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December 24, 2012: Molehills and Mountains If you suffer from IBS, chances are you're very considerate of others and even possibly an anxious "catastrophizer." It was repeatedly concluded based on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and psychological questionnaires - for students and non-students, Easterners and Westerners, right-handed and left-handed individuals.
November 29, 2012: Come out smelling like a rose You are what you eat. And you smell like your food. Well, it's actually a bit more complicated - as we emit complex combinations of volatile chemicals produced from food by our own metabolic system as well as microbes that call us home. Same foods can be translated into a wide range of odors, depending on the individual.
November 26, 2012: Close your eyes and tap your heels GPS shoes can point to where you're going, but how will they know where to go? By consulting the map uploaded via USB and its own GPS receivers, wirelessly communicating with each other. For future models, you could probably set up WiFi to let your shoes download more information, talk with other people's shoes and modify your route on the go. So your footware might need its own network access, like agent Maxwell Smart's left shoe with a mobile subscription plan.
September 25, 2012: Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Am I healthy after all? Health management applications will not be limited to smartphones or smart homes. All objects in our lives will gradually become "smarter." Mobile phones can already manage vacuum cleaners and thermostats. Refrigerators can tweet, check Google calendars, download recipes, play tunes and alert us about food spoilage. Mirrors can monitor our weight and exercise. There is still more emphasis these days on technological wizardry than on actual benefits, but systems like Aurametrix are bringing it all together and generating valuable insights.
August 5, 2012: Carbohydrates for your bacteria Our bacteria are picky eaters. Some of them - like Prevotelia - prefer a high carbohydrate diet, while others - like Bacteroides - stick to unhealthy western lifestyle with lots of meat and fat. The most prevalent bacteria in the gut of horses, cows and goats prefer people consuming alcohol and polyunsaturated fats. Methanobrevibacter is most abundant in anorexic nervosa patients. Gram negative bacillus Bilophila wadsworthia loves people with gangrenous appendicitis or those whose diets are high in milk fat. The most widely promoted prebiotics inulin and fructooligosaccharides seem to attract Bifidobacteria. What about diets low in poorly absorbed fermentable carbohydrates aka FODMAPs that seem to aggravate irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) ? Which bacteria is responsible?
July 15, 2012: On Apples and Trees An apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So if you don't like apples, trees won't like you either. And the other way around.
June 23, 2012: Cars That Care Health technology of the future promises an easy life with no interruption in your daily activities. For example, information about your health could be collected while you're driving. A car is already viewed as a health platform and wellness coach by leading manufacturers. How would this work?
May 26, 2012: More apps, less flu? Fewer people caught the flu this season compared with past years. And many more apps tracking the flu have been developed. Any relationship between these two trends?
May 7, 2012: Finding the Goldilocks Solution A top story in today's news is related to a recent scientific paper published in Current Biology concerning the dinosaurs. British scientists wanted to know, "Could methane produced by sauropod dinosaurs have helped drive Mesozoic climate warmth?" By their estimates, some 520 million tons of methane (a "greenhouse gas" emission) were produced by the flatulent beasts every year. This begs the question, do flatulent humans today also contribute to global warming?
March 11, 2012: Hello Summertime!.. Owls Beware Environment can significantly affect human health. And the risks are not limited to air pollution, seasonal allergies, tainted water or chemicals in food. Our life dramas are set against the backdrop of world events that contribute to environmental health too, to a lesser or greater extent. How does springing clocks forward affect our lives?
January 10, 2012: Studying body odor: one step at a time Unpleasant body odors could be a sign of a disease. But even when the cause of the disease is known - an example is trimethylaminuria or TMAU - there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Elimination of choline and other essential nutrients from diet can be harmful and unhelpful. Everyone has their own unique needs, with individual combinations of foods, activities and optimal environmental conditions.
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