Women's Mid-Life Stress Might Have Long-Term Effect on Memory

TUESDAY, Aug. 20, 2019 -- Stressful experiences in middle age are associated with greater memory loss among women later in life, but this link is not found in men, a new study says.

It included more than 900 adults who were assessed twice in the early 1980s; once between 1993 and 1996; and once between 2003 and 2004. Their average age was 47 at their third visit in the '90s.

Many Americans Take Antibiotics Without a Prescription

MONDAY, July 22, 2019 -- No one would argue that antibiotics are an amazing 20th-century innovation, promising a quick cure for bacterial illnesses that might otherwise cause serious harm or death.

But they are not without risk, especially when taken without a doctor's supervision.

Bigger Waistlines a Threat to Women's Health, Even Without Obesity

WEDNESDAY, July 24, 2019 -- A widening waistline can harm the health of older women, even if they avoid obesity, new research suggests.

It's a condition known as "central obesity" -- a concentration of fat around the abdomen. Central obesity can occur even if it's not enough to shift a person's body mass index (BMI) into the obese range, explained researchers led by Wei Bao, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa.

Clues to Why Women Have Higher Odds for Alzheimer's

WEDNESDAY, July 17, 2019 -- Rates of Alzheimer's disease are higher in women than in men, and researchers now think they know why.

A team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, Tenn., has identified gender differences in how the Alzheimer's-related protein tau spreads in the brain.

Forget the Past: Get Moving Now and Live Longer

THURSDAY, June 27, 2019 -- Stop agonizing over the decades you spent glued to the couch. New research shows that physically active middle-aged and older adults live longer -- even if they were inactive when they were younger.

And that's even if they had previous serious health problems, according to the British study.

Big Decline Seen in Use of Annual Pelvic Exam by Young Women

WEDNESDAY, June 26, 2019 -- Young women are far less likely now to get an annual pelvic exam than they were in decades past, a new report finds.

In 1988, about 42% of those aged 15 to 20 got the standard gynecologic exam, but by 2017 that number had dropped by half, to just under 22%, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.