Kids can be affected by rare Alzheimer’s-like illness; Plus, foods to choose and avoid in menopause, and more health news

When people think about Alzheimer’s disease, they usually associate it with seniors who have had a long and fulfilling life.

Sadly, two rare conditions that imitate the symptoms of Alzheimer’s strike infants and children. Two of these disorders, Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (NPC) and Sanfilippo syndrome, will be discussed here. Here is everything you need to know about childhood Alzheimer’s, including what it is, its causes and risk factors, symptoms and treatments.

Sanfilippo syndrome and NPC cause symptoms resembling dementia, hence the reference to childhood Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases are lysosomal storage disorders. The Cleveland Clinic states that people with a lysosomal storage disorder lack certain enzymes that help the body break down fats, sugars and other substances. These substances cannot be properly stored by the body and then cause harm when they build up in the body.

It’s common knowledge that loss is a part of male aging — loss of hair, loss of muscle tone, loss of vision or hearing.

But men growing older also start losing the very thing that makes them biological males, their Y chromosome, and that can leave them more vulnerable to cancer, a new study says.

The loss of the Y chromosome can help cancer cells evade detection by the body’s immune system, according to researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles.

Specifically, it results in more aggressive bladder cancer among men, the study authors reported June 21 in the journal Nature.

Ticks can be a problem for people who love to spend the summer outdoors, especially in certain regions of the United States.

Ticks are responsible for the well-known Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, said Dr. David Ingram, an infectious diseases physician and researcher at Penn State Health Medical Center.

He’s also a father of young children who calls himself the tick police. Here, he shares some helpful information:

To pass the harmful bacteria that causes Lyme disease, a blacklegged tick must be attached to the victim for about 24 to 48 hours. For another tickborne disease called anaplasmosis, it’s around 24 to 36 hours.

At any age an autism diagnosis is a major event. But is it best to find out while still young or might a late-in-life diagnosis give adults a better shot at a good quality of life?

According to a new study, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

Researchers surveyed 300 adults living with autism in the United Kingdom, all of whom were asked to reveal at what age they were first diagnosed.

The investigators then compared that information to an assessment of autistic trait severity and quality of life based on several key indicators.

Those indicators included practical matters — such as access to health care, finances and social support — as well as self-reported psychological assessments.

Space travel appears to weaken astronauts’ immune systems, and researchers believe changes in gene expression are the culprit.

These immune deficits aren’t permanent. They disappear when back on Earth, often within weeks, according to new research published June 22 in Frontiers in Immunology.

“Here we show that the expression of many genes related to immune functions rapidly decreases when astronauts reach space,” said study lead author Dr. Odette Laneuville, an associate professor of biology at the University of Ottawa in Canada.

“The opposite happens when they return to Earth after six months aboard the ISS [International Space Station],” Laneuville added in a journal news release.

Menopause, a natural stage in a woman’s life, brings a host of changes and challenges. One aspect that is crucial to consider is nutrition.

Eating the right foods and avoiding others can help you navigate this change with vitality and optimal health.

This article will discuss the key foods to eat and those to avoid so you can thrive during menopause and beyond.

During menopause, which is the end of a woman’s menstrual cycles, estrogen levels decrease and may lead to health issues.

Rate of bone loss speeds up, increasing your risk of low bone density, osteopenia and osteoporosis, according to the Iowa Clinic.