OBJECTIVES To explore the prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and its distribution characteristics of adolescents and children in China and its contributing factors. METHODS This study was a stratified, randomized study by clustering samples, which involved 5403 students whose age range was 6 to 18 years from 9 schools, and was conducted in Heilongjiang Province and Shanghai. All stu...

Stress promotes a shift from goal-directed action-outcome learning toward habitual stimulus-response learning. This shift is mediated by an interaction of noradrenergic activity and glucocorticoid stress hormones. In the present experiment, we examined the neural correlates of the stress (hormone)-induced shift from goal-directed to habit learning in the human brain. Healthy participants were a...

There is a wide variety of food products that may be contaminated with one or more parasites and consequently enabling transmission to human beings. The prevalence of specific parasites in food supplies varies between countries and regions. Sources of food-borne products contaminated with parasites are pigs, cattle, fish, crabs, crayfish, snails, frogs, snakes and aquatic plants. One of the maj...

Can healthy food-choice habits protect people against temptations of consuming large portion sizes and unhealthy foods? In two studies, we show that the answer is yes, good habits serve this protective role, at least in contexts in which people are not deliberating and thus fall back on habitual responses. In the first study, participants trained with unhealthy habits to approach eating chocola...

Food is a potent natural reward and food intake is a complex process. Reward and gratification associated with food consumption leads to dopamine (DA) production, which in turn activates reward and pleasure centers in the brain. An individual will repeatedly eat a particular food to experience this positive feeling of gratification. This type of repetitive behavior of food intake leads to the a...

Background: Excessive utilization of electronic media may affect the individuals' health and quality of sleep. This study aimed to investigate sleep quality of the college students based on their diets and duration of time spent on the internet. Methods: In this cross-sectional web-based study, 385 students were selected randomly from the Qazvin University. Data was collected by a self-administ...

INTRODUCTION Recent studies have indicated that diets rich in sodium may predispose to the development of obesity, either directly, or be associated with the consumption of foods that promote weight gain. OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to analyze the association between urinary sodium and the presence of excess of weight. Additionally, the study investigated the relationships between s...