Sweets change our brain: Why we can’t keep our hands off chocolate bars and co.
Chocolate bars, crisps and fries — why can’t we just ignore them in the supermarket? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, in collaboration with Yale University, have now shown that foods with a high fat and sugar content change our brain: If we regularly eat even small amounts of them, […]
Leptin helps hungry mice choose sex over food
To eat or to mate — that is the question (and the answer is: moderately hungry mice choose to mate). Researchers publishing in the journal Cell Metabolism on Thursday February 23 show that hungry mice prioritize interacting with members of the opposite sex over eating and drinking when their brains are stimulated with leptin, an […]
Doxycycline Fails to Protect Women Against STIs
SEATTLE — Researchers were scratching their heads over findings that doxycycline prophylaxis failed to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among African cisgender women, unlike its success among men who have sex with men. In a trial conducted among 449 women in Kenya who were taking daily pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection, 50 of […]
Can High-Dose Vitamin D Prevent Diabetes?
Daily higher-dose vitamin D supplementation may help stave off diabetes in an at-risk population, researchers reported. In a meta-analysis of three randomized clinical trials, vitamin D reduced the risk for type 2 diabetes by 15% in people with prediabetes (adjusted HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.75-0.96) in a model adjusted for age, gender, body mass index […]
Impact of ‘hyper-palatable’ foods across four diets
If losing weight was among your 2023 resolutions, findings by researchers from the University of Kansas and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may provide clearer guidance about the food you put on your plate. Using previous study data, researchers sought to determine what characteristics of meals were important for determining how many calories were […]
Researchers map the effects of dietary nutrients on disease
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and King’s College London have created a tool to predict the effects of different diets on both cancerous cells and healthy cells. Their work could help disentangle the subtle metabolic changes associated with different types of nutrients, and improve our understanding of the link between diet and disease. Metabolism […]
Vitamin D benefits and metabolism may depend on body weight: People with higher body mass index had a blunted response to vitamin D supplementation, explaining observed differences in outcomes such as cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disease
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have found new evidence that vitamin D may be metabolized differently in people with an elevated body mass index (BMI). The study, appearing in JAMA Network Open, is a new analysis of data from the VITAL trial, a large […]
Autopsies Show COVID-19 in the Brain
Early this year, leading researchers discussed what we knew — and didn’t know — about COVID-19 and the brain. Since then, new findings have emerged about SARS-CoV-2 and the nervous system, including the results of an autopsy study that showed the presence of the virus throughout the body and brain. How can a respiratory pathogen […]
Virtual reality game to objectively detect ADHD
Researchers have used virtual reality games, eye tracking and machine learning to show that differences in eye movements can be used to detect ADHD, potentially providing a tool for more precise diagnosis of attention deficits. Their approach could also be used as the basis for an ADHD therapy, and with some modifications, to assess other […]
Positively charged nanomaterials treat obesity anywhere you want
Researchers have long been working on how to treat obesity, a serious condition that can lead to hypertension, diabetes, chronic inflammation, and cardiovascular diseases. Studies have also revealed a strong correlation of obesity and cancer — recent data show that smoking, drinking alcohol, and obesity are the biggest contributors to cancer worldwide. The development of […]