Tag: Staying Healthy

Caloric intake and muscle mass at high altitude

New research in The FASEB Journal explored why a group of young, healthy adults residing at high altitude lost muscle mass while severely underfed and consuming the same high-protein diet that preserved muscle during weight loss at sea level. A team led by Stefan M. Pasiakos, PhD, a nutritional physiologist at the U.S. Army Research

Sleep paralysis and hallucinations are prevalent in student athletes: Study also suggests sleep disorders are associated with depression symptoms

Pilot data from a recent study suggest that sleep paralysis and dream-like hallucinations as you are falling asleep or waking up are widespread in student athletes and are independently associated with symptoms of depression. This study is the first to examine the relationship between these sleep symptoms and mental health in student athletes, independent of

New hope for fight against genetically determined obesity

Around two to six per cent of all people with obesity develop obesity already in early childhood; it’s in their genetic cards. Obesity-causal mutations in one of their ‘appetite genes’ gives them a strong genetic predisposition for developing obesity, also called monogenic obesity. Their experience of hunger is overruling and their feeling of satiety limited.

A key switch in biological clocks

Just as we abide by an external time schedule to eat, sleep, and go to work, our body is similarly dictated by internal clocks. Known as circadian rhythms, these daily cycles keep us on a regular 24-hour day and are involved in numerous aspects of our well-being. When these biological clocks fail to work as

Above us only sky: The open air as an underappreciated habitat

Numerous bat species hunt and migrate at great altitudes. Yet the open sky had, until recently, not been on the radar of conservation scientists as a habitat relevant to a large variety of species. Christian Voigt and colleagues from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin have collated the current scientific

Age affects how we predict and respond to stress at home

A recent study finds that older adults are better than younger adults at anticipating stressful events at home — but older adults are not as good at using those predictions to reduce the adverse impacts of the stress. “Home stress, in this context, might be related to chores, home maintenance and having too much to

Adolescents’ cooking skills strongly predict future nutritional well-being: Confidence in cooking ability led to fewer fast food meals, more meals as a family, and more frequent preparation of meals with vegetables in adulthood, according to a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

Evidence suggests that developing cooking and food preparation skills is important for health and nutrition, yet the practice of home cooking is declining and now rarely taught in school. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that developing cooking skills as a young adult may have long-term benefits for

Some kitchen cabinets can emit potentially harmful compounds

Probably the last place anyone would want to find airborne polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs) is in the kitchen, yet that’s exactly where scientists detected their presence, according to a new report in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology. They say that the PCBs, which are widely considered carcinogenic, are unwanted byproducts of sealant breakdown in

Foodborne illness caused by common agricultural practice, casts doubts on biocidal product labeling

Chlorine, commonly used in the agriculture industry to decontaminate fresh produce, can make foodborne pathogens undetectable, according to new research published in mBio, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The study may help explain outbreaks of Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes among produce in recent years. “This important work is a major

School lunch decisions made by the child and not the parent: Child’s enjoyment of packed lunch was primary motivation for parent’s acceptance of food choices, according to a new study

While school lunches in the UK are subject to food standards, the contents of packed lunches are not as closely scrutinized, and studies have raised concern regarding the nutritional quality of packed lunches. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that children, not their parents, are often the primary