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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Focusing on variety and balance is the best way to reduce exposure to heavy metals in food while keeping your plate full of nutritious choices.

Mix it up. Eat a variety of grains, proteins, fruits, and vegetables—and even vary the brands you buy. Relying too heavily on one food type, source, or growing location can risk repeated exposure to an element that happens to be particularly high in that food or region. Low levels of heavy metals make their way into foods. A varied, healthy diet can limit exposure and absorption.

Choose safer seafood. Fish is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Opt for smaller fish, which are lower on the food chain, such as salmon, canned light and skipjack tuna, sardines, pollock, or tilapia. Shellfish like scallops, clams, crab, and shrimp are good choices as well. Limit large predatory fish, like swordfish, orange roughy, and king mackerel.

Cook rice smartly. Cook rice with extra water (like pasta) that you drain off. This simple step can reduce arsenic levels (but it also lowers nutritional value). Try other grains like oats, quinoa, bulgur, or barley for variety.

Check your home. If you have older pipes, test your tap water for lead and consider a certified filter if needed. Paint in houses built before 1978 should be tested for lead. (Test kits can be purchased at home improvement stores and may be available for free through local health departments and/or water utilities.)

Refer to trusted sources. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency are tasked with helping to ensure your food and water meet safety standards. If unusually high levels of any heavy metals are discovered in a particular food, the media will be alerted, and recalls will be put in place.
Heavy metals are part of our environment, and small amounts do make their way into foods. But research shows that the benefits of a varied, nutrient-rich diet far outweigh the minimal risks from trace exposure.

What to Know About Heavy Metals in Food | Tufts Now

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

Super agers tend to have at least two key genetic advantages

The gene variant posing the greatest genetic risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is called APOE-ε4. A different variant of the same gene, APOE-ε2, is thought to confer protection against AD.

A comparatively large study reported in Alzheimer's & Dementia by researchers  measures the frequency of APOE-ε4 and APOE-ε2 in so-called super agers—people ages 80 or older whose cognitive function is comparable to people 20 or 30 years younger.

Super agers were 68% less likely to harbor the gene nobody wants, APOE-ε4, compared to individuals with AD dementia in the same 80+ age group.

Most notably, super agers were 19% less likely to harbor APOE-ε4 than were cognitively normal participants in the same age group.

Super agers were also found for the first time to have higher frequency of the variant you'd want, APOE-ε2: They were 28% more likely to carry APOE-ε2 than were cognitively normal controls ages 80+, and 103% more likely to carry the variant than were participants with AD dementia aged 80 or older.

Evaluating the association of APOE genotype and cognitive resilience in SuperAgers, Alzheimer's & Dementia (2026). DOI: 10.1002/alz.71024. alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wil … oi/10.1002/alz.71024

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

Scientists discover natural 'brake' that could stop harmful inflammation

Researchers have uncovered a key mechanism that helps the body switch off inflammation—a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for chronic diseases affecting millions worldwide.

Inflammation is the body's frontline defense against infection and injury, but when it doesn't switch off properly, it can drive serious health conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes. Until now, scientists didn't fully understand how the body decides to stop the immune "fight" response and start healing.

Published in Nature Communications, the study reveals that tiny fat-derived molecules called epoxy-oxylipins act as natural brakes on the immune system. These molecules prevent the overgrowth of certain immune cells, known as intermediate monocytes, that can cause chronic inflammation—linked to tissue damage, illness and disease progression.

Tests revealed that one epoxy-oxylipin, 12,13-EpOME, works by shutting down a protein signal called p38 MAPK, which drives monocyte transformation. This was confirmed in lab experiments and in volunteers given a p38-blocking drug.

Targeting this mechanism could lead to safer treatments that restore immune balance without suppressing overall immunity.

Epoxy-Oxylipins Direct Monocyte Fate in Inflammatory Resolution in Humans, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67961-5

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Cancer cells use stolen goods to stay hidden

Hijacking the energy-producing organelles from immune cells seems to help tumours in mice to infiltrate lymph nodes.
Cancer cells use mitochondria stolen from immune cells to escape detection and spread. Researchers found that when cancer cells take on these mitochondria in mice, it both weakens the immune cells and triggers a molecular pathway in the cancer cells that help them fly under the immune system’s radar and invade lymph nodes. This beneficial molecular pathway was activated even when researchers disrupted the mitochondria’s ability to produce the energy-carrying molecule ATP. The findings could explain how cancer cells survive in lymph nodes, which are packed with immune cells that should be able to kill them.

Mitochondrial transfer from immune to tumor cells enables lymph nod...

Cancer might evade immune defences by stealing mitochondria

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

How the gut microbiome affects transplants

Antibiotic and immunosuppressant treatment administered before, during and after a solid-organ or haematopoietic-stem-cell transplant can dysregulate the gut microbiome. On the flipside, the gut microbiome can also influence the long-term success of such procedures by, for example, metabolizing immunosuppressants into less active forms. A better understanding of these interactions could yield targeted interventions that improve outcomes in transplant recipients, write five internal-medicine specialists in their review.

The gut microbiome in solid-organ and haematopoietic-stem-cell tran...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Vaccines create a halo of benefits
Growing evidence suggests that vaccines have benefits in older adults beyond protecting against infectious diseases. These ‘off-target effects’ include a reduced risk of dementia and cardiovascular events. Exactly why vaccines have these protective effects is unclear, but researchers suggest that in protecting against infection, vaccines also protect against the inflammation that comes with them. Many experts now worry that opposition to childhood vaccinations could dissuade some adults from getting vaccinated, which would leave them vulnerable to the diseases that vaccines can protect against, both infectious and not.

Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew - The New York ...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Gut bacteria cause rare alcohol syndrome
Researchers have found more evidence that ethanol-producing gut bacteria are the main drivers of auto-brewery syndrome (ABS) — a rare and poorly understood condition in which people become drunk when they haven’t consumed alcohol. A team found that strains of Klebsiella bacteria and Escherichia coli that produce ethanol were much more prevalent in the gut microbiomes of people with ABS than in those of people who didn’t have the condition. One person with ABS was successfully treated with a faecal microbiota transplant, but the authors say a targeted intervention, such as disrupting the metabolic pathways the bacteria use to produce ethanol, might be more effective.

Gut microbial ethanol metabolism contributes to auto-brewery syndro...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

How small mammals shrink their brains to survive the cold

An international team of researchers has conducted a study that explains the evolutionary origins of the Dehnel phenomenon, a unique seasonal adaptation in small mammals that involves the ability to reduce and recover brain volume and function. The study is published in Molecular Biology and Evolution.

The Dehnel phenomenon is a case of extreme plasticity through which some mammals reduce and regenerate their brains according to the season. This mechanism allows species such as the common shrew to reduce the size of their brain, skull and other organs by up to 30% during the winter to save energy in conditions of extreme cold and food scarcity.

In the spring, these tissues regenerate, making this phenomenon an exceptional example of physiological plasticity. Furthermore, comparative studies show that it is not exclusive to shrews: European moles and mustelids (such as weasels) also exhibit seasonal brain reductions, which extends the evolutionary framework of this strategy to mammals with high metabolisms.

Through comparative genomics and gene expression analysis in key tissues, such as the hypothalamus, the team identified genes associated with several fundamental processes, such as energy homeostasis and calcium signaling, essential for adjusting energy balance in demanding environments; the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, which ensures efficient control of molecules accessing the brain during the seasonal cycle; and water regulation, involved in reversible brain volume loss without cell death, a key finding for understanding how this adaptation is achieved.

The plasticity reflected by the Dehnel phenomenon influences survival, reproduction, and resilience to climate variability. According to the research team, even though these species are not human, understanding the mechanisms that allow reversible reductions in brain volume without permanent damage could inspire new lines of research in neurology and metabolism.

The role of genes related to energy homeostasis and the blood-brain barrier points to possible biomarkers and therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases, always with the necessary caution when extrapolating to humans.

William R Thomas et al, Genomic comparisons shed light on the adaptive basis of brain size plasticity and chromosomal instability in the Eurasian common shrew, Molecular Biology and Evolution (2026). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msag006

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Your voice gives away valuable personal information!

Human voices carry extensive personal information, including health, background, and emotional state, which can be extracted by advanced speech analysis technologies. This raises privacy risks such as misuse by insurers, employers, or malicious actors. New metrics now quantify how much information a speech recording contains, aiding the development of privacy-preserving tools and user interfaces.
You can probably quickly tell from a friend's tone of voice whether they're feeling happy or sad, energetic or exhausted. Computers can already do a similar analysis, and soon they'll be able to extract a lot more information. It's something we should all be concerned about, according to experts in the field.
Personal information encoded in your voice could lead to increased insurance premiums or to advertising that exploits your emotional state. Private information could also be used for harassment, stalking or even extortion.
When someone talks, a lot of information about their health, cultural background, education level and so on is embedded in the speech signal. That information gets transmitted with the speech, even though people don't realize it.
For example, even subtle patterns of intonation or word choice can be a giveaway as to your political preferences, while clues in breathing or voice quality may correlate with certain health conditions.
One important risk is that medical information inferred from voice recordings could affect insurance prices or be used to market medication.
The fear of monitoring or the loss of dignity if people feel like they're constantly monitored—that's already psychologically damaging.
And employers might extract personal information from voice recordings which could be used against employees or to screen candidates, or exes might use such tools for stalking or harassment.
So how can engineers tackle these problems?
Protecting against abuses means ensuring that only the information that's strictly necessary is transmitted and that this information is securely delivered to the intended recipient. One approach is to separate out the private information and only transmit the information needed to provide a service. Speech can also be processed locally on a phone or computer rather than sent to the cloud, and acoustic technologies can be used to make sure that sounds are only recorded from (or audible in) a specific place.

Tom Bäckström, Privacy in Speech Technology, Proceedings of the IEEE (2025). DOI: 10.1109/jproc.2025.3632102

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

The aggressive use of antibiotics could fuel mood disorders and anxiety

Antibiotics (ABs) are among the most used pharmaceutical drugs worldwide, as they are currently the most effective medicines for the treatment of bacterial infections. An excessive use of these drugs, however, can damage the gut microbiota, the population of microorganisms living in the intestines that help us to digest food.

Bacteria and other microorganisms in the gut are known to also communicate with the brain via a communication pathway that is referred to as the gut-brain axis. Recent research suggests that some gut bacteria help to reduce inflammation and support the healthy functioning of the brain.

Researchers have carried out a study exploring the possibility that the effects of ABs on gut bacteria could also facilitate the development of mental health disorders, particularly increasing anxiety. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, suggest that ABs do in fact damage gut bacteria that help regulate mood, linking their excessive use with higher levels of anxiety.

When they analyzed the data they collected, the researchers found that the use of ABs was linked to anxiety-like behaviors in mice and higher levels of anxiety in humans. Moreover, the drugs appeared to reduce the amounts of some helpful gut bacteria, particularly those in the Bacteroides group.

In addition, the team found an association between the intake of ABs and a reduction in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a chemical that supports communication between nerve cells. Mice and human patients who had received ABs were found to have lower levels of acetylcholine both in the gut and brain compared to those who had not taken ABs.

"In both AB-treated mice and patients, co-occurrence analysis indicated that the Bacteroides-acetylcholine pair may play an important role in AB-induced anxiety," wrote the researchers in their paper.

Ke Xu et al, Consistent decline of acetylcholine in microbiota-gut-brain axis mediates antibiotic-induced anxiety via regulating hippocampus microglial activation, Molecular Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03431-0.

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