Now on ScienceBlogs: Oxytocin: Starting with the basics
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
Category: Genetics
I have been meaning to talk about this story, but I have been busy. A study in Nature looked for genes linked with "common" obesity (more on that in a moment), and it was one of the first to link...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 4:26 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
This Sunday you are slightly less likely to have a heart attack. Swedish researchers, publishing in the NEJM, looked at a registry of heart attacks from 1987 to 2006. They found that the incidence of heart attacks slightly increases for...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:37 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
The fit-fat fight -- whether someone can be obese but still healthy -- has reignited (if it ever really stopped) with an article in the Archives of Internal Medicine that was reported in the NYTimes. Wildman et al. used data...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 3:46 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
There is an interesting discussion going on at the Becker-Posner blog about obesity abatement. Richard Posner talks about the NY ordinance requiring that calorie counts of food be prominently labeled fast food restaurants: The significance of the New York City...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 5:21 PM • 7 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
It has become almost the conventional wisdom that the obesity epidemic is at least partially attributable to people eating out. I for one really try and avoid eating out because I always feel like I end up eating junk food....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:29 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
Now that is pretty clear. This is from Miller and Silverstein in Nature Clinical Practice. It is in reference to childhood obesity: There has been much debate about the cause of the current epidemic of obesity. Most experts agree that...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:53 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
A speculative theory about how wealth relates to the rates of obesity and what this means for policy
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 2:36 PM • 22 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
Not good news for people who think low carbs is the answer. A recently published study has shown an increase in mortality associated with low-carb/high-protein diets. Studies looking at the comparative effectiveness of different diets have shown that basically all...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:10 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
The NYTimes ran an excerpt of a book called Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss -- and the Myths and Realities of Dieting by Gina Kolata. Having read the excerpt -- I haven't read the whole book --...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:43 AM • 11 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
If this works, this guy is going to make a bagillion dollars: By giving ordinary adult mice a drug - a synthetic designed to mimic fat - Salk Institute scientist Dr. Ronald M. Evans is now able to chemically switch...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:31 AM • 5 Comments •
