anaphylaxis symptoms occur suddenly and can progress quickly. The early symptoms may be mild, such as a runny nose, a skin rash or a “strange feeling.” These symptoms can quickly lead to more serious problems, including:
If you have a history of allergies and/or asthma and have previously had a severe reaction, you may be at greater risk for anaphylaxis. An allergist can help you determine if you are susceptible to anaphylaxis.
Allergists are doctors specially trained to review your history of allergic reactions, conduct tests to diagnose your allergic triggers (such as skin-prick tests, blood tests and challenges), review treatment options and teach you the best methods for avoiding your allergens. Talk with an allergist if: • You’re unsure if you’ve had an anaphylactic reaction. • Your symptoms have happened repeatedly or are difficult to control. • More tests are needed to determine the cause of your reactions. • Desensitization or immunotherapy could be helpful if recommended by a doctor. • Daily medication is needed. • You think other medical conditions complicate your treatment. An anaphylactic reaction should be treated immediately with epinephrine (adrenaline). Doses are available by prescription and come in auto-injectors or a nasal spray that should always be kept with you. Two doses of epinephrine may be necessary to control symptoms.
Here are some tips for reducing the risk of anaphylaxis:
Know your trigger(s). If you’ve experienced anaphylaxis, it’s important to know what triggered the reaction. An allergist can review your medical history and, if necessary, conduct tests for diagnosis. The most common triggers are: • Food, including peanuts, tree nuts such as cashews and pistachios, fish, shellfish, cow’s milk, eggs and sesame. • Latex, which is found in disposable gloves, intravenous tubes, syringes, adhesive tapes and catheters. Health care workers, children with spina bifida and abnormalities of the genital and urinary organs, and people who work with natural latex are at higher risk for latex-induced anaphylaxis. Fortunately, latex allergy has decreased greatly over time as less natural latex is used in everyday products. • Medication, including penicillin and other antibiotics, aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, as well as medications used for anesthesia. • Insect stings, with bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and fire ants the most likely to trigger anaphylaxis. Avoid your trigger(s). Avoidance is the most effective way to prevent anaphylaxis. An allergist can help you develop avoidance measures tailored to your age, activities, occupation, hobbies, home environment and access to medical care. Here are some general techniques to avoid common triggers:
• Food allergies. Review all ingredient labels carefully to uncover potential allergens. When eating out, notify the server of your/your child’s allergies and ask questions about ingredients if there is any concern. If you have a child with a history of anaphylaxis, provide school personnel with a treatment plan that specifies his or her allergies and specific steps to take if the child has an allergic reaction.
• Medications. Make sure all of your doctors are aware of any reactions you’ve had to medications so that they can prescribe safe alternatives and inform you about other medications you may need to avoid. If there are no alternative medications, you may be a candidate for desensitization, a treatment that introduces a small dose of the medication to which you are allergic. As your body becomes more tolerant to it, your dosage can be increased over time. While the treatment is effective, it’s not permanent and must be repeated if the medication is needed again in the future.
• Insect stings. To help prevent stinging insects, avoid walking barefoot in grass, wearing bright colored clothing with flowery patterns, sweet-smelling perfumes, hairsprays and lotion during active insect season in late summer and early fall. An allergist can provide a preventative treatment called venom immunotherapy (or venom allergy shots) for insect sting allergy. The treatment introduces gradually increasing doses of purified insect venom and has been shown to be between 90% and 98% effective in preventing future allergic reactions to insect stings.
Be prepared. Prompt recognition of the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis is critical. If you unexpectedly encounter your trigger, immediately follow the emergency plan outlined by your doctor. If you are having a reaction and are not sure whether you should use epinephrine, it is better to go ahead and use epinephrine. Be sure to keep your epinephrine up to date. If an expired epinephrine product is the only one available in an emergency, administer it promptly anyway. Teachers and other caregivers should be informed of children who are at risk for anaphylaxis and know what to do in an allergy emergency. If you administer epinephrine and do not start getting better within minutes, seek emergency care. If it gets worse, administer the second dose of epinephrine.
Tell family and friends. Family and friends should be aware of your condition, your triggers and know how to recognize anaphylactic symptoms. If you carry epinephrine, make sure they know where you keep it and how to use it. Wear medical jewelry. Some people at risk for anaphylaxis wear medical jewelry to let people know they have allergies and need epinephrine in case of a severe reaction. See a specialist.Allergists are specially trained to help you take control of your symptoms, conduct tests and review treatment options so you can live the life you want.
THURSDAY, Sept. 18, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Aspirin can cut by more than half the risk that colon cancer will come back following initial treatment, a new clinical trial has found.
Daily aspirin reduced by 55% the risk of cancer recurrence in patients whose colorectal cancer is driven by a genetic mutation, researchers reported Sept. 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Aspirin is a drug that is readily available globally and extremely inexpensive compared to many modern cancer drugs, which is very positive,” lead researcher Anna Martling, a professor of molecular medicine and surgery at Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in a news release.
The study focused on people whose colon cancer was driven by a mutation of the PIK3 gene, which helps regulate cell growth and division in the human body.
Every year, about 107,320 new cases of colon cancer and 46,950 cases of rectal cancer are diagnosed in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.
Between 30% to 40% of colon cancer patients have their cancer come back and spread to other parts of the body following treatment, researchers said in background notes.
For the new study, researchers randomly assigned 626 colon cancer patients to take either a daily 160 mg dose of aspirin daily or a placebo pill for three years. The patients came from 33 hospitals in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
All the patients had a PIK3 mutation, and all had undergone surgery to remove their cancer before starting aspirin.
“Aspirin is being tested here in a completely new context as a precision medicine treatment,” Martling said. “This is a clear example of how we can use genetic information to personalize treatment and at the same time save both resources and suffering.”
Researchers aren’t sure exactly why aspirin cuts the risk of cancer recurrence. They said it’s likely due to the drug’s ability to reduce inflammation, thin blood and subdue tumor cell growth.
All combined, these effects create an environment less favorable for cancer, researchers said.
“Although we do not yet fully understand all the molecular links, the findings strongly support the biological rationale and suggest that the treatment may be particularly effective in genetically defined subgroups of patients,” Martling said.
By Dennis Thompson THURSDAY, July 3, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The age-old “early to bed, early to rise” proverb applies to your daily exercise regimen as well as your health, wealth and wisdom, a new study says.
On average, folks with a typical bedtime around 9 p.m. logged about 30 more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day, compared to night owls up ’til 1 a.m., researchers found.
Even delaying sleep by a couple of hours can hamper the next day’s workout, results show.
Those hitting the hay at 9 p.m. recorded nearly 15 additional minutes of exercise compared to those who delayed their sleep until 11 p.m., researchers found.
“Sleep and physical activity are both critical to health, but until now we didn’t fully grasp how intricately connected they are in everyday life,” senior investigator Elise Facer-Childs, a senior research fellow with the Monash University School of Psychological Sciences in Australia, said in a news release.
For the study, nearly 20,000 people wore a sleep-and-activity tracker on their wrist for a year. On average, the entire sample tended to nod off around 11 p.m. Results show that sleeping less than usual and falling asleep earlier were both associated with increased physical activity, compared with sleeping longer or delaying sleep later in the evening.
These findings were further validated using Fitbit data from another study involving nearly 6,000 people, researchers added.
The results suggest that conventional work schedules can interfere with a person’s exercise regimen, says lead researcher Josh Leota, a research fellow in psychology at Monash University.
“Standard 9-to-5 routines can clash with the natural sleep preferences of evening types, leading to social jetlag, poorer sleep quality and increased daytime sleepiness – which can all reduce motivation and opportunity for physical activity the next day,” Leota said in a news release.
Importantly, the study also found that folks can successfully change up their routine.
When people went to sleep earlier than usual but still got their typical amount of sleep, they recorded the highest levels of physical activity the next day, the study says.
Leota said these insights hold meaningful implications for public health. “Rather than just promoting sleep and physical activity independently, health campaigns could encourage earlier bedtimes to naturally foster more active lifestyles,” he said.
“A holistic approach that recognizes how these two essential behaviors interact may lead to better outcomes for individual and community health,” Leota concluded.
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By Dennis Thompson THURSDAY, June 26, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Kids watching YouTube videos are being hammered with messages promoting junk food like candy, sugary drinks, fast food and sweet or salty snacks, a new study says. About 75% of 6- to 8-year-olds and 36% of 3- to 5-year-olds were fed promotions for junk food while watching YouTube or YouTube Kids videos they chose on their own mobile devices, researchers reported in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
“More than half of food brands in these videos came from companies that participate in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a U.S. food industry self-regulatory program,” said senior investigator Jennifer Harris, a senior research advisor at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health at the University of Connecticut.
“Despite these companies’ pledges to only advertise healthier choices to children, child-influencers frequently promoted their brands, including candy, sugary drinks and sweet and salty snacks,” she said in a news release.
For the study, researchers observed 101 kids as they watched YouTube videos in their homes for 30 minutes. About 73% of food brand appearances promoted junk food, while only 3% of food-related messages highlighted healthy options, results show.
Most of this messaging occurred as part of brand appearances embedded within video content that purposely blurred food promotion with entertainment.
More than 60% of food brand appearances were embedded in the video content, with only 23% showing up during video previews and 17% in advertisements, researchers said.
Lifestyle videos contributed 77% of these appearances, and 71% showed an influencer or another character either consuming or preparing to consume the product, researchers said.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has called on companies and influencers to halt these common stealth marketing practices, particularly in videos aimed at young children, researchers noted.
“Very young children are being bombarded with unhealthy product promotion on YouTube and YouTube Kids, frequently embedded in their favorite videos as props or part of the storyline which disguises persuasive intent,” said lead researcher Frances Fleming-Milici, director of marketing initiatives at the Rudd Center.
“As children as young as age 3 spend more and more time on these platforms, policies must be enacted to protect them from this stealth marketing of products that harm their health,” she added in a news release.
Google bans food and beverage advertising on YouTube Kids and during “made-for-kids” videos, researchers said.
But more than a third of 3- to 8-year-olds watching YouTube Kids viewed food brands embedded in videos and thumbnail images, researchers said.
In addition, none of the videos embedded with a food or beverage brand disclosed that a food company had sponsored the content, as required by the FTC, researchers said.
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Want to reduce your risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease?
Get on your bike and ride, a new study recommends.
Biking regularly for transportation appears to lower risk of dementia by 19% and Alzheimer’s by 22%, according to results published June 9 in JAMA Network Open.
The results also suggest that cycling might even help increase the size of a brain region important for memory, researchers noted.
“Cycling is a moderate- to high-intensity workout, and also requires balance,” said Dr. Liron Sinvani, director of geriatric services at Northwell Health in Manhasset, N.Y., who reviewed the findings. “It requires more complex brain function than walking, which is why maybe it was a better reducer of dementia risk.”
“It’s not about just doing exercise and making that part of your routine, but thinking about the way you live your life,” she added in a news release. “So instead of having to drive somewhere, taking that bike and using active travel modes to get around as part of your lifestyle becomes very important.”
For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 480,000 people participating in the UK Biobank, a long-term health study of people living in England, Scotland and Wales.
As part of the study, participants noted the forms of transport they used most often to get about, not including travel to and from work.
During an average follow-up of 13 years, more than 8,800 participants developed dementia and nearly 4,000 developed Alzheimer’s.
Results showed a lower risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s among those who cycled or included cycling among other forms of travel like walking, driving or using public transportation.
“Our findings suggest that promoting active travel strategies, particularly cycling, may be associated with lower dementia risk among middle-aged and older adults, which carries substantial public health benefits by encouraging accessible, sustainable practices for cognitive health preservation,” concluded the research team led by Liangkai Chen, an associate professor at Tongji Medical College at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China.
MRI brain scans showed that cycling also was associated with a larger hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory formation and learning, researchers noted.
However, cycling’s benefits appeared to extend mostly to people without a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s, results showed.
People without the APOE E4 genetic variant had a 26% lower risk of dementia and 25% lower risk of Alzheimer’s.
Results were not statistically significant among APOE E4 carriers, but indicated less protection from cycling.
Interestingly, the results also indicate that driving offered some protection against dementia compared to taking the bus or subway.
“Even when using inactive travel like car or public transportation, it seemed like driving had a little bit better impact [on brain health] than public transportation,” Sinvani said in the news release.
However, researchers noted that this observational study could not draw a direct cause-and-effect link between cycling and healthy brain aging.
“What I tell my patients and family and friends whenever they ask me what they can do to reduce their risk of dementia, is whatever gets you outside doing stuff is what you should be doing,” she said. “I think we see that it’s not just the physical activity, but it’s also in the balance, and it really engages different parts of your brain.”
If you’re able to get on a bike, Sinvani said, do that. If you’re aren’t, use your feet.
“I think if it’s, ‘should I walk or take a bike?’ I would say take a bike, but if it’s ‘should I walk or just stay home?’ I would say definitely walk,” she said.
