In an era where technology has permeated every aspect of our lives, it is of little surprise that you would be skeptical about the notion that the realm of music can foster the state of our health and well-being. However, numerous research conducted has shown that the alluring ambiance of music can transcend our earthly minds to realms where the human being in their earthly state is subjected to less pain and suffering.
For those unfortunate souls that are suffering from cancer, they might have to endure phases of excruciating pain and it can make them wonder, is a death-sentence or curse being inflicted upon me? There is a brighter side to this. Studies conducted by scientists at the Duke University in America have found that men experiencing biopsies for prostate cancer endured significantly less pain and anxiety when they listened to classical music. Researches carried out in China supported the result of this study and have shown that women who were exposed to music therapy were found to have lower level of stress in the days following their surgery than those who did not. Now ask yourself, is it all just a coincidence or is it due to the possibility that music can transcend the limitations of the rational mind?
Studies carried out in various other countries have shown that the positive effects of music can be derived by people suffering from other types of illness such as dementia, coronary heart disease, epilepsy and numerous others. Music has also been shown to ease the pain and distress arising out of any type of operations or surgeries, enhance the intelligence of children and magnify the health of premature babies.
You may ask yourself, how can music have such a profound positive influence? Scientific analysis has revealed that the aura of music has a dopaminergic effect. This means that when our brain is exposed to the presence of rousing music, it releases the feel-good neurotransmitter called dopamine. The higher the levels of dopamine released, the more the sense of euphoria we feel and less the feelings of pain or anxiety.
In this modern society, we are just rediscovering the truth about the beneficial and healing qualities of music assisted by the displacement in universal consciousness.
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When you become a parent for the first time in your life and gaze fondly into the eyes of your newborn baby, your mind is instantly engulfed with a surge of overwhelming emotions and your thoughts are primed about their future. There are numerous avid wishes and disquieted apprehensions bounded together in the strands that connect the parent with the child. Therefore, if they feel that their child is underachieving or not living up to their full potential, you can forgive them if they feel an injustice is being done to them. Now let us come to the focal point of this topic. Who holds the key to unlocking a successful future for the children? Is it the teachers or the principals?
Teachers are like artists; their canvas is the human mind and their tool is the knowledge that they impart. Great teachers are those that can liberate fears from the mind of their students and give them the sense of belief, confidence and encouragement that they can make a space of their own in this vast world. In order to achieve this, the teachers must establish an intellectual relationship with their students. Numerous studies conducted support the theory regarding the importance of teachers. For example, according to a statistical analysis by McRel, students which were headed by the “most effective” teachers attained achievement gains of 53 percentage marks whereas the students which were headed by the “least effective” teachers managed to attain only 14 percentage marks on average during a one year academic course.
However, there are two sides to every story. When it comes to shaping the future of our youths, the importance of principals should not be undermined. The primary role of a principal is to evaluate and analyze the teachers. They strive to make the teachers realize their full potential by providing them with constructive and meaningful feedback. This evaluation or analytical process is a continuous one and without a firm and disciplined principal, there would be none to reinforce the teachers in improving their ways.
Even though this topic is highly debatable and not as clear-cut as it seems, it is the principal who is the rhythmic beating heart of an education institution and in a subtle manner, plays a more cardinal role in shaping the futures of our youths.
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Gazing through the eyes of a religious traditionalism, the downward spiraling compassion and other moral values on a global scale is solely to blame on those people whose religious ethos are not deeply embedded within their consciousness. Ask yourself, is there any truth behind this or is it a religious propaganda? An innovative breakthrough research carried out from the University of California, Berkeley, will dispel any doubts that might be lingering in the depths of your mind and will show that the voice of negativity so often associated with the highly religious people is the minority and the voice of compassion demonstrated by the non-believers is the majority.
Three different experiments accumulating more than 1000 people varying in ages were the participants of this experiment. Surely, with so many people, there would be no margin for error regarding the outcome of the experiment? The objective of the experiment was to establish a pattern linking the level of moral values to the magnitude of the religious beliefs of the people.
In the first experiment, the philosophy and mind frame of more than 1300 American adults regarding their stance on compassion were statistically analyzed. This was done by measuring the attitudes of the participants regarding compassion against the periodicity of their acts of generosity. The second experiment was aimed to evoke emotions of empathy, generosity and compassion subconsciously by subjecting the participants to witness a video which captured the pain and distress of children afflicted with poverty. The participants were then handed some money and were given the option of giving any amount of money to strangers. In the third and final experiment, the participants were approximately 200 college students. They were given some money and were given to option to either keep the money or share with strangers. Conclusive results from all three experiments indicate that the sense of compassion among the non-believers is much more profound than their counter-parts.
I want to hear the compassionate voice of religion and bring compassion to the forefront of people’s attention. Compassion is the key that unlocks our true collective potential to heal our world and restore love that is at the heart of all creation.
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A research from the Florida State University adds keeping bad cholesterol in check among the health benefits people get from eating an apple a day. The study, funded partially by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, was originally intended to determine the effects of eating apples and prunes to bone health.
The researchers asked 160 women between the ages 45 to 65 to eat everyday for one year either 75 grams dried apple or 100 grams prunes. The women’s blood samples were analyzed on the third, sixth, and twelfth months, to monitor their health.
Aside from finding that apples indeed help make bones healthier, the researchers further noted that after only six months of the study, the participants’ low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or what is known as bad cholesterol is 23% lower, while high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol is 3% higher on average.
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Elderly people aged 60 or more have difficulties in multitasking environments, says a study from the University of California-San Francisco that was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
Comparing two groups – with average ages of 24.5 and 69 years – the researchers used functional MRI to monitor blood flow in the participants’ brain neural networks. The participants were initially shown and told to hold an image in mind for 14 seconds; however, a face appears midway through the process and the subjects were asked about its age and sex. Afterwards, the participants were asked to recall the original image.
Results show the older people had difficulty in recalling the original scene. Apparently, the brains of the elderly have difficulty shifting quickly between the separate neural networks for attention and memory, and hence, can’t change tasks as quickly as the younger ones.
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A recent study released by the Royal College of Surgeons says the lingering effects of alcohol taken by a surgeon the day or night before an operation may lead to errors during surgery. These illusionary effects may take longer than expected to leave the body and may still be felt even if the alcohol had been flushed out of the blood supply – often manifested through drowsiness which may in turn cause the surgeon to falter in the operation theatre.
It is therefore important for surgeons to keep in mind these possible dangers, and must make sure to refrain from excessive alcohol intake if they are expecting to do critical operations the next day. Simply put, surgeons must not risk patient’s life by engaging in potentially hazardous drinking binges.
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The food pregnant women eat may affect
unborn children’s DNA and increase the risk of dreaded conditions later in life such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes. This was revealed in a multi-nation study from the Auckland University’s Liggins Institute which looked into women’s diet and the after-effects of epigenetic change in fetuses’ DNA that are impacted by said diet.
The food pregnant women eat may affect unborn children’s DNA and increase the risk of dreaded conditions later in life such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes. This was revealed in a multi-nation study from the Auckland University’s Liggins Institute which looked into women’s diet and the after-effects of epigenetic change in fetuses DNA that are impacted by said diet.
Examining the epigenetic change using umbilical cord tissue of unborn babies, the researchers correlated the amount of change with the weight of the children when they are aged six to nine years.
The researchers noted that those with high levels of epigenetic change have a higher likelihood of developing a fat-prone metabolism that makes the affected children around 3 kilograms heavier than their peers. This extra weight is usually carried on to adulthood and results in increased risks of heart disease and diabetes.
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Type II or adult onset diabetes is in part an autoimmune disease and hence, can be prevented and reversed, says a study from the Stanford School of Medicine that was published recently in the journal Nature Medicine.
Type II diabetes is a common but serious disease that happens when body tissues become insulin-resistant and fail to absorb sugar from the blood stream. It was earlier classified as a metabolic disease that needs constant treatment.
The scientists noted in mice experiments the appearance of B-cells in the visceral fat inflammations that precedes diabetes. They observed that these inflammations are created by autoimmune response as the immune system attacks proteins of the body. The researchers believed that using drugs to control the immune system attacks would help manage insulin resistance and consequently control diabetes.
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A poll of nearly 6,400 people conducted by DDB Worldwide Communications Group shows that about 15% commit tax fraud, and about 2 in 3 of those who admit cheating the IRS are single men below 45 years of age. This apparently happens despite the heavy punishment for tax evasion, which includes federal imprisonment up to five years in addition to fines.
The survey also reveals that there is no significant income differences between the likely cheaters and non-cheaters, contrary to common perception that tax cheats are mostly from the low-income segment of the populace.
The researchers noted that the differences actually lie in the way people spend their income and how they view themselves: about 40% of those who are likely to commit tax fraud barely survive from one paycheck to the next, while 29% of those who are most unlikely to cheat also live the same way.
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Having classes too early in the morning may do more harm than good, a new US study published recently in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine suggests.
Aside from the dangers of teenaged drivers racing to reach their schools on time, their actual performance in classes may also be below par, either from the loss of sleep or from the likely onset of daytime fatigue due to early wakeup times. In comparison, students who have their classes later in the morning or in the afternoon are more alert as they are able to get more sleep.
This study is just one of several that looked into the relationship between early start times of classes and students’ performance both inside and outside classrooms. One of the studies even advised that start of morning classes be delayed by at least an hour to improve student performance.
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A research from Canada’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario links playing video games with eating more food, even if the study participants were not feeling hungry. The study involved 22 young men who were asked to either sit for an hour in comfortable chairs or play video games before eating lunch.
The researchers noted that those who played video games consume 80 calories more on average than those who merely sat down. There was no evidence that gaming made the participants hungrier as blood analysis showed that the participants were actually not hungrier when they played games than they were just sitting down.
Experts believe that a reward mechanism is activated when playing games, similar to what happens when using a computer. The mental workout involved in both activities makes people want to eat more, not out of hunger but as reward for doing the task.
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Most people believe rapid weight-reduction adversely affects strength and endurance more than mental functioning, but a new study from California State University – Fullerton reveals otherwise.
The study conducted on wrestlers shows that cutting six pounds over a short period leads to a confused mental state rather than weakened endurance. On average, wrestlers who lose 4% or more of their total body mass just before a competition display higher mental impairment, while those who lose less than 4% typically don’t exhibit the same confused state. Decision making, in effect, is adversely impacted by sudden weight cuts.
In comparison, cutting body mass was not observed to bring about reduced grip strength or lower body power. The researchers point out though that wrestlers normally fight on the same day of their weigh in, while fighters are usually weighed a day before, giving the latter some time to recover.
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Teen depression and suicides in gay and straight kids are more prevalent in politically conservative regions as compared to progressive-thinking areas, a new study by Mark Hatzenbuehler, a psychologist from Columbia University, shows.
Basing his conclusion from a poll of 32,000 11th-graders, Hatzenbuehler reveals that youths in conservative counties are 20 percent more likely to attempt suicide than those living in more liberal counties. Looking more closely, 25 percent more gays and 4 percent more straight kids attempted to kill themselves in the conservative regions than in the progressive counties.
Experts believe that harassment and bullying commonly drive teens to depression. Thus, the presence of gay support groups and other programs that support the psychological health of teenagers are the factors that account for the lesser numbers in more liberal and open-minded counties.
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An updated demographic study on car-buying behavior based on gender differences from TrueCar.com, culled from over eight million vehicle purchases in 2010 shows that men generally opt for large and brawny vehicles, such as trucks, or are more likely choose expensive but high-performance models. Women, on the other hand, think more about the car price and are more likely to select practical and fuel efficient models.
The study further reveals that 15 relatively inexpensive brands, led by Mini (47.9%), Kia (46.8%) and Honda (46%) hold a female-buyer ratio of 40% or more. But five pricey foreign brands barely make it on women buyer’s lists, namely Ferrari (6.4%), Lotus (7.2%), Lamborghini (7.4%), Maybach (8.0%), and Rolls Royce (9.3%). Consequently, these are the exotic brands preferred mostly by male buyers, which numbers less this year than last year’s six brands.
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The ability of mindful meditation to enhance mental functioning through filtering out of distractions and focusing on a single point is the subject of a study published recently in the Brain Research Bulletin journal.
Participants of the eight-week study were able to control a brain wave known as alpha rhythm, in which cells that process sensory sensations travel. Thus, meditating participants are able to distinguish quickly between relevant and irrelevant sensory information, and are able to tune out most distractions from the consciousness.
Experts believe that the ability of mindful meditation to focus on particular sensory information makes is useful in relieving pain sensations. It can also channel attention more quickly to a particular stimulus, incorporate and remember new facts, and enhance memory by faster processing of inputs.
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A study from the University of Maryland reveals that people’s dependence on Internet-connected devices is a psychological phenomenon that is very similar to drug addiction.
The researchers asked the 1,000 study participants from around the globe through the school’s International Center for Media & the Public to stay off the Internet for 24 hours and report their reactions to the deprivation.
Results show that 23 percent of the participants reported being anxious and distressed, with some describing their feelings as ‘itching like a crackhead.’ Experts find the result not surprising, although they are quick to point out that it is not addiction in the strict sense, as the latter is a bad habit involving the use of psychoactive substances. Internet dependency is a more apt term, as it conjures being dependent on a stimulus (Internet) and it would result in withdrawal symptoms when the stimulus is removed.
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