Sounds crazy right? A study performed by Northwestern University went out to discovery if babies who spent more time in their mothers’ womb resulted in better academic results throughout elementary and grade school. Yes the title is misleading but weight gain correlates with the amount of time the fetus is in the womb.

The study observed and recorded all school records for children that were born in Florida between 1992 and 2002. The study consisted of over 1.3 million children and looked for correlation between the weight of a newborn baby and their cognitive development, and what they discovered was interesting. They determined that babies who tended to weigh more at birth tested higher from third to eighth grade.

What this experiment did well was the large size of participants who were involved. However, there were a few things that I did not like about this article. The article never clarified what weight was considered to be “heavier”. The average weight of a newborn baby is 7.5 pounds. The article kind of leaves us guessing when it comes to how much a heavier baby really weighs. Also, this experiment does not consider the intelligence of the children’s parents. I myself think that there are several third factors that are not taken into account during this experiment. I think though overall, the correlation between the amount of time a fetus spends in the womb and it’s intelligence growing up is a very interesting topic and should be further looked into.

References:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/02/heavier-birth-weight-tied-to-better-academic-performance-study-finds/

Psychology Today

Did that title make you sleepy? Did you just let out a big yawn? I know I’ve already yawned about five times just researching this very topic. So why is it that yawns are so contagious – even to the point where hearing or reading the word induces a yawn right on the spot?

The old myth claims that yawning helps draw in air, increasing blood pressure, heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Thus, enhancing alertness and motor skills. However, past research suggests that yawning has little to no affect on said processes.

Another commonly held explanation for yawning is known as the “hyperthermia hypothesis”. This theory suggests that yawning helps cool down our brains. A study conducted in 2007 revealed that holding a warm or cold pack on the participant’s forehead affected the consistency of yawning while watching a video of other people yawning. The cold packs decreased yawning, while the warm packs increased the strange phenomenon.

Some scientists also believe that yawning could just be a matter of social interaction. This theory suggests that yawning could be related to mimicry and empathy. In certain instances, we attempt to perceive things as others do and in turn, respond similarly to their responses. “I think what the study does is it supports the idea that empathy is the mechanism that underlies contagious yawns,” said Matthew Campbell of Emory University, who wasn’t involved in the study. “The idea is that it’s the same mechanism by which we catch smiles or frowns or fearful expressions.”

Past studies suggest the higher levels of empathy a person has, the more they are susceptible the yawn contagion. Even so, the closer you are to someone, the more likely you are to respond to their yawn. Research also shows that autistic children are not affected by contagious yawning, perhaps because autism is associated with poor social interaction and communication.

A recent study published March 14 in the journal PLOS ONE, is the most current  research we have for the phenomenon of contagious yawning. The new research, found by the Duke Center for Human Genome Variation suggests that yawning may subside as we age and is not linked to empathy, mimicry, energy, or fatigue.

“The lack of association in our study between contagious yawning and empathy suggests that contagious yawning is not simply a product of one’s capacity for empathy,” said study author Elizabeth Cirulli, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University School of Medicine.

The researchers recruited 328 participants who completed extensive research and questionnaires, involving health, fatigue, energy and empathy levels. They were then asked to view a video of people yawning, while researches recorded the consistency of their yawns. The team found that that some were more susceptible to the video, than others. In fact, some participants racked up to 15 yawns during the 3 minute video. Of the 328, 222 participants yawned at least once. According to Duke Medicine, “When verified across multiple testing sessions, the number of yawns was consistent, demonstrating that contagious yawning is a very stable trait.”

While the study did not find any strong link between yawning and empathy, fatigue, or energy. The only independent variable that did affect the results was age. The older the participant, the less limey they were to yawn. However, the authors do denote that age only accounted for 8% of the variability of the yawning responses.

“Age was the most important predictor of contagious yawning, and even age was not that important. The vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was just not explained,” Cirulli said.

What I find most intriguing about this phenomenon is that it still remains unsolved. Researchers are now looking into whether the yawn contagion could be due to genetic influences. The long term goal of the research team at Duke University is to hone down on the specific variability and biology involved in contagious yawning, so we can better understand diseases such as Schizophrenia and Autism. In finding the cause of the contagion, they may be able to build an understanding that could possibly shed light on these diseases.

“It is possible that if we find a genetic variant that makes people less likely to have contagious yawns, we might see that variant or variants of the same gene also associated with schizophrenia or autism,” Cirulli said. “Even if no association with a disease is found, a better understanding of the biology behind contagious yawning can inform us about the pathways involved in these conditions.”

References:

Duke Medicine. “Contagious Yawning a Mystery: May Not Be Linked to Empathy after All.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2014. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140314211843.htm>.

Castro, Joseph. “Why Do We Yawn?” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2014. <http://www.livescience.com/39862-why-do-we-yawn.html>.

Bryner, Jeanna. “Yawns More Contagious Among Friends.” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 07 Dec. 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2014. <http://www.livescience.com/17365-yawns-contagious-friends.html>.

Bartholomew, Alex J., and Elizabeth T. Cirulli. “Individual Variation in Contagious Yawning Susceptibility Is Highly Stable and Largely Unexplained by Empathy or Other Known Factors.” PLOS ONE:. Creative Commons Attribution, 14 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2014. <http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0091773>.

For those of you who know what ayahuasca is and its effects, you may be thinking there is no way this drug can have any medical benefits at all. For those of you who don’t know what ayahuasca is, its a drink brewed by Banisteriopsis caapi vine which is found primarily in the Amazon and this drug makes you hallucinate…A LOT. There have been reported deaths because of the drug but, very little is know about the long effects that the drug does to the body. However, some people believe that this drug can be used as medicine.

A claim has been made that ayahuasca can potentially assist in alleviating the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidal thoughts. The largest group of people who are seeking the drug are war veterans. In many cases veterans are diagnosed with PTSD and suffer from the reoccurrence of a traumatic memory they experienced during battle. One war veteran, Former Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan LeCompte, is a large advocate of the use of ayahuasca and organizes trips to Peru for fellow war veterans like himself. LeCompte says that everyone knows that they are taking a risk when taking ayahuasca and believes that the risk is outweighed by the reward. He states that many veterans are not satisfied with the medication they are provided for PTSD, “It’s just, ‘Here’s a pill, here’s a Band-Aid.’ The ayahuasca medicine is a way to, instead of sweeping your dirt under the rug, you know, these medicines force you to take the rug outside and beat it with a stick until it’s clean.”

It is understood that ayahuasca highly effects the amygdala which is the part of the brain that stores someone’s most traumatic memories. In our lives, powerful or traumatic events create an imprint (pattern) on our brain. This imprint causes us to react similarly to situations that might be common to the first traumatic event. Repeated traumatic events causes these “patterns”  to be reinforced by getting bound together by protein (like built up scar tissue). When ayahuasca is taken it hyper activates the entire brain region where emotional memory is stored, which often uncovers long and forgotten memories. This hyperactivity temporarily overrides the previous patterns in the brain, allowing new connections to be made. For veterans sake, this hyperactivity can override their traumatic events that occurred during battle. The new connections that are formed in the brain can make the old traumatic events seem not so bad after all.

Obviously this article is very controversial and extremely interesting. It seems that the drug could help a specific group of individuals in particular however, other than that I do not see many medicinal benefits that can come from ayahuasca.

References:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/health/ayahuasca-medicine-six-things/index.html?hpt=he_bn3

Many women like to put lipstick on before they go out, or when they go to work. But have you ever wondered what lipstick exactly is, other than a stick of color. Lipstick is defined as an oil-based cosmetic that is usually applied on the lips. Lipstick and many lip-glosses contain high levels of potentially dangerous metals.

Some dangerous metals that could be found in lipsticks are cadmium, chromium, aluminum, lead, nickel, titanium, copper are some of the potentially dangerous metals that could be found in lipstick. “We looked at nine heavy metals and found that all of them were present in most of the lipsticks, but not necessarily at really high levels, study author Katharine Hammond, a professor of environmental health sciences with the University of California Berkeley’s School of Public Health told The Huffington Post. “Low levels of metals may not create a risk, but as the exposure increases, the damage can increase.” Over the span of the female life, it’s pretty obvious that lipstick may be applied at least 100,000 times. And that is a potentially eye-opening number, applying all these potentially dangerous metals on their lips. The most terrifying part about lipstick is that it is applied on the lips and therefore has a high risk of ingestion. Ingesting these metals, could potentially lead to many different health risks. “”The metals that we were really most concerned about were cadmium, chromium, aluminum and manganese,” Hammond said, explaining that overexposure to each carries risks. Chronic, low level exposure to cadmium, for example, has been linked to serious kidney problems.

To learn more about the article above, follow the link:

A study done by the Environmental Health Perspective concluded that it varies with the frequency of use. Their experiment consisted of an in-depth analysis of lipstick, using a method called plasma optical emission spectrometry. The results of this study were shocking. Most of the products tested had metals in it, but concentration varied by brand. They concluded that the FDA should monitor the metals in lip care products, because the risks of health defects are evident, for the future if ingested.

The average rate at which female’s apply lipstick is twice a day, according to this article on Huffington post. And just in applying lipstick twice daily, women are at risk because they could be potentially increasing the amount of these deadly metals they consume daily. There is not believed to be a safe level of lead exposure, and studies have shown that women are actually ingesting lead, in some brands of lipstick. The FDA has since looked into this problem, and has concluded that the metals are at such concentration; it doesn’t matter if it’s consumed. But that could prove to be deadly. Just imagine the problems if an individual just ate a stick of lipstick. More studies must be done in which women who use lipstick on different frequency are tracked; that could help establish a correlation between lipstick use and health problems.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/02/toxic-lipstick-metals_n_3195547.html

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/121-a196/

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1205518/

Medical marijuana is an extremely hot topic right now across the nation. It has now been proven that this illegal drug (in most states) has copious amounts of medical benefits. I came across an article titled “Marijuana compound may slow, halt progression of Alzheimer’s”. Some may think how could a drug that worsens one’s short term memory help with a disease that is all about memory loss? Well, a study that was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease states that marijuana may indeed help patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s.

Neuroscientists went to work on a cellular model of the disease and discovered that in low doses, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) lessened the production of amyloid beta. The scientists also discovered that, in low doses, THC prevented abnormal accumulation. Now many of you including myself will have no idea what any of that means. To explain, abnormal accumulation is one of the early signs of Alzheimer’s. A neuroscientist, Chuanhai Cao, explains it well, “Decreased levels of amyloid beta means less aggregation, which may protect against the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Since THC is a natural and relatively safe amyloid inhibitor, THC or its analogs may help us develop an effective treatment in the future.”

It was also discovered that THC enhances the function of the mitochondria. This is very important because mitochondria assist in keeping a healthy brain. The researchers believe that the medical benefits of low doses of THC outweigh the risk of potential memory loss. Marijuana in no way will cure Alzheimer’s, but this discovery is definitely a step in the right direction to finding a reliable treatment for the disease.

References:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/28/marijuana-compound-may-slow-halt-progression-alzheimer/

For the past decade or so people have tried to limit their consumption of saturated fats. It was believed that these fats were a leading cause of heart disease and diabetes. As word about these “bad” saturated fats spread, people began to intake more carbs. A study, performed by The Ohio State University, went out to discover if the claims about saturated fats were true.

The University’s  discoveries were not consistent with the previous beliefs of saturated fats. The study, which lasted 21 weeks, consisted of 16 middle age obese adults . The researchers placed the participants on a very strict diet which contained carbs and saturated fats. It is to be noted that before the study the participants involved were on a low-fat and high-carb diet. For the first three weeks of the experiment the participants were placed on high fat low carb diet which consisted of 84 grams of saturated fat and 47 grams of carbohydrates. The researchers discovered that there was no increase in the amount of saturated fats in the blood stream after the first three weeks.

Every three weeks after that the researchers decreased the amount of saturated fat intake, and increased the carbohydrate intake. By the end of the 21 weeks the participants were intaking about 346 grams of carbohydrates and 32 grams of saturated fats each day (which is the recommended daily amount of carbs by the U.S dietary).  As the amount of fats consumed was decreased, the researchers found no changes in the level of saturated fat in the blood. However, the researchers also noticed an increased of a fatty acid called palmitoleic every three weeks after the first observational period. This particular fatty acid is linked with several things such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart failure, etc.

The risk of excess carbohydrate intake has been overlooked by the risk of excess intake of saturated fats. Carbs can indeed lead to health issues if taken in large quantities. Although the study performed was particularly small, it is something to think about.

References:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/03/heart-disease-and-diabetes-risks-tied-to-carbs-not-fat-study-finds/

Long, stressful, never ending day at work? Bad grade on your midterm exam that you’ve studied for, for weeks now? Just want to go home, relax with a nice glass of wine or drink to relieve some stress, put your worries to the side, but feel like it’s not the healthiest choice? Well, you’re in luck, turns out that “myth” that a glass of red wine can actually be beneficial to your health may be in fact, true! So kick back, relax, put your feet up, and gladly sip on the wine after a long stressful day— you deserve it and it can be healthy for you!

In High School there are many times I would come home from my sports to my parents sipping on some wine. I always heard that a glass of wine a day can be beneficial to your health, but I never actually looked into it. After doing some research on the topic, I was actually surprised that an alcoholic beverage—something that is frowned upon by many— can actually be “healthy.” Clearly, many people have had the same concerns as me regarding wine because there are several studies on it, check out a few that I have found!

According to the American Heart Association’s Cardiology Patient Page, a study was conducted to see if wine was beneficial. It tested a total of 13,285 men and women for 12 straight years. It states,“patients who drank wine had half the risk of dying from coronary heart disease or stroke as those who never drank wine.” I found this information very vague. I don’t even know if the study was observational or experimental. I believe the only effective information they gave us was the population size tested and the time period it took place in. Without vital information such as how much wine they drank makes their claim weak. Did someone who drank one glass of wine opposed to someone who drank 5 both half the risk of dying from coronary heart disease or stroke? Maybe coronary heart disease and stroke are hereditary in which wine intake wouldn’t really effect them anyway. The people in the study could have also exercised, or ate healthy to reduce their risk of these health issues so the wine wasn’t entirely the reason.

Another study proved that wine decreased atherosclerotic disease. 209,418 people were studied and the study concluded that there was a 32% risk reduction for the disease for people who drank red wine. In this study, the time period was not included, nor was the amount of wine consumed. Since the percentage is pretty low for the reduced chance of atherosclerotic disease, I think that it could largely be due to chance. So many people were tested that there could be other factors such as exercise, diet, genetics (as I mentioned earlier) that could play a role in lowering the chance of getting this disease.

To give reasoning behind why wine may be healthy, it is because of what it is made out of. According to the article the,”polyphonic compounds in red wine, such as flavonoids and resveratrol,” help make the red wine healthy, heres how:

• By limiting progression of atherosclerotic disease

• By “maintaining healthy blood vessels (vasculature) by promoting the formation of nitric oxide (NO), the key chemical relaxing factor that plays a pivotal role in the regulation of vascular tone.”
• By “ increasing in levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, or the ‘good cholesterol.’”(Paul E. Szmitko)

I do no think that these studies done were very convincing, at least the way they were presented on this website. They were lacking a lot of information to fully prove that wine is beneficial, but just because of this does not mean it isn’t. I think that following the information of the studies with facts about wine composition helps to make the studies stronger. But, if I were to do these experiments or studies over again, I would find participants who have no family history of coronary heart disease, stroke, and atherosclerotic disease, have them keep a log of what they ate each day, how much they exercised, and how much wine they drank each day. I would then compile the information and see if the wine drinkers had less people who suffered from these health issues.

Various other websites(ones which didn’t include studies) state that drinking wine can be good for your health. This is not suggesting that non drinkers start drinking wine because it is healthy for you, it’s definitely healthier to not drink at all, but suggesting to drinkers that it may not be that bad.

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/111/2/e10.full

I don’t know about you guys, but I have a couple of 8 am finals, and personally I’m not the biggest fan of eating early in the morning. People always say that not eating stunts your learning and causes you not to be able to focus. So do I eat before my final and run the risk of feeling sick, or run the risk of not getting the grade I want to get?

Share our strengths “no hungry kid campaign” gave 11 million kids a provided lunch at school, and waited to see the results of their constant breakfasts that they used to not have. They found that students who ate breakfast attended an average of 1.5 more school days than other students without breakfast, and their math scores went up 17.5%. “In Maryland alone, research showed that increasing school breakfast participation among elementary and middle school students to 70% of the students currently receiving school lunch could lead Maryland to see up to an estimated 56,000 additional students achieving math proficiency, 14,000 more high school graduates over time and 84,890 fewer absences.” Says CNN.

This study was not conducted very well, since there was no real sample of people, just a common trend that has overwhelming info that breakfast helps a lot in school performance.

However, I want more scientific data that is a little bit more convincing.

An experiment was run with 195 families containing 10 year old children attending 10 different schools. They were asked to alter their child’s breakfast regimen for a week. The breakfasts either had a high or low energy content and uneaten food was recorded and weighed. Teachers were also blind to what was going on. “Voluntary physical endurance and the performance of a creativity test were significantly better after a breakfast from which children derived over 20% of their recommended daily energy intake than after a breakfast from which they obtained less than 10% of recommended values.” Says pubmed.

I think that since this is a double blind procedure, the results are probably fairly accurate. However, there could be many third variables that influenced the data. There is definitely some chance that performance went up due to other factors, however, I am definitely going to be having breakfast before my finals. I need all the points I can get!

Works Cited:

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2013/02/27/study-finds-school-breakfast-is-a-key-to-future-success/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9093544

I go to the gym almost every day and the amount of time that I spend there varies from 45 minutes to over 2 hours depending on what I’m working out. This got me thinking, does being at the gym for a long time mean that I am being more productive and getting stronger?

I have seen people who spend hours a day at the gym that are always tired and sore. I always thought that their hours spent hitting the gym lead to them being sore, but after looking into I found out that they may have been at the gym for too long. Dr. Mecola put out an article talking about the effects of overworking at the gym. He said that people who are often sore for days at a time, people who have “heavy legs”, people who get sick easily, and people who the blues can all trace their issues back to overworking at the gym.

Dr. Mecola also said that when doing high intensity workouts more is less. He said that when you are doing a workout that involves little time to rest in between sets being at the gym for to long can hinder instead of help your health. He also claims that rest is crucial when high intensity exercises are being done day in and day out.

After looking into Dr. Mecola’s research I have realized that it is not about how long you are at the gym, but rather what you get done in that time. Dr. Mecola said “it’s all about balance”. While working out you need to find the right balance between how intense the workout is and how long you will spend at the gym. For example if you are at the gym lifting with a group of 5 people who are talking in between sets and working out in a casual environment being at the gym for over 2 hours is very plausible. However if you are alone or with another person and the workout is intense with very few breaks being at the gym for hours on end can be dangerous to your health.

I think that studies about the ideal amount of time to spend at the gym are not published because of the file drawer problem. If  more studies got published saying that less is more at the gym that people would stop going. In regard to Dr. Mecola’s article I don’t think he had a big enough sample size to totally prove his point. Confounding variables could affect his study because we do not know the general health of the people he studied. Even though his study is not perfect it still provides enough reliable evidence to prove his point.

And make sure you know what your doing at the gym so you don’t end up like this:

Works Cited:

http://training.fitness.com/weight-training/time-spent-gym-23473.html

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/12/28/7-hidden-signs-of-overtraining.aspx

http://www.builtlean.com/2013/09/17/muscles-grow/

As girls, we all wear makeup, regardless of the fact that it may be the underlying cause of our acne. Wearing makeup makes us feel beautiful and more confident in ourselves. At this point in time, it is well known that the possible causes of acne are a result of increased stress levels and changes in hormones. But are these the only possible causes of it or could it be something else? When women breakout, they are more prone to wear makeup to hide their blemishes however the makeup could be the reason that their acne is not going away or getting worse.

Many dermatologists recommend not wearing makeup as it can make a patient’s skin condition even worse than it is. However this recommendation is not based off of a true claim but moreover a belief that makeup could worsen acne. In 2005, Dr. Hayashi conducted a study to assess the effects of makeup on skin. In this study, a makeup artist was asked to teach basic makeup techniques to a group of 18 women with acne. The women would apply makeup for four weeks while their skin was being treated. The study resulted in higher self-esteem, a better social life, and improved acne. While this study cannot conclude whether the women’s acne would have gotten even better without the makeup or if the makeup interfered with the acne treatment, it is safe to say that the makeup did not have any negative effects on the women’s acne due to the fact that it improved their skin.

Although the study showed that makeup did not worsen the women’s acne, Dr. Hayashi had the study participants use makeup that is specifically designed for acne-prone skin. The foundation and concealer used were “non-comodogenic” and “non-irritating.” This suggests that perhaps certain cosmetic products may be better or safer to use than others.

Another possible cause of the women’s acne improving could have been the psychological effects that the makeup had on the women. Since the study resulted in higher self-esteem, it is most likely that the makeup caused the women to feel better about themselves. Could it be that makeup actually helps fight acne? Having acne is a stress within itself and the embarrassment that it brings can further worsen a person’s skin. Therefore, anything to ease the psychological burden and stress that acne brings about must have some positive effect on the skin.

Overall, the study conducted cannot conclude that makeup worsens or improves acne. However, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that makeup does not worsen acne.

Sources:

http://www.acneeinstein.com/makeup-acne/

As everyone knows there is a huge drinking culture at Penn state, as there is at most colleges across the county. But when was it that human beings developed a taste for a substance that hindered their senses, and probably at first didn’t taste very good? I decided to look into it.

I recently wrote a post about meat consumption and how it influenced evolution of the human brain, as it turns out, this topic falls under a similar category.

According to Science daily and NBC news, Humans began to have a knack for consuming alcohol around 10 million years ago, however it was not that they were throwing down beers for enjoyment. Early hominids developed the ability to digest alcohol when they began to eat rotting fruit that contained large amounts of ethanol in them. In case there was no fresh fruit to be eaten, it was an important adaption for hominids to be able to eat and digest the rotting fruit so that they could survive.

It was not a simple adaption however, that these hominid’s made when it came to breaking down ethanol, it was actually a genetic mutation. This mutation came coincidently when humans began to travel the forest floor. This would explain why Orangutans, who spend most of their time in trees opposed to on the ground, can’t metabolise alcohol where as Chimps and Gorillas can, similar to humans.

How did scientists discover this information about our early ancestors? By studying resurrected enzymes in the digestive tracts of humans and models of protein functions based on natural history and evolution. The evolving catalytic properties of the resurrected enzymes display that our ancestors gained a digestive dehydrogenase enzyme, capable of metabolizing ethanol, around the time they began to walk the forest floor. The ADH4 enzyme, the first enzyme exposed to ethanol in the digestive tract that is capable of metabolizing ethanol, in our more ancient and tree-dwelling ancestors did not as efficiently oxidize ethanol. The change suggests that exposure to different dietary sources of ethanol, in the form of fermented fruit, increased in hominids during the early stages of their adaptation to a terrestrial lifestyle.

I found this extremely interesting, and don’t have much of a critique for the articles that I read, that all contained generally the same information. Something more I would have liked to get out of the study is, when dealing with eating ethanol, when did it become an enjoyment instead of a last case scenario. One scientist claimed, “I suspect ethanol was a second-choice item,” when it came to choosing fruit on the ground, so when did humans begin to eat it/ drink it just for the sake of getting drunk? There probably never will be an answer because it is basically impossible to test our early ancestors behavioral actions, or when they decided that it was fun to feel the reactions of the ethanol on their body. There were probably 3rd variables as to why and when it became a leisure activity besides the taste and feeling that ethanol had.    Overall it was very cool to learn about how alcohol was first introduced into the human mindset.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com 

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/why-humans-drink-alcohol-its-evolution-plus-bad-fruit-n259446

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2856241/We-ve-drinking-alcohol-TEN-MILLION-years-study-finds.html

http://rt.com/news/210555-primates-consumed-alcohol-humans/

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/11/26/1404167111.abstract

Through the process of applying to the Integrative Arts program here at Penn State I have found someone who has used this program to become an art therapist. I was curious as to if this type of therapy and what exactly it does. There are actually quite a few schools that come up with this specific major when I looked for it so I feel as though there must be some good studies which show this process as being effective.

An article on arttherapyworks.ca states that this process works “by giving a person a different way to express their thoughts and feelings – both through the image they create and the physical aspect of making the art”. It makes sense how expressing oneself through art can lead to helping them overcome their problems. What comes to mind also is Freud and how he studied the unconsciousness and determined people problems from their dreams, even though he is discredited today there might be some merit to this type of thinking.

This Wikipedia article lists several uses for art therapy outside of just psychological therapies, such as helping aid in the recovery from general illness. One particularly interesting use I found was that it was used to help people who were diagnosed with cancer to cope with this condition. I found this interesting because art is something that anyone can do and it helped people who were likely very upset and distraught.

In the Wikipedia article a review of studies is discussed in which states “When given five individual sessions of art therapy once per week, art therapy was shown to be useful for personal empowerment by helping the cancer patients understand their own boundaries in relation to the needs of other people.” I feel that these types of things are somewhat hard to test because they are based on feelings which can be hard to measure. In this specific study it is possible that there is a third variable involved such as the support system each patient had. However, I would be interested to see a large scale study done on how effect this therapy is compared to no therapy or other types of therapies.

We’re all college kids, and fratland is a favorite place to hang out and de-stress after a long week of classes and exams. It’s probably not too out of the ordinary for some kids to have a few drinks a weekend. But with finals coming up I was wondering what the implications of drinking are on your grades.

Obviously, if you go out to a party and don’t study, your grade on the exam may not be too great. But what if you drink a few days before the exam? What effects could this have on your grade? Students at Bucknell University decided to figure this out. 180 questionnaires were returned to the students after being distributed to a random sample of people. The independent variable here is the number of drinks consumed on a regular basis and the dependent variables they chose to examine were GPA, hours spent studying, number of classes missed due to drinking, and students who drink in response to the stresses of school. They found out that there is a -.253 correlation between drinks consumed in an evening and GPA, meaning that as drink number increases, GPA decreases. A person who has 5 drinks on average per night has the lowest GPA of anyone on campus according to this study. The study also concluded that students who drink more have worse hangovers and tend to miss class more. You may think that drinking on a regular basis isn’t affecting your GPA but it most likely is. This experiment talked about people who drink a lot on a regular basis (5 drinks or more) not people who have a few drinks on occasion.

I think this study was conducted fairly well. The sample size was decently large and the results were mathematically correct and convincing. I think that a study like this could also look at effect on GPA once a person began drinking regularly, because maybe not everyone’s grades would drop. The experiment above may suffer from the texas sharp-shooter problem because there may be people who drink a lot and still have very good grades, but the bad GPA’s are what is being stressed here. I think that there is a good chance that this information is pretty accurate, and maybe for next semester, think twice before drinking every night!

Works cited:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facstaff.bucknell.edu%2Fawolaver%2Falcohol%2Facademic.doc&ei=aM6AVL2EOMyrgwS4_YHIDA&usg=AFQjCNEhTMXi9eTxbWDmQggKv6eF6cMB3Q&sig2=LYeEnt5mupt6R3_84UPRgQ&bvm=bv.80642063,d.eXY

Two very important people in my life have suffered from severe heroin addiction. One of these people is Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the other is one of my best friends from back home, Kevin, who is actually still in rehab. The Red Hot Chili Peppers hit so close to home for me. I grew up listening to them and I’m still probably their number one fan :p. After I read Anthony Kiedis’ autobiography, I learned the danger of heroin and the addiction to it and it was absolutely terrifying. To know that someone who had influenced my life so much was in so much pain hurt me. In fact, “Under the Bridge”, a song about his addiction, is one of my favorite songs and I tend to live by the words of it. Then, when I found out that Kevin was in rehab for heroin, I completely lost it. Now, the drug that stops heroin death, Naloxone, is increasing in price. The price has gone up from $22 to $40, and although this may not seem like a huge deal for many people, tons of people are unable to pull out a casual 40 bucks to save their life. Although Naloxene is only a temporary fix to heroin use and addiction, this price increase poses a problem in that it decreases access. Some may say that this enables the drug users but the drug can only be administered by trained medical professionals and police officers, and as soon as they recover, they would most likely be placed into a treatment program, where they could be given a more permanent treatment plan. As someone who has seen someone suffer from heroin addiction first hand, this life-saving drug shouldn’t be priced the way it is. If it has the ability to save lives, it shouldn’t be so difficult to access.

My last blog was on a certain study method that may be useful to some of you to try for finals. Now, I’m curious what other things other than studying we can do to help us relax or stimulate our brain, so that we can get the best grades possible. Maybe a certain diet, or exercise plan could make all the difference in your mental state, and grades.

Sleep definitely plays an influential role in how well the test will go for a person. However, with all the studying we will have to be doing. Some people say that on a study break people should play video games to stimulate the brain. In a study conducted at the University of Edinburgh, it turns out that “wakeful resting” or sitting quietly in a dark room, with your eyes closed. trumps a video game for a study break. Participants heard two stories. One was followed by ten minutes of wakeful resting and the other was ten minutes playing a game. Wakeful resting led to significant memory enhancement both short and long term. It is proposed that wakeful resting after new learning allows new memory traces to be focused better and therefore retained for much longer. Another experiment was done on wakeful resting and its effects. 33 elderly adults did the exact same experiment as the one above, and again, the adults remember a significantly greater amount of information after the wakeful resting break. There is huge evidence here that wakeful resting is one of the best ways to retain information, especially more than games which some professionals think is the best study break. However, there is always the possibility of chance.

However, I don’t think this was the best study ever since the sample size of 33 was fairly small. Also, a double blind approach could work here with the people reading the story and the ones listening. There could also be many third or confounding variables that contribute to the results displayed.

But with the overwhelming evidence, I’m going to give this a try, and you should too!! Good luck on finals everyone!

Works Cited: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/248389.php

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/9/955.abstract?etoc

Treating depression is no easy, or cheap, feat. I currently suffer from depression, and, without insurance, my medication would be about $30 a month. On top of that, I used to get counseling every Wednesday for about a year, and each of these sessions were $125. We had to cut down on certain things, such as extracurriculars, to afford my therapy sessions, but a new study has suggested a more cost-effective way to treat depression: group mindfulness.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden are finding that group mindfulness exercises are as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is your classic one-on-one therapy sessions, in treating depression and anxiety. They are also more cost effective and convenient. The way researchers went about conducting this experiment was by gathering a group of 215 subjects, all of whom suffered from anxiety, depression, or severe stress responses. These participants were, then, split into two groups. One group went through CBT while the other group went through 10-member group mindfulness sessions, both of which were conducted over eight weeks. Both before and after the treatments, the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire to figure out their levels of anxiety or depression, and among both groups, the participants reported feeling less depressed or anxious than they did before, significantly suggesting the effectiveness of group mindfulness. The lead researcher of the study even suggested that group mindfulness can be an alternative to individual psychotherapy. There is even scientific proof that this form of therapy is effective. According to Harvard researchers, “MRI data revealed that meditation increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus, a region associated with learning and memory, and decreased density in the amygdala, a brain region associated with fear, anxiety and stress responses.” This could easily be a huge breakthrough in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.