Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
If you’ve turned to artificial sweeteners to curb your daily sugar cravings but you’ve seen little success, it may very well be your gut that’s giving you away.
New research shows that the cells in your gut can tell the difference between sugar and artificial sweeteners—even if your taste buds are oblivious—and can communicate the difference to your brain in milliseconds, providing evidence as to why sugar cravings can be so hard to kick.
The peer-reviewed research, published on Jan. 13 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, focused on a cell in the gut called the “neuropod,” which plays a critical role in the connection between what’s inside the gut and its influence in the brain.
Researchers say their latest findings suggest that neuropods are sensory cells in the nervous system, acting like taste buds in the tongue or the retinal cone cells in the eye that help us see colours.
“These cells work just like the retinal cone cells that that are able to sense the wavelength of light,” Diego Bohorquez, led researcher with the Duke University School of Medicine, said in a press release.
“They sense traces of sugar versus sweetener and then they release different neurotransmitters that go into different cells in the vagus nerve, and ultimately, the animal knows ‘this is sugar’ or ‘this is sweetener.’”
Using lab-grown organoids—miniaturized versions of an organ produced in vitro—from mouse and human cells to represent the small intestine and upper gut, the researchers showed in a small experiment that real sugar stimulated individual neuropod cells to release glutamate, a chemical that nerve cells use to send signals to other cells, as a neurotransmitter.
Artificial sugar, on the other hand, triggered the release of a different neurotransmitter.
Using a technique called optogenetics, a biological technique to control the activity of neurons or other cell types with light, the researchers were then able to turn the neuropod cells on and off in the gut of a living mouse to show whether the animal’s preference for real sugar was being driven by signals from the gut.
With their neuropod cells switched off, the animal no longer showed a clear preference for real sugar.
“We trust our gut with the food we eat,” Bohorquez said. “Sugar has both taste and nutritive value and the gut is able to identify both.”
Bohorquez argues that the gut talks directly to the brain, which can change our eating behaviour.
The researchers hope that with more study, these findings may lead to new therapies targeting the gut.
“Many people struggle with sugar cravings, and now we have a better understanding of how the gut senses sugars (and why artificial sweeteners don’t curb those cravings),” co-first author Kelly Buchanan, internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in the press release.
“We hope to target this circuit to treat diseases we see every day in the clinic.”
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that's expected to face legal challenges.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The U.S. Senate has passed US$95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.