Jaw-dropping scientific discoveries made easy for all. New posts every Sunday!
How well can you control the activity of a specific brain region? For example, the amygdala, the fear and aggression center in our brains. If you are easily frightened or aggressive, the answer is not well. However, what if you could be trained using advanced technology and psychological techniques?(1,2) Would you still be frightened and aggressive? Let's …
Continue reading "Neurofeedback or the ability to cure a traumatized mind"
Diagnosing Parkinson's disease (PD) can be challenging. Nonspecific symptoms may begin 15 years before diagnosis(1). But until enough symptoms that fit the criteria for diagnosis are present, no treatment will come. While many doctors wait to initiate treatment until symptoms progress, evidence shows the potential benefits of beginning treatments as early as possible(2). However, identifying the signs of …
Continue reading "An eye exam that predicts Parkinson’s Disease"
If you counted the number of bacterial cells in your gut, it would be ten times more than the total number of other cells in your body(1). At that proportion, one would expect them to have essential functions. Over the past 15 years, there has been an expansive dive into the effects of gut bacteria …
In the United States last year, strokes were the 4th leading cause of death. We must recognize the signs of a stroke because every second counts. If a stroke patient can receive treatment within three hours of symptoms beginning, their chances of recovering significantly increase(1). Although disabilities after stroke are common(2), likely due to abundant …
Continue reading "Ayahuasca’s hallucinogenic ingredient can lessen the damage from strokes"
In 2003, a German scientist named Heiko Braak made a wild hypothesis about the nature of Parkinson's disease(1). He published a paper suggesting that environmental pathogens cause Parkinson's disease by accessing the stomach and traveling to the brain through its stomach connection. At the time, the evidence to support this was two-fold. There was the …
Continue reading "Where does Parkinson’s Disease come from?"
Many people in the world struggle due to a single faulty gene. Single genes are responsible for countless diseases like hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and diabetes. Today, we will discuss a revolutionary method of hijacking a common signaling pathway, allowing the operator to produce genes of their choosing from implanted stem cells, in this …
Continue reading "A novel therapeutic method can treat type-1 diabetes and maybe more"
Stick with me for a breezy biochemistry overview while I guide you through this study(1). First off, anxiety disorders are incredibly prevalent across the world, plaguing 25% of the population(2). Do you or someone you know suffer from anxiety? Most likely. The current treatments rely on prescription medications that do not always provide relief, have …
Continue reading "How can one gene be responsible for your anxiety?"
The year is 2024. Roe v. Wade is long gone, and IVF is becoming illegal. Women with pregnancies that would prove to be fatal must travel across state lines to survive. I cannot believe it has come to this. The burden is on them to take birth control, but unintentional pregnancies still happen. While the …
Continue reading "Male contraception, a burden lifted off of women"
How would you feel about cancer if you knew, that following treatment, it would all be gone forever? Still hate cancer? Yeah me too, but at least we are getting closer to curing it according to new research(1). Three takeaways to tell your friends IRE1 inhibitors are effective at helping chemotherapy treat cancer, with active …
If you want to be sprite like a 20-year-old while in your 50s, raise your hand. You can all put your hands down now. That dream is closer than you think. Three takeaways to tell your friends: The spatial learning abilities of older mice were no different from young mice one week after receiving the …
Continue reading "A cure for age-related cognitive deficits?"
You know that stuff those non-coffee drinkers drink? Yeah me neither. Well, it's quite good for you and contains caffeine. Maybe it's time for a change from coffee...tomorrow...I'll switch tomorrow. Three takeaways to tell your friends: Seven days of administering mice green tea polyphenols relieved depression symptoms as well as a popular antidepressant in mice. …
Three takeaways to tell your friends: Sesaminol is an antioxidant with anti-cancer properties. Pretreatment with sesaminol protects cells from oxidative stress, a hallmark of PD pathology. In a PD mouse model, a diet containing sesaminol preserved motor functions and dopamine neurons while minimizing alpha-synuclein aggregates. Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a debilitating neurological disease that worsens …
Continue reading "A sesame seed extract, sesaminol, prevents Parkinson’s disease pathology"
Three takeaways to tell your friends: Magic mushrooms, or psilocybin, was granted breakthrough therapy status for depression by the FDA in 2018. Psilocybin treatment resulted in significantly more mice recovering from a depressed behavioral state than ketamine or saline. Psilocybin treatment improved neuronal structures essential in neuronal communication that were long-lasting. Are you starting to …
Continue reading "Magic mushrooms, the quick and lasting cure for depression?"
We've all heard the buzz around essential oils, they're everywhere. Whether or not you believe they're effective is irrelevant. This article will not make a case for either side. It will simply state recent findings by López et al, which will allow you to make up your mind given peer-reviewed data(1). Three takeaways to tell …
Continue reading "Lavender essential oil, a scientifically proven therapeutic drug"
Recently, a major discovery by Curry et al. flew under the radar. Here are three takeaways from the publication to tell your friends about, also known as TLDR. There exist three versions of MDMA: S-MDMA, R-MDMA, and a combination of both, SR-MDMA. SR-MDMA and S-MDMA have both positive and negative effects. R-MDMA has only positive …
Continue reading "MDMA, a safe and effective treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)"
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