News & Articles
Color’s December Newsletter, Spectrum – Color
Linda Jiang
Color’s monthly newsletter, Spectrum, helps you stay up to date on living a healthy life with the latest in health and wellness, genetics, and cancer and heart health. If you found this information interesting, sign up for our monthly Health Notes here.
Health & Wellness
Eating Cheese Every Day May Actually Be Good for You
Time, by Amanda MacMillan
Cheese is typically considered more of an indulgence than a health food, but a new review of research suggests that it may not be as bad for you as once thought. In fact, people in the analysis who ate a little bit of cheese every day were less likely to develop heart disease …
6 Foods and Drinks that Will Get You Through the Holidays Healthfully
Washington Post, by Ellie Krieger
The flood of indulgences during the holiday season can leave us feeling sluggish and uncomfortable in our tightening pants. There are foods and drinks that dish up comfort in a better-for-you way and help you get through the season both happily and healthfully …
How to Make (and Keep) a New Year’s Resolution
New York Times, by Jen Miller
Are you making a resolution for 2018? Warning: More than half of all resolutions fail, but this year, they don’t have to be yours. Here’s how to identify the right resolution to improve your life, create a plan on how to reach it …
Genetics
The Secret to Long Life? It May Lurk in the DNA of the Oldest Among Us
New York Times, by Amy Harmon
Unlike the growing ranks of nonagenarians and centenarians, those who breach a 12th decade, known as supercentenarians, rarely face protracted illness or disability before they die, a boon that many of them have ascribed to personal habits. Each also agreed to donate DNA to a private effort to find the secrets in supercentenarian genes …
Innovative Research Finds A Gene That May Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease
Forbes, by Kevin Murnane
The Brigham Young team used an innovative approach to study the relationship between genetics and Alzheimer’s. Rather than search for a genetic marker for the disease, they looked for a gene variant that might prevent the disease. They found one in the rare RAB10 variant …
Gene Therapy Shows Promise For A Growing List Of Diseases
NPR, by Rob Stein
Eli Wheatley and Christian Guardino are among a growing number of patients whose lives are apparently being saved or radically improved by gene therapy. Wheatley, 3, of Lebanon, Ky., and Guardino, 17, of Patchogue, N.Y., were both diagnosed with what were long thought to be incurable genetic disorders …
Cancer & Heart Health
Even Low-Dose Contraceptives Slightly Increase Breast Cancer Risk
NPR, by Patti Neighmond
It’s long been known that hormonal contraception, like any medicine, carries some risks. Now a big study from Denmark suggests the elevated risk of getting breast cancer — while still very small for women in their teens, 20s and 30s — holds true for these low-dose methods, too …
A ‘Game Changer’ for Patients With Irregular Heart Rhythm
New York Times, by Gina Kolata
The patients were gravely ill, their hearts scarred by infections or heart attacks. In each, the electrical system that maintains a regular heartbeat had been short-circuited. They suffered frequent bursts of rapid heartbeats, which can end in sudden death …
Balding, Premature Graying Tied to Higher Heart Disease Risk
CNN, by James Brown
Male-pattern baldness and premature greying are associated with a greater risk of heart disease before the age of 40 than obesity. Does this mean that doctors should be screening our hairline alongside traditional risk factors such as our weight and blood pressure? …
