‘Trapping’ gut bacteria’s hidden fuel improves blood sugar and liver health, study shows - McMaster News

Ronald Fournier, recreational safety supervisor for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, demonstrates how a cable is used to trap a bear during a mandatory trapper education course at the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Outdoor Center in Augusta on Friday. (Anna Chadwick/Staff Photographer) AUGUSTA — The class gathered in a small clearing, under orange and yellow leaves, and trained their attention on Ronald Fournier. He held a metal cable with a loop on the end, used to trap the paw of a black bear.

Canada’s shifting study permit caps, post-graduation work permit rules and closure of graduate-focused immigration streams are reshaping pathways to permanent residence for international graduates. Policy reform can address these dynamics and provide clearer, more stable pathways that retain their talent and support their sense of belonging. Canada advertises itself as a place where international students can build a life, not just buy a university degree. It’s a promise with real stakes: when it frays, the consequences don’t stop at the students themselves. They ripple outward, impacting universities, hospitals, local labour markets and public trust in immigration policy.

Children who eat more ultra-processed foods (UPFs) show stronger responses in the brain's reward network when viewing images of appetizing foods-and these brain responses are linked to increases in body fat one year later. The findings, just published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that the brain may become more sensitive to food cues when children consume more UPFs. UPFs are manufactured food products-such as breakfast cereals, packaged bread and instant soups-that are designed to be highly palatable, convenient and shelf-stable. They often contain artificial sweeteners, colors and other ingredients that people do not typically use when cooking at home. On average, U. S. children get about 67% of their daily calories from UPFs.

Hiroshima University researchers investigated the effects of hydrogen supplementation on sleep quality in healthy human volunteers. While hydrogen supplementation had no significant effect compared to a placebo, individuals in the hydrogen-supplementation group reporting better sleep quality were discovered to have a lower abundance of hydrogen producing bacteria in their gut microbiome. A Hiroshima University-led randomized, double-blind clinical trial found that hydrogen supplementation did not significantly improve sleep quality compared to a placebo; however, exploratory analyses suggest that differences in the abundance of hydrogen-producing gut bacteria may be associated with individual differences in sleep-related responses.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men—in 2013, it affected more than 1 million men across the world. The cancer does not behave the same way in every patient, and doctors have long faced a difficult balancing act between identifying patients who will benefit from more intensive treatment and those who may do just as well without it. Treating someone more aggressively than necessary is associated with increased side effects and poorer quality of life. At a major cancer conference in Madrid, a team from University College London unveiled the latest findings from their STAMPEDE clinical trial, which has shown that adding the hormone therapy abiraterone to the standard treatment for men with high-risk, localized prostate cancer could halve the risk of death from the disease and slow overall progression.