The saying that someone has caught the “gay gene” may seem sort of rude and ignorant…but could it also be true? All the way into my start of high school I always had thought being gay was caused by your enviorment, how you were raised, or even by what interests you in society. I was amazed when I found out people were actually born with the gene. If there are genes that effect our height and some that effect our eye color, would it make sense that there are genes that effect our sexual orientation?

Well, the answer is yes. It is a proven fact that we are born this way, whether it be gay or straight. There was a study taken that looked at 409 pairs of gay brothers. What was found was a similar on the X chromosone across the board.

But with that being said, does society affect homosexuality at all? The only science found in this is that people who stated they were influenced by society were more likely to come out about their sexuality earlier than others. There is little to no proof that society can determine someones sexual preference at all. In a 1991 study by Richard Pillard, a gay man, stated that even though it seems to be DNA, enviorment seems to be a part of the reasoning. He goes on to saying that there is now a master gene that makes someone gay. There is no way to predict if someone will be gay.

There have been several studies showing that genes are what causes someone to have their certain sexual orientation. But what I do not understand is if one person has a gay gene, why doesn’t more people in the family have that gene? Its like in my family, there is not one person that does not have brown hair and blue eyes– should we treat this x chromosone gene the same as all other genes?

Overall, it is highly likely that we are born with your sexuality even though we might not realize it until we are of an older age. And even though people argue that is is all enviorment, it is not certain that that may play a small role! Either way, we are perfectly fine the way we are, even if we are shaped from DNA or from the society we are in.

Sources:

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2014/11/18/do-genes-make-you-gay/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/04/the-science-of-sexuality-how-our-genes-make-us-gay-or-straight/

http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=77

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/08/14/what_makes_people_gay/?page=2

Whether you are drinking it from a glass or a red solo cup, from a bottle or from a bag red wine has been thought that if drank in moderation could prevent heart disease. Now as this is not an excuse to drinking heavily, in taking too much red wine in one sitting will actually reverse the effect of preventing heart disease. The main reason why it is believed that red wine is good for our health is because the antioxidants in the wine increase level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. This is the good type of cholesterol and with having higher levels of this can also help with artery damage. But scientists do believe that it might be something else that is protecting us against heart disease. They believe this to be a polyphenol called resveratrol that helps protect the lining of blood vessels in our hearts. This resveratrol is responsible for lowering the bad type of cholesterol called low-density lipoprotein, which can cause blood clots.

And although in theory this seems like a perfect reasoning for why red wine helps with heart health, almost all of the studies done on if the resveratrol are the ones helping our hearts have been done on animals. One a study done with mice it was concluded that red wine for this reason has a strong possibility in aiding against obesity and diabetes. Unfortunately, these findings were only held accurate in mice and not in humans. This is due because to get the same level of red wine as the mice produced, we would have to drink more than 1,000 liters of red wine everyday—quite the hangover. A study done in pigs showed that red wine improves heart function and helps bodies use insulin. As for helping humans, there has not been enough studies done yet.

And although we would like to say we are similar to other animals, it has been seen that red wine can have some reverse effects. According to the Mayo Clinic article on how red wine can help us, red wine was showed to reduce the positive effect of exercise on the hearts in older men. This is due because resveratrol does not tend to work in the long time run.

Overall, wine addicts and vino’s should halt before they think they are treating themselves before getting a heart condition. This will only work if it is done in moderation and even with that being said, there still is a lot more research that needs to be done. Drinking too much alcohol will have a negative effect: liver damage, high blood pressure, certain cancers, high triglycerides, etc.

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/red-wine/art-20048281?pg=2

Have you ever bumped heads with another person or hit your head against something and it takes a couple minutes or more for your head to stop pounding? So this being true, why don’t woodpeckers get headaches? After all, they are bashing their heads against a tree hundreds of times a minute, how are they able to do this?

In order to figure this all out, a team of scientists conducted an experiment with two types of birds; one being the Great Spotted Woodpecker and the Eurasian Hoope. The Eurasian Hoope is not a type of woodpecker, but it does peck its beak against materials like soil. The reasoning for comparing the two is comparing soil pecking behavior to wood pecking behavior. The first step in the experiment is to watch the birds peck at a much slower rate. The scientists constructed a metal cage, one for each bird, with high-speed cameras that the scientists view the birds in slow motion. In order to see how hard the birds were hitting the cage, there was a force censor. With this information, they were able to figure out why woodpeckers are able to do this without dying from multiple concussions.

The next step was to use a special technology called a Micro-CT. A Micro-CT is essentially just a fancy x-ray machine that is used on a desktop computer. The researchers used this solely to see how the skulls of the birds were shaped. Another vital variable in the experiment is to see the strength of the bird’s beaks. If the Hoope has a much more sensitive beak then it would make sense as to why it can not peck at things such as trees. In order to find out this information the scientists used force tests. With the information from the x-ray’s and the force tests, the scientists were able to accurately make a replica of the bird’s skulls. Finally, the scientists used these skulls to smash them using a computer to stimulate the force. Then by examining how the skulls ended up looking, they were able to see how strong the skulls compared. They were right; the woodpeckers were able to protect their birds better than any other birds.

The scientists found several reasons due to the information found from the study that made woodpeckers able to protect their brains better. Woodpeckers move their beaks around when they peck trees. Varying their peckers minimizes brain damage. Woodpeckers have a special bone called the hyoid bone. This bone goes around the entire birds skull and restrains its brain every time is pecks the tree. And finally, these birds have a beak that the upper part is longer and the lower part is stronger that absorb impact the best.

In conclusion, the study finally answer this question that the reason woodpeckers are able to do this behavior is because their skulls are what football helmets are to players, they are able to absorb all kinds of shocks.

Sources:

http://askabiologist.asu.edu/plosable/woodpeckers

With watching two older sisters growing up and now being surrounded by a generation of girls that tend to lack confidence, I have heard numerous complaints about the way they look—from complaining about their shoe size and all the way to not having defined enough eyebrows, I have heard it all. But one of the most common is a woman’s hatred of being a woman. Yes, it is the hatred of having hips. But would women still have this opinion about themselves if they knew that being curvy actually meant that they had more intelligence than another being?

Researches are the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Santa Barbara would like to believe so. Researchers looked at data from a study of more than 16,000 women from 1988 to 1994. These women were categorized by detailed body measurements, their education level, and their scores on multiple cognitive tests given by the researchers. When the results fro the study came out, it was found that women with waists that were about 70 percent of the diameter of their hips scored better on the tests, but only slightly. They also tended to have a higher level of education than less curvy women.

So how does this happen? And are these findings enough to prove that curvier women have the better brains? Scientists think that this is due to the type of fat that is stored in the hips and legs compared to the fat that is stored in the stomach. The fat that inhabits the hips and thighs has higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than that of the stomach. Omega-3 fatty acids are a healthy form of fat that can be found in nuts and fish. The function of this type of fat is to foster brain growth, making this very reason a possible answer to why these women scored better on the tests. But is this really enough? Can we now say that if you are curvier women you will do better in life academically? This answer is not actually. The difference in test scores and academic ability were small. The curvier women were only scoring slightly better. So I guess it is just as ridiculous as it sounds, yet intriguing. Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London said that, “As you get older, your waist-hip ration gets worse; that does not mean you become less intelligent over time. To suggest that a 40-year-old, because her WHR is not good, is not intelligent is a misinterpretation of the data. One has to be cautious with what these things mean.”

So even though it would be an interesting and intriguing fact that curvier women are more intelligent, it unfortunately cannot be proven. Instead we have to say that the study that took place was all due to chance.

Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3859175

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7090300.stm

I am sure that at some point in your life you have heard the phrase “opposites attract.” While this could be debated, could it also be true that the longer the couple is together, the more they are the same…in appearance? According to an article in the New York Times, scientific evidence has led people to believe that couples will eventually start to look like one another. Sounds crazy, right? Well, it might not actually be so far fetched as you may think. Couple who at start bore no initial resemblance to each other comes to resemble one another after an average 25 years of marriage; some changes might be subtle though.

The main cause is believed to be that due to being married for such a long time, they share many of the same emotions. When one is stressed or upset, the other feels the same way. The way emotions control how our face looks is evident.

In an experiment done at the University of Michigan by Dr. Robert Zajonc to see if people could identify if a man and woman were married by the way they look in photographs was taken place. Two dozen of the photos were of couples when they first got married and the other twenty-four photos were of the same couple twenty-five years later. A large amount of pictures were taken around the time of their silver wedding anniversary. In order to ignore the statistic that most couple are the same race in America, all pictures of the people were white, lived in Michigan, and were between fifty and sixty years old at the time of the twenty-five year anniversary photo.

The results of the study were that people were in fact able to match married couples together better when they had been married a quarter century. The judges of the photos commented on saying that even though many of the similarities were small, but facial wrinkles and contours in the same areas were able to indentify them.

Another factor prevalent in the study is that married couples have the same diets if they are eating together almost every night. Some judgers of the photos said if they had similar facial fat or lack of, they were able to indentify them. But this wasn’t the biggest reason Zajonc came up with. He concluded that unconsciously mimic the facial expressions of their significant other and so over the years they end up sharing similar expressions, which lead to similar faces. Common life experiences throughout the marriage can also affect facial musculature and wrinkle patterns. This also leads to an increased resemblance.

So next time you see your parents or some married relatives, try finding picture of them from their wedding and pictures of them now…maybe you can spot the new similarities as well!

http://www.livescience.com/8384-couples-start.html

When Penn State was voted number one party school, it wasn’t out of the question that women were contributing to this collegiate reputation. This isn’t a fight for feminism or an example of the battle of the sexes, but in fact it is purely science. When it comes to the consumption of alcohol, women cannot keep up with man drink for drink. So is it true, are women more vulnerable to alcohol’s effects?

Women achieve higher concentrations of alcohol in their blood and therefore feel the effects much more than men. This causes women to be more impaired after drinking the same amount of alcohol as a male. Going back to the environment that is Penn State, or any other college, Binge Drinking is a huge problem. I’m sure upon entering college you have heard the various warnings from all sorts of friends, elders, authorities, and safe learning programs. For those who need a quick reminder, binge drinking is the consumption of five or more drinks per occasion on five or more days in the past month. This risky trend is most common in women ages 18 to 25, college aged women.

The most common reason for why women feel the effects of alcohol stronger than men is not what most people would believe—its not because men are always bigger than women, because this is not true. It is not because the culture of drinking is usually portrayed as something of male. The reason why women are more vulnerable to alcohol is mostly due to metabolism. Have you ever seen people scurrying to help someone that drank heavily by feeding them water? Or have you ever heard the rule of having a glass of water between every drink? That is because with more water in our system, our blood is diluted from the alcohol and we therefore feel the effects of alcohol less. Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently than men. Women have less body water than men of the same body weight. This means that when women drink the same amount of alcohol as a man, they feel it more because they have less body water to dilute their blood.

Not only do women feel the effects of alcohol more than men in the way their body responds the night of the drinking, but according to magnetic resonance imaging women are more vulnerable to alcohol-induced brain damage. In the MRI, researchers were able to see that the region of the brain responsible for multiple brain functions was significantly smaller among alcoholic women than both nonalcoholic women and alcoholic men.

Women are more prevalent to the toxic effects of alcohol on the liver, heart muscle, and the pancreas.

Vulnerable is a broad term, as well. This can meet vulnerable as in they get drunk quicker, vulnerable as in their body parts and organs get damaged easier with drinking, or vulnerable as being sexually victimized. A survey of female college students found a large relationship between amounts of alcohol drank by a woman and their experiences of sexual victimization. This survey found that the more a woman drank, the more vulnerable she was to be sexually assaulted. Another survey found women who drank large amounts more vulnerable to be victims of dating violence.

In a study in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, scientists searched for possible causes of why women are more vulnerable to alcohol. It was concluded that not only metabolism, but also body size is a factor as well. Women tend to way less then men, but drink sizes are all the same. Women for reasons such as pregnancy carry more fat in their bodies than men. Alcohol is more soluble in water than in fat, this causes alcohol to be less diluted in the blood.

For this reason, it makes me wonder if more money in alcohol related programs should be spent on programs just for women. This way woman can realize that they are not the same as men when it comes to alcohol consumption.

Sources:

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa46.htm

http://www.attcnetwork.org/explore/priorityareas/science/tools/asmeDetails.asp?ID=55

Since before I can even remember my house has always had a jar of honey in the cabinet. If mom was cooking something, good chance there was a drop or two of honey in it. Anything from tea to cookies to even soup, honey was the secret ingredient. But what my mom never used it for were my cuts I would get from messing around outside when I was little or when I would fall during field hockey games and scrape my entire knee on the turf. That’s right—According to a study in Microbiology, Manuka Honey could help clear infections, even the ones that are untreatable by antibiotics.

Manuka Honey is a type of honey made by European honeybees that suck from a Manuka or tea tree. These trees are found all over New Zealand and southeastern Australia. Throughout history, honey has been used to treat various types of conditions but it was not until the nineteenth century when scientists discovered that honey has antibacterial characteristics. It protects damage done to the skin by bacteria and can also produce cells that can fix and repair tissue damaged by infections. As well, once honey is applied to the skin, it has anti-inflammatory properties that can quickly reduce pain and inflammation.

With this being said, how can evidence support such a claim that honey can be some sort of miracle worker?

In 2008, the Cochrane Review found that while honey may help with treating burns, there are still little evidence form studies. It also stated that the use for honey on leg ulcers was not productive and had no benefit.

Streptococcus pyogenes is a normal skin bacterium that is usually associated with chronic wounds. This bacteria that can enter wounds can stick together making a “bioflim”. This biofilm then creates a barrier to pharmaceutical drugs.

In a study done at Cardiff Metropolitan University, researchers found that Manuka honey can get rid of fully formed s. pyogenes. Not only that, but they also found that honey can prevent the bacteria from binding to tissues in the first place. The researchers used real life wounds as well as bacterium in Petri dishes to conduct the study.

Works with animals too!

Wounds that have s. pyogenes often fail to respond to antibiotics. These wounds have strong antibiotic resistance, making it hard for the antibiotic to penetrate the wound. The results of the study done at CMU showed that small amounts of honey prevented the beginning of biofilm development. As for the Petri dishes—Petri dishes treated with honey for two hours killed up to 85% of the bacteria that was in them.

The leader of the study, Dr. Sarah Maddocks said “Molecules on the surface of the bacteria latch onto human fibronectin, anchoring the bacteria to the cell. This allows infection to proceed and biofilms to develop.” She continues on by explaining how the Manuka honey stops infections form the start. Honey makes the biofilm formation a lot less likely. “No instances of honey-resistant bacteria have been reported to date, or seem likely.”

Maddocks brought up how honey can decrease health care costs. Using antibacterial agents directly to the skin to clear bacteria is a lot less money that antibiotics. This is important because chronic, or untreatable, wounds account for up to four percent of health care expenses in the developed world.

In conclusion of the study, we can gather that honey does in fact work for treating wounds. With its anti-bacterial qualities and how it can stop bacteria in the wounds before they even begin to inhabit it, we can conclude that not only is honey cheaper product than pharmaceutical antibiotics, but it also works better.

When applying to colleges there is so much that goes into the thought of what school will be your perfect match. Will it be the school that provides all you need and beyond in academics? Will it be the school that isn’t too far away from home? Will it be the division one school with the amazing sports team? Or will it be the school known for its top party atmosphere? And although this might not be why you chose your school, thousands of students have admitted to the fact that a school was a top party school aided in their decision-making. But what they did not come to truly think about would be the long-term affects when they accepted their offers of admission?

Whether it be your best friend, your sibling, a stranger, or even you it is easy to see the short terms of drinking. Slurred speech, drowsiness, vomiting, and blackouts are common among the ones I see at Penn State. The weekend ends and we get over what happened at the weekend and go to our classes and most likely repeat last weekend the next weekend. But what happens when the four years are over and we receive our diplomas and throw our caps up? What happens when we enter the real world? Thursday to Saturday are we really thinking about how much we are damaging our bodies long-term?

Binge Drinking and continued alcohol use in large amounts are associated with many health problems. These include alcohol poisoning, high blood pressure, stroke, other heart related diseases, liver damage, nerve damage, sexual problems, permanent damage to the brain, ulcers, inflammation of stomach walls, malnutrition, and cancer of the mouth and throat. When someone drinks heavily it alters the chemistry in his or her brain. The chemical messengers that transmit the signals throughout the body control thoughts processes, behavior, and emotion. Another negative effect to the brain is memory loss. Memory loss is one of the most common symptoms associated with brain impairment due to alcohol. Some people struggle to remember things from yesterday, while some have trouble remembering skills, knowledge, or information they have learnt in the past. People with alcohol related brain impairment have trouble learning new information, focusing on conversation, retrieving information from the past, remembering recent events, and making errors when telling stories from memory. All of these negative effects would make it hard to manage a job.

So would having these symptoms make all that happened in college not worth it? If we are paying thousands to go to get a degree and then half a decade later we are not able to perform certain tasks due to the inability to understand new information and recall past skills? Maybe this weekend it is time to think of what we are truly doing to our bodies.

Sources:

http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/alcohol/short-term-long-term-effects.html

Click to access 174.pdf

http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/moderate-binge-drinking

Fear is a natural feeling when you feel that you are in danger. It is also natural to feel sorrow for yourself or others weeks or months after an accident. But there does come a point when it is time to seek help. These feelings turned unnatural have happened to millions of people for a variety of reasons.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an illness acquired after living through or seeing a dangerous event. These different events can be anything from war to a natural disaster to a bad car crash. PTSD affects the people around you and your own life. PTSD constantly makes you feel on edge and stressed. Anyone can get PTSD. It can occur at any age. These striking events do not just have to occur to the person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but it can happen to someone else that the person saw. Symptoms of PTSD include suffering from bad dreams, having flashbacks, scary thoughts you can’t control, feeling on edge, fighting with loved ones, constant angry outbreaks, thoughts of hurting yourself, and feeling alone.

Luckily, PTSD can get better. This can be done by seeking help and talking to a doctor or mental health professional. PTSD can be treated within two to three months.

Now, what I was actually curious about is what is the anatomy behind posttraumatic stress disorder. I learned in psychology in high school that talking to someone helps relieve stress, which causes chemical reactions in the brain so, what is going on with PTSD? In an article by psychologytoday.com, the three main regions struck by PTSD is the amygdala, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the hippocampus.

The amygdala is the region of the brain primarily used for emotions, especially fear. Brain imaging studies show high activity in the amygdala when the subject feels anxiety or stress. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is what makes the person with PTSD lack decision making and emotional processing, with not being able to have full access to this the person is unable to control their emotions and this can cause angry outbreaks. The hippocampus is involved with memories.

I was able to find a very good example of all three of these parts working together to try to calm down a person with posttraumatic stress disorder. Imagine that someone sees a tiger. This information is sent to the amygdala, which sends a “fight or flight” signal to the other parts. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is the part that tries to calm the person down and imply smart decision-making. Finally, the hippocampus tells the person that they know what zoo’s are. They know that the tiger is in a cage and therefore cannot escape the cage. The hippocampus is able to tell the individual that they are not in harms way and are safe.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/amygdala.htm

http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-ptsd/000162

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mouse-man/200901/the-anatomy-post-traumatic-stress-disorder

I have never met such exhaustion until I came to college. Staying up to the early hours to wake up for an 8 am is not an easy task when it seems like during the day the To-Do list is never ending. The weekend comes and you can only imagine there is barely any rest there. Every morning I wake up to internally yell at myself for why my insomnia took over and why I didn’t just go to bed earlier…but would I feel any different? Does an extra hour of sleep really have an effect on the body?

We live in a society where sleep has now become some sort of luxury. If we have other things we need to do, we can just cut back on some sleep. Then wake up and have three cups of coffee. In a study done by the British Broadcast Channel News Network, they saw a connection between decrease hours of sleep and increase of rates of diabetes and obesity.

To run the study, they asked for seven volunteers that normally sleep between six and nine hours a night. The volunteers were randomly assigned to two groups. One group slept for six and a half hours a night and the other group was asked to sleep one hour more a night, seven and a half hours. At the end of the week of doing the same procedure every night, the researchers took blood tests of the volunteers and asked them to switch sleeping patterns.

Sleep is essential in order to maintain long-term memory. While we are asleep, the brains main focus is to move short-term memory to long-term memory storage. If we do not get a good amount of sleep, these memories will be lost. Unfortunately you cannot get these memories back just by sleeping extra on the weekend, they need to be stored within 24 hours.

Back to the study taking place, after the second week of the trials the scientists noticed the mental agility skills were not as good as the group with more sleep. But when it came to the blood tests of the volunteers, which are where the interesting information came out. The researches noticed that when the volunteers cut back on an hour of sleep, genes that are associated with processes like immune response and response to stress became more active. They also saw increases in the activity of genes associated with diabetes and risk of cancer. There was a reverse effect with the volunteers that got the extra hour of sleep. They concluded that losing an hour of sleep night actually puts people more at risk for diabetes and other heart diseases.

This is a clear demonstration that sleep does us good! So feel free, go crawl in bed, our health is the most important thing we have anyways, right?

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24444634

It’s legal by prescription, it’s used by one third of college students, and it is coined as being the reason behind millions of graduating students each year. Adderall is the brand name of a prescription medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity in children and adults. Adderall stimulates the central nervous system to change the amount of certain chemicals in the brain. The drug is recommended by doctors to be taken in the early morning because it can cause a lack of sleep if taken any later…that begins the problem. In order to cram for a big exam the next day, college students swallow the pill in order to have the energy to stay awake all night.

Although it seems like a practical option to stay awake, like what coffee and energy drinks do for us, it sure has different side effects which most college students are not aware of.

Symptoms include nervousness, restlessness, and headaches. Students consuming Adderall have problems getting to sleep or stay asleep and may feel dizzy as well. Reading this in an article by Heathline.com I thought to myself, so what? As a receiver of the “Penn State Plague” I felt like I got all of those symptoms without taking any drug that I wasn’t prescribed to. But this is what I did NOT get from a short sickness…

Adderall has been common to have serious side effects. Include fevers and weakness and numbness in the limbs. Weakness in the limbs is caused by an interference with your circulation. Your toes and fingers may turn red or blue. Side effects due to this decreased flow in the circulatory and respiratory systems can cause heart attacks and stroke. If you already experience heart problems, there is a definite possibility that you can die from taking Adderall. Still think it’s worth it for the grade? Adderall causes swelling of the tongue, throat, or face. Taking Adderall can lead to uncontrollable shaking, tics, and seizures. It has also been seen to cause hallucinations, paranoia, or slowed speech.

Between 2005 and 2010, emergency room visits related to ADHD stimulant medications used without a prescription trip from 5,212 or 15,585 visits. Half of these visits were due to mixing ADHD medication with other drugs or alcohol.

Both forms of the drug to improve ADHD, Adderall and Ritalin, are DEA Schedule II substances. This means that these medications have a “high potential for abuse.” Although constant research proves that the drug is addictive when abused, only two percent of college students agree and eighty-one percent believe that using the drug not prescribed is not dangerous at all.

I decided to do my own little research as well. I went around my floor and the most reoccurring answer to my question “If you are not prescribed, how are you getting Adderall?” was from a friend or from someone that would ask for a small portion of money for each pill. In a 2012 professional study it was found that 74 percent of all college students that were not prescribed to Adderall were given it by a friend with a prescription.

It is only expected that this problem will increase and hospital visits, alike due to the misuse of a drug that is not prescribed to you. Think about the consequences of a lifetime over stressing over one exam or one assignment. A grade isn’t worth a potential loss of life.

sources:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/05/02/is-taking-adderall-to-boost-college-brain-performance-cheating/

http://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/adderall-effects-on-body

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/02/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-adderall.html

Whether it be playing an instrument all through high school, blasting the radio in my car, or singing in the shower music has always been there to brighten my day…but I was not aware of was that music could actually make me smarter. I have seen in movies and read in books that playing soothing music for your unborn baby will make it more calm and more intelligent when it comes into the world, so would it only make sense that when we are present on this earth that we could get the same results? If not greater?

In a study of 8 to 11-year-olds, it was found that those who had taken music classes developed a higher verbal IQ compared to those who had taken no classes. Groups were split into how long they had been playing an instrument- one-year, two years, or three years. Then there was a control group of students who had never played an instrument in their lives. The hypothesis was correct as suspected and the results showed that the students who played music the longest had a higher IQ and better verbal skills.

Not only can music make us more intelligent, but also it can decrease our chances of having a heart attack. In a study done by Bradt and Dileo in 2009, music was shown to relieve stress and anxiety related to coronary heart disease. In the study, 1,500 patients found that listening to music reduced heart rate, blood pressure, and anxiety.

Listening to music has even more beneficial health effects. When one has a stroke, there is a sixty percent chance that the visual areas of the brain will be affected. Three groups were created in a study done by Pei-Luen Tsai and Mei-Ching Chen in May 2013. These groups were 16 patients listening to classical music, 16 listening to a white noise, and 16 people listening to nothing. The sixteen people that listened to the classical music were shown to have the highest scores on a test that shows proven decrease in Unilateral Neglect in stroke patients. Unilateral Neglect is a common behavioral syndrome in patients following a stroke.

So next time you get a noise complaint from your Resident Advisor, be sure to explain how the music is only making you smarter.

Sources:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003566

http://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=1851684

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003566

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

Sounds strange, huh? Well…not really actually. As the temperature and the leaves start falling, don’t be surprised if people’s spirits do too. Although society does not take it seriously enough, Seasonal Depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder, also know as SAD, is very well real. Seasonal depression is a mood disorder that happens every year at the same time, usually starting in fall, worsening in winter, and ending in spring.

The disorder is more than just “the winter blues” due to its relatively severe symptoms. These symptoms include sadness, anxiety, irritability, a loss of interest in usual activities, inability to concentrate, extreme fatigue, lack of energy, increased need for sleep…and finally, an increase craving in food, especially carbohydrates, leading to a weight gain.

Trekking to class at Penn State in the winter is no easy task. Slipping on almost every side walk and getting a foot of snow with no classes cancelled is enough to make any student here a little mad and upset…but this does not necessarily mean we can self-diagnose ourselves with SAD. Approximately 500,000 United State citizens suffer from SAD, although a mild form of winter blues affects ten to twenty percent of people.

The interesting aspect of the disorder is that there is treatment and it does not involve moving to a sunnier location. Research shows the phototherapy, also known as bright light therapy, is an effective way to help decrease season affective disorder. This involves the patient to read, eat, etc in front of a device that uses UV lights covered by a plastic screen to block rays. Patients are likely to see progress within two to four days.

In a study titled “Light Room Therapy Effective in Mild Forms of Seasonal Affective Disorder—a randomized controlled study” fifty-one participants participated in either light room therapy or a control group. They spent around two hours between 6 to 9 am. This procedure was done for two consecutive winters. The results agreed with the initial hypothesis that after ten days, winter depression was reduced by light room therapy. Participants were also brought back a month later for a check up and were still found with reduced depression.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18053580

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/definition/con-20021047

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/sad

We have been told from our parents since we can even remember to not play in dirt and to keep clean. We have also been told to wash our hands every time we return from playing outdoors and to thoroughly clean our hands every time we touch our pets or use the bathroom using some sort of anti-bacterial hand soap. But could this be potentially hurting us? Could anti-bacterial sanitizers that destroy 99.99 percent of all bacteria be what is causing weakened immune systems?

The answer to these questions is…yes. Yes, with nonstop stress on staying clean and germ free, American’s have forgotten about the importance of the formation of a healthy gut bacteria. Restoring this beneficial bacterium is what strengthens our immune system and reduces rates of allergies. With playing in dirt, the power of getting rid of the negative bacteria is what strengthens the immune system of that child.

Research has not only been done on gardeners, but as well a study has been done on children who live near or on farms. Researchers looked at how living on less-than-sanitized areas of land affected the health of the children. One key researcher in the study, Dr. Joel V Weinstock, stated that “our immune system at birth is like an unprogrammed computer and so therefore it needs instruction.” This is similar to the immune system because we must teach our immune systems how to overcome illness by strengthening ourselves by getting our body’s to fight against negative bacteria. Dr. Weinstock also adds that children that have been thoroughly sanitized multiple times a day are missing out on organisms that would most likely provide benefit. Many of these organisms are soil-based microorganisms and are found just where the name suggests. These organisms are mostly attracted by the child when playing outside and therefore, playing in dirt is not as bad as worried mothers make it out to be.

Yogurt is known as being not only a healthy choice for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but it also contains healthy bacteria. In a nutrition class in high school I took, a speaker from Whole Foods grocery store explained on how he used a yogurt mask all over his face to get rid of a rash and with the help of the healthy, beneficial bacteria he was able to do so.

In a 2012 issue in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, it was demonstrated that Amish children had a significant lower amount of allergies than children who do not live on a farm. This has been coined as the “Farm-Effect.” Another study showed that homes that use cleaning sprays had more instances of asthma in the family than homes who did not use any cleaning sprays.

Babies are who especially need to be playing in dirt. Babies being breast-fed lack iron because there are low amounts of it in the breast milk. With more time interacting with dirt, babies are able to get a good source of iron and minerals like zinc and magnesium. With low amounts of iron in babies, it is seem to be a trend of adapting mental retardation by age ten and an increased need to repeat a grade.

How do we make sure we get enough of these essential bacteria? We must start encouraging children to get down and dirty while playing outside. As well, after playing outside let your child eat outside without washing their hands. Sounds strange right? Seems like all the lessons we have learned have been thrown out the window. Well, not entirely. Maybe the “Penn State Plague,” the current sickness that seems to be inhabiting the bodies of a vast majority of Penn State student’s, would not exist if we played in some more dirt once in a while.

Hi Everyone! My name is Hannah Boothman, I am form Doylestown, Pennsylvania in Bucks County and I am a freshman. I have decided to take this course because when talking to my advisor about how science has never been a strong point for me, he highly recommended this class for fullfillment of my science gen-ed credit.

I am not planning on being a science major because I don’t like doing things that I am not good at and I know memorization, used frequently in science, is not something I am good at.

My interests include listening to music, hanging with friends, and watching netflix. My favorite artists are Eric Church and Miranda Lambert and my favorite television show is Friday Night Lights. Attatched is a picture of my favorite character from the show, Tim Riggins.