Health Highlights: March 3, 2008

The study is published in theJournal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

The "resting" internal volume of the stomach is 75 milliliters, but relaxation of its muscular wall can increase the volume to 2 or more liters,BBC Newsreported.

Currently, two surgical procedures -- stomach stapling and gastric banding -- are used to reduce the stomach's maximum volume in order to treat obesity.

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Frog's Skin Secretions May Lead to New Diabetes Treatment

A compound -- pseudin 2 -- secreted in the skin of a South American frog stimulates insulin release, and a synthetic version of this compound could be used to develop new drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, according to research presented at the Diabetes UK annual conference.

Scientists from the University of Ulster and United Arab Emirates University found that a synthetic version of pseudin 2 stimulated secretion of insulin in pancreatic cells in the laboratory and caused no toxic side effects,BBC Newsreported.

The researchers said the synthetic version was better than natural pseudin 2, which is found on the skin of the "shrinking" frog, which grows to 27 cm (10.6 inches) as a tadpole, but then shrinks to 4 cm (1.6 inches) as a mature frog. Psedin 2 protects the frogs from infection.

There's a growing body of research around nature-based treatments for diabetes. For example, a recently developed drug called exenatide was developed from a hormone in the saliva of the Gila monster, a lizard that lives in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico,BBC Newsreported.

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Low-Intensity Aerobic Exercise Boosts Energy: Study

A University of Georgia study found that low-intensity aerobic exercise can boost energy levels and reduce fatigue.