Pomegranate Compound Improves Heart Function Up to 80% in Mice With Heart Failure

04 Oct. 2026, By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/pomegranate-compound-improves-heart-function-up-to-80-in-mice-with-heart-failure

(Anna Blazhuk/Moment RF/Getty Images)

Each time you eat a juicy pomegranate, your gut bacteria can produce a natural metabolite called urolithin A.

This little-known compound is making a big splash.

In recent years, scientists have paid close attention to urolithin A because it seems to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-aging properties.

Initial evidence in humans even suggests that urolithin A can help the body remove aged or damaged parts of our cells, thereby improving their overall health.

Now, for the first time, researchers at King's College London (KCL) have found evidence that urolithin A can activate a protein that plays a key role in heart health.

In mouse models with stiff and failing hearts, urolithin A improved measures of heart function by as much as 80 percent compared to untreated animals, according to a press release from KCL.

The findings are published in Science Advances, with financial support from the British Heart Foundation.

The results have scientists hopeful that urolithin A could be a previously unidentified treatment option for a common form of heart failure.

It's called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a cardiovascular condition that occurs when the heart still squeezes normally but is too stiff to relax properly during the refilling stage.

It is very difficult to treat. Perhaps urolithin A could help fill that gap.

"This raises the exciting possibility of developing new treatments that improve clinical outcomes and quality of life for people living with the condition," says cardiovascular scientist Joseph Burgoyne, senior author of the study.

"While there isn't enough evidence to suggest that people should eat pomegranates to treat heart failure, these findings raise the possibility that dietary approaches that enhance urolithin A production may help alleviate this condition."

The study was based on research conducted in mice and also in human heart tissue made from stem cells in the lab.

Engineered heart tissues.

 (King's College London)



In mice with stiff and failing hearts, urolithin A reduced scarring in the heart and helped the organ to relax properly between beats.

That ultimately eased the pressure inside the heart, which can otherwise lead to fluid buildup and harmful enlargement.

To see if these hopeful results might extend to our own species, Burgoyne and colleagues tested urolithin A on lab-grown human heart tissue.

Sure enough, the metabolite helped this heart tissue contract and relax faster, likely by activating a protein called PKGIα.

This protein is involved in lowering blood pressure and helping the heart relax again after a beat.

"Our findings identify a completely new therapeutic target and show that urolithin A can activate this pathway to improve heart relaxation and reduce disease severity," explains Burgoyne.

Urolithin A boosted PKGIα activity in lab tests. 

(Su et al., Science Advances, 2026)



Today, there are very few available treatments for those living with HFpEF.

Many established therapies for heart failure are focused on helping a weakened organ keep pumping. But that is not a problem in those with HFpEF.

In this condition, the heart continues to pump properly, but it struggles to relax between each beat.

"This type of heart failure is becoming increasingly common as populations age and rates of obesity and diabetes rise," explains Burgoyne.

"Despite its growing burden, treatment options remain limited because the disease is complex and varies considerably between patients."

Whether or not urolithin A actually helps treat heart failure in actual patients with HFpEF will require a randomized controlled trial involving a large and diverse cohort of participants.

The current study only focused on male mice, although women tend to suffer from HFpEF more than men.

But preclinical studies suggest that there are sex-dependent differences in how the hearts of rodents respond to metabolic and hypertensive stress.

So it's unclear if these results will extend to females.

"While these findings are promising, the benefits have so far been seen in animals and engineered human tissue, so clinical trials involving people are needed to test if this approach is effective for patients," says James Leiper, Director of Research at the British Heart Foundation.

"In the meantime, a healthy, balanced diet remains one of the best ways to look after your heart.

"Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables is linked to better heart health, but it's important to remember that no single food can prevent or treat heart disease on its own."

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Sexually Transmitted Diarrhea Is Exploding in The US. And It's Growing Resistant to Medicine

08 Oct. 2026, By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/sexually-transmitted-diarrhea-is-exploding-in-the-us-and-its-growing-resistant-to-medicine

(koto_feja/E+/Getty Images)



A gut pathogen that causes diarrhea and vomiting is morphing into a dangerous and difficult-to-treat sexually transmitted infection (STI).

In the United States, roughly 450,000 people acquire shigellosis each year, which can lead to dysentery.

Historically, this highly contagious bug has mostly been spread through contaminated food or water during travel, and among young children in day care.

But since the turn of the century or so, Shigella bacteria have emerged as a sexually transmitted infection as well.

Shigella infections can make anyone sick, but they are now considered 'endemic' in some communities of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM).

Several of the strains transmitted in these communities have grown resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Some are now superbugs, on the brink of becoming untreatable.

A recent analysis from the US CDC found that among nearly 17,000 Shigella isolates, versions that were extensively drug-resistant (XDR) rose from 2011 to 2023.

In 2011, isolates that were resistant to five commonly used antibiotics made up 0 percent of the samples. By 2023, they made up 8.5 percent.

The vast majority of these drug-resistant versions had infected adult men, many of whom had not traveled internationally in recent months.

Molecular biologist Shangxin Yang says hospital workers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) are now seeing roughly one case of extensively drug-resistant Shigella a month.

In 2022, by comparison, they saw just one case all year.

"It's almost like an explosion of this pathogen in the community," Yang told CIDRAP News at the University of Minnesota.

Percentage of Shigella isolates that showed an extensively drug-resistant (XDR) phenotype or genotype in the US, by year, 2015–2022. 

(CDC)



Sexually transmissible shigellosis was first reported in 1974, but it represented a minority of cases at the time.

Now, emerging evidence suggests that sexual contact is a major route of transmission.

It's difficult to verify this information, however, as patients and clinicians may not realize that Shigella can be sexually transmitted, and sexual history may not be recorded.

That said, according to US CDC data, more than a third of patients with extensively drug-resistant shigellosis were hospitalized, and nearly half of those with known HIV status had HIV.

"Together, it's a very concerning pattern of XDR Shigella strains that are being seen among vulnerable populations," epidemiologist Naeemah Logan from the CDC told CIDRAP News.

"This is by no means unique to the US, but really part of a broader global pattern."

Geneticist Kate Baker from the University of Cambridge, senior author of a recent study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, has identified a similar surge in the United Kingdom.

"Many men who have sex with men are unaware of the serious and increasing risk posed by sexually transmitted Shigella," said Baker in a July press release.

"This disease has gone from being relatively treatable with off-the-shelf drugs to being close to untreatable over the course of the last decade or so."

In March, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned that while most cases of Shigella resolve without treatment, more severe cases do require treatment, and "the options available are becoming limited."

In 2025, 86 percent of Shigella sonnei samples and 94 percent of Shigella flexneri samples tested by UKHSA researchers showed resistance to antibiotics.

These are the two most commonly spread strains through sexual contact among GBMSM in England.

In previous research by Baker and others, up to a third of patients with sexually transmitted Shigella were hospitalized for an average of four to five days.

"This isn't just one form of sexually transmissible diarrhea," says Baker.

"This is multiple overlapping variants emerging that are all quickly becoming resistant to the drugs we use to treat them. It's highly likely that if you contracted your Shigella through sex, you require different treatment to someone who contracted it through travel."

No one knows why that is, but Baker's 2026 study points to 'bystander resistance' as one driver.

This means that an antibiotic meant for one pathogen may not be the right drug or dose for another present pathogen, thereby breeding resistance as a side effect.

In response to the recent study, Alicia Calvo-Villamañán, a researcher at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine in Lisbon, Portugal, pointed out an intriguing association.

"When the UK's national treatment guidelines stopped recommending the use of [azithromycin] to treat gonorrhea infections," they wrote, "the emergence of azithromycin resistance in Shigella slowed down."

That doesn't mean one is causing the other, but it suggests that treating other STIs may be a risk factor for drug-resistant Shigella infections, which aren't often screened as STIs.

The California Department of Public Health says that the best way to prevent Shigella infection from sex is to not have sex with someone who has had diarrhea in the last two weeks.

Using barriers during oral and anal sex is also advised, as is washing up before and after sex.

To minimize transmission, anyone who suspects they may have Shigella should get tested and seek treatment if necessary.

"Clinicians should be asking patients with dysentery about sexual transmission and giving advice accordingly," said Daniel Richardson, a consultant in sexual health at University Hospitals Sussex in July.

"They need to know that sexually transmitted Shigella has more antimicrobial resistance than other forms of the disease, and that patients may need checking for other sexually transmissible illnesses."

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Study Finds Exercise May Be a Surprisingly Powerful Treatment for Pain

By Adelaide U., Oct. 6, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/study-finds-exercise-may-be-a-surprisingly-powerful-treatment-for-pain/

A major review suggests exercise can reduce pain across a remarkably broad range of conditions. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Exercise may be a more powerful tool for pain relief than many people realize, according to a large analysis spanning hundreds of thousands of participants.

Pain often makes movement feel like the wrong choice. Yet a large new analysis suggests that exercise can reduce pain across conditions ranging from osteoarthritis and migraine to neurological disorders, inflammatory diseases, and cancer-related pain.

Researchers at Adelaide University analyzed 157 systematic reviews covering 2,736 randomized controlled trials and 221,279 participants. Across that evidence, exercise was associated with reductions in both acute and chronic pain, making the study the most comprehensive synthesis to date of exercise as a pain treatment.

Less Exercise May Still Bring Meaningful Relief

The results challenge the assumption that harder or longer workouts are necessary for pain relief. Lower intensity and shorter duration programs produced greater reductions in pain, while meaningful benefits were also seen in programs totaling less than two hours of exercise per week.

On average, exercise reduced pain by about 1.1 points on a 0 to 10 scale. The researchers noted that this reduction was roughly 60% larger than the average pain relief reported for commonly used medications in separate trials involving chronic pain. Because those drug studies were separate rather than direct head-to-head comparisons, the finding does not show that exercise outperforms medication for any individual condition.

Globally, chronic pain affects about one in five adults. Despite its prevalence, exercise is still often recommended in broad terms rather than prescribed with the same level of detail used for medications.

How Movement Can Change Pain

Lead researcher Dr. Ben Singh said exercise may influence pain through several biological pathways.

“When we exercise, our body releases chemicals including endorphins and serotonin that can help reduce how strongly we feel pain and increase our pain tolerance,” Dr Singh said.

“Additionally, it helps calm inflammation and change the way our brain responds to pain, while also improving mood.

“These effects help explain why exercise can be such a powerful tool for pain management. Yet despite the evidence, it isn’t used as routinely as it could be and is rarely prescribed with the same precision as medication.

“Instead, people experiencing pain may be told to ‘stay active’, rather than being given a specific, evidence-based exercise program that considers what type of exercise to do, how hard to work and for how long.”

Benefits Appeared Across Different Types of Exercise

The researchers examined whether pain relief varied according to exercise type, intensity, and duration, and whether the effects differed between acute and chronic pain. Benefits appeared across aerobic exercise, resistance training, yoga, Pilates, and tai chi.

“Our study found that exercise was associated with substantial reductions in acute and chronic pain across all forms of exercise – whether that be via aerobic or resistance exercise, or through gentler movement such as yoga, Pilates or tai chi.

“Importantly, we found that more exercise wasn’t necessarily better. In fact, shorter-duration and lower-intensity programs showed greater reductions in pain, suggesting people may not need to exercise harder or for longer to experience meaningful benefits.”

Toward More Precise Exercise Prescriptions

Senior researcher Professor Carol Maher said the findings support a larger role for exercise within multimodal pain care, in which physical activity can be combined with other treatments according to a patient’s condition and needs.

“Health care providers need definitive guidance, not just whether exercise helps, but which exercises work for which patients, and how to prescribe them effectively,” Dr Singh said.

“These findings should provide clinicians with considerable flexibility and increased confidence to prescribe exercise as a core, scalable component of pain management across diverse conditions.

“At a time when we’re looking for safe and effective ways to manage pain beyond medication, these findings provide strong evidence for making exercise a more routine part of pain care.”

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It Turns Out, Sharks Can Hear Way Better Than We Thought

07 Oct. 2026, By D. Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/sharks-can-hear-sounds-nearly-250-feet-away-and-know-where-theyre-coming-from

(Reinhard Dirscherl/The Image Bank RF/Getty Images)

It's helpful to know how well the senses of underwater predators are working – both to better understand the ecology and biology of marine life, and to get out of their way should you come into contact with them.

How well sharks can hear has been something of a mystery until now, mainly because it's difficult to measure in a controlled way.

Hearing is crucial though, especially underwater, for locating prey, avoiding predators, and finding potential mates.

In a new study published in Integrative Organismal Biology, researchers from Florida Atlantic University have demonstrated that blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) can hear sounds from as far away as 74 meters (243 feet).

That's well beyond the limit of what's known as near-field sound, which has a more direct impact on water particles. At that range, we're talking about far-field sound, where pressure creates more subtle particle movement.

"What makes this finding particularly interesting is that the sharks were responding to sounds beyond the acoustic near field, where the sound behaves differently than it does close to the source," says zoologist Stephen Kajiura.

"This suggests that they are detecting the particle motion associated with sound even at considerable distances from the source – something we have not previously been able to demonstrate in free-swimming sharks."

The researchers used a drone and a boat off the coast of southeast Florida for their experiments: Pulsing, low-frequency sounds were played from near the team's boat, with two underwater mics used to measure how they traveled through the water.

How the experiment was set up, as seen from the drone overhead. (Sullivan et al., Integr. Org. Biol., 2026)



A drone flying 40–50 meters above the scene recorded how the sharks moved in relation to the sounds. Three test sounds were used at three different pitches, with a control sound beyond the hearing range of the sharks.

This species was chosen in part because it's known for congregating regularly every winter at a specific spot along the coast, in waters shallow and clear enough for drones to capture their activities.

"Their abundance and accessibility made it possible for us to observe them from above without disturbing their natural behavior, while also presenting controlled underwater sounds," says Kajiura.

The sharks ignored the control sounds as expected but responded to the test sounds between 71.1 and 87 percent of the time, depending on frequency. The farthest response from a single shark was 74 meters, while 118 of the 165 total responses came from what would be considered the far field.

The sharks could hear far-field sounds, where pressure waves dominate. 

(Sullivan et al., Integr. Org. Biol., 2026)



For all three frequencies, sharks responded to sounds from as far as 62 meters away.

Each response also involved a sharp turn away from the source of the sound, suggesting the sharks knew where it was coming from.

"The ocean is an acoustic environment, and sharks are clearly tuned into it in ways we are only beginning to understand," says Kajiura.

"Being able to detect and respond to sounds from hundreds of feet away gives these predators an important source of information about their surroundings. The next question is how their sensory system allows them to pick up and interpret these distant sounds."

Sharks lack the gas-filled swim bladder that many bony fish use to hear, which translates pressure into vibration, so something else must be going on here. The researchers suggest that C. limbatus are instead somehow detecting water particle movements.

That can be investigated in future studies. For now, scientists have a much better idea of the hearing capabilities of sharks, observed out in a real setting.

"Trying to do hearing experiments in a tank results in the sound bouncing off the walls, which causes complex and confusing signals – it is like being in a house of mirrors," says biologist Caroline Sullivan.

"This is why it is so important to do these types of experiments in the ocean with wild sharks to get a natural response."

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A Hot Bath May Lower Your Blood Pressure More Than a 30-Minute Workout Can, Study Reveals

07 Oct. 2026, By P. Dockrill

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-hot-bath-may-lower-your-blood-pressure-more-than-a-30-minute-workout-can-study-reveals

(mihailomilovanovic/E+/Getty Images)

Taking a nice hot bath at the end of a long day is a wonderful way to unwind, but the end results can go way beyond simple relaxation.

In fact, the health benefits of sustained immersion in hot water can be truly surprising, and new research has just uncovered another remarkable effect of a good hot soak.

In a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found soaking in hot water for 30 minutes can trigger dramatic changes in the blood vessels beneath your skin, in some respects exceeding the effects produced by moderate exercise.

The hot water immersion even lowered people's blood pressure more than 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling.

It's worth noting this was only a small experiment, and nobody's suggesting people should give up exercise to instead take more hot baths.

But for people who may be unable to exercise, hot water immersion, or other forms of what's known as passive heat therapy, may be an important way of getting some of the same health benefits that exercise can provide.

The health benefits of sustained immersion in hot water can be truly surprising. (MyImages_Micha/iStock)



"Exercise training is a well-established stimulus for improving vascular health, in part by enhancing endothelial function, arterial compliance, and microvascular responsiveness," researchers explain in a new paper, led by first author and exercise physiologist Kristanti Wigati from the University of Western Australia.

"However, recent global estimates indicate that approximately 31 percent of adults worldwide do not meet physical activity guidelines, supporting the need to explore adjunct or alternative interventions for individuals who may struggle with regular exercise participation."

Hot water immersion, like exercise itself, provides an increase in blood flow and shear stress along the inside walls of blood vessels, which triggers adaptations that improve vascular function.

Previous research in young healthy adults has shown that repeated hot water immersion can improve blood vessel function, reduce arterial stiffness, and help blood vessels widen through nitric oxide.

"These findings suggest that hot water immersion may act as an 'exercise-like' vascular stimulus, but evidence in older individuals with risk factors for cardiovascular disease who are unable to engage in conventional exercise is lacking," the researchers note.

To plug the gap, the researchers recruited 25 adults aged 45–70 with overweight or obesity, with an average age of 59.

OCT images of blood vessels in the forearm skin of two participants before and after 30 minutes of moderate cycling (EXE) or hot water immersion (HWI). Colors indicate blood flow speed, ranging from black (no flow) to yellow (250 micrometers per second).

 (Wigati et al., European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2026)

During the experiment, each of the participants completed two different interventions, in a random order, and separated by at least 72 hours.

In one intervention, participants sat chest-deep for 30 minutes in hot water, which was maintained at a temperature of 40 °C (104 °F).

In the other intervention, participants performed a moderate-intensity exercise session, cycling for 30 minutes on a stationary exercise bicycle, with the intensity corresponding to 60–70 percent of their maximum heart rate.

The participants had their heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and core body temperature monitored during the tests, and researchers also assessed tiny blood vessels in the participants' skin, using a non-invasive technique called optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Results showed that, compared to the exercise intervention, the hot water immersion produced significantly larger increases in blood vessel diameter, blood flow, and blood velocity, as well as the density of microvessels with detectable blood flow.

An indication of this can be seen in an OCT-derived image from participants' forearms, which visibly shows increased blood flow activity in the microvascular network after hot water immersion.

"These pronounced microvascular responses were accompanied by a larger elevation in core body temperature and greater reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure following hot water immersion, whereas moderate-intensity exercise elicited a higher heart rate response," the researchers write.

"Collectively, these findings suggest that the larger microvascular responses observed after hot water immersion likely reflect the combined effects of direct local skin heating and greater systemic thermal strain imposed by passive heating."

The researchers say that hot water immersion promotes the widening of blood vessels, a process called vasodilation, which facilitates heat dissipation by redistributing blood flow to the skin.

While the findings suggest hot water immersion could potentially hold promise as a complementary way of providing a vascular stimulus, the researchers are careful to point out there's much we still don't know.

That's especially so since the experiment here was matched for time (30 minutes for each intervention), but not for the levels of thermal strain experienced by the body.

"Accordingly, the present findings should not be interpreted as indicating that hot water immersion is intrinsically superior to moderate-intensity exercise per se; rather, they reflect the greater thermal strain achieved during hot water immersion, which elicited substantial shear-mediated vascular stimuli in the absence of active muscle contraction," the authors explain.

"This may be particularly relevant for clinical populations who are unable to engage in regular exercise, suggesting that hot water immersion could serve as a complementary or alternative strategy to induce beneficial vascular stimuli."

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Almost All The Viruses Found in a Vast Deep-Sea Mining Zone Were New to Science⁠

03 Oct. 2026, By J. Cockerill

https://www.sciencealert.com/almost-all-the-viruses-found-in-a-vast-deep-sea-mining-zone-were-new-to-science

(sakchai vongsasiripat/Moment RF/Getty Images)



Deep in the abyss of the Pacific Ocean, the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone is home to the world's largest accumulation of polymetallic nodules.

Several countries are exploring it intensively because of the potential of its mineral wealth, but it's also an incredibly unique habitat, with many recent scientific expeditions bringing back reports of never-before-seen lifeforms.

A new study adds a huge array of viruses to the biodiversity of this contested region, 99 percent of which have never been documented before.

The researchers – Bowen Hou and Lilan Zhang, of Chongqing University, and Dong Sung, of China's Second Institute of Oceanography – investigated the 'virome' of the Clarion-Clipperton to establish what they call a "vital pre-mining baseline of microbial ecosystem for future environmental impact assessments."

They've published their results in Nature Communications.

Polymetallic nodules are at the center of a race to mine the deep sea, because they're full of metals that can be used to make electronics.

The International Seaboard Authority has granted 31 deep-sea mineral mining exploration contracts. Seventeen of these are in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone; five are held by China, which is probably why this study was funded by several of the country's scientific agencies.

Manganese nodules on the seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. 

(ROV KIEL 6000, GEOMAR/Wikimedia Commons)



But polymetallic nodules also form the foundation of many deep-sea ecosystems, including those in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Where much of the deep-sea floor is a thick, fine mud, these solid nodules are literally the ground upon which many creatures build their lives.

They form gradually, with manganese and other metals like cobalt, nickel, lithium, and zinc precipitating from the seawater to build layers around a central nucleus (a microscopic bit of shell, tooth, or rock, for example).

For some speedy nodules, the layers of metal accumulate at a rate of about 250 millimeters per million years, while other kinds grow by one to five millimeters per million years.

The new study suggests viruses may play an important role in the biogeochemical processes in the sediments of polymetallic nodule fields.

Almost all of the 11,742 distinct viruses Hou and team discovered are entirely new to science, having very little overlap with other deep-sea habitats.

The sediment core samples for this study were collected in 2023 and 2024, and then the researchers extracted DNA and RNA for sequencing.

Then, they compared the data with samples collected from other parts of the deep ocean, and looked more closely at what the viruses might actually be doing with all these genes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf1GvrUqeIA

Viruses are an underappreciated component of ecosystems. The jury is still out on whether they even qualify as 'alive', but there are no doubts about their ability to influence life on Earth.

Every virus needs a host, and in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, many of the viruses the scientists found seemed specialized for infecting prokaryotic creatures: bacteria and archaea.

These simple, single-celled microbes are involved in cycling carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and even metals. And the viruses they carry may have a big influence on those ecosystem-shaping processes.

Viruses are known for being able to tweak the genetic machinery of their hosts, and have entirely re-routed the course of many species in this way.

"By infecting key functional microbes and encoding auxiliary metabolic genes,
viruses may modulate host metabolism and survival during infection, with
potential implications for biogeochemical processes in polymetallic nodule
field sediments," the authors write.

It appears the deep-sea viruses found in the Clarion-Clipperton have also left their mark on their hosts, potentially providing the blueprint for coping with metal stress.

How all of this will be affected by mining activities, if they proceed, is unclear.

"Mining activities will induce physical disturbance, resuspension, and redeposition of surface sediments, and long-term disturbance experiments have shown that
the effects of such disturbance on nodule-field sediments can persist
for decades," the authors write.

"Under this scenario, viral populations and functional modules shared between deeper and surface sediments could provide a potential source for partial reassembly of surface viral communities after disturbance."

But, they caution, much more research is needed to how these viruses, the hosts they infect, and the ecological functions they may serve would be affected by mining if it were to go ahead.

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This One Exercise 3x a Week Could Keep Your Blood Pressure Down – And It Doesn't Take Long

02 Oct. 2026, By D Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-one-exercise-3x-a-week-could-keep-your-blood-pressure-down-and-it-doesnt-take-long

(Westend61/Getty Images)

We all know exercise is good for us – but we don't all have the time, motivation, or mobility to put in regular workout sessions. Researchers are trying to help by looking for activities that bring the most benefits for the least amount of time and effort.

In a new study published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, a team led by researchers from Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK has identified isometric exercise training (IET) as a way of reducing blood pressure with just a couple of sessions a week.

That's any training where one position is held for a few minutes at a time. Staying in a squat, holding a plank pose, or doing a hand grip exercise would all count.

These exercises are simple and quick to do, require no equipment, and the researchers suggest they're a worthwhile option for those who can't manage longer, more comprehensive workouts.

Over the course of the study period, IET was linked to drops in systolic blood pressure – the top number in a reading like 130/85, showing peak artery pressure as your heart pumps blood out, and the average pressure in the arteries overall.

"Lower-frequency IET can help maintain short-term blood pressure reductions, providing a pragmatic option for individuals with limited time or adherence challenges," write the researchers in their published paper.

IET has already been associated with lowering blood pressure in previous studies, but before now no one had really investigated how much of it was needed – the duration and frequency required for the biggest benefits.

Here, the researchers recruited 100 adults with an average age of 37, who weren't meeting minimum exercise guidelines and had normal to high-normal systolic blood pressure (that's in the range 120–140 mm Hg).

For four weeks, 80 of these volunteers were asked to do wall squats three times a week (four squats each session), while the other 20 acted as a control group. For the four weeks after that, the exercise participants were asked to keep up the three weekly sessions, or drop down to two, one, or none.

After the first four weeks, systolic blood pressure in the exercising group had dropped by an average of 9.45 mm Hg, compared to the control group. For those who kept up the three sessions for eight weeks, the average drop increased to 13.73 mm Hg.

For those who went down to a couple of sessions or a single session, the overall average drop after eight weeks was around 6.5–7 mm Hg. The blood pressure of those who gave up the exercises after four weeks, meanwhile, was back to its previous level after four weeks.

Three weekly sessions of wall squats significantly reduced systolic blood pressure. 

(Swift et al., BMJ Open Sport Exerc. Med., 2026)



"For optimal blood pressure reductions and the maintenance of a broader range of physiological adaptations, a frequency of three times per week may be recommended," write the researchers.

It's strong evidence for the benefit of IET when it comes to blood pressure: systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure all improved significantly compared to the control group after four weeks, though how often participants did the training didn't make a meaningful difference to the results.

The researchers think that the exercises may be relaxing and widening blood vessels, and putting the nervous system into a calmer mode – but more detailed, longer-term studies will be needed to know for sure.

"While causality cannot be confirmed, the observed alignment between the mechanistic decline and the loss of blood pressure reduction suggests that training frequency plays a critical role in sustaining the cardiovascular adaptations necessary for blood pressure control following IET," write the researchers.

The team also suggests that extending the IET beyond a couple of months may lead to actual structural changes in blood pressure, meaning the benefits wouldn't disappear as soon as the exercise stopped, as happened here.

It's another reminder that when it comes to staying healthier through exercise, you don't always need a lot of activity to improve your fitness.

"[The study] may inform policy discussions around feasible, scalable exercise interventions for populations with low adherence or limited exercise tolerance," write the researchers.

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Study Finds Natural Dairy Trans Fats Behave Very Differently From Industrial Fats

By U. of Reading, Oct. 5, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/study-finds-natural-dairy-trans-fats-behave-very-differently-from-industrial-fats/

Milk, cheese, butter, and yogurt contain natural trans fats that appear to behave differently from the industrial kind. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A large review of 22 studies suggests that naturally occurring trans fats in dairy may affect the body very differently from industrial trans fats.

Milk, butter, yogurt, and cheese naturally contain small amounts of trans fats, but a large review suggests these fats do not carry the same health risks as the industrial trans fats long associated with cardiovascular disease.

Researchers analyzed 22 studies involving thousands of people in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Across both controlled dietary trials and long-term population studies, naturally occurring dairy trans fats were not linked to a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular death, or type 2 diabetes.

The findings, published in Nutrition Research, challenge the assumption that all trans fats have comparable effects on health.

Natural and industrial trans fats are not the same

Trans fats are a type of unsaturated fat. Some form naturally in the digestive systems of ruminant animals such as cows, sheep, and goats and therefore occur in their milk and dairy products.

Industrial trans fats are produced through partial hydrogenation, a process historically used to make vegetable oils more solid and stable. These fats, once common in some processed and fried foods, are strongly associated with increased cardiovascular risk.

Professor Ian Givens, one of the lead authors and a researcher at the University of Reading, said: “People hear the words ‘trans fats’ and assume the worst, but the trans fats in your morning milk, yogurt, butter or cheese are not the same as the ones from industrial partially hydrogenated fats. This research should give people reassurance that dairy, eaten as part of a balanced diet, is not something to worry about for your heart.”

Controlled trials found no harmful change in blood lipids

The researchers first reviewed 10 controlled dietary trials. Participants consumed dairy foods containing naturally enhanced levels of trans fats and were compared with people eating regular dairy products.

The studies tested daily trans fat intakes ranging from 1.3 to 13.2 grams and measured blood lipids used to assess cardiovascular risk. Across all 10 trials, the researchers found no meaningful differences in these biomarkers between people consuming the trans fat-enhanced dairy foods and those eating regular dairy.

These experiments allowed researchers to examine short-term biological effects under controlled conditions, but they could not establish what happens after many years of exposure. For that, the team turned to long-term observational research.

Decades of follow-up showed the same pattern

The review included 12 cohort studies that followed thousands of people for years, with some tracking participants for more than two decades. Researchers measured biomarkers of dairy-derived trans fats in participants’ blood.

Higher levels of these fats were not associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, or cardiovascular death. The studies also found no association between higher blood levels of dairy trans fats and type 2 diabetes.

Because cohort studies are observational, they cannot prove that dairy trans fats themselves prevent or cause disease. However, the results indicate that naturally occurring trans fats in dairy do not show the adverse effects associated with industrial trans fats.

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Melting Permafrost Is Poisoning Rivers With Metal Levels 70 Times Higher Than Normal

30 Sept. 2026, By J. Cockerill

https://www.sciencealert.com/as-permafrost-melts-toxic-metals-are-poisoning-rivers-with-levels-70-times-higher-than-normal

An aerial view of the Kutuk River in Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park.

  (Ken Hill/National Park Service)

Over the past decade, a network of usually pristine blue rivers and lakes that winds through Alaska's breathtaking Brooks Range mountains has been starting to look a little… rusty.

Scientists first noticed the unusual orange plumes flowing into the water back in 2018. They began to investigate, collecting water samples from various sites so remote they can only be accessed by helicopter – but at the time, they were only able to get a snapshot of what was going on.

"The more we flew around, we started noticing more and more orange rivers and streams," said ecologist Jon O'Donnell, of the US National Park Service. "There are certain sites that look almost like a milky orange juice."

Taylor Evinger holds a bottle of orange water sampled from the Igning River in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska. 

(Brett Poulin/UC Davis)

Environmental toxicologist Brett Poulin (of UC Davis) was intrigued at how similar the orange staining looked to the acidic pollution he had seen draining from metal mines.

There are no mines nearby – but a new study led by environmental chemist Taylor Evinger, a member of Poulin's lab at UC Davis, confirms that the orange stuff flowing into these rivers may be an even bigger cause for concern.

The new study is published in AGU Advances.

The rust, Evinger and colleagues say, can be attributed to thawing Arctic permafrost. As water seeps through once-frozen soils, it encounters bedrock minerals that have been locked away for potentially thousands of years.

When these minerals are oxidized, they release metals – iron, aluminum, manganese, zinc, nickel, cadmium, and rare earth elements – that can then seep into waterways, hence the rivers' rusty appearances.

From 2022 to 2024, Evinger and team collected water samples from six different watersheds across the Brooks Range, to track how the river chemistry was changing over time.

Some of those samples revealed water more acidic, and loaded with more metals, than those used for drainage from metal mines.

On the Salmon River, one of these seepages bumped metal levels up to 70 times higher than usual, even 60 miles downstream from the source.

Orange, metallic water enters the Igning River. Scientists believe this color change is linked to melting permafrost, which interacts with the soil to produce highly metallic, "rusted" water — an increasing global phenomenon in regions where permafrost is present. 

(Taylor Evinger/UC Davis)



The team were able to trace a major release of metals back to Alaska's warmest summer on record, 2019, which was followed by an abnormally snowy winter.

"When you have more snow, it insulates the soil, preventing refreezing," says Evinger.

"We think water went deeper into the soil because of soil thaw, interacted with these minerals, and all of these watersheds were triggered around the same time."

In the wake of that warm summer, the rivers experienced a sudden, steep rise in sulfate and zinc concentrations, which then steadily fell in the years that followed.

Evinger holds a bright orange filter collected from a seep affected by acid rock drainage amid melting permafrost.

 (Taylor Evinger/UC Davis)



Questions remain about how this sudden influx of acidic metals impacts communities that rely on the rivers.

Since 2018, more reports have come in from across thousands of seepages in North America's permafrost zone, documenting acid rock drainage into more than 200 rivers and streams.

"This was a process that was not forecast, predicted or included in any assessment of how the Arctic will change under a warmer climate, but we're seeing it in rivers across the Arctic," says Poulin.

"'Rusting rivers' have been documented in Boreal and Arctic Canada, and other parts of the world that have permafrost."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBFhsGAFIaw&t=44s

Earth scientist Elliott Skierszkan, of Carleton University in Canada, says "this widespread outcome of global warming presents a major risk to water resources and aquatic ecosystems," in a related article also published in AGU Advances.

The toxic metals entering these waters – and the low pH affected rivers can sometimes reach – can be detrimental to ecosystems. So far, scientists have seen extensive areas of plants die back near acidified rivers, as well as a loss of important fish like salmon and whitefish, along with other aquatic creatures.

The rural Arctic communities – many of whom are Alaska Native peoples – that live in these regions would be especially affected, since they rely on the rivers and their fish to survive.

But for the Brooks Range region, those impacts are yet to be seen – at least for now.

"While we are not seeing massive fish die-offs, and we're not aware of drinking water quality issues currently harming villages, the numbers of observations are still concerning," Evinger says.

"Many watersheds – hundreds of them – have acid rock drainage inputs. These rivers are pretty much untouched, and yet this is happening here. It's a new reality of climate change."

The Life of Earth

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Scientists Find a Surprising Link Between Cats And Happiness Across 93 Countries

05 Oct, 2026, By D. Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-a-surprising-link-between-cats-and-happiness-across-93-countries

(Elena Zaretskaya/Moment RF/Getty Images)

If you're looking for a boost of household happiness, then you might want to consider getting yourself a cat.

In a new study published in PLOS One, an international team of researchers analyzed publicly available data across 93 countries to examine the relationship between happiness scores, domestic cat density, and infection rates of Toxoplasma gondii – the parasite that affects as many as 1 in 3 people and which felines are the primary host of.

The researchers wanted to see if having a cat made a difference to happiness, and whether the risk of parasite infection affected that in any way.

While T. gondii is usually harmless and symptomless for most people, it can cause problems in more vulnerable groups, and has been linked to anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia.

Data from the shaded countries were used in the study. 

(Borráz-León et al., PLOS One, 2026)



Wealth was also included as it's often one of the first factors people consider when it comes to leading a happy and comfortable life.

"What we found is that countries with more cats tended to report higher levels of happiness, while countries with higher exposure to Toxoplasma gondii tended to report lower levels of happiness," say the study authors in a press release.

Those apparently conflicting results need some picking apart. Certain countries may have had a disproportionate impact on the results, the researchers suggest.

China, for instance, had a relatively high happiness score despite a lower cat density than most nations.

One of the more surprising wrinkles in the data was that countries with more cats tended to have lower levels of T. gondii exposure.

Cats aren't the only way humans can be infected by this parasite, but you would expect the association to be in the other direction.

"Of course, these are associations at the country level, so we cannot say that having more cats makes people happier or that Toxoplasma makes people less happy, but the patterns are interesting enough to deserve further investigation," say the study authors.

Then there's the consideration that wealthier countries may make people more likely to own cats and have better access to vet care.

Felines in richer countries are more likely to be kept indoors, get regular check-ups at the vet, and eat commercial cat food.

The findings suggest that biological and ecological factors can play a role in finding that much-desired feeling of happiness, factors which aren't typically included in studies.

"This goes against the simple assumption that having more cats necessarily means greater parasite exposure and suggests that factors such as pets management, sanitation, and socioeconomic conditions may be important," says biologist Javier I. Borráz-León, from the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz in Mexico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNm_MjrIUAI

How happy (or otherwise) populations are can have very tangible effects on public health, which is why studies like this are so important.

When people are stressed, anxious, and unhappy, they're less productive, more vulnerable, and more likely to need treatment and care from other people.

Now we know that having a cat around could lead to a boost in contentment and well-being, adding to other recent cat and pet discoveries – including research that showed animal companions may help to slow down cognitive decline.

To take the research further, future studies could track cat owners and non-cat owners on an individual basis, rather than at the country level.

That should reveal more about the relationship between cats and happiness and how it might change over time, in combination with other factors.

"Future studies of happiness at the national level should integrate both socioeconomic and biological perspectives and include longitudinal and interdisciplinary approaches to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and processes," write the researchers in their published paper.

The Life of Earth

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Why Do Muscles Weaken With Age? Scientists May Have Found an Important Missing Piece

By U. of Missouri-Columbia, Oct. 4, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/why-do-muscles-weaken-with-age-scientists-may-have-found-an-important-missing-piece/

Researchers have uncovered an overlooked change in how nerves and muscles communicate during aging, offering a new explanation for why muscle strength can decline even beyond the effects of muscle loss. 

Credit: Stock

A newly identified breakdown in nerve-muscle communication may help explain age-related weakness.

Muscles do not weaken with age simply because they get smaller. New research suggests that part of the problem may lie in the electrical signals that tell them when to contract.

Scientists at the University of Missouri found that communication between nerves and muscle fibers becomes less reliable with age. The failure appears to occur at the neuromuscular junction, where nerves transmit signals that activate muscles.

The finding could help explain part of sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass, strength, and physical function that affects nearly half of adults over age 80.

Looking Beyond Muscle Loss

“While the human lifespan has increased in recent decades, our ultimate goal at Mizzou is to ensure a person’s health span remains as high as possible for as long as possible,” W. David Arnold, executive director of the NextGen Precision Health initiative and a professor in the School of Medicine, said.

Scientists have long focused on muscle loss and the decline of motor neurons as major causes of age-related weakness. Arnold and his colleagues instead examined what happens where nerve signals reach muscle.

Arnold has studied the neuromuscular junction for more than a decade. His team’s findings suggest that this connection becomes less reliable with age.

“A long-held assumption in the field was that the neuromuscular junction remains reliable during aging, and some even suggested it may get better with aging,” Arnold said. “The significance of this new study is we are showing, in both humans and in animal models, that the neuromuscular junction is failing with aging.”
The Protein Behind the Signal

The researchers linked part of the decline to lower levels of NaV1.4, a sodium channel that helps skeletal muscle generate the electrical activity needed for contraction.

Lower levels of NaV1.4 may make muscle fibers less responsive to signals arriving from nerves, giving researchers a possible explanation for why aging muscles do not activate as effectively.
Making Aging Muscle More Responsive

The team also investigated ClC-1, a chloride channel involved in regulating electrical activity in skeletal muscle.

Working with Danish biotechnology company NMD Pharma, the researchers found that partially inhibiting ClC-1 made aging muscles more responsive to nerve signals and improved strength in an animal model.

“We identified an important point of failure at the final step in communication between nerves and muscles,” Arnold said. “And what is perhaps even more exciting is that we showed this failure is potentially reversible. In collaboration with NMD Pharma, a biotechnology company in Denmark, we applied an approach they developed that targets a protein called ClC-1. By partially inhibiting ClC-1, we were able to make aging muscles more responsive to nerve signals and improve muscle strength in an animal model. That gives us a potential path toward eventually testing this approach in older adults.”
A Drug Already Being Studied

NMD Pharma has developed ignaseclant, an experimental drug that partially inhibits ClC-1. The drug has already been studied in people with neuromuscular disease, although not specifically for sarcopenia.

Arnold was an investigator in a multicenter clinical trial involving people with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, the most common inherited neuromuscular disorder. The study reported improvements across several measures of muscle strength and function. Arnold presented the topline findings at the 2026 Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinical & Scientific Conference.

Arnold believes understanding the biology behind sarcopenia is an important step toward developing treatments for it.

“I realized that in order to make a drug widely available to treat sarcopenia, the first step is better understanding what is causing sarcopenia in the first place,” Arnold said. “That curiosity sparked my interest in becoming a researcher.”

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Cancer’s “Obesity Paradox” May Have a Surprising Explanation

By McGill U., Oct. 4, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/cancers-obesity-paradox-may-have-a-surprising-explanation/

Unexpected results from a diet study are challenging assumptions about what influences cancer immunotherapy. 

Credit: Stock

A study links diet and the gut microbiome to responses to immune checkpoint therapy, offering new directions for cancer research.

Cancer treatment can be maddeningly unpredictable. A therapy that works well for one patient may do far less for another, even when doctors use the same approach. One surprisingly ordinary part of daily life may help explain some of that difference: what people eat.

Researchers studying a widely used form of cancer immunotherapy found that certain diets normally associated with weight gain actually helped the treatment work better in mice. The result was unexpected, but it offered a possible explanation for an even stranger pattern scientists have noticed in cancer patients for years.

Some people with a higher body mass index, or BMI, appear to respond better to treatments that help the immune system attack cancer, despite obesity generally being associated with higher cancer incidence and mortality. Researchers have called this contradiction the “obesity paradox.” The new findings suggest that body weight itself may not be the key. Instead, the answer could involve food, the bacteria living in the gut, and the way the two interact with the immune system.

How cancer exploits immune brakes

The treatment the researchers focused on is known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor. The immune system normally has built-in brakes that prevent immune cells from attacking too aggressively. Cancer can take advantage of those brakes to avoid being destroyed. Checkpoint inhibitors interfere with those signals, giving immune cells a better chance to recognize and attack tumor cells.

The treatment can be remarkably effective for some patients, but others receive much less benefit. That uneven response has pushed researchers to look beyond the tumor itself for factors that might influence whether the therapy succeeds.

A team co-led by McGill University researcher Daniela Quail investigated whether diet could be one of them. Other senior members of the team included McGill researcher Logan Walsh and CR-CHUM collaborators Bertrand Routy and Arielle Elkrief. Their research was published in Nature.

“There is a synergistic relationship between the bacteria that reside in our GI tract, and the food we eat,” said Quail, Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Principal Investigator at the Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Institute.

Twelve diets reveal an unexpected effect

The researchers tested 12 different diets in mice and found that some diets associated with obesity improved the animals’ responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors. The benefit appeared even after shorter periods on those diets, making it harder to explain the effect simply through long-term weight gain.

That pointed toward the trillions of microorganisms living in the digestive system, collectively known as the gut microbiome. These bacteria depend partly on the nutrients that reach them through food. Changing the diet can therefore change which microbial populations thrive and how they behave, with consequences that can extend beyond digestion and influence the immune system.

“Even with the right composition of bacteria in your gut, the foods you eat to nourish those populations can determine whether or not you respond to treatment,” said Quail, who co-led a team investigating how diet could affect the success of immune checkpoint inhibitors, a common form of immunotherapy.

Food may matter as much as microbes

The finding adds an important complication to the idea that having certain beneficial gut bacteria is enough to improve a treatment response. What those bacteria are being fed may matter too. Diet and microbes can act together, meaning the same collection of gut bacteria may not produce the same effects under different dietary conditions.

That interaction could help explain why higher BMI has sometimes been associated with better responses to checkpoint inhibitors. Rather than excess body weight directly helping the treatment, some of the biological changes produced by particular diets may alter gut microbes in ways that affect the immune response.

“Our findings were surprising because they highlighted a benefit of some obesogenic diets,” Quail said. “That tells us the relationship between diet and cancer treatment is more complex than a simple message to eat healthy and exercise.”

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