Scientists Have Figured Out Why Your Eyes Move When You Sleep

 

August 12, 2015 | by Josh L Davis

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photo credit: Even blind people and fetuses are known to undergo REM. Minerva

Interesting article by Josh l Davis for those patients we treat with sleep disorders using cranial Osteopathic techniques.
When you dream, your eyes flutter quickly from side to side, which is exactly why this phase is known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It’s long been suggested that the eye movements might correlate with people seeing things in their dreams as they “look around.” Yet even fetuses and people who have been blind since birth experience REM, despite the fact that they’ve never experienced sight.

New research building on this shows that during REM sleep, the pattern of signaling in the brain is similar to that when we see, or imagine, a new image. The researchers from Tel Aviv University found that there was a burst in the activity of neurons that occurred just after the person’s eyes flickered. This activity reflected a change of concept or scene (not image processing) during sleep. The scientists demonstrated that this was the same brain activity that occurred when awake patients were shown pictures, especially those related to memory.

“About a 0.3 seconds after the picture appears, these neurons burst – they become vigorously active,” Dr. Yuval Nir, who co-authored the study published in Nature Communications, explained to BBC News. “This also happens when people just close their eyes and imagine these pictures, or these concepts.”

This is important because it could go some way to explain why blind people still undergo REM sleep. The eye movement might not mean that someone is actually scanning a dream’s environment, but more moving onto the next scene or concept. For example, a blind person will perceive a scene through sound and emotions, and these will obviously vary from one to the other. So when scenes change in a dream, their eyes will flicker in the same way that happens with people who can see.

The research was conducted over a period of four years, using data collected from those who suffer from epilepsy. The patients already had electrodes implanted in their brains to try and help manage their seizures, and this allowed Dr. Nir the perfect chance to measure the activity of around 40 individual neurons – mainly within the medial temporal lobe located towards the bottom of the brain – while the volunteers slept.

It’s difficult to know what the patients were actually dreaming about, and how the neuronal activity related to what they were “seeing,” as they didn’t wake them up to ask what they were dreaming about. “But we are sure that the brain is alternating between different mental imagery,” Dr. Nir told New Scientist. “Every time you move your eyes, a new image forms in the mind’s eye.”

You Should Really Be Nicer To Your Colleagues – Rude Behavior Is Contagious

Stress releases hormone cortisol which in turn reduces pain threshold levels, less stress from rudeness received and given can only be a good thing, in my humble opinion. We experience rudeness and incivility all the time. From simple insults and offhand remarks to purposely excluding others from groups, these behaviors are largely tolerated in our daily lives and in the workplace. The question is, what effect do these behaviors have on us? It’s pretty clear that high-intensity negative behaviors like abuse, aggression and violence are harmful. But what’s the harm in just being rude and uncivil?

Source: You Should Really Be Nicer To Your Colleagues – Rude Behavior Is Contagious

Molecule Mimics Exercise Could Help Treat Obesity Diabetes

Interesting developments for diabetes sufferers, and would certainly help reduce time spent exercising.

July 28, 2015 | by Aamna Mohdin

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photo credit: Woman on an exercise bike. Kzenon/Shutterstock

In a dream world, we’d be able to lose weight without all the sweaty, hard work of exercising. Researchers who have developed a molecule that mimics exercise suggest this may no longer just be a far-fetched fantasy.

In the study, published in the journal Chemistry and Biology, researchers describe a new molecule – called compound 14 – that could potentially help treat obese patients and those suffering from type 2 diabetes. Compound 14 works in a clever way to trick the body into thinking that they have run out of energy.

The molecule does this by first inhibiting the function of ATIC, a cellular enzyme involved in metabolism. This inhibition causes another molecule called ZMP to accumulate in the cells. The buildup of ZMP tricks the cell into acting as if they are running out of energy. AMPK, the cell’s central energy sensor, is activated, causing the cells to compensate for the supposed lack of energy by increasing their glucose uptake and metabolism. This is what usually occurs when we exercise.

Researchers tested out the molecule on two sets of mice; one group was given a normal diet while the other was given a high-fat diet to make them obese and impair their glucose tolerance, which is an early sign of diabetes.

“There is a lot of evidence from previous studies that if you could selectively activate AMPK with a small molecule, it could have potential benefits in the treatment of several diseases, including type 2 diabetes, by acting as an exercise mimetic and increasing the uptake and usage of glucose and oxygen by cells,” Ali Tavassoli, professor of chemical biology at the University of Southampton, said in a statement.

Researchers were encouraged by the results as compound 14 was found to “reduce blood glucose levels and improve glucose tolerance,” the study noted. The blood glucose levels and weight remained normal in the mice with a normal diet who were treated with compound 14. In the obese mice, compound 14 was found to reduce their elevated blood glucose nearer to normal levels.

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Ali Tavassoli. Image credit: University of Southampton

Researchers who administered the molecule every day for seven days found that the obese mice lost about 5% body weight. The molecule did not appear to have much of an effect on the weight of the mice on a normal diet.

“The selectivity for obese mice is likely down to the way the compound works and the cellular pathway that the molecule targets. A straightforward way to think about it is to say that the cells in the obese mice have much more ‘untapped potential’ in terms of upregulation of metabolism than cells in the normal weight mice,” Tavassoli tells IFLScience.

While a workout pill isn’t exactly around the corner, researchers do think that compound 14 could play an important role in tackling obesity and type 2 diabetes. They point to previous studies that show selectively activating AMPK could have a number of potential therapeutic benefits.

Researchers hope to develop compound 14 and analyze its long-term effects. Currently in the U.S., more than one-third (78.6 million) of adults are obese and 29.1 million people have diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.

Link Found Between Gut Bacteria And Depression | IFLScience

Scientists have shown for the first time that there is a way to model how the gut bacteria in a mouse can have an active role in causing anxiety and depressive-like behaviors.

Source: Link Found Between Gut Bacteria And Depression | IFLScience

New Molecule That Mimics Exercise Could Help Treat Obesity and Diabetes

Great news for all of us that suffer from diabetes!  In a dream world, we’d be able to lose weight without all the sweaty, hard work of exercising. Researchers who have developed a molecule that mimics exercise suggest this may no longer just be a far-fetched fantasy.

Source: New Molecule That Mimics Exercise Could Help Treat Obesity and Diabetes

How the brain perceives time | Science News

Cranial Osteopathy helps to encourage the Cerebro-Spinal Fluids flowing through the brain and Spinal cord by promoting good function of the bones in the skull and sacrum..  To perceive time, the brain relies on internal clocks that precisely orchestrate movement, sensing, memories and learning.

Source: How the brain perceives time | Science News

Why there’s no escape from scourge of mosquitoes | The Times

Not the greatest of news but at least with Osteopathic treatment we can get your breathing patterns improved. You can surround yourself with citronella candles and splash on all the insect repellent in the world, but you still won’t keep the mosquitoes at bay. Scientists have discovered how the insects seek out h

Source: Why there’s no escape from scourge of mosquitoes | The Times

The ‘Muscle of the Soul’ may be Triggering Your Fear and Anxiety

The psoas major muscle (pronounced “so-as”) is often referred to as the deepest core, or as yoga therapist and film-maker Danielle Olson states, the “muscle of…

Source: The ‘Muscle of the Soul’ may be Triggering Your Fear and Anxiety

Study Finds Large Health Benefits To Living Near Trees

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July 13, 2015 | by Aamna Mohdin

Could living near trees really improve your health? Researchers who set out to examine this very question say it might. A recent study found that residents in urban neighborhoods with more trees reported feeling healthier and had fewer cardio-metabolic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes.

There have been some studies that suggest green space is better for your health, but few studies have analyzed the relationship between individual trees and health. So, the researchers decided to quantify just how much a tree on a street could improve health.

They collected the health records of 31,000 adult residents of Toronto, which included the residents’ cardio-metabolic conditions, household income, years of education and their perception of their own health. Researchers combined this data with satellite imagery and public data on half a million trees in Toronto.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, found that planting 10 or more trees in a city block, on average, increased how someone rated their health and decreased cardio-metabolic conditions. These improvements in health were comparable to an “increase in annual income of $10,000, moving to a neighborhood with $10,000 higher median income or being 7 years younger,” according to the study.

Co-author Marc Berman told The Washington Post that after controlling for income, age and education, the study “found a significant independent effect of trees on the street on health”.

Researchers chose Toronto to study as residents benefit from Canada’s universal health care, so access to doctors shouldn’t vary as much as places without universal health care, which reduces the health impact of trees. Though, universal health care doesn’t remove all disparities as “Canadians with lower incomes and fewer years of schooling visit specialists at a lower rate than those with moderate or high incomes and higher levels of education,” the study explains.

While the results of the study found a correlation between trees and health, it cannot show cause and effect. Researchers were unable to pinpoint why trees seemed to improve health, but suggest it might have something to do with an improvement in air quality, relieving stress, or promoting physical activity. The study was also limited by the data it used. Although researchers controlled for a number of factors, someone’s perception of their own health is subjective.

Researchers hope to test their current findings in a “more comprehensive manner that obviates the mentioned limitations.” For the time being, the study recommends that every block plants 10 more trees – about a 4% increase in street tree density – in Toronto, which they suggest is “logically feasible.”