A Small Part of the Brain, and Its Profound Effects - New York Times

A Small Part of the Brain, and Its Profound Effects - New York Times: "The recent news about smoking was sensational: some people with damage to a prune-size slab of brain tissue called the insula were able to give up cigarettes instantly"

Vitamin A and emphysema

For smokers or those exposed to second-hand smoke, research suggests that vitamin A can protect you against the effects and damage caused by smoking. Richard Baybutt, an associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State University, made a surprising discovery: a common carcinogen in cigarette smoke, benzo(a)pyrene, induces vitamin A deficiency. In some of his earlier research, Baybutt had shown that laboratory animals fed a vitamin A-deficient diet developed emphysema. His latest animal studies indicate that not only does the benzo(a)pyrene in cigarette smoke cause vitamin A deficiency, but that a diet rich in vitamin A can help counter this effect, thus greatly reducing emphysema.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10801913

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URHhyP4lmQ4

Flu shot girl.

The Gut Response To What We Eat

"A high-fat, high-sugar diet can quickly and dramatically change the population of microbes living in the digestive tract, according to a new study of human gut bugs transplanted into mice."

Preventing Gallstones

Maybe it's as easy as drinking your OJ and going for a run!

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/7/931
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/1/120

Why Sleepyheads Forget

"...scientists have discovered that lost sleep disrupts a specific molecule in the brain's memory circuitry, possibly leading to treatments for tired brains."