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A ketogenic diet outperformed Mediterranean and low-fat diets in several measures of metabolic health during a clinical trial involving people with obesity, prediabetes, and fatty liver disease. All three groups lost about 10% of their body weight, but keto reduced liver fat by 67%, compared with 45% for the other diets. About half of the keto group also no longer qualified as having prediabetes after four to five months.

Dogs and humans may have more in common when it comes to aging than scientists realized. Researchers with the Dog Aging Project found that patterns of small molecules in dogs’ blood were linked to longer or shorter lifespans in remarkably similar ways to those seen in people. These metabolic “fingerprints” could offer clues about the biological processes that drive aging, including metabolism, inflammation, and cellular stress.

People with chronic insomnia who used melatonin long term had a roughly 90% higher risk of developing heart failure over five years, according to a large preliminary study. The findings do not prove melatonin causes heart problems, but they raise new questions about the safety of taking the popular sleep supplement for extended periods.

Several dietary patterns have been associated with better health outcomes. However, the extent to which adherence to different so-called healthy diets overlaps, whether these dietary patterns are equally beneficial, and whether they are associated with similar DNA methylation profiles, remains unclear. Therefore, we investigate the overlap in adherence to ten diet quality scores, and examine the associations of these scores with both biological aging markers and DNA methylation profiles. We use...

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) dominate global mortality yet remain pervasive despite extensive prevention efforts, suggesting current explanatory frameworks may be incomplete. We propose the "Adaptive Cost Hypothesis": many NCDs represent not primarily lifestyle-mismatch diseases but rather inevitable trade-offs inherent in adaptive epigenetic programming optimized for reproductive success within ancestral human lifespans of 40-60 years. Early-life adversity calibrates immune, metabolic, and...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting the primary motor cortex (M1) has previously been shown to enhance motor learning in older adults. However, findings across studies are inconsistent, which may be partly due to variability in stimulation parameters and montages across experimental protocols. We aimed to replicate the effect of 1 mA conventional anodal tDCS over the M1 hotspot during one session of motor sequence learning on retention (24 h) compared to sham stimulation in...

CONCLUSION: In male rats, the SHR+BCAS+D-gal composite model recapitulates the multifactorial background, chronic progression, and multimodal neurological impairment of clinical CSVD at behavioral, neuroimaging, histopathological, and molecular levels. This male rat model may provide a useful experimental platform for mechanistic and interventional studies targeting BBB protection, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and white matter repair.

CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that CMDT enhances anticipatory control mechanisms linking brain function to behavior, supporting both emotional regulation and executive efficiency in frail older adults. By embedding cognitive demands within motor actions, this approach provides a low-cost and scalable intervention with increased ecological relevance, offering a promising strategy for addressing multidimensional vulnerability in aging.

Stem cell quiescence is a reversible state in which cells temporarily exit the cell cycle but remain poised to re-enter on cue. Robust protection of the balance between stem cell quiescence and proliferation (Q->P) is critical for long-term tissue health. Proliferation without proper resources drives disease states including cancer or birth defects. Conversely, extended periods of quiescence can lead to irreversible senescence, causing stem cell loss, aging symptoms, and vulnerability to...

Aging is fundamentally associated with the gradual accumulation of DNA damage, which is instrumental in the initiation and advancement of age-associated pathologies, including neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Recent studies indicate that lifestyle modifications-especially the consumption of functional foods and participation in consistent physical exercise-can influence cellular and molecular processes related to DNA repair, reduction of oxidative...

Frequent micro-awakenings during sleep were linked to higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s in healthy middle-aged adults who had no symptoms. The discovery raises the possibility that subtle changes during sleep could offer an early warning signal years before memory problems appear.

Scientists have identified a protein that acts like a brake on the nervous system’s ability to repair damaged connections. Blocking AHR helped injured nerve fibers regrow and improved movement and sensation in mice with nerve or spinal cord injuries. The discovery could eventually point toward new treatments designed to shift neurons from simply surviving an injury to actively rebuilding themselves.

Scientists have created light-activated drugs that helped blind mice perceive light again and restored visually guided behavior without gene therapy, implants, or specialized lighting. Even more intriguingly, two of the most promising compounds worked when administered as eye drops, pointing toward a potentially simple new approach to restoring vision.

A popular vanilla flavoring in e-cigarettes may interfere with some of the earliest steps of human development. In lab experiments, vanillin caused embryonic stem cells to lose their ability to develop normally and pushed them toward forming only certain types of tissue.

A 20-year study of 400,000 students found that children who attended public school pre-K earned better grades and test scores through high school than those in other childcare settings. Better-trained teachers and earlier exposure to structured classrooms may help explain why the advantage lasted so long.

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Comparative genetics aims to resolve the genetic and molecular architecture of complex traits and the evolutionary constraints governing biology. Recent improvements in genome assembly, coupled with population-scale multi-omics, have generated high-resolution maps of genetic and functional variation across species. These advances have been particularly transformative for farmed animals, which have a rich reservoir of genetic diversity and provide an opportunity for systematic, full-lifespan,...

Ovarian aging precedes decline in many organs, but its mechanisms remain unclear. Here we show that aging oocytes accumulate cytoplasmic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) through increased mtDNA leakage, activating the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) pathway to produce cGAMP and trigger stimulator of interferon genes (STING) signaling. Notably, oocyte-derived cGAMP can pass through gap junctions to surrounding granulosa cells (GCs), activating STING signaling in GCs as well. To model age-associated...

Early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) and late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) have different clinical and neuroimaging characteristics, and non-cognitive deficits usually observed are suggestive of hypothalamic dysfunctions. Here, we assessed in vivo the hypothalamic volumetry in EOAD and LOAD and explored its association with cognitive and non-cognitive features. The hypothalamus and its subunits were segmented on T1-weighted MRIs from 14 younger and 23 elderly controls (EC), 14 EOAD, and 28...