There’s been a new breakthrough in tracking blood pressure in children, as it correlates to later death from heart disease. Researchers have discovered that children with high blood pressure have a much higher risk of dying from heart disease when they get older.
Scientists in the United States carried out tests on children with high blood pressure or hypertension in the 90th to 94th percentile and found that up to 50% of those kids met an early death because of cardiovascular disease. “We were surprised to find that high blood pressure in childhood was linked to serious health conditions many years later,” epidemiologist Alexa Freedman, from Northwestern University, said while presenting the study.
The researchers pored over medical data from 37,081 children born in the U.S. between 1959 and 1965. Their blood pressure was taken at age seven, and then a follow-up was performed in their early 50s. Of those in the study, 500 died of cardiovascular disease.
In childhood and adolescence, blood pressure normally increases with age and height, according to the Mayo Clinic. When a child is diagnosed with hypertension, it is because their blood pressure is above the 95th percentile. This average is measured over three visits to the doctor.
The increase in the mortality risk was significant enough to continue investigating the link between childhood high blood pressure and early death from hypertension. “High blood pressure in children can have serious consequences throughout their lives,” Freedman said. “It is crucial to be aware of your child’s blood pressure readings.”
The study noted that 359 of the children in the study participated with siblings or cousins. The results from relatives in the study mirrored the overall data, suggesting that blood pressure, rather than diet, is key to living a long life. The data for this study were gathered in the 1950s and 1960s, and children today face different problems with the rise in obesity.
Treating high blood pressure in children should focus on the underlying cause and on a heart-healthy lifestyle. The Mayo Clinic advises that children and their families should adopt a lifestyle that includes the following:
Weight loss if overweight
Daily aerobic exercise of 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous activity every day — choose an activity that gets your heart pumping, like running, soccer, tennis, or jumping jacks
Limit activities such as computer/video/tablet games and TV watching to less than two hours per day.
Regular daily intake of fresh vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy
Some kids will need medication to treat their blood pressure in addition to the healthy lifestyle choices. It is important to get the causes of high blood pressure under control, as, in addition to early death from cardiovascular disease, hypertension has been linked to kidney disease, vision loss, and atherosclerosis, where potentially harmful plaque builds up in the arteries.
“Our results highlight the importance of screening for blood pressure in childhood and focusing on strategies to promote optimal cardiovascular health beginning in childhood,” Freedman said.
On December 2, 2025, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Jeffrey was caught in a fire at the Pi Kappa Alpha frat house at Western University in Canada. The fire was caused after rubbing alcohol had been thrown onto a lit torch. Kaitlyn was one of the five people rushed to the hospital for injuries. She suffered serious burns after her face and hair had been set ablaze.
A new treatment
Usually, treatment for such burns would require a skin graft, but the burn unit at Hamilton Health Services wanted to try something different. While skin grafting is helpful, the end result isn’t always ideal. Skin grafting can be a slow process that ends with scarring and often a patch-like appearance on the patient.
“My vision for Kaitlin was to avoid skin graft surgery to her face and neck at any cost,” said Dr. Marc Jeschke, medical director of the hospital’s regional burn program and vice-president of research and innovation at HHS. “You can do the best graft on the planet, but you won’t return the skin to normal.”
With Kaitlyn’s and her family’s permission, Dr. Jeschke sent an urgent application to Health Canada for a new type of treatment. After Health Canada approved, the doctors proceeded to give Kaitlyn an exosome treatment for her facial burns. The results were a rousing success.
Exosomes, or extracellular vesicles (EcVs), are present in almost all cells, tissues, and body fluids. They’re tiny vesicles released naturally by nearly all types of cells, carrying proteins, lipids, and genetic material. They essentially carry these “packages” of material and send signals from one cell to another to regulate their behavior. They’re not only being tested for medical applications like this one, but are a part of a skin care trend as well. While exosomes had been studied for burn research, they haven’t been tested on humans before.
One trillion exosomes were collected and injected into Kaitlyn’s injured areas over the course of two treatments. This helped her cells coordinate in rapidly healing and repairing her facial tissue. The treatments also significantly reduced inflammation.
Astounding healing and new possibilities
After she had healed, Katilyn was amazed and grateful at the result.
“It’s honestly a miracle,” she said. “Being injured in the fire has also had a deep impact on my mental health, and it’s something I’m continuing to deal with. But having such good results, particularly to my face, is helping me move forward.”
Exosomes are still being researched for other potential medicinal applications. They are being tested to see how well they could modulate immune responses and deliver biomarkers. This could help combat cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, and cancer among other ailments. Time and research will tell whether exosomes can help those patients like they helped Kaitlyn.
Brenda and Brian Marquis are part of a growing senior population with mental and physical ailments. In particular, Brian has dementia from a brain injury he sustained in 2012. Brenda would help Brian remember to wash himself, eat lunch, and other tasks. On top of that, both live with other physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities that make day-to-day living difficult. Then came “Robbie.”
“Robbie” is the robot that helps the Marquis family with their daily routines at home. Resembling a coat rack, the robot was presented to the Marquis family after Brenda sent an email to the University of New Hampshire inquiring about robotic service dogs. Booker T. Bones, the family’s service dog, had passed away and Brenda was looking for similar support. The university saw this as an opportunity for its computer science center to experiment with “socially assistive” robots.
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“Our goal is not to replace a human caregiver but to use technology such as robots to provide complementary care,” Sajay Arthanat, a professor in UNH’s Department of Occupational Therapy told WMUR. “We know that caregivers often have to perform a lot of repetitive, mundane tasks.”
What exactly is “Robbie”?
“Robbie” is a Stretch 4 robot model invented by Hello Robot. While a very simple in design, the robot is able to help Brian with a number of tasks. It reminds him to eat meals at specific times, fetches items such as water bottles out of the fridge, reads the fine print of prescription medications, and more. Stretch 4 also has prompts that activate when he enters certain rooms of the home, such as the bathroom.
“I was never into technology,” Brian Marquis said to Sentinel Colorado. “Then I realized I can’t remember to wash my face and my armpits. So, it just really kind of set me free almost.”
Robbie hasn’t just helped Brian live more independently, but Brenda as well. She doesn’t have to be by Brian’s side 24/7. Now, she can go out and play mahjong with her friends without worrying about leaving Brian alone for several hours.
I saw this in South Korea. This is Robocare, two companion robots for eldercare. This robots to help prevent elderly people’s dementia by providing game content to improve brain power. The robot, via positioning system, monitors elderly people’s walking paces in real-time and is integrated with smartwatches and wrist bands to analyze users’ sleeping and daily activities. DIGITIMES Asia reports #robot#robotics#engineering#stem#aihacks
Per the Department of Health and Human Services, the majority of older adults are projected to need long-term care and service. This could range from basic needs to extreme health cases. In addition, a 2025 report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 38.2 million people provided unpaid elder care. Around 28% of those people provided nearly four hours of unpaid elder care per day.
The number of people who need such help is projected to grow exponentially. By 2030, the number of Americans over 65 is expected to surpass the number under 18 for the first time in U.S. history. The number of Americans over 65 years old is projected to reach 82 million, a 40% growth from 2022.
This is, in part, why there has been such massive investment in robots and A.I. specializing in caring for elderly people. It’s not just to ensure that the elderly have the assistance they need for day-to-day tasks. Eldercare robots also boost their patient’s confidence by allowing them to live as safely and independently as they can. In addition to task-oriented robots like Stretch 4, there are also robots to assist with mobility.
Robotics are helping improve the lives of the elderly as a new and exciting care option. With the help of medication, personal care from a human, community, and more, the growing elderly population can thrive through their golden years. For more eldercare resources, visit the National Institute on Aging.
Whether through use of a robot or not, finding solutions to aid and care for our older populations ultimately benefits society as a whole.
Photo credit: LPETTET/E+/Getty Images –
End-of-life decisions can be complicated, and ethics consultants may help families and care teams navigate them.
A surgeon prepares to amputate a patient’s foot to save his life, but the patient refuses the procedure. His decline in thinking and memory raises doubts about his ability to consent, and he has no family or friends to help with the decision.
A 17-year-old declines a liver transplant, while her mother insists on going forward with the lifesaving surgery.
Siblings stand divided at the bedside of their 85-year-old mother with dementia, one rejecting a feeding tube, the other calling it a basic human necessity.
I am a hospital ethics consultant, and these are the kinds of situations my colleagues and I regularly encounter. Yet many people are unaware that hospital ethics consultants even exist – or that they can ask for one.
Who are hospital ethics consultants?
Healthcare ethics consultants are trained to help patients, families and clinicians navigate difficult medical decisions.
They could be called in situations where healthcare staff struggles with providing procedures such as cardiac resuscitation that are unlikely to benefit the patient and might even cause more pain and suffering. They could also be called when it is unclear who has authority to consent for a patient’s care, or when end-of-life decisions are complicated and resources are limited – such as ICU beds and ventilators during COVID-19.
Ethics consultants come from a range of disciplines: physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, lawyers and philosophers who have specialized training and experience in clinical ethics. Since 2018, ethics consultants are increasingly pursuing formal certification through the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.
What is their origin?
The modern field of bioethics emerged from the 1947 Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial, where Nazi physicians were prosecuted for conducting brutal medical experiments on imprisoned people.
This led to the 1947 framework outlining ethically acceptable human research called the Nuremberg Code, written by a panel of American judges. The 1979 Ethical Principles and Guidelines for Protections of Human Subjects of Research, called the Belmont Report, followed the Nuremberg Code. The Belmont Report turned the ethical ideals of respect for persons, beneficence – to do good – and justice into a regulatory framework to protect vulnerable and marginalized medical research participants in the U.S.
In the 1980s, many of these ethics protections moved from the research lab to the patient bedside. During this time, lifesaving technologies such as the ventilator, dialysis machine and organ transplantation created new, difficult ethical questions: When should life support end? Who decides? And what happens when there aren’t enough resources?
A series of court cases and laws expanded patients’ rights, with the Patient Self-Determination Act, a 1990 law which upheld patient rights to refuse or accept medical treatment, marking the key turning point.
Lifesaving technologies have revolutionized medicine, but they also raise ethical questions about who receives care when resources are scarce. Jackyenjoyphotography/Moment via Getty Images
High-profile court cases exposed the ethical dilemmas around end-of-life care and patient self-determination. The 1976 case, In re Quinlan, involved Karen Ann Quinlan, a young woman in a persistent vegetative state whose family sought permission from the court to withdraw her ventilator.
Following In re Quinlan was the 1990 case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, which affirmed that adults have the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment.
Both cases became touchstones for how ethics consultants and care teams navigate the life‑and‑death decisions that have become routine in an era of life‑sustaining technology.
A member of the healthcare team usually requests an ethics consult when they face conflict or uncertainty about the care of a patient. Patients and families can also request an ethics consultation, but in reality, few know this option exists or feel empowered to use it.
The ethics consultant’s first task is to gather as much information as possible from everyone involved to understand the full context of the case. Importantly, ethics consultants do not make treatment decisions; they assist the people who do.
Imagine a loved one with advanced dementia who is in the intensive care unit with respiratory failure and is on a ventilator. The physician believes further treatment will prolong suffering; the family is not willing to let him go.
An ethics consultant would be called by the family or healthcare team to slow things down, provide space to reflect, and help navigate the situation. The ethics consultant will often meet with everyone involved to ensure that all voices are heard and that the patient’s wishes remain central to the discussion.
As part of the ethics review, the ethics consultant would draw on their knowledge of policies, laws and ethical precedent about withdrawing life-sustaining treatment to provide some guardrails for the situation. In this case, a legal guardrail might be that the physician cannot remove the ventilator without the family’s consent.
Rather than making a decision, the ethics consultant would then outline the ethical options available from which the patient, family, and healthcare team can choose.
Why are ethics consultants a valuable resource?
Ethics consultants are trained to help people work through not just the medical facts, but the deeply human questions beneath them: What counts as an acceptable quality of life? How do we weigh hope against suffering? How can we know what a patient would want if they cannot speak for themselves?
In these moments, decisions can feel urgent and heavy, and communication can easily break down. Ethics consultants don’t take decisions away from patients or families, and they don’t replace the role of clinicians. Instead, they help ensure that everyone understands the situation, that different perspectives are heard and that the conversation stays grounded in the values and goals of the patient.
They also bring something that families often don’t realize they need until tensions rise: a calm, measured presence. By clarifying misunderstandings, naming sources of conflict and guiding difficult conversations, they help families and care teams find a way forward together.
The choices may still be painful – and there may be no perfect answer – but with the right support, those decisions can feel more thoughtful, more shared and more aligned with what matters most.
