Browse Category: Brain
Most people now accept the idea that addiction is a disease, but what does that really mean? The medical community is leaning more and more towards the concept of addiction as a physical diagnosis and even a serious brain disease, and understanding the change in brain chemistry suffered by addicts in their different stages - heavy using, withdrawal, and continuing recovery - is essential to treating them. A
It may sound stranger then fiction but it’s true: the
bacteria in your digestive tract may largely determine brain development and adult behavior. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore (led by renowned scientist, Sven Pettersson) reported that the normal bacteria found in your intestines could very well have a huge impact on your thoughts and actions.
It is common knowledge that oxygen is vital for the brain to function. But scientists are now learning just how vital proper and abundant oxygen flow is to our long-term health.
Are you at risk for a stroke? It seems like a simple enough question – but the answer may elude you! If you have already suffered from a stroke, whether mild or severe, you are definitely not alone. Over 700,000 people in the United States have a stroke each year. About 500,000 are first strokes and about 200,000 are recurrent attacks. Could you be one of that statistic this year? How do you know? What happens when you have a stroke? Keep reading for the answers to all of those questions – and more!
Have you ever forgotten where you put your keys? Or headed to the kitchen to get something and once you arrived forgot what you came to get? Or perhaps struggled with remembering an old acquaintance’s name? If you’ve experienced any of these situations, you’re not alone. You’re not completely losing your mind, but your memory is simply not as good as it used to be. Don’t fret – it happens to all of us. Luckily there are ways to improve memory and prevent further memory loss.
A new study has looked into the link between artificial butter flavoring, specifically
diacetyl (DA), and Alzheimer’s disease. If you’re one of those “extra pump” popcorn people at the movies, you may want to reconsider.
And if not, you may want to look at what else could contain this damaging ingredient.
Even if you’re not a fan of Country Western music, you may still have heard of legendary country singer Glen Campbell. And, if you
are a fan, this may be your last chance to catch one of his performances. Campbell is currently on his final tour, solemnly dubbed the "Goodbye Tour."
Addiction has many different faces. In medical terms, the word “addiction” brings to mind images of thin, disheveled individuals highly dependent on substances such as cocaine or alcohol. In regular, everyday life, however, we find the term used to loosely describe people who can’t seem to kick gaming, pornography, or even more normal things such as video games,
the internet, or text messaging (hence the term “Crackberry”).
Do you remember a time during school or work when you were actually
allowed to daydream? More than likely, the answer is no. Our teachers and bosses are always demanding constant attention, and they claim that paying attention helps keep you productive. New studies, however, are showing that daydreaming is an important part of our mental health for a variety of reasons.
The names of Jacob Bell and Andrew Sweat might be familiar for any football fan. One is a perennial starter on the offensive line in the NFL, and the other is from college powerhouse Ohio State, primed for the 2012 NFL Draft that recently took place. The only problem is, you won’t be seeing either of them play a down from here on out.
Even with most Spring Breaks behind us for the year, it’s still not too late to take a look at the harm these “party-hard, no-holds-barred" drinking marathons can have on the young people who participate. Especially since April is also Alcohol Awareness Month. Hmmmm . . . how fitting.
In the first part of this two-part series dealing with football-player injuries and fatalities, we talked about a lesser known adversary: hyperthermia. Much more common and highly damaging, concussions have come to be known as just "part of the game." Due to recent media coverage, including the death of a 16-year-old football player who died on the field from a heavily damaged brain, the public has become more aware of the dangerous surrounding concussions, and professional football players are finally opening up and coming forward with the truth.
OMG! LMFAO! TTYL.
Some of you may know what those initials mean . . . and some of you may not! Regardless of whether you’re up-to-date on the latest “shorthand,” there’s no doubt that text messaging and breaking down what you have to say into as few characters as possible has become a bit of an art form in recent years.
Alzheimer’s disease is a terrible, horrible, awful condition for anyone to go through. If you’ve know someone who is suffereing from the disease, you can certainly see why it is so difficult to deal with.
It is widely known that pregnancy affects women in many different ways. Aside from inducing powerful cravings for Chinese food and greasy pizza and pickles at 2:00 a.m., the soon-to-be mother suffers from fevers,
morning sickness and more; and her health can largely affect the baby's health as well.
Hypnosis . . . (not to be confused with the food coma you may experience on Thanksgiving). Just reading the word aloud to a group divides them into those who
believe it exists, and those who insist the concept is a bunch of hooey.
How many
friends do you have on Facebook? Well according to some recent research, it seems that the more friends you have, the bigger the chance that your brain might resemble that of Jimmy Neutron's in shape. All joking aside, scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust have found a direct link between the number of Facebook friends and the size of a brain's particular regions.
The recent release of the Apple iPhone 4S across AT&T, Verizon and Sprint proved to be the huge success Apple knew it would be. When the first iPhone came out in June 2007, it took the mobile phone market by surprise. Companies who were once at the top like Research In Motion's
Blackberry and Nokia are now a fraction of their former glory, and the market is dominated by Apple.
Sometimes you yawn
when you're sleepy and sometimes you yawn when you're just plain bored. We've all experienced a deep, wide-mouthed yawn at some time or another. But what you may not realize is that the frequency of your yawns change with the season. Believe it or not, you're more likely to yawn in the winter months than summer. Why? According to one study, the seasonal disparity indicates that yawning could be the body's attempt to regulate brain temperature.
The crunchy-munchy sound of your co-worker eating potato chips. Your partner taking a large bite out of a crisp apple. Anyone engaged in gum-smacking. These examples are enough to drive most of us a little (ok, a LOT) nuts. But for some individuals, these sounds are more than an annoyance. For them, the noise is unbearable and can cause extreme rage or even a flight response.
