Smoking is a serious epidemic in our country. Recently New York City's health committee produced commericals about the deadly consequences of smoking. These commericals are very intense and give a close up view of what it is like to have an illness from smoking. There are over 4,800 chemicals in cigarette smoking and lung cancer in humans today is 90% from smoking. In the United States 8.6 million people have a disease related to smoking, some of which include emphysema, coronary heart disease, lung, bladder, kidney and throat cancer, abdominal aortic aneurysm and many others. This commerical shows the daily struggles of a man who smoked, he is breathing heavily through a breathalyzer, and coughing constantly throughout. This video shows one of the many consequences smokers are faced with if they do not stop soon. This was a very disturbing video, although you may have seen before it is certainly an eye opener every time. I picked this video because it leaves such a deep message. I would never consider smoking after seeing commercials like these! These scare me and I would never want to go through my life with such problems like these. Smoking effects your ability to do everyday tasks like breathing, and talking, I do not understand how smokers continue to smoke after seeing a commerical like this.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Do you love chocolate? But try to avoid it to eat healthier? Well you may not have to eliminate it from your diet just yet. Chocolate is a guilty pleasure for many but recently researchers debunked some common chocolate rumors that may let you enjoy your treat a little more. First of all chocolate does not raise your bad cholesterol aka LDL, in fact for some people it actually lowers it. Chocolate is not high in caffeine, the darker the chocolate the more caffeine it has, but that's only about 31 milligrams compared to the 320 milligrams in a grande coffee at Starbucks. Chocolate does not lack nutritional value, dark chocolate contain as many antioxidants as 2/3 cups of blueberries in addition to the mineral and dietary fibers in it as well. Lastly another common myth of chocolate proven untrue is that chocolate causes acne. Researchers have proven that large amounts of chocolate have never contributed to the outbreak of acne in a person. Reading this article made me so happy! I LOVE chocolate and although I never think of these side effects while eating it I am glad to see that they are not true. In a world where everyone and everything we see is so obsessed with their bodies and body weights, knowing that everyone can eat chocolate and not have to worry about their cholesterol or skin is reassuring. Now I'm not saying that eating 3 lbs. of chocolate is good for you because its not but if you are careful and regulate your chocolate, you can continue to eat it and not worry about these myths above.
Hearing damage moderate to profound effects 275 million people worldwide, but this week researchers and doctors are one step closer to finding a cure. Auditory neuropathy is damage to the auditory nerve, which is located between the inner ear and the brain; this damage doesn't allow sound to travel from the cochlea to the brain. Using gerbils and stem cells, researchers are closer to finding out a way to fix hearing loss. The gerbils were given a drug to damage their auditory neuropathy, then researchers transplanted stem cells called otic epithelial progenitors (OEPs) into their inner ears. After ten weeks researchers noticed the transplanted cells starting to connect to the brain stem, and by using the auditory brain stem evoked responses method researchers noticed a 46% hearing improvement in the gerbils. This is a big step to improve hearing damage, it still has to come a long way for it to work for humans but it shows a way to make human cochlear sensory cells. This article caught my eye because I have an aunt and an uncle who were both born deaf. My aunt has a cochlear implant but my uncle does not, they sign with each other but are also able to talk and communicate with my family and their two children who both have perfect hearing. This article also drew my attention because of stem cell research. Stem cell research is a very controversial topic in the catholic faith. Since the catholic religion believes that life begins at contraception they are against stem cells because they are from human embryos. This topic is very debatable from the deaf community as well who believe nothing is wrong with them and therefore need no reason to be "fixed". I believe that if this will help people hear then it should be used. Only time will tell if it will be successful and used on humans in the future.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
I'm very excited for sociology this year! For my project I chose health care. I was really uncertain when choosing my topic I went back and forth and ultimately chose this one in end because I want to go into the medical field when I am older. I thought this topic would be interesting to see some of the problems with health and medicine in our country and in others as well. Helping me make my decision was our sociology book, I looked through the chapter on health care, and saw that it was much more than just insurance and medical practices. Topics like racism, money, class and surroundings all contribute to ones health care, and that it was made it more interesting for me.
This was a very disturbing video, although you may have seen before it is certainly an eye opener every time. I picked this video because it leaves such a deep message. I would never consider smoking after seeing commercials like these! These scare me and I would never want to go through my life with such problems like these. Smoking effects your ability to do everyday tasks like breathing, and talking, I do not understand how smokers continue to smoke after seeing a commerical like this.
