Smoking greatly increases your biological age, says A.I.

New anti-aging program? Don't smoke.

DANIA BEACH, FL - JANUARY 03: Bill Griffith, on vacation from Chicago, Illinois, lights up a cigarette as he visits the beach on January 03, 2019 in Dania Beach, Florida. Florida state legislatures introduced an effort to outlaw smoking on all public beaches in the state. Mr Griffith said he doesn't understand why they would want to outlaw smoking on the beaches and he picks up his cigarette butts whenever he smokes on the beach. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
  • A new blood analysis test performed by Artificial Intelligence shows that smoking greatly increases your biological age.
  • Smokers under the age of forty show the greatest increase compared to their chronological age.
  • The study was performed using the anonymized blood chemistry and cell count results of 149,000 people.
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The dos and don’ts of helping a drug-addicted person recover

How you talk to people with drug addiction might save their life.

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  • Addiction is a learning disorder; it's not a sign that someone is a bad person.
  • Tough love doesn't help drug-addicted people. Research shows that the best way to get people help is through compassion, empathy and support. Approach them as an equal human being deserving of respect.
  • As a first step to recovery, Maia Szalavitz recommends the family or friends of people with addiction get them a complete psychiatric evaluation by somebody who is not affiliated with any treatment organization. Unfortunately, warns Szalavitz, some people will try to make a profit off of an addicted person without informing them of their full options.
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​Americans now more likely to die from opioids than car crashes

It marks a first for the U.S., where some 49,000 people died from opioids in 2018.

Narcan kits are available at a homeless encampment in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 22, 2018.
  • Each American has about a 1 in 7,569 chance of dying from an opioid overdose, according to a National Safety Council report. The probability of dying in a motor vehicle accident is 1 in 8,096.
  • The death rate for opioids is now six times higher than it was in 1999, with about 130 Americans dying every day from the drugs.
  • Narcan is a life-saving drug that can stop opioid overdoses in their tracks, however factors like stigma and cost are preventing this antidote from becoming more accessible.
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Want to know what mice in labs are saying? Try DeepSqueak.

A breakthrough app for ultrasonic squeak analysis.

(Kuttlevaserova Stuchelova/Shutterstock)
  • Mice have a vocabulary of about 20 different phrases.
  • A clever new neural-network-based application reveals what mice used in research say.
  • Spoiler: The conversation changes when a female shows up
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We could cut the opioid death rate by 50% – but we’re not

As more and more people die, drug companies keep reaping in a massive profit.

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  • Drug companies make huge profits by flooding the market with overly powerful — and highly addictive — drugs.
  • Some high profile deaths over the last several years have brought this problem to the headlines. It's everyone, not just middle America, who is getting hooked.
  • Why do we let Big Pharma rule over? Journalist and author Maia Szalavitz investigates.
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