Everyone seems to know that smoking is bad for you. If lung cancer doesn’t scare the crap out of you, emphysema certainly will. And most people now know that it would be better for their health if they quit. Unfortunately, quitting is EXTREMELY hard to do. Nicotine is an incredibly addictive drug, and it, and […]
Sci is SO happy that friend of the blog Daniel Oppenheimer (who writes for the College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin, good going UT Austin!) passed me along a copy of this paper! It’s a paper I’ve been wanting a good look at for ages, one which almost every behavioral pharmacologist learns about, but […]
Yeah, this is late. Sci’s STILL ILL (ARGH!!!) and also has a lot on her plate. But nothing holds back the blogging! I WILL GO ON. (My blog will go oooonnnnn…I swear I didn’t even LISTEN to that because the song sucks THAT MUCH. Bet I gave you an earworm, though!!) For today, I’d like […]
I’m sure anyone who reads this blog is by now well aware of the many roles of oxytocin: In men, women, in sex, and especially in emotionally related things like pair bonding, trust, and facial recognition related to emotional states. People who just call oxytocin the “love molecule” don’t get the HALF of it. Oxytocin […]
Every so often, Sci comes across a study that at first looks incredibly exciting…and then kind of becomes a bit of a let down. Not because it was a BAD study, mind, but because I want MORE. Thus was this study. So let’s talk about high fat diets, and let’s talk about coke. But mostly […]
I’ve written a bunch of posts in the past on serotonin, the serotonin theory of depression (and why it’s probably wrong), and some stuff on current antidepressant treatments. And I even talked before a little bit about the serotonin theory vs the BDNF theory. But I’ve never really COVERED what the BDNF theory IS and […]
The title for this one comes from those stupid “1 tip for a flat belly!” and “The thing moms know about whitening teeth!” ads that keep popping up for me. You know the ones. Well, now, screw that. WHAT’S more important than getting a flat belly or whitening your teeth?! CURING YOUR AGING NEUROMUSCULAR JUNCTIONS!!! […]
One of the problems with depression as a disorder is that the symptoms never seem to manifest the same. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here are some of the DSM IV recognized symptoms of depression: 1) Insomnia or hypersomnia (not sleeping OR sleeping too much) 2) Having no appetite OR […]
Sci would like to note that I’m writing this post while I’m sipping my first cup of coffee for the day. Irony, thy name is caffeine addiction. So the other day I was out with my running partner, and she mentioned that someone had DIED from caffeine overdose. At first, I thought it must have […]
Reader David sent me this paper the other day, and asked if I could blog about it. I said ok, maybe, and then I read… …”Gene therapy”… …oooooh… Sounds very cool, doesn’t it? Sounds like the FUTURE! Where’s my JETPACK!!!?!?! But of course “gene therapy” is kind of a buzzword. A lot of people throw […]