Weight Loss Wonders: Tips and Tricks

Sleep is essential and universal, and has been so for our entire existence as a species. Yet it remains one of the great mysteries of science.  Indeed, we aren’t even certain of the core function of sleep, though several compelling hypotheses have been proposed , as we have discussed previously on this show . One reason, perhaps, why sleep remains such a puzzle lies in the way that it is measured.  There is a principle in physics known as the observer effect , which broadly states that the mere observation of some feature of a system will inevitably change that phenomenon – often as a result of instruments that inherently alter the state of what they measure. This principle is typically cited in reference to particle and quantum physics. However, the general idea can be appropriated to biology and medicine as well. For instance, an ornithologist who wants to study the nests of wild birds needs to get closer to them. But in the process of observing these birds, the sci...

When we talk about diseases of civilization, there is perhaps no condition that is more emblematic of this concept than insulin resistance.  Normal glucose regulation is exquisitely orchestrated. When you eat food, that food is broken down into molecules of glucose, and that glucose goes into circulation to be transported throughout the body. Your pancreas detects the rise in blood sugar, and releases the hormone insulin to help shuttle glucose from the blood into cells, where it can be used for energy. So, in a healthy individual, this is a fairly harmonious and smooth-running system. Blood sugar rises, insulin rises in parallel, blood sugar goes back down.  However, in the context of insulin resistance, cells throughout the body cease to respond efficiently to insulin. Consequently, cells fail to take up glucose from the blood, and circulating blood sugar remains high.  And unfortunately it is becoming ever more prevalent. Indeed, a recent study found that only ...