
The benefits of living a simple life revealed
A survey of more than 1,000 New Zealanders found that a commitment to 'voluntary simplicity' enhanced wellbeing by fostering personal interaction, social connection, and a sense of fulfilment.
Initiatives like community gardens and lending platforms were identified as practices common among those leading less materialistic lives, providing meaning to participants.
The study noted that women were more inclined to embrace a simple life than men, though further research is needed to understand this disparity.
Researchers emphasised that, contrary to consumer culture, materialistic approaches do not increase happiness, aligning with previous Harvard research highlighting the importance of strong relationships for wellbeing.
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The secret to living longer may be the immune system's 'fountain of youth' - but it comes at a price
If you want to reach your 100th birthday and receive a telegram from the King, the answer may be in your immune system. For some over 60s with 'immune youth' have specialised white blood cells that restore strength and muscle mass, scientists have discovered. According to US researchers, who tracked more than 100 older adults, these cells known as Stem-like T cells, give people younger immune systems. But they also discovered those with the cells, also called stem-like memory T cells or TSL, could spread disease more easily. Instead, those with such cells were more likely to have autoimmunity—when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues and organs instead of defending it. Dr Cornelia Weyand, a rheumatologist, expert in immune cell function at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and study co-author, said: 'We observed that these patients have very young immune systems despite being in their 60s and 70s. 'But the price they pay for that is autoimmunity.' Dr Jörg Goronzy, an immunologist at the Mayo Clinic and study co-author, added: 'Contrary to what one may think, there are benefits to having an immune system that ages in tandem with the body. 'We need to consider the price to pay for immune youthfulness. That price can be autoimmune disease.' In the study, researchers tracked the 100 over 60s who attended the Mayo Clinic to receive treatment for giant cell arteritis, an autoimmune disease that affects the arteries, including the aorta. Writing in the journal Nature Aging, they said they found stem-like T cells in the diseased tissue of these patients. They also discovered the immune checkpoint inhibitors that regulate the immune system were not working properly. The scientists said they are now in the process of developing new diagnostic tests that will help find patients and healthy individuals who carry high numbers of immune stem cells and may be predisposed to autoimmune disease later in life. Last year, research suggested life expectancy across the world will rise by almost five years by 2050, with the average man forecasted to live to 76 and woman, past 80. Global average life expectancy is forecast to increase to around 78.1 years of age in 2050, a rise of 4.5 years, The Lancet Public Health study also found. At the time, experts said the trend was largely driven by public health measures both preventing and improving survival rates from illnesses including cardiovascular disease, nutritional diseases and maternal and neonatal infections. Commentators also said the figures present an 'immense opportunity' to 'get ahead of rising metabolic and dietary risk factors' such as high blood pressure and BMI. The oldest living person in the world is now believed to be Ethel Caterham, from Surrey, who was born on August 21, 1909 and is 115 years old. The title of the oldest person to have ever lived belongs to French woman Jeanne Louise Calment whose life spanned 122 years and 164 days. Ms Caterham, who died in 1997, attributed her longevity to 'never arguing with anyone, I listen and I do what I like'. Experts who have studied centenarians agree. Physical activity, faith, love, companionship, and a sense of purpose make up the backbone of so-called 'Blue Zones,' or areas of the world where people typically live to 100 and beyond. Maintaining an active lifestyle, even simply walking around town every day, has been shown to improve longevity. Companionship has been shown to have a similarly positive effect on a person's lifespan, with studies consistently showing loneliness is toxic.


BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
AI designs new superbug-killing antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA
Artificial intelligence has invented two new potential antibiotics that could kill drug-resistant gonorrhoea and MRSA, researchers have drugs were designed atom-by-atom by the AI and killed the superbugs in laboratory and animal two compounds still need years of refinement and clinical trials before they could be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team behind it say AI could start a "second golden age" in antibiotic discovery. Antibiotics kill bacteria, but infections that resist treatment are now causing more than a million deaths a antibiotics has helped bacteria evolve to dodge the drugs' effects, and there has been a shortage of new antibiotics for have previously used AI to trawl through thousands of known chemicals in an attempt to identify ones with potential to become new antibiotics. Now, the MIT team have gone one step further by using generative AI to design antibiotics in the first place for the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea and for potentially-deadly MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).Their study, published in the journal Cell, interrogated 36 million compounds including those that either do not exist or have not yet been trained the AI by giving it the chemical structure of known compounds alongside data on whether they slow the growth of different species of AI then learns how bacteria are affected by different molecular structures, built of atoms such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and approaches were then tried to design new antibiotics with AI. The first identified a promising starting point by searching through a library of millions of chemical fragments, eight to 19 atoms in size, and built from there. The second gave the AI free reign from the design process also weeded out anything that looked too similar to current antibiotics. It also tried to ensure they were inventing medicines rather than soap and to filter out anything predicted to be toxic to used AI to create antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA, a type of bacteria that lives harmlessly on the skin but can cause a serious infection if it enters the manufactured, the leading designs were tested on bacteria in the lab and on infected mice, resulting in two new potential drugs. "We're excited because we show that generative AI can be used to design completely new antibiotics," Prof James Collins, from MIT, tells the BBC."AI can enable us to come up with molecules, cheaply and quickly and in this way, expand our arsenal, and really give us a leg up in the battle of our wits against the genes of superbugs."However, they are not ready for clinical trials and the drugs will require refinement – estimated to take another one to two year's work – before the long process of testing them in people could begin. Dr Andrew Edwards, from the Fleming Initiative and Imperial College London, said the work was "very significant" with "enormous potential" because it "demonstrates a novel approach to identifying new antibiotics".But he added: "While AI promises to dramatically improve drug discovery and development, we still need to do the hard yards when it comes to testing safety and efficacy."That can be a long and expensive process with no guarantee that the experimental medicines will be prescribed to patients at the are calling for AI drug discovery more broadly to improve. Prof Collins says "we need better models" that move beyond how well the drugs perform in the laboratory to ones that are a better predictor of their effectiveness in the is also an issue with how challenging the AI-designs are to manufacture. Of the top 80 gonorrhoea treatments designed in theory, only two were synthesised to create Chris Dowson, at the University of Warwick, said the study was "cool" and showed AI was a "significant step forward as a tool for antibiotic discovery to mitigate against the emergence of resistance".However, he explains, there is also an economic problem factoring into drug-resistant infections - "how do you make drugs that have no commercial value?"If a new antibiotic was invented, then ideally you would use it as little as possible to preserve its effectiveness, making it hard for anyone to turn a profit.


The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
We weren't actually more anxious during Covid, researchers discover
You weren't actually more anxious during the Covid pandemic. Scientists say that anxiety levels among U.S. adults appear to have stayed steady during that period, with new research challenging the belief that there was a widespread spike in psychological distress. Previous research had found a 25 percent increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression, which the World Health Organization said was linked to feelings of loneliness and fear of infection during the pandemic. The new research, which surveyed nearly 100,000 U.S. adults between 2011 and 2022, found that there was no prolonged spike in anxiety levels for younger or older adults. 'Our results might suggest that the mental health of U.S. adults is more resilient than public perception suggests, given the many news headlines about the U.S. currently experiencing a 'mental health crisis,'' Noah French, a researcher at University of Virginia and an author of the new study, explained in a statement. The pandemic was cited by Biden administration officials as worsening America's mental health crisis in 2023, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says nearly one in four U.S. adults report having a mental illness. Some 38 percent more people had been in mental health care since the onset of the pandemic, researchers said. The pandemic disproportionately affected the mental health of younger adults, WHO has reported. The isolating impact of school closures also resulted in anxious kids who were academically behind their peers, according to an analysis in The New York Times, and dozens of related studies. However, the new study found that while those aged 18-25 showed significantly stronger symptoms of anxiety compared to older adults during the pandemic, young adults' anxiety levels did not increase from 2011 to 2022 overall. The reasons behind these observations in younger and older adults are unclear. Other surveys have found that Americans are feeling more anxious in general. Polling data from last year found that 43 percent of U.S. adults felt more anxious than they did the previous year and in 2022, according to the American Psychiatric Association. This uptick in American anxiety stems from current events, the economy, and gun violence, the association said. And of the more than 2,200 adults surveyed, 63 percent said they were anxious about their health. It's also possible that worsening mental health was the reason Americans drank more alcohol during the pandemic, according to doctors. One study suggested that mothers with young children drank 300 percent more alcohol than they did before Covid. French said that more research is needed to fully understand what happened, and cautioned against drawing firm conclusions on anxiety levels from his findings. For one, participants skewed younger, were more educated, and had all signed up to answer the questions. That means that they might not be entirely representative of the average American. 'One of my biggest personal takeaways from this project is that there is surprisingly little high-quality research tracking the mental health of entire populations over time,' French said. 'We need a lot more research in this space, and I will forever be skeptical of headlines that make strong claims about a certain mental health condition being 'on the rise.''