Publisher Health

More companies are pushing low-calorie, sugar-free beverages they say are healthy. Some servings have nearly the same level of caffeine as a six-pack of Coca-Cola.It has been more than 25 years since Red Bull hit the market and introduced caffeinated energy drinks to the United States. While the company claimed its beverage would “give you wings,” it never said it was actually good for people.Yet as the energy drink market continues to grow rapidly, companies both new and old are trying to attract health-conscious customers with a wave of no-sugar, low-calorie drinks that claim to boost energy as well as replenish fluids with electrolytes and other ingredients.The offerings include drinks from the popular brand Celsius, which has an investment from PepsiCo and uses the marketing line “Celsius Live Fit.” It claims to be made with “healthier ingredients” like ginger, green tea and vitamins. Likewise, the influencer-backed Prime Energy is sugar-free and has electrolytes, a main ingredient in most sports drinks.“All of them are zero sugar or zero calories,” said Jim Watson, a beverage analyst at Rabobank, a bank based in the Netherlands with a focus on food and agriculture. He added that energy drink consumption had increased partly because of the decades-long move away from sugary soda. “They’re going for the healthy image.”Even Gatorade, which has long marketed beverages to athletes hoping to replenish lost fluids or electrolytes after strenuous exercise, is jumping into the caffeine arms race. This year, Gatorade released Fast Twitch, a sugar-free beverage in flavors like Strawberry Watermelon and Cool Blue — with caffeine levels equivalent to more than two cups of coffee.This new focus has helped the energy drink market grow, with sales in the United States surging to $19 billion from $12 billion over the past five years, according to Circana, a market research firm.Last year, PepsiCo paid $550 million for an 8.5 percent stake in Celsius. In May, Celsius said revenues were $260 million in the first quarter of this year, double what they were a year earlier. At that ferocious pace, revenues could cross $1 billion this year, increasing from $314 million just two years ago. Shares of Celsius have shot up to $144 a share from $69 a year ago. Likewise, the stock of the beverage company Monster Energy has increased 31 percent in the past year.But there are concerns that drinks being pitched as healthy are resulting in children and teenagers consuming caffeine in unhealthy amounts.In March, neon-colored Prime Energy cans began appearing in a lunchroom filled with fourth and fifth graders in the Wilmington public school district in Massachusetts. The popular drinks were released in January by the social media stars Logan Paul and Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji, better known as KSI.For some young students, the Prime Energy drinks, which come in flavors like Strawberry Watermelon and Orange Mango, were delicious liquid gold.“We even had entrepreneurs in fourth and fifth grade who were bringing them to school and selling them to other kids at lunch,” said Rebecca Brown, the health services coordinator for the district.But the eye-popping cans pack a serious punch. A 12-ounce can of Prime Energy contains 200 milligrams of caffeine. That’s roughly equivalent to two Red Bulls, two cups of coffee or six cans of Coca-Cola.Some schools in Britain and Australia have already banned the beverages. In the United States, federal regulations say schools cannot sell or provide caffeinated drinks to elementary or middle school students, although many schools do not restrict what students can bring from home.“Not long after drinking them, the students showed up in the health office saying they didn’t feel good and that their hearts were racing,” said Ms. Brown, who inserted a note in the school’s weekly email to parents saying the energy drinks should not be brought to school.A 12-ounce can of Red Bull contains about 114 milligrams of caffeine — more than three times the amount in a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola. Prime Energy has more: 200 milligrams in each 12-ounce can. A 16-ounce can of Bang Energy Drink, the size typically sold in convenience stores, has 300 milligrams of caffeine.In an email response to questions, representatives for Mr. Paul, the social media personality, and Prime Energy noted that the company’s cans labeled the drink as “not recommended for children under 18.” But parents and school officials are sometimes confusing the drink with Prime Hydration, a caffeine-free sports drink from the social media stars that is sold in bottles. That drink is also immensely popular, with more than $250 million in sales in its first year and customers waiting in line for hours to buy it at some grocery stores in Britain.“Everybody thought Red Bull was the peak of caffeine in energy drinks,” said Dr. Ryan Stanton, an emergency physician in Lexington, Ky., who said he saw patients, especially around finals weeks at local colleges, come in complaining about feeling anxious and experiencing racing heartbeats after consuming too much caffeine. “Now, some of these drinks have two or three times the level of caffeine as Red Bull.”Studies have shown that consuming caffeine may have health benefits, but that too much could result in cardiovascular and gastric issues. The Food and Drug Administration has investigated a handful of reports over the years involving people dying shortly after consuming energy drinks or five-hour energy shots. But the agency has never established a link between the two, a spokesman for the F.D.A. said in a response to emailed questions.Adults are recommended to have no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. Pediatricians recommend that youths ages 12 to 18 should not consume more than 100 milligrams of caffeine per day and that children under 12 should avoid caffeine completely.Over the years, there have been efforts to increase government regulation of energy drinks and limit the caffeine allowed in beverages. Lawmakers in several states, including Indiana and Connecticut, have considered banning the sale of energy drinks to minors. But the industry has successfully pushed back, in part by arguing that young people can get caffeine from myriad sources, including soda and coffee. A 16-ounce cinnamon-caramel-cream cold brew from Starbucks, for instance, contains 265 milligrams of caffeine (not to mention 260 calories).About a decade ago, the energy drink industry, through its lobbying arm, the American Beverage Association, voluntarily adopted a set of principles, including labeling the amount of caffeine in products and noting on packaging that the beverages were not recommended for children. The industry also agreed not to sell or market its products in schools.But critics say some energy drinks are clearly marketed toward younger customers. Last year, the consumer advocacy group Truth in Advertising said companies like C4 Energy, which sells drinks in flavors like Starburst and Skittles, and Ghost Energy, which sells Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish-flavored drinks that contain more caffeine than two cups of coffee, were trying to appeal to minors.Dan Lourenco, the chief executive and co-founder of Ghost, said in an email that the company’s products were geared toward millennials seeking the nostalgic flavors of their youth. C4 Energy, which is owned by Nutrabolt, did not respond to an email seeking comment.The U.S. Department of Agriculture, whose Smart Snacks program creates the nutritional standards for foods and beverages sold in schools, said any products sold in elementary and middle schools must be caffeine-free. But for beverages sold in high schools, there are restrictions on the number of calories but none on the level of caffeine.Moreover, the F.D.A. does not have specific regulations around “energy drinks,” deeming it a marketing term. A spokesman for the agency added in an email that companies were still responsible for including a safe amount of caffeine in beverages.Chloe Fitzgibbon, who recently graduated from high school in Nebraska, questioned in her school’s newspaper whether the cafeteria should be selling energy drinks.Terry Ratzlaff for The New York TimesChloe Fitzgibbon, 17, who graduated in May from Lincoln Southeast High School in Lincoln, Neb., questioned whether the school cafeteria should be selling energy drinks in an article published last year on the website of the school’s newspaper, The Clarion. Noting that the school sold Mountain Dew’s version, Kickstart, Ms. Fitzgibbon said students opted for the drink not only for the energy jolt but for the ease of buying it through their student accounts.The high school cafeteria sells a number of caffeinated beverages, including Kickstart, which has 68 milligrams of caffeine in a 12-ounce can, and Bubbl’r, a sparkling water with 69 milligrams of caffeine in a 12-ounce can. Mindy Burbach, a spokeswoman for Lincoln Public Schools, said in an email that students were limited to buying two caffeinated beverages each day.“When I took an early-morning class, A.P. Psych, almost everyone came in with a coffee or they would buy the energy drinks that we sell at school,” Ms. Fitzgibbon said.Pasco County Schools, a Florida district just north of Tampa, also offers Kickstart drinks to high school students in its vending machines. But Stephen Hegarty, a spokesman for the district, noted that PepsiCo, which owns the brand, marketed the beverage as an “enhanced soft drink,” not an “energy drink.” PepsiCo declined to comment.“If you go to any of our high schools, you’ll see students walking in with Starbucks, and some of those drinks have a lot of caffeine,” Mr. Hegarty said. “I’m not sure what the definition of an energy drink is these days.”

For the first time, cells involved with the communication between stress responses in the brain and inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract have been identified in animal models, according to findings from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published recently in Cell. Glial cells, which support neurons, communicate stress signals from the central nervous system (CNS) to the semi-autonomous nervous system within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, called the enteric nervous system (ENS). These psychological stress signals can cause inflammation and exacerbate symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
An estimated 1.6 million Americans currently have IBD, which refers to two conditions — Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis — characterized by inflammation of the GI tract, and can cause symptoms like persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, and bloody stools. Prolonged inflammation can also lead to permanent damage to the GI tract. Current treatments consist of anti-inflammatory drugs, immune suppressants, dietary changes, and steroids.
“Clinicians have long observed that chronic stress can worsen IBD symptoms, but until now, no biological connection has been identified to explain how the digestive system knows when someone is stressed,” said senior author Christoph Thaiss, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology.
In the study, researchers found that, like humans, mice with IBD developed severe symptoms when stressed. They traced the initial stress response signals to the adrenal cortex, which releases glucocorticoids — steroid hormones that activate the physiological responses to stress throughout the body. The researchers found that neurons and glia in the ENS responded to chronically elevated glucocorticoid levels, suggesting that they are the link between stress perception by the brain and intestinal inflammation.
While glucocorticoids typically have an anti-inflammatory effect in the body, the researchers found that when glia in the ENS were exposed to the steroid hormones for a prolonged period, such as during chronic stress, they attract white blood cells to the GI tract that increase inflammation. The researchers also found that when exposed to chronic stress, the neurons in the ENS in the GI tract stop functioning as they normally do, which can lead to impaired bowel movements and exacerbated IBD symptoms.
Thaiss and collaborators verified the connection between psychological stress and IBD symptoms in humans using the UK Biobank and a patient cohort from the IBD Immunology Initiative at Penn Medicine. They found that the in patients with an IBD diagnosis, the level of reported stress correlated with an increased severity of IBD symptoms.
“This finding highlights the importance of psychological evaluations in patients being treated for IBD, as well as to inform treatment protocols,” said Maayan Levy, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology and co-senior author of the study. “One of the most common treatments for IBD flare-ups is steroids, and our research indicates that in patients with IBD who experience chronic stress, the efficiency of this treatment could be impaired.”
Researchers underscore the opportunity for more research into the biology of enteric glial cells, and the role they play in many regulatory systems within the body, including the communication between the nervous system and the immune system.
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (F31HL160065, 5T32AI141393-03, AI155577, AI115712, AI117950, AI108545, AI082630, CA210944, 1R01DK122798-01A1, 1R01DK129691-01, 1R01DK128282, 1R21NS116574-01A1, DP2-AG-067511, DP2AG067492, 1R01DK129691-01), the Pew Biomedical Scholars program, the Human Frontiers Science Program, the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation, the Penn Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Diseases (P30-DK-050306), and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

Recent scientific discoveries have shown that Neanderthal genes comprise some 1 to 4% of the genome of present-day humans whose ancestors migrated out of Africa, but the question remained open on how much those genes are still actively influencing human traits — until now.
A multi-institution research team including Cornell University has developed a new suite of computational genetic tools to address the genetic effects of interbreeding between humans of non-African ancestry and Neanderthals that took place some 50,000 years ago. (The study applies only to descendants of those who migrated from Africa before Neanderthals died out, and in particular, those of European ancestry.)
In a study published in eLife, the researchers reported that some Neanderthal genes are responsible for certain traits in modern humans, including several with a significant influence on the immune system. Overall, however, the study shows that modern human genes are winning out over successive generations.
“Interestingly, we found that several of the identified genes involved in modern human immune, metabolic and developmental systems might have influenced human evolution after the ancestors’ migration out of Africa,” said study co-lead author April (Xinzhu) Wei, an assistant professor of computational biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. “We have made our custom software available for free download and use by anyone interested in further research.”
Using a vast dataset from the UK Biobank consisting of genetic and trait information of nearly 300,000 Brits of non-African ancestry, the researchers analyzed more than 235,000 genetic variants likely to have originated from Neanderthals. They found that 4,303 of those differences in DNA are playing a substantial role in modern humans and influencing 47 distinct genetic traits, such as how fast someone can burn calories or a person’s natural immune resistance to certain diseases.
Unlike previous studies that could not fully exclude genes from modern human variants, the new study leveraged more precise statistical methods to focus on the variants attributable to Neanderthal genes.
While the study used a dataset of almost exclusively white individuals living in the United Kingdom, the new computational methods developed by the team could offer a path forward in gleaning evolutionary insights from other large databases to delve deeper into archaic humans’ genetic influences on modern humans.
“For scientists studying human evolution interested in understanding how interbreeding with archaic humans tens of thousands of years ago still shapes the biology of many present-day humans, this study can fill in some of those blanks,” said senior investigator Sriram Sankararaman, an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “More broadly, our findings can also provide new insights for evolutionary biologists looking at how the echoes of these types of events may have both beneficial and detrimental consequences.”
The other co-lead author on the study is Christopher Robles, postdoctoral researcher at UCLA. Additional authors are UCLA doctoral student Ali Pazokitoroudi; Andrea Ganna of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Alexander Gusev and Arun Durvasula of Harvard Medical School; Steven Gazal of USC; Po-Ru Loh of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and David Reich of Harvard University.
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, with additional funding from an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellowship and a gift from the Okawa Foundation. Other authors received funding support from the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, the John Templeton Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Next Generation Fund at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

A deficiency of taurine — a nutrient produced in the body and found in many foods — is a driver of aging in animals, according to a new study led by Columbia researchers and involving dozens of aging researchers around the world.
The same study also found that taurine supplements can slow down the aging process in worms, mice, and monkeys and can even extend the healthy lifespans of middle-aged mice by up to 12%.
The study was published June 8 in Science.
“For the last 25 years, scientists have been trying to find factors that not only let us live longer, but also increase healthspan, the time we remain healthy in our old age,” says the study’s leader, Vijay Yadav, PhD, assistant professor of genetics & development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives.”
Anti-aging molecules within us
Over the past two decades, efforts to identify interventions that improve health in old age have intensified as people are living longer and scientists have learned that the aging process can be manipulated.

Many studies have found that various molecules carried through the bloodstream are associated with aging. Less certain is whether these molecules actively direct the aging process or are just passengers going along for the ride. If a molecule is a driver of aging, then restoring its youthful levels would delay aging and increase healthspan, the years we spend in good health.
Taurine first came into Yadav’s view during his previous research into osteoporosis that uncovered taurine’s role in building bone. Around the same time, other researchers were finding that taurine levels correlated with immune function, obesity, and nervous system functions.
“We realized that if taurine is regulating all these processes that decline with age, maybe taurine levels in the bloodstream affect overall health and lifespan,” Yadav says.
Taurine declines with age, supplementation increases lifespan in mice
First, Yadav’s team looked at levels of taurine in the bloodstream of mice, monkeys, and people and found that the taurine abundance decreases substantially with age. In people, taurine levels in 60-year-old individuals were only about one-third of those found in 5-year-olds.

“That’s when we started to ask if taurine deficiency is a driver of the aging process, and we set up a large experiment with mice,” Yadav says.
The researchers started with close to 250 14-month-old female and male mice (about 45 years old in people terms). Every day, the researcher fed half of them a bolus of taurine or a control solution. At the end of the experiment, Yadav and his team found that taurine increased average lifespan by 12% in female mice and 10% in males. For the mice, that meant three to four extra months, equivalent to about seven or eight human years.
Taurine supplements in middle age improves health in old age
To learn how taurine impacted health, Yadav brought in other aging researchers who investigated the effect of taurine supplementation on the health and lifespan in several species.
These experts measured various health parameters in mice and found that at age 2 (60 in human years), animals supplemented with taurine for one year were healthier in almost every way than their untreated counterparts.
The researchers found that taurine suppressed age-associated weight gain in female mice (even in “menopausal” mice), increased energy expenditure, increased bone mass, improved muscle endurance and strength, reduced depression-like and anxious behaviors, reduced insulin resistance, and promoted a younger-looking immune system, among other benefits.
“Not only did we find that the animals lived longer, we also found that they’re living healthier lives,” Yadav says.
At a cellular level, taurine improved many functions that usually decline with age: The supplement decreased the number of “zombie cells” (old cells that should die but instead linger and release harmful substances), increased survival after telomerase deficiency, increased the number of stem cells present in some tissues (which can help tissues heal after injury), improved the performance of mitochondria, reduced DNA damage, and improved the cells’ ability to sense nutrients.
Similar health effects of taurine supplements were seen in middle-aged rhesus monkeys, which were given daily taurine supplements for six months. Taurine prevented weight gain, reduced fasting blood glucose and markers of liver damage, increased bone density in the spine and legs, and improved the health of their immune systems.
Randomized clinical trial needed
The researchers do not know yet if taurine supplements will improve health or increase longevity in humans, but two experiments they conducted suggest taurine has potential.
In the first, Yadav and his team looked at the relationship between taurine levels and approximately 50 health parameters in 12,000 European adults aged 60 and over. Overall, people with higher taurine levels were healthier, with fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, lower obesity levels, reduced hypertension, and lower levels of inflammation. “These are associations, which do not establish causation,” Yadav says, “but the results are consistent with the possibility that taurine deficiency contributes to human aging.”
The second study tested if taurine levels would respond to an intervention known to improve health: exercise. The researchers measured taurine levels before and after a variety of male athletes and sedentary individuals finished a strenuous cycling workout and found a significant increase in taurine among all groups of athletes (sprinters, endurance runners, and natural bodybuilders) and sedentary individuals.
“No matter the individual, all had increased taurine levels after exercise, which suggests that some of the health benefits of exercise may come from an increase in taurine,” Yadav says.
Only a randomized clinical trial in people will determine if taurine truly has health benefits, Yadav adds. Taurine trials are currently underway for obesity, but none are designed to measure a wide range of health parameters.
Other potential anti-aging drugs — including metformin, rapamycin, and NAD analogs — are being considered for testing in clinical trials.
“I think taurine should also be considered,” Yadav says. “And it has some advantages: Taurine is naturally produced in our bodies, it can be obtained naturally in the diet, it has no known toxic effects (although it’s rarely used in concentrations used ), and it can be boosted by exercise.
“Taurine abundance goes down with age, so restoring taurine to a youthful level in old age may be a promising anti-aging strategy.”

The NewsA Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of a monoclonal antibody shot aimed at preventing a potentially lethal pathogen, respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., in infants and vulnerable toddlers.The treatment, called Beyfortus by its developers Sanofi and AstraZeneca, would be the second such therapy that the F.D.A. has allowed to be given to very young children to prevent R.S.V., which is a leading killer of infants and toddlers globally. A similar treatment approved more than 20 years ago is given in multiple doses and is only approved for high-risk infants.The 21-member panel voted unanimously in favor of giving the treatment to infants born during or entering their first R.S.V. season. The advisers voted 19-2 for giving the shot to children up to 24 months of age who remain vulnerable to severe disease.Up to 80,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized annually in the United States with respiratory syncytial virus and up to 300 die. Marijan Murat/dpa, via ReutersWhy It Matters: R.S.V. is a global killer of infants.Though many people experience this common virus as a routine cold, it can be serious in young infants and older adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 80,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized with the virus each year and up to 300 die. R.S.V. played a role in filling children’s hospitals during this winter’s “tripledemic,” which also included the flu and Covid-19.For adults 65 and older, as many as 160,000 hospitalizations are attributed to R.S.V., and about 10,000 deaths. Vaccines for older adults have also recently been approved.Background: The shot’s safety will be monitored.More than 3,200 infants were given the antibody shot during studies provided to the F.D.A. by the drugmakers, including one that found that after six months, efficacy against very severe R.S.V. that required medical attention was 79 percent.A separate agency panel has recommended approval of a maternal R.S.V. vaccine that is also under review. Some of the advisers raised concerns about data for that vaccine, and for another like it that suggested a small increase in preterm births.If the antibody therapy is approved, the F.D.A. said it would continue to monitor the treatment for safety using several data sources. AstraZeneca said it would also conduct periodic safety reviews using worldwide data.What’s Next: The C.D.C. will review shots for mothers and babies.If the agency approves the new shot, it will likely become available in the fall — around the same time that the Pfizer R.S.V. vaccine given during pregnancy called Abrysvo goes on the market.The C.D.C. is expected to advise health providers on the use of the new treatments later this month. Families and their doctors could then choose a course of treatment that would take into account the timing of a birth and the winter R.S.V. season, among other factors.The F.D.A. said there was no study of the risks or benefits of women taking the maternal R.S.V. vaccine and giving the antibody shots to their infants.

The NewsWhen pandemic-related shutdowns kept people at home in early 2020, wild mammals roamed more freely across the landscape, according to a large global study that was published in Science on Thursday. The study is based on data collected by location-tracking tags affixed to 2,300 animals from 43 species, including brown bears in Alaska, giant anteaters in Brazil, reindeer in Norway, lions in Kenya and Asian elephants in Myanmar.In places with the strictest lockdowns, the animals’ long-distance movements over a 10-day period increased by 73 percent, the researchers found, suggesting that the animals were ranging more widely and expanding their habitats. “Animals were able to go about their business without having to worry about where the humans were,” said Marlee Tucker, an ecologist at Radboud University in the Netherlands and an author of the new study. “Because for a lot of species, humans are seen as risky.”On shorter time scales, however, the mammals seemed more inclined to stay put; their top travel distances in any given hour were shorter than in 2019. That could be a sign that the animals were less likely to encounter people or cars that caused them to flee, the researchers said. In the most human-dominated habitats, the animals were also 36 percent closer to roads during the shutdowns, they found.Mountain goats roaming the empty streets of Llandudno, Wales, in March 2020.Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesWhy It Matters: Traffic can take a toll on wildlife.Many previous studies have shown that roads can alter the behavior of wild animals. But it has been difficult to disentangle the effects of permanent changes to the landscape, such as clearing forests to build a freeway, from the effects of daily human activity, such as rush-hour traffic.During the early weeks and months of the pandemic, the cars disappeared while the roads, of course, remained, allowing scientists to tease out the effects of traffic. The new findings reinforce those from smaller, more localized pandemic-era studies, providing further evidence that many wild animals change their behavior — and quickly — when cars disappear.In some ways that is good news, suggesting that even temporary limits on traffic — in critical habitats during certain breeding or migration seasons, for example — could have benefits for animals, Dr. Tucker said. “It shows that animals still have this flexibility or ability to adapt their behavior in response to us,” she said.Background: Scientists have been investigating the “anthropause.”The sudden global decline in human movement that followed the arrival of Covid-19 is sometimes called the “anthropause.” Scientists around the world used it as an opportunity to learn more about how humans affect the natural world and what happens when they disappear.The new study is a product of the Covid-19 Bio-Logging Initiative, which began in 2020. After the shutdowns began, scientists who were already tracking wild animal movements for their own research projects began working together, compiling their data to learn more about animal movements during the pandemic. In total, more than 600 researchers have contributed more than a billion location records for roughly 13,000 animals across 200 species, said Christian Rutz, a behavioral ecologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and the chair of the initiative, which is pursuing multiple lines of investigation.In the new Science study, researchers compared the movements of terrestrial mammals during the initial lockdowns, which began between Feb. 1 and April 28, 2020, with their movements during the same period in 2019. Although the researchers uncovered some general trends, they also documented considerable variability, finding stronger effects in some species and regions than in others.What’s Next: More data is coming soon.The researchers are interested in investigating what happened after the lockdowns eased and whether wild mammals reverted to their previous movement patterns as humans returned to their normal activities.The bio-logging initiative is continuing and should be ready to publish more results about both bird and mammal movements soon, Dr. Rutz said in an email. “It’s so exciting to be able to share these findings after a three-year journey,” he said. “And we are already thinking about next steps for investigating human-wildlife interactions.”

Taurine helped stave off death in laboratory animals, but researchers cautioned that the supplement is not a magic elixir.A dietary supplement taken by fitness buffs could hold the key to a longer and healthier life, suggests a new study of mice, monkeys and worms. Researchers found that a high daily dose of taurine, an amino acid commonly added to energy drinks and naturally found in various foods, helped to delay death and mitigate against the biological ravages of aging.Strength, memory and metabolism improved in the lab animals, according to the new study, published on Thursday in Science. Inflammation and DNA damage were kept at bay. And middle-aged mice that regularly took taurine supplements lived significantly longer than those that did not.“There’s something here, and if it works in humans it’s going to be a terrific thing,” said Dr. Nir Barzilai, the director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.But Dr. Barzilai and other longevity researchers cautioned against viewing taurine as a magic elixir for life extension. They said people should consume the supplement with prudence, particularly when considering high dosage levels similar to those administered to the mice and monkeys.Taurine — a nutrient produced by the body and obtained from animal-based foods like shellfish and turkey — has a long track record of safety, they said. But when ingested in large amounts it could cause digestive problems, kidney strain and potentially harmful interactions with medications.Its effectiveness in promoting healthy aging in people is yet to be established — and other once-hyped anti-aging drugs that showed initial promise in mice and monkeys have not always panned out in human testing.One small clinical trial in Brazil found that four months of low-dose taurine supplementation had positive antioxidant effects in older women, with no toxicity concerns. But larger and longer studies are needed to gauge the effectiveness of other doses of taurine, researchers said.Human studies on taurine supplementation have generally tested low doses, typically around 1.5 grams per day. The mice and monkeys in the new study were given a dose equivalent to about three to six grams a day for humans — a level deemed safe by European regulators, but still on the higher end of the spectrum.“The bottom line is that clinical trials need to be done,” said Vijay Yadav, a longevity researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, who led the study.Taurine got its name in the 1820s from the Latin word “taurus,” meaning bull, after German scientists first isolated the amino acid from the bile of an ox.Dr. Yadav didn’t know anything about taurine, however, until around a decade ago, when he found that the supplement helped promote bone development in young mice born to vitamin-deficient mothers.Studies on humans had already linked low taurine levels to poor heart health, cognitive performance and muscle function. Some research also points to taurine underpinning the extraordinary longevity of people living on the Japanese island of Okinawa.But whether taurine deficiency was a driver of aging, or simply a byproduct of the aging process, remained unclear.Dr. Yadav, together with colleagues at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, first measured taurine levels in people’s blood and found a steady decline with age. In 60-year-olds, taurine levels were about one-third of those in small children.His team then gave high-dose taurine supplements to middle-aged mice and rhesus monkeys and compared their health outcomes to animals that did not get the amino acid boost. Six months of treatment were enough to see improvements in bone density, sugar metabolism and immune function in the monkeys, while the mice showed these benefits and more.The mice gained less weight, had stronger muscles, were less anxious and showcased multiple improvements on a cellular level, including a reduction in the number of so-called zombie cells, old cells that stop dividing but continue to wreak havoc on neighboring tissues‌. Taurine also increased the average life span of the mice by 12 percent for females and 10 percent for males. The supplement had a similar impact on worm longevity.The researchers also found supporting evidence for the anti-aging potential of taurine in people by analyzing two data sets. One, involving nearly 12,000 middle-aged individuals living in eastern England, showed a connection between low taurine levels and diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. The other, involving athletes from Germany, found that high-intensity exercise could naturally enhance taurine levels — which could account for some of the anti-aging benefits of physical activity.What taurine does inside the body isn’t yet clear. Experiments in mice and worms point to a role for taurine in maintaining the health of mitochondria, energy-producing factories inside each cell. But more work is needed, noted Christy Carter, a health scientist administrator at the National Institute on Aging. “We are not sure how it’s working,” she said.Biohackers and longevity seekers aren’t likely to wait for those scientific insights before adding taurine to their supplement stacks.“This paper is very thorough and convincing,” said Nick Engerer, the founder of the Longevity Blog, who is based in Byron Bay, Australia. “This makes taurine a lead contender for something you might try at home for your own longevity.”But most clinicians and longevity scientists urged against guzzling energy drinks or adding taurine powder to protein shakes until more well-controlled human data are available. “I’m constantly telling people: Hold fire until we do the clinical trials,” said Dr. James Kirkland, a geriatrician at the Mayo Clinic, who is leading anti-aging studies with other compounds.David Sinclair, a longevity researcher at Harvard Medical School, is more open to self-experimentation outside of a trial protocol. On his podcast and in his 2019 book, he regularly discusses his own cocktail of anti-aging supplements.Dr. Sinclair said he had dabbled with taurine in the past. But based on the new paper, he said he would likely add high doses of taurine to his regimen — with regular blood testing for possible side effects. “My caution and heartfelt concern, really, is that people will just take it and not monitor their bodies,” he said.Dr. Yadav, for his part, declined to say whether he takes taurine supplements. “I don’t want to be an influencer,” he said.

A team of scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in collaboration with the National Center for Genomic Analysis (CNAG) has discovered that IL-17 protein plays a central role in skin ageing. The study, which was led by Dr. Guiomar Solanas, Dr. Salvador Aznar Benitah, both at IRB Barcelona, and Dr. Holger Heyn, at CNAG, highlights an IL-17-mediated ageing process to an inflammatory state.
Skin ageing is characterised by a series of structural and functional changes that gradually contribute to the deterioration and fragility associated with age. Aged skin has a reduced capacity to regenerate, poor healing ability, and diminished barrier function.
Published in the journal Nature Aging, this work describes the changes undergone by different types of cells with ageing and identifies how some immune cells in the skin express high levels of IL-17.
“Our results show that IL-17 is involved in various functions related to ageing. We have observed that blocking the function of this protein slows down the appearance of various deficiencies associated with ageing skin. This discovery opens up new possibilities for treating some of the symptoms or facilitating skin recovery after surgery, for example,” explains Dr. Aznar Benitah, ICREA researcher and head of the Stem Cells and Cancer laboratory at IRB Barcelona.
“Single cell sequencing has allowed us to dive deep into the complexity of cell types and states forming the skin and how these change during lifespan. We did not only find differences in the composition of aged skin, but also changes in cell activity states. Particularly immune cells showed specific age-related profiles, which we could pinpoint by analyzing thousands of individual cells on at a time,” says Dr. Holger Heyn, head of the Single Cell Genomics laboratory at CNAG.
Immune cells, inflammation, and ageing
In addition to a wide variety of epithelial cells, hair follicle cells, and other components, the skin is also home to immune cells, which play a crucial role in preventing infection and protecting against different damages.

The study describes how, during ageing, the presence of some of these immune cells, namely gamma delta T cells, innate lymphoid cells, and CD4+ T cells, significantly increases in the skin. These same cells also start expressing very high levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-17.
“Ageing is associated with mild but persistent inflammation and, in the skin, this is characterised by a significant increase in IL-17, which causes skin deterioration,” explains Dr. Paloma Solá, first author of the paper, together with Dr. Elisabetta Mereu, who is now a researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute.
Reversing the symptoms of ageing in skin
Previous studies had described that IL-17 is related to some autoimmune skin diseases, such as psoriasis, and there are existing treatments that block this protein. The team of researchers studied the response of various aspects to blocking IL-17 activity, including hair follicle growth, transepidermal water loss, wound healing, and genetic markers of ageing. These four parameters showed an improvement after treatment, as the acquisition of these ageing traits was significantly delayed.
“IL-17 protein is essential for vital body functions, such as defense against microbes and wound healing, so permanently blocking it would not be an option. What we have observed is that its temporary inhibition offers benefits that could be of interest at a therapeutic level,” says Dr. Guiomar Solanas, associate researcher at IRB Barcelona.
Future work by the researchers will focus on clarifying the ageing processes that are related to inflammatory states in the skin and how these are linked to IL-17. The team will also address whether IL-17 is involved in the ageing and deterioration of other tissues and organs.
This research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC), the Government of Catalonia, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Lilliane Bettencourt Foundation, the State Research Agency (AEI), and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Family and loved ones may be conspiring to sabotage your weight loss journey, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. The study is part of a growing body of evidence which suggests that not all social support results in positive health outcomes.
Reviewing literature in this area, researchers found the negative side of social support in the form of sabotage, feeding behaviour and collusion, which all undermine the attempts of those trying to lose weight. The Surrey team found acts of sabotage, discouraging healthy eating, and putting up barriers to attending support groups, often undermined an individual’s confidence and self-esteem, negatively impacting their attempts at weight loss.
Jane Ogden, Professor of Health Psychology and lead author of the study from the University of Surrey, said:
“Weight loss often results in change, from giving a person more confidence to a change in social dynamics in their relationships. Many do not welcome such changes and may, consciously or subconsciously, try to derail a person’s attempts to lose weight in order to keep things the way they are.
“We need to explore this area further to develop interventions which could target family and friends and help them be more supportive in helping those they are close to lose weight.”
Closely linked to sabotage, researchers identified ‘being a feeder’ as a harmful form of social support. Although often done as a gesture of love or as a sign of wealth and status, researchers found that deliberately providing food when the person is not hungry or trying to eat less can be detrimental to weight management.
Interestingly, researchers also pinpointed collusion, which is often seen to reflect kindness and friendship, as a form of negative social support. Analysing a number of studies, researchers found a examples of family, friends and partners colluding with those trying to lose weight through ‘going along’ with their behaviour when it is not in line with their weight loss goals.
Professor Ogden added:
“People pursue weight loss for a number of reasons, be it for their overall health or to feel better about themselves. Support from friends and family can be an invaluable tool in helping people achieve their goals however sometimes those closest to them thwart their efforts by tempting them with unhealthy food or acting as a barrier in helping them adopt a healthier lifestyle.”
This research was published in Current Obesity Reports.

Have you ever wondered how drugs reach their targets and achieve their function within our bodies? If a drug molecule or a ligand is a message, an inbox is typically a receptor in the cell membrane. One such receptor involved in relaying molecular signals is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). About one-third of existing drugs work by controlling the activation of this protein. Japanese researchers now reveal a new way of activating GPCR by triggering shape changes in the intracellular region of the receptor. This new process can help researchers design drugs with fewer or no side effects.
If the cell membrane is like an Oreo cookie sandwich, GPCR is like a snake with seven segments traversing in and out of the cookie sandwich surface. The extracellular loops are the inbox for messages. When a message molecule binds to the extracellular side of the receptor, it triggers a shape change activating G proteins and the ß-arrestin protein attached to the intracellular side of the receptor. Like a molecular relay, the information passes downstream and affects various bodily processes. That is how we see, smell, and taste, which are sensations of light, smell, and taste messages.
Adverse side effects ensue if drugs acting on GPCRs activate multiple signaling pathways rather than a specific target pathway. That is why drug development focuses on activating specific molecular signal pathways within cells. Activating the GPCR from inside the cell rather than outside the cell could be one way to achieve specificity. But until now, there was no evidence of direct activation of only the intracellular side of GPCRs without the initiations from the extracellular side.
A team of researchers headed by Osamu Nureki, a professor at the University of Tokyo, and his lab, discovered a new receptor activation mode of a bone metabolism-related GPCR called human parathyroid hormone type 1 receptor (PTH1R) without signal transduction from the extracellular side.
“Understanding the molecular mechanism will enable us to design optimal drugs,” says Kazuhiro Kobayashi, a doctoral student and an author of the study. Such a drug offers “a promising treatment for osteoporosis.”
Kobayashi has been conducting research on bone formation in animal models since he was an undergrad. “Treatments for osteoporosis that target PTH1R require strict dosage, have administrative restrictions, and there aren’t yet any better alternatives,” he says. That motivated their team to look for better drug design strategies targeting the parathyroid hormone receptor.
To understand function through structure, they used cryo-electron microscopy and revealed the 3D structure of the PTH1R and G protein bound to a message molecule. The team synthesized a non-peptide message molecule called PCO371 which binds to the intracellular region of the receptor and interacts directly with G protein subunits. In other words, PCO371 activates the receptor after entering the cell.
The PCO371-bound PTH1R structure can directly and stably modulate the intracellular side of PTH1R. And because PCO371 activates only G protein and not ß-arrestin it does not cause side effects. This specificity of its binding and receptor activation mode makes it a suitable candidate for potential small-molecule-based drugs for class B1 GPCRs, like PTH1R, which currently lack oral administrative drug ligands. Such drugs would have reduced adverse effects and burdens on patients as they act on specific molecular pathways.
The findings from this study will help “develop new drugs for disorders such as obesity, pain, osteoporosis, and neurological disorders.”
The study appears in the journal Nature.