Dr. Susan Sharma: This is insidermedicine in 60. From New Orleans, according to research presented to the American Heart Association, childhood obesity may be a warning sign for heart disease. Researchers measured the thickness of the inner lining of the carotid arteries in 70 children, most of whom were obese and found that while the average age of the children was 13, the state of their arteries was more typical of somebody 30 years older. This advanced vascular age increases the risk for heart attack or stroke by age 30.
From St. Louis, according to research in the Archives of Neurology, education can help protect against Alzheimer's. In a study of 37 people with Alzheimer's-like dementia and 161 controls, researchers found that those with a higher level of education performed better on cognitive tests than those with similar amounts of brain plaque but less education. Education level did not have any bearing on cognitive function in those without this plaque.
And finally, from California, Google has launched a new online tool that could help experts at the CDC track the annual flu epidemic. Google Flu Trends, released through the philanthropic site google.org, tracks flu incidence across the US by monitoring influenza-related terms that are entered into Google's search engine. This allows the CDC to track flu activity in near real time, when previously their surveillance data was about 2 weeks behind. For insidermedicine in 60, I'm Dr. Susan Sharma.
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