Exercise May Encourage Healthy Eating Via Brain Changes

 

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From a 24 Nov 2011 Medical News Today article

Exercise may encourage healthy eating by changing parts of the brain that influence impulsive behaviour, according to a new review of the available literature by researchers from Spain and the US published in Obesity Reviews. The researchers conclude that in a society where we are surrounded by temptations and triggers that facilitate over-eating and excess, the part of the brain responsible for “inhibitory control” undergoes “relentless strain” (they note it has limited capacity anyway), and doing exercise on a regular basis enhances it.

“By enhancing the resources that facilitate ‘top-down’ inhibitory control, increased physical activity may help compensate and suppress the hedonic drive to over-eat,” they write. ……

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The culture of medicine needs to change

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by SHARON BAHRYCH, PA-C, MPH in the 23 Nov 2011 article at KevinMD.com

’ve been involved in clinical medicine for more than 20 years and during this time I’ve come across numerous situations that created stress, or emotional upheaval within myself, and even times of burnout.  At one point, I came close to permanently leaving my chosen profession.  The culture of medicine is not geared towards allowing health care providers to de-stress, acquire emotional support, or discuss in an encouraging environment various conflictive work scenarios with their colleagues. The end result of this culture of medicine leads providers to either leave their chosen profession, have professional burnout, deal with work conflict and/or become emotionally broken (i.e. having a lack of integrity, honesty, emotional connectedness with others, etc.)

An example of medicine’s culture which needs to be changed and causes conflict is one of its many unwritten rules of professional conduct.  It states that the hospital attending is the only one who is supposed to go in and tell a patient their medical diagnosis and treatment.  Anyone else on the medical team is just supposed to pretend as though they don’t know anything until after the attending has discussed the diagnosis with the patient.  Usually this works out, but it can also lead to a breakdown in patient’s trusting their providers and/or asking team members to lie to patients until the attending has this discussion.  This can lead to dishonesty and a lack of integrity on the part of the providers…..

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The Case for Personalized Medicine: Interview with Edward Abrahams of PMC

This article in the 25 November Science Roll blog has interview Q and A’s with Edward Abrahams, Ph.D. of the Personalized Medicine Coalition. Topics include RNA sequencing, gene sequencing economics, and gene sequencing statistics.

The third edition of The Case for Personalized Medicine (PDF) was released a week ago

Some quotes….

The power in tailored therapeutics is for us to say more clearly to payers, providers, and patients—‘this drug is not for everyone, but it is for you.’ That is exceedingly powerful.”

John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Eli Lilly and Company

 

 

As the field advances, we expect to see more efficient clinical  trials based on a more thorough understanding of the genetic  basis of disease. We also anticipate that some previously  failed medications will be recognized as safe and effective  and will be approved for subgroups of patients with specific genetic markers.”

Margaret Hamburg, M.D.

Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D.

Director, National Institutes of Health

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