Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: health

Altered microbiome: Oral bacteria play a role in chronic liver disease, study reveals

Each year, more than two million people die from advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD). Previous research has linked gut microbiome disruptions to this condition and suggested that bacteria typically found in the mouth may colonize the gut.

A new study published in Nature Microbiology now shows that identical bacterial strains occur in both the mouth and gut of patients with advanced chronic liver disease and also reveals a mechanism by which oral bacteria affect gut health. The researchers also found that this process coincides with worsening liver health.

A breakthrough in DNA sequencing hints at why most smokers don’t get lung cancer

Breakthrough in DNA sequencing offers clues to why most smokers do not develop lung cancer.

“Our data suggest that these individuals may have survived for so long in spite of their heavy smoking because they managed to suppress further mutation accumulation,” says pulmonologist and genetics researcher Simon Spivack, a co-author on the study. “This leveling off of mutations could stem from these people having very proficient systems for repairing DNA damage or detoxifying cigarette smoke.”

Researchers who study the health effects of cigarette smoke have used all kinds of methods — from giving lab animals high doses of chemicals found in tobacco to combing through archives to determine which diseases smokers get more often — to figure out how the habit affects the body. Those studies have made it clear that cigarettes contain hundreds of harmful chemicals, including dozens of carcinogens.

For decades, researchers didn’t have any way to measure the mutations in lung cells that actually cause lung cancer. Five years ago, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found a way to overcome technical limitations that had made it impossible to sequence the genome. That is, they figured out how to determine the exact order of the A, T, C, and G molecules of the DNA within a single cell without introducing too many errors in the process.

Aivela Takes a Different Spin on the Health-Tracking Smart Ring

Smart rings are no longer novel. A few hidden superpowers, however, might make them interesting again.

Most devices are increasingly focused on biometric tracking. The Aivela Ring Pro aims to stand out with stealth gesture and touch controls. With a stealth flick, swipe or slide of the finger, you can control music playback, adjust volume, trigger the camera, advance slide decks, scroll and more on your phone.

Launched at CES 2026, the Ring Pro resembles many of its competitors, including the Oura Ring and Samsung’s Galaxy Ring. There’s only so much you can do with ring design after all. It has the familiar metallic (scratch-resistant) finish, a slightly thicker top profile and sensors lining the interior. The primary visual cue indicating something different is a small diamond-shaped engraving at the center, which signals the location of the touchpad.

Demographics, Services, and Practices in ADHD Coaching in the US

Survey: Online ADHD coaching has increased substantially since the pandemic, mostly by lay adults reporting lived experience with ADHD, as a rising alternative to formal ADHD care.

This survey study found that most ADHD coaches primarily operated outside the US health care system and reported workforce entry after the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset. Our findings suggest ADHD coaching is usually delivered through a 1:1 virtual format using a traditional outpatient psychotherapy model (weekly 1-hour sessions) and reached prospective clients through a combination of online marketing and health care referrals. ADHD coaches tended to be individuals without formal mental health training who self-identified as having ADHD (or a loved one with ADHD), may have received ADHD coaching themselves, and based practices on lived experiences. Unlike most licensed mental health clinicians, ADHD coaches practiced across state and international borders.

As expected, we detected a spike in ADHD coaching workforce entry at the COVID-19 pandemic’s outset that mirrored similar ADHD medication prescribing patterns.6 Herein, we reveal that intervention content self-reported by ADHD coaches is similar to those manualized in evidence-based CBTs for ADHD.37 The potential redundancy in content between ADHD coaching and CBT for ADHD could make it difficult for prospective clients and some medical clinicians to differentiate between these approaches. However, the aforementioned aspects of ADHD coaching are different than traditional CBTs in that ADHD coaching appears longer term, involves sharing lived experiences with ADHD, and offers support between sessions (Table 2).38-40 These features may make ADHD coaching especially palatable to adults with ADHD, who reportedly criticize routine care CBT as being too rigid, generic, and short term, with therapists who are stigmatizing, negativistic about ADHD, and unempathetic.

Study links men’s higher intelligence to fewer abusive relationship behaviors

A new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences shows that men with higher general intelligence are less likely to engage in abusive or coercive behaviors toward their romantic partners. The findings suggest that cognitive ability may play a role in how men manage conflict and commitment in heterosexual relationships.

General intelligence is a broad mental capacity that influences reasoning, planning, and problem-solving. Psychology research has long established that people with higher general intelligence tend to experience better life outcomes. They generally achieve higher levels of education and earn more money. They also tend to live longer and suffer from fewer health issues.

But the relationship between intelligence and romantic success is less clear. Some data suggests that intelligent people are less likely to divorce. Other studies indicate they may have sex less frequently or choose to have fewer children. Evolutionary psychologists have debated why this might be the case.

Cells Use ‘Bioelectricity’ To Coordinate and Make Group Decisions

According to the new results, as epithelial tissue grows, cells are packed more tightly together, which increases the electrical current flowing through each cell’s membrane. A weak, old, or energy-starved cell will struggle to compensate, triggering a response that sends water rushing out of the cell, shriveling it up and marking it for death. In this way, electricity acts like a health checkup for the tissue and guides the pruning process.

“This is a very interesting discovery — finding that bioelectricity is the earliest event during this cell-extrusion process,” said the geneticist GuangJun Zhang of Purdue University, who studies bioelectrical signals in zebra fish development and wasn’t involved in the study. “It’s a good example of how a widening electronic-signaling perspective can be used in fundamental biology.”

The new discovery adds to the growing assortment of bioelectrical phenomena that scientists have discovered playing out beyond the nervous system, from bacteria swapping signals within a biofilm to cells following electric fields during embryonic development. Electricity increasingly appears to be one of biology’s go-to tools for coordinating and exchanging information between all kinds of cells.

裂 The Virus That Rewrote Its Own Rulebook: What D1.1 Teaches Us About Living in an Evolving World

Bird Flu 2026

Researchers analyzed 17,500 genomes using Bayesian phylodynamics. Mapped origin, spread, and evolutionary timeline with precision.

The infrastructure failure: Of 1,722 D1.1 sequences, 9% have complete metadata (date + location).

We’re tracking a super-spreader blind.

#OpenScience #DataScience

“Avian Flu in North America: The D1.1 Evolutionary Leap” explores the emergence of a game-changing H5N1 virus variant that has fundamentally altered North America’s disease landscape since mid-2024. Through accessible explanation of cutting-edge genomic science, this episode reveals how the D1.1 genotype achieved unprecedented spread, infected all seven documented host categories including humans, and represents a major evolutionary shift. The podcast examines the massive computational effort behind tracking viral evolution, exposes critical gaps in our surveillance infrastructure, and confronts a paradigm-shifting reality: the Americas have become a primary engine of H5N1 evolution, reversing decades of global health assumptions.

Continue reading “裂 The Virus That Rewrote Its Own Rulebook: What D1.1 Teaches Us About Living in an Evolving World” | >

Johns Hopkins Scientists Identify Key Brain Protein That May Slow Alzheimer’s

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report that findings from a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health are helping to identify a promising new biological target for Alzheimer’s disease. The focus is a protein that produces a crucial gas within the brain.

Studies in genetically engineered mice show that the protein Cystathionine γ-lyase, also known as CSE, plays an essential role in forming memories, says Bindu Paul, M.S., Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacology, psychiatry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the research. CSE is best known for generating hydrogen sulfide, the gas responsible for the smell of rotten eggs, but the new findings highlight its importance in brain function.

Combating Antimicrobial Resistance by Resensitising Bacteria to Antibiotics Using CRISPR: A Narrative Review

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains a formidable global health threat. Conventional strategy of developing new antibiotics is costly and unsustainable. Thus, innovative approaches for resensitising bacteria using clustered regularly inter-spaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) technology are sought.

/* */