New research suggests low-frequency electrical stimulation of the brain may help people reduce obsessive behaviors, such as hoarding. It's estimated the neurological disorder affects nearly 1 billion people worldwide.

Scientists believe obsessive behaviors are the result of abnormal habit-learning. Something goes wrong in the brain where choices are made and rewards reinforced. In a recently published study, 124 volunteers underwent brain scans while performing varying degrees of obsessive-compulsive behaviors, then for five days they received 30 minutes of transcranial alternating current stimulation targeting the brain's reward network.

Obsessive-compulsive behaviors dropped for up to three months, declining most in people with more severe symptoms.

The Terrors of Tailgating

Tailgating is an American ritual, but maybe not a healthy one.

Researchers simulated the intense eating and drinking of a tailgating session with a small group of healthy men who were overweight. Then, researchers assessed participants' livers using blood tests and a liver scan. Study participants consumed an average of 5,087 calories.

"Surprisingly, we found that in overweight men, after an afternoon of eating and drinking, how their bodies reacted to food and drink was not uniform," said Elizabeth Parks, professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri.

"In some people, the body responded in a unique way to take the stress off the liver. These findings reveal that both genetics and lifestyle can work together to protect us from overconsumption of nutrients."

Nine men showed increased fat in the liver (bad), five showed a decrease in liver fat and one man experienced no change at all. Unexpectedly, those with more liver fat drank 90% less alcohol and tended to eat more carbohydrates compared to the other participants.

"A potential explanation is that high carbohydrate consumption may have a greater impact on liver fat than alcohol in some people," Parks said.

On the other hand, overconsumption is never a good thing, period.

Get Me That, Stat!

Founding father George Washington, who was born on Feb. 22, 1732, survived smallpox, malaria (six times), diphtheria, tuberculosis (twice) and pneumonia. He died on Dec. 14, 1799, at the age of 67.

According to reports, on Dec. 12, Washington was out on horseback supervising farm activities. It began to snow. Upon returning home, he did not change out of his wet clothes and went straight to dinner, not wanting to keep guests waiting. By the next morning, Washington had a sore throat. His conditioned worsened and he ultimately succumbed to "quinsy," an accumulation of pus due to infection behind the tonsils. This is now known as peritonsillar abscess.

Doc Talk

ODD: acronym for Oppositional Defiant Disorder, a type of behavior disorder mostly diagnosed in childhood. Children with ODD are uncooperative, defiant and hostile toward peers, parents, teachers and other authority figures. They are more troubling to others than they are to themselves.

Phobia of the week

Kathisophobia: fear of sitting down

Observation

"It is safe, and you can't get safer than safe." — Jonas Salk, when asked about the safety of the polio vaccine he had developed

Medical History

This week in 1954, the first inoculation of children against polio using the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. It's a look at real science that's hard to take seriously and even harder to ignore.

In 1991, the Ig Nobel Prize in medicine went to Alan Kligerman for the invention of Beano, an anti-flatulence concoction.

Self-Exam

Q: Where are your rasceta?

A: Look at the insides of your wrists. Rasceta are the little lines or wrinkles marking where your forearm ends and your hand begins.

Curtain Calls

A 32-year-old German man died inside a campground lavatory when he lit a cigarette, igniting an explosion. Investigators blamed leaking gas from the septic tank or a defective natural gas pipe.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.