We talked about sex in class and sexually transmitted infections, (HPV) but we never really talked about the dangers of sex beyond infections, as in death.
NO, not by a disease, but by an allergic reaction. The first culprit would be latex, as in condoms. According to the American Latex Allergy Association, less than 1% of United States citizens suffer from a latex allergy. This group of people need to be sure to have condoms made with no latex, as to avoid the reaction.
Seems easy enough right? Can’t say the same for people with allergic reactions to Brazil Nuts.
“BrazilNut1” by Taken by Deathworm at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia.
Brazil nuts are the only know allergen that can spread through semen. So if my partner eats Brazil nuts and then we have sexual contact, I can still have a reaction that could lead to death. As far as I know, Brazil nuts are the only allergen that has this effect.
So be careful about what you, and your partner eat!
We’ve all bee preview to the idea that dark chocolate is not only better for you than milk chocolate, but we’ve heard that dark chocolate is actually good for you, whether it be your heart, your cholesterol your respiratory system and more. Well I have good and bad news on the topic of dark chocolate and how good it is for you. According to medical news chocolate has strong ties and correlation with life threatening conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, too much calorie intake, and more. These conditions are actually life threatening and would really throw some people off from eating chocolate.
There are, however potential health benefits to eating chocolate. Chocolate can help lower cholesterol, it provides great antioxidants, prevent cognitive decline, and is actually good for your heart. Chocolate and dark chocolate specifically has recently been credited with a vast number of health benefits. One of these huge benefits is the chance that chocolate actually helps with the walking ability for peripheral artery disease. Peripheral artery disease, or PAD is a form of heart disease that restricts blood flow to the arms and the legs, therefore leaving them unusable. There are some cocoa extracts that can even help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Chocolate really has a large number of health benefits, and if you brush your teeth and maintain a healthy diet otherwise, chocolate is definitely not the last diet cheat that you should be thinking about. Please enjoy this video on the benefits of chocolate.
Growing up, my parents were “those parents” that tried to ruin my childhood by not allowing me to indulge in the delicious “dangerous” treats raw cookie dough, brownie batter, or cupcake mix. As a kid, I could not understand why my parents believed that these yummy substances which all of my friends were allowed to consume could be deadly. Unfortunately, an article on Web MD reaffirms my parent’s claims. In 2009, the consumption of raw Nestle’s Toll House cookies led to a breakout of E.coli. This outbreak resulted in 77 people in 30 different states becoming sick upon consuming the dough before cooking it, landing 35 people in the hospital. Web MD tells us that, “The outbreak prompted a recall of 3.6 million packages of cookie dough and some changes in the way that Nestle and other companies manufacture their cookie dough”. Upon research, Nestle believes that the outbreak may have been a result of contaminated flour. Despite the revisions Nestle claims to have made, it is still not safe to eat raw cookie dough according to Web MD. Thankfully, most people recover from E.coli infection within a week. Symptoms include bloody diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and cramps.
The other, more prevalent concern of eating raw cookie dough has traditionally been contracting salmonella due to the consumption of raw eggs. An article from Consumerist seems to refute this hypothesis despite the many parents that disagree. In the 1980’s, there was a salmonella egg associated outbreak in the north eastern United States which resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds more sicknesses. This resulted in the Pennsylvania Egg Quality Assurance program, along with many other states calling for similar programs. Since these reforms, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in 20,000 eggs is internally contaminated with salmonella”. This seems like a relatively low risk compared to the benefit of enjoying delicious cookie dough. One could argue that it depends how important it is to you to enjoy the raw substance in order to weigh the risk.
An article from Slate explains that even if we do contract salmonella from eating an egg (which, as explained above, is very rare), it is highly unlikely to be able to flourish inside our bodies and make us sick. If you are a healthy adult, salmonella bacteria would have a hard time surviving in your intestinal tract due to the other healthy bacteria in your body fighting it for nutrients. The website warms that if you are sick, a child, or elderly, a small quantity of salmonella could indeed cause illness. This is why are parents warm us as children not to eat it.
To conclude, one could argue that everything in life carries some element of risk. If you enjoy eating cookie dough, you could choose to cross your fingers and pray that you don’t get the one in 20,000 eggs contaminated with salmonella. It is interesting that this is one of the many examples of our parents using advice that they have heard over the years despite having no scientific knowledge on the topic. If we want to avoid all risk, we should listen to our elder’s words of wisdom and opt for a different treat. There may be a new, safe alternative to this cookie dough problem. There is a trendy new store entitled “The Cookie Dough Cafe” which claims to serve “edible” cookie dough in large containers eaten directly with a spoon- absolutely no baking involved. Here is a link to there FAQ page.
Here is a video clip from the Philadelphia based film, Rocky, where he drinks raw eggs in order to IMPROVE his physical performance- thus emphasizing the presumed benefits of consuming raw egg rather than dangers.
As a young girl awakens during the early hours of the morning, a powerful sense of fear and despair overcomes her entire body. She is afraid. Fearful of the normal/everyday activities she will have to face. Sound familiar?The amount of adolescents suffering from anxiety disorders has increased drastically during the past few years. A dangerous increase in materialism and lack of control seems to have pushed teens over the edge. Why is it that there is a significantly higher rate today than there was thirty years ago?
In a study led by Jean Twenge, author of “Generation Me” and an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, she utilized over 63,000 high school and college student’s past results of the Minnesota multi-phasic personality inventory. In doing so she found that eighty-five percent of college studentsfall above the mental illness norm of students in the 1940s. Many people believe that the rise is because of increasing materialistic views. Our society is wired to believe that objects control their fate, as well as the way they feel. It is believed that a cultural change has played a big role in increasing anxiety disorders. Twenge says that, “These results suggest that as American culture has increasingly valued extrinsic and self-centered goals such as money and status, while increasingly devaluing community, affiliation, and finding meaning in life, the mental health of American youth has suffered.”People have shifted away from “intrinsic” values and towards “extrinsic” values. For example, a majority of high school students would prefer a higher scoring grade (extrinsic value) rather than actually understanding the concepts (intrinsic value) they are being graded on. All that seems to matter to the majority of students is the number- the quantity over the quality.
Our culture has become more focused on materials, rather than relationships. Bonds formed with others, in the end, are what ultimately help us get through situations. As a result of a deficiency in strong/stable relationships- students have reported that they feel isolated, lonely, misunderstood, unstable, and very emotional. They also have reported low self esteems, and dissatisfaction with the lives they are living. As adolescents are turning to materials for comfort and satisfaction, their anxiety increases. It is not a stable enough support system and it becomes addicting. The focus on materials has never been so strong until recent years.
Other sources believe that higher rates of anxiety today, comes from lack of control. Adolescents lives today seem to always be under the control of everyone else; other than themselves. They are constantly being instructed, and pushed into environments/situations that they do not want to be in. When people feel that they have limited to zero control over their future, they naturally become nervous. When this anxiety becomes powerful enough, it turns into depression. Allowing other people to control your life makes you feel hopeless, anxious, and depressed. A persons sense of control can be measured using the rotter’s scale. The rotter’s scale is a questionnaire constructed by Julien Rotter during the late 1950s. Each question allows you to choose an answer that either follows the belief of an internal locus of control (the individual has control), or the belief of an external locus of control (forces outside of the individual have control). Studies show that people who score towards having individual control (internal locus of control) live better lives, free of anxiety disorders.
Another part of feeling a sense of control of your life, is your ability to “free-play”.Not allowing young adults to have time on their own, away from direct supervision and control, deprives them of being able to find themselves and learn how to take control of their lives. This is extremely unhealthy and damaging for young adults futures. An environment that does not allow much free play, yet teenagers spend a majority of their time in, is school. Psychologist Peter Gray says that, “Children today spend more hours per day, days per year, and years of their life in school than ever before. More weight is given to tests and grades than ever before. Outside of school children spend more time than ever before in settings where they are directed, protected, catered to, ranked, judged, and rewarded by adults. In all of these settings adults are in control, not children.” When students are attending school it is the teachers opinions and judgements that matter in the classroom, most of the time nothing that comes from the student will be acknowledged. A student could love the topic he chose for a paper, but if the teacher disagreed, the student would not write about it. Often times if students are given freedom they will educate themselves, and if it is something they enjoy- they will happily educate themselves. In a situation where they are given this freedom, they would have intrinsic (quality) values over extrinsic (quantity). Over time, control and supervision over young adults has increased dramatically causing a lack of self/control in adolescents, resulting in anxiety.
In doing research on this topic, I came up with my own hypotheses. Social conditioning as a contribution to mental illness is something that I believe is underrated. Social conditioning is a term that many of us are unaware of because we are unconsciously participating in it. It is the process of training individuals in society to have certainbeliefs, behaviors, desires, and emotional reactions, which are accepted by society. If you were to ask a kindergartner what they wanted to be when they grew up, they would say the craziest things and an adult would brush it off and tell them its not possible. Fast forward a few years and they have been conditioned to pursue something “realistic”. Another example is our societies emphasis on college. If one does not attend college they may be looked at in a negative way. What we don’ take the time to realize is that college is not for everyone. Some people don’t find happiness in scholarly education. Ultimately if you are following societies norms instead of creating your own life, you will begin to feel distressed and this could lead to depression.
The amount of adolescents suffering from anxiety disorders has increased an immense amount during the past few years.The pressures of being a teenager have become more difficult and competitive than ever before. Subconsciously our actions have created an unhealthy society that values materials over everything, and conditions individuals to be a certain way. We may not notice how dangerous this is because it has become the norm, but if it continues future generations will face the consequences of our actions. If this way of life persists, in thirty more years there will be statistics showing a high increase in anxiety from today.
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that tea cup piglets are amazing. I will also admit that it is my goal in life to own one, but I wanted to know more about how they were genetically modified.
In China, a group of scientists have discovered a way to genetically create real pygmy pigs. Now, they are not new to the world, but unfortunaltey most pygmy pigs are runts of litters or suffer from having the dwarfism gene. With this new genome sequencing technique, actual tea cup pigs that will forever stay little are becoming big.
How They Do It
Scientists stunted the growth of male genes by using enzymes called transcription activator-like effector nucleases. After doing this, they had the male pig reproduce with a genetically normal female.This made sure that only half of the babies born wold be genetically modified, while the rest stayed normal pigs. “The team chose this method in order to dodge the potential health hazards involved with cloning,” says the article.
Controversy
Now, these pigs are not only being made for the demanding public. They are also being produced to become the subjects for many tests. “pigs are one of the better models for human diseases,” and they are also much smaller which makes handling them in labs so much easier to do. However, now that they can make these perfect pygmy pigs, they are selling them for high costs to people all over the world.
Another debate about these pigs, are whether or not it is ethical to genetically modify animals. Problems can arise when the sole purpose of making these animals is for them to be small. “‘”It’s questionable whether we should impact the life, health and well-being of other animal species on this planet light-heartedly,”’ geneticist Jens Boch says.”
It Might Be Alright Though!
So far, these pigs have shown no sign of having any health risks. The scientists also believe that in the near future, buyers will be able to choose the color they want their new baby. And while others agree with the claims that it is unethical, others believe that it is the same as breeding two different animals together. They are creating genetically modified and changed offspring. What is the difference?
Tell me what you think about pygmy pigs? Is this wrong to do, or is it ethical and simultaneously giving the public what it wants?
One-a- Day, Vitafusion, Centrum, and First Response: There are endless brands and versions of vitamin supplements on the market claiming to lend numerous health benefits to its consumers. Companies even target little kids with alluring and colorful packaging, making multivitamins one of the most diverse and inclusive products in the pharmaceutical department. I’ll admit that as a child, I can recall begging my parents for the Flintstone or Princess themed multivitamins. The fun shapes and array of fruity flavors made the supplement more like candy than a health enhancer. With that being said, there has been several studies conducted that examine whether or not there are tangible benefits to consuming a daily multivitamin. It is reported that nearly half of American adults regularly take vitamin supplements, with little scientific proof regarding if they are doing any good for our bodies. To my surprise, studies have actually uncovered adverse effects that can potentially be damaging to one’s health.
First I sought out to examine the more optimistic side of the argument and I researched the benefits of consuming a daily multivitamin. To my surprise, there were virtually no scientific studies on the internet that found clear benefits that outweighed the harmful side effects. So, instead of aimlessly attempting to uncover a positive study on the vitamins, I decided to explore the “One A Day” for women productwebsite. The website proudly lists the benefits to the multivitamin pill, which supposedly include:
Calcium and Vitamin D for bone health
B-vitamins that convert food to fuel for physical energy
Vitamins A, C, and E to boost the immune system and promote healthy skin
Although these all appear to be beneficial to one’s health, I noticed that there is not any scientific evidence or credible sources backing up these claims. Therefore, the benefits seem a tad questionable, since they are not backed by reliable sources.
Researching studies that examined the negative side effects to consuming a daily multivitamin was much easier of a task. First off, I would like to discuss the societal need for vitamins in the first place. Vitamins are necessary for the body to properly function. If your conscious in eating a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, you are probably already getting your daily dosage of vitamins. However, what most Americans do not realize is that if you are consuming a healthy and balanced diet, along with taking a daily vitamin, you are probably exceeding vitamin levels much higher than the FDA recommendation, which could be potentially dangerous to one’s health.
I stumbled upon a study performed by Medical researchers at the University of New England, where two meta-analysis of studies collected data on the effects of multivitamins in 400,000 patients. It was found that the individuals who consumed the daily supplement had an increased mortality rate. Similarly, another studywas released to CBS news, in which two trials of 350,000 volunteers were conducted, examining the vitamin supplements role in preventing chronic diseases. The outcome was not surprising, there was no link detected between vitamin supplements and a reduction in illnesses such as heart disease.
Overall, I think that it is clear that taking a multivitamin supplement is completely unnecessary for one’s health, as no clear benefits have been discovered. For those of who are already in a good state of health, the negative effects of multivitamins blatantly outweigh the benefits. The only logical reasoning to using multivitamins is if one already has a vitamin deficiency from a poor diet or lingering medical condition.
As finals quickly approach, most of us students are cramming as much in as we possibly can. This made me contemplate how I could possibly increase the effectiveness of my studying. I know that I have seen many students around campus listening to music while they study, but that never worked very well for me. First I questioned if I was listening to the wrong kind of music, but then I questioned if maybe I was doing it right by not listening to music as I study. I decided to use science to determine the answer to whether music should help or hurt a person’s study time.
Taken from spinedu.com
Surprisingly, it was rather hard to find the answer to this question. I found many different articles online that contained largely opinions, and they were either for it or against it. It was actually fairly hard to find scientific articles that were based on real studies. When I eventually did find some scientific articles, it was still just as hard to find a clear answer because most articles were strongly for or against it.
One study put people into 3 groups and assigned each group a level of background music while they worked on an attention test: one group got no music as a control group, another group got music only 10 minutes before they worked on the test, and the third group listened to music for 10 minutes as they were working on the test. The study found that listening to music 10 minutes prior to working actually made people more productive than if they had not listened at all (Shih). However, there was extreme variation when it came to the group who listened to music while they took the test. Another study from the University of Wales studied students’ abilities to complete a serial-recall test while they were placed in 5 different scenarios:
A quiet environment
With “steady state” speech. This means a single word (in this case, “three”) was repeated for the duration of the test
With “changing state” speech. This means a variety of words (in this case, random digits from 1-9) were played during the test
With “liked” music, meaning a song of the student’s choice (such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, or Arcade Fire). Students brought in their own music, the only requirement was that it had to have vocals
With “disliked” music, which in this case was a metal song called “Thrashers” by Death Angel (all students in the study disliked metal) (Sheela Doraiswamy, 2012)
This study found that it didn’t matter whether a person liked the music that they were listening or not. The students were equally distracted by both music that was liked and music that was not liked. The study also found that students in a quiet environment and in a steady state speech environment performed significantly better than students in the other three environments (Perham). However, I believe that the most surprising conclusion of the study was that student performed just as poorly while listening to music as they did listening to changing state speech (which was hypothesized to be the most distracting before the study). Upon looking further I found a huge problem with this study; it only had 25 participants. Therefore, it was not a large enough sample to really prove much through the results. A third study that I found from the University of Dayton concluded that having Mozart being played as background music actually improved spatial and linguistic processing abilities (Angel). This study shows that classical music may be beneficial as background music.
Taken from glapa.info
So, what can we conclude from all of this? Is it beneficial to listen to music while studying? The answer to that question really depends on the type of music that is being played and the person who is trying to study. There are huge variations, from person to person, in the effects of listening to music while studying.
Works Cited
Angel, Leslie A., Donald J. Polzella, and Greg C. Elvers. “BACKGROUND MUSIC AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE.” Ammons Scientific. University of Dayton, 1 June 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.
Doraiswamy, Sheela. “Does Music Help You Study? – Mind the Science Gap.” Mind the Science Gap RSS. WordPress, 08 Oct. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.
Perham, Nick. “Can Preference for Background Music Mediate the Irrelevant Sound Effect?” Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons, 20 July 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.
Shih, Yi-Nuo. “Correlation between Work Concentration Level and Background Music: A Pilot Study.” IOS Press Content Library. N.p., 2009. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.
I have always been curious as to why there are more right-handed people than left-handed people. In addition, I am curious as to whether the results are caused by genetics, experience, or a combination of both. According to Live Science , approximately 90 percent of people are right-handed while only 10 percent of people are left-handed. But what is the reasoning behind this? I decided to research why there are more right-handed people than left-handed people to understand the phenomenon.
Researchers at Northwestern University have recently constructed a mathematical model that shows people are rarely left-handed due to a form of cooperation. Humans are social beings and tend to value cooperation, so they become righties as a form of conformity to a social norm. Apparently, the balance between cooperation and competition within a species is what to determine what percentage of the species is right-handed and what percentage of the species is left-handed. If humans were heavily more competitive rather than cooperative, we would see a ratio close to 50-50. This is why we often see lefties dominate certain sports, such as boxing or baseball, because they value competition over cooperation. Professor Daniel M. Abrams and graduate student Mark J. Panaggio constructed a model that concluded over 50 percent of elite baseball players are left-handed and over 10 percent of athletes in other sports are left-handed. In terms of the causes for being right-handed or left-handed, Abrams states that genetics and environment both contribute to handedness. Even identical twins who share the same genes do not always have the same handedness.
There have also been instances where right-handedness was forced upon in certain situations, according to Scientific American. For example, some teachers would force their students to write right-handed rather than left-handed. I have also heard of ancient societies who believed being left-handed was a sign of evil which strongly encouraged people to learn to use their right hand.
There are many biological theories as to why more people are right-handed than left-handed. The Guardian provides several different viewpoints on the topic. David Colville believes that being left-handed is a recessive trait. Therefore, one in four people will have the left-handed gene, two in four people would share the trait, and one in four people would have the right-handed gene. However, human culture encourages the use of the right hand, so some left-handed people are trained to be right-handed and therefore the left-handed population is underrepresented. Another man by the name of Brian states that left-handed people had a slight starvation of oxygen on the right side of their brain in the womb. As a result, the left side of the brain became dominant at an early stage and dictated that the left hand would be the dominant one. The opposite would be true for right-handed people.
Image courtesy of http://www.handresearch.com/news/Menu_bestanden/brain-organisation.jpg
It does not seem that anyone has reached a definite conclusion on why more people are right-handed rather than left-handed. What we can conclude is that genetics and environment play a role in the determination of handedness. We could possibly do experiments where we take a sample of children from birth and attempt to train them to be a particular handedness, but there are too many unknown factors and possible confounding variables, such as genetics, that would effect the results of the experiment and not allow us to reach a definitive conclusion.
This semester we have had two pop quizzes on an experiment on exposure to dim light at night—about the brightness of a TV—caused hamsters to show signs of depression. The experiment was cause for many to reevaluate their living habits and routines convincing them that the hamster hippocampus’ are changed by light at night could mean that our own brains are affected by bright screen and light. Well now there is another reason why us young adults should cut the chords and stop watching television, researchers have discovered that too much TV as a young adult may impair midlife cognitive function.
Tina D. Hoang, M.S.P.H., of the Northern California Institute for Research and Education at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, Kristine Yaffe, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and coauthors examined associations between 25-year patterns of television viewing and physical activity and midlife cognition. Their work examined a relatively large study of 3,247 adults (ages 18 to 30) used a questionnaire to assess television viewing and physical activity during repeated visits over 25 years. The work and study of Dr. Yaffe and Mrs. Hoang seem to be quite reputable as both work for large state University programs and gathered research from a large pool over a large span of time.
The study that spanned over two and a half decades with thousands of participants provided significant evidence that your memory later on in life might be affected by the amount of television you watched earlier. “Participants with high television viewing during 25 years (353 of 3,247 or 10.9 percent) were more likely to have poor cognitive performance on some of the tests. Low physical activity during 25 years in 528 of 3,247 participants (16.3 percent) was associated with poor performance on one of the tests” (Jama).
What is even more surprising is that low physical activity is also linked with TV to produce poor cognitive results (almost twice as bad as those who had good phsycial activity and low television usage). Especially for our age group it was found that low levels of physical activity and high levels of television viewing during young to mid-adulthood were associated with worse cognitive performance in midlife. Slower processing and slow verbal memory were all side effects of television.
Maybe your grandmother was right, the TV is making you dumb and blind. So in honor of finals week turn off that TV and use some exercise to relieve some stress and to take a study break.
Phytochemicals, or second metabolites, are the substances that produced by plants and serves in variety of functions including the defense against attack by insects or other herbivores, fungi and bacteria. In the human evolution and process of adaptation to the continuously changing environment, we took a lot of advantage of phytochemicals and the most frequently used ones are spices in the food preparation and meals, and spices indeed reduce the jeopardy of some food-borne pathogens, like Samonella. Clostridium and Vibrio, to a great extent.
The most commonly used spices include garlic, chili, cinnamon and basil. Not only adding up flavors to the meals, the wholesome health effects of spices also worth to talk. Spices have inhibitive influences on microorganisms—it would be the bacteria for our most concern, and what really act in the inhibition of spices are phytochemicals. Spices contribute the most to the inhibition of bacteria is in our particular interest since bacteria intrigue more food borne diseases than fungi and other microorganisms do. Take the functioning phytochemical inside garlic as example, ascorbic acid has notably antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic ability that can act positively to our body in a direct way besides its antimicrobial potential that acts on the bacteria in meals as we discuss here.
The spice use can be greatly distinctive in their texture, their quantity and in their types. Spices primarily exist in to forms in the market, day and fresh. Most spices are in powder texture since dried spices are more convenient than the fresh ones for the most time and day spices are more chef-favored due to their readiness in control and the nice-looking plating; the converting process from fresh to dry is not very easy and for North America, about three portions of fresh herb is made into one portion of dried herb. Notably that both dry and fresh spice serves the approximately equivalent antimicrobial functions and fresh spices dried under relatively lower temperature have better conservation of nutritional substances and antimicrobial phytochemicals.
The spice use is also dose-dependent. Solid evidence exists to indicate that the more concentrated spices in the meal, the slower the meal deteriorates—more bacteria are inhibited by higher concentrated-spice meal. The reason why this works is primarily because of the amount of antibacterial phytochemicals present in the meal: more concentrated means more phytochemicals would appear in the meals.
The use of spices shows geographical idiosyncrasies. Most people have had experience with this novel experience with their taste bud during travel. Japanese dishes are delicate and more nutritional, Indonesian and Szechwan dishes hot and middle European and Scandinavian dishes bland. Even within the same country, the spices use can be distinctive due to the environmental discrepancy. Take China as example, dished in northern China are always spicy and greasy most because hot spice and make them feel hot and more oil can be stored in their body to defense the cold, while people in southern China more favor in light taste food.
The differentiated use of spice prominently highlights the role of spice in Darwinian perspective. Spice is important for human in evolutionary sense: spices serves as replacement to antibiotics and the overuse of medication, which becomes a more effective and healthy way to combat microbes. Moreover, environmental and cultural distinctiveness lead to sundry uses of spices—human can better fit in the changing environment with different spices just like the northern and southern Chinese do. Be gratitude to every single aspect of our life cause almost everything emerge around us can make us better and enjoy your meal with spices!
I’ll be honest here, I’m not a very timely person. I do most of my work hours before its due. Much like these blogs I wait until last minute. Everybody always says to manage your time wisely, to plan ahead and to get work done. But, what about the benefits or procrastinating? Theres got to be something. And there is.
According to this article, our hate for procrastination wasn’t always so, in fact in ancient times, Egyptians and Romans believed procrastinators to be useful and wise. Unfortunately, times have changed.
Our opposition towards procrastination stems far back into history, dating back to Jonathan Edward’s “Procrastination, or The Sin and Folly of Depending on Future Time” which basically condemns you to hell if you procrastinate. Anti-procrastination became an industry at one point, as people boasted their ways to stop procrastination.
What is procrastination?
According to the dictionary, procrastination is the act of habit of putting off or delaying especially something requiring immediate attention.
Dr. Joseph Ferrari is a lead researcher at DePau University in Chicago, and has published numerous articles related to procrastination. According to his research, approximately 20 percent of men and women in the U.S. are chronic procrastinators. This number is higher than that of people with clinical depression of phobias. According to the study, procrastination rates seemed to be higher in the northwest. According to his research, Dr. Ferrari believes that are links to ADHD, OCD and other personality challenges linked to procrastination, if you do it often and in various areas of your life. Most of us only procrastinate as a tendency of laziness, but for chronic procrastinators, it is a maladaptive lifestyle, Ferrari says.
Technology and procrastination
Much of todays technology is designed for us to not procrastinate however we still manage to do so. The snooze button, which many of us a guilty of hitting numerous times before starting our day, was actually designed to allow us more time, however it seems to have had the opposite effect. Dr. Ferrari suggests using technology as a tool, not as a delay.
According to this article, technology is playing a significant role in our cognitive control. Cognitive control is our ability to focus on accomplishing a test, in the context of competing demands. Todays technology often challenges our cognitive control system to its core, buzzing for our attention throughout the day.
Positives of Procrastination
Procrastination is not always a bad thing.
According to this article John Perry, a philosopher at Stanford who published a book on procrastination referred to this idea as “Structured procrastination”, or positive procrastination. He realized that procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing. Here are some ways, according to this article that people procrastinate that can actually help their overall productivity.
Some types of procrastinating can actually boost positive emotions and feelings of relaxation, spark ideas and strengthen relationships, such as contacting an old colleague or friend. These can actually increase productivity later on, leaving you feeling more motivated to do things.
Also, by procrastinating, you can actually get quite a bit done. For example, this article suggests that when you put off numerous little tasks, you’re more likely to do them when they form into one big task. It seems much more appealing to get six different things at once than do each individual thing in different sittings. (much like these blogs, but that’s another debate.)
Also, procrastinators often do things that, as stated before, spark their interests, increasing their positive emotions. This can lead to greater quality of work later on; simply reading or watching a ted talk about something that inspires you can give you motivation. And of course, my favorite of all the procrastination options- napping. Napping allow you to rest your brain, so when you wake up, you fell more refreshed and ready to tackle the day.
So how can we stop procrastination?
In The Art of Procrastination Perry says the best way to stop procrastination is do do more. If you add more things to your list, things that aren’t too important, you can look past them or procrastinate those things and do more important tasks. This is what Perry considers structured procrastination.
“Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.” (Perry, Art of Procrastination.)
Also, Psychological Science suggested that “precommitment” or setting personal deadlines resonated with people and did in improve their ability to complete a task.
This Tedtalk further explains the idea of why exactly we procrastinate.
Conclusion
Many of subconsciously procrastinate. I believe this kind of research is important because it leads us to understand just how our brain works and how technology may have an impact on our lives. Of course, technology is not the only thing to blame in terms of procrastination. I believe this research would benefit from studying other types of personality challenges have risen and grown throughout the years that may play a role in this procrastination problem. It is important to distinguish between laziness and simply putting off a task to do another. I do not believe this research would suffer from any problems such as the Texas sharpshooter or file drawer problems, as both sides– the benefits and disadvantages of procrastination are reflected in this research. I do believe I have learned a lot from my studies and this research has led me to understand just why I procrastinate. Hopefully in the future, I will be able to stop myself from meaningless, chronic procrastination and limit myself to ‘productive procrastination.”
In one of my previous blog posts I discussed how certain types of music had the ability to get us out of bed in the morning and get us started for the rest of the day, but can it heal us? Many of us know that our favorite tunes can make us feel calm and reduce stress, it may even cure a broken heart! Research has found that music’s abilities go beyond that to help humans be cured of certain diseases.
One of these diseases in which music made the sufferer feel better is Parkinson’s disease. Researchers claim that the vibrations in certain music types made the Parkinson’s less severe. In an experiment in which 40 patients with the condition were exposed to one minute increments of low frequency 30-hertz vibration on and off for 10 minutes, most of them reported feeling reduced symptoms. This is very promising that it is possible to develop some sort of vibration therapy to help with the unfortunate disease. One problem I have with this study is that it was too black and white. Instead of exposing the patients to only 30-hertz vibrations for one minute, scientists should have experimented with other vibrations: fast and slow, for more extended periods of time. If they committed to more varied trials, the results could have been significantly more satisfying in that they could additionally decipher exactly which of the vibrations could help the patients the most.
Perhaps an even more significant trial was conducted on patients of Alzheimer’s disease. In this experiment the patients were exposed to 40-hertz sounds this time for 30 minutes a few times a week. After this so called “vibroacoustic therapy”, patients seemed to be improved in their condition. In one particular instance, one woman “could recall the names of her grandchildren more easily, and her husband reported good improvement in her condition.” Again with this trial, I think more could have been done to see which frequency within the vibroacoustic therapy worked the best with Alzheimer’s patients. Then, the therapy could therefore be perfected and used in regular practice to treat patients.
We know that our favorite songs can help feel better if we are feeling depressed or anxious, but this evidence proves that certain sounds and vibrations have the ability to heal physical diseases just as well as everyday mental shortcomings.
We talked in class about Bisphenol A, or what we call BPA and the question came up, what is it? The answer seems pretty vauge, because in my research, I still don’t have a clear enough picture of what it is and how it is harmful. So I ask, does it matter and why should I care?
BPA is a used mainly for making hard plastics: our water bottles, tupperware, baby bottles things like that, but it’s also used for making less expected materials, CD’s, dental fillings and receipt papers from the store. According to Wikipedia, Bpa is used in most food and beverage cans, to keep the food away from the aluminum. This means that we are exposed constantly to the effects of this .
So why is it harmful? Bpa was originally created to be an artificial estrogen, but was significantly less effective then the current one that was being used. then being used in the way we are familiar with it, in 1997 it tested and adverse connections were found in lab rats. In 2009 Consumer Reports posted an analysis of BPA, reporting that the content humans were exposed to exceeded the FDA recommendations. Depending on the stage at which harmful levels are consumed, BPA could effect, at a perinatal level, sweet and salty taste preferences. At an adult level, BPA could modify insulin and sensitivity. Some studies have show a connection between BPA and the malfunction of the thyroid. In animals, BPA has been linked to testicular tumors and leukemia but the evidence was not strong enough to provide statistical significance. Animal models exposed at the perinatal stage have shown signs of altered breast development and risks of breast cancer development at later ages.
In all of the studies I read, none of them were able to give me evidence that BPA actually did something (in the sugary drink study, the consequences were clear that too much soda was bad). One study suggested BPA had links to obesity, but if BPA is in cans and plastics and I over eat things that come out of cans and plastics, is reverse causation more likely a culprit? I’d say yes!
I had to ask myself, if I was buying a water bottle and there were 2 bottles side by side, same price, would I get the BPA free version? Sure I would. It’s not costing me anything, and the science has yet to show me evidence that it is harmful. If the bottles had different prices, I would go with the cheap one.
All of my life, I have experienced my friends who are girls becoming emotional wrecks after a break up or tragic event. I never understood why they become this way, considering after a break up I tend to be fine with the condolence of my friends. I always wondered why women get so emotional.
It is actually due to the wiring in a female’s brain. A group of neurons in a women’s brain processes events that contain aggressive acts and fearful ones. Women and men experience this in different ways. “For men, the cluster “talks with” brain regions that help them respond to sensors for what’s going on outside the body, such as the visual cortex and an area that coordinates motor actions. For women, the cluster communicates with brain regions that help them respond to sensors inside the body, such as the insular cortex and hypothalamus. These areas tune in to and regulate women’s hormones, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and respiration.” This might not seem like a big deal, but in the long run it really does make a difference in how people react.
University of Basel conducted a study that neurologically showed why women are more emotional than men. “Using fMRI data from 696 test subjects, the researchers were also able to show that stronger appraisal of negative emotional image content by the female participants is linked to increased brain activity in motoric regions.” Dr Klara Spalek, who was the lead author in the study, explain how this shows that women are actually neurologically more emotional than men. This experimental study properly used the generation of images to trigger different emotional responses from different subject.
Next time you see your girl friend crying, or upset about something, remember that they are wired differently than males and it is not their fault for getting so emotional.
Sometimes getting to and from classes at Penn State feels like running the Boston Marathon. For many students a walk to class (even if you live on campus) can be 15-20 minutes long and even longer when the harsh Winter months hit and the University and professors don’t cancel class. For those of us that don’t drive our green lamborghinis, ride a bike, or zoom around on a fancy glowing hoverboard to commute to class it can sometimes be a hike. Often times I find myself running up and down Shortlidge sweating especially when I overslept for my 8:00 a.m. and need clicker points. Even with other alternatives like the Blue and White loop (that seem to fill up to capacity as the days get shorter and the temperature gets lower) most students at Penn State choose to commute by foot to their classes. This doesn’t seem to bad anymore as research by The George Institute for Global Health has found that the number of steps walked each day having a direct correlation with long term mortality.
With the rise of obesity all around the United States and the Western world, researchers and scientist have been trying to figure out ways to reduce mortality caused by the health problems associated with obesity and the solution might just be simply walking. The more steps you walk the healthier you seem to be and the longer you live.
So the next time you walk from East Halls to the IST building for a final just remember that a longer walk and fitter legs might just produce a fit brain. It’s no wonder why Penn State is surrounded by such a large group of intelligent professors and students, it’s because we have to walk so damn far.
I’m sure we were all told by our mothers when we were younger to not sit to close to the television and stare at it for too long otherwise we’ll have poor eye sight. This is not the case. Such a myth has been perpetuated through the ages and stems from the time General Electric came out with colored television sets way back in the 1960s’. Because of the amount of radiation that is let off from the screen, federal health officials deemed them highly unsafe. Not wanting their product to trigger great problems for viewers, General Electric stopped selling them.
Dr. Lee Duffner of the American Academy of Opthalmology does not cause any damage to one’s vision. Like staring at anything for too long, watching television can cause one’s ones to hurt as they are so focused on what is on the screen that the eyes get exhausted staying in one focal region for such a vast amount of time. The solution to this is simple. By turning off the television and shutting your eyes to allow them to rest will ease the tension in them and bring them back to a relaxing and natural state. Televisions pose a greater risk to weight gain and influencing somebody’s behavior than eye sight.
This claim that staring at the tube for long periods was also tested by the Lighting Research Center (LRC). The experiment went like this: have volunteers sit in front of the television for an hour while watching an action movie. The type of television in this experiment was a flatscreen television so that could always have the potential to unintentionally manipulate the results. About 50% of the volunteers were to view the film in a room that was brightly lit. After about an hour, they stopped watching and then returned to finish the film, except only this time the room was not lit up. The researchers decided to run a second trial with a different group of subjects with a twist. In this trial, they went from a non lit up room to a brightly lit up one. Throughout this movie watching in different areas of lighting and no lighting, the individuals had to press a button indicating that they were able to respond to visual cues, while the researchers measured electrical brain activity to see if there was a different from first watching the film and then resuming back to it. Blinking of the eyes were also observed for the study’s purpose. Lastly, the individuals of the experiment had to say if they felt the change in lighting had an impact on their eyesight. What the conclusion of this study showed was there was actually less straining and little fatigue of the eyes when the groups were in a brightly lit room, as opposed to watching in a darker room where eyes had a harder time paying attention. Even though it was more difficult to keep watching in the dark, the team of researchers attributed this to people being tired and that no signs were there to indicate that their eyesight was at all affected.
When you think of aggressive and dangerous dogs, usually you think of specific breeds or maybe childhood memories. A recent study from the Huffington Post called “Human directed aggression in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): Occurrence in different contexts and risk factors,” actually shows that aggression is based off of many factors besides breed. Now breed can be an included factor, but not exclusive. Aggression is defined as ” barking, lunging, growling, or biting.” The study sent out over 14,000 surveys and got about 4,000 responses with only 3% reporting aggression. The study focuses on aggression toward family members, strangers in the house, and strangers outside of the house.
Basically, the study found correlations between a lot of things and level of aggression. Dogs with older owners tended to be less aggressive. Dogs coming from a breeder tended to be less aggressive than those coming from a pet store or shelter. Dogs who were spayed or neutered were less aggressive than those who were not. The study also looked at dogs who went to puppy obedience class and had the following findings.
“Attending puppy class correlated with less aggression toward strangers both inside and outside the whole — but attending a training class for four or more weeks was related to more aggression toward family members. (Remember: the researchers found correlations here, not causation, which means it’s possible that dogs were going to obedience class for a long time because of their aggressive tendencies.)”
I thought this was interesting to note that without a more experimental study, this specific study cannot show that correlation equals causation. This is obviously very important to note as a scientist or researcher on this topic. As we discussed in class, making the assumption that correlation equals causation could have cause a serious error in the final conclusion of the study.
The study does say that breed can affect aggression in dogs but stresses that there are other factors that are not considered. The study also suggests that a certain breed may seem more aggressive but that could potentially be due to the owners. Certain owners may be more attracted to a specific breed making the dogs seem more aggressive when in reality it is directly related to the owners. This was not specifically studied but rather suggested as a hypothesis.
An article on the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals talks about aggression. This gives an extensive list of things that qualify as aggression like different types of biting, lunging, growling, showing teeth, and a few other rather bizarre behaviors that are said to be aggressive. This post then goes into different types of aggression. I think this section is very important. This looks at potential environmental caused aggression that most likely the owners might not admit to in the previous study by the Huffington Post. Some types of aggression are territorial aggression where the dog is aggressive towards an intruder of the dogs space. Another type is possessive aggression where the dog is possessive over its things like toys, food, bed, etc. Other types of aggression include protective, fear, defensive, social, frustration-elicited, redirected, pain-elicited, sex-related, and predatory aggression.
The article then goes into risk factors of aggression. Risk factors listed include size, age, bit history, severity, predictability, targets, triggers, ease of motivating the dog. Really, the only factor that directly is caused by the breed is the size. The other seven factors are related to the personality of the dog, environment, and owners. Still, I find that large dogs are usually more docile. This article is saying that in theory, large dogs are able to conflict more damage than small ones.
I think that a study should be done to evaluate the owners as well as the dogs. The owners could answer questions about the dogs and the dogs should be observed to see if the answers match. The owners should also be evaluated because the owner obviously directly affects the dog and if the owner is not aggressive, it would be interesting to see how aggressive the dog is in return. My conclusion for now is to be kind and not aggressive toward your dog and regardless of the breed, you’ll have a sweet dog.
In 1945, my great grandfather was serving in World War 2 when a grenade went off in a truck that he was in. All he remembers is waking up in a church 2 days later and not being able to hear out of his left ear. The overwhelming sound of the grenade ultimately blew out his left ear. Everyday people around the world listen to music in a headset, and all I can wonder is how much more the human ear can take. I believe that listening to your music too loudly can indeed make the song better but can also ruin your hearing forever.
WHO (World Health Organization) conducted a study and concluded that nearly 50% of those studied listen to unsafe loudness of music. In order to not damage your ears your music needs to be lower then a person talking. You should be able to hear everything around you while listening to your personal headset. 360 million people have not listened to their music properly and are suffering from moderate to serve hearing loss.
Hearing loss is categorized into three levels: Moderate, severe and profound. Moderate hearing loss is when you have difficulty keeping up with conversations, use of a hearing aid can help people to hear better. Severe hearing loss is when people need to rely on lip-reading even when using hearing aids. Profound hearing loss is wen a person needs to use sign language to be able to communicate.
Since technology has boomed significantly over the past 10 years we see the amount of people having hearing problems has also gone up. In 2006 1 in 5 children had haring problems, that is 30% more then children surveyed in 1988. Apple, the popular company known for releasing the iPod even has on their website “Permanent hearing loss might occur if you use headphones at a high volume. You can adapt over time to a higher volume of sound, which might sound normal but can damage your hearing. Set the volume to a safe level before that happens. If you experience ringing in your ears or speech sounds muffled, reduce the volume or stop using your headphones and have your hearing checked. The louder the volume, the quicker your hearing could be affected. Hearing experts suggest these tips to protect your hearing:
Limit the amount of time you use headphones at high volume.
Don’t turn up the volume to block out noisy surroundings.
Turn the volume down if you can’t hear people speaking near you.”.
Being that the number of children with hearing loss has increased and apple tells their customers to be careful when listening to music with headphones I believe a randomized study needs to be conducted to test the specific amount of time it takes to harm a person’s hearing. But for now when you are listening to music it is important to follow to instructions listed above to save your hearing forever.
I randomly one day overheard a conversation on whether or not kissing your loved one extends a humans lifespan. Both sides stated their viewpoint on the subject at hand. One saying, “You loving your partner makes you and your relationship healthier so your lifespan would be increased” while the other said “Just because you do not kiss everyday does not mean you do not love them.” Both sides had valid points for their opinions, but I wanted to know the facts.
Study Summary
Kissing is one of the best universal ways to express affection to your loved ones. A group of German physicians and psychologists conducted astudythat revealed that the secret of having a happy, successful, and long healthy living is to kiss your partner before you go every day. Dr. Arthur Sazbo, one of the German physicians, found that those who kissed their spouses each morning often do not miss their work due to illness. Additionally, there are fewer chances to car accidents, earnings increase monthly from 20% to 30%, and they live about five years more than those who do not kiss on another on the cheek. Dr. Sazbo explained, “The kissers begin the day with a positive attitude and it is believed that those who do not experience it, whatever be the reason, go out the house with a lack of confidence.” The study followed by a list of benefits kissing does to the body such as, but not limited to regulating the heartbeat, improve lungs work ability by three times and burn calories. I foundother articlesthat agree that there are health benefits from kissing.
Study Analysis
I found it difficult to find where the information was coming from. The team stated that the study consumed facts, but had no proof to back it up. There was nothing mentioned of a questionnaire, experiment, observational study or anything. Therefore, because of this, I cannot fully state or deny this information as credible and/or reliable. I readanother articlewrite about the study and it claimed “Some German insurance companies and psychologists have found a correlation between work attitudes and a morning goodbye kisses.” again; I wonder where this information derived from. The title of the article is, “Men who kiss their wives in the morning live five years longer than those who do not.” I assumed that the study was on males only. The article always refers to males and their wives so I believe that this is an accurate assumption. I do want to add that the heart benefit included at the end of the article give hope that the information above has the potential to be a false positive. Nevertheless, since we do not know any specifics to the information or have any proof that the study happened, then we cannot generalize it as a false positive. I consider that more studies need to occur so that this article is proven right or wrong.
Conclusion
The team of German physicians did successfully state the outcomes of kissing your spouse each morning. All reasons seemed reasonable and applied to everyday lives, but unfortunately, their information failed to prove with a research study. The message to take away is that: whether you are a person that does not take information into account unless truth of the study was conducted or you are one to go with the flow, the action to kiss your spouse each morning before you go does not take much. Even if the study proves to be wrong, there is nothing to lose when you win a smooch.
Last year, I heard about some students from North Carolina University who claimed to have created a nail polish that turned colors if it was exposed to any type of date rape drug. After doing more research, I thought it would be an interesting topic for a blog.
Why They Did It
The four students (surprisingly all male) say they aim to combat sexual assault by combining modern chemistry with traditional cosmetics. Now in order for the nail polish to work, it must be dipped into a drink, where it acts like a chlorine strop tester for date rape drugs. It can test for drugs such as Rohypnol, Xanax and GHB. They made an extremely correct point: “while date rape drugs are used to facilitate sexual assault, there is very little science in how to detect them.” They wanted to empower women to feel comfortable going out by themselves, and having something to look out for them.
Controversy
Katie Russell, from Rape Crisis England and Wales, believes that this nail polish is actually making women seem as though it is their fault if drugs appear to be in their drink. Points are also being made that Rohypnol, Xanax and GHB are no longer used that often as date rape drugs, so why would they even bother.
Really?
While I respect these claims, I as well as other I polled, do not agree. I decided to survey some of my sorority sisters and friends to see how they feel about all this information.
I first asked them if they felt this drug was sexist towards women. The 15 girls I surveyed all gave a resounding NO. They felt that having this drug gave them power back in being able to protect themselves. The sad truth is that us girls have to look out for ourselves and each other. We can NOT rely on men (the ones who have an interest in date-raping women) to just stop what they are doing, and what they have probably done before. Sadly, this is not how our society handles the issue of rape and sexual assault.
Next, I asked them if they thought it was pointless to have a nail polish that only detected three drugs? Especially if those drugs were not as commonly used anymore. The girls were more hesitant in their answers, but they all sounded a bit like this:
They all agreed that it wasn’t 100% helpful if these drugs are not always used anymore. But they all also agreed that just because the drugs aren’t commonly used, doesn’t mean they never will be used. They are thankful that there are men out there who want to help us, as a society of women, prevent terrible things from happening. They decided that they would probably invest in the nail polish but they would push the four boys, now going by the name Undercover Colors, to create more types of nail polishes, ones that can detect every type of date rape drug.
What Do You Think?
Personally, I have to agree with my sisters. I am thankful that these men created something that can potentially prevent women from being raped. Just because it may seem sexist to other, or pointless, do we really have to slam the boys and the product? It might not be the answer to all of our prayers, but it is a step in the right direction to help us protect ourselves. Tell me how you feel about this new product!
I never grew up with animals; unlike my Father who grew up on a farm in New Mexico with horses, chickens, cats, and dogs the only pets I had until I was in High School were fish that always managed to die on me. I couldn’t really blame my parents though because of my dad’s military career we really never had the chance to get any pets much to the pleasure of my mom and brother who are highly allergic to anything with fur. Some of the places I lived (Japan, Italy, England) wouldn’t allow animals on the base or in housing and apartments we lived in. Although I understood why I wasn’t allowed to have any real pets I was always devastated and felt like I was missing something or left out when I asked for a dog every Christmas and was disappointed.
It turns out that a children with pets have less stress.A pet dog may protect your child from childhood anxiety, according to research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Pet dogs had already been linked with health benefits for adults, as promoted by the US Public Health Service (USPHS), but now the CDC is reporting that mental health and anxiety in children drastically improves with pets.
Dogs also have also been reported in a current study to reduce BMI, which could be a useful tool in helping stop childhood obesity. researchers from Bassett Medical Center in New York investigated the hypothesis that pet dogs are positively associated with healthy weight and mental health among children. This could be because the responsibility of having, walking, and caring for a dog in which a child is more likely to exercise or even from low stress levels which influences dietary decisions.
Whatever the reason this just gives many of us to splurge especially this holiday season in our attempt to justify obtaining a four legged friend. I know I have another reason to whine to my parents of all the benefits I potentially missed out on.
You just had the best Thanksgiving meal ever. Endless amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing etc. Afterwards all you wanted to do was lay on the couch because you felt so full from all the food. Why is it that we get too full. Is it the texture of the food or something else?
” Our appetite reflects a conscious sensation of hunger, a learned or habitual pattern of eating at times throughout the day, our preferences for different kinds of foods and the sheer pleasure of eating or indulging in particular foods we like.” When our stomach expands while eating the nerve receptors feel that and send signals to the brain. The brain then tells us we are starting to feel full.
Satiating has apart to play in this. Theres seven different signals that comply to feeling full and are broken up into two categroies: short vs long. During short term saityity you try to remember the memory of what was consumed like the taste and smell. Also the stretching of the stomach happens. During long term saitity the brain recieves a message that tells us how long it’ll take to eat before we’re full.
One study was done with men and women eating 38 foods that had the same calories. Every 15 minutes during a two hour limit, they would say how full thye’ve become.
I wish they told us how many people did the study and what age, if they were overweight or not, ect was told as well. Hat might have skeeted the results. But its cool to know what is actually telling us that we’re full from food. I never heard of saitiating before this.
For most people the holidays are their favorite time of the year because everyone’s families get together, exchange gifts, eat a huge meal, and just enjoy each others company. Although to many people the holidays seem to be the happiest time of the year, I remember growing up people would tell me that suicide rates peaked during the last two months of the year because of something called holiday depression. Is holiday depression a real thing and does it cause more people to take their own lives during the holidays vs. any other time of the year?
There are many different opinions out there but the most logical coincide with the fact that holiday depression is a myth. Everyone may feel stressed during the holiday season running around to find the perfect gift or cleaning the house for company but this stress doesn’t usually cause a person to fall into a depression. Many people think holiday depression is a real thing because of a rumor that has been going around for years that suicide rates reach their peak during the holiday months. In fact, the Center for Disease Control reported that the suicide rate is actually at its lowest during the month of December, therefore people tend to commit less suicide during the holiday season. Also, the Public Policy Center has been tracking and analyzing reports since 2000 and just a few years ago they came out with the statement that 50% of articles from 2009-2010 published the myth and made people believe holiday depression is a real thing.
In 1984, Russ Christensen published a journal unveiling the hoax behind holiday depression and exposing it as the myth that is it. After his extensive research, Christensen found that the belief of suicide rates, psychiatric hospitalizations, and ER visits increasing during the holiday season have no credible sources and therefore do not exist. Russ Christensen also believes that because this myth is such a prominent aspect in society that many people know about, it is swaying doctor’s diagnosis. For example, if someone goes to see a therapist during the holiday months for regular depression, because holiday depression is such a known myth they may unconsciously over diagnosis “holiday depression.” By doing so, they then fail to treat the real problem at hand and their patient goes un-treated for actual depression.
Although holiday depression is a myth, seasonal depression http://www.livescience.com/7394-big-holiday-depression-myth.html is not, and it is an actual serious problem. Seasonal Affective Disorder, more commonly known as SAD, is when a person experiences depression during the same season each year and only during that time. Scientists are fully sure what causes it but they think it might have to do with lack of sunlight because it can cause problems with your biological clock and mess up your serotonin chemicals in the brain. SAD differs from regular depression because it only happens for a short period throughout the year and for the rest of the time you are your normal self. So yes, for some people this seasonal depression may fall during the holiday months but this still doesn’t me holiday depression is its own thing.
Even though many people believe in holiday depression, based on research and the input of multiple professionals it can be concluded that yes, holiday depression is a myth but there is such thing as seasonal affective disorder that is completely real and affects many people.
Any pet owner can agree that domestic dogs obtain incredible social skills which allow for interpreting and acting upon human acts like pointing and gazing. One belief is that this developed through domestication and dogs’ abilities to evolve. The evidence behind that hypothesis is that, based on natural evolutionary relationships, wolves cannot interpret human cues in the way a dog can. Even Great Apes cannot match the canine performance of intelligence and understanding. Also, regarding the origination and development and an organism, cues can be understood (using that term loosely) even as a puppy. Their understanding is commonly thought to not rely on high human exposure or an extent of training.
It is a very difficult hypothesis to test, however. It almost fully relies on visual cues and an observation of the dogs’ performance. There is really no way to get inside of a dog’s head and understand the motive, reasoning, or thinking. Additionally, studies have little restrictions or controls for alternate explanations of dog performances and it is difficult to be consistent between studies regarding how we observe, the dog’s awareness or feeling of the environment, and the human cues, gestures and reinforcements. The study, however, decides to use an auditory cue in place of a visual cue. More specifically, voice direction. The dogs were tested by whether or not they chose the correct bin of food over the empty bin. The results show that when using the voice direction to find hidden food, the dogs were successful in all trials. One added note was that “some dogs may not have comprehended the adult’s vocalization referentially, but those who did, comprehended it correctly from the first trial over three quarters of the time.” A second study was then conducted with no voice. Without the voice direction, dogs could not find the hidden food. There were 12 occasions of choosing correctly and 17 occasions of choosing incorrectly. The study confidently concluded that adult dogs could rely on voice direction, and thus continued the study with puppies. The results showed little to no difference from the performance of an adult dog. Their results can be explained by a development in dogs from domestication and human exposure.
(The above image shows the difference of correct choices between puppies that are often exposed to human interaction and puppies that are less exposed.)
The article is somewhat vague and brief about the dogs used for testing and the process and thinking behind the study. The size is somewhat small, but it can be understandable as to how it would be difficult to perform the study on a larger scale since it is interactive and not just observational. Overall, the article opens the door for more studies to be conducted and to change the way we think about dog relationships and performances as a result of human actions.
Also, hope everyone has a happy next two weeks and remembers that dogs are always the best cure for stress!
As the colder weather is approaching we have more to worry about than catching the flu from our friends… catching their bad attitude. Edward Hill, a graduate from the University of Warwick in Coventry, England is part of a research team that studied how teens’ moods affect others. This group collected data from about 3,000 US teens. This study was strictly observational because there was no experiment or manipulation. Through a number of years, teens were asked about their mental state and their friends at the time. These answers were then run through computer screening which tested for 3 different areas of study. The first model looked for signs that prove the number of friends who were depressed affected a teen’s risk for depression, the second look for evidence proving the number of friends who were not depressed affected that risk. And the third trial was a control trial which studied if their friends mood had nothing to do with a teen’s risk of depression.
In the end of this study there no was evidence proving that the number of depressed friends affects a teens risk of depression. I believe this trial was unsuccessful for many reasons. First off, there is no way that the evidence resulting from this trial could be viewed as strong because this trial was entirely anecdotal observations. The collection of data took place through small surveys over the phone with large amount of people. This allows for people to give researchers inaccurate information because they think it is more socially correct (courtesy bias). The researchers can never be sure that the information they are receiving is completely correct. Another important factor in this experiment is correlation does not equal causation. This experiment limits itself to only 3 possible outcomes that are evaluated through computers. There are so many possible third variables and reverse causations that are available in this trial. There is no manipulation in the study which would allow for the correlation of your friends depression to link with your own depression. This also creates a huge window for the possibility of chance.
I would conclude this study to be a null hypothesis because there is no change and they fail to reject the alternative hypothesis. This experiment neither proved something wrong, nor proved it right. Because depression is a serious mental illness, if the experimenter truly wanted to asses the mental effects a friends depression has on themselves, they should conduct lab trials. If i were to create my own study, I would create a study group of about 20 people. I would surround 10 of the people with someone who is depressed and the other half would be the control. I would use medical equipment to study the brain activity after spending time with someone who is depressed in contrast to the person surrounded by people who are not depressed. This would allow me to manipulate the study and create tangible evidence.
Bpa was originally created to be an artificial estrogen, but was significantly less effective then the current one that was being used. then being used in the way we are familiar with it, in 1997 it tested and adverse connections were found in lab rats. In 2009 
WHO (World Health Organization) conducted a study and concluded that nearly 50% of those studied listen to unsafe loudness of music. In order to not damage your ears your music needs to be lower then a person talking. You should be able to hear everything around you while listening to your personal headset. 360 million people have not listened to their music properly and are suffering from moderate to serve hearing loss.
