Today's Health Links November 21, 2013

In yeast at least, the aging process appears to reduce an organism’s ability to silence certain genes that need to be silenced. Now researchers who study the biology of aging have shown that the loss of genetic control occurs in fruit flies as well.

A key piece of the scientific model used for the past 30 years to help explain how humans perceive sound is wrong, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that epigenetic changes to DNA are associated with aging in disease-free breast tissues and are further altered in breast tumors. Epigenetic changes describe heritable alterations caused by mechanisms other than by changes in DNA sequence. The discovery illustrates how cancer and aging are tightly interconnected processes by identifying epigenetic alterations present in the normal aging breast that may increase disease risk in cancer-free individuals.

Cognitively impaired older adults released from the hospital are less likely to be rehospitalized within 30 days if they go to a nursing home than if they return to their own home.

Young adults who survived childhood cancer are more likely than their peers to be frail. Research suggests that the condition is more common among female survivors than women decades older.

A new pilot study suggests that the brain changes associated with meditation and stress reduction may play an important role in slowing the progression of age-related cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.