An experimental treatment happens to be the solution to delay Alzheimer's symptoms in some people. These people are the ones who are genetically destined to get the disease in their 40s or 50s. These new findings form ongoing research has now been caught up in Trump administration funding delas. The early results of the study has been published on Wednesday and the participants too are worried that politics could cut their access to a possible lifeline.

One of the participants had said, "It is still a study but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having." The participant is named Jake Henrichs, form New York City, who is 50 years old. He is one of them to be treated in that study for more than a decade now and has remained symptom-free despite inheriting an Alzheimer's-causing gene that had killed his father and brother around the same age.

Slowing Down The Symptoms

Two drugs which can modestly slow down early-stage Alzheimer's are sold in the United States. These drugs clear the brain of one of its hallmarks, a sticky gunk-like part called the amyloid. However, there have not been any hints that removing amyloid far earlier, way many years before the first symptoms appear, may postpone the disease.

How Was The Research Conducted?

The research is led by Washington University in St Louis, which involved families that passed down rare gene mutation as participants. This meant it was almost guaranteed that they will develop symptoms at the same age their affected relatives did.

The new findings is based on a subset of 22 participants who received amyloid-removing drugs the longest, on average eight years. Long-term amyloid removal cut in half their risk of symptom onset. The study is published in the journal Lancet Neurology.

Washington University's Dr Randall Bateman, who directs the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Network of studies involving families with these rare genes says, "What we want to determine over the next five years is how strong is the protection. Will they ever get the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease if we keep treating them?”

The researchers before though did not know what exactly caused Alzheimer's which affects nearly 7 million Americans, most of them in their later life. However, it is clear that these silent changes occur in the brain at least two decades before the first symptom shows up. The big contributor. At some point amyloid buildup can trigger a protein named tau that then starts to kill neurons, which can lead to cognitive decline.

Researchers are now thus studying the Tau-fighting drugs and are looking into other factors, like inflammation, brain's immune cells and certain virus.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has expanded its focus as researchers have found more reasons for Alzheimer's. In 2013, the NIH's National Institute on Aging funded 14 trials of possible Alzheimer's drugs over a third targeting amyloid. By last fall, there were 68 drugs and 18% of them target amyloid. However, there are scientists too who think that amyloid is not everything and their is way more in the brain tissue, immune cells, and more which can be studied.

As the true number of COVID-19 cases and deaths is believed to be higher than reported, a new study suggests that the actual toll of long COVID may also double than the current estimates.

The research, led by Mass General Brigham, found that many long COVID cases remain hidden because current surveillance systems rely heavily on diagnostic codes that fail to capture a large number of patients.

Using a novel AI algorithm, researchers analyzed medical records of nearly 460,000 COVID-19 patients across 58 hospitals in the United States. The findings showed that approximately one in six people — around 16 per cent — developed long COVID, translating to more than 18 million Americans.

The figures are nearly double current estimates and highlight the growing burden of chronic health conditions following COVID-19 infection. The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

“Over 10 million people with long COVID would go entirely undetected by the diagnostic code that health systems and policymakers rely on to track the disease burden,” said corresponding author Hossein Estiri, a faculty member in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine.

“The figures we uncovered are almost certainly an undercount,” he added.

Researchers noted that current diagnostic coding systems, including the ICD code U09.9 for post-COVID conditions, identify fewer than 7 per cent of long COVID patients.

What Did The Study Find?

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The study analyzed electronic health records from 457,950 patients who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 across four US regions — New England, Southeast Texas, Southern California and Western Pennsylvania.

Overall, 16.3 per cent of patients were identified with long COVID, with regional rates ranging from 13.6 per cent to 22.7 per cent.

The researchers also found significant regional differences in long COVID symptoms and related conditions, including varying rates of prediabetes, which is emerging as a possible long-term effect of COVID-19.

The study authors noted that undocumented infections — which became more common after widespread testing declined — were not included in the analysis. Patients without long-term medical records were also excluded, suggesting the actual burden of long COVID could be even higher.

“These patients are not absent from clinical care; they are absent from the diagnostic code that would identify them as long COVID patients,” said lead author Jiazi Tian, a data scientist in the Clinical Augmented Intelligence Group at Mass General Brigham.

“The cardiologist seeing new dysautonomia, the endocrinologist seeing new metabolic disease, the neurologist seeing unexplained cognitive complaints — some of these presentations are long COVID arriving without the label that would connect them to a COVID-19 infection,” Tian added.

What Is Long COVID?

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Long COVID refers to symptoms that continue for three months or longer after the initial COVID-19 infection.

Common symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Brain fog
• Headaches
• Breathlessness
• Altered sense of smell or taste

Researchers say many long COVID conditions are still being studied, and some people may experience multiple symptoms at the same time.

The birth rate in England and Wales has been plummeting continuously over the past few years. In 2025, the same trend continued for the fourth year in a row as the birth rate in the island nation had dropped. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported that the birth rate is at its lowest in the last 50 years.

Though this downward birth rate trend is not a recent occurrence, as it was in 2010 when it started to steadily decline. In 2025, the United Kingdom had 585,000 live births, which was 10,000 fewer than the year before and the lowest overall figure since 1977.

The estimated number of children born per woman also fell under 1.4 for England and Wales in 2025, down from 1.9 in 2010. Along with this decline, women are also marrying later at 29.6 years of age. This is about two years older than it was in 2010, when the fall birth rate began.

Other than this huge dip in birth rate, most notably, 4 in 10 children born since 2010 have at least one foreign-born parent, while in 2010 it was 30 percent.

Is the United States In The Same Downward Spiral?

The US is facing a long-term decline in birth rates. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than 3.6 million babies were born in 2024. This is just a 1% increase from the previous year, which had been the lowest record in births. While this uptick may seem encouraging, it is not enough to reverse the troubling trend.

The US fertility rate remains around 1.6 births per woman. This is significantly below the 2.1 births required to sustain the population growth without immigration.

As per the demographers, this continuous drop began during the Great Recession in 2007. It has continued steadily since.

One of the biggest shifts is the steep decline in teen births. In 1991, about 62 of every 1,000 teenage girls had a child. This number has now fallen to just under 13 by 2024. This is a historic low that reflects a positive shift, better education, access to contraception, and changing attitudes about early parenthood.

A similar trend is seen among women in their 20s, as the rates there, too, have dropped. In 2007, about 106 of every 1,000 women aged 20 to 24 gave birth. By 2024, the number has dropped to around 57. For women aged 25 to 29, the rate fell from 118 in every 1,000 women in 2007 to 91 in 2024.

US President Donald Trump this week underwent his third annual medical check-up during his second term and declared that it went “perfectly well”.

Trump, who turns 80 next month, visited the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a routine health examination on May 26. The medical check-up, conducted after about 13 months, reportedly lasted around 3.5 hours.

“Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” Trump wrote on social media.

However, neither Trump nor the White House has disclosed detailed medical findings, leading to renewed speculation about the health of the oldest American President.

The concerns come amid visible signs of deterioration observed during several public appearances. These include persistent bruising on his hands, micro naps during public meetings, slurred speech, and frequent factual mix-ups — all of which have raised questions about whether information regarding his health is being withheld.

The White House had earlier explained that the bruises on Trump’s hands were caused by “frequent handshaking” combined with aspirin use.

Trump Link His Conditions To Stroke

Doctors have also speculated that his slurred speech may indicate signs of a recent stroke.

Dr. Bruce Davidson, a professor at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, discussed the issue during an appearance on The Daily Beast podcast. He said his interpretation was based on observing Trump’s physical behavior and speech patterns over time.

“Earlier in the year, there was video of him shuffling, and I thought that was weird,” he said on the podcast.

He suggested that such movement patterns can sometimes be seen in patients recovering from strokes.

Despite the speculation, Trump has continued to defend his mental sharpness and cognitive abilities.

“So I’ve taken (a cognitive test), and I’ve aced it all three times, I’ll tell you, because it is a positive thing,” Trump said. “It starts off with an easy question. And by the time you get to the middle, it gets tougher.”

Previous Medical Reports Declared Him Healthy

According to a White House summary of Trump’s previous annual medical examination in April last year, he was found to be in “excellent cognitive and physical health”.

“A comprehensive neurological examination revealed no abnormalities in his mental status, cranial nerves, motor and sensory functions, reflexes, gait, and balance. Cognitive function, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), was normal with a score of 30 out of 30,” White House physician Captain Sean Barbabella wrote.

There were also tests for depression and anxiety, and Trump recorded scores “within the normal range for both,” although exact numbers were not disclosed.

Scans conducted in October also reportedly showed that Trump was in “excellent overall health”.