Obesity = increased number of white adipose tissue cells. More WAT = more aromatase. Aromatase converts testosterone to its metabolite 17-beta-estradiol (estrogen). Thus obesity = more estrogen. Estrogen acts on breast tissue to stimulate growth. Testosterone and DHT normally counteract this but when they're getting turned into estrogen...
In short, obesity can lead to gynecomastia, and is the most common factor associated with gynecomastia in males. Usually this goes away with weight loss for the most part though.
Pervitin was simply a name for methamphetamine, which has an identical method of action to amphetamine (displacing catecholamines from the chromaffin, inhibiting their reuptake). The difference is the methyl group allows the drug to move through fatty brain tissue much easier, making it about 50% more potent by weight. Given the suspected method of production, the motivations were probably more economical in nature.
Though amphetamines can produce psychosis and abherrant behavior in some cases, the actual dose of pervitin given out to the wehrmacht soldiers was only 5mg, a rather low amount. Those effects sound extremely exaggerated for that dosage and probably only happened in rare cases.
Amphetamines aren't terrible effective at suppressing pain, which is why later in the war a mix of methamphetamine, cocaine, and opium was proposed. However, this was at too late an hour for Germany and it never saw production.
Pervitin was chiefly used to suppress fatigue and hunger and improve morale (as it is a euphoric stimulant). It was also used on the Eastern Front in Russia to raise core body temperatures of German soldiers and prevent hypothermia.
There may be a military application, but I don't think any pharmaceutical to arise from this would be any better than amphetamine or methamphetamine, which have additional beneficial effects in combat, such as pain, fatigue, and appetite suppression, and somewhat greater strength and stamina. They also usually inhibit fear as well, but can sometimes exacerbate it due to how the amygdala works.
Soldiers fight more for the man next to them than anything else, anyway.
Almost all sides used stimulants in combat in WW2. The Russians also used methamphetamine, and the English, Japanese, and Americans gave their troops regulard old amphetamine, the difference being the methyl group which makes methamphetamine about 50% more potent by weight. The Germans were suspected of using a method that involved the reduction of ephedrine with annhydrous ammonia, giving rise to the term "Nazi dope" which referrs to clandestine methamphetamine produced in this fashion today.
Today, about 30 million people in the US use prescription amphetamines yearly, chiefly for ADHD treatment, and about 1 million use illegal methamphetamine. The US Air Force still uses Dexedrine (d-amphetamine) for its pilots but is considering a switch to modafinil (Provigil) as amphetamine can stimulate the amygdala and produce aggressive or fearful behavior. By stimulating the amygdala, amphetamines exaggerate the natural flight or fight response already present, so it's not a guaranteed "fearless" drug, and a sideeffect of using amphetamines in the treatment of ADHD is the anxiety it produces in some users.
It was far from just a "Nazi" thing. And it didn't always make people fearless, either.
Dependancy has nothing to do with the nucelus accumbens whatsoever, and varies by drug, such as greater adenosine sensitivity in the case of caffeine, or less GABA receptor sensitivity in the case of Ambien dependancy. It is entirely a method of psychological addiction only. I cannot conclusively state that it is the only path to psychological addiction, but every drug that is known to be psychologically addictive raises DA there and gambling/gaming do not. Thus, stating an equivalence between gaming and drugs in terms of addiction has no supporting data.
There is no evidence whatsoever that gambling or gaming raises dopamine in the shell of the nucelus accumbens. It likely raises DA levels in the prefrontal cortex which is associated with task completion, however, DA in the NA are not and produce euphoria and psychomotor behavior. I could not find a single anecdote or study showing this to be true, so please provide a cite for your assertations.
Addictive drugs are typically so because they spike dopamine levels in the shell of the nucelus accumbens. This study does not show this is the case for video games, so to compare the mechanisms is rather ridiculous and is a conclusion they have no data to base upon.
The psychopathology of compulsive gambling has been studied in great depth and differs significantly from a drug addiction. I really don't see any basis for this group's outlandish claims. What they are describing is hedonism, not an addiction in the same context of drugs. Just because they may share symptoms does not equate them biologically.
Agreed. I'm not sure why Shakespeare is regarded very highly at all, period. The stories are typical, derivative, and not very interesting. It is not well written and simply doesn't make anyone better at reading or writing the English language. The one saving grace to Shakespeare was he was entertaining to the poor a few hundred years ago, and now is only championed by a few zealots who actually think he's somehow at all relevant anymore. He's not, never was, and never will be, get over it.
The same applies to Seal of Command, really... get a lucky string of procs/crits and you'll get lots of "O RLY?"s from people. Anyway though, I think the current druid issues extend back to the core design of the class, you either make them so close an analog to the classes they shift between they are an acceptable substitute, or not so close and unacceptable. It was thought perhaps the ability to shift between roles would make up for not doing a role acceptably, but this turned out to be untrue.
All I really wanted was for buffing to not suck, and maybe judgements to be useful (last for a couple minutes, take less mana?). I don't think paladins suck, and it's going to make me cry if the class gets gimped for a small DPS boost. Even shaman DPS isn't that great, and I don't think it will be higher than theirs.
And honestly, I think druids needed those buffs, but I don't like the fundamental design of the druid class in WoW in general.
Oh don't worry, they've said they will be nerfing our "extreme durability" for more "controllable DPS". Great for the noob whiners on the paladin forum who expect rogue damage output I suppose.
Paladins are a defensive support healer, why are they breaking the class into some sort of mediocre damage dealer? I don't really want to sacrifice the few things I do well to suck less, but still suck, in DPS. I'm cool with playing a defensive support healer, that's why I picked the class, if I wanted to be a DPS class I would've rolled a rogue.
The internet is not a common resource like water and air. It's a US government controlled network that you are fortunate enough to have the priviledge of accessing. This no more gives the UN the right to seize control of it than it does for you to break into your ISP and steal their equipment. The UN is not having an open-minded discussion about this, RTFA. It is a seizure of power.
Perhaps it should be administered differently in light of what it has become, but this is not the path that should be taken to accomplish that.
The internet is most certainly a creation of the US military. The only reason it exists today is they were willing to share the technology and access with civilians, including those from another country. That does not give the people that access was shared with the right to seize control of the network by force, and I'm sorry if you don't agree.
Just because you share your 802.11g with your neighbor does not give him the right to break into your house with a 12 gauge shotgun, take your router and cable modem and set it up in his home instead.
The internet is a creation of the US military that they were kind enough to let civilians use. Just because we allow our international friends access does not mean they have the right to usurp ownership of something that is not theirs. GPS is another military technology that the US military was nice enough to share with civilians. Should they vote themselves the power to take that over too? It is used worldwide.
Personally, I do not believe the UN has any business interfering in either technology, and it would seem to me power-grabbing actions like this are simply a disincentive for the military to openly share technology with our international friends in the future.
I for one would think a more appropriate reaction from the UN would be gratitude for sharing the technology in the first place and bearing the financial burden. Appearently that isn't the case, though.
That's bad theory based on incorrect assumptions. First, neurogenesis happens to a very limited degree and has not been shown to be a significant factory in any clinical study in depression. Secondly, there is no link between adrenaline and depression, and stimulants such as amphetamines which increase sympathetic nervous sytem output actually make quite good antidepressants. Next, there is no link between exercise and poor sleep, in fact, numerous studies show exercise favorably effecting this. Whoever wrote this does not understand the mechanics of depression, exercise, and could've prevented a lot of misinformation had they spent a little time actually obtaining data. For God's sake his references are a couple Wikipedia articles and some non-journal magazines.
I meet the DSM-IV criteria for APD, but this isn't particularily relevant for us; APD is significantly different from Social Anxiety Disorder, and anxiety is not a factor in it. As far as psychologists arguing about its existance, I don't see how, it's in the DSM-IV.
Although APD has a high comorbidity with anxiety disorders, I do not believe APD would produce an anxiety response or be detectable in this fashion. The treatment is quite different as well.
This test basically looks for markers of stress, and does not establish a gene polymorphism or biological cause behind anxiety and depression, although I believe some have already been identified and there's likely much more beyond our current understanding.
ADD tends to be characterized biologically by depressed activity in the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes of the brain, I do not believe there are any blood markers you can look for. It is possible to use neural imaging to established the depressed activity but the use of such imaging in psychiatric conditions is considered experimental and not funded by insurance companies or commonly done.
If nothing else, Ritalin is a fun drug, and would certainly improve academic performance in even a normal individual, so you can't go wrong?;)
Yes, many studies are funded by interests central to the study, and it seems possible this may influence the study in some cases. I do not know anything about that study in particular beyond what I have provided. There are many other studies on PubMed showing similar results for caffeine, though. Using the query terms "caffeine anxiety", "caffeine stroop", "caffeine concentration", etc may help you find more of what you're looking for.
Actually, exercise does increase the dopaminergic tone in the brain, the mechanism involved is a short-lived change in gene expression that upregulates calcium transport. It has also been shown to increase the number of dopamine receptors in animal models.
This is relevant because the common mechanism of effect behind SSRI-based antidepressants involves the sensitization of the dopaminergic system via increased serotonin levels. Some antidepressant medication actually has no direct interaction with sertonin at all.
This study shows an effectiveness of 50% of the use of exercise in relieving symptoms of depression, which is approximately that of antidepressant medication or cognitive behavioral therapy alone. Of course, it is likely the best results would come from a combination of all three.
Stimulants, including caffeine, can indeed exacerbate anxiety in some people, but they are a minority of users. For most, stimulants improve concentration and task performance. A fairly interesting recent study detailing some of the mechanics and effects of caffeine is here.
Personally though, it's been my observation most people are prone to anxiety when having blood drawn or given an injection; I'm not necessarily sure that warrants medication.
Caffeine also has another interaction with this test in that it triggers the release of acetylcholine, and therefore possibly acetylcholinase as part of a negative feedback process as well. I assume nicotine would do much the same thing. Even if neither influenced the subject's behavior anxiety score.
One hundred forty-six volunteers were randomized to receive a placebo or an allicin-containing garlic supplement, one capsule daily, over a 12-week period between November and February. They used a five-point scale to assess their health and recorded any common cold infections and symptoms in a daily diary. The active-treatment group had significantly fewer colds than the placebo group (24 vs 65, P
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Obesity = increased number of white adipose tissue cells. More WAT = more aromatase. Aromatase converts testosterone to its metabolite 17-beta-estradiol (estrogen). Thus obesity = more estrogen. Estrogen acts on breast tissue to stimulate growth. Testosterone and DHT normally counteract this but when they're getting turned into estrogen... In short, obesity can lead to gynecomastia, and is the most common factor associated with gynecomastia in males. Usually this goes away with weight loss for the most part though.
Though amphetamines can produce psychosis and abherrant behavior in some cases, the actual dose of pervitin given out to the wehrmacht soldiers was only 5mg, a rather low amount. Those effects sound extremely exaggerated for that dosage and probably only happened in rare cases.
Amphetamines aren't terrible effective at suppressing pain, which is why later in the war a mix of methamphetamine, cocaine, and opium was proposed. However, this was at too late an hour for Germany and it never saw production.
Pervitin was chiefly used to suppress fatigue and hunger and improve morale (as it is a euphoric stimulant). It was also used on the Eastern Front in Russia to raise core body temperatures of German soldiers and prevent hypothermia.
Soldiers fight more for the man next to them than anything else, anyway.
Today, about 30 million people in the US use prescription amphetamines yearly, chiefly for ADHD treatment, and about 1 million use illegal methamphetamine. The US Air Force still uses Dexedrine (d-amphetamine) for its pilots but is considering a switch to modafinil (Provigil) as amphetamine can stimulate the amygdala and produce aggressive or fearful behavior. By stimulating the amygdala, amphetamines exaggerate the natural flight or fight response already present, so it's not a guaranteed "fearless" drug, and a sideeffect of using amphetamines in the treatment of ADHD is the anxiety it produces in some users.
It was far from just a "Nazi" thing. And it didn't always make people fearless, either.
Actually, all it talks about is psychological addiction, and the underlying neurobiology. Appearently it was a bit too advanced and in depth, though.
This overview may be useful to you: http://salmon.psy.plym.ac.uk/year3/DrugAbuse/theor ydrugaddiction.htm
There is no evidence whatsoever that gambling or gaming raises dopamine in the shell of the nucelus accumbens. It likely raises DA levels in the prefrontal cortex which is associated with task completion, however, DA in the NA are not and produce euphoria and psychomotor behavior. I could not find a single anecdote or study showing this to be true, so please provide a cite for your assertations.
The psychopathology of compulsive gambling has been studied in great depth and differs significantly from a drug addiction. I really don't see any basis for this group's outlandish claims. What they are describing is hedonism, not an addiction in the same context of drugs. Just because they may share symptoms does not equate them biologically.
Agreed. I'm not sure why Shakespeare is regarded very highly at all, period. The stories are typical, derivative, and not very interesting. It is not well written and simply doesn't make anyone better at reading or writing the English language. The one saving grace to Shakespeare was he was entertaining to the poor a few hundred years ago, and now is only championed by a few zealots who actually think he's somehow at all relevant anymore. He's not, never was, and never will be, get over it.
The same applies to Seal of Command, really... get a lucky string of procs/crits and you'll get lots of "O RLY?"s from people. Anyway though, I think the current druid issues extend back to the core design of the class, you either make them so close an analog to the classes they shift between they are an acceptable substitute, or not so close and unacceptable. It was thought perhaps the ability to shift between roles would make up for not doing a role acceptably, but this turned out to be untrue.
And honestly, I think druids needed those buffs, but I don't like the fundamental design of the druid class in WoW in general.
Paladins are a defensive support healer, why are they breaking the class into some sort of mediocre damage dealer? I don't really want to sacrifice the few things I do well to suck less, but still suck, in DPS. I'm cool with playing a defensive support healer, that's why I picked the class, if I wanted to be a DPS class I would've rolled a rogue.
-60 paladin
Less than that actually, I've got ample fat stores to see me through any starvation crisis.
I can rest assured now knowing that my job is safe-- I make less than a H1B visa employee.
Everything dies, why is this news? GPS is an important and critical system, it will be maintained through new satellites.
Perhaps it should be administered differently in light of what it has become, but this is not the path that should be taken to accomplish that.
Just because you share your 802.11g with your neighbor does not give him the right to break into your house with a 12 gauge shotgun, take your router and cable modem and set it up in his home instead.
Personally, I do not believe the UN has any business interfering in either technology, and it would seem to me power-grabbing actions like this are simply a disincentive for the military to openly share technology with our international friends in the future.
I for one would think a more appropriate reaction from the UN would be gratitude for sharing the technology in the first place and bearing the financial burden. Appearently that isn't the case, though.
That's bad theory based on incorrect assumptions. First, neurogenesis happens to a very limited degree and has not been shown to be a significant factory in any clinical study in depression. Secondly, there is no link between adrenaline and depression, and stimulants such as amphetamines which increase sympathetic nervous sytem output actually make quite good antidepressants. Next, there is no link between exercise and poor sleep, in fact, numerous studies show exercise favorably effecting this. Whoever wrote this does not understand the mechanics of depression, exercise, and could've prevented a lot of misinformation had they spent a little time actually obtaining data. For God's sake his references are a couple Wikipedia articles and some non-journal magazines.
I meet the DSM-IV criteria for APD, but this isn't particularily relevant for us; APD is significantly different from Social Anxiety Disorder, and anxiety is not a factor in it. As far as psychologists arguing about its existance, I don't see how, it's in the DSM-IV.
Although APD has a high comorbidity with anxiety disorders, I do not believe APD would produce an anxiety response or be detectable in this fashion. The treatment is quite different as well.
This test basically looks for markers of stress, and does not establish a gene polymorphism or biological cause behind anxiety and depression, although I believe some have already been identified and there's likely much more beyond our current understanding.
ADD tends to be characterized biologically by depressed activity in the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes of the brain, I do not believe there are any blood markers you can look for. It is possible to use neural imaging to established the depressed activity but the use of such imaging in psychiatric conditions is considered experimental and not funded by insurance companies or commonly done.
If nothing else, Ritalin is a fun drug, and would certainly improve academic performance in even a normal individual, so you can't go wrong? ;)
Yes, many studies are funded by interests central to the study, and it seems possible this may influence the study in some cases. I do not know anything about that study in particular beyond what I have provided. There are many other studies on PubMed showing similar results for caffeine, though. Using the query terms "caffeine anxiety", "caffeine stroop", "caffeine concentration", etc may help you find more of what you're looking for.
Actually, exercise does increase the dopaminergic tone in the brain, the mechanism involved is a short-lived change in gene expression that upregulates calcium transport. It has also been shown to increase the number of dopamine receptors in animal models.
This is relevant because the common mechanism of effect behind SSRI-based antidepressants involves the sensitization of the dopaminergic system via increased serotonin levels. Some antidepressant medication actually has no direct interaction with sertonin at all.
This study shows an effectiveness of 50% of the use of exercise in relieving symptoms of depression, which is approximately that of antidepressant medication or cognitive behavioral therapy alone. Of course, it is likely the best results would come from a combination of all three.
Stimulants, including caffeine, can indeed exacerbate anxiety in some people, but they are a minority of users. For most, stimulants improve concentration and task performance. A fairly interesting recent study detailing some of the mechanics and effects of caffeine is here.
Personally though, it's been my observation most people are prone to anxiety when having blood drawn or given an injection; I'm not necessarily sure that warrants medication.
Caffeine also has another interaction with this test in that it triggers the release of acetylcholine, and therefore possibly acetylcholinase as part of a negative feedback process as well. I assume nicotine would do much the same thing. Even if neither influenced the subject's behavior anxiety score.
One hundred forty-six volunteers were randomized to receive a placebo or an allicin-containing garlic supplement, one capsule daily, over a 12-week period between November and February. They used a five-point scale to assess their health and recorded any common cold infections and symptoms in a daily diary. The active-treatment group had significantly fewer colds than the placebo group (24 vs 65, P