Sarah Okonkwo
325 stories · Page 5 of 14
The Fat Hiding in Black and Green Rice Is a Cousin of the Body's Own Blood-Sugar Molecules
Hokkaido chemists screened 56 rice varieties and found the pigmented ones carry a lipid cousin of the body's own insulin-sensitizing fats. This study did not test it in people.
Brain & AgingThe 'Supplement Reverses Aging' Headline Skips the Brain Surgery on the Mouse
The mouse study now going around as an anti-aging supplement win leaves out the part where the real reversal took a virus carrying a gene, injected into the hypothalamus.
Nutrition & FoodMRI Found Fat Marbled Inside the Thigh Muscles of Heavy Ultra-Processed Eaters, and Calories Didn't Explain It
MRI scans of 615 adults found more fat marbled inside the thigh muscle the more ultra-processed food people ate, and the link held after adjustment for calorie intake, exercise, and fat intake.
InvestigationsAn 'A' for the Air Outside, Nearly Three Times Dirtier Inside
The EPA rated one Virginia region's outdoor air a clean 'A.' Inside the public-housing apartments of elderly and disabled residents, fine-particle pollution ran nearly three times higher, the air most long-term pollution studies miss.
Autoimmune & InflammationSeven Biologics, Up to $47,000 a Year, and 89 Percent of Europe's Severe Asthmatics Still Aren't in Remission
The Lancet calls severe asthma an 'unmet need.' A 13,455-patient European registry shows most of those patients are already on the pricey biologics, and 89 percent still have active disease.
Brain & AgingFreeze a Brain Cell Fast Enough and Its Bare Wires Turn Out to Be Strings of Pearls, Not Smooth Tubes
The bumps along the brain's thinnest fibers were written off as damage for a century. Johns Hopkins froze the tissue fast enough to catch them intact, and to watch them swell when the neuron fires hard.
Autoimmune & InflammationDonor T Cells Cross Into the Gut Lining and Become Resident Killers That Won't Leave
Columbia researchers tracked more than 51,000 donor T-cell clones across two years and found the ones tied to the worst graft-versus-host disease change identity depending on where they land in the gut, and spike in the blood weeks before symptoms show.
Nutrition & FoodThe Whole-Grain Sweet Spot Is 4 to 6 Servings, and It Nudged Five Heart-Risk Numbers at Once
60 to 100 grams a day moved body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and an inflammation marker together, the same cluster clinicians usually treat one number, and one prescription, at a time.
Brain & AgingThe Cell Mistakes Its Own Broken DNA for a Virus, and the Panic Helps Wreck a Fast-Aging Fish
For decades the broken DNA got the blame. In fast-aging fish carrying a DNA-repair disorder, a major driver turned out to be the cell's own inflammatory overreaction, and silencing the sensor eased the ruin.
CancerA Top Cancer Researcher Logged 333 Tumor Reports After COVID Shots and Infection. Now He Wants the Study the Agencies Won't Fund.
Wafik El-Deiry helped map how the p53 gene guards against cancer. Now he has co-authored a review of 333 tumor reports that surfaced or came roaring back after COVID vaccination or infection, plus a blunt admission that no one has produced the population study to rule the vaccine link out.
Metabolic & WeightThey Sniffed Dark Chocolate on an Empty Stomach and Cranked Out 18 More Reps
Twenty-three fasted men sniffed 90 percent dark chocolate and did roughly 18 more leg-extension reps than on water, without feeling like they'd worked any harder.
Nutrition & FoodThe Study Clearing Sucralose Was Co-Written by the Company That Makes It
An independent lab found sucralose's byproduct breaks chromosomes and loosens the gut wall in cell experiments. The rebuttal telling you it's fine was co-written by the company that manufactures sucralose.
Brain & AgingUSC Scanned 459 Aging Brains Across India. The Wiring Just Under the Cortex, Not the Gray Matter, Tracked Who Stayed Sharp.
In 459 older adults across India, healthier short-range wiring just beneath the cortex was tied to a weaker link between gray matter loss and cognition, and the tie was strongest in people with the least schooling.
InvestigationsThe Sixteen Drug Companies Funding Britain's Biggest Health Study Can Mine Data Its Own Scientists Say Skews Rich and Healthy
Our Future Health signed up 1.9 million volunteers on £354 million of public money and £180 million from 16 drug companies. Its own scientists now warn the sample skews wealthy and healthy, and cannot yet say how common any disease actually is.
InvestigationsThe Government Is Keeping Almost All of Abbott's $385 Million Formula Settlement. The Families of the Dead Infants Get Nothing.
Abbott will pay $385 million over the plant tied to two infant deaths. Almost every dollar reimburses Washington's own nutrition programs, three whistleblowers split $69 million, and the families get nothing. The DOJ dropped the criminal case after Abbott gave $500,000 to the president's inaugural f
Brain & AgingScientists Quieted Aging Inflammation in Mice by Starving Zombie Cells, Not Killing Them
For years the anti-aging plan was to hunt down and kill the senescent cells driving inflammation. A Mayo and Sanford Burnham team quieted that inflammation in mice instead, by blocking the carrier that feeds their mitochondria the acetyl-CoA used to pry open inflammatory genes.
Nutrition & FoodThey Drew Blood From 719 Women and Children in Rural Bangladesh. Every Sample Had at Least Two Mold Toxins.
Every one of 712 whole-blood samples from a cohort of 719 rural Bangladeshi women and children carried at least two mold toxins, and 84 percent of participants carried three or more, including one the liver converts into a carcinogen.
Nutrition & FoodFour in Five Men Have Never Heard Milk Is Tied to Prostate Cancer
A vegan advocacy group's survey says only 20% of men know the link. The growth-hormone mechanism is well-mapped, the relative risks are modest, and nobody in a white coat is walking men through either one.
Autoimmune & InflammationA Fat 'Brake' Eased Pain in 49 Men but Barely Touched the Swelling
UCL researchers gave 49 healthy men a drug GlaxoSmithKline shelved after early trials. Pain resolved faster and a class of immune cells shrank, but the heat, redness, and swelling showed no significant change.
Metabolic & WeightThe Fast Every Type 1 Diabetic Is Warned Against Held Up in a Six-Month Trial
Thirty-two obese adults with Type 1 diabetes ate only between noon and 8 p.m. for six months. No rise in severe lows, severe highs, or ketoacidosis, and their HbA1c fell 0.46 points against the calorie-cutting group.
Metabolic & WeightOzempic Gave Old Mice a Diet's Longevity Payoff Without Slowing Their Metabolism
Semaglutide added 12 percent to old mice's median lifespan and matched calorie restriction on aging measures without slowing their metabolism the way dieting does. It was also female mice only, three months of dosing, and zero human longevity data under the fountain-of-youth headlines.
Metabolic & WeightArsenic's 'Detox' Pathway Has a Catch: The Workers Who Finished It Had Higher Blood Pressure
In 393 young Central American farmworkers carrying arsenic in their urine, the men whose bodies most efficiently converted it to DMA had systolic pressure up to 7 mmHg higher. The textbook calls that step detoxification.
CancerThe Gene That Derails Brain Development Is Also a Brake on Your Killer T Cells
The same gene whose failure derails brain development in children sits like a brake on the CD8 T cells your body uses against chronic hepatitis B and cancer. Take the brake off in the lab, and their fate reroutes toward fighters that do not burn out.
Brain & AgingFour Times the Odds of Losing Bowel Control: An ADHD Gut Signal Tangled Up With the Medication
Stimulants list constipation, nausea, and stomach pain among their common side effects. Most of the 23 studies pooling 1.9 million people never separated the medicated from the unmedicated, so the gut signal and the drug effect sit tangled together.