Health

Improving and maintaining woodlands in deprived communities is linked to reduced antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication use, research suggests.

Physical activity in adulthood may depend on exercise during growth, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. The study, conducted in birds, is the first to directly demonstrate that experiences during development influence how efficiently adults use energy during movement.

To lose weight, most of us know that it is a matter of eating less and being more physically active. By putting our bodies into a calorie deficit, we “burn” more calories than we’re taking in—and so we lose weight.

What we eat plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A well-balanced meal rich in essential micronutrients not only fuels the body but may also help protect against metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. There is another question worth asking: Does when we eat matter just as much as what we eat?

When Raghav Sehgal arrived at Yale as a graduate student several years ago, he wanted to explore the use of powerful computer science tools in cancer research. With an engineering background and a computational biology startup already under his belt, he was well prepared.

For decades, people exercising have been told one simple rule: Never let your knees go over your toes. During lunges, squats and many other exercises, well-meaning coaches, trainers and physical therapists repeated this advice so often that it became fitness folklore.

Chronic pain, pain that persists or returns for more than three months, can affect people’s emotional well-being and is often accompanied by difficulty concentrating or remembering things. While they can be effective for some patients, available treatments for chronic pain do not always relieve all the other symptoms associated with it.

Type 2 diabetes has traditionally been a disease that has affected mostly middle-aged and older adults. But new research from the U.S. to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy (Sept. 28–Oct. 2) shows a sharp increase in the rate of new cases of type 2 diabetes since the turn of the century, which has continued to accelerate in recent years. The study is by Dr. Tessa Crume of the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, Colorado, and colleagues.

Each person has a unique gut microbial population, with variation shaped by diet, lifestyle and disease. We are seeing a rapid rise in metabolic disorders, obesity and inflammatory diseases that cannot be explained by our relatively stable genetic code. One of the most encouraging findings in common modern diseases is that modifiable factors can outweigh genetic predispositions. Unlike genetics, the microbiome is a dynamic system that responds to the daily choices we make.

Cottage cheese is having a moment. It’s being added to dips, mixed into batters and even used in pizza and brownies. It’s touted as a high-protein food that can help people build muscle and lose fat. But the research supporting these benefits is not quite as abundant as the number of viral cottage cheese recipes out there.

Nature-based social prescribing can help reduce loneliness among adults living in socioeconomically vulnerable urban areas, according to a trial conducted in Barcelona by the European RECETAS consortium. Loneliness decreased among all participants receiving nature-based social prescribing, but those experiencing greater loneliness and poorer emotional well-being at the start benefited more from the facilitated group intervention.