Impact of Persistent Combat-Related PTSD on Heart Disease and Chronic Disease Comorbidity in Aging Vietnam Veterans.

Objectives: To assess combat and combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as risk factors for heart disease and non-cardiac chronic disease comorbidity in deployed Vietnam veterans 50 years post-War.

Methods: A random sample of 735 Vietnam-deployed American Legionnaires was surveyed in 1984, 1998, and 2000 for combat exposure, probable PTSD, and history of diagnosed chronic illnesses.

Results: Twenty-eight percent reported a diagnosed heart condition; combat exposure in Vietnam was a significant predictor (OR = 1.

The coping, appraisal, and resilience in aging (CARA) model: Longitudinal findings from the Normative Aging Study.

Resilience is central to understanding how individuals withstand the adverse effects of stress, but there is no generally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes resilience in later life. The present study tests the coping, appraisal, and resilience in aging model, which posits that resilient older adults, when faced with a problem, can draw upon their lifelong experience to minimize coping effort to conserve resources but still maintain a sense of coping efficacy (perceptions of how well they had handled the specific problem). We assessed coping effort and efficacy in 896 men in the Veterans' Affairs Normative Aging Study (Mage in 1993 = 64.

Meat and the future of sustainable diets-Challenges and opportunities.

The British Nutrition Foundation convened a roundtable event in January 2024 entitled 'Meat and the Future of Sustainable Diets: Turning Challenges into Opportunities', bringing together multi-sector stakeholders to discuss the social, nutritional, public health and environmental aspects of meat consumption within a sustainable food system. Participants explored the challenge of the complexity of balancing nutrition and planetary goals, emphasising the need to navigate trade-offs between various dimensions of sustainability. Whilst recognising the global nature of the issue, the roundtable primarily focussed on a UK perspective.

Extracellular microRNAs associated with psychiatric symptoms in the Normative Aging Study.

Earlier studies have revealed microRNAs (miRNAs) as potential biomarkers for neurological conditions, however, such evidence on psychiatric outcomes is limited. We utilized the Normative Aging Study (NAS) cohort to investigate the associations between extracellular miRNAs (ex-miRNA) and psychiatric symptoms among a group of older male adults, along with the targeted genes and biological pathways. We studied 569 participants with miRNA profile primarily measured in extracellular vesicles isolated from plasma, and psychiatric symptoms reported over 1996-2014 with repeated measures.

Do appraisals of military service indicate current distress in aging Vietnam War combat veterans?

Objective: Appraisals of military service, both desirable and undesirable, assessed via Elder and Clipp's (1989) scale, are associated with psychological distress in veterans. Aging combat veterans (CV) are at increased risk for posttraumatic stress disorder and other psychological disorders yet may underreport symptoms and not seek treatment that could be beneficial. It is unknown whether desirable and undesirable appraisals of military service are associated with mental health outcomes above and beyond typical risk and protective factors, such as age, education, and combat exposure.

Mental Health and Cognition in Women Veterans Enrolled in the Health of Vietnam Era Veteran Women's Study (HealthViEWS).

This analysis explored relationships between mental health symptoms and conditions and cognitive function in a cohort of Vietnam-era women veterans from the Health of Vietnam Era Veteran Women's Study (HealthViEWS). Vietnam-era women veterans completed a mail survey assessing self-reported symptom severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. A telephone-based structured interview assessed mental health conditions and cognitive function (telephone interview for cognitive status [TICS]).

Associations between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Diabetes in Vietnam-Era Women Veterans in the HealthViEWS Study.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with incident diabetes. However, past studies have often included predominantly male samples, despite important sex and gender differences in diabetes. To address this limitation, this study examined the association between PTSD and diabetes in older Veteran women, a population with a high burden of PTSD.

The Costs of Coping: Long-Term Mortality Risk in Aging Men.

Objectives: Prospective associations between coping and all-cause mortality risk are understudied, particularly among nonmedical samples. We assessed independent and joint associations of multiple components of the transactional stress and coping model with all-cause mortality in a cohort of community-dwelling men. We were particularly interested in how coping effort related to mortality.

Enhancing social functioning in older veterans with PTSD: Rationale and design of an intervention and initial RCT.

Background: Older Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are often socially isolated and have complex comorbid physical health problems. Aging-related stressors can exacerbate PTSD symptoms. These factors contribute to greater impairment in social functioning and decreased quality of life (QoL).

Benchmarking of deep neural networks for predicting personal gene expression from DNA sequence highlights shortcomings.

Deep learning methods have recently become the state of the art in a variety of regulatory genomic tasks, including the prediction of gene expression from genomic DNA. As such, these methods promise to serve as important tools in interpreting the full spectrum of genetic variation observed in personal genomes. Previous evaluation strategies have assessed their predictions of gene expression across genomic regions; however, systematic benchmarking is lacking to assess their predictions across individuals, which would directly evaluate their utility as personal DNA interpreters.

No food for thought-How important is breakfast to the health, educational attainment and wellbeing of school-aged children and young people?

There have been reports from teachers of pupils in the United Kingdom arriving at school hungry. Poor nutritional intake during childhood can increase the risk of developing both short- and long-term health problems. Breakfast consumption has been associated with several outcomes including better diet quality and healthier weight status.

Is there intergenerational continuity in early life experiences? Findings from the Harvard Study of Adult Development.

There has been longstanding and widespread interdisciplinary interest in understanding intergenerational processes, or the extent to which conditions repeat themselves across generations. However, due to the difficulty of collecting longitudinal, multigenerational data on early life conditions, less is known about the extent to which offspring experience the same early life conditions that their parents experienced in their own early lives. Using data from a socioeconomically diverse, White U.

Psychological Stress and Epigenetic Aging in Older Men: The VA Normative Aging Study.

Psychological stress remains an important risk factor for morbidity and mortality throughout the life course. However, there have been counterintuitive findings reported in previous studies of older persons that examine the relationships of perceived psychological stress with DNA methylation-based markers of aging, which also serve as predictors of morbidity and mortality (epigenetic age/clocks). We aimed to replicate and expand findings from existing work by examining relationships of self-reported stress with nine epigenetic clocks: Hannum, Horvath, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, SkinBloodClock, PhenoAge, GrimAge, DNAm Telomere Length, and Pace of Aging.

Metabolomics and Self-Reported Depression, Anxiety, and Phobic Symptoms in the VA Normative Aging Study.

Traditional approaches to understanding metabolomics in mental illness have focused on investigating a single disorder or comparisons between diagnoses, but a growing body of evidence suggests substantial mechanistic overlap in mental disorders that could be reflected by the metabolome. In this study, we investigated associations between global plasma metabolites and abnormal scores on the depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) among 405 older males who participated in the Normative Aging Study (NAS). Our analysis revealed overlapping and distinct metabolites associated with each mental health dimension subscale and four metabolites belonging to xenobiotic, carbohydrate, and amino acid classes that were consistently associated across all three symptom dimension subscales.

64-year-old woman • hot flashes, facial flushing, excessive sweating, and palpitations • daily headaches • history of hypertension • Dx?

► hot flashes, facial flushing, excessive sweating, and palpitations ► daily headaches ► history of hypertension.

Personalized Postacute Hospitalization Recovery: A Novel Intervention to Improve Patient Experience and Reduce Cost.

Goal: Readmissions are a significant financial burden for payers. Cardiovascular-related discharges are particularly prone to readmission. Posthospital discharge support can impact patient recovery and probably reduce patient readmissions.

How do we differentiate not demonise - Is there a role for healthier processed foods in an age of food insecurity? Proceedings of a roundtable event.

The 'ultra-processed food' (UPF) concept, with classification of foods by 'level of processing' rather than nutrient profiles, and its relationship with health outcomes, is currently a topic of debate among academics and increasingly referred to in the media. The British Nutrition Foundation convened a virtual roundtable on 6th July 2022 to gather views on the use of the term (and current definitions of) UPF for public health messaging, seeking to establish areas of consensus and disagreement and identify topics for further research. A small group of invited expert stakeholders attended, including representatives from academia, policy, behavioural science, communications, health, food science, retail and consumer interests.

Leveraging Comprehensive Health Records for Breast Cancer Risk Prediction: A Binational Assessment.

Breast cancer (BC) risk models based on electronic health records (EHR) can assist physicians in estimating the probability of an individual with certain risk factors to develop BC in the future. In this retrospective study, we used clinical data combined with machine learning tools to assess the utility of a personalized BC risk model on 13,786 Israeli and 1,695 American women who underwent screening mammography in the years 2012-2018 and 2008-2018, respectively. Clinical features were extracted from EHR, personal questionnaires, and past radiologists' reports.

Utility of the coned-down lateral view of the lumbosacral spine.

Objective: At certain institutions and radiology practices, a routine lumbar radiographic exam may include 3 views: AP, lateral, and coned-down lateral of the lumbosacral junction. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the third coned-down-lateral view adds significant diagnostic information regarding pathology at the L4-L5 and L5-S1 levels.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study includes patients (n = 74) who had a 3-view radiographic exam of the lumbar spine, as well as a CT or MRI within six months.