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Is the Freshman 15 Real?

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The transition from high school to college is a very big change for most people and we’ve all heard of the infamous “freshman 15.” As a senior in high school I had given this very little thought but as I am now approaching my 5th month here at state college, I am starting to realize that maybe there is some truth to this. As popular as this phrase has become, is it actually true, or is it simply a myth?

In an article on the Dallas News website, they discuss an Ohio State experiment that provides some factual evidence on this issue. They proclaim that although students do seem to gain some weight throughout their freshman year of college, it is more along the lines of 5 pounds rather than 15. In an Ohio State study of 7,418 kids, they found that the average weight gain freshman year was about 3 pounds. “Less than 10 percent of the freshmen gained 15 pounds or more, and a quarter of the students actually lost weight in their first year.”

In addition to the freshman year, they also did a larger study that focused on the weight gain throughout all 4 years of school. They found that on average females gained 7-9 pounds while males gained 12-13 pounds. They found that the most common cause of the weight gain were the people that said they had 6 or more drinks at least 4 days every month. They did mention that some other variables such as exercise, healthy eating habits and sleep could also play a role in the freshman 15.

I think overall this was an okay study but it could have been better. Correlation does not equal causation. Just as sleep could have an affect on GPA, GPA could also affect sleep habits. If a student has a low GPA and they need to improve their grades, they may sleep less to study more. Also, they could have improved this study by controlling 3rd variables such as exercise, amount of sleep, and eating habits to ensure more accurate results. Although chance is always present, from this study it appears that the freshman 15 is merely a myth for majority of people.

http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/health-and-fitness/health/20131014-the-freshman-15-is-it-for-real.ece

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/freshman15.htm

Digesting Gum

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Have you ever been chewing gum and all of a sudden coughed and swallowed it? Or maybe you had one of those moments where you just swallowed your gum without realizing it? Most people have swallowed their gum at least once in their lifetime, and if you did it as a kid you can’t help but think, “Is that going to take 7 years to get out of my stomach?” Seven years is a long time for a kid to wait around for the gum to come out the other end. I know I swallowed a handful of gum in my lifetime.

However, studies and observations by pediatric gastroenterologist David Milov of the Nemours Children’s Clinic in Orlando, Florida said that that is not true. In fact, he states, “If the legend were true, that would mean that every single person who ever swallowed gum within the last seven years would have evidence of the gum in the digestive tract, but colonoscopies and capsule endoscopy procedures turn up no such evidence. On occasion we’ll see a piece of swallowed gum,” he says, “but usually it’s not something that’s any more than a week old.”

It has been said that some of the gum is digested like the sweetners added however, that actual chewy, rubber like substance of the actual gum is not. Gum may be composed of many natural or synthetic elastomers, or rubberlike materials, as well as plasticizing softeners, resins and preservative antioxidizing agents. The permitted elastomers include natural, tree-derived chicle.

In the study, Milov says. “It probably passes through slower than most foodstuffs, but eventually the normal housekeeping waves in the digestive tract will sort of push it through, and it will come out pretty unmolested.” 

A 1998 study in the journal Pediatrics, for example, described three children who came to a clinic with intestinal pain, constipation and other symptoms, and were found to have small masses of chewing gum in their guts. One was a 4-year-old boy who “always swallowed his gum after chewing five to seven pieces each day.” Another was a 4-year-old girl.

Three other studies, including one in The American Journal of Diseases of Children, describe similar cases. In most, the young patients were fine after removal of the obstructions. The phenomenon is rare, the studies noted. But they might also serve as a cautionary tale for the parents of small children, particularly those with a strong fondness for gum.

 

Therefore, it is not recommended to swallow gum if you don’t absolutely have to because it is fairly more difficult for your body to digest gum than to digest other things you eat, but at the end of the day it is rare to encounter a complication in your body due to gum.

Does Physical Activity Reduce Stress?

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Have you ever been super stressed and gone for a run or went to work out? Did you feel better after? I’ve heard so many people say that physical activity relieves stress but I never really believed it. I found an article that talks about how getting rid of stress is impossible but that there are ways to manage it. In a poll that the ADAA gave they found out that about 14 percent of people manage stress with exercise. They’re already heading down the right path participating in running, yoga, and walking.

Becoming fit and staying healthy are just some of the benefits of physical activity. These examples that the article provides are great, “Studies show that it is very effective at reducing fatigue, improving alertness and concentration, and at enhancing overall cognitive function. This can be especially helpful when stress has depleted your energy or ability to concentrate.” Stress doesn’t only affect your body but your mind as well. When you are constantly stressed you can run into other problems such a depression. When you exercise much of the time your self-esteem improves which is a big psychological win.

Chemicals called endorphins are released when you exercise giving your body a positive feeling and helping you feel energized. During regular physical activity other chemicals are released that help deplete stress hormones so that you can better cope with stress. It also relaxes tense muscles and aches that may be caused by stress. In conclusion stressed is cause by many things in our lives and there’s no escaping it, but we can do things to help manage the stress. Physical activity is a great way to help manage stress and also has many other benefits to you and me.

Sources: http://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/stress/physical-activity-reduces-st

http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/exercise-depression

 

http://www.stress.org.uk/exercise.aspx

 

Charlotte’s Web: Cannabis in the World of Neuroscience

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For decades, most people have been led to believe that marijuana was solely used for recreational purposes, particularly by irresponsible teenagers with nothing better to do on a Saturday night. However, following a number of recent studies, it has been discovered that boredom is not the only thing that this little green plant has the ability to cure; In the case of Charlotte Figi, an eight-year-old girl from Colorado diagnosed with severe epilepsy, marijuana has played an enormous role in providing treatment that has not only changed the life of Charlotte herself, but her family’s lives as well.

Present in the marijuana plant are two primary compounds; the first being the better-known THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the compound responsible for producing the psychoactivity commonly associated with the drug. The second, cannibidiol, otherwise known as CBD, contains medical properties responsible for producing long-lasting analgesic effects, reducing inflammation, as well as aid in the treatment of arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. Cannabis oils highly concentrated in CBD can lead to revolutions in the medical world, as proven in Charlotte’s case. Given in small doses placed underneath the tongue, the oil helps aid in the reduction of stress and anxiety, ultimately reducing the amount of seizures.

In a recent study conducted by the University of California, researchers found that the cannabis oil not only aids in the treatment of epilepsy, but as well as a number of other neurological diseases such as autism; The study found that CBD regulates emotion and focus, acting as a neuroprotective against further brain degradation. In the autistic patient, mood can be regulated with oral doses of cannabis. The study also found that the oil was responsible for reducing hostility and rage in patients, ultimately inducing a relaxed, steady and calm demeanor.

While stories such as Charlotte’s are extremely uplifting and inspiring, they just go to show how the media only covers such stories that instill positive emotion. In class we learned about the file drawer problem, which explains how researchers in science often have a tendency to publish positive results but not negative or non-confirmatory results. There are a number of patients out there who have not benefited from medical cannabis, and in fact have demonstrated an increase in negative symptoms caused by their disease due to the cannabis treatment.

While our knowledge regarding medical marijuana continues to grow, breakthroughs in the medical world have already become apparent thanks to the tiny green plant. As we as a nation  further educated ourselves on the benefits of marijuana, the hope of ultimately destroying its negative stigma continues to become more and more of a reality.

 Sources:

“Autism Can Be Treated With Medical Marijuana” by Hans Benes  http://guardianlv.com/2014/08/autism-can-be-treated-with-medical-marijuana

“Marijuana stops child’s severe seizures” by Saundra Young  http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana

 

Do Energy Drinks Pose a Health Hazard?

Energy drinks have become somewhat of a fad in recent years. Teenagers and young adults are the most common consumers of these drinks, which on average contain significantly higher levels of caffeine than a regular cup of coffee of the same size. I personally just stick to coffee when it comes to my caffeine intake but I have quite a few friends who also drink Red Bull and Monster frequently and I have always wondered if these drinks are any worse than coffee or tea or have any significant long term effects on the body.monster

One study measured the short term effects of energy drink consumption on the heart using MRI technology. The study contained fifteen men and three women of good health with an average age of 27.5 years. The researchers took cardiac MRIs of the subjects before and one hour after they drank one energy drink containing 32mg/100ml caffeine. The results of this experiment showed that after consuming an energy drink, the participants showed increased strain on the left ventricle of the heart, which pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. Scientists revealed that it was inconclusive if this would impact daily activities or athletic performance, making it a soft endpoint.

This study does draw some conclusions that could be consistent with the hypothesis that energy drinks are unhealthy, but the size and execution of the study does not make it reliable. As there were only fifteen people involved and a mere three females among them, it is difficult to call this a legitimate study. It may have been received more credit if more information had been gathered such as participants’ physical responses compared to a control group.

Most scientists can agree however, that energy drinks that are mixed with alcohol, such as Four Loko or Joose, pose strong potential hazards to health. Observational data over the years has been all but conclusive in pointing to alcohol laced energy drinks as the cause in some critical health problems experienced by otherwise healthy young people, a statistic that has doubled in the years between 2007 and 2011.

Because I personally do not drink energy drinks, I cannot say whether I think they are worth giving up based on the data presented. For those that do consume energy drinks, I suppose it is a personal choice as to whether the benefit of drinking that Red Bull outweighs the potential risks associated with it.

Sources:

HuffPost

Medical News Today

Dreams

a98246_nrem_rem_brain_newA sleep cycle consists of five steps, which are divided into two categories: REM sleep and non-REM sleep. REM sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep, occurs toward the end of each cycle and is typically the stage for our most lucid dreams. Non-REM sleep is generally lighter and dreamless, save for a few fragmentary images here and there.

In the first stage mental activity begins to slow down, with brain waves switching to theta-band activity. This wave pattern has been described as a deep, marking the threshold between consciousness and the “subconscious.” However, intermittent bursts of alpha activity, or quiet wakefulness, often give you the sense that you’re still awake.

A study performed in the 1960s found that people who wake up at this stage  don’t realize they’ve been sleeping. “Investigators asked subjects aroused out of various stages of sleep whether they considered themselves asleep,” the researchers wrote. “Only about 10 percent of those aroused from stage 1 said that they had been asleep.”

In the second stage eye movement stops and brain waves become slower, with alpha activity shutting down entirely.

Stage three and four set the stage for extremely slow brain waves called delta waves. In this stage,nightmares, sleepwalking, and somniloquy occur.

Stage five is the REM stage where the dreams that we remember start to take place. REM sleep is very important because the brain will do anything to not be disrupted by noises occurring around you such as alarms going off.

 

Do We Truly Use 10% of Our Brain?

The brain is a phenomenal organ as we still to this day do not fully know what it is capable of. There are a plethora of questions about the brain to be answered and as of now, it seems as though we know enough to understand the majority of it. Yet why is it that in our younger years we were always told that we only use about ten percent of our brain? Not only that but how much of that statement is true?

Lawyer of the Year – Medical Malpractice Attorney Hawaii shares results from concussion study

Our brain is not going to waste do not worry. The human brain is one organ but in reality that organ is broken up into multiple sections in which are in charge of different tasks whether it be, memory, vision, ect. thus meaning there is no way that we could only use ten percent of our brain. We divide the brain into three parts the forebrain the midbrain and the hindbrain. Within each section there are different lobes which all have different. Our forebrain is where we control most of our higher function tasks. “Midbrain functions include routing, selecting, mapping, and cataloguing information, including information perceived from the environment and information that is remembered and processed throughout the cerebral cortex”(disabled-world.com). And the hindbrain deals with the central nervous system. These three portions of the brain have different jobs yet come together and make the human body function.

Click here to see a virtual representation of the brains activity as the video shows the different fibers we use to send signals to different parts of the brain.  If it were true that we only use a small portion of our brain things like tumors and trauma to the brain would have a very different outcome. For example if the human body where to only use 10% of the brain this means that the other 90% is able to be lost or injured without causing harm to the human, like a gunshot wound to the head would be not as lethal as it is in reality. Yet this obviously is not the case due to the fact that the entire brain may not be always in use at once but we still use our entire brain. Through different scans (ct., mri., ect.) this myth is quickly proven false as the amount of brain activity shown within the scans proves that we need our entire brain throughout the entire day.

http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/brain-facts.shtml#sthash.xlzK5PqD.dpuf

http://ianmattoch.com/blog/medical-malpractice-lawyer-honolulu-webinar-for-children-with-parents-with-brain-injury/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAIQeTeMJ-I

Caffeine and Children

As long as I can remember I have been drinking coffee, something containing coffee, or coffee flavored and whenever I had something with coffee it was always accompanied with my mom saying something along the lines of “You’re too young to be drinking that!” or the classic “Coffee will stunt your growth!” As an adult I drink coffee everyday maybe more than once a day. It’s gotten to the point where my roommate likes to remind me that I am addicted to coffee. The caffeine in coffee is how most adults begin their day, it helps them function, and wakes them up. As we drink more coffee we become more reliant on it and it’s caffeine boost. But when is it too soon to introduce children and young adults to caffeine?

The caffeine that coffee has affects kid’s bodies in the same way it affects an adult it leads to “jitteriness, nervousness, an upset stomach, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and problems sleeping and concentrating”, according to kidshealth.org. Also, most kids are introduced to caffeine through soda. Not only does produce these affects in kids, but because children are younger and tend to weigh less than their adult counterparts, it takes less of these drinks to have their affects.

baby n coffee

http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/files/2012/02/coffee1.jpg

In a study done it was cited that boys are actually more affected by caffeine intake than girls are. This study looked at how low doses of caffeine affect kid’s blood pressure and heart rates. They took 52 kids between the ages of 8 and 9, and 49 kids from the ages of 15-17 and monitored their results. It found that “Caffeine slowed heart rates and increased blood pressure in all the children”, but according to the study’s lead Jennifer Temple of the University of Buffalo, that of course is not a new finding. Although, one finding that was interesting was that there was  difference in the gender in terms of the stimulant’s effects. The younger group that the caffeine had no difference in gender in terms of the heart rate, but in the older group it did where the boys felt the effects stronger than the girls did.

According to Temple, “right now we don’t have enough data in kids to know what the long term effects of repeated exposure to caffeine would be,” so it will be interesting to see how the intake of caffeine in young children will affect them later in life.

teen n monster

http://guardianlv.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Caffeine-and-Children-Does-Not-Mix-Well-Together.jpg

Then in another study published by Pediatrics, states that although caffeine consumption has not increased over the past ten years from 1999 to 2010, but did find that “coffee and energy drinks represent a greater proportion of caffeine intake as soda intake has declined”, and about 78% of kids consume caffeine daily.

Both studies are interesting because it shows the shift of caffeine in children shift away from soda toward energy drinks like Monster or Red Bull. What would be nice to see is how much of their caffeine intake is influenced by their environment such as their parents or their school work. It is safe to say that a child under 12 most likely should not be consuming caffeine on a regular basis, and if a young adult should be drinking caffeine filled beverages it should be in moderation and monitored by their parents.

Work Cited

http://www.livescience.com/48615-how-much-caffeine-should-kids-have.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699625/

http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/feeding/child_caffeine.html

http://www.today.com/health/kids-caffeine-may-be-dangerous-combination-new-study-suggests-1D79801666

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/02/04/peds.2013-2877.abstract

Are winters getting colder?

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The cold months of November to March are by far my least favorite of the year. Every year, the minute the first snow fall of the season hits, I decide to hibernate. I absolutely hate winter and being cold. Over the past few years, the winter months seem to be getting more and more miserable. I’m not sure if this is just me getting older and noticing the insane drops in temperature and miserable amounts of snow or if in fact the pleasurable winters that we knew are ending and becoming more intense and cold. If the later is true, then what is causing this and what will happen if it continues?

According to environmentalresearchweb.org , over the past couple years winters have in fact gotten steadily colder. So, this isn’t just my imagination. But what’s causing this? The number one theory among scientists is global warming. When I think global warming, I think insanely hot temperatures, not insane amounts of snow and huge drops in temperatures. Judah Cohen, from the Atmospheric and Environmental Research in Massachusetts, blames the increase in open water over the Arctic Ocean because it allows for more moisture to be evaporated in the atmosphere, leading to increased precipitation. Well, if this is actually true, then what does it mean for us? Right now, the temperatures might be extremely uncomfortable and annoying, but if they’re just going to be getting colder over the next couple years, will there be bigger consequences for us? After some research, I learned that yes we will have freezing winters with some cold snaps; however, overtime these will become less frequent and we will begin to see record heat waves. According to the washingtonpost.com, there will still be record lows, but they will be more rare than the record highs.

Also, I began to think if maybe there could be some other variables causing these extreme temperatures besides global warming.. There has been cold and warm periods throughout Earth’s history, so this isn’t actually something new. Unfortunately after tons of research, I couldn’t find any other causes that made sense except for the idea of global warming. As we have learned in class though, you can never rule out outside variables. So for right now, I just unfortunately have to deal with the miserable, cold winters.

http://phys.org/news/2014-05-climate-scientist-extremely-cold-winter.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/06/can-global-warming-be-real-if-its-cold-in-the-u-s-um-yes/

 

Sweet Dreams

It’s not uncommon to dream when we are sleeping. I find that I dream less often but its not weird when I hear a friend or family member say, “wow I had the weirdest dream last night” But why do we have these dreams in the first place? And do these dreams mean anything?

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According to the Sleep Foundation, it is unknown as to why we dream, but there are a couple of different theories presented as to why. One idea stated is that it’s because of “neuronal activity occurring while we sleep, especially in REM, and it has been suggested that dreams may just be a meaningless by-product of this biological function.” I think that we may be able to study this theory and have people observed and tested while they sleep. This could then monitor the brain functions that happen while a person is asleep to tell when the dreams occur.

The second theory presented is that dreams incorporate memories with problems that a person could be facing and that dreams deal with emotions. This theory is presented by Rosalind Cartwright, PhD. I think this theory would be harder to study because asking people what they were just dreaming about will not be 100% accurate. Forgetting what they were dreaming about could affect how the dream could be analyzed.

In another article I found, How Dreams Work, common dreams are presented and discussed as to what they might mean. I think that this article is more superficial than the last, and while interesting, should not be taken extremely seriously because it is extremely hard to have an observational or experimental study done for every dream someone has, unless the dream is reoccurring.

I think it will continue to be difficult to discover why we have dreams, but to get closer to our answer we must continue to run sleep studies and try to analyze what they mean for that individual person.

Resources:

http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/your-dreams/page/0%2C1/

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream7.htm

Tomatoes and Reduced Cancer Risk

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I have always gotten a good kick out of the Miles Kington quote, “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” However, while it may be wise to leave them out of a fruit salad, recent studies have suggested that it may be vital for men’s health to incorporate a few daily servings of tomatoes into their daily diet. Why? Tomatoes contain high quantities of an important chemical lycopene.

Lycopene is a carotenoid (a natural pigment made by plants). High quantities are found in fruits and vegetables like apricots, guavas and watermelons. However, the main source of lycopene in the American diet is in tomatoes and tomato-based products. It is this chemical that is thought to play a large role in reducing the risk of prostate cancer in men.

According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 man in every 7 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. The disease occurs mainly in older men and approximately 6 cases in 10 are diagnosed in those people aged 65 years or more. While most men diagnosed with this form of cancer do not die from it, more then 2.5 million people in the United States are alive and fighting it today.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recently published recommendations for cancer prevention. However, there is inconclusive evidence to prove if these are effective in reducing the risk of developing prostate cancer.

As a result, University of Bristol, Cambridge, and Oxford researchers investigated the diets and lifestyles of men aged 50 to 69, to evaluate if there is a link between adherence to the WCRF and AICR recommendations (including lycopene intake) and prostate cancer risk. In doing so, researchers examined a large sample size: 1,806 men with the disease and 12,005 cancer-free men. The data was acquired over an eight-year period from 2001 to 2009.

Researchers concluded that men who consumed more than 10 portions of tomatoes each week – such as fresh tomatoes, tomato sauce, or tomato juice had an 18% reduction in risk for developing prostate cancer.

Although adherence to the prostate cancer-specific dietary recommendations was correlated with decreased risk of prostate cancer, this does not mean that causation is necessarily at play. These recommended nutrients alone may be insufficient for prostate cancer prevention. Also, because of the observational nature of the study, researchers are not able to “prove” causality but rather just discern a potential association.

When critiquing this study, it is important to consider potential confounding variables. Known factors such as age, black ethnicity and family history of the disease contribute greatly to a person’s risk of developing prostate cancer. Even when researchers attempt to control for these factors, chance is always a possibility.

The researchers additionally studied two other dietary components linked with prostate cancer risk – selenium, found in flour-based foods and calcium, found in dairy products. They similarly concluded that participants who maintained the recommended intake of both these dietary components had a lower risk of prostate cancer.

Ultimately, the study suggests that men should strive to incorporate 10 or more portions of tomatoes each week, between 750mg and 1,200mg of calcium a day, and between 105mcg to 200mcg of selenium daily. Because of the low cost, it may be worth adding these few daily servings of tomato-based products to your diet. However, it is also important to consider the financial opportunity cost and whether or not tomato allergies may be a relevant factor. If these aren’t a deterrent, the potential benefits could be extensive.

Nevertheless, Vanessa Er, Bristol Nutrition BRU, PhD student, who led the study asserted, “Our findings suggest that tomatoes may be important in prostate cancer prevention. However, further studies need to be conducted to confirm our findings, especially through clinical trials. Men should still eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, maintain a healthy weight, and stay active.“

Currently, the US Department of Agriculture and Purdue University researchers are working to develop a tomato that will contain more than twice as much lycopene and will have a longer shelf life than currently available tomatoes. The product, which is still in development, is modified with a yeast gene that slows the ripening process, allowing more time for lycopene to accumulate. It may be interesting to follow the progression of this new technology and see if could have application in other fields of food-science research.

Sources:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vegetables-full-story/#8 

http://www.aicr.org/assets/docs/pdf/reports/Second_Expert_Report.pdf

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-900-tomato.aspx?activeingredientid=900&activeingredientname=tomato

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2014/07/12/1055-9965.EPI-14-0322.full.pdf+html

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/28/tomato-rich-diet-prostate-cancer-reduce-risk_n_5727780.html

Can Gatorade actually help you when you’re sick?

Ever since I was little I feel like my doctors have always told me to drink fluids. Like I was magically going to get better by chugging quart after quart of Gatorade. But why Gatorade? Does it really help you in your time of need or do moms just tell you that so you’ll think you’re getting better? Is Gatorade leading the nation in the most drawn on placebo effect? Let’s take a closer look.

Gatorade contains electrolytes which ordinary water does not. So while water replenishes your fluid loss, Gatorade can replenish fluids along with electrolytes. Lacking electrolytes can make a person feel even worse additionally to the sickness symptoms. For sicknesses that involve diarrhea or vomiting, Gatorade is very good for you. “The digestive fluids of your stomach and intestines contain high concentrations of electrolytes, specifically sodium, potassium and chloride.” Therefore, when a person throws up or excretes more than usual, they are losing a the digestive fluid and thus necessary nutrients. A study was done in 2006 by Dr. Satish Rao that showed people with a stomach virus “preferred the taste of Gatorade to an electrolyte beverage or an oral re-hydration solution.” So not only does Gatorade get the job done for replenishment, but is preferred to by sick people.

Gatorade is additionally helpful if you have a fever. “When you have a fever, you lose an extra 100 to 150mL of body water daily for every degree your temperature is above normal.” At any point however, you are not eating and drinking normally because of the illness, Gatorade is a good item to start putting into your sick diet. It goes down easily and helps revitalize you.

While of course Gatorade cannot replace modern medicine, it can help. Additionally, the 2006 study was not completely universal being that different people enjoy different tastes so Gatorade may make people more nauseous. It is also difficult to study whether Gatorade helps sick people because it is unethical to make people sick to simply watch their reactions to Gatorade. However, observational studies could be performed on people that are already ill if they are given Gatorade. What would be interesting to see as well is if ingesting Gatorade early on in a cold will help prevent anything.

Works cited:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/404617-is-gatorade-good-for-you-when-youre-sick/

Are Athletes More Likely to Have Cavities?

Throughout high school I was a very active person. I played multiple sports and when I was not in season, I would always run on my own or go to the gym. However, I have also always had close to perfect teeth. I have never had a cavity in my life and I was very shocked to see an article stating that exercise could be bad for your teeth.

According to the New York Times, there was a study done in London at the 2012 Summer Olympics, dentists examined 278 athletes and majority of them had poor oral health. To further examine this a second study was conducted to see why this was happening. Researchers from the dental school at University Hospital Heidelberg in Germany recruited 35 competitive athletes and 35 adults who were not athletes. All of the volunteers had to have an oral examination before the study began. During the examination, dentists took samples of their saliva. They also had to fill out surveys about their diet. After everyone had their mouths looked at and completed the surveys, the athletes had to go on a 35 minute run. Their saliva was collected multiple times throughout the workout. The saliva samples were compared from when the athletes were just sitting to when they were completing their workout. The overall results was that the more time you spent working out, the more likely you were to get cavities. The reasons for this is because working out caused the amount of saliva to decrease and the athletes mouths became drier. The saliva also grew more alkaline as the workout progressed. More alkaline in the saliva will cause more plaque on teeth which can cause cavities. The scientists did further research to test if water or sports drinks would contribute to this, but no direct link was found.

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There are some errors I found in the study that do not make it very accurate. First of all, the study was very small. Only 70 people participated in the study. If the amount of participants was larger, the final outcome would be more accurate if the correlation was found in majority of the participants. This study was also short-term. The scientists should create a study that tests the long-term effects as well. Personally, this study would not stop me from exercising because I would rather risk getting a cavity than lose all of the other benefits that come with exercising. If a study came out with serious long-term effects such as it leading to mouth cancer than I would most likely reduce my amount exercise greatly.

The article states that the 35 athletes and 35 non-athletes matched in age and gender. However, they were not specific with the range of ages. I am curious what age group they tested and if it is more common in a certain age group. Also, if they only tested one specific age group, I wonder if the same correlation would appear in other age groups. Age could potentially play a big role in the results.

I also think that the scientists should have conducted more studies analyzing the role of sports drinks and water. They found no direct link, but I think that sugary drinks can effect oral health problems so it would be interesting to see further results on that topic.

I found this to be a very interesting study. It seems as if scientists and doctors are always promoting exercise because it has unlimited benefits for our health. The possible cause of oral health problems that might arise from exercise is one of the few disadvantages to exercising. Keep in mind that this study is not 100% accurate and the athletes that participated worked out about 9 hours per week on average. The average person exercises 30 minutes a day which would equal 3.5 hours per week. (Mayo Clinic). This study is not trying to discourage people from exercising, instead it is only trying to spread awareness of a possible short-term effect.

 

The Health Benefits of Massages

Everyone loves a good massage. The relaxing of your muscles, the slowing of your breathing, the feeling as your aching body is pressed and kneaded back into its original flexible self. So just how good are these massages for you?

Getting a massage causes your muscles to unclench, a racing heart rate to slow, heightened blood pressure to fall, and levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, to drop. “Cortisol suppresses the immune response,” said Roberta Lee, MD (Dworkin-McDaniel para. 1). That means the more cortisol in your body, the weaker you immune system is. So basically, the less cortisol the better.

Based off of that information, getting massaged can even improve your immune system. “Anything that increases the relaxation response triggers the restoration of your immune response,” Lee explained (Dworkin-McDaniel para. 2). Restoring your immune response is a good thing that can keep you healthier by being able to fight off more illnesses.

Researchers conducted a study where they measured the immune function in healthy adults who got either a 45-minute Swedish massage or lighter touch massage. The massaged group had substantially more white blood cells, which can help fight viruses and other pathogens. The massaged group also had fewer types of inflammatory cytokines, which are associated with autoimmune diseases (Dworkin-McDaniel para. 3). In summary, getting massages potentially makes you healthier.

Lead study author Mark Rapaport, MD said “it’s not an unreasonable speculation” to wonder whether regular massages could actually keep you from catching a cold. However, for now, it’s too soon to tell.

Works Cited

Dworkin-McDaniel, Norine. “Touching Makes You Healthier.” CNN. Cable News Network, 05 Jan. 2011. Web. 03 Dec. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/touching.makes.you.healthier.health/>.

Global Warming

Personally I think that Global Warming is still only a theory. I also believe that it will never be fully proven. In class we learn that the only way to do this is to disprove the theory. This lead me to researching about global warming to see what it was all about. I looked at the scientific standpoint on the issue to see what global warming was all about and see what scientists had to say about it.

Unknown

 

In recent years scientists have documented that the earth is warming all over. To do this scientists have looked at the temperatures that were documented around the world over the past couple centuries. They found that within the last century the temperature has risen to 1 degree and its risen even more than that in the arctic. We have to note that this rise in temperature is based on an average around the globe and not specified to any specific region.

Unknown-1 I’m not one to really look into photographs that often but I think this photo sends a very strong message.

To study the temperatures of the past scientists look at different ways to figure out just how warm our Earth was over the centuries. Scientists do this by looking at the thickness of trees, our ocean floor, and our atmosphere. Scientists do this by drilling into the arctic sheets. When drilling bubbles that were stuck in gas gives the scientists an idea of what our atmosphere was like back then.

 

With winter right around the corner scientists also believe that the storms may get worse as time goes on. In 2006 the Journal of Applied Meteorology looked at the snowfall over the past 20th century. It was noted in that journal that scientists and meteorologists alike concluded that the major snowfall that has hit us has been during warmer years than what it usually has been. Scientists will go on to say that they predict the warmer temperatures we experience throughout the globe will lead to increased snow storms.

 

I find it fascinating that this is still all really considered a theory in my opinion. Yes it states that the climate is getting warmer but I do not believe enough has been done to prove that this theory is correct. I’m not going to lie I laughed about global warming when I first heard about it but now that I have been addressed on the issue I have a better understanding. I say this but I also believe that the effects of global warming can’t account for all major snow storms that may or may not happen.

 

As for the future, scientists are using computers to see what is in store for the Earth’s surface. Using these computers scientists are able to see how our oceans and atmosphere react to the sun. The energy that is absorbed is then spread out throughout our Earth.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-real/

http://www.livescience.com/48874-warming-climate-produces-more-snow-storms.html

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/16/PLS-HOLD-FOR-TUESDAY-9-17-AFTER-11AM-ET-Climate-Study-Evidence-Leans-Against-Human-Caused-Global-Warming

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/global-warming2.htm

Sexual Activity & Prostate Cancer

One of the ongoing, pressing questions in our world is: What is the cure to cancer?  While some treatments and medicines have been discovered which may aid in the recovery process, there is still no known cure.  So, I decided to do some research on what other factors could possibly prevent cancer before it ever even strikes.  I was expecting to find that you should eat certain foods or something along those lines, but what I found is a theory that is a bit different than that.

Prostate cancer is the development of cancer in the prostate, which is a gland in the male reproductive system.  It usually is slow growing and can easily spread to other parts in the body such as the bones and lymph nodes.  Dr. David Samadi, the first surgeon in the nation to successfully perform a robotic surgery redo, gives his male patients a simple prescription to help lower their prostate cancer risks: “Have more sex.”

At first, a study was done in Canada which involved 3,200 men. Half of the men had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, while the other half were a healthy, controlled group. The men were all questioned on their sexual history and how many women they have slept with in their life time so far.  The study found that men who had slept with 20 or more women had a 28% drop in the chances of one day developing prostate cancer.  The study was published in the journal, “Cancer Epidemiology.”  The study went on to say that the men who had reported to be virgins or have had only very minimal sexual experience were twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Sex

Don’t get too excited though, boys…As more research was done, it was suggested that frequent ejaculation was the more important key in the prevention of prostate cancer and that the number of women did not matter as much.  Frequent sexual activity was the key and would be just as beneficial with a single, committed partner.

Taking a closer look at the study, it is good that the participants of the study came in big numbers. 3,200 is a wide range of people and is large enough to hold pretty random.  It is also vital that there is a controlled group, which there was by the group of healthy men with no signs of prostate cancer.  While the large, controlled study definitely should grab some attention, there are third variables that could be playing a role which cannot be ignored.  Family history, exercise, genes, and daily diets could have caused the men’s likelihood of getting or not getting prostate cancer.

While these third possible variables are important to keep in mind, the sexual activity aspect should not be ruled out.  Looking a bit further into the reasoning behind it, it is found that men who do not ejaculate often can have inflamed cells which gather in the seminal vesicles.  The seminal vesicles are adjacent to the prostate gland.

After reading the results of the study, it got me thinking about how the study was geared towards straight men and their sexual activity with women.  Would the same results be found with men who are gay?? Is it simply the ejaculation that creates benefits like the study suggests or does the female body somehow play a role in it too?

According to researchers at the University of Montreal, men who slept with 20 or more other men increased their risk of prostate cancer by double and made an aggressive cancer five times more likely. While at this time there is little information explaining why sex with woman reduces prostate cancer, but male on male sex doubles it; it is an interesting experimental result that will need to be tested further.  Despite not knowing exactly why it is, it raises the question of the female body playing a role in lowering the chances of prostate cancer for their male partner.  Is it a bigger process than just lots of ejaculation? Looking at what we know with the gay sex results doubling the prostate cancer chances, it appears that it could be possible it is a bigger science than just frequent ejaculation.

prostate gland

 

This thought brought up the question then of, does frequent masturbation reduce prostate cancer chances? After researching this, it was incredible how opposite the results were.  Some resources claimed that frequent masturabtion did in fact lower prostate cancer.  According to one study conducted by Harvard Medical School on men in their forties, the ones who reported to masturbating 21 times or more per month had a 33% lowered risk of getting prostate cancer compared to the men who reported to masturbating only four to seven times per month. BBC News found the same results and summed up their findings by saying, “Men who ejaculated five times a week were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer later in life.”  However, other resources reported the exact opposite results. Overall, it can concluded that more time and research studies need to be done on this topic before anything can be proven.  In addition, as Andrew has taught us, the studies for this topic too need to be broad enough.  We do not know if the Harvard Medical study tested enough people to get a completely random result.  However, Harvard and BBC are both reputable sources which is always something worth considering when analyzing the results of a study.

While it is not proven that more frequent sexual activity is the direct cause of lowering prostate cancer chances, it certainly could be a factor.  Maybe next year in Andrew’s class more studies will have been done regarding gay men and prostate cancer correlational and this topic can be taken even further!

Work Cited:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3072021.stm

http://www.livescience.com/48858-link-between-sex-and-prostate-cancer.html

http://www.harvardprostateknowledge.org/does-frequent-ejaculation-help-ward-off-prostate-cancer

Dogs Can Hear More Than We Think

We’ve always had dogs around my house, and right now we have two miniature English bulldogs named Boo and Harper (not the ones pictured those are Google dogs). And last summer I became obsessed with the idea that they could probably speak English since they had been living in our house for 4 years listening to us talk to each other and talk to them. If I lived in Spain for this long, I probably would be able to pick up Spanish, or at least understand by their gestures and tone of voice what they could be saying. If someone around the house happened to call Boo fat, she always seemed to look up at them really sadly then walk away. While I took this idea to an extreme (“Harper, blink twice if you understand English!!”) there has been a recent study that shows dogs might understand us more than we expect.

The University of Sussex’s School of Pyschology did a study on dogs to see how their brains would respond to humans calling their names. They would play the sounds (of familiar commands or “exaggerated vocal cues”) on both sides of the dog at an equal volume. Experiments showing dog-dog relationships had used this tactic before to see how the dog reacts. The ear correlates with the opposite side’s hemisphere, so if the dog responded more strongly to the left ear, something may be going on in the right hemisphere of the brain.

The study did find that familiar commands showed a response from the left hemisphere and the vocal cues had a response from the right (indicated by if the dog instinctively turned in that direction). The dog uses both sides of its brain when interacting with its owner, which is similar to how the human brain operates. In humans, the left brain deals with language, processing information, and memory; the right hemisphere deals with interpreting emotions and tones as well as recognizing visuals (www.livescience.com). While dogs probably cannot understand English or the words we are saying, they know “”not only to who we are and how we say things, but also to what we say.”

I think this study may be fairly accurate. The hypothesis for reverse causation would be to say that the hemispheres of the brain affect the sounds that are heard, which I don’t think is accurate based on first principles (even if the first event happens milliseconds before the reaction). However, I couldn’t tell if it was the owner’s voice or the voice of the researchers the dog had to respond to. In terms of memory this wouldn’t be a problem, but if it was the owner’s voice that caused the right hemisphere reaction, that could be a possible third variable (the relationship between the owner and his or her own dog). Regardless, maybe I’m biased but I think this study seems sound.

A Whole New Meaning to “Taking Your Own Advice”

We’ve seen it in TV shows, movies, and throughout life. Someone is giving advice to someone else, and partway through they have the moment of realization where what they are saying can be applied directly to their own personal problems as well. We always say we should take our own advice, but just how helpful would that be?

According to a study conducted at Stanford, it would be very helpful. Undergraduate students were asked to write letters to “at-risk” middle school students in an attempt to help them through hard times and get them to stay in school. The undergrads were instructed to share personal stories about how they too experienced difficult struggles throughout school but persevered and eventually found academic success. They were also told to emphasize the idea that natural ability is overrated – that intelligence “is not a finite endowment but rather an expandable capacity” (Barker para. 2).

You’re probably wondering if these letters actually helped the middle school students.  That’s a good question…but they were never sent. This study was conducted to see if the college students who wrote the letters had more positive experiences academically after writing them. It turns out they did.

Months after composing the letters, the writers were still reporting greater enjoyment of school than were other Stanford undergrads. Even their grade point averages were higher by a third of a point on a four-point scale.

This experimental study reminds me of hearing that if you’re really angry with someone, you should write them a heated letter explaining how you feel and then throw it away without sending it. Apparently then you’ll feel better and you won’t be as upset with that person anymore because you got all of your feelings out on paper. It’s amazing how writing letters for different purposes can make people feel better. Perhaps the next time I’m feeling down, I’ll write a letter to no one in particular and see how I feel after.

Works Cited

Barker, Eric. “11 Scientific Studies That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity.” The Week. N.p., 25 Aug. 2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2014. <http://theweek.com/article/index/266837/11-scientific-studies-that-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity>.
Barker, Eric. “Can You Best Reach Your Own Potential by Helping Others Reach Theirs?” Barking Up The Wrong Tree. N.p., 18 Aug. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/08/can-you-best-reach-your-own-potential-by-help/>.

 

Does Coffee Put a Dent in Your Health?

iced medium coffee 045

I just recently started drinking coffee when I got to college and before then I didn’t like it much, but now I can’t seem to get enough. Over the summer I was going to Dunkin Donuts every day to get an ice coffee. It was so bad that when I went out with my mom she would go the long way so that we wouldn’t pass Dunkin. She also told me that coffee isn’t good for me anyway so I should stop drinking it. That put a speed bump in my coffee obsession! But nowadays everything is bad for you.

In this article that I found it says that studies have shown that even drinking as much as, “…6 cups of coffee a day is not associated with increased risk of death from any cause.” The article goes on to talk about how the study they did had about 130,000 volunteers and was strictly observational. They followed the people for 18-24 years tracking their habits, diets, and coffee consumption. They didn’t find any relationship between coffee consumption and it having any negative effects on health. The article also mentions that many people have associated coffee with other things that are not good for your health like smoking and excessive drinking. So often people try to cut down how much coffee they are consuming even if they really enjoy it! But the studies suggest that it would be more beneficial for people to change other things in their lives like quitting smoking and eating better.

The article also says, “If you’re drinking so much coffee that you get tremors, have sleeping problems, or feel stressed and uncomfortable, then obviously you’re drinking too much coffee. But in terms of effects on mortality or other health factors, for example, we don’t see any negative effects of consuming up to six cups of coffee a day.” But Ingesting extreme amounts of coffee can be problematic due to how your body handles the caffeine. For pregnant women it’s not good to be drinking a lot of caffeine because the baby gets that caffeine as well. The coffee itself isn’t causing any health problems, and because coffee is made of so many compounds many people don’t know what to think. In conclusion drinking coffee, especially drinking it black is pretty healthy for you and does not cause health problems.

Sources: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/coffee/

http://blog.zocdoc.com/too-much-coffee-is-bad-for-you-fact-vs-myth/

 

Insects: the New Janitors of NYC?

Especially around this time of year the world falls in love with New York City and its beautiful Christmas decorations and bright lights. However, one doesn’t think about how much trash must accumulate in this populated area. A study at North Carolina State was not looking to find answers to the trash question but came to New York to study insects and found a strange correlation.

We calculate that the arthropods on medians down the Broadway/West St. corridor alone could consume more than 2,100 pounds of discarded junk food, the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs, every year — assuming they take a break in the winter,” says Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt who led the study. She and her students looked at insects and millipedes in a larger group of insects called anthropods. Other examples of anthropods are “spiders, insects, centipedes, mites, ticks, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, crayfish, krill, barnacles, scorpions,” all of which are small creatures with exoskeletons and jointed limbs. (www.kidzone.wz). They originally noticed that the anthropods ate more trash, originally thinking there was a connection between biodiversity and how much the insects ate. Then to see how much the insects ate, they put out “trash” (cookies, potato chips, hot dogs) to see how much they would eat in parks compared to medians. There was also food placed in a cage (so only the anthropods could access it) and food placed in the open to attract animals. They concluded that insects in the median ate 2-3 more times than those in the parks, and that other animals were also eating the food. This made them come to the conclusion that anthropods are competing against rats and pigeons for food and could possibly drive them away.

I think this study is a perfect example of a Texas Sharp Shooter Problem. The study, originally started before Hurricane Sandy to observe urban insects, morphed into seeing how Sandy affected insect populations. Then the study turned into a discovery about where insects like to eat food based on “biodiversity.” And lastly, animals that are not anthropods were studied, but the reason for that comparison is unclear. I’m not sure if they were aiming to prove that anthropods eat as much as animals or if they wanted to rule out some kind of third variable. It seems that they wanted to observe as much as possible but were looking to prove too many theories at the same time.

Overall, I’m not sure if this study was the most reliable. It’s not stated how many insects they observed, how much food was placed out for them to eat, how many insects ate from that pile, …. and how many animals ate the food they were offered. However, I’m glad I got to see a real example of a published Texas sharp shooter problem.