UF Health Podcasts

Your senior cat’s increased affection and chatty behavior may seem charming, but these could be early signs of feline cognitive dysfunction, or FCD, a type of progressive feline dementia.

A recent  study showed that brain changes in cats with FCD are very similar to those in people with Alzheimer’s disease. However, with cats, we often mistake the behavioral changes for normal aging.

Most cats with FCD vocalize more, have accidents in the house and seem clingier. Additional signs may include restless sleep, anxiety and disorientation, slowing down and memory lapses.

Other common conditions in elderly cats — like pain, high blood pressure and hyperthyroidism — can also cause these signs. So, it’s important to have your veterinarian rule them out and formulate a plan to make your cat more comfortable.

As of early December 2025, 60 cases of equine herpesvirus-1, or EHV-1, have been reported in horses from eight states, with most showing neurologic signs.

EHV-1 and EHV-4 are the most common of the nine EHV viruses and the ones posing the highest risk to horses. Both can cause mild self-limiting respiratory disease and abortion, but EHV-1 can also cause potentially fatal neurologic disease.

Carrier horses with no clinical signs can spread EHV to other horses. Vaccines are approved for the respiratory and abortive forms of EHV, but there’s no vaccine currently labeled for the neurologic form.

Disease spread can be mitigated by isolating and monitoring new or returning horses for at least 21 days and regularly cleaning and disinfecting equipment and surfaces.

After a family’s pet goat was euthanized, the land on their farm precluded burial. Instead, they cremated the animal’s remains, assuming that high heat would reduce them to ashes.

Unbeknownst to them, their dog sniffed out the site. The next day, her gait was unsteady and she started vomiting. Fortunately, someone collected the charred bits that came up.

With their dog’s condition quickly declining, the family arrived at the university veterinary hospital. The sample and history suggested to the veterinarian’s that the dog had been secondarily poisoned by pentobarbital in the euthanasia solution. After receiving the appropriate treatment, she made a full recovery.

This serves as a warning — both regarding the safe disposal of euthanized animals and the importance of collecting samples.

Post after post. Video after video. Whether on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or X, content has become increasingly integrated into our lives and serves as a vessel for what some have dubbed as “brain rot.”

Now, brain rot is not a definitive diagnosis, nor a term rooted in science. It has become synonymous with mindless, absurd online content predominantly consumed by kids and tweens. It is designed to keep you scrolling without a single thought crossing your mind.

It’s not hard to spot — brain rot often looks like low-quality videos. You know, cunning cat compilations or viral dance routines. It might even be Fortnight play-throughs and other short-burst gaming content. It takes many forms, and it’s more likely than not that you’ve come across some yourself.

Experts say brain rot attacks our short attention spans. This short-form content is designed to give us a dose of dopamine, a hormone that plays a crucial role in reward and motivation. And, while it feels good to watch, content like this can become a craving.

The younger the child, the more susceptible they are to feeling addicted, which might snowball into negative effects on adolescent development. They need a variety of different experiences to form a brain that can learn and develop productively, which includes emotional and social cues.

What can you do? Well, don’t worry about eliminating all screen time. It’s neither realistic nor conducive for a potentially rebellious teen. Instead, choosing to set screentime limits might prevent an endless cycle of rabbit holes that end in brain rot.

Consider this a late New Year’s resolution.

Imagine being a 31-year-old teenager.

A new University of Cambridge study suggests that your brain can be in an adolescent state even as the body is in its early 30s.

Neuroscientists studied MRI brain scans from more than 3,800 people, ranging in age from newborns to 90-year-olds. The scans tracked water’s movement through tissue, allowing researchers to map the networks that link different parts of the brain.

They found that the brain’s structure goes through five major phases and four turning points when the brain reorganizes itself.

Each period holds a different way for the brain to support thinking, learning and behavior.

The first phase is childhood, and it lasts from birth to roughly age 9. During this epoch, the brain’s network consolidates. Gray and white matter grow quickly. Ridges on the brain’s outer surface take shape.

In the adolescent phase, around age 9, white matter grows and brain scans show orderly water movement in tissue, suggesting stronger neural connections. The brain hits peak efficiency. This phase, to our surprise, lasts until the age of 32, on average.

Then, the brain hits its adult phase, which lasts three decades. Things are stable, but there is growing segregation, with brain regions becoming more distinct and specialized. Around age 66, the brain hits a subtle phase. There is no drama, but again, the brain network reorganizes. White matter begins to degenerate.

The final turning point happens near age 83. The brain’s global connections falter and it relies more on specific regions.

The takeaway, researchers say, is that the brain’s life journey is not a steady climb, but one of predictable changes.

You might say it’s just a phase.

Years ago, you might have heard that an aspirin a day keeps the cardiologist away.

Popular advice once suggested the routine use of aspirin could reduce heart attacks and strokes for those without a history of heart disease — and for people who were older than 60 years of age.

The alleged benefit stemmed from how aspirin prevents the formation of blood clots, specifically by inhibiting platelets from sticking together.

However, that recommendation came before three randomized trials that suggested aspirin might not confer the heart-protective benefit folks originally expected.

In fact, it increased the risk of dying from bleeding and gastrointestinal cancer.

Now, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association advise against the daily consumption of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease. The only people who are recommended to do so are those who have already had a heart attack, stroke or are at a high risk for a cardiovascular event. Then, the benefit-to-risk ratio makes the habit worthwhile.

If you are using aspirin, the dosage is important. The standard daily dose of aspirin to take for prevention is “baby” aspirin, or 81 milligrams. Going above and beyond has no incremental benefit, according to a study of 15,000 people with a history of heart disease. They were randomly assigned to take 81 or 325 milligrams daily. While the benefit plateaued, the bleeding risk did not. It went up.

Patients on aspirin or considering the use of aspirin should consult their physicians to talk about their risk benefit ratio based on these updated cardiovascular guidelines.

For our bodies, sleep is always a hot commodity. It fuels recovery, supports muscle growth and leads to a better quality of life.

But for many, winding down our brains can be harder than we expect. For the high-strung among us, this can be because of anxious thoughts or extensive to-do lists for the following day.

Then, the more you stare at the ceiling, the more you toss and turn.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), this is a common problem. Racing and intrusive thoughts are the most frequently reported symptoms of chronic insomnia. Experts say these anxiety-filled cerebral whirlwinds cause your mind to latch onto ideas, creating a sense of arousal and alertness.

Though nighttime mind-wandering may feel inescapable, there are things you can do to reset. Cognitive shuffling is an effective method. You can think of this as a type of word game. To “play,” you pick a word at random. Then, for each letter of the word, you think of as many corresponding words as you can for five to 10 seconds before moving on to the next letter.

Sensory grounding helps, too. This technique fastens your attention to the world around you by instructing you to count five things that interact with your senses —  naming what you can feel, smell, taste, hear and see.

And if neither of those options sound soothing, some people enjoy mental “walk-throughs.” To try this, you picture walking through a memory. It could be an old soccer field, your childhood house or another setting that calms your brain.

Ultimately, there are plenty of ways to coax your brain into peacefully nodding off. And yes, you can always count sheep.

Whether you’re pumping iron, lacing up for a jog or pedaling your way to good health, exercise takes effort. And not just for the main event — you have to make time in your schedule, change into workout clothes, possibly drive to the gym…

With all the prep involved, it can be easy to overlook one of the most important steps in getting ready for your workout: warming up.

A new analysis of warm-up strategies confirms the benefits of warming up, but it also explores the importance of how you warm up. Raising muscle temperature before training can meaningfully improve performance. For every one degree Celsius increase in muscle temperature, the researchers found about a 3.5% boost in muscle power and speed. This was particularly noticeable in fast, high-powered movements like sprinting and jumping.

But not all warm-ups are created equal. Passive warmup techniques may involve taking a warm shower or targeting muscles via heating pad, while active warmups involve gentle physical activity for several minutes before working out.

Evidence shows that both methods are effective, but active warmups that mimic the activity to be performed provide the most benefit. This approach activates muscles and provides the most efficient movement patterns.

So how do you know when you’ve been sufficiently warmed up? Researchers say when the movements become easier and you begin to lightly sweat, you’re probably ready to start your workout in earnest.

As tempting as it can be to jump into your main workout activity, don’t skip out on the opening act. It can serve as a launchpad to safer and better results.

With the goal of reducing catastrophic fractures in racehorses, researchers in Australia aimed to stop bone damage altogether. They found that intensive training suppresses bone remodeling, which is how bones repair microdamage before it develops into fractures. In contrast, normal exercise stimulates the growth of thicker bone that’s more fracture-resistant.

They developed a mathematical model to simulate how bone sensors naturally detect exercise stress and transmit signals for repair. The model also showed that high-speed running over long distances overwhelms this repair system and allows bone damage to accumulate.

To strike a balance for training, the researchers posited that high-speed training could be shortened in distance and duration, with rest periods of normal exercise offered more frequently.

A recent study of nearly 45 hundred dogs linked stressful events during puppyhood to aggression and fear later on.

Pet parents used a validated questionnaire to report their dog’s history and behavior. Higher scores meant stronger fearful or aggressive responses to common triggers.

A third of the dogs had experienced trauma, such as physical abuse, surrender to a shelter or serious injury. Compared to those that faced adversity later in life, dogs exposed before six months of age scored higher on fear and aggression scales. Behavioral responses to the same triggers also differed from one breed to another, showing that genetics and environment interact to form a dog’s behavior.

Even with dogs that have a rough start, loving care, individual training and environmental enrichment can help with behavioral issues.