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We recently asked school nurses, "What's the most important thing teachers can do to help keep students healthy during the school year?"

The bacteria in our guts can break down food the body can't digest, produce important nutrients, regulate the immune system, and protect against harmful germs. And while we can't control all the factors that go into maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, we can manipulate the balance of our microbes by paying attention to what we eat. Shilpa Ravella shares the best foods for a healthy gut.

Youth based website focused on healthy choices and long term health.

" The typical naked mole rat lives 25 to 30 years, during which it shows little decline in activity, bone health, reproductive capacity and cognitive ability. What is the secret to this East African rodent's long, healthy life?"

UCLA researchers now have the first evidence that bacteria ingested in food can affect brain function in humans. In an early proof-of-concept study of healthy women, they found that women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria known as probiotics through yogurt showed altered brain function, both while in a resting state and in response to an emotion-recognition task.

Water is essentially everywhere in our world, and the average human is composed of between 55 and 60% water. So what role does water play in our bodies, and how much do we actually need to drink to stay healthy? Mia Nacamulli details the health benefits of hydration.

Women who are overweight while pregnant are more likely to have babies who are biologically older than those born to women of a healthy weight. This could put the babies at a higher risk of developing chronic diseases later in life, and may reduce their life expectancy. Our biological age is linked to the length of our telomeres - bits of DNA that cap the ends of our chromosomes. Our telomeres shrink every time our cells divide, and continue to shorten throughout life. "Short telomeres have been associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis," says Tim Nawrot at Hasselt University in Belgium.

Germs are everywhere: in school, at home, at the gym, at the mall, even on your computer! You're constantly exposed to germs. Fortunately for most of us, our immune systems defend us against germs and microorganisms daily to keep us healthy and prevent infection. The following discussion questions and activities will help your students learn all about the immune system.

Dean Ornish shares new research that shows how adopting healthy lifestyle habits can affect a person at a genetic level. For instance, he says, when you live healthier, eat better, exercise, and love more, your brain cells actually increase.

Healthy plants reflect more near-infrared light than stressed plants, so bright red indicates dense, growing foliage. For this reason, biologists and ecologists occasionally use infrared cameras to photograph forests. 

Possibly the most exciting use of stem cells rests on their ability to differentiate into an enormous range of healthy functioning adult cells, thereby providing a replacement source of cells to treat serious diseases. This ultimately means that virtually any disease that results in cellular and tissue destruction can potentially be treated by stem cells. Some of the conditions are particularly debilitating and these include diabetes, spinal cord injuries, retinal disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease and cancer.

Every year, it inflicts between 250,000 and 500,000 helpless and malnourished young people with early-life blindness. And in half of those cases, it also brings death, according to the World Health Organization. Vitamin A deficiency also puts pregnant women at risk. It's rare in developed countries, but the goal of completely eradicating vitamin A deficiency - mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia - remains unmet. Scientists are now working to genetically engineer "super" bananas that are fortified with crucial alpha- and beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A.

"I Heart Running" is a case study in which students diagnose the cause of exercise-induced tachycardia in an otherwise healthy, 27-year-old female. The patient, Sam, is a long-distance runner and realizes that her exercising heart rate reaches over 200 beats per minute. As the story of Sam's encounters with her physician develops, students are given results from multiple laboratory tests and detailed patient background information.  Students are guided through the material with a series of questions with the ultimate goal of determining the cause of the exercise-induced tachycardia that Sam experiences. The case study is based on actual laboratory results and was designed for students in an upper-level undergraduate Human Physiology course. In this activity students will learn about heart rate, cardiovascular physiology, and oxygen carrying capacity, and factors which influence these concepts, as they try to diagnose Sam.

In essence, the young people's bodies seemed to be somehow remembering and responding to what that body had just been doing, whether sitting or moving, and then calculating a new, appropriate response - moving or sitting. In doing so, the researchers felt, the body created a healthy, dynamic circadian pattern.

Published today (17:00BST, 03/06/2015) in the journal Neuron, their work presents strong evidence that disruption of a delicate chemical balance in the brain is heavily implicated in the disorder. In the largest ever study of its kind, the team found that disease-linked mutations disrupt specific sets of genes contributing to excitatory and inhibitory signalling, the balance of which plays a crucial role in healthy brain development and function.

Although genetic factors contribute to congenital heart disease, many children born with heart defects have healthy parents and siblings, suggesting that new mutations that arise spontaneously -- known as de novo mutations -- might contribute to the disease. New research shows that about 10 percent of these defects are caused by genetic mutations that are absent in the parents of affected children.

3:00 There are a few reasons that modern humans have to brush our teeth to stay healthy, even though our primate cousins don't. Grab your floss and find the answers inside!

Hank gives the run down on the top five ways humans are negatively impacting the environment and having detrimental effects on the valuable ecosystem services which a healthy biosphere provides.

Scientists at AgResearch in New Zealand have successfully produced healthy transgenic cows that make modified milk or human therapeutic proteins in their milk.

Whether it's shunning all grains and dairy on a paleo diet, or bingeing on fruit juice to cure your cancer, "fad diets" push some misleading ideas about healthy eating. But knowing some red flags that are common signs of dodgy diets can help you avoid getting sucked in.