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10/13/2026

Acne’s Not Just for Adolescents. New Research Points to Dietary Help for Adults.
Acne is often thought of as an adolescent problem. But hiding outside the spotlight is a large number of adults who continue to struggle with the inflammatory skin condition. New research suggests that diet can help.
Acne is incredibly common. Nearly all–85%– teenagers suffer through it. What is less known is that acne often continues past adolescence: in the West, 12%-30% of adults have acne. Worse still is that adult acne is harder to treat.
There has been a great deal of research into adolescent acne, but that research is limited in adults. This large study set out to fill that gap.
The UK study included 228,757 people between the ages of 37 and 73. It found that following a Mediterranean-style diet, rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains and healthy fats, significantly lowered the risk of adult acne. A key reason seems to have been a more favourable ratio of monounsaturated fats to saturated fats. This finding was strongest in women with each one point increase in Mediterranean diet score being associated with a 10% reduction in likelihood of acne.
In men, diets lower in carbohydrates and higher in meat and other animal products significantly increased the likelihood of acne.
This study suggests that dietary patterns, specifically those rich in plant-based foods, complex carbohydrates, fiber and unsaturated fats and low in meat, refined carbohydrates, saturated fat and sugar, may increase your odds of going acne free after adolescents.
Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. September 2026;doi.org/10.1111/jdv.70747.

10/12/2026

A Novel Way Curcumin Helps Diabetics
Curcumin has been shown to be an important natural supplement for diabetics. This new study adds a whole new reason why.
A large body of evidence demonstrates curcumin’s value for diabetics (Prostaglandins & Other Lipid Mediators. December 2024;175:106908). Now a new study provides a surprising new way curcumin does its work.
A new discovery about diabetes is that chronic, low-grade inflammation contributes to insulin resistance, oxidative stress, impaired glucose regulation and β-cell injury.
Curcumin is a powerful, natural antiinflammatory. So, this systematic review and meta-analysis looked at curcumin’s effect on inflammatory markers in diabetics to see if this active ingredient in the herb turmeric could help fight diabetes.
The meta-analysis included studies of curcumin or curcuminoid supplementation on people with type 2 diabetes. The primary target of the investigation was the important inflammatory marker high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), since it is an especially useful indicator of systemic, low-grade inflammation.
The results showed that curcumin significantly lowered circulating hs-CRP compared to controls. They also found significant reduction of other markers of inflammation, including TNF-α and IL-6.
This study reveals that curcumin is a potentially effective antiinflammatory for people with type 2 diabetes and that it could be a beneficial addition for diabetics.
Nutrients. 2026 Sep 16;18(18):3028.

10/09/2026

Antibiotics and Sugar Could Be A Very Bad Combination
You knew that antibiotics can harm the diversity of the intestinal microbiota and disrupt the important balance of good and bad bacteria. But this very important new study shows that consuming sugar during antibiotic therapy intensifies the effect and makes things even worse.
It is well established that the gut microbiota is important for many things, including digestion and immunity. Exciting new research has hugely expanded the resume with the discovery that the microbiota in your gut communicate with the cognitive and emotional centers of your brain. Everything from depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia and Alzheimer’s has been added to the list.
The growing awareness of the importance of the gut microbiota makes the also well established fact that antibiotics disrupt the gut microbiota even more important. An important new study adds a potentially crucial new bit of information.
This very well controlled study of blood cancer patients who were hospitalized for several weeks undergoing haematopoietic cell transplantation examined the effect of diet on antibiotics and disturbed gut microbiota. The researchers had the advantage of knowing exactly what the patients were eating on their controlled hospital diet.
They found two important things: one old and one new.
The no longer surprising discovery was that taking antibiotics was associated with shrunken bacterial diversity: that’s bad. The important new discovery was that sugar intake was associated with significantly worsening the decrease in diversity: for every 100g increase of sugar after antibiotics, there was an additional 24.1% decrease in microbiota diversity.
The combination of antibiotics and sugar not only made diversity in the gut worse, it also encouraged the growth of dangerously bad bacteria, including, especially, Enterococcus faecium, an important cause of antibiotic-resistant bloodstream infections.
Clarifying the picture, the data showed that the culprit was not naturally occurring sugars like the ones found in whole food. The “key contributor” was added sugars.
A further disturbing discovery was the effect this pattern had on immunity. Patients on antibiotics who consumed above average intake of sugar had a 12% higher risk of mortality after their transplantation.
In some ways, the discovery of this damaging combo is not surprising. It has long been known that antibiotics and sugar can both foster bad bacteria. This important new study establishes that the combo of those two may be especially harmful.
Nature. 2026. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11077-3.

10/08/2026

Calm & Collected with Lemon Balm
During cognitive overload, the ability to remain calm is crucial for effective decision making. That’s where lemon balm comes in.
Lemon balm is one of nature’s best calming herbs. This double-blind, placebo-controlled study found the unexpected result that a single dose of 300mg of lemon balm extract improved executive function and reduced decline in performance over 5 hours of the hardest tasks.
Interestingly, the reason lemon balm helped was that it increased calmness: a novel way of improving cognition.
Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. Feb 2026;16:20451253261415706.

10/07/2026

Want to Lower Your Blood Pressure? Try the Tiny Green Power of Spirulina!
High blood pressure is a big problem. Nature offers a tiny solution.
Over a billion people worldwide have high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis looked at 8 controlled studies of 387 people to determine the effect of spirulina on blood pressure.
Spirulina reduced systolic blood pressure by a significant 4.41 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by an also significant 2.84 mmHg.
The effect was most impressive in people who actually had high blood pressure or who were overweight or who were over 50.
Another recent meta-analysis also showed that spirulina significantly lowers blood pressure as well as lowering triglycerides and the bad LDL cholesterol while it raises the good HDL cholesterol (Complementary Therapies in Medicine. November 2025;94:103242).
Phytother Res. January 2025;39(1):397-412.

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10/05/2026

Rhodiola Rosea Improves Endurance Training and Performance
Attention athletes! This large, new study concludes that the herb Rhodiola rosea can improve endurance training and performance.
A new meta-analysis of Rhodiola rosea and endurance performance included 26 double-blind studies of 668 people. Half the studies were on trained athletes and half were on untrained athletes. 15 of the studies were on males, 3 were on females and 8 included both.
The results show that rhodiola significantly improves endurance performance compared to controls. The herb significantly improved maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), which, as a measure of how much oxygen your body can absorb to power itself when you are pushing it to the limit during a workout, may be the best measure of fitness. It also significantly improved time to exhaustion and time trial performance.
Rhodiola also significantly improved training’s effect on muscle damage, significantly decreasing creatine kinase, increasing antioxidant activity and decreasing oxidative damage. Lactic acid levels also significantly decreased after exercise.
This meta-analysis suggests that supplementing Rhodiola rosea benefits endurance training and performance while reducing oxidative stress and muscle damage.
Front Nutr. September 25, 2025;12:1645346.

10/02/2026

Ashwagandha & Mental Health
Because of its versatility and efficacy, ashwagandha is emerging as a mental health superherb. And now there is even more evidence.
A just published meta-analysis of 22 controlled studies of 1391 adults shows that ashwagandha significantly reduces stress, anxiety and depression.
The great herb also seems to help the people who need it most. The results suggested that ashwagandha’s benefit is felt most in people who actually have a clinical diagnosis.
Complement Ther Med. February 2026;97:103325.

10/01/2026

Eating Better to Sleep Better
Want to sleep better at night? Then eat better during the day!
Diet has a major impact on everything else. So, could it have an impact on your sleep?
Not surprisingly, the answer is yes. A new study has found that eating a diet high in fiber is associated with increased restorative sleep, including a significant increase in deep sleep and REM sleep and a significant decrease in light sleep. The high fiber diet also significantly reduced heart rate, which is important since, like the rest of you, your heart should catch up on its rest at night.
The study also found that a greater variety of plant-based foods and higher whole plant food intake was associated with lower sleeping heart rate.
A higher score on the Dietary Phytochemical Index, which measures calories from phytochemical-rich plant foods, was also associated with more restorative sleep, including significantly increased REM sleep, significantly decreased light sleep and significantly lower sleeping heart rate.
This study delivers the good news that you can improve your sleep, and the health benefits of sleep, by improving your diet. So, to sleep better, eat more fiber and more plant-based foods.
Nat. Health. 2026: doi.org/10.1038/s44360-026-00182-2.

09/30/2026

Adding Vitamins Helps Fight Gum Disease
Gingivitis is a very common type of mild gum disease. If left untreated, it can lead to more serious gum disease. Nature can help you treat it.
Gingivitis causes irritation, redness, swelling and bleeding in the part of your gums around the base of your teeth, known as the gingiva.
This double-blind study of 136 children between the ages of 8 and 16 gave either standard care alone or standard care plus vitamins C and D.
Bleeding sites on probing was significantly reduced in the vitamin group compared to the control group.
This study suggests that adding vitamins C and D to standard care significantly improves gingival health in children.
BMC Public Health. 2026 Jun 16. doi: 10.1186/s12889-026-27539

09/28/2026

A Multivitamin Holds Back the Hands of Time
You can’t erase the years, but you may be able to slow down the real biological aging that comes with them.
In a new study of 958 people, two years of taking a multivitamin mineral supplement significantly slowed biological aging.
Amazingly, over the two-year study, the multivitamin-mineral resulted in about 4 months less biological aging. That’s two fewer months of biological aging for every year of chronological aging.
Nature Medicine. 2026;32:1012 1022