New research on aging and healthy living, explained. Every night, a few new studies on how we age and what keeps us healthy, in plain language and with links to the original papers.
In US Medicare records covering almost 40 million people aged 65 and over, those who lived where wildfire smoke was heavier over three years were a little more likely to be diagnosed with dementia, and the carbon-rich part of the smoke seemed to matter most. It is an observational study and a preprint that is not yet peer-reviewed.
Observational study in people
A group of 427 Swedes tested repeatedly from age 16 to 63 reached their best fitness, strength-endurance and jumping scores between 19 and 36, then slowly lost them, faster with each decade. Being active in leisure time was linked to better scores at every age, but this is an observational study, so it shows links, not causes.
Observational study in people
Fruit flies that got less protein only while they were larvae lived longer as adults, even on a normal diet. The team traced the effect to a storage protein called Lsp2 that carries the larval diet into early adulthood and turns down protein-making. This is careful lab work in flies; it says nothing yet about people.
Animal study
In four large groups of adults, people carrying a growing family of mutated blood cells, which becomes common with age, became frail somewhat more often and somewhat sooner. Mice with one such mutation in their blood also declined faster. The human part shows a link, not proof of cause, and the study is not yet peer-reviewed.
Observational study in people
In mice, switching on a protein-cutting enzyme called AEP in the cells lining blood vessels damaged the vessels, made the animals frail and shortened their lives; blocking the enzyme or its cut largely reversed this. The work is in mice and cells, so it says nothing yet about people.
Animal study
Among 8,595 US adults, people who currently used e-cigarettes had a biological age, estimated from routine blood tests, about 1.2 years older than never-users of similar background and smoking habits. It is a one-time snapshot, so it shows a link, not that vaping speeds up aging.
Observational study in people
In a small randomized trial, 38 adults aged 55 to 70 did strength training plus short bursts of hard cycling for 12 weeks, taking either a blackcurrant and redcurrant extract or a placebo. Training changed the activity of a modest number of muscle genes, mostly by small amounts; the extract made no meaningful difference.
Randomized trial in people
A week of injections of elamipretide, an experimental drug that targets mitochondria, improved egg quality and litter size in reproductively aged mice. In a small lab test, the drug also helped eggs from women at IVF clinics mature in a dish. This is early laboratory work, not a fertility treatment.
Animal study
People who carry the APOE4 gene variant are at higher risk of Alzheimer's disease and tend to have leakier blood vessels in the brain. Using donated human brains, lab-grown human cells, zebrafish and mice, a team traced part of that leak to a sticky scaffold protein, fibronectin, piling up around the vessels. Most of the cause-and-effect evidence comes from cells and animals.
Animal and human data
Researchers combined 38 blood proteins released by cells that have stopped dividing into one score, using an AI model. In about 7,600 UK Biobank participants followed for 13 years, a higher score was linked to higher risk of death and of several age-related diseases. Whether exercise changes the score remains unclear.
Observational study in people
In a 24-week trial in three communities near Ho Chi Minh City, older adults with sarcopenia who took part in an exercise program gained grip strength while those who only got health advice lost some. Adding 12 weeks of nutrition support gave no clear extra benefit. With only one community per group, the authors call the results exploratory.
Randomized trial in people
By reading gene activity in 1.3 million cells from the brains of 284 people without brain disease, researchers traced how the prefrontal cortex changes over a lifetime. Big changes in childhood gave way to a quiet midlife, followed by a late-life burst of activity mostly in the brain’s support cells, and a loss of daily gene rhythms in nerve cells.
Observational study in people
When researchers in Bonn converted blood cells from donors up to 101 years old directly into neural stem cells, the cells’ epigenetic age dropped to a small fraction of the donor’s age. Unlike the fast reset seen when cells are turned into embryonic-like stem cells, this took about seven weeks. This is lab work on cells, not a treatment.
Cells in the lab
In 861 Scottish people born in 1936 and followed for 16 years, researchers compared 23 measures of “biological age”. Newer blood-protein clocks for individual organs were linked to earlier death, but an epigenetic clock, brain scans, lung function and thinking tests were linked more strongly. This is an observational study of one group of older Scots.
Observational study in people
In about 23,800 UK Biobank participants aged 67 and older, more of the smallest HDL particles in the blood was linked to a slightly lower risk of dementia over about 12 years, while more of the very largest was linked to a slightly higher risk. A small second cohort, measured in a different way, could not be compared directly, and the study shows associations, not causes.
Observational study in people
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