Women with Eating Disorders draw a different picture of themselves

Posted on February 15, 2011 by | 3 comments

An Article posted on ScienceDaily is very interesting as it goes into talking about women who have eating disorders. There is a study conducted at the University of Haifa in Israel. There is the comparison of women who suffer from anorexia and bulimia to two different groups of women; women who had no eating disorders but were overweight, and women  who had no eating disorders and were normal weight. A research conducted was for 76 women to ”complete two standardized questionnaires for screening eating disorders and were then asked to draw themselves” (Guez et al 2010).

The results were correlating as women who suffered from anorexia and bulimia drew their respective body parts differently. As stated in the ScienceDaily the following results were obtained

”

  • The neck: women suffering from anorexia or bulimia tended to draw a larger neck, a disconnected neck or no neck at all;
  • The mouth: this feature was more emphasized in drawings by women suffering from anorexia or bulimia;
  • The thighs: women with eating disorders drew wider thighs than the other groups in the study;
  • The feet: women with eating disorders tended to draw pictures without feet or with disconnected feet.

This allowed researchers to summarize that women with anorexia and bulimia ” tended to omit breasts from their drawings, drew less defined body lines and smaller figures relative to the page size” (Guez et al 2010).

Here is an image of the women drawings.

For more information go to the direct link

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110214102124.htm

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Be cautious if traveling south during reading break

Posted on February 15, 2011 by | 2 comments

A recent study in the journal Science, found that a parasite and a virus are teaming up to increase its ability to harm humans. [1]



Viral infections appear red in this photo of the parasite Leishmania; the parasites’ nuclei are blue. New evidence published in Science this week suggests that these infections may help Leishmania cause more harm when it infects animal and human hosts. (Credit: Nicolas Fasel, PhD, Univ. of Lausanne in Switzerland)

An infection, known as leishmaniasis, is caused by the parasite Leishmani. This disease is mainly spread by sand fly bites. Symptoms of this infection are, large skin lesions, fever, swelling of the spleen and liver, and, in more serious forms of the disease, disfigurement and death. According to the article, this disease affects over 12 million people worldwide. The article can be found here.

The virus infects hosts by a Trojan Horse technique. “The strategy of the “Trojan horse” as a mechanism of pathogenicity of intracellular microorganisms is, to avoid the immune system and its memory function cleverly, with phagocytosis of infected and apoptotic neutrophils by macrophages, employing the non-danger surface signals of apoptotic cells.” From Wikipedia.

How the virus is increasing the pathogenicity is a fascinating question for researches right now. It may open up new opportunities for finding its cure.

This is the first time I have ever heard of this disease. Although this disease seems very serious, and will never deter me from enjoying the sunny beaches of Central and Southern America.

  1. A. Ives, C. Ronet, F. Prevel, G. Ruzzante, S. Fuertes-Marraco, F. Schutz, H. Zangger, M. Revaz-Breton, L.-F. Lye, S. M. Hickerson, S. M. Beverley, H. Acha-Orbea, P. Launois, N. Fasel, S. Masina. Leishmania RNA Virus Controls the Severity of Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis. Science, 2011; 331 (6018): 775 DOI:10.1126/science.1199326

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Posted in Biological Sciences

That Lovin’ Feeling

Posted on February 11, 2011 by | 1 comment

On Monday next week, the theme will be all about love. 

This feeling of love has been tied to more then just getting that butterfly sensation in your stomach. Love can now be described at a neurochemical level. Research  is explaining love thanks to a little chemical called dopamine.

Dopamine neurones account for less than 1% of the total neuronal population in the brain, but have great effect on its function (Mardeson, 2006). It is involved in the control of movement and the modivation for reward. Deficiency in this neurotransmitter is tied to such diseases as Parkinsons ( Mardeson, 2006).

Dopamine has also been found to be relevant to the social pairing of males and females in long and short term relationships (Curtis et al, 2006). I have friends who talk about how their relationships have changed from fun and amazing to boring and dull. It amazes me that such a transition could be due to a lack of dopamine stimulation. But fear not, this isn’t the outcome for every relationship. Discovery News has reported on a study done by Arthur Aron (a social neuroscientist at Stony Brook University in New York) and his colleagues who have found that people in long term relationships who are madly in love are not lying and that this feeling can last!

The study took 17 people who felt that they were in long term loving relationships. MRI brain-scans were done while they looked at photos of their lover and of strangers (who had similar features). Their scans were similar to those of  recently fallen in love people by having a high activity in the region of the brain which processes dopamine. There was also high activity in regions related to pair-bonding and attachment.Also when comparing scans of people in long term relationships who did not rate their feeling of love as highly as to those who do, had lower levels of activity in the dopamine processing portion of the brain. This little neurotransmitter has powerful affects on our emotions, feelings and relationships. Could a little boost in producing dopamine keep us all on clould 9?

So when you give a Valentine’s Day card this Monday, that feeling you get may not be so fleeting!

  • 1.Marsden, C. A. (2006). Dopamine: The rewarding years. British Journal of Pharmacology, 147(S1), S136-S144. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0706473
  • 2.Curtis, J. T., Liu, Y., Wang, Z., & Aragona, B. J. (2006). Dopamine and monogamy. Brain Research, 1126(1), 76-90. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2006.07.126

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Fun!, General, Science in the News, Uncategorized

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Aerobic Exercise Boosts Memory

Posted on January 31, 2011 by | 3 comments

As midterms are quickly approaching, many of us are trying to retain and cram as much information as we can into our brains. If it hasn’t already become apparent, most of us will realize that our brains can only store a limited amount of information. Fortunately, there appears to be a way to expand and boost our memory, and that is simply through aerobic exercises.

Image from: www.runningrules.com

In a recent article published by Science News (which can be found here), they reported a study that was highlighted in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In this study, scientists discovered that adults who frequently performed aerobic exercise activities such as walking developed an increase in hippocampus volume. The hippocampus, which is a memory centre in the brain, normally decreases in size with age, however in the study the reversed occurred. They also found that the members had higher levels of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is a brain-aiding molecule.

Image from: www.library.thinkquest.org

Wikipedia article on the hippocampus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus

Wikipedia article on Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDNF

The study compared two different groups of adults aged 60 to 80. In one group, the adults did toning workouts such as weight training and yoga sessions for a year. While in the other group, the adults consistenly walked for three times a week. After a year, the group which simply did toning showed normal results, which consisted of some of the test subjects observing a decrease in hippocampus volume. On the other hand, the group that did a year of aerobic exercises observed roughly a 2 percent increase in anterior hippocampus volume.

If adults aged 60 to 80 can develop increases in the hippocampus by up to 2 percent, it begs the question of whether a younger study group would develop an even larger increase in their hippocampus. Hence, this study should be expanded to include a more diverse age group. Furthermore, why should the study stop there? They could also include teenagers, children, and possibly toddlers as well. Perhaps they might discover that people that have superior memory got that way by doing a lot of aerobic exercise during their childhood. It would also be interesting to understand why and how this process occurs. This is definitely a fascinating area of research, and it has great implications. It shows that exercise not only benefits the body, but the brain as well. So it is in everyone’s interest to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep fit.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, New and innovative science, Uncategorized

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