The sound of the question ” are shoes bad for your feet” sounds preposterous to many people. How could something we have been wearing our whole lives be bad for our feet? Well according to http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/ “It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. But we’re wrecking it with every step we take.”

“Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, published a study titled “Shod Versus Unshod: The Emergence of Forefoot Pathology in Modern Humans?” in the podiatry journal The Foot. The study examined 180 modern humans from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu, and European), comparing their feet to one another’s, as well as to the feet of 2,000-year-old skeletons. The researchers concluded that, prior to the invention of shoes, people had healthier feet. Among the modern subjects, the Zulu population, which often goes barefoot, had the healthiest feet while the Europeans—i.e., the habitual shoe-wearers—had the unhealthiest. One of the lead researchers, Dr. Bernhard Zipfel, when commenting on his findings, lamented that the American Podiatric Medical Association does not “actively encourage outdoor barefoot walking for healthy individuals. This flies in the face of the increasing scientific evidence, including our study, that most of the commercially available footwear is not good for the feet.”

This study that was conducted was not clear whether the 180 subjects were randomized or selected so this leaves a possibility for chance to affect the results of the study.

Many people’s rationale to wear shoes, besides fashion, would be to cushion our feet from the hard surfaces around us. Apparently our feet were designed better then we think and are able to absorb the shock. “But in many places in the world, the ground is quite hard,” he says. “[Our ancestors] were able to absorb the shock.”

http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89830802

What really is a hiccup? Most likely, we’ve all experienced them at someone point in our lives. But what causes a hiccup? According to http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/181573.php “A hiccup, medically known as SDF (synchronous diaphragmatic flutter) or singultus, is a sudden, involuntary contraction of the diaphragm which occurs at the same time as a contraction of the voice box (larynx) and total closure of the glottis, effectively blocking air intake”.

What I found interesting was that experts do not even know precisely what causes hiccups. This website lists a few things that experts believe lead to the onset of hiccups.

There has been accounts of some people having prolonged hiccups for days or weeks or longer and those people can be at greater risk health wise then someone who occasionally has hiccups. Some of these complications for people who suffer from longterm hiccups are; weightless, fatigue, depression and many more.

I can see why studying the direct cause of hiccups would be complicated for scientists, there are so many possibilities for third variables and many other outside factors that would vary from person to person. Regardless, people have been experiencing hiccups for a long time and it seems that old folk lores hold some truth in regards of ridding one of hiccups. Maybe it’s just the fact that they get ones mind off thinking about hiccups or maybe they do something to your body to get rid of hiccups. I’m not sure how anyone would scientifically test the validity of such a theory.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/181573.php

Have you ever had a bad day and then started to listen to music and it’s almost as if you start to feel better? Or maybe have little to no energy and then a certain song comes on and your body becomes pulsed with energy out of a lost nowhere? It is without a doubt that music has some kind of effect on our minds and bodies to cause us to respond a certain way depending on what is coming through our headphones at that particular moment.

Through doing some research it is clear to me that music has the ability to influence our minds. The list that http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/09/10-magical-effects-music-has-on-the-mind.php has come up with regarding the effects music has on the brain is quite interesting. Two that stuck out to me where getting the chills or amped up energy with increased happiness. I found these most interesting because I have felt these sensations on multiple occasions before due to music.

Another interesting thing that http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/health/brain-music-research/ explained was how the same song can affect or produce a different experience from person to person. The science behind how music allows us to feel differently after hearing a certain song is based on the amount of dopamine released by the brain due to the type of music. This would explain the euphoric feelings people can experience due to music because dopamine is a “feel good” chemical that the brain releases.

Music can also have negative affects on the body. According to http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html Dr. Ballam said, “The human mind shuts down after three or four repetitions of a rhythm, or a melody, or a harmonic progression.” Furthermore, excessive repetition causes people to release control of their thoughts. Rhythmic repetition is used by people who are trying to push certain ethics in their music.

I think It would be an interesting experiment to see how five people would react to the same song. If five people’s brains were monitored while the same song was playing it would be easy to prove the theory that people react differently to the same song, that is, if the conclusion supports the hypothesis.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/09/10-magical-effects-music-has-on-the-mind.php

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/health/brain-music-research/

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html

Vapes and Electronic Cigarettes or e-digs have swept the nation recently as a “safe alternative” to real cigarettes. The whole point of the creation of e-cigs was to allow people to get their nicotine fix without inhaling all of the dangerous chemicals that come along with smoking actual cigarettes.

The basis on how these devices work are described in the following article. Basically, a battery in the device heats up coils which are in the tank that the e-liquid is stored in and then heats the e-juice and creates vape. The difference with this compared to traditional smoking are a couple of things. First, you are not burning a product or using the method of combustion. Since you are not burning anything there is no smoke to be inhaled. Also, Tobacco plus the other additives that are put in cigarettes are not being inhaled with e-juice.

E-juice is comprised of “Typically, a combination of propylene glycol, artificial flavors and nicotine”. Scientists are not accurately able to say whether or not this new way of providing our bodies nicotine is safe or not for the simple fact that it hasn’t stood the test of time. People didn’t know cigarettes were harmful to them after people have been smoking them consistently for over twenty years. That being said the research that has been conducted involving e-cigarettes they have come to the conclusion that there are 1-5 cancer causing agents in e-juice compared to the thousands of cancer causing agents that are released upon the ignition of a cigarette. Also, when “vaping” there is no fear of second hand smoke like that which comes along with traditional cigarette smoking.

The main concern scientists and doctors are starting to have regarding e-cigarretes are not what’s in the juice but that younger kids will get ahold of them thinking they are “cool” or “totally safe” and get addicted to nicotine at a young age which will lead them to real tobacco products later in life. They are looking at e-cigs as a gateway drug much like many people compare marijuana to.

I have smoked a vape now for I wanna say around 5 months, I started vaping to ween myself off of “dip” and for me it worked fairly well. I saw no negative effects to my lungs, my mile time did not increase I actually dropped some time off of it. I was able to control the amount of nicotine that I was getting by the types of juices I would buy and eventually got it down to 0mg. I think for some people it can be used as an effective way to get off nicotine but for others they may be able to quit cigarettes or but their addiction to nicotine could increase very easily.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/23/vaporizers-explainer/

Many people have been told how sugar is bad for you and all the negative affects that come with eating a high sugar based diet. The solution has been sugar free this and sugar free that, but what has been added to our drinks to give them the sweet taste without the sugar? The answer to that would be Aspartame. If you look on the back of all sugar free gum under the ingredients you will find Aspartame or Aspartic Acid.

The amount of negative side effects immediate and long term are a staggering list. The results coming out of these randomized studies one could say are accurate to an extent because they are randomized. The fact that they are randomized helps eliminate biases from the testing. According to http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/10/06/aspartame-damages-the-brain-at-any-dose/ Aspartame has been proven to cause brain damage by leaving traces of Methanol in the blood. Doctors are misdiagnosing multiple sclerosis for aspartame poisoning. One has to wonder why this has been approved to replace sugar in almost all of our foods without a proper warning label on them.

Knowing all of these side effects from the little research that has recently been conducted regarding aspartame in foods and their affects on the brain it is mind boggling how little people know about it and more alarming as to how many children are consuming aspartame infused products on a daily basis.

The long term affects of this chemical are unpredictable, yet alarming due to its recent introduction into our foods and the already alarming side effects that have come from them. Only time will tell what the ingestion of Aspartame is really capable of doing.

http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/10/06/aspartame-damages-the-brain-at-any-dose/

People have been getting concussions from sports for decades now but just recently people are starting to question if concussions are leaving long term damage for the rest of the victims lives. People have begun to take notice that many NFL retired football players are having memory problems as well as other contact sport athletes such as boxers. In some cases the brain trauma is so sever that these men are incapable of functioning in everyday life, for example, Muhammad Ali.

Studying the effects of concussions further scientists have four that “concussion causes temporary loss of brain function leading to cognitive, physical and emotional symptoms, such as confusion, vomiting, headache, nausea, depression, disturbed sleep, moodiness, and amnesia.” These are a few of the long term affects that come with concussions and this does not apply to athletes only, anyone who experiences major concussions throughout their life are susceptible to these life long challenges.

Many older people who have suffered concussions earlier in their life display the same symptoms as someone in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease as well as memory loss and attention deficits. The types of people science has been using for these studies are mostly men which provides a gender bias and makes this not a random sample. Concussions are very difficult for doctors to study for the fact that the “how” part of how they will impact the brain long term is unpredictable, even with all the science and technology we have today we still do not have a good understanding of how the brain works. Without knowing 100% how the brain functions we are not able to accurately tell how trauma to the brain will affect each individual in the long term.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/256518.php

Genetically modified organisms have been introduced into our society for a little less than twenty years now and our country’s health as been on a downward spiral ever since. The number of American’s suffering from at least two chronic illnesses has tripled since the introduction of the organisms into our food. The biggest concern is the dramatic increase of cancer suspected to be from these modified organisms

One reason GMO’s were introduced was to produce better yields in times of unpredictable weather, according to http://www.responsibletechnology.org/10-Reasons-to-Avoid-GMOs this is not true. The government is doing everything it can to suppress research on genetically modified organisms along with findings, many scientists are threatened or fired if they speak up about their findings regarding this topic.

Experiments with GMO’s on lab rats have shown some pretty serious side effects such as cancers, we can not accurately say what they will do to humans for the fact that they have not been in our society long enough, it is much like smoking cigarets in the 60’s. Many scientists attribute the rise of cancer and alzhiemers and many other chronic illnesses to GMO’s but we can not say for certain that GMO’s are the cause.

So Adderall is a hot topic right now among college students in particular and personally being prescribed adderall I was curious what the possible negative effects could be in the long term. Knowing the common side effects such as having trouble falling some nights to me did not outweigh the academic edge that I personally feel adderall gives me. According tohttp://www.forbes.com/sites/toddessig/2013/12/06/managing-the-risks-of-taking-adderall-to-enhance-work-performance/ Adderall is the tip of the iceberg regarding neuroenhancement technology that is coming. A common trend that they are finding regarding college kids is that they will take adderall in the morning to get going for the day and then drink or smoke pot or other forms of sleeping medications at night to take the edge off and this is causing a dual addiction.

This blog in particular will be discussing Aderall (IR) which stands for instant release. There is also Aderall (XR) which stands for extended release. I personally am prescribed IR so I can give more insight regarding this topic. Reading through hhttp://www.adderalljunkie.com/adderall-side-effects/ although the website’s name is a little interesting they surprisingly are pretty accurate on the instant release side effects from what I have experienced such as euphoria, loss of appetite, minor head aches, and the ability to study for hours which for me I was never able to do before due to actually having ADHD I had the attention span of a squirrel growing up lol.

Now there are many other ways to treat ADHD in a natural manner such as going to a councilor and eating a clean diet with plenty of exercise but for me personally I did all of those things and still do minus the councilor and I felt like it wasn’t enough for me but for many people it is. Adderall is addicting and at the end of the day you have to be strong enough to not abuse it. The problem with it is that it is very very easy to get prescribed, for my prescription literally I walked in and asked my doctor for some for help in college and he filled me one 5 min later. Now granted he new I had ADHD because it was on record but from my friends who I have talked to they had little trouble getting prescribed also, at the end of the day doctors are trying to make money to and adderall brings in a lot of money for pharmacies.

These two links will provide more information on Adderall IR and XR

http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/adderall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adderall 

Hi my name is Colin McKnight, and I am majoring in supply chain at Penn State. I am not majoring in science because science always bored me in high school. This was probably due to how it was taught to me growing up, none the less I still have an interest in science that is why I decided to take this class.