It is, for many of us, the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas cheer is that thing which is often referred to by those who believe December really is the season to be jolly. Its that feeling of joy, warmth and nostalgia people feel when the jingle bells start jingling. But what is the science behind it?

Evidence of Christmas cheer inside the brain was found during a study run at the University of Denmark in 2015. Twenty people were shown images with either a Christmas or non-Christmas theme while having their brain monitored in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. The fMRI machine highlights parts of the brain when there is an increase or decrease in activity in that region. And when there was an increase of activity for this study, that region lit up like well, a Christmas tree.

When the participants saw photographs of Christmas themed images, such as mince pies, a network of brain regions lit up, leading the researchers to conclude that they had found the hub of Christmas cheer inside the human brain. What the activation in brain regions actually meant, the researchers couldnt say. One theory was that that network in the brain could be related to memories or spirituality. The scientific understanding of our internal experiences is changing and it now seems likely that Christmas cheer may be an emotion in itself.

Many scientists used to think that emotions were pre-programmed reactions, hardwired into human brains. According to the traditional view, when you see Christmas TV advertisements, some dedicated part of you (a kind of happiness circuit) leaps into action to bring you Christmas cheer.

The happiness circuit was thought to be a single part of the brain responsible for making you feel that warmth in your chest, making your heart beat quickly with joy and forming an expression of happiness on your facean expression thought to be universal across peoples and cultures.

According to the traditional view, humans have a small set of core emotions, like fear and happiness. Each of these emotions has its own dedicated brain region which creates changes in physiology and behaviorchanges which are similar (if not the same) across different instances of the same emotion. For example, it was thought that the happiness you feel when you see a puppy would activate the same neural and physiological systems as the happiness you feel when you spend time with your friends. And so, when activated, the happiness circuit should light up in the fMRI machine. The traditional view feels intuitive. But, in the 100 years science has been studying emotion, scientists have never been able to find a specific happiness circuit or a circuit relating to any emotion.

When it comes to Christmas cheer, this is likely the reason why there was no specific neural path found in the fMRI data. Rather, the general network of neural activation associated with Christmas cheer points to a more nuanced understanding of emotions.

The contemporary view says that emotions are the brain summing up three sources of information to create an on-demand experience. The brain combines information about your physiological state, environment, and personal experiences to form a subjective feeling inside you. According to the contemporary view, when you see Christmas TV advertisements, you feel positive because you associate good things with Christmas, your heart beats quicker because some part of you recognizes the excitement the advertisement evoked in you as a child and you express the feeling physically, usually through facial expressions.

All of these things culminate as a feeling. A feeling which we label and categorize as an emotion. Throughout our lives we learn to label categories of emotions. This labeling is why we use the same word to describe the terror felt heading on to a roller coaster and the terror associated with being in a car accident, despite the fact that these experiences feel completely different.

But because the brain constructs an emotion on demand using a wide range of brain regions, there is no neural signature or physiological blueprint with which to record or measure the experience. Many different parts of the brain work together to create an emotion depending on whats going on around and inside you. This is why every experience of an emotioneven the same emotionwill look different in an fMRI scanner. When it comes to emotions, brain activation isnt predictable because each emotion is formed from different, unpredictable information and contexts.

At Christmas time, each person has associations with songs, foods and activities that help them use the label Christmas cheer to categorize the experience. These associations are totally unique to each person. This is why your festive family traditions dont always seem to translate when you introduce them to your friends or your significant other.

But Christmas cheer can be shared with others through rituals (such as decorating the tree) and language (through things like carol singing) to cement those emotion categories. Every time we encounter items or ideas that we relate to over Christmas because of our past, our brains create the emotion of Christmas cheer.

But, of course, some people are like Ebeneezer Scrooge and just want to get through the holidays. A lack of Christmas cheer has anecdotally been called bah humbug syndrome.In the same way as Christmas cheer, bah humbug can be seen as an emotion. Perhaps its the dread of family politics or the tight, pounding chest people feel thinking about the cost of Christmas. But the brain combines these sources of information to create an emotion. So if youve had more negative experiences associated with Christmas, you are more likely to feel bah humbug than cheer.

Regardless of whether you tend to feel more of the Christmas cheer or the bah humbug emotion, there is a sliver of magic in these festive emotions. In every waking moment, your brain is constructing your emotional reality. You have the power to increase your Christmas cheer or banish your feelings of bah humbug. This phenomenon is known as prediction, and its really just a numbers game. Rather than reacting to the world, your brain is running an internal model built around patterns of your previous experiences. The more instances your brain has of a positive experience relating to Christmas, the easier it is for your brain to construct Christmas cheer on-demand in the future.

So if you want to get into the Christmas spirit, spend time doing festive activities which you enjoy, share your experiences with the people you love, and do whatever rituals make sense to you. If science can give you anything this year, let it give you the gift of Christmas cheer.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How to find the Christmas spirit in your brain - Quartz

It's a lesson Breteni Morgan-Berg has been learning again and again after a whirlwind year in the spotlight. Her 7-year-old daughter, Kamiyah, has an exceedingly rare gene mutation that causes her to collapse multiple times a day. Kamiyah's illness, a mutation of a gene known as KCNMA1, got diagnosed last year after extensive medical sleuthing.

Kamiyah's condition made her a star in an episode of "Diagnosis," the Netflix medical detective documentary series based on the New York Times column of the same name. But while her time in the limelight didn't cure her gene mutation that remains a work in progress. Instead, it grew her family: researchers dedicated to find her a treatment, and other families dealing with the same gene mutation who thought they too were alone.

The media exposure also gave Morgan-Berg and Kamiyah a louder voice. They're known now, Kamiyah's condition a known issue. That helps too, when seeking assistance, when Morgan-Berg is making another call for help, or one more emailed request.

If theres anything Netflix and the New York Times did for us granted I pushed myself to that point and thats how we got there but it makes it much harder to ignore," Morgan-Berg.

Kamiyah, and her appearance on the Netflix show, has catalyzed a growing network of support in the medical community. Dr. Lisa Sanders, the model for the brilliant, medical mystery solving doctor-detective main character in the show "House, M.D.," featured Kamiyah in her Diagnosis column in the New York Times prior to the collaboration with Netflix. She's just a text message away.

Dr. Sotirios Keros was a early and crucial part of Kamiyah's medical family. He got to know her in 2018 after a colleague referred the child with the then-undiagnosed condition to him.

For Kamiyah, Keros couldn't have been at a better place in a better time. A New York resident, Keros regularly commuted to Sioux Falls to work as assistant professor in pediatric neurology at Sanford Childrens Hospital and the University of South Dakota, where there was a shortage of professionals with his expertise. His specialized background in neurology and ion channel physiology meant when he saw Kamiyah's condition, what she was suffering from was clear, he said.

Keros got Kamiyah's gene mutation on a special rare disease database known as CoRDS, hosted by Sanford Health. He also co-founded a foundation the KCNMA1 Channelopathy International Advocacy Organization meant to help support the research into the KCNMA1 mutation and helping connect those with the condition with researchers and each other.

Kamaiyah appearance on Netflix didn't trigger an avalanche of donations into the foundation ("Nope, nope, nope, nope"), said Keros. That funding might come in time, as a result of family fundraising and growing awareness of the condition. But the foundation is serving a more immediate purpose, acting as a crucial link between those struggling with the condition giving them a place to turn.

"The reason we started the foundation was this exact reason: to give people education and just a place to turn," he said. "Some diseases, like this one, there really isnt any treatment, but just being involved with other people is its own kind of help."

Another key member of Kamiyah's support team is Dr. Andrea Meredith, a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who first heard about Kamiyah in Sanders' column. She was stunned to later learn the gene that causes Kamiyah's condition was the exact same one she was currently research. Previously, she had only heard of one such patient an anonymous Chinese family documented in a 2005 paper.

"When Kamiyahs mom gave us genetics report I almost fell over because one of the mutations we had picked out of the publicly available database, with no other information other than the sequence change, ended up being the mutation that she had," Meredith said. Her work involves growing mice genetically modified with Kamiyah's condition, a key component of further research.

Meredith, too, has growth close to Morgan-Berg and her family, and helped co-found the KCNMA1 foundation with Keros. Kamiyah's photos are all over Meredith's lab, Morgan-Berg said. Meredith has a daughter who is slightly older than Kamiyah, and the two families met up in New York when Kamiyah and Morgan-Berg were making media appearances in connection to the Netflix show.

One of the most powerful things about meeting Kamiyah in person was the ability to see that sweetness and its amazing how she has that childlike innocence and sweetness, yet shes afflicted by these very powerful symptoms," Meredith said.

Meredith is now working to secure funding from the National Institutes of Health to expand her lab, due to the sheer volume of people contact her seeking help.

"She has no idea what she means to us," Morgan-Berg said.

Also helping Kamiyah, quietly, is Massachusetts-based Q-State Biosciences. Q-State had no comment about its work with Kamiyah: "Q-State is still in the early stages of research on this project, and cannot provide details right now," said a spokesperson.

But Morgan-Berg said Q-State's work involves matching Kamiyah's genetic profile against available drugs to see if there's anything that could help possibly the most immediately promising work, if they find something.

With the good came the bad. Kamiyah's newfound fame from the New York Times column and Netflix show brought out the worst in some people, Morgan-Berg said. Online trolls attacked Kamiyah's family, specifically her mother, accusing her of being a terrible wife, a fame-seeking welfare mom and worse.

"Terrible, horrible things you cant even make up yourself. Trolls just come out of the woodwork," she said.

Morgan-Berg locked down her Facebook account to shield herself from the worst commenters, but that didn't keep them all away.

She worried the Netflix show might make it seem that Kamiyah's condition was cured and everything was fine now. But she knows that's not the case, and she wishes others did too.

The research grinds on, a silver-bullet solution hasn't shown up, and the big media exposure didn't solve her family's biggest immediate problem: negotiating the tangled web of bureaucracies to get Kamiyah help she needs now, trained care providers who can help take care of a growing girl, protecting her from her own body.

Its hard enough to be told that Kamiyah is going to die before they can help us, that the information that we give on Kamiyah could help someone else," said Morgan-Berg. "But the fact is that we cant even get help with the quality of life we have left.

Morgan-Berg is required to interview and hire the care providers first, then seek funding. But because Kamiyah's condition is so rare, is can be difficult to obtain what she needs through Medicaid. Morgan-Berg said she's applied to for coverage for the care providers multiple times, and gotten turned down each time, putting her in a quandary: Let the caregivers go, or pay for them out of pocket?

It's an ongoing battle that makes her dream of moving to Denmark, just to be close to friends she met online whose son Atle has the same condition as Kamiyah. But she presses on, powered by her family, friends and the growing network of others with the same condition and medical professional dedicate to finding answers.

"I dont want to look back and think, 'I I could have done more. I want to know Ive done everything humanly possible,'" Morgan-Berg said. So when this comes crashing down and Kamiyah is not here and that is super dark I can look back and be like, 'I know in everything I could have done I didnt leave anything unturned, I fought the good fight.' And that, at the same time as I was fighting the good fight, what she lived the way she lived, was happy.

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After Netflix show on rare illness, a new family bonds - West Central Tribune

The profession of psychology dates back nearly 150 years. Throughout that time, many psychologists and other professionals have made significant contributions to the field. And while most casual psychology students know primarily about experimental psychologists, other kinds of psychologists have also made their mark on the profession.

Here we walk through a few of the many hundreds of historical moments in psychology.

Many of the earliest and most famous psychologists were academics, studying the in what we now call experimental psychology. Experimental psychology is focused on the design and implementation of scientific research through carefully-designed experiments to study human behavior and the mind. It is the foundation of all the different psychology specialties that followed.

Psychology might not have ever been the science that it is today were it not German scientist, physician, and philosopher Wilhelm Wundt. Born in 1832, he founded the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879. Along with a slew of graduate students, Wundt conducted many of the first experiments into human behavior in trying to unravel the mysteries of the mind. This marks the official start of psychology as an independent science of individual human behavior and the mind.

His laboratory was wildly successful in churning out new psychologists to help in the expansion of this new field. According to Wikipedia, some of his more famous American students include: James McKeen Cattell, the first professor of psychology in the United States; G. Stanley Hall, the father of both child and adolescent psychology, and Edward Bradford Titchener, the developer of a theory of the mind called structuralism.

Unfortunately, due to language differences, some of Wundts work was misunderstood and led to many misconceptions about his beliefs and theories. Some of these were propagated by his own students, especially Titchener.

William James earned his M.D. degree in 1869 from Harvard, but he never practiced medicine. Instead he taught at Harvard, beginning 1873 first in physiology, then offering the first course in physiological psychology psychologys initial name in the U.S. The first doctoral degree in psychology was granted to Wundts student, G. Stanley Hall, in 1878 at Harvard. Harvard also housed the countrys first psychology laboratory (image below).

James is known for a number of theories in psychology, including the theory of self, the James-Lange theory of emotion, pragmatic theory of truth, and the two-stage model of free will. His theory of self suggested that individuals divide themselves into two categories, Me and I. Me is further divided into the material self, the social self, and the spiritual self, while the I James considered to be pure ego what we today might think of as the soul (or consciousness).

The James-Lange theory of emotion suggests that all emotion is simply the minds reaction to some stimulus in the environment. That reaction create a physiological sensation, that we in turn label an emotion or feeling. James also contributed significantly to the philosophy of religion.

Edward Thorndike, a native of Massachusetts, studied at Harvard under William James. He received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1898, working under the supervision of James McKeen Cattell, best known for his work in psychometrics. Thorndikes work focused on the development of the field of educational psychology the study of how people learn in order to understand and develop better educational materials and methods for teaching.

Despite often being called the father of educational psychology, Thorndike spent a significant amount of time in the lab. He designed experiments with animals to better understand how they learned. The most famous of these experimental methods was through using puzzle boxes. In a basic design of a puzzle box, an animal Thorndike preferred cats is placed into it and needs to press a lever in order to open a door that will let them out of the box.

Giving rise to more pop psychology memes than any other person on this list, Sigmund Freud was an Austrian born physician who graduated with his MD in 1881. As a part of his studies, he worked for six years in a physiology lab, studying the brains of humans and other mammals, which likely helped foster his lifelong fascination and study of the mind. After working in Viennas hospital for a few years, he changed direction and went into private practice in 1886 specializing in the care and treatment of nervous disorders.

By the late 1890s, he was referring to his work as psychoanalysis and began publishing papers and books on his work. As more colleagues read his work, he started to develop a following. In the early 1900s, he began to meet with his followers, which culminated in the 1908 meet of the first International Psychoanalytic Congress. Alfred Adler and Carl Jung were famous students of Freuds original theories, but left his circle as their views started to diverge from Freuds own.

Freud led an illustrious life in his role as the father of psychoanalytic theory. He and his family fled Austria for London in 1938 with the rise of the Nazi Party and to escape from persecution. He died only a year later of cancer.

B.F. Skinner (the B.F. stands for Burrhus Frederic) is an American psychologist who is best known for his work on operant conditioning, a form of behavior modification that helps explain and alter behaviors. He called his form of behaviorism radical behaviorism. He received his doctorate from Harvard in 1931, where he went on to spend the majority of his professional career.

Skinner is known for his focus on reliable, replicable experimental designs in the study of behavior. In order to create such designs, he created a number of experimental inventions, including the operant conditioning chamber known more commonly as a Skinner box. By manipulating either a lever or a disk in a way, an animal in the box (most often a rat or pigeon) could receive a reward. This led to the creation of theories about ideal reward reinforcement schedules. His theories of behavior reinforcement led to the creation of token economies forms of behavior modification still in use today (often used with children for chores, but also in psychiatric inpatient settings).

Studying under William James and Hugo Mnsterberg at Harvard, Mary Whiton Calkins is best known for her studies and writings in self-psychology, a new theory building upon other schools of thought related to the study of the self. Having a strong interest in experimentation as well, she thought it was important any such study of self-psychology also be born out in scientific research. Harvard did not confer degrees to women. So despite completing all of the necessary coursework and requirements for a doctoral degree in psychology, she never received one. (She refused an equivalent doctoral degree offered by Harvards associated womens college, Radcliffe, in 1902.)

Her theories were not always well-accepted by her peers at the time. She ended up publishing four books and over a hundred papers in psychology and philosophy over the course of her career. In 1905 she was elected president of the American Psychological Association and she woman to establish her own psychology lab in the U.S.

While this list is dominated by Americans, French psychologist Alfred Binet deserves a mention. He is the man partially responsible for the IQ test a test designed to measure overall intelligence, captured in the form of an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score.

Binet studied law but also physiology, and after getting his law degree in 1878, he went to work at a neurological clinic in Paris in the 1880s. He then had a long career as a researcher and director of the Sorbonne. Throughout his career, he published over 200 books and articles on a wide variety of topics.

Working with a medical student, Theodore Simon, in 1905 Binet developed the first attempt to objectively measure intelligence in children, from ages 3 to 13. The purpose of this effort, called the Binet-Simon Scale, was to help in understanding the best way to educate all children, regardless of their abilities. When it was brought to the U.S. in 1916, it took on a different name reflecting the institution Stanford University of the tests supporting psychologist, Lewis Terman. Although no longer actively used, it was the basis for modern IQ tests, known as the Wechsler intelligence scales.

Like many people associated with the history of psychology, Ivan Pavlov wasnt a psychologist, but rather a Russian physiologist who quit the priesthood to study science. He developed the theory of classical conditioning to help explain behavior, demonstrating the external stimuli can have a direct influence in a behavioral response. This conditioned reflex, or Pavlovian response, is a core tenet of behavioral psychology. He came to his theory through experimentation with dogs and examining their anticipatory salivation when presented with the possibility of food in conjunction with the ringing of a bell. Eventually you could you produce the salivation by ringing the bell alone, regardless of whether food was present.

He eventually won a Nobel prize for his work.

Harry Harlow is an American psychologist who studied under Lewis Terman at Stanford University and received his Ph.D. in 1930. Hes best known for his monkey studies, because he studied the behavior of monkeys in a laboratory environment while at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research demonstrated that baby monkeys needed more than mere sustenance than to thrive. In order to thrive psychological and emotionally, the monkeys needed contact comfort.

This finding supported his belief that human babies needed similar contact from their mothers in order to grow and thrive. These findings contradicted traditional child rearing advice of the day, which suggested that parents should avoid bodily contact with their children. It was an important breakthrough that continues to influence parenting styles to this day.

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons, U.S. Library of Congress, and others

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9 Pioneers Who Helped Mold the History of Psychology - PsychCentral.com

Heres a late Christmas present for those of you who couldnt say no to an extra slab of pudding, even though you were trawling your fingers through the gravy boat at the time.

Science can explain why you just cant say no, which is the best excuse for just about anything.

Researchers from a consortium of US universities including the University of Georgia (UGA), University of Southern California and Michigan State University have discovered a circuit in the brain that is linked to food impulsivity.

As the researchers note, impulsivity, or responding without thinking about the consequences of an action, has been linked to excessive food intake, binge eating, weight gain and obesity, along with several psychiatric disorders including drug addiction and excessive gambling.

The US team believe it has found a specific circuit in the brain that alters food impulsivity and were able to experimentally alter the circuits behaviour creating the possibility scientists can someday develop therapeutics to address overeating.

Theres underlying physiology in your brain that is regulating your capacity to say no to (impulsive eating), said Dr Emily Noble, an assistant professor in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences who served as lead author on the paper.

In experimental models, you can activate that circuitry and get a specific behavioural response.

According to a statement from the University of Georgia, the researchers used a rat model to investigate a subset of brain cells that produce a type of transmitter in the hypothalamus called melanin concentrating hormone (MCH).

While previous research has shown that elevating MCH levels in the brain can increase food intake, this study is the first to show that MCH also plays a role in impulsive behaviour, Dr Noble said.

We found that when we activate the cells in the brain that produce MCH, animals become more impulsive in their behaviour around food, Dr Noble said.

In their experiment, the researchers trained rats to press a lever to receive a delicious, high-fat, high-sugar pellet.

However, the rat had to wait 20 seconds between lever presses. If the rat pressed the lever too soon, it had to wait an additional 20 seconds.

Researchers then used advanced techniques to activate a specific MCH neural pathway from the hypothalamus to the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved with learning and memory function.

The researchers found that MCH doesnt affect how much the animals liked the food or how hard they were willing to work for the food.

Rather, the circuit acted on the animals inhibitory control, or their ability to stop themselves from trying to get the food.

In other words, despite the fact that rats have some complex learning ability, and under normal circumstances would have come to recognise that pressing the lever too soon would have worked against their interests (getting the food), they would have pressed the lever more frequently, governed by the impulse to consume more.

Activating this specific pathway of MCH neurons increased impulsive behaviour without affecting normal eating for caloric need or motivation to consume delicious food, Dr Noble said.

Understanding that this circuit which selectively affects food impulsivity exists opens the door to the possibility that one day we might be able to develop therapeutics for overeating that help people stick to a diet without reducing normal appetite or making delicious foods less delicious.

But, as we often point out at The New Daily, rat models dont necessarily translate to humans.

Weve noticed in reader comments but also in what other news outlets tend to exclude from their health research coverage scepticism that these experiments with animals might actually achieve something.

Our view is they might and the more ideas that are explored, the more likely we are to find the answers to come of our more pressing problems.

Like how to eat six cream buns as a weight-control strategy.

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Cant resist another piece of chocolate? Science suggests the wiring of your brain is to blame - The New Daily

Can drinking coffee prevent weight loss? Before you draw conclusions about this latest study, read ... [+] the study. (Photo: Getty Images)

Rats, rats, rats, rats. Thats what a study just published in the Journal of Functional Foods used. Not humans. Not people. Rats.

Therefore, this study does not prove that coffee can prevent Holiday weight gain in humans, even in humans who happen to be rats in a different sense. Yet, headlines have emerged saying that coffee or caffeine could somehow prevent or offset Holiday weight gain based on this study. Unless these headlines were aimed specifically at the laboratory rat population, making the jump to humans is quite a leap.

In fact, the study didnt even feed rats little cups of coffee and invite them to Holiday parties. Instead, a University of Illinois-based research team (Fatima J.Zapata, Miguel Rebollo-Hernanz, Jan E.Novakofski, Manabu T.Nakamura, ElviraGonzalez de Mejia) fed rats for four weeks a high-fat-high-sucrose diet and for some added synthetic caffeine, caffeine from coffee, caffeine from mate tea, mate tea, or decaffeinated mate tea extracts. Those rats who got the caffeine from mate had on average 16% less weight gain and 22% less body fat accumulation than those that had the decaffeinated mate tea extracts.

Surprised about the mate tea findings? (Photo: Getty Images)

The study also included a cell culture portion in which the scientists exposed fat cells from mice (yes, mice, not humans) to either synthetic caffeine or the coffee or mate caffeine extracts. Caffeine exposure resulted in a 20% to 41% decrease in the amount of lipids that these fat cells accumulated. It also seemed to reduce the expression of two genes, the fatty acid synthase gene (Fasn) and the lipoprotein lipase gene (Lpl), that produce enzymes involved in the production and handling of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (thats the bad cholesterol) and triglycerides.

Well, gday mate tea, this all sounds good. It is useful scientific information that should pave the way for more studies. Sure, it is plausible that caffeine could help with weight loss. After all, it is a stimulant. It appears to affect different metabolic processes. For example, in a study that I covered previously for Forbes, caffeine seemed to stimulate brown fat cells to burn more fat in mouse stem cells, which by the way are not humans.

Many humans may be rats, but rats are different from humans. (Photo: Getty Images)

However, remember, this is all in mice, mice baby and rats. There are big, big differences between rodents and humans, and its not just size. Rats do have differences in physiology and behaviors such as sleeping, physical activity, and reality-TV show watching. Moreover, things that work in labs, dont necessarily work in the everyday world.

Plus, there is big difference between short-term weight loss and sustainable healthy weight loss. There are lots of things that you can do to lose weight over the short term if you are not worried about you health. For example, crack cocaine can help you lose weight. But there are some problems with such a plan. Be very skeptical about any diet plan that touts weight loss over several weeks or even months. Inquire about what happened over the long term and whether the weight loss was actually maintainable.

So, dont start pounding the coffee or mate tea just yet in hopes of burning off that fruit cake or egg nog that you just consumed. Moderation, a balanced diet, avoiding highly processed foods, and exercise are still the keys to weight management. Dont look for short cuts or magic potions. Yes, you can say, rats, life is not that easy.

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Can Caffeine, Coffee Prevent Holiday Weight Gain? Here Is What This Study Really Says - Forbes

This holiday period, amid the merriment of cocktails and cooler ftes, the temptation to overindulge will undoubtedly present itself. As we knock back beers and let loose to lyme, reminders to consume alcohol responsible bear repeating and repeating.

Lets face it. The consequences of overconsumption often extend far beyond the next days hangover. Even if you are just a casual drinker with no long-term habit of alcohol abuse, drinking alcohol irresponsibly can lead to disaster, especially on the roads. As we prepare to sip and celebrate, there needs to be some awareness of the risks that come with the overconsumption of alcohol.

Occupational health adviser at Red Stripe Veronica Benain breaks down how too much alcohol disrupts the body and poses a threat to short- and long-term health. A registered nurse, she also provides those determined to imbibe this holiday season with tips on avoiding the effects of overconsumption.

How each person reacts to alcohol is based on multiple factors, Benain says. Its based on a combination of things such as gender, weight, health, and unique physiology all working together to establish each individuals tolerance level for alcohol. Its important to know your personal limit because overconsumption for you is indulging beyond your tolerance level.

Benain warns that while what is considered as too much may vary per person, the general effects on each persons body are universal.

The short-term effects of a few too many drinks are the commonplace symptoms. The most noticeable of its effects are on the brain. Alcohol disrupts the parts of the brain that deal with motor function that inhibits our balance and speech. Too much alcohol, and we start struggling to walk and string sentences together.

Benain says, Since alcohol also affects how the brain makes memories, overdrinking can result in anything from minor lapses in memory to full-on blackouts. Its effects on the stomach and liver are a bit more subtle but more threatening to our immediate health.

Benain also notes that the bodys process to break down alcohol is quite delicate and can easily be exacerbated by overconsumption. Prolonged abuse, she says, can be disastrous.

Overdrinking puts the stomach at risk of damage, Benain says. If bacteria develop there, it can also threaten the liver. Alcohol passes through the liver, where it is broken down and toxins are removed. When the liver is damaged or is put under too much pressure, it cannot function properly.

If these toxins are allowed to build up in the liver, it can lead to anything from fatty liver, which can be remedied in a few weeks, to cirrhosis, which can be fatal.

Benain outlined the importance of food when it comes to managing the effects of overconsumption. Food provides a buffer, helps to slow the absorption of the alcohol, and also protects the lining of your stomach.

Consuming carbohydrates and fats usually proves effective. Water is also highly recommended. It helps the liver to better absorb alcohol and maintains electrolyte balance.

Benain also shares a strategy to manage yourself and get home safely. Firstly, if youve been drinking too much, stop drinking, she said. If you can get water to drink, and if you can manage to eat, have something to eat. Sit for a minute. I would hope that you are out with somebody who has been assigned to be the designated driver, someone who had no alcohol for the evening. If that is the case, youre home free. If you dont have a designated driver, its time to call a cab. Whatever you do, under no circumstances should you get behind the wheel of a car, she stressed.

Veronica Benain is occupational health and office services manager at Red Stripe.

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Veronica Benain | Celebrating safely - the effects of overconsumption of alcohol - Jamaica Gleaner

Parental care is a behavior strategy that is typically seen in highly evolved vertebrates such as birds and mammals. Mammalian offspring derive their nourishment from their mothers. Hence, post-natal care is more typical with mammals. However, there is still little understanding of the evolutionary history of this behavior.

SEE ALSO: Fossils Of Prehistoric Legged Snake Explain The Evolution Slithering Reptiles

In an archaeological breakthrough, paleontologist Professor Hillary Maddin and her colleagues at the Carleton University and Fundy Treasures in Ottawa have discovered the Carboniferous-period fossils remains of a 300-million-year-old lizard exhibiting the earliest example of parental care. The fossilized remains unearthed in Nova Scotia in Canada show an adult ancient creature being termed as Aranopid synapsid and a juvenile tucked-up behind its mothers hind limbs, snugly encircled by her tail.

The specimen not only represents a species but also, belongs to an entirely new genus of varanopid synapsid. Researchers named the ancient lizard Dendromaia unamakiensis after the Greek word for tree and caring mother as the fossils were found inside a lithified tree stump. The now-extinct species closely resembles that of the Monitor Lizard with long jaws, very sharp teeth, long tails, narrow bodies and thin legs. Such physiology allowed them to be extremely agile as they scurried about the undergrowth feasting on insects and other small animals.

SEE ALSO: Paleontologists Discovered Prehistoric Fossils That Link Giant Penguins To Their Modern Descendants

Reportedly, the specific synapsid lineage of Dendromaia unamakiensis evolved into mammals. Professor Maddin asserted, "This is the earliest evidence of prolonged postnatal care in a vertebrate. The adult animal appears to be concealing and protecting a juvenile in a den. This behavior is very common in mammals today. It is interesting to see this animal, which is on the evolutionary line leading to mammals, exhibiting this behavior so early."

The former earliest example was of a 270-million-year-old fossil of the synapsid Heleosaurus scholtzi, which was found in South Africa. Dendromaia, beats the record by nearly 40 million years. The discovery is reported in a paper in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

SEE ALSO: Fossil Of The Largest-Ever Parrot Unearthed In New Zealand

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This Is The Earliest Example Of Love In The Animal Kingdom! - Mashable India

Wearable Fitness Monitors Don't Motivate Exercise Says Study

Potsdam, NY, Dec. 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The results of a recent study on physical activity have researchers asking what in the world will it take to get people moving.

Clarkson University Associate Professor of Physical Therapy & Physician Assistant Studies Ali Boolani and Oklahoma State University Associate Professor of Physical Education Timothy Baghurst wanted to see how aspiring physical educators might change their physical activity levels when they know they're being monitored.

For this Oklahoma State University-based study, they got together a group of 36 physical education students and gave each one a monitor, telling them it would measure the amount of sunlight they received each day. Later, they gave them another monitor to count the number of steps they took each day.

The catch is both monitors actually measured how active the fitness advocates were. It turns out, the students failed to put their best foot forward. While Boolani and his fellow researchers expected the students to set a brisk pace as role models for good health, they weren't much more active than average, not-so-active citizens, even though they knew their steps were being counted.

You need to take 10,000 steps a day to equal 30 minutes of light-to-moderate physical activity a day, and you should really do an hour a day to be healthy, Boolani notes. Students in the study took 11,000 or 12,000 steps a day, which isn't much above the minimum, and their activity didn't change with the monitoring. We expected them to model good fitness, but now we wonder what we can do to get people to be more physically active!

This is a fascinating study and its implications are high for health care professionals. They should be modeling good health, he says, adding, This shows you, don't rely on an exercise monitor as your motivation.

Boolani's teaching expertise includes exercise physiology. This study is part of a series he and his colleagues are pursuing to determine ways to encourage people be more physically active, or healthier. Next up, they will be exploring activity levels among different professions and majors, in multiple sites.

There's definitely more to come from this research, he notes.

Looking for the most reliable fitness tracker? Another recent study has found that the Fitbit Zip provides the most accurate measure of steps during fast walking.

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Melissa LindellClarkson University315-268-6716mlindell@clarkson.edu

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