By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

(CNN) — High-fat cheese and cream may slightly protect the brain from dementia, according to a new observational study that followed nearly 28,000 people in Malmö, Sweden, for up to 25 years.

High-fat cheeses such as cheddar, Brie and Gouda have more than 20% saturated fat, according to the research.

Outside experts CNN spoke to, however, say the report fails to provide a strong case for eating more full-fat dairy.

“Their finding for cheese was at the margin of statistical significance and they looked at multiple foods, so this might be just due to chance,” said leading nutrition researcher Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“I’m not running out to buy a block of cheese,” Willett said in an email.

A significant limitation of the study is that it captured dietary habits at only one point — the start of the study in 1991 — and did not follow up with the majority of participants over the next 25 years. Instead, the authors ran an analysis on a subset of the group after the first five years to see whether their diets had changed.

“However, under this approach, the associations for both high-fat cheese and cream became nonsignificant, raising questions about the robustness of their conclusions,” wrote Dr. Tian-Shin Yeh in an editorial published along with the study.

Yeh is an associate professor and attending physician in the college of medicine at Taipei Medical University in Taiwan.

In addition, Yeh wrote, the benefits of high-fat cheese were most evident when cheese replaced foods of “clearly lower nutritional quality, such as processed or high-fat red meat.”

“It is not so much that high-fat cheese is inherently neuroprotective, but rather that it is a less harmful choice than red and processed meats,” she added.

A small benefit for the brain

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Neurology, found people who ate 50 grams (about 2 ounces) or more of high-fat cheese daily had a 13% lower risk of dementia than those eating less than 15 grams (0.5 ounce).

Those who consumed 20 grams (0.7 ounce) or more of high-fat cream each day also had a 16% lower risk of dementia than those who consumed none. That amount is about 1.4 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, the study said.

“Our research suggests that people who ate more high-fat cheese had a slightly lower risk of developing dementia later in life,” said senior study author Emily Sonestedt, a senior lecturer and associate professor of nutrition at Lund University in Sweden.

“This does not prove that cheese prevents dementia, but it does challenge the idea that all high-fat dairy is bad for the brain,” she said in an email.

The finding may delight some in the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement who believe saturated fats are healthy. US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promotes butter and beef tallow, both of which have been shown in numerous studies to be bad for health.

However, the study found no benefit for the brain from butter, milks or fermented milks such as kefir, buttermilk and yogurt, or low-fat dairy products.

In fact, the data on low-fat dairy was quite telling, said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine who founded the nonprofit Read more

By Lauren del Valle, CNN

(CNN) — Brian Walshe is expected to be sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for killing his wife, Ana Walshe, the mother of his three children.

The sentencing comes after a jury in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Monday convicted Brian Walshe of first-degree murder, finding he planned to kill Ana just hours after ringing in the new year in 2023.

Judge Diane Freniere is expected to sentence Walshe for the murder conviction – life without parole is a mandatory sentence for the most serious homicide conviction available in Massachusetts – and the lesser charges of misleading police and improper conveyance of a body that he pleaded guilty to ahead of the trial.

The sentencing will represent the culmination of a case that captured national attention almost three years ago, first with the initial search for 39-year-old Ana Walshe, and then with the grisly evidence that her husband googled topics like “how to dispose of a body” and other inquiries on cleaning up blood.

Brian Walshe, 50, left a trail of evidence prosecutors used to retrace his actions to dispose of his wife’s remains.

Prosecutors told the jury Ana met a violent death at her husband’s hand before he dismembered her body and disposed of her remains in area dumpsters.

Walshe then lied to investigators, claiming she had gone missing the morning of January 1, 2023, after leaving their Massachusetts home to handle a work emergency in Washington, DC, where she worked as a real estate manager and lived part time.

Ana Walshe’s body has never been found.

Walshe was awaiting sentencing for fraud at time of Ana’s death

Prosecutors called about 50 witnesses over eight days, but they never offered the jury a theory of how exactly Walshe killed his wife.

Instead, they worked to shed light on purported strife in the Walshes’ marriage, stemming from a separate, federal criminal case against Walshe and an affair Ana was having in DC.

Walshe has always maintained he had nothing to do with Ana’s death. His defense team told the jury he found her dead in their bed hours into the new year, then panicked, fearing no one would believe him.

Prosecutors alleged Walshe found out about his wife’s monthslong affair with a man she met in Washington, DC, William Fastow, and feared losing his wife and kids to a new life she had there while he was facing the possibility of prison time and a hefty restitution bill for a federal fraud conviction.

When Ana died, Walshe was still awaiting sentencing for that conviction. He had pleaded guilty to selling forged Andy Warhol artwork and was granted home confinement ahead of sentencing because he was the primary caregiver for their three kids.

Digital data recovered from Walshe’s devices revealed he also googled divorce and William Fastow days before his wife’s death.

Over two days of deliberation, jurors asked just one question, indicating they wanted to see a photo of Ana Walshe lying on a rug in the living room of their Cohasset home that prosecutors had submitted as evidence.

Prosecutors told the jury the rug ended up covered in Ana’s blood in a dumpster near the apartment complex where Brian Walshe’s mother lived days after Ana’s death. When investigators found pieces of the rug

By Andy Scholes, CNN

(CNN) — As the calendar flips toward Christmas, the NFL kicks the pressure up another notch.

Saturday games are back, playoff math is everywhere, and for many teams it’s simple: Win now or start planning January vacations.

Here are five things to know heading into a pivotal Week 16.

Packers-Bears: A rivalry that finally means something

The biggest game of the weekend might not even wait for Sunday.

The Bears host the Green Bay Packers on Saturday in Chicago in a matchup that could decide the NFC North. Yes, that rivalry – the one that’s been around for more than a century – finally has real, late-season stakes.

Chicago enters at 10-4, Green Bay at 9-4-1, and the winner takes a commanding step toward a division title. These teams have played for over 100 years, but meaningful December showdowns have been surprisingly rare. This one absolutely qualifies.

Fans know it, too. Ticket prices reflect the moment, with get-in prices north of $350. Bears fans are desperate for a statement win; Chicago has captured the NFC North just four times, most recently in 2018, and this feels like their best chance in years.

The Packers won the first meeting 28-21 less than two weeks ago, but they’ll be without star pass rusher Micah Parsons, who tore his ACL in last week’s loss to Denver.

Bucs-Panthers: Two games, one division, zero margin for error

The other major divisional showdown takes place in Charlotte, where the Carolina Panthers host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a matchup that feels like a playoff game in December.

Both teams are 7-7 and will see plenty of each other down the stretch, meeting twice in the final three weeks. The winner Sunday takes control of the NFC South race.

For Tampa Bay, this is about stopping the skid. The Buccaneers have lost five of their last six, including last week’s gut punch against the Atlanta Falcons. Tampa Bay led 28-14 before allowing a fourth-and-14 conversion on the Falcons’ final drive – a sequence that ended with a game-winning field goal.

Afterward, an angry Todd Bowles didn’t mince words, calling the collapse inexcusable. The big question now: How does his team respond?

For Carolina, this is one of the biggest home games in years. The Panthers haven’t won the NFC South in a decade. A win Sunday wouldn’t clinch anything – but it would put them firmly in the driver’s seat.

Lions running out of road

The Detroit Lions can see the playoff door. The problem? It’s starting to close.

At 8-6, Detroit has no margin left. Another loss could end their postseason hopes. In a crowded NFC, 11 wins may be the minimum to get in, especially with Green Bay’s tie effectively acting as an extra cushion.

Detroit’s path isn’t easy: the Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Vikings and the Bears to close the season. The Lions need help around the conference, but first and foremost, they have to win – every week.

There’s also a potential storyline brewing. Week 18 could feature Detroit against Chicago and former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, now the Bears’ head coach, with a playoff spot hanging in the balance. If it gets there, it would be appointment viewing.

Will the Broncos ever lose?

The Denver Broncos enter Sunday riding an 11-game winning streak – and somehow, they’re still finding new ways to win.

During the run, Denver has dominated teams like the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys, squeaked past others like the New York Jets, Houston Texans, Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commanders and Kansas City Chiefs, and authored a pair of miracle comebacks again