Survival of the Sickest

Brown Fat is Back!!

Published by Sharon Moalem May 22nd, 2009 in Evolution and You. 1 Comment

For the longest time it was believed by most researchers that human adults didn’t have the brown variety of fat (adipose tissue) that can help keep you warm. Only human infants were thought to have it.

Brown fat produces heat by being full of mitochondria that produce heat that can come in handy in really cold environments as I’ve written about at great length in Survival of the Sickest. With recent studies it has become more accepted that at least some adults have an appreciable amount of brown fat.

And if the results of a new study published in the NEJM turns out to be confirmed overweight people may even have less brown fat and more of the white variety.

Having more brown fat means that it may even help to burn off more calories but only if you’re willing to spend some time in deep freeze since cold is necessary for the fat burning qualities to come online.

Survival of the Sickest on CNN

Published by Sharon Moalem April 28th, 2009 in Evolution and You. 0 Comments

Methylation in Action

Published by Sharon Moalem January 27th, 2009 in Evolution and You. Closed

From New Scientist:

“Mum’s behaviour may make young rats more butch

STROKE the belly of a newborn female rat for a few hours a day and chemical “caps” will appear on its DNA that make its brain look more like that of a male.

This extraordinary finding suggests that some biological differences between male and female brains may not be decided during fetal development, but instead appear after they are born.

According to traditional thinking, sex-specific differences in mammals are determined in the womb by genes on the X and Y chromosomes, with the prenatal hormones the fetus is exposed to also playing a role.

Recently, however, it has become clear that the behaviour of a mother rat towards her offspring can cause sex-specific changes. For example, mother rats spend more time licking and grooming their sons, which previous studies suggest is necessary for their genitalia to form properly.”

Click here for the rest of the article.

(Hat tip to Tyler)

Dr. Sharon Moalem on Bloomberg TV - Part 3/3
Published by Sharon Moalem June 5th, 2008 in Evolution and You. 2 Comments

The Secret is Out
Published by Sharon Moalem May 6th, 2008 in Evolution and You. 2 Comments

Ever wonder what happens to someone when they absorb too much
iron from the diet?

Dr. Sharon Moalem on Bloomberg TV - Part 2/3
Published by Sharon Moalem April 25th, 2008 in Evolution and You, Health Tips and Views. 1 Comment

How to Have a Baby Boy
Published by Sharon Moalem April 24th, 2008 in Evolution and You, News, Health Tips and Views. 2 Comments

Researchers at Exter and Oxford in the UK have just published a study about the importance of having a good breakfast (see NYT article here). That is if you’d like to have a baby boy. It seems that having a high calorie breakfast can increase the odds of having a boy, regardless of the weight status of the mother. From an evolutionary perspective this of course makes a lot of sense since signs of increased nutrition are important since baby boys need more calories to survive.

In Survival of the Sickest I talked about a situation where a significant increase in short term stress occurred, such as right after the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in 1995 can skew the birth rate towards females. From an evolutionary perspective this makes sense, since increased in perceived environmental stress can signal that it may not be the most opportune time for boys, since they can be more expensive calorically to maintain.

Dr. Sharon Moalem on Bloomberg TV - Part 1/3
Published by Sharon Moalem April 7th, 2008 in Evolution and You and Views. 0 Comments

Book Talk at McNally Robinson
Published by Sharon Moalem April 7th, 2008 in Evolution and You and News. 0 Comments

I want to thank everyone for coming last week to the event hosted by McNally Robinson in nyc. It was wonderful to see so many people interested in science and evolution. For all those who couldn’t make it I’m sorry I didn’t get around to posting event details earlier. And Suzanne here’s the the link to the my frogsicle friend, Rana sylvatica and a link to the NYT article about my work that you requested.

Dr. Sharon Moalem on CNN
Published by Sharon Moalem April 2nd, 2008 in Evolution and You, News, Health Tips and Views. 2 Comments

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This book contains advice and information relating to health care. It is not intended to replace medical advice and should be used to supplement rather than replace regular care by your doctor. It is recommended that you seek your physician's advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this book as of the date of publication. The publisher and the author disclaim liability for any medical outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this book.

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Brown Fat is Back!!

Survival of the Sickest on CNN

Methylation in Action

Dr. Sharon Moalem on Bloomberg TV - Part 3/3

The Secret is Out

Dr. Sharon Moalem on Bloomberg TV - Part 2/3

How to Have a Baby Boy

Dr. Sharon Moalem on Bloomberg TV - Part 1/3

Book Talk at McNally Robinson

Dr. Sharon Moalem on CNN

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