TL;DR: A 2026 human microbiome and intervention study in Nature Communications found that coffee drinkers showed distinct gut microbiome composition and lower several microbial metabolites, while caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee shifted stress and mood measures in the intervention phase. Key Findings Study type: a study of habitual coffee intake, caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, gut microbes, …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in O&G Open found that cannabis exposure 2–7 years after a first pregnancy was not associated with incident hypertension after adjustment in the nuMoM2b Heart Health Study. Key Findings No adjusted hypertension association: Cannabis exposure was not associated with incident hypertension after adjustment (AOR 1.05; 95% CI, 0.63-1.76). 4,079-person analysis: Researchers …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Drug and Alcohol Review estimated high adolescent substance-use exposure in South Africa, with lifetime alcohol use at 35.09%, tobacco at 25.47%, and cannabis at 10.47% across community and school-based studies. Key Findings 30 publications were included: Researchers synthesized 202 prevalence estimates from South African adolescent samples. Total …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Neurology Open Access found that in 793 dementia-free adults, higher vitamin D levels around age 39 were associated with less tau readout on PET brain imaging about 16 years later, while amyloid beta did not show the same relationship. Key Findings 793 dementia-free adults: Participants had vitamin D measured in …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint birth-cohort study in medRxiv found that 91.1% of children had experienced violence by age 8, while age-8 violence exposure was associated with higher internalizing, externalizing, total problem scores, and disorder odds. Key Findings Evidence map: a South African birth-cohort analysis using violence reports and child mental health assessment. Study group: 974 …
TL;DR: A 2026 BMC Medicine study of UK Biobank adults linked adversity in both childhood and adulthood to higher frailty, older metabolomic age profiles, lower grip strength, and some telomere differences, with the clearest associations in people reporting multiple adverse events. Key Findings Large cohort: The study analyzed up to 153,557 middle-aged and older UK …
TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in Nature Neuroscience found that abdominal muscle contractions during locomotion drove directed brain motion and helped move interstitial fluid through brain tissue during wakefulness. Key Findings Brain motion was tightly coupled to locomotion, not heartbeat or breathing: Two-photon imaging in awake head-fixed mice showed dorsal cortex shifted relative to skull …
TL;DR: A 2025 survey study in Archives of Sexual Behavior linked violent pornography use to higher self-reported sexual aggression risk among university students, especially when pornography was perceived as realistic and peer rape myth acceptance was high. Key Findings 686 Dutch university students surveyed: The online sample was 63.4% female and measured pornography attitudes, violent-content …
TL;DR: A 2026 pilot study in Food & Function found that one month of extra virgin olive oil intake was associated with higher resting-state occipital functional connectivity than regular olive oil in 9 healthy young adults. Key Findings Occipital connectivity was the imaging endpoint: The 9-person neuroimaging substudy came from a larger randomized crossover trial …
TL;DR: A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Scientific Reports pooled 10 social media abstinence experiments (N = 4,674 adults; abstinence 1–28 days) and found no significant effect on positive affect, negative affect, or life satisfaction. Key Findings Positive affect was unchanged: pooled Hedges’ g = 0.03 (95% CI [−0.11, 0.16], p = 0.69) across 9 studies and 14 …
