Kyoto, Japan -- Researchers have found that fish oil transforms fat-storage cells into fat-burning cells, which may reduce weight gain in middle age.

The team explains in Scientific Reports that fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system, and induces storage cells to metabolize fat.

Fat tissues don't all store fat. So-called "white" cells store fat in order to maintain energy supply, while "brown" cells metabolize fat to maintain a stable body temperature. Brown cells are abundant in babies but decrease in number with maturity into adulthood.

A commonly used skin care ingredient is one of several newly identified compounds that can mimic the life-extending effect of a starvation diet, finds a new lab study.

Calorie restriction, a dramatic reduction in calorie intake, has been found to slow down the aging process in several animal models. Mice weaned on it from birth live longer but to-date it has not been shown to work in humans, since such an experiment on babies would be a human rights violation. Efforts are on to try and create drugs that can reproduce this effect, without the side effects of starvation.

Ever wonder how much the price you pay for an All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) buffet influences how you feel at the end of the meal? To explore this idea and address the lack of studies that do, this study examines whether pricing affects key indicators such as overeating, physical discomfort, and guilt. Researchers discovered that lower paying diners feel more physically uncomfortable and guiltier compared to the higher paying diners, even when eating the same amount - a finding that has implications for consumers, restaurants, and public health officials. This study is unique in that it was conducted in the field, where subjects' natural behavior could be observed unobtrusively.

AMHERST, Mass - Using 20 years of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from tens of thousands of brain imaging experiments, computational neuroscientists Hava Siegelmann and a postdoctoral colleague at the University of Massachusetts have created a geometry-based method for massive data analysis to reach a new understanding of how thought arises from brain structure.

The authors say their work paves the way for advances in the identification and treatment of brain disease, as well as in deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Details appear in the current issue of Nature Scientific Reports.

New York, NY - Recent studies conclude that people with epilepsy have a 27-fold greater risk of sudden death than people without the disorder. However, many of these deaths could be prevented through greater identification of epilepsy as a cause of death, and in educating the public more effectively about the disease's life-threatening dangers.

These are the opinions shared by some of the country's leading epilepsy researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, in an opinion article published online December 16 in the journal Neurology. The authors call for a broad public health campaign and improved cause-of-death reporting.

The 2015 Monitoring the Future survey (MTF) shows decreasing use of a number of substances, including cigarettes, alcohol, prescription opioid pain relievers, and synthetic cannabinoids ("synthetic marijuana"). Other drug use remains stable, including marijuana, with continued high rates of daily use reported among 12th graders, and ongoing declines in perception of its harms.

The MTF survey measures drug use and attitudes among eighth, 10th, and 12th graders, and is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The survey has been conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor since 1975.

Almost 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Strategies for fighting obesity, such as pharmacological and behavioral approaches to decrease food intake, have been only marginally successful. Patients who have undergone various surgeries for the gastrointestinal system have found success, but these are extreme measures. Scientists are hopeful that increasing energy expenditure with brown or brite/beige fat cells could be an effective way to fight obesity.