Research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California's (USC) Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute shows for the first time that the human placenta plays an active role in synthesizing serotonin, paving the way to new treatment strategies that could mitigate health impacts, such as cardiovascular disease and mental illness. The groundbreaking findings, conducted with researchers from Van ...

Do you belong to the one-half of the population that frequently uses dietary supplements with the hope that it might be good for you? According to a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, there seems to be an interesting asymmetrical relationship between the frequency of dietary supplement use and the health status of individual ...

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time determined that the ketogenic diet, a specialized high-fat, low carbohydrate diet, may reverse impaired kidney function in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. They also identified a previously unreported panel of genes associated with diabetes-related kidney failure, whose expression was reversed by the diet. The findings were publi ...

The brain’s hypothalamus plays a key role in obesity and one of its major complications – type 2 diabetes. Nerve cells in the hypothalamus detect nutrients and hormones circulating in the blood and then coordinate a complex series of behavioral and physiological responses to maintain a balance between calories eaten and calories burned. Obesity and diabetes can result when this regulatory mechanism goes awr ...

Spring is here, and with the warmer weather comes discomfort for many allergy and asthma sufferers. But Fred Pescatore, M.D., the acclaimed author of The Allergy & Asthma Cure as well as the bestselling The Hamptons Diet, has some good news: It does not have to be that way. ...

Everyone knows that eating a low-fat, low-calorie diet and getting regular exercise helps shed pounds, but a new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that when it comes to losing weight and body fat, diet and exercise are most effective when done together as compared to either strategy alone. ...

There is increasing evidence from human and animal studies that offspring of parents who were physically or psychologically stressed are at higher risk of developing obesity, and that these offspring may in turn "transmit" that increased risk to the next generation. Now research conducted at the University of Minnesota and Georgetown University suggests that a mother's nutritional or psychological stress du ...

Everyone has heard the old adage, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” We all know we should eat more fruit. But why apples? Do they contain specific benefits? According to Dr. Bahram H. Arjmandi, PhD, RD, Margaret A. Sitton Professor and Chair, Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences at The Florida State University, apples are truly a “miracle fruit” that convey benefits beyond fiber content ...

For obese seniors, dieting and exercise together are more effective at improving physical performance and reducing frailty than either alone. The research, by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is reported March 31 in The New England Journal of Medicine. Older adults who are obese face severe health risks, including high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, which can be ...

If given the choice between eating a hot dog or enjoying some rotisserie chicken, consider the hot dog. That is because hot dogs, as well as pepperoni and deli meats, are relatively free of carcinogenic compounds, according to Kansas State University research. But it is a not-so-happy ending for bacon and rotisserie chicken - especially chicken skin - because both have higher levels of cancerous material. T ...