Approach That New Gene Testing Kit With Caution

MONDAY, Dec. 17, 2018 -- Lots of Americans will unwrap a scarf or sweater this holiday season. But a growing number will receive a gift that's potentially life-changing: an at-home genetic testing kit.

Home DNA testing yields clues to ancestry and, potentially, genetic risk for medical conditions. But there are a number of things you need to know before you use one of these kits, the Alzheimer's Foundation of America says.

Kidney Disease Claiming More Lives

THURSDAY, Dec. 6, 2018 -- Although fewer Americans are dying from heart disease and cancer, deaths from chronic kidney disease are on the rise, especially among young adults, a new study finds.

"Unfortunately, chronic kidney disease is known as a 'silent epidemic,' because many people don't realize they have it until the disease is at an advanced stage," said senior study author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly. He's a nephrologist and an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Only Endurance Exercise May Slow Aging

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28, 2018 -- Running, swimming, cycling and other types of endurance exercise can slow cellular aging, but strength training may not, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at how different types of exercise affected telomeres in 124 inactive, young, healthy adults.

Untreated Hearing Loss Can Be Costly for Seniors

THURSDAY, Nov. 8, 2018 -- Having hearing loss and not knowing it might translate into higher medical bills and other health problems for many seniors, two new studies suggest.

In one study, researchers analyzed data from more than 77,000 U.S. patients with untreated age-related hearing loss, and compared them to people without hearing loss.

Trying to Get the New Shingles Vaccine? Join the Crowd

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 31, 2018 -- For weeks, Donna Greene got the brush-off when she asked the pharmacist about getting her second dose of Shingrix, the sought-after but scarce new shingles vaccine.

Check back next week. Check in two weeks. We just don't know, she was told at last. Finally, in mid-October, Greene got lucky.

Think Genes Dictate Your Life Span? Think Again

TUESDAY, Nov. 6, 2018 -- Your life partner has a much greater influence on your longevity than the genes you inherited from your family, according to a new analysis of the family trees of more than 400 million people.

"While it is a widely held belief that life span heritability ranges from approximately 15 to 30 percent, the findings discussed in this paper demonstrated that the heritability of human longevity is likely well below 10 percent," said lead researcher Cathy Ball. She is chief scientific officer for Ancestry, the popular genealogy website.