Nicotines Anorexic Effect

If your a filthy fagger, you’ve no doubt said to yourself  ‘fluff it — quitting puts on 2 dress sizes!’ Just for a change, your right. Researchers have discovered that nicotine decreases the want of food via the activation of Pro-opiomelanocortin - POMC – neurons. (Mutations in the POMC gene have been associated with early onset obesity, adrenal insufficiency, and red hair-pigmentation) Importantly, the researchers have shown that nicotine causes a dip in appetite via a different pathway to the one that it triggers addiction through. This means that it’s possible to make a drug that isn’t addictive, but still has nicotine’s goodly appetite-suppressing powers. We don’t usually cut and paste posts, we have to make an exception here, the abstract for this study is overtly clever. Read the full article »»»»

An Unimaginably Beautiful Life: Optimism and the Private Memory

In two or three hundred years life on earth will be unimaginably beautiful, astounding. Man needs such a life and if it hasn’t yet appeared, he should begin to anticipate it, wait for it, dream about it, prepare for it.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In a study, published in Current Biology, researchers have confirmed an important role for dopamine in how human expectations are formed and how people make complex decisions. It also contributes to an understanding of how pleasure expectation can go awry. The study has found human beings are hard-wired to be optimistic, even in the face of a darker reality. Scientists led by Dr Tali Sharot at the University College London studied a group of people who were told they were likely to experience something bad. The results found most people stayed highly optimistic. And the researchers say the study shows why people are often foolhardy, naive or overly ambitious. Read the full article »»»»

UVA Radiation Causes DNA Damage in Skin?

There is new evidence that the sun’s UV rays are even more damaging than previously thought.

The sun emits two kinds of UV rays to the earth’s surface: UVA and UVB. It had been thought that those rays do not damage the deeper layers of the skin as much as they damage the top layers. New research from Kings College London has found that is the case for UVB rays, but not for UVA rays. The study has found UVA rays are more carcinogenic than previously realised – a finding scientists say underscores how important it is to limit exposure to the sun and to tanning studios. The study was led by Antony Young, Professor of experimental photobiology at King’s College. Read the full article »»»»

HPV: Throat Cancer Linked to Cunnilingus and Fellatio

Human Papillomavirus - HPV – has been all over the medical journals and alerts of late. In the U.S. theres an epidemic going on right now, raising concerns about, well, oral sex and throat cancer. First hypothesized in 2005, a research study at the College of Malmö in Sweden suggested that performing unprotected oral sex on a person infected with HPV might increase the risk of oral cancer. The study found that 36 percent of the cancer patients had HPV compared to only 1 percent of the healthy control group :: Read the full article »»»»

Coffee Consumption Associated With Decreased Risk of Depression in Women

We’ve been waiting for this discovery for years, patiently sipping away at our cuppa with the hopeful thought that it might one day be of benefit, we’re halfway there. Women who drink four cups of coffee a day are 20 per cent less likely to become depressed than women who rarely drink coffee.

Caffeine is the most frequently used central nervous system stimulant in the world, and approximately 80 percent of consumption is in the form of coffee, according to background information in the article. Previous research, including one prospective study among men, has suggested an association between coffee consumption and depression risk. Because depression is a chronic and recurrent condition that affects twice as many women as men, including approximately one of every five U.S. women during their lifetime, “identification of risk factors for depression among women and the development of new preventive strategies are, therefore, a public health priority,” write the authors. They sought to examine whether, in women, consumption of caffeine or certain caffeinated beverages is associated with the risk of depression. Read the full article »»»»

Nicotinamide Mononucleotide Helps Reverse Diabetes in Female Mice

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have restored normal blood sugar metabolism in diabetic mice using a compound the body makes naturally. The finding suggests that it may one day be possible for people to take the compound in pill form to treat or even prevent type 2 diabetes. The naturally occurring enzyme, Nicotinamide Mononucleotide  - NMN – plays an important role in how cells use energy. Researcher Shin-ichiro Imai says this discovery holds promise for people because the mechanisms that NMN influences are largely the same in mice and humans.

“After giving NMN, glucose tolerance goes completely back to normal in female diabetic mice,” says Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology. “In males, we see a milder effect compared to females, but we still see an effect. These are really remarkable results. NMN improves diabetic symptoms, at least in mice.”

Kathryn F. Mills, research lab supervisor said, “We also injected older healthy mice and found that they weren’t adversely affected. It’s good to know that even if the mice are not diabetic, giving NMN is not going to harm them.” Read the full article »»»»

Ethically Impossible: US STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948