Author Archives: Francisco Fernandez, MD

Physical inactivity is a global public health problem. Several national and international physical activity guidelines recommend regular muscle-strengthening activities for adults. For example, the recent WHO guidelines recommend that adults should perform muscle-strengthening activities ≥2 days/week. Doing these types of exercises increases or preserves skeletal muscle strength, which has shown to be inversely associated with […]

A new antiinflammatory candidate drug, known as 3,6′-dithiopomalidomide (DP), designed by researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), protected lab mice against cognitive decline by reducing brain inflammation. The research team from the National Institute of Health published their findings in the Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.  AD is the […]

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Healthy plasma cells help you fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs. In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells. Rather than produce helpful antibodies, […]

Colorectal Cancer Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) is: about 1 in 23 (4.3%) for men and 1 in 25 (4.0%) for women. A number of other factors (described in Colorectal Cancer Risk Factors) can also affect your risk for developing colorectal cancer.  In the United States colorectal cancer is the third […]

Obesity is a complex condition, one with serious social and psychological dimensions, that affects virtually all age and socioeconomic groups and threatens to overwhelm both developed and developing countries.  In 1995, there were an estimated 200 million obese adults worldwide and another 18 million under-five children classified as overweight. As of 2000, the number of […]

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative tauopathy caused by repetitive head injury. Although it has chiefly been studied in contact sport participants, anyone who experiences repetitive head injury is at risk of CTE. It is associated with a range of neuro-psychological problems that range from mood and behavioral symptoms to cognitive impairment and dementia.  […]

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases and is characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, which causes bradykinesia (slowness of movements) and the characteristic rest tremors.  In a new research study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that kurarione, a […]