The Washington Post (12/16, Bernstein) “To Your Health” blog reported that according to a study on 317 adults in late middle age, those who “exercised five times a week or more had fewer of the age-related changes in the brain that are associated with” Alzheimer’s disease, “and did better on cognitive tests.”

Related Links:

— “More evidence that exercise can help fight Alzheimer’s disease,” Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post, December 16, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (12/16, Kaplan) “Science Now” blog reports that according to a research letter published online Dec. 15 in JAMA Internal Medicine, “when it comes to longevity, feeling young may be more important than being young.” After analyzing “data on nearly 6,500 English adults,” researchers “found that those who felt at least one year older than their actual age were 41% more likely to die within eight years than were those who felt at least three years younger than the age listed on their birth certificates.”

The AP (12/16, Tanner) reports that “feeling older was a predictor of death even when the researchers accounted for things that could affect death rates, including illnesses, wealth, education, smoking, alcohol intake and physical activity.” The reason for that link is unknown, but it is “possible that health conditions and lifestyle choices that the researchers didn’t study explain why feeling old may help predict death.” Another theory is that “it may be that those who feel younger than their real age have ‘greater resilience, sense of mastery, and will to live,’ the researchers said.”

Related Links:

— “It’s OK to be old if you feel young, study suggests,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2014.

The Wall Street Journal (12/16, Silverman, Subscription Publication) reports that a Federal judge has issued an injunction preventing Actavis PLC from removing the older version of the Namenda (memantine) Alzheimer’s medicine in favor of a newer version of the treatment. At issue is a tactic employed by pharmaceutical companies, called product hopping, in which a company releases a newer version of a drug and removes the older version before a generic version becomes available. Effectively, patients are forced into using the newer version.

Related Links:

— “Court Rules on Alzheimer’s Drug,” Ed Silverman, Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2014.

The Washington Post (12/16, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that according to a study published in the December issue of the journal Sleep, people in the US appear to be exchanging sleep time for work. After examining “nearly 125,000 responses to the American Time Use Survey to calculate two things: first, how much sleep we’re getting, and second, what we’re doing instead of sleeping,” researchers found that “compared to normal sleepers, so-called ‘short sleepers’ – those who are getting six hours or less on weeknights – worked 1.5 more hours on weekdays and nearly two hours more on weekends and holidays.” People who worked at multiple jobs got even less sleep.

Related Links:

— “Americans are trading sleep for work, and it’s literally killing us,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, December 15, 2014.

USA Today (12/16, Leger) reports that a national survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s “Monitoring the Future” project found that “marijuana use among teens declined this year even as two states, Colorado and Washington, legalized the drug for recreational use.”

The survey also found “Abuse of all prescription drugs, including narcotic painkillers, sedatives and amphetamines, declined from 16% in 2013 to 14% in 2014 among 12th graders, the survey found. Narcotic painkiller use, in decline since 2009, dropped again from 7% in 2013 to 6% in 2014.

Heroin use, which has grown among adult populations, remained stable for teens.” According to Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Teens considered narcotic pain relievers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, safer than illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine, because they are prescribed by doctors.”

Related Links:

— “Survey: Teen marijuana use declines even as states legalize,” Donna Leinwand Leger, USA Today, December 16, 2014.