The Boston Globe (7/8, Kotz) “Daily Dose” blog reports that 49 percent “of Americans experienced an earth-shattering, stressful event last year that completely altered their lives.” Approximately “half of the time, these events were related to a major health problem, either their own or a loved one’s that may have ended in death,” according to the results “a new survey [pdf] of more than 2,500 Americans released Monday by the Harvard School of Public Health, National Public Radio, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.”

The Huffington Post (7/8, Holmes) reports that other common sources of stress for people are “followed by work problems (13 percent) and life changes (9 percent),” the survey revealed. Investigators also “discovered that many who experienced large amounts of stress in the last month turned to healthy activities like spending time with loved ones, meditating and eating well in order to deal with their worries.”

Related Links:

— “Half of Americans under high stress over past year, survey says,” Deborah Kotz, The Boston Globe, July 7, 2014.

Reuters (7/8, Kelland) reports that according to a study published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, researchers in the UK have completed identification of 10 blood proteins predictive of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with a little less than 90% accuracy.

Reuters notes that pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson are using different approaches to develop treatments to stop progression of the disease. However, over the past decade and a half more than 100 experimental drugs have failed in trial, which one of the authors of the study said could be attributed to conducting drug trials at too late a stage.

Related Links:

— “Study paves the way for a blood test to predict Alzheimer’s,” Kate Kelland, Reuters, July 7, 2014.

The McClatchy-Tribune News Service (7/6) reported that according to a study published recently in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers have “shown that chronic stress of poverty, neglect and physical abuse in early life may shrink the parts of a child’s developing brain responsible for memory, learning and processing emotion.”

The two parts of the brain involved are the hippocampus and the amygdala. The study involved 128 12-year-olds, all of whom underwent magnetic resonance imaging scans.

Related Links:

— “Researchers: Early stress from poverty hurts brain development,” McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Detroit Free Press, July 6, 2014.

USA Today (6/30, Zoroya) reports that according to the results of a US Army-funded study published online June 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine, “the rate of narcotic prescription use among US troops coming out of combat is more than three times the rate for civilians and more than 44% of service members complain of chronic pain lasting longer than three months.” The study “was based on a survey of soldiers in an Army brigade three months after returning from Afghanistan in 2011.” Of that group, “more than 45% said they had been injured in combat.”

The Los Angeles Times (6/30, Zarembo) “Science Now” blog reports that the majority of the 1,131 soldiers who reported chronic pain “were taking over-the-counter medications,” and “fewer than a quarter — or 259 —had a prescription for opioids.” Of the latter group, “most…said they had used opioids a ‘few or several days’ during the past month, while 60 soldiers had taken them nearly every day.”

Related Links:

— “Many combat veterans use prescription narcotics,” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, July 2, 2014.

The Washington Post (7/1, Lamothe) reports a recent poll indicates “the vast majority of veterans believe their physical health care needs are being met at least ‘somewhat well’ — on par with the general public in separate surveys.” However, only 41% of those who served in Iraq or Afghanistan responded that their needs are being met “very well,” while 56% of the general public said the same.

Related Links:

— “Poll shows mixed response to military health care as scrutiny mounts,” Dan Lamothe, Washington Post, June 30, 2014.