DO NOT TOUCH MY INTESTINES -- CHOCOLATE

I had my doubts about this article at first. But it just might prove there are actual aliens living with us. There are 'people' walking among us with strange bacteria in their internals, and most convincing of all THEY DO NOT LIKE CHOCOLATE!!!! Aliens? Or something else? You decide, but leave my chocolate alone!!--John

Chocolate Cravings Tied to Bacteria

By Seth Borenstein -- October 12, 2007

Researchers compared the blood and urine of 11 men who were indifferent to chocolate to 11 similar men who ate chocolate daily. They were all healthy and were fed the same food for five days. The researchers examined the byproducts of metabolism in their blood and urine and found that a dozen substances were different between the groups

If that craving for chocolate sometimes feels like it is coming from deep in your gut, that's because maybe it is.

A small study links the type of bacteria living in people's digestive system to a desire for chocolate. Everyone has a vast community of microbes in their guts. But people who crave daily chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than people who are immune to chocolate's allure.

That may be the case for other foods, too. The idea could eventually lead to treating some types of obesity by changing the composition of the trillions of bacteria occupying the intestines and stomach, said Sunil Kochhar, co-author of the study. It appears Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Proteome Research.

Kochhar is in charge of metabolism research at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The food conglomerate Nestle SA paid for the study. But this isn't part of an effort to convert a few to the dark side (or even milk) side of cocoa, Kocchar said.

In fact, the study was delayed because it took a year for the researchers to find 11 men who don't eat chocolate.

Kochhar compared the blood and urine of those 11 men, who he jokingly called "weird" for their indifference to chocolate, to 11 similar men who ate chocolate daily. They were all healthy, not obese, and were fed the same food for five days.

The researchers examined the byproducts of metabolism in their blood and urine and found that a dozen substances were significantly different between the two groups. For example, the amino acid glycine was higher in chocolate lovers, while taurine (an active ingredient in energy drinks) was higher in people who didn't eat chocolate. Also chocolate lovers had lower levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL.

The levels of several of the specific substances that were different in the two groups are known to be linked to different types of bacteria, Kochhar said.

Still to be determined is if the bacteria cause the craving, or if early in life people's diets changed the bacteria, which then reinforced food choices.

How gut bacteria affect people is a hot field of scientific research.

Past studies have shown that intestinal bacteria change when people lose weight, said Dr. Sam Klein, an obesity expert and professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

Since bacteria interact with what you eat, it is logical to think that there is a connection between those microbes and desires for certain foods, said Klein, who wasn't part of Kochhar's study.

Kochhar's research makes so much sense that people should have thought of it earlier, said J. Bruce German, professor of food chemistry at the University of California Davis. While five outside scientists thought the study was intriguing, Dr. Richard Bergman at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, had concerns about the accuracy of the initial division of the men into groups that wanted chocolate or were indifferent to it.

What matters to Kochhar is where the research could lead.

Kochhar said the relationship between food, people and what grows in their gut is important for the future: "If we understand the relationship, then we can find ways to nudge it in the right direction."

© 2007 Associated Press/AP Online. © 2007 Sci-Tech Today.

Writers' Block Challenge #21

Amphibious Assault

The Tide came up that beach
caressing and tumbling
the dead and the dying.

Bloody water and pink foam
churning up the beach
the sand soaking up our blood

That bloody sand
taking so much of us
and wanting more, never satisfied.

That bloody beach
the tide and the sand buried some
before we could get to them

They are out there still
unknown and unseen
under the sand
that bloody sand.

(my first try, thank you for hosting this.)

Mike (a Writers' Block member) reminded me that I should add a short description, Couldn't find them on his page to copy (LOL) , but Honor 74 (also a member) had a very easy link to Writers' Block, which I copied for you, the readers use.

Writer's Block is a weekly event, where a picture is posted as a Challenge, you may submit your thoughts and feelings on the picture, and share them. Thanks for stopping by. The day is yours!

ON BEING CUDDLED

Who doesn't like being held, hugged, cuddled, touched? Hope this article doesn't take any of the romance out of those wonderful things, but I found the article fascinating. My Dear Friend, Cherie of The Million Dollar Smile reminds me that sometime 'romance' is not involved in every hug, I am just ever the optimist. Perhaps this calls for more personal research?--John

*******

Scientists Reveal the Secret of Cuddles

• 19:00 28 July 2002
• NewScientist.com news service
• Gaia Vince

Scientists have discovered why being cuddled feels so good - human skin has a special network of nerves that stimulate a pleasurable response to stroking.

The revelation came after doctors realised that a woman with no sense of touch still felt a "pleasant" sensation when her skin was caressed.

Normal touch is transmitted to the brain through a network of fast-conducting nerves, called myelinated fibres, which carry signals at 60 metres per second. But there is a second slow-conducting nerve network of unmyelinated fibres, called C-tactile (CT), the role of which was unknown. The CT network carries signals at just one metre per second.

"It must be used for unconscious aspects of touch because it is so slow," says HÃ¥kan Olausson, who led the study at the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden. "It seems the CT network conveys emotions, or a sense of self."

"This study definitely helps our understanding of how touch systems work," says Brian Fiske, assistant editor at Nature Neuroscience. "The researchers were very fortunate to have found a patient who had lost the main touch receptors but still had the slow CT fibres."

Below the nose

Scientists have known for some time that myelinated nerve fibres transmit information about touch, such as its strength and position. But the function of CT fibres was a mystery. This was because it is impossible to distinguish the CT fibre signals from those of the continuously activated fast myelinated fibre.

The patient examined by the Swedish researchers had a disorder that left her with no myelinated touch fibres in her body below the level of her nose. But her CT fibres remained intact.

Olausson stroked the patient's arm and hand with a paintbrush. Although she could not feel touch, tickle or vibration, the patient said she experienced a "pleasant" pressure when her arm was caressed with a paintbrush.

MRI scans of her brain revealed that the stroking activated insular region of the cerebral cortex associated with emotional response.

Hairy skin

The researchers concluded that the CT system may be of important for emotional, hormonal and behavioural responses to tactile stimulation.

"They are the opposite to pain fibres and give the message that the touch is non- harmful," Olausson told New Scientist. "Stimulation of CT fibres is probably linked to the release of pleasure hormones, like oxytocin. Studies have shown that if you stroke infants, their levels of oxytocin increase."

Further research by the Swedish team suggests that CT fibres are only present in hairy skin - the patient showed no response to the palm of her hand being stroked.

Olausson speculates that because the hand is used for so many critical tasks, it needs to be very sensitive to touch and therefore has a greater density of faster- conducting nerves.

Journal reference: Nature Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1038/nn896)

Humorous -- Picture Perfect Friday

I took a photograph of this cartoon from Gary Larson’s Far Side collection titled HOUND OF THE FAR SIDE, page 91 . Hope that is not stretching the rules too much. The camera used was a Kodak Easy Share Z612

What I find the most humorous is us. To paraphrase Pogo: (Dear Readers, I realize some of you are too young to know of Pogo, or to put it another way, I am an old fart who has read ancient cartoons) "We have met the joke and it are us!"

"We are all part of this Human Comedy. We all take our turns being the punch line. "--E.J. Edwards

"Never take yourself too seriously, no one else does"–E.J. Edwards.

I love this cartoon, it would be analogous to a life verse for me. We might go out and do wonderful, amazing things, accomplish them, and then trip over our own feet. It is rather sad to see someone so serious about themselves, so puffed up about their "image" that they cannot see the humor in themselves. Of course that is part of what is so funny about such, the obvious is oblivious to them. What is funnier still is that we all slip into this at sometime or other.

"Blessed is the person who can laugh at themselves, for they shall continually be amused"–Anonymous

And I must say, I am pretty much amused most of the time. Enjoy life, laugh when you can, laugh harder when you are able. When it comes time to cry, I will cry with you.

"A merry heart is like a good medicine"–Proverbs 17:22

". . .there is a time for every event under Heaven. . . a time to weep and a time to laugh." -- Ecclesiastes 3:1&4

Thank you Heather, and Samdu for hosting PPF this week.

NOTHING TO SAY

Nothing to say, the song says it all.

Sometimes we just need to sit, and listen.