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The Goldilocks sleep zone: study links too little and too much sleep to biological aging

The Nature study introduces “Sleep Chart,” a framework linking self-reported sleep duration with 23 biological aging clocks derived from MRI, plasma proteomics, and metabolomics. Across UK Biobank participants, the lowest biological age gaps generally appeared between 6.4 and 7.8 hours of sleep, while shorter and longer sleep were associated with higher disease and mortality risk.

14 May 2026

Study traces adult heart disease risk back to the womb

A child's future heart health may be partially shaped before they are born, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study that found pregnancy complications are linked to poorer cardiovascular health in offspring more than 20 years later.

14 May 2026

New research maps the biological toll of drinking

A new review published in the journal Addiction confirms drinking causes substantial harm to health. Some of those harms may be reversible if the person reduces or stops drinking.

14 May 2026

Study warns of rising cognitive impairment following a heart attack

The chance of developing cognitive impairment was significantly higher for people who have had a heart attack, according to a study published today in Stroke, the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

14 May 2026

Qureight to support Mediar Therapeutics' Phase 2 trial of MTX-474 in diffuse cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis

Qureight, an end-to-end imaging CRO that provides enterprise-grade imaging and precision endpoints for clinical trials with a focus on lung and heart disease, and Mediar Therapeutics (Mediar), a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing first-in-class therapies designed to halt fibrosis, today announced Qureight's AI-powered 3D quantitative imaging analytics platform and services will be used to support Mediar's Phase 2 EncompaSSc clinical trial.

From Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) 13 May 2026

Wearable wireless polygraph tracks hidden stress signals

Northwestern University engineers have developed a small, wireless polygraph system you can wear.

13 May 2026

Obesity drugs and surgery linked to greater fat-free mass loss

A new systematic review and meta-analysis of studies presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey (12-15 May) shows that diet and exercise interventions result in a lower proportion of fat-free mass loss compared with obesity surgery or obesity drugs among people undergoing a weight loss of 10% or more.

13 May 2026

New trial aims to improve ATTR-CM diagnosis in heart failure

Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is an increasingly recognized yet frequently underdiagnosed cause of heart failure, particularly among older adults.

13 May 2026

Too little or excessive sleep may accelerate organ aging

An analysis of biological clocks throughout the human body suggests that too few hours of sleep-and too many-may speed aging in the brain, heart, lung, and immune system and is associated with a wide range of diseases.

13 May 2026

Study improves prediction of dangerous outcomed from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

A sweeping international study has identified ways to detect patients who are at serious risk of sudden death, heart failure or other dangerous outcomes from heart thickening known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

13 May 2026

Global hypertension burden rising sharply in lower-income countries

In theory, hypertension is a disease that is both easy to test for and readily treatable with existing medications and lifestyle interventions.

13 May 2026

Fine particle pollution may quietly damage brain function over time

The air pollution we breathe daily could be harming more than just our lungs and hearts. New research from McMaster University suggests that fine particles from traffic, industry and wildfire smoke is linked to worse cognitive function.

13 May 2026

Gut microbes may reveal why diabetes raises heart disease risk

Integrated gut microbiome and plasma metabolomics profiling identified distinct microbial and metabolic signatures in people with T2DM and T2DM-CAD. In a small exploratory cohort, Bacteroides sp._CAG_875 and 12-ketoLCA emerged as candidate markers that may help distinguish diabetic patients with coronary complications, pending larger validation.

13 May 2026

Study explains how APOE2 gene protects the brain against Alzheimer's disease

People who carry the APOE2 version of the apolipoprotein E gene are more likely to live to advanced age and are partly protected against Alzheimer's disease, but scientists have struggled to explain why.

13 May 2026

Perimenopausal women face higher risk of low heart health

Perimenopausal women were two times more likely to have a low cardiovascular health score compared to women having regular menstrual cycles, according to an analysis of nationwide U.S. data published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

13 May 2026

AI models predict sudden cardiac arrest risk using health records

Researchers have developed artificial intelligence (AI) models that can scrutinize electronic health records (EHR) and electrocardiograms to identify individuals in the general population at elevated risk for sudden cardiac arrest - a condition that causes more than 400,000 U.S. deaths annually and has a survival rate of only 10%.

13 May 2026