vagus nerve tagged posts

We become forgetful as we age. This is often seen as a universal truth, but in fact it is far from universal: some people remain incredibly sharp at 100 years old, while others experience memory loss starting in middle age.

While it seems logical that age-related cognitive decline would be blamed on brain aging and degeneration (which, like anything in the brain, is notoriously hard to treat), there’s some evidence that processes elsewhere in the body influence the brain’s abil...

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...

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...