Lip balms work by sealing moisture into the lip tissue and preventing evaporation into the dry winter air, allowing for healing of chapped lips, but also preventing chapped lips .Many people believe that Chapstick heals and protects their lips however, it is know that the more you apply, the more you need it. Said by Dr. Oz, “people can actually become addicted to Chapstick” in the sense that they use a lip balm and eventually develop a sensitivity to its components, thus the sensitivity leads to a reaction that causes the chapped feeling, making people apply more lip balm. America News Now spoke to dermatologist, Gary Slaughter, who found camphor, phenol and menthol were the ingredients in bad lip balm. Also, OL,which indicates alcohol, and salicylic acid are two more ingredients that may cause some people irritation. Look for these ingredients before buying. If you don’t see them, your lip balm should work as it is intended to. Dermatitis, cracking and soreness and irritation of the skin around the lips may occur when lips are not protected on the other hand. If the lip balm seems to fix your problem initially but after continued use you find you have to keep using more and more, there is a problem and you are using too much. The best options are to stick to plain petroleum, such as Vaseline, or more natural homemade ingredients. Sun blocks is a positive ingredient that is added to lip balms, which is great if you are going to be skiing, playing golf or tennis or hanging out at the beach. However, even this is not recommend for daily use to avoid getting sensitized to the chemicals when you do not need the block, unless you have a history of significant lip sun. Overusing can lead to clogged pores along the lip line, which is why moderation is key. Some of the topped ranked lip balms are:

1. Burts Bees
2. Nivea
3. Eos
4. Chapstick
5. Carmax

Here’s also a link to a YouTube video, to make your own all natural homemade lip balm.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/can-you-actually-become-addicted-to-chapstick#.tczjoR5Ld

Numbers and figures can give rise to suspicious circumstances that seem so unlikely that they are only explicable through conspiracy, curse, or legend.  Often times the most unlikely of probabilities is easily explained, but somehow it still seems fishy.  There are a plethora of examples, most easily referenced are those in music; whether it is the curse of the 9th symphony, or Tupac foreshadowing his death something always seemed off.  However, the most interesting of all, the 27 Club.  With multiple members, all with ominous deaths, the headlining members are Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse.

With illustrious careers, and life in the limelight, death could only follow suit for these iconic performers.  I had hoped to crunch some numbers in the Poisson Distribution to see if it truly was randomness or if there is something to this theory.  Unfortunately, Poisson deserves his status as a mathematical genius because I couldn’t figure it out at all.

There are plenty of articles claiming that there is more here than just chance, but they lack scientific evidence and instead citing wild conjecture: “Saturn returns, in astrological terms, every 28 years, marking a life transition. Saturn’s return marks the end of youth and the beginning of maturity”(Astrological Lodge of London).

Fortunately, the CDC keeps meticulous records of all things to satisfy anyone’s morbid curiosity.  To avoid sorting through the 71 pages, flip directly to Table 10 – drug and alcohol induced deaths as well as deaths by firearms, which covers all the big names except Brain Jones’ official cause of death: “death by misadventure.”

Of course musicians, especially those who live the rock lifestyle, dramatically shorten their lifespan through drug and alcohol abuse.  This could also be a reason for the statistical spike among musicians dying at 27.  They were in there prime, the prime of their career, the prime of the party, and died young.  The cluster of fame is simply randomness.

The study shows that there is no statistical anomaly in the deaths of 27 year olds.  However, Charles Cross said it best: “There is, however, no statistical increase of death at 27 among the general population, just famous musicians.”

Most Americans wake up in the morning with a cup of coffee and head out to take on their busy day. It keeps them awake and feeling more energized because of the caffeine. However most Americans overlook tea. I personally wake up in the morning with a cup of tea and feel just as fresh as my roommate who is a total coffee addict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcdlaX_MBfo

Why is tea better than coffee? According to Harvard Health, tea contains substances linked to a lower risk for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes (all things everyone wants to stay away from). The main substance that lowers the risks of those conditions, is polyphenol. Lab and animal studies have concluded that those molecules contain anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that lower your risk for diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

Drinking tea regularly seems to have a positive impact on people’s lifestyle and their general health. According to this article, tea has been associated with a lower risk of depression and was proven in a 2015 meta-analysis of 11 studies gathering almost 23,000 people to participate in this study. It was concluded that for every three cups of tea consumed a day, the risk of depression decreased 37%. 

Not only does tea reduce the risk of depression, but it also reduces the risk of stroke. People who consume more than three cups of tea a day decreases their chances of getting a stroke by 21% than those who consumes less than a cup a day.

In a more recent meta-analysis (mentioned in this article), 22 prospective studies were looked at involving more than 850,000 people and concluded that drinking an additional three cups of tea daily would reduce the chances of getting a coronary heart disease by 27%, cardiac death by 26%, total mortality by 24%, cerebral infraction by 16%, and intracerebral hemorrhage by 21%.

Does it get any better? Well this article explains that green tea specifically is known to help lower cholesterol, both total serum and LDL. Most websites would suggest drinking five cups a day to see results and there have been multiple studies that prove the more tea consumed would lead to the biggest drop in cholesterol.

If you’re thinking about looking out for yourself when you’re in old age, drinking tea and making a habit of it would decrease the risk of dementia. A 2011 study concluded that tea acts on brain waves to sharpen your memory and increase your attention span if you start drinking tea early on in your life.

However, we can’t prove the causality just by this data since it was purely observational findings. But I can say that tea does have its perks and drinking it daily won’t hurt and might even give you long-term health benefits. I personally drink maybe 2-3 cups of tea a day. One in the morning, one after I get home from class, and then a nighttime tea to relax my mind before I head to sleep and call it a night. I find myself to be more calm when I drink tea everyday and it’s not as harmful as what people accuse coffee to be. Plus, I personally don’t enjoy the taste of coffee.

There are many different ways in which couple sleep. Back to back, facing each other, cuddling, or not even remotely close to each other. It may not seem like a big deal, I mean we cannot really help the way in which we move once we are already asleep, but research has shown that the position that people sleep in relates to their relationship and personality.

Psychologist Professor Richard Weisman from University of Hertfordshire conducted a study in which he asked, “… over 1,000 people to describe their preferred sleeping position and to rate their personality and quality of their relationship.” The findings were that couples who spent the night touching in some way were generally happier. 94% of couples who slept in a position that involved touching reported being happier than 68% of couples who did not touch. The further apart the couples slept, the worse their relationship. The study found that 42% of couples sleep back to back, 31% sleep facing the same direction, and 4% sleep facing each other. Only a mere 2% of couples sleep over 30 inches apart and 12% of couples sleep less than an inch apart. It was also found that a more extroverted person is more likely to sleep close to their partner, and creative people tend to sleep on their left side.

I think the most important thing to take out of this study was the power of touch. The couples who slept closely to each other reported being happiest. Studies have shown that “touch” can be viewed as a language, and there is an understanding between people when using touch. Holding hands, cuddling, and hugging are all examples of touch, and are all proven to relieve stress. Based on this, maybe the couples who are in contact while sleeping are happier because whilst sleeping, they are relieving stress.

                   courtesy of www.shape.com

“Jet lag” is a unavoidable phenomenon that can have a profound effect on our body, in either sleep or internal clock. No matter one is a frequent filer or a strong body traveler who is planning to have a long distance vacation, the jet lag is a common problem for long time flies that cross different time zones. The sleep disorders are troubling millions of travelers, and the studies shows that the jet lag can be alleviate by imposing the right treatments.

“the condition of jet lag is actually resulting from an imbalance in our body’s natural “biological clock” caused by traveling to different time zones. Basically, our bodies work on a 24-hour cycle called “circadian rhythms.” These rhythms are measured by the distinct rise and fall of body temperature, plasma levels of certain hormones and other biological conditions. All of these are influenced by our exposure to sunlight and help determine when we sleep and when we wake.”

Our circadian rhythms are likely to remain on their original biological schedule in days and slowly adjust to the new internal clock when we travel to a new time zone.

By doing the research of the internal clock in our body. The scientist found that there are several treatment that can alleviate the jet lag, and faster the process of adjusting the time zone for our body. Firstly, we can anticipate the time change by getting up and going to bed for prepared the trip. Secondly, change the watch to the destination time zone can always remind one to fit in the right time. Thirdly, no heavy meals on the final destination, and get more sunlight as possible.

The noise, light, temperature or climate, and altitude are all key elements that will affect the quality of the sleep. A good travel should not be troubled too much by jet lag, and our body will give a good response when we are releasing the stress on travel.

https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/jet-lag-and-sleep

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/jet-lag/basics/definition/con-20032662

http://www.medicinenet.com/jet_lag/article.htm

I a huge fan of crowded funding since I was in High school. The reason I’m in to this as you will always be amazed that how far people will go in order makes their dream come true. Lots of amazing things that kickstarter and indiegogo—some of the biggest crowd funding website in the world—give birth to, like smart watches, a cool geeky gadget, headphones and movies. And today, When I just hang around on the web side, I came across this.

My first reaction is very difficult to describe. The only words I can say is, wow.

That tells me I got to be that Jarvis in Ironman film very soon!

With that excitement, I scroll down.

This company sells their product “Bleen”and clam that they can project a 3D image into thin air without any medium, as large as 2.5 meters. Also, the “Bleem” CPU is all costume made and extremely fast. They have two products, but basically have the same function: project things in to thin air. It’s seems that if you bought their product, your life will become like this:

Young woman sitting in music studio

How cool is that!

However, as a tech-geek/nerd, I just could not think so what just happened. The reason is very simple: some of the largest company like google and Microsoft, they only have existing product like hololens or google glass that could preform a sort-of reality enhancement; the most famous company of producing Holograns is Oculus is still struggling with how to not make people dizzy. It’s just very hard to believe that such an anonymous company can achieve such a great innovated product. Nonetheless, then, things start to get wired.

First is the amount of the backer. There were only 320 backers for this project, with 66816 US dollars. However, this program was launched in October 2014, and promises that they will have their product finish at around the same time next year. The twitter of them, however, shows a different story. Their last update as at March,18th, 2015, then, they just disappear. Then it’s not hard to imagine that this is just a tech-scam and hundreds of people arguing at the command zone for their money.

Everything about this team was so real: Vladimir Titar, a Ukrain scientist used to the leader of the team, clam that he had worked with a Nobel Prize winner. However, now the page was deleted and no traces for anyone else.

Nonetheless, they never even answer the theory properly, just like the response from them to their own backer below:

But like me and the backer’re words: it just too good to be true.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bleen-3d-without-glasses#/

We have all heard it before: Cigarettes kill, cigarettes kill, cigarettes kill. One of the most popular habits in the United States is a known killer of both the American youth and the American general population. We heard it so much that we convinced almost an entire generation that if you even as much as tried one cigarette, you would fall into an addictive and sad death. The attitude among youth has changed over the past couple years and I want to know if we should begin to put our effort elsewhere regarding youth health.

One aspect of lessened cigarette smoking is the growing cultural trend of looking down on cigarettes and cigarette smokers. Although teens may now do other things with their time, there is a big step in the right direction with lessened cigarette smoking. According to the CDC, cigarette smoking among middle school students has declined 4.3% over the past four years, and declined 15.8% among high school students in that same period.

This is a product of improved health practice but even more so, a product of instrumental awareness efforts. Commercials and advertising alone have dismantled the cigarette community. Numbers of tobacco smokers, especially among youth, are decreasing rapidly as part of both a health and cultural trend. If tobacco is on its way out, should we not turn our attention towards other pressing issues that trouble today’s youth?

Texting while driving is more dangerous than driving drunk; why is it that drunk driving is more frowned upon than texting and driving? We must rid ourselves of thee cultural trends and become realistic with the problems of the world. I suggest we turn cigarette awareness partly into texting and driving awareness.

Poladian, Charles. “World No Tobacco Day Continues to Increase Awareness.” Medical Daily. N.p., 30 May 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.

“Youth and Tobacco Use.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.

 What and How

Unlike many frogs that hibernate under water where their body temperature never falls below freezing, the Alaskan wood frog freezes two-thirds of their body. Occupying the region from Southern Appalachians to Eastern North Carolina, they hibernate by nestling down into the leafy forest floors and the overlaying snow gives them some insulation from extreme cold. Ice fills up their abdominal cavity and encases their internal organs while ice crystals form in between layers of skin and muscle.  Their blood stops flowing, their hearts stop beating, and glucose levels increase greatly. Researchers say that these frog are dead on the organismal level because their cells are functioning, but have no way to communicate with each other. Wood frogs don’t freeze once and stay frozen, but they spend about two weeks freezing at night and thawing during the day until the temperature permanently drops below freezing. This process of freezing and thawing is thought to help the frogs convert more of the glycogen stored in their liver into glucose. The extremely high levels of glucose help keep the frogs alive throughout the winter. The main function of the glucose is to keep water inside the cells, which is done by making the cells super sweet so that it doesn’t transfer out of the cells to a higher concentration.  When spring comes, the frog thaws, first the heart starts beating and then the brain activates, and they turn as much of the glucose as they can back into glycogen.  This freezing process allows frogs to be active very quickly in the spring since the land thaws and warms faster than the ice covered lakes, allowing these frogs to mate before those that hibernate under water.

Why

Understanding how these frogs can tolerate such high blood sugar levels can be valuable knowledge for researchers to help in the management of high sugar in people with diabetes. Also, these frogs’ can help other researchers discover how human organs used for transplants could be frozen and thawed without damage. This research could lead to making more transplants possible because it would increase the allowable time between removing an organ from a donor and implanting it into the recipient. Understanding the mechanism which allows blood circulation to stop and start again a few months later without blood clots or damage could be valuable for treating people after their blood flow is temporarily halted by heart attacks or stroke.

This reminds me of some futuristic idea of being able to freeze your body and waking up in the future. Finding animals like this, can create breakthroughs for science. Scientists have already started thinking of ways to turn this frog’s natural selection features into something that could possible be an innovative way to save life and extend life expectancy. Interesting stories like this, shows how fascinating the world is, and there is so much more to discover. Here is a mating call:

Have you ever laid in bed and not been able to fall asleep? There’s a new technique that surpasses the typical routine such as counting sheep to fall asleep. This method is called the 4-7-8 breathing technique. Dr. Andrew Weil, a Harvard trained physician, author, spokesperson, and “guru” for holistic health and integrative medicine, came up with this technique that acts as a tranquilizer which slows down breathing and heart rate that can eventually make you fall soundlessly asleep. He believes by just breathing in and out it can solve the problem of not being able to fall asleep at night.

He believes that “Breathing strongly influences physiology and thought processes, including moods. By simply focusing your attention on your breathing and without doing anything to change it, you can move in the direction of relaxation.” His website has 5 simple steps into approaching this method:

1. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
2. Close mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a count of four.
3. Hold breath for a count of seven.
4. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
5. This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.

Dr. Michelle E. Gordon, the founder of Northern Westchester Surgical Associates General, tried this method but said it didnt work out for her. My roommate tried it last night and it took her a while and couple of tries but she doesn’t remember much because the next day she realized she had fallen sleep. Both Weil and Gordon believe that this may work for some people because this breathing exercise is the same as meditation. A good example is how Buddhist can reach a state of enlightenment and are able to withstand drastic climate changes whilst just wearing thing clothing.

I havent tried this method but if my roommate says it worked for her after a little bit of practice then i will try to practice a couple of times and see if i can reach that state of meditation to help me fall asleep faster.

We are all aware of type 2 diabetes, well there is a new study that suggests scientists already know the cure for type 2 and yet the government spends billions of dollars on research to figure it out. Type 2 diabetes is produced by high blood-sugar levels, which result from the pancreas failing to produce enough of the hormone insulin combined with insulin resistance, in which the body fails to respond to insulin normally (Reason.com). About 1/10 of the U.S. population has diabetes, and require insulin shots. Scientists have stated the cure for type 2 diabetes is to lose weight and eat better/healthier. This study consisted of a small group of 18 obese patients with type 2 diabetes that were given gastric band surgery, that started on a healthy low-calorie diet for 8 weeks. The results of the study had shown the participants had lost about 31 lbs each, and 0.6 grams of fat from their pancreas.

Its interesting because the scientists noted the pancreas fat loss as crucial. Excess fat in the diabetic pancreas is specific to Type 2 due to the pancreas fat loss. The non-diabetic obese patients had no decrease in pancreas fat when losing a similar amount of weight as those diabetic obese participants.

In this study, the hypothesis tested here is Type 2 diabetes and proving a cure. The putative variable is Type 2 diabetes and the putative response variable is the obesity, and fat. I believe in this case the mechanism measured here is the pancreas fat, due to changes in the control group and test group differ depending on this mechanism. I believe more studies could have been conducted for this topic, and in fact, so did the scientist, because they are planning an upcoming study involving a larger sample size of 200 participants, and a two-year study period.
Works Cited:

https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/02/diabetes-cured-by-losing-weight

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=194576&resultclick=1

googleimages.com

Growing up, my mom was always concerned with how much sugar I took in (mostly through juice) but in my memory, she was never concerned with my caffeine intake. Now that I seethe little ones in the family drinking soda left and right, I became concerned for them. With my adult metabolism, I can still easily take in too much caffeine so how bad is it for their tiny bodies?

The first study I found said that caffeine use helped improve children’s motor skills and attention span. Unfortunately, these findings were based o a group of less than 30 children. These results are not enough to base an answer off of.

This survey of school age children included upwards of 700 kids, making it a more reliable source. The experiment was also done as a double-blind placebo, adding to its credibility. This study showed that students who usually consume high amounts of caffeine  have more anxiety and less motor skills when they are not consuming it. Meanwhile, students who don’t often have caffeine were worse off while consuming it. Other similar studies also show that caffeine increases anxiety and inability to focus in children.

Overall, its definitely a safe play to keep kids away from caffeine or at least limit their consumption of it. It is not reasonable to let kids drink wild amounts of soda because they don’t understand the consequences of caffeine and how it causes the discomfort of anxiety and distraction from school.

Without even thinking, you encounter dye on a day to day basis. From the foods you eat, to the soap you wash your hands with to the detergent you use to wash your clothes… it is everywhere. There are different types of dye that I will analyze that people have linked to various cancers, one is food dyes and the other is hair dye.

Food dye

Vibrant colors have been come the norm to food, especially candy. Sweets like fruit roll ups and kid cuisine frozen foods are just two examples of foods with artificial coloring. It has been found that food coloring has not only been linked to cancer, but it develop ADHD in children. Many tests have been done on animals, such as mice and rats, which caused cancer among them, an idea that resonated with me in a article was “A chemicals ability to cause mutations or damage to chromosomes in bacterial or eukaryotic cells is an indication that the chemical might cause cancer in humans”. A lot of people say that because studies were done to animals, that it does not pertain to humans, but that is not always true as testing on animals is a way to figure out and solve humans, without unethically experimenting on humans. The different types of colors and its effect on the animals follows:

Blue 1: kidney tumors in mice and a possible effect on nerve cells

Blue 2: tumors and brain gliomas

Citrus red 2: toxic to rodents and tumors in urinary bladder

Green 3: increases bladder cancer and testes tumor in rats

Red 3: thyroid carcinogen in animals

Red 40: (most popular) tumors in mice

Yellow 5: cancer-causing chemicals

Yellow 6: adrenal tumors, cancer-causing chemicals

People want all food dyes to be banned, as Red 40, yellow 5 and yellow 6 make up 90% of all dyes used and a mixture of dyes is a drastic combination as it has been linked to organ damage, cancer, and birth defects. Even with people constantly writing to the FDA, they still have not addressed the issue. Some studies have been done to prove the relationship between dye and cancer, but most of the studies were done by dye manufactures introducing bias conclusions and possibly falsification of the information. People want to ban the food dye for these reasons:

1. The Delaney Amendment (1960 law) – bans use of coloring that cause cancer in animals/humans
2. FDA runs experiments on 1990 dye usage
3. They don’t identify the risk for children
4. Canadian government shows proof carcinogen contaminant in yellow 5 and yellow 6
5. Food dyes like Red 2 and Red 32 have already been banned for ill effect on health

While people are trying to get America to ban food coloring and shift to natural food coloring, places likes Britain have already taken that initiative. The British government forced businesses to stop using food dyes because they feared the health risks. For orange soda Britain uses pumpkin and carrot extract versus Red 40 and Yellow 6. For McDonald strawberry sundae, Britain uses strawberries versus Red 40. Other natural food coloring that can be used is beet juice, paprika, turmeric, and beta-carotene. While most of America is behind in the innovative thinking, companies like Starbucks are ahead of the game as they eliminated all artificial dyes in their products.

The side effects for children have been linked to developing ADHD. Many doctors link food dye to hyperactivity, but the studies very between showing significant differences that would ultimately prove that the dye causes ADHD. Some doctors also believe it could be genetic because when some kids have candy they are fine and other are not, and genetics can play as a third variable of figuring out the relationship between the two.

This dilemma not only can contain fraud, but it can obtain the texas sharp shooter problem because scientists could have given the animals the food dye and looked at everything and connect the food dye to that. Though that quote resonated with me, I will continue to take the risk of eating foods with dye in it because they fail discuss how dangerous it is despite the drastic consequences, and if this problem has never been closely looked at in humans as it was in the humans then I do not see it as a problem to continue to eat food with dye in it as everything we encounter has some amount of food dye in it.

Hair dye

Along with food dye, many people grew an interest into whether or not hair dye causes cancer. Not only for the people who regularly dye their hair, but also for the people that are exposed and do the dying. 1/3 of women over 18 dye their hair and 1/10 of men over 40 dye theirs. Hair dye is regulated by the FDA, but some ingredients are excluding from the FDA access since those ingredients were there before the FDA was created. With over 5,000 different chemicals used in the dyes some have carcinogenic effects in animals. When dyes were first created aromatic amines causes cancer in animals, but many ingredients in the product have been changed, but it is not known if any of those products removed or the new ingredients and the absolute cause for the link to cancer. Many studies were done, but since the studies were too small they failed to accurately detect the relationship. To reduce risk:

1. Wear gloves
2. Follow directions
3. Read caution
4. Patch test
5. Do not mix dyes
6. Do not use on eyelashes or eyebrows

As an avid coffee drinker, I have always been told that caffeine is not good for you and to avoid it at all costs. Have I listened to the countless lectures? No, I have to stay awake somehow. But, all the negative things about caffeine made me wonder, are there any positives to this addictive substance other than putting pep in the steps of people throughout the world? In a few separate studies, coffee and caffeine have been found to actually benefit people’s health. The studies were connected to coffee and diabetes, and coffee and Parkinson’s disease.

Three separate studies from Brigham and Women’s Hospital including 48,464 women (1986-2006), 47,510 women from the Nurse’s Health Study II (1991-2007), and 27,759 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2006) based on linkage between coffee and type two diabetes were looked at by The Harvard School of Public Health. The studies conducted were based off of the evaluation of the diets of participants via questionnaires every 4 years. Using questionnaires may not have been the best choice considering the patients could easily give false information. Participants in the study who had type 2 diabetes, 7,269 people, filled out additional questionnaires.  “The researchers found that the participants who increased their coffee intake by more than one cup a day (on average, an increase of 1.69 cups per day) over a 4-year period had an 11% lower type 2 diabetes risk over the subsequent 4 years, compared with people who did not change their intake.” Actually, it was also found that people who decreased their daily intake of coffee by more than one cup increased their risk of type 2 diabetes by 17%. If the risk of developing type 2 diabetes goes up by decreasing the intake of coffee, I think it would be beneficial to drink coffee. If a person already drinks coffee, I see no point in stopping.

            courtesy of www.dailytimesgazette.com

The next study conducted measures the effects of caffeine on people with Parkinson’s Disease. McGill University Health Centre researchers conducted an experiment involving an experimental group and a placebo control group of people with Parkinson’s Disease. With a total of 61 people in the study, the control group was given a placebo caffeine pill, and the experimental group was given a “…100 mg dose of caffeine twice a day for 3 weeks and then 200 mg twice a day for another three weeks.” It was found that people in the experimental group who were given the caffeine saw an improvement in their motor symptoms. Furthermore, research also shows that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s in the first place. Since the study was only conducted on 61 people, Dr. Postuma claims that a larger scale study over a longer period of time should be carried out but caffeine should definitely be explored further. as a treatment for Parkinson’s.

After always being told that caffeine is bad, it is refreshing to hear that it may not be as bad as we think. Since there are flaws in both studies, such as the size of the study and also the compilation of data via questionnaire, I personally think that it is still questionable whether both studies are 100% accurate, but since both studies are consistent with the positive side effects of coffee and caffeine, I think that it is all up to the consumer on whether they would like to drink coffee. Sure, there are going to be health risks with almost anything that we consume, but the overall risks of drinking coffee have both negative and positive sides.

Now, I don’t know about you, but my parents have always warned me about cell phones and how they can cause cancer. They’ve always told me not to make long phone calls because of the radiation that can be transmitted to parts of my brain through my ears and cause cancerous tumors. That’s just what they’ve said. I decided to take it upon myself to do some research on the topic and find out if that’s just their way of trying to get me off my phone so I can talk to them more or if it’s actually true.

With the world filling up with cell phones, even my grandparents have their own now and it doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s a good piece of technology to have on you and it’s the most convenient way of catching up on social media and the news because you have the power to do so right at your fingertips. However, according to this article that I found, maybe you’ll think twice and put your phone down once in awhile.
In this article, there was a study by Yakymenko that was mentioned where it revealed many findings of radio-frequency from your phone that has the ability to damage your DNA. That damage isn’t too bad the first time you come in contact with it, but if you’re like me and have your phone glued to you 24-7, then that might cause problems. The damage of the radio-frequency builds up over time in your body and can cause a variety of health concerns such as cancer, headaches, fatigue, and skin problems. According to the researcher (Yakymenko), using your phone for 20 minutes a day for five years increases the risk of one type of brain tumor threefold. Using your phone an hour a day for four years increases the risk three to five times. However, if you minimize the usage of your phone and keep the radio-frequencies away from your head then the chances of those health conditions decrease.

However, according to another study (mentioned in this article) that looked into more than 420,000 cell phone users over a time span of 20 years, researchers found no correlation between cell phones and brain tumors.

There might also be a chance that our generation of smart phones are safer than the Nokia phones we once had (remember those things?) The designs of our cell phones are a lot more advanced than they used to be and the antenna that transmits those radio-frequency waves are located inside the phone, rather than outside the phone where it used to be. It’s important because with cell phone radiation, every millimeter counts and the exposure of radiation drops dramatically if the distance between you and your phone increase.

People might be frightened by this because our phone is something that we come in contact with everyday and knowing that it could possibly be the cause of brain tumors and possible cancers does not sound good. But for now, no one has proof of knowing whether or not cell phones’ radio-frequencies really do cause cancer and other health issues. It’s going to take more research and testing to see whether or not there’s a direct link from cell phones to cancer. But if I were to stay safe, I would minimize the time I spend on my phone and keeping it close to my head when I sleep, which is what I often do so I could hear the alarm I’ve set for myself every morning. Also, I would keep your phone on speaker, if you can, whenever you’re on a phone call to maximize the distance you have between your head and the phone itself. Better be safe than sorry!

Most of the time when there is a discussion about video games it has to deal with the violence in them not being good for children.  But a study came out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which showed that people who play games like “Call of Duty”  had a bigger learning capacity than people who played games with no action.  Daphne Bavelier, a research professor in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Geneva said, “Prior research by our group and others has shown that action gamers excel at many tasks. In this new study, we show they excel because they are better learners and they become better learners by playing the fast-paced action games.”  Our brains are always trying to predict what could possibly happen next in any scenario.  To hone these prediction skills our brain creates models or “templates”.   Action video games can foster better templates.  The better the template the better performance.
Bavelier and her team of researchers study they compared visual performance between 10 gamers who played games like “Call of Duty” and 10 people who play non-action games like “The Sims” which is a game that simulates a life.  Each played for 50 hours over 9 weeks and researchers found the action gamers had a better visual performance than the non-action gamers.  Action video gamers developed a better template for the task fast and this showed that they had an accelerated learning curve.

Video games can also require extensive problem solving and decision making skills.  Some games even involve team work with other people playing online.  Playing video games are like training for your brain.  Whenever your brain is trying to learn it is making new connections.  Video games increase the activity in specific parts of the brain like the right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum.  These parts of the brain are in control of memory formation, strategic planning, and fine motor skills in the hands.

Here is a TED Talk with Daphne Bavelier talking about how action-shooter games can help you cognitive health in moderation.

In August of 2013, British researchers found that the video game “Starcraft” in particular can increase the player’s “brain flexibility”.  Scientists describe “brain flexibility” to “the cornerstone of human intelligence.”  So it seems that there are definitely some cognitive benefits to video games after all.

Sources

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/playing-video-games-could-make-you-smarter/

http://www.businessinsider.com/video-game-health-benefits-2014-9

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/video-games-good-for-us_n_4164723.html

Copper is my only weakness!

So maybe sperm has a few other weaknesses but the idea that copper kills sperm does have a certain super hero vibe to it, doesn’t it? Anyway, since I’m pursuing a minor in sexuality and gender studies I like to stay updated on things like birth control and women’s health care. I’ve known about IUDs for a long time but now that they have been deemed safer and a healthy option for people who have not yet had children they have risen in popularity so I decided to focus on copper IUDs for a blog post.

How effective are they? Super. The UN published a report that read described a Chilean study, “Fertilized eggs were found in eight of 36 women using no contraceptives, while only one fertilized egg was recovered among 22 users of inert IUDs that contain no copper and none in 43 users of copper IUDs” (IUDs). Family Planning NSW explains, “The copper IUD is at least 99% effective. This means that on average, if 100 women use a copper IUD for one year, one woman could become pregnant while using the IUD” (Copper).

So they’re effective but how do they work? Um… we’re not totally sure. Of course we know that it works by being inserted into the cervix so that any sperm that makes its way up there is killed by the copper and thus prevented from moving into the fallopian tubes to potentially fertilize an egg. That’s pretty basic but as for why or how the copper kills sperm? It’s not clear. I have looked through numerous studies and where all of them were able to describe what the copper does to the sperm – my favorite explanation goes out to the UN, “Many studies have shown copper to act as a spermicide. In a study of the Copper T 200, scientists observed that the sperm heads were detached from the tails in a majority of sperm cells” (IUDs) – none of them explained how the copper created this affect.

As we have learned in class, science is pretty good at observing but it is not always possible to explain.

Sources:

“Copper IUD.” Family Planning NSW. N.p., 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. <http://www.fpnsw.org.au/682847_8.html>.

“IUDs Block Fertilization.” UN News Center. UN, 1996. Web. 04 Dec. 2015. <http://www.un.org/popin/popis/journals/network/network162/blck162.html>.

“Most people have no idea that the majority of our communication is nonverbal“, and our expression of words is not more importance than the mood or the body language in talking. In other words, it’s not what words that you say but how you say the words. A good and effective talking can show one’s power, charisma and the intelligence.

“If you go into a pitch, interview or date and only focus on the words you use, your leaving your most powerful tool behind.”

“Happiness Experiment No 1: Smile more” is a article that done by Leo Widrich who noticed the importance of body language in daily life and how it will alter one’s mood. In the article, it show that the more smiling will lead to more happiness instead of happiness leads to more smiling. In scientific views, the body language is more innate and basic for us as humans than any of other forms of expression, even language or facial expressions. Therefore, a baby born blind can perform the similar body languages or facial expressions as adults. It is the case of pre-programmed body language in our mind before we even born.

The experiment of the body language is observational because it’s visual. The scientist found that the body movements will pass the signals to our brain, and based on the past experiences or the sense, one can determine the impression to the other person.

“Our nonverbals govern how other people think and feel about us.” – Amy Cuddy

This quote shows the fascinated of the body language and how it can help us to build the good impressions and  to achieve our goals in life.

In the views of experts of body language, they can tell one’s impression without hearing what they say, and everyone can do that. Our body just naturally posses that action without telling us. And, that’s why some people are having very good virtues but not in favor in other people’s eyes. Or, some people have high education degrees but still have hard time to be a good leader.

the great TED talk by Amy Cuddy on body language is a strong and interesting speech that express the importance and the power of the body language.

http://thehappinessexperiment.co.uk/the-secrets-of-body-language-why-you-should-never-cross-your-arms-again/

http://thehappinessexperiment.co.uk/the-secrets-of-body-language-why-you-should-never-cross-your-arms-again/

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/Body_Language.htm

Beaches are the most spectacular creation given to us. They signify simplicity, oneness with yourself, and satisfaction. No other kind of natural creation is so universally loved. The catch is that some of these beaches are nicer than others, but no one can agree on which ones. Being from Long Island, I claim that the best beaches in the world are the Hamptons, and pretty much the entire southern coastline – but I have had the pleasure of visiting and hearing about some truly fantastic beaches around the world.

Based off an online survey done by CNN that involved 4,000+ people, the most beautiful beach in the world is in Seychelles, which is an island off the east coast of Africa. It won most beautiful especially on account of its surfing nature. Second on the list is Rabbit Beach in Italy. Opposite from the violent surf of Seychelles, Rabbit Beach’s calm surf and wild life make it number two on the list. Beaches on the list range all the way from a small beach in the secrecy of Hawaii’s islands to a huge beach in South Africa.

This shows that there are so many different beaches and places to explore, and they are all so different from each other. Bermuda has reddish sand; Jamaica has white sand; Hawaii has dark sand. Even the color of water changes, depending on latitude mostly. Some beaches like Hawaii’s have a very rough surf compared to the gentle lapping of waves in the Mediterranean Islands. The study was well done by CNN; having 4,000+ participating in a survey is a good sample size for an observational study.

So what is the best beach in the world? Seeing as beaches differ on so many things like privacy, location, and accessibility, the best beach in the world is the beach where you want to go and spend hours on end in the sunlight, enjoying the water. It does not really matter which one has the whitest sand or the bluest water, just as long as you love where you are. I still think it’s Long Island.

Staff, CNN. “World’s 100 Best Beaches – CNN.com.” CNN. Cable News Network, 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.

Strutner, Suzy. “Best Beaches in the World.” Huffington Post. N.p., 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.

In my high school, most of the girls I knew pursued tan and “sun kissed” skin. It always dumfounded me how girls were able to maintain that radiant tan during the winter. I always wondered, “Look at me, I am so pale! What are these girls doing that I do not know” Eventually through inside sources and top secret investigation, I learned that the girls I envied were actually using tanning beds. Tanning beds have always been something I avoided ever since I heard how dangerous they were from my parents. I decide to do further research. Are these tanning beds causing skin cancer?

The con – The first and only study I found was a randomized observational study, which proves it was not definitive proof, but it is good to keep note. In this study, subjects were randomly chosen from the Minnesota cancer database between the years 2004 to 2007. Then, they were given “self questionnaires and telephone interviews including information on use of indoor tanning, types of device used, initiation age, period of use, dose, duration, and indoor tanning-related burns.” (Lazovich DeAnn) In the sample size that consisted of 1167 individuals and 1101 controls, 63 percent had practiced indoor tanning while 51 percent of the control also tanned. This experiment is noteworthy, but it does not take into account other variables in which melanoma might develop. Perhaps those who were diagnosed with melanoma (skin cancer) had a heredity trait in which they immediately get cancer through the light of tanning beds. Also, we should consider the idea of reverse causality. What if the beginning stages of skin cancer forces individuals to tan more? There may be some correlation within the data from the study, but there is not enough to make the false positive conclusion that “frequent indoor tanning increased melanoma risk by 75 percent.” (Lazovich DeAnn)

What I would do: There will be no doubt that a blind randomized control trial would be best for this topic. My subjects will consist of many humans subjects, and each day, they will be exposed to a certain amount of UV light while their diet and rest is regulated. The dependent variable would be the development of melanoma while the independent will be the UV light. Though this experiment may be effective, it is not ethical by any means. I am pretty much forcing individuals to contract skin cancer, which is wrong without doubt. However, there seems to be no loophole to this. It is human skin that develops the cancer. Animal testing may not have the same effect as humans, thus, human subjects are required to have definitive results.

The start of the pros: This article made me consider the actual benefits of tanning beds, which I thought I was going insane. I had always had the notion that tanning beds were bad with vastly effects. The author pretty much talks about how tanning beds might not be associated the skin cancer at all. He lists that people tend to forget the other variables for melanoma risk, such as skin type, UV exposure, and the type of UV lamp. Another benefit in which he supports tanning beds is the fact that a moderation of Vitamin D3 (found in sunlight/tanning beds) can cause a decline of cancer risk in 16 different types of cancer. Also, more benefits of tanning beds are listed here:

• Resistance to UV rays – by moderate tanning, you can help your skin build resistance to UV rays.
• Vitamin D –  Vitamin you get from tanning beds
• General mood – Tanning beds are pretty much all year accessible. Tanning is also linked to give people better moods
•  Skin conditions – “It is common for dermatologists to prescribe visits to the tanning bed to those that have chronic skin conditions. A condition that is commonly treated with tanning beds is Psoriasis.” (Bitshare)

Take home message: Although there are many studies that say tanning beds are bad, there are no definitive proof that these beds cause melanoma, which is the most serious type of skin cancer. There are many confounding variables to consider, such as genetics, type of lamp, and skin type. All in all, if you do use a tanning bed, use with moderation. However, this is just based off my research and studies I found. There may be many conflicting viewpoints, so please share if you think I am right or wrong.

A tanning bed

Works Cited

• (Mercola) http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/09/25/tanning-bed-causes-melanoma.aspx
• (Lazovich DeAnn) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20507845
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2913608/
• (Bitshare) http://bitshare.cm/post/20547945486/the-good-side-of-tanning-beds

Li-Fi

“do you have Wi-Fi here? ”

“what the password of your Wi-Fi? ”

Depending on my observation, these are the most common thing that people will ask in 21th century when they arrive a restaurant, hotel or house of a friend. No doubt that Internet has already became one of the most important thing in our day to day life: when we woke up, we check our WhatsApp for any contact and read the wall street journal from our smart; then after breakfast we sit in our car and turn on the google map on our way to company; we use yelp to look for a restaurant at noon and watch video from YouTube while you are waiting your sandwich. People just can’t live without internet these days.

Still, people complain—-it’s the human nature. People are always complaining about they can’t get a stable connection, the download speed is tantamount to slow, blah, blah, blah. But you can’t blame them. Wi-Fi is not the fastest thing you can get—if you are using a copper wire or a light fiber it will be much faster. Nevertheless, the portable device always sacrifices the port for the portability, so wireless connection is the only option they have. However, the nightmare of horrible Wi-Fi might will not exist for that. People Oxford has already found a solution.

Li-Fi, as known as the light Wi-Fi, is one of the newest inventions from the very-smart-people from Oxford. It does not have to transfer data from a Wi-Fi signal. Instead od invisible wave, they use diode emit light and develop an algorithm for it to transform it into a data signal in order to be transferred data. It originally was developed by a Garman professor named Harald Hass, a leading engineer for led bubs, the final product was invented in Fudan University in China in 2013.

Theoretically, the Li-Fi can transmit up to 7Tbps, way more than the 7Gbps of the Wi-Fi. The light fiber takes the advantage of the property of light that then it reflects, it’s not going to lose much of a signal. It’s very similar idea for the Li-Fi, but instead of utilizing a medium, the Li-Fi will transmit data in the air with no delay. For this, the system needs a computer guide laser projector on the roof top, with controllable direction for the laser. All of this is for accomplishing the goal of 100Gbps for the transmission—yes, way lower than the theoretical value and with a very strict rule—the light has to be project on to the receiver without anything in it’s path, in early 2015 they can only use inferred for this system, however few days ago they announce that clam they had a breakthrough which now allow them to use visible light to transmit data, which has a theoretical speed of 50Gbps with a stable connection.

Obviously, it’s not a method of replacing Wi-Fi in the next few years, but it’s going to be useful for the foreseeable future. Now it’s still growing, on its long way to slater the monster called delay. Nonetheless, he is a real good base.

source:http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/optoelectronics/fiber-to-the-living-room

Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate manufactured by Pfizer, also known as Depo, is a contraceptive for women to prevent pregnancies. Depo is one of the many options that women can choose from to prevent pregnancy. In many scenarios, Depo is advocated as a safe, effective form of birth control, but there’s a different side to that story that it may be the deadliest form of birth control. It has been linked to increased sterilization, breast cancer and HIV/AIDS and the most recommended birth control to women of color and low income women. Previously before women advocate groups, such as Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment (CWPE), came along to draw awareness to this issue, experiments were being done on black women involving Depo. From 1967 to 1978, 14,000 low income women, black women, in Atlanta in the Grady clinic, experimented on those women with  Depo and most women died in the process or developed cancer after. What makes this so important is the person in charge of the experiment refused to release what they reported from the experiment. In 1994 to 2006, the same incident occurred in Ghana with over 9,000 black women.  A recent experiment in 2011, by Renee Hamilton, involved 3,000 participants, black women, concluded women are twice as likely to contract HIV/AIDS. In the 1960 to 19800’s, the Food and Drug Administrative (FDA) withheld the Depo from being administered three times until it was approved in 1992. Clearly being an issue of the file drawer problem, there has also been problems with fraud. Margaret Sanger, a population control advocate, opened the first birth control center in 1916, American Birth Control League, now renamed as Planned Parenthood. Starting with a statement Sanger made saying “we do not want word getting out that we want to exterminate the Negro population”, the whole business behind the Depo shot has up roared in fraud and a proven example of population control, which is identified as The New World Order (NWO) to intentionally reduce population through genocide. With Pfizer they have been caught illegally promoting saying things like the Depo shot prevents cancer, even though the FDA never approved it, and administering the drug as they failed to disclose the harmful side effects called Black Box. As a company they have been exposed of silencing journalists, Health experts, such as Stephen Minkin, and medical professionals, such as Dr. Betsy Hartmann, Dr. Jael Silliman. Prior to 2005, Pfizer paid 9 billion dollars in fines to the United States for fraudulent illegal business practices. Melinda Gates, who is a population control advocate, also promotes advocating this drug to low income women, mostly black women. In 2012, she created a billion dollar Depo media campaign to promote the contraception to combat all the accusations, which ended up being proven for fraud as she minimized the risks of HIV and eventually proven to be discredited as it did not seem valid to pay people of your side to do experiments, as it has a high chance of false conclusions.

Analysis

African American women make up 14% of the population, while also making up 84% of the people that get Depo.  They have 583,079 births a year, which dropped substantially by 30%, while white women have 2,150,926 births a year with a drop of only 5%. African American women have a shorter life span than white women due to heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, which has all been linked to Depo, thus resulting that Depo shortens life spans. In many other countries, especially the United States Middle East allies, they have all banned Depo as well as Ghana, Sweden, and India. Some of the serious side effects are:

1.Bone density loss

2.Blood clots

3.Stroke

4.Bleeding irregularities

5.Weight gain

6. Ectopic pregnancy

7.Lack of fertility

8.Breast cancer (2x likely)

9.Increased HIV/AIDS risk

The conspiracy theory of people trying to get rid of African Americans is a radical idea, but at the same time the idea that a contraception that is heavily advocated positively in poor communities, when it has fatal and dangerous side effects. Even on the Planned Parenthood website when they give you information of the Depo shot they use wording such as “undesirable side effects”, to mask the truth. Though the FDA might not ever really ban the contraception, it would make a difference if people would know the real truth of what they are injecting in their body, but just the effort these companies are taking to prove the public is wrong and constantly backfires in fraud shows that something is wrong and they are hiding it. For low income communities  the exposure is high, and the risk is high as well, as it can lead to infertility, cancer and HIV. If I was to choose a contraception the Depo shot would not be it.  Despite that i do not know how likely it is to get those side effects, but just knowing the side effects alone, along with the shaky business that accompanies the reason the Depo shot is so heavily advocated for, I’d rather pass on that opportunity. For other contraceptions, I could not find other contraceptions that posed a heath threat like this one as most of the research that I found about other contraception was mainly beliefs of why contraception is bad overall. What do you think?

Watermelon is one of my favorite fruits. Growing up, my mom always told me to spit out the black seeds because I wasn’t supposed to eat them. I never believed that a watermelon would grow inside of me, but I was curious as to why you couldn’t. Are watermelon seeds actually bad for you or is that just a myth?

According to the Huffington Post, there is some truth behind that lie. You shouldn’t necessarily eat them after cutting the watermelon open. You can eat them, but they have to go through a process called sprouting. Sprouting “removes compounds in the food that make it difficult to absorb all of its nutrients, increases nutrient density and makes the food easier to digest.” By sprouting the watermelon seeds, it also removes the unappealing black shell of the seeds.

Now that we know we can eat them, should we even eat them? Yes! Watermelon seeds are good for multiple reasons. According to Livestrong, they are a good source of protein, B vitamins, minerals, and fats.

Protein

Watermelon seeds are a great source of protein. With just one cup of seeds, you are getting 30.6 grams of protein. This actually makes up 61 percent of the recommended daily serving.

B Vitamins

Watermelon seeds contain several B vitamins. The most important one is niacin, which has about 3.8 grams in one cup. This contributes to 19 percent of the recommended daily serving. Other B Vitamins include thiamin, riboflavin, folate, and pantothenic acid.

Minerals

Watermelon seeds contain several minerals such as magnesium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, sodium, and several others. By far, magnesium is the most important. One cup of magnesium contain 556 mg, which is about 139 percent of the recommended daily serving. Magnesium is extremely important because it helps your metabolism and blood pressure.

Fats

Lastly, watermelon seeds contain 51 grams of fat in one cup. Some of these fats include monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and omega-6 fatty acids.

It’s funny to think that we once thought that swallowing a seed would lead to a watermelon growing in our stomachs! Net time you eat a watermelon, try sprouting them and eating them. Who knows, you make love them. Sprouting may take some time, but here’s how to do it!

Can you put a price on mental health? The NFL tried to put a $765 million price tag on its players, but has since been overruled.  The league has since instituted a rigorous concussion protocol, but perhaps this is insufficient.  The rudimentary definition and explanation of a concussion is a bruise on the brain caused by a blow to the head.  An easy way to think of it is when you hit your head.  This new concussion protocol prevents players who sustain a concussion from being cleared to play until passing.  However, the issue the league now faces is the long term side effects from concussions specifically those found in retired players suffering from depression and more specifically Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co46hQB87bI

It seems that attention for the topic is only focused and change is called for when tragedy headlines the league news, this was certainly the case for Dave Duerson and Junior Seau.  The league’s new policy unfortunately only protects athletes for as long as they are active in the league, but does not address players’ needs after retirement.  This is precisely the issue with CTE, as it takes years and sometimes even decades to develop.  Furthermore, CTE renders the league’s concussion protocol useless against sub-concussive, asymptomatic hits.  As the NFL uses on-the-spot, test as you go kind of treatment instead of a more comprehensive overview of players’ over their career.  The concussion protocol relies on “the rapid onset of transient impairment of neurologic function that resolves spontaneously … in some cases, symptoms and signs may evolve over a number of minutes to hours.”  However, CTE deals with the repetitive head trauma over the course of a career, not a couple games, or even a season.  To clarify, that is seven or eight years of head injury-worthy football before entrance into the NFL.

The officially published Boston University study on CTE cites “a progressive tauopathy that occurs as a consequence of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury.”  For defensive players that probably equates to a decent 5 tackle game, an offensive player that’s getting tackled 5 times, let’s say only one of which was led with the head or neck, or in the NFL’s own words “elsewhere on the body with an ‘impulsive’ force transmitted to the head” (NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee’s Protocol’s Regarding Diagnosis and Management of a Concussion).  We’ll venture an average 7 year NFL career for our player having a decent game every outing.  Now our average player is not sustaining concussions per NFL standards, these are sub-concussive hits, and our player misses a game a year, and never makes the playoffs.  That’s 105 sub-concussive hits in our player’s average NFL career.  But of course he had to play in high school, and a minimum of 3 years in college, so his football career is double his NFL career.  In the 2014 season there were 202 concussions diagnosed by the NFL, down from 261 in 2012.  We were only accounting for skill players so we’ll knock off about 20 to account for offensive and defensive linemen.  We’ll call it 190 skill players per year suffer concussions in the NFL.  There are 7 defensive skill players, and 6 offensive on 32 different NFL teams for a grand total of 416 skill players in the NFL who start for their given teams.  Our average player, according to these numbers, will suffer 3 NFL diagnosed concussions in his 7 NFL seasons, but of course it’s not just starters so we’ll bump that down to 2 NFL concussion protocol diagnosed concussions over 7 years.  Up against 105 sub-concussive hits.  A slight discrepancy.  Here is where we find our tragic flaw.

While announcers will praise the league and its officials incessantly for every time a player is examined after a hit that qualifies on the Head, Neck, and Spine Committee’s list the underlying issue of the progressive cognitive degeneration of the players is disregarded.  This is not an issue the NFL front office can just throw money at, it is an issue that needs responsibility and accountability.  With Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in the picture, players who live for football can die for it too.

Don’t have time to hit the gym? But find time to take naps throughout the day? Well studies have shown that we lose calories in our sleep. Burning calories in your sleep is essential to maintaining body temperature, pumping blood throughout the brain and body, and also repairing cells. The more the person weighs the more calories they burn per hour.

During REM sleep you burn the most calories because the brain is more active than it would be if you were awake. The body being active requires fuel which makes it smart to eat some food an hour or so prior to sleeping. Temperature also plays a role in losing calories while sleeping. If the body temperature is cooler while it sleep its will burn several extra hundred during the night to maintain the temperature at a steady level.

Some methods that can help you burn more calories while sleeping is having a strict sleeping pattern. Go to bed at the same time every night and get the same amount of sleep too. More calories are burned during REM sleep so by hitting the snooze button a bunch of times, it can disrupt the deepness of your sleep. Drinking alcohol can also disrupt REM sleep. Also, exercising right before bed can cause you to be more alert and awake. If you want to exercise before bed try choosing yoga or deep breathing instead.

Loosing calories in your sleep doesnt mean you have to start skipping the gym and sleep a lot because sleeping too much can cause weight gain. Just set up a regular sleeping pattern and avoid any kind of spicy food or anything that contains fat because heart burn is likely.

Birth control is a very common thing for women under the age of 30. In the U.S, about three in four sexually active women under the age of 30 use some type of birth control. One thing that has always scared me about birth control is whether it can negativity affect fertility in the years after taking the Pill is stopped. I decided to research if it does have negative effects, or if that shouldn’t be a concern.

A European study on oral contraceptives involved over 2,000 women who were on the Pill and stopped taking it to try to conceive. The women were followed for a minimum of two years after they stopped taking it to see how long it took for them to pregnant. One year after the stopping of the contraceptives, 79.4% of the women were pregnant. These numbers were almost identical to those who had not used the Pill. This study supports the claim that prior use of the Pill makes no difference for future conception. There is always the idea that the results could be due to chance or third variables, but the study seems to be reputable in its results.

Not only does the Pill seem to not have negative effects on fertility, but it also has the ability to protect against diseases such as ovarian and uterine cancer, which can eventually lead to infertility. Researchers have also found that the Pill improves the symptoms of endometriosis, which is a condition that causes abnormal menstrual bleeding which leads to infertility.

While the Pill may not negatively affect infertility, there are many side effects that are quite often seen by users. Some of these include nausea, weight gain, mood changes, headaches, missed periods, and visual changes with contact lenses. Birth control pills have also been associated with blood pressure increase, liver tumors, and an increase in the risk of developing cervical cancer.

Taking the Pill is obviously a personal choice, and it is one that should be made knowing all the pros and cons. For me, knowing it does not affect fertility pleasantly surprises me. I had heard from others that it may end up being harmful to fertility, but the research and studies show that it most likely does not. When deciding to take the Pill or not, make sure you are aware of the positives of it, but also the possible symptoms and effects.