Sex redefined : Nature News & Comment

The idea of two sexes is simplistic
Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that

From the February 18, 2015 Nature News Feature

““The main problem with a strong dichotomy is that there are intermediate cases that push the limits and ask us to figure out exactly where the dividing line is between males and females,” says Arthur Arnold at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies biological sex differences. “And that’s often a very difficult problem, because sex can be defined a number of ways.”

The article goes on to explain DSDs (Differences/Disorders in Sexual Development) both in and out of the womb.

Read the entire news item here

Study looks at why people may feel more helpless in stressful situations than others

Scientists have identified a list of brain areas that might have a critical role to play in stress-induced depression

From the March 30, 2019 EurekAlert

“Certain patterns were revealed in the stressed brain and the scientists identified a list of brain areas that might have a critical role to play in stress-induced depression. Looking at these brain activities the study, published in Frontiers in Neural Circuits, opens up possibilities for identifying new targets for the treatment of depression. 

They explain that with the exception of a few brain areas, “mice showing ‘helpless’ behavior had an overall brain-wide reduction in the level of neuronal activation compared with mice showing ‘resilient’ behavior.” 

“In addition, the helpless mice showed a strong trend of having higher similarity in whole-brain activity profile among individuals, suggesting that helplessness is represented by a more stereotypic brain-wide activation pattern,” explained the authors of the study.”

Read the entire news release at https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/f-sla033016.php

Why synthetic drugs are as scary as you think (video)

From the March 16, 2016 American Chemical Society news release 

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2016 — Synthetic drugs such as “bath salts,” “K2” or “Spice” have made unsettling headlines lately, with reports of violent, erratic behavior and deaths after people have used the substances. Why are these synthesized drugs so dangerous, and why aren’t there more regulations? In this week’s Reactions, we answer these questions by examining the chemistry of two kinds of synthetic drugs: bath salts and synthetic marijuana. Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/83gIiBD365E.

Plates, cups and takeaway containers shape what (and how) we eat

From the June 2, 2020 article at The Conversation

“Home cooks have been trying out their skills during isolation. But the way food tastes depends on more than your ability to follow a recipe. 

Our surroundings, the people we share food with and the design of our tableware – our cups, bowls and plates, cutlery and containers – affect the way we experience food.

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Read more: Should we eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper?

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For example, eating from a heavier bowl can make you feel food is more filling and tastes better than eating from a lighter one.

Contrast this with fast food, which is most commonly served in lightweight disposable containers, which encourages fast eating, underestimating how much food you’re eating, and has even been linked to becoming impatient.

These are just some examples of the vital, but largely unconscious, relationship between the design of our tableware – including size, shape, weight and colour – and how we eat.”

Read the entire article for how the following affect the experience of eating
— color of your crockery (as cups and plates)
for example, colored crockery tend to make food taste sweeter!
–plastics
–aesthetics

The fascinating history of clinical trials

From the June 3, 2020 article at The Conversation

“Clinical trials are under way around the world, including in Australia, testing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

These clinical trials largely fall into two groups. With observational studies, researchers follow a group of people to see what happens to them. With experimental studies, people are assigned to treatments, then followed. 

These study designs have come about from centuries of people trying out different ways of treating people.

Here are some of the key moments in the history of clinical trials that led to the type of trials we see today for COVID-19.”

Continue reading the article for examples as ginseng in China, rhubarb in 18th century England, Early 20th-century randomised trial, and tuberculosis and the randomised controlled trial

Additional resources and reading

—Randomised control trials: what makes them the gold standard in medical research?

–From the research lab to your doctor’s office – here’s what happens in phase 1, 2, 3 drug trials

— Health Check: can vitamins supplement a poor diet?

—ClinicalTrials.gov – a searchable database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted around the world.

How psychedelic drug psilocybin works on brain

From the June 4, 2020 article at Johns Hopkins University Medicine

Research Story Tip:
Psychedelic Drug Psilocybin Tamps Down Brain’s Ego Center

Excerpt:
“Perhaps no region of the brain is more fittingly named than the claustrum, taken from the Latin word for “hidden or shut away.” The claustrum is an extremely thin sheet of neurons deep within the cortex, yet it reaches out to every other region of the brain. Its true purpose remains “hidden away” as well, with researchers speculating about many functions. For example, Francis Crick of DNA-discovery fame believed that the claustrum is the seat of consciousness, responsible for awareness and sense of self.”

What is known is that this region contains a large number of receptors targeted by psychedelic drugs such as LSD or psilocybin — the hallucinogenic chemical found in certain mushrooms. To see what happens in the claustrum when people are on psychedelics, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers compared the brain scans of people after they took psilocybin with their scans after taking a placebo.

Their findings were published online on May 23, 2020, in the journal NeuroImage.

The scans after psilocybin use showed that the claustrum was less active, meaning the area of the brain believed responsible for setting attention and switching tasks is turned down when on the drug. The researchers say that this ties in with what people report as typical effects of psychedelic drugs, including feelings of being connected to everything and reduced senses of self or ego.

“Our findings move us one step closer to understanding mechanisms underlying how psilocybin works in the brain,” says Frederick Barrett, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a member of the school’s Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. “This will hopefully enable us to better understand why it’s an effective therapy for certain psychiatric disorders, which might help us tailor therapies to help people more.”

Read the whole article at https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/research-story-tip-psychedelic-drug-psilocybin-tamps-down-brains-ego-center

Natural Products and Safety Issues

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health sent this bulletin at 12/02/2015 12:18 PM EST

“

Natural products such as herbal medicines or botanicals are often sold as dietary supplements and are readily available to consumers; however, there is a lot we don’t know about the safety of many of these products.

Two of the main safety concerns for dietary supplements are:
—The possibilities of drug interactions—for example, research has shown that St. John’s wort interacts with drugs such as antidepressants in ways that can interfere with their intended effects

—The possibilities of product contamination—supplements have been found to contain hidden prescription drugs or other compounds, particularly in dietary supplements marketed for weight loss, sexual health including erectile dysfunction, and athletic performance or body-building.

As with any treatment, it’s important to consider safety before using complementary health products and practices. Read more at https://nccih.nih.gov/health/safety.“


Additionally…
Dietary Supplements Land Thousands in the ER Each Year
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_155144.html
Side effects from dietary supplements send more than 20,000 Americans to the emergency room each year, a new government study reveals.

National Survey Shows Different Bacteria on Cellphones and Shoes

From the June 9, 2020 article at UC Davis

Microbes Mostly Harmless, Include Groups Barely Known to Science

“They found that shoes and cellphones from the same person consistently had distinct communities of microbes. Cellphone microbes reflected those found on people, while shoes carried microbes characteristic of soil. This is consistent with earlier results.

The shoe microbes were also more diverse than those found on a person’s phone.”…

…”Surprisingly, a substantial proportion of the bacteria came from groups that researchers call “microbial dark matter.” These microbes are difficult to grow and study in a lab setting and thus have been compared to invisible “dark matter” that astronomers think makes up much of the universe.

Since they are so difficult to grow in a lab, these dark matter groups have only been discovered as scientists have used genetic sequencing technology to look for microbes in the world around us. Although many of the dark microbial groups come from remote or extreme environments, such as boiling acid springs and nutrient-poor underground aquifers, some have been found in more mundane habitats, such as soil.

“Perhaps we were naïve, but we did not expect to see such a high relative abundance of bacteria from these microbial dark matter groups on these samples,” Eisen said. 

A number of these dark microbe groups were found in more than 10 percent of samples, with two groups, Armatimonadetes and Patescibacteria, being found in almost 50 percent of swabs and somewhat more frequently in those from shoes than those from phones. Armatimonadetes is known to be widespread in soil.  

“A remarkable fraction of people are traveling around with representatives from these uncultured groups on commonplace objects,” Coil said.”

Are viruses alive? Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question

From the June 8, 2020 article at The Conversation

“The truth is, we don’t fully understand viruses, and we’re still trying to understand life. Some properties of living things are absent from viruses, such as cellular structure, metabolism (the chemical reactions that take place in cells) and homeostasis (keeping a stable internal environment).

This sets viruses apart from life as we currently define it. But there are also properties that viruses share with life. They evolve, for instance, and by infecting a host cell they multiply using the same cellular machinery.”

Read the entire article at https://theconversation.com/are-viruses-alive-perhaps-were-asking-the-wrong-question-139639

Looking for summaries of the best current evidence for healthcare decision making? Cochrane Evidence may have a report on a topic of interest

Cochrane reviews are systematic reviews of primary research of human health care. They are systematic because they review ALL the available journal articles to answer a specific question.. Each systematic review can take up to 2 years and includes at least 2 people.
An example of a question would be
Can antibiotics help in alleviating the symptoms of a sore throat?
Cochrane Reviews do not answer every healthcare question, but they currently have several thousand reviews answering specific questions.

Cochrane Evidence has plain language summaries of the above reviews.
““Cochrane summarizes the findings so people making important decisions – you, your doctor, the people who write medical guidelines – can use unbiased information to make difficult choices without having to first read every study out there…” 
Sifting the evidence, The Guardian, 14 September 2016

The Science of Habits: How we make and break them

From the July 1, 2020 article at Medical Express

“Professor Barbara Mullan is the Deputy Head of Curtin University’s School of Psychology. She’s been researching how habits work.

She says the main driver of forming habits is a cue that makes you think of something, which is followed by a reward.

For example, on your drive home, you see a McDonald’s sign (cue) and buy yourself a Happy Meal (reward).

“For a lot of us, we have routines,” Barbara says. “One step which leads to the next step which leads to the next step.”

The good, the bad and the loop

This cycle is called habit loops or habit stacking.

“When we’re trying to get people to form good habits, we often get them to think about something they’re already doing and seeing if they can hook it on to that,” Barbara says.

For example, if you’re trying to remind yourself to take a new supplement, you can put it next to your toothbrush and take it when you brush your teeth.

The reverse is true for breaking bad habits. If you eat lollies when you watch TV, maybe it’s time to stop watching TV for a while.”

Read the entire article at https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-science-habits.html

How talking about the coronavirus as an enemy combatant can backfire

From the July 10, 2020 article at The Conversation

“Research shows that military metaphors lead to negative behaviors in other health situations. People may become more likely to take risks, overtreat themselves and be less likely to engage in preventive activities. For example, some people may not want to appear afraid of sun exposure, and this can make them less likely to use sunscreen. Others may continue seeking treatments for terminal diseases – despite the debilitating side effects – because they don’t want to be seen as having “given up.”

The way war metaphors emphasize strength can also stigmatize those who do become sick: They’re now seen as weak.”

Read the entire article here

Someone misunderstanding your SocialMedia post? It could be your Emoji !

Our cultural backgrounds influence how we interpret emojis, U of Toronto study finds (July 22, 2020)



Excerpt

“Working under the supervision of Doug VanderLaan, an assistant professor in the department of psychology, Gao recently published a study in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking that looked at how different cultures interpret emojis – “paralinguistic cues” used to express thoughts and emotions in communication platforms such as email, texts, and social media.

The study built on previous research that shows people from Western cultures pay more attention to in-person cues from the mouth when gauging emotion compared to those from Eastern cultures, who focus more on the eyes.

“Communication using emojis or emoticons may be considered more effective than using words alone because they deliver emotions in a more visually direct manner,” says Gao. “However, emojis are not usually labelled with a fixed meaning and are subject to interpretation, which can vary depending on a person’s cultural background.”

Read the whole summary here