One Decision Could Help Lower Dementia Risk and Improve Long-Term Brain Health

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People who quit smoking may reduce their risk of developing dementia later in life, according to new research.

A team of researchers at a university in China analyzed data from more than 32,000 adults over a 25-year period and found that former smokers had a lower risk of dementia compared to people who continued smoking.

The findings were published in the journal Neurology.

During the study period, researchers documented 5,868 cases of dementia.

Participants who quit smoking during the study had a significantly lower risk of developing dementia than current smokers. Their risk was similar to people who had quit smoking before the study began and those who had never smoked.

The researchers also found that dementia risk continued to decline the longer a person remained smoke-free, approaching that of never-smokers after about seven years. (Read more from “One Decision Could Help Lower Dementia Risk and Improve Long-Term Brain Health” HERE)

Dying River in Biblical ‘Cradle of Civilization’ Raises Scary Specter of End Times

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The “cradle of civilization” may be turning into a dust bowl — and some Christians say the Bible saw it coming.

The mighty Euphrates River — the legendary waterway that helped give rise to some of humanity’s earliest civilizations — has been shrinking at an alarming rate, sparking fresh fears among end-times believers that an apocalyptic prophecy from the Book of Revelation could be unfolding in real time.

The famed watercourse winds nearly 1,800 miles from the mountains of eastern Turkey through Syria and Iraq, slicing through the ancient Fertile Crescent — the Biblical “cradle of civilization” — before meeting the Tigris River and draining into the Persian Gulf.

Now, as water levels plunge, prophecy-watchers online are sounding the alarm over a chilling passage from Revelation 16:12.

It says: “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.”

For generations, some Christians have interpreted the verse to mean that the drying river would pave the way for a massive eastern army to march toward the Battle of Armageddon — the cataclysmic showdown believed to precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. (Read more from “Dying River in Biblical ‘Cradle of Civilization’ Raises Scary Specter of End Times” HERE)

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Fears of Mysterious Beast Spread in Ohio after Locals Record Eerie Howls, Enormous Footprints: ‘I know what I saw’

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. . .Ohioans are battening down the hatches as locals fear a not-so-friendly neighborhood Sasquatch is making a comeback after a half-century of silence — with a new brood in tow.

Northeast Ohio, the gloomiest corner of the Buckeye State, has been ripe with Bigfoot sightings since March. Some residents suspect a whole family of Sasquatches is moving into the region after a particularly brutal winter, Fox 8 reported.

Many anonymous witnesses shared pictures of hulking footprints scattered primarily between Akron and Youngstown in Portage County. Most of the prints are an estimated 17 inches in length—which can only match a creature that is at least 7-feet tall or more.

Believers who were brave enough to take their findings to the media described a creature between 6 and 10 feet tall completely covered in dark fur, the outlet reported.

Mike Miller, the co-founder of the Ohio Nightstalkers Bigfoot Research Group, is leading the charge on the ground.

This isn’t his first rodeo as the emergent expert on all things Sasquatch in Ohio, which ranks fourth in the nation for purported Bigfoot sightings. The last Bigfoot flap, or mass reports of sightings in one area, was in 1978, the outlet reported. (Read more from “Fears of Mysterious Beast Spread in Ohio after Locals Record Eerie Howls, Enormous Footprints: ‘I know what I saw’” HERE)

3 Cruise Ship Passengers Dead, Another Fighting for their Life After Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak

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Three cruise passengers are dead, and a fourth is fighting for their life after a suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard the ship MV Hondius on a trip along the coast of Africa, according to reports.

One case of hantavirus was confirmed in the first victim, with five other suspected cases still pending, the World Health Organization told Agence France-Presse on Sunday.

The first victim, a 70-year-old man, suffered a fatal hemorrhagic fever on board the ship. His 69-year-old wife died not long after at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, the outlet reported.

The third fatality was also on board the ship, the outlet reported.

A 69-year-old British passenger is now in intensive care at the Johannesburg hospital, the BBC reported.

The outbreak was first reported during Hondius’ journey between Argentina and Cape Verde. The ship is operated by the Dutch tour company Oceanwide Expeditions. (Read more from “3 Cruise Ship Passengers Dead, Another Fighting for their Life After Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak” HERE)

Coca-Cola Sales are Climbing — and ‘Shrinkflation’ is the Sly Way it’s Keeping Fans Buying More

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Coca-Cola fans’ love for the fizzy stuff continues to grow — even as the containers it comes in keep whittling down.

On Tuesday, the company reported an increase in sales at the start of the year, raking in $12.5 billion over three months and raising shares by 5% — a notable find, considering the simultaneous steadily rising costs of cans, bottles and packaging.

Increased conflict in the Middle East has also contributed to this price hike, as certain supplies, like PET plastic and aluminum, have become more difficult to acquire.

While other food and beverage companies struggle amidst changing times, company chief John Murphy disclosed that Coca-Cola has kept afloat — and thrived — due to selling slightly smaller bottles and cans of its products.

The practice is colloquially known as “shrinkflation,” meaning that the price appears lower, but consumers are really getting less for their money. (Read more from “Coca-Cola Sales are Climbing — and ‘Shrinkflation’ is the Sly Way it’s Keeping Fans Buying More” HERE)

African Elephants Trample Skilled California Hunter to Death

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A wealthy big-game hunter from California was ambushed and trampled to death by five elephants as he hunted small forest antelopes in central Africa earlier this month.

Californian vineyard owner Ernie Dosio, 75, who had trophy rooms in his home filled with his collection of exotic animal heads, was caught off guard with his guide when the herd emerged out of the underbrush where they were concealed and charged the hunting party, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

The fatal encounter took place in the Lope-Okanda rainforest and involved five female elephants with a calf, according to the Mail.

A professional hunter was guiding Dosio in the thick forest of Gabon for a $40,000 fee in search of a shot at the “elusive yellow-backed duiker.”

Over the decades Dosio reportedly has hunted elephants, leopards, rhinos, buffalo, and lions across Africa, and back home in the United States he hunted almost every species of wild deer. (Read more from “African Elephants Trample Skilled California Hunter to Death” HERE)

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24,000-Year-Old Frozen ‘Zombie Worm’ Thawed by Scientists — Then it Shockingly Started Reproducing

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. . .Scientists successfully revived a “zombie worm” that had been frozen for 24,000 years, revealing new insight into how life survives in the most unforgiving environments over extended periods of time.

According to a study published in the scientific journal Current Biology, researchers found that the microscopic organism — identified as a rotifer — is a small, multicellular animal commonly found in freshwater environments that is known for its unusual durability, FOX News reported.

The “zombie worm” has been frozen deep within Siberian permafrost since the Late Pleistocene, which was considered to be the final epoch of the Ice Age, ending roughly 11,700 years ago.

Scientists believe the Yedoma formation — an ice-rich, organic-laden permafrost formed during the Ice Age — helped sustain the specimen in a stable, frozen state for tens of thousands of years.

Researchers carefully thawed out the rotifer under strictly controlled laboratory conditions and were left stunned when the multiple millennia-old rotifer resumed normal biological functions. (Read more from “24,000-Year-Old Frozen ‘Zombie Worm’ Thawed by Scientists — Then it Shockingly Started Reproducing” HERE)

Intelligent Alien Life is out There — and its Technology Could Destroy us in a Microsecond, Researchers Claim

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Alien experts claim powerful extraterrestrial life exists in the universe, which is beyond the control of any government — and could wipe out life on earth.

Following Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett’s revelation last week that Americans would be “up at night worrying,” if they were privy to the things he has been briefed about UFOs — prominent researchers on the subject claim the government is keeping secrets for a reason.

“[Extraterrestrials] have the technology and power to overcome our technology and power,” Dr. Don Donderi, a retired McGill University professor, and longtime researcher into UFO phenomena, told The Post.

“The informed public knows that the UFOs exist, that UFOs are advanced machines we don’t know how to make, and that they’re operated by intelligences that are superior technically,” added Donderi, who is also a psychologist who studied human perception as well as an author of two books about extraterrestrials.

He claimed his lifelong research suggests alien technology is so advanced it could annihilate the human race in a microsecond, and warned humanity has no defense.

“No human institution of any size or shape, from local council to the United Nations, has any kind of technical response that would prevent extraterrestrials from doing what they like on Earth or with us. We’re potentially at their mercy.” he said. (Read more from “Intelligent Alien Life is out There — and its Technology Could Destroy us in a Microsecond, Researchers Claim” HERE)

Inside the Insane Rescue of Two Americans Dying From Ebola in Africa

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. . .It was July 2014, and two Americans were dying of Ebola in Liberia, the epicenter of the deadliest outbreak of the virus in human history. Dr. Kent Brantly and medical volunteer Nancy Writebol had contracted the disease while treating patients at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia.

The US government wanted to bring them home, but “no one else on Earth (literally, they’d tried) would or even could get them home,” writes journalist and former paramedic Kevin Hazzard in his new book “No One’s Coming: The Rogue Heroes Our Government Turns to When There’s Nowhere Else to Turn” (Grand Central Publishing, out now).

No one was up for what seemed like an impossible, and impossibly dangerous, mission: Evacuating two Ebola patients from West Africa without infecting the crew with the terrible virus.

“It’s deadly and contagious and absolutely horrifying,” writes Hazzard. “You liquify from the inside and then watch as the life drips out of you.”

William Walters, a State Department official running an obscure organization called Operational Medicine, made a call to Dent Thompson, co-owner of Phoenix Air, a small aviation company in Cartersville, Georgia.

The company is known for saying yes when everyone else says no. In the run-up to Operation Desert Storm, they flew 83 Patriot missile warheads out of Dover Air Force Base to Saudi Arabia. (Read more from “Inside the Insane Rescue of Two Americans Dying From Ebola in Africa” HERE)

Link Between Cannabis and Anxiety, Depression Has ‘Strengthened Over Time’: New Study

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. . .Science is split on whether the effects of cannabis are good or bad, with recent research showing it could boost brain power in older adults, while other studies show the purported benefits go up in smoke.

But a new study has found a growing connection between cannabis use and detrimental effects on mental health.

Smoking weed has previously been found to have an impact on the brain by altering dopamine activity that closely resembles patterns observed in psychosis.

Now, a study led by McMaster University and published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has shown that increasing cannabis use and worsening mental health symptoms are appearing together more and more often.

“We see that Canadians who use cannabis tend to be more likely to meet criteria for anxiety and depressive disorders, and more likely to report suicidality,” said Jillian Halladay, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster. “We also see that this co-occurrence has strengthened over time.” (Read more from “Link Between Cannabis and Anxiety, Depression Has ‘Strengthened Over Time’: New Study” HERE)

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