The Ingredients of Appetite: 50 cell types in brain region related to metabolism

Harvard: Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have catalogued more than 20,000 brain cells in one region of the mouse hypothalamus. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, revealed some 50 distinct cell types, including a previously undescribed neuron type that may underlie some of the genetic risk of human obesity. This catalog of cell types marks the first time neuroscientists have established a comprehensive “parts list” for this area of the brain. The new information will allow researchers to establish which cells play what roles.

Ease of weight loss influenced by individual biology

NIH: For the first time in a lab, researchers at the National Institutes of Health found evidence supporting the commonly held belief that people with certain physiologies lose less weight than others when limiting calories. Study results published May 11 in Diabetes. Researchers at the Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch, studied 12 men and women with obesity in the facility’s metabolic unit. Using a whole-room indirect calorimeter – which allows energy expenditure to be calculated based on air samples – researchers took baseline measurements of the participants’ energy expenditure in response to a day of fasting, followed by a six-week inpatient phase of 50 percent calorie reduction. The researchers found that the people who lost the least weight during the calorie-reduced period were those whose metabolism decreased the most during fasting. Those people have what the researchers call a “thrifty” metabolism, compared to a “spendthrift” metabolism in those who lost the most weight and whose metabolism decreased the least.

Do ice cream and cold drinks cool us down?

Queensland University. Australia: All over the world summer is synonymous with water activities, cold beverages and, of course, ice cream. While most of us agree ice cream and cold beverages are refreshing summer treats, do they actually help cool us down?