With Older Women Having Babies, Scientists See Glimmer Of Hope Amid Distressing Fertility Rates

The New York Times: The U.S. Fertility Rate Is Down, Yet More Women Are Mothers
A baby bust. The fertility rate at a record low. Millennials deciding not to have children. There has been a lot of worry about the state of American fertility. Yet today, 86 percent of women ages 40 to 44 — near the end of their reproductive years — are mothers, up from 80 percent in 2006, reversing decades of declines, according to a new analysis of census data by Pew Research Center on Thursday. (Miller, 1/18)

Stat: Experts Clash On Whether Exercise Benefits The Brain
The study came with impeccable pedigree — published in a peer-reviewed journal, using the most rigorous approach — and it seemed to prove what countless worried baby boomers want to believe: that breaking a sweat is good for the brain. Researchers had older women with mild cognitive impairment, which often becomes Alzheimer’s disease, exercise twice a week for six months. In women who did resistance exercises — with weights, for instance — or balance training, the size of the hippocampus decreased about 2 percent, on average. But in women who did aerobics, this memory-forming structure increased 4 percent, scientists reported in 2015. The 6-point difference was hailed in dozens of news stories, with headlines calling exercise the brain’s “miracle drug.” (Begley, 1/19)

The Associated Press: Anti-Smoking Plan May Kill Cigarettes--And Save Big Tobacco
Imagine if cigarettes were no longer addictive and smoking itself became almost obsolete; only a tiny segment of Americans still lit up. That's the goal of an unprecedented anti-smoking plan being carefully fashioned by U.S. health officials. But the proposal from the Food and Drug Administration could have another unexpected effect: opening the door for companies to sell a new generation of alternative tobacco products, allowing the industry to survive — even thrive — for generations to come. (1/19)

The New York Times: Young Women Are Using A.D.H.D. Drugs In Greater Numbers, C.D.C. Reports
The percentage of young adult women who filled prescriptions for drugs used to treat attention deficit disorder has increased more than fivefold since 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. The new report raises questions about the increasing use of a diagnosis that once was reserved for children and adolescents. (Carey, 1/18)

Stat: Changes To Federal Rules Governing Research Subjects Delayed
Federal officials are delaying changes to the policy that governs medical research on human subjects, just days before the changes were set to go into effect. The changes to what’s known as the Common Rule — a federal policy that lays out the requirements for running research that involves human subjects — were supposed to be implemented starting on Jan. 19. But this week, the Department of Health and Human Services and 15 other agencies announced that the new policy would be delayed by six months to give the scientific community more time to prepare and to give the agencies more time to seek input from research institutions. (Thielking, 1/18)

Stat: 2 Liquid Biopsy Results. Can They Both Be Right?
The question had come from his boss. It was around the beginning of 2017, and the director of research for the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins asked Dr. Gonzalo Torga, a postdoctoral fellow, which of two genomic tests they should offer to their prostate cancer patients as a way of determining eligibility for certain drugs. Torga wasn’t sure, so his boss suggested they test the tests: Order a liquid biopsy from both companies for a number of patients, and then compare the results.Their findings, the Hopkins scientists say, were disconcerting: In many cases, the two tests gave conflicting results for the same patient. They published their comparison in JAMA Oncology in December, arguing that they needed to warn other clinicians that these tests don’t give standard results. But the companies in question retort that this warning is based on sloppy study design and could mean that patients don’t get offered potentially helpful tests. (Boodman, 1/19)

The New York Times: Reproductive Factors In Women Tied To Heart Disease And Stroke Risk
Several female reproductive factors, including early menarche, early menopause and miscarriage, are associated with an increased risk for heart disease and stroke, British researchers report. Between 2006 and 2010, scientists collected data on 267,440 women 40 to 69 years old and followed them for an average of seven years. They found 3,075 cases of cardiovascular disease, 1,635 cases of coronary heart disease and 1,504 strokes. (Bakalar, 1/18)

NPR: CTE In Athletes Linked To Hits To The Head, Even Without Concussions
We live in an age of heightened awareness about concussions. From battlefields around the world to football fields in the U.S., we've heard about the dangers caused when the brain rattles around inside the skull and the possible link between concussions and the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. (Goldman, 1/18)

Los Angeles Times: Forget Concussions. The Real Risk Of CTE Comes From Repeated Hits To The Head, Study Shows
For more than a decade, researchers trying to make sense of the mysterious degenerative brain disease afflicting football players and other contact-sport athletes have focused on the threat posed by concussions. But new research suggests that attention was misguided. Instead of concerning themselves with the dramatic collisions that cause players to become dizzy, disoriented or even lose consciousness, neuroscientists should be paying attention to routine hits to the head, according to a study that examines the root cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, better known as CTE. (Healy, 1/18)