From Your Health Journal…..”I do enjoy many articles on the Medical Xpress web site. They always have up to date material, as well as exciting new finds, so I do try to promote their site to my visitors as much as possible. Their site is very reliable, good ratings – so please go there for some exciting news. Today’s article was written by Sathya Achia Abraham entitled Worm Offers Clues To Obesity. I know some of you are saying to yourself, ‘wow, that sounds likes like a headline from one of the gossip magazines.’ But, with science, anything is possible. Obesity rates are growing all over the world. Adults and children show many risk factors for heart disease, cancers, type 2 diabetes, low self esteem, weak joints, and other chronic illness – all related to weight gain. So many people are becoming very sedentary due to all the advancements in technology, busy lifestyles, or their environment. Many people are looking for solutions and answers as to why we cannot control it. Yes, the obvious answer, eat right and exercise. But, even though many know this, it still is not happening. So, science experiments to look for solutions as well. Now, a transparent, bacteria-eating roundworm known as Caenorhabditis elegans – measuring approximately 1 mm in length – may provide researchers some insight into factors that contribute to obesity. Researchers suggest that C. elegans has the ability to remember specific food – it feeds on bacteria – after it experiences it and consumes what is familiar more actively than food that is not. This same behavior also is observed in humans. Please visit the Medical Xpress web site (link provided below) to read the complete article. I found it very interesting.”

From the article…..

As obesity rates continue to rise, experts are searching for answers in the clinic and at the lab bench to determine the types and amounts of food that people should eat.

Now, a transparent, bacteria-eating roundworm known as Caenorhabditis elegans – measuring approximately 1 mm in length – may provide researchers some insight into factors that contribute to obesity.

New findings reported by Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers suggest that C. elegans has the ability to remember specific food – it feeds on bacteria – after it experiences it and consumes what is familiar more actively than food that is not. This same behavior also is observed in humans. The study was published Feb. 5 in the online journal eLIFE.

The VCU team found that preference for familiarity is mediated by a pair of serotonergic neurons in the nervous system of C. elegans. The team observed that the activity of the serotonergic neurons is suppressed selectively by taste and/or smell of novel food (bacteria).

“We have discovered how food experience, an acquired factor that significantly affects food consumption, regulates food consumption,” said principal investigator Bo-Mi Song, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the VCU School of Medicine.

“Because of the suppression, the serotonergic neurons are more active in response to familiar food than novel food, which in turn activates a humoral serotonin signal that increases the feeding response selectively in response to familiar food,” she said.

To read the full article…..Click here