Tested: Bedside Brainwave Scanner Grades Your Ability to Sleep

From Denny: Here's something interesting over at Popular Science. People have trouble sleeping because of stress, worry about paying the bills, job loss, and now the extreme summer heat.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"What's it like sleeping with a new device that scores your slumber quality, minute by minute, night by night?

A new device called the Zeo promises to help stamp out bad sleep and wasted time in bed, by bringing deep analysis of sleep patterns, formerly the province of professional sleep laboratories, into the home.

The Zeo comes in two parts: a bedside unit that looks like an alarm clock, with a handsome blue-on-black vacuum-fluorescent display; and a headband with a fairly low-profile black box mounted on its front. Strap on the headband before bed, and as you sleep, it wirelessly transmits data about your brainwaves to the bedside unit.

In the morning, the Zeo gives you a "ZQ" rating -- a score for your night's sleep ranging from 0 to 120. The concept is simple, but having a quantitative measure of sleep quality that you can keep an eye on over a period of time is a boon to those who want to keep an eye on their nights; one of the traditional problems with sleep, of course, is that you're not conscious to observe it firsthand."

For the rest of the article just click on the title link! Thanks for visiting!

Video: Test of Lincoln DNA Sought to Prove Latest Health Theory

From Denny: People have speculated for over a century now about President Lincoln's health. Photos only a few years apart show a rapid visual change that has prompted those wonderings.

Marfan Syndrome?

Ataxia Type 5?

MEN2B Cancer?

More importantly, will we ever know?

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4 Health Articles You Might Enjoy

From Denny: I'm always finding the most interesting articles about the latest health study. Too bad there wasn't more research devoted to orphan diseases, ones that afflict a small percentage of the population. Read that as the drug companies believe they can't make big money by searching for cures for these diseases - so they do nothing. Maybe it's the role of international governments to get into the act to help the suffering sectors of humanity? What do you think?

Health is a large area to cover so if you have some suggestions of anything I might be overlooking and you want to throw out at me, please do! You can also email me: warriorspearl@gmail.com too if you like. Yes, I actually answer my own email and am not too full of myself - well, not yet, anyway...! :) (There goes that cheeky side escaping again...)

Here are a few articles you might find an interesting read:

Drink Coffee: Lower Risk of Uterine Cancer

Broccoli Sprouts May Be Germ Fighters

The Pill and Gaining Muscle

Popping a Zit Can Kill You?

Photo by left-hand @ flickr

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Brain: Why Do You Get Jet Lag? Because Your Brain Cells Are Out of Sync!

According to a new study from "Current Biology" and written up in Discover Magazine, there are two groups of brain cells that get desynchronized causing jet lag. OK, so the study was done on rats. Men are often compared to rats but then that's probably another feminist study. Seriously though, this study sounded intriguing.

Apparently, the rats were exposed to different amounts of light which simulated the effects of flying from Paris to New York City. With one group of neurons telling your body it's Paris time and another group of neurons telling your body it's New York time you get, well, desynchronized!

Circadian Rhythm Importance

You have heard of our circadian rhythm? It helps us to keep up with our body's functions of like when it's time to eat, wake up or sleep. The researchers studied the small part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus that controls these circadian rhythms.

What they found is that one group of neurons adjusts just fine to the time change. However, another group of neurons that's in charge of those lovely dreams in our REM sleep can take up to a week to catch up to the first group. As a result we are out of sync.

Two Kinds of Brain Cells Groups: Ventral and Dorsel Neurons

A bit of detail about those neurons who can't get their act together at the same time...

There is a group of brain cells known as ventral (bottom) neurons that are synchronized with the deep sleep of physical fatigue. Deep sleep is tied to light-dark cycles. These ventral neurons get their information directly from the eyes and are in charge of getting the rhythm right from the light-dark cycles.

The second group of brain cells known as dorsel (top) neurons are not so sensitive to changes in light. The dorsel neurons are tied to the dream state of Rapid Eye Movement called REM sleep.

The Study's Conclusions

What did the study find out? Basically, the deep sleep ventral neurons adjusted just fine to the change while the dorsel REM neurons took from six to eights days to make their adjustment.

So, how does this new study help us? Well, for one thing, you now know it really is located in your head, your brain to be exact.

What do researchers find valuable in this new information? Of various treatments for jet lag considered to be effective, medical folks can go back and take a look at where they are acting in the circuitry of these neuron centers. This new knowledge can go a long way to helping refine those treatments to become far more effective.

Written by Denny Lyon

Neuron photo by KiyoshiTakahaseSegundo @ istockphoto.com

Video: Surgery Offers Hope for Cerebral Palsy

"Cerebral Palsy is a brain injury that affects motor control, stiffening muscles and making movement difficult and sometimes painful."

From Denny: Profiled by NBC News is this adorable two year old little girl, Lili, who is dealing with cerebral palsy. Right now the doctors are predicting that some day she might not be able to walk at all. Why? Because with this condition the muscles can't keep up with the growth of the bone. As the bone grows it pulls on the muscle but the muscle can't stretch to accommodate the growth.

At St. Louis Children's Hospital they are pioneering a surgical technique to increase mobility by relieving much of the stiffness. This could turn out to be a life-changing surgery for those who qualify. Remember, this IS spinal surgery so not exactly a procedure without risk.

So far this spinal surgery that relieves the muscle spasms has helped over 1800 kids AND with a 100% success rate. Take a look at Lili's improvement after only five months since her surgery!

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Brain: Double Amputees Shed Light on Brain's Flexibility

Image via Wikipedia

From Denny: OK, this calls for a total WOW!

This is awesome news to find out that the brain is capable of rewiring itself to function again as it once did before a person lost both his hands to an amputation. Researchers are astounded at the results of these hand tranplantations in both subjects.

Here's what they have found out so far:

1 - Even after several years following amputation of the hands, the brain is capable of reorganizing itself to accept and connect up with the new transplanted donor hands. (This gives new meaning to signing that donor card on your driver's license...)

This is what happens after an amputation that is why it is so amazing the brain can reverse this: "After a person loses a hand, the region of the motor cortex that controls hand movement shrinks and rewires itself to control the upper arm, a property called plasticity. When the researchers used transcranial magnetic stimulation - a technique that employs magnetic fields to excite neurons in the brain - to stimulate specific fragments of the motor cortex, they found that the 'hand areas' in the motor cortex of both men had reassumed their original 'wiring.'"

2 - The researchers also found that the left hand was first to work efficiently with the brain as opposed to the right hand. Now both men in the study were originally right-handed so researchers are not sure about why this happened. They think it might be because as right hand dominant it is more rigidly represented in the brain and the brain is unable to easily rewire control of it. The left hand took 10 months as opposed to 25 months to work efficiently with the brain in the younger man.

"The results are important because they show that even after several years without a hand to control, the brain retrains the circuits necessary to control one," says neurophysiologist John Rothwell of the Institute of Neurology at University College London.

For a few more intriguing details just click on the title link.

Video: The Brain Gym

From Denny: With the baby boomers going into retirement and taking care of elderly parents this is an interesting development. This brain gym idea is very good for the older brain in need of retraining to avoid forgetfulness that so scares caretakers. It turns out that exercising the brain and even using the computer to do it helps grow new brain cells!


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