Playing cards and board games like chess, bingo and Scrabble might be the mental workout you need to keep your wits as you age, Scottish researchers suggest. People in their 70s who regularly play board games score higher on tests of memory and thinking skills than those who don’t. And 70-somethings who step up their game-playing are more likely to maintain thinking skills as they age, researchers say. “Playing board, card and word games may protect people from cognitive decline, but this study wasn’t an intervention, so we can’t say that for sure,” said lead researcher Drew Altschul, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. “But it, at very least, is fun, inexpensive, and it certainly won’t hurt you.” He doesn’t think it’s the social aspect of these activities that provides this brain-protective effect, but rather the challenge of the games themselves. Unlike reading, writing, taking classes, visiting museums, libraries or friends and relatives, games appear to more actively engage abilities like memory, thinking speed and reasoning, Altschul said. “So, this fits with what we call the ‘use it or lose it’ theory, that exercising your mental abilities more keeps them in better shape,” he said. For the study, Altschul and his colleagues tested the memory, problem-solving, thinking speed and general thinking ability in nearly 1,100 70-year-olds. The tests were repeated every three…  read on >

Emergency department patients treated for gunshot wounds to the chest or abdomen are more likely to wind up in the hospital again than those who have such wounds in other areas of the body, a new study finds. The study included 110 patients with a history of gunshot wounds. Most were men, with an average age of 50. The patients were seen in the emergency department at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Of those patients, 36 were readmitted with neurologic, abdominal or chest, or extremity injuries, the findings showed. Eighteen were readmitted for complications from their previous gunshot wounds. Three surgeries — two of them chest surgeries — were performed. Twenty-four patients had neurologic injuries, while nine had abdominal or chest wounds. Three patients had major blood vessel injuries, the study found. The findings are scheduled for presentation next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Where you are shot has an effect on your long-term health,” said lead researcher Dr. Corbin Pomeranz, a radiology resident. When it comes to treating gunshot wound patients, he noted that most of the cost is due to ongoing care, including dealing with complications. “The vast majority of research on gun violence focuses on emergency care, but…  read on >