Week in Review

Mice: It's Better To Go Hungry Than To Go Running

A study in the May issue of the American Journal of Physiology found that hormonal changes in the body are the reason rodents that eat less live longer than those that exercise regularly. The study found that a diet of fewer calories leads to physiological changes that benefit the body, including the fact that how much mice ate determined their insulin level — high levels are associated with diabetes — while exercise did not have much effect. There are significant differences between mice and humans, but the study "shows what physiological changes caloric restriction and exercise produce," the lead author, Derek Huffman, said. "We can continue to build upon these findings until we can get a better understanding of how this works in people."

Marijuana and Heart Attacks

Long-term marijuana use increases the risk of heart attack and stroke because the active chemical in the drug, THC, binds to certain receptors found in the brain, heart, liver, and other organs. Studying 18 long-term heavy marijuana users and 24 non-drug-using volunteers, a new study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry found that a certain protein in the blood that is associated with triglyceride levels is found in greater amounts in marijuana users than in the control group.

Common Drug May Halt Lung Damage

A commonly used antibiotic may prevent tissue damage caused by lung diseases such as emphysema. The drug doxycycline, used to treat acne, sinusitis, and urinary tract infections, also boosts the body's ability to protect against lung damage, researchers from the University of Leeds and the University of California at San Diego, found. Sufferers of emphysema have unusually low levels of a protein that is found in the drug, and that is critical to maintain healthy lung tissue. It is too early to say whether the findings could help prevent lung disease in humans with a genetic predisposition, the scientists cautioned. "It's also important to remember that we were treating the mice with the drug whilst inducing the symptoms of lung disease, so this is by no means a cure," a researcher from the School of Medicine at UCSD, Ellen Breen, said.

Gene Responsible For Sweet Tooth

Individuals with a specific genetic variation consume more sugary foods, a new study from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto found. The research team tested the effect of a common variation in the glucose transporter type two gene, known as GLUT2, which controls the entry of sugar into cells. The researchers studied the gene in older adults who were overweight or obese, and young adults of normal body weight. By comparing the genotype with the food intake information each subject provided, researchers found that individuals with the GLUT2 variation consistently consumed more sugar, regardless of age or sex.

Information Escapes From Black Holes

Physicists at Pennsylvania State University have proved that information can be recovered from black holes, the regions of space where gravity is so strong that, according to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, not even light can escape. It was once thought that all matter in black holes is permanently lost when the holes evaporate. Beginning in the 1990s, however, that assertion was reversed. Now, physicists at the school's Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos have found a mechanism to prove this by expanding the space-time continuum beyond its assumed size and thereby providing room for the matter to appear. "Information only appears to be lost because we have been looking at a restricted part of the true quantum mechanical space-time," a collaborator on the study and a professor at the Raman Research Institute in India, Madhavan Varadarajan, said.

When Stressed, Men Crave Alcohol More Than Women

A new study from the Yale University School of Medicine shows that when men become upset, they are more likely to crave alcohol than women. By exposing 27 women and 27 men to different stresses, researchers assessed participants' emotions, bodily responses, heart rate, and blood pressure to determine alcohol craving. "After listening to the stressful story, women reported more sadness and anxiety than men, as well as greater behavioral arousal," an associate research scientist and author of the study, Tara Chaplin, said. For the men, "emotional arousal was linked to increases in alcohol craving."

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