health

Sugar is a toxin

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In a previous post “Sugar: Hiding in Plain Sight” I shared a TEDed video that explains how sugar is everywhere. It is found where you never expect to find it but is hiding under other names.

In this post I attempt to summarize some key points from a talk (starting at 40:37) by Robert H. Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at University of California San Francisco titled “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”. I also add some extra points or links. You can watch the one hour and thirty minutes talk at the end of this post.

At 13:50 the professor explains to the audience that coke [and pepsi] contains salt, a lot of it but you cannot taste it because the sweet taste of sugar is hiding it. Why salt? It makes you thirsty! And this makes you “consume” more.

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Miroculus uses Data Science for Early Detection of Cancer

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Miroculus

TEDMED – One more reason to get a good night’s sleep

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Research paper: Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain, DOI: 10.1126/science.1241224

Important points:

  • Brain has no lymphatic system to clean it
  • During sleep brain cells seem to shrink
  • Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) acts as a detoxing agent removing toxins built up while the brain is conscious.
  • CSF influx only happens during sleep. It is inhibited during wakefulness.

and we discovered that at the same time when the brain goes to sleep, the brain cells themselves seem to shrink, opening up spaces in between them, allowing [cerebrospinal fluid – CSF] fluid to rush through and allowing waste to be cleared out.

But our most surprising finding was that all of this, everything I just told you about, with all this fluid rushing through the brain, it’s only happening in the sleeping brain.

Sugar: Hiding in plain sight

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source: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/sugar-hiding-in-plain-sight-robert-lustig

Also check this nice gif animation.
Moreover, “John Yudkin: the man who tried to warn us about sugar” (read distraction-free in Readability) is an interesting article on the subject.

[Video] A 50-cent microscope that folds like origami

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This work is very interesting and will definitely help in the detection of widespread diseases like Tuberculosis (TB) in developing countries. The only primary obstacle that needs a real solution is countering the monopoly by vaccine manufacturers.


link: http://on.ted.com/c045D

Foldscope: Microscopy for everyone: http://www.foldscope.com/
Manu Prakash’s lab page: http://stanford.edu/~manup/