Go Ahead, EAT BREAKFAST Current guidelines recommend an eight-hour fast before a cholesterol test, which is burdensome to both patients and laboratories. Previous studies comparing cholesterol levels in fasting versus non-fasting states used selected patient populations rather than the general population. Doctors Davinder Sidhu and Christopher Naugler at the University of Calgary in Canada conducted...
Treating Alcoholism with OXYTOCIN Patients seeking help for alcohol addiction are normally treated with benzodiazepines, a class of sedativehypnotic drugs that can also be addictive. A new study finds intranasal oxytocin might be a better alternative. “Patients who have received benzodiazepines for medical detoxification remain highly sedative-hypnotic tolerant,” explained lead researcher Cort Pedersen, M.D., of...
Obesity Linked to Taste Sensitivity Humans have evolved a highly developed sense of taste that steers us away from toxic substances, signaled by bitterness, and toward sweet, sour, savory, salty, and other tastes that we perceive as pleasant. This evolutionary adaptation, however, varies in sensitivity among individuals, and has far-reaching implications for children, who establish...
Short Sprints Stave off Hypoglycemia during Exercise To avoid the low drop in blood sugar that can occur after a session of moderate-intensity exercise, people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) should perform short sprints before exercising, suggests a recent article in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism [jcem.endojournals.org]. For T1DM patients, the risk...
Binding Protein Plays Key Role in Stress Response and Memory Stress can cause glucocorticoids to flood the brain and interfere with memory performance and other behaviors. Corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG), a glycoprotein with high affinity for binding glucocorticoids in blood, is believed to play an important role in this process. Studies have shown that mice with...
Boxers or Briefs and Other Male Fertility Factors Boxers or briefs? A light-hearted question often asked of celebrities and politicians may be a critical decision in regards to a man’s fertility. Research from the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield in England, recently published in Human Reproduction [humrep. oxfordjournals.org], shows boxers are better for fertility, but...
Bioengineered Hair Follicles Suggests Baldness Cure Japanese scientists have taken another step toward organ regeneration through stem cell bioengineering: successfully implanting reconstituted hair follicles into the skin of nude mice. Last year, this same team, led by Takashi Tsuji, Ph.D., of the Tokyo University of Science, described a similar technique to transplant a bioengineered tooth...
Researchers Find Androgen Clues in Bird’s Mating Dance When a small Panamanian bird called a golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus) goes courting, he performs an amazing acrobatic dance of rapid jumps and forceful wing snaps that pop like a firecracker to get a female’s attention. A team of researchers led by Barney A. Schlinger, Ph.D., of...
