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Gut microbiome shifts may begin before Alzheimer’s symptoms appear

A narrative review links reduced SCFA-producing gut bacteria and altered microbial metabolism with Alzheimer’s disease, while early evidence suggests similar changes may appear before cognitive symptoms. Mediterranean, DASH, MIND, and prudent diets are associated with beneficial microbial profiles, but direct evidence connecting diet, the microbiome, and amyloid pathology remains limited.

3 Aug 2026

Daily tomatoes lowered a key marker of liver fat in MASLD trial

An exploratory randomized trial found that 200 g of raw tomatoes plus 50 g of tomato sauce daily for six weeks produced a greater reduction in CAP-defined hepatic steatosis than a tomato-free diet in adults with MASLD. The improvement occurred without major weight or metabolic changes, but larger and longer trials are needed to confirm its clinical significance.

2 Aug 2026

Daytime cortisol patterns track cognitive decline but not Alzheimer’s disease risk

In 3,895 older adults, moderate daytime cortisol variability was associated with better cognition and slower decline, while the highest daily cortisol exposure was linked to poorer cognition and faster decline. Cortisol patterns differed between Black and White participants, but their relationships with cognition were similar, and none predicted incident Alzheimer’s disease.

2 Aug 2026

Persistent financial hardship tracks with poorer memory and processing speed by midlife

Researchers linked persistent low income and financial hardship across early and mid-adulthood to poorer processing speed and verbal memory at age 53 in a British birth cohort. Neuroimaging suggested greater vulnerability to later brain atrophy among men, people from disadvantaged childhood backgrounds, and APOE-ε4 carriers, although these subgroup findings require replication.

2 Aug 2026

Ketamine boosts neuroplasticity through microglia in female brains

Doctors use ketamine on patients as general anesthesia before surgery. They also prescribe it in low doses for pain management, and more recently, it's been used for treatment-resistant depression where other drugs have failed.

31 Jul 2026

Brain immune cells drive recovery from ketamine anesthesia in females

During ketamine anesthesia, the brain's nerve cells fall silent-as consciousness returns, they begin to reconnect.

31 Jul 2026

Midpregnancy herbicide exposure linked to increased preterm birth risk

Exposure to a widely used herbicide during the middle months of pregnancy may increase the chance of giving birth too early, before 37 weeks, a new study shows.

31 Jul 2026

Digital marketing threatens breastfeeding rates in the Americas

Ahead of World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is calling on countries across the Americas to strengthen protections for families against the growing digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes and other products that may undermine breastfeeding.

31 Jul 2026

Scientists map protective cell networks hiding dormant breast tumor cells

Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS), Imperial College London and UCL Genetics Institute have created a detailed map of cells within breast tumors and identified distinct neighborhoods of proliferating and dormant cells.

31 Jul 2026

Exposure to fungicides and insecticides alters onset of puberty in girls

The study, which tracked more than 500 Spanish girls between the ages of 7 and 10, links the presence of certain fungicides in urine to early menarche and that of the insecticide chlorpyrifos to delayed menarche, highlighting the impact of pesticides on pubertal development.

31 Jul 2026

Tea, tap water and child IQ: What a Canadian pregnancy study found

Researchers analyzed 485 mother-child pairs in Canada to examine whether estimated fluoride intake from tea during pregnancy was associated with IQ at ages 3 to 4. Each 0.5 mg/day increase was associated with a 2.24-point lower full-scale IQ score, although the observational design and estimated exposure prevent causal conclusions.

31 Jul 2026

Dual immunotherapy with neoadjuvant chemotherapy shows encouraging activity in ERBB2-negative breast cancer

A combination of two immunotherapy drugs showed encouraging activity when added to standard chemotherapy given prior to surgery for patients with high-risk, early-stage HER2-negative breast cancer, according to phase 2 clinical trial results from the ongoing I-SPY2 clinical trial platform.

30 Jul 2026

Older women prioritize quality of life over living longer, study shows

Women over 50 are putting quality of life ahead of living longer - according to research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and University College London (UCL).

30 Jul 2026

Study links dietary fructose to aggressive spread of ovarian cancer

A new study from The Wistar Institute has uncovered an unexpected link between fructose - a common dietary sugar - and the spread of an aggressive form of ovarian cancer.

30 Jul 2026

When sleep changes in women over 80, it may signal more than aging

Researchers tracked sleep-wake changes over five years in 704 women in their 80s and 90s using wrist actigraphy. Declining nighttime sleep and increasing 24-hour sleepiness were associated with approximately twice the hazard of all-cause mortality.

29 Jul 2026

England sees rising hospital admissions for ectopic pregnancy since 2021

University of Liverpool researchers have identified that hospital admissions in England for ectopic pregnancy (when a fertilized egg implants outside the womb) have been increasing since 2021, with more than twice as many admissions of women from most deprived areas than the least deprived areas.

29 Jul 2026

Low-fat diet lowers dietary glycation compounds for years in postmenopausal women

Researchers analyzing dietary data from 40,209 postmenopausal women found that a low-fat pattern emphasizing fruits, vegetables, and grains was associated with sustained reductions in estimated dietary advanced glycation end-product intake over approximately seven years. The findings suggest broad dietary changes may lower dAGE intake without specific cooking instructions, although the study did not measure biological AGE exposure or determine whether the reductions influenced breast cancer outcomes.

29 Jul 2026

NIH awards $2.4 million to study how maternal viral infections reprogram fetal immune development

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a new, five-year $2.4 million R01 grant to Dr. Jiahui Ding, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine's C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development, to support research that aims to uncover how viral infections during pregnancy reprogram the developing immune system of the fetus, influencing susceptibility to infectious diseases throughout life.

29 Jul 2026

Premature menopause linked to higher risk of developing hypertension

Women who reach menopause before age 40 face a meaningfully higher risk of developing high blood pressure than those who go through menopause after age 45, according to a new study of more than 107,000 women.

29 Jul 2026

We underestimate how much personality changes with age, study finds

Researchers compared beliefs from 887 US adults with modeled lifespan trajectories from 166,971 participants across eight longitudinal studies. Population-average Big Five traits changed as much as or more than many health, financial, psychological, and social measures, despite people perceiving personality as unusually stable.

29 Jul 2026