Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle

Tag Archive for ‘physiology’

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Physiology in Nebraska

Continuing on our journey across the country…the University of Nebraska at Omaha hosted the Nebraska Physiological Society’s annual meeting on Saturday. This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Timothy Musch, University Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Kinesiology & Anatomy and Physiology at Kansas State University. Dr. Musch spoke about factors that regulate blood flow to skeletal muscle and how oxygen delivery to muscle changes with chronic heart failure. Dr. Xuejun […]

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Greater Washington Area Talks Physiology

It has been a great month for physiology. This week the Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland Chapter of the American Physiological Society (dvmCAPS) held their 5th annual meeting on October 8th on The George Washington University Campus. The first Distinguished Speaker was Dr. Robert S. Balaban (above), Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics at the National Institutes of Health, who spoke about the Structure and Function of Cardiac Mitochondria. Mitochondria are derived from bacterial ancestors […]

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Physiology in Arizona – Part 2

Now for highlights from the Arizona Physiological Society poster session that took place on October 5th. Alex Mohr (Graduate Student, Arizona State University – Phoenix) presented his research on dietary carotenoids, which are yellow, orange and red pigments synthesized by plants. Birds are known for using these dietary carotenoids for coloration (see the male mallard in the photo above). While some research suggests that carotenoids may also act as antioxidants in […]

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Summer of Physiology

The Michigan Physiological Society, a chapter of the American Physiological Society, held their annual meeting this summer.  Here are some highlights from the meeting: The keynote address was given by Dr. Virginia Miller, Professor of Surgery and Physiology and Director of the Women’s Health Research Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Her talk was about “Sex-specific Differences in Risk for Cardiovascular Disease.” Specifically, how estrogen, menopause and pregnancy influence the risk […]

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Defining Physiology

Kudos to Mael Lemoine and Thomas Pradeu who recently published a paper in Physiology that attempted to define physiology’s place in modern science. Historically, physiology has held importance as a fundamental discipline on which other disciplines such as medicine and biological sciences were built. As such, the field of physiology has given birth to several modern disciplines including immunology, endocrinology, neuroscience and of course, the wave of “omics” research. Lemoine and […]

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What your pets really like to eat

Although dogs and cats are both carnivores, they have surprisingly different appetites for food. In a study published last month, researchers at Oregon State University examined what our beloved pets really like to eat. Their results, published last month in the Journal of Experimental Biology, were rather surprising: dogs showed preference towards foods high in fats (41% fat, 36% carbohydrates) whereas cats preferred foods high in carbohydrates (43% carbohydrates, 30% proteins). […]

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Extreme fasting

  Northern Elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) are pretty extreme animals, at least when it comes to fasting. Pups nurse for about 1 month, during which time they greatly increase their body fat. After nursing, they typically fast for up to 3 months. A new study was designed to explore how their adipose (fat) tissue changes after this prolonged fast. Researchers at the University of California at Merced were able to […]

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Human Echolocation

Bats and dolphins are famous for using echolocation to help navigate their surroundings. In contrast, humans normally rely on vision to navigate. When vision is impaired, however, we can learn to rely on echolocation. Although it is rare to find people who rely solely on hearing:

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Chocolate: Bad for Fido, good for us?

Many animals, especially dogs and cats, cannot tolerate theobromine which is an alkaloid from the cacao plant. Studies of humans, however, have found many beneficial health effects of theobromine, caffeine as well as flavonoids found in cocoa (Martinez-Pinilla et al., 2015). A new study published in Journal of Applied Physiology examined whether cocoa extract can improve heart health in individuals exercising in hypoxic conditions. Hypoxia (i.e. low atmospheric oxygen) reduces the […]

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