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Probiotics improve emotional state in healthy adults, study finds

A randomized controlled trial in 88 healthy adults found that probiotics reduced negative mood when assessed using daily self-reports, though traditional questionnaires failed to detect significant changes. These findings suggest that daily mood tracking may offer a more sensitive way to capture subtle emotional effects of probiotics in non-clinical populations.

10 Apr 2025

New assay detects epigenetic changes caused by carcinogenic chemicals

Chemicals used as food preservatives, flavoring agents, dyes, pesticides, cosmetics, cleaners, and other industrial materials are being increasingly recognized as a health hazard.

10 Apr 2025

Breakthrough in chicken genomics offers hope against avian influenza

An international team of researchers led by Professor Huaijun Zhou from the UC Davis Department of Animal Science has created the first-ever detailed map of how genes are regulated in chickens - a breakthrough that could help scientists breed birds that are more resistant to diseases like avian influenza.

10 Apr 2025

Researchers uncover why fat gain happens fast during life changes

Perspective article proposes that major fat gains arise from short-term lifestyle disruptions rather than gradual daily surpluses. The authors call for public health strategies to focus on preventing episodic weight spikes during high-risk life events.

10 Apr 2025

Study reveals how the brain balances hormones and metabolism during lactation

Nursing poses major metabolic demands on mothers, to which they respond by eating more and saving energy to sustain milk production.

10 Apr 2025

Exploring the complex association between anemia and retinopathy of prematurity

Anemia is a common condition in premature infants, particularly those at risk for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

10 Apr 2025

Fecal microbiota transplantation emerges as a promising approach to H. pylori eradication

FMT is a novel therapeutic approach that involves transferring microbiota from a healthy donor to a patient's gastrointestinal tract.

10 Apr 2025

New liver directed treatment improves outcomes for rare eye cancer

A multi-institutional study led by Moffitt Cancer Center found that percutaneous hepatic perfusion using a melphalan hepatic delivery system may help patients with a rare eye cancer that has spread to their liver.

10 Apr 2025

Alcohol reshapes reward learning differently in male and female rats

Chronic alcohol exposure causes lasting impairments in decision-making in male rats, altering how the brain processes reward-based learning. A new study reveals sex-specific neural changes in the striatum, with female rats showing resilience despite altered brain activity.

10 Apr 2025

New data-sparse model accurately predicts individual glycemic responses

If you eat a snack - a meatball, say, or a marshmallow - how will it affect your blood sugar? It's a surprisingly tricky question: the body's glycemic response to different foods varies based on individual genetics, microbiomes, hormonal fluctuations, and more.

10 Apr 2025

Understanding key risk factors behind shoulder injuries in athletes and aging adults

Shoulders are, in many ways, a marvel. One shoulder has four separate joints, packed with muscles, that allow us to move our arm in eight different major ways, giving us the most degrees of freedom of any joint in the body.

10 Apr 2025

Study reveals brain circuit behind apathy in advanced cancer

The fatigue and lack of motivation that many cancer patients experience near the end of life have been seen as the unavoidable consequences of their declining physical health and extreme weight loss.

10 Apr 2025

Unlocking the power of MDA5 protein modifications in antiviral defense

Cleveland Clinic virology researchers have found that a specific protein modification to the immune protein MDA5 is key to how human bodies detect and respond to viruses and viral replication.

10 Apr 2025

Genetic test outperforms PSA and MRI in spotting deadly prostate cancer early

A UK study found that using a polygenic risk score to identify men at highest genetic risk of prostate cancer significantly improved detection of clinically important disease. This approach caught aggressive cancers that standard PSA and MRI screening would have missed.

10 Apr 2025

Can psychedelics break compulsive eating habits in obesity?

A review by Oxford researchers explores how psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD may help disrupt compulsive eating behaviors in subsets of obese individuals. The paper outlines proposed neurobiological, epigenetic, and gut-brain mechanisms while emphasizing the need for human trials.

10 Apr 2025

Epigenetic discovery offers hope for reducing addiction relapse

New research on the biological basis of addiction has found that the critical epigenetic enzyme histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5) limits the expression of the gene Scn4b, regulating neuronal activity and thereby the formation of strong drug-related memories, which can trigger relapse in individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs).

10 Apr 2025