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FPWR Blog

Understanding how a weight loss drug works: serotonin linked to MC4R

Some years ago, the dietary pill Fen-Phen was a fairly widely used, effective drug for weight loss, and was even reported to be helpful in PWS in a small clinical trial: Selikowitz M, et al. Unfortunately, its adverse effects on the heart and lungs l...

Topics: Research

Portion size

Here's an article of interest from WebMD: Do Bigger Portions Lead to Bigger Kids? http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/Article/107/108575.htm

Topics: Research

Neuropeptide "S"

The International Congress of Neuroendocrinology was held this week at Univ Pittsburgh- some very interesting things were dicussed there .

Topics: Research

Modafinil and appetite

Modafinil (Provigil) has been suggested as a potential wake-promoting drug that might be helpful in PWS. Interestingly, this article (although a very small study) showed that individuals taking modafinil consumed less food.

Topics: Research

Genetics and behavior

Two new articles that just arrived in the new issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics caught my eye. Both articles deal with the serotonin system, and common genetic variants of the components of the system.

Topics: Research

Altering gene expression

Here's a very interesting summary of a research article just published in the journal Cell. The important point here (at least for the sake of this conversation) is not the prostate cancer link - but rather the identification of another protein that ...

Topics: Research

Role for CPT-1 in weight regulation

A new article out in the Journal of Clinical Investigation identifies a new role for the enzyme CPT-1 in weight regulation; the link and a commentary are below. (all JCI commentary and articles are freely available at http://www.jci.org/ if you want ...

Topics: Research

Ghrelin and seizures

Here's an intriguing new study about ghrelin and seizures (go figure), showing that people with epilepsy have significantly higher serum ghrelin levels than healthy individuals. The authors propose that high ghrelin levels may indicate a predispositi...

Topics: Research

Another reason to ditch the tonsils

Kids behave and sleep better after tonsillectomy, University of Michigan study finds Hyperactivity, attention deficit, sleepiness, and ADHD often improved – whether or not sleep studies showed sleep apnea before surgery. http://www.med.umich.edu/op...

Topics: Research