Ronnie’s 4th birthday recently and a view of earlier pictures
Here is what we are reading today:
“Salk Institute scientists, building on earlier work that identified a gene pathway triggered by running, have discovered how to fully activate that pathway in sedentary mice with a chemical compound, mimicking the beneficial effects of exercise, including increased fat burning and stamina. The study, which appears in Cell Metabolism on May 2, 2017…”
““We found that skeletal muscle cells have machinery to directly sense glucose—in a certain sense it’s like the muscles can taste sugar, too,” said senior study author Jiandie Lin, a faculty member at the LSI, where his lab is located.”
“Folds in the human brain enlarge the surface of this important processing organ and in this way create more space for higher functions including thought and action. However…”
“Taking folic acid supplements throughout pregnancy may improve psychological development in children.
That is the finding of research by Professor Tony Cassidy and colleagues from Ulster University who will present their study today, Thursday 4 May, to the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society in Brighton.”
“Medical Xpress)—The human brain’s capacity for learning is adaptable to a variety of conditions. When the environment changes repeatedly and constantly, learning is difficult, because the brain automatically seeks patterns in incoming information. This requires weighting prior knowledge and incoming data according to reliability.”
“Prof. Philip Van Damme (VIB-KU Leuven/University Hospital Leuven): “Our findings suggest that dysfunction of lysosomal enzymes such as cathepsin D can contribute to neuronal dysfunction caused by progranulin deficiency in diseases such as frontotemporal dementia. These are important new insights in our search for solutions.””
8 Comments
MaxDiep · May 11, 2017 at 10:41 am
I disagree with the article of “exercise in a pill?” because I do not believe in transferring this to humans even it if is in current clinical trials The side effects it could produce in humans have not been seen. Yes this was successful in studies involving rats, but if this was given to humans, there is a huge potential for abuse. Imagine if teenagers got their hand on this new drug. The effects it would have on them would be disastrous.
dariamajlessi · May 14, 2017 at 3:24 pm
I read the article, “Exercise in a Pill,” and I found it super interesting because I had no idea anything like that was even possible. The video in the article showed how scientists activated a gene pathway in mice, that mimicked the effects of exercise. This drug trains the muscles to use more fat than sugar. This could potentially change the world. There are so many people who are disabled, or unable to exercise or train and stay healthy, who can then still get the same effects of exercise even though they cannot physically exercise. There are so many people who will benefit from this. It is so weird to think that it is possible to get the same effects of exercise from just activating 975 genes. Science is cool!!!!!!
Nicole Sacco · May 17, 2017 at 3:53 pm
As someone who runs out of breath after only five minutes of running, I thought that the article “’Exercise in a Pill’ Boosts Athletic Endurance by 70 Percent” was very relevant to my life. Although I would not turn to a pill to boost my endurance, the pill would be very beneficial in helping the elderly, obese, and others who are limited in mobility. If this pill were to pass human trials, then improvements in endurance can be made possible to those who are lacking in mobility. I think that this is especially significant in helping the obese; it is very hard for the obese to exercise since their mobility has been limited and exercise has become a challenge. This pill will boost their ability to sustain aerobic activity and be able to lose weight, improving their quality of life and health.
MaxDiep · May 22, 2017 at 9:30 am
I found “your muscles ‘taste” sugar” very interesting as I have a lot of friends with type 2 diabetes. It’s interesting how much we thought we knew about which systems were affected by sugar and we are still finding new information with regards to glucose-sensing pathways. Hopefully more research goes into this so we can find better methods to assist individuals with type 2 diabetes and hyperglycemia.
Nicole Sacco · May 25, 2017 at 1:50 pm
I found the article “Taking Folic Acid During Pregnancy Has Positive Effect on Child’s Psychological Development” to be very useful for expecting mothers. Folic acid supplements improved emotional intelligence and levels of resiliency in children when taken throughout pregnancy. The fact that folic acid is a good predictor of children’s resilience and emotional intelligence is quite incredible since it is such an easy way to look out for children’s emotional wellbeing. If this is the case, then why aren’t all expecting mothers prescribed folic acid supplements to benefit their children?
kayleeroe · May 31, 2017 at 11:32 am
I read the article, “‘Exercise in a Pill’ Boosts Athletic Endurance By 70 Percent”. This article was very interesting to me because it discussed how a new pill is being discovered that can enhance endurance without requiring physical training. Since I am very interested in health and physical training, this article caught my attention. While researchers are still trying to discover if humans will receive the same outcome as the rats did from the pill, I believe if this is done it will be an extreme breakthrough in physical health for all people. While it will be able to help those individuals who are not physically capable of exercising and training, I fear that it could cause many people to rely on the pill as an alternative, causing people to stop exercising as much.
nicoleconyers1 · June 8, 2017 at 2:22 pm
I found the article “Energy in a Pill?” very intriguing. One thing I found very interesting was how that brain prefers to break down sugars first before fats and that the mice taking the pills did not have different muscles. I thought it was amazing that the two different types of mice had the same amount of mitochondrion and didn’t need bigger muscles to have better endurance. Also, I like how one of the reasons they have started this project was to help people suffering with type 2 diabetes to increase fat burning and with patients post surgery to maintain their fitness.
madisonklein118 · March 10, 2018 at 12:42 pm
I read the article about exercise in a pill and I thought it was very intriguing that we have the technology to do that. While the article talks about the positive benefits it could bring to people who can not participate in aerobic exercise, I think it comes with too many ethical concerns. I tend to have a general mistrust of drugs because many of them are so new that we have yet to see their long term effect on the human body. In some cases, like chemo therapy, the drug is the lesser of two evils but I don’t think that is the case with this pill. I think this pill has a great potential to be abused not only by people who want to lose weight, but weight loss companies. There are so many people that are self conscious or have eating disorders and this pill could be potentially dangerous in their hands. Additionally, real exercise releases endorphins and reduces stress and so their could be negative consequences if regular people started taking this pill instead of exercising.