WOULD YOU SMOKE A BEER? WHY PEOPLE ARE INHALING ALCOHOL

by Sophia Breene (Greatist)

What if alcohol had no calories and enabled drinkers to go from zero to drunk in just a few minutes? Such an experience is possible when booze is inhaled or smoked as a vapor instead of drunk in a classy martini. But smoking alcohol isn’t the amazing intersection of health and booze that it seems. Inhaling alcohol can take a toll on the lungs and respiratory system, and huffing extra-potent hooch gas makes it easier to overdose or get alcohol poisoning. Read on for the 411 on this new “drinking” trend. 

WHAT’S THE DEAL?

The trend of smoking alcohol has been around since at least 2004, when the Alcohol With Out Liquid (AWOL) device launched in Europe. Lately, though, the practice of inhaling alcohol has become much more popular among American youth. Since May, the Internet has been abuzz with stories about this new trend in drinking. Alcohol smokers use carbon dioxide pills, dry ice, asthma nebulizers, vaporizers, or pressurized air pumps to turn their booze of choice into an inhalable, alcohol-rich cloud. Smoking or inhaling alcohol vapor removes the digestive system as a buffer and delivers the chemicals to the lungs, where they are absorbed into the bloodstream and go straight to the brain.

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RESEARCH SUGGESTS COFFEE MAY INCREASE DIABETES RISK. HERE’S WHY YOU SHOULDN’T PANIC

by Nicole McDermott (Greatist)

To many of us, a morning cup of coffee is as necessary as a shower and shave, and as sacred as our first-born child. (Disclaimer: This may be an exaggeration.) We’ve learned coffee can be great not just for its notorious jolt, but also for a long list of science-backed health benefits. It has been connected to improved mood, increased calorie burn, and the ability to help ward off certain cancers, amongst other perks [1] [2] [3]. But despite all the good news about our favorite caffeine source, new research suggests high doses of the brew could actually contribute to obesity and chronic disease — in mice. We break down the science and find out if it’s time to start cutting back on morning Joe.

WHAT’S THE DEAL?

Conducted by researchers from the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research and the University of Western Australia’s School of Medicine and Pharmacology, the study looks at a compound in coffee called Chlorogenic Acid (also called as CGA, the stuff green coffee is well-known for). The researchers started by reading dozens of studies linking coffee consumption to a lowered risk of type 2 diabetes, among other health benefits. CGA has been studied many times before, but usually in small doses and combined with other polyphenols found in the beloved brew [4].

To find out about CGA’s solo effects, the researchers grouped male mice into three separate categories: those fed a normal diet, those fed a high-fat diet, and those fed a high-fat diet supplemented with a big dose of CGA. (The researchers calculated the dose of CGA and figured the human equivalent — five cups of coffee a day.) For twelve weeks the researchers measured metrics including body weight, adiposity (the accumulation of fat), and insulin resistance of the mice. On the final day of the experiment, they also removed liver, fat, and muscle tissue from the mice for further study.

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Is Grilling Bad for Your Health?

by Laura Schwecherl (Greatist)

When its too hot to turn on the kitchen stove, it can only mean one thing: It’s grilling season. But before heading outdoors to prepare every meal, we may want to consider some hamburger health hazards. Cooking meat at high temperatures — like grilling, or even roasting and frying — can cause chemical reactions that release some nasty toxins in the air (and our bodies). But before opting for a raw food diet out of pure fear, there are some ways to keep on grilling while staying out of harm’s way.

YOU’RE GRILLING ME — THE NEED-TO-KNOW

Throwing a sausage on the grill can cause some serious chemical reactions. The biggest worry is that many of the chemicals created have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. In fact, one large study on over 3,000 women found those who consumed a large amount of grilled meat over the course of a year had a 47 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer [1]. In order to learn more about what’s actually causing these health risks, we examined the main chemical reactions that occur when meat meets grill, and what the potentially harmful products of those reactions can do.

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HEAR NO EVIL: THE SCIENCE BEHIND SELECTIVE HEARING

by Katie Golde (Greatist)

Crowded lecture halls, work conferences, packed house parties — put a bunch of people in a room and it can get pretty noisy, with multiple conversations going on all at once. Yet somehow, most of us are able to tune out the masses (or simply the TV) and tune in to our personal discussions. How do we do it? Recent research suggests that selective hearing is, in fact, a real thing. We break down what’s going on in our brains when we decide what we want to hear.

LISTEN CLOSE — WHAT’S THE DEAL?

Not only do our brains decide which conversations we want to tune into; they also give us the capacity to focus on said conversations to the exclusion of other, simultaneous discussions competing for our attention[1].

Our ability to select what we hear (in the most literal sense) was coined the “cocktail party effect” by British scientist Colin Cherry in the1950s [2] [3]. The term has gained public traction in the past few years thanks to ongoing research. One of the most notable studies was conducted in 2010, when researchers at the University of California, San Francisco used an advanced decoding algorithm to learn that participants’ brains were able to targetone speaker another, simultaneous speaker.

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WE TRIED THE “SCIENTIFIC 7-MINUTE WORKOUT.” IS IT WORTH THE HYPE?

by David Tao (Greatist)

Fitness and science are inherently connected, and while a lab might seem like the furthest thing from a neighborhood gym, today’s exercisers owe an awful lot to smart people in white coats. Over the past two decades, one of those very important scientific developments has been high-intensity interval training (HIIT), intense bouts of exercise mixed with short rest intervals (like the increasingly famous, extremely effective, and downright gut-wrenching Tabata protocol).

This week, The New York Times is reporting researchers out of Orlando have developed an even more ideal interval method that fulfills all basic recommendations for adult exercise — in under seven minutes. We put the bodyweight circuit to the test to see if it lives up to the flattering coverage.

We’re always quick to tout the benefits of interval training, especially for its ability to train multiple metabolic pathways at once (i.e. making us better at both short, fast bursts and longer, slower workouts)[1]. Now, researchers from the Human Performance Institute (HPI) in Orlando have combined the latest exercise science to create a better interval program that can be done anywhere, anytime. The routine involves the following twelve exercises performed for 30 seconds each with 10-second rest/transition periods before the next move:

1. Jumping jacks
2. Wall sit
3. Push-up
4. Abdominal crunch
5. Step-up onto chair
6. Squat
7. Triceps dip on chair
8. Plank
9. High knees/running in place
10. Lunge
11. Push-up and rotation
12. Side plank

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WHY SOME PEOPLE (AND MICE) CAN EAT A LOT AND STAY SKINNY

by Sophia Breene (Greatist)

Almost everyone has a friend with a hollow leg. You know, that guy or girl who eats tons, never exercises, and somehow (infuriatingly) stays thinner than a clean eater, a vegan, or a paleo fiend? A new study on mice says it’s all about the (skinny) genes.

WHAT’S THE DEAL?

Scientists from the University of Sydney were playing around with Kruppel-Like Factor 3 (aka KLF3), a protein that turns various genes off and on, when they made an interesting discovery [1]. As part of the experiment, the researchers bred mutant micethat could not produce KLF3. They were surprised to find that regardless of food intake, these lab animals didn’t pack on the pounds (or, in this case, ounces).

Why were the mice able to stay so skinny, even when put on a high-fat diet? After looking more closely at KLF3 and its effects, researchers noticed the mutant mice had much higher levels of adipolin, a hormone produced by fat cells which regulates blood glucose. In general, higher adipolin levels mean less fat, because the body is able to better regulate its blood glucose level and prevent all that extra glucose from turning to blubber [2]. KLF3’s main role is to turn genes off and on — in the mutant mice, production of adipolin skyrocketed when there was nothing telling the body to stop producing it. Basically, the extra adipolin acted as a glucose moderator, enabling the mutant KLF-less mice to chow down on more food without getting more fat. 

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WHY A LITTLE BIT OF STRESS IS GOOD FOR YOU

By Shana Lebowitz (Greatist)

There are times when I think I’d be much happier if I could spend the rest of my life lounging on the sands of the Mediterranean, having someone fan me with palm fronds while feeding me superfood grapes. In other words, life would be better without any stress. Or would it?

According to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, a little stress may not be so bad for us after all. While chronic stress may be harmful, acute (short-term) stress may actually boost our cognitive function. The findings are supported by other research suggesting a little bit o’ stress may have beneficial effects for our brains and bodies. The key, of course, is knowing when we’re too harried for our own good.

WHAT’S THE DEAL?

Before we get into the science, let’s be clear that most of the research in this area involves rats, not humans, so it’s not entirely clear that the findings apply to people. For a while now, researchers have suspected that the effect of stress on the (rat) brain is like an upside-down U: Up to a certain point, stress boosts cognitive function; after that, it starts to take a negative toll [1] [2].

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