Older adults have lower emotional responses to hotter temperatures — plus more medical headlines

For Tuesday, Oct. 15, WGN’s Dina Bair has the latest on new medical information, including:

Older adults have lower emotional responses to hotter temperatures

With age comes calm. Older adults are not hotheads in warmer temperatures.

Washington State researchers found when temperatures rise, so do tempers. However, the emotional response to heat is less extreme in older adults.

Older adults become more uncomfortable faster in the heat, but they remain cool, not allowing the physical feelings to affect their mood.

Researchers say their goal in this study was to figure out why outside heat is associated with an increase in violent crime and mental health hospital admissions and try to sever the link.

Doctors on faster tracks in medical school

Being on the fast track can churn out more physicians with the same qualities as those who study longer.

Accelerated three-year medical school students perform as well as their peers in traditional four-year programs. They earn their medical degrees sooner with much less debt.

New York University was the first medical school in the country to offer the three-year MD.

The graduates scored comparably on metrics in medical school and residency, medical knowledge tests, and clinical skills exams to their four-year counterparts.

More than 30 medical schools now offer such programs, and researchers hope that, based on these results, more will follow suit.

Beer can starve cancer

The ingredients for curing cancer can be seen in a glass of beer.

University of Virginia health system scientists found beer yeast holds the key to understanding how to starve cancer cells.

The unexpected revelation could lead to new strategies to treat cancer by starving it to death.

Yeast cells hibernate during stress, survive nutrient shortages, and re-emerge, similar to cancer cells.

A better understanding of the process in healthy and cancerous cells can point scientists toward more effective cancer treatments.

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