For a long time now dogs have been used in all different realms for their instincts and a keen sense of smell. From police dogs to guide dogs and even centers that use dogs to help with mental illnesses and depression. It’s hard to determine the true purpose of these furry friends but needless to say, their extraordinary senses have shown to have limitless bounds. In the newest discovery, dogs are now being trained to be able to detect cancer. Penn Vet Working Dog Center is one of the most highly innovative centers working on this. At this point they have four highly trained cancer detection dogs at their center, putting purebreds to work in using their keen sense of smell to detect ovarian cancer. The doctors at Penn Vet, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, have been teaming up with chemists and physicists to isolate cancer chemicals that only dogs can smell. “We don’t ever anticipate our dogs walking through a clinic. But we do hope that they will help refine chemical and nanosensing techniques for cancer detection,” said Dr. Cindy Otto, the founder and director of the Working Dog Center.
High-Fat Diets Could Reduce the Brain’s Ability to Regulate Food Intake
Thursday, January 26, 2023
When high-fat and high-calorie foods are consumed regularly, our brain’s ability to regulate hunger cues, and calorie intake gets reduced. A new study has shown evidence of how continuously eating a fatty diet seems to disrupt the neurological pathway between the brain and the gut.
The cells in charge of signaling the brain when we’ve had enough food are called astrocytes. According to new research published in The Journal of Physiology, calorie intake is regulated in the short term by astrocytes (large star-shaped cells in the brain that regulate many different functions of neurons in the brain). Astrocytes also control the signaling pathway between the brain and the gut, a path that can get interrupted by high calorie diets.
