Por Sandee LaMotte, CNN

Las personas con mentes sumamente agudas en sus 80 y 90 años —conocidas como “SuperAgers” o superancianos— producen el doble de neuronas jóvenes que los adultos cognitivamente sanos y 2,5 veces más que las personas con la enfermedad de Alzheimer, según encontró un nuevo estudio.

“Esto demuestra que el cerebro que envejece tiene la capacidad de regenerarse; eso es enorme”, dijo la coautora del estudio, la Dra. Tamar Gefen, profesora asociada de psiquiatría y ciencias del comportamiento en el Instituto Mesulam de Neurología Cognitiva y Enfermedad de Alzheimer en la Escuela de Medicina Feinberg de la Universidad Northwestern en Chicago.

Mientras que una neurona madura es estable, una neurona joven es el tipo de célula cerebral más adaptable y plástica, con una habilidad mejorada para crecer, integrarse y “conectarse en un cerebro”, dijo Gefen, quien ayuda a liderar el Programa SuperAging de Northwestern. Los investigadores allí han estado estudiando durante 25 años a hombres y mujeres mayores con memorias superiores.

“Los SuperAgers muestran la preservación de neuronas inmaduras con mayor excitabilidad; están alertas y dinámicas, listas para activarse”, aseguró. “Eso es un cerebro más juvenil”.

Además, el estudio encontró que los cerebros de los SuperAgers contenían sistemas de apoyo más robustos en el hipocampo —la parte del cerebro responsable de la memoria— que nutren las neuronas jóvenes de manera similar a como un arbolito recién plantado es alimentado cuando se coloca en tierra rica en nutrientes.

“Esta investigación muestra que los SuperAgers tienen un entorno celular único en su hipocampo que apoya la neurogénesis”, dijo Gefen. “Esta es una prueba biológica de que los SuperAgers tienen cerebros más plásticos”.

La neurogénesis, que es el nacimiento y la supervivencia de nuevas neuronas, mejora la plasticidad cerebral, es decir, la capacidad del cerebro para repararse y mantener buenas funciones cognitivas frente a lesiones y el proceso de envejecimiento.

De hecho, los cerebros de los SuperAgers contenían más neuronas recién desarrolladas que los adultos jóvenes de entre 30 y 40 años, afirmó la autora principal Orly Lazarov, profesora de neurociencia y directora del Programa de Capacitación en Enfermedad de Alzheimer y Demencias Relacionadas en la Universidad de Illinois, Chicago.

“El perfil de neurogénesis en los SuperAgers muestra resiliencia”, dijo Lazarov en un correo electrónico. “Así que pueden hacer frente a los estragos del tiempo”.

Los SuperAgers pueden tener una ventaja genética, pero la investigación demuestra que las personas que practican una buena salud cerebral también pueden prevenir el deterioro cognitivo, dijo el investigador en prevención del Alzheimer, Dr. Richard Isaacson, director de investigación en el Instituto de Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas en Florida, quien no participó en el estudio.

“Nuestros estudios han encontrado que cambios en el estilo de vida, incluyendo dieta, ejercicio, reducción del estrés y optimización del sueño, junto con el manejo de factores de riesgo vascular con ciertos medicamentos recetados, también pueden hacer crecer áreas del cerebro, incluido el hipocampo, y reducir los signos característicos del Alzheimer como los ovillos de tau y las placas de amiloide”, dijo Isaacson.

“Ciertamente nunca me enseñaron en la facultad de medicina que es posible que las células cerebrales crezcan, pero ahora hemos visto pru

The post District Attorney Warns of New Scam: Fraudsters Instruct Victims to Install Banking Apps and Deposit Cash appeared first on edhat.

The post FDA classifies frozen blueberry recall as highest risk; 55,689 pounds distributed to four states and Canada appeared first on edhat.

By Mauricio Torres, Hira Humayun, CNN

(CNN) — Cuban forces shot dead four people in a Florida-registered speedboat that entered Cuban waters Wednesday in a dramatic shoot out just off the island’s coast.

US Vice President JD Vance said the White House was “monitoring” the situation. The nationalities of those killed is not known.

Six other people aboard the vessel were injured and are receiving medical attention.

Cuban border guard troops approached the boat to identify it after it entered Cuban territorial waters in Falcones Cay, Villa Clara Province, the ministry said. Falcones Cay is just over 100 miles from Florida.

The Cuban forces were then shot at by someone from the boat, injuring the commander of the Cuban boat, the statement said. The border guards then returned fire.

Vance said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed him on the incident but details are still scare. “(It is) certainly, you know, a situation that we’re monitoring, hopefully it’s not as bad we fear it could be. But (I) can’t say more, because I just don’t know more,” Vance said during an unrelated event at the White House.

Rubio is currently in the region, on an official visit to Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between the US and Cuba as Washington has blocked virtually all oil shipments from reaching the communist-run island. The oil shortage has brought Cuba’s economy to its knees, with the Caribbean nation experiencing its worst era of economic uncertainty in decades.

The boat, with registration number FL7726SH, is a 24-foot power boat that was manufactured in 1981, according maritime database records.

“In light of the current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its willingness to protect its territorial waters, based on the fact that national defense is a fundamental pillar for the Cuban state in favor of protecting its sovereignty and stability in the region,” the Cuban interior ministry said.

Florida officials express alarm

Officials from Florida called for an investigation and for the Cuban government to be held accountable.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he has directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to help federal, state, and law enforcmeent authorities begin an investigation.

US Republican Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez, whose district includes the southern tip of Florida, said the incident raised concerns about the use of lethal force against people aboard a US-registered vessel and called for an investigation into the incident.

“United States authorities must determine whether any of the victims were US citizens or legal residents and establish exactly what occurred,” he said in a statement posted to X. “The regime in Cuba must be relegated to the dustbin of history for its countless crimes against humanity.”

Republican Senator Rick Scott, also from Florida, called the incident “deeply concerning” and said the Cuban government “must be held accountable.”

Cuba’s interior ministry said authorities are investigating the incident.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Max Saltman and Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.

The post Cuban forces kill four on Florida-registered speedboat in shootout near island’s coast appeared first on News Channel 3-12.<

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

(CNN) — The morning after President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union address, senior Justice Department prosecutor Colin McDonald sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he would steadfastly follow the department’s tradition to focus only on the evidence.

“I am a career federal prosecutor,” McDonald said. “I follow the facts; I apply the law — those are the two considerations that come into play for me.”

His comment paraphrased a promise that’s core to the Justice Department, cited constantly by attorneys general under both Democratic and Republican administrations. But it didn’t directly address what he was asked: Whether McDonald, who is tapped to run a new DOJ division tasked with rooting out fraud, would follow an order from Trump to prosecute one of his own perceived enemies.

“You are now placed in a highly politicized division,” one of the Democratic senators on the committee, Mazie Hirono, warned. “We already know that the president considers the Department of Justice to be his law firm, Pam Bondi to be his lawyer. You are down the chain and I don’t see how you sit there and tell us that you are going to be independent, as much as you might want to be.”

The Trump administration has made allegations of widespread fraud a main focus of their prosecution efforts, as well as a political tool to criticize Democratic officials. Most notably, the administration has focused on a wide-ranging fraud scandal in Minnesota that prosecutors estimate could total more than $9 billion in stolen funds. The president has specifically laid blame at the feet of Democratic officials for allowing the state to become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

McDonald’s career was relatively low profile until he moved with his wife and five children to Washington, DC, one year ago, leaving his decadelong post at the federal prosecutor’s office in California’s Southern District to work in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office. There, his work focused on everything from law enforcement issues to co-chairing the so-called Weaponization Working Group.

In January, Trump announced on Truth Social his nomination of McDonald as the “first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement, a new Division at the Department of Justice, which I created to catch and stop FRAUDSTERS that have been STEALING from the American People.”

The new division was under scrutiny before McDonald was even nominated. The Justice Department already has multiple offices that investigate criminal and civil fraud cases, leading some lawmakers and legal experts to question whether creating the new division is necessary.

And Vice President JD Vance told reporters in early January that the role will be like that of a special counsel, but “run out of the White House under the supervision of me and the president United States,” which experts said would run afoul to longstanding department efforts to stay separate from political interference.

Vance, who Trump said in his speech would lead the “war on fraud,” said Wednesday that the effort would be a “whole government approach” that included other federal departments, including the Treasury Department