Diet and Alzheimer’s Plaques

There have been various studies that have found that reduced calorie diets can have positive effects upon human health, such as increased longevity. The latest is research that has found that in mice reduced calorie diets my slow Alzheimer’s disease.

I find it fascinating, the effect that diet has upon our health. It’s as if human physiology evolved specifically for a low calorie diet, and the modern wealth of food is having all sorts of unintended consequences.

If modern society actually progresses to the point that we rid ourselves of starvation and hunger, I wonder whether we will continue to evolve in such a way that will allow our bodies to deal better with high calorie diets with no periods of starvation?

Insulin for Alcoholism?

Drunken fruit flies have led to the discovery that insulin may determine susceptibility to alcohol. If confirmed in humans — and the two species share about two-thirds of their genes — the finding suggests a promising way to treat alcoholism using drugs that control insulin activity.

Living in the US Makes You Fat

After less than a year in the United States, the prevalence of obesity among foreign-born persons was 8 percent. In contrast, the body mass index of foreign-born respondents living in the United States for at least 15 years approached that of U.S.-born respondents, with 41 percent at normal weight, 38 percent overweight and 19 percent obese – compared with 41 percent, 35 percent and 22 percent of the U.S.-born, respectively.

I’m not really sure how this fits into science news, but what the heck:
‘Carol of the Bells’ wasn’t originally a Christmas song

So the part of the song I like best–the melody, was originally written by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovich. For someone who is not a fan of handbells, I do like to hear this song played that way.

And last but not least, Eat Your Christmas Tree, You’ll Feel Better.

Researchers have identified a group of anti-inflammatory compounds in the bark of the Scotch pine — widely used for Christmas trees — that they say could be developed into food supplements or drugs for treating arthritis and pain.

Okay, so I exaggerate a little, but it’s still interesting how we continue to discover that the plants around us contain chemicals that may serve our medical needs.