Friday, June 20th, 2008

Coffee Smell Wakes Up Genes

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Colorful Coffee Composition Photo by 'Once and Future' / Flickr

Sure, the commercials love to people energized by the mere whiff of a steaming pot of coffee -- but new research shows that those commercials may not be far off the mark. Just smelling the aroma of coffee is enough to change the activity of several genes in rats, researchers report this week in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The affected genes appear to help the animals deal with resistance to the stresses caused by sleep deprivation. In this segment, we'll talk with one of the researchers involved with the project about the team's findings.

Guests

Yoshinori Masuo
Neuroscientist and Head of Mental Stress Team
Health Technology Research Center
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Tsukuba, Japan

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Segment produced by:Karin Vergoth

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Image: Home Roasted Coffee Beans
Photo by 'FreeWine' / Flickr

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