Mildly elevated total serum cholesterol in midlife modestly increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia 30 years later according to the results of a large retrospective cohort study. “This is the first study, to our knowledge, to show that not only high cholesterol, but also borderline high cholesterol, is associated with dementia, and that it wasn't only associated with Alzheimer's disease but also with vascular dementia,” Dr. Rachel Whitmer, the study's senior author, noted in a telephone interview.

Men and women who break their hip or backbone are at increased risk of dying prematurely, according to a study published this week. According to the results, about 25% of men and women who fracture their hip and 16% who fracture their spine will die over a 5-year period. “Hip fractures may have long-lasting effects that result in eventual death by signaling or actually inducing a progressive decline in health,” Dr.

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that the supplement S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) has a role in the prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or primary liver cancer. In their first experiment, Shelly Lu, MD, of USCs Keck School of Medicine and her associates injected rats with liver cancer cells, which resulted in tumor formation in 80% of the animals after two weeks. Beginning 24 hours after the injection, half the rats received intravenous SAMe and the other received a control-placebo substance daily for 11 days.

Drinking five or more cups of green tea per day may reduce the risk of blood- and lymph-based cancers by about 50 per cent, says a new study from Japan. Compared to people who drank only one cup per day, five cups of green tea a day were associated with a 42% reduction in hematologic malignancies, and a 48% reduction in lymphoid neoplasms, according to findings of researchers from Tohoku University School of Medicine in Japan. The scientists followed 41,761 adults participating in the Ohsaki National Health Insurance Cohort Study, for an average period of nine years.