http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—The rhythm of life is driven by the cycles of day and night, and most organisms carry in their cells a common, (roughly) 24-hour beat. In animals, this rhythm emerges from a tiny brain structure called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus. Take it out of the brain and keep it alive in a lab dish and this "brain clock" will keep on ticking, ramping up or gearing down production of certain proteins at specific times of the day, day after day. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-metabolism-brain-fluctuates-circadian-rhythm.html Neuroscience Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:42:38 EST news265383723 (HealthDay) -- Neuronal responsiveness of the hypothalamus to glucose, critical in the regulation of feeding, can be restored in patients with type 2 diabetes by short-term caloric restriction, according to a study published online July 30 in Diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-caloric-restriction-glucose-response-diabetes.html Diabetes Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:41:10 EST news263745650 Prenatal exposure to the environmental contaminants polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, causes long-term changes to the developing brain that have adverse effects on reproductive function later in life, a new study finds. Results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-exposure-environmental-chemicals-womb-reprograms.html Medical research Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:00:04 EST news259924984 Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have zeroed in on a set of neurons in the part of the brain that controls hunger, and found that these neurons are not only associated with overeating, but also linked to non-food associated behaviors, like novelty-seeking and drug addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-neurons-overeating-appetite-cocaine.html Neuroscience Sun, 24 Jun 2012 13:20:01 EST news259758511 Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a brain receptor that appears to play a central role in regulating appetite. The findings, published today in the online edition of Cell, could lead to new drugs for preventing or treating obesity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-brain-appetite.html Medical research Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:02:00 EST news258289300 In recent years, a growing body of evidence has linked inflammation to the development of insulin resistance. In insulin resistance, the hormone insulin is less effective in promoting glucose uptake from the bloodstream into other tissues. Obesity is a major factor that contributes to insulin resistance, which can eventually lead to type 2 diabetes. Previous studies have shown that proinflammatory molecules found in fat tissue decreases sensitivity of tissues to insulin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-obesity-induced-insulin-sensitivity.html Overweight and Obesity Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:05:49 EST news257774686 New nerve cells formed in a select part of the brain could hold considerable sway over how much you eat and consequently weigh, new animal research by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests in a study published in the May issue of Nature Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-weight-struggles-blame-neurons-hypothalamus.html Neuroscience Mon, 21 May 2012 18:17:17 EST news256843008 It seems improbable that a baby born underweight would be prone to obesity, but it is well documented that these children tend to put on weight in youth if they're allowed free access to calories. Now, researchers believe they understand why this happens. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-underweight-babies-obese-disrupted-hypothalamus.html Pediatrics Wed, 02 May 2012 15:30:02 EST news255190476 (Medical Xpress) -- A research team made up of people from a wide variety of biological sciences has found that mice fed a diet high in fat tend to see an increase in the number of neurons created in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain associated with regulating energy use in the body. The team, as they describe in their paper published in Nature Neuroscience, write that the increase in neurons occurs in a part of the hypothalamus called the median eminence, which lies outside the blood-brain barrier. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-production-neurons-hypothalamus-mice-fed.html Neuroscience Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:44:50 EST news251966663 Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have revealed how a mutation in a single gene is responsible for the inability of neurons to effectively pass along appetite suppressing signals from the body to the right place in the brain. What results is obesity caused by a voracious appetite. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-reveal-gene-mutation-uncontrolled-obesity.html Genetics Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:00:06 EST news251296225 Yale University researchers have discovered a key cellular mechanism that may help the brain control how much we eat, what we weigh, and how much energy we have. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-molecular-duo-dictate-weight-energy.html Neuroscience Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:00:13 EST news249670019 New research reveals a fascinating and unexpected molecular partnership within the brain neurons that regulate appetite. The study, published by Cell Press in the January 26 issue of the journal Neuron, resolves a paradox regarding a receptor without its hormone and may lead to more specific therapeutic interventions for obesity and disorders of dopamine signaling. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-appetite-accomplice-ghrelin-receptor-dopamine.html Neuroscience Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:00:05 EST news246709320 (Medical Xpress) -- The first evidence, reported today, of structural changes in the brains of rodents and humans with diet-induced obesity may help explain one of the most vexing problems of body weight control. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-evidence-brain-injury-diet-induced-obesity.html Medical research Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:45:29 EST news244359916 The number of people who suffer from one or more of the adverse complications of obesity, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease is rapidly increasing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-obesity-brain-area-involved-body.html Medical research Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:00:02 EST news244196430 Neuroscience researchers from Tufts have demonstrated, for the first time, that the physiological response to stress depends on neurosteroids acting on specific receptors in the brain, and they have been able to block that response in mice. This breakthrough suggests that these critical receptors may be drug therapy targets for control of the stress-response pathway. This finding may pave the way for new approaches to manage a wide range of neurological disorders involving stress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-mechanism-stress.html Neuroscience Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:00:17 EST news243016253 Is obesity a ciliopathy, a disorder such as polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which is triggered by a defect in the microscopic hair-like cilia that protrude from virtually every cell of humans and other vertebrates? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-obesity-ciliopathy-triggered-malfunctioning-primary.html Medical research Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:30:01 EST news242399261 Studies have shown that people who are overweight in middle age are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later than people at normal weight, yet researchers have also found that people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease are more likely to have a lower body mass index (BMI). A current study examines this relationship between Alzheimer's disease and BMI. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-people-early-alzheimer-disease-bmi.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:40:39 EST news241116031 Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have demonstrated for the first time that the brain is a key player in regulating glucose (sugar) metabolism in humans. The findings, published today in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest that drugs targeting the brain and central nervous system could be a novel approach to treating diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-role-blood-sugar-humans.html Medical research Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:13:48 EST news239901208 (Medical Xpress) -- The effects of obesity - both on our bodies and on the health budget - are well known, and now, scientists are getting closer to understanding how the disease progresses, providing clues for future treatments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-clue-obesity.html Medical research Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:30:23 EST news237799804 It's not estrogen produced by body fat that causes low levels of testosterone in type 2 diabetic men, according to a University at Buffalo study published last month in Diabetes Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-estradiol-fatty-tissue-doesnt-testosterone.html Medical research Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:00:16 EST news236426406 The number of people who are obese and suffer one or more of its associated health problems (including type 2 diabetes) is escalating dramatically. Researchers are seeking to identify new targets for therapeutics that could limit appetite and thereby obesity. A team of researchers, led by Scott Waldman, at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, has now uncovered one such potential target by studying the molecular control of appetite in mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-slim-hormone-uroguanylin.html Medical research Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:11:58 EST news233496700 The hormone receptor guanylyl cyclase C (GCC) has been established as a suppressor of colorectal cancer tumors, but new evidence from Thomas Jefferson University suggests it may also help fight one of the country's biggest pandemics: obesity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-tumor-suppressor-obesity.html Medical research Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:56:55 EST news233495785 A report in the August issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism might help to explain why it's so frustratingly difficult to stick to a diet. When we don't eat, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves. That act of self-cannibalism turns up a hunger signal to prompt eating. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-diets-dont-starved-brain-cells.html Medical research Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:21:15 EST news231506417 The past two decades have witnessed an epidemic spread of obesity-related diseases in Western countries. Elucidating the biological mechanism that links overnutrition to obesity could prove crucial in reducing obesity levels. In the July 26 issue of PLoS Biology, Dr. Dongsheng Cai and his research team at Albert Einstein College of Medicine describe a pathway that directs the brain to sense the body's glucose dynamics, and they find that a defect of this glucose sensing process contributes to the development of obesity and related disease. Importantly, the team also found that correction of this defect can normalize the whole-body energy balance and treat obesity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-obesity-brain-glucose.html Medical research Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:27:25 EST news230919926 Recently, optogenetics, which controls the activity of neuron using the light-activated protein, has been getting a lot of attention. This light-activated protein works like a switch of neurons by sensing specific color of light. This time, Associate Professor Akihiro YAMANAKA and Dr. Tomomi Tsunematsu from National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), succeeded in suppressing only the activity of the orexin neurons in the mice's brains (hypothalamus) when the optical switch was on, using the light-activated protein, halorhodopsin (eNpHR). This flipping on and off the optical switch led mice into sleep and wakefulness. Those mice fell into non-REM sleep (slow-wave sleep) only when the halorhodopsin-expressed orexin neurons were exposed to the light. It is reported in the Journal of Neuroscience published by the Society for Neuroscience in USA (July 20, 2011, Eastern Standard Time, USA) . http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-non-rem-mice-optogenetical-technique.html Neuroscience Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:44:36 EST news230402662 (Medical Xpress) -- In a new study published in Neuropsychopharmacology, Dr. Alasdair MacKenzie has found a genetic switch that regulates thirst and appetite and is believed to be the reason many people from Western countries are more prone to high fat diets and alcohol consumption that those in Asian countries. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-fatty-food-cravings-genetically.html Genetics Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:21:13 EST news230206849 It is widely known that smoking inhibits appetite, but what is not known, is what triggers this process in the brain. Now researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, participating in a Yale University School of Medicine-led study, have identified the nicotine receptors that influence the anorexigenic signaling pathway, or appetite suppression pathway. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-nicotine-triggered-appetite-suppression-site.html Neuroscience Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:00:18 EST news226846410 Obesity among people who eat a high-fat diet may involve injury to neurons, or nerve cells, in a key part of the brain that controls body weight, according to the authors of a new animal study. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-high-fat-diet-rapidly-brain-cells.html Medical research Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:48:01 EST news226766865 Getting acclimated to the heat now, before two-a-days begin in August, will help football players avoid cramps, dehydration and other potentially serious injuries that could put a damper on the upcoming season. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-football-players-summer-ready.html Health Fri, 06 May 2011 09:43:58 EST news223893815 By knocking down the expression of a protein in rat brains known to stimulate eating, Johns Hopkins researchers say they not only reduced the animals' calorie intake and weight, but also transformed their fat into a type that burns off more energy. The finding could lead to better obesity treatments for humans, the scientists report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-bad-fat-good-future-treatment.html Medical research Tue, 03 May 2011 12:50:34 EST news223645789