Let's R.A.P. (Read About Physiology)

Thicker Thighs Means Longer Life

2010-02-16T19:52:00.005-06:00

Experts have claimed that carrying a little extra fat on the hips, thighs and back side, can protect you against diabetes and heart disease. I found this article on DiscoveryNews.com

"Fat around the hips and thighs is good for you but around the tummy is bad,"
said Konstantinos Manolopoulos, one of three scientists behind the research
which has been published in the International Journal of Obesity.

The bad thing about carrying fat around the waist is that it tends to release more harmful fatty acids into the body. Stomach fat also releases cytokines that increase inflammation, and raise the risks of getting diabetes or heart disease.

Fat on the thighs can trap the harmful fatty acids and keep them from causing health problems.

I found this article interesting because everyone thinks that you have to be skinny to look good, and maybe it does look good to some but it is actually healthier to have a little more meat on your bones, which I think is more important than what others think of you.

Internet Linked to Depression

2010-02-16T19:14:00.003-06:00

Researchers have found that people who are on the internet most of the time are more likely to show symptoms of depression. This article came from sciencedaily.com.

Theres been evidence proving that some internet users have actually replaced social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. Which causes a serious impact on ones mental health.

Lead author Dr Catriona Morrison, from the University of Leeds, said: "The
internet now plays a huge part in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied
by a darker side."
"While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and
send emails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to
control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with
their daily activities."

"Our research indicates that excessive internet use is associated with
depression, but what we don't know is which comes first -- are depressed people
drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression?"

"What is clear, is that for a small subset of people, excessive use of
the internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies."

I chose this article because these days it seems like everyone is always on the internet. I use to feel like i was pretty much addicted to it but I was never depressed. So do I agree with this article? Not really, but I thought maybe someone else could read it and relate to it.

Worms help in searchings for epilepsy treatment!

2010-01-11T23:04:00.007-06:00

In my searching for an article for my blog post, I stumbled over the article about how worms can be a new epilepsi treatment on physorg.com. I found the title entertaining and kinda gross, and decided to take a look.

The article writes about how scientists from The University of Alabama used worms to search for special information that could lead to an understanding of cellular mechanisms that can be used to treat epilepsy. In their research, the scientists explain how a transparent roundworm, also called a C. elegan, made them identify molecular switches that controls transportations of a molecule named gamma-aminobutyric acid.
A scientist by the name of Guy A. Caldwell said the following:

"It is our hope that this work serves to accelerate the
path toward the identification of genetic factors that cause a susceptibility to
epilepsy"

The researchers made experiments that contained drugs, they knew would affect neuronal activity, because it would create DNA mutations in both humans and C. elegans. The canges led to repetitive cramps, that could be compared to those humans experience in epilepsy.
Scientist Mark Johnston stated in the article:

"Although much more work must be done before new drugs can be developed for
people, these findings could offer hope to people with this devastating and
frustrating condition, it may be hard to believe, but the cellular processes
that occur in these worms are likely to be similar to those in humans. This work
has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of what causes
seizures in people, and could point the way to a remedy."

I hope you find the post a little useful, or just interesting, I mean - worms can help people with epilepsy, and make life a lot easier.. That is according to me interesting... and weird!

Mutations causes inherited neuropathy

2010-01-04T20:34:00.005-06:00

In my searching for an article, the one about how mutations causes inherited neuropathy at 'Physorg.com' caught my interest. The article states following:

Mutations in a protein called dynein, required for the proper
functioning of sensory nerve cells, can cause defects in mice that may provide
crucial clues leading to better treatments for a human nerve disorder known as
peripheral neuropathy, which affects about three percent of all those over age
60

On the December 26th, researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center discovered that mice with mutations - with only one copy of a genecoding of dynein protein have many defects in the ability to perceive the spatial orientation of body parts.
The defects caused a reduction of sensory nerve cells, and therefor the ability to use many body parts. All this could be matched to humans.
Peripheral neuropathy symptoms can be pain in the hands and arms, legs and feet, and progressive weakness in the arms and legs.

This is a step closer to help preventing many diseases caused by damages in the nervous system, like sclerosis and the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
I hope that this article can help you all a little bit with our related topic in anatomy, the nervous system. I found it very usefull.

Music Helps Reduce Stress In Heart Disease Patients

2009-12-14T22:49:00.004-06:00

An article I found on Science Daily, explains how heart disease patients who listen to music have a reduction on stress. Music obviously calms the heart's stress level, which makes it easier to live.

"Our findings suggest music listening may be beneficial for heart disease patients," says Joke Bradt, who works at the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple University in Philadelphia. "But the trials we looked at were generally small and varied in terms of styles of music used and length of music sessions. More research on the specifics of music listening is certainly warranted."

The researchers reviewed data from 23 studies, which together included 1,461 patients. Two studies focused on patients treated by trained music therapists, but most did not, using instead interventions where patients listened to pre-recorded music on CDs offered by healthcare professionals.

"We all know that music can impact on our emotions, our physiological responses, as well as our outlook on life, and this early research shows that it is well worth finding out more about how it could help heart disease patients. In particular, it would be interesting to learn more about the potential benefits of music offered by trained music therapists, which may be differ substantially from those associated with pre-recorded music," says Bradt.

Music does wonders...Music is an amazing language. This article really explains to me that music really can help save lives and music is beneficial to everyone!

Personality Robbed

2009-12-14T15:31:00.003-06:00

Kenny Sparks is a owner of a multi-million dollar business, well know in his community and has a loving wife and kids. Sounds like there is n problem right, well for this man he has a rare form of dementia which is slowly robbing him of his personality and also has a loss words.

Kenny's personality wasn't the same, either. He grew distant, more agitated. Cheryl thought it was stress, that the pressure of work was getting to him. But as the months went by, his condition got worse. He was put on medication for depression. Although it helped, Cheryl said, "He just wasn't Kenny."His children also noticed the change. During a family trip to France, he hardly spoke. His son, Graham, knew this wasn't his dad. "He'd tell stupid jokes all the time," said Graham. "And on this trip, he wasn't telling jokes. He was sitting there with a blank stare on his face.
"

There is no know cure for this illness. all the family can do is just watch as there father slowly slips away from them.

Bacteria Provide New Insights Into Human Decision Making

2009-12-14T05:39:00.003-06:00

In this article from Science Daily , Math, Biology, and decision making are all put to the test. Bacteria, who live in giant colonies, can communicate with each other all most instantly. When conditions get bad in the colony, such as starvation or poisoning, the exact conditions are given out to all members of the colony. Then the bacteria have a choice, they can retreat into a spore, or go into a different state called competence. If the bacteria goes into a spore, they store their DNA in a capsule, which breaks open when conditions are better. The original bacteria dies, but one takes its place at another time. If the bacteria goes into competence, it stays alive through the struggle, using its dead brothers, the ones who became spores, as subsistence. The advantage of this is no one dies, so the bacteria can continue with the colony while the others are in spores.

Now here is where the math comes into play. Scientists want to use all the data gathered from watching how the bacteria respond to each others choices, and not only try and learn more about human decision making, but by trying to put a mathematical model to certain situations, such as who goes out and gets a vaccine compared to how many people in the entire population do. Ben Jacobs, a physics professor at Tev Aviv and part of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, had this to say.

"What each bacterium is doing is the equivalent if each individual on earth was able receive the exact information about the rate of spread of this new virus, the exact information about the intentions, to be vaccinated or not, by each person on the planet, and in addition the exact information about the health risks of side effects or being infected, a decision is then made in the context of this vast amount of information."

I think this article is interesting, mainly because of how impossible I think it would be to make a mathematical model that would accurately show the decision making of a group of humans.

Revolutionary treatment could cure aggressive cancer

2009-12-14T05:12:00.003-06:00

While googling a little on cancer, I came across this article. The article tells about children with neuroblastoma, how how around 30% of the cases treated with the standard chemotherapy are fatal. The article goes on to discuss how British scientists are testing immunotherapy along with the standard chemo. According to the article, the antigens in the medicine go to the cancer cells, then strengthen the immune system so the body can kill the cancer. However, Dr. Peter Brock has this to say about having immunotherapy as the primary weapon in the fight against cancer.

'You have to have got rid of most of the disease. Immunotherapy works by linking on to one cell at a time.'

The immunotherapy is delivered to the children, most of whom are before there 5th birthday, with an IV. It takes a long time, 8 hours a day for 5 days, repeated once a month for 5 months, and the process is extremely painful, so the children are also given morphine while in the hospital.

This research is helped being funded by charities, including Simon Cowell, who is donating money from sales of Christmas songs from the British version of American Idol.

What Causes Common Skin Warts

2009-12-13T19:44:00.005-06:00

I went onto WebMD.com and i came across this article about the cause of the common skin wart. And what I found out was quite interesting.

When skin warts appear, it can seem as if the harmless growth came out of nowhere.

But common skin warts are actually infections on the top layer of skin caused by a virus called the human papillomavirus, or HPV. When the virus get's into the outer layer of the skin usually through a cut it causes an unusual rapid growth of cells on the outer layer of the foot creating the wart. “HPV is ubiquitous,” says dermatologist Conway Huang, MD, an associate professor of dermatologic surgery and cutaneous laser surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“We all come in contact with it,” throughout our lives, such as when
shaking hands, turning doorknobs, or typing on keyboards."

Scientist have discovered more than 100 unique types of the virus and most people will have at least one common wart at sometime in their lives, usually on their hands. Some strains of the virus can cause just skin warts and others can cause genital warts, but some strands may cause both.

“People get warts from other people with warts, they don't get them from frogs and toads,” says Robert Brodell, MD, a dermatologist in Warren, Ohio.

“The most common way is direct skin-to-skin contact, such as shaking hands with someone who has warts on their hand. You can also get the virus from inanimate objects, like towels that have been used by someone with a wart.”
I thought that this article was interesting because alot of people have warts and I have always wondered what had brought them on. It is weird to think that just by touching someone with a wart on their hands or usuing a towl could pass the virus onto you. Also sort of nasty when you think about it.

Antidepressants May Change Personality

2009-12-13T19:01:00.003-06:00

This article was found in Health News. Those people with depression who take antidepressants can have a personality change. This personality change can be for the best. The will become more outgoing and become emotionally stable. This antidepressant is called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSIRIs).

The recent study has found that neuroticism is a key risk factor when it comes to depression. There is also substantial overlap in the genes associated with high neuroticism and the genes that are associated with depression. Both extraversion and neuroticism are associated with the brain’s serotonin system, which is targeted by the SSRI antidepressant medications

This article is helpful for those who have depressions all the time. There is now positive in this antidepressent which will also change their personality for the best.

The Yawn Explained: It Cools Your Brain

2009-12-13T18:22:00.011-06:00

According to Discovery News a new study has gone out on why people yawn and they found out that the primary purpose of yawning is to control brain temperature.

"Brains are like computers,"

Andrew Gallup, a researcher in the Department of Biology at Binghamton University who led the study, told Discovery News.

"They operate most efficiently when cool, and physical adaptations have evolved to allow maximum cooling of the brain."

Several new studies have been done to solve the world renound mystery of why people yawn, and those studies have shown that the main reason for that contagous yawn is to cotrol your brain temperature. Researchers at the Department of Biology at Binghamton University and their colleagues Michael Miller and Anne Clark analyzed yawning in parakeets as representative vertebrates because they have relativley large brains and live in wild Australia which goes through many temperature changes, and they do not engage in contagous yawning like humans. Contagous yawning is thought to be a mechanism for keeping groups alert so they, remain vigilant against danger, Gallup said. For the study the scientists expolsed parkeets to three different conditions: increasing temperature, high temperature and a moderate control temperature. A paper on the findings has been accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behavior.

"Based on the brain cooling hypothesis, we suggest that there should be a thermal window in which yawning should occur," Gallup said

For example, you should not yawn when ambient temperature exceeds body temperature as taking a deep inhalation of warm air would be counterproductive. Yawning when it is extreamly cold may be maladaptive, because this may send unusually cold air to the brain, which could
produce a thermal shock.
I always thought that the reason for yawning was because the oxygen in your blood was low I never thought that it was to cool your brain it is mind boggling to say the least. I never thought that parakeets would be a good test subject to test the weather conditions either. It makes me want to yawn right now just typing about it.

Missing DNA can promot childhood obesity

2009-12-13T18:15:00.003-06:00

I found this article in Yahoo News. Some children become obese by age 10. British researchers said that this was due to a deletion on chromosone 16. This deletion of this gene is a gene that gives signals to the brain of appetite controlling.

The British researchers checked the DNA of 300 children who'd become very fat, on the order of 220 pounds by age 10. They looked for deletions or extra copies of DNA segments.

They found evidence that several rare deletions may promote obesity,

I think this is a really interesting article. Now we can all know that some children get obese due to a chromosone deletion. Some people think that parents give thier children to much to eat but thats not really the case. It actually has to due with DNA chromosone.

When Less Attention Improves Memory

2009-12-11T12:47:00.003-06:00

According to science daily a new study conducted at the Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna shows that, in patients, memory accuracy improves when attentional resources are reduced.

Most cognitive processes supporting adaptive behavior need attentional resources for their operation. Consider memory. If memory was a car, attention would be its fuel: New information is not stored into memory if not attended to, and distraction often leads to misremembering past events. What if the car’s brakes are broken? Will adding fuel still be a good thing? Confabulation is a devastating memory disorder consisting in the uncontrolled production of “false memories”. Patients often act upon their false memories, with dramatic consequences. The research published in Cortex shows that if memory in confabulation is like a car with broken brakes, then it is best not to add fuel.

Overall this article states that your memory works better when its given something simple to memorize with a small amount of attention resources added. I was very interested in this article because with finals coming up I'm trying to memorize as much as possible. :]]

What Can Trigger a Heart Attack?

2009-12-11T09:50:00.007-06:00

On msnbc.com I found an article about different things that can commonly trigger a heart attack. People deal with most of these occurrences everyday. From getting upset about a traffic jam to pigging out over the Holidays, people should be aware of what they are doing to their bodies, especially if they have had heart trouble in the past.

First thing in the morning: The risk of heart attack increases 40% in the morning, Harvard researchers estimate. Why? As you awaken, your body secretes adrenaline and other stress hormones, increasing blood pressure and a demand for oxygen. Your blood is also thicker and harder to pump because you're partially dehydrated. All this taxes the heart. Protect yourself: Build some time into your wake schedule so you can hit the snooze button and wake up slowly. If you're a morning exerciser, warm up thoroughly so as not to additionally stress the heart. And if you're on a beta-blocker, take it before bed so the medication is at full strength in the AM.
On Monday mornings especially: Twenty percent more heart attacks occur on this day, probably because people are stressed and depressed about returning to work. Protect yourself: Relax on Sunday, but try not to sleep in. Getting up early on Monday after sleeping late Saturday and Sunday can raise blood pressure even more because your body is fatigued and its natural rhythms are out of whack. Try to maintain a regular sleep/wake schedule all week.
At the podium
From the heart's perspective, public speaking can be similar to unaccustomed exercise. Extreme nervousness raises blood pressure, heart rate, and adrenaline levels, all of which can make the presentation itself a secondary worry. Protect yourself: To counter these effects, some of my patients take a betablocker before speaking, flying, or doing anything that makes them overly anxious.
After a high-fat, high-carb meal
Studies show these foods constrict blood vessels, making blood more prone to clot. Protect yourself: If you must indulge, keep your portion sizes reasonable. A daily aspirin will also help prevent blood "stickiness."

During a bowel movement
Straining increases pressure in the chest, slowing the return of blood to the heart. Protect yourself: Eat lots of fiber, stay hydrated, and avoid straining.
During vigorous exercise you're unprepared for
Having a heart attack while shoveling snow is a classic example of this. The heart attack occurs because the victim isn't accustomed to that kind of effort and stress hormones skyrocket, causing blood pressure and heart rate to jump. Protect yourself: Regular exercise protects your heart. But increase your intensity level gradually.

These six activities are just everyday chores for most people. But if you have had problems with your heart in the past you should be aware of what could happen to your body just from shoveling snow off your sidewalk. A lot of people are uneducated about their families health history. If you are unsure you should ask about your relatives health conditions so you know if there is a greater chance that you could be a victim of a heart attack.

Tobacco Smoke Causes Behavior Problems for Children

2009-12-10T19:52:00.003-06:00

Children who are around tobacco smoke during early development can develop abnormal behavioral symptoms by the time they are 10 years old. This was on sciencedaily.com

"We were able to show that children who are exposed to tobacco smoke prenatally
and during the first years of life have a higher risk of developing abnormal
behavioral symptoms when they are of school age," said Dr. Joachim Heinrich.

"Moreover, it makes a difference whether the child was exposed to tobacco
smoke first after birth or was already confronted with it during prenatal
development."

Studies have been done and the children who were exposed to tobacco smoke prenatally have a 1.9 times greater risk of forming abnormal behavioral symptoms then children who are not exposed to tobacco smoke. The children exposed to smoke only after birth is 1.3 times higher. And of course the children who were exposed prenatally and after birth have a doubled risk.
Some symptoms of this are hyperactivity, attention deficits or problems in their relationships with the people around them.

The findings make clear that tobacco smoke exposure has a significant impact on
the behavioral development of children. The negative influence is greater on the
unborn child during the pregnancy of the mother than it is after this sensitive
developmental phase.

So pretty much smoking can effect your children for the rest of their lives which isn't fair to them. I think you just shouldn't smoke while you are pregnant or have smoke around your child period. It's not good for them and its certaintly not good for you.

Getting Back Into Shape

2009-12-10T13:46:00.002-06:00

According to health.com, easing back into shape isn't as hard when you switch between short bursts of medium to high intensity work outs. Most people think running a lot right from the start has the best effect, but if a person is out of shape, they'll get discouraged quickly when their work out is too difficult. Changing your exercise routine also makes a work out feel easier because you're not repeating the same moves over and over again.

Walk at a comfortable pace for 2 minutes, then power-walk at your fastest speed for 1 minute; repeat for 45 minutes. Jog at an easy pace for 2 minutes, then run at your all-out pace for 1 minute; repeat for 30 minutes. On a treadmill, walk at a 5 percent incline for 2 minutes, then bump it up to a 12 percent incline for 1 minute; repeat for 45 minutes. On an elliptical trainer, walk at a 4 percent incline at 120–130 strides per minute for 2 minutes, then increase to 180–190 strides per minute for 1 minute; repeat for 45 minutes. Sprint up stadium steps, walk down, then walk at regular pace for 4 minutes; repeat 6–8 times. Bike at a comfortable pace for 2 minutes, then speed-pedal for 1 minute; repeat for 45 minutes. Tip: Always warm up and cool down for at least 5 minutes before and after sessions.

During the winter a lot of people notice that they gain weight around the holidays and they become less active in the cold weather. Having an easier workout routine motivates people to be active, especially if they are not involved in a sport. This could also help people going into college who aren't looking forward to gaining the freshman fifteen.

How to Read Brain Activity With an EGG

2009-12-09T19:50:00.004-06:00

This EEG is actually an electroencephalogram that scientist and physicians use to study brain activity. I found this article on Sciencedaily.com.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) has been widely used in research and medicine for more than 80 years. The ability to measure the electrical activity in the brain by means of electrodes on the head is a handy tool to study brain functions as it is noninvasive and easy to apply. The interpretation of the EEG signals remains, however, difficult. The main reason for this is that the exact relationship between the activity generated in the brain compared to that measured on the scalp is unclear. Therefore, a question of paramount practical importance is how EEG can be used to deduce neural activity in the brain. Recently, Kevin Whittingstall and Nikos Logothetis from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen have addressed this very question for the first time.

Basically the EEG only reads brain activity that happens on the scalp. The readings of the EEG can be very different from the readings that are actually in the brain. I wonder if there findings of this EEG will lead to new research projects on the brain. Like trying to find out more about mental disorders or other brain disorders. It's amazing to think of what the brain can really do.

Your body's big enemy? Your sitting on it

2009-12-09T19:11:00.004-06:00

Is it really true that sitting down for seven or eight hours a day is really leading to an earlier death? According to msnbc's Selene Yeager it is, by way of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

"Our bodies have evolved over millions of years to do one thing: move. As human
beings we evolved to stand upright. For thousands of generations, our
environment demanded nearly constant physical activity," says James Levine,
M.D., Ph.D, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

But thanks to technological advances, the Internet, and an increasingly longer work week, that environment has disappeared. You don't even need to be near a computer to receive an e-mail or check your facebook anymore, it is available on your cell phone. People can sit down to pay bills, shop online, and even keep in touch with friends. When you sit down for an extended period of time, your body starts to shut down, at the metabolic level. When your larger muscles, especially the ones in your legs become immobile, your circulation slows down and you burn fewer calories. Key flab-burning enzymes responsible for breaking down triglycerides simply start switching off. But it doesn't stop there, research shows that for every two hours you spend on your backside per day, your chance of contracting diabetes goes up 7 percent.

Spending a day on your rear is also bad for your posture and spine health.

"When you sit all day, your hip flexors shorten and tighten, while the muscles
that support your spine become weak and stiff." Said Douglas Lentz, a certified
strength and conditioning specialist.

I couldn't believe some of the statistics that were found throughout the article. But most of them are believable. I never would have thought that sitting down for so long could lead to so many conditions. It kind of makes me wonder how many hours I sit during a week.

Weak Muscles Increases Risk of Alzheimers

2009-12-08T19:03:00.008-06:00

People who have weaker muscles have shown signs of having a higher risk for Alzheimers disease and declines in cognitive functions. I found this on sciencedaily.com.

Studies were done on 970 older adults. Each went through evaluations including medical history, cognitive function, neurologic and neuropsychological tests, and muscle strength. During this time, 138 participants were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

[...] Those at the 90th percentile of muscle strength had about a 61 percent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease compared with those in the 10th percentile.

"Overall, these data show that greater muscle strength is associated with a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment suggest that a common pathogenesis may underlie loss of muscle strength and cognition in aging," the authors write.

Researchers are not sure why weaker muscles can increase the risk of Alzheimers disease but think it could be from damage to the mitochondria, this produces energy for your body's cells, which could cause the loss of muscle strength and cognitive function.

Sleep Apnea Caused From Ecstasy

2009-12-08T18:17:00.007-06:00

Researchers have reported that people who use the drug ecstasy are more likely to show signs of sleep apnea than people who do not use it. Meaning that while they are sleeping they are unaware that their breath has stopped, leaving them gasping for air. I found this article on ScienceNews.org.

There is evidence that ecstasy is toxic to neurons in the brain that makes
serotonin , a multipurpose neurotransmitter. It has been hypothesized that
serotonin-making neurons might somehow protect against sleep apnea, but how is
unclear.

Scientists did a study where they monitored 62 people sleeping, who had never taken ecstasy and 71 people who had used the drug. Both groups seemed to have mild sleep apnea, but the people who used ecstasy more often were the ones who were most likely to have it.

Pretty much this article is saying that they have some reason to believe that taking the drug ecstasy is linked to sleep apnea. Even though people who have not taken it still have mild apnea, the ones who do use ecstasy or take it alot more than some, will have more severe cases. So I probably just wouldn't take ecstasy.

New tech could Make Disease Testing Easier

2009-12-08T15:41:00.003-06:00

According to Science Daily

Yale university scientists have found a way to rapidly manipulate and sort cells in blood.

"Ferrofluids are comprised of magnetic nanoparticles suspended throughout a liquid carrier. They have been used in industrial applications for years, including in hard disk drives and loudspeakers. Now a team led by Hur Koser, associate professor at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, has developed a biocompatible ferrofluid -- one with the right pH level and salinity so that human cells can survive in it for several hours -- and has created a device with integrated electrodes that generate a magnetic field pattern, allowing them to manipulate and separate red blood cells."

So not only can human blood survive longer outside of the body, certain red blood cells can be separated using electrodes. This in consequence, can make disease testing much easier and hassle free, speeding up the process of disease testing - so perhaps sometime soon it could only take a day to know if you have cancer. (Or perhaps something less deadly.)

Love Sara

Balancing Protein Intake, not cutting calories, May be key to long life

2009-12-07T22:45:00.006-06:00

Does cutting calories really help as much as you think? Or could you just have a better balanced diet to help you live a long healthy life? That is the question posed in this article from http://www.sciencedaily.com/

"By carefully manipulating the balance of amino acids in the diet, we have
been able to maximise both lifespan and fertility," explains Dr Matthew Piper,
one of the study authors. "This indicates that it is possible to extend lifespan
without wholesale dietary restriction and without the unfortunate consequence of
lowering reproductive capacity."

"The fruit flies were fed a diet of yeast, sugar and water, but with differing amounts of key nutrients, such as vitamins, lipids and amino acids. The researchers found that varying the amount of amino acids in the mixture affected lifespan and fertility; varying the amount of the other nutrients had little or no effect......"
Although the human genome has around four times the number of genes as the fruit fly genome, there is a close relationship between many of these genes. Since it is easy to create mutants and carry out experiments on fruit flies, the functions of many fly genes have been established and newly discovered human genes can often be matched against their fly counterparts. Therefore, even though the fruit fly does not on the surface resemble humans, many findings about its basic biology can be interpreted for human biology.

Are we really that closely related to fruit flies? that is just mind blowing to me that scientist can relate a human with a fruit fly. We are like a million times bigger then they are. The article also says that the key to a longer life might actually lie within a diet instead of just counting how many calories you take in. Which also has me wondering, should i start taking protein< shakes?

Inside the Child's Mind: Understanding autism

2009-12-07T22:20:00.003-06:00

Would you be able to learn at the same rate you do if you interpreted information a split second after it was said? What if you were holding a conversation and didn't know when to stop? Those are exactly the type of challenges eight year-old, Zander Pridy has to go through on a daily basis. CNN reporter Kiran Chetry interviewed Pridy to get some more information.

"What happens is as speech becomes more complicated, we have more and more
sounds building up and these delays cascade on each other leading to a
difficulty in percieving or recognizing the word." Said lead researcher Tim
Roberts.

Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are using a magnetoencephalography, MEG, machine to study the brain waves of children like Pridy with autism disorders. The scientists are hoping to unlock how the scientific brain works. Dr. Schultz is using MRI's to understand and examine the autistic brain. This research won't answer the question of what causes autism, but Schultz says it may lead to a better diagnosis and an earlier intervention.

I was really shocked to read that young children, such as Pridy, have such a problem learning and socializing. They have come up with some helpful ways for them to stay focused during school, which is pretty neat. Zander has a speaker on his desk and his teacher wears a microphone to project her voice, to help him stay on task. Overall, the things they come up with to help autistic kids is really something else.

Can Working out wear you out?

2009-12-07T22:02:00.005-06:00

In this article at the HTML of www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33796382/ns/health-fitness talks about how working out a lot when you are younger will end up harming your body as you age, which is true but you would be way worse of later on if you didnt excercise.

"Physical activity guidelines released by the federal government last year recommend a minimum of two hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate physical activity or at least one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous activity, plus at least two days of strength training a week. The guidelines also state that greater health benefits can be achieved when adults like yourself increase their physical activity to five hours a week of moderate activity or 2.5 hours of vigorous activity, or more."

"It’s true that you can overdo it with exercise and sustain overtraining injuries, particularly if you don’t follow good technique or listen to your body’s warning signals to taper off, Kibler and other experts say. But there’s no reason to think that healthy people doing recommended amounts of physical activity and progressing at a sensible rate are going to eventually wear out their bodies. On the contrary, there is abundant evidence that exercise can go a long way to keep us healthy and strong as we age — and prevent early death. "

Now i dont know about the rest of you guys, but i think im a little scared about this article. Being a football player, this could seriously mean but things for my joints/body. The silly two hours and thirty mins of moderate activity per week. Ha i eat that for breakfast, and the two-days rest in between? My future body is not looking so hot. Look at your excercise schedule and see where you sit with these "recommended guidelines" for working out, see how that shoe fits.

Musical Talented Adolescents Have Better Potential To Do Better In School

2009-12-07T22:01:00.002-06:00

An article I found at ScienceDaily explains how musical participation, such as playing an instrument and studying music theory, will increase the chance for children to become smarter in math and reading.

“This topic becomes an issue of equity at both the family and school levels,” the authors conclude.

“This has major policy implications for federal, state, and local agencies, as well as knowledge that can help families allocate resources that are most beneficial to children.”

Music is positively associated with academic achievement, especially during the high school years. However, some adolescents don't participate in music or can't afford and/or have a low access to music.

I'm a musician and I can tell you that, yes, reading music and participating with music does help your reading and your math skills, because ultimately, when you're reading music or constructing a composition, you're using the same part of your brain as if you were reading a book or doing a math problem, that's my theory anyway.

Smoking Soon After Waking Could Increase Your Risk Of Lung Cancer

2009-12-07T20:38:00.004-06:00

In an article from Medical News Today, researchers are suggesting to wait for a while after you wake up to smoke your first cigarette. They think that waiting a while to smoke a cigarette will significantly decrease your nicotine uptake.

"These people may require a more intensive intervention than
other smokers to help them quit smoking on a sustained or permanent basis," he
added.The blood concentration of the metabolite cotinine is a good indicator of
how well our bodies absorb nicotine when we smoke cigarettes. Previous studies
have shown there is a wide variation in cotinine levels per cigarette smoked,
and the researchers hypothesized that in addition to how often a smoker smokes,
there might be other nicotine dependence behaviours that affect cotinine levels,
such as time to first cigarette after waking. This in turn could affect a
smoker's chances of quitting as well as impacting his or her health.For the
study the researchers recruited 252 healthy black and white community-dwelling
daily cigarette smokers and examined a number of behaviours that are thought to
reflect the urge to smoke. They also measured their plasma and urinary cotinine
levels."These people may require a more intensive intervention than other
smokers to help them quit smoking on a sustained or permanent basis," he
added.The blood concentration of the metabolite cotinine is a good indicator of
how well our bodies absorb nicotine when we smoke cigarettes. Previous studies
have shown there is a wide variation in cotinine levels per cigarette smoked,
and the researchers hypothesized that
in addition to how often a smoker smokes, there might be other nicotine
dependence behaviours that affect cotinine levels, such as time to first
cigarette after waking. This in turn could affect a smoker's chances of quitting
as well as impacting his or her health.For the study the researchers recruited
252 healthy black and white community-dwelling daily cigarette smokers and
examined a number of behaviours that are thought to reflect the urge to smoke.
They also measured their plasma and urinary cotinine levels. [...] The
researchers concluded that:"These findings suggest that the time to first
cigarette is a strong predictor of nicotine uptake and should be considered in
the design of smoking interventions."Muscat said:"Not all smokers are the same
and approaches to smoking reduction may need to account for individual smoking
behaviors such as the intensity and frequency of puffing, cravings and physiological symptoms.""It is unclear why smokers who take their first puff immediately
after waking have higher cotinine levels, but
this may reflect a more intense pattern of smoking. We need to find out why this
is," he added.Muscat and his team are now trying to find out if time to first
cigarette affects levels of other nicotine metabolites. If they find a similar
link, then time to first cigarette may become another risk factor for lung
cancer.

The article is basically saying that if you wait for a while after waking up to smoke your first cigarette it will significantly decrease your chances of getting cancer. The smart thing to do would be to just not smoke at all!

Teen Internet addicts more likely to self harm

2009-12-07T19:14:00.007-06:00

On msnbc there was an article stating that researchers have been investigating today's teenagers' addiction to the internet. They have been trying to find out if thier addiction to the internet has anything to do with hurting themselves. They said that if the addiction to the internet is bad enough, it could be just as bad as an addiction to anything else, meth., alcohol, etc. After researching 1,618 teenagers from the ages of 13-18 that internet addiction can in fact, cause self harm.

The test found that about 10 percent of the students surveyed were moderately
addicted to the Internet, while less than one percent were severely addicted.The
students ranked as moderately addicted to the Internet were 2.4 times more
likely to have self-injured one to five times in the past 6 months than students
without an addiction, said Dr. Lawrence Lam from the University of Notre Dame
Australia.The moderately-to-severely addicted students were almost five times
more likely than non-addicted students to have self-injured six or more times in
the past 6 months, Lam and his colleagues from Guangzhou's Sun Yat-Sen
University reported.

I really do think this whole thing is true, although there are very very few teenagers that are actually severely addicted. I think that it would be very hard to get addicted to the internet, unless you have no mental strength and the only thing that you know is the internet. Another reason i could see this being true is if you are a hardcore online video gamer. This doesn't necessarily deal with the internet itself, but more just computers in general. It is much easier to become "addicted" to video gaming than to the internet itself.

Longer High-Stakes Tests May Result In Sense Of Mental Fatigue, But Not In Lower Test Scores

2009-12-07T12:54:00.005-06:00

According to an article on Science Daily recent research has been done to prove whether or not mental fatigue, or cognitive fatigue, can lower test scores. The results are showing that test results might actually get higher when a person is mentally fatigued.

In the study, 239 freshman college students from the Atlanta area took three different versions of the SAT Reasoning Test. Under conditions simulating the actual exam, with start times of 8 A.M. on three consecutive Saturdays, the students completed tests specially constructed for three different durations: 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 hours. (The current SAT is 3.75 hours of testing over a 4.5-hour session. In this study, the short version of the test had one less of the verbal, math and writing sections; the long version had one more of each. Otherwise, the tests were the same.) Students received a cash bonus if they beat their previous SAT scores.
Before, during and after each test, students completed a questionnaire designed to asses their mood, emotions, confidence, subjective fatigue and more. As expected, the longer they worked on a test, the more the students reported mental fatigue. At the end of 5.5 hours of testing, students reported high levels of fatigue.
However, even though students reported greater fatigue for longer tests, their average performance for both the standard and long tests was significantly higher than for the short test. In fact, the short-form average score was 1,209 out of a possible 1,600; the standard-form average score was 1,222; and the long-form average score was 1,237. Scoring was weighted to make performance comparable across the different length tests.

Overall this article is saying that yes people do have feelings of fatigue during tests but it doesn't necessarily lower test scores. It also talks about how some people can suffer form mental fatigue more easily than others, due to their attitude toward the test or their motivation. So with finals coming up be sure to eat and sleep well, and have a positive attitude toward each test! :]

Desert on Your Mind? Your Muscles May Be Getting the Message

2009-12-06T21:29:00.002-06:00

According to researchers that reported in the December issue of Cell Metabolism, the thought of sweets may cause your muscles to start absorbing more blood sugar. This article was found on Scicencedaily.com.

"Our results show that good taste, a pleasant meal, and its expectation stimulate muscle glucose utilization and thereby decrease blood glucose level during feeding," said Yasuhiko Minokoshi of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan. "Thus, blood glucose level after feeding is controlled by hedonic as well as homeostatic regulatory systems."
Minokoshi's team earlier showed that the fat hormone leptin activates glucose uptake and fat burning in muscle. Those effects depend on signals from the hypothalamus, a brain region that is critical for maintaining energy balance.
[...]"The most important finding is that hedonic feeding affects muscle glucose utilization and that orexin is involved in the regulation," Minokoshi said. Orexin has been shown to stimulate feeding, he added, and in fact, they confirmed that mice lacking the orexin gene were less interested than normal mice in sweets. He concludes that orexin may be responsible for controlling and coordinating both feeding behavior and muscle glucose metabolism.

Overall this article is saying that your muscles can affect the things you want to eat. And by injecting orexin into the skeletal muscles, that can make your blood sugar level a lot higher. I think this research that was done on mice can lead to other research projects, such as research projects on diabetes. I never would have thought that your muscles could have made you want to eat sweets.

High-Risk Women Reluctant to Take Tamoxifen to Prevent Breast Cancer

2009-12-06T15:02:00.002-06:00

According to the researchers at the Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center only 6 percent of women take a drug that helps reduce the risks of breat cancer coming back. I found this article on sciencedaily.com

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center
created a decision aid designed to inform women about the risks and benefits
associated with tamoxifen, a drug that was first used to stop breast cancer from
returning and has recently been shown to prevent breast cancer in the first
place.[...]
The U-M decision aid gave objective information about tamoxifen and was
tailored to each woman's health history. The study targeted women who were at
high risk of developing breast cancer within the next five years; 632 women
participated.

In a gist this article is talking about the percentage of women who have had breast cancer and how they take care of their selves. Researchers came out with a trial drug called Tamoxifen, this drug helps reduce the cases of breast cancer for women who have already had it. Acccording to the researchers only 6 percent of the women said they would consider taking it. I think that this is very sad to read about because these doctors have found something to help breast cancer and help them becaome healthier but most of the women do not want to take it because of the side effects. I just think its a little ridiculous.

Does Drinking Diet Pop Make You Fat?

2009-12-04T13:26:00.004-06:00

This question was asked in class yesterday, and I really didn't have a good answer to it. So, in my quest to be the Greatest Teacher Ever (GTE), I went looking for an answer. What I found was this, from Ryan Sager at Neuroworld:

Research suggests that artificial sweeteners — which basically fool our tongues by binding to and stimulating receptors on the taste buds...may mess up the brain’s connection between sweetness and caloric intake.

After all, sweetness is meant to signal to the body that it’s getting something it wants desperately: metabolic energy. If a certain amount of sweetness (the artificial sweetener) suddenly represents significantly less metabolic energy (fewer calories), the brain will want more and more sweetness as it fails to be satisfied.

Evidently, researchers have demonstrated (in rats) a positive correlation between the intake of artificial sweeteners and a tendency towards higher caloric intake, along with increased body weight and adiposity.

I think it's like this: your brain recognizes how many calories are needed to keep you alive and active, and creates desires (cravings, hunger, etc.) that encourage you to supply those calories by eating. When you taste something sweet, your brain assumes that you're getting a certain amount of those calories. When you're tasting something that's artificially sweetened (and therefor not getting the calories) your brain readjusts and tells your body that it needs more calories...which means more cravings, more hunger, and in most cases more eating.

So, the answer to the question is no...diet pop does not make you fat by itself. But it does cause changes in your body that might make a person more likely to overeat and therefor gain weight.

Why Hair Turns Gray Is No Longer A Gray Area: Our Hair Bleaches Itself As We Grow Older

2009-12-03T19:21:00.004-06:00

European scientists found out why we turn gray and despite the notion that gray hair is a sign of wisdom, these researchers show that wisdom has nothing to do with it. I found this article on sciencedaily.com

The researchers made this discovery by examining cell cultures of human hair follicles. They found that the build up of hydrogen peroxide was caused by a reduction of an enzyme that breaks up hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen (catalase). They also discovered that hair follicles could not repair the damage caused by the hydrogen peroxide because of low levels of enzymes that normally serve this function (MSR A and B). Further complicating matters, the high levels of hydrogen peroxide and low levels of MSR A and B, disrupt the formation of an enzyme (tyrosinase) that leads to the production of melanin in hair follicles. Melanin is the pigment responsible for hair color, skin color, and eye color. The researchers speculate that a similar breakdown in the skin could be the root cause of vitiligo.

It is really funny how people are going crazy when they start to get gray but it is natural. Going gray is caused by a massive build up of hydrogen peroxide due to wear and tear of our hair follicles. The peroxide winds up blocking the normal synthesis of melanin, our hair's natural pigment. It is a totally natural process that everybody has to go through and you can dye your hair anyways.

Music and Speech Based on Human Biology, New Evidence Shows

2009-12-03T19:01:00.003-06:00

Duke University neuroscientists had a pair of studies that shows powerful new evidence of a deep biological link between human music and speech. I found this article on sciencedaily.com

"There is a strong biological basis to the aesthetics of sound," Purves said. "Humans prefer tone combinations that are similar to those found in speech." This evidence suggests the main biological reason we appreciate music is because it mimics speech, which has been critical to our evolutionary success, said Purves, who is also director of Duke's Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program and executive director of the A*STaR Neuroscience Research Partnership at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.

To study the emotional content of music, the Duke team collected a database of major and minor melodies from about 1,000 classical music compositions and more that 6,000 folk songs and then analyzed their tonal qualities. They also had 10 people speak a series of single words with 10 different vowel sounds in either excited or subdued voices, as well as short monologues.

This article was fun for me to read because I think it is really interesting to read about how music and speech is based on human biology. In this article there are two new studies found that the musical scales most commonly used over the centuries are those that come closest to mimicking the physics of the human voice, and that we understand emotions expressed through music because the music mimics the way emotions are expressed in speech.

Long Term Physical Activity Has an Anti Aging Effect at the Cellular Level

2009-12-03T18:22:00.002-06:00

According to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association concluded harder exercise prevents aging of the cardiovascular system. i found this article from sciencedaily.com

Researchers measured the length of telomeres -- the DNA that bookends the
chromosomes and protects the ends from damage -- in blood samples from two
groups of professional athletes and two groups who were healthy nonsmokers, but
not regular exercisers.
Essentially, the longer telomere of athletes is an efficient telomere. The
body's cells are constantly growing and dividing and eventually dying off, a
process controlled by the chromosomes within each cell. These chromosomal "end
caps" -- which have been likened to the tips of shoelaces, preventing them from
fraying -- become shorter with each cell division, and when they're gone, the
cell dies. Short telomeres limit the number of cell divisions, Laufs said. In
addition, the animal studies of Laufs and colleagues show that the regulation of
telomere stabilizing proteins by exercise exerts important cellular functions
beyond the regulation of telomere length itself by protecting from cellular
deterioration and programmed cell death.

This article is about a clinical study who picked two different kind of groups. One group are professional athletes and the other group are untrained athletes who were healthy nonsmokers, but who did not exercise regularly. The professional athlets had a better resting heart rate, lower blood pressure and body mass index, and a more favorable cholesterol profile.
I think it is really interesting that if you have a long-term exercise training that activates telomerase and reduces telomere shortening in human leukocytes, so its reducing the impact of age-related disease.

The Way Dogs Walk

2009-12-03T17:54:00.004-06:00

An article on Science Daily explains how humans are not fully sure of how our four legged friends walk, which catch the interests of many experts in natural history museums and illustrators for veterinary anatomy text books. These experts apparently don't know how they do it.

"Our key finding is that the chance to find erroneous depictions of quadruped walking in our surrounding environment is about 50 percent, which corresponds to nothing else than pure accident," said Gábor Horváth of Eötvös University.

"This was quite unexpected because the experts of animal locomotion have known well the characteristics of quadruped walking ever since the famous and pioneering work of Eadweard Muybridge, published in the 1880s."

As proven by experts, all four-legged animals step with their left hind leg, then with their left foreleg. Following that, they step with their right hind leg, then they step with their right foreleg, and so on. When a dog is walking slowly, it needs maximum static stability. A dog's body is supported by three feet on the ground at all times, while walking, which form a triangle and the closer their center of mass is to the center of those three points, the more stable they will be.

Increases in Children with Down Syndrome

2009-12-02T19:45:00.003-06:00

I found an article on health.com that says the major cause of down syndrome today is women giving birth at an older age. Doctors are very curious as to whether or not there is a way to extend childrens life spans with cardiac surgery and better care for patients.

A growing number of children in the United States are being born with Down syndrome, federal researchers say. The overriding reason, experts add, is that more older women are having babies... The increase simply reflects the fact that more American women are having babies later in life, and “there is a strong epidemiological association between Down syndrome and maternal age,” Dolan said.

Tests are available to check for abnormalities in chromosomes so people can plan for delivery and let the parents know their child could have a disability. Also if people are more aware of these tests they can notify others.

Loneliness Can Be Contagious

2009-12-02T19:18:00.003-06:00

Researchers at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the University of California-San-Diego show that loneliness is certainly contagious. If you are around a person that seems lonely you are more often found to be brought down to. I found this article on Sciencedaily.com.

Using longitudinal data from a large-scale study that has been following health conditions for more than 60 years, a team of scholars found that lonely people tend to share their loneliness with others. Gradually over time, a group of lonely, disconnected people moves to the fringes of social networks.

[...]Because loneliness is associated with a variety of mental and physical diseases that can shorten life, Cacioppo said it is important for people to recognize loneliness and help those people connect with their social group before the lonely individuals move to the edges.

This article is saying that loneliness is contagious to everyone who is around the person who was lonely in the first place. Loneliness is a mental and physical health condition. After reading this article I realized that this all started to make sense. I put myself in the situation of being around a lonely person and if i realize or catch on to them being lonely i get down too. Also reading in part of the article it said loneliness can cause a physical disease that can shorten life! thats amazing to think that just by some emotions your feeling you can gain a whole disease that could possibly end your life.

Man Lives Normally Without A Heartbeat

2009-12-01T21:00:00.010-06:00

A recent article found on CBS told a story of a man, named Michael LeBlanc, who managed to lived without a heartbeat. LeBlanc suffered from cardio-myopathy, but due to a new assistive device called an L-VAD he is now able to live normally.

"[It] is a pump that is placed in the patient's body and allows us to keep them alive until they can get a transplant," Dr Meyer said.

This newly redesigned L-VAD model is small enough that it can go anywhere with the patients giving them the mobility they need to maintain a normal life.

"The blood goes in and then gets propelled through a rooter, then through a graft that comes out and is attached to the aorta," Dr. Meyer explained.

With assistive devices such as the L-VAD, doctors are able to keep patients alive longer. This may lead to controversy over whether or not this is ethical to allow a human to function mechanically and run off a machine, rather than a regular beating heart. This is considered a great accomplishment though due to the fact that patients can now survive until they are able to receive a heart transplant.

how to deal with your ovulation girls!

2009-11-30T22:17:00.012-06:00

I found this article very interesting because its a problem many girls faces during their period and in between, but also many of them don't know what the pain actually is caused by... But this article from epigee.org gives you the answer girls:

"Millions of women around the world suffer from painful periods. That aching and
cramping can really make life difficult, zapping your energy and making daily
chores difficult. But a lot of women also experience painful cramps in between
their periods, known as mittelschmerz..."

The Mittelschmerz is the abdominal or pelvic pain that showes up between the periods, usually on the 14th day of the cyclus. The mittelschmerz coincides with ovulation, where eggs are released from follicles. when these follicles break, they release a fluid that cause irritation and pain in the abdominal lining. Also when new follicles are made, it causes pain.

Here are some good ways to deal with ovulation:

- Motion, because it releases the stuff endorphines that can release the pain

- Drink water to give body more fluid

- Use a warm pad. It can help sooth the cramps by relaxing.

I hope you can find this post usefull girls...

The Artificial Hand That Can "Feel"

2009-11-24T12:43:00.000-06:00

Researchers in London England are working on an artificial limb that can actually feel. The SmartHand project sensors from the finger tips to send signals to the forearm which then sends those signals onto the brain for reading.

"If you push the skin on an amputee's forearm, they feel like you are pushing on their phantom fingers," Sebelius told CNN.

When an amputee imagines moving a "phantom hand," signals are sent down nerve fibres in the remaining part of the amputated arm to activate muscles that would have moved the fingers.

They hope to have the new hand on the sales market in two years. But the problem with this is that it is only available for people who have lost their limb below their elbow. They hope to use this new technology to advance this idea into a full artificial arm. The only problem is that there aren't enough muscles to use as sensors to send the message to the brain. Who knows, maybe in the future people will be able to cope with life as they did before they lost their limbs.

Webbed Toes

2009-11-23T23:30:00.002-06:00

Syndactyly is characterized by the fusion of two or more toes. As you have seen in ducks and frogs, which allows them to swim better. Although unusual, some humans have webbed toes. Wikipedia states that the chances are about 1 and 20,000 or 25,000.

The exact cause of the condition is unknown. In some cases, close family members may share this condition. In other cases, no other related persons have this condition.

There are a few different levels of webbing. From partial to complete webbing. Oddly enough, it is usually the second and third toe to be webbed. Webbed toes do not hurt the person or have any other effect. It just looks weird. Some people may become self-conscious and chose to surgically fix this problem. Skin graphs may be needed and some degree of scarring may occur. In my opinion i would just keep it and train to be a swimmer. Who know maybe you can be the next Michael Phelps.

Concussions in Sports

2009-11-23T22:53:00.004-06:00

The risks you take in sports are pretty great. But do the risks ever overwhelm the strive for glory? Concussions may not seem like a big deal to coaches and parents, but in reality they are serious injuries which may, if not handled correctly could cause permanent brain damage. If you sustain a concussion you may go in and out of consciousness for about twenty-four hours, have memory loss for the time, and may never really remember what happened. They may even need emergency medical attention. The American Family Physician states that many life long injuries will follow someone who has returned to a physical activity too soon.

The risk of complications is increased in athletes who prematurely return to play and in those with prolonged loss of consciousness or post-traumatic amnesia. An athlete with prolonged loss of consciousness or signs and symptoms that worsen or persist after a concussion should be evaluated in the emergency department. An athlete should not be allowed to resume sports participation until all symptoms of a concussion have resolved.

Athletes in any sport may succumb to a serious concussion, even if it is not considered a "contact sport". People need to understand the seriousness of what may happen if a concussion is not treated. I think if people actually understood, we wouldn't see the stories we see on the news anymore. All you need is rest until the symptoms are gone.

Running For Your Life

2009-11-23T22:30:00.003-06:00

Exercise is one of the best ways to stay fit and in-shape. And in a recent study in Manhattan, NY shows that older men who exercise are 63% less likely to have a stroke than men who do not exercise. ScienceDaily reported that this study from an issue in Neurology® included 3,298 people over the age of 69. These people were followed for 9 years. During these 9 years 238 strokes occurred. 41% of these people had not participated in any physical activity. The risk of ischemic stroke for the overall group was 5 years was 4.3%.

Taking part in moderate-to-heavy intensity physical activity may be an important factor in preventing stroke. A large percentage of the paricipants were not taking part in any physical activities. This may be true of many elderly perople who live in cities. Identifying ways to improve physical activity among these people may be a key goal for public health. -Joshua C. Willey, author.

The strange part to this is the fact that women showed no signs in reduced stroke risks. How could this be?

I think that maybe this study was not conducted correctly. How could women show no change in risk but men can? It makes me think that there are specific things for men and women to help cope with general health risks. Maybe there is one for women. Overall I think that this study should be redone with a lot more people and level of activity intensity. Stroke is the number one leading cause of disability in the United States. Maybe exercise can lower this.

Imagination to Animal.

2009-11-23T21:13:00.004-06:00

If I told you to name all the animals that live in the ocean, how many could you name? Maybe 50? Maybe 100? Of these animals, how many could you name that live 3,280 feet below sea level? Probably none. MSNBC tells of a new census that will be released in October 2010. 5,600 species of marine life have been discovered in deep ocean water. Researchers from Louisiana State University in New Orleans, have found that many species in deep water feed off of chemicals from the ocean floor.

The deep sea was considered a desert until not so long ago; it's quite amazing to have documented close to 20,000 forms of life in a zone that was thought to be barren. -Jesse Ausubel

This discovery shows that a lot of animals can survive in the deep sea under heavy water pressure and in complete darkness. The biodiversity of animals is so extensive in the ocean. It is the least explored place on the planet. One of the challenges oceanographers are trying to overcome is creating equipment that can reach the bottoms of the ocean. 2,000 scientists from 80 countries are trying to catalog these species. Although this is difficult, it may be harder to pay $50,000 dollars a day to use vehicles that travel to the bottom of the ocean. Scientists think that there may be up to a million or more species that have not been discovered.

I think that if we can produce technology that can explore the ocean floor, not only will have a better understanding of life on earth, but we could possibly stumble upon plants that could be used as medicines. Or animals that could be used to consume. It would be a very prosperous thing for a country that could reach the bottom of the ocean floor. I think if we want to know about the history of our planet we need to start from the bottom.

How the Brain Filters Out Distracting Thoughts to Focus on a Single Bit of Information

2009-11-23T20:41:00.004-06:00

According to researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, your brain filters out information in your brain that may distract you in order to focus on one thing at a time. I found this article on Sciencedaily.com

Think of your brain like a radio: You're turning the knob to find your favourite station, but the knob jams, and you're stuck listening to something that's in between stations. It's a frustrating combination that makes it quite hard to get an update on swine flu while a Michael Jackson song wavers in and out. Staying on the right frequency is the only way to really hear what you're after. In much the same way, the brain's nerve cells are able to "tune in" to the right station to get exactly the information they need, says researcher Laura Colgin, who was the paper's first author. "Just like radio stations play songs and news on different frequencies, the brain uses different frequencies of waves to send different kinds of information," she says.

[...]parts of the hippocampus, which is a key memory center in the brain. While listening in on the rat brain wave transmissions, the researchers started to realize that there might be something more to a specific sub-set of brain waves, called gamma waves.

Overall this article is saying that your brain can not focus on more than one thing at a time. It has to choose one thing to focus on at a time. There are cells in the brain that pick a frequency that it wants to focus on. Either a slow or a fast frequency. Your brain, like Colgin said in the article, works kind of like a radio, using frequencies to find one bit of information to focus on. But I found out that people who have schizophrenia have a lot of trouble keeping these brain signals straight. They can't tell is what they are hearing is from a memory they've had or if it's a present voice they are hearing. Overall I actually learned a lot from this article. I've always thought I could be a multi-tasker, but it turns out nobody can, because your brain can only focus on one bit of information at a time.

New cervical cancer screening guidelines released

2009-11-22T15:32:00.004-06:00

There are new regulations for pap tests, like women don't need their first pap test till they're 21 and instead of getting one every year that you should cut back to every other year for women younger than 30, and for the women older than 30 should get the check up every three years.

[...] A review of the evidence to date shows that screening at less
frequent intervals prevents cervical cancer just as well, has decreased costs,
and avoids unnecessary interventions that could be harmful.

There's good data since the last guidelines in 2003 that show that
screening teens or before age 21 is not having an impact on reducing cervical
cancer," said Debbie Saslow of the Cancer Society.

Getting an annual Pap test is the equivalent to getting a mammogram every
four months. Breast cancer on average is growing at a point where, if you get a
mammogram every two years, you will miss a lot of deadly cancers that you would
have caught if you're having them every year. This is not true for cervical
cancer; we are detecting pre-cancers that are taking 10 to 20 years to develop
into cancer."According to the ACS(American Cancer Society), there are about
10,000 new cases of cervical cancer each year, and more than 4,000 deaths. Over
half were found in women who never had a Pap test. Most cases are in women
younger than 50, and rarely occur in females younger than 20.

I found this article at cnnnews.com. I think that honestly it's ones opinion and choice to get checked. I mean everyone should get checked but I don't understand how getting checked every year doesn't prevent cervical cancer. Because isn't that what the check ups are supposed to help inform you and help you treat if you have it? But again I think everyone has their own opinion for what they think, and I wouldn't recommend only getting checked every other year because you never know what could happen if you don't get checked.

Galaxies eating...Galaxies???

2009-11-22T12:12:00.009-06:00

Although Galaxies are cannibals, you can learn a lot from them. According to observations made by the European Space Agency on MSNBC's science page, the galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) was seen with the remains of a cosmic merger right between the eliptical galaxy Centaurus A, and a smaller galaxy.

The giant galaxy, Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is the nearest giant,
elliptical
galaxy, at a distance of about 11 million light-years. The galaxy
hosts a
supermassive black hole that is 200 million times the mass of the
sun, or 50
times the mass of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

More importantly was the technique used to obtain these images. The New
Technology Telescope (NTT) allows scientist to observe space with a sharper view
and without dust. This is great in allowing scientist to learn how stars are
formed inside of galaxies.

According to co-author Jesse Alves:

These are the first steps in the development of a new technique that has the
potential to trace giant clouds of gas in other galaxies at high resolution and
in a cost-effective way. Knowing how these giant clouds form and evolve is
to understand how stars form in galaxies.

I think that this will allow scientist to gain more knowledge of not only how stars are formed but what natural occurences happen in the universe. An understanding of other galaxies will help us learn the fate of our own galaxy which is coming closer and closer. Maybe these telescopes will help us find another suitable home. I mean that is what space travel is about anyway...right?

Half Man, Half Tree

2009-11-20T21:27:00.005-06:00

There are many articles about this man but I found mine on The Yellowllama. An Indonesian fisherman, Dede Kosawa, also known as "Tree Man" has a very rare condition. In Dede's childhood he had cut his knee and from then on warty "roots" have grown out of his hands and feet. These "warts" proceeded to grow from his body and eventually he was unable to perform simple acts of daily living. An American dermatology expert, Dr. Anthony Gaspari, has flown out to his village south of Jakarta stating that he knows what Dede has and claiming he has a cure. Gaspari says that Dede's warts are caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). He has a rare genetic fault that effects his immune system. This means his body is unable to contain the warts.

The virus was therefore able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin
cells", ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance that caused
the tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns" on his hands and feet. Dede's
counts of a key type of white blood cell are so low that Dr. Gaspari initially
suspected he may have the AIDs virus. But tests showed he did not, and it became
clear that Dede's immune condition was something far rarer and more mysterious...

"The likelihood of having his condition is less than one in a million," Dr. Gaspari quotes. Gaspari believes that Dede's warts may be cleared up using daily doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin A. This vitamin will arrest the growth of the warts.

"He won't have a perfectly normal body but the warts should reduce in size to
the point where he could use his hands," Dr. Gaspari said. "Over the course of
three to six months the warts should become smaller and fewer in number. He will
be living a more normal life." The most resilient warts could then be frozen off
and the growths on his hands and feet surgically removed.

Dr. Gaspari hopes to get the drugs for free. He wants to bring Dede to the United States to run more tests on him but he fears financial and bureaucratic barriers will hold him back.

OUCH!

2009-11-20T11:16:00.002-06:00

Lately I've been having a problem with my hand, for the last month or so whenever I hit a spot between my thumb and index finger a shooting pain and then numbness or tingling occurs. Sadly this occurrence happens quite frequently and it has become a concern. Most of my friends have heard my complaints and outbursts of profanity, so I've decided to ask the question: What could be the cause of this and what could this mean?

According to Heath Hand Resources

"Five nerves begin at the spinal cord in the neck, go through a complex series of divisions around the armpit, and divide into the three main nerves that provide power and sensation to the hand.

Depending upon the location of the nerve irritation or injury, specific symptoms may occur.

If you experience numbness and tingling in the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and/or part of the ring finger, you may have a compression or irritation of the median nerve. Check out the information for the following:
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- pronator teres syndrome
If you experience numbness and tingling in the ring finger and small finger, you may have a compression or irritation of the ulnar nerve, Check out the information for the following:
- cubital tunnel syndrome
- guyons canal compression

If you experience numbness and tingling over the back of the hand, you may have a compression or irritation of the radial nerve. Check out the information for the following:

radial tunnel syndrome"

But is this really that serious? Could it be a pinched nerve?

According to Arthritis Treatment and Relief

"A pinched nerve refers to a condition where there is nerve root irritation or nerve root compression. This nerve problem can occur either in the spine or in a more peripheral location. Symptoms include numbness, "pins and needles" or burning sensations, and pain radiating outward from the injured area.

Numbness, a loss of feeling or sensation, usually arises from damage or disease of nerves. Numbness is often associated with or preceded by abnormal pain-like sensations often described as pins-and-needles, prickling or burning sensations; these are called paresthesias. Numbness is loss of sensation whereas paralysis usually involves both the loss of the ability to move the area and loss of sensations."
Both articles were informative and give specific examples of symptoms and possible causes of the problem. If you are having any pain in your hand I'd check out some of these syndromes and causes. I know I will.

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Migraine Raises Risk of Most Common Form of Stroke

2009-11-18T19:08:00.006-06:00

According to Science Daily, results of 21 studies have shown researchers at Johns Hopkins have concluded that migraine headaches are associated with strokes.

The risks for those with migraines is 2.3 times those without, according to calculations from the John Hopkins team, to be presented Nov. 16 at the American Heart Association (AHA) annual Scientific Sessions in Orlando. For those who experience aura, the sighting of flashing light, zig-zag lines and blurred side vision along with migrains, the risk of so-called ischemic stroke is 2.5 times higher, and in women, 2.9 times as high. [...]

Such widespread use of horomone-controlling drugs is what Nazarian says may explain why women with migraines have such high risk of ischemic stroke. Contraceptions and other estrogen therapies are both known to contribute to long-term risks factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke, such as high
blood pressure and increased reactivity by clot-forming blood platelets.

Women should make sure that the horomone-controlling drugs they're taking is absolutely necessary, and if so make sure to be watchful and moniter for any signs of a stroke.

How a Mouthguard Can Change a Game

2009-11-17T21:39:00.003-06:00

A split-second faster, a step quicker, an inch higher, a bit more flexibility, a little stronger can make all the difference in your game. Is it possible that something so small, that some chew on or stick in the side of their helmet can help you achieve that? According to the research that was done at Rutgers University it is. The Pure Power Mouthguard does just that.

"Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball play ever, stuck his tongue out as he
was driving for the basket. By sticking his tongue out, he was putting his
jaw in that relaxed position. It probably wasn't done consciously. It was
something he just started doing at the age of 12 and it worked for him, said PPM
inventor Dr. Anil Makkar."

As of right now, Rutgers University has found some astonishing outcomes of what they have been researching. The PPM claims that its fitting method is based on neuromuscular dentistry is unlike other 'custom fit' mouthguards in the industry. Traditional mouthguards require just a standard dental impression wherever the jaw might rest. But the PPM process can take anywhere between 80 to 90 minutes, and can only be done at the office of neuromuscular dentist. Approximately 1,000 pro and college athletes have purchased the mouthguard, but the reasoning behind that is because the extra abilities come at a price of about $1,600.

I am still skeptic about how something so small could help you perform better, but I did find this article interesting just for that reason. I was looking into buying one until the price popped up on my screen. So if you are really wanting one, then you better hope the extra centimeters matter.

Wheelchair Rugby puts athletes back on the team

2009-11-17T19:25:00.004-06:00

Many people assume that once you become a quadriplegic that is the end of sports for ever. As CNN reports one unlucky guy thought his dreams of continuing athletics after high school were ruined when after his high school graduation he tried to do a trick a friend had done on a trampoline.

"I got hurt jumping on a trampoline," says Kennedy, now 24. "We were in the cheerleading gym..and I was all ready to go celebrate graduating from high school... and I remembered I'd seen my friend try this trick."

But Kennedy landed on his head, damaging the vertebra in his upper neck. He was paralyzed from the chest down.

A rehab center in Atlanta, Georgia, has a Wheelchair Rugby team that is very physical and that is where Talbot Kennedy now plays. His plans were to attend college on a cheer leading scholarship he had won earlier in the year.

By this rehab center having a rugby team it is giving lots of people a second chance. Hopefully many people will be helped by this if they every loose their mobility.

How Brain Remembers Single Events

2009-11-16T17:50:00.006-06:00

Many people wonder how certain memories stay vivid in your memory while others fade away. According to Science Daily, many scientists didn't know much about what happened in the brain to make you remember these events, but neuroscientist John Guzowski and his collegues found that a single experience is as effective as repetitive activities in activationg neurons and genes linked to with memory.

Knowing how the brain remembers one-time events can help scientists design better therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer's in which the ability to form such memories is impared. [...]

It is well known that a brain structure called the hippocampus is critical to memory and learning, but many questions exist about how brief experiences trigger the physical changes necessary for memory. In his study, Guzowski set out to learn how neurons in the hippocampus react to single events--particularly in the CA3 region, which is thought to be most critical for single-event memory. [...]

Past studies have shown that turning on Arc is required to convert experiences into long-term memory.

The hippocampus is the main part of the brain that affects all types of memory. So, if scientists can understand how the hippocampus works, it will make it much easier to understand, and hopefully eventually treat memory affecting diseases.

Newborn Cells Clear Space In Brain's Memory- Maker

2009-11-16T10:30:00.003-06:00

As we talked about before in class about Stem Celled Research many people think that it is considered as murder. Well people might think the same thing about this article about The Brains Memory In Newborns. Here is a little information about the new study.

A new rodent study shows that newborn neurons destabilize established connections among existing brain cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory. Clearing old memories from the hippocampus makes way for new learning....Other researchers had proposed the idea that neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons, could disrupt existing memories, but the Cell paper is the first to show evidence supporting the idea, says Paul Frankland, a neuroscientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto....Scientists have known that memories first form in the hippocampus and are later transferred to long-term storage in other parts of the brain. For some amount of time the memory resides both in the hippocampus and elsewhere in the brain. What’s not been known is how, after a few months or years, the memory is gradually cleared from the hippocampus.

I hope this article has given you information that you had not known before. I thought this information was very interesting. I hope you did too.

Until Next Time!
Lauren

Medical Astrology: Health by Your Zodiac Sign

2009-11-15T18:06:00.002-06:00

The article, Health by Your Zodiac Sign, uses Stephanie Gailing's book, Planetary Apothecary: An Astrological Approach to Health and Wellness as a reference to achieving good health through zodiac signs. For example, my zodiac sign is Cancer. According to the article, to achieve good health I should avoid caffeine, keep slippery elm handy for hearth burn, and eat plenty of broccoli and cauliflower.

Medical astrology—the practice of an astrological sign ruling over a specific body part—may be keeping you healthy. Adapted from the book by Stephanie Gailing, Planetary Apothecary: An Astrological Approach to Health and Wellness, check out which regions of the body are taken over by your sign and which foods will support your health:

Honestly, I don't believe the zodiac sign has anything to do with having good health, but the article does give good advice about what foods to avoid and what foods to eat more of. Check out the article, see for yourself if you achieve better health by what your sign suggests.

Lcross Mission Finds Water on Moon

2009-11-13T12:56:00.003-06:00

Anyone remember talks of finding out if there any water on the moon? Well, NASA did it, as reported by the New York Times. The 2 piece ship, one part empty rocket, one part small craft to measure the results, smashed in to the moon on October 9. However, instead of the data craft simply collecting data, it also crashed on to the surface. The point of causing an impact is that the crater, which was 60 to 100 feet wide, is that it throws up particles beneath the surface. These particles had water in them, which scientists were able to tell because of telltale color changes.

“We got more than just whiff,” said Peter H. Schultz, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator of the mission. “We practically tasted it with the impact.”

Scientists hope that the evidence of water on the moon shows that some day it may be a suitable place to live.

Water Found On The Moon

2009-11-13T12:52:00.002-06:00

For several years many fictional stories have been about life on the moon and people started to believe that one day we would eventually live on the moon. Well this article about water on the moon gives people the idea that maybe one day we will be shopping at the mall on the moon.

"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit, we found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, a principal project investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center.....The discovery came from an analysis of data from a spacecraft NASA intentionally crashed into the moon last month.

I hope that this article somewhat gave you hope that maybe, just maybe we will be taking our summer vacation to the moon. I chose this article because it relates to anatomy because the conditions are pretty much the same that our human bodies could survive there.

Until next time... Tootles

More muscle power means lower Alzheimer's risk

2009-11-12T20:59:00.004-06:00

Dr. Pratricia A. Boyle works at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago Illinois. Her and her colleagues have been researching to see if greater mental, physical, and overall strength helps prevent getting Alzheimer's disease when older.

"We certainly think that it is important to be physically active and to work to
keep our muscles strong," she said. "Good physical health is important for
good brain function."

I think that mental health, and physical health have been proven to have a huge roll in the Alzheimer's disease. I also think that more people in the United States need to get in better shape not only to prevent from getting Alzheimer's disease but to be in better shape all around.

KU Doctors perform different surgery on 19yr old with bone cancer

2009-11-11T20:14:00.000-06:00

Lawrence Journal World reported about a unique surgery that doctors at the University of Kansas completed on a 19 year old with bone cancer. The doctors had to amputate his arm, clavicle and scapula. The tricky part was removing the bone but keeping as many nerves intact as possible. The nerves that the doctors save will then become attached to the prosthetic arm he will receive. The doctors will do a scan and match the electrodes with the muscles so that everything will work together. He can not receive the arm for about 6-8 months. Most people will get theirs after 6-8 weeks, or when the swelling goes down.

For bone cancer, doctors typically salvage the limbs by removing the cancer and reconstructing the limbs, Templeton said. But, his bone broke just below the shoulder and the cancer cells spread. Without amputation, his survival rate would have been very poor, if not close to zero.

It will be a little harder for him to begin using the arm because after almost a year of not using the muscles most people have to re-learn how since it has not been used. This was very interesting and shows just how far technology has come, and how much it has helped doctors help patients to regain their mobility after a life altering event.

The girl who sneezees 12,000 times a day has doctors baffled

2009-11-11T18:24:00.002-06:00

Lauren Johnson is a 12 year old girl who can't stop sneezing. Her sneezing started two weeks ago when she got the cold. She has tried 11 different medication but none of them will stop her sneezing. She has trouble eating between sneezes and she also doesn't go to school because it will distract students. Lynn Johnson, Lauren's mom, has gone on television in a bid to find a cure or a specialist that can help her. Doctors think she is suffering from psychogenic disorder.

'There's less than 40 cases ever documented ever in the entire world. Nobody really knows how to treat it, what's going to work, and even in the cases where it might have worked or turned the sneezing off for awhile, a lot of times it comes back again and then you're right back to where you started.

I found this article very interesting because its rare that this happen. This would be a great case for doctors to find a cure for. Finding a cure or at least knowing the cause will be very helpful.

New help for moms with postpartum depression

2009-11-10T20:14:00.003-06:00

Lauren Meehan a former Miss New Hampshire was feeling overwhelmed and panicky since giving birth to her first child. She over thought about getting feedings and naps right that she stopped eating and sleeping herself. She started throwing up and crying continuously. She had gotten a prescription medication for postpartum anxiety by her doctor. She told her husband about what she was thinking the other day, which was that she was thinking about driving her car off the road and that all things would go away as in her not having to worry about the baby or what she was going through. Her husband could not believe what he had just heard, and was shocked. His obstetrician referred her to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and there doctors debuted a groundbreaking inpatient psychiatric unit, that tailored to women suffering perinatal mood disorders.

Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common complication of childbirth,
striking approximately 15 percent of new mothers each year. Most of these don't
need intensive intervention; standard treatments include counseling and
medication. But there are severe cases: women swallowed up by anxiety, who,
despite the exhaustion of a newborn, can't sleep. Women who can't stop obsessing
over the terrible things that might happen to their babies, or who think about
hurting their children -- or themselves. There are many possible reasons for
this. Experts agree, for example, that PPD is under-reported. But another factor
might be that hospitalization can seem like a pretty scary idea. Especially
considering that moms requiring or requesting it have had only one option:
general psychiatric wards, the same locked units that care for drug addicts,
schizophrenics, and patients with bipolar or eating disorders.

I found this article "New help for moms with postpartum depression" interesting because there are quite a bit of women who go through this and I don't think its fair to them especially if those moms were really excited for having a baby. I know that if I was to have a child I wouldn't want to feel depressed about the child and have thoughts of suicide or hurting the baby because it's not the baby's fault for why you feel that way. And a new mother or a previous mother deserves to feel happy for the new life she had created.

Treating trauma victims may cause its own trauma

2009-11-09T22:34:00.003-06:00

People who are hired to treat victims of trauma may be at risk themselves to developing similar symptoms of their patient. Psychiatrists, social workers, or advocates can go through a lot of emotional stress after intensive exposure to patients and their horror stories. Experts call this "Vicarious Trauma."
This subject has recently been brought up due to the shooting at Fort Hood. Investigators are trying to piece together why Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, an Army psychiatrist would open fire at a military processing center Thursday.
Being an army psychiatrist, Hasan worked to help others in high-stress situations. He had never been deployed and he was scheduled for deployment the day of the shooting.

The symptoms of vicarious trauma -- stress, social withdrawal, sensitization to televised violence -- are not enough to make people violent themselves, said Barbara Rothbaum

The toll of bearing witness to account of others' suffering can take many forms. Some therapists may begin to start having the same nightmares that their patients talk to them about. No matter how much schooling is involved, Vicarious Trauma can happen to anyone who is dealing with patients who have undergone extreme amounts of stress.

Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Restores Walking Ability In Rats With Neck Injuries

2009-11-09T22:26:00.003-06:00

This article deals with the recnstruction of spinl cord injuries. It was published on ScienceDaily:

Lead author and doctoral student Jason Sharp, Keirstead and colleagues discovered that the stem cells not only rebuilt myelin but prevented tissue death and triggered nerve fiber regrowth. They also suppressed the immune response, causing an increase in anti-inflammatory molecules.

This new method was tested on rats and the results were successful and the rats gained all their moving abilities after one week of the transplantation of stem cells back. After this breakthrough its now ready to be tested on human beings and it just needs the yes of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. It would be able that people, who lost their ability to walk, could get their feelings in their legs back.

In my opinion its the time to use that to help people and with more scince and research it could help them to improve their standart of living

Amino Acids May Curb Urge to Pull Hair

2009-11-09T17:32:00.003-06:00

In the article, Amino Acids May Curb Urge to Pull Hair I found that there is actually a disease for people who pull out their hair, its called Trichotillomania. I found this a little weird, I thought pulling your hair out was a choice, but maybe not. According to the article, Trichotillomania may have a cure, Amino Acids. Some scientists believe that amino acids may help reduce the urge to pull hair out. Currently, amino acid suppliments can cost anywhere from $20-$25 a month. The suppliment comes in a nasal spray form. There isn't a proven cure, but studies have been conducted that suggest that Amino Acids may be a cure for Trichotillomania.

"A team of researchers with the University of Minnesota, lead by Dr. Jon Grant,
a psychiatrist with the University, recently released their study illustrating
the positive effects of amino acids against compulsive hair pulling, in the July
2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. According to Dr. Grant,
compulsive hair pulling begins in adolescence with many suffers not realizing
their problem or are too ashamed to seek assistance, making it difficult to
determine exactly how many suffer from the condition. According to the study,
around two percent of Americans are affected and it is seen most often in women.
Trichotillomania has also been linked to anxiety disorders and social phobias."

So basically, amino acids may or may not be able to help with Trichotillomania. Also they may be able to help with people who are bipolar, have problems with gambling, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. There is however no FDA- approved treatment.

"A study recently conducted displayed the benefits that amino
acids can have on the disorder, Trichotillomania. Researchers conducted a study
that lasted for 12 weeks, involved 45 women and five men ranging in age from
18-65, who regularly pull their hair. The trial was a double-blind controlled
trial, with half of the group receiving 1200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine daily for
six weeks, and then an increased dosage of 2,400 mg daily for the remaining 6
weeks, the other half of the participants were given a placebo treatment for the
full 12 weeks. At the end of the 12-week trial, 56 percent of the group
receiving the amino acids reported feeling much better and 16 percent of the
placebo group reported less tendencies to pull their hair. Amino acids have
previously proven to have positive results in treating obsessive-compulsive
disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and it is sold in a nasal spray
formula used to treat mucus buildup and other uses. Eventually we may see a
formula specific to obsessive-compulsive disorders, but more testing is needed."

For all you hair pullers out there, I would be buying some amino acid nasal spray before I go bald.

Some doctors refuse to give vaccine

2009-11-08T22:39:00.003-06:00

The hardest factor for many doctors is the dearth of swine flu vaccine for their patients. But a small cadre of outliers remains skeptical about the government's unprecedented immunization campaign, citing doubts about the risks presented by the H1N1 virus of the safety of the vaccine.

Public health leaders are at a loss to explain the skeptical minority,
except to say that it mirrors the chronically low percentage of health care
workers who get the seasonal flu vaccine every year. Officials worry that
these doubters could have a disproportionate influence in an already frustrating and
confusing situation, and stress that the studies conducted so far and the
intensive monitoring under way indicate that the vaccine is as safe as any flu
vaccine.

I found "Some Doctor refuse to give vaccine," intersting to me because not only did I but others around the U.S. and other places got the vaccine. I've heard that it's possible in 10 years that this vaccine could possibly give you cancer because it has not been fully tested and we're not sure what all can happen when this vaccine is taken.

Vishnu Reincarnated

2009-11-08T17:52:00.011-06:00

Eight month year old baby born with 8 limbs, thought to be the reincarnation of the 4 armed Hindu goddess Vishnu, prepares for surgery.

Parents Poonam Devi and Shambu Das gave birth to an 8-limbed daughter, named Lakshmi Tatma, on the celebration day of the Vishnu. Poonam Devi believed that her daugther, Lakshmi, was a miracle and a reincarnation of Vishnu.

Lakshmi was born fused together to her parasitic twin. The headless 'twin' is joined to Lakshmi at the pelvis and has its own spinal column and kidney. Without having an operation, Poonam Devi's daughter would never be able to walk or crawl. She would also most likely only live until her early teens.

Lakshmi will undergo surgery with 30 different surgeons, and will have her useless limbs removed.

"The operation itself, although presents several challenges, is not the most comples in the world. What is highly unusual in Lakshmi's case is precisely how her bodies are fused, almost mirroring each other," said Doctor Sharon Patil, who will be leading the surgery.

In the end, the operation all together will cost about 100,000 p.

Medicine killed 84 children in Nigeria

2009-11-08T00:05:00.005-06:00

When 84 babies mysteriously died, many people questioned: how? The Nigerian Health Office came up with the answer: a medicine for children with teething pain called "My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture" contained a toxic chemical called DAKAR.
The New York Times said following at their web page: www.nytimes.com:

“The poison has caused many deaths in children between the ages of 2 months and 7 years old in Nigeria,” Babatunde Osotimehin, Nigeria’s minister of health, said in a statement. “The death of any Nigerian child is a great loss to the nation.”

The medicine goes in the kidney and liver and causes serious damage, attacking the central nervous system, and hampers the breathing because of paralysis. Many of the children stopped urinating and some other had diarrhea. They also suffered under pyrexia and vomiting. Many of the children got sick last November, and were brought to lousy hospitals. Then, because of all the similarities the children suffered under, the hospitals started wondering.

Investigators from Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration have traced the medicine down to an unlicensed chemical dealer in Lagos. The company has been shut down, and the medicine have been removed from the pharmacies.

This is not the first time a medicine has caused mass poisoning cases in this world. In Panama, 365 people were killed after taking medicine filled with chemicals in 2006. So next time you take your medicine, you might want to check what it contains...

Analysis Of Windmill Pitching Shows Risk Of Injury To Biceps In Softball Players

2009-11-05T20:22:00.004-06:00

Science Daily talks about how fast pitch softball is one of the most popular female sports in America. The pitcher is very important to the game and for a while most people thought windmill pitching put little stress on the arm, but a doctor at Rush University found otherwise. Dr. Nikhill Verma lead a study to watch the arm muscles patterns while pitching.

In the study, seven women--three female collegiate and four professional
pitchers--underwent motion analysis and surface electromyography to evalute the
muscle firing pattern of their biceps in the course of a windmill pitch. Electromyography
detects electrical potential generated by muscle cells when they contract.
[...] Verma launched his study in Rush's human motion laboratory when he
found that female softball players from the local professioal team were coming
into his practice complaining of pain in the front of their shoulders. He
was able to localize the pain to the biceps tendon. In one case, a pitcher
ruptured her tendon during play, which implicated the long head of the biceps
tendon as the source of the stress.
[...] "Previous studies have shown that shoulder problems cause a
significant amount of lost game time among windmill pitchers, with anterior
shoulder pain being the common culprit," Velma added. "This study helps explain
the etiology of
that shoulder pain, and may help doctors advise better treatment and prevention
strategies."

I found this article to be interesting because softball is one of my favorite sports and the pitcher is a vital part of any team. Muscles are an important part of the body and tendons help these muscles move. Rupturing the biceps tendon would put you out of the game for quite awhile.

The Anatomy of A Broken Heart

2009-11-05T18:21:00.004-06:00

This article by Anna Sallen just caught my eye. In Health Careers we just spent time studying the heart. I thought it would be an article that most people would be interested in reading. In The Anatomy of A Broken Heart researchers set out to test the idea that a brain respons to social pain just like it does with physical pain. For example, a broken heart. Here is a little infrmation about the story to catch your sparkeling eyes...

The ancient Greek philosopher, Zeno considered pain to be one of the nine forms of grief, said Panksepp who himself was involved in studies over two decades ago which showed similar results in animals. He described the new study as “a bold neuroimaging experiment” which sought to discover “whether the metaphor for the psychological pain of social loss is reflected in the neural circuitry of the human brain”.Panksepp suggests that the research may even help explain the physical basis of a broken heart.“Throughout history poets have written about the pain of the broken heart. It seems that such poetic insights into the human condition are now supported by neurophysiology findings. Will the opposite also prove to be the case – that socially supportive and loving feelings reduce the sting of pain?,” he asks.

I hope this story got you guys interested.
Till next time... All systems are go!

New gene therapy halts 2 boys' rare brain disease

2009-11-05T17:12:00.003-06:00

This article by Lauran Neergaard deals with a healing method through a correction of the DNA. The article has been published on YahooNews:

Unlike most viruses, HIV can penetrate stem cells, and it sticks permanently. So
Aubourg's team removed the genetic parts of HIV that make it dangerous, leaving
basically a scaffolding to carry the new therapeutic gene.
Then they culled stem
cells from two 7-year-old boys in the early stages of ALD, and mixed in
the healthy gene. The boys underwent bone marrow-destroying chemotherapy and then had
their genetically corrected stem cells reinserted.

This article is about two boys with a really rare brain desease. This desease could have killed them, but due to a correction of the DNA through an unabled HIV, so it couldn't cause AIDS anymore, they were able to fix the gene with the desease.
Gene therapy works when scientists harness deliver a healthy new gene by attaching to a virus that can harmlessly infect cells, so they had to take the HIV which is able to penetrate to stem cells permanently.

In my opinion that is a great method to heal deseases, but I also think it has to be more developed in the future, so it is able to use it on a larger group of people.

Have You Had Your Flu Shot Today?

2009-11-04T17:14:00.005-06:00

In the recent article, Generation Rescue Supports Desiree Jennings, Washington Redskin Cheerleader Disabled by Flu Shot, the non-profit organization Generation Rescue (dedicated to preventing and reversing autism) pours out their support for Desiree. After receiving her flu shot, Desiree

Genetics Testing Soon to Screen for Breast Cancer

2009-11-04T15:54:00.004-06:00

Recent studies have been done in Dubai that say that genetic testing may soon be part of the UAE's nationa breast cancer screening program. The officials of the program are currently having some budgetary issues and the acceptance of the people is a bigger problem than expected.

“Genetic testing is already being done for other hereditary diseases such as
thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia,” said Dr Mona Al Sebelgy, Coordinator for
the National Breast Cancer Programme in Sharjah for Planning and Evaluation.

Free testing will be done for those who have had breast cancer in their family's past. Although the the treatment methods, including mastectomy may make the woman think twice for opting for genetic testing. Through resources like equipped laboratories, there is a shortage of manpower. The government facilities are still conteplating the inclusion of the the national program, there are private fcilities offering it now.

These types of programs may really help save the lives of thousands of woman and children in the world. The early catch of these cancers may help make cures/antedotes for the unfortunate woman who realized that it was to late for them. Currently woman above 40 are being rectuited under the national program and offered free mamograms at all eight of the primary healthcare centers under the health ministry.

Magnesium Migraines

2009-11-04T15:52:00.010-06:00

Magnesium Migraines by Kaya Riemann

Recent researchers and neurologists have found that low magnesium in the body can lead to severe migraines. Magnesium is an important mineral that not only helps stabilize blood vessel walls, but also helps you fall asleep. When faced with a migraine that will not cease to go away, many doctors have begun giving magnesium injections that will help fight off the pain.

Some symptoms of low magnesium include irregular heartbeats, loss of appetite, insomnia, shortness of breath, PMS, anxiety, dizziness, nausea, and poor coordination.

One major cause of low magnesium is eating too much of over processed foods. Processed foods are prepared in a way that most of the magnesium is lost. Foods that you can eat though that contain high magnesium include wheat germ, beans, soy products, whole grains, seafood, dark green leafy vegetables, bananas, and milk. If you cannot meat you magnesium needs through eating these foods, you can try an over the counter magnesium supplement.

Some key notes from the article include:

1. If you are taking magnesium, make sure you balance it with an equal amount of calcium intake as well. If you have too much of one or the other it can cause major problems.

2. Also, if you are taking a magnesium AND a calcium supplement, make sure to take them at separate times of the day. If you take them at the same time they might interfere with one another and defeat their benifitial purposes.

Click here for another article over magnesium related migraines

Bad Driving is Genetic

2009-11-03T22:55:00.002-06:00

The next time you see a motorist obliviously straddling two lanes, don't blame bad driving, but genetics. In a recent study discovered by Steven Cramer from Cerebral Cortex. He found that people with a certain gene variant performed more than 30 percent worse on a driving test than people without it.
This study might also help explain why there are so many bad drivers on U.S. highways: about 30 percent of Americans have the variant. Ordinarily, when a person does a task, a protein called BDNF is secreted to the area that is related to the activity being done. People who are bad at driving, BDNF secretion is limited. The protein helps facilitate communication among brain cells and helps retain memory.

"These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," Cramer said in a statement.

They recruited 29 people for a test. They were to drive 15 laps on a simulated coarse. 7 of the 29 people had the variant.

The 3-D Simulation that Lets Your Surgeon Practice...on You

2009-11-03T21:58:00.007-06:00

This article has been written by Rebecca Day and it deals with a new invention of the Stanford University to simulate surgeries. Published online October 28, 2009 on "Discover":

Using the patient’s own scans in the simulation could greatly assist doctors
performing surgery near critical parts such as the optic nerve and carotid artery, where
damage could cause permanent debilitation or death. In such operations, knowing
the precise quirks of an individual’s anatomy is crucial to a successful
outcome.

This project called Stanford Rhinological Virtual Surgical Environment,uses a haptic interface,which simulates the sense of touch and by taking a CT scan is it possible to create a simulation of special human bodies. In that simulation you can test many different surgeries to rise the chance of success and moreover, it is a possibility for doctors to train for special procedures.

Simulations like that could help to heal people's deseases and it makes them feel better, if they know that the proceure has been already tested, what would lead definitly to better results.

Danish researches improves knowledge about Alzheimers

2009-11-03T18:34:00.008-06:00

Newest searching in the Alzheimer's disease proves that in many cases, Alzheimer is not a genetic condition you can't avoid, but simply just caused by inflammation, which is avoidable. The new facts were published at www.US.news in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

US.news said in their article:

"Danish researchers found that, compared with those
whose parents didn't have Alzheimers, the volunteers were more likely to have
high blood pressure and high levels of
inflammatory proteins called cytokines"

During the searchings the researchers found out, that actually 40% of the people with Alzheimers, and whose parrents had dementia, not recieved the disease from their parrents, but can get rid of it just by changing their lifestyle. According to the numbers, a lot of the Alzheimer's had recieved the disease because of a high blood pressure or inflammation, with high inflammatory levels of proteins called cytokines.

This new searching can be usefull to many people with Alzheimer's disease. Now they can try to get red of their trouble, just by changing their lifestyle a little, and help prevent it in the future.

(I'm sorry for any wrong spellings etc...)

Girl with 'mermiad syndrome' dies at 10

2009-11-03T08:48:00.000-06:00

A recent article found on MSNBC told of a story about a little 10 year old girl who died last Friday from complications of a condition called Sirenomelia.

Doctors had predicted she would at most only survive for days after her birth. The girl died at Maine Medical Center on Friday afternoon, hospital spokesman John Lamb said. She had been hospitalized in critical condition for nearly a week.
Being born with "mermaid syndrome," also known as sirenomelia, meant that the Kennebunkport girl had only one partially working kidney, no lower colon or genital organs and legs fused from the waist down.

Ten year old Shiloh Pepin from Portland, Maine died last Friday with what many have called, 'Mermaid Syndrome.' She was nicknamed the 'mermaid girl' because when she was born her legs were fused together. Doctors could not operate on her legs because she had blood vessels that crossed from one side of her leg to the other and they would have been completely severed.

This is an interesting topic related to Anatomy because it has to do with how her bones were deformed when she was born and how without two legs it would be very hard to survive or even just get around.

Beware...

2009-10-27T15:29:00.002-05:00

So apparently H1N1 also called the "swine flu" isn't a flu where you turn into a pig, and if that isn't mind boggling enough apparently now there's a fake H1N1 vaccine going around.

As reported by WebMD with information from the FDA:

Beware fake " Tamiflu"
sold over the Internet, the FDA warns.
The FDA recently bought five
different products advertised online as "Tamiflu" or as treatments for the 2009 H1N1
swine flu.
Some of the pills contained only talc and acetaminophen.
Some had various amounts of oseltamivir,
the active ingredient in Tamiflu. None was the real thing; all are illegal in
the U.S.

So I guess beware the fake H1N1 vaccine and if you get a flu you just might die from it.

<3 Sara

Amalie's first blog

2009-10-07T21:03:00.002-05:00

Hey everybody! I'm Amalie, also one of this years four exchange students! I'm from Denmark...
this is my first post, since I had a lot of problems by signing up for a google account!

http://www.google.com/

just wanna tell that so far, this have been an amazing experience, and americans are awesome! :D
xoxo (:

Caleb's "Skin Deep" assignment

2009-09-28T21:06:00.005-05:00

So in stead of doing the assignment over the "Skin Deep" reading that we got in class, I decided to do the "Say Something" assignment and post it on here. So you all probably know how this works, but if you don't then I am going to find five different sentences from the reading and simply discuss them, and say what i think about them. So please comment, and let me know what you think!!

"Skin Deep"

1. "Geographers and anthropologists have long recognized that the distribution of skin colors among indigenous populations is not random: darker peoples tend to be found nearer the equator, lighter ones closer to the poles."

--This sentence was brought up in my class today and it got me thinking. I think it's kind of cool how people's skin is darker the closer they are to the equator. The skin is naturally darker so that it can regulate the effects of the sun's UV rays on key nutrients crutial to reproductive success. The human body amazes me!

2. "The famous skeleton of the Turkana Boy--which belonged to the species Homo Erguster--is that of a long-legged, striding biped that probably walked long distances."

--Just the thought that at one time the normal human was this Homo Erguster species is awesome. Thinking about how quickly the human body can evolve and change is just amazing.

3. "Anthropologists and biologists have generlaly reasoned that high concentrations of melanin arose in the skin of peoples in tropical areas because it protected them against skin cancer."

--This quote made me wonder if you would have more melanin in your skin by tanning? Or do you have to be born with melanin? I'm confused.

4. "The skin color difference between the Khoisan and Bantu speakers such as the Zulu indicates that the length of time that a group has inhabited a particular region is important in understanding why they have the skin color they do."

--So what i got out of this sentence is that your skin color can also indicate how long a group has inhabited a particular region? That seems a little strange, and i don't understand how it's possible.

5. "The light-skinned people of northern European origin who bask in the sun of Florida or northern Austrailia increasingly pay the price in the form of premature aging of the skin and skin cancers, not to mention the unknown cost in human life of folate depletion."

--If people know that they increasingly pay the price of premature aging of the skin and of cancer, then i would hope they would actually use sun block or something. If the people DON'T know that they increasingly pay the price of premature aging of the skin and of cancer then i really think that they should be informed somehow, because that is pretty serious stuff.

Katie's first post

2009-09-27T15:41:00.002-05:00

Hello. This is Katie Slavin. I have anatomy sixth hour and i sit with Sydney, Evanlee, and Matt.
Over the weekend my sister in law had my nephew Trenton. This is number two for her. I now have three nieces and three nephews. Kaya, Allison, Bubba, Ethan, Kendal, and now Trenton. I'm planning on going to college but still dont know where. Probably K-State, but that could change. I am also interested in sports med which is why i decided to take this class. I tore my ACL last year during a game. I told one of the trainers that when i tore it i thought i dislocated it. He laughed and showed me this. And just as a warning its pretty gross.... dont watch if you are sentsitive to broken bones...

Blogger Tutorial

2009-09-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

Cool website by Lucas

2009-09-24T13:42:00.004-05:00

Hey, a good website to use if you're interested about the different careers that you can have by joining the military or (armed forces) is here. This website is full of information and is really useful. Check it out!

"Make more than a living. Make a career for yourself."

Joining the military could make your life better and everyone else's life safer!

"It's Awesome"

Encyclopedia

2009-09-24T13:41:00.004-05:00

The page I choose is the Internet encyclopedia wikipedia.org. You can use this page in different languages and it includes man interesting topics and if I don't understand something that is my first page where i am searching for the answer and it helps me with my home works. http://en.wikipedia.org

Anatomy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see anatomy (disambiguation).
Human heart and lungs, from an older edition of Gray's Anatomy.
Anatomy (from the Greek ἀνατομία anatomia, from ἀνατέμνειν ana: separate, apart from, and temnein, to cut up, cut open) is a branch of biologyand medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy (zootomy) andplant anatomy (phytotomy). In some of its facets anatomy is closely related to embryology, comparative anatomy and comparative embryology,^[1]through common roots in evolution.
Anatomy is subdivided into gross anatomy (or macroscopic anatomy) and microscopic anatomy.^[1] Gross anatomy (also called topographical anatomy, regional anatomy, or anthropotomy) is the study of anatomical structures that can be seen by unaided vision with the naked eye.^[1] Microscopic anatomy is the study of minute anatomical structures assisted with microscopes, which includes histology (the study of the organization of tissues),^[1]and cytology (the study of cells).
The history of anatomy has been characterized, over time, by a continually developing understanding of the functions of organs and structures in the body. Methods have also improved dramatically, advancing from examination of animals through dissection of cadavers (dead human bodies) to technologically complex techniques developed in the 20th century including X-ray, ultrasound, and MRI imaging.
Anatomy should not be confused with anatomical pathology (also called morbid anatomy or histopathology), which is the study of the gross and microscopic appearances of diseased organs.

SHAWN KELLY

2009-09-24T13:39:00.005-05:00

Hello hello this is Shawn Kelly just here relaxing in class. Mr. Magette just informed me of this dreaded assignment of posting some sort of a post about some irrelevant information that holds significant value to us.. and honestly I'm really only into one thing (I know.. I'm a loser.) I'm into playing music, I've learned completely on my own until taking music classes this year.. but don't let me fool you, there was some aid along the way. One of the most visited web-sites for me in the past years has been Ultimate-Guitar.com. Its got practically everything about music... I use it for many things, mostly guitar tabs, but it also has a wide assortment of lessons and articles about all aspects of music. I've also been able to find some pretty interesting interviews from all of the people i drool over.. Here is a little taste of an article/interview with Trivium's guitarist Corey Beaulieu.

Trivium guitarist Corey Beaulieu is having some automotive problems but he isn’t perturbed. In fact, he kind of snickers after the comment is made. So, it’s satisfying to see that success has not spoiled the maniacal metal musician. Ultimate-Guitarinterviewed him back in 2006 for the release of the band’s third album, The Crusade, and he was an affable and easygoing character who seemed well unaware of his own talents and the steadily growing popularity of his band.

And now, with the release of Shogun at hand and another interminably long tour stretching out before him, UG has tracked him down once again. The new album brings together the elements of the first three â€“ blinding riffs tacked on to vocals both screamed and sung; breakneck rhythm tracks; harmony guitar parts leaving vapor trails in their wake â€“ and presents them in a far more cohesive and fully realized fashion. The songs are more carefully structured and the soloes more fully woven into the template of the arrangement as opposed to a million notes simply flying all over the track.

So as you can see from the little amount of information I've left you with, there is a lot of information to be found and the people that run this website really do a good job of digging in the sense of getting you reliable information. With all of that I really hope this has influenced someone to check this site out, I really encourage anyone who is into music at all to swing by and see what you cant uncover for yourself.

Alisa's post

2009-09-24T13:38:00.003-05:00

Hey :),

my name is Alisa and I'm one of the exchange student at Eudora High.

Anatomy is a hard class that's for sure but Mr. Magette tries to make it easier for us he is helpful and soooooo funny :D

I think you tube is one of my favorite website because you can find everything about everything hope you got what i was trying to say... :p you can use this website for school, listen to music, and watching funny stuff

http://www.youtube.com/?gl=GB&hl=en-GB

Radiologists

2009-09-24T13:34:00.007-05:00

Radiologist are doctors who interpret medical images such x-rays, and ultrasounds. There are all different types of fields for radiology.

"A radiologist is a physician who has specialized training in obtaining and interpreting medical images, which makes him or her an imaging expert."

HIV Vaccine

2009-09-24T13:30:00.003-05:00

This site talks about a new vaccine that can help prevent the spread of the HIV virus. The vaccine takes two previous failed vaccines and combining them. This reduced the spread of HIV by 31 percent.

"This is a world first which proves that vaccine development is possible," Supachai said. "But this is not to the level where we can license or manufacture the vaccine yet."

Scientist say that this a very important moment and they will soon be able create a vaccine to cure HIV.

Sasha's Website post

2009-09-24T13:27:00.009-05:00

The website that i think is interesting is The Juilliard School. This website gives information for those who are interested in performing arts, music, and acting. This school is very expensive but worth it in the end. It is one of the top performing art schools in the US. This site is the official site for Juilliard. Also on this website you will find the qualifications that you will need to enter this school. And for those who don't know this is a college and is located in New York.

The transforming role of Juilliard is to help talented students harness their dedication to become communicative artists, imbued with the passion and understanding to reach within themselves to affect and move audiences. It is this process that prepares our students for a life in the arts."
-Joseph W. Polisi, President, The Juilliard School

steph cooper post!!!

2009-09-24T13:27:00.008-05:00

Hi my name is Stephanie Cooper =] my anatomy class is AMAAAZZZZIIINGGG, i love my anatomy teacher cause he can teach us and be fun at the same time. When i get out of high school i am joining the Peace Corps, i am undecided about college at the moment but if i do go i will be majoring in public health. I learned a lot about the peace corps from this website.... http://www.peacecorps.gov/ i hope you like it!!!!!!!!!!!

Adam's Post

2009-09-24T13:26:00.004-05:00

A good site to learn all you need to know about the USMC (United States Marine Corps) is

Marines.com

It has all this useful information about the Marines and it also has videos of real Marines at boot camp and their success stories.

"The Few, The Proud, The Marines"

Tyler's Test Post

2009-09-24T13:25:00.002-05:00

Hi, my name is Tyler. I am going to show you a pretty interesting video. This video is about a 2007 Honda Civic Si, with a All Japanese Performance turbo kit. This is the same car as mine and i am buying the same turbo over spring break. Here is the link to the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmChDYpcAa8. In the video the owner of the car says:

Second and third gear are pretty much useless on the streets with this turbo.

2009-09-24T13:24:00.002-05:00

Hey my name is J.T. and I have a video to watch of Vince Carter dunking in the 2006 olympics. In my opinion it is the best dunk ever. Vince carter is is like 6' 6" or 6'7" and he dunks over this guy from Russia that is 7'3". It is really incredible!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMrPjl-927Q

Warrior Princess

2009-09-24T12:44:00.003-05:00

Warrior Princess, to most this does not have any significant meaning, but to me it means a lot. This is the "title" that was given to a little girl after she lost her life to a heart problem.

She was given this name for two reasons. The first is because she had to fight for her life and was like a "warrior" overcoming many obstacles that most doctors said she never would. The "princess" comes from the fact that she loved to wear princess dresses, and would always wave like a princess. Even if a stranger walked past her hospital bed she would wave until you waved back. Some days she was doing so poorly that she could not speak, but still managed to wave or smile just to make everyones day.

When Isabelle was born she was diagnosed with a set of complex heart defects putting her into a classification of "single ventricle".

After struggling with this heart defect for three short years she passed away while waiting for a heart transplant.

This last weekend there was a memorial service held for her and her father shared stories of when she was in the hospital, one of which is now engraved on her headstone.

Isabelle gave to the world what the world could not give to her, a heart.

Her father also told of the story about the daycare she attended.

Every morning Isabelle would stand at the door to greet whomever came in. She would always have a smile on her face, and never met a stranger. If you were having a bad day you could just walk into the same room as her and she would have a way to make everything seem better.

This means so much to me because this little girls family now attends my church and I have now become her younger sisters best friend. Though I did not personally know Isabelle, and most of you did not meet her either, I am sure you have heard her story, especially around Thanksgiving of last year. Her story was all over the news.

Isabelle died on December 11, 2008 she was 3 1/2 years old.

Ragen's Art

2009-09-24T12:43:00.007-05:00

www.ragensart.com

Being an avid art enthusiast,

and particularly a fan of fantasy inspired art

I've come to love an artist by the name of Ragen Mendenhall.

A self-taught artist who specializes in oil paintings

and has created such works as,

"Mudra"

"Black Raven"

A very talented artist she also happens to have a dream,

"My hope is that the images I create may inspire people to express their own individuality, contributing to a glorious new world movement, to uplift the state of the humanity through culture and beauty... to contribute to the blossoming of a modern Renaissance."

Coulter's Post

2009-09-24T12:39:00.002-05:00

Howdy, I'm a senior and am currently involved in football. I want to be a pilot in the Air Force and possibly go to college at the airforce academy. Ever since i was a little boy i wanted to fly planes like my grandpa.

THE AIRMAN'S CREED

This is the Airman's promise to country and colleagues.
I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN.
I AM A WARRIOR.
I HAVE ANSWERED MY NATION'S CALL.
I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN.
MY MISSION IS TO FLY, FIGHT, AND WIN.
I AM FAITHFUL TO A PROUD HERITAGE,
A TRADITION OF HONOR,
AND A LEGACY OF VALOR.
I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN,
GUARDIAN OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE,
MY NATION'S SWORD AND SHIELD,
ITS SENTRY AND AVENGER.
I DEFEND MY COUNTRY WITH MY LIFE.
I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN:
WINGMAN, LEADER, WARRIOR.
I WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AIRMAN BEHIND,
I WILL NEVER FALTER,
AND I WILL NOT FAIL.

This will be a lot of hard work and extremely but hopefully it will happen and pay off. Well, that is all for now. See ya!

Lauren's Blog!

2009-09-24T12:38:00.005-05:00

Hello there fellow classmates! I am really starting to realize that this class will not be easy... What a bummer. In the future I wish to be involved in criminal justice.

I really like the show CSI and i feel like it would be a very adventurous. There are a lot of interesting things about criminal justice, they give you tons of yummy yummy facts. I truly feel like this is a career that will make me happy and never make me bored. Yes I know that it also involves some paper work. Okay maybe a lot of paper work but to be out on the field would make all the paper work totally worth it. Here let me give you a description about criminal justice.

Criminal Justice is the study of the causes, consequences and control of crime. Like other new and developing fields, criminal justice is difficult to define, as it draws from a number of different disciplines, including psychology, public administration, philosophy, political science, sociology and law.
The program leading to the Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice is designed to acquaint pre-service and in-service students with the principles and practices of criminal justice in America. Although the department’s curriculum allows for the development of depth in one of the subject’s substantive subsystems (i.e., law enforcement, courts or corrections), the overriding objective is to familiarize students with activities in all the above areas.
The department is both academic and professional in that it is an interdisciplinary attempt to relate intellectual issues and practitioner perspectives to the challenge of crime in a free society. In this regard, the department provides preparation for employment with a related agency and/or further study (e.g., law school).

Well i hope that helped you understand more about the Criminal Justice program. Untill next time =]

Tootles!

Ande's Post

2009-09-24T12:37:00.006-05:00

Hey! I'm Ande and I'm in 11th grade. I really enjoy Anatomy and Physiology because I'm really interested in learning about the anatomy of humans and animals of course because i want to be a marine mammal veterinarian. I plan to go to the University of Florida because they have an aquatic animal health unit. Hope you like their page as much as i do!! :]] Bye bye

Aquatic animal medicine is a young specialty of veterinary medicine that includes medical care of marine mammals, sea turtles, fishes and aquatic invertebrates. There are broad sub-specialties within aquatic medicine which include care of captive marine mammals, care of pet fishes, zoo and aquarium species, aquaculture medicine, and clinical research involving free-ranging aquatic species. Specialty training incorporates aspects of clinical medicine, wildlife health, environmental science and engineering.

Caleb's Website Post

2009-09-24T12:36:00.003-05:00

Hi, I always thought blogging was stupid and nobody did it, but its pretty awesome!! My favorite thing to do is probably play football, and other sports. My favorite college football team is Florida State. I have gone to their annual Bobby Bowden football camp for the last four years, and i think it is absolutely amazing down there. Their website is an awesome place to see how cool florida state football is. You can search anything you want about FSU football, so i encourage you to go visit this site and see what it's all about!! Thank you!!

At Florida State: The athletic safety made the switch to linebacker this summer...will provide depth once he becomes familiar with his new position...also must show he is healthy after injuries to both knees his first two seasons in Tallahassee...tore a meniscus in his right knee in 2006 and then tore the ACL in his left knee in 2007...still has four years of eligibility remaining after receiving a medical redshirt in 2007...an outstanding athlete who displays good range and has good instincts for the game.

Ashley's interesting website

2009-09-24T12:35:00.009-05:00

My Interesting Website is TheBeatles.com. It is one of the coolest websites a person can visit if you love The Beatles and want to learn about their history or just listen to some great music. You can read articles about the first time they were ever seen on stage and see what the reaction of the people were for the premiere of this small group of 4 men ages 17 to 22 when they announced the world to The Beatles.

“I have never seen anything like it. Nor heard any noise to approximate the ceaseless, frantic, hysterical scream which met the Beatles when they took the stage after what seemed a hundred years of earlier acts. All very good, all marking time, because no one had come for anything other than the Beatles..."