Scientists identify early signal of dangerous pregnancy complications

Good news! This could be a breakthrough!

"In a study published today [8/31/2026] ... scientists who analyzed blood samples from thousands of pregnant women found that low levels of a protein called ISM2 during the first trimester were associated with higher risk of both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction later on.

Follow-up lab studies of placental cells showed ISM2 likely plays a causal role in the disorders, meaning the findings could help in the development of treatments, too. ...

The researchers measured blood levels of nearly 3000 proteins and found one in particular associated with both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction: ISM2, a little-studied protein produced by the placenta. Specifically, lower blood levels of the protein at the 12-week blood test were linked to higher risks of preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, or both. ...

What’s more, ISM2 levels were a better predictor of each condition than currently used proteins. ...

In lab experiments, the team found that blocking the production of ISM2 in stem cells that usually develop into normal, uterus-invading EVTs stopped that process from happening.

By contrast, artificially adding ISM2 into a cell line that usually lacks it induced recipient cells to migrate around lab dishes more like EVTs would. ..."

"... Both of these conditions are known to be linked to problems with the placenta not developing properly early in pregnancy, in particular a failure of specialised placental cells known as the extravillous trophoblast (EVT) to invade the mother’s womb and establish a healthy blood supply. ...

Of all mammals, humans have the deepest placental invasion, which reflects the massive demands of oxygen and nutrients required to manufacture the most complex machine ever known, the human brain. ..."

From the abstract:

"Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction (FGR) are major causes of global morbidity and mortality. 

Both conditions are associated with impaired invasion of the uterus by extravillous trophoblast (EVT).

We performed proteomics in maternal serum obtained at ~12 weeks of gestational age in a prospective pregnancy cohort (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study). Here we show that low maternal serum isthmin-2 (ISM2) was the strongest protein signal (out of 2,904) in the first trimester of pregnancy for preeclampsia or FGR.

We validated the association in two independent cohorts (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study 2 and Improving Maternal Pregnancy And Child ouTcomes study).

ISM2 protein and mRNA are almost exclusively produced in the placenta, and, within the placenta, ISM2 mRNA is highly enriched in EVT. 

Knocking down ISM2 in cultured human trophoblast stem cells profoundly inhibited EVT invasion.

Conversely, expressing ISM2 in a cell line lacking endogenous ISM2 (HEK293 cells) promoted migration.

We conclude that ISM2 may be causally involved in the early pathophysiology of failed trophoblast invasion and that the protein and its associated pathways are potential targets for the prediction and prevention of preeclampsia and FGR."

Scientists identify early signal of dangerous pregnancy complications | Science | AAAS "Low levels of a placenta made protein predict preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction and could offer new target for prevention"

Pre-eclampsia discovery could lead to new test and treatments for at-risk pregnancies (original news release) "Cambridge scientists have identified a key protein that could act as a predictor for pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction, two of the major causes of stillbirth and of sickness among mothers and newborns."

Isthmin-2 is a first-trimester predictor of preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction (open access)

Fig. 2: The association between ISM2 and PE and FGR.

Fig. 3: ISM2 regulates EVT differentiation.

Nearly 94 million of the estimated 154 million lives saved since 1974 resulted from measles vaccine protection. Really!

Sorry, but this seems not not very impressive given that between 6.5 and 7 billion babies were born since 1974 (according to Google Search).

How many children suffered from or were killed by measle vaccinations during the same time period? I had a multi prompt dialog with Google AI about this question. It appears there are no reliable statistical data available at least not on a global scale or such data is simply not collected. However, Google AI points out there are severe allergic reactions associated with measle vaccination and that improper handling of the vaccination can cause serious complications etc. We are to believe that measles vaccinations are safe anywhere in the world. 

Global Health NOW: Afghanistan, Five Years On; and An Overdose Prevention Tool Taken Off the Table

NFL players are 4X more likely to die of neurodegenerative diseases

Maybe the NFL should try unprotected again like British rugby!

Have British rugby players ever been compared to NFL players in this respect?

At least many former NFL players can afford the best doctors and treatments available! Pardon my facetious comment!

"NFL players are 4X more likely to die of neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, dementia, and Parkinson’s than the general population, finds a study of ~20,000 NFL players; the study, which was published in the Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine, is the largest of its kind to date to examine mortality in pro football players."

From the abstract:

"Background

Empirical research demonstrates elevated neurodegenerative mortality among individuals with repetitive head impact (RHI) exposure, including National Football League (NFL) players. This investigation addressed prior methodological limitations, including selection bias, subjective diagnoses, and retrospective reporting, by analyzing the relationship between RHI exposure and neurodegenerative mortality in a fully enumerated, 5.8-fold larger cohort of NFL players.

Methods

A population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted comprising all current and former NFL athletes who debuted between 1960 and 2019 and played at least one regular or postseason NFL game, with National Death Index records (1979–2023) matched to Sports Reference, LLC data. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health data compared to an age-, sex-, race-, and calendar-year-standardized general population. Sensitivity analysis assessed whether the observed excess neurodegenerative mortality could be attributed to competing risks using a cause-specific hazard simulation.

Findings

A total of 19,824 athletes had a cumulative 518,833 person-years (mean = 26.2 years, SD = 16.2), with 1994 decedents.

NFL players exhibited lower all-cause mortality (SMR = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.67–0.74) but higher neurodegenerative mortality (SMR = 3.94; 95% CI: 3.38–4.56), including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SMR = 4.55; 95% CI = 3.13–6.38), 

all-cause dementia (SMR = 3.80; 95% CI = 3.11–4.60), and

Parkinson's disease (SMR = 3.88; 95% CI: 2.76–5.30).

Cause-specific hazard simulation indicated that competing risks alone would inflate the expected NDD SMR by a factor of 1.30, yielding a residual neurodegenerative SMR of 3.04 (95% CI: 2.63–3.50).

Interpretation

Neurodegenerative mortality was nearly four times higher in NFL players compared to the general population and remained threefold higher after accounting for competing risks. Together, these findings strengthen the evidence for RHI exposure-related neurodegenerative mortality in NFL players that cannot be explained by differential survivorship."

Global Health NOW: Cancer Outcomes Shaped by Income; and How the EMA’s Steffen Thirstrup Is ‘Standing Up for Science’

NFL Players Four Times More Likely to Die of Diseases Like ALS, Dementia, and Parkinson’s, BU Study Finds (original news release) "Analysis of nearly 20,000 current and former pro football players connects longer careers to increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases"

Neurodegenerative mortality among National Football League Players (open access)

China National Tobacco Corp.: The Deadliest Company in the World

This is shocking! Communism kills!

There is no doubt that too many Chinese people are smoking and smoking almost everywhere at anytime! I have seen it with my own eyes while visiting China. This is very regrettable and unfortunate!

"... Outsized impact: ... one company stands out as the single commercial entity linked to the most global deaths: China National Tobacco Corp., better known as China Tobacco—a state-owned company that for decades has controlled ~97% of China’s cigarette market in a country that consumes nearly half the world’s cigarettes. 

 

Staggering toll: Tobacco use in China caused ~59–78 million deaths from 1990 to 2023, or 2 million people annually, per data from the Global Burden of Disease study run by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. 

China Tobacco is tied to ~57 million of those deaths—a toll surpassing fatalities linked to war, drugs, or traffic worldwide, even adjusting for the highest plausible death estimates from those other industries.   

The company also wields significant influence over China’s public health policy, systematically undercutting anti-smoking efforts. 

Intervention possible—and unlikely: Because of China Tobacco’s centralized role, direct policy change could avert millions of early deaths over decades.  

But the government’s dependence on billions in tax revenue from the industry means the company “is likely to retain its spot as No. 1 in the world for years to come.” ..."

Global Health NOW: Identifying ‘The Deadliest Company in the World’; and On the Front Lines of an Emerging Drug Crisis

Global infant mortality further reduced in 2024

 Good news! Impressive! Still to many young children die every year!

But progress is slow, only about 230,000 fewer death per year on average from 1990-2024!

"According to recently updated UNICEF data, 4.9 million children under the age of 5 died in 2024, down from 13 million in 1990." (Source)

"An estimated 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024, including 2.3 million newborns, according to new estimates released today. Most of these deaths are [easily] preventable with proven, low-cost interventions and access to quality health care. ..."

Progress in reducing child deaths slows as 4.9 million children under five die in 2024 "New UN report on child mortality fully assesses leading causes of under five deaths for first time"

AI trained Death Clock app predicts the date of your death more accurately than ever before for $40 per year

It's Christmas time! This deal seems to be a steal! Caution: irony!

Halloween every day and you for the haunted ghost inside of you! Just kidding!

Well, if you have already a health monitor watch or app, why not add a death clock app! Go with the flow! 😊

How much privacy do you have to give up in order to make his work? Or who will be able to spy on your life?

"A new app called Death Clock predicts the date of its users’ deaths and offers tips on how to push that date back.

TechCrunch wrote about an iPod Death Clock app way back in 2006 — but developer Brett Franson told Bloomberg that with an AI trained on more than 1,200 life expectancy studies, his app offers a “pretty significant” improvement on standard life tables. ...

For an annual subscription fee of $40, Death Clock will both suggest ways to improve my habits and show a clock counting down to my estimated death. ..."

Disclaimer: This is not meant to be an endorsement or advertisement for this product.

Death Clock app predicts the date of your death | TechCrunch

Male mice age faster and/or die earlier when smelling female mice

This is unfair! Is this one more reason why male monks live long? 😊

"... In a new study, researchers report that the smell of a female mouse can speed up a male mouse’s reproductive aging and even reduce his lifespan. When male animals spent their adulthood sniffing bedding previously used by females, they produced fewer litters in their old age, even if they had mated and sired offspring earlier in life. ...

Fruit flies also experience this type of accelerated aging from female scents but can alleviate the effects by mating. Not so for the rodents: Although male mice that mated tended to live longer than those that didn’t, those that were exposed to an additional female’s smell during mating were more likely to die early. ..."

From the abstract:

"Theories of ageing predict that investment in reproduction will trade-off against survival and later-life reproduction. Recent evidence from invertebrates suggests that just perceiving cues of a potential mate's presence can reduce lifespan, particularly in males, and that activation of neuroendocrine reward pathways associated with mating can alleviate these effects. Whether similar effects occur in vertebrates remains untested. We tested whether exposure to olfactory cues from the opposite sex would influence mortality and reproductive senescence in male mice. We observed that males exposed to female olfactory cues from middle- to old age (from 10 to 24 months of age) showed reduced late-life fertility, irrespective of whether they had also been allowed to mate with females earlier in life. Males that were exposed to female odours in conjunction with mating also showed an increased mortality rate across the exposure period, indicating that olfactory cues from females can increase male mortality in some environments. Our results show that exposure to female odours can influence reproductive ageing and mortality in male mice, highlighting that sensory perception of mates may be an important driver of life-history trade-offs in mammals."

Science

Exposure to female olfactory cues hastens reproductive ageing and increases mortality when mating in male mice (open access)

Will You Attend Your Own living Funeral? with Palki Sharma

Recommendable! This is not for me! Celebrate life while you can!

Life expectancy for men in U.S. falls to 73 years — six years less than women

How does the constantly gender equality demanding crowd explain that?

Could it be e.g. that men still work in more dangerous jobs than women? Or what about sports, military, and hobbies?

When are we e.g. drafting women into the military like we do men?

Could it be that demands for more gender equality are frequently about cherry picking in favor of women? Women CEOs, but what about women generals or coal mining supervisors?

The study below claims it is mostly "differences in smoking behavior". I doubt it. Even if you accept this assessment for a moment it also points to some form of gender inequality.

Caution: This is more a satire than a serious post. Food for thought!

From the abstract:

"As life expectancy at birth in the US decreased for the second consecutive year, from 78.8 years (2019) to 77.0 years (2020) and 76.1 years (2021), the gap between women and men widened to 5.8 years, its largest since 1996 and an increase from a low of 4.8 years in 2010.1,2 For more than a century, US women have outlived US men, attributable to lower cardiovascular and lung cancer death rates related largely to differences in smoking behavior. This study systematically examines the contributions of COVID-19 and other underlying causes of death to the widened gender life expectancy gap from 2010 to 2021."

Life expectancy for men in U.S. falls to 73 years — six years less than women

Widening Gender Gap in Life Expectancy in the US, 2010-2021 (no public access)

Trends in Deaths From Falls Among Adults Aged 65 Years or Older in the US, 1999-2020. Deaths more than tripled!

Kind of alarming and useless information! This tripling of deaths from one year to the other is very dubious at best! Unfortunately, not much explanation was provided by JAMA! Quite a failure on part of the American Medical Association! This is disconcerting!

The racial disparity was not even pointed out! What an inexcusable omission! Is it because mostly white people are affected?

Generally speaking, the arbitrary cut off of aged 65 and older is also very suspect and not too useful. Presumably, as life expectancy increases, more older individuals (e.g. above age 80) suffer falls with more frequently deadly consequences.

"Between 1999 and 2020, ... deaths  from falls occurred among adults aged 65 years or older, increasing from 10,097 in 1999 to 36,508 in 2020 (Table). ...

The MRR increased for adults aged 65 years or older (MRR, 2.63) and all population subgroups, with the magnitude of the increase in AAMRs being highest among women and White older adults. ...

Discussion

...

This study has several limitations. First, the study relied on the underlying cause of death as coded in the death certificate and deaths may be misclassified. Second, there were no significant changes in coding of deaths between 1999 and 2020, but improved reporting quality may partly explain the large increase in falls mortality. ... Third, it is not known whether those who died had fallen before and/or where such falls occurred. ..."

Trends in Deaths From Falls Among Adults Aged 65 Years or Older in the US, 1999-2020 | Geriatrics | JAMA | JAMA Network (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Global Health NOW provides full access)

WHO: Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020. Failing efforts!

It is quite unacceptable that the end of the first quarter of the 21st century  over 287,000 women around the world still die maternal deaths in 2020! Many of these deaths would be easily preventable!

Where to put political priorities? What about human life?

Is this something e.g. a controversial billionaire like Soros cares about?

Or Western countries wasting billions of dollars on the phony Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion!

"... Every day in 2020, approximately 800 women died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth - meaning that a woman dies around every two minutes. ...

Maternal deaths have fallen only slightly from 309,000 in 2016 when the Sustainable Development Goals were launched.

The maternal mortality ratio increased from 2016 to 2020 in Europe by 17%; and in North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean by 15%. ..."

Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020: estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Global Health NOW

Longevity analysis identifies 8 key social factors increasing mortality risk

Good health in old age is not enough! Better measures of mortality risk!

"... For the study, the team analyzed information from 8,250 adults aged 65 and older. Within four years of a baseline interview, 22 percent had died. Prediction methods with a machine-learning tool called LASSO drew from 183 possible social predictors to reveal eight that predicted death within four years: poor neighborhood cleanliness, low perceived control over financial situation, meeting with children less than yearly, not working for pay, not active with children, not volunteering, feeling isolated, and being treated with less courtesy or respect. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

While it is well established that social attributes predict mortality, mortality prediction models used in clinical, population health, and research settings rely almost exclusively on demographics and medical comorbidities. In this study of 8,250 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study, we develop and validate a parsimonious index of Social Frailty, which uses age, gender, and eight social characteristics to predict 4-y mortality risk. We demonstrate that this prognostic index accurately risk-stratifies older adults and improves the prediction of commonly used comorbidity- and function-based risk models.

Abstract

... Lacking an efficient way to summarize the prognostic impact of social factor, many studies exclude social factors altogether. Our objective was to develop and validate a summary measure of social risk and determine its ability to risk-stratify beyond traditional risk models. We examined participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal, survey of US older adults. We developed the model from a comprehensive inventory of 183 social characteristics using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, a penalized regression approach. Then, we assessed the predictive capacity of the model and its ability to improve on traditional prediction models. We studied 8,250 adults aged ≥65 y. Within 4 y of the baseline interview, 22% had died. Drawn from 183 possible predictors, the Social Frailty Index included age, gender, and eight social predictors: neighborhood cleanliness, perceived control over financial situation, meeting with children less than yearly, not working for pay, active with children, volunteering, feeling isolated, and being treated with less courtesy or respect. In the validation cohort, predicted and observed mortality were strongly correlated. Additionally, the Social Frailty Index meaningfully risk-stratified participants beyond the Charlson score (medical comorbidity index) and the Lee Index (comorbidity and function model). ..."

Longevity analysis identifies 8 key social factors – Harvard Gazette Study of older adults highlights importance of non-medical conditions, lead author says; research-based survey available online

Social Frailty Index: Development and validation of an index of social attributes predictive of mortality in older adults (no public access)

Levels and trends in child mortality - UNICEF DATA

This is a very sad statistics at the end of first quarter of he 21st century! Can we not do better!

Lower child mortality rates in combination with better availability and acceptance of contraceptives would probably reduce world population growth. Think about it!

"In total, more than 5.0 million children under age 5, including 2.3 million newborns, along with 2.1 million children and youth aged 5 to 24 years – 43 per cent of whom are adolescents – died in 2021. This tragic and massive loss of life, most of which was due to preventable or treatable causes, is a stark reminder of the urgent need to end preventable deaths of children and young people."

Levels and trends in child mortality - UNICEF DATA United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), Report 2022

Missing Y Chromosome in older Mouse Blood Causes Heart Dysfunction

Good news!

"According to a study ... a lack of the Y chromosome in bone marrow cells causes heart failure. ...

Their team zeroed in on mosaic loss of Y chromosome (mLOY), a condition where some of a male’s somatic cells, particularly white blood cells, lose the Y chromosome. This condition, which is heavily associated with tobacco smoking, affects more than 40 percent of 70-year-old men in the UK Biobank cohort and is associated with a long list of illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease. ...
The team knocked out the chromosome in mice’s bone marrow cells by deleting its centromere with CRISPR, mirroring the degeneration of the Y chromosome in male humans. The modification successfully induced blood chimerism—a condition where an individual has two sets of genetically different cells, in this case one with and one without the Y chromosome—in 81 percent of the mice. The researchers report that this scenario is consistent with the level of mosaic loss of Y chromosome (mLOY) in men that has been linked with Alzheimer’s disease. In the study, the team observed that these mice had a shorter lifespan than unmodified controls. ..."

"Although the Y chromosome is the smallest and contains few genes, its functions are not fully understood. It has been observed, however, that mosaic loss of the Y chromosome in blood cells frequently occurs with age, and this alteration is associated with various medical conditions. Sano et al. modeled this process in mice by reconstituting their bone marrow with cells lacking the Y chromosome (see the Perspective by Zeiher and Braun). The resulting mice were prone to fibrosis and decreased cardiac function, especially in the setting of pressure overload, but they benefited from treatment with a transforming growth factor β1–neutralizing antibody. Human patients with loss of chromosome Y in their blood were also at greater risk of cardiac pathology, supporting the clinical relevance of these findings."

"During their lifetimes, organisms acquire somatic mutations in individual cells caused by genomic instability, endogenous DNA replication errors, or exposure to mutagens. When mutations occur in somatic stem cells, the mutation “spreads” in a mosaic manner, appearing in the progeny of mutated stem cells but not in cells from nonmutated stem cells. Mosaic loss of Y chromosome (mLOY) has been observed in peripheral leukocytes of aging men, reaching 40% of leukocytes in individuals over 70 years. LOY increases over time and correlates with clonal expansion of myeloid cells. LOY also correlates with increased risk for mortality, cardiovascular events, and other age-associated disorders, but a causal relationship has not been established.  ..."

From the abstract:

"Hematopoietic mosaic loss of Y chromosome (mLOY) is associated with increased risk of mortality and age-related diseases in men, but the causal and mechanistic relationships have yet to be established. Here, we show that male mice reconstituted with bone marrow cells lacking the Y chromosome display increased mortality and age-related profibrotic pathologies including reduced cardiac function. Cardiac macrophages lacking the Y chromosome exhibited polarization toward a more fibrotic phenotype, and treatment with a transforming growth factor β1–neutralizing antibody ameliorated cardiac dysfunction in mLOY mice. A prospective study revealed that mLOY in blood is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and heart failure–associated mortality. Together, these results indicate that hematopoietic mLOY causally contributes to fibrosis, cardiac dysfunction, and mortality in men."

Missing Y Chromosome in Mouse Blood Causes Heart Dysfunction | The Scientist Magazine® An analysis of human data from the UK biobank also finds an association between Y chromosome loss and heart disease in men.

Mosaic loss of Y chromosome during aging Spread of Y chromosome aneuploidy in myeloid cells with age promotes cardiac fibrosis

Hematopoietic loss of Y chromosome leads to cardiac fibrosis and heart failure mortality (no public access)

Drug Overdose Deaths in the U.S. by Selected Sociodemographic and Social Health Characteristics in 25 States and the District of Columbia, 2019–2020

A very sad statistic! 

For example, why are there so many overdose death among older black males?

Why are so many American native people affected?

The biggest flaws of this study only 25 states included and it presents only a two year comparison (there is no other historical data provided)!

"... 91,799 drug overdose deaths that occurred in the United States in 2020 represent an approximately 30% increase from 2019 ...
From 2019 to 2020, drug overdose death rates increased by 44% and 39% among non-Hispanic Black (Black) and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons, respectively. Significant disparities were found across sex, age, and racial and ethnic subgroups. In particular, the rate in 2020 among Black males aged ≥65 years (52.6 per 100,000) was nearly seven times that of non-Hispanic White males aged ≥65 years (7.7) ..."

Vital Signs: Drug Overdose Deaths, by Selected Sociodemographic and Social Determinants of Health Characteristics — 25 States and the District of Columbia, 2019–2020 | MMWR