Good sleep for weight loss

Having a good night's sleep helps people to lose weight most effectively, dieters who had regular sleep patterns found it easier to shed pounds from their waistline.

The most effective dieters sleep between seven hours thirty minutes and eight hours a night. It also allows 90 minutes for the most restorative non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep which is best achieved before midnight.

Throughout the night, human pass through four stages of sleep several times. The majority of  dreaming during the fourth stage, called the 'rapid-eye movement' (REM) phase.

 Research found that about one in three don’t get enough sleep in general. Missing out on dreaming that occurs during REM-sleep can have particularly dire consequences on mental and physical health.

Poor sleepers (those sleeping for less than seven hours a night) were found to have the most chaotic eating patterns. They were also more prone to diet lapses and were more likely to exceed their weekly limits for alcohol consumption.
          haleplushearty.blogspot.com

Molecules in zebrafish may heal spinal cord injury

Researchers have discovered mechanism in the damaged spines of zebrafish that helps nerve connections to regrow. Zebrafish have the remarkable ability to regain full movement within four weeks of injury to their spinal cord.

Damage to human spinal cord leads to paralysis. After injury to the spinal cord in zebrafish, wound-healing cells called 'fibroblasts' move into the site of damage.

The fibroblasts produce a molecule called collagen 12, which changes the structure of the support matrix that surrounds nerve fibres.

This enables the damaged fibres to grow back across the wound site and restore the lost connections.
Scientists found that fibroblasts are instructed to make collagen 12 by a chemical signal called 'wnt'.

Understanding these signals could hold clues for therapies to heal the spinal cord after injury. This connections between the brain and muscles of the body lost after spinal cord injury in humans can be used to provide better treatment
          haleplushearty.blogspot.com

How an egg changes to embryo

Changing of an egg into a developing embryo is one of life's most remarkable development in human.

As an egg develops, it accumulates large mRNAs from the mother because it will not have time to create new mRNAs during the rapid development into embryo.

Messenger RNA (mRNA ) is a large family of RNA molecules that carries genetic information from DNA to the ribosome, where they specify the amino acid sequence of the protein products of gene expression.

The maternal mRNAs are used for a short period of time before the embryo starts synthesizing its own mRNAs. About two to four cell divisions occur before the change.

When fertilized, the egg becomes an embryo, the egg cell becomes active, development starts and it changes into an embryo.

        haleplushearty.blogspot.com

New genetics locations of types 2 diabetes

Scientists from University College London and Imperial College London in the United Kingdom have identified new genetic locations that might make some people more prone to developing type 2 diabetes.

 Researchers were aware of 76 chromosomal locations before this discovery New research analyzed the human genome further and found an additional 111.

Dr. Nikolas Maniatis of University College London's (UCL) Genetics, Evolution, and Environment department, together with Dr. Toby Andrew of Imperial College London's Department of Genomics of common disease.

Using a UCL-developed method of genetic mapping, Maniatis and team examined large samples of European and African American people, summarizing 5,800 cases of type 2 diabetes and almost 9,700 healthy controls.

They found that the new location together with the old one control the expression of more than 266 genes surrounding the genetic location of the disease.

Most of the newly discovered location were found outside of the coding regions of these genes, but within so-called hotspots that change the expression of these genes in body fat.

Of the newly identified 111 locations 93 were found in European and African American population samples.
After identifying genetic location, the next step was to use deep sequence analysis to try to determine the genetic mutations responsible for the disease.

Gene mapping finds areas associated with diabetes - causing genetic location
Maniatis and colleagues used deep sequencing to further examine three of the cross-population locations with the aim of identifying the genetic mutations.

They then examined different sample of 94 Europeans with type 2 diabetes, as well as 94 healthy controls. Researchers
discovered that the three locations coincided with chromosomal regions that regulate gene expression, contain epigenetic markers, and present genetic mutations that have been suggested to cause type 2 diabetes.

Komodo dragon blood may become an antibiotics

Harmful microbes are developing resistance to drugs that used to kill them, scientists are looking for powerful antibiotics that can destroy bacteria.

The bacterium Clostridium difficile is responsible for about 250,000 infections and 14,000 death, this makes it a threat to human.

Komodo dragon may be the new source of antibiotics because of its special qualities according to Van Hoek and colleagues.

Reptiles are strong animals, Komodo dragon can eat decayed food without any effect, peptide VK25 in its blood contains antimicrobial properties that can prevent biofilms.

The researchers rearrange two amino acids in its blood-VK25 to make it more effective and discovered new synthetic version of the peptide called DRGN-1

The team tested DRGN-1 on mice wounds that had Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stephlococcus aureus, the synthetic peptide destroyed the biofilm of the wounds and the two bacterial strains.

This positive result will make it effective in healing wounds and an effective antibiotics for human.

Exercise linked with improved heart attack survival

The chance of surviving heart attack is high if you are engaged in regular exercise.

According to professor of cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation, University of Copenhagen, myocardial infarctions are less fatal in animal that exercise.

The study want to see if exercise prevent myocardial infarction in human, 14,223 participants who had never had a heart attack or stroke were examined.

Their level of physical activity was assessed in 1976-1978 and classified as sedentary, light, moderate or high.

The participants were monitored until 2013, A total of 1,664 had myocardial infarction and 425 died immediately.

Researchers discovered that patients who exercised may not die from myocardial infarction, while sedentary patients were more likely to die.

Regular exercise improves blood flow and reduce heart injury, it can also leads to development of collateral blood vessels in the heart which supplies blood to the heart after a blockage.

Apps for brain training

Increase in age decrease the cognitive functions of human brain, being mentally active at old age can maintain cognitive functioning of the brain.

Brain can be trained by learning something new, playing games and solving puzzles.

Studies suggested brain training apps for mental stimulation at old age, regular brain training improves brain processing speed and memory.

 Some of the best brain training apps
• Luminosity - It is used by many people across the world, it has fun games designed to train speed, memory, flexible, attention and problem-solving.

•Elevate - This app is created to develop mathematics and speaking skills, It also improves attention, memory and processing speed.

•Peak - It improves concentration, memory, problem-solving and language.