Warm Milk and Toast Please!

As a college student, I can go many nights without the proper amount of sleep. This I know can be harmful to my overall health in the long run. So I've done my research on possible sleeping help, but the natural kind of course! I prefer to do most things naturally so that I know for sure what is going into my system. What I read most on is melatonin and what I can do to increase my sleep hours the healthy way, since I often have long days of work and studying. Melatonin influences both circadian and circanual rhythms and is released naturally through our pineal gland. It is usually released at night, which is why the yawning starts when I try to write a paper past midnight...

It is possible to change your melatonin rhythm shift when you move to another country or time zone for a while. A good thing to keep in mind if you want to take melatonin before you sleep, it works best 2-3 hours before to actually kick in and also if taken in the morning, it will have little effect.

Since I sometimes have trouble turning off my thinking switch at night, I usually have and do or eat! a few things to make me sleepy. There are many websites and sources that offer examples of relaxation, but I go for simple solutions like this one.

It might seem silly to some and may not even work for others, but I like to listen to calming music while getting ready for bed and even while reading a book to make me sleepy. Just try! It might help if you have anxiety when you're about to fall asleep.

What Men and Women Want

I found this comedian talking about what women really want and decided to share..just cause I think it goes with my blog today!

What is your type? Have you ever reflected on why you tend to go for women with a pretty laugh or a man that can keep a conversation going? The answer seems obvious; everyone would like their partner to be smart, trust-worthy, funny, healthy and of course- physically attractive. There is actually research that  says women like men who would be able to provide for them. Some evolutionary theorists suggest it is a need for survival. Such as when a woman is pregnant or caring for a child, she will need someone to help her buy food and run errands (or that is preferred anyway, since we all know single parenting is definitely possible). This makes sense if we think about why most women tend to build walls before letting the man through, not just to protect her heart from getting hurt, but also so she won't be alone in her time of need. 

Another interesting factor to think about is that men don't care as much about how a woman smells compared to how much she cares! I think this is quite humorous since women spend more on body perfumes and hair products that smell good. Men look more for what works best for their body odor, but women will reject him faster if his scent is not pleasing to her liking. There is research that suggests a woman is less sexually responsive to a man if he smells too feminine, to avoid inbreeding (in an evolutionary sense). This is all thanks to genes relating to the immune system called major histocompatibility complex.

Here's one for the men now...
There is a partial excuse made by an evolutionary explanation that says men choose younger women unconsciously because of their ability to remain fertile longer. So some men are just creeps and like to go for the young-enough-to-be-your-daughter female, but considering the evolutionary perspective, younger women are able to have more offspring, which makes the man feel superior by being able spread his genes through many more generations. 

There ya go.. just a few interesting facts about variations in reproductive and sexual behaviors or why we like what we like!

Power of the Mind...or Placebos?

The phrase "The power of the mind..." has been used in most cases of when you want something or don't want something to happen. Such as when we are in a cold setting and we try to think of everything warm like hot cocoa and blankets by a fire in order to replicate what we want our body to feel instead of what it is actually feeling. I think it gets even more interesting when it is pain that we want to ignore especially physical pain. Did you know that placebos actually relieve some physical pain? A placebo is a drug or other procedure with no pharmacological effects. They will usually never help with actual medical conditions, but they are known to show a decreased response to pain. That is, the patients will not only say they feel better, but brain and spinal cord scans actually prove this decrease! This is the idea that the patients will emotionally feel better according to the decrease response in what is called the cingulate cortex. Another amazing fact about these placebos is that the effects are not just relaxation, but actually work by partly increasing the release of opiates and the other part of releasing dopamine. There are still new findings of different effects even the placebo's opposite a antiplacebos, or nocebos, actually worsen some pain by the increase of anxiety. 

I really like this video of different placebos and their effects because it explains pretty much everything I did and even more that I had not known or read about yet.  

If you would like to learn more about placebos, I found this fun and interesting place to read on science things that has a great category on the topic.

When Brain Damage Turns to Serious Amnesia...

I think all people at one point or another have fears or even just think of encountering amnesia for a short period of time. Considering the more serious possibilities, such as Korsakoff's syndrome or better known as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, amnesia can be a devastating issue and difficult to understand. It is defined as brain damage caused by prolonged thiamine deficiency. When this kind of deficiency happens, the body finally feels the effects of the usual alcohol from the weeks of no proper nutrition or vitamins needed. 

Of course, this syndrome is preventable and highly unlikely formed within a short period of time. 

According to the Family Caregiver Alliance National Center on Caregiving's publication of Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, it is proposed that the criteria needed for diagnosing alcohol-related dementia (not strictly WKS) suggest that the diagnosis be made at least 60 days after the last exposure to alcohol and that a “significant” alcohol history would include an average of 35 drinks per week for men (28 for women) for at least five years. 

Now I don't know about you, but that seems like a whole lot of alcohol and one would assume that this would lead to some kind of deficiency. Based on this new found knowledge, it is easily guessed that those with Korsakoff's syndrome are typically struggling alcoholics and unable to treat themselves when and if diagnosed properly. This in turn makes the entire syndrome even more devastating in a way because of the known symptoms such as:

- Apathy

- Confusion

- Memory loss

- Major impairment of episodic memory and sparing of implicit memory

- Confabulation: patients fill in memory gaps with guesses.

*Point of interest of this particular symptom: Most patient's answers of confabulation were true at some time of their past and most are made up to be more pleasant than the one present ones would be.

There is help for this crucial syndrome and one point of reference is from the article previously mentioned above. 

Broca's Aphasia

When the frontal lobe of the brain is damaged by a stroke, Broca's aphasia is common in about 1/3 of those people. Broca's aphasia also known as nonfluent aphasia is a language impairment that includes:

• Difficulty in language production e.g., reading, writing, speaking.
• Understanding complex sentences e.g., omitting pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, helping verbs.
• Word meanings, not just pronunciation. 
• Frequently speak in short phrases that make sense but are produced with great effort.

Other impairments include:

• Right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for motor movements.

What is important to realize is that even though the risk of stroke doubles for each decade between the ages of 55 and 85, they also can occur in childhood or adolescence and men and women are equally affected. According to the National Aphasia Association, approximately 80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year from strokes. About one million people in the United States currently have aphasia. It is definitely smart to stay informed and aware of the possible treatable risk factors of stroke such as:

• High blood pressure
• Cigarette smoking
• Heart disease
• Diabetes 
• Cholesterol imbalance
• Obesity or physical inactivity
• History of TIA or stroke

You can find more information on preventing strokes here as well as a chart to help determine your stroke risk if you are above the age of 55.

Areas of the brain affected by 

Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia

The video below is one of many that Sarah Scott has made over the past couple of years of her life and progress after a stroke at the age of 18. She has Broca's aphasia. Just by watching a few minutes, it is amazing to see her work at her language and over the course of her videos, she has such an increase in her abilities. Very informative and definitely inspiring to watch.