When I have a headache or toothache, my first reaction is to pop a couple Advil or Aleve and the pain mostly goes away within an hour. I never thought that I may be taking too much, though. Sometimes if I’m incredibly stressed out I’ll take painkillers several times a day, every day for sometimes up to a week. It just never occurred to me that I may be overdoing it because it’s not a prescription drug and people take it so casually all the time. After reading this article, though, I realized that the effects of taking too much ibuprofen can be really bad for you, even dangerous at times.

Taking too much at once can be incredibly damaging to your intestinal tract, and the effects of that include nausea, vomiting, and severe stomach pain, and sometimes the stomach pain can be a cause of internal bleeding in the stomach or intestines. Taking too much can also cause an increase in acid production, which can lead to heartburn. Lastly, another common effect of taking too much ibuprofen can be severe diarrhea, which is safe to assume no one really enjoys.

Some more things that you can experience include difficulty breathing, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, confusion, drowsiness, and convulsions. Ibuprofen may seem relatively harmless, and in most cases it is, but you still want to be careful about your intake to avoid any possible serious health issues.

Adderall and other drugs, such as Ritalin, that help people with AD/HD focus seem magical to those who don’t suffer from attention disorders. It helps you focus on whatever you’re trying to complete and sometimes makes the difference between failing and passing an exam or assignment. The thing, though, is that, though many people, especially college students, perceive these drugs to be risk-free, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Especially wen combined with other substances, like cocaine, the effects can be detrimental to the heart. Also, people who have pre-existing heart conditions can be especially at risk. These types of drugs can also be incredibly addictive, and in very severe abuse cases, they can cause psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations.

This misconception can be incredibly harmful and deadly, but very rarely are students educated on the risks of taking these prescription drugs without it being actually prescribed to themselves. It’s not some magic drug that solves all your problems when it comes to schoolwork and that needs to be addressed as clearly and as soon as possible to students. This information could easily save lives.

When my father was just 21 years old, his father lost his battle with lung cancer, so my sisters and I were never able to meet him. I think about him almost everyday and wonder what he was like and it sometimes even bothers me that I will never know what kind of person he was, and no one should have to experience that. So when I found this article about a new drug in the United Kingdom that is supposed to be more effective than chemo for certain patients with lung cancer, of course I had to share.

This drug is called crizotinib and, although it won’t work on all lung cancer patients, it does have the ability to help those who suffer from advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), whose cancers contain an overactive version of a protein called anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK). This drug does not necessarily increase overall survival but it can lengthen the amount of time between recovery and possible future relapse. In addition to this, crizotinib was found to reduce the symptoms of lung cancer and better the quality of life.

The way they found out about this drug’s effectiveness was to carry out an experiment in which 343 people affected by NSCLC with overactive ALK were split into two groups. One group was given crizotinib and the other group was given the standard chemotherapy drug, pemetrexed, and either carboplatin and cisplatin. The results were pleasantly surprising, meaning the patients given crizotinib were, on average, cancer-free for 11 months before relapse, while the patients given regular chemotherapy were, on average, cancer-free for only seven months before relapse.

The next goal is to make it more accessible across the UK but because of its high cost, it’s currently too expensive for many people, but medical professionals are hoping that manufacturers and the NHS will come to an agreement, making the drug more available across the UK.

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

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

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

It seems that there’s no definitive cause for eating disorders. Both my sister, Elizabeth, and I suffered from eating disorders, hers being bulimia and anorexia, and mine being just anorexia. We still can’t pinpoint the cause for Elizabeth’s disorder. We always had several ideas, such as that she had incredibly slim friends, but the one that made the most sense was a genetic cause. Both of my dad’s sisters suffered from eating disorders; one had anorexia and the other was bulimic, which is incredibly similar to Elizabeth’s and my case, and a recent study actually suggests that there may be a gene that contributes to eating disorders. Another study suggests that eating disorders is just as inheritable as schizophrenia and depression. It suggested that an individual is born with a certain gene that makes she or he more susceptible to eating disorders and the cultures around them actually push the person into the disorder.

A study done in 1996 showed that areas on chromosomes 1 and 10 presented possible evidence of being significantly linked to anorexia and bulimia. Also, follow-up studies have shown several genes that may increase a person’s susceptibility to these disorders.

Although there is no definitive proof, just strong suggestions, the possible links and research have been strong enough for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to award a grant of $10 million to the group of researchers conducting the study, making it the first U.S. government funded genetic study of eating disorders. Finding a genetic connection would also help medical professionals come up with better and more effective treatments for people who suffer from these disorders because they would be able to treat based on what gene and chromosome is being affected. There’s certainly seeming to be hope for putting an end to these horrible diseases.

One of my god brothers, Sammy, is severely autistic. He is unable to express his emotions and often throws tantrums. Being a teen also doesn’t help, because, on top of the autism, he has frequent mood swings but expresses these emotions in inappropriate ways, like screaming at the top of his lungs. When he’s trying to communicate his thoughts, you can tell he’s frustrated. No one can quite fully understand what he’s trying to say and he doesn’t seem to understand that his form of communication isn’t how the rest of us communicate. His life and his family’s life seem incredibly difficult but the thing that people often overlook is just how bright Sammy is. Within a year, he taught himself Korean online and can speak it quite well. His parents’ favorite “party trick” is that you can tell him any day of any year and he will tell you what day of the week that day was. For example, one time I asked him what day of the week April 6, 1996 (my birthday) was and within five seconds he was able to tell me that it was a Saturday. The things that go on in Sammy’s head are just fascinating, and, although many people would classify him as “retarded”, he really isn’t. He’s not stupid in any way whatsoever, and a couple years ago an article was written about kids like Sammy and how they tend to be especially smart in certain areas.

This study included eight young prodigies, all of whom excelled in certain areas, the majority of being music. Most of these kids began reading at ages as young as 1, and speaking at ages as young as 3 months. They didn’t all have incredibly impressive IQs but something that researchers noticed was that they showed a spectrum of autistic traits. In fact, three of the eight kids who were studied were formally diagnosed with autism and many of the other kids had family histories that included individuals with autism. Another interesting connection that was made was that these kids tended to be male. In addition, their mother’s often suffered difficult pregnancies with their autistic kids, which is a factor that Sammy’s mother experienced during her pregnancy with him. Although all of these kids were able to function relatively normal in society, unlike Sammy, who will probably need an aide for the rest of his life, they did show some symptoms of autism, which Sammy certainly does. To many people, having an autistic child may seem like the end of the world but what these people fail to realize is that a lot of these children are incredibly gifted and can perform tasks that a “normal” person isn’t able to carry out. Sammy is certainly one-of-a-kind and so many other kids like him are proving themselves to be the same. Of course it’s not easy having a severely autistic child in the family but there’s so much to be treasured within them. They can be quite a blessing and a miracle at times.

Everyone has probably been lectured by a parent or someone older about how headphones will ruin your hearing and most of the time we, as young adults, brush it off. Well, maybe it’s time you listen to them. According to a study done by the American Osteopathic Association, 1 in 5 teenagers suffer from some sort of hearing loss. This is 30% higher than it was in the ’80s and ’90s, and is most likely due to the increase in use of headphones. Dr. James E. Foy, an osteopathic pediatrician explains how, “even mild a mild hearing loss due to excessive noise could lead to developmental delays in speech and language.”

So here’s what Dr. Foy recommends: most MP3 players can produce sounds up to 120 decibels and, at that level, hearing loss can occur after only an hour and 15 minutes, so something that he leaves his patients to think about is that if you can’t hear what’s going on around you with your headphones in, your music is too loud. Also, the louder the volume coming from your headphones, the shorter amount of time you should be listening through headphones. Actually, you should only listen to 5 minutes of music through your headphones at maximum volume.

Wondering if you’ve become a victim of hearing loss? Dr. Foy says some signs include ringing, roaring, buzzing, or hissing in the ears and listening to the TV or radio at a higher volume than usual, so if you find that these are problems that you’re finding yourself running into, consider turning down your volume on your headphones a couple notches.

Unfortunately, if you have suffered from hearing loss, there are no cures. Of course you could get some sort of hearing aid but it won’t totally restore your hearing.

Lastly, Dr. Foy discusses treatments. He recommends using your MP3 device at 60% of its maximum volume for 60 minutes a day, calling it the 60/60 rule. In addition, using the more “old school” headphones that cover your ears instead of sitting inside your ears can reduce the chance of hearing loss. The message we are left with here is that, “moderation is key.”

I remember in my junior year of high school in my biology class, we watched an episode of MythBusters about cups of water exploding in the microwave when superheated, and when I got to college I immediately remembered this, since now I pretty much live off of a microwave. What if I wanted to make a cup of tea? Or heat some water up to make instant ramen? This was one of the main questions I had when I wanted my first cup of noodles and I couldn’t decide if it was safe to heat water up in the microwave, so I did my research.

There have been documented cases of water being superheated and exploding at the slightest touch but this is actually quite rare. According to this Snopes.com article, it takes near perfect conditions for this to happen, but in the slightest of chances that this could happen, the FDA has some guidelines you can follow:

Water is much less likely to explode if there is a foreign object in the cup with it. For example, adding instant coffee will greatly reduce the risk of an explosion.

Also, following the instructions in the microwave’s manual will help.

Another thing you can do is to not heat the water for extended amounts of time. For example, if you need to heat your water for three minutes, it’s best to do it in four 45-minute increments. This will allow the water to cool down slightly before it’s next heating.

Lastly, it’s a good idea to find the best time setting for your water and sticking with that time setting. Consistency will lessen the chance of an explosion because you’ll know from experience that a certain time setting works best.

Have you ever wondered why there’s such a big range of contraceptives for women and not for men? Doctors have asked this same question and apparently, by 2017, the new thing will be Vasalgel, birth control for men. The way this will work is that men who wish to get involved with this form of birth control will need to get a very small injection in their vas deferens. It is a permanent solution but is different from a vasectomy. The initial injection can possibly be countered by a small second injection. The price Vasalgel is still unknown but it seems worth it. It’s a one time thing, permanent, and possibly reversible. But like all things, this new product has it’s drawbacks.

The number of men using condoms has decreased recently. According to CDC, “there was a 4% decline in condom utilization between 2006 and 2010, and among teenagers condom use decreased almost by 50%. Considering that this product could be on the pricier side, what will motivate men to become interested in it? That’s the question that founder, Elaine Lissner, is trying to solve.

So, this seems like a great new invention, but the drawback here seems to be that if men aren’t using protection now, what will make them change their minds about this?

‘There will always be the Neanderthals, there will always be guys who say don’t touch my junk, there will never be 100% of men who want it,’ says the group behind Vasalgel.

Although I can’t vouch for everyone, I think I can safely say that some of us, especially as college students, agree that the drinking age age should be lowered from 21 to 18. In this article, this author makes some great points, one of which is that we get an thrill from doing this particular illegal act. Many teenagers act out in rebellious ways, whether it’s by alcohol consumption, drug use, or any other thing that we’re not supposed to be doing. Dwight B. Heath, an anthropology professor at Brown University explains how in countries where the drinking age is lower than 21, “[A]lcohol has no mystique. It’s no big deal.” He then goes on to explain that, “[B]y contrast, where it’s banned until age 21, there’s something of the ‘forbidden fruit’ syndrome”, meaning that we, as humans, have a desire for things we’re not supposed to be associated with, and in this situation, teenagers with alcohol. Let’s be honest, we’ve all been here before.

Another point that this author makes is that regardless of the law, teens are still drinking and will continue to drink, so why not lower the age? It is a fact that teens drink. Not all, but a good chunk of the teenage population has come in contact with alcohol before the age of 18, so why not just legalize it for people 18 years and older? The point here is that, why make a law that no one is going to follow anyways?

That being said, 21 seems like too high an age. Yes, the brain is still developing and it can have negative consequences but why implement a law that so many people don’t and won’t even follow? The government can try and make laws to prevent underage drinking but the efficacy is incredibly questionable, in my opinion.

Although this graph is slightly outdated, only so much can change in 7 years, and it’s clear that there are more teenage drinkers than non-teenage drinkers.

Monday, July 7, 2014 was one of the worst days of my life. At approximately 10:00pm my pony passed.

Rhyme or Reason, or “Reilly”, as we called him, was a 10 year old, 14.1 3/4 hand grey Thoroughbred/Welsh Pony cross gelding. I started working with him in October of last year up until late June, when I had to leave for the summer session here at Penn State. He was perfect and the love of my life. He would give me kisses all the time and always try his absolute hardest for me; his primary goal was to impress.

When I got the phone call from my trainer that he had to be put to rest, the first question was “why?” Why did he die? Why wasn’t there anything more the veterinarian could have done for him? I was angry and confused but when I discovered that it was Potomac horse fever (PHF), I understood more.

PHF is caused by an organism called Neorickettsia risticii. Not much is known about this disease; there is a vaccine but its efficacy is questionable. The cause is not entirely known but it is most likely caused by flying insects that carry N. risticii that are accidentally ingested by the horse and about 16-33% of horses who have never had a history of having the disease have evidence of being exposed to N. risticii. Symptoms of the disease include fever, a lack of appetite, and depression, all symptoms that were evident in Reilly’s case. The treatment is a drug called oxytetracycline and works best when the disease is still in its earliest stages, which is also why Reilly passed; it wasn’t until it was too late when the veterinarian realized that it was PHF. Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent the disease since there is not a definitive cause.

Here is the link for more information on PHF.

Hi! I’m Nina Richards from Chatham, New Jersey. I’m doing this course because I’ve never been a “science person”, meaning that I’ve never really excelled in science, and this course seemed like a good class that would fulfill a requirement and, at the same time, make me not hate science. The reason I’m not planning to be a science major is, like I said before, science isn’t a strong suit of mine; it wouldn’t make any sense to study in a field of science.

Here’s my link (because I’ve wanted these for the longest time):

http://www.ariat.com/SAHARA_W_FOO.html?dwvar_SAHARA__W__FOO_color=SASSY_BROWN#start=1

Also, here’s a picture of my pony and me at a horse show in May. He passed recently and I miss him very much