Body-Mind-Spirit News

• DNA: Defects you can fix with vitamins and minerals
  Scientists have found an important reason (besides finding disease genes) to delve into your genetic heritage: to find the slight genetic flaws that can be fixed with remedies as simple as vitamin or mineral supplements. They found there are many genetic differences that make people's enzymes less efficient than normal, and that simple supplementation with vitamins can often restore some of these deficient enzymes to full working order [ALSO, Enzyme Supplementation]...
• Starving may fend off jet lag
  Starving yourself before a long flight may help prevent jet lag, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. Normally, the body's natural circadian clock in the brain dictates when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce...
• Eating and weight gain not necessarily linked, study shows
  The discovery reveals that the neurotransmitter serotonin, already known to control appetite and fat build-up, actually does so through two separate signaling channels. One set of signals regulates feeding, and a separate set of signals regulates fat metabolism...
• Men and women have different sugar metabolisms
  Researchers conclude that gender has to be taken into consideration in studies evaluating the relationship between nutrition and metabolic disorders...
• Reason found for more heart deaths in winter
  Cold air temperature boosts inflammation in the body, one mechanism by which cold weather is associated with an increase in cardiovascular mortality...
• Paralysed man takes a walk in virtual world
  A paralysed man using only his brain waves has been able to manipulate a virtual Internet character, Japanese researchers said Monday, calling it a world first...
• Brain chemical helps us tolerate foul play
  Researchers suspected for years that there is a link between serotonin and impulsive aggression and emotional regulation. A new study confirms this suspicion...
• Latest vehicle alternative: Inflatable Electric Cars
  You buy the car online, it gets shipped to you in two cardboard boxes, and the estimated assembly time is less than two hours. The car is made out of "airbags" (the same polymer materials used to cushion NASA's rovers when they landed on Mars), so that you can drive the car off a cliff without serious injury, and it will float in a flood or tsunami...