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Casey Marie Schwartzmier was feisty. She was outspoken and smart. And, at age 20, she died, after a long struggle with addiction. That is the portrait painted in her frank and revealing obituary, which was penned by her mother, Michelle. The candid obit offers an affectionate description of the daughter that Schwartzmier lost this month, and speaks in clear and honest terms about the addiction that she faced. (Larimer, 1/31)

With environmental regulations expected to come under heavy fire from the Trump administration, new research offers powerful evidence of a link between air pollution and dementia risk. For older women, breathing air that is heavily polluted by vehicle exhaust and other sources of fine particulates nearly doubles the likelihood of developing dementia, finds a study published Tuesday. And the cognitive effects of air pollution are dramatically more pronounced in women who carry a genetic variant, known as APOE-e4, which puts them at higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. (Healy, 1/31)

Oviedo Medical Research begins screening patients Monday for a novel treatment for chronic constipation – a vibrating capsule. Patients will be given a pill that vibrates while moving through the intestines to simulate normal contractions. Israeli medical device company Vibrant Ltd. has been developing the vibrating capsule from a pill used to take photos as it travels through a patient’s guts. (Aboraya, 1/31)

Like to play bridge? Enjoy a good game of chess or spending a couple of hours on a craft project? Looking forward to reading your favorite author?Now there’s encouraging news for you: A new study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic’s Scottsdale, Arizona, campus shows that such simple activities can hold off mental decline well into your 70s and beyond. (Veciana-Suarez, 1/31)

Scientists were alarmed last year when they found that a woman in Pennsylvania had been infected with bacteria that was resistant to colistin, an antibiotic that is considered the last line of defense against particularly nasty illnesses. It was a scary reminder that bacteria are increasingly able to survive antibiotics, making some infections extremely difficult or even impossible to treat. Now California is on a list of six states where patients have been infected with bacteria that contains a gene known as mcr-1, which makes it resistant to colistin. (Karlamangla, 1/31)

Rigorous cleaning practices don’t ensure that medical scopes are free of contamination, and many of these reusable devices have scratches and dents that could harbor blood, tissue and bacteria, a new study found. The seven-month study, published Tuesday in the American Journal of Infection Control, found that 12 of 20 gastroscopes and colonoscopes examined tested positive for bacterial growth, even after being disinfected using the current guidelines or additional measures. (Terhune, 1/31)