News by Subject Biology

New research published today in The Journal of Physiology shows that 12 weeks of easy-to-administer passive stretching helps improve blood flow by making it easier for your arteries to dilate and decreasing their stiffness.

Eat a slab of steak and your resident gut bacteria get to work immediately to break it down. But new research shows that a metabolic byproduct, called TMAO, produced in the process can be harmful to the lining of arteries, making them age faster.

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of 4-weeks of Traditional Resistance Training versus Plyometric Jump Training programs on the muscular fitness of sedentary and physically inactive participants.

Changes in blood platelets triggered by COVID-19 could contribute to the onset of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious complications in some patients who have the disease, according to University of Utah Health scientists. The researchers found that inflammatory proteins produced during infection significantly alter the function of platelets, making them "hyperactive" and more prone to form dangerous and potentially deadly blood clots.

A common food additive, recently banned in France but allowed in the US and many other countries, was found to significantly alter gut microbiota in mice, causing inflammation in the colon and changes in protein expression in the liver, according to research led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientist.

A study of 153 patients treated in UK hospitals during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic describes a range of neurological and psychiatric complications that may be linked to the disease and is published today in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.