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Your workouts can be why you aren’t losing weight

Simran said in her post that ‘your workouts could be slowing your weight loss.’ She wrote in her caption, “Yes, you heard me right — your workouts could be the reason you aren’t losing weight!” In her post, she explained that High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) can increase cortisol levels, a stress hormone. Elevated cortisol can lead to fat storage around the belly, she said.

Simran added that if you don’t give your muscles time to recover between workouts, they can become fatigued. This can make your workouts less effective, as your muscles aren’t able to respond and adapt as well, she said. Moreover, if you’re stressed or anxious about your workouts, it can negatively impact their effectiveness, and this stress can lead to decreased motivation, poor performance, and reduced benefits from exercise, Simran added.

3 things to know for weight loss

1. “Your HIIT workouts can raise your cortisol levels, which could be causing fat storage around your belly,” Simran said.

2. She added, “Not resting your muscles is a very big reason your body is no longer reacting to the workout.”

3. “Mental stress around your workout is also a reason your workouts aren’t effective,” Simran said.

Need more tips? From exercising more to focusing on dal as the main source of protein, click here to know the weight loss mistakes you might be making.

Note to readers: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.

This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Martha’s rule, which lets NHS patients request a review of their care, is now in operation in every acute hospital in England, health service bosses disclosed on Thursday.

The system has helped hundreds of people receive potentially life-saving improvements to their treatment since its rollout began last year. It has led directly to patients being moved to intensive care or receiving drugs they needed, such as antibiotics, or benefiting from other vital interventions.

It is named after Martha Mills, who died in 2021 at the age of 13 from sepsis after a bicycle accident. A coroner found she would probably have survived if she had been moved to the intensive care unit at King’s College hospital in London when she began deteriorating. Martha would have been 18 on Thursday if she had lived.

Martha’s rule became available in 143 acute hospitals in England last year. But it has also been implemented in the other 67 such sites, which means all 210 acute facilities are covered.

It gives patients, their loved ones and NHS staff the right to ask for a different medical team to examine the care being provided and recommend changes.

NHS England’s national medical director, Prof Meghana Pandit, said it is having “a transformative impact” on how hospitals work with patients and their families when their condition is worsening.

Martha’s rule helplines in hospitals received 4,906 calls between last September and June from patients, relatives or staff who were worried about care. That led to 241 people receiving improvements to their care that may have saved their life.

“It would be Martha’s 18th birthday today, another milestone she has missed as a result of the poor care and hospital errors that led to her unnecessary death,” said her parents, Merope Mills and Paul Laity, who persuaded ministers and NHS bosses to adopt the system of independent review.

“We feel her absence every day. But at least Martha’s rule is already preventing many families from experiencing something similar.

“The figures prove that lives are saved when patients and families are given power to act on their suspicions when they feel doctors might have got it wrong and their voice isn’t being heard.”

They welcomed the adoption of the system named after their daughter by all 210 acute sites in England. “We look forward to a time when every patient in the UK knows about the initiative and has easy access to it,” they added.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said Martha’s parents’ “tireless campaigning has created a lasting legacy that is already having a potentially life-saving impact across England”.

Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said the fact that every acute hospital in England now offers Martha’s rule was “a landmark moment for patient safety”.

Almost three-quarters of the 4,096 calls came from parents seeking help, NHS England data showed.

Walsall Manor hospital rolled out Martha’s rule last year across its services for adults and recently extended it to services for children.

Amy Blakemore, a matron in its sepsis and outreach response team, said that showed families and carers “are a vital part of the care and treatment decisions that are made for the children and young people in our hospital”.

“Any concerns in relation to their child’s deteriorating condition that they feel are not being listened to can initiate Martha’s rule and they can get an independent review,” she said.

“Passion, patience, and perseverance are the main skills that are required to work in my lab,” says Professor Angelo Accardo. The scientist is the head of a lab in the Precision and Microsystems Engineering (PME) department of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Undoubtedly, having all three Ps is essential to researching the most fascinating yet mysterious of the human body: the brain. 

The Accardo lab specializes in creating engineered scaffolds, microenvironments that enable human tissues to grow, just as they do in nature. By analyzing these environments, researchers can gain a deeper understanding of how brain cells function, thereby opening up new possibilities for disease treatment. 

A pioneering brain cancer treatment 

One of the research projects the lab is working on, in collaboration with the Leiden University Medical Center and the Holland Proton Therapy Center, focuses on the use of proton therapy to treat glioblastoma. As the most lethal form of brain cancer, it starts in astrocytes, a type of glial cell in the brain and spinal cord. The tumor cells multiply, spreading into other areas of the nervous system. Like other glial cells, astrocytes play a vital role in ensuring the function of nerve cells. 

Proton therapy is a promising option to treat glioblastoma, being more precise in targeting cancer cells. This technique also reduces collateral damage to healthy tissues compared to conventional X-ray radiotherapy, one of the most commonly used treatment options currently. Accardo’s lab is creating 3D models that enable the formation of networks where brain cancer cells cluster and proliferate in vivo. The models are then treated with proton therapy to assess tissue response to the radiation. 

One way to fabricate these structures is the so-called two-photon polymerization (2PP) technique, which essentially applies laser beams to solidify liquid biomaterials. “By moving a laser beam, we can create 3D microstructures with a resolution that goes down to 200 nanometers, about 1000 times thinner than the diameter of human hair,” explains Accardo. 

These artificial models proved to be close to the natural ones, also significantly outperforming in vitro models—structures replicated on a flat laboratory slide. “We have seen that the DNA damage proton therapy inflicts on our 3D models is lower than that of their 2D counterparts,” underlines Accardo. “This is what we were hoping for, as previous studies on actual brain cancer tumors have shown the same evidence. Therefore, these 3D models reproduce better what is happening in the brain, and we hope to use them as a future benchmark tool for patients.”

Studying the correlation between autism and a rare genetic disease

A dozen people, including PhDs, postdocs, and master’s students, are part of the Accardo lab. Among them is Azza Jacobs, a biomedical engineering master’s student. She developed engineered cell micro-environments in the context of a larger project on brain organoids, autism spectrum disorder, and its possible genetic connection to Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC). A rare genetic disease, TSC causes non-cancerous tumors or lesions in the brain and other parts of the body. Previous research has shown that people with autism spectrum disorder suffer from TSC, making it a potentially early marker to diagnose autism before symptoms arise. 

However, getting a child’s brain tissue is a very invasive operation. “What we do instead is to use induced pluripotent stem cells, obtained originally from reprogrammed skin cells of the patients. Then, we culture them within engineered scaffolds to become brain organoids,” explains Jacobs. Organoids are structures derived from tissue culture. However, the conventional scaffold-free growth of this tissue culture is often uncontrolled and varies from batch to batch. Furthermore, the inner parts of these structures often clump together, lacking vascularization and ultimately dying. 

As a remedy to these functional problems, Jacobs is using micro-digital light processing (µ-DLP), another 3D printing technique, to create scaffolds where these cultures can grow in a controlled manner. These porous hydrogel structures mimic the mechanical properties of brain tissues. “This way the cells can easily grow inside the scaffold, proliferating, and simulating the behavior of human brain cells,” Jacobs underlines. 

Culturing and comparing both healthy and TSC-affected brain cells takes several weeks to grow a mature structure. The goal is to study their behavior, morphology, and gene expression, ultimately paving the way for potential treatment options. This project was conducted in collaboration with the Amsterdam University Medical Center. 

Bone tissue culture

Another interest of the Accardo lab is the application of these techniques to bone tissue culture. Drawing full inspiration from nature, a significant difference between bone tissues and brain tissues is the higher stiffness of bone tissues, which is approximately six orders of magnitude more rigid than that of neural tissues. There is no shortage of ambition in this strand of research either. 

“For instance, we are working in collaboration with the Department of Biomechanical Engineering on meta-biomaterials designs for bone tissue engineering. Particularly, scaffolds with such properties can have a direct effect on the mechanobiology of bone cells. This aspect plays a fundamental role in prospective use as implants, such as total hip replacement, where the contact between the host tissue and the implant must be optimized to prevent infections,” explains the professor. 

Serving patients

The three Ps are certainly shaping the vibe of the research group, with Accardo being proud of the work done by his group and by the continuous influx of ideas and projects. Ultimately, the goal is to deliver the results of all these efforts to those who need them most: patients. 

“What I dream of is that, in ten years, we can utilize our approach to treat glioblastoma to perform minimally invasive biopsies in a patient’s tumor. Take those cells, culture them in our environment, assess the dose of proton therapy that yields the best results, and use this as a benchmark tool to apply directly to the patient,” he concludes. 

• Togo launches R21 malaria vaccine nationwide
• 269,000 children targeted across all 39 health districts
• Togo is the 22nd African nation to adopt R21 vaccine

Togo has launched the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine into its national immunization program, the Health Ministry announced in a press conference on Tuesday. The initiative, which began on September 1, 2025, aims to protect approximately 269,000 children in its initial phase, covering all 39 of the country’s health districts simultaneously.

The decision is a significant step in the nation’s fight against malaria, a major health challenge, particularly for children under five. Health and Public Hygiene Minister Tchin Darré stated that the move reflects the government’s goal to “liberate communities and families from the burden of malaria by 2030 so they can contribute effectively to the country’s development,” according to a statement from the World Health Organization (WHO).

This program is a collaborative effort involving the Togolese government, the WHO, UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and other technical and financial partners.

Malaria remains endemic across all regions of Togo, with cases surging during the rainy season due to the proliferation of mosquitoes. In 2022, children under five accounted for 64% of confirmed malaria cases, 32% of outpatient consultations, and 53% of hospitalizations in Togo. Hospital mortality for this age group was 65%, making them the primary target of this vaccination campaign.

The Togolese government has invested significantly in malaria control, including a $271.7 million budget for the National Malaria Control Plan. With this introduction, Togo becomes the 22nd country in Africa to incorporate the R21/Matrix-M vaccine into its national immunization schedule.

Ingrid Haffiny (Intern)

Adapted in English by Mouka Mezonlin

Scientists have found that the diabetes/weight loss drug Semaglutide, sold commercially under brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy, significantly reduces cocaine-seeking behaviour in rats. This work needs to be confirmed in humans, but it suggests that Semaglutide is a candidate to be developed as a treatment for cocaine dependency; at the moment there is no effective pharmacological treatment for cocaine dependency. The work is published in the September edition of the peer-reviewed journal European Neuropsychopharmacology.

Cocaine is the second most popular illegal drug used in Europe. The European Drug Agency reports that around 2.7 million young adults (between the age of 15-34) use cocaine regularly, representing around 2.5% of the population in that age group. Cocaine use in the UK is the second highest in the world, with around 2.7% of adults using the drug (see notes). There is, to date, no effective pharmacological treatment for problematic cocaine use.

Scientists from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Pennsylvania, led by Professor Elisabet Jerlhag (University of Gothenburg), gave male rats access to directly-injected cocaine, which they could dispense by pressing a lever in the cage. Then an experimental group of 10 of these animals were treated with semaglutide before being given access to the cocaine dispenser.

Elisabet Jerlhag said:

“We found that in comparison to the control animals, self-administration of cocaine use dropped by 26% in those animals which had been given semaglutide. Previous results, both from our group and from other groups, have found that semaglutide can reduce alcohol consumption and craving in both humans and animals, and this work on cocaine seems to reflect these previous findings on alcohol use. This is the first trial showing Semaglutide’s potential as a drug for cocaine dependence.

Importantly, we also found that after a period of abstinence, there was a 62% drop in cocaine seeking in those animals which had taken semaglutide and the motivation (work undertaken to attain the drug) was lowered by 52%.

This is animal work, so at the moment, we can’t say that we have anywhere near a viable treatment for human cocaine dependency. We need a bigger study to confirm these results, and then we need to see if the findings also apply to humans. However, these results are very promising, underlining the need for human studies, especially since there are no existing pharmacological treatments for cocaine dependency”.

Semaglutide belongs to a class of drugs called GLP-1 inhibitors. These drugs (along with the similar drug Mounjaro) have revolutionised the treatment of excess weight, and are now showing promise in the treatment of mental health problems.

Commenting, Professor Christian Hendershot (of the Institute for Addiction at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles) said:

“This is a carefully conducted study that provides additional evidence that GLP-1 receptor agonists can reduce cocaine reinforcement. These findings have clinical implications given the challenges identifying medications for stimulant use disorder, and the increasing clinical use of semaglutide in many areas of the world. These findings should encourage clinical trials of GLP-1 receptor agonists for stimulant use disorder”.

Professor Hendershot was not involved in this research; this is an independent comment. Professor Hendershot was lead researcher on the first randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of semaglutide’s effects on alcohol craving in adults.

A protein particle hidden within the SARS-CoV-2 virus could lead to longer-lasting, more protective vaccines for COVID-19. 

Scientists from La Trobe University and Kumamoto University in Japan have discovered that the body’s immune system strongly reacts to an internal protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which mutates less frequently than the surface-spike protein currently targeted by vaccines.

New research published in Nature Communications shows that these protein particles, known as peptides, appear on the surface of infected cells via an immune molecule called HLA-C, which killer T cells then use to identify and eliminate infection. 

La Trobe University lead researcher Distinguished Professor Stephanie Gras, Deputy Director of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS), said the discovery could open the way for the development of new vaccines and treatments that offered protection across multiple strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“Currently, vaccines target the spike proteins that decorate the surface of the virus – but they mutate frequently as they are constantly under pressure by our immune cells, which means we might need a new vaccine for each new variant,” Professor Gras said. 

“We found that the killer T cells, which also fight infection, can be activated by a protein that forms a part of the shell that protects the virus’s genetic material, like the yolk of an egg. 

“Because this protein is inside the virus, it mutates much less frequently – knowledge which could guide the development of vaccines and therapeutics that are still effective as the virus evolves.” 

Professor Gras said the development of a longer-lasting vaccine could mean that people would need fewer booster vaccines to fight COVID, and help protect against the development of Long COVID.

“The more people get vaccinated, the more we’re protecting the population, which helps to reduce the virus’s death toll and the impact of the infection itself,” Professor Gras said. 

“But there is more than just COVID – we now know that about 10 per cent of the population is impacted by Long COVID and the more you catch the virus, the more likely you can develop Long COVID.”

Professor Gras, Dr Demetra Chatzileontiadou, Dr Janesha Maddumage, and PhD candidate You Min Ahn led the research team at LIMS and La Trobe University’s School of Biomedicine, Agriculture and Environment (SABE).

It was funded through Professor Gras’s National Health and Medical Research Centre (NHMRC) Leadership Investigator Grant (L2) and her Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant to investigate COVID. 

The research was done in collaboration with Associate Professor Chihiro Motozono and Yoshihiko Goto from the Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection at Kumamoto University in Japan, with data collection by the Australian Synchrotron. 

Professor Gras will also lead a new research centre at La Trobe University which aims to uncover the cause of Long COVID and other life-limiting post-viral infections such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). 

The Post-Acute Viral Infection diseases Group (PAVING) Centre of Research Excellence has received $3 million in Federal funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).