vagus nerve tagged posts

New Study links Liver-Brain Communication to Daily Eating Patterns

eating
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

People who work the nightshift or odd hours and eat at irregular times are more prone to weight gain and diabetes, likely due to eating patterns not timed with natural daylight and when people typically eat. But is it possible to stave off the ill effects of eating at these “unusual” times despite it not being biologically preferable?

A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania says “yes,” and sheds light on how the body knows when to eat. The study, published in Science, explains how researchers discovered a connection between the liver’s internal clock and feeding centers in the brain.

The team’s research shows that the liver sends signals to the brain via the vagus nerve, letting the brain know if eating...

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New Gut-Brain Circuits found for Sugar and Fat Cravings

Fat, sugar, and the combination of both (chocolate) navigate a gut-brain maze. The blue path represents the sugar route, the green path signifies the fat route, and the yellow path represents the combined impact of fats and sugars. Each path leads to the brain, but the combined route has a greater impact, triggering heightened dopamine release in the reward circuits, emphasizing the synergistic effect of fat-sugar combinations on neural responses. Image credit: Isadora Barga, de Lartigue lab

A new study has unraveled the internal neural wiring of separate fat and sugar craving pathways. However, combining these pathways overly triggers a desire to eat more than usual. Understanding why we overeat unhealthy foods has been a long-standing mystery...

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