Today, I will write about negative effects of sleeping right after eating. The reason why I chose this topic is because I get so sleepy after meals and even if I try to wake myself up, I end up sleeping eventually after few minutes. When I wake up after the short nap, my stomach is bloated and I feel like the food that I just had have not digested yet. I did some research to see if there’s any defect of eating before sleeping to straighten my sleeping habit after meals.

First negative effect is increase risk of stroke. There was a study done at the University of Ioannia Medical School in Greece with 500 relatively healthy people. Among 500 people, half of them have experienced strokes in previous years and the other half were diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome. The result of this study found out that people who gave time gaps between eating and sleeping had lower risk of getting a stroke. The researchers said that, the risk could be reduced by 10 % every twenty minutes you wait after eating before bed time.

Secondly, asthma could get worse for asthmatics if they eat before sleeping. Last 2004, 261 people with asthma, and 218 people without asthma were interviewed by The American Journal of Gastroenterology. Those people who had asthma experienced seriousness gastroesophageal reflux symptoms eating before bed time. The researchers in this organization concluded that, the habit of eating before sleep could be problematic to asthmatics.

Although most people believe that sleeping right after eating will result in weight gain, the research done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology stated that, the idea that you eat before bed turns to fat is not true at all.

Overall, stroke and asthma could be prevented by giving enough time gaps in between bed time and the time you had your meal. Also, I was very happy to find out the real answer to weight gain that it is just a theory.

Most of women can’t avoid the menstrual period every month. Some women experience this more than once in a month (21 day cycle), but the average cycle is about 28 days. Most women crave for something before, during, or even after the menstrual period. There was a report saying that 70 percent of menstruating women go through discomfort during their periods including bloating, mood swings, irritability, sleepiness and cravings.

I personally crave for sweets before menstruating period starts. I do not know the scientific fact behind it why I crave so much for sweets, but I found out that I am not the only one who searches for foods and sweets. This behavior interrupts my diet and makes me to gain weight afterwards. Why do women crave during these periods? I did some research on relationship between women’s menstruation and foods.

According to Amy Jo Stravnezer, the professor of psychology and neuroscience at College of Wooster, the main reason why women experience an increase craving during the monthly cycle is because of hormone fluctuation. Many hormones are released in this time periods and the level of hormones change continuously. Eating carbohydrates and sugars help the hormones to stay balance and stable. For this reason, it is prone to see women eating more than usual in their menstrual period.

Those women who consume foods and sweets during their periods experience rhythmical weight changes, which give severe stress to those women.  For this reason, livestrong.com suggested yogurts, bran muffins, granola bars, and 100 percent fruit juice to substitute high calorie carbohydrates and sweets. The food items that were listed have more nutrients than sweets in average.

In conclusion, the study of Dr. Amy was done very well, so I think the relationship between menstruation and food is correlated and causational. Although I only found one study to write this blog, it clearly stated that the relationship between craving and menstruation is correlated, and also menstruation causes the craving. There is no reverse causation, because chocolate cannot cause females to menstruate.

Work Cited: Albers, Suan. “Comfort Cravings.” Psychology Today. N.p., 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

As the weather gets cold, many people are catching colds and flu. For this reason, I started using the disinfecting wipes to clean my door knobs and other stuffs to prevent myself from getting sick. I thought it was a good idea to use disinfecting wipes because they are widely used in schools, hospitals, and homes to keep the germs away. However, I found some articles saying that these wipes are not as good as we think.

There has been a research done at Cardiff University and Gareth William, a microbiologist, found out that the surface that has been cleaned with the anti bacterial wipes has severely contaminated with bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin. This research has become a strong concern to the hospitals because disinfecting wipes are widely and commonly used in hospitals. Another fact that was presented in this research was that, the antibacterial wipes do not removed all the germs on the surface of objects. The study showed that natural antimicrobial wipes were more effective than regular disinfecting wipes. These researchers said that if the wipe was used in two different surfaces; it could carry bacteria and transfer those bacteria in different places. The researchers recommended to use one antibacterial wipe for each specific surface and change the wipes every so often to avoid transport of germs. Dr. William Schaffner, the chair of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University also agreed on the research that was mentioned above: wipes can spread bacteria from one place to another.  He strongly argued that people should be careful in using disinfecting wipes.

Finally, according to American Medical Association, periodical use of the disinfecting wipes will be less effective to kill germs, because the bacteria will get adapted to the chemicals in the wipes and “superbugs” can develop. Superbugs are antibiotic resistant bacteria.

“Don’t Wipe Out: The Hidden Hazards of Antibacterial Wipes.”Environmental Working Group. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

Allyson T. Collinsabc News Medical Unit. “Disinfecting Wipes May Spread, Not Kill, Germs.” ABC News. ABC News Network, 03 June 2008. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

It is impossible to live a life without single laughter. Laughter makes people feel happy, and life enjoyable. For these reasons, we often hear people say “laughter is the best medicine”, but is it really a best medicine? If the answer is yes, then how does it cure and heals our body?

To begin with, many professionals in health department, such as psychologist, gelotologist and other health related researchers have continuously mentioned and emphasized that laughter is the best medicine. Laughter does not require any effort, time, or money, but it is free, easy and most people use it in their daily lives.

There has been a study found 2004 at Free University of Berlin, Germany by Julia and Deitmar Todt about average amount of laugh during conversations. According to Julia and dietmar, “there is an average of 5.8 bouts of laughter occurring in each 10-minute period of conversation, with a range of 0 to 15 bouts per 10-minute period (which translates to an average of about 35 bouts of laughter per hour). A bout of laughter was defined as the laughter occurring during a single exhalation. Thus, each time a person inhales and laughs again, this is counted as another bout.”

There are numerous benefits to our body when we laugh. First, it strengthens the immune system, because it lowers the stress hormones and increase immune cells in our body. Second, it not only lowers blood pressure, but also protects our organs. We take oxygen when we laugh, and the oxygen that we took accelerates the blood flow in our body and allows the blood circulations to work better. Third, it vanishes the stress hormones and physical pain away. The laughter naturally creates painkiller in our body that help us to forget the pain and stress we experience. And lastly, the long term result of laughter can make oneself to become a better well being. According to life.gaiam.com, doctors have found out that positive thoughts can fight the disease better.

The power of laughter is greater than I thought, because I believe that laughter is the most infectious and contagious of all. If I hear someone laughing, I’d laugh too without questioning him or her. Laughter does not cost you anything, it has no limits, and it gives you numerous health benefits. We need to laugh more and need to enjoy our lives!!!!

“Coffee is my life. I can’t go one day without it”, said my roommate, Hannah. My roommate always makes a cup of coffee before going to her first class. She said she can’t go to her classes unless she drinks a coffee. I am not a coffee drinker, so I don’t know how coffee makes it so special that people could not live without it. However, I have heard from some people that, it is not a coffee that keeps you awake, but it’s the psychological sense that you think it is when actually is not. In order to clear up this confusion, I did some research to see if coffee really keeps people awake and positive and negative facts of consumption of caffeine.

To begin with, coffee contains a substance called, caffeine and this is what makes people become more energized and awake from tiredness or sleepiness. It can also be found in different beverages such as tea, soft drinks and other more. Caffeine has a natural bitter taste just like coffee has a distinctive bitter taste; however caffeine contained beverages that are sold in the markets have already processed to lower the strong taste of it.

When people take caffeine from foods or drinks, our nervous system embraces caffeine as adenosines, human chemical cells that are produced in daily activities. When caffeine reaches nervous system, it connects with adenosine receptors and allows our attentiveness to increase. When they are linked together, caffeine prevents our bodies to slow down. The energy that we get from caffeine could last up to six hours. For this reason, students and adults depend on caffeinated drinks to stay up and do their unfinished works or to get over the sleepiness in the morning.

Caffeine has other benefits than waking people from sleep. It increases the memory of people and lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. On the other hand, too much consumption of caffeine has side effects to our bodies. First, it could lower the calcium level in the body. When we lack in calcium, it could result to severe diseases like osteoporosis and hypocalcaemia. Second, for those people who experience anxiety and stress often, caffeine can boost these more and give worse feeling of anxiety.

In conclusion my research about caffeine answered my question if coffee really awakes people up in the morning. It not only gives energy to people, but also could prevent some disease and raise the memorization, while it could also have negative effects in our body. For example caffeine drops of calcium level and experience of angst and nervousness to some people.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/454988-how-well-does-coffee-work-to-keep-you-awake/

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/drugs-alcohol/caffeine-awake.htm

September 23^rd was the first official day of fall. I started to see leaves changing colors and falling down. I was never curious why leaves do such things: changing color and falling down. Then when I was thinking about blog, I decided to write about leaves. Today’s blog will contain, why do leaves change color, which leaves of tree survive during winter, and what happens to fallen leaves.

To begin with, as we all learned in high school biology class, we see the leaves and plants as color green, because they reflect the green light. Also, chlorophyll is the main pigment of leaves and other plants that has green color. During spring and summer, as the weather gets warm and temperature rises, the chlorophyll becomes active and it allows the foliages to sustain their color for that season. However, when autumn approaches, there are some natural changes to nature: the change in temperature, length of day and night, moisture in soil and other more. When temperature falls and chlorophyll stats to breaks down. This is the time when we see the change in leaves color. When chlorophyll breaks down, carotene pigment (orange color pigment) and anthocyanin (red color pigment) increases. When chlorophyll slowly vanishes and carotene and anthycyanin appears, we see the color difference. However, not all leaves turn orange and red, but also brown. Oak trees for instance, it changes from green to brown, this is due to the mixture of different amount level of chlorophyll and other colored pigments.

Interestingly, we see some trees with foliages during autumn and winter. Pine trees, cedars and other conifers do not lose leaves during colder seasons. This phenomenon is due to, the plant cells of these conifers are covered with hard wax that it allows them to keep their temperature to stay green all year around. Individual leaves on these trees can able to stay at least two years and four years of maximum.

Those leaves which have fallen down from trees give people hard time to clean up the streets; they play vital role in ecosystem. Those leaves are not wasted, but they become good food sources to organisms that live under the soil.

In conclusion, in today’s blog I have talked about leaves during fall season. As I was doing this research, I have learned that, although we usually see foliages change colors and fall down from tress, here are also exceptions like conifers. Also, there is more than one factor that leads leaves to change color. And lastly, the most surprising thing that I learned today was, the dead leaves could be beneficial to our nature and other tiny organisms under the soil.

These days, hair coloring has been one of the most popular thing that people find it useful in different ages. Teenagers color their hairs for dramatic changes, and to look fashionable while older people use them to cover their gray hairs. Since these products have been popular for so many years, the scientists have created different ways on coloring the hair. There are not only regular hair coloring products, which is using the mixture of the tint and color developer, but also 10-minute coloring product, and coloring shampoo. People find these very useful and look for these a lot, but they do not know how these things work. For this reason, I decided to write about which chemicals in the product allow our hair to change the color.

To begin with, let me first talk about our hair structure. Hair is made up of protein, called keratin. Our hair has three main parts: cuticle, cortex, and medulla. First, cuticle, the outer part of the hair, where we feel the softness. It also has similar structure of overlapping system on the roof of the house. Next is cortex. Cortex is the second inner part of the hair. In the cortex, keratin is twisted together and it gives strength and structure. It also gives the natural hair color. And lastly medulla, the most inner part of our hair.

There are 3 components in hair coloring products: the tint, the color developer, and a conditioner. The tint contains di-molecules and ammonia. Ammonia helps the hair to swell for di-molecules to enter. The developer has a chemical called; hydrogen peroxide, which will lightens the natural color of the hair and get ready for new color to be applied. It also bleaches the natural hair color and helps the molecules to start the oxidation reaction. First, when the tint is mixed with the developer the chemical reactions will start and it will allow di-molecules to enter in the opened spaces in the hair. Once it goes inside the hair, small uncolored molecule will join together to make larger molecule. When they are joined and formed in a larger group, there will be the final color. After coloring when hair is rinsed with water, the hair cuticles will be close the swell and di-molecules will be trapped inside the hair.

To conclude my blog, by doing this research I’ve learned so many things about coloring products. Not only how it works in our hair, but also I got little hint why our hair get damaged if we use these products a lot. If you want to know more about his information, please click here! 🙂

1.First off, I never enjoyed studying science during my high school years. Memorizing elements from the periodic table and solving physics formulas were just too much for me. So I was looking for a general science class that I could enjoy without memorizing elements and formlas. Then when I came to PSU to schedule my classes, I saw SC 200 on the University Bulletin. I thought this course would be perfect for me because there are no math problems, no elements to memorize, but it talks about everyday life situations which caught my attention. For this reason, I decided to take SC 200.

2. I am not majoring in science because, as I mentioned above, science is not something that I enjoy. I like advertisements and  commercials.  For  this reason, I chose advertising and public relations as my major!