After having a bad stomach virus this past week, I looked online for many home remedies that could help with nausea. Here are a few things that I found that help nausea. 

• Apples
• Saltines/Crackers
• Water
• Nuts
• Chicken broth
• Gatorade
• Bananas
• Mint
• and Ginger

I never thought ginger would be helpful with nausea, so I raised the question to see if it actually does.

In one study, ginger was used to test motion sickness. The subjects to this study were 80 new sailors, who were prone to motion sickness. Half of the group was given powdered ginger and the other half was given a placebo. Researchers found out that, “those who took powdered ginger had less vomiting and cold sweats compared to those who took placebo.” Since this study was very small it is hard to make any conclusions.

Another study was conducted with pregnant women and the relationship with nausea. Thirty pregnant women who had severe nausea were given either 1 gram of ginger every day for 4 days or the placebo. Women who took the ginger supplement reported that they had more relief than the other women who received the placebo. The study was later conducted again with 70 pregnant women, and similar findings were accounted for. Those who were given the ginger reported less vomiting and nausea and the others who were given the placebo still had severe nausea.

Many people who go through chemotherapy experience nausea and vomiting. In one particular study, patients were randomly assigned 0.5 grams, 1.0 gram, or 1.5 grams of ginger or just a placebo. These were given to the patients along with Zofran (anti-nausea medicine), three days before the patient’s first day of chemotherapy.

Researchers found that the patients who were given the 0.5 grams of ginger and the 1.0 gram of ginger ranked their nausea on a scale of 1 or 2 out of a 7 point scale. The patients who were given the placebo reported nausea at a 4 to 5 on the scale where 7 was the highest rating of nausea.

So what does this mean? There is no certain data that tells us there is a correlation between ginger and its ability to help stop nausea but this is due to lack of studies on this topic. In order to conclude anything further, we need more research to be done on this topic. Otherwise, when you are feeling nauseas, I recommend grabbing some saltines and a bottle of ginger ale !

As a college student, I am up at all hours in the night finishing assignments or just hanging out with friends. I was told when I went to college I was going to need to try and balance school work, friends, and sleep. My older brother always told me that one thing always loses out more than the other and it is typically sleep. In an article written on the Wall Street Journal, it states that it is healthy for an adult to get seven to nine hours of sleep each night. But, after coming across how sleep is good for grades I found something much more shocking. Sleep can affect weight loss, let me show you a few studies I found that help support this theory.

In a study done in the American Journal Clinical Nutrition, it claims that people who stayed up late tended to have cravings for a midnight snack. The midnight snack tended to be something that was high in carbohydrates, due to the lack and “starvation” of sleep. A second study was conducted where sleeping too little can lead to eating large portions of meals, making you gain a few extra pounds. However, this was not convincing enough to make me believe there was any correlation between sleep and weight gain. 

Donald Hensrud, from the Mayo Clinic, suggests that there is an association between sleep and weight gain. He looked at a recent study conducted in men, that showed “recurrent sleep deprivation in men increased their preferences for high-calorie foods and their overall calorie intake.” This might just be something due to chance, we are not sure yet. There also is the issue of third variables that we have to worry about. Did the subjects eat during the day before, or is there something else affecting the desire for high-calorie foods?

On another hand, he looked into a study regarding the relationship and its affects on women. In this study it stated that, “women who slept less than six hours a night or more than nine hours were more likely to gain 11 pounds (5 kilograms) compared with women who slept seven hours a night.” There is not much detail in this study to help us come to a conclusion to whether or not there is a correlation but 11 extra pounds is a lot to make us worried.

Other studies such as one conducted by Bruce Bailey, professor at Brigham Young, help support this theory that weight gain and sleep have a correlation. In Bailey’s observational study, he monitored 300 female college students, ages 19 to 26, and gave them tracking devices which would monitor their walking and sleeping times. The 3oo female college students were tested before and after in order to show the best results. Researchers found that:

• “Getting less than 6.5 hours of sleep and more than 8.5 hours of sleep was linked to higher body fat”
• “High quality sleep was associated with lower body fat while poor sleep correlated with higher body fat”
• “Waking and going to sleep at the same time every day (particularly a consistent wake time) was most strongly linked with lower body fat”

Since this study was not blinded or controlled, we have to take into consideration third variables that might be affecting the data. Also, researchers used a very specific subject group which would make the results different if you used 300 father’s ranging from 50-55  years of age.

In conclusion, we can not make any assumptions that lack of sleep causes weight gain but it might be a factor. Other things we have to take into consideration is that lack of sleep affects hormones in your body that regulate hunger and lack of sleep also result in less motivation to get up and exercise.

When I wake up to the smell of bacon and pancakes being cooked in my house on a Sunday it automatically makes me a happy camper. So I wonder, does the smell of different things affect how I feel? Is there a certain smell that would make me mad?

There are many studies that have stated that “odor learning begins before birth, when flavor compounds from the maternal diet get incorporated into amniotic fluid and are ingested by the developing fetus.” My mom always told me when she was pregnant with me she would love to use lavender lotion and so now, I love the smell of lavender. In some studies, researchers found that the infants of pregnant women who consumed “smelling substances such as garlic, alcohol or cigarette smoke preferred these smells compared to infants who had not been exposed to these scents.”

Dr. Susan Knasko, who has been studying the effects of odors on mood and performance at Monnell Chemical Senses Institute in Philadelphia, talks about one study in specific. Knasko speaks about a study where half the subjects were placed in a room and told that pleasant smell was being introduced and the other half of subjects were told that in their room there was no smell. “People who thought they were exposed to a pleasant smell ­reported greater feelings of health, positiveness, and well-being than the other group.”

Another experiment done by Nicole Hovis and Theresa White of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., that smells can affect the way you decide to perceive a person. ” They asked 65 volunteer undergraduates (who were mostly female) to sniff a vial holding either a lemon or onion scent, or no scent, while standing near a gender-neutral silhouette.” After they were told to make an impression of the silhouette. Subjects who smelt the lemon said that the silhouette was more feminine, clean and pleasant. On the other hand, those that smelt the onion said it was man like. That being said smell affects what mood you have but there could have been other things as well going on in the person’s mind so we can not jump to any conclusions.

More studies need to be conducted in order to make a correlation between smell and mood. However, I know if I smell something that I like I become very happy!

We all have seen hand sanitizer bottles all around campus, in people’s dorms, and even attached to people’s backpacks, but are they doing us more harm than good?

The Mayo Clinic states that using hand sanitizer is just as effective as washing your hands. Hand sanitizers kill roughly 99.99% of germs.

A clinical trial was conducted in 2005, by Boston-based doctors based on hand sanitizers. The researchers “enrolled about 300 families with young children in daycare, where half of the families got free hand sanitizer and a hygiene hand guide.” The study went on for five months and the researchers still found infections in the home spreading.  We are not told how many times each family used the sanitizer, nor if they were consistent with using the sanitizer or washing their hands. So the conclusion? Hand sanitizers do not stop infections spread. They might be helpful, but they are not stopping us from getting nasty colds and viruses. 

At Columbia University, they also did a similar study where they gave inner-city families all the right tools to avoid infections such as “free antibacterial hand soap, detergent, and cleaning supplies.” Researchers found that there was no reduction in the amount of infection caused in these households.

University of Michigan epidemiologist Allison Aiello summarized data on hand hygiene for the FDA and pointed out that three out of four studies showed that alcohol-based hand sanitizers didn’t prevent respiratory infections.

Overall, the conclusion is that you are better off washing your hands with the classic soap and water.

It has been mentioned throughout history that lavender has a distinctive and pleasing fragrance and many believe it can relieve mild anxiety.  You find it today in many lotions and body oils and in use when getting a professional massage.  Does the aroma trigger relaxation or something more powerful and proven to use to treat anxiety – there have been some clinical trials and the calming effects were recorded.  

So what is Lavender help people out with. Here is a list:

• Lavender helps with restlessness, nervousness and insomnia.
• Lavender helps with depression symptoms.
• Lavender can be used for painful and inflammatory conditions including migraines and joint pain.
• Lavender can help people who suffer from agitation related to dementia.

There have been many studies conducted by researchers in order to find a correlation between lavender and anxiety.  A study was conducted where 97 healthy subjects in a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial were given 100 mL and 200mL lavender capsules. After patients were given the capsule, they watched two short films; one neutral and one anxiety-provoking. They found that the patients who took the 200 mL lavender capsule, had reduced anxiety while watching the neutral film. In the other film the lavender “was mildly beneficial in females but only on HRV measures.” In males, sympathetic arousal increased during the anxiety film (GSR). HRV significantly increased at 200 mL during all 3 film clips in females, suggesting decreased anxiety.” Researchers concluded that lavender has anxiety reducing effects in low anxiety conditions but no conclusions were found towards high or clinical anxiety. 

Another study conducted in 2011 targeted elementary school teachers who tend to be under a lot of stress. This study was done in Taiwan and the subjects inhaled essential oils including lavender. “They found that even a 10-minute-long weekly inhalation of aromatherapy resulted in a significant reduction of blood pressure and heart rate, and drove autonomic nervous activity toward a balanced state. In addition, participants with moderate and high degrees of anxiety benefited more than the light anxiety group.”

“In a study published in the journal Phytomedicine, lavender oil was shown to be just as effective as the pharmaceutical drug lorazepam (Ativan).” The plus of using lavender is that it is not a drug, and will not become abused. 

Since there are many different types of essential oils, you might be wondering if lavender is the best. In a “a randomized controlled trial in 2013 suggested that clary sage essential oil may be useful—more so than lavender—in reducing stress for female patients undergoing urodynamic assessments.”

After being very sick this past week I was told by my Mom and my Grandma to have some chicken noodle soup. I wanted my mom’s homemade soup but the Campbell’s would be the best substitute I could find. When I was buying my chicken noodle soup, I realized there were so many other types of soup that I could buy instead. The store had options ranging from tomato soup, to creamy broccoli and cheddar but my mom insisted me getting chicken noodle. So, now I sit in my bed wondering if chicken noodle soup is the cure to a cold?

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic say, “that chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory and temporarily speeds up the movement of mucus through the nose.” 

Dr. Stephen Rennard, a pulmonary expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha conducted a study in 2000 based on his theory that chicken noodle soup slows down the amount of white blood cells that move to the lung area. He “tested the ability of white blood cells to migrate from one side of a chamber across a filter to the other side, as they normally do. With his wife’s family recipe of chicken soup, “he noted that fewer cells migrated to the other side of the chamber.” Thus being said, Rennard concluded that chicken noodle soup helps reduce respiratory colds. 

After looking at Rennard’s experiment there might be a concern with third variables. Other aspects such as the recipe and ingredients in the chicken noodle soup might have an affect on the person’s cold.

In another study done by Mount Sinai, researchers did a quasi-experimental study where they “looked at how chicken soup affected air flow and mucus in the noses of 15 volunteers who drank cold water, hot water or chicken soup.” They found that “the hot fluids helped increase the movement of nasal mucus, but chicken soup did a better job than the hot water.” Even though this study was conducted in 1978, we still conclude that chicken soup will help with your cold. 

People also want to believe that chicken soup can cure a cold because that’s what they’ve been told by family and friends and want to take any steps necessary to stop feeling lousy. I know that whatever my mom says will make me feel better I automatically will try it. 

In conclusion, the research that has been done is not conclusive. We all were told at least once when we were sick to have a bowl of chicken noodle soup, but it might just be due to the healthy nutrients, good for hydration and the yummy taste as well!

My mom always told me to keep my fingers out of my mouth ever since I was a little girl, but I always found comfort in sucking my thumb. Then I moved on to biting my nails as a nervous habit after I was done with my thumb. My mom would yell at me or dip each of my 10 fingers in mustard hoping that I would kick the habit of biting my nails.

Most people bite their nails because they are nervous, anxious, or just bored. “Studies show 60% of children and 45% of teenagers bite their nails. Nail biting becomes less common after age 18, but it can continue into adulthood.”

I came across an article that said biting your nails can really affect your health. Rochelle Torgerson, M.D., Ph.D., a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic stated that, “biting your nails can raise the risk of catching a cold or other illness because you’re putting your unwashed hands in your mouth. It can also raise the risk of paronychia, or infection of the skin surrounding the nail.” Think about it, all the germs you touched throughout the day are most likely all gathered on your fingers and inside your nails and then you go and put them in your mouth. Since your mouth is warm and moist, it is an excellent breeding ground for bacteria to grow and flourish and make you sick! We tend to stick our fingers in our mouth without thinking of those consequences especially because we cannot see the collection of germs piling up on our fingers.

Another issue with biting your nails is if you have a wart on your finger, by biting it you potentially can be spreading the virus to different parts of your hand. Torgerson says that is possible “because warts are caused by one of the many kinds of human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that spreads as an infection.” Gross, right?

So what can you do to stop biting your nails? Here are a few tricks that you can use to stop biting your nails.

1. Try and distract your mouth.
   1. chew on gum, suck on cough drops or lollipops
2. Paint Your Nails or get a manicure
3. Put something on your nails and be sure to get it under your nails
   1. dip your nails in something you do not like such as mustard or mayonnaise or hot pepper flakes

Biting Nails

In conclusion, biting your nails can in fact cause you to become sick, and will promote certain infections to spread throughout your body such as warts.  Also, this bad habit is not something that looks aesthetically pleasing to others around you which can lead to embarrassment and self-confidence issues. It is definitely a better idea to chew on gum or candy instead of a part of your fingernail for both your health and your popularity.

In 2010, when I was a young and impressionable 12-year old, one of my friends told me about a side benefit of chewing gum besides keeping your breath feeling fresh. The secret  was that you could also actually lose weight while chewing gum. 

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When you chew gum, you are constantly moving your jaw which involves energy. In an article written by Jon Williams, he writes that, “[it is] the muscular exertion involved in chewing [which] directly burns calories. Make it sugarless gum and you are burning calories without taking any calories in.” You tend not to think about this because chewing gum is such a natural thing for people to do. Who knew you did not need to go to the gym to burn calories.

In a study done by the Mayo Clinic they concluded that, “chewing gum can burn around 11 calories per hour – this may not seem like a lot but simply chewing gum every day for 4 hours would equal roughly 308 calories burned at the end of the week and 1,232 every month or roughly 1/3 of a pound.”  This is astonishing because some people do not even notice that they are burning calories, because they are enjoying chomping on their piece of gum.

Chewing gum is not only good for burning calories but has also helps you control hunger. At Louisiana State University, researchers conducted a study where they used  “115 people who regularly chewed gum and fed them lunch. They measured their cravings before and after lunch. They found that those subjects, who chewed gum three times hourly after lunch, ate fewer high-calorie snacks. The chewers also reported decreased feelings of hunger and cravings for sweet foods.”

In conclusion, chewing gum will not just help you crack down on those extra calories but will also help control your hunger. So next time you are chewing gum, remember it is more than something to chew on and blow bubbles with.

Do you chew gum while studying? You might think this is bizarre but chewing gum helps improve your test scores.

Do you chew gum while studying?

Researchers conducted a study where they used 224 undergraduates from St. Lawrence University to test chewing gum and grades. They next divided theses 224 subjects into three groups. “One chewed gum before and during the test, another chewed gum for five minutes before being tested and a third didn’t chew anything. The researchers then gave them a battery of tests to determine their brainpower.”

The researchers found that the student’s grades did improve, but only for a brief time. Researchers found that the gum, “helped during recall and memory tasks especially.”  Serge Onyper, who conducted the study at  St. Lawrence University, stated that even though the chewing gum group remembered more, in reality they only remembered two-to-three more words. In the long run, two-to-three words can help you remember something so the number might seem small, but it does affect the score.  

So you might be asking why does gum actually help you recall information? Well, Onyper suggests that, “chewing causes an increase in arousal – it helps wake you up. Research suggests that chewing increases heart rate, blood pressure, and cerebral blood flow.” Chewing gum, in basic terms, wakes up your brain and allows you to concentrate and focus. 

In conclusion, research suggests that you should pop a piece of gum in your mouth when you get to the end of the test or exam, since it will get your brain pumping again. You will  get a short, burst of recognition when you chew on gum. Additional research is needed in order to make any assumptions of longer exams and chewing gum. But, next time you sit down to study or take an exam, grab a piece of gum, and chew away!

You wake up for your 8 am class and grab a cup of coffee. While taking the bus the person next to you yawns and then you yawn. Next thing you know, the older lady sitting across from is yawning as well. It is a ripple effect, once someone yawns people around you usually yawn too. So, have you ever wondered if actually looking at someone yawning makes you yawn, or is it  just coincident.

Man wearing shirt and loosened tie yawning, rubbing eye, close-up

There is no sole reason for why we yawn, but there are many different theories. The most common answer to why we yawn is because we are tired. When people think of yawning they assume that the person is sleepy or bored. Another reason we yawn is due to the fact we see someone else yawn or even reading the word yawn. But are these reasons actually logical?  

Well, there is actually a truth behind the yawn. In Cognitive Brain Research, researchers state that, “contagious yawning, the onset of a yawn triggered by seeing, hearing, reading, or thinking about another person yawn is a well-documented phenomenon.”  Researchers from all over have conducted countless studies based on yawning, yet a lot of questions remain unanswered.

In one study, researchers showed a video of people yawning to their subjects and about half of the people who watched the video yawned. This research showed that there was a relationship between yawning, and watching someone yawn. It was a reliable study, however, it was not strong enough to prove anything due to the issue of chance. 

In another study done by The Duke Center for Human Genome Variation, Elizabeth Cirulli, assistant professor of medicine at the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University School of Medicine stated that there is contagious yawning and spontaneous yawning. “Contagious yawning is a well-documented phenomenon that occurs only in humans and chimpanzees in response to hearing, seeing or thinking about yawning. It differs from spontaneous yawning, which occurs when someone is bored or tired. Spontaneous yawning is first observed in the womb, while contagious yawning does not begin until early childhood.” 

The study did not end here. The researchers conducted a study where they gathered “328 healthy volunteers, who completed cognitive testing, a demographic survey, and a comprehensive questionnaire that included measures of empathy, energy levels and sleepiness.” They were going to test these volunteers and see if they were susceptible to yawning while watching a three-minute video of people yawning. The researchers were to record the number of times the subjects were to yawn during the course of the video. From the research, researchers conducted that, “certain individuals were less susceptible to contagious yawns than others, with participants yawning between zero and 15 times during the video. Of the 328 people studied, 222 contagiously yawned at least once.” 

This is just the beginning with studies based on yawning, and in the future more studies should be done in order to explain yawning. A lot remains unknown but this is just a start to figuring out if “the yawn” is contagious.

Here in Pennsylvania, we rely on the balance of nature everyday.  Do we enjoy being outdoors at dusk only to come indoors to find ourselves covered in huge red itchy welts?  How about those long hours of fishing by the river with your dad and grandpa without a single bite?   Endangered species are very important to our ecosystem and unless we do something about protecting them, these recreational pastimes will become less enjoyable. The current laws that are in place to help protect and save endangered species are inadequate and reform is needed.  

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the most well known conservation act in the U.S. and was passed into law in 1973 . There has been a lot of controversy about this law as to whether or not it is helping. One thing everyone can agree on is that the ESA’s purpose is to protect the habitats of the animals that are endangered to help their population stabilize and then hopefully increase. We all know that when something gets old or outdated, like the PS2 or our favorite faded jeans, it is time to get something new and make the change. 

One of the ways we can do more is by tightening the loopholes. These loopholes are preventing real progress from being made to save animal populations that are at risk. The main problem The main problem is  that “in over 30 years it has helped rescue only 10 of the nearly 1,300 species that have been listed—a success rate of less than one percent” . This number is very disturbing and obviously is not sufficient to assist the majority of the at risk of extinction species. We need more policing of these animal populations and need to rely on volunteers to help aid in the protection of these sites and report people and companies that break the laws. 

Another major fault with the ESA is the lack of public education and dissemination of information. People are not educated or informed about the real possibility of extinction of several species and any messages about conservation are few and far between. There is a common problem that most people only know about the popular animals that are endangered such as panda bears, peregrine falcons, and crocodiles but they do not grasp the concept that plants are also considered endangered species. In order to educate the public about the ESA we need to connect with our audience and tell people and communities how endangered species can affect them directly and indirectly through the better use of social media and public service announcements.

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Overall the Endangered Species Act of 1973 has only made a small dent on saving the endangered species and must be adjusted to improve its effectiveness. In order to do so, we need to educate the public about how endangered species can affect them personally.

Hi class! My name is Caitlyn Davis and I am a freshman who is currently an undecided major. I am from Allendale, New Jersey which is a small town in Northern New Jersey. I am forty-five minutes from New York City and I love to travel. The TV show, The Jersey Shore, is a horrible representation of what New Jersey is actually like and where I live people do not have accents. In my spare time I love to travel, play field hockey, dance, and scuba dive.  My favorite artist is Béyonce and I went to her concert last summer at MetLife Stadium.

Here is a picture of over the summer when I went to Belize.

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Fun Fact:  My favorite artist is Béyonce and I went to her concert last summer at MetLife Stadium. Here is a live link of Béyonce and Jay-Z singing at their concert.

I decided to take this class because I want to explore science issues that affect me and are interesting rather than study the elements. I also disliked Chemistry and Physics in high school, maybe do to my teachers, and it was something that never really interested me. On another hand, my advisor told me that Science 200 was for people who did not like “real science” and that it would fulfill a general education requirement.

I also, do not plan on being a science major because middle school and high school science classes really made me dislike writing four hour lab reports and doing tedious experiments. I also believe that scientists can sometimes be consumed in their work and forget about their regular life. Being a scientist takes a lot of time out of your life and I plan on having a family one day.