Study links coffee consumption to metabolic health

 

 Coffee is one of the world's most widely consumed beverages, and previous research has linked its consumption to a lower risk of conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, the biological mechanisms behind these benefits remain unclear. A new Finnish study links habitual coffee consumption to healthier body composition and metabolic markers, while revealing distinct associations with sex hormones in men and women.

The study, conducted at the University of Oulu, analysed data from 2,264 participants aged 46 in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. Researchers examined how habitual coffee consumption was associated with circulating metabolites, cardiometabolic risk markers and sex hormones.

Despite having a similar body mass index (BMI), individuals with higher coffee consumption had lower total and visceral fat and greater skeletal muscle mass than those who consumed less coffee.

In both men and women, higher coffee consumption was correlated with lower circulating levels of branched-chain amino acids, biomarkers that have previously been linked to insulin resistance and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes when chronically elevated.

The strongest sex-specific associations were observed in men. Higher coffee consumption was linked to a more favourable glucose–insulin profile, higher concentrations of total and bioavailable testosterone, and increased levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). At the same time, free testosterone and the free androgen index were modestly lower. In women, hormonal associations were more limited and were primarily characterised by higher SHBG and lower measures of free androgens.

"Coffee is consumed by millions of people every day, yet we still know surprisingly little about how it relates to our metabolism and hormones. What stood out in our findings was a distinct hormonal signature that didn't disappear even after we took into account BMI and lifestyle factors, with several of these associations differing between men and women," says Luca Verroest, lead author of the study and Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oulu.

The results suggest that hormonal pathways may partly explain the relationship between coffee consumption and metabolic health. However, as this was an observational study, the findings demonstrate associations rather than cause-and-effect relationships.

The study is particularly relevant in Finland, one of the world's highest coffee-consuming countries, where annual consumption averages around 11.8 kilograms per person.

The researchers say the findings provide a foundation for future studies aimed at determining whether coffee itself drives these biological changes and identifying the compounds responsible. These questions are currently being investigated in animal models, with the long-term goal of progressing to human intervention studies. Further research will be needed before the findings could inform dietary recommendations.

The study, Associations of habitual coffee intake with testosterone and cardiometabolic markers: the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study, has been published in the European Journal of Nutrition on 16 July 2026. 

A few minutes of sprinting could make a bigger impact than 90 minutes of moderate running

 

Three minutes of sprinting can do something that 90 minutes of moderate exercise apparently cannot: dramatically reshape the molecular contents of the bloodstream.

Rockefeller researchers comparing different intensities of exercise found that six sets of 30-second, all-out sprints altered nearly a quarter of the proteins measured immediately afterward. Moderate, continuous cycling for 90 minutes altered fewer than one-quarter of one percent. And while moderate running on a treadmill changed more proteins than cycling, it still altered far fewer than a quick sprint.

Sprinting triggered changes in more than 200 metabolites. It also caused an immediate surge of proteins involved in blood-vessel growth, tissue remodeling, and hormonal signaling. Some of these proteins appear to enter the bloodstream through an expedited cell signaling process known as ectodomain shedding—rather than being newly made and secreted, portions of proteins already sitting on the cell surface were cleaved off and rapidly released into circulation. The researchers also found that human fat cells exposed to blood collected after sprinting underwent extensive changes in gene activity, shifting how the cells process fuel, respond to hormones, and sense nutrient availability.

Not so with moderate exercise which produced a more modest response. It was not until three hours after completing that exercise that a meaningful wave of the fatty acids and liver-derived proteins that typically appear in response to the demands of endurance exercise were found in the bloodstream. Human fat cells exposed to blood collected after moderate cycling had only minor changes in gene activity.

When the researchers compared the exercise-responsive proteins with health data from more than 53,000 people in the UK Biobank, they found that many of these proteins were associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. The connection was particularly striking for obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic disorders: of 33 proteins associated with lower risk, 32 were altered by sprinting, compared with just three by moderate exercise. More than a quarter of these proteins were also associated with slower biological aging.

“What’s exciting here is that just a few minutes of intense exercise can trigger a significant molecular response,” says Cohen. “And we still see it after eight weeks of training, which tells us this response isn’t simply a product of the body struggling to keep up with unfamiliar stress. It may be that the responses we observed are intrinsic to intense exercise.”

“It’s well appreciated that different intensities of exercise stimulate distinct body-wide adaptations,” notes Luke Olsen, the postdoctoral fellow who conducted the studies. “However, the molecular mechanisms linking these intensity-dependent adaptations have remained largely elusive. Our work suggests that exerkines–proteins and metabolites released into the bloodstream following exercise–are highly sensitive to exercise intensity and may be the key mediators of the health-promoting effects of short bursts of vigorous exercise”.

Fulfilling friendships boost health and wellbeing

Fulfilling friendships and general close social relationships are strongly linked to excellent physical and mental health, finds a substantial global study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Mental Health.

 

Data from more than 200,000 adults shows good quality social connections and – to a lesser extent – positive family ties in childhood are associated with better perceptions of overall mental and physical health

 

The research, representing one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, spanned 22 countries including the UK, US, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Spain, India, Japan, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Mexico and others.
The outcomes of the paper – carried out by Dr Veli Durmuş, from Kütahya Health Sciences University, in Türkiye – demonstrate the importance of social and family bonds.

 

Dr Durmuş is now calling on policymakers to ensure health strategies recognise the influence of these emotional and social connections on mental and physical health.

 

“I found that people who were more satisfied with their friendships and relationships also tended to report better mental and physical health,” says Dr Durmuş, whose research specialism focuses on health management, health policy, the determinants of health, and health law.

 

“These findings show why social connections should be considered an important part of overall health and well-being. With this in mind, public health planning and prevention strategies should include the impact on mental and physical wellbeing of how people connect with others and with their families.”

 

Evidence shows relationships protect against stress, boost self-esteem and help people manage their emotions in a positive way.

 

The number and quality of personal ties made by humans influence mental and bodily wellbeing from birth onwards, according to existing research. However, studies have focused only on individual countries and results have proved inconsistent.

 

To bridge this knowledge gap, Dr Durmuş analysed data on 204,907 adults aged 18 and over from the Global Flourishing Study (GFS). This project surveys individuals to determine what factors help humans to flourish throughout life.

 

The GFS covers countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, and Africa. For the purpose of this new study, the researchers used the first phase of the GFS to ensure religious and cultural diversity.

 

Participants were asked the extent to which they agreed or disagreed that they were content or satisfied with their friendships and relationships. Childhood connections with mothers and fathers were scored on a scale from ‘very good’ to ‘very bad’.

 

Those taking part in the survey also had to rate their mental and physical health from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’. In addition, the researchers took into account income, education and other factors.

 

Results showed that individuals who reported the highest contentment with friendships and for satisfaction with relationships also tended to report better overall mental and physical health.

 

A similar, although weaker, pattern emerged among participants who reported very good childhood relationships with their parents.


Dr Durmuş explains that these findings suggest that early family relationships may be associated with health and well-being later in life, while adult social relationships may also play an important role.

 

“While these additional findings suggest that childhood relationships matter, they do not tell the whole story. People’s social environments continue to change throughout life, and friendships, partnerships and other relationships may strengthen or modify the influence of earlier experiences,” he adds.

 

Mental health scores were lower among people in their mid-thirties to late forties compared with those aged 18 to 34 years, but higher among those aged 65 and above.

 

Being married, having sufficient money, and identifying with a religion, especially Islam, was associated with better mental and physical health scores.

 

Marked variations existed between countries. People living in Indonesia scored highest for contentment with friendships and relationships, and lowest among those in Japan.

 

In conclusion, the findings demonstrate strong social relationships serve as a ‘universal pillar’ of well-being across cultural backgrounds. Dr Durmuş, emphasises that the strength of his research lies in the analysis of data from multiple countries with populations made up of people from diverse backgrounds.

 

A limitation of the paper is that it cannot prove cause-and-effect; being based on self-reported data, the findings depend heavily on people's subjective perceptions at that moment in time that they are asked.

---

Journal

Journal of Mental Health

DOI

10.1080/09638237.2026.2695973 

Study links ultra-processed foods to significantly higher prostate cancer risks

 Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) account for nearly 60% of adults’ and 70% of children’s energy intake in the United States. These industrially manufactured products – such as soft drinks, packaged cereals and snacks, and processed meats – are made with refined fats, oils, sugars, starches, salts and other additives that can enhance flavor, texture, and shelf life while reducing nutritional value.

Growing evidence links higher consumption of UPFs to a range of health problems. Research has identified several potential biological pathways through which UPFs may contribute to cancer. These include metabolic disruption, inflammation, oxidative stress, and changes to the gut microbiome. However, data are sparse about whether men who consume high amounts of UPFs have greater risks of prostate cancer.

Now, new research from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine provides evidence that men with higher consumption of UPFs have increased risks of prostate cancer. In the U.S., prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer death among men after lung cancer.

Published in The American Journal of Medicine, the study provides analyses from a large and nationally representative data from 17,024 U.S. men ages 18 and older who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003 through 2023. Researchers used two 24-hour dietary recalls to calculate the percentage of daily calories participants consumed from UPFs. Using the validated and widely used NOVA classification system, they divided participants into four groups, ranging from less than about 20% of calories from UPFs to more than 44%.

Men in the three higher-consumption groups of UPFs had a 29% greater risk of prostate cancer, while those in the two highest-consumption groups had a 30% greater risk, compared to those in the lowest consumption group. After adjustments for age, race and ethnicity, smoking, and poverty status, the increased risk remained significant, ranging from 24% to 31%. Men with the highest UPF intake alone had a possible 34% higher risk, although the finding did not reach statistical significance, potentially reflecting the smaller number of prostate cancer cases in that group.

“Among adult men in this nationally representative U.S. population, those who consumed higher amounts of UPFs had significantly higher risks of the subsequent development of prostate cancer,” said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., FACPM, FACC, senior author and the First Sir Richard Doll Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Population Health at FAU’s College of Medicine. “These findings add to emerging evidence that UPFs have major adverse health effects and underscore the need for large-scale observational studies and randomized trials to adequately test the hypothesis.”

Previous studies have shown that people who consume larger amounts of UPFs have higher risks of overweight and obesity, metabolic disease, markers of inflammation, cardiovascular disease, principally heart attacks and strokes, as well as premature death.

This original research adds to the armamentaria of a major battle in which the priorities of the food  industry do not align with the needs of the U.S. public. The authors opine that just as the dangers of tobacco began to emerge during the middle of the prior century, decades passed before the preponderance of evidence and the efforts of forward-thinking health officials prompted policy changes to discourage cigarette use. The authors believe that this is likely to be a similar path for UPFs.

“Reducing consumption of UPFs is a complex public health challenge, particularly given how prevalent and accessible these products are,” said co-author Timothy De Ver Dye, Ph.D., professor and chair of FAU’s Department of Population Health. “Healthcare providers should recognize that many patients face barriers to accessing and affording healthier food options. Addressing these challenges will require efforts that extend beyond individual choices to support greater access to nutritious, minimally processed foods.”

Prostate cancer is a major health concern in the U.S. and worldwide. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 333,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the U.S. in 2026, with more than 36,000 expected to die from the disease. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, nearly 1.5 million men worldwide were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2022, and nearly 400,000 died from the disease.

“All healthcare professionals should encourage patients to adopt healthy lifestyle practices and evidence-based therapies, while also helping them reduce their consumption of ultra-processed foods,” Hennekens said. “Patients and their healthcare providers should consider this finding as part of broader efforts to promote healthier dietary choices.”

Parents who run with a stroller have lower risk of overuse injury

 Anyone who has run while pushing a stroller knows stroller running can feel cumbersome and hard on the body. But does it increase the risk of injury? According to a new study from researchers at Penn State Berks, the answer appears to be no.

The study, published TODAY (Aug. 12) in the journal PLOS One, found that parents who ran with a stroller were less likely to sustain an overuse injury during the first three years after becoming a parent compared to those who ran without a stroller. For every 1,000 miles run, parents who ran with a stroller saw a 55% lower injury rate compared to those who ran without a stroller.

“This study is among the first to look at injury patterns in parents who run,” said senior author Allison Altman-Singles, associate professor of kinesiology and of mechanical engineering at Penn State Berks. “We saw that running with a stroller is safe and can help sustain physical activity during early parenthood.”

According to the researchers, previous studies have shown that running with a stroller alters the way a person runs. Stroller runners tend to have shorter strides, lean forward more, twist less through the torso and run slower. In this study, the researchers explored if and how running with a stroller influenced running habits and injury risk compared to running without a stroller.

The researchers recruited participants who had been a parent to children aged 0 to 3 within the last 20 years, who ran more than five miles per week before becoming a parent and who ran when their child was between six months and three years of age. Using a web-based survey, participants reported their running mileage from the time their child was born until age 10 and any injuries suffered during the first three years after becoming a parent.

The parents were then separated into two groups — those who ran regularly with a stroller and those who didn’t. The two groups were similar in age, height, weight, age when they had their first child and number of children. Most participants were female, particularly among the stroller running group.

Among 196 stroller runners and 53 non-stroller runners included in the final data analysis, 30% of those who ran without a stroller reported an overuse injury, compared to 19% of those in the stroller running group. The rate of injury for every 1,000 miles run was lower among stroller runners, too. Non-stroller runners were also more likely to experience multiple injuries during the first three years after becoming a parent.

“When you run with a stroller, you unweight the body a little bit, taking away some of the downward force by pressing on the handlebar, so you experience lower vertical loading,” Singles said. “This change in biomechanics may relieve some of the stress on weight-bearing joints, which may explain why we see fewer injuries among stroller runners, particularly knee injuries, which are common among runners.”

Prior research, led by Singles, found that running with a stroller decreases the force and impact of each step. The researchers explained that running with a stroller may also encourage parents to regulate their pace and run with a consistent cadence, or steps per minute — both of which are associated with lower injury risk, Singles said.

Both groups did report a high incidence of plantar fasciitis, a condition where the connective tissue along the bottom of the foot becomes inflamed, accounting for 15% of all reported injuries in the stroller-running group and 16% of all reported injuries in the non-stroller-running group. Given that most participants in both groups were women and were the birthing parent, Singles said that the incidence of plantar fasciitis may potentially be linked to physiological changes during pregnancy and the postpartum period, rather than the act of running with a stroller. For instance, factors like weight gain as well as hormonal shifts during pregnancy and the postpartum period, which can affect elasticity of connective tissues, could increase injury risk.

The study also tracked how running mileage changed based on a child’s age. Between birth and six months, neither group ran much, but by one year, both groups were running similar mileage. Stroller use peaked when children were between six months and three years old before declining as the child got older.

“The stroller also allowed people to run more when their child was between 6 and 12 months old,” Singles said, with stroller runners logging 34% more miles than non-stroller runners. “The stroller can help runners get out and exercise.”

The research team noted several limitations to the study including the relatively small study population for an injury study. The survey didn’t tease out factors that could potentially contribute to injury risk such as breastfeeding status and whether participants had additional children during the study period.

Taking the stairs could cut risk of early death

Taking the stairs will help you live longer - according to new research from the University of East Anglia and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

A major new study published today reveals that climbing the stairs significantly reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Over the course of the study, people who regularly climb stairs were 39 per cent less likely to die from heart-related problems and 24 per cent less likely to die from any cause - compared with people who don't climb stairs as often.

The study also reveals that people who climbed the stairs were less likely to develop major cardiovascular conditions such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure.

Prof Vassilios Vassiliou, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide - with cases nearly doubling between 1990 and 2019.

“But it is largely preventable through a healthy lifestyle - including regular physical activity, a heart-healthy diet, not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and managing blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes.

“Taking the stairs is a practical and often overlooked way to build physical activity into daily life.

“We wanted to better understand how this everyday activity could have life-saving potential.”

Strong evidence from large-scale analysis

The research team investigated whether climbing stairs could play a role in reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease and premature death.

After reviewing nearly 1,900 studies, they analysed data from more than 480,000 participants across nine high quality studies with a median follow-up period of 14 years.

The study population included both healthy participants and those with a previous history of heart problems. Ages ranged from 35 to 84 years old and 53 per cent of participants were women.

Dr Sophie Paddock, also from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and a cardiology specialist registrar at the NNUH, said: “After pooling results from over 450,000 participants, we found a consistent association between stair climbing and lower risk of both cardiovascular death and overall mortality.

“Unlike going to the gym or doing a workout, climbing the stairs is something you can easily fit into your day at home, at work or when you're out. It's a good option for people who don't have much time or easy access to exercise.

“So if you have the choice of taking the stairs or the lift, go for the stairs as it will help your heart.

“Even brief bursts of physical activity have beneficial health impacts, and short bouts of stair climbing should be an achievable target to integrate into daily routines.”

Previous research cited in the study showed that just minutes of stair climbing several times a week can improve cardiorespiratory fitness and lower cholesterol.

One large cohort study included in the analysis suggested that climbing around six flights of stairs per day may deliver the greatest benefit, although researchers say the optimal “dose” requires further investigation.

Dr Paddock said: “Some of the studies we looked at showed that the more stairs climbed, the greater the health benefits. But even small changes had a measurable impact.”

A simple step forward

The findings reinforce broader evidence that even short bursts of physical activity can have meaningful health benefits.

Prof Vassiliou said: “With more than a quarter of adults worldwide failing to meet recommended activity levels, choosing to take the stairs offers a realistic, scalable intervention.

“Encouraging people to take the stairs in workplaces, public buildings and homes could form part of a wider strategy to reduce cardiovascular disease at population level.”

Not for everyone

While the benefits are clear, researchers caution that stair climbing may not be suitable for everyone - particularly those with mobility issues or joint conditions.

They also highlight the need for future research using wearable technology to measure activity more accurately and determine optimal recommendations.

‘Evaluating the Impact of Stair Climbing on Cardiovascular Risk Reduction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis’ is published in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs.

Couples who exercise together report stronger communication and conflict resolution

Research has long shown that exercise benefits both physical and mental health. Now a new study from researchers at BYU suggests that it may also strengthen marriages, especially when couples exercise together.

The study, recently published in Family Relations, found that couples who participated in shared physical activity reported better communication, stronger conflict resolution and lower levels of marital stress than couples who did not exercise together.

The research was conducted by BYU School of Family Life professor Jeremy Yorgason alongside co-author Ashlyn Hiatt Mildenhall, who began the project as an undergraduate researcher at BYU.

“Our findings suggest that conjoint exercise facilitates, in a small but significant way, the ability to resolve conflict peacefully,” Yorgason said. “People reported more positive outcomes in communication and conflict resolution when they exercised together.”

Researchers analyzed survey data from nearly 1,700 young married couples participating in the nationally representative Couple Relationships and Transition Experiences (CREATE) study, a BYU project that has followed newly married couples across the United States for more than a decade.

The team compared the effects of individual workouts and physical activity performed together as a couple on three relationship outcomes: communication, conflict resolution and marital stress.

While both forms or exercise were associated with healthier marriages, exercising together consistently showed stronger associations with positive relationship outcomes than exercising alone.

“About 60% of husbands and wives in the sample said they exercised, but only about a third exercised together,” Yorgason said. “That means about half the people who exercise are not exercising with their spouse. While the impact is not necessarily large, it is very consistent, which gives me confidence that it is influencing relationships in some meaningful way.”

Other research shows that couples benefit from spending leisure time together, but this study focused specifically on shared physical activity. Researchers say exercising together likely created opportunities for positive interactions and conversation. These can strengthen relationships over time.

“Out of all three outcomes, exercise had the biggest impact on communication,” Mildenhall said. “That’s why it was interesting that walking was the number one reported exercise. It naturally provides opportunities to communicate.”

Walking was the most commonly reported form of shared exercise among couples in the study, suggesting that couples don’t need expensive gym memberships or elaborate weight racks in the garage to reap the potential relationship benefits.

Researchers also found that couples who exercised together reported better listening and greater feelings of being heard and supported by their spouse. Yorgason says these interactions may help explain why shared exercise was associated with healthier communication and conflict resolution.

The researchers caution that shared exercise is not a cure for relationship challenges. For many young couples, especially those raising children, exercising together may require intentionally carving out time together. However, researchers say conjoint exercise is one of the many healthy habits families can do to create regular opportunities for connection amid the demands of school, life and parenting.

Most patients with early Alzheimer’s disease not following guidelines for brain health

Researchers at the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute found that most patients with early Alzheimer’s disease are not optimally adhering to recommendations for improving their brain health, including exercising, getting adequate sleep, preventing hypertension, and eating a heart-healthy diet. Results, published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, show that fewer than 3% of the studied patients followed all 15 brain health recommendations the researchers examined. Both patients with early Alzheimer’s disease who pursued treatment with lecanemab, an anti-amyloid antibody medication for Alzheimer’s disease, and patients who did not pursue anti-amyloid therapy, had poor adherence to brain health recommendations, with no significant difference between those groups.

“Because patients pursuing anti-amyloid therapy were willing to receive lecanemab infusions every two weeks and tolerate the risks associated with this medication, we thought this highly motivated group might be pursuing every avenue available to protect their brain health,” said Kirk Daffner, MD, lead author of the study and a neurologist at the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute. “The results show there is much more work to be done.”

Growing evidence links adequate physical activity, a healthy diet, sufficient sleep, social and cognitive engagement, controlled blood pressure and blood sugar, good vision and hearing, and low levels of alcohol consumption with a lower risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Brain Health Vital Signs, developed by Daffner, Seth Gale, MD, and colleagues, assesses 15 of these potentially modifiable factors to provide an overall brain health “score” and recommendations for improvement.

The researchers studied 150 patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease who were seeking anti-amyloid antibody therapy and compared them with 117 patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia who were not pursuing the therapy.

Among patients pursuing anti-amyloid therapy, more than 25% were not optimally adhering to 11 of the 15 studied brain health recommendations and more than 50% were not optimally adhering to four of the recommendations. Similar low adherence rates were observed in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease who did not pursue anti-amyloid therapy.

Patients most commonly fell short of the recommendation to get at least 25 minutes of physical activity per day on most days of the week (63% of patients pursuing anti-amyloid therapy did not meet this recommendation). Other especially challenging guidelines to meet included reducing stress and achieving low A1c levels, blood pressure and body mass index.

“There is a fairly robust, accepted evidence base that a certain set of behaviors and medical factors support brain health, but effective implementation in clinical care is still mostly missing,” said Seth Gale, MD, senior author and neurologist at the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute. “While tools such as Brain Health Vital Signs can help patients and their providers better understand what they are doing well and where they can improve, it’s clear that structured, sustainable interventions are also necessary.”

The ongoing Brain Health Champion Study, led by Gale, Daffner and colleagues, with results from its first cohort of patients published in 2019, found that those who received six months of individualized brain health coaching markedly improved their adherence to recommended brain health behaviors. Daffner and Gale say that offering more effective tools to providers and their teams, grounded in health psychology-based techniques, may best help support behavior change in patients.

Nutrition strategies for concussion management

 Nutrition strategies for concussion management are being implemented by dietitians to support Australia’s elite collision sport athletes, new Griffith University research has found.

Lead author Dr Nathan Delang interviewed 14 Accredited Sports Dietitians who work across professional AFL, Rugby League, and Rugby Union teams to explore their practices and perspectives relating to concussion management.

“Concussion is so common in contemporary professional collision sports, typically once every three games, so it’s important to ensure optimal support is provided for athletes,” Dr Delang said.

“Most sports dietitians provided nutrition support either before and/or after concussion, with fish oil and creatine monohydrate the most commonly recommended supplements.

“Fish oil and creatine might support concussion recovery through several mechanisms from mitigating excessive neuroinflammation through to enhancing the availability of energy for supporting brain recovery and returning to exercise.

“All dietitians reported a food-first approach as central to recovery with a focus on energy intake, hydration, and healthy eating patterns to help athletes maintain their pre-injury nutrition status.”

Alongside fish oil and creatine, other supplements in use by professional teams included vitamin B2, tart cherry extract, curcumin, and vitamin D.

Professor Ben Desbrow from Griffith’s School of Allied Health, Sport and Social Work said while Australians sports dietitians were already using nutrition as part of concussion care, the practice was advancing faster than the evidence base.

“Practitioners are confident with familiar products, such as creatine, which are often already in use as a physical performance aid,” he said.

“However, they want stronger evidence so they can confidently tailor nutrition advice for complex concussion cases.

“We need stronger clinical research and formal guidelines to support safe, consistent and equitable care for athletes.”

The paper ‘Concussion and nutrition in professional-level collision sports: Perspectives from Australian Sports Dietitians’ has been published in The Journal of Nutrition.

Avoiding 3 risk factors associated with living 13 more years without dementia

 Highlights:

• Having normal blood pressure, no diabetes and not smoking was associated with living nearly 13 years longer without dementia.

• The study does not prove that avoiding these vascular risk factors causes the delay in dementia; it only shows an association.
• A limitation of the study was that the assessment of risk factors happened once, so it focused on long-term outcomes after one assessment, not changes in risk factors over time.

Having normal blood pressure, no diabetes and not smoking was associated with living nearly 13 years longer without dementia, according to a study published August 5, 2026, in Neurology® Open Access, an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study does not prove that avoiding these vascular risk factors causes the delay in dementia; it only shows an association.

“Our findings support prevention of risk factors developing in midlife as a strategy for delaying the onset of dementia and maintaining brain health,” said study author Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York. “Finding ways to prevent or delay dementia is crucial as the population ages as treatments remain limited.”

The study involved 12,409 people with an average age of 56 who were free of dementia. People were assessed for three risk factors for dementia: high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. High blood pressure was defined as blood pressure higher than 140/90 mmHg or the use of medication to lower blood pressure.

The participants were followed for an average of 26 years. During that time, 3,008 developed dementia and 5,238 people died without developing dementia.  

People who had none of the risk factors lived without developing dementia nearly 13 years longer than people with all three of the risk factors. People with no risk factors lived for an average of 30.1 years after the start of the study without dementia. People with all three risk factors lived for an average of 17.5 years without developing dementia.

Female participants lived longer than male participants without developing dementia, regardless of how many risk factors they had. Female participants with all three risk factors lived an average of 18.1 years without developing dementia, compared to 16.6 years for male participants.

Coresh noted, “Women more often reach older ages and therefore experience many cases of late-onset dementia.”

White participants lived longer than Black participants without developing dementia, no matter how many risk factors they had. White participants with all three risk factors lived an average of 19.6 years without developing dementia, compared to 16.0 years for Black participants.

“People with all three risk factors were more likely to develop dementia or die at earlier ages from other causes, leading to shorter overall survival and fewer years with their thinking and memory abilities intact,” Coresh said. “Hopefully these results will help encourage people to stop smoking, manage their blood sugar and manage their blood pressure in midlife. Of course, other healthy habits such as eating better and being more active are also important.”

A limitation of the study was that the assessment of risk factors happened once, so it focused on long-term outcomes after one assessment, not changes over time.

One month on a vegan diet reduced aging and inflammation

 

Genome-wide analysis found a vegan diet reshaped the DNA methylation landscape associated with immune cell composition and health-related measures of biological aging.

Researchers from University of California San Diego and University of Freiburg in Germany have found that switching to a vegan diet for just one month can alter the body’s epigenetic landscape in ways associated with reduced inflammation and biological aging. In a randomized clinical trial, participants assigned to a vegan diet vs. a meat-rich diet showed changes in DNA methylation — a biological process that regulates whether genes are more or less active — that were linked to immune function, metabolism and cancer-related pathways. The findings, published on August 3, 2026 in MedComm, suggest dietary choices can rapidly influence molecular processes associated with long-term health.

“Our genes are not our destiny,” said Jerome Mertens, PhD, associate professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine and co-senior author of the study. “The remarkable finding isn’t simply that one diet outperformed another. It’s that the epigenome responded measurably in just four weeks, showing that our biology is far more dynamic — and responsive to everyday choices — than we often assume.”

Diet has long been linked to the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain cancers. Yet scientists have only begun to understand how food influences the epigenome — the layer of chemical modifications that helps determine which genes are turned on or off without changing the underlying DNA sequence.

To explore these effects, researchers analyzed genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in blood samples from 48 healthy adults who participated in a randomized dietary intervention. After following the same standardized diet for one week, participants were randomly assigned to either a vegan diet or a meat-rich diet for one month. Both diets were designed to provide similar calorie intake, allowing researchers to isolate the effects of diet composition rather than weight loss.

The team examined more than 800,000 methylation sites across the genome before and after the intervention. Rather than looking for changes in individual genes alone, the researchers focused on broader biological patterns that changed in response to diet.

The researchers also found evidence that the vegan diet shifted the immune system toward a less inflammatory state. DNA methylation analyses predicted lower proportions of neutrophils — immune cells that drive inflammation — and higher proportions of CD4 T cells, which help regulate immune responses. Those predictions closely matched blood cell measurements collected during the original clinical trial.

“That agreement told us we weren’t just seeing changes on a computer screen — we were detecting real and meaningful biological changes,” said Lukas Karbacher, UC San Diego School of Medicine neuroscience graduate student and first author of the study.

The findings build on earlier evidence that plant-based diets can influence immune function while providing additional insight into the molecular changes that accompany those effects.

In addition to immune signals, the researchers found that the vegan diet was associated with increased promoter methylation in genes involved in several cancer-related and cell growth pathways. Increased promoter methylation can reduce the activity of genes within these pathways, suggesting the diet may influence cellular processes involved in growth and proliferation. The researchers also observed changes consistent with reduced activity in lipid metabolism pathways and increased activity in pathways related to insulin signaling, DNA repair and cellular stress responses.

Perhaps the most striking finding concerned biological aging itself. For this, the researchers examined biological age using epigenetic clocks — a mathematical biomarker that estimates a person’s biological age based on DNA methylation patterns rather than years lived. Two clocks designed to predict health outcomes suggested participants following the vegan diet experienced a deceleration in biological aging over the one-month study period. A third clock, optimized to predict chronological age rather than health outcomes, showed a different pattern, highlighting that epigenetic clocks measure different aspects of aging.

“These findings reinforce the idea that not all measures of biological aging capture the same biology,” said Mertens. “The clocks associated with disease risk and overall health consistently pointed in the same direction, suggesting the dietary changes were influencing pathways tied to health rather than simply the passage of time.”

The researchers caution that the study was relatively small, involving 48 healthy adults, and lasted only one month. Because the observed DNA methylation changes were modest and spread across hundreds of thousands of sites in the genome, larger and longer studies will be needed to confirm the findings and determine whether the molecular changes translate into measurable reductions in disease risk.

While the findings do not demonstrate that a vegan diet prevents cancer or reverses aging, they provide new insight into how dietary choices may rapidly influence the biological processes that underlie inflammation and age-related disease.

“Our study adds to growing evidence that nutrition can shape biology at the molecular level,” said Max Storz, MD, from University of Freiburg Medical Center and co-senior author of the study. “The next step is to understand whether these epigenetic changes persist over time and whether they translate into meaningful improvements in long-term health. That will require larger clinical studies, but these findings provide an important foundation.” Storz also stressed that the findings are not the result of reduced calories, but rather a matter of diet composition.

Link to the full study: [A vegan diet epigenetically modulates inflammatory pathways and biological aging: Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of a one-month isocaloric vegan versus meat-rich dietary intervention]

Pet dog microbiota may protect young children from respiratory tract infections

 Children who have been in contact with dogs in early childhood are on average healthier and require fewer antibiotic courses than children without such contact. The protective association is explained, at least in part, by the spread of dog-associated microbes in the home.

In the recent study, the presence of specific dog-associated microbes in the home were linked to fewer respiratory tract infections, fewer antibiotic courses and more healthy weeks during the child’s first year of life. The richness and diversity are higher in homes with a dog than in homes without a dog, but these general characteristics of the microbiota were not associated with the incidence of respiratory tract infections or morbidity in the child.

The study shows that certain dog-associated microbes or their combinations can explain up to one quarter of the protective effect of dog ownership on children’s respiratory tract infections, antibiotic use and the number of healthy weeks during the first year of life.

The protective effect of a dog ownership remained also after accounting for other factors known to influence childhood infection risk, including family size, living environment and exposure to tobacco smoke. In addition to the dog’s microbiota, a more outdoor-oriented lifestyle in dog-owning families, shared responsibilities related to caring for the dog and partly similar dietary habits shared among dog owners may influence the microbiota in the home and among its inhabitants, and thereby the development of the child’s resistance to pathogens. These factors were not examined in this study.

“The results strengthen our understanding that the microbial environment during early childhood plays an important role in the development of child’s immune system. It has been suggested that in the future it may be possible to modify the home microbiota in ways that promote health. Our study shows that dog ownership already does this today,” says paediatrician Jenni Mäki.

“Respiratory tract infections in early childhood are a significant risk factor for asthma. When some of children’s respiratory tract infections can be prevented with dog-associated microbes, this may also reduce the child’s risk of developing asthma later in life,” says chief researcher Anne Karvonen.

High intensity exercise key to maintaining healthy bones

 When it comes to maintaining healthy bones, how intensely we exercise may matter more than how much we exercise, according to researchers at Semmelweis University. Their study, published in Sports Medicine – Open, found that bone formation was stimulated most effectively by activities involving explosive movements, rapid changes of direction, and turning. The findings could help improve exercise programs designed to maintain bone health and prevent osteoporosis. 

Researchers at Semmelweis University analyzed the results of 24 clinical studies involving a total of 1,238 healthy adult participants. Rather than tracking changes in bone mineral density, the studies measured substances in the blood that indicate whether the body is actively building new bone tissue. These so-called biomarkers can reflect the effects of exercise within just a few weeks, providing feedback much earlier than bone density measurements.  

“What makes our study unique is that we examined not only the type of exercise – whether endurance, resistance, or combined training – but also exercise intensity, frequency, and duration. Our goal was to determine which forms of exercise stimulate bone metabolism most effectively and which appear to be less beneficial from this perspective,” said dr. Péter Ferdinandy, Vice-Rector for Science and Innovations at Semmelweis University and senior author of the study. 

The most effective activities were high-intensity sports involving frequent explosive movements, rapid changes of direction, and turning. Recreational football and handball, for example, were associated with increases of up to 45–46 percent in the levels of substances linked to bone formation. In contrast, walking, step aerobics, and traditional gym-based resistance exercises were generally less effective.  

What should you keep in mind?
It is important not to start a high-intensity exercise program suddenly or without proper preparation. This is particularly true for people with cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, or metabolic diseases, as well as those living with osteoporosis. Before beginning a new type of exercise or a more demanding training program, they should consult their treating physician, general practitioner, or a sports medicine specialist to ensure that the activity and its intensity are appropriate for their individual health status.

“The most surprising finding was that resistance training did not produce a significant effect on markers of bone metabolism, even though several professional guidelines recommend this type of exercise for maintaining bone health. Likewise, low- or moderate-intensity endurance exercise, such as walking or jogging, showed no meaningful long-term effect,” explained Viktória Barna, PhD student at Semmelweis University and first author of the study.

This, of course, does not mean that walking or lower-intensity physical activity is without health benefits. However, if the goal is to keep bones strong and healthy for as long as possible, they appear to require a greater mechanical stimulus. 

“According to the World Health Organization, regular physical activity offers numerous health benefits. However, our findings suggest that low-intensity exercise alone is not sufficient to stimulate bone metabolism. High-intensity exercise may trigger early beneficial changes in bone formation, potentially helping to slow bone loss and support healthy ageing,” summarized dr. Nóra Sydó, clinical specialist and co-author of the study. 

The health stakes of feeling connected

 Calling a friend after a long day. Showing up to a neighbor's dinner when you'd rather stay home. Lingering a little longer in a conversation that didn't need to last. Such ordinary, even trivial, moments. But to psychologist Susan Charles, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs in the School of Social Ecology, they may be among the most consequential health decisions a person makes.

Charles has been awarded a $2,550,958 grant from the National Institute on Aging to investigate how the daily rhythms of feeling socially connected, or disconnected, shape the way our bodies and minds hold up over time.

Her project, “Linking Daily Dynamics of Social Connection to Physical and Cognitive Functioning,” could fundamentally change how doctors, therapists and public health officials approach loneliness and social isolation.

The health stakes of feeling connected

Most people intuitively understand that having close relationships is good for them. Decades of research confirmed it. But, Charles argues that science has been limited by looking at social connection in only one way — as a fixed trait, a general level of sociability that a person either has or doesn't have.

“Our understanding of social connection and its strong association with health is based largely on studies assessing social experiences using static, trait-like measures of general levels of thoughts and activities,” Charles notes. “Yet, feeling socially connected varies from day to day, fluctuating as much as other commonly recognized daily emotional experiences.”

In other words, the same person who feels warmly surrounded by community on Tuesday might feel profoundly alone by Thursday.

Charles believes such fluctuations may hold the key to understanding how social life gets under our skin, quite literally.

She draws a vivid picture of what this might look like in an ordinary life.

“Daily decisions to call a friend, or to go to a social function even though you are tired from a long day at work may not seem like health decisions,” Charles says, “but these times of social connection influence well-being.”

The effects, she explains, are both immediate and cumulative. A shared laugh can ease distress and trigger feelings of safety and contentment. Showing up for a regular dinner with a neighbor means you leave your house, stay physically active and engage in the kind of conversation that demands mental effort — tracking information, forming arguments, retrieving memories. Over time, those moments compound.

“Consistent positive social connection enhance health, affecting myriad health outcomes from physical symptoms to gene expression,” Charles adds.

Small daily changes, she points out, have the potential to create a “ripple effect” that contributes to longer-term outcomes — for better or for worse.

To test these ideas, Charles is turning to one of the most extraordinary longitudinal datasets in social science: the Midlife in the United States study, known as MIDUS.
The project draws on two longitudinal daily diary datasets spanning nearly 20 years. In one dataset, participants completed nightly phone interviews every day for a week, across three separate waves in 2002, 2014, and 2023. A second dataset captures two waves of daily diary data spanning about a decade, with waves beginning in 2012 and 2023.

Altogether, the study follows more than 2,900 adults ranging in age from 24 to 97.

In addition to the daily diary interviews, participants completed extensive surveys, underwent cognitive assessments and some even flew to a medical facility where they provided blood and urine samples, completed physical fitness tasks and submitted to a battery of biomarker testing.

“Any single facet of this study is interesting to study,” Charles says, “but together we have an unprecedented view into how their daily lives unfold and are related to multiple measures of cognitive, physical and mental health.”

Charles will delve deep in her search for evidence of social connection’s effects.

The professor and her research team plan to examine cortisol, often called the “stress hormone,” with chronically high levels linked to cognitive decline and poor physical health.

Charles also will analyze inflammatory markers, gene expression profiles, and even biomarkers of biological age acceleration — measures of how fast a person’s cells are aging relative to their chronological age.

The biological story she hopes to tell connects the social world to a phenomenon scientists call “inflammaging,” the age-related increase in chronic low-grade inflammation now understood to play a central role in multiple health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain forms of dementia and arthritis.

“We will examine biomarkers that have been related to poorer health — chronically high inflammation, high levels of cortisol, and gene expression related to inflammation and viral load — and see how these biomarkers are related to the levels and consistency of daily social connection,” Charles explains.

If daily patterns of feeling connected, or disconnected, can be shown to move those biological needles, the implications for preventive medicine could be substantial.

Why age changes everything

The study’s age range: from young adults in their mid-20s to nonagenarians. Charles is particularly interested in how the relationship between social connection and health shifts as the body grows more vulnerable.

“We know from nearly 100 years of research that social connections are vitally important for people of all ages,” she says. “In this study, we are particularly interested in how patterns of social connection change over time in later life, and how social connections may vary in their relationship with health among people with less robust physical systems.”

As chronic illness and functional disability become more prevalent with age, she argues, the stakes of social isolation grow higher — and so does the potential benefit of meaningful daily connection.

The United States Surgeon General has called loneliness and social isolation a public health epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends toward isolation that were already underway.

Against that backdrop, Charles sees her study as doing something more than documenting a problem. She wants to change the conversation around it.

“Our research reframes a message from warning people about the risks of social isolation to acknowledging the power of positive social connections,” she says. “We will be examining different contexts to reveal when and under what circumstances social connections increase our health.”

Her goal is simple but potentially transformative: to make social connection a recognized daily health behavior, as concrete and actionable as exercise or diet.

“Social connection should be listed as a daily health behavior for everyone,” Charles says. “Every finding that links social connection to better physical and cognitive functioning will reinforce and strengthen this message, as well as identify those most at risk for both social isolation and for the health risk of lack of social connection.”

Eating a diverse range of plants everyday=better results in microbiome than a probiotic

Eating a wide variety of plants everyday could be more beneficial to the microbiome than taking a standard probiotic.

New research led by scientists from King’s College London and ZOE has discovered that consuming a daily blend with over 30 different plants resulted in increased populations of ‘favourable’ gut bacteria compared to a probiotic control.

In a randomised controlled trial, participants who consumed a supplement containing a diverse range of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, and mushrooms, showed increased populations of 57 species of ‘good’ bacteria of bacteria. Those in the probiotic and control groups saw changes in only 4 and 14 species, respectively.

Those consuming the blend of plants also reported increased energy and reduced hunger, digestive symptoms, constipation, heartburn, and flatulence.

In the trial, 349 adults from the UK were given a 30g daily plant supplement, known as Daily30, and compared against two comparators: a control of 28g of bread croutons, matched for energy (kcal), and a single-strain probiotic capsule containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus, a well-studied probiotic strain.

Other key findings included:

• There were significant differences in those eating the plant blend vs those in the control group, with 55% of participants in the former reporting reductions in indigestion, 35% in the severity of constipation, 18% in heartburn, and 37% in flatulence 
• 51% of participants taking the plant blend reported increased energy levels, 45% reported an increase in happiness, and 35% reported a reduction in severity of constipation, compared with the control group 
• In the plant blend group, the gut bacteria species that increased were on average those linked to favorable health markers, in comparison and the toand the  species that decreased were were linked to unfavourable health markers. This effect was not seen in either the control or probiotic groups.

A sub-group of 34 participants were given a carbohydrate-rich meal either with or without the plant blend added. Adding the plant blend resulted in participants reporting greater energy (43%), fullness (41%), meal satisfaction (22%) and reduced desire to eat (71%) and hunger (17%).

Lead author Professor Sarah Berry, Department of Nutritional Sciences at King's College London and Chief Scientist at ZOE, said: “The fact that Daily30 altered 57 distinct bacterial species in just six weeks reshapes informs informs how we should approach gut health. Rather than introducing isolated strains through a pill, these results prove we can achieve a far greater impact on the gut microbiome composition on the gut microbiome composition by nourishing our existing microbes with a diverse array of plants.

“This research suggests we should focus on plant diversity, and the role that varied fibres play in shaping the microbiome, rather than searching for a single silver bullet.”

Tim Spector, Scientific Co-Founder of ZOE and Professor of Epidemiology at King’s College London, said: "The global supplement industry is worth billions, yet much of it is built on marketing hype rather than robust science. For too long, consumers have been sold synthetic pills and ultra-processed powders as a quick fix. At ZOE, we are leading the way by backing our whole food nutrition with the world-class, rigorous research this industry desperately lacks.”