digestion

9 Stories

Stomach Rebelling Over Stress? 'Love' Hormone May Help

Scientists find that oxytocin plays bigger role in stress reduction, digestion than previously thought

(Newser) - When you're cuddling with someone special, you may feel butterflies in your stomach—but scientists now say the feel-good hormone that's released when you're in love may also be playing another part when it comes to your GI tract. Researchers have long known that when people are...

Man's Daily Vodka Intake Calcified His Pancreas

He'd consumed the equivalent of 5 shots daily for 15 years

(Newser) - After drinking a half a pint of vodka every day since he was 35, a 50-year-old man in Pennsylvania went to the emergency room vomiting blood. He complained of abdominal pain and "foul-smelling diarrhea" that had been plaguing him for two months, per a report on his case in...

Alarming Birth Defect Rises Sharply in Past 20 Years

About 2K babies are now born with gastroschisis every year

(Newser) - It's a birth defect the Los Angeles Times calls "bizarre": gastroschisis, where the intestines (and sometimes other organs) protrude out of a hole in the abdominal wall. And in its weekly "Morbidity and Mortality" report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sounds an alarm. The prevalence...

Inside Vultures' Guts: Poison

 Inside Vultures' 
 Guts: Poison 
study says
Nov 27, 2014 8:50 AM CST

Inside Vultures' Guts: Poison

Study: Birds developed immunity to dangerous but helpful toxins

(Newser) - Vultures eat all kinds of nasty stuff that humans can't (and wouldn't if we could). But how do they survive living off the rotting flesh of roadkill? Researchers set out to answer that query by examining the guts of 24 turkey vultures and 26 black vultures trapped and...

Gut Bacteria Can Make You Fat
 Gut Bacteria Can Make You Fat 
Nov 12, 2009 2:33 PM CST

Gut Bacteria Can Make You Fat

Unhealthy diet encourages efficient micro-organisms

(Newser) - Eating junk food may do a double whammy on your waistline: In addition to the calorie influx, high-fat foods alter intestinal bacteria, actually making it easier to get fat. Obese mice in a new study had significantly more of a specific type of bacteria, Firmicutes, that easily convert food into...

Fiber-Rich Corn Offers Digestive, Uh, Benefit

Kernels act as 'snowplows' in intestine

(Newser) - Corn is an American staple—it helped the earliest settlers survive and has provided us with bread and meal ever since. Recently, though, corn has been portrayed in a more unfavorable light, whether as the source of high-fructose corn syrup or the recipient of ethanol subsidies. From a nutritional perspective,...

As Probiotics Expand, Confusion Sets In

Many questions linger about 'friendly' bacteria

(Newser) - Probiotics are branching out of the dairy aisle and into all types of food—from pizza to cereal—as marketers try to sell the health benefits. Seems like good news. The so-called friendly bacteria is supposed to help with digestion and boost the immune system, among other things. The problem...

Sex Can Cause Sneezing: Study
 Sex Can Cause Sneezing: Study 
Dec 19, 2008 4:30 PM CST

Sex Can Cause Sneezing: Study

Docs suspect faulty wiring, and that condition may be more common than realized

(Newser) - Sexual thoughts cause some people to have fits of sneezing, the Guardian reports. Psychiatrists at a British hospital were turned on to the problem by a patient, and a survey of Internet chat rooms found others afflicted, including three people who sneezed after orgasm.

How Do They Do It? It's Not Pretty

Want a permanently elastic, balloon-like stomach? Try competitive eating

(Newser) - For every time you watched a scrawny guy chow dozens of hot dogs in 12 minutes and wondered where, exactly, he puts it, scientists may have your answer. As compared with us mere mortals, the Wall Street Journal reports, a professional’s stomach appears as a “giant balloon that...

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