Thicker Thighs Means Longer Life

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.