Red alert: New study warns of risks from seafood!

Red alert: New study warns of risks from seafood!

New research on seafood safety and the effects of aging on human cells raises crucial questions. While arsenobetaine in seafood has long been considered low-risk, new studies show that the common presence of gut microbes could increase the toxicity of this compound. According to an interdisciplinary study published in the *Journal of Hazardous Materials*, colonizing mice with various microbes led to a significantly higher accumulation of arsenic in the intestinal tract. Particularly toxic arsenic compounds were formed in these mice, which raises questions about the safety of foods containing arsenic, as reported by *vienna.at*.

In another major study published in *Nature Communications*, researchers at the University of Freiburg found that a drug can slow the aging process in mice. Taking Urolithin A supported the body's cleansing system known as autophagy, resulting in a reduction in inflammation and improvement in cognitive and motor skills. The study highlights that, particularly in older animals, the ability to eliminate waste products in cells is impaired, resulting in chronic inflammation. However, it remains to be seen whether these promising results can also be transferred to humans, as the researchers emphasized.

Relationship between microbiome and aging

The discovery that the microbiome in the gut of mice affects the toxicity of arsenobetaine leads to new considerations for human health. Research expert Siegfried Hapfelmeier found that gut microbes can have harmful effects under certain circumstances. These findings could also potentially point to the aging process and the existing health problems associated with inflammatory diseases in human cells, which are exacerbated by the effects of a declining cleansing system, although this connection between the microbiome and aging processes urgently requires further research.