Schizophrenia - Demographic Factors

While reading about schizophrenia I noticed some information that I believe is worth mentioned in this post. It is very interesting to know about the demographic factors that are related to schizophrenia.

1% of people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia at some point in life- if you get the total amount of people on this planet and then get the 1% of that it is a lot of people that we are talking about. Of course here we are talking about all cases from mild to severe.

Another point is that since mid-1900s schizophrenia has been declining over the years in many countries. Now, we have to think about what could be the possible explanation for this to occur. One possibility is that doctors could have been diagnosing schizophrenia differently, or could be that there is something that it is happening in our society that it’s contributing to this without us knowing what it is.

The fact of the matter is that this condition occurs in all parts of the world and in different ethnic groups, although it is more common in cities than in rural areas. Also it is more common in the United States and Europe than in Third World countries for reasons not well known.

On my last point I have to say that it got me thinking that if researchers do not have a well-known reason we can then speculate what could be the cause that schizophrenia is more common here in the United States and Europe than in Third World countries. At least I believe that since much of the symptoms of this condition are similar to those of the illegal drugs like LSD or PCP, like hallucinations and delusions, and here in this country we have a great deal of drug consumption, that it could have some relation to the last fact that I just mentioned. In some Third World countries they have these same types of conflicts but even then I still believe that drugs are a good reason why the rate of schizophrenia is higher here than other parts of the world.
Here is a graphic that I found on this webpage :http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/streetdrugs.html about the relation of consumption of cannabis and schizophrenia, my computer would not let me post it but you can go to the page and chek out the information there, it is very interesting.
I found a good video that let us know about the symptoms of schizophrenia, and since those resemble the ones of drug use, we then can get a good sense of what people with these conditions have to go thru.

ADHD

  For some time I thought that my son had ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) because of the way he behave, he is always doing two things at once, hyperactive, and it is a little difficult for him to concentrate when doing homework, etc.
After some reading about the subject my way of thinking about this condition change. There are so much information on the subject that I have no idea why I didn't look for it before, and there are many good videos that help, we just need to look at the right one to learn a little more, like the one on the link that I just post in this section. One important piece of information on that video is that even if you have some of the symptoms, that does not mean you have ADHD and only a doctor can give you an accurate diagnosis. Furthermore,  it states that children who are diagnose with this condition are given a stimulant to help with the symptoms. Now, on this particular information I was confused at the beginning, but I think I understand better now. I thought that by giving them a stimulant the symptoms would worsen, when in fact the medication stimulates the brain so that children can have a more normal behavior. It is actually simple once you pay attention to the information. Some of the stimulants use are Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine, etc.

Now it is my opinion that children shouldn't be given any kind of medication unless it is really necessary because they are still developing their bodies and more important their brains. Can you imagine a doctor diagnosing a child lightly when probably he does not have this condition. We have to be very careful about this. I found  another video that it gives you an alternative, here they are using meditation with ADHD children, and from what they said it worked on them. It is just a different approach to treat this condition. Just by watching these kids talk I can only imagine what they have to go thru at such young age. I will continue to work with my son even though his behavior is not that extreme, and I hope my post will help someone to understand better what ADHD means and how we can help someone with this condition.

The Immune System

The immune system consist of special cells that protect the body against bacterias, viruses, and other external agents like germs and other microorganisms. the immune system keeps people healthy by preventing infections.  Through a process called the immune response, the immune system attacks organisms and susbstances that invade the body and cause disease.
The immune system is composed of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together. The cells that are involved are called Leukocytes or white blood cells, and there are several types that combine to seek out and destroy the disease-causing organisms, including B cells, T cells, and Natural killer cells.
The B cells secrete antibodies, these are proteins that attach to some kind of antigens.
The T cells attack intruders directly and some of these cells help T or B cells to multiply.
The natural killer cells attack tumor cells and cells that are infected with viruses. Natural killer cells attack all kinds of intruders.
The immune system is an amazing mechanism that prorect your body, it is designed to defend us from millions of bacteria, viruses, toxins, etc that could invade our body. When someting dies the immune system shuts down, and in hours the body is invaded with all this bacterias and viruses. Nevertheless, this does not happen when the immune system is working,
It is a little complicated to understand the immune system, but it is also very interesting to learn how our body works and how it defend it self.
 Another important point to talk about is how when we get sick, the symptoms are part of the body's way to fight the illness. We could think that the symtppoms are something that the illness did to us, when in reality it is just a strategy for fighting the illness. Sleep is a way for the body to conserve energy so that the body can devote more energy to its immune attack against the intruders, and moderate fever helps fight the illness.
I found a very good video that helped me to understand the concept of the immune system and its functions. It is very interesting, I just wish to have wathched it before today :)

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/body_basics/immune.html

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

I decided to look more into Sleep Apnea because of my past experience with someone with this condition. I didn't even know it was a condition or the name of it. The only thing that I knew was that it was very disturbing to me.
I was married to someone who snored a LOT! Oh my God!, I had to move him so he could stop, and most of the time I tried to go to sleep first so I could get some rest. I even got to the point where I kicked him and he fell off the bed. I felt really bad later but it was frustrating. Then I started to notice that he would stop breathing for a few seconds, and then it went to almost a minute. It was scary watching that, I had to shake him a little of move him to the side and then he stopped.
Now that I did some reading on this topic I understand it better, although, still can be scary to watch someone going through this.
As you can see from what I said earlier, sleep apnea is a chronic condition in which you have several pauses in breathing while you are at sleep. These pauses can last for several seconds to even minutes, and they may occur up to 30 times or more an hour. As a result you ended up having a poor night sleep, you feel tired during the day. The most common type of sleep apnea is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea, with this condition, the airway collapses or gets blocked during sleep, and this causes shallow breathing or breathing pauses.
Obstructive sleep apnea is more common in people who are overweight, although this can affect anyone, like children who have enlarged tonsil tissues in their throats.
The picture below shows how a normal airway looks like and the difference between that and someone with obstructive sleep apnea, it sounds complicated but is not actually if we look at the picture.

I also found a short video that will help get a  better idea of this chronic condition, and how  there is a treatment available so we can improve the life of people during the day when they need to feel rested.

Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation is a term used to describe a person's emotional or sexual attraction for another person. If this person is attracted to another one of the same sex, then it is said that this person has a homosexual orientation, and individuals having a sexual attraction for the opposite sex are said to have a heterosexual orientation. Now, individuals who have a sexual orientation for both men and women are said to be bisexuals. Lets not confused sexual orientation with gender identity which is our internal sense of whether we are males or females, or social gender role, which is what our culture defines as feminine or masculine behavior.
Scientists cannot have the exact reasons of what causes an individual to develop a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation.  There are a lot of research conducted to find the possible genetic, hormonal, social, and cultural developments of sexual orientation, but no findings have emerged that let scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor. Although many people experienced little or no sense of choice in sexual orientation, some argued that probably nature and nurture play a role in this.

All major national mental organizations are concerned with therapy for trying to modify individuals sexual orientation. Until today there are no adequate scientific research to show that therapy will somehow change or modify sexual orientation. Furthermore, therapy tend to have a negative response, and instead of modify the behavior, it reinforce it even more.
Here I found a good video that I think it is very informative that look at twin boys and how they can be so different, also this study shows that nurture was not a cause, there is a part 2 that I did not add but you can look it up.

 

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a condition that people have in which stimulation of one sense is experienced by the perception of another sense. What I mean by combination of senses is that you can smelled something and see colors, or hear a  noise and taste something, or hear music and seen colors. A little confusing? it is actually fairly simple.  Now, the perception of a person with synesthesia not always perceive a direct trading of two senses. They can also associate colors with letters or numbers, for example saying that the  number 7 is green or that the letter Y is yellow. Words will have a unique color based on the component letters. Is not only associating a letter or a number with a color, but they can actually see the color in a letter or even when they thing of letters and numbers.

Synesthesia can be describe as a condition and not as a handicap or a disability, it is just a different way of processing sensory information. A person with this condition will probably feel strange at the beginning when trying to describe the colors of their alphabet or things they taste when listening to music, but they will feel better and will embrace it with time.
There are some videos of people with synesthesia that tried to explain their condition, that I found very informative and that will help you understand the concept better. Well, at least videos always help me understand a concept better than reading about it. I hope it helps...

Memory Types

It was somehow confusing to me about different types of memory, some sounded similar and others not so much. That is why I did a little research to learn more about this topic, of course now I am thinking of why I did not seek this information before.
What are the different types of memory? Well, the memory system has been divided into two broad categories, declarative and non declarative. The declarative memory system is the system that has a conscious component and includes memories of facts and events. An even like a vacation, or a fact like the capital of the United States. Non declarative memory, also called implicit memory, is the type of  memory that do not have a conscious component, although, that do not mean that is not important. These include skills and habits, like driving a car, or playing the guitar. Declarative memory is knowing what, and non declarative memory is knowing how.

FMRI's and PET scans allows one to see areas of the brain that are active during specific tasks. If a person is put in the FMRI and given a memory test, we can see which areas of the brain are active during that specific task, and that activity could be related to where exactly in the brain the memory is processed and stored.
One classic study in the localization of memory was the result of the surgery performed to Henry Molaison. He was known by the scientific community as H.M. he suffered severe attacks of epilepsy and the only way to treat him was by performing an operation where they would remove the hippocampus to alleviate the seizures, and indeed helped him with that. But there was a major effect from the removal of the hippocampus, it affected his memory, specially after the surgery he was not able to form new memories. Nevertheless, he was able to form new memories from skills and habits.
I tried to post a video of H.M. but I could not find something that I really like, so, instead I will post a video about how our memory works, is a little bit long but worth watching...enjoy