Category Archives: Science and Medicine

The effects of ibuprofen on muscle hypertrophy, strength, and soreness during resistance training. – PubMed – NCBI

OK–so this is something I have wondered for a while. Do NSAIDs like ibuprofen block muscle growth after a workout? These drugs dampen down pain by blocking the COX pathway, but that pathway is also part of the signal that … Continue reading

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Feeling in control and taking the lead | Psychology Today

Little changes in the way we think can enable big behavioral changes. Researchers tested this with women and initiating dating contacts. What’s so surprising about the results is that the manipulation of personal control was ever so slight. For a … Continue reading

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Fat is not the root of all evil but a ‘whole diet’ approach is best | Society | The Guardian

This is why people hate diet studies. Researchers say, “hey, we really didn’t have good evidence for the low fat diet, but doing something was better than doing nothing, even if in some ways we made things worse than we … Continue reading

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Stress is good–we love it!

Finally, a researcher profile I have wanted to write for a while. Stanford scientist Firdaus Dhabhar has shown that short term burst of stress are actually good for us. Which is why we are programmed to love stress and embrace … Continue reading

Posted in Adrenalin, Brain Hacking, Diet and Exercise, Neuroscience and Psychology, Performance, Science and Medicine | Leave a comment

Butter Is Back – NYTimes.com

Gotta love this. I’ve felt this way about butter for a long time: it’s not only not bad for you, it’s good for you. I have to look further into the papers to know if I believe it about saturated … Continue reading

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Why Vitamins May Be Bad for Your Workout – NYTimes.com

It looks like anti-inflamatories may not be the only thing that inhibits body building in response to exercise. Anti-oxidants may also do the same thing. It’s not clear to me that this is the result of action on the same … Continue reading

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For Sleep Apnea Patients, a breathing “Pacemaker”

Fascinating: an alternative to the CPAP mask that is an effective (but bothersome) treatment for apnea. Apnea occurs because the body totally relaxes muscles during deep sleep, which lets the airway collapse under negative pressure of inspiration. So this neurostimulator … Continue reading

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‘Memories’ pass between generations

Yet another example of how little we know about the workings of the body and mind. In a way, much of this is not new–we have known that epigenetic changes can be passed on (like the metabolic changes prompted by … Continue reading

Posted in How Life Begins, Neuroscience and Psychology, Science and Medicine | Leave a comment

Ian Parker: The Search for a Blockbuster Insomnia Drug : The New Yorker

A nice article on the efforts to get approval for a new type of sleep drug, based on the orexin receptor that was linked to narcolepsy at Stanford. Ian Parker: The Search for a Blockbuster Insomnia Drug : The New … Continue reading

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Five Surprising Ways Oxytocin Shapes Your Social Life

Oxytocin is not exactly what it is supposed to be. It has the reputation of being the “love hormone” or the “cuddle drug.” But it’s more like the “clique” hormone–everyone inside the social group is wonderful, but woe to outsiders. … Continue reading

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