Calm Down! It may save your life.

With thanksgiving behind us and finals rapidly approaching I’m sure we have all felt our fair share of stress these past few weeks.  However, we as students do not have the market cornered on stress, shocking I know. 

Just a handful of weeks ago the news broke that John Fox, coach of the Broncos, would require hospitalization for the replacement of his aortic valve.  This surgery is required for those who, one way or another, have damaged their aortic valve and have regurgitation back into their left ventricle.  This is a fairly dangerous condition with results in decreased cardiac output as some of the blood that has been freshly pumped out of the ventricle flows back during ventricular diastole. 

And what might be one of the major factors that result in arotic regurgitation?  You guessed it, stress.  Specifically, the hypertension that results from chronic stress.   Sadly, Fox is only one of many coaches that have fallen prey to the stress that plagues coaches of many sports.  There is a whole list of coaches who have succumbed to stress and lifestyle related heart disease: ranging from Bo Schembechler who had a heart attack the day his team played in the rose bowl to Mike Ditka, who also suffered a heart attack during the season.

So, next time you’re sitting and stressing out about an upcoming final, remember to take a deep breath and relax.  You don’t what that stress to hurt you any more than it has to.

 

Niesen J. 2013, November.  A look back: coaches and heart health scares, heart problems, heart attacks. The Denver Post [Internet]. [cited 2013 Dec 2]. Available From: http://blogs.denverpost.com/broncos/2013/11/03/a-look-back-coaches-and-heart-health-scares-heart-problems-heart-attacks/22932/

Steward B. Siscovick D, Lind B, Gardin J, Gottdiener J, Smith V, Kitzman D. Otto C. 1997 March. Clinical Factors Associated with calcification aortic valve disease fn1. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 29(3):630-634.

Novaro G.  2010, August. Aortic valve disease. Cleaveland Clinic [Internet]. [cited 2013 dec 2]. Availible from: http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/cardiology/aortic-valve-disease/#references

Freeing Chimps From Research as a Declaration of Them as People

In a recent article published by ScienceInsider reveals a plan of action by the Nonhuman Rights Project that has filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court on the grounds that chimps and other cognitively advanced animals, such as whales and dolphins, "...are so self-aware that keeping them in captivity—whether a zoo or research laboratory—is tantamount to slavery." Their argument for the legal action to freeing these animals is to have court action that "...the being imprisoned is a legal person," and must therefore be set free. Although it is is no secret that these animals are extremely intelligent, what is also no secret is that they're physiological systems and nervous systems are the closest to that of a human. Therefore, research involving these animals is to be expected in order to further advance behavioral research and advancements in vaccinations. Further, in order for the FDA to approve any sort of human-model testing of perspective drugs, the scientists must show a promising model on intelligent mammals such as chimps and other primates because of the undeniable cognitive similarities to humans. Frankie Trull, the president of the National Association for Biomedical Research in Washington, D.C.,agrees stating that "Assigning rights to animals akin to what humans have would be chaotic for the research community.” Even though legal action is just beginning, NhRP plans on taking similar lawsuits to multiple states whether or not they are successful New York. If they win they case they will advise the research animals to be transported to a sanctuary in Florida; however, if they lose they plan to appeal the decision immediately. References Grimm, D. (2013). Lawsuits could turn chimpanzees into legal persons. Science Insider, Retrieved from http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2013/12/lawsuits-could-turn-chimpanzees-legal-persons

Three-Dimensional Printing Technology for the Future

There might come a day when we all have three dimensional (3D) printers in our homes. This could happen very soon in fact. Currently at Staples a 3D printer called the Cube is being sold for $1,299. Although this is a commercial grade printer that will only print an object about a foot high, most 3D printers these days cost up to $60,000 or more. The way these 3D printers work is through computer aided design (CAD) software that tells the printer what to make based on customization. The 3D printer takes the object created in the CAD software and then uses essentially any material you choose, but most people use plastic or metal. The printer takes the information from the computer software and begins printing the object layer by layer using the material of your choice. One of the most interesting aspects about 3D printing is that you can make moving parts. The printer will include the essential moving parts as it prints (some assembly required).

It is because of 3D printings diverse properties that it has become increasingly popular over the past few years. 3D printing was originally used to make prototypes for manufacturers before going to production. For example, the car or cell phone you own today was first built by a 3D printer before it was mass produced and bought by you. Now not only is this technology used by business, but it is becoming commonly used by people in industries like the medical field. There are doctors you can go to today that can use a 3D printer to customarily print you a new piece of tissue or even an organ. This is known today as bioprinting. Recently scientists at Princeton have created a bionic ear that can hear better than a normal human ear can (Huffington Post). With this technology, the medical field can advance far beyond anything we could ever image. However, there are also controversial components to 3D printing that can one day cause regulation on what people can and cannot make.

This was brought to the government’s attention when Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson made the first ever working 3D printed gun called the Liberator. This gun was made completely out of plastic and was able to shoot live rounds. One of the main problems with this came when Wilson decided to upload the CAD file for the gun onto the internet for free. It was only up for a short period of time before the government shut it down, but it still was able to be downloaded approximately 100,000 times. Many of those people who downloaded the file probably do not have access to a 3D printer right now, but who knows what the future of 3D printing will hold and like I said previously we could all own one someday. In my opinion, even with all of its controversy surrounding the 3D printed gun, 3D printing could help us look at other problems differently like medicine.

If you would like to learn more about 3D printing please watch this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD2Rdeo8vuE&feature=c4-overview&list=UUC552Sd-3nyi_tk2BudLUzA

Works cited

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/may/13/3d-printed-guns

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/bionic-ear_n_3224379.html

Another Reason Why Breakfast is So Important

People are constantly on the go. I’m sure you have heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” but who has time for breakfast these days? More importantly, a substantial, nutritious breakfast to start the day? I know many times when I’m rushed, breakfast is the last thing on my mind.

A study out of Harvard University shows that skipping breakfast and eating late at night is correlated with an increase in coronary heart disease in male US health professionals. 26,902 male dentists, veterinarians, pharmacists, optometrists, osteopaths, and podiatrists aged 45 to 70 years old enrolled in a study in 1986 and completed questionnaires assessing diet every two years ending in 1992. After adjusting for variables including age, marital status, smoking, alcohol, stress, health, and other factors, results showed that men who skipped breakfast and ate late at night were at a higher risk for coronary heart disease. Men who skipped breakfast were also 15% more likely to have significant weight gain and 21% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Although this study only studied males, the researchers believe that if women and other ethno-cultural groups (besides mainly Caucasians) were studied the results provide evidence that eating breakfast can decrease the risk of coronary heart disease at the individual and population level.

So do yourself a favor, don’t skip out on the most important meal of the day. Your heart will be grateful.

Reference:

Cahill LE, Chiuve SE, Mekary RA, Jensen MK, Flint AJ, Hu FB, Rimm EB. Prospective study of breakfast eating and incident coronary heart disease in a cohort of male US health professionals. Circulation 128: 337-343, 2013.

Elapsed Time: Did you make it to class on time today?

I know the feeling of rushing around to get somewhere on time is common among my peers and I. Admittedly, it's a terrible habit; I have some sort of inner voice, not necessarily an internal clock, that tells me I can get anywhere in Denver in less than or equal to 15 minutes. Thankfully, we, as humans, have an internal clock that helps us tell time, maintain circadian rhythm, etc. However, recent research has shown that it's not one internal clock that helps us tell how much time has passed, i.e. if you've been driving too long or if you've been spending too much time eating breakfast, but that there is a secondary clock that interacts with our main internal clock.

For a great period of time, the striatum was thought to be the crux of our inner clock, using the brain's surrounding cortex to integrate temporal information. New research published in the Journal of Neuroscience has expanded on this and found that the hippocampus actually plays the main role in remembering how much time has passed, which makes sense, given the hippocampus' role in memory. To assess this role, researchers trained rats to discriminate between different time intervals and rewarded the rats based on what odor they chose, correlating to a specific time interval. To make things more interesting, these researchers selectively inactivated the hippocampus with a GABA-A agonist, and found that without an active hippocampus, rats were only able to tell the difference between largely different time intervals, such as 2 minutes versus 10 minutes.

This research highlights a new take on telling time: we don't necessarily think of memory when it comes to telling how much time has elapsed, do we? It's really clever, really, that our brain uses episodic memory to assist with determining how much time has elapsed. The brain identifies when specific events occurred, then uses the internal clock (striatum) to determine how long ago that event occurred from the present.

Given the role of the hippocampus and striatum in memory and time telling, it would be interesting to assess the effects of neurodegenerative diseases on the brains ability to tell time/elapsed time. It is known that patients with Parkinson's Disease have trouble telling time, but what of their ability to tell how much time has passed since they started eating their bagel?

What do you guys think? My hippocampus and striatum tell me I'm late to class...again.

References:

Jacobs NS, Allen TA, Nguyen N, F ortin NJ. 2013. Critical role of the hippocampus in memory for elapsed time. J Neurosci. 33(34):13888-13893.

The Future of Organ Replacements

For anyone who may watch Grey’s Anatomy, you might have seen Dr. Meredith Grey’s three-dimensional printer that she obtained for her latest research feat in order to produce a liver model. Now, even though this is just a TV show, 3D-printed organs are real and are leading the way for the future of organ replacement. 

Tony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina, was a pioneer in developing artificial scaffolds to form organs by nourishing them with living cells in a lab.  In 1999, these findings allowed his team to develop tissue-engineered bladders, which were then implanted into young volunteers.  While his innovations were successful, Atala desired to generate the most sought after organ for replacement, the kidney.  Currently, more than 120,000 Americans are waiting for organ transplants, with kidneys topping the list.  By utilizing 3D-printing scientists intend to build replacement organs like kidneys, livers and hearts layer by layer with live human cells. 

However, it is obvious that printing a 3D kidney is not an easy task.  In fact, limitations arise in the printer technology utilized, especially for kidneys given the nature of their complex and intricate structures.  Engineers have not developed a 3D printer advanced enough yet to produce such a model that will be capable of what a natural kidney can do, that being absorption of nutrients, filtration of waste chemicals and excretion via urine.  Scientists in this field hope to employ stem cells extracted from patients capitalizing on their abilities to differentiate in order to ameliorate these details that limit their kidney models.

The first model of a 3D-printed kidney caught a lot of attention when it was presented at a conference in 2011. Progress has been made since then, but many findings are yet to be discovered. Hopefully in the next several years we will see more 3D-printed replacement organs to shrink the list of those waiting in line.  In the meantime, check out Grey’s Anatomy (in all the spare time you have) for more hot topics in science!  

References:

Hsu J. 2013. 3D-printed kidneys take small steps toward organ replacement. Live science. [Internet] Available from: http://www.livescience.com/41480-3d-printed-kidneys-take-small-steps.html

Parlez-vous français?: The Potential Benefits of Learning a Second Language

            When I was in grade school, I remember being taught songs and phrases in French by a hand puppet named Henri (attached to a teacher).  In high school everyone was required to take two years of a foreign language and in college it became two semesters.  At some point many people have had to learn at least one additional language, whether in a school environment or at home.  Unless you really love languages or have a natural ability to pick them up, learning one can be frustrating.  Besides the obvious advantage of being able to communicate and participate more fully in different cultures, why is learning a second language so important?

            Well, based on a study published by the American Academy of Neurology, being able to speak a second language could potentially delay the onset of certain forms of dementia, specifically Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and vascular dementia.  In the study 648 individuals diagnosed with some form of dementia were evaluated.  According to one of the researchers, Suvarna Alladi, individuals who spoke more than one language exhibited later onset forms of dementia (1).

            Dementia is characterized by the degeneration of neural functioning, impeding certain activities controlled by the brain.  Acquiring a second language could potentially slow the progression of dementia by prompting more brain activation, preventing a more rapid degeneration due to the process of aging.  In a study performed on Chinese school children learning English as a second language, MRIs were used to analyze their level of brain activity when reading in a second language.  Researchers found that children reading in the second language demonstrated high levels of brain activity in various regions of the brain (3).  Perhaps this increased level of activation in different regions of the brain keeps the neurons healthy for a longer period of time.  This makes sense because one common treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, is the use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.  These prevent acetylcholinesterase from breaking down acetylcholine, which allows a longer duration of activation in neurons (2).  So, if you have learned or plan to learn a second language keep in mind that it could potentially be beneficial to your health.

1. American Academy of Neurology. Nov. 2013. Speaking a second language may

delay different dementias. ScienceDaily [Internet]. [cited 2013 Dec 2]. Available from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131106162529.htm.

2.  Molina I, Colucci L, Fasanaro AM, Traini E, Amenta F. 2013. Efficacy of Memantine, Donepezil, or Their Association in Moderate-Severe Alzheimer’s Disease: A Review of Clinical Trials. The Scientific World Journal: 1-8.

3. Tan LH, Chen L, Yip V, Chan AHD, Yang J, Gao JH, Siok WT. Feb. 2011. Activity levels in the left hemisphere caudate-fusiform circuit predict how well a second language will be learned. PNAS 108(6): 2540-2544.