from the that-is-the-way,-folks,-that-they-created-the-cookie-monster dept.
Researchers Find Brain Circuit Linked to Food Impulsivity:
Impulsivity, or responding without thinking about the consequences of an action, has been linked to excessive food intake, binge eating, weight gain and obesity, along with several psychiatric disorders including drug addiction and excessive gambling.
[...] "There's underlying physiology in your brain that is regulating your capacity to say no to (impulsive eating)," said Emily Noble, an assistant professor in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences who served as lead author on the paper. "In experimental models, you can activate that circuitry and get a specific behavioral response."
Using a rat model, researchers focused on a subset of brain cells that produce a type of transmitter in the hypothalamus called melanin concentrating hormone (MCH).
[...] "We found that when we activate the cells in the brain that produce MCH, animals become more impulsive in their behavior around food," Noble said.
To test impulsivity, researchers trained rats to press a lever to receive a "delicious, high-fat, high-sugar" pellet, Noble said. However, the rat had to wait 20 seconds between lever presses. If the rat pressed the lever too soon, it had to wait an additional 20 seconds.
Researchers then used advanced techniques to activate a specific MCH neural pathway from the hypothalamus to the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved with learning and memory function.
Results indicated MCH doesn't affect how much the animals liked the food or how hard they were willing to work for the food. Rather, the circuit acted on the animals' inhibitory control, or their ability to stop themselves from trying to get the food."Activating this specific pathway of MCH neurons increased impulsive behavior without affecting normal eating for caloric need or motivation to consume delicious food," Noble said. "Understanding that this circuit, which selectively affects food impulsivity, exists opens the door to the possibility that one day we might be able to develop therapeutics for overeating that help people stick to a diet without reducing normal appetite or making delicious foods less delicious."
Journal Reference:
Emily E. Noble, et al. Hypothalamus-hippocampus circuitry regulates impulsivity via melanin-concentrating hormone. Nature Communications, 2019; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12895-y
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:16AM (9 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:23AM (1 child)
https://hightimes.com/health/cannabis-mental-health-anorexia-nervosa/ [hightimes.com]
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:52AM
Google 2020 - "Be evil. Be very evil."
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:51PM (6 children)
Why bother? Just have them do bodybuilding where their type of crazy is rewarded and is, for the most part, healthy.
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(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday January 04 2020, @06:04PM (5 children)
Have you ever seen an anorexic. Bird-like limbs, wasted away bodies, scrawny necks that make it hard to keep their heads erect for extended periods. Ultimately, feeding tubes inserted in a hole in the abdomen because they won't eat.
They end up just shuffling along or in wheel chairs because they don't even have the strength to walk properly, they're so wasted away.
Thought of the day: "Google 2020 motto: Be evil. Be VERY evil."
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday January 04 2020, @08:20PM (4 children)
So if a treatment works for stages 1-3 but fails stage 4, it's not good enough? The patients you're describing take a while to get there. In that time, if the doctors weren't so preoccupied with convincing them they're crazy and "curing" them but were instead redirecting them to a different, less harmful body dysmorphia, they might never have made it to the wheelchair shuffling stages.
Seriously, I've met plenty of bodybuilders who were just the other side of the coin. Some diagnosed even. All these body obsessives types are the same and can't really be cured. But if you can convert one type for another, one not? Can't imagine getting them high enough that they'll eat without thinking is a sustainable solution by comparison.
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(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday January 04 2020, @10:29PM (3 children)
Problem is, they ARE crazy, in the sense that they have a delusion that will kill them. You can have harmless delusions all you want, but when they interfere with your day-to-day functioning to the point that you starve yourself to death, you're crazy. (note - crazy isn't a medical term, but it sums it up pretty well)
You can't tell them in the earlier stages that they're harming themselves. They won't see it. Try dealing with one. Heck, even immediate family members will be in denial. I know - I had one sister who was clearly anorexic, but nobody else in the family would admit it, even after she ended up in the hospital. It took a while after that for anyone else in the family to admit it, though the doctors saw it right away with the emaciation and refusal to eat most anything. She died 2 years ago from kidney failure.
The earlier stages can be similarly dismissed as picky eating, dieting, or whatever ("they've always been skinny").
So no, your idea won't work, but you're welcome to try it. Problem is, they see nothing wrong with their bodies even though they're literally starving to death.
Thought of the day: "Google 2020 motto: Be evil. Be VERY evil."
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Touché) by RamiK on Sunday January 05 2020, @01:20AM (2 children)
Yeah I was carrying a sarcastic tone mimicking them. For the same reason you brought up:
Which is my point. They'll just ignore the doctors anyhow so you might as well catch em soon and redirect them to something that won't kill them as fast while telling them the truth: It's a faster and healthier way to lose fat and look better. I mean, they're still crazy. And they'll never be satisfied with anything. But it's probably better.
That's why bodybuilding type gym religion could work for them. What "always been" is what you're trying to "fix". Skinny specifically is a cardinal sin with kids shoving hamburgers down after legs day... It's a whole lot of reverse anorexia crazy that plays on the same triggers which is why it's classified similarly as a body dysmorphia / eating disorder.
Worked for some. Look up "anorexia bodybuilding" and see for yourself.
Well, they think they're too fat. Which is fairly easy to retort with "your body won't let you drop fat unless you build up some muscle". Which I've heard being said to skinny people at the gym hundreds of times by the coaches back when I went there. And some of those skinny people did build up some muscle as a result. Not saying they specifically were anorexics. Just saying, it's a very different response and thought process which worked for some.
To be honest I've heard multiple accounts of bodybuilders screwing up their kidneys with diuretics and steroids so it's not exactly a foolproof solution... Well, belated condolences and all.
Regardless, it's all just my 2 cents as a casual observer from the bleachers in my long tradition of playing TV physician and arm-chair general online. If it sounds off to you as someone with actual experience on the subject, you're probably right. Though I still think it's worth trying... But not like I haven't anyone to try it on.
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(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday January 05 2020, @03:58AM (1 child)
You'd think she had a death wish, but she was deathly afraid of dying. Even the night before she died, when I said that she could opt for a medically induced coma and get the best feeling she ever had on her way out of this world, she wanted to stick with the pain and suffering instead.
Thought of the day: "After you stop using social media and online videos long enough you no longer have the free time for them."
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday January 06 2020, @01:45AM
Yeah that's pretty much settles that.
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(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:00AM
I'm not weak willed, nor do I have big bones. I have a tumor in my brain that, instead of causing cancer, makes me fat! Who knew?
Do these scienticians have a GoFundMe, or Patreon page I can send money to? Cuz sure as hell the skinny politicians ain't gonna be funding this much needed research.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:09AM
Realistically we know so little about brains that making this kind of linkage is a real stretch. IMO, the chance that a complex behavior like impulsiveness is controlled by one factor in one corner of the brain is damn unlikely. If nothing else, recent research in brain plasticity suggests that many other parts of the brain could also be capable of producing similar behavior.
It's a shame that science has to pretend to be making big progress in this area (decoding how the brain works) to get continued funding.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Saturday January 04 2020, @07:18AM (4 children)
None of these fad diets do anything. Mostly it is avoiding being in war zones, not engaging in sex with married persons, and not partaking of drugs with a rather low lethal dose. That is what I recommend, and a very, very, old person.
On the other hand, do you want to suffer my fate? Being a philosopher in an age of idiots and Trump supporters, and the ImPregnable TMB? Living until the point when reason is no longer effective? When assassination becomes the American method of international relations? I can only hope that the result, internationally, of Trump shooting someone on Fifth Avenue, is that Trump gets shot in Florida, just like Trayvon, with a handful of skittles. Trump skittles. Little, artery-clogging, Iranian, skittles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @10:07AM (3 children)
> not engaging in sex with married persons,
I got halfway through that phrase and anticipated it was going to end with "people that have STDs". Glad to hear that you are committed to NOT being a home-wrecker!
By now you must have had chickenpox and then shingles a few times...any suggestions for the shingles bit?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday January 04 2020, @11:22AM (2 children)
Traditionally, edged weapon, but more recently blunt force at high velocity, a coward's and a cuckold's weapon. The point, however, remains the same. Stifle thyself, and do not go all Snow, for long life. Just my experience.
As for Shingles, get the god-damned vaccination! You are not the helpless infant of some "famous" twat, are you? Oh my god, are you? Call Child Protective Services post haste!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06 2020, @04:35AM (1 child)
Snuck on me before I was at the age to get the vaccine...and there is a long waiting list around here to get it at all.
Not all that bad, one arm had pins and needles last summer, no obvious cause, initially diagnosed as a pinched pain nerve, which dissipated over a month or so. Little spots on the same arm appeared in November, that's what gave it away. Since most people only get it once, I figured that was it. But now a similar arm pain is back again.
In 2400 years I figured you might have had it more than just a few times...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday January 06 2020, @06:29AM
You are furking going to die, like most people I have known. Nothing personal, but I suggest you do the Jewish thing and try to square with anyone you have mistreated. And then, try to contribute something to humanity at large. Systemd is a large example of how not to do this. You need to be remembered for positive contributions, not like ESR, or Bruce Perens, or Charles Manson. Think more like Ghandi, or Linus Torvalds, or Jonas Salk, or, well, those are all the pure examples I can come up with, at the moment. But try. Trying counts, it is good karma.