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Despite high-profile failures of potential treatments for Alzheimer’s, experts say increased visibility and progress on the underlying causes of the disease are signs of hope. With a new case of the brain-debilitating disorder developing every minute in the U.S., the need for effective treatment is urgent both for patients and the medical system as the population ages. (Dixon, 11/16)

Researchers have identified the degenerative brain disease known as CTE in a living person, according to a report published this week in the medical journal Neurosurgery. The paper’s lead author, Bennett Omalu, told an audience last month in San Francisco that physicians discovered CTE in Fred McNeill, a former Minnesota Vikings linebacker, during initial testing of a new method to identify chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the living. (Almond, 11/16)

Using accelerometers to precisely measure physical activity, researchers have found that even very light exercise, well below the generally recommended levels, reduces mortality in older women. The scientists had 6,382 women ages 63 to 99 wear an accelerometer for seven consecutive days, waking and sleeping, except when bathing or swimming. (Bakalar, 11/16)

The claim contends that companies and individuals with Arizona ties have made money by arranging patients’ trips to Mexico for weight-loss operations and by receiving referrals from Mexican surgeons to see patients when they return home. While website testimonials praise these transborder relationships, some patients who have had unhappy outcomes say they were misled by middlemen who minimized the risks. (Alltucker, 11/16)

Eating nuts may lower the risk for heart disease. Researchers studied 210,836 men and women involved in three large prospective health studies from 1980 to 2013. They assessed nut consumption with food frequency questionnaires, updated every four years. Over the years, there were 8,390 cases of coronary heart disease and 5,910 strokes. (Bakalar, 11/16)

Preventable childhood deaths in Arizona are at their highest level in five years, according to an annual study released this week. That means more than one in four childhood deaths in 2016 could have been prevented, according to the Annual Arizona Child Fatality Review Program conducted by public-health and child-welfare officials. (Pitzi, 11/16)

A case report about the seizure and death of an 11-month old after exposure to cannabis has prompted headlines about “the first marijuana overdose death” this week. Except that’s not what the doctors meant. “We are absolutely not saying that marijuana killed that child,” said Dr. Thomas Nappe, an author of the report who is now the director of medical toxicology at St. Luke’s University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa. (Silverman, 11/17)

Computerized brain-training exercises studied by Jerri Edwards, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at the University of South Florida, are the first intervention of any kind to reduce the risk of dementia in older adults, according to the study, just published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions. The study followed more than 2,800 healthy senior adults in six locations for 10 years as they aged from 74 to 84, on average. (Griffin, 11/16)