Surgical patients are being given more opioids than they need for postsurgical pain management, raising the risk of addiction.

In laboratory experiments, a chemical compound found in the shell of the cashew nut promotes the repair of myelin, a team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported Aug. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

With the aid of an $18.2 million, five-year grant renewal from the National Institute on Aging, the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project (VMAP) will advance interdisciplinary research into abnormal brain aging and cognitive decline in older adults, with continuing emphasis on the role of blood flow changes in the heart and brain.

Six weeks of aerobic exercise can lead to sustained increases in endogenous opioid function and significant relief for chronic low back pain, according to a randomized controlled trial by Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Stephen Bruehl, PhD, and colleagues, reported in Pain.

The Vanderbilt Health website now features an out-of-pocket cost estimator for many hospital and professional services offered by Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

During February and March at two large academic medical centers in Nashville and Boston, screening for high cholesterol and high blood sugar dropped 81-90% and initiation of drug therapy for these conditions dropped 52-60%.