Being that we all attend college here at Penn State, I know we are all ready for the cold. BRING IT ON.  Are you ready for it? Physically, I guess so… mentally not sure.

What I wanted to know, was what are the effects of the cold on our body’s health and overall well being. Now I am sure preference might have some sort of a role in this because every December break that rolls around and my family is skiing in below 0 degree weather where as my friends are laying on the beach. WHY? I am not entirely sure.

So First off, I wanted to see the physical effects on us when it comes to the cold.

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I found this insightful article that told me a thing or two. First off, for obvious reasons people are spending more time inside do to the cold. More time inside, means more people inside which means more germs inside, which means….. our immune system is at risk. We are more likely to get colds, flus, and other nasty sicknesses in the cold.

Our heart is also at risk. The cold is a vasoconstrictor. This means your blood vessels are narrowed and your risks for heart complications are also heightened. Make sure to bundle up in attempts to avoid this. Also, physically demanding jobs in the winter do not help this issue. Additional strain on your heart is not good. So this is why we see frequent heart attacks when shoveling snow.

Now those are some physically effects of the cold, that I am sure we have heard once or twice in the past. There are several factors that effect our mental health while living in the cold.

According to an article I found here, there is something called seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The cold can bring you down and CAN make you sad.  In the winter, their is less light, and this disorder is the effect of this change. Now this isn’t the cold in general, but its the season and its effects that come from that. People who are effected from this, experience drops in mood and overall well being, usually light exposure can help to treat this.

The stress from living in a climate that is cold, snowy, and likely to storm can stress people out and continue to effect their health. Constant stress an unknowns that surround the expectation of the cold wintery weather can effect our mental health. The cold weather also extracts our empathy. We are more likely to throw an extra $5 at the delivery boy. why? Because as humans, we genuinely feel bad for them in the cold weather. As much as it is their job, would we want to be out there in the freezing cold delivering pizzas all night?

Bottom line, I think there are obvious effects of the cold, but at the end of the day I think it is in respects to each individual. As i said earlier, my family would prefer to ski than to take a week in the Bahamas.

LUCKY ME! Enjoy your breaks however you may choose.

Being an avid watcher of Friends, there is one episode that really stuck out to me. There is an episode where one of the main characters Phoebe challenges the idea of being able to follow through with a selfless good deed. In a nut shell, this means doing something good for someone else expecting nothing in return; not even the satisfaction of helping someone out or feeling good about what you have done. First off, I would LOVE to know peoples opinions on this because I feel as if this is completely opinionated and can’t scientifically be proved.

What I want to know is the mental and physiological effects behind doing something good for someone else and seeing how this effects you.

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After reading an article I found here, there are scientific facts about giving back. Giving back can reduce your stress. In a study found here…..

It showed that adults who volunteered over 4 hours during the week and were over the age of 50, were significantly less at risk for developing high blood pressure within the next 4 year; 40% to be exact.

Another statement was said that the more you give, the lower your cortisol levels are. As we know, high cortisol levels can be caused by extremely active adrenal glands; meaning a surplus of stress. Now with this decreased amount of stress in your life, it is also said to increase your life expectancy. Lets recap: more giving= less stress, less stress= healthier life, healthier life= longer life.

How does giving make us feel better overall? There is something called a helpers high, which is basically the feeling that overcomes you after doing something good for someone else, and this feeling is more times than not inevitable. This happens do to the release of endorphins into your brains pleaser centers. You will be flooded with feelings of satisfaction and warmth, the feel good feeling due to the chemical release in your brain.

I conducted a small survey after me and my friends completed a secret santa. My hypothesis was that over 1/2 of the group would answer in a way that supports my findings.

The group consists of 10 girls, and the questions were as follows:

1) Do you feel a sense of generosity after giving your gift?

2) Does gift giving make you genuinely happy after seeing the reaction of your friend?

3) How willing are you to give another gift after witnessing this feeling ? 1-10

7/10 Answered yes to question number 1. This is fairly consistent to my findings.

9/10 Answered yes to question number 2. Also consistent with my findings.

The numbers ranged from 7-10 amongst the 10 responses I received.

Now I know this isn’t a great experiment but I thought it would be interesting to take a small sample size and test it out. The bottom line, is that I think genuinely people are happy to give if they are able to. Not only does this amount to gifts, but giving someone your time as well such as volunteering and what not. After finding this all out, I do NOT think there is anything that is considered a selfless good deed. Sure you mean well. But your bodily natural reactions are inevitable.

GIVE GIVE GIVE! You wont regret it!

Happy holidays.

Being that halloween just pass… it left me thinking why do we enjoy being scared. Why is there a holiday designated to scaring people? Some of us voluntary pay to go to a haunted house, or a scary movie. Some of us also drive to “haunted” sites in order to get a thrill. But, why?

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According to an article I found here, it has to do with your emotion and memories. Memories with high emotion; wether it be fear, sadness, or joy, tend to leave a lasting impression and therefore a stronger sense of memory .

It has to do everything with your processing centers in your brain that deal with emotions. This would include your prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and insula. When we are scared our body goes into fight or flight mode; meaning slowed digestion, increased heart rate, dilated pupils, bladder relaxation etc. Meaning there is a ton of chemical reactions taking place in our body, those being valuable if you needed to fight or run for your life. Some of these chemicals are also emitted when your happy or excited; which then results in the same expectation for these emotions in general.

Obviously not everybody likes being scared though which is fine. Everybody has a different experience. When people who seek this feeling experience it, they become happy; a sense of empowerment almost. There is a release of the feel good hormone dopamine. This can obviously cause people a source of happiness. It can also be a reminder of our mental toughness and the exhilaration that comes to follow.

Bottom line, If you enjoy being scared (as I do), then your reactions are natural and fulfilling. If you don’t, try not to put yourself in these situations because they can clearly result in a stressful toll on your body! Avoid it or don’t avoid it!

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Living in Long Island, New York, I have seen my share of hard winters. The endless shoveling and clearing off the car is almost a staple routine. My mom has a really bad ankle and is always TERRIFIED of slipping on the ice. Recently my parents have resorted to the rock salt. But there have been so many claims of it being unsafe. I have my doubts and concerns about it, but first of all how does it even work? My hypothesis suggests that ice melt is highly dangerous to our health, if touched or even ingested.

According to an article I found here, when you add the salt substance it will cause the temperature to drop. If you were to sprinkle salt on your drive way, sidewalk, or road, this should lower the freezing point which would overall dissolve the ice into liquid water. The salt will cause the ice to melt for this reason.

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Now that we understand a little bit of the science… is it safe? After looking at an article found here, the ice melting chemicals usually contain a number of different things within it in order for it to be able to do its job. Usually, It contains rock salt, potassium, calcium chloride,urea, and magnesium chloride. Now, what we are all wondering is how dangerous is this combination. Basically, if touched by the skin (or paws for our furry friends), you may find some rash or dryness in the area. This is not too serious, but I could see how this could bother our pets. Poison control seems to receive a ton of calls each winter season due to young children accidentally ingesting the ice melt. Basically what happens here is the child might experience some sort of intestinal discomfort but it doesn’t seem life threatening. A remedy poison control recommends is to wipe out your mouth, and drink a glass of milk. I think the media suggests severe damages and repercussions that make the market for “safe” or “pet friendly” ice melt so popular

After reading an article I found that…

It basically suggests that it is highly unlikely for your pet to eat enough of this salt that they would die or even get sick. It is crazy to me how much press this topic seems to get when in reality these scenarios are highly unlikely.  The bottom line is, we know chemicals are harmful to our health and shouldn’t be played with, but if an accident were to occur the effects would NOT be detrimental to us or or pets.

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I am sure most of us have heard “ I am going to get so blacked out tonight” or “OMG I really blacked out last night” when referring to a wild night out. Being that this is a term tossed around quite often I wanted to look more into it. Yes, I am aware that ‘blacking out’ means ingesting enough of a substance that impairs your memory and makes you completely unable to recall the events from this time. At times, it seems funny. But is it dangerous? How does it effect your brain? What are the long term effects? These are all valid questions that I thought I should look into. My hypothesis throughout my research I have conducted would have to be “If i drink excess amounts, I will always blackout, and there will be long term effects.”

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While researching a little about the brain here, I found that in respects to alcohol, drinking a large amount will cause an interference within the brain. What happens is alcohol will block the receptors within the brain; more specifically the individuals hippocampus. The hippocampus is most closely associated with long term memory. When the receptors are blocked, additional receptors are stimulated which overall causes the interference of the reaction between these specific neurons. Overall, this disruption deters the ‘long term potentiation’. This is what is used to form memories and activate learning. 

Something I found interesting here, was that the term ‘brown out’, is also a valid term. My friends have used the term brown out in past time and I always somewhat mock them because the idea sounds somewhat ridiculous as if there is a colored scale for how incoherent you were the night before. Basically, what I found is there is two types of blackouts. En bloc blackouts are the real deal blackouts. These are the times where you are completely unable to retain memory at this point even if it might seem as though you are completely functioning and able to carry a normal conversation. In a test of time, this type of blackout keeps your recalling ability to about two minutes prior, anything beyond that is lost. The fragmentary blackouts are where the person is able to recall certain events from the night but not all. If their memory is promoted by another person they might begin to recall some information, this would be classified as a “brown out” in lack of a better word.

Now in respects to the long term effects, I found here long term effects do exist. Repeated blackouts can cause issues such as permanent memory damage, impaired brain development and slow learning, acting out in a way that creates issues within behavior, and more significantly brain damage. Now after reading all of this, it seems to suggest that repeated blackouts when drinking hint to risk of alcoholism.

Bottom line, I do think my hypothesis is correct but I think It comes into play within more severe cases. I don’t think the occasional blackout is great for you, but I don’t think it will have any severe effect based on these findings. These drastic effects come to light if an individual suffers from alcoholism.

Drink responsibly!

My mom always told me not to eat too close to bed time. I find it hard to understand why. Before coming to school I would stop eating around 7pm just because it was part of my everyday plan. Now that I am here in college, I definitely have less time to plan meals.

Not only that, my sleep schedule is definitely off to the point where I am eating late at night. Now its understood that this isn’t healthy or good for maintaining your weight but why?

I never really questioned it before but now that I have accepted the fact that it is sometimes my reality I would LOVE to know the actual effects it has on my body.

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According to this article, when we eat before bed, or late at night; the calories are more likely to be stored in your gut as fat. Your body will naturally be more inclined to store these calories instead of melting these calories away and turning them into energy. Depending on the type of day, it has been shown that food is processed differently throughout.

Now this can have everything to do with a few things, your hormone levels, how much physical energy you are exerting, and how your body is naturally metabolizing anything you are putting into it.

Not only can these calories eaten at an abnormal hour be stored as fat and result in weight gain, but these higher levels of sugar in your blood can also leave you at risk to developing a chronic disease.

Your body is known to have its own calorie clock. Each specific time food enters your body, the capability varies with for your body to metabolize the food. If you can not metabolize your food, the time is not correlated to you eating a meal.

When I was in the second grade, my parents thought it would be a great idea to have me learn a musical instrument. My brother had always played the violin so I decided to be different. I wanted to play the piano. I started off learning basic chords and learning how to read notes. I really liked it. I started to learn classical music. I took to the piano easily but as I grew a little older, I was no longer interested in classical music. I began searching for books in order to play contemporary music.

I really only wanted to play what I heard on the radio. I took a break at one point and then decided to pick it back up when I was going into high school. Now that I was older, every time I was stressed out or needed a break I turned to the piano. It was probably one of the only things that really relaxed me, that I had complete control over.

So as I started to think about it, music is my therapy. I’m no longer an avid piano player but I do know the piano is there whenever I need it. Playing an instrument has been compared to an antidepressant in an article I found here.

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In relation to music and your brain there are a number of connections. Playing the piano, or any other instrument for that matter will increase a portion of the brain that is responsible for your auditory ability. When the brain heres music, another part of your brain is also triggered. This would be the prefrontal cortex; memories are triggered here.

As for the stress relief, playing music alone will reduce stress and keep the mind sharp. During therapy sessions professionals often play music in hopes to simulate memory and calm their patient. The relationship with your emotions and music is considered unconscious. Your brain is simulated by music.

According to an article found here, 

Types of music that have the power to synchronize directly with your brainwaves. This brain wave (the alpha brainwave) is activated when we are calm and conscious.  Music can be used as a form of meditation. It is considered a mechanism to cope with stress.

Bottom line is my hypothesis regarding music being stress relieving seems to be proven true by factual information, and in this case the null hypothesis would be rejected.

So being that I plan on going away for spring break this year with the majority of my Pledge class within my sorority. This summer I decided to get fit in preparation for this trip. Not only did I do some research but I did some of my own experimenting as well. I know we have all heard abs are made in the kitchen. But are they?

Being as though I was skeptical I decided to attempt to first handedly figure out if this was true  or not. As I know, my own personal reflection is only considered an anecdote, I don’t expect you to be fully convinced by my story alone.

I began an aggressive workout schedule with an overall balanced diet, everything in moderation. I worked out 2+ hours a day for at least 6 days a week. My workouts included Kickboxing, Spin, and weight training…. Everyday with the help of a trainer. I saw results but not what I would expect over the course of 2 months. The summer had come to an end and I knew I would be arriving back to school soon so I decided to change up my plan. Once arriving back to school this fall, I began to keep an EXTREMELY strict diet and incorporated moderate exercise meaning in my eyes; 1 hour of exercise in the gym at least 3x a week. This was a drastic change in my plans.

Now that we are about 2 months into school, and have been practicing this plan religiously. I can honestly say my results are far better now then they were over this past summer. I have more definition in my stomach then I had before despite my lack of exercise.

I know that you might not be totally convinced so I decided to do a little research.

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After reviewing an article found here…..

Obviously there are certain foods that we know are completely off limits for weight loss. What makes a certain food worse off for you? Basically I am sure we all know this but, when a certain food that is high in sugar (artificial OR natural) your blood pressure will most likely increase. After this increase your pancreas will automatically secrete insulin. Naturally, these calories will be saved and stored as fat.

So just like we know what causes weight gain, what types of foods help you burn fat. High protein filled foods activate your metabolism. This is known as the thermic effect. Basically It physically takes more energy to burn it making you burn more calories overall after eating foods like this.

When you hear about fattening foods you automatically stay away. This is actually a common misconception. In hopes to keep your metabolism running and maintain your energy throughout the day. Some healthy fats include; oils, nuts, nut butters. All healthy fats.

Overall my findings pay closer attention to diet than to exercise.

Before coming to college, I rarely took naps. Now they are sometimes essential throughout the week. Whether its following a big test, a long night out, or just a crappy nights sleep, I find myself needing a nap AT LEAST once a week. Now, of course this isn’t a great habit, I wanted to see the effects of the duration of my naps. Some days I nap for 30 minutes to an hour. While other times I nap for well over 2 hours. I guess this mostly depends on the day.

Last year as a freshman there was a sign about napping, which I found funny. Who needs information about napping? Whats the big deal?  After looking into it some more I found some information on optimal nap duration. Each allotted duration of your nap can help or hinder a specific aspect with regards to your brain.

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For example according to this site; there are signifiant difference in the effects according to the duration of your naps. To overall reboot your energy, they say to take a power nap between 10-20 minutes. A 30 minute nap will leave you feeling groggy or cloudy, an additional 30 minutes of exhaustion following your nap will pass before you feel the benefits of your nap. When you nap for an hour studies show that it will aid in your memory to retain information; but this groggy feeling will also be prevalent following this one hour nap. During a 90 minute nap you will go though one sleep cycle. This will have the groggy feeling avoided completely. 

According to this article…

There IS a science behind napping. Napping can be beneficial in the way that it helps you stay mentally sharp and overall live a healthy life. Now we know they can recharge your energy meter but how much can a nap really do for your brain.

While researching this topic I found so much different information regarding naps, It has been found that a 90 minute nap will improve learning all day. How? I did not understand how this could be possible.

This site reflects on a study done in attempts to prove this claim true. They took 39 young adults and broke them into two groups. Both groups performed rigorous educational tasks that were targeted to tire out the hippocampus. After this task, one group took a 90 minute nap where as the others stayed awake. Following the nap, all participants were then again asked to attempt vigorous learning tasks. The participants who remained awake become less successful than of those who did have the opportunity to nap.

The bottom line is naps seem to effect your brain and body in different ways, but overall it has been found that the hypothesis of napping for 90 minutes will increase your learning abilities has been accepted whereas the null hypothesis has been rejected. Or, this could very well be a false positive.

So about two weeks ago, I was sitting in my room in Pollack Halls. I had received a message in my sorority group chat that there were rumors of a clown in Pollack. Naturally I locked my door and just looked out the window. I saw nothing. About 30 Minutes later, I heard some screaming and joking around of just a few handfuls of kids. I still thought it was no big deal. Finally, an hour or so after, I heard a ROARING of students running through the residence halls and all over campus. Naturally I thought it was a joke and it was completely entertaining. It began to dawn on me as to why people would be out there if there was a rumored clown on the loose. I understand Penn State does not follow the norms of clown ‘protocol’.

My friend who goes to UD told me they had clown sightings a few days ago. But their reactions were rather different. They decided to go into lock down ( as I would assume normal people would). So whats up with this mob like tactic?

I then began to wonder what exactly is mob mentality. I had heard it in my Psychology classes throughout high school but had never really paid attention to the science behind it.

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First I decided to look at some basic knowledge regarding mob mentality before I get into some research. The definition of mob mentality is essentially, people acting as one by the influence of others. Basically, their identity is somewhat lost and they take the identity of a group. For example, You see a clown while your alone… YOU RUN. As opposed to you seeing a single clown in a group of 100, YOU CHARGE. So, what makes people adopt this sense of power?

According to a site I found here, when people are in a group setting they have no problem destroying property or acting violently due to the fact that they somewhat become invisible or their identity is lost. Being part of a group can leave individuals undetected to a point where they no longer feel accountable for their actions. Now, I am not trying to say Penn State took a violent turn towards the clown, but I am trying to describe the science behind this empowering mentality.

As I think about this more I am curious as to how we measure this ‘rage’. According to a article found here,  I checked out some more in-depth science behind mob mentality. First off how could we even measure physiological changes? I found out that it could be done in a magnetic brain scan. I found out that a section within your brain will lit up when ones thoughts regard themselves only. This area will appear dull or dormant in a group setting. The area they look for is specifically the prefrontal cortex. With that being said, during a study found within this article they tested two groups of people. One group was held in a group setting, the other was held as individuals completely alone. They were asked a bunch of questions that referred to judgement.

Some held in groups displayed a more inactive prefrontal cortex. This showed us that people in a group setting did prove they all subconsciously acknowledged the presence of other people and didn’t only think of themselves individually.

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Upon arriving to school I started noticing these “fancy” water bottles. As I started to pay more attention I realized about 1/2 of my sorority also had one. I decided to ask my friend about it. She then told me “It’s a S’well bottle…duh” as if I lived under a rock or something. Obviously I HAD to have one, so I went on the website and checked it out. For those of you also living under a rock …….

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….. this is a s’well bottle. Well ,whats so good about this over priced trendy water bottle? My friends describe it to me as a LIFE SAVER; as if they couldn’t get more dramatic to begin with. Apparently they keep your water ice cold for up to 24 hours, and your hot drinks steamy for up to 12 hours. Sounds legit considering warm water isn’t acceptable anymore! I looked into the dozens of designs, colors, sizes, and types of these bottles- not to mention their sister company Sip by S’well, but thats a whole other story. Finally, I found the one I wanted… kinda resembles 18 Karat gold, I had never seen anyone have this one, so I now own it.

Check it out.. cool right?

Besides the obvious appeal of it being cool, it actually works, extremely well I might add. I am down right obsessed with it. So after being convinced of it actually working, I wondered ; how?

I decided to look more into the technology or science behind it.

According to S’well themselves in an FAQ I found here, these bottles are made out of 18/18 stainless steel. Great, what the hell does that mean?! Basically after a quick google search and a short article I found, 18/18 stainless steel is considered food grade. The grade basically asses the specific products, resistance to temperature and longitivtiy of the temperature being held, as well as the metals durability and overall quality of the meals being used. 18/18 in a nut shell means 18% of all nickel, stainless steel and chromium. Food grade stainless is steel is the most resistant to rust.

Okay, now that we got the meal down S’well says their bottles are produced with ‘thermaS’well’ technology- this basically means they are vacuumed sealed to keep the steam within the bottle for your hot drinks, and your cold drinks COLD at all times. Pretty cool.

For all of you tree huggers, if you still need to be convinced : S’well has a mission to become eco friendly. Not only do these bottles come completely BPA,BPS toxin free- they’re goal is to eliminate the use of a plastic water bottle. According to a fact I found here, the US dumps 50 billon of our normal plastic water bottles into landfills each year- and globally… 200 BILLION.

So yes, I plan on becoming the next S’well bottle ambassador!!! But really, if you are totally into this type of stuff like me, Check this out!

This summer I sorta became a gym rat. Besides the obvious benefits of getting in shape and maintaining a healthy weight I started to think what else is the gym doing for me that I am unaware of. Well yeah, burning calories is a plus but besides the obvious changes I can see with my eyes ; what is the gym really doing for me?

Throughout school I have always heard exercise releases endorphins. Ok, yeah so does chocolate, Am I right?  Not sure. This summer I did little to nothing besides workout 2-3x a day and then lay in my pool or by the water in my spare time. Obviously this summer I experienced little to no stress. Was it from my relaxed lifestyle I got to embrace this summer or was it from the gym? I intend on finding out.

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After skimming a BUNCH of intriguing articles I found one that acknowledges a few more aspects to exercise that I think everyone should check out.

I know that after a bad breakup, a fight with a friend, a bad grade or just a lot on my plate a good workout will always make me feel better, but I never cared to know why. It turns out that one of the most common benefits of exercise happens to be stress relief. Working out causes an increase in norepinephrine in your brain. This helps to moderate your response to stress within your brain.

Obviously sometimes I dread going to the gym (especially here at school) (because who are you kidding you would prefer to lie in bed and watch netflix too). But after I finish a workout at the gym I never find myself saying; wow, I wish I didn’t do that ! I always find myself feeling great and energized after the gym and I wonder why. Just as we were taught in school -exercise releases endorphins. This causes feelings of happiness and euphoria. Not only do you feel good naturally following a killer workout your self confidence is also increased. You feel good both physically and mentally.

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Obviously sometimes I dread going to the gym (especially here at school) (because who are you kidding you would prefer to lie in bed and watch netflix too). But after I finish a workout at the gym I never find myself saying; wow, I wish I didn’t do that ! I always find myself feeling great and energized after the gym and I wonder why. Just as we were taught in school -exercise releases endorphins. This causes feelings of happiness and euphoria. Not only do you feel good naturally following a killer workout your self confidence is also increased. You feel good both physically and mentally.

Now, lets be realistic, some of us can’t get to the gym with our schedules and not all of us are athletes but you don’t need to stress over it. After learning this I decided to find some stress reliving, endorphin releasing alternatives just out of curiosity.

I found some easy alternatives.

So first off, I was right about the chocolate thing. The chemicals found within chocolate are prompted to release endorphins just like exercise! Heres an easy one for you, LAUGH! Laugh until it hurts; same effect on your brain, reduces stress hormones as well as triggers the release of these feel good endorphins! And lastly another one of my favorites (if your 21 or over of course) Spike your drink!! Is this the best habit? Probably not. But they don’t call it happy hour for no reason. After a drink or two your brain starts to release endorphins in regions of your brain responsible for pleasure and reward. Anyways, drink responsibly.

Overall, I believe my summer was overall stress free due to my workout schedule as well as the life of leisure I lived. I do believe the workouts had a lot to do with it. I am sure to make sure I keep up these good habits throughout the school year to remain somewhat stress free, and when I cant make it to the gym.. I now know some easy alternatives.

Every morning I wake up, make my coffee and then go about my day. Maybe you know somebody like this, or in fact this has YOU written all over it. I admit it, I am most certainly a caffeine addict. Yes, I legitimately need caffeine to function throughout the day. Well of course this can’t be horrible for you, right? Or can it…?

I’m sure we all have our own ways of drinking coffee: iced or hot, 2 Splenda with milk, creme no sugar, or black- just how I like it. Not only am I obsessed with the caffeine fix I have every morning; Im obsessed with the taste of plain coffee, gross, I know. What is this coffee really doing to my body? ( A question I decided I probably should look into)

As I search the internet looking for legitimate answers to this question; it is clear that there are both pros and cons to coffee. Well duh.. there are pros and cons to everything but whats the deal with coffee ? Check out this article I found here ….

This article spits out some general pros and cons to coffee. The only clear disadvantages according to this specific site are simply unreasonable. Coffee can kill you…yes, this is true but only if you drink 80-100 cups in a short period of time. Realistic? Probably not. True? I can only assume so. Coffee can lead to insomnia as well restlessness…. well, I could of told you that! Caffeine is known to do this to you. Now besides from these two negative claims regarding coffee, lets hear some positives. Coffee helps you lose weight, burn fat and helps you focus and stay more alert… I like the way these sound. Now besides the fact that I am sure we all have heard before, caffeine can help speed up your metabolism (in regards to the weight loss), the caffeine  would probably have most to do with the alertness aspect. Now I am sure your mom, dad, friends or doctor could of told you all of this, but what is caffeine REALLY doing to your body?

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After reading a quite lengthy article this is the gist of what I found…

Once caffeine is within your body, it seems to travel to the CNS rather quickly. Caffeine reaches your brain and can cause headaches, can give you the jitters or tremors and cause anxiety in some cases.

In regards to your digestive and excretory track, caffeine is known to cause more acid produces in your stomach- this is the reason you might experience heart burn or a belly ache when not used to the amount of caffeine you are consuming.

Although studies have shown that caffeine has no direct effect with long term blood pressure, following consuming caffeine your blood pressure might increase temporarily- this is in relation to your circulatory and respiratory systems.

Within your skeletal and Muscular systems I found that large amounts of caffeine can interfere with absorption of calcium within your bones and this can cause bone thinning with leads to osteoporosis ( fun fact; last year I was a Kinesiology major and we had a whole unit on osteoporosis in Kines101 an.d caffeine was never mentioned as an effect on it)

Finally for women, in your reproductive system there are no clear indications of caffeine effecting this while not carrying a child, BUT if you are pregnant they say not to have more then one cup a day. Why you may ask? The caffeine can diffuse through the placenta and can increase your baby’s metabolism and heart rate. For clear reasons we can see why this would not be good for your baby’s health.

After conducting a ton of casual research regarding this topic I genuinely knew nothing about, it is safe to say I am now updated on caffeine completely. I do NOT think I will stop drinking coffee, nor do I plan on cutting back, but I am honestly more aware of the effects of caffeine taking place within my body. Not only am I fully aware of the obvious signs of “too much” caffeine, I also will be more conscious of it due to the not so obvious effects caffeine does to your body.

Hi class,

My name is Olivia Browne and I am currently a sophomore. I started out as a Kinesiology major, in the college of Health and Human Development, last year as a freshman and struggled all year. I decided then that science just wasn’t for me. I really wanted to pursue sports medicine or physical therapy. I then planned to go into the college of communications and utilize my creativity as a Advertising major! Although I loved the idea of doing something in the health industry I still plan on incorporating something along the lines of personal training or fitness instruction as a side job or hobby.

If you click here you will find and article relating to the “right and left brain”…. this interests me because some say that creativity is linked with which hand you use to write with. I really wondered if one has anything to do with the other. I also wondered if you could be more “right brained” or more “left brained”. This is something I find very interesting.

I chose this class because I heard from my freshman roommate that it was a fun interactive class that involved writing (which I love) and science that is somewhat abstract (which I also love).  Overall I look forward to getting to know some of you, and good luck this semester!