Mar 08 2010
Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a rapidly expanding inventory of ailments–including heart disease , cancer and the common cold . A new discovery demonstrates how the vitamin plays a major role in keeping the body healthy in the first place, by allowing the immune system's T cells to start doing their jobs. [More]
Source: “Another reason vitamin D is important: it gets T cells going”, Scientific American
Nov 11 2009
What you eat affects more than physical health. Two new studies have added to the growing evidence linking the stomach and the brain.
In a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers studied how junk food can trigger addiction behaviors. The brain chemical corticotropin-releasing-factor, CRF, is linked to motivation, and plays a role in drug and alcohol withdrawal and relapse. Researchers had rats eat normal food, then binge on sugar and chocolate-flavored snacks. When the rats went off the junk, they expressed CRF, just as do rats going through withdrawal. The rodents also had more anxiety and were less interested in normal food.
Source: “Diet and the Brain”, Scientific American
Nov 03 2009
The push to prevent skin cancer may have come with unintended consequences–impaired brain function because of a deficiency of vitamin D. The “sunshine vitamin” is synthesized in our skin when we are exposed to direct sunlight, but sunblock impedes this process. And although vitamin D is well known for promoting bone health and regulating vital calcium levels–hence its addition to milk–it does more than that. Scientists have now linked this fat-soluble nutrient’s hormonelike activity to a number of functions throughout the body, including the workings of the brain.
“We know there are receptors for vitamin D throughout the central nervous system and in the hippocampus,” said Robert J. Przybelski, a doctor and research scientist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “We also know vitamin D activates and deactivates enzymes in the brain and the cerebrospinal fluid that are involved in neurotransmitter synthesis and nerve growth.” In addition, animal and laboratory studies suggest vitamin D protects neurons and reduces inflammation.
Source: “Does Vitamin D Improve Brain Function?”, Scientific American
Jan 08 2009
“[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
Aspirin is a popular painkiller, and chances are you have some in your medicine chest right now. You might even have some in your flesh-and-blood, put-a-shirt-on-it chest. Because a new study suggests that humans can make their own salicylic acid, which forms the bulk of aspirin’s active ingredient. [More]“
Dec 25 2008
Is evolution ‘scientific’? What better way would there be to decide this issue than to use the standards set out by the pro-evolution National Research Council (US).
Dec 02 2008
“Feeling physically clean could make a person less judgmental of others.
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Nov 30 2008
“EATING junk food could increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, research suggests.”
Nov 04 2008
“Ignores scientific evidence and argues theology to say creationism is wrong.”
“Earth Science Ireland uses clergyman in geological controversy”, Creation On The Web
Oct 22 2008
“Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
So annealed into pop culture are the five stages of grief–introduced in the 1960s by Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross based on her studies of the emotional state of dying patients–that they are regularly referenced without explication.”
“Five Fallacies of Grief: Debunking Psychological Stages”, Scientific American – Official RSS Feed
Oct 20 2008
“Could the devil be a witness to the truth of Genesis creation? Remarkably, yes.”