STRESS, STRESS, STRESS!!

With finals coming up I think we all share something in common, stress. We all want to do good on our tests, so we study. We sometimes study so much that we have a hard time dealing with it. Well, that crummy feeling you experience with all of the tedious studying is known as stress.
Now, with stress being so common, we can only help but to wonder just how it affects us. Well, one factor is that while stress may feel emotional, it can take a serious physical toll on us. It can weaken our immune systems. This weakened immune system situation can, as many of you have guessed, cause us to get sick. Aside from affecting our immune system thus making us more vulnerable to becoming sick, stress can also exhaust us. Stress can exhaust us and make us feel tired or sleepy.
Stress can also make us more emotional. This problem can surprisingly be one of the harder issues to deal with. If we are having emotional troubles due to stress, it can have a much more direct effect on our minds function that the typical physical repercussions. If someone is having a hard time emotionally, their memory might be affected in a negative way. This, of course, can be harmful to someone’s studies.
So, the take home message is that maybe it is better to try to avoid stress, even if it means taking a nice break from your studies. Our minds and bodies need a break sometimes. We may need to recover or simply avoid overworking ourselves, so either way, never rule out giving yourself a break.

You smell..

Do you smell that? It’s the smell of science! We all smell things (at least most of us) and we tend to just accept it. But let’s question it. Why do we smell? (And not in the sense that someone stinks)

Well, a good word to start with is olfaction. It is basically the scientific word for our sense of smell. Olfaction is due to chemicals that trigger certain nerves in the nasal passages in our nose. These chemicals can make us hungry or ruin our appetite. They can even effect our taste.

From olfaction comes olfactory. Olfactory nerves, in particular, are the nerves that form the membrane that picks up on the chemicals that allow us to smell things. These nerves, once stimulated, send signals to the olfactory bulb in our brain. From the olfactory bulb, those impulses are then sent out to the cerebral cortex, processed, and interpreted.

Our sense that takes part in our nose plays a very important role in our function of human beings. One of the many factors that our sense of smell contributes to is our interpretation of pheromones. Pheromones are chemicals that affect how other organisms may act. We typically hear the term pheromone used in relation to attraction to other organisms. These pheromones are actually interpreted by separate receptors from the olfactory. These receptors are collectively called the vomeronasal organ.

So, our nose plays a huge role in our role as a human being. It is a very impressive function that we normally don’t think much about. So, next time you are walking around outside and catch a whiff of a rosebush, remember just how much goes into allowing you to smell that smell.

Alzheimer's

Any sort of memory disorders are sad, but a couple of my favorite movies have some sort of memory loss disorders in them. Why? It may be because I can relate to what the families are going through. For example in 50 first dates Drew Barrymore everyday has to be reminded of where she is in her life. Everyday her husband Adam Sandler plays a video showing her what has happened in her life. Her Memory loss disorder was due to an accident. Another movie is the notebook, where she suffers from dementia. My grandmother had Alzheimers and these were the hardest years. She would forget if she had eaten, showered, if it was day or night. I loved listening to her stories of when she was young. This was what she best remembered, she would always tell me about how her and my grandfather had first met. Sometimes she would say it three or four times in a row like a broken record. I would never tell her  “grandma you already said that” the Dr. said it was best not to stress her out. I hope that one day a cure will be found.

The brain

As, most of us are familiar with it, our brains have two hemispheres. The right hemisphere and left hemisphere. While each of these hemispheres do have certain traits that make them better at certain tasks, they work together to perform many different tasks.
The left cerebral hemisphere and the right cerebral hemisphere are connected by the corpus collosum. This allows them to communicate with each other and perform tasks together. This is normally a very smooth process; however, in certain circumstances such as injury or defects, the communication between the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere is not so smooth process.
One of the reasons for this is possible injury. Sometimes head trauma can severe the connection between the left hemisphere and the right hemispheres in. This can make certain tasks more difficult for the victim. Another factor that can be affected by this severed communication is vision. The loss or limit of communication may not necessarily make the victim unable to see, but, it may make certain tasks such as reading and other tasks that involve interpreting something. If one side of someone’s brain is harmed in that same incident that caused the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere to separate, it can also make some tasks only possible if it involves one field of vision. For example, if someone is given the task of naming something, they may be able to see it and know it is there, but they may not be able to interpret and say what it is that they see. This is something that is uncommon, but still does happen. Wearing a helmet can prevent such injury.

Brain Trauma

Everyone knows that brain damage is not a matter to be taken lightly. In fact, it is arguably the most serious injury one can sustain. This is because brain trauma can affect a person’s brains ability to function in various ways.
A common type of head injury is from a simple and single hit to the head. It does not damage the brain with exposure and such. Typically, this type of injury is not particularly severe. However, in some instances it can be very dangerous. This would mean repetitive hits or a single very hard hit to the head. Injuries like this are normally partially due to the fact that the victim was not wearing a helmet and other such instances. These kind of injuries can cause concussions.
What happens after the trauma, however, is the interesting part. As you may have heard, neurons do not easily regenerate if at all. If the body of the brain cell is destroyed, the cell will not make a recovery. If the axon is damaged though, it can regenerate. So, if the cell body is damaged, it will not regenerate. This means decreased brain capabilities. Though a post trauma brain is normally operating at a lesser rate than prior to the injury, it can still regain its abilities. If too many cells are lost, the victim may suffer from a permanent loss of brain activity and ability.
It is a sad thing to see this happen to people. It is such an easy thing to prevent though. Simply wear a helmet and protect your head if you plan on doing something that puts your head at risk of impact.

Drugs and addictions

 

So today I am going talk about drugs. But not only about the drugs themselves. I am going to talk about the drugs and the problems they can cause. Specifically addictions.
From caffeine to cigarettes to even heroin. Drugs are out there and many people are affected by them. Some differently than others for various reasons. Some people are just prone to becoming addicted. It may be in their nature to get sucked into such things. Others may not be easily drawn into addiction, however some drugs are just so powerful they can break even the strongest person.
To start of on the topic of powerful drugs, let’s talk about opiates, including heroin. Opiates are naturally derived from a plant called opium poppy. Opiates are sometimes legally used, but also illegally used, for the purpose of reducing pain. As pain reduction is one effect, opiates can also calm someone down and relieve their worries of certain problems. Opiates are considered “downers” for this reason.
On the other end of the spectrum are stimulant drugs. Caffeine is a stimulant drug that is used by many people today. Another, less commonly used stimulant drug is cocaine. This class of drugs is known as stimulants because of their effect on mood and alertness. They can increase focus and energy, which is why caffeine is so popular in the mornings. Stimulants such as cocaine however, are misused and can be very damaging to someone, much like many of the opiates, due to their potential to cause crippling addictions.
With all this being said, there are good drugs and there are bad drugs. Drugs can be used to help with problems ranging from pain to illness. The problem comes when certain addictive drugs are misused. Some even used once can be enough to pull someone in. Addictive drugs are nothing to toy with and should not be seen as such. The video above shows a sad story of an addict.

C6H12O6

Have you ever heard of a no-carb diet? I know of some people who partake in such a practice. I would not, however. One reason being that sugars are carbs. Glucose is a sugar, and in fact, the only substance your brain can metabolize.
That leads me to the interesting topic of just how important glucose is to your body. It is actually very important to all vertebrate neurons. It provides them with almost all their energy. It is also suspected that glucose deprivation in children can cause issues in the development of their nervous system. Not only that, but glucose allows the testes to produce sperm. So without glucose, your body is being limited with it’s supply of important energy and material for many cells.
Now, the reason glucose is so important to your brain is not that the cells are incapable of digesting the sugar. It is actually due to the fact that glucose is one of the very few substances that can actually pass through the blood-brain barrier. A cell cannot metabolize what it is not presented with.
As I stated earlier in terms of the no-carb diets, I would not partake in that diet myself, however those who do are not doomed. The liver is able to produce glucose from substances such as carbohydrates (which ones on such diets would not be provided with) and amino acids. Many of those on such diets do take supplements including amino acids, so while the glucose may not be plentiful, it can be enough for one on a no carb diet.

Unfortunately, I did not find the best video on this topic but here is one.

I also found this website really cute and informative!
Enjoy and don't forget, glucose isn't always as horrible as people make it out to be. http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/nutr.html