I remember freshman year after breaking my leg, I had to get a surgery that left me with a pretty big scar on my knee. I never had a dog growing up, but my friend Brianna did, and every time I went over to her house her dog would lick my scar. Brianna’s mom would tell me that it was a good thing because a dog’s saliva can actually help heal wounds more quickly. Well, 3 years later I’ve decided to look a bit more into this claim.

Where Did This Start?

The belief that dog saliva can heal human wounds dates all the way back to ancient Egyptian times, when dogs were used in healing practices. “The Egyptians believed that being licked by a dog, especially on an open wound, would aid in recovery or even cure the disease causing the illness.” This concept was carried into the ancient Greek beliefs, where they would have dogs that were trained to lick wounds in many temples dedicated to Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing. According to Psychology Today, “The value of being licked by a dog is still believed by many cultures to have curative powers. There is even a contemporary French saying, “Langue de chien, langue de médecin” which translates to “A dog’s tongue is a doctor’s tongue.””

How Does It Work?

There are a couple ideas that doctors have as to why dogs saliva can possibly help heal wounds. First off, simply the physical action of the dogs tongue on a wound can be helpful by loosening any debris that may be on the surface of the wound. Although this is true, the focus of most scientific research has been on specific antibiotic compounds found in dog’s saliva.  “Menno Oudhoff of the University of Amsterdam found simple proteins called histatins in saliva. These are well known for their ability to ward off infections. Some histatins also prompt cells from the skin’s surface (called the epithelium) to close over a wound more quickly.” Another set of researchers at the University of Florida at Gainesville discovered a protein called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) in the saliva of dogs. Their study research showed that “Wounds doused with NGF healed twice as fast as untreated (that is unlicked) wounds.” In theory, the presence of these helpful proteins in dog’s saliva should be successful in healing human wounds.

Negative Effects

Yes, dog’s saliva may have some potential benefits, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t risks involved. For example, it is known that dog’s mouths contain a bacterium called Pasteurella, which could cause a skin infection called cellulitis in humans if transmitted into a wound. “There are a number of reports of this happening, and sometimes the results have been extremely negative, causing infections that have resulted in amputations, and sometimes the resulting infections have been life threatening.” Two women, a 32 year old from Georgia and a 48 year old from Texas were both infected by their dogs, resulting in both women having their legs amputated after infection spread. One factor that needs to be noticed is the fact that these infections were caused by dog bite, not dog licking. That being said, just because dog’s have bacterium in their mouths, doesn’t necessarily mean it could infect a wound through licking. In these cases, the bacteria was deeply injected through bite, not saliva on the surface.

I wasn’t able to find any experiments on this study, but I did read through some anecdotes. However, the anecdotes were all negative, speaking about different people got infected due to dog’s licking their wounds. I think that it would be difficult to conduct an experiment to prove this concept true or not. It would require wounded people to be wiling to risk infection in order to let dogs lick their wounds. In reality, these wounds wouldn’t just heal over night. For the scientists to see if dog saliva really does have a significant effect, they would have to make sure the subject’s wound is licked everyday. Then they would have to compare it to the healing process of a wound that is healing naturally. When you think about it, if dog’s saliva was a risk free method of healing, it would already be bottled and sold to the public.

Living in Los Angeles, California, I constantly see people going through the newest and craziest dieting fads. Recently, the most popular weight loss technique has been the juice cleanse. This is when you obtain all of your nutrients by drinking 3 to 5 vegetable/fruit juices per day. There should be no solid food consumed during these cleanses, only the approved juices. These cleanses can last anywhere from 3 days to a few weeks depending on what results you want from it. The question I want answered is whether or not juice cleanses do more help or harm to your body.

Purpose Starting a Juice Cleanse:

In theory, the juice cleanse is a great concept. Its purpose is to eliminate the toxins we put into our bodies daily, such as colorants and preservatives in our food. Susan Blum, M.D., the founder and director of the Blum Center for Health explains that “Toxins can build up in the body, causing inflammation and a weakened immune system. This may make us more susceptible to chronic illness, such as headaches, arthritis, and asthma, not to mention heart disease and cancer.” Although the juice cleanse isn’t a permanent solution for all of the toxins in our body, it is meant to relieve our bodies for an extended amount of time. “The idea is that when our bodies are freed from the burden of digesting solid food, they can more efficiently release the toxins swimming in our system.” The point of the juice cleanse is to become toxin free, but most people just look forward to the weight loss aspect of it. Of course you are bound to lose some weight when you just stop eating solid foods. However, most dietitians believe you only lose water weight.

Potential Faults of the Juice Cleanse:

One of the most commonly skipped over juice cleanse faults is the failure of long term weight loss. Because the weight lost is merely water weight, you are likely to gain it back as soon as you start eating solid food again. “When you eat whole foods, especially carbohydrates such as breads and grains, your body needs to hold on to water to digest them properly. Take away the food and the water disappears, too, which can translate to a drop on the scale. The problem: When you begin eating solids again, the water may come right back, leaving you where you started.” Livescience.com went on to list some potential dangers of these cleanses. Firstly, juice cleanses are usually low in protein, which is necessary to maintain a healthy immune system and to build muscle after working out. The point of the juice cleanse is supposed to be to help your body be healthy and stronger, not to weaken the immune system and make you more susceptible to illness. Secondly, people might not feel so great while they’re doing it. In most records that people keep of their juice cleanse experiences, such as Steve Cox’s, they report experiencing a multitude of symptoms such as lack of energy, nausea, anxiety, head aches, and grumpiness. After concluding a three day juice cleanse, Steve realized that the misery was not worth losing only 3.6 pounds. Rather, he decided to commit to other healthy habits such as less snacking and finishing meals by 7p.m.

Here is a video in which Buzzfeed employees did their own juice cleanse experiment. It turns out that different subjects had very different experiences. The people that looked to be more healthy and in shape seemed to have a better time with it. They concluded that although they didn’t like waking up every day and knowing they were only going to drink juice, they never necessarily felt ill. The subjects that were a little more on the over-weight side had a more difficult time with this process. They said that they felt more fatigue, more tired, and had a more difficult time focusing at work. This made me realize that there are a lot of third variables that could effect how the juice cleanse works on your body such as prior food routines, metabolism, gender, exercise routine, and many more. The bottom line is that juice cleanses seem to be a good way to kick start a healthier life style, but not a break through weight loss solution.

I’ve always been a fan of all things paranormal. I’ve seen basically every decent scary movie, and as a kid I grew up watching the old show Ghost Hunters. I’ve never really answered the question of “do you think ghosts are real?” in the fear of sounding ignorant. I usually just say “I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not…” In my sophomore year of high school, my friends and I decided to mess around with an Ouija board. The board is pretty easy to maneuver: two or more people place their fingers lightly on the planchette in the middle of the board. Then you ask a question and let the spirits guide the planchette around the board, spelling out words and answering yes or no questions. There are other precautions you can take that can supposedly make the spirits “more active” such as sitting in a circle, lighting candles, and taking the entire thing seriously (no giggling and joking around with your friends). And of course, the most important rule: don’t take your fingers off of the planchette before you move it to the “goodbye” spot on the board; otherwise you can potentially release spirits into the room.

            I remember my Ouija experience very vividly. We sat in a dark room with a circle of lit candles around us – we took the process very seriously. My friend Brianna and I were the two brave souls to put our fingers on the board, and that was a moment I will never forget. When we asked a question our hands began to slide. We both freaked out: “IS THAT YOU MOVING IT” “NO I SWEAR IS IT YOU” “NO SHUT UP ITS TOTALLY YOU”. I knew for a fact that I wasn’t the one moving it, and seeing Brianna’s reaction, I was pretty sure she wasn’t moving it either. It genuinely felt as if an outside force was pulling and pushing on my hands. 3 years later, I decided to look into the science behind this creepy game.

            As it turns out, there is perfectly reasonable explanation to this supposedly paranormal action. The movement of the planchette is due to a phenomenon called the ideomotor effect. The nerdist explains that “The ideomotor effect says that people can move or move something without their conscious mind realizing it.” So it’s not a ghost guiding our hands. We are making movements so subtly and unconsciously that our brain genuinely doesn’t believe it is us physically doing it. In fact, there’s a way to test the ideomotor effect yourself. BBC.com describes a little at home experiment: “you can witness the phenomenon yourself if you hang a small weight like a button or a ring from a string (ideally more than a foot long). Hold the end of the string with your arm out in front of you, so the weight hangs down freely. Try to hold your arm completely still. The weight will start to swing clockwise or anticlockwise in small circles. Do not start this motion yourself. Instead, just ask yourself a question – any question – and say that the weight will swing clockwise to answer “Yes” and anticlockwise for “No”. Hold this thought in mind, and soon, even though you are trying not to make any motion, the weight will start to swing in answer to your question.” And this is true! I remember one day my sister came home with what she called “a magic pendulum” which was a crystal attached to a string. I hung it from my hand as she told me to ask it yes or no questions that I knew the answer to. If the crystal swung clockwise it meant “yes” and vice versa. Lo and behold, that crystal got every answer right and I was freaked out, when in actuality, I was the one answering my own questions all along. While I thought I was holding the pendulum completely still, I was actually making small, unconscious movements in order to get the right answers. You may wonder, “how can you actually believe you’re moving?” Well I challenge you all to try this some day because it does actually work.

            Dr. Sid Fels and Dr. Ron Rensink conducted an experiment with the Ouija board to demonstrate just how clever the idemotor effect it. “In one experiment people were asked a number of yes or no, fact based questions, with and without the Ouija Board. Participants sat down to the Ouija Board with a confederate and then were blindfolded. The confederate quickly removed their hands from the planchette. Once again, the responses in the Ouija Board condition, when particpants did not think they were in conscious control, were much better. Answering the questions verbally people got about 50% of the questions right, but with a Ouija Board they got 65% of the questions right.” As you can see, our unconscious actions play a much stronger roll in life than we expect.

            This site also explains how the ideomotor effect has harmed us in the past. “This effect also underlies the sad case of “facilitated communication”, a fad whereby carers believed they could help severely disabled children communicate by guiding their fingers around a keyboard. Research showed that the carers – completely innocently – were typing the messages themselves, rather than interpreting movements from their charges.” What these studies show about the human mind’s capability is absolutely amazing. So next time you and your friends bust out the Ouija board, let them think the ghost is in control, when in reality, your unconscious mind is playing for you.

The “dumb blonde” stereotype is one that has been the base for endless jokes and television/movie characters, but is also a stereotype that is taken quite seriously in every day life. I’m a natural brunette, but in middle school I thought it would be a good idea to dye my hair blonde. I was the butt of so many dumb blonde jokes, which I never took to heart because I’m not genetically blonde. Many of my close friends are blonde, and they’re all intelligent if not smarter than I am. I wanted this question answered: are blondes actually less intelligent than people with other hair colors.

Somehow in today’s society, having blonde hair is associated with being incompetent. People make quick judgments just by looking at someone blonde and assuming they’re dumb. In one study, researchers “asked 120 people – 60 males and 60 females – to look at pictures of a female model wearing four different colored wigs, platinum blonde, natural blonde, brown, and red.” The subjects were asked to rate this model on traits such as shyness, intelligence, aggressiveness, temperament, popularity. The model was rated as more approachable as blonde, but less intelligent than brunette. This survey tested people’s association with blonde hair, but in no way did it prove that blondes are truly less intelligent.

In 2009, Erin Vistnes, a USC student, decided to conduct an experiment of her own to answer the question of blonde’s intelligence. A randomly assigned group of 50 adults were chosen to participate and were rated based on hair color from 1-5 (1 being dark hair and 5 being very blonde). They were then asked to answer 5 questions from the MENSA website, which is the largest and oldest IQ society in the world. In conclusion, “the average numbers correct for each hair color group were: 1: 2.6; 2: 2.4; 3: 2.5; 4: 2.7; 5: 3.0.” According to this experiment, the blonde’s were shown to be more intelligent than people with darker hair. Because this experiment was such a small sample, nothing can be 100% proven from this.

It was also thought that blondes could be genetically disposed to be less intelligent then people with other hair colors. Forbes covers a study created by a team at Stanford University that figured out which genetic variants leads to blonde hair. The study finds “that a switch of a single letter of the genetic code is responsible for lighter hair: An A (adenine) is changed to a G (guanine) on a region of human chromosome 12. The team says that because this specific genetic change only affects the hair follicle, other cell types — especially, say, brain cells — are not affected. This means that blond hair really is “only skin deep.”” This study successfully proves that there is no obvious difference in brains of blonde people, and nothing inhibits blonde’s mental capability whatsoever.

What I took from all of these studies is that there is no sufficient evidence to prove that people with blonde hair are any less intelligent that people with other hair colors. Although there is no proof that blondes are unintelligent, I’m sure this stereotype will remain relevant in society for years to come.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always fallen for the “latest and greatest” in boy band music. From my elementary/middle school years crushing on the Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber, to my present day obsessions with One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer. It had always occurred to me that something set me apart from the other girls I knew. We all listened to the same music, but it would affect me differently. I got noticeably more excited: my heart would race, my hands would shake, sometimes tears and squeals of joy followed. It was so overwhelming. I seemed to be much more invested in these musical artists than anyone else was. I’ve always wondered, is my brain wired differently? Why do these bands evoke more emotions from me than the average person? That’s what I decided to research.

Firstly, let me give a clear definition to the term “fangirling”. On my favorite satirical dictionary site, Urban Dictionary, one of the many definitions of fangirling is “going totally insane over a famous person. Usually happens when you find out something about your idol, which makes you freak out.” (You can read many more of the amusing definitions here) To sum it up, fangirling makes a girl look completely crazy – except to another fangirl who will 100% understand you. Many others and myself would agree that we use fangirling as a sort of escape from reality, or as this article explains, “an act of displacement or temporary relief from psychological distress.”

So what is going on in my brain? In psychologytoday.com’s article, Stephanie Booth states “The brain’s mesolimbic system functions as a reinforcement circuit between the opiodergic system (which controls liking) and the dopaminergic system (which governs wanting)… These mechanics evolved to steer us toward things like food, but other factors can trip the circuit.” Basically, these bands and their music make me feel good, and in response my brain is telling me to keep going back for more and more. Thus, the obsession forms. Later in the article, Stephanie Booth explains that “Actively listening to a beloved tune stokes the brain’s pleasure center and feels extremely arousing. “It’s like a temporary roller coaster of emotions, with no severe consequences,” says Valorie Salimpoor, a researcher at McGill University. “The intensity of the feelings the music evokes is highly reinforcing.”” Looking at this from the socialcultural psychological perspective, I grew up in an affluent area where kids were always able to afford whatever concert tickets they wanted. Seeing how much fun other kids were having definitely had an affect on my decisions and what I was interested in.

So now that we understand how the brain processes things we extremely like, why are some people more obsessed with certain things than other people? Why are boy bands so appealing to some girls and not at all to others? Unfortunately, this is where I came up empty handed, which is extremely disappointing considering how badly I wanted to write about this subject. Its completely understandable considering this is a slightly new phenomenon being heightened by today’s excessive use of social media, basically allowing fans to keep track of their idol’s every move. I look forward to future studies on this interesting topic.

Hey everyone!

My name is Grace Cuffel and I’m a freshman planning on majoring in PR here at Penn State. I’m from Palos Verdes, California which is along the coast about 40 minutes outside of Los Angeles. Here is a picture of the Point Vicente lighthouse, a well known landmark in my city:

The question I get most often is “Why would you ever go to school here if you’re from California?!?” followed by some very confused looks. My answer is simple: Firstly, Penn State has an AMAZING communications department and I know I’ll be able to land my dream job with their guidance. Secondly, I know for a fact that I’m going to live in California when I’m older, so why not try experience something new while I can? (And no, I’ve never been in the snow, so I would really appreciate some comments suggesting what winter gear to buy 🙂 )

Why did I decide to take this course? I’m sure many of you will agree with me: it was highly recommended and I needed the credits. I was told that most students that took this course absolutely loved it, and that was good enough for me. I’m so thrilled with the fact that a lot of this course revolves around blogging assignments. The more chances to improve my writing skills, the better.

Why aren’t I majoring in science? Unlike what many students have said in their blog posts, I’ve never actually disliked science. I managed to get good grades and I was even determined on being a Marine Biologist for a few years. As I got older and got more into social media and the internet, I realized what I was truly passionate about. Pop culture has always been a huge part of my life and my ultimate goal is to do PR work for one of the top leading social media companies (Google, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, ect.). One of my favorite platforms is Twitter so feel free to follow me here where I’ll attempt to charm you with my dumb tweets. Looking forward to the rest of this semester!