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People with diabetes reported better quality of life after days when their glucose stayed largely within a healthy range, even when levels fluctuated more than usual. The unexpected finding suggests that pursuing extremely tight glucose control may sometimes come with a hidden lifestyle burden.

A new study suggests coffee may influence mood and brain function by changing the activity of microbes in the gut. Both caffeinated and decaf coffee were linked to lower stress, depression, and impulsivity, while also producing measurable changes in gut bacteria and metabolites. Decaf was associated with better learning and memory, while caffeinated coffee appeared to reduce anxiety and improve attention.

Spaceflight may dramatically change the gut within weeks, causing bacteria to break down more protein as food moves more slowly through the intestines. The shift could help explain astronaut constipation and may have wider effects on health, making it an important concern for future missions to Mars.

A compound the body can make after eating pomegranates, walnuts, and some berries improved measures of heart function by up to 80% in animal models of a difficult-to-treat form of heart failure. Urolithin A helped stiff heart tissue relax and reduced scarring and abnormal enlargement. It also improved relaxation in engineered human heart tissue.

The functional decline of the hematopoietic system during aging affects organismal function and contributes to reduced healthspan. Quantifying hematopoietic aging holds great scientific and clinical relevance. Alterations in chromatin architecture are a well-established hallmark of aging that encode rich and informative signatures of the aging process, yet they remain largely unexplored as quantitative markers. Here, we present an interpretable deep learning approach based on convolutional...

Autophagy is widely proposed to decline with age; however, direct evidence across human cell types remains limited. Moreover, it is unclear whether age-associated changes in autophagy-gene transcription are accompanied by corresponding changes in autophagic activity, and whether autophagic activity relates to physiological function during aging. We performed transcriptomic and functional autophagy analyses across subject-matched human cell types from a healthy aging cohort. Autophagy-related...

Scientists resurrected antimicrobial peptides from mammals that lived millions of years ago and found that some were more potent against drug-resistant bacteria than modern human versions. These evolutionary relics could provide new clues for designing treatments as antibiotic resistance becomes an increasingly serious threat.

Strengthening the body’s natural daily rhythms helped mice recover after stroke by improving the brain’s waste-clearing system and reducing lingering inflammation. The approach worked even when treatment began three days after the stroke, suggesting circadian-based therapies could eventually offer a new way to support long-term recovery.

Scientists found that immune cells contributing to Alzheimer’s-related brain damage may be activated in lymph nodes outside the brain before traveling into the nervous system. Blocking this pathway in mice dramatically reduced neurodegeneration and preserved cognitive abilities, pointing to a potentially more accessible treatment target.

A large health-record analysis found that glucosamine use was associated with a 25% higher likelihood of mild cognitive impairment progressing to dementia. Lab experiments suggest the popular joint supplement may intensify an abnormal sugar-tagging process in the Alzheimer’s brain, although researchers say clinical trials are needed to determine whether it actually causes harm.

Direct oral anticoagulants cut the risk of serious clinical events by 69% in atrial fibrillation patients with an intermediate risk of stroke, according to the randomized SINGLE-AF trial. The benefit was driven mainly by fewer ischemic strokes, with no increase in major bleeding.

A single dose of an experimental CRISPR therapy cut LDL cholesterol and triglycerides by about half in patients with difficult-to-treat lipid disorders. The reductions were still present one year later, with the highest dose lowering LDL by 52.5% and triglycerides by 47.8%.

Pain and fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis can persist even after inflammation improves, with depression, poor sleep, obesity, smoking, and chronic pain potentially helping sustain symptoms. Researchers say identifying these hidden drivers could prevent unnecessary medication changes and lead to more personalized treatment.

Nematode growth medium (NGM) has been the standard culture medium for Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) for over five decades and contains peptone to support proliferation of the bacterial food source, Escherichia coli OP50. However, the increasing use of paraformaldehyde (PFA)-killed OP50 in studies of metabolism, aging, and host-microbe interactions raise the question of whether peptone remains necessary once bacterial proliferation has been eliminated. Here, we systematically compared...

This study examined the impact of nine years of continued cycling exercise on physiological function in older exercisers, viewed as a model of inherent biological aging free from the negative effects of inactivity. A range of cardiorespiratory indices were measured, with peak oxygen consumption (V̇O(2peak)) as the primary outcome. Of an original 125 cyclists first assessed in 2012-2013, 82 (53 males, 29 females) returned 9 years later (aged 64-86 years at follow up). V̇O(2peak) declined by 19.7%...