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…

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…

Certified Nurse Practitioner Dana Leslie discusses the Intrauterine Contraception (IUD) and what women can expect, including the side effects, the benefits, the cons and the process of inserting an IUD.

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!

Speaking of Women's Health guest columnist Dr. Sandra Darling shares one simple dietary change that can improve memory and other brain functions.

Pregnancy, long reproductive span, and older age at menopause are associated with a lower risk of dementia in women, according to a recent study. Inversely, hysterectomy, younger age of first birth, and younger or older than average age at first period were associated with greater dementia risk. The study suggests that reproductive and hormonal factors may be involved in dementia risk, but observed a similar association between the number of children and dementia risk in women and men,…

During the past 2 decades, Endocrine Today has reported on the latest developments in hormone therapy for symptoms associated with menopause. For its 20th year, the publication is taking a look back. Twenty years ago, findings from a pivotal study dramatically changed the public’s perception — as well as that of some health care providers — surrounding menopausal HT. According to the timing hypothesis, HT is safer for younger women who initiate it closer to the start of menopause and most…

Dr. Holly L. Thacker shares seven ways women can help prevent osteoporosis and have strong, healthy bones.

Dr. Tiffany Cochran discusses why dry eye disease is so common among midlife women and what women can do to treat dry eyes.

Dr. Alexa N. Fiffick discusses how headaches are more common in women. Two of the most common headache conditions are cervicogenic headache and migraine.

Over twenty years ago, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study, which randomized women to receive either hormone therapy or a placebo, set out to assess the benefits and risks of hormone therapy. In 2002, the WHI study was abruptly halted because the researchers found that women taking a combination of estrogen and progestin had an increased risk of breast cancer, heart attacks, stroke, and blood clots. Headlines blasted the news that hormone therapy was unsafe, and the use of hormone therapy…

Twenty years ago, the National Institutes of Health abruptly terminated research on the effect of hormone therapy on postmenopausal women. The decision resulted in a cascade of harm to millions who have undergone menopause in the United States. And it remains uncorrected two decades later. More than 1 billion people worldwide will be in menopause by 2025. Today, there are 55 million in the United States alone, nearly 75 percent of whom report not receiving support or treatment for its effects.…

On the 20th anniversary of the now infamous Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study that brought the field of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) to its knees, it is only fitting that we revisit the study and use science-backed information to emphasize the true outcome of the findings. Especially when two decades later women are still impacted by the aftershocks. Join Dr. Holly L. Thacker and Dr. Alexa Fiffick from the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Specialized Women’s Health, as they address the…

The American Heart Association published a 2020 scientific statement on cardiovascular disease risk for women transitioning through or experiencing menopause. The report reflects scientific evidence on menopause and cardiovascular risks, and this article reviews the statement with a focus on what is new and what is clinically important for healthcare providers treating this patient population.

Speaking of Women's Health guest columnist Dr. Jessica Ruff shares how acupuncture can help reduce headaches.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Mounjaro™ (tirzepatide) injection to improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes, as an addition to diet and exercise. Mounjaro was effective at improving blood sugar and was more effective than the other diabetes therapies with which it was compared in clinical studies. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) are hormones involved in blood sugar control. Mounjaro is a…

Speaking of Women's Health guest columnist, Cheryl Taylor RNFA at Cleveland Clinic, shares tips on how women can prepare for and recover from hip and knee replacement surgeries.

Scientists still may not know the exact cause of fibromyalgia, but that hasn’t stopped them from developing treatments for the chronic pain associated with the condition. For years, all of those therapeutics have been of the pharmacological variety, with three drugs approved by the FDA since 2007. Now, however, patients will have a drug-free alternative to treat their fibromyalgia, as the agency issued a de novo clearance for a wearable neuromodulation system from NeuroMetrix designed to ease…

Dr. Irina Todorov discusses how human connection is important for one's health.