A JAMA study has found that the flu vaccine, taken by 60% of people over 65-years-old, may be killing a significant number of senior citizens.

Sharyl Attkisson, a former investigative journalist for CBS, says the study shows there is no improvement in mortality rates among senior citizens who get flu shots, and may actually contribute to increased ill-health and death.

Inquisitr.com reports: The study "got little attention," she says, "because the science came down on the wrong side." Whereas the researchers had set out to prove that the push for massive flu vaccination would save the world, the researchers were "astonished" to find that the data did not support their presupposition at all. The data actually shows that deaths increased, not decreased, among seniors following vaccination.

Johns Hopkins scientist, Peter Doshi, Ph.D., issued a report in the prestigious British Medical Journal, according to NewsLI, asserting that the CDC policy of routinely recommending the flu vaccine is being based on "low quality studies that do not substantiate claims." He says there is no evidence that the vaccine reduces deaths among senior citizens. Interestingly, Doshi cites an Australian study which found significant risks for children as well, stating that "one in every 110 children under the age of five had convulsions following vaccinations in 2009 for H1N1 influenza."

During the drug trials for the Fluzone flu vaccine, 23 seniors out of 3,833 died after receiving the shot, according to the drug's package insert, reported by Health Impact News. Another 226 experienced "serious adverse effects." The manufacturer denies any connection between the deaths and the flu vaccine.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, brain regeneration is possible. One promising therapy that promotes neurogenesis and is effective in pre-clinical studies of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's is near infrared light therapy, and it may improve other mental illnesses and neurodegenerative disorders including dementia, stroke, ALS, and traumatic brain injury as well.

Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are the most common neurodegenerative disorders. The former is a type of dementia that occurs secondary to the accumulation of abnormal protein deposits in the brain, including β-amyloid plaques and intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles made of tau protein ⁽¹⁾. Upon neuroimaging studies, gross cerebral cortical atrophy is found, meaning that the part of the brain responsible for executive functions such as learning, memory, language, decision-making, and problem-solving progressively degenerates ^(1). In addition, gliosis, or brain inflammation, is a hallmark characteristic of Alzheimer's ⁽¹⁾.

One hypothesis that is championed proposes that Alzheimer's occurs due to self-propagating, prion-like protein assemblies, which interfere with the function of nerve cells ⁽²⁾. An alternate theory is that these so-called proteinopathies occur secondary to a microvascular hemorrhage or brain bleed ⁽³⁾. The brain bleed is believed to be the result of age-induced degradation of cerebral capillaries, which creates neuron-killing protein plaques and tangles ⁽³⁾.

Lisa Sanders is an internal medicine specialist who realizes that sometimes, even doctors don't have all the answers. "When medicine looks to you and says, 'I've got nothing,' then you should feel free to look for yourself," she said.

And plenty of people do: Numerous websites like WebMD or HealthLine provide people with possible reasons for their symptoms. Many crowd-source their diagnosis if they think it will help. Sometimes, though, web resources are less than reliable, and cause patients undue anxiety for illnesses they don't have or-more dangerously-discourage them from visiting a doctor when they should.

When we reach the old age we develop an enmity with our own image on the mirror. We get frustrated and upset when we see grey hairs, and wrinkles. The grace of our skin seems to have faded away. But you don't have to be sad anymore if you follow these measures routinely and comfortably, in a way you can slow down the aging process.

Due to the decline in physical and mental illness, we may also come under the grasp of diseases like Alzheimer's which can further degrade our health and bodily conditions.

"ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease." These were the words of Leon Eisenberg, the "scientific father of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)," in his last interview he gave before his death at age 87 in 2009.

(While some have described Dr. Eisenberg's statement as an "exaggeration," many doctors are coming to the belated conclusion that ADHD is often "over diagnosed" by the use of "fuzzy diagnostic practices." Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan, who is one of the world's leading experts in child development, states:

"Let's go back 50 years. We have a 7-year-old child who is bored in school and disrupts classes. Back then, he was called lazy. Today, he is said to suffer from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). . . . Every child who's not doing well in school is sent to see a pediatrician, and the pediatrician says: "It's ADHD; here's Ritalin."

In fact, 90 percent of these 5.4 million kids don't have an abnormal dopamine metabolism. The problem is, if a drug is available to doctors, they'll make the corresponding diagnosis.)

Many years ago, I had my cholesterol level checked and found that it was higher than recommended, so the doctor suggested that I consider taking a statin drug to lower it. I told the doctor that I would like to try and lower my cholesterol through diet first. The doctor was skeptical because I had mentioned to him that there was a history of high cholesterol and hypertension in our family.

The doctor said that these health conditions were often genetic and that, thus, there was likely not much I could do about it other than take the recommended drugs, and that I should not be too disappointed if my nutritional efforts failed.

The death toll from plague in Madagascar has risen to 195 as experts warn the outbreak of the disease has reached crisis point.

A total of 2,267 people have now been infected by the illness since the outbreak began in August, according to the World Health Organisation - a jump of three per cent in recent days.

Experts fear the bacteria that cause the plague could become resistant to antibiotics as a result of doctors over-subscribing medication in a bid to control the spread of the illness - potentially creating a strain of plague that is far more difficult to treat.

The outbreak is thought to be the worst in 50 years and scientists fear it could spread to mainland Africa and beyond.

The current spread of the disease is unusual in that most of those affected have had the pneumonic form of plague, which affects the lungs and can kill within 24 hours. It can be transmitted through the air via coughing and sneezing and so spreads easily.

A new medical breakthrough in southern Russia could hold the key in solving America's opioid epidemic.

Scientists at Volgograd Sate Medical University are launching clinical trials into a pain-killing drug which outperforms morphine, and does not cause addiction. This would be a big step in the right direction, as the crisis in the United States spirals out-of-control.

Sentences that start with the phrase "A guru once told me..." are, more often than not, eye-roll-inducing. But recently, while resting in malasana, or a deep squat, in an East London yoga class, I was struck by the second half of the instructor's sentence: "A guru once told me that the problem with the West is they don't squat."

This is plainly true. In much of the developed world, resting is synonymous with sitting. We sit in desk chairs, eat from dining chairs, commute seated in cars or on trains, and then come home to watch Netflix from comfy couches. With brief respites for walking from one chair to another, or short intervals for frenzied exercise, we spend our days mostly sitting. This devotion to placing our backsides in chairs makes us an outlier, both globally and historically. In the past half century, epidemiologists have been forced to shift how they study movement patterns. In modern times, the sheer amount of sitting we do is a separate problem from the amount of exercise we get.

Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of a healthy pregnancy diet, providing vitamins and fiber. Yet some might also come with pesticide residues.

Among women undergoing infertility treatment in the United States, consuming more fruits and vegetables with high amounts of pesticide residue was associated with a lower chance of pregnancy and a higher risk of pregnancy loss, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday.