Everybody says that fresh fruit is best. Companies advertise about how fresh their products are and how many nutritional benefits you can receive from the freshest fruit. Then that got me to thinking about the fruit in the frozen section of a grocery store. Was there any difference to the fruit besides the fact that it was just frozen. Frozen fruits are usually cheaper than fresh, why? I did some research as to which was better for your health, fresh or frozen. Here’s what I found.

The overall consensus is that fresh is not better than frozen, and frozen is not better than fresh – it merely just depends on the fruit. When some fruits are frozen, they lose nutritional value and some gain nutritional value.

If i were to make a hypothesis for this study I would say my null hypothesis would be that there is no difference between fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables and my alternative hypothesis would be that there is a difference between fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables.

Ali Bouzari, a culinary research and development company in Sonoma County, California, studied four vitamins in several fruits and vegetables and analyzed the differences between fresh and frozen produce. Bouzari used corn, carrots, broccoli, spinach, peas, green beans, strawberries and blueberries as his testing subjects and followed the potential differences between in absorbic acid, riboflavin, α-tocopherol, and β-carotene.

Bouzari concluded that there was no significant change between fresh and frozen fruits. In some of the subjects, ascorbic acid was seen to be higher in frozen fruits but not by much. The same goes for α-tocopherol. However, these changes were not a significant amount, and only proved to be true in some of the fruits in vegetables, not all of them. This makes me think that some of his results may be due to chance. In order to be more confident in this conclusion, more tests would have to be done.

Lastly, Mary Ann Lila, director of the Plants for Human Health Institute at North Carolina State University, peer reviewed this study and added the point that fresh fruit may lose nutritional value while sitting on the shelves at grocery stores, while frozen foods maintain the same nutritional value.

The overall takeaway from this is that is doesn’t really matter whether you eat fruit fresh or frozen. The changes in nutritional value does not change significantly enough to have any major effect on a person’s health. So just eat fruits and vegetables in the way that you prefer.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25526594

After going to a concert, I have a ringing in my ear. I never really thought anything of it I just thought it was from the abundance of loud noises at one time and would go away the next day or in a few hours. However, researchers have found that in some cases, the ringing in ears never goes away. There is an estimated 50 million Americans with persistent tinnitus, which is the constant ringing in the ears. This can last for just a few hours or a lifetime, it just depends on the person and the amount of noise they experienced. Until very recently, this information and studies done on this topic have been hidden from the public (this could be victim to the Texas Sharpshooter Problem). However, it is now important for the public to understand this condition, especially in younger Americans, because it can worsen later in life and not to mention having a ringing in your ear constantly is probably very annoying. Imagine hearing that while you’re trying to study or sleep. For a video on how the ear works look here.

Tanit Ganz Sanchez, an otolaryngologist (a ear, nose, and throat doctor) at the University of São Paolo School of Medicine in Brazil conducted a study regarding the dangers behind this condition. She and other researchers surveyed 170 teens and preteens about their listening habits and if they have had an experience with tinnitus, as well as testing their hearing ability and tolerance for louder noises. After studies, all 170 students were found to have healthy inner and outer hair cells in the ears, which meant that they could all hear very normally. In order to study their tolerance, the procedure consisted of the student being placed in sound-proof rooms and playing extremely loud noises until the students said they were uncomfortable. The results of this concluded that half of the students reported having a constant ringing in their ears for a few hours or days, but ⅓ of the students reported having ringing permanently. This meant that they were abnormally sensitive to the loud noises they experience in the study. There has been no research so far as to figure out why certain people have more sensitivity to loud noises than others, especially when all the teens had relatively similar lifestyles in their listening habits.

Overall, I see one major problem with this study which is that the researchers tested directly on the teens. I understand that testing directly on the subjects allows for more confidence in a result, however seeing that the teens suffered permanent consequences from the study seems unethical. Perhaps instead they could have recreated the effects by stimulation or chose a different way to test a person’s tolerance for hearing.

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/ringing-ears-may-signal-serious-ear-damage

A study done at USC shows that the daily use of aspirin could result in a longer life in older Americans. Since the study wasn’t laid out for me in an abstract, rather just published on a website, I decided to use their findings and create an abstract of their work.

Null Hypothesis: Aspirin does not lengthen the life of older Americans.

Alternative Hypothesis: Aspirin lengthens the life of older Americans.

Subject Scenarios: This study is ethically difficult to conduct, considering it impacts people’s lives and the longevity of their lives, so the researchers at USC used simulations and surveys in order to duplicate the effects. USC researchers ran two scenarios which project the health of older Americans and their trajectory in aging. These were called the “Guideline Adherence” and the “Universal Eligibility”.

Guideline Adherence: focused on determining the potential health and savings, benefits and drawbacks of following the task force’s guidelines from 2009.

Universal Eligibility:  Not realistic and aimed to measure the full potential benefits and drawbacks if all Americans 51 and older, regardless of the guidelines, took aspirin every day.

Results: Researchers found the following the daily low-dose guidelines, 11 cases of heart disease and 4 cases of cancer for every 1,000 Americans between the ages of 51 to 79. In addition, the life expectancy of these Americans increased by .3 years. Therefore, by the year 2036, an estimated 900,000 more Americans would be alive as a result of the aspirin regimen. Negative results were shown in terms of not being able reduce the rate of strokes as well as increasing the rate of gastrointestinal bleeding by 25%.

Conclusion: I would reject the null hypothesis. However, there are some flaws in this study. First, the fact that no actual being (whether that be people or animals) are being used on this study makes the results much more difficult to believe to be accurate. This may have been victim to the Texas-Sharpshooter problem because the researchers wanted a result. Also, the results do not seem significant enough to recommend to people to take aspirin daily. If a larger majority of the people were positively affected then I could understand the recommendation. In my opinion, in order for this study to have been done more accurately, a placebo would have been a good alternative to see the difference between taking an aspirin daily and not taking one daily.

An aspirin a day extends life, prevents heart attacks for certain older Americans

Almost everyone has been told as a kid that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. Breakfast gives us the energy to start our day and maintain that energy throughout the day as well. More about the health benefits of breakfast can be seen in this study. While these are very good reasons to eat breakfast, I started to wonder about those people who don’t eat breakfast. Personally, I have a cup of coffee on my way to class and call that breakfast. I do not wake up early enough to either make myself breakfast or go buy breakfast, but I still am awake and alert all day as if I were to eat breakfast. Many studies have been done on the effect that eating breakfast has on people, specifically obese people trying to lose weight. In order for a person to lose weight, they must burn more calories than they ingest. An easy solution to do this is to skip a meal or eat less during each meal. David G Schlundt, James 0 Hill, Tracy Sbrocco, Jamie Pope-Cordle, and Teresa Sharp did a randomized clinical trial in order to see the role of breakfast in obesity treatment.

The study consisted of 52 obese women between the ages of 18-55. Depending on their baseline-eating habits, the women were randomly assigned to two weight loss programs. One program had the women eating breakfast and the other program did not. All other aspects of the programs were identical. The results of this 12 week study showed that the women who did eat breakfast lost more weight than the women who did not.

This study may have been done properly, however, in my opinion in order to get a better result in order to make a more confident conclusion, the scientists should have used more women, included men, had a smaller age group, or did the study for a longer period of time. The more data they could have obtained the more confident they could have been in their result. Additionally, it is unknown if some of these women were working out more than others. The burning of more calories could have impacted the results of this study.

Even with the many factors these scientists did not control for, or the great deal of chance as a result of the sample size, it can still be concluded that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The breakfast eaters were seen ingesting less food and calories than non-breakfast eaters, because they were more aware that they had already eaten more calories. In addition, less snacking took place in the breakfast eaters because they did not get as hungry as fast.

Overall, eat breakfast.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/55/3/645.full.pdf+html

Many people with bad hips or achy joints complain about how the pain gets more significant when the weather is bad or if it’s raining. I started to wonder why this is. How can the weather affect people bones and joints?

I thought this was going to a complicated explanation with psychology issues, but the answer is simply: pressure. Atmospheric pressure, also called barometric pressure,  is the pressure exerted by the weight of air in the atmosphere of Earth. As the weather gets worse, the barometric pressure decreases. When this pressure drops, the pressure put on our bodies through gravity drops as well. When the pressure on the body drops, joints and pains in the body can begin to swell and cause inflammation, which can explain the pain the people experience before a storm.

Our body has two defense mechanisms for the pain a person normally feels: adrenaline and cortisone. These hormones help the body with energy, mood, immune function, pain management. At night, these hormones slow production so that the body is able to fall asleep. However, when these hormones stop being produced, we are more susceptible to getting sick or feeling pain. Which is why colds or pains become more severe at night. These hormones also decrease production before a storm. As the barometer falls (the indicator of a storm or bad weather), the positive charge, or “ions”, in all atoms increase which causes a decrease of cortisone in the body.

Depending on age, or illness, the ability to “predict” the weather based off of the symptoms the body is experiencing can vary. For example, elderly people have a more acute sense because they no longer have the same ability to overcome the changes in pressure as if they did when they were younger. There are different techniques doctors recommend to deal with chronic pain, fatigue, or depression, which can all be enhanced with the change in barometric pressure, however, the amount of cortisone that is lost when this change occurs is still significant enough to enhance any joint pains or aches in the body. Since cortisone is a steroid, it would be considered unhealthy to take steroids in order to reduce this pain, considering that could kill you.

The takeaway from this post is that the change in barometric pressure in the atmosphere can allow some people to predict the weather if their knee starts to bother them more than usual. It is an annoying but cool trick.

https://weather.com/health/news/13-ways-weather-affects-your-health-without-you-knowing-20140613#/1

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/04/30/why-does-pain-get-worse-when-a-storm-is-coming/

Every since I was a kid, I was told and could easily see that the sky was blue. I never questioned it, it saw it was blue and I could see that it was true. As I was thinking of topics to write about for this blog period, I was really blanking and thought about the most basic question I could think of: why is the sky blue? When I see pictures of other planets, it appears as though you can see all the stars and other planets in the galaxy, so why is Earth so different. The atmosphere that we have has some effect as to why the sky looks different on Earth than it does on Mars, but so does the visible light that reflects off of the sun.

Light energy travels in waves, similar to the ocean. Some light, such as blue light, travels in short choppy waves, while other colors, such as, red travel in much longer waves. Naturally, all light travel in a straight line, until hit by an outside force such as a mirror, prism, or molecules in the air. When light hits the Earth’s atmosphere, the gases and molecules in the air scatter the light in all different directions making it’s wave very short and choppy. This is why the sky is blue. For a diagram, click here!

If you have ever noticed on a plane, the sky seems to appear a darker blue the higher up. The blue light looks much lighter or even white the closer you are to earth. This is due to the scattering and rescattering of the blue light from the top of the atmosphere to the ground. Think of it as a feather that is dropping from the top of a building. The wind (or the molecules in the atmosphere) make the feather move in all different directions and pieces of the feather fall off. The farther down the feather goes, the more it has moved and more pieces have come off. By the time the feather reaches the ground, not much of it is left. This is how blue light works. It is it’s strongest at the top and after being scattered so many times does not have much left to it at the end. This is why the sky has a blue ombre effect.

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/

I take a nap almost every day, sometimes I wake up really refreshed and ready to go to my class, but other times I wake up feeling more tired than when I went to sleep. This got me wondering about if it was the amount of time I was asleep, or if my drowsiness after a nap was more because of how deeply I was sleeping.

The American Heart Association  describes how our brains are very active during sleep. Normally one would think that this would be a time for our brains to relax and chill, but actually chemicals in our brains determine how well of a nap or good night sleep we will get. This will in turn help determine how awake we will feel after waking up. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters and act on different neurons in the brain to determine what stage of sleep we will be in. Different foods and medicines ingested before sleep can influence these neurotransmitters and change the balance of these signals. For example, caffeine can stimulate some parts of the brain which can create insomnia, antidepressants can hinder the REM cycle of sleep, and alcohol which is used to help people fall asleep keeps that person in a light sleep and can awakened easier rather than if they were in a deeper sleep.

There are five stages of sleep: stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. When this cycle is over (when REM is completed) the cycle continues back to stage 1 and starts over. On average, one complete sleep cycle (from stage 1 to REM) lasts about 90-110 minutes. As the night progresses and a person is asleep for longer, the REM cycle lengthens in time, and the amount of time spent in deep sleep decreases. On average, people spend the majority of their sleep in stages 1, 2, and REM.

Obviously sleep is important to people just for their own sanity, but sleep is also necessary for health and survival. In a study done in rats, who generally live about 2 to 3 years, rats who were sleep-deprived only lived for about 3 weeks. Additionally, the rats who were sleep-deprived showed evidence of a weaker immune system. Without sleep, we are cranky, may not be able to remember things, and cannot function properly. In another study done on rats, the neurons that are used during the day with stable emotions and social interactions are decreased during deep sleep. This shows how sleep helps regulate these hormones and can lead to optimal social interactions and emotional stability while awake.

While all this information I found helped me to understand why sleep is so important, I was still curious as to how sometimes I wake up more tired than when I go to bed. Normally, that happens when I sleep for a really long time, like when I wake up at 12 or 1 in the afternoon. During naps, however, I haven’t been able to figure out what is the optimal amount of sleep in order to wake up feeling refreshed. Throughout my research, I have come to the conclusion that it is not necessarily the amount of sleep a person gets (of course that is important too) but it is the quality of sleep. The best sleep is one the completes an entire sleep cycle. If a person wakes up mid-cycle, they are more likely to feel fatigued and drowsy when they wake up. Completing a sleep-cycle is the optimal amount of sleep of a nap. You can complete as many cycles as you have time for in a nap, but the most important part is waking up at the end of REM rather than in the middle of a cycle. There is no real way to control this, because we cannot really control when we wake up.

What is Sleep?

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/how-much-sleep-do-you-need.htm

There is no better hair-do than a ponytail. It keeps the hair off your face, you can just throw it up and not really care what it looks like, and it can hide some unwashed hair if you forgot to wash your hair one day. However, keep that ponytail in too long and you may experience a major headache. This got me wondering as to why this happens. Is it the way the hair pulls up on the scalp, or is it something more? Dr. Denise E Chou, neurologist and assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center specializes in treating headaches and has figured out the mystery behind headaches and ponytails.

Chou claims that people who experience headaches while wearing ponytail are most likely already migraine-prone. Since migraines are rarely diagnosed, people (especially women who wear ponytails) often don’t realize this may be the source of their pain. Migraine prone people have more sensitivity around the face and scalp, and when pulled with the ponytail may lead to headaches. Ponytails are not meant to be painful, and therefore, this perception of pain due to an otherwise non-painful stimulus is called cutaneous allodynia. Putting your hair up shouldn’t be painful, but it can be perceived as painful when a migraine or headache happens while your hair is up.

Even those who aren’t migraine prone may still experience headaches while your hair is up. This is because when your hair is up or in a tight bun, the strain of the nerves around the face will pull, similarly to those who are migraine-prone, and cause pain.

In order to reduce the amount of ponytail headaches you may get, you can simply try taking it out and wearing your hair down, or doing a loose ponytail or bun which won’t pull of the nerves as much – like Beyonce.

http://evoke.ie/style/beauty-buzz/ponytail-headaches-scientific-reason

http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/ss/slideshow-surprising-headache-triggers

Is it better to Study With Music or Without?

Lately I have been thinking about what makes good and bad study habits as I am starting to have more and more exams as the weeks go on. Being in college, and having a roommate, I have realized that two different people can have different study habits. For example, the main one that becomes an issue for me and my roommate is that I like to study and do homework with music playing in the background, and she likes quiet. This got me to thinking if one way was better or more efficient than another.

There are certain times that listening to music while studying is efficient, and times when it is less efficient. Specifically, before studying for an exam or doing homework studies have shown that listening to music allows the student to keep their attention more on the task at hand and for a longer period of time. Listening to music before studying can also help your memorization skills. However, when it comes to the actual memorizing, and not before, listening to music my hinder the student’s ability to remember the information. This is especially true if the music they are listening to has lyrics. This is due to the fact that the music and the task at hand are speaking the same language and the student may get confused as to which one they are supposed to remember. On the contrary, listening to music while doing a task that is in a different language, for example math problems, helps improves the student’s ability to perform accurately and stay focused.

Studies have shown that students thrive in their school work and studying when they are in a better mood. Researchers claim that music is one way student’s can get into that relaxed mood in order to studying most efficiently. Of course, the type of music a student’s listens to while doing work as some effect on the student’s results or ability to retain the knowledge. Researchers suggest that the best music to listen to while studying are ones without lyrics, especially classical music, because the lyrics heard can confuse the student with the information they are trying to learn. However, no one really listens to music without lyrics anymore, so researchers also suggest music that is calming but also has an upbeat tempo so the student doesn’t fall asleep. They suggest not listening to music that it too upbeat because that can just end up being a distraction. The music should not be too loud or too soft, because that can result in falling asleep or a lack of focus.
Overall, listening to music while studying is just dependent on the person as to whether it will help or hinder their performance in school. Personally, I love to listen to music while I study or do work. I tend to listen to songs that I know really well so I can just mindlessly listen to them in the background, while my focus is primarily on my schoolwork.

Elana Goodwin on January 31, 2015. “Do Or Don’t: Studying While Listening To Music.” Uloop. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.

Hi everyone!

My name is Candace and I am a freshman in DUS. I have never done well in a science class in my life. The only time I enjoyed a science class were the days where we would watch Bill Nye or make fun things like kites.

I actually just switched into this class the other day after almost crying in my intro to meteorology class. I thought I would enjoy that class because I think the weather is cool, but after the first day I had to get out. I think SC200 will be much better for me because it seems to be more of a discussion about controversial topics rather than memorizing terms and formulas.I heard that this course is for people who do not like science which is exactly why I joined it. I definitely do not plan on becoming a science major or anything remotely related to science (except math).

I feel like when people think of school subjects they link the social studies and english’s together and the math and sciences together. I’m not sure exactly what I want to major in but I know I love math and hate science so the common link between the two is not ideal for me. I am trying to avoid science as much as possible with still figuring out what I would want to do with a math major and I feel like this class is a good start in doing so.