You eat something, and your body knows almost immediately whether it contains enough building blocks. But how?
Sound waves directed at the abdomen seem like an unlikely tool for improving muscle function.
Every bacterium in your body constantly sends out tiny molecular packages. A new hypothesis proposes that the build-up of these packages in the brain contributes to neurodegenerative disease.
A dietary amino acid shapes gut barrier function and immune regulation through a microbial pathway that has only recently been mapped in detail. The implications reach well beyond digestion.
The bacterial community living in your gut shifts as you age — becoming less diverse, more inflammatory. For years, researchers blamed diet and lifestyle.
Something fundamental shifts in your gut as you age, and that shift makes it easier for dangerous bacteria to take hold. Researchers have now mapped out the mechanism in unusual detail.
Fusobacterium nucleatum is a bacterium that normally lives in your mouth but is also found deep inside tumors. Scientists have long known it can fuel cancer.
A worm barely a millimeter long can sniff out bacteria enriched with a specific amino acid it cannot make itself.
In most mammals, the community of bacteria living in the gut shifts dramatically with age.
Older adults who exercise regularly have measurably different gut bacteria than those who don’t.
A gene associated with longer lifespan in fruit flies for decades appears to work partly through the animal’s gut bacteria.
Pesticides are designed to kill pests. But a growing body of research suggests they may also be damaging the bacteria in our digestive system — bacteria that play a critical role in…
We’ve known for years that gum disease is bad for your heart. Now the evidence is growing that the same bacteria colonising your gums may also be reaching your brain — and…
The importance of gut bacteria in early life is well established. But how the microbial residents of the intestine contribute to gut movement itself — the muscular contractions that push food through…
The gut microbiome sends a constant stream of chemical signals to the brain. In people with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, that microbial community looks systematically different — and researchers are now asking…