Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
Inter-Organ Communication Keeps Us Young
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933 Interorgan Communication Keeps Us Young
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr. David Niesel
And I’m Dr. Norbert Herzog
We give our brains much of the credit for controlling the organs in our body and rightfully so. But new studies reveal the communication is far from one-way.
Nerve networks or molecules in our organs are constantly sending back signals to “alert” the brain of what’s happening which optimizes their performance. The brain rules but other organs talk back.
Organs also communicate with one another so that there’s total body communication happening. Some organs are chattier than others like the liver and the brain.
Our bones and skeletal muscle are less talky but still communicate. For years, we’ve known the pancreas, liver, thyroid and gonads send messages via hormones from distant sites in the body.
This communication is key to how healthy we stay. An example are recent studies on the brain’s hypothalamus where neurons send signals to coordinate a variety of bodily functions.
As we age, communication from the hypothalamus falls. The problem is less of a chemical called NAMPT gets made. Researchers working with older mice restored these signals from the hypothalamus.
The mice began burning fat more efficiently and were better at reducing damage to cells from aging. Overall, the mice lived seven percent longer.
The control mice did not do as well which shows that understanding this communication mechanism could tell us more about aging and maybe how to slow it. Who knew good communication between organs could be a key to longevity?
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast. Sign up for expanded print episodes at www.illuminascicom.com
