HealthDay (7/25, Bernstein) reports, “Teenage athletes are less likely to abuse prescription” pain medications “than kids who don’t play sports or exercise,” research published online July 25 in Pediatrics suggests. The study’s findings “run counter to some research in recent years detailing concerns about injured teen athletes abusing opioid” pain medications prescribed by physicians “and then moving on to use heroin.”

MedPage Today (7/25, Walker) reports that in arriving at the study’s conclusions, investigators “examined data from 191,660 respondents – 52% eighth graders and 48% tenth graders.”

Related Links:

— “Painkillers for Teen Athletes Won’t Spur Addiction: Study,” James Bernstein, HealthDay, July 25, 2016.

The Washington Times (7/25, Ernst) reports, “A survey by the George W. Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative” of about 1,000 US adults suggests that “Americans have a warped understanding of veterans’ mental health issues.” The survey found that approximately “40 percent of adults in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom hold the erroneous belief that more than half of 2.8 million post-9/11 veterans have psychological problems.” Estimates made by the Rand Corporation, however, found that “10 and 20 percent of veterans struggle with mental health issues.”

Related Links:

— “Americans grossly overestimate number of veterans with mental problems, poll says,” Douglas Ernst, Washington Times, July 25, 2016.

In “Social Issues,” the Washington Post (7/24, Bahrampour) reported, “Work that involves complex thinking and interaction with other people seems to help protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s,” research indicated.

One study revealed that “while a ‘Western’ diet (characterized by red and processed meats, white bread, potatoes, pre-packaged foods, and sweets) is associated with cognitive decline, people who ate such food could offset the negative effects and experienced less cognitive decline if they also had a mentally stimulating lifestyle.”

A second study, which involved brain scans, revealed that “people with increased white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) – white spots that appear on brain scans and are commonly associated with Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline – were able to better tolerate WMH-related damage if they worked primarily with other people rather than with things or data.”

Related Links:

— “Complex jobs and social ties appear to help ward off Alzheimer’s, new research shows,” Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post, July 24, 2016.

The New York Times (7/24, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reported that on July 24 at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, “neuropsychiatrists and Alzheimer’s experts” proposed that certain behavior or personality changes lasting more than six months may “indicate a very early stage of dementia.” Also proposed was “the creation of a new diagnosis: mild behavioral impairment [MBI].”

The AP (7/24, Neergaard) reported that the experts “proposed a checklist of symptoms” of MBI to alert families and physicians. The draft checklist includes “apathy, anxiety about once routine events, loss of impulse control, flaunting social norms,” and “loss of interest in food,” among other things. Should the checklist be “validated,” it could assist physicians in better identifying “people at risk of brewing Alzheimer’s and study changes over time.”

Related Links:

— “Personality Change May Be Early Sign of Dementia, Experts Say,” PAM BELLUCK, New York Times, July 24, 2016.

NBC Nightly News (7/24, story 6, 2:00, Holt) reported in a two-minute segment, “There’s been a debate about whether brain exercises can help ward off” Alzheimer’s disease. On Sunday, “scientists reported for the first time they do work.”

The Los Angeles Times (7/24, Healy) reported in “Science Now” that “older adults who did exercises to shore up the speed at which they processed visual information could cut by nearly half their likelihood of cognitive decline or dementia over a 10-year period.” The findings, which were presented July 24 at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference and involved some 2,802 “cognitively healthy” seniors, “establish specialized brain training as a potentially powerful strategy to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other afflictions, including normal aging, that sap memory and reduce function.”

Related Links:

— “Brain training may forestall dementia onset for years, new study says,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, July 24, 2016.