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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Oct-2026 05:15 ET (31-Oct-2026 09:15 GMT/UTC)

How gut bacteria can shape the brain’s response to stroke

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at LMU have discovered how a metabolite produced by gut bacteria can influence brain damage after stroke.

Journal: Cell

Innovative UK trial to explore impact of diet on bipolar depression

University of Edinburgh
Business Announcement

A clinical trial is set to test whether diet could help reduce depressive symptoms in people with bipolar disorder, comparing a high fat, low carbohydrate diet with standard NHS healthy eating advice.

Older Australians face higher risks as more nursing homes are privatized

Flinders University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Experts have raised concerns about a gradual shift in ownership and management models in Australia’s aged care facilities – and the subsequent impact this has on the quality of care and resident health outcomes.

A new study published by the flagship British Medical Journal BMJOpen shows that a gradual decline in the number of government-owned and not-for-profit nursing homes in Australia, in favour of for-profit companies, could see higher rates of hospitalisation among older Australians.

Journal: BMJ Open
Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Sometimes it helps to take a step back

University of Tokyo
Reports and Proceedings

A team including researchers from the University of Tokyo found the distance family caregivers have from people they care for can affect how they reflect on stressful experiences. When caregivers engage in therapeutic writing soon after a stressful event or while they are with the person they care for, they tend to focus their writing on emotional expression or on the care recipient. Waiting for some time, moving to another space, or handing care to someone else, can help caregivers take a more objective view and even work through problems. The researchers used a smartphone app to examine how timing, physical surroundings and caregiving responsibilities affected the carers’ reflective writing.

Funder: JST ASPIRE, JST BOOST, Academy Research Fellow funding by the Research Council of Finland

Study links 90+-day spaceflights to higher rates of hip fractures in astronauts

Elsevier
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research has found that the rate of hip fractures in astronauts back on Earth was greater in the time period after an astronaut has been in space for more than 90 days than in the time period following shorter spaceflights or in non-astronauts. The findings of the study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, published by Elsevier, underscore the need for expanded assessment of long-term skeletal health in astronauts.

Journal: Mayo Clinic Proceedings
Funder: NASA Health and Medical Technical Authority, NASA Human Research Program

Fit for life: childhood fitness linked to lower risk of adult depression

Adelaide University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Keep your kids active. That’s the message parents hear from all angles, and with new Adelaide University research suggesting fitter kids are less likely to develop depression as adults, it’s advice worth heeding.

Journal: Journal of Affective Disorders
Funder: Commonwealth Departments of Sport, Recreation and Tourism, and Health, the Commonwealth Schools Commission, the National Heart Foundation, National Health and Medical Research Council, Veolia Environmental Services and the Mostyn Family Foundation, National Heart Foundation of Australia Postdoctoral Fellowship, uropean Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska Curie grant agreement

New treatment aims to achieve lasting cure for persistent bacterial vaginosis

Monash University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers and clinicians from Monash University and Bayside Health’s Melbourne Sexual Health Centre are trialing new combinations of antibiotics to treat persistent bacterial vaginosis (BV), following their landmark discovery that the condition is sexually transmissible.

Journal: The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health

Chewing tobacco linked to 251,000 deaths worldwide, with more than 90% of health loss concentrated in 10 countries

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) finds that chewing tobacco use contributed to an estimated 251,000 deaths globally in 2023, with health loss overwhelmingly concentrated in South Asia.

Journal: The Lancet Global Health

Digital menstrual tracking risks creating more harm than benefit, argue experts

BMJ Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Digital menstrual tracking risks creating more harm than benefit and requires greater scrutiny, warn experts in The BMJ today.

Journal: The BMJ