27/03/2024
Science & Technology
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*5 life-changing reasons you should be drinking a ginger shot every morning.*
*The vagus nerves help us rest, digest and restore. Can you really reset them to feel better?*
*Why does heartbreak hurt? The science behind what happens to your brain and your body.*
*How do clouds make ice?*
*Study reveals young people should be banned from buying to***co, reduce health risks and addictions*
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*5 life-changing reasons you should be drinking a ginger shot every morning.*
_As we discuss regularly here at T3, the wellness industry has expanded drastically in the last 5 years or so._
_There are countless trends, routines and techniques that we're told to follow, making it tricky to know what works and what doesn't. If the internet isn't talking about the best yoga mats then it'll be hyping up the latest posture correctors - the list goes on and on._
More recently, ginger shots are one trend that have jumped in popularity, mostly due to influencers sharing the benefits they bring and how good they can be for our bodies. Well, no matter how sceptical you may be, the truth is that these celebs are right.
Ginger shots have a huge amount of benefits, ranging from overall wellness improvement to soothing your digestive system. It's been recommended that taking a daily ginger shot first thing on an empty stomach is the best way to do it, and we're going to tell you why.
Before we begin, check out the 5 healthiest alcoholic drinks - go on, I know you want to.
1. THEY CAN BOOST WEIGHT LOSS.
Ginger shots can help boost your weight loss by suppressing your appetite, therefore preventing you from overeating and consuming too many calories. Bioactive compounds in ginger are also known to boost your metabolism through enhancing diet-induced thermogenesis, meaning the amount of energy used (or calories burned) to digest and process food.
2. THEY HELP WITH INFLAMMATION.
Ginger is known for having effective anti-inflammatory properties, which help with joint and muscle pain, as well as conditions such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. In one study, Healthline said that male athletes who received 1.5 grams of ginger powder daily for 6 weeks had significant reductions in levels of inflammatory markers, compared to athletes who received a placebo.
3. THEY HELP WITH DIGESTIVE ISSUES AND NAUSEA.
Ginger is known to increase the movement of food inside your stomach, helping indigestion, reducing bloating and decrease intestinal cramping. You've also probably heard of ginger helping to ease nausea? Well, it's true! Ginger shots have proved to be helpful for pregnant women by decreasing the intensity of their morning sickness.
4. THEY CAN IMPROVE CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH.
Consuming ginger may also have long-term health benefits for those who do it daily. A recent study has shown that people who introduced more ginger into their diet had a lower chance of developing chronic heart disease or high blood pressure. You wouldn't think it, but it's true!
5. THEY MAKE YOUR SKIN LOOK HEALTHIER.
Ginger's antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties also help support skin health, including reducing wrinkles, blemishes, and other signs of ageing. Ginger is also a well-known natural antibacterial agent which may prevent acne, excessive oil or other skin problems.
What are the side effects of taking ginger shots?
On a daily basis, ginger is generally safe to consume for most people. However, if you suffer with gastrointestinal issues, it can sometimes irritate symptoms such as nausea, heartburn, constipation and indigestion.
Make sure to check with your doctor before taking ginger shots regularly if you're worried about this.
As ginger shots are commonly made with lemon juice, this can wear down tooth enamel and make your teeth sensitive. To prevent this, you should consume the shot quickly so it doesn't remain in your mouth for too long. We'd recommend that you rinse your mouth thoroughly with water after taking the shot, just to wash away any residue.
How to make a ginger shot at home
Blend 1 inch of ginger and the juice of half a lemon. Strain and add honey to taste if required. Best drank straight away and in one gulp!
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*The vagus nerves help us rest, digest and restore. Can you really reset them to feel better?*
_Anxiety and stress generic._
_Is there any science to back the vagal nerve hacks online?_
_Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article._
_On social media and in wellbeing circles, people have been talking about the vagus nerve a lot._
In fact, we have two vagus nerves — a left and a right — and their optimal functioning is essential for good physical and mental health.
Many social media posts describe ways to reset the vagus nerves to reduce stress and increase calm. These mostly focus on yoga, meditation, deep breathing and cold plunges.
But the vagus nerves also play a part in why socialising, s*x and sports are good for our health and wellbeing.
Our rest-and-digest-and-restore system.
The sympathetic nervous system produces our fight-or-flight response to perceived threats. The vagus nerves are part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which does the opposite: rest, digest and restore.
The sympathetic nervous system increases heart and breathing rates, slows down digestion and lowers the immune response. Stimulation of the vagus nerves reduces heart rate, promotes healthy digestion and metabolism, increases blood flow to organs and reduces inflammation.
The anxiety puzzle.
It's one of the most common medical conditions on the planet so why are the causes of anxiety still such a mystery and what new scientific breakthroughs are helping to unravel them?
It is healthy to activate our sympathetic nervous system during exercise and short-term stress. But ongoing stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system is not healthy.
The parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerves is the counterbalance to our stress response. It makes us more calm, relaxed and sociable.
The vasovagal response is an over-reaction of the vagus nerves to counterbalance a stress. This is when an excessive drop in blood pressure and heart rate causes a person to feel dizzy or faint.
The wandering nerve.
Vagus means wandering in Latin and is where the words vagrant, vagabond and vague come from. The name reflects the long pathway and extensive branching of our vagus nerves. These are the 10th cranial nerves, the longest of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves that connect the brain stem and the body.
The vagus nerves run down the neck where they are about 5mm in diameter. They travel into the thoracic (chest) cavity and send branches to the heart and lungs, then pass through the diaphragm to innervate nearly all the abdominal organs.
We mostly hear of the effects of the vagus nerves on our organs, such as reducing heart rate. However, about 80 per cent of vagus nerve fibres carry information from organs back to our brain. This forms part of the bidirectional gut-brain axis. This can explain the "butterflies in your stomach" when you feel nervous, and why gastrointestinal problems can cause anxiety and depression.
Can you measure the health of vagus nerves?
It is not possible to directly measure vagal tone (the level of activity in the nerves). Instead, heart-rate variability is used as a surrogate measure of vagus nerve activity. This is the slight beat-to-beat differences in heart rate that occur naturally, related to breathing. When you inhale, your heart rate speeds up. When you slowly exhale, it slows down.
Vagus-nerve stimulation slows the heart rate but increases heart-rate variability. These are both healthy because they indicate higher parasympathetic and lower sympathetic activation. A lower heart rate indicates the heart is working efficiently. Higher heart rate variability suggests the body is more relaxed.
Many wearable devices measure heart rate and heart-rate variability and can be a useful way to monitor vagal tone.
Yoga practice and slow diaphragmatic breathing with a long exhalation stimulate the vagus nerves directly or via relaxation. Cold-water immersion on the face or neck stimulates the vagus nerves via a reflex of the skin's nerves.
Singing and humming can increase our vagal tone because the vagus nerve innervates our larynx (voice box).
How to reset from burnout according to science.
Burnout is affecting many Australians right now and emerging research suggests it’s more than a buzzword for the fallout from a busy lifestyle.
There are also claims simple eye movements can reset the vagus nerve. This has not been tested scientifically. But there is an oculocardiac reflex where activation of the eye muscles stimulates the vagus nerves. Pressure on the eyes also stimulates this reflex. This might be why one natural reaction when we feel stressed is to press our eyes.
Craniosacral therapy is a form of osteopathy that involves gentle touch and movements around the base of the skull and the sacrum. This has been shown to reduce cortisol and increase parasympathetic activity.
Carotid sinus massage can also be used clinically to increase vagus nerve activation and lower a high heart rate. Light massage of the carotid artery in the neck stimulates blood pressure receptors, which causes reflex activation of the vagus nerves to reduce heart rate. This should only be done by a clinician or with professional advice, for 5 to 10 seconds and never both sides at once, which can cause fainting.
Social connection and feeling safe.
Polyvagal theory suggests positive social communication and feeling safe increases vagus nerve activity. This promotes healthy growth and restoration activities in our body and increases positive emotions.
The vagus nerves have a role in social communication because they are linked with our facial expressions and voice. Smiling and being smiled at can stimulate our vagus nerves.
Sport, s*x and slowing down.
Sports and s*x are both associated with high sympathetic nervous system activation. When intimacy or competitive sport happen in a safe, social and supportive environment, the vagus nerves are also stimulated. Having a short-term stress response followed by the counterbalancing recovery effects of vagus nerves is healthy.
Slowing down with others, such as lying down next to a friend on a picnic blanket and looking at the clouds, also stimulates the vagus nerves. This is a safe way to reduce our energy requirements and rest while also being socially connected.
Whether it's through mindfulness, paced breathing, sports, s*x or simply smiling, increased vagal tone is important for good health and wellbeing. There is a lot of hype online and some of it may be over the top. But reduced stress and greater relaxation are safe for everyone and have positive effects for our body and brain.
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*Why does heartbreak hurt? The science behind what happens to your brain and your body.*
_While everyone's personal heartbreak might be different, whether it be a breakup, bereavement, or other loss, scientists say the bodily response is much the same._
_Whether it's your first time through it or an unfortunate familiarity, there are few more agonising gut punches._
Doubts and insecurities aplenty; wondering where, how and why things changed; and like an agonising Lionesses World Cup run, an overwhelming sense of "what if".
Being a "science and tech journalist" has given me a fresh perspective on how it can impact us physically.
Where's that headache come from? What about a sudden lack of energy? And why does eating anything, even a normal favourite, feel like an I'm A Celebrity challenge?
For when pictures of wistful poetry on Instagram just don't cut it, it turns out science has some answers.
The holy trinity.
As neuroscientist Dr Lucy Brown puts it, "we're all miserable when we've been dumped" - and there's a potent chemical cocktail that helps explain why.
Serotonin is the brain chemical associated with happiness, oxytocin with bonding, and dopamine gets pumped out whenever your mind's reward system kicks in.
No surprise then that you feel good when that holy trinity is high and rough when it's low.
The key chemical is dopamine: the ultimate natural drug.
'It's like we're addicted'
Brown was one of a team of researchers who conducted a study into the impact of heartbreak, scanning the brain activity of 15 young adults who were going through unwanted breakups.
They were shown photos of their ex-partners, and the scans showed parts of the brain that power our sense of motivation and reward - where our dopaminergic neurons live - went into overdrive.
It's an "overactivity" Brown compares to what you'd see in a co***ne addict trying to wean themselves off.
"It's like we're addicted to each other," she says.
"When we lose someone, we've lost a very rewarding part of our lives and sense of self. They've provided novelty in your life that now isn't there, so we need some other rewards."
And like rewatching goals we may have thought had put the Lionesses' name on the title, looking back at texts and holiday photos won't do the trick.
Florence Williams had found herself intrigued by the pain her heartbreak caused.
Having seen her 25-year marriage suddenly fall apart, trauma was expected. But feeling physically sick and totally overwhelmed took her by surprise.
"I was of course stunned by the event itself, but then I was really confused and surprised by how different I felt physically going through it," she says.
"That feeling of being plugged into a faulty electrical socket; this buzzing sense of background anxiety and hypervigilance and an inability to sleep well; the weight loss and general confusion.
"My body felt under threat."
Williams's experience and sense of confusion sent her on a global quest for answers documented in her book, Heartbreak: A Personal And Scientific Journey.
She found while everyone's personal heartbreak is different, the bodily response is much the same: it's time for that holy trinity of hormones to take a battering.
And it's not just emotional pain you may struggle with. In Brown's study, brain areas associated with physical pain were also activated.
She explains rejection triggers a part of the brain called the insular cortex - the same part that responds to distress around pain, like when panic sets in after an already painful bee sting.
When emotional stress causes physical symptoms, like headaches and nausea, its medical term is somatisation.
"If you've ever had butterflies when you've been nervous, you've experienced this," explains Dr Abishek Rolands.
"The most important thing to remember is even though there is no physical cause, the symptoms are very real - they are not made up or 'all in the head'."
During her research, Williams, who has two adult children with her ex-husband, was particularly fascinated by the impact loss can have on our immune system.
"It's important for our nervous systems that we feel safe," she says.
"If we have people in our lives triggering cascades of healthy hormones, it's really protective against illness. Our cells actually listen to our mental state."
Indeed, previous studies have stressed the importance of meaningful social relationships to stay healthy.
And in 2021, US researchers suggested our immune system takes cues from our nervous system if it's struggling - effectively making decisions that could make us sick.
In rare cases, this kind of emotional distress - especially when delivered suddenly - can even lead to the fittingly nicknamed "broken heart syndrome" - or takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
Sindy Jodar, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, says the symptoms - chiefly shortness of breath and chest pain - are consistent with a heart attack.
"Most people have either been under a lot of physical or emotional stress, like losing a loved one," she says.
"The only explanation we have at the moment is when the body is stressed, it releases a lot of catecholamines (adrenaline), and when lots of that is around in the body it can impact the heart."
Unlike a heart attack, the condition does not cause blockages in the coronary arteries - but does totally change the shape of the heart's left ventricle, which pumps oxygenated blood through the body.
It's this which gives the condition its actual Japanese name, as the shape of the ventricle becomes reminiscent of a trap fishermen use to catch octopus: narrow at the top, larger at the bottom.
The condition only impacts around 5,000 people a year in the UK, and is more common in menopausal women, with most recovering after a few weeks.
Just as science can explain why heartbreak, rejection, and loss makes us feel the way we do, it also offers solutions.
Brown says heartbreak should be treated like "having to give up an addiction", though she admits the "craving is stronger when we've lost someone".
But there are plenty of roads to go down without gorging ice cream while watching La La Land.
Williams stresses the importance of working to activate the parasympathetic part of your nervous system by doing things that make you feel calm. The other part of our autonomic nervous system, sympathetic, is what causes anxiety and hypervigilance.
"Connection to nature is really calming," she says, likewise to friends and family. "And there's lots of data showing the more meaning you derive from work, the more purpose you feel, the happier you'll be."
Williams says such lessons apply to anyone "going through an emotional life quake".
"People who end a relationship also face big emotions - guilt, sadness, loneliness," she adds.
"A good strategy is beginning things you didn't do during a relationship, like running or travelling," says Brown.
"People always remember a heartbreak - it's very painful. But you do change, and can for the better."
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*How do clouds make ice?*
_Unlocking the mysteries of freezing in supercooled water droplets._
_X-ray laser studies help researchers identify early steps in the freezing process to better understand how clouds make ice and their effect on climate._
_The study of supercooled water, ice nucleation, and droplet freezing frequently uses supercooled water droplets._
By generating secondary ice, their freezing in the atmosphere influences clouds’ dynamics and climatic feedback and can hasten cloud freezing. Droplet freezing occurs at various lengths and time scales14,18 and is sufficiently stochastic to make it improbable that two frozen drops are identical.
In a new study, scientists used optical microscopy and X-ray laser diffraction to explore the freezing of tens of thousands of water microdrops in a vacuum after homogeneous ice nucleation.
Scientists in atmospheric science are attempting to comprehend what kind of ice forms in clouds and how it is produced so effectively. In comparison to waiting for ice to form in a freezer, water that has been supercooled will freeze far more quickly.
The ice you obtain from the freezer differs from what people have previously observed. But until recently, it was quite challenging to see what was going right before freezing.
Scientists in this study used the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser located at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. They developed a model that resembles the freezing process in seven different stages. The results surprised them: they discovered an unexpected structure along the way.
Claudiu Stan, a scientist at Rutgers University, said, “The freezing of these tiny droplets is a phenomenon that isn’t fully understood, and it might contain clues that could help us better understand climate change. We discovered that the process is more complicated than one might think.”
As mentioned above, scientists used optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. They rapidly cooled the drops in a vacuum to help capture the initial freezing stages after realizing they are independent of external conditions. A crystalline arrangement quickly developed after the freezing process began, as seen by diffraction from the produced ice crystals.
Diffraction from the liquid still present between the ice crystals produced patterns resembling those found on the surface of ice, where there is a very thin layer that is neither liquid nor solid.
The scientists also discovered that the ice develops a strained, or stressed, hexagonal crystal configuration immediately following freezing.
This surprising structure, which had not before been seen, is a transient, unstable state that is probably going to form before ice with other kinds of anomalies in the crystal structure.
This freezing was rapid and happened in very small regions. Here comes the X-ray laser into action that allows scientists to follow these ultrasmall, ultrafast changes and capture snapshots of the molecules in the crystal to observe their behavior throughout the process.
The supercooled drops travel through various stages of freezing. The researchers found seven of these steps in their system and organized them into a prediction model—a little bit of ice first forms in extremely cold water. The droplet then slightly changes shape as ice forms in tree-like patterns, freezing half of the water inside.
Then, a central region with both the liquid and the tree-like ice patterns develops around an outer layer of smooth ice. As the interior liquid is forced out via fissures in the outer ice layer, little, pointy ice structures appear on the droplet’s surface because water expands as it transforms into ice.
The sharp ice structures the droplet makes quickly grow larger and larger. Some drops break apart but only slightly shatter due to the growing ice. The pressure from the expanding ice causes additional droplets to break into pieces.
Stan said, “This a quite complicated process because some of these stages start at variable times and places, so each drop freezes in a slightly different way.
At first, we were not sure that it could be modeled with our data, but we made a model with seven freezing stages and predicted slightly different freezing for each drop.
Because of our success, we think such freezing models can also be made for cloud droplets.”
The scientists intend to conduct follow-up studies at various points to acquire a complete picture now that they understand what occurs at the start of this freezing process.
The study provides a thorough understanding of the freezing behavior of supercooled water droplets, which may open up new perspectives on atmospheric processes and the larger climate system.
Beyond this, the methods employed might aid in improving the understanding of the solidification or freezing processes in other materials or under different meteorological situations.
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*Study reveals young people should be banned from buying to***co, reduce health risks and addictions*
Young people should be banned from buying to***co products until they are 22, researchers believe._
_The study looked at 1382 smokers who had visited a clinic in Kyoto, Japan, which helps people to quit._
Patients were split into two groups based on the age they started smoking — either less than 20-years-old or 20 and older.
They all completed the Fagerstrom test for ni****ne dependence, which assesses the intensity of a smoker’s physical addiction to ni****ne.
The test asked questions including ‘how soon after you wake up do you smoke your first cigarette?’ and ‘how many ci******es per day do you smoke?’, with patients giving a score for each answer.
The figure added up to a dependency score of low (one-two), low to moderate (three-four), moderate (five-seven) or high (eight or more).
Some 556 smokers had started before the age of 20 — the legal age in Japan — while 826 had started later.
Those who took up the habit before 20 reported smoking 25 ci******es per day compared with 22 per day in the late-starter group.
Of the early starters, 46 per cent had successfully quit smoking, compared with 56 per cent of those who started smoking at aged 20 or over.
The findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Amsterdam.
Author Dr Koji Hasegawa, of the National Hospital Organisation Kyoto Medical Centre, said: ‘Starting smoking early is linked with higher ni****ne dependency, even in young adulthood.
“The study indicates that increasing the legal age to buy to***co to 22 years or older could lead to a reduction in the number of people addicted to ni****ne and at risk of adverse health consequences.”
A mammoth haul of vapes, ‘nangs’ and other prescription products were seized by the WA government after they were discovered in a warehouse by health compliance officers.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates about 10.1 per cent of Australians aged 18 and over were daily smokers as of 2021-22.
That figure fell to about 9.7 per cent for people aged 15 and over in the same year.
To***co products are heavily taxed in Australia, with the excise rate regularly indexed to ensure they don’t become more affordable over time. The minimum age to buy ci******es in Australia is 18.
The Cancer Council says smoking remains the “leading preventable cause of death and disease in Australia” — claiming about 24,000 lives each year.
In May, the Federal Government released a new strategy working towards achieving a national smoking prevalence of less than 10 per cent by 2025 and 5 per cent or less by 2030.
It also aims to reduce the daily smoking rate among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to 27 per cent by 2030.
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