Short course: Ageing easy riders beware

Ageing easy riders beware

NEW YORK: If you're over 40 and planning to hop on a motorcycle, take care. Compared with younger riders, the odds of being seriously injured are high. That is the message of a new study, published this week in the journal Injury Prevention, which found that older bikers are three times as likely to be severely injured in a crash as younger riders. The percentage of older bikers on the road is quickly rising, and their involvement in accidents is a growing concern. In the US, from 1990 to 2003, the percentage of motorcyclists over age 50 soared from roughly 1 in 10 to about 1 in 4. At the same time, the average age of riders involved in motorcycle crashes has also been climbing. Injury rates among those 65 and older jumped 145 percent from 2000 to 2006 alone.

Along with meds, brain stimulation may aid depression

NEW YORK: Treating people with depression using weak electrical currents passed into the brain through a headband may help relieve some of their symptoms when combined with an antidepressant, a new study suggests. Researchers found that after six weeks of treatment with a combination of brain stimulation and sertraline, nearly two-thirds of depressed participants got significantly better. But by itself, brain stimulation was no better than medication. "In the field of depression, it's important to know about treatment options, and medications alone don't work for everyone," said Dr Sarah Lisanby, a psychiatrist who studies brain stimulation at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

ALSO READ

Breast pain alters how women exercise

Third millennium grain: High-protein amaranth is rich in iron, calcium

In treating cancer, Genes Matter

Nutrient-rich kiwi good for the anaemic