This past weekend my parents came to visit me and with them they brought fresh apples (yum!). As they were leaving my room to go home my dad said to me, “remember to eat your apples, because one a day keeps the doctor away.” This led me to question, does fruit help keep the doctor away? Well according to a large, seven-year study, the answer could be yes.

Dr. Huaidong Du from Oxford presented study that involved almost half a million people concluded that daily fruit consumption can cut the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 40 percent at the European Society of Cardiology.

The participants from Chine Kadoorie Biobank consisted of 451,681 participants with no history of CVD and were not taking any medication for hypertension. Then participants fruit intake was recorder and categorized under never, monthly, 1-3 days per week, 4-6 days per week, or daily. They found that 18 percent of participants consumed fruit daily and 6.3 never consumed fruit. The average daily portion was 1.5.

They found that overall the risk of CVD was reduced by 25 to 40 percent for participants who ate fruit daily. They found that eating fruit also lowers blood pressure. With further studying, they found that wily fruit consumption was associated with a lower systolic blood pressure and lower diastolic blood pressure in comparison to people who did not eat fruit.

In a separate analysis, overall mortality was looked at in comparison to fruit consumption in 61,000 patients who had been excluded from the study due to CVD and hypertension. In this group, daily consumption reduced overall risk of death by 32 percent compared to people who did not eat fruit.

It can be concluded that the results were not due to reverse causation because having CVD would not most likely cause you to eat more fruit. The study is also very specific to China because all the patients were taken from there. This could mean that daily fruit consumption is better for everyone in the world. Lastly, there could be a confounding variable. Because the study focused on all fruits, it could be one specific fruit that is helping with cardiovascular disease. For example, it may just be apples that help or oranges. But because the study was so large and just daily fruit consumption in general was recorded, it is hard to be specific as to what is lowering the risk of disease and lowering blood pressure.

However, for now I will continue eating my apples just for the simple fact that they are good!

Sources:

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/study-finds-eating-fruit-reduces-heart-disease-article-1.1926024

There’s no doubt about it, Penn State students love squirrels. The energetic little creatures are our dogs and cats of the university. Every day as I walk across Old Main I can’t help but notice that the squirrels at PSU are very, very different from the ones at my house. Now I live in the middle of Nowhere, Pennsylvania on about 12 acres of land so I have seen my fair share of squirrels. The second they see you they run away. However, our furry friends here at PSU do the complete opposite, sometimes even coming closer instead of backing away. I was so intrigued by this I decided to find out, why are Penn State squirrels so friendly?

Bill Bateman, an ecologist at Curtin University in Australia, also wondered the same thing when his family visited New York. Bateman was intrigued because even though the squirrels, the gray squirrel in this case, lived in the city they still tried their best to avoid people. He said every time he went to New York, he found himself watching and observing the squirrels’ interaction with people. He noticed that squirrels would ignore people walking by, but would run from dogs, toddlers, and other things that appeared threatening. As a result, he decided to test the idea.

The hypothesis for his experiment was that squirrels use detailed cues from people to know when to run and when to keep eating. Bateman believes that squirrels know what behaviors are normal for people and what behaviors are not normal. He believed that a squirrel would only be likely to run when a person broke the pattern or when someone would look at the squirrel.

To conduct the experiment, Bateman would spend each morning looking for squirrels. Once he saw one, he had four different ways of approaching the squirrel. The first was on the sidewalk, but not looking directly at the squirrel, the second was on the sidewalk but staring at the squirrel, the third was leaving the sidewalk but not looking at the squirrel, and the fourth was leaving the sidewalk and looking directly at the squirrel. Every time Bateman approached the squirrel he kept a slow walking pace and to measure how close he got he would drop colored pen lids. When he was done, he could measure the path the caps marked. He also had a timer running to see how long it would take before the squirrel ran.

Bateman published his results in the Journal of Zoology and found that squirrels can tell if a human is looking at them or behaves in an unusual way. He said squirrels were 40 percent more likely to run if he focused his attention on them and 90 percent of the time the squirrels ran away if he left the sidewalk and stared as he moved across the grass. He concluded that the squirrels don’t get scared by humans all the time, but they always pay very close attention to people’s movements.

While Bateman’s tests were conclusive and appear to be pretty accurate to what I witness on a daily basis, there are multiple problems with his tests. The first is he only tested in on squirrels in Manhattan and only on the gray squirrel. Another problem is the issue of a confounding variable. The squirrels could have been running away because of Bateman dropping the caps and creating an unusual noise. Which also leads to the issue of the caps bouncing around when dropped which could create a problem with the measurements. Overall, Bateman’s tests were conducted poorly, despite his positive results.

Our furry friends here at Penn State do tend to run when we start to get too close or begin behaving differently. Could it be because they know our every day actions? Why not test it yourself and play squirrel tag someday or leave a comment if you’ve noticed the same thing!

Sources:

https://student.societyforscience.org/blog/eureka-lab/stalking-squirrels-science

Now it’s not a big surprise that at a campus of 40,000 people, people would have sex outside of a relationship. However, from middle school when we receive “the talk” until now we are still warned how doing this can cause health problems, such as STDs, but also problems emotionally. Nonetheless, a new study found that casual sex might actually be good for you. 

A new study, published in the Social Psychology and Personality science journal, found that sociosexually unrestricted students (those who slept around a lot) reported higher well-being after casual sex. Researchers at New York University and Cornell surveyed 371 college students for the study and 42% of them said that they have sex outside of a relationship. The researchers also found that the participants experienced lower stress levels and thrived more following casual sex. However, the same researcher, Zhana Vrangalova, from Cornell concluded a few months before this new study that causal sex makes you depressed.

The researcher said the difference between the two depends on the motivation. There are the autonomous reasons (“right” reasons) and the nonautonomous reasons (“wrong” reasons). Vrangalova said that the autonomous reasons were for the fun, enjoyment, or want to explore and learn about sexuality. The nonautonomous reasons were revenge, avoid unpleasant feelings, to feel better about oneself, or too intoxicated. The researchers from the two universities conclude that if a student had casual sex for the wrong reasons it correlated with increased stress and anxiety. However, if they had casual sex for the autonomous reasons it correlated to being good for them.

While the researchers findings are what many college students want to hear, there are still problems. The study was conducted on a small sample of students that attended universities in the northeast. The sample size does not accurately represent the nation as a whole. Also, correlation does not equal causation. There could have been other outlying factors as to why students were stressed at the end of the school year. For example, school work. While the study seems pretty conclusive there could also be confounding variables that were overlooked by researchers.

Sources:

http://time.com/2917281/casual-sex-is-good-for-you-study/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/24/casual-sex-study_n_5522421.html

Every day I am at Penn State I feel like I meet someone who is in a long-distance relationship. Well good news for myself and everyone else I meet is a study published in the Journal of Communication said yes, absence does in fact make the heart grow stronger. 

The study found that men and women in long distance relationships are more likely to share thoughts and feelings that held more meaning. The study also showed that couples tend to idealize their partners’ behavior, which increases intimacy. Researchers at Cornell University asked 63 heterosexual couple, half who were in long distance relationships, about their communication. The participants’ averages were just under the age of 21, had been in a relationship for almost two years and had been apart for 17 months. Researchers asked the couples to track their interactions with their partners: how often they communicated, how long, and what they used to do it. The study found that the couples who lived apart tended to have less daily interaction, but the interaction they did have was longer and more meaningful. The couples that were apart inevitable ended up revealing more about themselves compared to couples that were not apart.

A licensed psychotherapist, Rachel Sussman, said long distance relationships are becoming easier and the nature is changing because of technology and the access to video chat. Researchers from Cornell also found that almost three million Americans now live apart from their spouses for reasons other than divorce and that between a quarter and one-half of college students are currently in long distance relationships. The study proved to be pretty positive that long distance does make the heart grow fonder.

There are some problems with the design. It was only a study so it cannot be conclusive. The sample size of the study was also very small, if the study would be repeated with a larger sample, it could be more conclusive. In addition, information could easily have been left out such as the loneliness and stresses that come from living apart. Many couples in long distance tend to second guess the relationship and tend to feel extremely lonely at times. Before the study posted in the Journal of Communication, all the research showed the negatives of long distance and why they would not work. However, the new study done by Cornell gives people in long distance relationships some optimism for the future of their relationship.

The bottom line is, yes long distance relationships are hard and can be potentially stressful, but with trust and dedication they can prove to be even healthier than couples who are located in the same geographic region.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/long-distance-relationship-benefits_n_3616839.html

http://www.today.com/health/long-distance-love-may-be-stronger-you-think-new-study-6C10660702

We all know that feeling of hearing our alarm go off telling us it’s time to wake up (mine usually causes me to jump a foot because when the Circle of Life starts blaring at 7am it is enough for a heart attack). We feel exhausted, eyes are droopy, and sometimes feel like you spent the entire night before drinking (even when you didn’t!). Well, according to a study from Michigan State University, using your phone before bed can cause you to have a “cellphone hangover.”

The study was published in the Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes journal. It contained two parts. The first part of the study had 82 upper-level managers answer survey questions every day for two weeks asking about their smartphone usage. The surveys were administered at 6am and 4pm. The researchers found, to no surprise, that smartphone use after 9pm was associated with decreased sleep at night. Because of the lack of sleep, the participants felt more exhausted during the day that then caused a lack of engagement at work during the day.

Researchers made sure when conducting the research that reverse causation was not a reason by using a mathematical model. However, the researchers did find that daily work engagement did not predict smartphone use a night.

The second part of the survey broadened the range of people surveyed and included 161 employees who worked in all different fields. The participants took the surveys the same way as in the first part of the study, however they were also asked to use other electronics like TVs and computers to see how they affected sleep, work engagement, and morning depletion. The researchers at MSU found very similar results to the first part of the study. They also found that smartphones had a bigger impact than using a computer or watching TV.

The study concluded that smartphones are “almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep.” However, there are some problems with this study’s design. The first part of the study did not include other forms of devices, but the second part did with a wider range of participants. This causes me to question if there are confounding variables to the study. Could the stress level of certain jobs cause a lack of sleep? And if certain jobs create a lack of sleep, could the use of smartphones have little to no impact but appear that way? I think the Michigan State University researchers were on the right track, but the design of the study leaves room for other variables to affect sleep.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/smartphone-night-worklace_n_4653223.html

http://time.com/2118/were-all-doomed-using-your-smartphone-before-bed-can-cause-cellphone-hangover/

This past weekend I went home to visit friends and family. I stopped by my great-grandma’s house to see how she was feeling and spend some time with my favorite woman. While talking about her last doctor appointment, she told me she was put on a low-sodium diet. But my curiosity began to lead me to question: does a low-sodium diet actually benefit you? 

I decided to Google the matter. There were many articles by magazines and health websites saying “salt is bad.” However, what I found extremely interesting was the fact that there were articles from The Wall Street Journal, NBC, and Reuters all claiming that a new study found salt was not that bad for you.

The New England Journal of Medicine published an international study of 100,000 people showed that if you are not over 60, eating way too much salt, or do not currently have high blood pressure, salt will not have a significant impact on your blood pressure. It is currently recommended by federal guidelines that people consume between 1,500-2,300 milligrams per day. The American Heart Association recommends 1,500 milligrams. However, most people consume between 3,000-6,000 milligrams and only four percent of respondents followed the recommended levels. The study found that people who consume the average amount of 3,000-6,000 milligrams a day had a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events than people who had more than 6,000 milligrams or less than 3,000 milligrams. People that consumed over or under the average U.S. daily consumption level had a 27% higher risk of death or a serious event.

While these surprising findings would encourage some people to pile on the salt, you should still be careful. The studies conducted were all observational and followed participants for almost four years. There was also a lack of cause and effect and the studies did not rule out confounding variables so there is still some question on whether or not salt caused an increase or decrease. Another problem is that the studies were too short to make long-term conclusions. According to the president of the American Heart Association, “cardiovascular disease can take decades to develop.” The last issue with the studies is how the sodium levels were measure. The samples were all taken through urine, which could be altered by diet and eating habits of participants.

So while it seems like adding the salt onto our food may benefit us according to the study, there does not seem to be enough information to conclude whether or not this is true. And in the case of my great-grandma, it seems best that she continues her low-sodium diet even though she misses using salt greatly.

Sources:

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/heart-health/pour-salt-new-research-suggests-more-ok-n179941

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/13/us-cardiovascular-disease-sodium-idUSKBN0GD22520140813

http://online.wsj.com/articles/recommended-salt-levels-could-do-more-harm-than-good-study-suggests-1407964274

Any student who has previously played a sport whether it be through a club or in high school knows that the coach always reminds players to “stay hydrated.” Many times they tell you to drink plenty of water throughout the day, even when you’re not thirsty, so you are hydrated for your game later that night. However, drinking too much water can be fatal.

According to sports medicine physician Dr. James Winger, drinking too much water and sports drink is the reason for the deaths of two high school football players. This over-hydration in athletes is called exercise-associated hyponatremia. This form of hyponatremia occurs because athletes hydrate even when they are not thirsty. During exercise, too much fluid in the body can cause the body to become overwhelmed with the ability to remove water. As a result, the sodium content of blood becomes dangerously and abnormally low which causes cells to absorb excess water which then results in swelling.

There have been two cases in the south where football players have died because of exercise-associated hyponatremia. After drinking two gallons of water and two gallons of sport drink, Zyrees Oliver collapsed at home after a practice and then died later in the hospital. After vomiting and complaining of a leg cramp in the second half of a football game, Walker Wilbank was taken to the hospital where he had a seizure and then later died. Jennifer Lea Strange and Matthew Carrington also died because of water intoxication, however their deaths were not caused by athletics. There have also been multiple suspected deaths of runners due to hyponatremia.

Although coaches recommend drinking water before, during, and after games to stay hydrated, Winger recommends only drinking when thirsty. The risks of drinking only when thirsty is mild dehydration which can be treated easily with smaller risks associated with it.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140902143238.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-teen-dies-from-drinking-too-much-water-gatorade/

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/26364634/jackson-prep-football-player-dies

The “freshman plague” is spreading rapidly around campus and coughs can be heard echoing throughout the Forum building. With sickness comes many texts from mom and dad saying “rest and take your vitamin C.” I know I have been taking close to around 1,000mg a day of vitamin C plus my daily glass of orange juice. But the question I keep asking myself is “does vitamin C actually make you get better, quicker?” So I started looking.

Vitamin C is used constantly to treat colds and make symptoms go away faster. However, there is almost no benefit from vitamin C that helps to treat the common cold. Researchers spent time looking at whether or not taking 200mg of vitamin C daily could help reduce the severity, duration, or frequency of the common cold. The researchers went through 60 years of clinical trial results and discovered that taking vitamin C after a cold has begun has no impact on the duration and severity of the symptoms presented. However, the researchers did find that the cold duration is shortened by 8% in adults when vitamin C is taken daily. In addition, according to the Cochrane Review vitamin C supplements have “no benefit in either the duration or the severity of symptoms.”

However, just because vitamin C does not help once a cold has begun does not mean you should stop taking it. There are many health benefits that come from vitamin C or a vitamin C supplement. According to a study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition vitamin C can help prevent wrinkles. How is this possible? Well, vitamin C helps form collagen which smooths fine lines and wrinkles. Vitamin C can also help to protect your heart. Finnish researchers looked at studies found the risk for cardiovascular disease can be reduced by 25% if  700mg of a C supplement are taken daily. Being in college also calls for help staying focused. One of the most successful problems vitamin C helps with is preventing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is a leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 45. The National Eye Institute sponsored a major clinical try which found a daily supplement of 500mg of vitamin C combined with vitamin E, copper, and zinc can help reduce the risk of vision loss by up to 25%.

Taking a daily supplement or drinking orange juice has many health benefits. The recommended dietary intake is 65 to 90mg a day with 2,000mg being the maximum per day. Too much vitamin C isn’t harmful, however some unwanted symptoms can result from excessive amounts of vitamin C. Diarrhea, nausea, heartburn, headaches, insomnia, and abdominal bloating are some symptoms of too much vitamin C. However, this should not scare you from taking a supplement because overall an adequate amount of vitamin C is needed for a healthy lifestyle.

With football season just beginning to start, the fear of football ending soon is in the back of every fan’s mind. However, what happens when the clock hits 00:00 and the final play of the Super Bowl is over? Post football depression.

According to psychiatrist Dr. Angelos Halaris of Loyola University Medical Center, “when a person engages in pleasurable activity, such as watching a football game, a neurotransmitter called dopamine is released in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.”

So what this means is when football season ends for hard-core fans, the feeling becomes similar to post-holiday blues for holiday lovers. Halaris also describes it as when a smoker feels deprived of a cigarette after quitting. However, unlike people who smoke, there is no quick fix. Because of the lack of a quick fix, Halaris offers tips to help fans cope for the remainder of the year:

1. Watch football, whether it be recordings or on YouTube, to avoid going cold turkey.
2. Talk to a friend about how you’re are feeling because of the withdrawal.
3. Do not self medicate with drugs or alcohol because the symptoms are not serious enough.
4. The most important tip Halaris offers is to buck up. She says, “You’re just going to have to basically tough it out until football starts up again.”

So while the season has only begun, fans and players can start preparing now to avoid looking like this guy.

And while some people may not be sports fans, this can pertain to all different forms of entertainment. From post concert depression to when your favorite tv show airs for the, follow the steps Halaris offers to keep yourself from feeling the blues.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140130141225.htm

Sitting around the dinner table on Sundays for family dinners, my family would always says “Here Katie, eat some salad, it’s good for you.” But loaded with croutons, hot-bacon dressing, hard-boiled eggs, and more, I can’t help but think that doesn’t look healthy. This standard interaction with my family led me to question, is salad actually healthy? The answer: it depends.

According to WebMd.com, there are four very healthy reasons to eat salad:

1. For the fiber. A high fiber diet can help prevent constipation and lowers cholesterol levels.
2. For the health benefits of fruit and vegetables. Dark green and orange vegetables are extremely healthy and usually main ingredients in a salad which can help increase your antioxidant levels. There are also many diseases that can be prevented from eating fruits and vegetables.
3. To cut calories and increase satisfaction. Eating a low calorie salad before a meal can help with feeling full sooner and reduce the overall number of calories eaten during a sitting.
4. To get “smart fats.” If you eat monounsaturated fat (such as the fat in olive oil), the body will absorb protective phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are also beneficial for prevention and treatment of many diseases.

Despite these beneficial reasons to eat salad, there are also many times salads can kill a diet. A very popular diet killer is a chicken caesar salad. The dressing itself is heavy and then is loaded with croutons, chicken, and cheese. This one salad can hold around 750 calories and high amounts of sodium. Chain restaurants like Applebee’s and Chili’s advertise salads as the “healthy alternative,” but some of their salads, such as the Buffalo Chicken Salad and Santa Fe Salad can range anywhere from 690-1020 calories.

In my opinion, salads are the healthy alternative, but knowing how to tell the unhealthy from the healthy is important. You want protein on a salad but make sure it is lean. Avoid bacon and fried or crispy chicken and pick the grilled chicken, hard-boiled eggs, or tuna. Adding tons of vegetables to your salad is a good choice and when picking cheese choose a smaller amount of a strong-flavored cheese. Instead of picking pre-packaged croutons, opt for homemade croutons, which are lower in fat, or nuts. Most importantly, is picking the right dressing. Look for dressings marked low-fat, or choose the classic oil and vinegar.

If your salad looks like this, you’ve made the right choice.

If your salad looks like this, chances are you are about to eat a bunch of calories.

So, is my grandma’s crouton loaded salad topped with hot-bacon dressing healthy? The answer: no. It can be a guilty pleasure occasionally, but should not be a staple part of a diet. Telling healthy salads apart from unhealthy is easy if you follow the basics: keep it light and colorful using veggies and light dressings.

With the third football game of the season rapidly approaching, the Penn State students are fairly certain our players will come back with another win under their belt. With a Rutgers defeat, the Scarlet Knights could be heartbroken. But they need to be careful, because dying of a broken heart is a real thing. Suffering from a broken heart can lead to short-term heart muscle failure.

Stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy (Broken Heart Syndrome) can happen in a perfectly healthy person. The broken heart is caused by a surge of stress that causes pain in the chest. Women typically experience the pain more than men. However, Broken Heart Syndrome can be confused and misdiagnosed as a heart attack because the symptoms are similar. Like a heart attack, rhythm and blood substances change. The cause of the pain and changes in rhythm comes from an enlargement of one part of the heart while the rest of the heart continues to function normally – much different from the blockage of arteries (the cause of a heart attack).

So, what should Rutgers students look for on Saturday night?

1. Chest pain
2. Shortness of breath

The good news for our fellow Big Ten students is Broken Heart Syndrome is usually treatable. In rare cases, the syndrome can be fatal, but overall the syndrome is extremely curable as long as they see a doctor.

Sources:

“Is Broken Heart Syndrome Real?” Is Broken Heart Syndrome Real? American Heart Association, 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. <http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/Cardiomyopathy/Is-Broken-Heart-Syndrome-Real_UCM_448547_Article.jsp>.

Hi everyone, my name is Katie Kemmerer and I’m from Hamburg, Pennsylvania. I am taking this course to fulfill my Science gen-ed credit. I’m not planning on being a science major because I never found it interesting in high school. Astronomy and anatomy were my two favorite science classes in high school, but I never loved the classes as much as a my communications classes. That’s why I decided to become a Public Relations major. I posted a picture of Cabela’s because it’s about 10 minutes from my house!