Intermittent fasting, and fasting in general, has been a popular fad health gimmick, but the science isn't on its side. Instead, proponents believe mice are little people so if mice weaned on starvation diets lived longer, people would also.
Coeliac disease is a chronic, immunological disease that is manifested as intolerance to gluten proteins present in wheat, rye and barley. This intolerance leads to an inflammatory reaction in the small intestine that hampers the absorption of nutrients. The only treatment is a strict, life-long, gluten-free diet.
The babies of obese women who develop gestational diabetes are five times as likely to be excessively large by six months of pregnancy, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge. The study, which shows that excessive fetal growth begins weeks before at-risk women are screened for gestational diabetes, suggests that current screening programmes may take place too late during pregnancy to prevent lasting health impacts on the offspring.
Players are also using online betting sites to conceal their gambling from their partners, the British Sociological Association's annual conference in Birmingham was told today [Thursday, April 7. 2016].
Graeme Law, of the University of Chester, interviewed 34 current and former professional football players, including international and Premiership players as well as those in lower leagues.
Players talked about how worries caused by gambling -- usually poker games on the coach or at hotels before matches -- had impaired performances on the pitch.
Men on Tinder expect casual sex to compensate for the 'breach of trust' when their date's appearance is less attractive than her profile photograph, say sociologists at the British Sociological Association's annual conference in Birmingham.
Dr Jenny van Hooff, senior lecturer in sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, said, "Many of our respondents felt let down on meeting a woman and on feeling a visual representation hadn't been accurate. Some of our respondents felt that this breaking of trust was a license to use their date as they saw fit, thereby speeding up intimacy and undermining it at the same time."
Type II diabetes is booming in the developed world and obviously obesity is the primary driver. A new paper contends sugar is a primary driver of that obesity, rather than consuming too many calories and not exercising, and so sugar addiction should be treated just like cigarettes.
While pharmaceutical companies will be delighted by the efforts of scholars in the pay-to-publish journal PLOS ONE to give them a brand new market, claims of sugar addiction, while a popular fad for the last few years, have not really held up. Nonetheless, neuroscience Professor Selena Bartlett from
Queensland University of Technology
Sequencing the genomes of hundreds of strains of the wine yeast S. cerevisiae has revealed little genetic diversity and high levels of inbreeding. In many cases, yeast strains sold by different companies were almost genetically identical. The results, published in the April issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, a publication of the Genetics Society of America, suggest that winemakers attempting to develop improved wine yeasts will need to look to creating hybrids with more exotic strains.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the chloride channel CFTR, which disrupts fluid transport in the lungs. CF patients have a variety of complications, including airway obstruction, infection, and pathological tissue remodeling. Alterations in airway smooth muscle have been observed in CF patients but it is not clear if these abnormalities are directly due to loss of CFTR in airway smooth muscle cells. In this issue of JCI Insight, David Stoltz of the University of Iowa and colleagues provide evidence that CTFR dysfunction directly alters the elasticity and blood supply of the airway. The authors evaluated smooth muscle function in a cohort of CF patients before and immediately after treatment with ivacaftor, which restores CFTR function in this set of patients.
While in America, Mexican-Americans tend to favor amnesty for illegal immigrants and unlimited entry, not so with Syrians in Germany. There, 80 percent of Syrian immigrants are fine with a humanitarian policy but want an admission cap.
The survey by the University of Münster and the polling institute TNS Emnid showed 46 percent ask themselves whether there might be numerous terrorists among the newly arriving refugees.
Public Health England (PHE), the UK governmental body the equivalent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says that its review of the evidence has found that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful to health than combustible cigarettes and they should be recommended for smoking cessation and harm reduction.
This is the opposite stance taken by anti-smoking activists who have morphed into anti-nicotine activists, and demand that cigarette smokers engage in "abstinence only" when it comes to nicotine, an approach that works with almost nothing.
Food should be labeled with the equivalent exercise to expend its calories to help people change their behavior, argues Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive at the Royal Society of Public Health,
in The BMJ. Giving consumers an immediate link between foods' energy content and physical activity might help to reduce obesity, she believes.
Two-thirds of the UK population either overweight or obese yet little evidence indicates that the current information on food and drink packaging, including traffic light labeling, actually changes behavior. No one obeys nutrition guidelines as dutifully as Canadians and they have become just as fat as anyone else.
RICHLAND, Wash. - When water levels in rivers rise, an area known as the "river's liver" kicks into action, cleansing river water of pollutants and altering the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Now, in a paper published April 7 in Nature Communications, scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory present evidence suggesting that rising river waters deliver a feast of carbon to hungry microbes where water meets land, triggering increased activity, which could naturally boost emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.
LAWRENCE -- The public's understanding of genetics, particularly as a cause of sexual orientation, can influence the level of stereotypical behavior, according to a new study by two University of Kansas researchers.
Mark Joslyn and Don Haider-Markel, professors in the KU Department of Political Science, found that genetic attributions strongly shape perceptions of whether a person's sexual orientation could change and likely made same-sex marriage and other policies more widely acceptable in the past decade.
