If you can balance on one leg for 10 seconds, you’re more likely to live at least another decade

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If you can balance on one leg for 10 seconds, you’re more likely to live at least another decade

A study published this month in the “British Journal of Sports Medicine” reports that people who failed a 10-second balance test of standing on one foot were nearly twice as likely to die in the next 10 years. While the connection between balance and longevity is not clear, the study’s lead author, Dr. Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, suspects it may be tied to frailty. “Aged people falling are in very high risk of major fractures and other related complications," Araújo told NBC News. "This may play a role in the higher risk of mortality.”

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A daily coffee can help you live longer. That coffee frappe? Not so much.

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A daily coffee can help you live longer. That coffee frappe? Not so much.

For years, science has known about the link between longer life and coffee consumption. But a new study, for the first time, weighs the effects of sweeteners. The findings suggest that the morning coffee routine is healthy if you don't overdo the sugar.

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New research may point to a cure for diabetes

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New research may point to a cure for diabetes

Swedish researchers identified a molecule that can stimulate the production of insulin-producing cells in zebrafish and mammalian tissue. Their findings suggest science may be taking its first steps toward curing diabetes, a serious disease that affects 1 in 10 Americans and annually costs the United States about $327 billion in medical costs and lost work and wages.

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Small clinical trial surprises researchers: Patients all see their cancer go into remission

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Small clinical trial surprises researchers: Patients all see their cancer go into remission

Something that never happens just did: Every patient participating in a small clinical trial for a new therapy for rectal cancer went into remission. The cancer vanished in every patient. It could not be detected with physical exams, endoscopy, PET scans or M.R.I. scans. “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told the New York Times.

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Celebrating a longevity milestone: Congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee

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Celebrating a longevity milestone: Congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee

The 96-year-old queen is being honored with parades, a concert, and various other celebrations to recognize her record-setting reign. Elizabeth is officially the longest-reigning monarch in the United Kingdom, outlasting her great, great grandmother, Queen Victoria, by nearly seven years.

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Researchers discover new tool that may help to reverse hearing loss

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Researchers discover new tool that may help to reverse hearing loss

Northwestern scientists found the master gene switch that programs the ear hair cells is TBX2. When it is expressed, the cell becomes an inner hair cell. When blocked, the cell becomes an outer hair cell. Jaime García-Añoveros, professor of Anesthesiology, Neurology and Neuroscience at Northwestern and the study’s lead author, said that producing these cells will require a gene cocktail. First, ATOH1 and GF1 are necessary to make a cochlear hair cell from a non-hair cell. Then the TBX2 would be turned on or off to produce the needed inner or outer cell. The goal would be to reprogram supporting cells into outer or inner hair cells. These supporting cells are interlaced among the hair cells and provide them with structural support

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Progress on a better alternative to animal testing

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Progress on a better alternative to animal testing

Medicine depends on animal testing to assess drug safety and efficacy. The problem is that animal tests often fail to predict clinical responses. This means drugs that look promising in animal studies often fail to deliver in human clinical trials. In fact, one study found that more than 86% of drugs found to be safe and effective in animal studies fail to get FDA approval. A new article in Nature Biomedical Engineering reports on the creation of what may eventually lead to a replacement for animal testing.

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New Parts for People: Artificial Bone from European Space Agency

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New Parts for People: Artificial Bone from European Space Agency

Scientists at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) artificially produced a piece of bone to test new bioprinting techniques. The point of the work was to find ways to give astronauts on extended missions access to what the agency’s website calls “spare parts” needed for bone or skin grafts, and even complete internal organs.

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Can we use some cancer cells’ need for iron against them?

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Can we use some cancer cells’ need for iron against them?

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, found that cells with oncogenic KRAS mutations have increased levels of ferrous iron (Fe2+) that could, potentially, be used to “turn on” drugs that target cancer cells. The researchers’ findings could give new life to effective cancer drugs that fell out of favor because of the harm they cause to healthy cells. Adding an iron-activated trigger can make the difference.

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