Ancestors to blame for diabetes
Diabetes is more common among middle classes due to nutrition endured by their ancestors. According to a new study by an Indian professor, diabetes is likely to develop among middle classes in India and other developing countries. The research, published in Cell Metabolism shows eating a ‘normal’ diet can make animals obese if their ancestors had been undernourished for several generations. The middle classes from developing countries are more susceptible than Westerners to Type-2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease in today’s changing environment which may be a result of nutrition endured by their ancestors, it says. The results could explain projections that more than 70 per cent of the global burden of Type-2 diabetes will fall on individuals from developing countries by 2030, researchers of University of Sydney, the National Centre for Cell Science and the DYP Medical College in Pune, India said. India will have 80 million people with diabetes by 2030, according to WHO.
Does smoking drive you insaneIJ
People who suffer from psychosis are about three times more likely to be smokers, but scientists have long scratched their heads over which one leads to the other. Research published in The lancet Psychiatry suggested daily tobacco use, already known to cause cancer and stroke, may be also be a contributor to mental illness — not necessarily a result of it. Analysing data from 61 studies conducted around the world between 1980 and 2014, a team found that 57 per cent of people first diagnosed with psychosis were smokers. The studies contained data on nearly 15,000 smokers and 273,000 non-smokers, some of whom were diagnosed with psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia.
How brain navigates in the dark
A new research has found a region of the brain that enables humans to do anything and navigate us in our every small task. The research led by University of California, San Diego, explained that the ability of getting around numerous indirect points actually depends upon our brain mapping the position within the environment, knowing routes that take us between locations, and an awareness of the correct actions to initiate at any given time: Turn right, turn left, go straight. Researchers said that place cells and grid cells are neurons in the hippocampal circuit that are responsible for mapping the position of an animal with respect to the broader environment, and neurons in the parietal cortex generate complex representations of the animal’s position along a route.