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WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Sustaining just one head injury may up your chances of developing dementia decades later by 25%, and this risk increases with each subsequent head injury, new research suggests."Head injury is not the only risk factor for dementia as high blood pressure and diabetes, among others, also contribute significantly to dementia risk, but head injury is one risk factor for dementia that is modifiable by behavioral changes such as wearing helmets and seat belts," said study author Dr. Andrea Schneider. She's an assistant professor in the neurology department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.Dementia is an umbrella term for a group of diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, that affect thinking ability, memory and/or other...

WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- Grief is a common, if not universal, human experience. But that doesn't make it simple.It's psychological, but it affects people physically. It's a matter of science, but scientists who discuss it can sound poetic. Dr. Katherine Shear, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University School of Social Work in New York, calls grief "the form that love takes when someone we love dies."COVID-19 has both brought grief and disrupted the way people experience it. But researchers have been examining grief since well before the pandemic.Simply defining it can be difficult. Shear, who also is director of the Columbia Center for Complicated Grief, said "there are pretty much as many different definitions of grief as there are people."...

WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- High blood pressure during pregnancy may lead to early death from heart disease, a new study suggests.There are several types of high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) during pregnancy. Chronic hypertension means high blood pressure was already present before a pregnancy, but in gestational hypertension readings rise during pregnancy. A third form, called preeclampsia, occurs when a woman with gestational hypertension also has elevated protein in her urine. Women can also have chronic high blood pressure with preeclampsia.But developing high blood pressure from any cause during pregnancy appears linked to shortened life spans, the researchers found. This study can't prove that high blood pressure is the cause of premature death,...

WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Many older adults with dementia are prescribed dangerous combinations of drugs that raise their risk of overdose, falls and further mental deterioration, a new study finds.About 1 in 7 people with dementia living outside of nursing homes are taking three or more drugs that act on their brain and nervous system, researchers reported.The most troubling combinations involved opioids, noted lead researcher Dr. Donovan Maust, an associate professor of psychiatry at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan's academic medical center.Opioids are prescribed for pain, but they carry a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-required black box warning of overdose and death if they are taken alongside benzodiazepines, antipsychotics and anti-seizure...