Fear of going to the dentist? Blame your parents!

Have you ever had that feeling of anxiety before going to the dentist? What do you think is the source of that feeling? A new study by scientists at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid confirms that there is an emotional transmission of this fear of going to the dentist among family member, and especially the parents.

The study conducted by the scientists of this university has come to the conclusion that the higher the level of anxiety of one member of the family, the higher the level of fear of the rest of the family. Furthermore, the scientists were able to identify specific roles the family members play in the transmission of this fear. In fact, they discovered that even though the mother and the father play an important role in this matter, it is the father who influences the most in the transmission of the dentist fear. Children tend to pay attention on their parents’ response, but they focus mainly on the father and how he reacts to different situations that may happen at the dentist and how stressful they can be.

A possible solution for children to overcome this fear, according to the scientists, would be to make the parents—and especially the father—go under dentist fear prevention campaigns so that a positive emotional contagion is reinforced. This would help parents to avoid showing any signs of fear or anxiety in front of their children when going to the dentist.

Imagine you have children, what would you do to prevent the transmission of this fear of going to the dentist? Do you think it’s important for parents to show no signs of fear at all? Let me know what you think, I’m really interested in your thoughts.

More info here --> Fear of the dentist

Fear of going to the dentist? Blame your parents!

Have you ever had that feeling of anxiety before going to the dentist? What do you think is the source of that feeling? A new study by scientists at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid confirms that there is an emotional transmission of this fear of going to the dentist among family member, and especially the parents.

The study conducted by the scientists of this university has come to the conclusion that the higher the level of anxiety of one member of the family, the higher the level of fear of the rest of the family. Furthermore, the scientists were able to identify specific roles the family members play in the transmission of this fear. In fact, they discovered that even though the mother and the father play an important role in this matter, it is the father who influences the most in the transmission of the dentist fear. Children tend to pay attention on their parents’ response, but they focus mainly on the father and how he reacts to different situations that may happen at the dentist and how stressful they can be.

A possible solution for children to overcome this fear, according to the scientists, would be to make the parents—and especially the father—go under dentist fear prevention campaigns so that a positive emotional contagion is reinforced. This would help parents to avoid showing any signs of fear or anxiety in front of their children when going to the dentist.

Imagine you have children, what would you do to prevent the transmission of this fear of going to the dentist? Do you think it’s important for parents to show no signs of fear at all? Let me know what you think, I’m really interested in your thoughts.

More info here Fear of the dentist

The Great Philosophers of Our Times

The Simpsons Family broke to the airways in 1987, more that 20 years without stopping transmitting it has already 500 episodes on going. But what it is a mere cartoon show, for some others, it represents a beacon of truth and crude realism. 

The entire show verges over the playful tension between stereotypes and prejudgements  but in a funny and sort of ironic way, every single character in the show, has its own way of understanding the universe. It is no surprise that a lot has been written about the philosophical postures of all the characters of the TV show. But in this particular case, the central figure of Homer, the father of a middle class american family. 

The image of Homer, has become an example, but not too over generalization of the society in our post modern world. Lets face it, Homer is: lazy, alcoholic, avoids working, avoids stress, reckless, racist, judgemental, under educated, selfish, and yet he always manage to keep everything back to an apparent state of normality. This is the attitude of most Americans says the representative of The Philosophers Magazine, Andreas Mitchel. If you´d prefer to  know more about the Homerian Philosophy  click here.

In 2007, The Big Bang Theory, opened in the billboards as one of the most buzzing shows of the year. It was awarded with the Emmy Award for the Best New Show of 2007. Since then, it has won many awards, and it has been on the air during 7 seasons. It success lies over the complexity of its characters. The figure of the nerds or the geeks, against the breathtaking beauty of Penny,  the female character. makes this show bear to watch. The personality of the Character of Sheldon Cooper provides the philosophical issue here. Dr Sheldon Cooper in many ways is: Selfish, self-centred, arrogant. deeply racist, obnoxious, talkative, hard worker, at the same time obsessed  with his work and his own world. Doesn´t it sounds familiar? Could a TV show, be a representation of our understanding of the world?

OCD-lemma

Researchers from the hospital of Belltivge in Barcelona, Spain, in collaboration with experts from the Hospital del Mar and the University of Melbourne, Australia, had proven that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) present a major moral sensitivity; Charles Soriano, an investigator from Hospital del Mar and one of the authors of the publishing of this study states that these people who suffer from the previously mentioned anxiety disease show an even more worrisome behavior when they are exposed to a moral dilemma.

The researchers studied through functional magnetic resonance the neurofunctional basis of this increase in moral sensitivity in OCD patients; the brain activations in seventy-three people with this disorder and other seventy-three healthy patients were measured after they were exposed to several moral issues in which they had to choose either one or another dreadful consequence. Those situations were both extreme and trivial; for example, there was this very common problem presented in philosophy lessons in which a baby in times of war starts crying and that could cause that soldiers discover where the people are hiding, but covering the baby’s mouth would cause his or her death from asphyxia; on the other hand, this kind of dilemma was compared to minor ones such as choosing between going to the beach or to the countryside during the weekend.

Results showed that people with OCD suffered a major activation of their orbitofrontal cortex than the control group, especially in the medial area, which is related to decision making processes and the sense of morality. This information can lead for the first time to deal with the existence of brain dysfunctions related to complex cognitions and the mechanisms in the brain of an OCD patient.

Do you think these people should be treated in a different way just because of their condition? Why or why not?

Pigs' smell it's more than nauseating!

    Do you know hog farms? If so, have you ever considered that their smell may have consequences for our health? Indeed you might think that it’s disgusting, and makes you feel sick, but researchers have discovered that people who live near such farms experience health problems due to the pollution this farms emit.

   The research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives demonstrated that neighbors of animal farms, particularly pig farms, have higher blood pressure in contrast to the population who do not live near to animal farms.  This rise in the blood pressure is provoked by dust, allergens and other thousands of organic compounds which are emitted into the air from animal farms.  

   It is worth to mention, however, that the study did not stated whether the rise in blood pressure was dangerous or not, but there may be health issues related to living near hog farms. Another previous study made in North Carolina found that the odor from animal farms causes stress and negative mood states in residents.

   A similar situation happened in Chile in Freirina a couple of months ago, do you remember it? There, Agrosuper installed a farm with half a million pigs. The smell was intolerable for citizens who protested to shut it down (for more information, click here). Although we can think of the obvious consequences such as mood changes, now we know it goes beyond psychological consequences.

   If you lived in a town where a hog farm is about to start working, what would you do? 

Click here for the detail of the study. For more information, click here.

Be Careful with What You Eat, Mommy

            We are all aware of the link that a pregnant woman has both emotionally and physically with her child and the effects that anything that happens around her have on the baby, as well as whatever substance that the future mother introduces to her body—for instance, what she ingests. Expectant ladies need to eat healthy food; otherwise, their children could be born with diseases such as diabetes, depression, obesity, or even cancer.

            An oncologist at Duke University, North Carolina, Randy Jirtle found out along with his associates the reason of the alimentary effects on their offspring through an experiment on genetically similar mice that consisted in feeding one group of pregnant mice a standard diet, while the other group was provided with foods high in B12, folic acid, choline and betaine.

Jirtle thinks that the food that contained those elements provided the mice a supply of methyl molecules; as a consequence, the expression of any of the diseases mentioned at the beginning in the genome could have been inhibited. Unlike the first group, the rodents that were fed with extra nutrients bred babies that had less probability in their genes to develop diabetes, cancer or obesity.

Would this mean that the typical idea of “eating for two” would be definitely discarded? What else could help your babies to be born without any illness?

The universe as one

There is a study postulating that earth is shaped by the cosmos that surrounds it, especially by Saturn and Jupiter. To understand this we have to take into account how gravitation affects earth and everything that’s held within the universe. Let’s imagine the universe as a giant clock which machinery is synchronized to make each piece move coupled with the rest.

The effects of this synchronized movement on earth are tremendous, our climate has been determined by the shape of earth, and the shape was given by Saturn and Jupiter (among other bodies) with their continuous gravitation around earth.

Think about it, our climate has determined the evolution of humankind, for climate sake, entire tribes migrated from one place to another, then complete cultures changed their systems because of nature and climate, and all of this history led to our present state of evolution.

 Our modern society has elevated knowledge and understanding to levels never seen before, but there are still some questions about life itself that have not been answered even though our level of awareness.

Considering this, to think in our planets shape, and in us, as a part of this shape makes me wonder if our evolution among thousands of years has more relation with our cosmos that we though.

 For more info check this http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/12/971218090305.htm