Thanks for all the laughs

Hello all!
Well, today marks my final post because our project is due in some minutes, and I just wanted to tell all of you up here on the Bluff good luck with finals and getting everything done!
I am sitting here on the patio out by the campus coffee shop, sipping coffee and listening to the Jazzcats, a very talented jazz group from our school, and I'm reflecting on the past few months in our attempt to live less stressful lives. What I can tell you is that at the beginning of this project, I was pretty optimistic that I could efficiently and functionally end stress' effect in my life. However, now that I look back on the beginning of the semester, I remember my naivety and I laugh. I read somewhere that every two years or so, we look back on our lives, realize what idiots we were and reevaluate, moving on in our wisdom until we do that same exact thing two years later.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-they-never-told-us/
 I found the link: a good read for keeping things in perspective during finals.

I have found throughout this year and through doing this project that we do not change overnight, and even if we do, the change is probably hardly worth keeping. I also learned that our mission should not be to eliminate stress, because let's face it, life is stressful. However, what we can change is our perspectives in facing the stressful situations we must face in our lives as college women. I have also learned that sometimes, taking a break, a walk, a bike-ride or a frozen yogurt run is not only fun, but necessary to maintaining our mental health.

Friends also make a HUGE difference. Sometimes it is tempting to isolate ourselves by surrounding ourselves with our work, and yet, when those all-important tests or papers (or college years for that matter) are over, will they really matter that much?

Probably not, but I can tell you what will: the relationships we have built and the friendships we have made, which will continue for the rest of our lives. With that in mind, happy finals week LMU and good luck in whatever you undertake!

Thanks for reading!
-Kate

Coffee???

And here's a tribute to Michael Scott - "World's Best Boss"

Hi!
So I know we here at LMU get a break this week because our school is giving us Easter Break, but for everyone else out there as you slog your way through papers and finals, and for all of us on the Bluff as we make our final push toward finals and graduation, I was thinking about how oftentimes we neglect to care for ourselves during the insanity. I know time is a limited resource we all have little of, and I know that many of us tend to burn that candle every which way we can come finals week, but I was wondering if the methods we use to keep ourselves awake (think massive amounts of caffeine here) are really helping us in the long run. You know me, when I want to know what's up, I go to google scholar, and once I was there I found this study on the effects of caffeine on human salivary melatonin levels, as well as circadian rhythms. If that sounds like a bunch of nonsense to you, melatonin is a hormone secreted by the hypothalamus (brain) which regulates our sleep patterns. Melatonin is closely linked to serotonin, which regulates mood and (to an extent) how happy we are throughout a given day. If you can remember melatonin at night and serotoin during the day, you're golden. Oh, and circadian rhythms are just a fancy term for describing our daily cycles, (Latin: circa = around diem = days), so our circadian rhythms are the patterns which we fall into in terms of when we're asleep, sleepy, alert and awake.

Here's the abstract for the study in case you're interested:

Abstract

The effects of caffeine ingestion and exposure to bright light, both separately and in combination, on salivary melatonin and tympanic temperature were assessed in humans. Four treatments during a 45.5 h sleep deprivation period were compared: Dim Light-Placebo, Dim Light-Caffeine, Bright Light-Placebo and Bright-Light Caffeine. The Dim Light-Caffeine condition (200 mg twice each night) relative to the Dim Light-Placebo condition suppressed nighttime melatonin levels and attenuated the normal decrease in temperature. Combining caffeine ingestion with bright light exposure (≥2000 lux) suppressed melatonin and attenuated the normal nighttime drop in temperature to a larger degree than either condition alone; i.e. effects were additive. Circadian effects were also observed in that the amplitude and phase of the temperature rhythm were altered during treatment. These findings establish that the human melatonin system is responsive to caffeine. Other evidence suggests that caffeine may influence melatonin and temperature levels through antagonism of the neuromodulator adenosine.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6SYR-3PF5C55-3G&_user=945462&_coverDate=01%2F30%2F1997&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=gateway&_origin=gateway&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000048964&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=945462&md5=6c1062feeb4bbd099748836956ffe971&searchtype=a)

In a nutshell, caffeine intake affects our melatonin levels, which in turn affects how we fall asleep, and for how long we stay asleep. This is something you might want to consider when you're up at 3AM two days after your finals are over. Trust me, I'm doing 40 days of water (no soda, juice, slurpees, milkshakes, COFFEE or tea for 40 days of Lent) for religious reasons (http://40days.bloodwatermission.com/), and I know life sans caffeine can be a little rough. However, if we don't take care of ourselves during finals, who will?

Water, water everywhere!

Hello again!
Today I was staring at my full water bottle and contemplating the urinary system, not something you would find me normally doing on a Sunday night. Fear not though, the reason I have urine on the brain is that we just finished up the Urinary System unit in our A&P class and I can tell you that I know more about the micturition reflex and nephron loop than I ever cared to at the start of the semester (those are real things which you can read up on here):
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072495855/student_view0/chapter27/animation__micturition_reflex.html
and here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephron

 Anywhoo, thinking about urination led me to thinking about how much water we should be intaking every day, and the fact that I stated in the top of this here blog that I will be trying to drink 9 cups of water per day. Since I haven't been as faithful to that goal as I would like, I have decided that this week is "water week" for Kate Jones. I am going to be drinking 3 of these (28oz, 3.5 c):

per day. Wish me luck! I found an article from the Mayo Clinic Website recommending that females drink about 9 cups of water per day, which sounds like a good idea to me because of the reasons they give, and because the more water we drink, the less work our kidneys have to do to retain water, and the better we will function!
Yay! Happy Drinking! ; )

 Article Link:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283

Food for Thought

Hey all!
I realized today it's been a while since I've updated you all on how my part of the stress project is going, so I thought I would do that now. I just found this article online from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine Online about some more foods thought to relieve stress. What I'm finding to be true no matter who I talk to is that the vitamin B12 is essential to overall health and can also help balance cortisol levels to keep us from rocketing through the roof with stress. The article said that foods high in B vitamins and folic acids, like really green vegetables or certain fruits can help stead our mood because they are both essential to our serotonin production, which is the hormone responsible for keeping our mood elevated and stable. This makes sense, no?

The article also recommended staying away from stimulants and depressants as dependence on either over a long period of time could be harmful to our ability to self-regulate our mood. Foods high in sugars and salts do not serve us well, even though they tend to be the things we reach for when the going gets tough.

Dr. Tara Geise, a dietitian in Orland, Florida and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association said, "One of the keys is avoiding things that will give your body and mind real highs and lows like caffeine and alcohol. You don't want to intake a lot of stimulants or a lot of depressants when you're stressed." Of eating foods high in sugars, Geise says, "Sugar causes your blood sugar to spike and then fall quickly, which can make your energy level dip, then you're low energy and stressed and that's not a good picture."

Some foods the article said were particularly helpful in relieving stress are:
- Bluberries
-Asparagus
-Beef
-Milk
-Cottage cheese and fruit (I get this for breakfast all the time - SO GOOD)
-Almonds
-Tuna
-Cornflakes or Crispy Rice Cereals

After reading this I was encouraged, because I had an asparagus red pepper sandwich from the Corner Cafe today, and a bowl of strawberries, pears, pineapple, bananas and cottage cheese for breakfast. Basically whta I'm finding more and more is that the more foods high in B vitamins and antioxidants I eat, the better I feel. Next time you're at the Lair in the morning, try a fruit bowl with cottage cheese from the Bionics station, I didn't think I would like it, but now it's one of my favorite breakfasts!

http://www.bhg.com/health-family/mind-body-spirit/natural-remedies/superfoods-for-stress-relief/