Iodine and Hyperthyroidism: A Double-Edged Sword.

Objective: This article serves as an update to a 1995 review by Braverman and Roti that was publishsed in the inaugural issue of Endocrine Practice.

Methods: We searched PubMed for relevant English-language literature and identified additional papers cited in recent reviews.

Results: Iodine is a trace element found in the Earth's crust that is necessary for the biosynthesis of thyroid hormones.

Gut enterochromaffin cells drive visceral pain and anxiety.

Gastrointestinal (GI) discomfort is a hallmark of most gut disorders and represents an important component of chronic visceral pain. For the growing population afflicted by irritable bowel syndrome, GI hypersensitivity and pain persist long after tissue injury has resolved. Irritable bowel syndrome also exhibits a strong sex bias, afflicting women three times more than men.

A thermogenic fat-epithelium cell axis regulates intestinal disease tolerance.

Disease tolerance, the capacity of tissues to withstand damage caused by a stimulus without a decline in host fitness, varies across tissues, environmental conditions, and physiologic states. While disease tolerance is a known strategy of host defense, its role in noninfectious diseases has been understudied. Here, we provide evidence that a thermogenic fat-epithelial cell axis regulates intestinal disease tolerance during experimental colitis.

Evidence for mutualism between a plant growing in a phosphate-limited desert environment and a mineral phosphate solubilizing (MPS) rhizobacterium.

Alkaline desert soils are high in insoluble calcium phosphates but deficient in soluble orthophosphate (Pi) essential for plant growth. In this extreme environment, one adaptive strategy could involve specific associations between plant roots and mineral phosphate solubilizing (MPS) bacteria. The most efficient MPS phenotype in Gram-negative bacteria results from extracellular oxidation of glucose to gluconic acid via the quinoprotein glucose dehydrogenase.

Sedative, stimulant, and other subjective effects of marijuana: relationships to smoking techniques.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessed subjective effects of smoking marijuana with either a long or short breath-holding duration. During eight test sessions, 55 male volunteers made repeated ratings of subjective "high," sedation, and stimulation, as well as rating their perceptions of motivation and performance on cognitive tests. The major finding of the study was that the long, relative to the short, breath-holding duration increased "high" ratings after smoking marijuana, but not placebo.