News archive

Lower blood sugar and increased fat burning – without negatively affecting appetite or muscle mass. These are some of the most promising effects of a new potential drug treatment for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity, according to a new study published in the journal Cell by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University.

A new Swedish registry study shows that women who are affected by cervical cancer are not only at risk of mental health and financial difficulties themselves – their children and partners also appear to be negatively affected. The study is published in the prestigious scientific Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Manne Godhe, PhD student at the Sports Medicine research group, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Physical Activity and Fitness Measurements in Healthy Older Adults and Osteoarthrities Patients Undergoing Total Hip Arthroplasty" on May 23, 2025. Main Supervisor is Eva Andersson.

A new study in the European Heart Journal shows that people who develop type 1 diabetes in adulthood have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death, and that those diagnosed later in life do not have a better prognosis than those diagnosed earlier. The study, conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, points to smoking, poor glucose control and obesity as the main risk factors.

A higher tax on cigarettes in low and middle-income countries can help to reduce child mortality, especially amongst the poorest children, a new study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in The Lancet Public Health suggests.

People with a certain heart valve abnormality are at increased risk of severe heart rhythm disorders, even after successful valve surgery. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden published in the European Heart Journal. The condition is more common in women and younger patients with valve disorder and can, in the worst case, lead to sudden cardiac arrest.

Researchers at Swedish institutions, including Karolinska Institutet, have identified gene variants that increase the risk of atherosclerosis. The goal is for these new findings to enable earlier detection of atherosclerosis and improved treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

A comprehensive study from Karolinska Institutet shows that people with fatty liver disease have almost twice the mortality rate of the general population. They have an increased risk of dying from both liver diseases and common diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to the study published in The Journal of Hepatology.

Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes are associated with accelerated brain ageing, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Diabetes Care. The good news is that this may be counteracted by a healthy lifestyle.

That was the title of the KI-Lifestyle4Health open seminar on June 3rd, 2024. The answer, as perhaps expected, was yes, but participants also got the opportunity to listen and discuss research-based examples and practical trials.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with Sophiahemmet University and LongLife Active AB, have developed an AI-assisted mobile health app with the potential to promote lifestyle behaviours.

The project "A Healthy School Start" is a family support program developed by the research group Community Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Department of Global Public Health, to offer an adapted approach for student health and teachers to provide support to families with children on healthy lifestyles. The program has been positively received by politicians in Region Stockholm, who have now allocated funds in the budget for further dissemination.

Many Swedes live with fatty liver – and it doesn’t have to be dangerous. But for some, it kicks off a course of disease in which persistent inflammation leads to cirrhosis. Medicinsk Vetenskap has talked to researchers who look after the liver – the behemoth of the belly that has a somewhat magical ability to recover, along with enormous overcapacity.

On Saturday, November 18th, the KI Network Lifestyle4Health welcomed the public to an informative afternoon at Medicinska Föreningen at Karolinska Institutet. The afternoon was filled with lectures, health marker measurements, and practical "patient cases" that participants could analyse to suggest recommendations for lifestyle changes.

According to UNICEF, approximately one in five young people suffer from mental health issues, which in turn often leads to risk-taking with alcohol, tobacco and drugs. In the long run, it can cause lifelong health impairments in adulthood. In a three-year project coordinated by Karolinska Institutet, a method used to improve young people’s wellbeing in India, Kenya, the U.S. and Colombia is being evaluated to see if it can work in other parts of the world.

Research Network 'KI Lifestyle4Health' collaborates with the University Library to create KI authors- MeSH terms networks.

Child obesity is linked to increased risk of developing diabetes in adulthood, both autoimmune forms of diabetes and different forms of type 2 diabetes, a new study published in Diabetologia reports. The risk of developing the most insulin-resistant form of diabetes is, for example, three times as high in children with obesity.

Thanks to donations from numerous actors, Karolinska Institutet is now able to create a new professorship in prevention medicine. The professorship is named after its patron, HRH Prince Daniel.

Type 2 diabetes is a common disease, affecting 10 % of the adult world population, in which heredity and overweight are known risk factors. In a new study at Karolinska Institutet, researchers show that women and men with a predisposition to diabetes have different risk factors forecasting type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. The results were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s KI Lifestyle4Health Best paper award for junior researchers. In this occasion, two, of many fantastic publications that were nominated, shared the first place:

Have a car. Don’t be poor. Don’t have a stressful job. Age, gender and socioeconomics are some of the factors that affect your risk of developing an illness and of dying prematurely. Sweden has set the goal of levelling out influenceable health gaps within one generation. But is this goal realistic? And why is it so difficult to achieve? Read an article series about health inequities from the Swedish magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap.

The KI Lifestyle4Health “Best paper award 2022” is an initiative aimed to reward scientists in early stages of their career for outstanding work.

18 May The Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine at Region Stockholm and the Department of Global Public Health at KI invite to the lecture Agenda for reducing cannabis use and crime in Stockholm County. The lecture is based on a series of reports from the Centre on cannabis-related problems among young people in Stockholm County, with themes such as links between cannabis and lethal violence, the geography of cannabis crimes, attitudes to cannabis and health care consumption.

Hi Emilia Schwertner, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS. On January 21 you will defend your thesis ”Factors associated with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Decades-long endurance training alters the activity of genes in human skeletal muscle that are important for metabolic health. This is according to a new study published in the journal Cell Reports by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of San Diego in the U.S. Sex differences found in untrained individuals were also dramatically reduced with long-term training. The results may have implications for metabolic disease prevention.