Since time in memorial sex has been used for different purposes apart from procreation. The other known purposes of sex include business, leisure and weapon e.g in rape. Below are other benefits of sex which have been researched on scientifically 1. Boosts immunity
Psychologists in Pennsylvania have shown that people who have sex once or twice a week get a boost to their immune systems. Regular sex increases levels of the antibody immunoglobin, which means greater immune resistance.
2. Good for the heart
Results of a study recently published in the American Journal of Cardiology show that men who have regular sex are up to 45 per cent less likely to develop fatal heart conditions than those who only have sex once a month or less.
3. Reduces stress
Researchers have found that sex and physical intimacy lead women to feel less stressed and are in a better mood the following day.
I live my life outside
of the box because when I die they're going to put me into one!
Many times in this
life, people will try to tell you what you can and cannot do. They will also
try to tell you who you are and who you are not. DON’T LET ANYBODY DEFINE YOU!
When I was a kid, I had a teacher tell me that I would never be a millionaire
because I was black and the system was set up to keep me down. This was a
TEACHER! Can you believe that? I’m so glad that my little boy mind didn’t accept
that. I have often been told that I wouldn’t make it because I was poor or
because of the color of my skin. I had family members tell me I would never
make it and my dreams would never come true for one reason or another... boy
were they wrong. If I had listened to any of those voices I wouldn’t be here
writing this to you. Hear me when I say this to you: no matter what anyone says
to you, LIVE YOUR LIFE!! Follow that still small voice inside of you. That is
GOD’s Holy Spirit and I think we all have the capacity to hear that voice. We
just need to still ourselves to hear it. You must silence all the outside
voices in order to hear THE voice. I try to stay as clear as I can so that I
can hear it. It’s not always easy, but necessary.
This is your life. Make
decisions based on your own path. Let no one define it for you!
If you live the life
everyone else wants you to live and you never live the life you want to live, and
then are you really living??
THE STORY BEGINS.......On September 13, 1848, the then 25-year-old Gage was working as the
foreman of a crew preparing a railroad bed near Cavendish, Vermont. He
was using an iron tamping rod to pack explosive powder into a hole.
Unfortunately, the powder detonated, sending the 43 inch long and 1.25
inch diameter rod hurtling upward. The rod penetrated Gage's left cheek,
tore through his brain, and exited his skull before reportedly landing
some 80 feet away.
Shockingly, Gage not only survived the initial injury but was able to
speak and walk to a nearby cart so he could be taken into town to be
seen by a doctor. Dr. Edward H. Williams, the first physician to respond
later described what he found:
"I first noticed the wound upon the head before I alighted
from my carriage, the pulsations of the brain being very distinct. Mr.
Gage, during the time I was examining this wound, was relating the
manner in which he was injured to the bystanders. I did not believe Mr.
Gage's statement at that time, but thought he was deceived. Mr. Gage
persisted in saying that the bar went through his head… Mr. G. got up
and vomited; the effort of vomiting pressed out about half a teacupful
of the brain, which fell upon the floor."
Soon after, Dr. John Martyn Harlow, took over the case. It is through
Harlow's observations of the injury and his later descriptions of
Gage's mental changes that provide much of the primary information that
we now know about the case. Harlow described the initial aftermath of
the accident as "literally one gore of blood."
Later in a published description of the case, Harlow wrote that Gage
was still conscious later that evening and was able to recount the names
of his co-workers. Gage even suggested that he didn't wish to see his
friends, since he would be back to work in "a day or two" anyways.
After developing an infection, Gage then spent September 23 to
October 3 in a semi-comatose state. On October 7, he took his first
steps out of bed and by October 11 his intellectual functioning began to
improve. Harlow noted that Gage knew how much time had passed since the
accident and remembered clearly how the accident occurred, but had
difficulty estimating size and amounts of money. Within a month, Gage
was even venturing out of the house and into the street.
The Aftermath
In the months that followed, Gage returned to his parent's home in
New Hampshire to recuperate. When Harlow saw Gage again the following
year, the doctor noted that while Gage had lost vision in his eye and
was left with obvious scars from the accident, he was in good physical
health and appeared recovered.
Unable to return to his railroad job, Gage held a series of jobs
including work in a livery stable, a stagecoach driver in Chile and farm
work in California. Popular reports of Gage often depict him as a
hardworking, pleasant man prior to the accident. Post-accident, these
reports describe him as a changed man, suggesting that the injury had
transformed him into a surly, aggressive drunkard who was unable to hold
down a job.
The myths surround the effects of Gage's injury seem to have grown
after his death, and many of these claims are not supported by any
direct evidence from primary sources.
Neither Harlow nor any others who had actual contact with Gage reported
any of these behaviors. "Phineas' story is worth remembering because it
illustrates how easily a small stock of facts becomes transformed into
popular and scientific myth," explains psychologist Malcolm Macmillan,
author of An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage.
So was Gage's personality as changed as some of the reports after his
death have claimed? Recently, Macmillian has suggested that the most
marked changes in Gage may have been limited to the period of time
immediately after the accident. Evidence suggests that many of the
supposed effects of the accident were exaggerated and that he was
actually far more functional than previously reported.
In 1968, Harlow presented the first account of the changes in Gage's behavior following the accident:
"The equilibrium or balance, so to speak, between his
intellectual faculties and animal propensities, seems to have been
destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest
profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little
deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it
conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet
capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operations,
which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others
appearing more feasible. A child in his intellectual capacity and
manifestations, he has the animal passions of a strong man. Previous to
his injury, although untrained in the schools, he possessed a
well-balanced mind, and was looked upon by those who knew him as a
shrewd, smart businessman, very energetic and persistent in executing
all his plans of operation. In this regard his mind was radically
changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was 'no
longer Gage.'"
Since there is little direct evidence of the exact extent of Gage's
injuries aside from Harlow's report, it is difficult to know exactly how
severely his brain was damaged. Harlow's accounts suggest that the
injury did lead to a loss of social inhibition, leading Gage to behave
in ways that were seen as inappropriate.
In a 1994 study, researchers utilized neuroimaging techniques
to reconstruct Gage's skull and determine the exact placement of the
injury. Their findings indicate that he suffered injury to both the left
and right prefrontal cortices, which would result in problems with
emotional processing and rational decision making. Another study
conducted in 2004 that involved using three-dimensional, computer aided
reconstruction to analyze the extent of Gage's injury, and found that
the effects were limited to the left frontal lobe.
In 2012, new research led by Jack Van Horn of UCLA's Laboratory of
Neuroimaging (LONI) reanalyzed the high-resolution scans from the 2004
study to re-estimate the path of the projectile as it passed through
Gage's skull. They then utilized data from 110 healthy individuals from
their data archive to produce a generalized map of the brain in order to
better understand the connections that would have been impacted. Based
upon this research, Van Horn and his colleagues estimate that the iron
rod destroyed approximately 11-percent of the white matter in Gage's
frontal lobe, and 4-percent of his cerebral cortex.
LIFE AFTER THE INJURY
After the accident, Gage was unable to return to his previous job and his personality changed completely.According to Harlow, Gage spent some time traveling through New England
and Europe with his tamping iron in order to earn money, supposedly even
appearing in the Barnum American Museum in New York. Like many aspects
of Gage's case, however, this is difficult to verify.
He worked briefly at a livery stable in New Hampshire and then spent
seven years as a stagecoach driver in Chile. He eventually moved to San
Francisco to live with his mother as his health deteriorated. After
suffering a series of epileptic seizures, Gage died on May 20, 1860,
almost 13 years after his accident.
Seven years later, Gage's body was exhumed and his skull and the
tamping rod were taken to Dr. Harlow. Today, both can be seen at the
Harvard University School of Medicine.
Trichotillomania is an impulse control disorder in which the affected
person repeatedly pulls out hair from any part of the body for
non-cosmetic reasons. Owing to the compulsive nature of this behavior,
it has been suggested that trichotillomania may be a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Recurrent pulling out of one’s hair resulting in noticeable hair loss.
An increasing sense of tension immediately prior to pulling out the hair or when attempting to resist the behavior.
Pleasure, gratification, or relief when pulling out the hair.
The disturbance is not better accounted for by another mental
disorder and is not due to a general medical condition such as alopecia
areta.
The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or
impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of
functioning.
Who Gets Trichotillomania?
trichotillomania is a relatively rare illness, affecting less than 1%
of the population. trichotillomania can affect people of all ages;
however, it appears to be much more common among children and
adolescents than adults. It has been suggested that the nature of
trichotillomania differs on the age at which it begins.
Young children (less than 5 years old)
In very young children, trichotillomania has been compared to other
habits such as thumb-sucking or nail biting. Children less than 5 years
old often pull their hair out unknowingly or even while they sleep. In
the same way that thumb-sucking stops spontaneously for most children,
the majority of children who begin to pull their hair at this early age
will stop on their own.
Preadolescents and Young Adults
The most common age for trichotillomania to begin is between 9 to 13
years of age. Interestingly, the majority of people (70% to 90%)
affected with trichotillomania at this age are female. Among people
whose trichotillomania begins at this age, the disease tends to be
chronic in nature. In addition, these individuals often have oral
rituals associated with hair pulling, such as chewing or licking of the
lips or even the eating of hair.
Adults
trichotillomania which occurs for the first time in adults may be
secondary to another psychiatric illness. Addressing the main
psychiatric illness may bring about an end to the secondary
trichotillomania.
Trichotillomania Diagnosis
Because trichotillomania can resemble other medical conditions associated with hair loss such as alopecia areta,
diagnosis of trichotillomania often requires both a dermatological and
psychiatric evaluation. Diagnosis may be complicated as alopecia areata
itself can sometimes trigger trichotillomania. In both adolescents and
adults, a trichotillomania diagnosis may be further hampered by the
person’s reluctance to disclose their hair pulling behavior.
Trichotillomania Treatment
Treatment of trichotillomania is often unnecessary for very young
children as they usually grow out of it. However, for people with
adolescent-onset trichotillomania, treatment may be necessary --
especially if it is suspected that the individual is consuming their own
hair, which can cause dangerous blockages in the gastrointestinal
system.
Cognitive and behavioral techniques have demonstrated some
efficacy in treating trichotillomania. Prominent among these is habit
reversal therapy. Habit reversal therapy involves self-monitoring of
behaviors, improving coping strategies, increasing social support and
relaxation therapy.
At present, there is limited evidence that medications such as selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) are effective in treating trichotillomania.
Over the weekend i met a friend who is struggling with poor sleep patterns. One of the indicators that something is a miss in our mental health is abrupt change in our sleeping pattern. Sleep is important in our life to boast our memory and our immunity. The following are some of the tips I offered my friend and I also hope they will help you out too.
Get up and go to bed at the same time every day, even on weekends. We are creatures of habit, and our sleep is no exception. Once you determine your sleep needs, you should meet those needs every day. By consistently going to bed and getting up at the same time, we condition our body to follow a regular pattern of sleep. This allows our body’s natural clock, called a circadian rhythm, to help initiate and maintain our sleep.
Make sure your sleep environment is quiet, dark, cool, and comfortable. Studies find that sleeping in a cool environment is most conducive to sleep. By eliminating excess noise and light, we can minimize the disruptions that might wake us up. In addition, the bedroom should be a relaxing place and not a source of stress.
Bedrooms are for sleeping and sex, not for watching television, indulging your pets, or doing work. Somehow we have managed to make the bedroom a multipurpose room. All electronics must be removed! Televisions, gaming systems, computers, telephones, and various other gadgets are stimulating and disruptive to sleep. Don’t allow them in your bedroom and don’t use them in the brief period before going to bed. Even the small amount of light from a computer screen in the evening hours can stimulate your brain into thinking it is time to be awake. It is also important to remove your pets from the bedroom as they can disrupt your sleep. Moreover, do not use the bedroom to do work as these activities are likewise stimulating and will disrupt your sleep.
Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine 4-6 hours before bedtime. Caffeine can be found in expected places like coffee, soda pop, or tea, but also in unexpected foods like chocolate. As a stimulant it will keep you awake, even if used nearly six hours before bed. Likewise, nicotine will disrupt your sleep. And contrary to common practice, an alcoholic “nightcap” can actually make your sleep worse. Though it may cause you to become drowsy, alcohol fragments the stages of your sleep and makes it more disrupted.
Don’t take naps. The period of time that you are awake adds to something called “sleep drive.” The longer we stay awake, the more we want to go to sleep. By taking a nap we can relieve this desire to sleep, but it will also make it less likely that we will be able to easily go to sleep later. Adults should have a consolidated period of sleep at night without additional naps. If there is excessive daytime sleepiness and desire to nap, in spite of adequate sleep time, this might suggest a sleep disorder warranting further evaluation.
Exercise every day, but avoid doing it 4 hours before bedtime. Staying active and physically fit is an excellent way to ensure a good night’s sleep. However, doing this too close to bedtime may actually cause difficulties in getting to sleep as your body will still be revved up.
Develop sleep rituals which include quiet activities, such as reading, 15 minutes before bedtime. Just like we maintain for children, adults need daily sleep rituals prior to going to bed to allow us to unwind and mentally prepare for going to sleep. These rituals should include quiet activities such as reading, listening to relaxing music, or even taking a nice bath.
If you are having trouble getting to sleep, as occurs in insomnia, don’t struggle in bed or you will train yourself to have difficulties there. Individuals who have difficulty initiating sleep often toss and turn in bed and try to force sleep to come. As this is repeated, night after night, this sets up a situation where we associate our bed with the anxiety of not being able to sleep. If you are unable to get to sleep within 15 minutes, go to another quiet place and lie down until you feel ready to fall asleep, and then return to your bedroom to sleep.
There are many things that can ruin your sleep, and you should avoid eating or drinking in the few hours right before going to bed, as these might lead to disruptions of your sleep. Discomfort with heartburn or acid reflux as well as needing to get up multiple times to urinate can be very disruptive to a good night’s sleep. It is best to avoid setting up these situations by not eating or drinking in the few hours just prior to bedtime.
Make sleep a priority: don’t sacrifice sleep to do daytime activities. The most important advice is to respect that your body needs to sleep. Too often we are likely to allow our sleep time to be infringed upon when our daytime obligations take longer than we expect. Additionally, opportunities to engage in pleasurable activities--visiting friends, watching television, playing on the internet, eating out, and any number of others--quickly cut into our sleep time if we allow them to. It is important to schedule your sleep time and keep to that schedule, no matter what might come up during the day.
1. Memory Improvement Basics
I've written before about some of the best ways to improve memory. Basic tips such as improving focus, avoiding cram sessions and structuring your study time are a good place to start, but there are even more lessons from psychology that can dramatically improve your learning efficiency.
2. Keep Learning (and Practicing) New Things
One sure-fire way to become a more effective learner is to simply keep learning. A 2004 Nature article reported that people who learned how to juggle increased the amount of gray matter in their occipital lobes, the area of the brain is associated with visual memory.
So if you're learning a new language, it is important to keep practicing the language in order to maintain the gains you have achieved. This "use-it-or-lose-it" phenomenon involves a brain process known as "pruning." Certain pathways in the brain are maintained, while other are eliminated. If you want the new information you just learned to stay put, keep practicing and rehearsing it.
3. Learn in Multiple Ways
Focus on learning in more than one way. Instead of just listening to a podcast, which involves auditory learning, find a way to rehearse the information both verbally and visually. This might involve describing what you learned to a friend, taking notes or drawing a mind map. By learning in more than one way, you’re further cementing the knowledge in your mind. According to Judy Willis, “The more regions of the brain that store data about a subject, the more interconnection there is. This redundancy means students will have more opportunities to pull up all of those related bits of data from their multiple storage areas in response to a single cue. This cross-referencing of data means we have learned, rather than just memorized.”
4. Teach What You've Learned to Another Person
Educators have long noted that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to someone else. Remember your seventh-grade presentation on Costa Rica? By teaching to the rest of the class, your teacher hoped you would gain even more from the assignment. You can apply the same principle today by sharing your newly learned skills and knowledge with others.
Start by translating the information into your own words. This process alone helps solidify new knowledge in your brain. Next, find some way to share what you’ve learned. Some ideas include writing a blog post, creating a podcast or participating in a group discussion.
5. Utilize Previous Learning to Promote New Learning
Another great way to become a more effective learner is to use relational learning, which involves relating new information to things that you already know. For example, if you are learning about Romeo and Juliet, you might associate what you learn about the play with prior knowledge you have about Shakespeare, the historical period in which the author lived and other relevant information.
6. Gain Practical Experience
For many of us, learning typically involves reading textbooks, attending lectures or doing research in the library or on the Web. While seeing information and then writing it down is important, actually putting new knowledge and skills into practice can be one of the best ways to improve learning. If you are trying to acquire a new skill or ability, focus on gaining practical experience. If it is a sport or athletic skill, perform the activity on a regular basis. If you are learning a new language, practice speaking with another person and surround yourself with immersive experiences.
7. Look Up Answers Rather Than Struggle to Remember
Of course, learning isn’t a perfect process. Sometimes, we forget the details of things that we have already learned. If you find yourself struggling to recall some tidbit of information, research suggests that you are better offer simply looking up the correct answer. One study found that the longer you spend trying to remember the answer, the more likely you will be to forget the answer again in the future. Why? Because these attempts to recall previously learned information actually results in learning the "error state" instead of the correct response.
8. Understand How You Learn Best
Another great strategy for improving your learning efficiency is to recognize your learning habits and styles. There are a number of different theories about learning styles, which can all help you gain a better understanding of how you learn best. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences describes eight different types of intelligence that can help reveal your individual strengths. Looking at Carl Jung’s learning style dimensions can also help you better see which learning strategies might work best for you.
9. Use Testing to Boost Learning
While it may seem that spending more time studying is one of the best ways to maximize learning, research has demonstrated that taking tests actually helps you better remember what you've learned, even if it wasn't covered on the test.3 The study revealed that students who studied and were then tested had better long-term recall of the materials, even on information that was not covered by the tests. Students who had extra time to study but were not tested had significantly lower recall of the materials.
10. Stop Multitasking
For many years, it was thought that people who multitask, or perform more than one activity at once, had an edge over those who did not. However, research now suggests that multitasking can actually make learning less effective. In the study, participants lost significant amounts of time as they switched between multiple tasks and lost even more time as the tasks became increasingly complex.4 By switching from one activity to another, you will learn more slowly, become less efficient and make more errors. How can you avoid the dangers of multitasking? Start by focusing your attention on the task at hand and continue working for a predetermined amount of time.
3. Reduces stress
