Coffee Love

At some point in my life, coffee became an essential part of my life. At first, I would douse my coffee with sweet creamers and sugar to eliminate the bitter taste. Now, I like it dark, or rather black, with no creamers (well, maybe with a little bit of sugar). Most of people see coffee as a drink with quite a few negative effects: caffeine to stunt your growth, sleep-disorder, addiction, etc. Despite all these well-known negative effects, coffee is still one of the most beloved drinks in history. If you are black coffee lover like me, be delighted that you have another reason to love your cup of joe. Black coffees have a stomach-friendly chemical called N-methylpyridium (NMP) which blocks the ability of the stomach cells to produce hydrochloric acid and reduce stomach irritation. NMP is created only when the coffee bean is roasted and it is not in raw coffee bean. Thus, dark-roast coffees can be stomach-friendly and morning-friendly for people like me who have sensitive digestive system and crave for caffeine in the morning.

Drinking Before an Exam Is/May Be O.K.?

I met a friend recently who is majoring in film production. As a graduating senior, his workload is heavier than ever. How does he deal with it? Alcohol. At first, I was worried about him because it seems have grown into a habit. Stressed out? Grab a can of beer and relax. However, he seems to be getting more work done when there is a rush of alcohol running through his body. Dependence on alcohols has always been viewed negatively because of the possibility of becoming addicted to it. Especially when it comes to academics, consumption of alcohol and GPA have demonstrated a negative correlation. Well, Christie Wilcox introduces an interesting study done in Boston University about academic performance after drinking. Unlike the common belief that drinking before an exam will lower students’ performance, this study showed that actually there was no change in performance. Although students felt groggy after drinking, their exam scores were not altered, meaning that the day before drinking had not much effect on long term and short term memory. This study should not be utilized as an excuse to binge-drink before a major exam for the purpose of relaxation. The study still did not look at the long term effect of this habit which probably will indicate drinking’s negative effect on academics. Moreover, this study implies that hard work will not easily go away. If you have been studying hard and diligently, storing equations and facts into your long term memory, a one night of alcohol-frenzy may not ruin what you have built up so strong.

Childhood Obesity Starts from the Mother’s Womb

America has been getting heavier for a long time. Supersize Me? Fast Food Nation? Cartoons, artworks, film productions have used perhaps reasonable hyperbole to describe the obesity of the American people. Well, our first lady is stepping up to deal with childhood obesity. Last month, Michelle Obama promised to end childhood obesity in her campaign. Although controlling obesity during childhood is very important, new research indicates that interventions aimed at school-aged children may be too late. One of the interesting findings was the mother determines the child’s BMI during her pregnancy. Studies show that the mother’s womb in the first environment for the fetus and should that first environment be excessively large due to mother’s oversize, the baby will more likely develop diabetes and have BMI higher than normal throughout childhood. This result demonstrates how parents need to be educated about their children’s obesity management and also learn how the mother’s pregnancy period can affect the way the children will grow.

Vaccination Helps You and Your Community

A recent study done in 49 Hutterite farming colonies in western Canada has provided an excellent proof that flu vaccination to schoolchildren protects a whole community from the disease. This study is receiving acclaim due to its incontrovertible evidence. The sample unit was 187 Hutterite communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The control group was injected with the flu vaccine and the placebo received hepatitis A vaccine instead. The school children group that actually received the flu vaccine had less than 5 percent getting the disease. However, the placebo group had more than 10 percent who were confirmed with the seasonal flu. This result validates the American government’s decision to vaccinate children first during the H1N1 flu pandemic because of the “protective effect” for the whole community. The flu shots to schoolchildren will also protect the elderly who are under higher-risk of getting the disease and suffering for extended period of time. Even though the hypothesis that vaccination will help the children who gets as well as the community is somewhat obvious, performing a study and getting the sample unit is pretty challenging in scientific study. The leading investigator, Dr. Loeb had to make “literally hundreds of calls” to the Hutterite communities.

Moon Cream for the Moonlight

Exhausted from staring vapidly into my laptop in a pathetic attempt to figure out a way to finish my essay, I came out of my room and stared into the night’s sky for an inspiration. Full Moon. It was so bright like a giant flashlight in the sky and I was mesmerized by the brightness of the moonlight. Then I wondered, can you be tanned by the moonlight? I mean you can be tanned by the snow when you are skiing due to its reflection from the sunlight. And the moon is shining because of the sunlight as well. So, why shouldn’t people be moon-burn? This interesting and perhaps senseless inquiry remained in my mind until I read a news article in a Korean newspaper. The answer was no because the amount of reflection from the moon is not powerful enough to create a tan on human skin. But, apparently, some other people had similar questions in their mind about the moon-tanning. I’m happy to hear this news. Moonlight is way too lovely to fear it for its ultraviolet effect.

House approval of Health Care Reform… Healthcare Reform Coming to Reality?!

I must say that I am no expert in the legislative procedure of the healthcare overhaul. However, if you have been living in America, the healthcare reform by President Obama is something very, very hard to miss even if you are not interested in any political matters. Today, Sunday, March 21st, healthcare reform bill was passed by the House. However, this historic legislation victory still has many challenges to face. The result of this victory, only time will tell.

Vaccination...Prologue

Last fall semester, my school campus was alarmed by the notorious H1N1 virus which was spreading with surprising speed worldwide. The line for the vaccination of this virus was incredibly long and the images of the chaos caused to get the vaccination decorated the headline news daily. I remember discussing with my friends whether or not to receive the vaccination. In the end, we all got the shots in the health center. Afterwards I called my sister, hoping to receive some commendation for the day’s feat. However, my sister replied in a worried tone that she just read a news article that there was a person who became paralyzed after receiving the Tami flu vaccination (Thanks, sis for the encouragement.) Afterwards, none of my other family members received the vaccination and decided to observe me as the family guinea pig for the efficacy of the new vaccine which was indeed causing several worries for its relatively recent creation. My father actually visited Seoul, South Korea, which had a tad more heat of swine flu syndrome fear. The swine flu chaos was hitting Seoul pretty hard around the end of last year and the Korean broadcast reported several renowned Korean celebrities contracting the flu almost weekly and one of the celebrity’s son died due to complications of the flu. Even these days I see South Korean news channels and blogs reporting recent cases of swine flu in the show business in which idol stars came down with the flu. As for my dad, despite the fact that he traveled around the city, completely dependent on public transportation and exposing himself to more possibility of getting the flu virus, came back home swine-flu-free and healthy. So far, none of the family members (including me) have contracted the swine flu. So was the vaccination necessary? Was it something way too precautionary? I remember discussing this issue of necessity of H1N1 virus vaccination. Some of my classmates thought that vaccination was superfluous. They thought they can survive the H1N1 flu without the help of the vaccination, and that is should they ever contract it. I have always been a supporter of the idea of vaccination. But it turns out that significant amount of people are fearful about this idea of artificial immunization. So, this is my first stab at the controversy over vaccination. Well, then, to be continued.