The NPR (10/21, Hamilton) “Shots” blog reports neuroscientists “are offering a new reason to control blood sugar levels: It might help lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.” This past Sunday, at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, investigators presented “new research exploring the links between Alzheimer’s and diabetes.”

Related Links:

— “Keeping Your Blood Sugar In Check Could Lower Your Alzheimer’s Risk, “Jon Hamilton, NPR, October 21, 2019

Patients taking high doses of loperamide in an attempt to self-manage opioid withdrawal or to achieve a euphoric high may be at risk of severe cardiac events. If you suspect that a patient is misusing loperamide, ask your patient: Have you been taking loperamide? How much loperamide do you take and how often? Are you aware of the severe heart risks associated with loperamide misuse? Learn more about loperamide misuse, including the right questions to ask your patients, at LoperamideSafety.org.

Related Links:

— “Understanding Loperamide Abuse

Healio (10/21, Gramigna) reports, “Children whose fathers have poor mental health are more than twice as likely also to have poor mental health,” researchers concluded after using “data for 75,879 children from the 2011 to 2012 National Survey of Children’s Health” to estimate “prevalence and odds of poor mental and physical health among children based on the overall and mental health status of fathers, as well as pertinent sociodemographic covariates.” The findings were published online Oct. 9 in the journal Health Equity.

Related Links:

— “Child mental health status may be closely linked to father’s, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 21, 2019

The New York Times (10/21, Klass) reports on the work of University of Pittsburgh postdoctoral scholar Frances Wang to understand the role of genetics in adolescents’ risk for developing alcohol use disorders and other “conduct problems, like aggression and antisocial behavior, which can be predecessors of alcohol problems.” Dr. Wang helped to author “a study published in 2018 in the journal Development and Psychopathology, which looks at a particular biological attribute – the functioning of serotonin, a neurotransmitter – determined by a combination of genetic factors.” Dr. Wang said that “for most people it’s the interaction between already having that genetic risk and an environment that increases genetic risk or makes genetic risk come out.” In another study, Dr. Wang and her colleagues “found that the serotonin function may be related to a tendency to become impulsive in the face of negative emotion, a trait called negative urgency.”

Related Links:

— “When Teen Drinking Becomes a Disorder, “Perri Klass, M.D., The New York Times, October 21, 2019

Healio (10/18, Gramigna) reported, “States with more behavioral health workers experienced a minor reduction in adjusted firearm suicide rates,” researchers concluded after conducting “a time-series cross-sectional analysis to compare firearm suicide rates in states with more available treatment professionals with rates in states with fewer professionals.” The findings were published online Oct. 7 in the journal Health Affairs.

Related Links:

— “, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 18, 2019