Sleep strengthens memory after learning

I find that studying right before sleeping is very helpful in remembering things for a test. I remember I had crammed all my studying right before going to sleep and it turned out that it was advantageous for me because I remembered everything. Sleeping right after studying, helped my brain make connections, which helped me remember things during a test. I find that this only works for multiple choice test. When the tests, are short answer or essay based, studying right before sleeping is not as helpful. 

A new study provides important physical evidence to support the idea that sleep helps cement and strengthen new memories. Published in the journal Science, the study shows sleep after learning causes very specific structural changes in the brain - namely growth of connections between brain cells that help them pass information to each other.

Senior investigator Wen-Biao Gan, professor of neuroscience and physiology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, NY, says while we have known for some time that sleep is important for learning and memory, the underlying mechanism has not been clear.

"Here we've shown how sleep helps neurons form very specific connections on dendritic branches that may facilitate long-term memory," he explains, "We also show how different types of learning form synapses on different branches of the same neurons, suggesting that learning causes very specific structural changes in the brain."

In experiments with mice, he and his team show for the first time that learning and sleep cause physical changes in the motor cortex, a brain region involved with voluntary movements.

While we may appear restful as we slumber, our cells are not. The brain cells that were active taking on new information during waking hours, reactivate during deep sleep or slow-wave sleep - a phase when brain waves slow right down, and rapid eye movement, and dreaming, come to a halt.

For some time now, scientists have believed slow-wave sleep is when we form and recall new memories. But exactly how this happens physically is what this study shows for the first time - using mice genetically modified so a particular protein in their brain cells fluoresces when seen with a laser-scanning microscope.

Using this approach, the team could track the growth of new spines along individual branches of dendrites. A brain cell typically has many thousands of dendrites. These connect to other neurons via synapses and carry information in the form of electrical impulses....

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Young adults 'damage DNA' with weekend alcohol consumption

According to studies, it is believed that young adults are damaging their DNA with their weekend alcohol consumption. I believe alcohol can have some effects on the body, but I do not think it can damage DNA. It takes a lot of alcohol to do any damage & sure young adults drink a lot, but I think their bodies can easily adapt and maintain itself.

College students are renowned for partying at the weekends, and this usually involves having a drink or two. But new research has found that this level of alcohol consumption may cause damage to DNA. This is according to a study published in the journal Alcohol.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that around four out of five college students in the US drink alcohol and 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year as a result of unintentional alcohol-related injuries.

According to the study researchers, including co-author Jesús Velázquez of the Autonomous University of Nayarit in Mexico, previous research studying the effects of alcohol consumption has mainly been carried out in individuals who have been drinking for long periods of time.

These individuals usually have illnesses as a result of their alcohol consumption, such as liver damage, cancer ordepression.

But the investigators say their study is "pioneering," as it analyzes the effects of alcohol consumption on young people who are healthy.

Oxidative damage caused by alcohol consumption

The researchers set out to determine the level of oxidative damage caused by alcohol consumption in two groups of people between the ages of 18 and 23. Oxidative stress can cause damage to proteins, membranes and genes.

One group drank an average of 1.5 liters of alcoholic beverages every weekend, while the other group did not consume any alcohol.

All participants underwent blood tests to ensure they were healthy and were free of any diseases or addictions.

The researchers also measured the activity of dehydrogenase - an enzyme responsible for metabolizing alcohol (ethanol) into acetaldehyde - as well as acetoacetate and acetone activity.

Using a thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) test, the researchers were able to assess oxidative damage. The test allowed them to see how ethanol in the blood, and the acetaldehyde produced by dehydrogenase in reaction to ethanol, affects the lipid peroxidation that impacts cell membranes.

Results of the study revealed that the alcohol-consuming group demonstrated twice as much oxidative damage to their cell membranes, compared with the group that did not drink.

Signs of DNA damage through alcohol consumption

An additional experiment, called the comet test, was conducted to see whether the participants' DNA was also affected by alcohol consumption. This involved taking out the nucleus of lymphocytic cells in the blood and putting it through electrophoresis.

The researchers explain that if the cells are faulty and DNA is damaged, it causes a "halo" in the electrophoresis, called "the comet tail."

The experiment revealed that the group who consumed alcohol showed significantly bigger comet tails in the electrophoresis, compared with the group that did not drink alcohol.

In detail, 8% of cells were damaged in the control group, but 44% were damaged in the drinking group. This means the drinking group had 5.3 times more damage to their cells.

However, the investigators say that they were unable to confirm there was extensive damage to the DNA, as the comet tail was less than 20 nanometers. But the investigators say their findings still raise concern.

Overall, they conclude that oxidative damage can be found in young adults with only 4-5 years' alcohol drinking history, and that this is the first study to provide evidence of this damage in individuals at the early stages of alcohol abuse.

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Two big meals may be better than six small ones

I believe that eating two big meals can work, but I believe that it is unrealistic. Many people cannot skip dinner, because dinner to so many people is an essential time for family. 6 small meals in a day is easier and more essential than giving up eating throughout the day. The only difficult part about eating 6 small meals a day is that it is harder to control calories throughout the day.

You've probably heard that eating multiple small meals throughout the day is a good way to stave off hunger and keep your metabolism revved up while trying to lose weight. But a new study could change your diet strategy.

Eating two large meals early and skipping dinner may lead to more weight loss than eating six smaller meals throughout the day, the study suggests.

"Both experimental and human studies strongly support the positive effects of intermittent fasting," lead study author Dr. Hana Kahleova told CNN in an e-mail.

The study

Researchers from the Czech Republic followed 54 patients with Type 2 diabetes for 24 weeks. The study participants were split into two groups at random. Both groups followed a diet that reduced their energy intake by 500 calories per day and contained 50 to 55% carbohydrates, 20 to 25% protein and less than 30% fat.

For the first 12 weeks, one group ate three main meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner - and three small snacks in between meals. The other group ate a large breakfast between 6 and 10 a.m. and a large lunch between noon and 4 p.m. The two groups then switched for the second 12 weeks.

Researchers asked the patients not to alter their exercise habits during the study.

The results

Although both groups lost weight and decreased the amount of fat in their livers, the group that was eating only two larger meals lost more during each 12-week session. Eating fewer, bigger meals also led to lower fasting blood sugar levels, meaning that the body's insulin production was working more efficiently.

The timing and frequency of the groups' meals did not seem to have an effect on the function of beta cells that produce insulin or on the glucose metabolic clearance rate - i.e. how fast their bodies were able to process and get rid of sugar.

Our expert's take

"This is interesting," says CNN diet and fitness expert Melina Jampolis. "But the first thing I think of is that it's not really liveable, telling people to skip dinner every day."

Jampolis is also concerned that the two groups did not end up eating the same total number of calories. "Eating six times a day, it's very hard to control calories." The researchers admit that while they did their best to ensure both groups consumed the same amount, the group that ate two larger meals may have eaten less.

While the study was small, Jampolis agrees that there's research to support eating a lighter meal later in the day.

Most of us consume the majority of our day's calories late at night when we're the least active, she says. And when we're not active, our insulin sensitivity drops. Arecent study showed that walking for just 15 minutes after dinner can help lower your risk for diabetes. Fasting between lunch and breakfast may have a similar effect, she says.

The takeaway

Don't skip dinner altogether. Focus instead on eating a hearty breakfast and lunch, and keep your last meal of the day low in calories.

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To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In

In college, I set my school schedule to start at 9 or 10 am because I believe that this is the optimal time when I am more alert and awake. Schools start so early that students are not paying attention in their morning classes because they stayed up late doing homework. I believe test scores and grades overall would dramatically increase if schools started later. With that extra time, I would be able to eat breakfast, instead of being rushed to get to school on time. 

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Jilly Dos Santos really did try to get to school on time. She set three successive alarms on her phone. Skipped breakfast. Hastily applied makeup while her fuming father drove. But last year she rarely made it into the frantic scrum at the doors of Rock Bridge High School here by the first bell, at 7:50 a.m.

Then she heard that the school board was about to make the day start even earlier, at 7:20 a.m.

“I thought, if that happens, I will die,” recalled Jilly, 17. “I will drop out of school!”

That was when the sleep-deprived teenager turned into a sleep activist. She was determined to convince the board of a truth she knew in the core of her tired, lanky body: Teenagers are developmentally driven to be late to bed, late to rise. Could the board realign the first bell with that biological reality?

The sputtering, nearly 20-year movement to start high schools later has recently gained momentum in communities like this one, as hundreds of schools in dozens of districts across the country have bowed to the accumulating research on the adolescent body clock.

In just the last two years, high schools in Long Beach, Calif.; Stillwater, Okla.; Decatur, Ga.;, and Glens Falls, N.Y., have pushed back their first bells, joining early adopters in Connecticut, North Carolina, Kentucky and Minnesota. The Seattle school board will vote this month on whether to pursue the issue. The superintendent of Montgomery County, Md., supports the shift, and the school board for Fairfax County, Va., is working with consultants to develop options for starts after 8 a.m.

New evidence suggests that later high school starts have widespread benefits. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studied eight high schools in three states before and after they moved to later start times in recent years. In results released Wednesday they found that the later a school’s start time, the better off the students were on many measures, including mental health, car crash rates, attendance and, in some schools, grades and standardized test scores.

Dr. Elizabeth Miller, chief of adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the research, noted that the study was not a randomized controlled trial, which would have compared schools that had changed times with similar schools that had not. But she said its methods were pragmatic and its findings promising.

“Even schools with limited resources can make this one policy change with what appears to be benefits for their students,” Dr. Miller said.

Researchers have found that during adolescence, as hormones surge and the brain develops, teenagers who regularly sleep eight to nine hours a night learn better and are less likely to be tardy, get in fights or sustain athletic injuries. Sleeping well can also help moderate their tendency toward impulsive or risky decision-making.

During puberty, teenagers have a later release of the “sleep” hormone melatonin, which means they tend not to feel drowsy until around 11 p.m. That inclination can be further delayed by the stimulating blue light from electronic devices, which tricks the brain into sensing wakeful daylight, slowing the release of melatonin and the onset of sleep. The Minnesota study noted that 88 percent of the students kept a cellphone in their bedroom.

But many parents, and some students, object to shifting the start of the day later. They say doing so makes sports practices end late, jeopardizes student jobs, bites into time for homework and extracurricular activities, and upsets the morning routine for working parents and younger children.

At heart, though, experts say, the resistance is driven by skepticism about the primacy of sleep.

“It’s still a badge of honor to get five hours of sleep,” said Dr. Judith Owens, a sleep expert at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington. “It supposedly means you’re working harder, and that’s a good thing. So there has to be a cultural shift around sleep.”

Last January, Jilly decided she would try to make that change happen in the Columbia school district, which sprawls across 300 square miles of flatland, with 18,000 students and 458 bus routes. But before she could make the case for a later bell, she had to show why an earlier one just would not do.

She got the idea in her team-taught Advanced Placement world history class, which explores the role of leadership. Students were urged to find a contemporary topic that ignited their passion. One morning, the teachers mentioned that a school board committee had recommended an earlier start time to solve logistical problems in scheduling bus routes. The issue would be discussed at a school board hearing in five days. If you do not like it, the teachers said, do something.

Jilly did the ugly math: A first bell at 7:20 a.m. meant she would have to wake up at 6 a.m.

She had found her passion.

She seemed an unlikely choice to halt what was almost a done deal. She was just a sophomore, and did not particularly relish conflict. But Jilly, the youngest of seven children, had learned to be independent early on: Her mother died when she was 9.

And she is energetic and forthright. That year, she had interned on a voter turnout drive for Missouri Democrats, volunteered in a French-immersion prekindergarten class, written for the student newspaper, worked at a fast-food pizza restaurant and maintained an A average in French, Spanish and Latin.

“It’s about time management,” she explained one recent afternoon, curled up in an armchair at home.

That Wednesday, she pulled an all-nighter. She created a Facebook page and set up a Twitter account, alerting hundreds of students about the school board meeting: “Be there to have a say in your school district’s decisions on school start times!”

She then got in touch with Start School Later, a nonprofit group that provided her with scientific ammunition. She recruited friends and divided up sleep-research topics. With a blast of emails, she tried to enlist the help of every high school teacher in the district. She started an online petition.

The students she organized made hundreds of posters and fliers, and posted advice on Twitter: “If you are going to be attending the board meeting tomorrow we recommend that you dress up!”

The testy school board meeting that Monday was packed. Jilly, wearing a demure, ruffled white blouse and skirt, addressed the board, blinking owl-like. The dignitaries’ faces were a blur to her because while nervously rubbing her eyes, she had removed her contact lenses. But she spoke coolly about the adolescent sleep cycle: “You know, kids don’t want to get up,” she said. “I know I don’t. Biologically, we’ve looked into that.”

The board heatedly debated the issue and decided against the earlier start time.

The next day Jilly turned to campaigning for a later start time, joining a movement that has been gaining support. A 2011 report by the Brookings Institution recommended later start times for high schools, and last summer Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, posted his endorsement of the idea on Twitter...

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Study: Good night's sleep cleans out gunk in brain

I believe that sleep is important in getting rejuvenated and feeling new. Sleep can help a person feel more alert and aware. The brain is filled with toxins that gets built up everyday from stress, and other toxic things from everyday life. It is important to flush it out so we can think fresh. Sleep is an important way of accomplishing that. Getting adequate and great amount of sleep is crucial in optimal brain function.

By: Alicia Chang, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When we sleep, our brains get rid of gunk that builds up while we're awake, suggests a study that may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer's disease and other disorders.

This cleaning was detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists said there's reason to think it happens in people too.

If so, the finding may mean that for people with dementia and other mind disorders, "sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage," Dr. Clete Kushida, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said in an email.

Kushida did not participate in the study, which appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

People who don't get enough shut-eye have trouble learning and making decisions, and are slower to react. But despite decades of research, scientists can't agree on the basic purpose of sleep. Reasons range from processing memory, saving energy to regulating the body.

The latest work, led by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, adds fresh evidence to a long-standing view: When we close our eyes, our brains go on a cleaning spree.

The team previously found a plumbing network in mouse brains that flushes out cellular waste. For the new study, the scientists injected the brains of mice with beta-amyloid, a substance that builds up in Alzheimer's disease, and followed its movement. They determined that it was removed faster from the brains of sleeping mice than awake mice.

The team also noticed that brain cells tend to shrink during sleep, which widens the space between the cells. This allows waste to pass through that space more easily.

Though the work involved mouse brains, lead researcher Dr. Maiken Nedergaard said this plumbing system also exists in dogs and baboons, and it's logical to think that the human brain also clears away toxic substances. Nedergaard said the next step is to look for the process in human brains.

In an accompanying editorial, neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro said scientists have recently taken a heightened interest in the spaces between brain cells, where junk is flushed out.

It's becoming clearer that "sleep is likely to be a brain state in which several important housekeeping functions take place," she said in an email.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In a statement, program director Jim Koenig said the finding could lead to new approaches for treating a range of brain diseases.

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Quitting Smoking May Improve Your Mental Health

In the most studies, people who smoke daily reported that they have mood or anxiety issues. I see at my University people smoking even though smoking is banned on campus. I can hypothesize most of those people have some anxiety or mood issues. People also smoke because it relaxes them and relives stress for them. Overall, smoking is dangerous whether it is your mental illness or lung cancer. Smoking has no benefits to it. It will cause cancer. 

By Brian Krans

People with mental illnesses—from anxiety to bipolar disorder—are more likely to self-medicate.

When treating a patient for mental illness, experts tend to focus on bad habits that have the most dramatic impact on the patient’s life, namely alcohol and drugs, as they can worsen mental problems. Smoking, however, typically gets a pass.

But new research from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that treating nicotine addiction can have positive effects on a person’s mental well-being.

How Quitting Can Improve Your Mental State

Researchers analyzed data from 4,800 daily smokers from the National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions survey and found that those with addiction problems or psychological issues had fewer problems three years later if they quit smoking.

The first time the survey was given, about 40 percent of daily smokers reported having mood or anxiety issues. Roughly half of daily smokers also had alcohol problems and a quarter had drug issues.

Three years later when the survey was given again, 42 percent of the people who still smoked had mood disorders. Of those who quit, only 29 percent had mood issues. Alcohol and drug use rates were also lower in former smokers.

“We don't know if their mental health improves first and then they are more motivated to quit smoking or if quitting smoking leads to an improvement in mental health,” lead investigator Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg said in a statement. “But either way, our findings show a strong link between quitting and a better psychiatric outlook.”

Besides the mental health benefits, there are also the obvious physical health benefits of quitting smoking.

“About half of all smokers die from emphysema, cancer, or other problems related to smoking, so we need to remember that as complicated as it can be to treat mental health issues, smoking cigarettes also causes very serious illnesses that can lead to death,” Cavazos-Rehg said.

Her study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

You Have to Admit You’re a Smoker First

You would think that someone who smokes cigarettes would admit to being a smoker, but researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine say that’s not always the case.

In a recent study in Tobacco Control, researchers show that in 2011 nearly 396,000 Californians—or 12.3 percent of the population—regularly smoked cigarettes, yet didn’t call themselves “smokers.” That includes the nearly 22 percent of people who smoked on a daily basis.

Not admitting you are a smoker is a major barrier to quitting. There’s no reason to stop doing something if you don’t do it in the first place, right?

“There is a risk for such smokers to continue to smoke and be adversely impacted by the tobacco they smoke, yet they do not seek any assistance nor do they plan to quit because they falsely believe they are not smokers,” Dr. Wael K. Al-Delaimy, a professor and chief of the Division of Global Health at UCSD said.

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Kids and Cavities a Rotten Combo

I believe that kids these days are eating so much sugar and unhealthy foods that it is damaging their teeth. Oral health is a great indicator of overall health. If a child has a mouth full of cavities, then they are more likely to have unhealthy eating habits.  It is important that children eat healthy so they will have healthy oral health. In addition, many parents think it is unnecessary for kids to brush their teeth because their teeth are going to fall out anyways. That is a total myth and it is important for good oral hygiene as soon as your child tooth erupts. Parents should follow the tips that ADA offers down below. 

By Katie Moisse

Getting kids to care about oral health can be like pulling teeth. But cavities aren't just painful — they can interfere with learning, speech, eating and play.

Roughly one in six American kids has untreated cavities, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And experts say those tiny holes can have major consequences on growth and development.

“Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease of childhood, and in the worst case it can change a kid’s life for the short or long term,” said Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, a pediatric dentist based in Augusta, Maine, and spokesman for the American Dental Association. “Taking steps to prevent it early on — as soon as the first tooth erupts — is key to having a lifetime of good oral health.”

Tooth decay accounts for 51 million missed school hours and 25 million missed work hours among parents annually, according to the American Dental Association. But some simple steps can cut the risk of cavities and set up good dental habits for life.

The ADA offers the following tips:

• Eat a nutritious diet during pregnancy
• Take your child to a dentist before his or her first birthday
• Brush your child’s teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste
• Floss your child’s teeth daily as soon as two teeth touch
• Avoid giving your child sugary and starchy snacks

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Coffee as a Memory Booster

I do not see coffee as a memory booster, but instead I see it as a way to make a person alert. I think that those who underwent the study and received a pill containing caffeine were probably more alert, which made them remember more. Many people drink coffee everyday and they do not see a boost in memory. If anything, I believe that caffeine enhances a persons alertness, which will help them recall things more. 

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

In addition to its other well-known effects, a cup of coffee might improve your memory.

Researchers had 73 male and female volunteers who did not habitually consume caffeine study pictures of flowers, musical instruments and other objects. After they were done, 35 of them were given a pill containing 200-milligrams of caffeine — the amount in one to two cups of coffee — and the rest an identical looking placebo. Neither the subjects nor the researchers knew until the study ended who took caffeine and who took an inert pill.

The next day they showed the volunteers more pictures, asking them if they were the same, different, or different but similar to the pictures they had seen the previous day.

Those who had caffeine pills were significantly better at identifying pictures that were different but similar to the ones they had seen the previous day. In other tests, the researchers found that less than 200 milligrams had no effect, and more did not further improve the participants’ scores.

The senior author, Michael A. Yassa, formerly at Johns Hopkins and now an assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine, said that the study, published online in Nature Neuroscience, does not prove that caffeine is a memory pill.

“We don’t even know what the exact effective dose would be,” he said. What will Dr. Yassa himself do? “I’m a regular coffee drinker, and nothing is going to change that.”

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Will Music Make Your Child Smarter?

I have always thought that music helps with learning. I believe that music helps with focusing, especially with studying. I listen to classical music to help me focus, while studying. I don't use it because I think it will make me smarter. I listen to it because it helps me focus and recall things better. I have always been told that playing a musical instrument will make you smarter. I believe that playing an instrument benefits anyone in a different way than just making you smarter. I believe it helps you study better, listen better, and focus better. According to this article, there is no significant evidence that playing an instrument makes children smarter. I think it is important to continue playing instruments even if there is no beneficial factor to it. Music has always been part of culture and it is important to continue it. 

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 11, 2013 (HealthDay News) — If Johnny doesn’t take to the violin, don’t fret. A new study challenges the widely held belief that music lessons can help boost children’s intelligence.

“More than 80 percent of American adults think that music improves children’s grades or intelligence,” study author Samuel Mehr, a graduate student in the School of Education at Harvard University, said in a university news release.

“Even in the scientific community, there’s a general belief that music is important for these extrinsic reasons — but there is very little evidence supporting the idea that music classes enhance children’s [mental] development,” he noted.

In this study, Mehr and his colleagues randomly assigned 4-year-old children to receive instruction in either music or visual arts.

“We wanted to test the effects of the type of music education that actually happens in the real world, and we wanted to study the effect in young children, so we implemented a parent-child music enrichment program with preschoolers,” Mehr explained. “The goal is to encourage musical play between parents and children in a classroom environment, which gives parents a strong repertoire of musical activities they can continue to use at home with their kids.”

Both groups of children later underwent vocabulary, math and spatial skills tests. There was no evidence that the 15 children in the music group had any intellectual advantage over the 14 in the visual arts group.

The researchers then conducted a second experiment that included 45 children, with half receiving music training and half receiving no training. Again, the researchers found that music lessons did not provide any brain benefit, according to the study published Dec. 11 in the journal PLoS One.

While the findings suggest that music lessons won’t improve a child’s school grades, music education is still important, according to Mehr.

“There’s a compelling case to be made for teaching music that has nothing to do with extrinsic benefits. We don’t teach kids Shakespeare because we think it will help them do better on the SATs, we do it because we believe Shakespeare is important,” he said.

“Music is an ancient, uniquely human activity — the oldest flutes that have been dug up are 40,000 years old, and human song long preceded that,” Mehr noted. “Every single culture in the world has music, including music for children. Music says something about what it means to be human, and it would be crazy not to teach this to our children.”

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Vaping: Positive or Negative?

Do you think vaping is better than cigarettes? There have been many different opinions on vaping vs. smoking. Vaping is such a new thing, and there is not enough research to see if vaping is really better than smoking cigarettes. Do you consider vaping smoking? It is essentially water vapor. But I believe that vaping with nicotine can be harmful for the lungs. I guess we have to wait and see if vaping has any negative effects on the body. 

Today the New York City Council approved an ordinance that prohibits the use of e-cigarettes in all the places where smoking is prohibited, which is pretty much everywhere except private residences and some outdoor locations (not parks, though!). The ban takes effect in four months, although business owners will have another six months to post “No Vaping” signs.

Why did the city council decide to treat vaping like smoking? Not because e-cigarettes, which contain no tobacco and produce no smoke, pose a hazard to bystanders, which is the usual excuse for smoking bans, but because they look too much like regular cigarettes. 

Similarly, Councilman James Gennaro, the ban’s main sponsor, worries that e-cigarettes’ superficial resemblance to the tobacco-burning variety will confuse children, undermining decades of education aimed at convincing the nation’s youth that smoking is dangerous and totally uncool. While these explanations are utterly implausible, they do reflect the true, subrational motivation of e-cigarette prohibitionists: They are appalled by this product because the battery-powered devices remind them of the real thing, triggering all the emotions of disgust, contempt, and self-righteousness they associate with smoking.

Yet it is this very same resemblance that makes e-cigarettes such a promising harm-reduction tool, one that mimics smoking while delivering nicotine to the lungs without the myriad toxins and carcinogens generated by tobacco combustion. Hence anyone concerned about the health effects of smoking should welcome this product. But for control freaks like Quinn and Gennaro, the cigarette form has become such a powerful symbol of evil that they have lost sight of the health-based rationale for their opposition to smoking, the upshot being that they support a policy that’s apt to result in more tobacco-related disease and death, the opposite of their ostensible goal.

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Sleep is constantly a problem to many people. It is the problem that keeps people from functioning everyday and doing everyday tasks. When it is difficult to sleep at night, the frustrations carry on the next morning because you didn't have enough sleep to function during the day. Many people turn to medicines and different remedies to help them sleep. Sometimes the best way to sleep are the simplest. Check out this product that was featured on Dr.Oz Guna Sleep. It is suppose to help those who have a hard time falling asleep. It does not work for everyone, but it doesn't hurt to try.

Sleep is one of the great mysteries of life. Like gravity or the quantum field, we still don't understand exactly why we sleep—although we are learning more about it every day.

We do know, however, that good sleep is one of the cornerstones of health.

Six to eight hours per night seems to be the optimal amount of sleep for most adults, and too much or too little can have adverse effects on your health.

Sleep deprivation is such a chronic condition these days that you might not even realize you suffer from it. Science has now established that a sleep deficit can have serious, far reaching effects on your health.

For example, interrupted or impaired sleep can:

• Dramatically weaken your immune system
• Accelerate tumor growth—tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions
• Cause a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you've already eaten, which can wreak havoc on your weight
• Seriously impair your memory; even a single night of poor sleep—meaning sleeping only 4 to 6 hours—can impact your ability to think clearly the next day
• Impair your performance on physical or mental tasks, and decrease your problem solving ability

When your circadian rhythms are disrupted, your body produces less melatonin (a hormone AND an antioxidant) and has less ability to fight cancer, since melatonin helps suppress free radicals that can lead to cancer. This is why tumors grow faster when you sleep poorly.

Impaired sleep can also increase stress-related disorders, including:

• Heart disease
• Stomach ulcers
• Constipation
• Mood disorders like depression

Sleep deprivation prematurely ages you by interfering with your growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep (and during certain types of exercise, such as Peak Fitness Technique). Growth hormone helps you look and feel younger.

One study has even shown that people with chronic insomnia have a three times greater risk of dying from any cause.
Lost sleep is lost forever, and persistent lack of sleep has a cumulative effect when it comes to disrupting your health. Poor sleep can make your life miserable, as most of you probably know.

The good news is, there are many natural techniques you can learn to restore your "sleep health."

Whether you have difficulty falling asleep, waking up too often, or feeling inadequately rested when you wake up in the morning—or maybe you simply want to improve the quality of your sleep—you are bound to find some relief from my tips and tricks below.

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Does Caffeine in Coffee Perk Up Heart Health?

Hey all you coffee lovers out there! There might a benefit from the coffee that you drink everyday. Research is studying the effects that coffee has on the heart. According to their recent research, scientist has seen that the caffeine in a cup of coffee might help your small blood vessels work better. So all of you who go to Starbucks every morning to get your cup of coffee might be having some extra benefits for your overall heart. For me, I think it is the sugar that increases blood flow through small vessels. 

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 20, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- Coffee seems to offer a mysterious benefit to heart health -- one that doctors have been at pains to explain.

Now, a small, new study from Japan suggests that the caffeine in a cup of coffee might help your small blood vessels work better, which could ease strain on theheart.

A cup of caffeinated coffee caused a 30 percent increase in blood flow through the small vessels of people's fingertips, compared with a cup of decaf, according to the research, which is scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Dallas.

These microvessels regulate the ease with which blood flows through the circulatory system and the body's tissues, said lead researcher Dr. Masato Tsutsui, a cardiologist and professor in the pharmacology department at the University of the Ryukyus, in Okinawa.

Previous studies have shown an association between coffee drinking and lower risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke, said Dr. Gordon Tomaselli, chief of cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Researchers found that high doses of caffeine may improve the function of larger arteries.

But scientists have not been able to figure out why this is, given that coffee also can increase blood pressure. High blood pressure can damage arteries.

"This is an intriguing observation that may help us understand why consumption of coffee may be beneficial," said Tomaselli, former president of the American Heart Association.

The study involved 27 healthy adults, aged 22 to 30, who did not regularly drink coffee. They were asked to drink a 5-ounce cup of either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Researchers then measured their finger blood flow using a noninvasive laser technique for gauging blood circulation.

Two days later, the experiment was repeated with the other type of coffee. Neither the researchers nor the participants knew when they were drinking caffeinated coffee.

The researchers found that blood flow in the small blood vessels improved by nearly one-third among the people who drank caffeinated coffee. The effect continued in those people over a 75-minute period.

Heart rate levels remained the same between the two groups, although caffeinated coffee slightly raised blood pressure.

The improved blood flow is likely because of improved function of the inner lining of the blood vessels, Tsutsui said. Researchers have linked the function of the lining of blood vessels -- also known as endothelial function -- to future heart attacks, heart disease and strokes.

By opening blood vessels and reducing harmful inflammation, caffeine may create favorable conditions for good heart health, he said.

But how much coffee is too much? Tsutsui pointed to a landmark U.S. National Institutes of Health study that showed that, overall, drinking six or more cups of coffee a day reduced men's risk of early death by 10 percent and women's risk by 15 percent.

That study, published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that risk of heart disease and stroke either remained low or went even lower as people drank more coffee during the day.

The new study was co-sponsored by the All Japan Coffee Association, which might raise some healthy skepticism were it not for the large body of evidence that already shows coffee's heart health benefits, Tomaselli said.

That said, the study's small sample size does not conclusively explain why coffee is so good for the heart. "I don't think this answers any questions for us," Tomaselli said.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings typically are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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Fighting fears possible during sleep, study shows

It is interesting to see that we can fight fears during sleep. Normally, phobia's are addressed by gradually showing that person the phobia they have little by little. It would be even better to fight fears during sleep because we are not fully aware of what is happening. I believe this can be potentially a great way to address fears and phobia especially starting from a young age. 

For many patients with phobias, typical treatment involves gradual exposure to the feared object or situation. But researchers have now found that emotional memory can be manipulated during sleep, paving the way to new phobia treatments as we dream.

The researchers, from Northwestern University, published the results of their study in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

They note that previous projects have demonstrated spatial learning and motor sequence learning can be strengthened during sleep, but until now, emotional memory has never been manipulated during slumber.

In the study, the researchers gave 15 healthy volunteers mild electric shocks while two different faces were presented to them. The volunteers also smelled different odorants - such as clove, new sneaker or mint - while looking at each face and being shocked.

This linked the face and the smells with fear for the volunteers, say the researchers.

As the subjects were sleeping, one of the odorants was released, but this time the faces and shocks were absent. The researchers released the odorant during slow wave sleep, which is when they say "memory consolidation" occurs.

After the subjects awoke, they were then shown both faces. However, when presented with the face linked to the odor they smelled during sleep, their fear levels were lower than when the saw the other face...

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Modern Diet Is Rotting Our Teeth

I am not surprised to find out that our modern diet is rotting our teeth. Our diet now compared to back then has changed drastically. A lot of our foods now have been modified & have tons of unknown ingredients. The stuff we consume is heavily processed and modified and cannot be good for our oral health. Back when we used to be hunter-gathers, people never brushed their teeth or had good oral hygiene  The foods that they ate were not modified and processed. I believe there needs to be more research into the types of things that are put into our food and how it affects our oral health. 

A study of the evolution of our teeth over the last 7,500 years shows that humans today have less diverse oral bacteria than historic populations, which scientists believe have contributed to chronic oral diseases in post-industrial lifestyles.

The researchers, from the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD), the University of Aberdeen (Dept of Archeology), Scotland, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, England, published their study in Nature Genetics.

The authors say that analyzing the DNA of calcified bacteria on the teeth of humans throughout modern and ancient history "has shed light on the health consequences of the evolving diet and behavior from the Stone Age to modern day".

The scientists explained that there were negative changes in oral bacteria as our diets altered when we moved from being hunter-gatherers to farmers. Further changes were observed when humans started manufacturing food during the Industrial Revolution....

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