Pumpkins to the Rescue

In the spirit of the Halloween weekend, I thought I'd bring you all a rather festive report to get you in the mood. With kids counting down the hours until their candy conquest and parents stocking up on sugary ammunition, the spirit of the holiday is in full effect. Even medical researchers are getting into it. In a new study conducted in Korea, scientists have found that the tricked out jack-o-lantern sitting on your proch may be pretty valuable.

As microbes are evolving, existing antibiotics are becoming less effective in the fight against disease. Scientists everywhere are constantly researching to find effective treatments and new antibiotics. Likewise, Kyung-Soo Hahm and colleagues have long heard of medical benefits from pumpkins and decided to put it to the test. They extracted proteins from pumpkin skin and found that one protein had very powerful effects in preventing the growth of Candida albicans, a fungus that causes yeast infections in women and diaper rash in infants. After further studies, the hope to develop the protein into a natural medicine to prevent fungal infections in humans.

Does that mean the list of top pumpkin inventions will not only include pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, and pumpkin cheesecake, but also...pumpkin Vagisil?!

Happy Halloween!

Cheers

Since turning 21 less than a month ago, I go out of my way to find reasons to include alcohol in various aspects of my day. And you can just imagine the magic that unfolded when I stumbled onto the following two articles. (NO, I wasn't drunk at the time, I swear.) So, if you like the vino, pay attention.

"Red wine with red meat, white wine with fish." Although I've only been legally drinking for a few weeks, as a devoted fan of the Food Network and an aspiring Top Chef, even I was aware of this tasty decree. This general rule has helped numerous beginner wine-drinkers to avoid the very fishy aftertaste caused by the pairing of seafood and some red wines. But what causes this exactly? Takayuki Tamura and colleagues in Japan have found a consistent way to predict which wines will trigger the unwanted aftertaste. Participants in the experiment tasted several red and white wines while eating scallops. Scientists concluded that wines containing high amounts of iron caused a more intense fishy taste.They checked this theory by placing iron binding substances in these wines which diminished the fishy aftertaste. Iron also happens to be responsible for the red hue in some wines.

I doubt many winemakers list their nutritional facts on the back of the bottle, but just remember it like this: "fish don't like red." Ahh, chemistry and food, I think I've found my dream job.

Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany could not resist getting in on the action, so they tested the effects of wine on teeth. Their new study found that the acidity in white wine breaks down enamel, causing tooth erosion. Red wine, on the other hand, has less acidity, and therefore, decreased effects over the same time period. But don't toss your bottle opener just yet, there are a few easy steps to reverse the problem, including CHEESE. Having cheese as a dessert or even pairing it with your wine -- which, in my opinion, is the best way to drink wine -- allows the high concentration of calcium to protect your teeth. Or if you're crazy and don't particularly like cheese, drinking wine with any food is beneficial because the saliva produced form chewing will dilute the acid. As long as you're not downing a box of Franzia with a merlot back, I think you're safe. Drink responsibly and SALUTE!

Google It, Ma!

UCLA scientists found that middle-aged and older adults can highly benefit from Google-ing a few times a week. In a recent study, 24 volunteers between the ages of 55 and 78, half the participants used the internet daily while the other half had very little experience. The volunteers were asked to perform web searches while undergoing fMRI scans. The initial scans are represented above in blue. The internet "savvy" volunteers presented more brain activity.

After this initial scan, the participants went home and performed internet searches of certain topics for one hour a day for a total of seven days over a two-week period. The participants returned for a second scan while searching other topics on the internet. These results are in red. Both internet savvy and inexperienced presented brain activity in the same areas of the brain. Thus, after a brief period of training at home, individuals who have barely used the internet before were able to enhance their brain activity to match those who have used the internet much more.

What does this mean? This means that something as simple as web searches can be a great brain exercise to enhance cognition in older adults. Online searches involve using a working memory and the ability to judge important and relevant information to extract. So, next time your Mom asks you a question, you know what to say.

Pricey Prophylactic

Sorry evolution, but it looks like uncontrollable hormones and a healthy sexual curiosity just may stop you in your tracks. Referred to by some as a girl's smartest move or man's best friend, "the pill" is a norm in today's liberal society. For girls, it's a small price to pay to avoid the miracle of life at an unwanted time in their lives. For guys, well, you can connect the dots. But as with anything that even remotely has to do with sex, birth control pills have been a very controversial subject since their introduction in the early 1960s.

Opponents to the pill have argued that it's unnatural and unhealthy to put chemicals into your body that change the natural order of normal biological functions. Others have said that it just allows generations to be exposed to sex when they are too young. Others simply say that it promotes sexual promiscuity among the drunk, wild, hormone-driven youths who now don't have to worry about a possible bun in the oven after a one night stand.

A paper released by Trends in Ecology and Evolution reviewing past research suggests that birth control pills may be affecting mate choice among both sexes in a way that can be detrimental to a female's reproductive success.

Studies have found that partner preferences vary significantly according to hormonal fluctuations associated with a woman's menstrual cycle. During ovulation, woman tend to exhibit a preference towards "manly men" -- lumberjacks, ninjas, pirates, etc. They become more attracted to men with burly, masculine facial features, that show dominance, and are competitive. It has also been found that women prefer men who are genetically different from themselves. As for men, studies show that men can detect a woman's fertility status and gravitate towards ovulating women -- it's our sixth sense apparently.

The main problem with the pill is that it interrupts the natural process of menstruation. Basically, birth control pills are synthetic hormones that mimic the way real estrogen and progestin work in a woman's body and prevent ovulation, tricking the body into believing it's pregnant. Therefore, without the fluctuating hormones associated with he menstrual cycle, females and males are prevented from picking suitable mates for the reproductive process.

This becomes a problem because most men and women prefer to date, get to know each other, and maybe even get married before having children these days. If a woman found her partner while on the pill and stays on it until the couple decides to try and have a baby, they may not be an ideal pair for reproductive success.

Firstly, since women are attracted to men who are genetically dissimilar during ovulation and studies have shown that genetic similarity in couples is linked to infertility, the couple could have difficulty in conceiving a child since the pill would have caused the female to choose a more genetically similar male than ideal. And if they do have children, their child could possibly too homozygous due to the decrease in genetic variation, which can lead to decreased perceived health and immune deficiencies.

Furthermore, since pill users would not be ovulating, men are less likely to be attracted to them, cutting a woman's pool of possible mates much smaller. This is compiled by the fact that they would be competing against non-pill using woman for mates, keep in mind that these women still ovulate with the best of them.

Information on the pill has been published in numerous journals and periodicals over the years. I do understand that the menstruation cycle does have an effect over mate choice, but I believe that as humans, we're not controlled significantly by these hormones in the long term. Mate selection for the long term is much different than the animalistic desires relevant to hormone fluctuations; most women don't break up with their boyfriends just because it happens to be that time of the month -- well not solely based on hormonal reasons at least.