Publisher Health

Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk watches a Greenland shark glide slowly through the dark waters of the Arctic on her computer screen.
“You see it move its eye,” says the University of California, Irvine associate professor of physiology and biophysics, pointing to the footage. “The shark is tracking the light — it’s fascinating.”
Greenland sharks are the longest-living vertebrates known to science, with some individuals surviving for as long as 400 years. They have thick gray bodies, small heads and short, rounded snouts. Their cloudy-looking eyes can appear almost lifeless, and parasites are often found attached directly to the eyeballs.
Because of those parasites and the extremely dark, murky environment in which the sharks live, scientists have long suspected that Greenland sharks may be functionally blind.
New research led by Skowronska-Krawczyk, however, suggests a very different picture.
Greenland Shark Eyes Defy Expectations
The study, co-authored by researchers from the University of Basel, Switzerland, Walter Salzburger and Lily G. Fogg, who examined the evolutionary aspects of the work, is challenging assumptions about Greenland shark vision while offering new clues about aging and longevity.

Published in Nature Communications, the findings suggest that a DNA repair mechanism may allow Greenland sharks to preserve their eyesight for centuries without showing signs of retinal degeneration. Their visual systems also appear specially adapted to the extremely low light levels of their Arctic habitat.
Skowronska-Krawczyk studies the molecular processes involved in age-related eye diseases to better understand how aging affects vision. Her interest in Greenland sharks began after reading a 2016 research paper by John Fleng Steffensen published in the journal Science.
“One of my takeaway conclusions from the Science paper was that many Greenland sharks have parasites attached to their eyes — which could impair their vision,” she says. “Evolutionarily speaking, you don’t keep the organ that you don’t need. After watching many videos, I realized this animal is moving its eyeball toward the light.”
That observation prompted her to investigate the sharks’ visual system more closely.
Studying Eyes From Centuries-Old Sharks
The Greenland sharks examined in the study were caught between 2020 and 2024 with scientific long lines near the University of Copenhagen’s Arctic Station on Disko Island, Greenland.

Steffensen, a professor of marine biology at the University of Copenhagen, worked with Peter G. Bushnell, who teaches at Indiana University South Bend, and Richard W. Brill of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The researchers dissected the sharks’ eyes and preserved them in a fixative solution so they could later be studied.
Emily Tom, a UC Irvine Ph.D. student and physician-scientist in training in Skowronska-Krawczyk’s laboratory, remembers the moment one of those preserved eyes arrived.
“I opened the package, and there was a giant, 200-year-old eyeball sitting on dry ice just staring back at me,” the 28-year-old says with a laugh. “We’re used to working with mouse eyeballs, which are the size of a papaya seed, so we had to figure out how to scale up to a baseball-sized eyeball. Luckily, Dorota is very hands-on, both in her mentoring style and in the lab — which you don’t see a lot of with professors.”
Tom allowed the eye to defrost carefully.
“The lab smelled like a fish market,” she says.
Handling the tissue required precision. If it warmed too much and reached room temperature, the samples could begin to deteriorate.
No Signs of Retinal Cell Death
Tom performed histological and vision-specific analyses of the eye tissue. The researchers found no evidence of cell death in the retina.
They also discovered that rhodopsin (a protein essential for vision in dim light) remained active in the shark retina. The protein was tuned to detect blue light, an adaptation that could help Greenland sharks see in the faint light available deep beneath Arctic waters.
“Not a lot of people are working on sharks, especially shark vision,” Tom says. “We can learn so much about vision and longevity from long-lived species like the Greenland shark, so having the funds to do research like this is very important.”
The results suggest that the Greenland shark’s remarkable lifespan does not necessarily come with the severe retinal deterioration that might be expected in such an old animal.
What Greenland Sharks Could Teach Us About Aging
For Skowronska-Krawczyk, the work raises the possibility that understanding how Greenland shark eyes remain healthy for centuries could eventually point researchers toward new strategies for preventing age-related vision loss.
The findings could also help guide research into eye diseases including macular degeneration and glaucoma. At the same time, they raise broader questions about how vision evolves, how tissues remain functional over extremely long periods and whether some of those protective mechanisms could ultimately be applied to humans.
Skowronska-Krawczyk says uncertainty surrounding federal research funding has created concerns about future support for this type of work, but she remains confident that “we will prevail.”
“What I love about my work is that we are the first in the world to see results — at the forefront, finding new mechanisms, rules and discoveries,” Skowronska-Krawczyk says, looking over at the paused shark on the screen. “Then, being able to share this joy with students — that’s the best part of it.”

Although alcohol abstinence is associated with improved health outcomes, addiction researchers have theorized that brain changes that occur during abstinence may increase a person’s risk of relapse.
To explore this theory, we studied how mice behaved after giving them long-term voluntary access to alcohol followed by a forced abstinence period. We found that a subset of the mice developed aversion-resistant alcohol intake – that is, they now drank alcohol despite the quinine we added to make it increasingly bitter. Moreover, compared to those who did not experience forced abstinence, these mice drank even larger quantities of the very bitter alcohol. These results suggest there are potential bodily challenges associated with abstinence that contribute to relapses in alcohol use disorder.
Next, we monitored the activity of a particular collection of cells in a portion of the brain known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, or BNST. Researchers have previously found this small structure to be heavily implicated in alcohol use disorder symptoms such as anxiety and depression.
We found that allowing abstinent mice to reenter the setting where alcohol was previously available would lead them to attempt to drink even though the spout contained only water. These attempts were associated with activity in the BNST. Abstinent mice who had developed the taste for very bitter alcohol had more than double the activity in this brain area compared to mice that did not experience forced abstinence.
Importantly, we saw activity in the BNST even before we gave abstinent mice access to the bitter alcohol. This finding suggests it might be possible to identify people who are at risk of relapsing by screening for BNST activity when someone is given access to alcohol.Why it mattersAlcohol misuse is one of the top public health challenges in the United States. Although this condition is linked to a wide variety of negative health effects, the public chronically underestimates its seriousness.

Deaths associated with alcohol use in 2024 were 4.5 times higher than deaths attributed to opioids. While harm reduction – a major component of opioid use disorder treatment – is being explored in alcohol use disorder, abstinence remains a mainstay of most approaches to this addiction.
Over 80% of Americans age 12 and older consume alcohol at some point in their lives, and around 10% go on to experience alcohol use disorder. This 10% amounts to almost 30 million people in need of treatment.
Unfortunately, clinicians are ill-equipped to predict who will need help. Although there are treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration for alcohol use disorder, the number of people diagnosed with this condition remains very high. In fact, those numbers have effectively doubled in the U.S. since 1999.
Developing better strategies for identifying those at risk of developing alcohol use disorder and helping them navigate treatment strategies may improve treatment.What still isn’t knownIt’s not clear the exact role that the BNST area of the brain plays in behavior related to alcohol use disorder. It’s also not clear what drives the increase in activity, or which specific populations of brain cells within the BNST encode this activity. Obtaining these answers could lead to new treatment targets.What’s nextNew tools in neuroscience have allowed researchers to manipulate the activity of specific neurons in mice brains. Using these strategies, our team is working on understanding the role BNST plays in drinking alcohol despite the harmful consequences.
Our colleague Jennifer Blackford is also investigating BNST activity in the brains of people with alcohol use disorder who are in early abstinence. If her team observes similar findings in people, a next step would be to further test using the BNST as a screening method in clinical trials.

Daily peppermint oil may offer a simple way to reduce mildly elevated blood pressure, according to new research.
Researchers at the University of Lancashire found that taking 100 microliters of peppermint oil twice a day for 20 days reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by an average of 8.5mmHg.
The findings, published in PLOS One, suggest peppermint oil could provide a simple, inexpensive, and well-tolerated option for people with slightly elevated blood pressure.
A Potential Low-Cost Approach to Blood Pressure
Lead author Dr. Jonnie Sinclair, Reader in Sport and Health Sciences, said: “High blood pressure is one of the biggest causes of heart disease and death worldwide, and it costs a huge amount of money to treat. Although medicines are commonly used to treat it, it’s not always clear how well they work in the long-term, and they can cause unwanted side effects.”
Peppermint naturally contains compounds including menthol and flavonoids. To investigate its possible effects, researchers enrolled 40 adults between the ages of 18 and 65 and randomly assigned them to two groups.
Participants with prehypertension or stage 1 hypertension in one group received a small daily amount of peppermint oil. The comparison group received a peppermint-flavored placebo without the active oil. Blood pressure improved in the peppermint oil group, while the placebo group showed no meaningful change.

Researchers Tracked More Than Blood Pressure
Although systolic blood pressure was the main focus, the researchers also examined several other measures. These included body measurements, blood test results, diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number in a blood pressure reading), heart rate, mental well-being and sleep quality.
Dr. Sinclair added: “Our findings were very positive and they have significant clinical implications, especially given arterial hypertension is the most common preventable risk factor for cardiometabolic disease and the greatest single risk factor for global mortality.
“Peppermint oil is low in calories and price so it’s proved to be a very simple and cost-effective solution to potentially treat millions of people around the world.”

The basic principle of weight loss is straightforward: if you consume fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight. In practice though, this isn’t usually so easy or simple.
Alongside counting calories or eating smaller portions, many people add exercise into the equation when trying to lose weight to help tip the balance. Yet research shows that exercise may only have modest effects on weight loss.
But before you ditch your workouts, it’s important to note that exercise still plays a really important role when it comes to health – perhaps especially in keeping the pounds off after reaching your goal weight.
There are several processes that help explain why exercise doesn’t always result in huge amounts of weight loss.
Exercise can stimulate appetite, leading to increased food intake. People may also subconsciously move less throughout the rest of the day after doing a workout, which means exercise may have less impact on their overall calorie deficit.
The body also becomes more efficient over time – burning fewer calories while doing the same activity. This process, sometimes called “metabolic adaptation”, reflects the body’s tendency to defend against weight loss.
From an evolutionary perspective, conserving energy during periods of intense physical activity probably protected our ancestors from starvation. But in today’s world, metabolic adaptation is one of many factors that can make weight loss difficult.The importance of exercise

Although exercise may not be the main driver of weight loss, it seems it might play a role in maintaining weight loss.
In a study of over 1,100 people, physical activity was shown to have little effect on the amount of weight a person initially lost. However, doing higher levels of activity after losing weight was strongly linked to maintaining the weight loss.
It’s worth noting that exercise was also associated with measurable health improvements – including better cholesterol, lower inflammation, better blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity, all of which are associated with lower risk of health problems, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
These many health benefits show just how important it is to exercise both while losing weight and maintaining weight loss.
Evidence also suggests that combining exercise with weight loss drugs (such as Saxenda), may help people maintain their weight loss better than using the drug alone.Why exercise worksIt may seem confusing that exercise isn’t especially effective for losing weight but can help prevent regain. The reasons behind this paradox aren’t fully understood, but several mechanisms may offer an explanation.

The first has to do with our resting energy expenditure (the amount of calories our body burns when doing nothing).
When we lose weight, our resting energy expenditure decreases by more than you would expect for the amount of weight lost. This is thought to contribute to weight regain. But exercise raises total daily energy expenditure, which can help to partially offset this.
A second factor relates to muscle mass.
Weight loss usually results in the loss of both fat and muscle. Losing muscle lowers resting energy expenditure, which can contribute to weight regain.
But exercise, especially resistance training (such as Pilates or lifting weights), can help preserve or even rebuild muscle mass. This can boost our metabolism, which may aid in long-term weight maintenance.
Physical activity also helps our body to maintain its ability to burn fat. After losing weight, the body often becomes less efficient at using fat for energy.
But intense exercise can improve fat burning and metabolic flexibility – the ability to switch between burning carbohydrates and fat depending on what’s available. This helps the body continue burning fat even when calorie intake is low or weight is lost.
Exercise improves insulin sensitivity as well. This reduces the amount of insulin required to regulate blood sugar. This is beneficial as higher insulin levels can promote fat storage and reduce fat breakdown.
Exercise has many indirect effects on us that can aid in weight maintenance. For instance, exercise can improve sleep, mood and reduce stress levels. These all reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which could lower the amount of fat the body stores.
Regular activity can also help regulate appetite and blood glucose, which may help reduce cravings and limit overeating.
It’s important to acknowledge that everyone is different. This means we all respond differently to exercise in terms of how many calories we burn or whether a workout makes us feel hungrier later in the day.
Different types of workouts also confer their own benefits when it comes to health and weight maintenance.
Aerobic exercise (such as brisk walking, cycling or running) burns calories and, at higher intensities, may also enhance the body’s ability to burn fat for fuel.
Resistance training, on the other hand, helps build and preserve muscle mass. This supports a higher resting energy expenditure, aiding long-term weight maintenance.
Exercise may not be the most powerful tool for losing weight, but it could help sustain hard-earned weight loss. Perhaps most importantly, it offers many physical and mental health benefits that go far beyond the numbers on the scale.

People who speak more than one language may have brains that appear younger than expected for their age, according to research presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum 2026.
The brain depends on billions of nerve cells constantly communicating with one another. As people get older, those connections can weaken, contributing to slower thinking and declines in memory.
The new findings suggest that multilingual experience may help offset some of those age-related changes. People who spoke more languages tended to have younger-looking brains, and the effect also appeared stronger among those who learned another language earlier and became more proficient.
Multilingualism and Brain Aging
The research was presented by Dr. Lucia Amoruso of the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in San Sebastián, Spain. She worked with researchers from the Latin American Brain Health Institute at the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile, the Cognitive Neuroscience Center at the Universidad de San Andres, Argentina, and the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
The team had previously published research suggesting that people living in countries where multilingualism is common may age more slowly. For the latest work, they focused on people from the Basque region of Spain who spoke between one and four languages, using different combinations of Spanish, Basque, French and English.
To measure brain aging, the researchers first studied 728 people and created a ‘brain aging clock’. They used magnetoencephalography, a method that detects the faint magnetic fields produced when brain cells are active.

Artificial intelligence was then used to analyze patterns of brain activity across people of different ages. This allowed the researchers to estimate what typical brain connectivity looks like at different points in life.
They next applied the clock to a separate group of 144 people to estimate each person’s ‘brain age’.
Four Languages Linked to a 13 Year Difference
When the researchers compared participants’ actual ages with their estimated brain ages, they found a striking pattern.
People who spoke two languages had brains that appeared about six years younger than those of people who spoke only one language. Those who spoke three languages had brains that appeared about seven years younger. Among people who spoke four languages, the difference grew to roughly 13 years.
Dr. Amoruso said: “In simple terms, people who spoke more languages tended to have brains that looked younger than expected for their chronological age. The effect was not only related to the number of languages spoken. Higher language proficiency and earlier acquisition of a second language were also associated with more delayed brain aging. This suggests that multilingual experience matters as a gradient: it is not simply about being bilingual or not, but about the depth and duration of language experience.”
The researchers adjusted their analysis for factors including age, sex and education. However, they cautioned that other influences on brain health, including lifestyle and social engagement, could also contribute to the differences they observed.

Could Language Learning Support Brain Resilience?
Dr. Amoruso and her colleagues now want to investigate whether similar patterns appear in people with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, where brain aging and resilience are particularly important.
They also hope to explore whether speaking two or more closely related languages could produce an even stronger effect. Switching between similar languages may require greater control because speakers must continually manage competing words and language systems.
Professor Christina Dalla of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, chairs the FENS Forum communication committee and was not involved in the research. She said: “We know that many factors can influence our brain health and mental abilities as we age. For example, we know that not smoking, eating well, social and artistic engagement, as well as being active, can help. How we use our brains throughout life can also have an impact, especially if we engage in effortful learning that activates our brain.
“This study suggests that learning a second, third or fourth language could help our brains to stay younger for longer, and the earlier we start, the better. There are many good reasons for learning another language at any age — social, cultural and for the health of your brain — so we should support language learning at school and throughout life, even if it’s hard.”
Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Fogarty International Center and the Multi-partner Consortium to Expand Dementia Research in Latin America (ReDLat). Additional support was provided by the Alzheimer’s Association, the Global Brain Health Institute, the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, Alzheimer’s Society UK, FONDECYT and the Ramón y Cajal fellowship through the Spanish State Research Agency.

Researchers at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin (UCD) have found that a yeast-based dietary supplement can strengthen immune cells involved in fighting cancer in mice.
In experiments with obese laboratory mice, the researchers found that adding the supplement to the animals’ diets changed the way immune cells developed and produced stronger cancer-fighting responses.
Obesity can interfere with immune function, making it more difficult for the body to respond effectively to tumors. The new findings suggest that a yeast-based supplement could potentially help restore some of that lost immune activity.
The research was published in the scientific journal Cell Reports. The study was led by Frederick Sheedy, Associate Professor in Immunology in Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, and Helen Roche, Professor in Nutrigenomics, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science and Director of the UCD Conway Institute.
Training Immune Cells Through Diet
Dr. Anna Ledwith, postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Roche’s group and first author of the research paper, said: “We wanted to investigate whether a common dietary supplement, yeast beta-glucan, could reprogram early-stage immune cells in the bone marrow to produce long-lasting, enhanced anti-tumor immune responses.
“Mice were fed a standard or high-fat diet supplemented with yeast beta-glucan for 4-12 weeks, and then their immune system was challenged by different types of cancer cells: colorectal, skin, and breast cancer. The study also tested whether yeast supplementation could overcome immune dysfunction caused by obesity and whether protective effects persist after weight loss.”
The researchers wanted to determine whether consuming yeast beta-glucan could produce a form of lasting immune training by changing early immune cells in the bone marrow. They also examined whether the supplement could counter the immune problems caused by obesity.

Prof. Roche said the findings show for the first time that consuming yeast beta-glucan in the diet is enough to trigger trained immunity by altering bone marrow stem cells. Earlier studies achieved similar effects using injections.
Commenting on the significance of the findings, Prof. Roche added: “This is the first demonstration that dietary delivery of yeast beta-glucan is sufficient to induce trained immunity through reprogramming of bone marrow stem cells. Previous research required injections.
“Crucially, this dietary intervention restores anti-tumor innate immunity in obese mice and reverses long-term immune memory defects that persist even after weight loss, a major unmet clinical challenge.”
Reversing Immune Problems Linked to Obesity
Obesity affects millions of people around the world and can significantly disrupt immune function, increasing susceptibility to both infections and cancer. These immune changes can continue even after a person loses weight.
That persistence is an important challenge because weight loss does not necessarily erase all of obesity’s long-term effects on the immune system. In the mouse experiments, yeast beta-glucan helped reverse immune memory problems that remained after weight loss.

Cancer, meanwhile, continues to be one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Researchers are therefore looking for safe, widely available approaches that could help restore immune function and potentially work alongside existing cancer treatments.
Yeast beta-glucan is already sold as a dietary supplement and has a strong safety record. That makes it a practical candidate for future studies in people.
A Potential Addition to Cancer Treatment
Looking to the future, Professor Sheedy said: “This research paves the way for dietary intervention studies in people living with obesity, chronic infections and other immunocompromised populations. The yeast beta-glucan used, WellmuneTM, from Kerry Group, is already food-grade and commercially available, facilitating rapid clinical trials.
“Ultimately, a simple dietary supplement could help boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability, complementing existing treatments such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, with the potential to improve vaccine responses and resistance to infection.”
The researchers say the findings could now support dietary intervention studies involving people with obesity, chronic infections, and other conditions associated with weakened immune function.
Because the specific yeast beta-glucan used in the study is already commercially available as a food-grade supplement, researchers believe it could move relatively quickly into clinical testing. Future studies will need to determine whether the immune benefits seen in mice can also be reproduced in humans.

The ‘hidden gem’ offering a place to grow, connect and healByEmma OrrBBC News NIPublished22 August 2026From a lifeless strip of grass to a blossoming garden, Annadale Community Centre’s grounds have received a glow up over the past year, becoming a “hidden gem” for all to enjoy.The volunteer group has now been recognised for its contribution to the local area, receiving a nomination for the BBC Make a Difference Awards.Annadale Community Centre Gardening Group meets every Tuesday and will celebrate its first birthday in September.Residents say the space has not only improved the local environment but has also created a welcoming community hub where people can learn new skills, share ideas and support each other through life’s challenges.’It really is beautiful’Image source, Annadale Community Centre Garden GroupKirstie Rowan has been involved since the beginning and is proud of the journey the group has been on, which has been full of “lovely big changes”.”We started with the grass, unwanted containers and the polytunnel and now we have all of this – we’ve got the pond, tree bed and vegetables as well,” she explained.”Every week when we come down there’s always more growth, more flowers, new flowers, it really is beautiful.”Some of us don’t work so this gets us out of the house weekly and even if we come, we aren’t expected to do anything, its just nice to be here with everyone.” For Fayth Duffy, being part of the group has been a “game changer” for her after recently moving to the area.”I was really finding it hard to put down roots and meet friends because when your kids get a bit older you’re not meeting the mums at the gate, you’re not getting out to the other places such as toddler groups,” she said.”We’ve all become such good friends, we go for coffee together sometimes afterwards and support each other, we’ll ring each other to make sure we are all here.”For local resident Larry Andrews the group has been a refuge following the death of his wife last year. “I came here for a bit of company, my daughter found it on WhatsApp and I’ve been coming since September last year,” he said.The 87-year-old former butcher has made new friends through the group. “It’s good to meet different people and have a yarn with them… It’s amazing the number of people you do find,” he added.Amber Jennings works with the group and is on hand with gardening tips and advice.”It means a lot to be nominated for this award – I feel like this is such a hidden gem on the Ormeau Road for people to retreat to on a Tuesday morning and learn how to garden with those in the community,” she said.The primary goal of the group is to “improve the wellbeing of people in the area”.Jennings has seen first hand the difference the garden has made to members.”It’s been a really uplifting experience for all involved, having that routine, knowing you’re outside and being with people in your community,” she added.The Environmental AwardIt is awarded to an individual or group who improve or conserve their local environment.Annadale Community Centre Garden Group is one of four finalists in the category, along with:Daniel McAfee – Ballycastle, a wildlife volunteer and member of the Glens Red Squirrel Group where he shares his knowledge through school visits, talks and guided nature walksAlannah Agnew – Cookstown, a passionate member and chairperson of her school eco team. She has led assemblies on climate change, littering and healthy eating, while helping her school achieve its sixth Green Flag awardEco Rangers NI – Carrickfergus, a community litter-picking group that clears litter year-round, supports community events and helps young people with awards such as the Duke of Edinburgh AwardOverall winners will be announced live on Vinny and Cate’s BBC Radio Ulster show on Friday 25 September.

Researchers at Hiroshima University have found that the number of natural teeth a person has may provide useful clues about long-term survival after surgery for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Oral health has long been connected with broader health outcomes, and previous research has linked poor dental health with prognosis in colorectal and esophageal cancers. Earlier studies have also found connections between oral health and complications after surgery for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), one of the deadliest forms of cancer.
The Hiroshima University team set out to determine whether oral health was also associated with how long patients survived after undergoing resection, the surgical removal of all or part of an organ, for PDAC.
The findings were published in the Journal of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Sciences.
Oral Health and Pancreatic Cancer Survival
“Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest malignancies worldwide, and even after curative resection, prognosis is often poor,” said Kenichiro Uemura, associate professor at Hiroshima University’s Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences and corresponding author of the study. “Recently, several high-impact studies have suggested that periodontal pathogens such as Porphyromonas gingivalis may contribute to pancreatic carcinogenesis and tumor progression. However, it has remained unclear whether oral health itself influences postoperative survival outcomes in patients with pancreatic cancer.”
The study included 339 consecutive patients who underwent radical pancreatectomy (surgery where all or part of the pancreas is removed, occasionally along with parts of other organs) between 2014 and 2022 at the Department of Surgery, Hiroshima University Hospital.

Before surgery, every patient received a dental examination. Researchers assessed oral health using two main measures: the number of natural teeth remaining and the status of occlusion (contact between upper and lower teeth) of the premolars and molars.
Nearly Two Years of Difference in Median Survival
The results showed a substantial survival difference based on natural tooth count. Patients who had 21 or more natural teeth had a median overall survival of 60.7 months. Those with 20 or fewer teeth had a median survival of 39.1 months.
The relationship remained statistically significant even after the researchers accounted for well-established prognostic factors, including tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, surgical margins, chemotherapy, and nutritional status.
“One striking finding was the large survival difference between the groups: patients with more natural teeth survived nearly two years longer than those with fewer teeth,” Uemura says. “Another surprising finding was that chewing function itself, evaluated by posterior teeth occlusion, was not independently associated with survival. This suggests that tooth loss may represent more than oral function alone. Instead, it may reflect lifelong chronic inflammation, frailty, nutritional condition, lifestyle factors, and overall systemic vulnerability accumulated over decades. A simple way to express this concept is: ‘The mouth may reflect the body’s long-term resilience.'”
Tooth Loss May Reflect Broader Health
The fact that chewing ability itself was not independently tied to survival suggests that the number of teeth may be acting as a broader marker of health rather than simply a measure of how well someone can eat.

According to the researchers, tooth loss could reflect the accumulated effects of chronic inflammation, frailty, nutritional health, lifestyle, and other systemic stresses experienced over many years.
Because the research was conducted at a single center and involved patients of Japanese ethnicity, the researchers say the findings will need to be tested in larger multicenter and international studies. They also want to investigate more closely how oral bacteria, chronic inflammation, and pancreatic cancer progression may be biologically connected.
“Our ultimate goal is to establish a new perspective in pancreatic cancer care: prognosis may depend not only on tumor biology, but also on the patient’s long-term systemic condition and oral health environment,” Uemura concludes. “We hope oral health assessment may eventually become part of personalized risk stratification and perioperative management for pancreatic cancer patients.”
Kaoru Seo, Kenichiro Uemura, Kenjiro Okada, Tatsuaki Sumiyoshi, Ryuta Shintakuya and Shinya Takahashi at Hiroshima University; Hiromi Nishi and Hiroyuki Kawaguchi at Hiroshima University Hospital; and; Yoshiaki Murakami at Hiroshima Memorial Hospital co-authored the study. Kaoru Seo was first author of the study; Kenichiro Uemura was Principal Investigator (PI).

A species of gut bacteria called Roseburia inulinivorans is associated with greater muscle strength in people and improved muscle performance in mice, according to research published online in the journal Gut.
The findings suggest that R inulinivorans can alter metabolic activity inside muscle and increase the proportion of fast-twitch (type II) fibers, which are important for short bursts of intense activity such as sprinting and weightlifting.
Researchers from the Netherlands and Spain say the bacterium could potentially be developed into a nutraceutical probiotic aimed at age-related muscle wasting.
The Gut Microbiome and Muscle Strength
Loss of muscle mass and strength can contribute substantially to frailty, declining mobility and physical function, and poorer health. These problems become particularly important with advancing age and in people living with long-term conditions.
Gut bacteria have already been connected with numerous aspects of health, including metabolic, neurodegenerative, and cardiovascular diseases. Growing evidence also points to a possible role for the gut microbiome in controlling muscle mass and function.
The researchers therefore set out to determine whether particular species of gut microbes were linked to muscle strength and, if so, to investigate how those bacteria might influence muscle tissue.

They analyzed stool samples from 90 healthy young adults (18-25 years old) and 33 older adults (65+) to identify the bacteria living in their guts.
Physical fitness was measured using hand grip strength, leg press and bench press performance, along with VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption during exertion), a measure of cardiorespiratory fitness.
One Group of Bacteria Stood Out
Of all the bacteria detected in the stool samples, Roseburia was the only group (genus) that showed a positive association with both muscle mass and strength.
However, individual Roseburia species did not all show the same relationships. R faecis and R intestinalis were not significantly associated with hand grip strength or VO2 max in either age group.
Among the older participants, those with detectable levels of R inulinivorans had 29% greater handgrip strength than those in whom the bacterium could not be detected. This difference occurred without a corresponding increase in peak oxygen uptake, indicating better fitness.

In younger adults, higher levels of R inulinivorans were associated with both stronger handgrip and higher VO2 max. Greater relative abundance of both R inulinivorans and R intestinalis was also associated with better performance on the leg press and bench press.
By contrast, levels of R faecis and R hominis were not associated with any of the measures of muscle strength. The researchers say this suggests that different Roseburia species may affect different components of muscular performance.
Roseburia Levels Decline With Age
Roseburia bacteria were generally more abundant among younger participants. In this group, the proportion of R faecis ranged from 0% to 3.3%, R intestinalis from 0% to 5.5%, and R inulinivorans from 0% to 6.6%.
Levels were lower among the older adults. The proportion of R faecis ranged from 0% to 2.2%, R intestinalis from 0%-0.7%, and R inulinivorans from 0% to 1.3%.
To investigate whether Roseburia might directly influence muscle strength rather than simply being associated with it, the researchers conducted an experiment involving 32 mice.
Before the experiment, the mice received a cocktail of antibiotics for two weeks to deplete their gut microbiome. They were then given Roseburia species once a week for 8 weeks.
The animals were randomly divided into four groups. Three groups received different Roseburia strains, while the fourth received no Roseburia and served as the control group.
Muscle Strength Increased in Mice
None of the Roseburia species increased how long the mice could run before reaching exhaustion.
Muscle strength told a different story. Compared with the control animals, mice receiving R inulinivorans showed an increase of around 30% in forelimb grip strength, which the researchers used as a measure of muscle function. The improvement was observed after 4, 6, and 8 weeks of treatment.
Mice treated with R inulinivorans also developed larger muscle fibers and had a significantly greater proportion of type II (‘fast twitch’) fibers in the soleus muscle of the calf compared with the other groups. However, this difference was not significant when the R inulinivorans mice were compared specifically with those treated with R intestinalis.
A closer look at muscle fiber sizes showed a relatively even distribution among the control mice. Animals treated with R inulinivorans, meanwhile, had a greater proportion of larger fibers than mice given the other Roseburia species or no Roseburia.
The physical changes in the muscles were accompanied by alterations in proteins and enzymes involved in the metabolic processes that produce energy for muscle activity.
Important Questions Remain
The researchers caution that the study has several limitations. In the mouse experiment, none of the human Roseburia species permanently colonized the animals’ guts.
The researchers also did not directly examine certain pathways involving inflammation or neuromuscular signaling, either of which could have contributed to the observed effects.
Long-term research will also be necessary to establish whether changing levels of R inulinivorans actually cause changes in muscle function or whether the abundance of the bacterium changes as a consequence of differences in muscle function.
Despite those uncertainties, the researchers suggest: “Collectively, our findings provide robust evidence supporting a gut-muscle axis in which R inulinivorans positively modulates muscle metabolism and muscle strength.”
They conclude: “Additionally, we observed that the relative abundance of R inulinivorans is lower in older adults than in young adults. Its abundance appears to decline with advancing age, a period during which the prevalence of sarcopenia [muscle loss] increases, suggesting a potential role for R inulinivorans as a probiotic candidate for preserving muscle strength.”

Just three minutes of sprinting may produce a molecular response that looks very different from what happens after 90 minutes of moderate exercise.
Researchers at Rockefeller University compared how the body responds to exercise performed at different intensities. They found that six 30-second, all-out sprints changed nearly one-quarter of the proteins measured in the blood immediately after exercise. By comparison, 90 minutes of continuous moderate cycling altered less than one-quarter of one percent. Moderate treadmill running affected more proteins than cycling, but still far fewer than the brief sprint session.
Sprinting Triggers a Rapid Molecular Surge
The sprint workout also altered more than 200 metabolites and rapidly increased levels of proteins involved in blood vessel growth, tissue remodeling, and hormonal signaling.
Some of these proteins appeared to reach the bloodstream through a fast cell-signaling process called ectodomain shedding — rather than being newly produced and released, pieces of proteins already located on the surface of cells were cut away and rapidly sent into circulation.
The researchers also tested how human fat cells responded to blood collected after sprinting. Those cells showed widespread changes in gene activity, including shifts in how they processed fuel, reacted to hormones, and detected nutrient availability.
Moderate Exercise Produces a Slower Response
Moderate exercise led to a much less dramatic immediate reaction. A substantial rise in fatty acids and liver-derived proteins associated with the demands of endurance exercise did not appear in the bloodstream until three hours after the workout.

Human fat cells exposed to blood collected after moderate cycling also showed only small changes in gene activity.
Links to Metabolic Health and Biological Aging
The researchers then compared the proteins that responded to exercise with health information from more than 53,000 participants in the UK Biobank. Many of those proteins were associated with lower risks of cardiovascular and metabolic disease.
The pattern was especially notable for obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic disorders. Among 33 proteins associated with lower risk, 32 were altered by sprinting, while only three were affected by moderate exercise. More than one-quarter of those proteins were also linked to slower biological aging.
“What’s exciting here is that just a few minutes of intense exercise can trigger a significant molecular response,” says Cohen. “And we still see it after eight weeks of training, which tells us this response isn’t simply a product of the body struggling to keep up with unfamiliar stress. It may be that the responses we observed are intrinsic to intense exercise.”
Why Exercise Intensity May Matter
The findings suggest that exercise intensity may strongly influence the proteins and metabolites released into the bloodstream and, in turn, the way tissues throughout the body respond.
“It’s well appreciated that different intensities of exercise stimulate distinct body-wide adaptations,” notes Luke Olsen, the postdoctoral fellow who conducted the studies. “However, the molecular mechanisms linking these intensity-dependent adaptations have remained largely elusive. Our work suggests that exerkines-proteins and metabolites released into the bloodstream following exercise-are highly sensitive to exercise intensity and may be the key mediators of the health-promoting effects of short bursts of vigorous exercise.”