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The results revealed that eating later had a ‘profound effect on hunger’ and appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin, which influence our drive to eat. Specifically, leptin, which signals satiety, decreased across the 24 hours in the late eating condition compared to the early eating conditions. Nutritionists and dieticians decode the findingsIf you are one of those who believes in late dinners and midnight snacking, then know that you alone are the cause of many illnesses and conditions. Now these are completely avoidable if you shift the heavier food during the earlier part of the day, preferably in the first half....

It’s a breakthrough that could help thousands of American soldiers returning from dangerous deployments. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe they may have discovered a way to create a vaccine that could prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “What it’s going to do is that they’ll still have perfectly strong memories of the event. They just won’t have the bad health consequences,” said Ki Goosens, an assistant professor of neuroscience with the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. The key is a lesser-known hormone produced by the stomach called ghrelin. “One of the really interesting things about ghrelin that was...

Poor diet, a lack of exercise, excess weight and genetics are the usual risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. But a new line of research suggests that in some cases, there may be a surprising contributor: the stomach bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori.People who acquire H. pylori — typically in childhood — are at a greater risk of ulcers and gastric cancer. But H. pylori also is thought to affect two digestive hormones involved in hunger and satiety.The belief is that the bacterium increases levels of ghrelin, the "hunger hormone," which is known to promote weight gain. At the same...

New studies in mice suggest that the hormone leptin can fundamentally change the brain's circuitry in areas that control appetite. Leptin acts during a critical period early in life, possibly influencing how much animals eat as adults. And later in life, responding to how much fat is on an animal's body, it can again alter brain circuitry that controls how much is eaten. Researchers say the findings, published today in the journal Science, are a surprise and add new clues to why weight control is so difficult in some humans. Scientists knew that leptin is released by fat cells and...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A hormone produced by the intestines, called peptide YY3-36 (PYY), could help obese people lose weight, new research suggests.  "This is the first time that a hormone has been shown to cause a long-term reduction in calorie intake in obese volunteers," lead author Dr. Rachel Batterham, from Imperial College in London, said in a statement. "We now need to do studies over a longer period to see whether the decrease in appetite and food intake...translates into weight loss."   PYY has been shown to curb the appetites of normal weight individuals, but it was unclear...