The Music Behind Sound Therapy

For all of us, at one point or another, sound helps to put us in a different state of mind. For some of us, classical tunes calm nerves, helps a study session go smoother, or entrances us into a good night’s sleep. For others, classic rock makes us want to dance, country music might bring out the romantic, and just the sound of silence can bring a little relief now and then. Many people are comforted by music and studies show that different instruments that produce sound are considered to be a type of natural health.
A 2008 study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine revealed that listening to music that makes you happy for 30 minutes can help to reduce your stress level. Hearing joyful sounds during the day can tell the brain to release endorphins which make you feel happy, your muscles can relax and eventually your stress lowers and pain can be relieved. A different study from 2008 also showed us that listening to calming music like Mozart or crashing waves at the ocean can lower your blood pressure because soothing music slows down your breathing as well as your heartbeat. Your brain waves also tend to react to the sounds you are hearing by slowing down or speeding up according to the beats.

Besides just tuning your radio or switching on your cd player or ipod, sound therapy can help in other ways. Ancient tools such as tuning forks and singing bowls are often used to calm an “overexcited” nervous system. According to Jonathan Goldman, who wrote the book The Seven Secrets of Sound Healing, tuning forks are able to create sound vibrations to provide healing properties. Tuning forks are able to effortlessly realign your inner chakras, clean them of any static energy, and replace harmony and balance in your life. Tuning forks are used by being tapped lightly and hum lowly in order to spread the healing vibrations into the space around you.

Another type of meditative sound therapy is the ancient tradition of singing bowls. Also known commonly as “Himalayan bowls,” these metal (often made from bronze) bowls also vibrate in order to produce a healing sound. Singing bowls are called bowls because they look like inverted bells, sitting flat on their tops without a handle; these “bowls” can also be large or small and are “rung” by being rubbed on the sides and the top of the rim to produce the sound or by being pounded lightly. To play a singing bowl, the friction of rubbing a wooden, leather, or plastic mallet to increase the overtones. Used for relaxation purposes as well as part of religious practices, singing bowls offer support to many.

Research has also been done regarding the link of sound and insomnia. You might think that trying to listen to a playlist while in bed might be counteractive to actually falling asleep but the opposite is true when dealing with the inability to sleep or with waking up often during the night. Listening to white noise, the rainforest, or even the sound of falling rain can ease you back to sleep or urge a restful night without tossing and turning.

Instead of just being an outlet to make you happy, calm your nerves, de-stress, relax your muscles, or help you sleep, sound can also be a way to boost your brain function. Studies say that learning a musical instrument and practicing each day makes your brain moldable and able to store more information as well as keeping it young and sharp. So if you are anything like me when I was a kid, and do not enjoy practicing the piano for an hour each day, just remember that if you stick with it your brain will most likely age better than your peers, and the repetitive motion of playing the instrument—as well as the music it produces—will also help you be more relaxed. Even though I yawn as I type this, I better go find my lullaby CD to lull me into a reassuring sleep.

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Natural Abstinence: How to Avoid Weekend Food Indulgences

Food: One of life’s necessities and usually a hot topic of conversation. Whether it is the latest hot chef, food trend, cookbook, or diet craze, food crops up in conversations, news, blogs, and in our everyday lives. The topics of eating disorders, dieting, and health eating have been widely reported on HealthNews, including the obesity epidemic that has hit our nation. Common sense dictates eating a variety of foods, several times a day, without overindulging. However, that is easier said than done.

Forgetting meals, constant snacking, and all-you-can-eat buffets can be the thorns in our side. And weekends can be especially bad; at home with unlimited access to the refrigerator and pantry can lead to unhealthy temptations. Late nights, sleeping in, forgoing exercise, and eating without limits can all pack on the pounds and leave you feeling sluggish and reversing the effects of the good choices you have made during the week.

It’s important to avoid the overindulgence you may encounter during your two days of rest and relaxation. To avoid packing on the pounds during the down time on “S” days (Saturday and Sunday), here are a few tips adapted from fitness expert Joanna Hall’s latest book, The Weight Loss Bible:

Exercise Before & After: Keep your heart rate going and make sure to workout—even if it’s a quick walk around the neighborhood or a few laps in the pool—before and after a day you know you will be making less than great food choices, for example a summer barbeque chock full of meats and sweets.

Stay Hydrated: Continue to drink water, even if you are drinking other beverages throughout the day. The more hydrated you are, the less hungry you will feel and your body will thank you; especially if you are partaking in poolside margaritas, late-night pints, or tropical vacation piña coladas.

Cut Calories During the Week: Hall says that if you cut 300 calories (usually a small snack like a mini potato chip bag or granola bar) out of your daily intake before and after you know you will be eating more, it will curb any guilt you may feel and help stave off too many unnecessary calories.

Pile on the Veggies: Since studies show that eating vegetables with high water content (think carrots, celery, onions, etc.) make you full faster and have more energy, it may be easier to hold off temptation because your brain isn’t signaling hunger. Eating something substantial before a big night out, like vegetable soup, can leave you satisfied longer and keep off any unwanted bulge.

Groove to the Music: After energizing yourself with a big bowl of veggie soup, whether you are at a girls’ weekend, bachelor party, or karaoke bar, suck up the courage to get on the dance floor and get your groove on. Dancing burns approximately 250 to 300 calories an hour (based on an average woman’s height and weight). Before you know it, the night is gone and you’ve danced off the extra calories and enjoyed every minute of extravagance.

In a growing world of excess, where in any given moment 1 person in 20 is dieting, and the days where the diet crumbles are usually over the weekends. Who wants to keep track of calories during beautiful days and important occasions like holidays, birthday parties, or weddings; no one would want to. You can't blame anyone for indulging with ease but when your jeans get snug and your exercise routine slows down, know how to get back on track. With these handy tips, you can keep your calories from running rampant, your clothes fitting, and your guilt can stay where it belongs…hidden away.

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Exercise Equipment – Free Weights

Free Weights are one of the easiest and least expensive ways to set up your home work out area; the options are almost endless in free weight category - including dumbbells; balance/resistance/exercise balls; and exercise bands/tubing. Free weights all accomplish the basics of building muscle and toning, cardiovascular, and weight loss, but each have their own twist.

Dumbbells are specifically designed to build muscle, whether it’s a dumbbell in each hand for bicep and triceps work, lunges, pectoral flys, or an Olympic bar for chest, back, shoulder work, and much more; the purpose is balance and targeted muscle building. Working with dumbbells requires a bench for optimal strength training. Dumbbells are far from basic and have graduated to sophisticated. They are found in colorful neoprene, metal, hex shapes, adjustable, and vary in price and design.

• Adjustable Dumbbells work well for the serious minded weight lifter. Increasing weight at various intervals during a workout stresses the muscle and produces growth. Adjustables come in all different styles, models, and price ranges. Power Block, Bowflex Dumbells, and Bayou Adjustable Dumbells are major contenders in the adjustable field. They are compact, take up very little space, and have more than one model to choose from, with price ranges that vary. The basic adjustable dumbbell - that consists of a metal rod/Olympic bar with interchangeable weight plates (normally held in place by a metal spring) - is in a lower price range (figure $0.20 per pound), but also takes up more space and is more time consuming in changing up the weights.

• Aerobic dumbbells are specifically for an aerobic workout that is designed to tone muscle and burn calories (lighter weights at faster reps). To increase or decrease dumbbell weight, individual dumbbells need to be purchased.

• Pro dumbbells are the kind you will find in gyms and workout clubs. They are individually sized and perfect for weight lifting and aerobic value lifting, if you have a club membership, or if price and space is not a limitation.

Balance/Resistance/Exercise Balls accomplish balance and weight training also, much the same as dumbbells except they build a stronger core value (abdominal/trunk). Depending on the weight and size of the ball, they can also be used to balance the torso while sit-ups and back extensions are performed while seated on the ball. A Balance ball may also be used in place of a bench. Two hands are required to move the ball through a routine. Performing a series of set demands balance and torso strength.

Exercise bands/Tubing give variable resistance for all strength levels and offer strong competition for dumbbells. This type of strength training and aerobic value workout has a few pluses that exercise balls and dumbbells can’t compete with - a set of bands is easily stored in a small area and can be taken on trips without a problem.

While some exercise machines claim the same status as those listed above – free weights – there are differences in the actual physical strength required and the way the exercise is performed. The free weights listed here demand focus on the lift and the lowering/release of the weight and one has to maintain balance to perform the lift correctly. Machines allow the user to push their torso into it or relax into it rather than forcing core strengthening like free weights do.

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Oral Contraceptives May Limit Lean Muscle Gain

Unveiled almost 50 years ago, “the pill” continues to be the most popular and one of the most effective forms of reversible birth control ever invented. Since their introduction in 1960, oral contraceptives (OCs) have been changed to include less hormones, resulting in fewer side effects. Today’s OCs even provide health benefits. Studies show that the incidence of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancers, benign cysts of the ovaries and breasts and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) decreases with pill use. OCs also reduce the odds of getting colorectal cancer. But despite these advantages, young women who are trying to build muscle mass may want to choose another form of contraception.

Researchers from the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Texas A&M University in College Station, as well as the Human Energy Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, have found that OCs actually limit muscle gain from strength training in women under 35. The research involved 73 relatively healthy women aged 18 to 31. Of these, 34 used OCs and 39 did not. Both groups participated in a whole-body resistance exercise program consisting of 13 exercises performed three times per week for 10 weeks. At each session, they completed three sets of six to 10 repetitions of each exercise at 75 percent of maximum strength. The women were encouraged to eat enough protein to promote muscle growth.

According to lead researcher Chang Woock Lee and colleagues, there were significant differences in muscle growth between the two groups. Lean muscle mass increased by just 2.1 percent in the OC users, compared to 3.5 percent growth in non-OC users. However, other muscle responses such as strength gains and arm/leg circumferences were similar in both groups. “We were surprised at the magnitude of differences in muscle gains between the two groups, with the non-OC women gaining more than 60 percent greater muscle mass than their OC counterpart,” the researchers acknowledged.

Tests on the women showed that OC users had significantly lower levels of three muscle-building hormones—DHEA, DHEAS, and IGF-1—and elevated levels of one muscle-breaking hormone—cortisol. Lee said these findings “could help explain” why OC users showed diminished muscle gains from resistance exercise training, but that “vigorous future studies with more stringent control and clever design will be definitely needed to confirm the results and/or elucidate the underlying mechanism conclusively.”

“The factors that explain the differences in the magnitude of the responses to resistance exercise training between individuals are largely unknown,” Lee said. “Numerous health and performance benefits including improved exercise/athletic performance, body composition, esthetic beauty, and self-image can be attained from the increased muscle mass and strength associated with resistance exercise training. OC users may not be able to fully enjoy those benefits while experiencing impaired exercise performance and difficulties achieving athletic goals due to diminished muscle responses they get from resistance exercise training.”

Past research has shown that the pill lowers the levels of these hormones in users, but this was the first study to show the implications for active women and trained female athletes, who often use OCs to control their menstrual cycle. “I think the implications are that so many women are taking BCP (birth control pills), and if they are active or competing, and want to achieve the highest level of performance, they need to consider whether birth control is a negative influence on that,” said senior investigator Dr. Steven Riechman, also of Texas A&M.

Other experts say these findings are no reason for women to stop taking birth control pills. “It’s just one small, a very small, group of women. If you think of how many women actually are on the pill, how significant is the difference in terms of patients noticing anything or even an actual health effect?” said Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “This might make a difference for a high-performance athlete in a competition, but, for your normal patients who have a healthy exercise routine, this might not make a difference.”

“I don’t disagree with the statistical significance, but the clinical significance is very questionable,” said Dr. Amanda Weiss-Kelly, director of pediatric sports medicine at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, part of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. “The difference didn’t translate into improvement in performance,” she added.

The study findings were presented at the 122nd annual meeting of the American Physiological Society, which is also participating in the scientific conference “Experimental Biology 2009” being held in New Orleans.

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Muscles: How ToTurning Energy into Motion

Most of us take our muscles for granted, not realizing how crucial they are to us. Muscles are the body’s engine, and energy is the fuel. It would be impossible for us to do anything without them, including expressing ourselves. We convey ideas through spoken words using the muscles of the mouth, tongue and larynx, through written words using the muscles of the fingers, or through body language using skeletal muscles.

The human body contains more than 630 muscles. Approximately 35-45% of body mass is muscle tissue. Muscles are long- lasting, self-healing and grow stronger with use. There are three unique kinds of muscle:

• Cardiac muscle, which is found only in your heart. It contracts involuntarily; it is automatically controlled by the nervous system.
• Smooth muscle is found in blood vessels, the digestive system, bladder, airways, and the uterus in a female. It also contracts involuntarily.
• Skeletal muscle is the kind we can see and feel. They attach to the skeleton and come in pairs; one muscle to move in one direction and another to move back the other way. Skeletal muscles contract voluntarily, you have to think about contracting them and the nervous system tells them to respond.

The combination of muscles and bones make up the musculoskeletal system. Together, the skeletal muscles work with bones to give the body its power and strength.

In most cases, skeletal muscle is attached to one end of a bone, stretches across a joint, and then attaches again to another bone. Tendons serve as connector pieces between muscle and bone; when a muscle is contracted, the tendon and bone move along with it.

Skeletal muscles come in a variety of sizes and shapes depending on their job. The muscles in your back, near the spine, are some of the biggest and most powerful. These muscles have the difficult job of keeping the body upright and providing the power to lift and push.

Your face also has plenty of muscles, over 30 as a matter of fact. Facial muscles don’t all attach directly to bone like those in the rest of the body. Many of them attach under the skin, which allows for more control. Contracting your facial muscles ever so slightly can create different looks like happiness, sadness, surprise, and frowning. Eye muscles are the busiest muscles in the body, moving more than 100,000 times a day!

The tongue is a muscle that’s attached only at one end. The tongue is made of a group of muscles that work together, allowing you to talk and help you chew food. It takes 72 different muscles interacting with one another to produce human speech.

The largest muscle in the body is in the buttocks and is called the gluteus maximus.

There are many problems which can affect muscles, causing pain and/or weakness. Some of the most common and least severe muscle disorders include:

• Sprain: A stretched or torn ligament. Wrist and ankle sprains are common and can be caused by falling or twisting.
• Strain: A stretched or torn muscle or tendon. Strains can happen suddenly or develop over time. Hamstring and back muscle strains are most common and are usually caused by twisting or pulling of the tissues. Many people suffer strains from playing sports.
• Muscle cramps: Sudden, involuntary contractions or spasms in the muscle, also called charley horse. Muscle cramps often occur after exercise or at night and can be caused by dehydration, strain or overuse of a muscle, lack of minerals in your diet, or insufficient blood supply to your muscles.
• Tendinitis: Inflammation of a tendon, usually occurring in the elbows, knees, shoulders, hips, heels or wrists. Certain diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis can cause tendinitis, but it is most commonly caused by injuries and overuse.

There are also many more serious muscle disorders such as cancers, diseases of the nerves that affect the muscles, and genetic diseases.

The old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” comes to mind when considering muscles. Use your muscles and strengthen them, you will need them to carry out everyday tasks and prevent you from falling and breaking bones as you grow older.

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Stem Cells Used For Prostate Regeneration

Stem cells can generate into many types of cells in the body. In a recent study Genentech scientists in San Francisco say they have grown entire prostates in mice using only a single adult stem cell. The success of the study was made possible by identification of a genetic signature which distinguished stem cells from other cells. The information has not been confirmed in humans, but understanding normal cells should help with the understanding of how prostate cancer develops.

Some scientists consider that stem cells in normal tissues produce cancer. Study co-author Leisa Johnson, a senior scientist with Genentech said that has not been proven. Stem cells have several surface markers, but they are also on other cells, making identification difficult. The study authors found a new marker, CD117, combined with previously known prostate stem cell cancer markers. This allowed identification of a single, normal prostate stem cell. That cell was able to generate a functional prostate and was capable of renewing itself. This holds the promise of treatments and even cures for many diseases.

Johnson explained that it is important to define a normal cell compartment that can generate a tissue. Once that knowledge is available it would be able to identify the compartment that goes awry if cancer initiates. What is resistant, what is regenerating a tumor, is the same cell responsible for generation of normal tissue?

According to Paul Sanberg, professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa “It’s another step showing that stem cells can be a root case of cancer, so it gives targets for treatment.”

Wei-Qiang Gao, Ph.D. also of Genentech said that same kind of cells carrying the same CD117 marker can be found in humans. According to Gao and colleagues two different research teams recently reported growing mouse mammary glands from a single stem cell. The finds add to this “hallmark advancement in the stem-cell research field.” Researchers grew their transplant cells in gel in the lab, and when the gels were placed inside the kidneys of immune-deficient mice, they grew into functional prostrate tissue.

There were 97 single cell transplants, and 14 developed functioning prostates. This may seem like a low percentage of success, but since it is the first attempt it is an extremely significant process.

Stem cells have had scientists extremely interested in recent years because of the potential to grow specific cells to replace damage or diseased tissue. The interest has also generated a lot of public controversy because the biggest focus has been on embryonic cells. Embryonic cells are “pluripotent” and can become any tissue in the body. There are “unipotent” adult stem cells which are already programmed to divide into specific cells. These were the cells used in this research. Isolating “unipotent” cells and getting them to regenerate into the desired tissue has been a major hurdle. Future medical research will show whether tailor made transplants can be grown from a patient’s own cells by using the findings of this study.

The prostate is a small gland located just below the bladder that helps make seminal fluid and expel semen. Prostate cancer is one of the most prominent cancers in developed countries. Even if non-cancerous prostates cause many medical problems for the aging male population.

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Circumcision Doesn’t Reduce Male-to-Female Transmission of HIV

In recent years, the male foreskin—a double-folded tube of skin and mucous membrane that covers the head of the penis—has taken center stage in the battle against HIV. The foreskin is rich in Langerhans cells, immune cells that are particularly easy for the virus to access. Following infection, these cells not only serve as reservoirs for replicating the virus, but also transport it to nearby lymph nodes where HIV spreads to other immune cells. Studies have shown that removal of the foreskin can reduce a man’s risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection by 50 to 65 percent, findings that prompted large-scale circumcision campaigns in countries with high infection rates, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where heterosexual sex is primarily responsible for the HIV epidemic. Studies had also suggested that circumcision could reduce the rate of male-to-female transmission of the virus, but that turns out not to be the case.

A Ugandan study, led by Dr. Maria J. Wawer of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, was stopped early after it became apparent that male circumcision offered no protection to female partners. The study involved 922 uncircumcised, HIV-infected men between 15 and 49 years of age who were randomly chosen to either be circumcised or remain uncircumcised. The HIV-free female partners of the male participants were also enrolled in the study, 90 in the circumcised group and 70 in the uncircumcised group, and their HIV status was evaluated after 6, 12 and 24 months. All participants were intensively schooled in HIV prevention and provided free condoms.

After two years, 18 percent of the women in the circumcised group had become infected with HIV, compared with 12 percent in the uncircumcised group. Cumulative probability of HIV infection at 24 months was 22 percent among women in the circumcised group and 13 percent among those in the uncircumcised group. The majority of the infections in the circumcised group occurred within the six months following the procedure. The researchers said the infections were caused because some of the men had intercourse before their circumcision wounds had healed, exposing their female partners to HIV-infected blood in the vagina.

The researchers said though they were disappointed with the outcome of the study, circumcision campaigns are still valid. “The efficacy of male circumcision for prevention of HIV in uninfected men is clear, and reductions in male acquisition of HIV attributable to circumcision are likely to reduce women's exposure to HIV-infected men. Male circumcision programs are thus likely to confer an overall benefit to women," the researchers concluded.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr Jared M. Baeton, from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues stressed the importance of circumcision programs for men at risk of HIV, and argued for more effort being focused on people in relationships where one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not. “Prevention services for this population, including HIV testing for couples, facilitated disclosure of HIV seropositivity, and ongoing counseling services, should be a public health priority,” they write. “Such services should be incorporated into male circumcision programs, thereby providing further protection to HIV uninfected women.”

An estimated 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says circumcision has the potential to dramatically reduce the toll of the virus, averting an estimated 5.7 million new infections and three million deaths over the next 20 years in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

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Genetic Traits Link to Bipolar Disorder

Two genes in the brain that control the activity of the nerve cells may play a big role in a person's risk for developing bipolar disorder, which is marked by dramatic swings from being depressed to manic behavior and affects between one and three percent of the population worldwide. While identifying these genes is important, it is not expected that it will lead to a genetic test for the risk of bipolar disorder. It could, however, help unravel the mystery of how it arises and could lead to better treatments

A team of international scientists examined the genomes of approximately 10,956 people that were mainly from the United States and Britain. This was including 4,387 people with the disorder, also often known as manic-depression.

The scientists found that the people with the disorder were more likely to have certain variants of the ANK3 and CACNA1C genes. The proteins that these two genes make help govern the flow of calcium ions and sodium in and out of neurons in the brain, which in turn influences the activity of the nerve cells.

The person who helped lead the study, Nick Craddock of Britain's Cardiff University, said, "The key importance of this is that it gives us a clear idea of the sorts of chemicals and mechanisms in the brain that are involved in bipolar disorder. Over a number of years, that will help researchers to develop better approaches to diagnosis and treatment."

Because this disorder has a history of running in families, scientists have been trying to pinpoint the genes that are involved in bipolar disorder. This study was the largest genetic analysis of it kind on bipolar disorder.

This disorder of the brain can cause extreme shifts in mood, energy and general ability to function. Bipolar disorder is marked by high periods of elation or irritability which is followed by periods of sadness and hopelessness that could last for months.

The researchers stated that proper function of neurons in the brain depends on a delicate balance between of calcium and sodium. Our brains operate on how quickly sodium and calcium are moving in and out of cells and the amount that goes in and out. The findings of this study suggest that this disorder may stem at least in part from malfunctions in the flow of these ions, which are the chemicals that are electrically charged.

There is a need for much better treatment for this disorder. Lithium, which is the most common treatment, only helps about two-thirds of those with bipolar disorder and can cause mild shakiness, drowsiness, and weight gain.

The research was funded in part by the U.S government's National Institutes of Health. The director of the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas Insel, said that the findings may help solve the puzzle that is bipolar disorder. "It's not going to tell us the whole story -- it doesn't give you the whole puzzle -- but it's something to build on."

Craddock said that identifying the two gene variants will probably not be helpful in determining a person's risk for bipolar disorder because many people who do not have this disorder will have the same genes.

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