Read Dr. Holly L. Thacker’s food as medicine themed column on healthy, nutrient dense food that may be stress reducing as well!

In this episode, Dr. Stetson Thacker, a Clinical Genomics Curator at GenomOncology and a previous PhD candidate in Dr. Charis Eng’s Lab of the Genomic Medicine Institute of Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, shares his insight into navigating the seas of scientific literature. We both worked with Stetson and mutually continue to agree that we haven’t interacted with someone who had a better handle on the lit than Stetson. So of course, we hoped to pull back the curtain on his tips and tricks through this conversation. We talk about methods for staying current, organized, and collected, as well as how to deeply retain the key takeaways from papers. Highlights include plugs for curating your Google Scholar reading list, incorporating Zotero as a citation manager, and downloading the GoodReads App for finding fun books to read!

AstraZeneca and MSD’s Lynparza (olaparib) has been approved in the US for the adjuvant treatment of patients with germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) HER2-negative high-risk early breast cancer who have already been treated with chemotherapy either before or after surgery. The approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was based on results from the OlympiA Phase III trial presented during the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and published in The New England…

Having a long-term pet companion may delay memory loss and other kinds of cognitive decline, a new study has found. Pet ownership was especially beneficial for working verbal memory, such as memorization of word lists, according to the preliminary research. Owning household pets for five years or more produced the most benefit, delaying cognitive decline by 1.2 points over the six-year period of the study compared with the rate of decline in people without pets. Why did having pets for more…

A preliminary study finds women who enter menopause before age 40 are linked to a 35% higher risk of developing dementia later in life. Premature menopause, as it is called, occurs when a woman's ovaries stop creating hormones and the menstrual cycle ends by age 40. That's about a dozen years earlier than the typical onset of menopause, which is age 52 in the United States, according to the US Department of Health and Human Service's Office on Women's Health. The study shows a modest…

Attempts to develop an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s have met with little success. Researchers are increasingly turning their attention to detecting the disease early. The key to this strategy is to identify early, “modifiable” risk factors that doctors can target with drugs or other interventions. Researchers at the Paris Brain Institute in France have now found statistical associations between 10 health conditions and a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease up to 10 years later. Major…

Dr. Lin Yufang discusses how gut health can impact the rest of the body and how you can improve your gut microbiome and overall health.

New study evaluates prevalence of hair loss during the menopause transition and factors contributing to it, including obesity.

Guest columnist Dr. Robert Saper of the Department of Wellness and Preventive Medicine at Cleveland Clinic discusses how studies show that yoga can help women with chronic pain and recurrent pain.

Researchers found that prunes can help prevent or delay bone loss in postmenopausal women, possibly due to their ability to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which contribute to bone loss.

Guest columnist and everyone’s favorite Department Coordinator, Ms. Rhonda Jackson, shares her insider tips on how to be prepared when scheduling your next doctor’s appointment.

A new study reports four specific factors — higher body mass index (BMI), smoking, arthritis and depressive symptoms — at age 55 are associated with clinically important declines in physical health 10 years later. "Age 55 to 65 may be a critical decade," said study co-author Dr. Daniel Solomon, of the division of rheumatology, inflammation, and immunity at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston."A person's health and factors during this period may set them on a path for their later adult…

Margo Davis at the Cleveland Clinic Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine Department discusses how emotional eating tends to lead to overeating and choosing unhealthy foods. This can lead to obesity and depression if left unchecked.

Hormonal changes during the menopause transition have been shown to affect a woman’s gastrointestinal (GI) functions with some unpleasant results such as nausea, bloating, and abdominal pain. A new study suggests that a woman’s race/ethnicity and menopause status may partially determine the severity of these symptoms. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). With the menopause transition, the level of estrogen decreases…

Read Specialized Women’s Health Fellow Dr. Alexa Fiffick’s column on the latest news on vitamin D.

For many of us, the cold winter weather is something to dread. Winter means more layers, trying to stay warm when outside, and often stiffness in the upper body. The cold weather makes us more prone to hunching forward, which can lead to poor posture and tightness in the shoulders and back. That's why it's so important to stay on top of our stretching and yoga routines during the winter season and acknowledge when our bodies need attention. Spending time in lower temperatures, research has…

In part 2 of the column series, Updates From the 2021 North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting, Dr. Tara Iyer discusses the latest on cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and cervical cancer risks for menopausal women.

In part 1 of the column series, Updates From the 2021 North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting, Dr. Tara Iyer discusses the latest on weight management, hair loss and sleep problem treatments for menopausal women.

Bedtime from 10 to 11 p.m. is associated with lower risk of developing heart disease, new research shows.

Guest columnist Evelina Vasiliauskas PA-C in the Departments of Dermatology and Plastic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic shares at-home tips and in-office treatments for improving aging skin.