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Going to the gym and working out isn’t for everyone especially when you would rather lay in bed or take a nap. After a long day of classes, it is very hard to have the motivation to get up and go workout. One thing that helps a lot of people is pre workout. Pre workouts are becoming ever so popular among athletes and people who work out. The purpose of taking them seems very beneficial because if you’re taking time out of your day to go work out, you obviously want to get the most out of your workout. Pre workout supplements are supposed to help you stay focused and increase your energy levels. Most of these pre workouts I’ve seen contain a lot of caffeine and some sort of creatine and then a bunch of ingredients I don’t really know. My question is do these pre workouts actually help or are they all just placebo and make you think that they help?

A study done by the International Journal of Medical Sciences shows the effect of pre workout supplements on subjects. They did a double blind random placebo trial, they used healthy men and women who were undergoing an exercise program. They looked at the effects it had on the subjects overall health, their performance and the safety of the subjects. The subjects were to maintain around the same food and fluid intake and rest for certain periods of time before they were brought in to workout. The study showed that the subjects felt as if they were more focused and that the preworkout helped them throughout their workouts, but as far as the physical tests done, there was no significant improvement shown to the subjects muscle mass or fat tissue.

All in all, pre workouts seem to be more of a placebo effect then an actual benefit physically. Personally I feel like pre workouts help me to stay focused, in the gym. I don’t think that this study will steer me away from taking pre workouts because I feel that they benefit me, even though it may only be a placebo. 

The average human lifespan has varied within the past centuries. According to the NIH (National Institute on Aging) , the life expectancy increase that we see today is viewed as being an enormous achievement. Not many years ago, people were living on average up until the 50^th year, where as now the average lifespan in some places has reached 83 years. They state that one of the reasons why we have seen this increase in average lifespan is due to the different death reasons and the shift in illnesses.

With time we have not only advanced as a society evolutionarily but we have also advanced scientifically. Over the years we have developed vaccinations and have imposed immunization for children entering the school system and even for some jobs. Overall it seems as though health is becoming a trending topic, this being something that should have happened years ago. Now a day, there has been an increase in the media to be more conscious of what you put into your body and how you care for it. Not only has there been an obvious peek in the media in the interest of eating healthy, exercising, and leading a certain type of lifestyle but there has also been a peek in life spans.

If crazes like healthy eating, exercising, and leading a certain lifestyle have only recently become a large part of our society then how has the lifespan range increased so much but it also seems as though families are still choosing not to vaccinate their children. Vaccination’s are, according to Medicinenet, when you are injected with a very small amount of a certain virus or disease in order to help your body fight it off and build immunity to it. The immunity we have developed as a society to diseases is possibly to blame; or at least partially, for the increase on average lifespan. On the aspect of scientific improvement, it is stated by the NY Times that drugs and antibiotics have been very helpful in survival when it comes to health and lifespan. Drugs and antibiotics have  fought against disorders and illnesses that would have been deadly if it was not for our advancing scientific knowledge. Dr. Vijg from the NY Times article states that drugs and antibiotics repair damage momentarily but in life each moment counts. Seeing this information, a question that comes to mind is if parents and society know that vaccinations and drugs are helpful not only for their child but also for society and its survival as a whole then why is it allowed for some children to willingly opt out of getting them based on religion. We monitor and mandate so many things to be done in order to be able to go to school yet this is something that is respected out of religious values for certain people. Children who are not vaccinated should not be allowed to be in school with other children because they risk bringing in something that one child may react negatively to. Surely the pros outweigh the cons in all aspects. It makes a child stronger and more immune to disease and it makes our society evolutionarily stronger as well.

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Question:

Does anyone else feel like everytime they eat bread they get a horrid case of the hiccups???!!! I try and enjoy a slice of bread, biscuit, roll, certain cakes, etc, and BAM…..hiccups. This happens to me all the time, and I just can’t seem to figure out why. Is it that I am eating it too fast? Am I eating too much of it at once? Texture? Consistency? Ingredients? Am I allergic? What is going on?!!! Is there something personally wrong with me? It very well might be due to chance, but I know that there has to be a correlation between my consumption of bready carbs and my hiccup attacks… or maybe, not?

http://www.drbriffa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/shutterstock_93060556.jpg

I’M NOT NUTS:

If you think I’m crazy and are reading this like “What is this girl talking about? I’ve never heard of getting hiccups from bread”, well, I’m not alone. Check out this link to read about some other pissed bread eaters:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/general-homesteading-forums/countryside-families/442856-does-bread-give-you-hiccups.html

This proves no evidence or support to a causation, but shows that this is a legit question that other people are asking too.

Suggestive Correlations:

1. Bread → hiccups (direct causality) …..what i believe is happening
2. Bread ← hiccups (reverse causality)…. Not what i believe is happening… having the hiccups does not make me eat bread…… this causation is ruled out…. I am simply mentioning it to narrow it down
3. Bread ← Z → Hiccups (Confounding)…. Anything that could cause hiccups and bread consumption…(examples listed below)
4. Chance….always can be a possibility

What’s going on:

I think a lot of the reason that I am so confused as to why I get these sudden hiccups is because I am not all that educated on what a hiccup actually is. So, I did some research. According to a medical professor at the University of Calgary, William A. Whitelaw, there are various happenings in the body that cause them. He claims that the leading cause is initiated by the stomach expanding and sending its’ acids up through the throat. This allegedly causes the diaphragm to have a spasm and quickly contract along with multiple other muscles in the throat including the vocal cords. This sudden action causes the sound of a hiccup, and the rush of air up the esophagus causes an additional “burp-like” experience. Ok, so now I know how a hiccup is formed, great, but this still does not answer why on earth bread seemingly makes this phenomenon happen in my body.

So I dug a little deeper……. Confounding Variables:

Along the way in my research, I discovered some more specific causes of the hiccup process– ones that may narrow down why bread in particular does this to me. According to a popsugar fitness blog, other causes include consumption of spicy foods, carbonation, alcohol, tobacco, and air. Maybe some of these could even be possible 3rd variables. Maybe i tend to eat more bread when I’m eating spicy foods to lessen the extreme flavors. Alcohol or carbonated drinks like soda could also be confounding variables because often soda or alcohol is a preferable beverage choice to pair with bread. The article also suggests that speedy eating and overeating can cause hiccups, but there is no scientific evidence to declare a mechanism.

Another interesting correlation is stated in Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen’s  article regarding Celiac disease. In simple terms they defined the disease as a destruction of a lining in the intestines that prevents the ability for nutrients to flow through the body. Because of the damage, the stomach’s of Celiac disease patients have trouble accepting gluten in any form. In result, hiccup outbursts may occur. From this information, it could be suggested that gluten could be a possible cause for hiccups, but the person eating the bread has to be a Celiac patient… or do they? There is no published evidence.

Experimentation….or lack there of:

From the looks of my research, it seems most probable that the correlation between bread and hiccups is caused by a 3rd variable. However, since there is no previous or published control experiments for this hypothesis, I cannot state a conclusion that has sufficient evidence. If I were to create an experiment to test this question, I would do a control experimental trial. The participants would be split accordingly into two groups with an equal number of males and females in each group. The people in the control group would be Celiac-free and would each quickly eat 3 slices of white bread. The experimental group would be Celiac patients and would quickly eat 3 pieces of white bread. If the results showed that within 5 minutes after the bread consumption only one of the groups got hiccups, then the evidence could support that either the gluten or the fast-eating caused the hiccups. I would then do the exact same trial but have the bread be eaten slowly.  If the original results showed that within 5 minutes after the bread consumption both groups got hiccups, then I would run another trial. This trial would be exactly the same, but I would switch the y-variable from white bread to gluten free bread and do the same post procedure as the first trial.

Is bread guilty?

It turns out that the correlation between bread and hiccups is far more complicated than I had thought. I apologize to bread for pointing the finger. It is not fair for me to blame bread for my hiccups. However, due to the lack of experimentation and evidence, I am still skeptical of bread.

But since I do not have Celiac disease, and there are so many possible z-variables that could cause my hiccups,  I’m going to say “the heck with it!” and keep eating bread.

Article Sources:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-causes-hiccups/

http://www.kansas.com/living/health-fitness/article1092152.html
http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/What-Causes-Hiccups-433061

For as long as I can remember whenever I felt extremely hot or extremely cold people would tell me, “It’s all in your mind”.  I never thought much of that statement because honestly it did not make sense to me that my mind, or brain, could make up the way my body is feeling, in terms of temperature.  I simply always thought that if you were in a humid temperature you would be hot and if you were in a frigid temperature you would be cold.  Is it necessarily true that one’s brain could control their body temperature?

            One of the biggest jobs that the hypothalamus is responsible for, is controlling one’s body temperature.  The hypothalamus is located in the brain, proving that the brain does control body temperature, in a certain way.  Humans have a set body temperature which is right around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.  The hypothalamus can sense whether or not your body is close to that temperature and makes an effort to keep body temperatures constant.  So in that effort, if the body gets too hot, the hypothalamus tells the glands to produce sweat and if the body is too cold, it makes the body shiver (Brashears).  Does this explain why I am often very cold while others are moderately chill?  In a way it could because being exposed to a cold environment will obviously make me cold.  But when I recognize that I am in a colder environment, so does my hypothalamus, which tells the rest of my body that I should be trying to get warm.

The hypothalamus also controls a variety of other important functions.  We even read an article in class about the hypothalamus.  It concerned hamsters suffering from depression because they have slept with a light on.  This light impacts the hypothalamus which then exerts hormones that can be a leading cause to depression.  Although this wasn’t a study done on humans, it proved that if depression is something that one worries about, why not turn off the lights and television while sleeping.  Because, in reality, what harm could that do?

I believe it is very interesting that the brain is actually what controls your body temperature.  One would think that the temperature that your body is immersed in would be the only indicator of the temperature your body feels.  It is intriguing to find that it seems to be a mixture of both.  It is questionable, however, whether or not the hypothalamus can help the body not feel extreme drops and rises in body temperatures.  Since it is pretty certain that the hypothalamus is the controlling factor for body temperature and it is located in the brain, it can be assumed that there is a positive correlation between the brain controlling bodily temperatures.

Bibliography:

Jake Brashears. “Singing in the Rain.” ASU – Ask A Biologist. 9 Jun 2012. ASU – Ask A Biologist, Web. 15 Oct 2016. http://askabiologist.asu.edu/bird-hypothalamus

Teague, R. S., and S. W. Ranson. “THE ROLE OF THE ANTERIOR HYPOTHALAMUS IN TEMPERATURE REGULATION.” Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

Team, Healthline Medical. “Hypothalamus.” Function, Definition & Location. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

Picture:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/01/25/article-2267507-1722913D000005DC-640_634x530.jpg

Its all the rage. Everyone is talking about it for many reasons. Coconut oil is gods gift to earth. I am a firm believer in coconut oil. I use it for everything from cooking to using inside and outside of my body. I hopped on the coconut oil train about two years ago. It has honestly changed my life. I know I sound so stupid saying that but its true. Coconut oil has done miracles for me from, clearing up acne, whitening my teeth, ridding my body of toxins, cooking, and unsticking doors.

But if you don’t believe me check out this post about coconut oil yourself. The health benefits of coconut oil are amazing. It contains lauric acid which raises both HDL and LDL cholesterol levels, which can improve the cholesterol profiles. It is possible that the antibacterial and antimicrobial properties can speed up metabolism and clear up acne. There is also a theory that coconut oil helps with Alzheimers disease.  Even though there hasn’t been any clinical trail and evidence that it helps it is said to have some impact. Hopefully they will look further into that. All in all coconut oil is an amazing product. Whatever you use it for always use it in moderation, you don’t want to over do it, things could get a little slippery!

Work Cited:

Coconut Oil

Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia also known as Brain Freeze has been something we’ve all experienced in our lives. Have you ever wondered why is phenomenon happens? Read this vlog post and you’ll know why.

There are two main arteries that are in the back of our mouth, the internal curated artery, and the anterior cerebral artery. The internal curated is responsible for the blood that flows to your brain. The anterior cerebral artery is an artery that is right below were your brain tissue begins. Normal the internal curated artery and the anterior cerebral artery are very warm sitting in the back of your mouth. Eating food like ice cream and frozen yogurt at a normal speed will not give you a brain freeze, but eat it really fast and that’s when the brain freeze comes into play. Similar process happens with animals when they get cold food too fast. Cats getting brain freeze .

Eating ice cream and other cold food fast makes the temperature in the back of your mouth cool down in a dramatic fashion. When the temperature in the internal curated artery and the anterior cerebral artery drop that fast, it causes your brain to go into a cold state of shock. The brain reacts like this because it thinks you are trying to freeze it, so you get the cold painful sensation going through your head.

Stopping a brain freeze once it happens is pretty simple. You get the brain freeze because of the dramatic drop in temperature were the internal curated artery and the anterior cerebral artery are located. To stop the brain freeze twist your tongue to the back of your mouth. When you do that your warm tongue warms up your internal curated artery and the anterior cerebral artery, so the area warms up and the brain freeze stops.

I am sure all of you have heard someone say something along the lines of “I need coffee to wake up” or “I do not function until I have had coffee”.  The caffeine phenomenon is sweeping the country and more and more people are relying on this drink a part in their every day routine.  According to an article written in USA Today by Karen Fernau, 83% of adults in the U.S. drink coffee.  That represents the largest consumer market for the beverage in the world.  On average one person has about three cups a day, which amounts to roughly 587 million cups a day.  This just covers the adult market.  The coffee industry has become a $30 billion-a-year power-house that has become a pivotal part in a lot of people’s lives.  Now as someone who is not a coffee drinker I have always been fascinated with the obsession of this drink.  One of the main ingredients in coffee as most of you probably know is caffeine.  This works as a stimulant in the body which alerts the senses which is the case as to why some many people use it as a wake up technique to start their day.

Now as a college student I am sure that many you have been met with the situation of an all-nighter.  You have too much on your plate to afford a couple hours of sleep so instead you most likely brew up a pot of coffee and get to work.  While coffee does work to alert the senses it cannot replace sleep.  Sleepfoundation.org explains that while we may temporarily feel rejuvenated and awake after consumption, the results are just temporary.  The caffeine works to block chemicals within the brain that induce sleep and is also works to increase the production of adrenaline.  The effects of this drink can begin in as quickly as 15 short minutes.  After it kicks in, the effects are not completely eliminated from the body until roughly six and a half hours later.  This means that those attempting to pull late nights working on assignments and then attempt to go to bed within that time frame are still experiencing the after effects of the drink.  A ripple affect may begin where uses the drink to stay awake, but than is later not able to fall asleep and then to combat the daytime sleepiness they consume more coffee to begin the cycle all over again.  Now there very well may be some confounding variables that contribute to one’s inability to sleep after coffee consumption such as sleep environment and an individual’s biological processes.  However better to be careful than to be trapped in an never ending cycle of tiredness and coffee.

For those of you that are frequented with those late night study sessions a test prepping company named Kaplan has formed at list of six healthy drinks that one can consume to help one study that are better than coffee.  Now this may come as a surprise to some of you but number one on the list is in fact water.  One of the main symptoms that lead to feelings of fatigue is in fact dehydration.  So the more hydrated you are the less fatigue one will feel along with the absence of the caffeine crash that accompanies coffee consumption.  The next drink on the list came as a surprise to me: Milk.  One does not usually think of milk as a study aid, but in fact it contains neurotransmitters that help to improve memory along with providing carbohydrates to supply you with energy.  If you wish to learn more about the other four drinks click on the link I have embedded into this paragraph.  For future reference there are in fact better and healthier ways to stay awake studying than to give into the caffeine cycle.

I’ve heard from countless people, especially women, that stress can give you pimples. I usually trust women with cosmetic advice, but this one I’m not so sure about it. I don’t understand the science behind it, and it seems like some old wives’ tale to me. But as I have seen tiny traces of pimples appear on my own face, correlated with increasing stress levels, I began to wonder if it indeed were true. Assuming the alternative hypothesis is correct–that stress can cause pimples–how can we relieve ourselves of stress to erase these unwanted blemishes. But for now, I have no grounds to reject the null–that stress does nothing to contribute to pimples.

Stanford published the findings of a 2003 study which analyzed the relationship between stress and acne. Researches observed college students’ changes in acne throughout periods of regular classes as well as exams. The participants included 22 students, 7 men and 15 women, with an average acne severity scale of 0.5 according to the Leeds acne scale (what we would consider ‘minimum’ acne). By the end of the study, the team had observed that students had a higher degree of acne around the time of their exams. Scientists considered confounding variables including the quantity and quality of both food and sleep, and their possible effect on stress.

The researchers concluded that students who already experience acne may see worsened symptoms during periods of examinations or stress. However, the study didn’t say why this occurred–that is to say–what the mechanism was. What is it about stress that causes acne, if any? Another shortcoming of the study was the sample size. The study consisted of only 22 students who had pre-existing cases of acne. Although the results ‘seem legit’ according to the scientific method, I would suggest that the researchers also observe students without acne during examination periods, to see if acne caused stress in subjects who had no previously experienced the condition. This strategy would better support the findings because the researchers would be analyzing a more diverse demographic.

So I took my curiosity to the ever-trustworthy WebMD, and was met with somewhat satisfying results. Sebum is an oily substance that may explain why acne appears during periods of stress, according to Lisa A. Garner, an expert in dermatology at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center. The professor explains that receptors within sebum-producing cells interact with stress hormones, which could produce these red devils. She also claims that sebum-cells are irritated by the individual’s stress, which produces oil to clog hair follicles where a pimple then appears. However, this is simply scientific speculation which has yet to be confirmed.

It seems curious to me that while we can send a man to the moon and look at craters on mars, we can’t figure out what’s going on with our damn faces. I speculate that this could be due to a lack of funding or interest on the subject. Therefore, more studies need to be done! For now, I would recommend maintaining a steady diet, exercising regularly, and preparing in advance for tests to avoid stress. So don’t take your grandmother’s word for gold, but maybe one day science will give me a reason to believe that stress can cause acne.

Works cited:

Stanford study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12873885

WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/acne/features/stress-and-acne#1

intimate stressed guy: http://blog.menscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/stress-acne-1.gif

Humans were designed to talk to one another. Imagine you’re on the bus or subway and what is the one thing that you see everyone doing. Looking down at their cell phones , Why is this now the new normal? Our generation is more attached to our devices than anything else.

A study done by Bloomberg.com found that the average home has about three or more devices. This includes laptops, tablets, televison,  video game systems and so on.

Even our professor said that cellphones are having a negative effect on the way that we learn. This is  becoming more common as technology continues to advance. Students are always looking at their phones instead of paying attention in class. Then they wonder why they are not getting very great scores on their tests. Even during study/homework  time students are spending way too much time on Facebook and YouTube.

Our social skills seem to get worse as well. Now at the dinner table more families are paying attention to their mobile device. Instead of talking to one another.

Accroding to sleep.org, this is bad because the blue light that some devices emit make the brain think that its time to stay up.  So just watching You Tube  or scrolling through Instagram for quick second can turn into hours. The lack of sleep can also lead to poor concentration  in school which is a really big problem . If your brain is not fully rested it will not be able to retain any information. Many people complain about not getting a good night well here is a good reason why. Sleep researchers have found a correlation between goiing to bed with a device and poor sleep paterns.

So how can we fix this problem?

Well there are few steps that you can take, first limit the amount of time you are on your device, and yes I know we as college students do the majority of our work online. This takes a lot of discipline. Think about why you came to college in the first place. The main goal is hopefully to learn. Also remember that you are paying thousands of dollars per class so it would be wise to actually pay attention.

While you’re our out with your family instead of always trying to get the perfect photo live in the moment. If you are with a groups if friends, make an agreement to it look at your phone no more than three times. Instead actually talk to one another. Ask about each other’s day. Plus, if you really think about it starting at your phone while someone is talking to you is very rude.

When it comes to sleep according to sleep.org you should turn off all electronic devices prior to going to bed. Like two hours or more. Instead pick up a really boring book (like a chemistry book).

This will take some time. Don’t try to do all this at once. Take baby steps before doing any drastic changes.

Sometimes we need to take a break from the virtual world and  take a moment to pay attention to things that are happening right in front of us.

As we all know and have been taught throughout our lives, alcohol can have negative affects and can be quite addictive. With that being said, does that mean that “wine Wednesday” is frowned upon? Wine Wednesday is an activity that many college students, including Penn State students, partake in as an excuse to drink on “humpday”. Don’t panic if you are a wine Wednesday regular, like myself, becuase you’re in luck! Wine is type of alcohol that has been found to have positive effects on a person’s health, if it is drank in moderation on a daily basis.

Wine has been used for its positive health effects on people for thousands of years. Some cultures and countries that were the first to experiment with health effects from wine were the Egyptians, Ancient Greece and the Romans. The Greeks were a culture that relied heavily on wine as a tool to help improve health. For example, the Greeks would use wine as a treatment to help control a person’s digestive system because it was thought to clear everything up. The Greeks main use for wine to benefit a person’s health was for the idea that it can be used as a disinfectant, for any types of medical or cleaning purposes. The Romans also used wine as a disinfectant and found that red versus white wines had different effects when it came to disinfecting.

There was a review done by the Postgraduate Medical Journal that examined the many different ways that wine could affect health positively or negatively. They reviewed many various case control studies, which examined little everyday wine intake and final health results at the end. These case studies not only studied the health effects from wine on humans, but animals as well which creates more room for the results to be correct. An example would be how they examined France, country wide because drinking wine is common, and concluded that drinking wine in moderation has helped improve health. Also they reviewed animals by testing how different types of wines would impact rabbits.

After the Postgraduate Medical Journal reviewed many studies and conducted the trials themselves their results were luckily very good in regards to health. The final results concluded that due to certain ingredients in wine, like flavonoids, is the main reason why wine can have positive health benefits to a person when drank in moderation. Flavonoids are an antioxidant that are commonly found within a grape or other plants, which are used to make wine. Red wines over white wines were found to have more health beneficial ingredients. While the study concluded that wine can have positive health effects on a person when drank in moderation, the Postgraduate Medical Journal made it clear that they did not account for any third confounding Z variables, like binge drinking.

Another study done by Europe PubMed Central and these results very similar to results to the studies reviewed at the Postgraduate Medical Journal. Europe PubMed Central conducted a randomized control trial that involved eleven male volunteers, that were all healthy. The duration of the study lasted three weeks and each participant was either given real wine or fruit juice that was portrayed as wine. At the end of the study the participants health was examined, but more specifically their fatty acid levels. Europe PubMed Central concluded that the evidence in health results they discovered would support the hypothesis of wine being beneficial to a person’s health.

After doing research on wine affecting health and reading both of the studies conducted by the Postgraduate Medical Journal and Europe PubMed, I realized that the overall results were very positive. Even though all the results could always be due to chance, the majority would agree that drinking wine every day in moderation has a greater possibility of having positive effects rather than negative. With that being said… why not? In conclusion, I suggest that we have WINE WEDNESDAY EVERYDAY if there are any even slight potential health benefits.

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It’s 2 am.  Maybe you’ve had a long night of studying for an exam, going out to party or binge watching Netflix.  You have got to be hungry after these night time activities but what is your go-to late craving?  I personally am a Doritos type of guy.  But why do I crave certain things while others crave food I wouldn’t touch.  Does craving depend on gender?  Why are girls stereotyped to love chocolate especially around their time of the month?  Is there any fact in the perceptions that men love meat and women love chocolate and other sweets? These questions all revolve around the topic of cravings and more specifically gender differences in cravings (if there is actually any evidence to support this).

The Studies (small and inconclusive)

Chocolate is a very common variable used for these craving studies due to the hysteria surrounding the hypothesis and observation that women seem to want this based on observation and just common knowledge at this point.  Is there a mechanism to this ludicrous and possibly media induced claim? In these experiments, food scientists attempted to test to see if women really indeed do crave chocolate by using various methods including brain scans and surveys (observational and experimental studies).  They wanted to determine if chocolate connects to a part of the brain that women are more in touch with than men or if the chocolate premenstrual connection is a ploy by companies to sell more product by power of suggestion.

The first study, courtesy of NBCI, was conducted which polled Spanish and American women asking if they craved chocolate premenstrually.  The percentage of American women was much higher than the Spanish women. (40% to 4% on the open-ended questions)  Men and women reported wanting chocolate at the same times of day, which were common hunger periods for wanting food for example after studying.  This suggests near to no evidence for the chocolate craving claim in women alone.

In another study published by Dr. Julia Hormes, 97 women were surveyed.  This observational study was also in the form of a survey and rejected the null that women crave the sweets because of a biological or brain factor.

The last study by Paul Smeets focused on brain scanning and concluded there was a difference response to chocolate in men and women, however the sample size was very very small resulting in a larger value.

Suspicious…

From the turn out of these trials the link of chocolate to cravings between women and men seemed to differ very little.  What is the third variable here causing speculation about this correlation.  I believe in this case the third variable is actually causing the correlation. (meaning its not really a third variable after all)  The real link that should be looked it at is the effect of marketing chocolate to women or marketing in general.  Marketing teams do a great job of making you convince yourself you need a product and in these cases it seems to single genders out as potential buyers.  Commercials time and time again show men chowing down on something meaty or savory while women something sweet.  To me, the advertisers seem to create these illusions that genders like certain products better when they are really just convincing us what to buy.  So listen to your stomach… and eat what YOU like.

Sources:

Huffington Post

Verywell

Study 1

Study 2

Study 3

Study 4

Photo Credits:

Here

Here 2

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Here 4

As college students, one thing that seems like a simple task is note taking. The better notes you take; the better grades you get. One thing that struck my curiosity was how different note taking techniques impact a student’s abilities to perform well on exams. As time goes on, I have started to notice more and more students using laptops in order to take notes in a classroom setting. My biggest question is whether or not taking notes on a laptop is as effective as writing notes down in a notebook.

Photo Credit

Researchers at Princeton University set out to answer to that exact question. In the this study, researchers compiled a group of 66 students who were not told the true purpose of the study. During the study, all of the participants were put into a room with either a laptop or a notebook and shown Ted Talks after being instructed to take notes. After the Ted Talks ended, the subjects were taken into a lab and instructed to complete two distracting activates. After a long enough time had passed since the Ted Talk, the subjects were prompted with a mix of factual and conceptual questions. After the students had taken the tests, their scores were determined by “blind” graders in order to make sure there was no bias towards one group.

Photo Credit

The results of that study turned out to be quite interesting. While the average scores on the factual section of the assessments were about the same, the average conceptual scores turned out to be much higher for the subjects who took notes on notebooks. One of the possible mechanisms discussed in the study was that students taking notes on laptops were writing down exactly what was being said in the Ted Talks whereas students who were taking notes on paper were noting key points and concepts. This mechanism would explain why students taking notes on laptops were scoring equally as well on the factual portion but not as well on the conceptual portion of the assessment.

My take away from this study is that students are much better off taking notes with pen and paper rather than with a laptop. The advantage of handwriting notes is that it encourages students to conceptualize what is being said in a more creative fashion, whereas laptop note taking encourages replication on a presenter’s information. Also I have noticed that, not only is using a laptop often distracting to others, it can lead to students getting distracted by the temptation to use social media or browse the internet.

It’s no secret that college students are taking more than four years to complete their bachelor’s degree. A study done by Complete College America less than fifty percent of colleeg students finish their degree in four years.

What’s causing young people to take so long to complete their bachelor’s degree. The cost of college continues to rise so wouldn’t it make sense for students to actually start and finish in reasonable time. Well it’s not that simple every student has their own story and reasons. So for this blog we are going to break down student into group A, B, C and D.

Group A students might be forced to pay their own education. The parents may not being able to contribute financially and with tuition increasing every year some students might have to work two or even three jobs just to keep up with expenses . Let’s say that we have a do an observational test where a student (y variable) has a full time job and is a full time student (x variable) at the same time. This means  more work means less time to do homework and study.  The end result low performance in academically. There is a correlation between an increase in the number of hours worked and poor academic performance.

Group B students may decide to switch their major by the end of junior year which will require even more time in school. Then there are other students that double or triple majoring. So that becomes double the amount of credits that need to be completed by the end of senior year.

According to the Hechinger report the  recommended amount of credits that a student  should take each semster is 15 in order to graduate on time. Taking less than 15 credits means that students are more likely to graduate within six or seven years.

Group C student may decide to transfer to another university. Then the problem arises when only three quarters of their credits are accepted. This means that some have to retake a class again in order to satisfy a specific requirement for a major. This also means that students will have to take an extra semester or two in order to complete all of the credits required for their major.  Another correlation lack of accepted credits means more time in school.

Accroding to the Hechinger report, government officials are doing  experiments to see if offering more aid will encourage students to complete their bachelor’s degree within four years. It’s rolling out in a few states across America.

Group D are kids that might feel lost because they don’t really want to attend college in the first place. Their parents forced them or they just followed their peers when it came time to decide what university they were going to spend the next four years at.

Now how are we going to help Groups A-D make it to the end goal of graduation. Well there are few things that can help. One make sure students that talk to their advisors about their major and any other issues in cthat they are having are more likely to stay on track. This is especially important for first year students. Next make sure that students are actually interested in what they are studying.

It important that students get the right  support from the beginning so they won’t get left behind come graduation time.

How many of us can actually say that we drink about 64 ounces of water every day?

When I was younger I refused to drink more than a cup of water I preferred soda, lemonade, Kool-Aid anything sweet. To me water had no taste and I didn’t see the point in drinking it. The rule in my house was that at the dinner we had to drink two cups of water before getting any other beverage.

I would have to sneak soda late at night after my parents went to bed. During my preteen years I was slightly overweight and the soda was probably the one variable that contributed to my weight gain. In our Sc200 class we saw that there is a correlation between weight gain and sugary drinks.

I was drinking on average one can of soda a day. The side effects that I felt afterward included headaches and feeling very sluggish. The pediatrician said that I needed to limit the amount of sodas I drink because I was at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

As the years went by I actually started to enjoy drinking water. I drink on average about four to five cups of water a day.

There are so many benefits of drinking water. Well for one your body is made up of 75% of water. So it makes sense that our bodies need a certain amount of liquid in order to function properly. If we don’t give our body its daily dose of H20 then that’s when bad things start to happen. Our kidneys start to suffer the most damage because their job is to flush out all of the toxins within the body. If you are not drinking water the toxins start to build up in the kidney’s which can lead to problems later on like kidney disease.

There are so many benefits that water can have for your skin as well, it can make you look younger and clear up acne.

Did you ever notice how your body feels so tired if you are not fully hydrated? It’s your bodies way of saying its thirsty. Gatorades will not help quench your thirst. According to Healthline.com, Gatorade is replacing electrolytes that the body loses while working out. So yes this can be good for those that do intense workouts. But for the average American the best thing to drink if you feel dehydrated is water.

For those that are trying to lose weight water can help with that as well. It’s less likely that you will overeat.

Try to make drinking water an enjoyable experience instead of a chore. Get a nice water bottle. You customized the flavor of your water by adding sweeteners to it. There are also a lot of fruits that are 90% water like watermeloon for example.

Hers another way to tell if you are getting the right amount of water. According to WebMd, if your pee in clear or a light yellow color then that’s means you’re good when it comes to the amount of water you drank for the day. If it a dark yellow color and has a very strong odor, then that’s an indication that you need to drink more water.

But don’t overindulge on the water as with anything too much of anything can be harmful. Don’t start right away with trying to drink a gallon of water. That will not only make you sick but also constantly running to the bathroom.

Start off by making it a goal to drink at least two cups a day. Say yes to drinking water your body will thank you in the long run.

As a Penn State student, there are two things that I am very familiar with. Being sick; and not sleeping. I think it is safe to say that most college students suffer from lack of sleep. My question is whether that lack of sleep leads to vulnerability to catching the common cold.

Photo Credit

While researching this topic, I came across a study run at the University of Virginia where researchers set out to answer exactly that question.This double blind study was composed of 78 men and 75 women, all of whom were in good health. In order to rule out possible third variables, the researchers made sure that all of the participants had medical histories that would not directly impact their predisposition to catching the common cold. In order to gauge the participant’s sleeping habits, the researchers used the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. This gave the researchers an average level of sleep quality over the 28-day study that they could use to compare to immunity to the common cold. In an effort to keep third variables from skewing the results, the participants were quarantined for the duration of the study. On the 14th day of the study, the participants were exposed to the rhinovirus through nasal drops which causes the common cold. The participants were quarantined and monitored for five days after exposure to the virus in order to see if any symptoms would develop related to the common cold.

Photo Credit

After analyzing the results, the researchers found that those participants who got less than seven hours of sleep per night were almost three times as likely to catch a cold than those who got eight hours of sleep or more. While the researchers did not discuss a clear mechanism for why a lack of sleep causes individuals to become vulnerable to the common cold, the only reason I can think of is that with less total energy, the body cannot devote as much energy to the immune system causing a higher vulnerability.

My take away from this study was that it is worth getting that extra hour or so of sleep in order to prevent the common cold. Because being ill can sometimes lead to a harder time falling asleep, becoming sick once could create a vicious cycle of becoming sick over and over again. Just make sure you get an adequate amount of rest to avoid being sick and rest when you become sick in order to prevent future illnesses.

Last month, I saw a amazing youtube video. A dog named Jumpy can write its name by having a brush in its mouth. I was amazed by that. Later I found more crazy videos. A cat can play piano, a dog can do simple math by barking, and a monkey can even drive. It seems that some animals can do crazy things after training. Thus I found some researches about this.

Video about the dog that know how to write 

I find that people usually give animals some food for reward after they do what human wants them to do. They repeat this for a long time, and later animals can do certain thing. This is called classical conditioning-animals learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events (principle of psychology). Ivan Pavlov, one of the most famous physiologist in 20 century, did a famous lab about classical conditioning. “In order to eliminate possible influences, they isolated the dog in a small room, secured it in a harness, and attached a device to divert its saliva to a measuring instrument”(principle of psychology).

(Ivan Pavlov)

In classical conditioning, there are five major parts, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response. Before conditioning, they presented some food, which is unconditioned stimulus, in front of the dog. The dog began to salivate, which is unconditioned response. Then they sounded a tone, which is a neutral stimulus. However, this time there is no salivation. During conditioning, they sounded a tone first, and then gave some food to the dog. After many trials, the dog would salivate( conditioned response), when the heard the tone (conditioned stimulus). Neutral stimulus usually causes nothing, but if the unconditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented after neutral stimulus, then neutral stimulus would became conditioned stimulus that cause conditioned response. In this case, researchers always presented some food after sounded a tone, which let the dog associate the tone and the food. Therefore, when it heard the tone, it would think of the food and then began to salivate.

Theoretically, By giving animals some rewards,  we can teach them many simple things if we have time. If anyone is interested in this, you can definitely try this with your pets.

URL:

https://www.psychologistworld.com/behavior/pavlov-dogs-classical-conditioning.php

Pavlov’s Dogs Experiment and Pavlovian Conditioning Response

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning

Is there anything worse than waking up for class on a dreary day in the middle of January? It’s freezing outside, there’s no sunlight to be found anywhere, and you’re completely miserable. This is a struggle that just about everyone has gone through at some point. There’s an actual name for it as well: winter depression.

Winter depression, another name for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), is caused by a variety of factors. These include lack of sunlight, changes in the air we breathe, and changes in the chemical makeup of our brains (WebMD). It’s difficult to ascertain just how many people are affected by this disorder as most cases likely go unreported, but estimates say the number is in the millions (TechHive). There are many symptoms of SAD, as depression of any kind can manifest itself in a multitude of ways. Some symptoms of winter specific SAD include feeling lethargic, insomnia, weight gain, and even considering or committing suicide (MayoClinic). There are several ways of treating SAD, including medication and exposure to artificial sunlight. No matter how treatment is sought, it is important to try to beat the winter depression however possible.

One new treatment that has people buzzing is the Life Light. Created by students at the NuVu school in Massachusetts, the Life Light (pictured below) is a set of bulbs that goes on a window, covered by see through drapes. The result is the appearance of real sunshine coming into the consumer’s house. While it obviously isn’t actual sunlight, the light shining combined with the placebo effect of it coming through the window makes it very possible that this invention could treat the seasonal depression of many sufferers (TechHive).

In summary, winter depression is a disorder that affects millions across the globe. In many cases, it’s not terribly serious and can be solved with some fresh air and the knowledge that spring is just around the corner. But for some, it’s much more serious and can even be life threatening. In those cases, light therapy, medication, or the Life Light may be the only way to help pull yourself out of the funk.

References

http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/seasonal-affective-disorder#1
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/symptoms/con-20021047
http://www.techhive.com/article/3095329/smart-appliance/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad-impacts-millions-these-high-school-age-inventors-have-an-antidote.html

Pictures

http://www.lawyerswithdepression.com/articles/dont-let-the-sun-go-down-on-me-seasonal-affective-disorder-and-depression-during-the-winter/
https://cambridge.nuvustudio.com/studios/open-innovation-ii-spring-2016/smile-shade#tab-portfolio

I’ve never been a big soda drinker, and I can thank my parents for that. They rarely let me drink it and never had it around the house. Now that I’m older, I’m thankful for that as I live a healthier life than many of my friends. According to an article by Marie Dannie of Livestrong, the only real benefit from soda is moderate hydration. She says that soda can help you meet the daily recommended hydration levels. However, water is obviously a better alternative as soda has dozens of other bad effects on the body. Throughout my life I’ve seen many family members make the switch from regular soda to diet soda. Often it was because they were looking to lose weight without having to completely cancel soda out of the diet. I had heard before that drinking diet soda was actually worse for you. I had a hard time believing this because how could anyone buy this product if there were any evidence that it weren’t a healthier alternative? I finally decided to do some research on it and maybe now I can finally educate some family members.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/diet-soda-vs-regular-soda-one-worse-you-other-308063

I found an article by Dana Dovey of Medical Daily which outlines the good, bad, and really bad effects of diet soda as well as regular soda. She starts off right away by explaining that both types of soda simply aren’t good for you; there are good and bad to both. Dovey goes on to explain the only positive benefit she can think of, which is dental hygiene. She explains that the the lack of real sugar in diet soda (diet soda contains artificial sugar) is better for the teeth than actual sugar which is in regular soda. However, she states immediately after that diet soda also contains acid which can eat away at your teeth over time. So I guess she really couldn’t come up with any benefits of diet soda.

In her next section she writes what she considers the “bad” things about diet soda as opposed to the “ugly” which she addresses later. She explains that the use of artificial sugars in diet sodas actually contribute towards weight gain. Apparently the artificial sugars in diet sodas increase sugar cravings as well as overall food and drink cravings. So unless you limit the amount of food you consume while drinking diet sodas, you could very easily see a weight increase even though the soda contains no real sugar or calories.

Next, she discusses the much more serious effects of diet soda which include increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. In a University of Miami study, 2,465 people reported what they drank and how often they drank it, and then they were followed for 9 years. At the end of the study, it was found that diet soda drinkers, as opposed to those who rarely drank soda, had a 48% greater chance of heart attacks or strokes. While this leaves a lot of room for 3rd variables, it definitely shows a decent correlation between diet soda and health problems.

Dovey then goes on and explains the good, bad, and ugly of regular soda. She states that regular soda can effect learning capabilities as well as memory function. This is due to the extreme amounts of sugar in sodas that reduces brain derived neurotrophic factor, which is a chemical that effects learning and memory. She also mentions a 2012 study that showed that one soda per day strongly correlated to a 20% increased risk of a heart attack. With this, we still can’t conclude whether diet soda is more or less healthy than regular soda, but we can certainly prove that both sodas are causally related to poor health, which has been found in numerous detailed studies. Obviously the best option is to stay clear of both types of soda, especially since there are so many healthier alternatives. Next time you’re thinking about taking a diet coke over a regular coke, thinking it’s the lesser of two evils, you might want to settle for a water.

My whole life I’ve always loved poppy seed bagels. It used to be the only kind of bagel I would eat, and I remember my mom would always tell me that if I were to have a drug test right after eating, I would fail. She claimed she had a friend who failed a drug test for her new job because she had eaten a poppy seed bagel before it. While I’m not completely sure that’s a true story, I thought it was pretty funny. I never really thought anymore of it, but if I were to ever get drug tested I would stay far away from poppy seed bagels based on my mom’s word. Even though I should probably listen to my mom no matter what, I decided to do some research to find out the truth, and I found that there is a lot of information on the idea.

9 Health Benefits of Poppy Seeds

I came across an article by USADA explaining how exactly poppy seed could transport drugs into your body. The article explains that the opium poppy plants contains seed pods filled with morphine as well as poppy seeds. When the morphine and poppy seeds are separated, the seeds are undoubtedly going to have minor traces of morphine. However, when the seeds are not cleaned properly, they can sometimes be covered in larger amounts of morphine, possibly leading to a positive drug test. According to the article, a morphine measurement of 1.3 micrograms/mL or more could result in a positive test result. With enough poppy seeds and enough morphine cover, I could easily see how someone could accidentally test positive. However, I wanted to see how often this really occurs so I looked for some experiments.

Another article I found, by Emily Upton, outlines some experiments that actually test out this phenomenon. She goes on to explain a German study by the Institute of Biochemistry in 2003. For the experiment, a group of people (unspecified sample size) consumed different amounts of poppy seed cake. Then, they were tested for morphine levels at the 24 hour mark and the 48 hour mark. For both time marks, all people tested positive and some reached levels as high as 10 micrograms/mL. While there is still technically room for 3rd variables as well as chance, this experiment, even if it is a small experiment, shows some serious correlation between poppy seed bagels and positive drug tests 48 hours later. According to the article, Myth Busters conducted an almost identical experiment and got nearly the exact same results. Although there is a very slight chance that 3rd variables could be causing this, it is very hard to believe that this is not a causal relationship with the evidence we have already collected.

This epidemic of positive drug results due to poppy seeds has caused a shocking amount of trouble. From police officers to white collar workers, numerous people have failed drug tests due to, what is believed to be, morphine from poppy seeds. Plus, of course, there have even been lawsuits surrounding the issue, like one you can read about here. A mother had her newborn child taken from her when she failed a hospital drug test due to poppy seeds. The mother was paid a settlement of more than $143,000 after her child was taken from her home without any prior warning. With so many cases like this, it’s very important that we prove causation between poppy seed consumption and positive drug test results. At this point, I believe that we have a solid foundation for proof of causation as several detailed experiments have shown serious correlation with little to no room for 3rd variables and chance. One way to improve our certainty would be to take significantly larger sample sizes. However, for now, I’d recommend that anyone with a drug test in the future just stick to plain bagels.

Most people have probably heard the notion that smart people drink more. However, that’s an extremely vague statement that’s probably not 100% true in the broad sense, so I decided to find out the truth. Throughout high school and my first year of college, my experiences showed me the opposite of this idea. I tended to see the less intelligent people drinking heavily and the smarter kids controlling their intake, but a handful of kids from my personal experience couldn’t debunk this idea right away.

I came across an article by Jordan Rosenfeld where she outlined the results of 5 different experiments which all tested this topic. She explains the first experiment which showed that woman in the UK who attended college drank 86% more than those who didn’t (same age). The experiment clearly showed a strong correlation between level of education and alcoholic consumption, but it left room for many 3rd variables to effect the results. For example, in a college environment, you are more exposed to alcohol than you would be if you didn’t attend a university. This scenario could lead to a false positive result as it may not be the intelligence of the person that is affecting their drinking habits.

Rosenfeld went on to discuss the second experiment in Finland where sets of twins were studied throughout their childhood. The results showed that the twin with the best developed speech at age 12, could prove them to be smarter, drank more at the age of 16. While this experiment payed more attention to the measurement of knowledge, the result of increased drinking could still be due to a 3rd variable or chance. Also, the measurement of speech development doesn’t directly relate to intelligence. Therefore, these measurement which correlate to alcohol consumption could not be related entirely to what we are looking to measure, which is intelligence.

Photo: https://udatud.wordpress.com/

The 3rd experiment Rosenfeld discusses relates college education to alcohol consumption later in life. The experiment showed that only about 35% of non college graduates drank while about 68% of college graduates did. While graduating college often improves your intelligence as opposed to not attending college, this still is not a very accurate measure of intelligence. Some of the most intelligent and successful people did not graduate college, like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. This experiment seems to be a step in the wrong direction as the 2nd experiment included more detailed intelligence measurements.

The 4th experiment offers a much more efficient approach for relating intelligence and drinking habits by measuring IQ’s of 50,000 Swiss males aged 18-22. First off, this showed that those who didn’t drink alcohol at all had the lowest IQ’s. While this doesn’t prove causation, it certainly helps towards the notion that intelligence and drinking are causally related. The main discovery from this experiment is that men with the highest IQ’s drink in moderation, which is known to be the smartest and healthiest route. So after all of this research, my answer has yet to be answered. Scientists have yet to find some serious proof that intelligence causes an increase in alcohol consumption. However, based on these experiments, we can see a pretty significant correlation between attending college and drinking habits. We can also see that there is strong evidence showing those who don’t drink at all have the lowest IQs. This is something that needs to see more experiments. However, these experiment must be detailed experiments which will effectively test intelligence and increased alcoholic consumption without the possibility of 3rd variables. As for me, I will observe how my college experience and growth of intelligence will affect my alcohol consumption in the future.

A few days ago I went to the dentist and the surprising news he gave me had nothing to do with my teeth, but it was correlated. The appointment was coming to an end, but he wanted me to do a bite test so he could see the alignment of my teeth for future reference. He put some wax over the bottom teeth and asked me to bite down, shift to the left, shift to the right, forward, and backward. He was pleased with my alignment but asked if that was normal. I replied back, is what normal? He said that my temporomandibular joint(TMJ) was popping when my mouth moved to the left with a significant motion. I told him that last fall when I was playing lacrosse I got hit in the side of the helmet and ever since it had popped like that, it didn’t hurt so I just thought that it was dislocated and there was nothing I could do to fix it. From time to time, whenever I would eat it would sound like someone squishing Jell-O in their hand. He said that the cartilage that’s in-between that joint and the temporal bone can be worn down over time with that motion and it could become very painful after the cartilage is gone. He told me that there was no surgical solution and to not make that become a habit.

 Your mouth is one of the most active parts of your body on a daily basis. The temporomandibular joint connects your mandible (lower jaw) to the temporal bone (cheek bone) and its motion range from up and down, to left and right, and side to side. This joint allows you to chew, speak, and let out that yawn you have before your 8am. The three main causes of temporomandibular damage (TMD) are dislocation, trauma, and damage to the cartilage disc. The habit that is most common that pertains to the damage of the disc is grinding of the teeth. Men and women have different joint forms and researchers have discovered that TMD is more common in women, their hormones can also be a factor of TMD.

Symptoms of TMD are simple, it hurts. Since the jaw is such an active bone in the body, it incurs a lot of action on the daily such as chewing. When chewing is traumatic enough on the joint a dislocation can cause it much more stress since it is moving a lot more. Depending on the person condition the pain alters, it can be grueling or it could not hurt whatsoever, either way dentist recommends to make an appointment as soon as possible.

There are many solutions into relieving TMD, doctors recommend your solution to be low-key instead of surgically repairing it. For patients who suffer from the habit of grinding their teeth, a custom night guard is an easy solution to this problem. If you don’t suffer from TMD, but still have a clicking or popping sound of your jaw there are plenty of treatments that are easy and assessable. Staying away from harder foods that put more stress on your jaw and choosing to either apply ice or heat for a period of time are just two ways to reduce the risk of temporomandibular damage.

Sources

Pelis, Donna. “When a Clicking Jaw Is a Sign of TMD – Colgate® Oral Care.” When a Clicking Jaw Is a Sign of TMD. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016. http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/oral-health/conditions/temporomandibular-disorder/article/when-a-clicking-jaw-is-a-sign-of-tmd-1215

Image 1

Whether you like it or not, marijuana is becoming more and more prevalent in our country today. More and more people continue to push for the nationwide legalization of marijuana as they believe it has too many medical benefits to deny the public of its many uses. In this article, you can see states like Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and Oregon, who have made recreational use of Cannabis legal. Often, we see that those who do smoke tend to insist that marijuana is a harmless drug with many benefits, and on the other end, many of those who don’t smoke see this plant as a murderous cancer to our society. I’ve always wondered if there was solid evidence behind either argument, so I set out to find the truth.

I came across an article by Agata Blaszczak-Boxe outlining 20 years of marijuana research. She starts off the article by immediately stating how smoking marijuana before driving doubles your chance of getting into an accident. She also states that 1/10 daily marijuana users become reliant on the drug. But what led us to these conclusions, and have we found a real mechanism for these outcomes? Agata talks about author Wayne Hall’s research in which he tested the effects of marijuana on humans between 1993 and 2013. She states that his work shows a correlation between smoking marijuana and dropping out of school. It showed that kids who smoked were more likely to drop out of school than those who did not smoke. These children also experienced lesser brain function as adults. Now the question is, is marijuana simply a correlation to bad health effects, or is marijuana truly causing these things to happen. With a situation like this, where school children were observed, we can always assume there might be a 3rd variable affecting the children and the marijuana is not. Also, many people could argue that, without details of a timeframe, reverse causation might be the answer to this.

As Agata goes on, she explains another experiment that offers a little more proof of causation. In a Swedish study of 50,000+ young men, the men who smoke more than 10 times before age 18 were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia; as opposed to those who didn’t smoke. With a large sample like this, and a long term time-frame, we can rule out reverse causation. While we still cant rule out a 3rd variable, or chance, this experiment definitely provides some serious evidence showing that mild marijuana use may cause serious health problems. Still, there are many people who insist that this conclusion may be a false positive. Even for those who accept these findings, many believe that the benefits of marijuana outweigh the costs found in these experiments.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/medical-marijuana-petition-approved-by-florida-supreme-court-7460019

However, according to an article by Alice Park, there isn’t much scientific evidence behind the benefits of marijuana. She states that, in an experiment where patients (each had a certain condition that marijuana has been rumored to treat) were given doses of the drug, some reported that their condition improved. However, many of the volunteers admitted that the improvement could have easily been due to chance alone because the correlation was so minuscule. Park states that the experiment showed possible correlation with treating chronic pain while little correlation showed between marijuana and Tourette Syndrome.

Without larger and more in depth experiments we won’t be able to confirm an actual causation relating marijuana to medical treatment, but as marijuana become more prevalent in our society, I believe new experiments will expose the true benefits of this drug. Our national government has no yet recognized marijuana as a medicinal product because they still consider it an “illegal drug,” but I can bet we will see legislative changes on the national level in the next 20 years. At this moment in time, there is a lot more evidence backing the harmful effects of marijuana, so now it is up to everyone to decide: Do we take the risk in the hope that there are real benefits to the drug? Or do we stay clear knowing that evidence effectively shows that marijuana is a harmful substance?

Like we discussed in class today with our guest speaker, does a person’s height depend on nature or nurture? In this case, nature is our DNA and genes, and nurture include outside factors such as our living environment. According to in-class discussion and online researching, I find that both nature and nurture influence our heights.

I find a really interesting calculator online which is a height calculator that could calculate your expected adult height, so I put in my information when I was 14 years old and see if the result matches my height right now. The result came up to be 163 cm, and my actual height is 167 cm. So this approves that a kid’s height depends on both nature and nurture.

I used to live with my family back in China until when I was 14, and my height when I was 14 was 160 cm, so my mom used to really worry about my height for a long time because she thought my expected adult height was going to stop at 163 cm. But after coming to America, I grew a lot taller unexpectedly, so there must be some kind of outside factors such as food and environment. I started playing volleyball and basketball during high school and did lot of exercises. Also, I ate more meat such as beef.

However, a person’s height are both influenced by nature and nurture.

Sources:

1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/9326819/Nature-vs-nurture-outcome-depends-on-where-you-live.html

My mom used to always tell me stories about her grandmother who would dream vividly about food at night and then have no appetite the next day. This idea always amazed me and our whole family never understood the science behind it; or if there even was any explanation for it. I’ve tried to conduct my own experiments but they never seem to work,  so I decided to finally do some research on the topic.

I wondered if anyone had every experienced something like this before or if any research had been done on the topic. Immediately, I came across an article by Veronica Tonay discussing exactly what I was looking for. To start off, she explains that going to bed hungry or thirsty can cause you to dream about food or beverages. These findings from the 1950’s have showed a serious correlation with appetite and dreams. Tonay goes on to explain exactly what I was looking for. She says that, if you dream vividly about food during your sleep, you will in fact be less hungry when you wake up; and the same goes for dreaming about drinks. While this leads me in the right direction to confirming causation between the two, I wanted to find some more recent and detailed experiences from people.

I came across a piece of writing by Nick Wan on Truebrain.com in which he described his experience with food dreams. He claimed that he had a dream about eating a significant amount of food, and when he woke up, he was full; just like my great grandma! Nick decided to do some research like me and came across the very same article by Veronica Tonay. He agreed that there is certainly a correlation between food dreams and hunger, as Veronica stated, but he refused to take her word for it. Like me, he needed more evidence to prove causation between the two, but all he could find were explanations for why he was having food dreams. Wan researched dream interpretations and discovered that his current happiness in life may have caused him to dream about food, but what was causing him to wake up full? I did some research on whether happiness led to a decreased appetite, but I immediately learned, according to this article by Chris Iliades of Everyday Health. Chris explained that loss of appetite is most certainly an effect of depression, meaning that happiness couldn’t possibly be causing a loss in appetite for my great grandma and Nick. With no leads in this direction, I went back to researching the basic question.

I eventually discovered another article by Jonathan Bechtel of the Health Kismet Blog. In the article he discusses the finding of Daniel Kahneman, one of the greatest psychologists of all time. Kahneman discovered that “habituation” may be what causes us to lose our appetite when we think a lot about food. Habituation is when increased thought about something causes you to lose interest in it. In his explanation, Kahneman discusses 5 experiments which all showed a strong correlation between thinking about a food and lesser consumption. In the experiment, people who continually thought of food ate less than those who did less thinking about food. While 3rd variables could quite possibly be a factor in these results, as well as chance, it is very unlikely. All 5 experiments showed that thinking about food more than others almost always caused the individual to eat less. Also, however, this experiment including only thinking about one food item, not a meal as a whole. So going back to my question, does dreaming about food cause you to lose your appetite?, or does it only work for a specific food? At this point, there haven’t been any experiments large enough and detailed enough to prove causation, but we can definitely say that my great grandmother’s loss of appetite in the morning is highly correlated to her dreams about food at night through a process called “habituation.”

Photo: http://scoopempire.com/signs-youre-relationship-food/

As I logged onto my computer and opened up the “add new” section of this website to create a new blog, I had no idea what I was going to write about.  While brainstorming ideas, I realized something; I forgot to put music on.  As soon as this thought entered my brain, I instantly knew what I was going to write about.  Music is such an interesting thing, really.  I’m not sure why humans are so intrigued by a combination of instruments and singing, but music is one of the most universal things on the planet.  I don’t know where I would be without music.  As cheesy as it sounds, music is always there for me.  No matter what mood I am in, there is a song that goes with it.  Whether you I am upset and looking to brighten up or trying to get myself pumped up for a big game, I am always able to find a song that does the job.  Throughout this article, I want to figure out just why humans love music so much.

The idea of music makes no sense to me.  When you think about it, all music is is people talking in an aesthetically pleasing way, yet I cannot go without it.  Unlike things like food, sex, and water, music is not technically a necessity for life, but it has been a vital part of people’s lives for thousands and thousands of years.  Valerie Salimpoor did a study in 2009 where she hooked up patients to an fMRI. While under the fMRI, the patients listened to one of their favorite songs.  Salimpoor realized that, after listening to the emotional moments in the song, the patients actually released dopamine in their brain.  For those of you who do not know, Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that controls the pleasure and reward center in the human brain.  Dopamine is released whenever somebody “rewards the brain” or feels happy.  For example, dopamine is released during sex, when you eat, engage in powerful drugs, etc.  Figuring out that music causes a release of dopamine is very interesting, but makes perfectly good sense.  When dopamine is released, the brain is often addicted to whatever caused the dopamine to release, which is why sex and drugs are so addicting to humans.  Music has the same effect.  Although most people would not admit it, the majority of people, myself included, are actually addicted to music.

What makes it so addictive, though?  Why does it cause dopamine to be realized?  The answer to this question will be different depending on who you ask.  I’m sure all people can agree on these few things, though, that make music so great.

There are so many different genres and songs

There is truly a different song or type of music for every mood you can feel.  Music has the ability to make you feel every kind of emotion.  The reason people never get tired of listening to music is because you can listen for days without listening to the same song.  There is so much music out there, and every person on planet Earth has a slightly different style of it.

Music can be so deep and meaningful

Have you ever listened to a song, and been absolutely speechless after because of how powerful the song was?  I know I have.  There are times I listen to a song and realize that the lyrics being sang portray a similar experience that I am going through, which makes me feel like I am not alone.  People do not create music just to please people’s ears, they create it to convey a message.  Music is how people express themselves. Everybody has a way of expressing themselves and sending a message, and musicians do it through their songs.

Music can be an escape from the real world

There are times when I am very stressed out and low on life, and only one thing can snap me out of it: music.  When you are listening to music, it is as if you are escaping reality.  For the time being, all of your stress and problems in life go away.  Music is so important, and keeps me sane at times.

Conclusion: Music is far more than just a pleasant sound to the ear.  It is loved by people all across the world of different cultures, languages, and lifestyles.  The scientific reason why people love music so much is because it causes dopamine to be released from the brain.  The humanistic reasons why people love music so much go on and on, but a few reasons are because it can be so diverse, so meaningful, and such a great escape from the real world.