The brains of children who are obese function differently from those of children of healthy weight, and exhibit an "imbalance" between food-seeking and food-avoiding behaviors, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found.

Diet and exercise may not be enough to restore normal weight or prevent overweight children from becoming obese, they conclude. It may be necessary to change their brain function.

In a paper published Thursday, Jan. 21, in the journal Heliyon, the researchers suggest that mindfulness, a practice used as a therapeutic technique to focus awareness, should be studied as a way to encourage healthy eating and weight loss in children.

It's long been known that excess iron is found in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), an incurable neurodegenerative condition that affects motor function. The mechanism by which the iron wreaks damage on neurons involved in PD has not been clear. Research from the Andersen lab at the Buck Institute suggests that the damage stems from an impairment in the lysosome, the organelle that acts as a cellular recycling center for damaged proteins. Scientists report the impairment allows excess iron to escape into the neurons where it causes toxic oxidative stress. The research will be published online in The Journal of Neuroscience on Jan. 27, 2016.

Fatty liver is independently associated with subclinical heart failure in obese people, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. The findings add more support to the importance of dietary interventions in such patients, researchers said.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), also known as hepatic steatosis, is the most common liver disease, with a prevalence of up to 30 percent in the general population and between 70 percent and 90 percent among persons who are obese or have type 2 diabetes. NAFLD is considered as a manifestation of the metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors like high blood pressure, excess abdominal fat and unhealthy cholesterol levels that raise the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other health problems.

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 26, 2015 - Young adults who spend a lot of time on social media during the day or check it frequently throughout the week are more likely to suffer sleep disturbances than their peers who use social media less, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Published online and scheduled for the April issue of the journal Preventive Medicine, the study indicates that physicians should consider asking young adult patients about social media habits when assessing sleep issues. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Marion Nestle, Vani Hari, Michael Pollan; we have all seen messages from self-appointed "food police" telling us that sugary snacks are bad, GMOs are bad, everything except organic vegetables (they seem to believe those have no pesticides or genetic modification) is bad.

But they may be doing more harm than good, not just for public acceptance of science, but for the people they claim to want to help. The government is doing the same thing. They are increasing their use of public service announcements (PSAs) about the dangers of unhealthy eating. 

There are not many "nicotine naïve" teens using e-cigarettes - who have never tried cigarettes - but of those few who do, they are more likely to try the real thing a year later than those who have never vaped, indicates survey results in the journal Tobacco Control.

However, subsequent regular smoking is linked only to higher levels of e-cigarette use at the outset, which sends statistical experts into all kinds of alarm.