Health Buzz: Rats Fed Junk Food Ate Compulsively

March 29, 2010 RSS Feed Print

Rats Fed Junk Food Became 'Addicts'

A new study found that rats that ate too much junk food developed the characteristics of an addiction to food, HealthDay reports. Rats fed a diet made up of calorie-rich, high-fat foods—including bacon, cake, and candy bars—not only became obese but were unable to stop eating even when threatened with an electric shock. Researchers think the obese rats' junk food diet overloaded their brains' reward systems and lowered levels of a receptor for the neurotransmitter dopamine—similar to the effect seen in drug addiction—causing them to compulsively eat. The findings are published in Nature Neuroscience.

[Read It's OK to Incorporate Flexibility Into Your Diabetes Diet and 3 Simple Ways to Assess Children's Risk of Early-Onset Diabetes.]

Tougher Restrictions Possible for Indoor Tanning

Tanning has become the new smoking—or at least that's what skin cancer experts hope will happen as the Food and Drug Administration considers whether to put stricter limits on tanning beds. An FDA advisory committee recommended last week that people under 18 be barred from using tanning beds or at least required to have a signed consent form from their parents, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz reports.

In many cities, the number of indoor tanning salons exceeds the number of Starbucks outlets, according to a 2009 study from San Diego State University, and several major health organizations would like that to change. The Skin Cancer Foundation says excessive tanning is probably behind the rise in deadly melanomas in young women ages 15 to 39, the most avid users of these salons. "The only purpose of a tanning salon is to give you a blast of a carcinogen," says Allan Halpern, Skin Cancer Foundation vice president, who treats a lot of skin cancers as chief of dermatology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "Given our druthers, we'd like to see no tanning beds out there."

A total ban on tanning salons isn't likely, but teens could be barred by law from indoor tanning. The FDA probably won't issue a decision on its advisory panel's recommendations for several weeks or months. More than two dozen states already have laws requiring minors to get parental permission to use tanning salons, but studies have shown that those laws often aren't enforced. Read more.

[Read 8 Ways to Spot Skin Cancer Before It Kills and How to Break Your Addiction to Tanning.]

Suffering With Allergies? Try Tailoring Treatment to Your Symptoms

Spring is here—and along with it come the sneezing and stuffy noses characteristic of allergy season. Some allergists say the 2010 allergy season may be worse than in recent years because of the heavy late-winter snowstorms that hit parts of the country, U.S. News's January Payne writes. That February precipitation served as a "turbocharge" for early tree pollen, which, combined with grass pollen, means allergy sufferers may be especially miserable this year, says Clifford Bassett, chair of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology's Public Education Committee.

You can calm your allergy symptoms if you choose the right products. But despite the wide array of options available, about 60 percent of people with allergies say they have a hard time getting relief during the spring season, according to a new survey by Consumer Reports. About 18 percent of those surveyed feel so lousy from allergies that they've missed work. Of those who saw a doctor for treatment of allergies, 59 percent reported improvement in their symptoms. Read more.

[Slide Show: 6 Common Indoor Allergy Triggers and How to Avoid Them.] [Read Seasonal Allergy Symptoms: 6 Ways to Prevent or Treat Them and Some Allergy Sufferers Can Skip the Sneezing Season.]

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