Your new afternoon snacks?

It’s 3PM and you’re at your desk fighting determinedly to keep your eyes open. You think maybe some candy or soda could give you the sugar rush you need to get through the last few hours of the work day, so you head to the vending to get some — STOP! Wait a minute. You might want to read this post first before you snag those M&M’s; new research shows that protein might do a better job of keeping you awake, and burning your calories, too.

As someone who’s happiest with meat at every meal, I say: pass me the jerky.

Everyone’s familiar with the concept of a sugar rush: you eat a ton of sweet stuff, you get a huge rush of energy and hyperactivity, and then you “crash” and feel more tired than you did before eating the sweets. That said, it’s almost logical to think that sugar would stimulate cells that help keep us awake. What cells are those? They are neurons called orexin cells, which secrete a stimulant into the brain to help keep us awake and burn calories. In fact, these neurons are less active in obese people and narcoleptics.

Researchers in the U.K. set out to find what makes these drowsiness-busting, calorie-burning neurons tick. They labeled the orexin neurons in mouse brains using genetically-directed fluorescence; this way, they could introduce different types of nutrients and look at their effects on the activity of only the orexin neurons. Interestingly, glucose was found to inhibit these cells, which might explain after-meal sleepiness when the sugar from your food gets into your blood and then to your brain. In a recent follow-up publication, this same group found that dietary amino acids, like the ones found in egg whites, stimulated orexin neurons — these amino acids even reversed the inhibitory effect of glucose.

In other words, and to vastly oversimplify, sugar might contribute to making you sleepy and stout, while protein could help to keep you lively and lean. These findings could to explain previously mystifying studies in which protein meals made people more alert than carbohydrate meals. Additionally, these results could be especially important for altering the dietary compositions of people with disorders like obesity, insomnia, and narcolepsy.

So, if you swap out a candy bar for a protein bar with the same number of calories, the protein might tell your body to burn more of those calories, and you’ll get through your day with fewer yawns. Sounds like a good trade to me.

Stay nerdy.

Burdakov D, Gerasimenko O, & Verkhratsky A (2005). Physiological changes in glucose differentially modulate the excitability of hypothalamic melanin-concentrating hormone and orexin neurons in situ. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 25 (9), 2429-33 PMID: 15745970

Karnani MM, Apergis-Schoute J, Adamantidis A, Jensen LT, de Lecea L, Fugger L, & Burdakov D (2011). Activation of central orexin/hypocretin neurons by dietary amino acids. Neuron, 72 (4), 616-29 PMID: 22099463

What would you say if I told you I could explain Edward Cullen (everything but his hair, that is) using science?

1. “Your skin is pale-white and ice cold.” Edward Cullen is strikingly pale and sometimes uncomfortably cold to the touch – as much would be expected in a guy with anemia. Because of his anemia, Edward has an abnormally low number of red blood cells, or decreased red blood cell function. So, logically, he is pale with a low red blood cell count and, since red blood cells carry oxygen, his deoxygenated tissues feel colder than a normal human’s would. However, although his skin “like marble” may be a source of discomfort in Edward and Bella’s romantic relationship, there is hope yet: scientists have just recently cured a mouse model of sickle cell disease (a type of anemia) using genetic manipulation techniques.

2. “I’ve never wanted a human’s blood so much, before.” Part of what charms Edward so much about Bella is her super delicious-smelling blood, and there you have the crux of their incompatibility. The sympathy that Twilght fans feel for Edward is duly heightened when they intuit that he suffers from porphyria. This disease can be acquired or inherited, and is defined by a defect in heme synthesis. Heme plays a role in keeping blood oxygenated and red, two things evidently defective in cold, pale Edward. What’s more, certain types of porphyria can cause people to experience intense skin irritation while in sunlight. A potential long-ago treatment for porphyria? Drinking human blood, of course.

3.”I don’t sleep.” “Ever?” “No, not at all.” Insomnia is no joke, folks. The side effects of insufficient sleep include irritability, anxiousness, and impaired memory. Insomnia is just one obvious potential explanation for Edward’s persistent brooding moods. And, although Edward’s is probably a severe case (he doesn’t even have a bed in his room), having insomnia really doesn’t make him all that special: according to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, 1 in 3 adults suffer from this disorder occasionally. Thankfully, there are plenty of natural and man-made treatments for insomnia — just this month in the journal Sleep, scientists identified a drug doxepin that made it significantly easier for chronic insomnia sufferers to fall asleep and stay asleep. Take heart, Edward.

4. “His skin…literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface.” Perhaps I should’ve been more surprised when I learned that the vampires in Twilght sparkle, but, I wasn’t — it’s probably because I work with zebrafish. You see, there actually is a type of shiny skin cell, although they’re found in certain sea creatures (e.g. some fish, squid, and octopus species), and not in humans. The cells are called iridophores and they are full of guanine crystals that reflect light. So, you know, through some magic of genetic engineering, Edward has the genes to make iridophores (hey, his family is really rich). Because this is the trait of Edward’s that is least damaging to himself or others, I’m cool with it.

As I said earlier, science can’t explain Edward’s hair, but this site can help you recreate the look for yourself:

With posts like Prions and the “science” of zombies, Women defy biology to avoid giving birth on Halloween, and now this one, Try Nerdy is clearly feeling a bit of a Halloween vibe. Indeed, lest I be accused of supporting Team Edward, it seems only fair I cover the science of werewolves soon…because that Team Jacob can be viscous.

Stay nerdy!
Xu J, Peng C, Sankaran VG, Shao Z, Esrick EB, Chong BG, Ippolito GC, Fujiwara Y, Ebert BL, Tucker PW, & Orkin SH (2011). Correction of Sickle Cell Disease in Adult Mice by Interference with Fetal Hemoglobin Silencing. Science (New York, N.Y.) PMID: 21998251

Stölzel U, Stauch T, & Doss MO (2010). [Porphyrias]. Der Internist, 51 (12) PMID: 21104216

Krystal AD, Lankford A, Durrence HH, Ludington E, Jochelson P, Rogowski R, & Roth T (2011). Efficacy and Safety of Doxepin 3 and 6 mg in a 35-day Sleep Laboratory Trial in Adults with Chronic Primary Insomnia. Sleep, 34 (10), 1433-42 PMID: 21966075