Mercury enters the environment in unnatural levels through coal plants and other industries. Mercury accumulates in the air and then falls into waterways, where it is converted into methylmercury. Fish and seafood living in the ecosystem absorb the methylmercury, which enters the human system through consumption of these products. Methylmercury is a known neurotoxin, especially for a vulnerable developing fetus. Extremely high levels of methylmercury exposure have produced birth defects such as cerebral palsy and retardation. My question is, should pregnant women consume fish for the benefits of fatty acids or shy away in fear of methylmercury exposure?

In my talk I will focus on one study by Oken et al. who compared children’s (?) cognitive ability with levels of mercury measured in mothers who had unknowingly consumed contaminated seafood .

I am interested in the supplemental and dietary intake of nutrients such as iron, zinc, and folic acid during pregnancy and what interactions among these nutrients can means for both the mother and the neonate. Questions that interest me are, What are the effects both on the mother and the neonate of too little zinc? Too little iron? Too little folic acid? How, on a chemical level, does iron and folic acid bring down the levels of zinc? What studies have been done on the subject, and what are the various arguments? Considering the interactions between these three nutrients, what should the daily supplementation suggestion be for pregnant women?

In my talk I will discuss a study done by Kimberly O’Brien in 2005 that looked at whether or not the mother can upregulate the necessary nutrients if she is lacking for some of them. I found that there was no clear evidence to show that anyone had figured out how folic acid e affects zinc on a chemical level. However, a few studies posed hypothesis, and I will discuss the most prominent one.

Global Warming is today one of the most prevalent issues confronting the world. It has resulted from various emissions from activities that the people of today greatly rely on for basic daily activities, such as driving a car, using electricity, or heating their homes. One practice that has been particularly harmful on the environment is the mining of coal. The production and use of coal requires the combustion of fossil fuels, an activity that release uncountable chemicals and pollutants into the atmosphere. These pollutants are able to remain in the air for untold amounts of time and are able to travel great distances, making it easily accessible for people to inhale the chemicals in the air.

The inhalation of various substances released from the burning of fossil fuels could potentially lead to a wide range of diseases and sicknesses, and it is the various ill health effects of coal mining that I focus on in my paper. In my talk, I will discuss one study that focuses on the effects certain pollutants (HERE BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHICH ONE YOU WILL TALK ABOUT) on the incidence of (HERE SAY WHICH CONDITION OR DISEASE YOU WILL FOCUS ON).

Dementia is a broad term that encompases a variety of conditions. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, but stroke can also cause dementia resulting in a condition referred to as Subcortical Ischemic Vascular Disease (SIVD). At present we are still unsure as to the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease, although several risk factors have been identified. In contrast, scientists are quite familiar with the pathology (clinical progression) of the disease. In Alzheimer’s disease degeneration occurs in the forebrain structures, namely the neocortex, limbic system, and the basal ganglia, all of which are strongly associated with memory. It also causes degeneration on a neural level resulting in the accumulation of neuritic plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, the loss of dendritic spines, and the loss of cholingergic neurons, which produce the neurotransmitter crucial to memory.

In my talk I will focus on a study by Mungus et al. on the MRI predictors of cognition in SIVD. These scientists illuminate the clinical features of SIVD, particularly as they relate to Alzheimer’s disease. Their findings reveal that the dementia caused by SIVD and Alzheimer’s disease are caused by damage in the same regions of the brain.

My paper is based on a review of two studies dealing with issues of childbirth.  The first (Boulvain et al.) focuses on the risks factors of inducing labor in uncomplicated term pregnancies.  Data from a Canadian hospital showed that women who had no prelabor complications and decided to induce labor anyway ended up having a much higher likelihood of undergoing complications during labor, such as cesarean section, dystocia, and the need of pain medications.  The second study looked at the controversial Vaginal Birth After Cesarean, and concluded that having a vaginal birth is no more dangerous than a second cesarean, so long as the birth happens in a place equipped to handle an emergency, should one occur. 

In this talk I’m going to look at the natural process of birth and how that can be thrown off course when a medical intervention is used with no real need for it.  Preeclampsia, PROM, gestational diabetes, and other prelabor complications constitute "real" need for induction of labor, because the mother and child both are know to benefit from an artificially begun and monitored labor.  I will describe the biology of the hormones in labor, the process of cesarean section, and the social opinion and ramifications of labor induction and review the study by Boulvain et al.

Maintaining a healthy dietary pattern that is especially high in vegetables, fruit, and fiber has long been studied and linked to breast cancer prevention and survival. Breast cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrollable growth and spread of abnormal cells in the breasts. Along with numerous risk factors for breast cancer, diet is listed as one. As much investigation has been focused upon nutrition, this essay will be condensing scientific information to see if there are possible associations between breast cancer and diet therapy. Antioxidants such as vitamins A, E, and C have been shown to provide the human body with benefits beyond that of basic nutrients. Research found that antioxidants provide cells with an extra layer of protection against damages caused by free radicals. Along with functional foods, researchers discovered green tea and soy to have anticancer benefits as well. Although a number of studies have inconclusive results, much of its data information provided a basis for my research. A study by Rosenblatt and his colleagues’ prompted further investigation because their study did not find strong associations between dietary factors and breast cancer among men.

In my talk I will discuss the study by Thompson et al. who examined the relationship between increased fiber and fat intake on recurrence of cancer in women who had been previously treated for invasive breast cancer.

It is the popular opinion of the general American public that the immune system is affected by the environmental factors of stress and sleep deprivation.  It is not an uncommon belief that the more stress a person is under, the weaker that person’s immune system will be.  Another widely held belief is that a certain amount of sleep is necessary for proper immune function.  This concept of immune function being tied to stress and sleep deprivation seems logical.  Stress is, by definition, a strain on many biological systems, and sleep is a basic need for survival.  It makes sense that an excessive amount of stress and decreased sleep, either together or separately, compromise the immune system.  Many studies have gone beyond the question of whether or not stress and sleep deprivation affect the immune system and have moved onto how they do so.

In this talk I will focus on a study done by Shakhar et al. in which they examined the link between Natural Killer Cell Activity, or NKCA, and the amount of sleep that subjects were getting. 

I am interested in the efficiency of different dietary supplements that athletes and body builders use that lead to muscle hypertrophy. Research I found examines the effects of supplements such as creatine, milk and soy-based protein supplements and shakes in increasing muscle growth, endurance and sex hormones. In addition, one of the research questions is if dietary supplements had effects on hormone levels, and if it does, do sex hormones such as estradiol and testosterone have any effect on the potential of muscle hypertrophy? I reviewed two studies, one on possible differences of milk-based (animal) protein versus soy-based (vegetable) protein sources (Kalman et al.) and the other is by Englehaedt et al. on creatine supplementation in endurance sports.

In my talk, I will discuss the study by Kalman et al. on the effects of soy and milk protein sources and resistance exercise on body composition and sex hormone levels.

The human heart and its associated circulatory system can be considered to be the headquarters of energy supply for all parts of the body. All cells are supplied by the blood that is pumped by the heart. Damage to the heart or blood vessels can lead to some tissues being deprived of blood and, consequently, oxygen and nutrients. Diseases of the heart and its associated blood vessels are very serious problems, both for the sufferers and for the population at large. Accordingly, much research has been done to prevent such diseases and to find cures and better treatments when they do occur.

I will look at how a myocardial infarction occurs and research about how it can be prevented by predicting when it may occur. I will also look at research that has tested a method of treatment. Both of these factors have saved many lives and are great fields for more exploratory research to be done.

Fear is an emotion that influences human interactions, affecting qualities of life such as safety and health. The influence of fear extends from individual to large-scale societal reactions to threatening stimuli. Fear of pain, death and the unknown motivate intraspecific competition, and those with the most power will use it to maintain a position of power, sometimes through violence.

In my paper I concentrate on the individual reaction to a threatening stimulus, discussing the biological fear response, instrumental hormones that modulate physiological responses, and anatomical differences in the brain that can affect fear response. In my talk I will describe these underlying biological structures that mediate fear responses and will present a study investigating the correlations between brain anatomy and the lack of fear response in psychopaths by comparing the brains of a psychopathic test group with a normal test group during fear conditioning using fMRI technology.

It is imperative to human health that we maintain a certain level of vitamins. Without the proper intake of a variety of vitamins and minerals the body and all of its organs are unable to function at the levels needed to survive. This is why it is important to be aware of ways our bodies use nutrients that we absorb from food. I was initially attracted to writing a paper on all of these different kinds of nutrients, but after starting research found myself particularly interested in B vitamins and iron. The question that was raised was what effects a deficiency in any of the B vitamins or iron would have on the body. Also do age and gender have impacts on the side-effects of deficiency?

In my discussion I will provide backround about what vitamins are needed for a healthy lifestyle and what food sources they come from. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has constructed a food pyramid to make understanding this information easier. I have reviewed two primary articles that thoroughly discuss iron and B vitamins, and in my talk I will focus mainly on the article concerning vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous diets. I will provide backround about common nutrient deficiencies for these diets and then review the evidence found in the article. I will talk briefly about why it is important not to make assumptions about one’s health based on dietary restrictions or lack thereof.

The Ebola virus is one of the most deadly pathogens that has emerged into the human population in the last 40 years.  As such many have been drawn to look into the genetic code of the virus to discover how and where the virus will spread in the future.  The virus itself is a simple collection of seven proteins that encapsulate a strand of RNA.  When the virus infects a human it will quickly break down the connective tissues and organs resulting in a mortality rate ranging from 50%-90%.  I ask the question of what is Ebola, how does the virus evolve, and where is it going in the future.  I compared two articles which reveal how the virus has moved throughout central Africa, and how the virus has evolved to this point.

In my talk, I will focus on one of these studies (say which one) and will give some background about how the immune system typically responds to pathogens and suggest some parts of this process that scientists are examining to understand how the Ebola virus escapes being killed.

 

In the search for possible contributions to the staple practices of preventive medicine, one food, the açaí berry, has been noted as having high antioxidant content and thus might help prevent the degenerative effects of oxidation in the body, as well as being a berry which can be harvested sustainably. This means that the mass production of açaí would not have much of a detrimental effect on the environment and people’s health in order to supply a large number of people with antioxidant supplementation. Thus, I explore açaí’s potential value in having antioxidants.

To start my talk, I will discuss the roles of antioxidants and prooxidants in healthcare, noting particularly the roles that antioxidants play in alleviating cell and DNA damage. To explore clinical support for açaí’s antioxidant content I will discuss an oft-cited study which notes that açaí has high antioxidant content and is effective against some particularly aggressive prooxidants, along with noting that the more pulp there is in an açaí beverage, the higher the antioxidant content of the beverage will be. I will then show how the results of this study allow us to safely say that regular consumption of a (preferably) high-pulp content açaí beverage would provide someone with an array of powerful antioxidants.