Reader\'s Digest IN 02.2020

44 february 2020

Women Have

Younger Brains

than Men

Just like the body’s

metabolism, the

brain’s metabolism

tends to slow with

age. In a study of

more than 200 adults

ages 20 to 82 with

no brain damage or

disease, researchers

used positron-emis-

sion tomography

(PET) scans of the

brain to measure each

individual’s ‘meta-

bolic brain age.’ They

found that at any

given time, women’s

brains are an average

of 3.8 years younger

than their biological

age while men’s

brains are an average

of 2.4 years older.

“This could mean that

the reason women

don’t experience as

much cognitive dec-

line in later years is

because their brains

are effectively

younger,” says one of

the study’s authors.

“We’re currently

working on a study

to confirm that.”

MAKING BREAST CANCER

TREATMENT AFFORDABLE

Breast cancer is the most common form of

cancer in women in the world resulting in

lakhs of deaths per year. According to the

World Health Organisation (WHO), many

die because of late diagnosis and lack of

access to affordable treatment. But with the

WHO approving a ‘biosimilar’ medicine—

derived from living sources rather than

chemicals— breast cancer is likely to

become affordable. Currently, trastuzumab

costs Rs 14 lakh whereas its biosimilar

version would be 65 per cent cheaper.

News From the

WORLD OF

MEDICINE

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