Squirting a little nasal spray up the nose before mealtime is helping obese people shed an average of 50 lbs in a year. Nastech Pharmaceutical Company of Bothell, WA said its compound, known as PYY, addresses obesity and other ailments suffered by overweight patients – diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, and cancer. Statistics show that 65% of Americans are overweight and nearly half of them are considered obese. In an Associated Press interview, Nastech CEO Steven Quay stated that in tests, PYY reduced patients’ daily calorie intake by 30 percent. Join discussion...

It has long been known that certain psychoactive chemicals, found in such plants as the peyote cactus and diviner’s sage, enhance access to other planes of awareness. (Hence the old saw, “Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs.” Needless to say this comes with risks as well.) More recently, pills have revolutionized brain function among the mentally ill, beginning with the discovery of chlorpromazine in 1950. Now, drugs that enhance mental functioning in healthy people are becoming known and - increasingly - used. We are in the midst of a series of discoveries that will progressively enhance mental abilities. Alpha-CaM kinase II causes remembering a bad memory to erase it, at least in mice. Credible evidence exists for other biomolecular approaches to cognitive enhancement, some listed in the table. Join discussion...