Study shows comfort foods affect stress hormones

In a series of experiments spanning 20 years, physiology professor Mary Dallman and her colleagues found that stress hormones increase rats' consumption of sucrose and lard -- the animals' idea of comfort food -- which makes them fat in the abdomen. The increased abdominal fat sends a message to the brain that turns off the production of "fight or flight" hormones.

"We don't know what the message is. It could be something released from fat; it could be nerves that go from fat to the brain," says Dallman, lead author of an article on the research.

Other pleasure-seeking behaviors, such as running on a wheel or ingesting addictive drugs, do not stop the release of stress hormones. The study was published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Magnetic field may quiet roar of tinnitus

Researchers using a low-frequency magnetic field have confirmed that chronic tinnitus, or a ringing in the ears, is a problem in the brain. And, they've suggested, it can be eased.

In a small study of people who had been troubled with tinnitus for years, transcranial magnetic stimulation reduced hyperactivity in a specific area of the brain in more than half of the participants. Those people subsequently reported that the troubling sound diminished.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, has been used experimentally to treat mental illness, such as depression and the auditory hallucinations of schizophrenics. It involves placing a magnetic coil just above the person's head in a position that corresponds with the area of hyperactivity.

In the new study, the area of brain hyperactivity was precisely pinpointed using sophisticated brain scans. Before the therapy, all of the participants had a sham five-day treatment. They were not aware that no actual magnetic field was being created, and none responded to the fake treatment.

Then they underwent the half-hour magnetic procedure every day for five days, with seven of the participants reporting a reduction in the rushing, or ringing, sound they heard. Although the reduction was slight, it was enough to improve their quality of life.

"They were able to sleep and concentrate much better than before the treatment," says study co-author Dr. Tobias Kleinjung, a researcher at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Six months later, the improvement had not diminished.

"For some people with very severe tinnitus, TMS may eventually be a useful therapy if nothing else works. Most current treatment options are psychological or behavioral techniques to help people cope better with the secondary problems with sleep and concentration," says Kleinjung.

Though tinnitus begins in the ear, chronic or prolonged tinnitus involves the brain, Kleinjung says. The results were presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery in Orlando.