This Week In Health: Tipping Point With ‘Superbugs’

“This Week In Health” offers some highlights from the world of health and wellness that you may have missed this week:

• Experts say we are at a tipping point with antibiotic-resistant bacteria — so-called “superbugs.” Due to the massive overuse of antibiotic drugs, pathogens are becoming increasingly immune to available treatments, posing a huge potential public health risk. The Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to curb the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock in an effort to mitigate the spread of these unkillable microbes.
• A link between obesity and Type 2 diabetes has already been quite well established for some time. A new study published in mBio sheds new light on the precise mechanism: Type 2 diabetes is possibly caused by bacteria that become more prevalent in the bodies of people who gain weight. What this means in practice is that doctors may have a way to intercede and affect the course of Type 2 diabetes, by targeting the bacteria.
• New research suggests that poor sleep in old age may be linked to the development of Alzheimer’s Disease. The findings imply that insufficient deep sleep contributes to “a reduced ability to cement memories in the brain over the long term, resulting in greater memory loss,” according to researchers.
• The tragic loss of 46-year-old Beau Biden to brain cancer has brought renewed attention to brain tumors, an often lethal and not fully understood form of cancer, and to developing new and more effective treatments in the fight to cure them.

Photo: NIAID via Flickr