Eating a high-fat diet may lead to daytime sleepiness, a new study concludes. Australian researchers studied 1,800 men who had filled out food-frequency questionnaires and reported on how sleepy they felt during the day. After adjusting for factors that could influence sleep — smoking, alcohol intake, waist circumference, physical activity and others — they found that compared with those in the lowest one-quarter for fat intake, those in the highest one-quarter were 78 percent more likely to suffer daytime sleepiness and almost three times as likely to have sleep apnea.

Researchers debunk circumcision axiom

Circumcision, many contend, reduces the sensitivity of the penis. But a controlled experiment has found no evidence for the belief. Canadian researchers studied 62 generally healthy men ages 18 to 37, 30 of whom had been circumcised as infants, and 32 who remained uncircumcised. Uncircumcised and circumcised men did not differ in sensitivity to touch or temperature at the four penile sites tested, and sensitivity at the forearm was lower than at any penile site for both groups.

'Shrooms could blunt the sting of rejection

Psilocybin, the mind-altering chemical that gives some mushrooms hallucinogenic properties, can do more than induce trippy states. A new study finds that it reduces the sting of social rejection. By tracking how psilocybin affects the brain's chemistry and activity levels, the research suggests new ways to treat the faulty social processing that comes with many mental illnesses. Swiss scientists compared the patterns of brain activation and neurochemical levels in 21 healthy volunteers who, on separate occasions, were given a dose of psilocybin or a placebo while they played a game of "cyberball." Cyberball is an online game that induces feelings of social rejection while subjects have their brains scanned. Compared with when they got a placebo, subjects getting a dose of psilocybin were remarkably resilient in response to cyberball.

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