All You Need to Know About the Placebo Effect

    The site most commonly used by hypochondriacs, WebMD.com, has pages of info on the placebo effect, but I'm here to do my required weekly blog and give you the abridged version. So here goes nothing....

    A placebo is anything that appears to be an actual medical treatment, but is not. Placebos can include pills, shots, and other various treatments.
    Many people after hearing this would wonder why anyone would ever use a fake treatment. The answer to this question is that scientists use placebos during studies to help them understand what effect a new drug may have on a certain person or ailment. For example, half the people in a study might be given a new drug to improve eyesight. Others would get a placebo. None of the people in the study would know if they were given the placebo or the real drug. After being on either the placebo or real drug for a certain amount of time researchers would compare the effects of the drug and the placebo on the people in the study. This can help them determine the effectiveness of the new drug and check for side effects.

     What I found most interesting in reading about placebos is that some placebos had effects on patients even though they had known they were only taking placebos. The problems that were helped by placebos include depression, pain, sleep disorders, IBS, and menopause. In one study involving asthma, patients using a placebo inhaler did no better on breathing tests than sitting and doing nothing, but when researchers asked the patients how they felt, the placebo inhaler was reported as being as effective as medicine in providing relief.
    Now I know you're wondering, if it's a pill meant to do nothing, how can it help diseases? The most common theory is that a person expects the placebo to do something, and thus the body's own chemistry will produce the same effects. For instance, in one study, people were given a placebo and told it was a stimulant. After taking the pill, their pulse rate sped up, their blood pressure increased, and their reaction speeds improved. When people were given the same pill and told it was to help them get to sleep, they experienced the opposite effects.

    I find the placebo effect to be extremely fascinating as it shows how powerful our own thoughts are, and it proves mind over matter can even help physical problems.


Also the amount of comics on placebos is absolutely insane... Here are a few of my favorites!

The Science of Theatre

    My favorite things in the entire world are science and acting. Those two don't seem to correlate, but many articles I have read beg to differ. The articles are hardly credible and should be doubted, but I read them nonetheless, and part of science is knowing to not believe everything you hear. So in honor of the fact that I should be reviewing my lines right now for the upcoming play, The Great Gatsby, here is my weekly science blog.

Picture credited to: bloomsbury.com

    One of the more interesting posts I've perused that involved both dramatics and science was called  "Think Acting Is About Emotional Empathy? Science Says No." written by someone with the username Peopletriggers. Yes, there isn't even a real author's name, so the likelihood of the science being correct is slim, but I found the post intriguing anyway.
    This article talks about how most people look at dramatics as an emotional exercise. The majority of people believe that those who are empathetic would be more likely to be good actors, but science, apparently, disproves this thought.
    Thalia Goldstein, a social science researcher from Pace University who studies the relationship between acting and psychology, believes the ability to act lies in a psychological concept called “Theory of Mind.” Theory of Mind is the understanding that “two people can have different but equally valid interpretations of the same object or image,” and the term describes a person’s ability to understand someone else’s interpretation. Theory of mind (the ability to understand another’s mental state and motivations) is very different from empathy (the ability to put oneself in someone else’s emotional place). We know this by studying psychopaths and bullies. Psychopaths and bullies are extraordinarily socially adapted, and manipulate people by getting in their head, but have little or no empathy.

Picture credited to: dynamics.com

    Goldstein administered tons of Theory of Mind and empathy tests to groups of actors and non-actors. Goldstein conducted two separate studies to this effect and found similar results: acting training was significantly associated with heightened Theory of Mind skills, but not heightened empathy skills. This could be for two reasons, that acting causes people to be more socially aware, or acting attracts more socially aware people in the first place.
  I found this article to be quite interesting because although people tell me I am a talented actress, I don't find myself to be a very empathetic person. I always thought this to be strange because I personally thought being able to put oneself in another's shoes was the key to acting, but I feel that the Theory of Mind idea is much more logical and correlates more with my lack of empathy. If you would like to read the article yourself you can find the link below!
https://peopletriggers.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/think-acting-is-about-emotional-empathy-science-says-no/

Bloody Good Rap Song

As for this blog post, it's unlike any other
It goes out to Kolodj-man, my main brother
If you can't tell already, this is a rap
And if you listen carefully, I'm gonna teach you some crap
Let's start with the heart
Pumping to the beat
As for keeping you alive, it conquers this feat
There are hidden chambers, just like Hogwarts
The blood is what they help you transport
Ventricles on bottom, shaped like a "V'
Atria on top, right inside of me
Pulmonary arteries send blood RIGHT to the lungs
What's LEFT goes to everywhere else, even your hands, feet, and tongue
Those aren't only parts inside the heart inside of you
It has the aorta, vena cava, and some valves, just to name a few
Let's see the rest of the cardiovascular system
The arteries, veins, and the capillaries assist them
Arteries away, and veins carry to
And connecting is what the capillaries do
These things hold the blood
That really is your bud
For moving around the oxygen you breath
And helping the wastes in your body leave
Red blood cells carry O2
Platelets stop the bleeding after a knife slices through
White blood cells prevent you from sickness
Just like the skin does with its epidermal thickness
This is your immune system keeping you strong
Without it things would go wrong
Mucous membranes catch pesky little germs
And your healthiness it what it affirms
Your nose, throat, and stomach have this helpful goo
That stops viruses from infecting you
But if they don't stop them there's a second line of defense
The pathogen is attacked by B cells, macrophages, and some of their friends
After that, memory cells are made, just like vaccines
So if the body encounters the same pathogen again, the antibodies will be right at the scene
This is an abridged version the chapters we've read
And if you want a better education you should read them instead
But if you want sweets rhymes and imaginary beats that make you hop like a frog
Then you should just come here and read my blog.

The Brontosaurus: Fact or Fiction?

   In the article "Brontosaurus Stomps Back to Claim Its Status as Real Dinosaur," written Ralph Martins, National Geographic, it discusses how the Brontosaurus may be its own dinosaur after all instead of being a closely related species of the genus Apatosaurus.
   Brontosaurus excelsus became Apatosaurus excelsus in 1903, but the name Brontosaurus, which means "thunder lizard" would live on for years to come. That was until 1970 when scientists ended the arguing by showing that the skull's of the two were extremely similar, therefore condemning the Brontosaurus to the same realm as unicorns, jackalopes, and other things that didn't exist.
   This new discovery bringing the Brontosaurus  "back to life" so to speak, has come from the research on the evolution of diplodocids, the family in which the  Brontosaurus belongs.  This family lived in North America, Europe, and parts of Africa during the late Jurassic period. Researchers looked at 81 diplodocids, looking at the presence or absence of 477 different skeletal features. Closely related species shared a lot of these features, while some species—like Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus—had much less in common. Their findings showed that the diplodocid family should be expanded to include two more genera, Brontosaurus and Galeamopus.

   I found this article quite informative and interesting as I had never known Brontosauruses were not real. I had, for the longest time, actually identified them as my favorite dinosaur, and I find it compelling that I had no clue they were once classified as not being a dinosaur at all.

Pictured above:

 

Brontosaurus, as imagined by paleontologists in the late 1800s: aquatic, and wearing a Camarasaurus skull. Later research would show that the sauropod actually had a slim, horselike skull.



All pictures taken along with the article source can be found at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150407-brontosaurus-back-return-apatosaurus-sauropod-dinosaurs-fossils-paleontology/