Christian Vitalism.
3 months ago
Showing posts with label Babies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Babies. Show all posts
25 December 2016
11 September 2013
'Love hormone' oxytocin may play wider role in social interaction than previously thought
"People with autism-spectrum disorders may not experience the normal reward the rest of us all get from being with our friends," said Robert Malenka, MD, PhD, the study's senior author. "For them, social interactions can be downright painful. So we asked, what in the brain makes you enjoy hanging out with your buddies?"
Some genetic evidence suggests the awkward social interaction that is a hallmark of autism-spectrum disorders may be at least in part oxytocin-related. Certain variations in the gene that encodes the oxytocin receptor - a cell-surface protein that senses the substance's presence - are associated with increased autism risk.
Malenka, the Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has spent the better part of two decades studying the reward system - a network of interconnected brain regions responsible for our sensation of pleasure in response to a variety of activities such as finding or eating food when we're hungry, sleeping when we're tired, having sex or acquiring a mate, or, in a pathological twist, taking addictive drugs. The reward system has evolved to reinforce behaviors that promote our survival, he said.
For this study, Malenka and lead author Gül Dölen, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in his group with over 10 years of autism-research expertise, teamed up to untangle the complicated neurophysiological underpinnings of oxytocin's role in social interactions. They focused on biochemical events taking place in a brain region called the nucleus accumbens, known for its centrality to the reward system.
In the 1970s, biologists learned that in prairie voles, which mate for life, the nucleus accumbens is replete with oxytocin receptors. Disrupting the binding of oxytocin to these receptors impaired prairie voles' monogamous behavior. In many other species that are not monogamous by nature, such as mountain voles and common mice, the nucleus accumbens appeared to lack those receptors.
"From this observation sprang a dogma that pair bonding is a special type of social behavior tied to the presence of oxytocin receptors in the nucleus accumbens. But what's driving the more common group behaviors that all mammals engage in - cooperation, altruism or just playing around - remained mysterious, since these oxytocin receptors were supposedly absent in the nucleus accumbens of most social animals," said Dölen.
The new discovery shows that mice do indeed have oxytocin receptors at a key location in the nucleus accumbens and, importantly, that blocking oxytocin's activity there significantly diminishes these animals' appetite for socializing. Dölen, Malenka and their Stanford colleagues also identified, for the first time, the nerve tract that secretes oxytocin in the region, and they pinpointed the effects of oxytocin release on other nerve tracts projecting to this area.
Mice can squeak, but they can't talk, Malenka noted. "You can't ask a mouse, 'Hey, did hanging out with your buddies a while ago make you happier?'" So, to explore the social-interaction effects of oxytocin activity in the nucleus accumbens, the investigators used a standard measure called the conditioned place preference test.
"It's very simple," Malenka said. "You like to hang out in places where you had fun, and avoid places where you didn't. We give the mice a 'house' made of two rooms separated by a door they can walk through at any time. But first, we let them spend 24 hours in one room with their littermates, followed by 24 hours in the other room all by themselves. On the third day we put the two rooms together to make the house, give them complete freedom to go back and forth through the door and log the amount of time they spend in each room."
Mice normally prefer to spend time in the room that reminds them of the good times they enjoyed in the company of their buddies. But that preference vanished when oxytocin activity in their nucleus accumbens was blocked. Interestingly, only social activity appeared to be affected. There was no difference, for example, in the mice's general propensity to move around. And when the researchers trained the mice to prefer one room over the other by giving them cocaine (which mice love) only when they went into one room, blocking oxytocin activity didn't stop the mice from picking the cocaine den.
In an extensive series of sophisticated, highly technical experiments, Dölen, Malenka and their teammates located the oxytocin receptors in the murine nucleus accumbens. These receptors lie not on nucleus accumbens nerve cells that carry signals forward to numerous other reward-system nodes but, instead, at the tips of nerve cells forming a tract from a brain region called the dorsal Raphe, which projects to the nucleus accumbens. The dorsal Raphe secretes another important substance, serotonin, triggering changes in nucleus accumbens activity. In fact, popular antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft belong to a class of drugs called serotonin-reuptake inhibitors that increase available amounts of serotonin in brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens.
As the Stanford team found, oxytocin acting at the nucleus accumbens wasn't simply squirted into general circulation, as hormones typically are, but was secreted at this spot by another nerve tract originating in the hypothalamus, a multifunction midbrain structure. Oxytocin released by this tract binds to receptors on the dorsal Raphe projections to the nucleus accumbens, in turn liberating serotonin in this key node of the brain's reward circuitry. The serotonin causes changes in the activity of yet other nerve tracts terminating at the nucleus accumbens, ultimately resulting in altered nucleus accumbens activity - and a happy feeling.
"There are at least 14 different subtypes of serotonin receptor," said Dölen. "We've identified one in particular as being important for social reward. Drugs that selectively act on this receptor aren't clinically available yet, but our study may encourage researchers to start looking at drugs that target it for the treatment of diseases such as autism, where social interactions are impaired."
Malenka and Dölen said they think their findings in mice are highly likely to generalize to humans because the brain's reward circuitry has been so carefully conserved over the course of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. This extensive cross-species similarity probably stems from pleasure's absolutely essential role in reinforcing behavior likely to boost an individual's chance of survival and procreation.
Some genetic evidence suggests the awkward social interaction that is a hallmark of autism-spectrum disorders may be at least in part oxytocin-related. Certain variations in the gene that encodes the oxytocin receptor - a cell-surface protein that senses the substance's presence - are associated with increased autism risk.
Malenka, the Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has spent the better part of two decades studying the reward system - a network of interconnected brain regions responsible for our sensation of pleasure in response to a variety of activities such as finding or eating food when we're hungry, sleeping when we're tired, having sex or acquiring a mate, or, in a pathological twist, taking addictive drugs. The reward system has evolved to reinforce behaviors that promote our survival, he said.
For this study, Malenka and lead author Gül Dölen, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in his group with over 10 years of autism-research expertise, teamed up to untangle the complicated neurophysiological underpinnings of oxytocin's role in social interactions. They focused on biochemical events taking place in a brain region called the nucleus accumbens, known for its centrality to the reward system.
In the 1970s, biologists learned that in prairie voles, which mate for life, the nucleus accumbens is replete with oxytocin receptors. Disrupting the binding of oxytocin to these receptors impaired prairie voles' monogamous behavior. In many other species that are not monogamous by nature, such as mountain voles and common mice, the nucleus accumbens appeared to lack those receptors.
"From this observation sprang a dogma that pair bonding is a special type of social behavior tied to the presence of oxytocin receptors in the nucleus accumbens. But what's driving the more common group behaviors that all mammals engage in - cooperation, altruism or just playing around - remained mysterious, since these oxytocin receptors were supposedly absent in the nucleus accumbens of most social animals," said Dölen.
The new discovery shows that mice do indeed have oxytocin receptors at a key location in the nucleus accumbens and, importantly, that blocking oxytocin's activity there significantly diminishes these animals' appetite for socializing. Dölen, Malenka and their Stanford colleagues also identified, for the first time, the nerve tract that secretes oxytocin in the region, and they pinpointed the effects of oxytocin release on other nerve tracts projecting to this area.
Mice can squeak, but they can't talk, Malenka noted. "You can't ask a mouse, 'Hey, did hanging out with your buddies a while ago make you happier?'" So, to explore the social-interaction effects of oxytocin activity in the nucleus accumbens, the investigators used a standard measure called the conditioned place preference test.
"It's very simple," Malenka said. "You like to hang out in places where you had fun, and avoid places where you didn't. We give the mice a 'house' made of two rooms separated by a door they can walk through at any time. But first, we let them spend 24 hours in one room with their littermates, followed by 24 hours in the other room all by themselves. On the third day we put the two rooms together to make the house, give them complete freedom to go back and forth through the door and log the amount of time they spend in each room."
Mice normally prefer to spend time in the room that reminds them of the good times they enjoyed in the company of their buddies. But that preference vanished when oxytocin activity in their nucleus accumbens was blocked. Interestingly, only social activity appeared to be affected. There was no difference, for example, in the mice's general propensity to move around. And when the researchers trained the mice to prefer one room over the other by giving them cocaine (which mice love) only when they went into one room, blocking oxytocin activity didn't stop the mice from picking the cocaine den.
In an extensive series of sophisticated, highly technical experiments, Dölen, Malenka and their teammates located the oxytocin receptors in the murine nucleus accumbens. These receptors lie not on nucleus accumbens nerve cells that carry signals forward to numerous other reward-system nodes but, instead, at the tips of nerve cells forming a tract from a brain region called the dorsal Raphe, which projects to the nucleus accumbens. The dorsal Raphe secretes another important substance, serotonin, triggering changes in nucleus accumbens activity. In fact, popular antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft belong to a class of drugs called serotonin-reuptake inhibitors that increase available amounts of serotonin in brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens.
As the Stanford team found, oxytocin acting at the nucleus accumbens wasn't simply squirted into general circulation, as hormones typically are, but was secreted at this spot by another nerve tract originating in the hypothalamus, a multifunction midbrain structure. Oxytocin released by this tract binds to receptors on the dorsal Raphe projections to the nucleus accumbens, in turn liberating serotonin in this key node of the brain's reward circuitry. The serotonin causes changes in the activity of yet other nerve tracts terminating at the nucleus accumbens, ultimately resulting in altered nucleus accumbens activity - and a happy feeling.
"There are at least 14 different subtypes of serotonin receptor," said Dölen. "We've identified one in particular as being important for social reward. Drugs that selectively act on this receptor aren't clinically available yet, but our study may encourage researchers to start looking at drugs that target it for the treatment of diseases such as autism, where social interactions are impaired."
Malenka and Dölen said they think their findings in mice are highly likely to generalize to humans because the brain's reward circuitry has been so carefully conserved over the course of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. This extensive cross-species similarity probably stems from pleasure's absolutely essential role in reinforcing behavior likely to boost an individual's chance of survival and procreation.
Source: http://ow.ly/oMDEV
07 February 2012
Abortion: It's ok to do it, but it's not ok to show it.
It's almost as if they fear something.
Graphic abortion ads air during Superbowl: ads blocked in Chicago
February 6, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ads featuring graphic abortion pictures reached thousands of Superbowl viewers on Sunday, even though the ads were blocked from the airwaves in at least one location.Creator Randall Terry is running for president on the Democratic ticket in order to be able to air such ads. Federal regulations require television stations to air political ads from candidates unedited. Two other pro-lifers, Angela Michael and David Lewis are also running for public office in order to run the ads.
Terry’s ads featured several images of children who had lost their lives to abortions, some of them appearing only around 7-8 weeks’ gestation. (The ads can be viewed here.)
The graphic ads, which also ran earlier this year in eight states to coincide with GOP campaign events, were rejected last month by NBC affiliates in Oklahoma, Missouri, Colorado, and Chicago.
After the NBC affiliates refused to air the ads, Terry appealed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), arguing that the stations’ refusal was “a content-driven exclusion, and is therefore forbidden” under FCC rules.
However, the federal commission ruled Friday that broadcasters were exempt from the requirement to sell airtime to candidates near or during the Super Bowl, the most-watched event on television annually in the U.S.
The head of the FCC’s Media Bureau also ruled that it was reasonable for Chicago’s WMAQ to bar the ads because “Terry did not make a substantial showing that he is a legally qualified candidate entitled to reasonable access to broadcast stations in Illinois.”
Although Terry is running as a Democratic candidate for the White House, the WMAQ’s rationale relied on a statement from the head of the Democratic National Committee addressed to NBC affiliates, which claimed Terry was not a “legally qualified candidate” in some jurisdictions because he did not meet standards for the Democratic nomination in those jurisdictions.
In a statement Saturday reacting to the FCC ruling, Terry said that at least 15 stations in seven states were scheduled to run pro-life Super Bowl ads in pre-game shows, during the Super Bowl, or in News Broadcasts after the game.
Pro-life journalist Jill Stanek reports that Terry would not reveal in exactly which locations the ads were scheduled to appear for fear of further interference from the Democratic party. Attempts to reach Terry today were unsuccessful.
On Saturday Terry pointed out that the FCC’s ruling about his status as a candidate only applied to Illinois: “Because David Lewis, Angela Michael, and I are on the ballot in other states, we are de facto ‘Legally Qualified Candidates,’ which is why the stations are proceeding to run our ads.”
“We say to our political enemies, and to those who promote the murder of babies, that we will continue to run these ads across the country in primary season and in the general election where we are on the ballot. Our intention is to make child killing the number one political issue of the election this year,” he said.
David Lewis, who is running for the House of Representatives against John Boehner in Ohio, successfully aired his ad attacking Boehner and showing graphic images of abortion in Cleveland, Dayton, and Cincinnati. The ad by Angela Michael, also running for the U.S. House, reportedly aired in St. Louis, Missouri.
All three candidates have placed comment boxes on their websites to collect responses to the ads, where viewers posted very positive and very negative responses.
“I have a son that was born at 21 weeks. I treasure the one and only photo I have of him. I despise all of you pro-lifers that choose to use these photos to further push your views on everyone,” wrote one viewer.
Another wrote: “Anonymous called you disgusting and Haywood says you are sick and disgusting. The question for them is, which is the most disgusting, the showing of the picture or the actual process of tearing apart babies and throwing them in a dumpster?”
Candidate Angela Michael appeared to post in her own combox to report that a pregnant college student called her hours after the Super Bowl to say the ad had changed her mind against a scheduled abortion.
03 February 2012
23 December 2011
NAACP's house negros support their democrat masters over the well-being of black babies
The word from LifeNews.com is that the NAACP is opposed to the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011, which criminalizes abortion on the grounds of race or sex.
Incredible.
With Planned Parenthood operating 78% of their "clinics" in inner-city neighborhoods, and African Americans constituting 12% of the nation but having 37% of the abortions, this is not only racial suicide, but fratricide as well. When the NAACP objects to a bill that would not only outlaw sex-selective abortions, but race-based abortions as well, that’s fratricide. One may only speculate as to why.
Perhaps the NAACP believes that culling the excess of unplanned pregnancies among their daughters is the answer to poverty. That's genuinely understandable (so long as one sets aside the ten commandments, human instinct, and human decency), and as with most evil and mental confusion, it does have its own internal logic. Vacuuming African American wombs frees girls to pursue their education and vocational advancement.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/
22 November 2011
13 November 2011
Don't go back to work for two years - if you want a happy baby
Pioneering 'active birth' guru DR YEHUDI GORDON introduced birthing pools to the UK in 1981. Since then he has helped Elle Macpherson and Cate Blanchett have their babies. Now 67, the leading obstetrician makes a controversial declaration.
The figures are stark. According to the Office of National Statistics, one in four of us will experience some form of mental health problem in any given year. But what does that have to do with me?
My 30 years of experience in the world of maternity care has given me a unique perspective on how we develop as babies and young children, and I believe there are deeper issues at play here.
Crucial bond: Babies separated early from their mothers produce stress hormones
Our increasing rates of stress, anxiety, panic attacks and even insomnia are, I believe, largely due to insecurities we first felt as babies when separated from our parents too soon.
Maternity policy places emphasis on the nine months leading up to birth and not enough on the years after. Big maternity units are like conveyor belts; their main concern is to get women and babies through safely and quickly.
At birth, humans are the least developed mammals on the planet, and what happens to us when the brain starts to develop has a marked impact on us during childhood and on into our adult years.
It isn't that surprising that if a baby is welcomed into the world, if it feels secure, if its needs are met and it feels accepted as part of a close family unit, particularly in the first two years, it will be happy and flourish. But babies who feel separated from their parents, and who do not have the opportunity to attach securely to their mothers, will suffer a range of problems in later life.
That detachment leads to a range of psychological problems as an adult. Many studies show that babies who are separated early from their mothers produce stress hormones. If the separation continues over weeks or months, stress patterns are established that stay with us.
To allow children to develop well, and for mother and baby to stay in tune with each other for as long as possible, a mother needs to be present for her baby, sleeping safely in the same bed or in the same room, up until the child is two, if that is what the baby wants.
Although I am the first to acknowledge that for many mothers going to work is a financial necessity, the fact is that when mothers return too early, babies are left at nursery too quickly and children are put in their own rooms to sleep before they are ready, the result is often stress and separation anxiety for the baby. Some babies are separated at night from birth.
Star patients: Dr Yehudi Gordon has helped Cate Blanchett and, right, Elle Macpherson have their babies
If a mother can leave it two years before she returns to work then this is the ideal. Dads are very important, too, but in the first year the father's role is to provide support.
If, however, circumstances dictate that the father has to take over the parenting role, if the mother is ill or the main breadwinner - as long as he comes in with a good, loving energy he can do the job really well.
What is ultimately needed is a fundamental change in the way we see our young. In Western culture, babies are perceived to be dependent and in order to create independence we push them away as much as we can.
But traditional societies view newborns as independently spirited and believe it is love and contact that allow independence to flourish. In Bali, for example, if a baby is laid down on its own in the first year of life, it is considered bad parenting.
I believe rigid baby behavioural programmes, such as Gina Ford's Contented Baby regime, do not work. Human babies are not like dishwashers that you can switch on and off.
There are babies who like strict routines but in my experience they are the minority. Routines don't work because a baby's needs vary from day to day, especially in the first year when they develop so quickly. Their needs and therefore the boundaries change from day to day and week to week.
The definition of a contented baby is not one that is seen but not heard. A contented baby is one who can express its needs and has a parent who responds to them. This is why 'controlled crying' - when a baby is left to cry without being comforted - is bad for them.
A baby who is ignored thinks it is not good enough to warrant its parents' attention and it doesn't make for a secure, confident human being. In fact, it creates angry human beings. That anger can manifest in later life as aggression or self-loathing.
Pioneer: Obstetrician Yehudi Gordon
I am often asked if this much attention might create a clingy, needy child, but a child who is secure will take to boundaries better than one who is insecure. An important part of a parent's role is to be aware of the baby's and the adults' needs and to negotiate and create boundaries.
For example, buy a cheap single bed and put it in your bedroom. Perhaps mum and baby will start off in the double bed and gradually the baby will spend more and more time in the single bed in the parents' room.
The same goes for them being in their own room. For some babies it may take four or five nights of getting used to; others may take two or three months. A gradual transition is so much better than suddenly leaving them on their own.
The best tool a mother has is her intuition but that can develop only if she is allowed to be with her child and learn about its needs. The biggest problem for first-time mothers is friends and family telling them they are making mistakes. It takes a lot of courage to follow your instincts.
When I became involved in the Active Birth Movement in the Eighties, women were warned that standing or squatting during childbirth was dangerous and were made to sign disclaimers absolving the hospital of responsibility.
The practice proved to be so controversial that my position at the Royal Free Hospital in North London soon became untenable, and I subsequently worked outside the NHS for many years.
But today, the same principles of active birth - the holistic approach to childbirth first fostered at the birth unit of London's St John & St Elizabeth Hospital where I work - and water births have become blueprints for units across the UK.
Although I recently delivered my last baby there, I am still actively involved in the hospital's family-centred Birth Unit.
We are committed to the groundbreaking programme Babiesknow, which aims to encourage bonding. And I hope that increasing research will allow us to better monitor infant stress levels throughout labour, negating the need for many of the caesareans that are being performed as a matter of caution.
How we are born and cared for impacts on who we are. The best way for a human being to be born is under soft lights in a peaceful room welcomed by loving people.
01 November 2011
Planned Parenthood completely defunded in Tennessee
Pro-life advocates in Tennessee can breathe a sigh of relief, now that their years-long battle to defund Planned Parenthood in the state has reached its conclusion.
Late last month, Shelby County, the final county in the state where Planned Parenthood was still receiving taxpayer dollars, announced that it was awarding a nearly $400,000 contract to Christ Community Health Services (CCHS), instead of Planned Parenthood. This is reportedly the first time in 35 years where Planned Parenthood has not received the contract in the county.
Two years ago, the state’s General Assembly had passed a law handing over family planning responsibilities to county health departments. However, two counties, Shelby and Davidson Counties, had continued to contract with Planned Parenthood.
Davidson County stopped the funding earlier this year. The decision by Shelby County means that 95 out of 95 counties in Tennessee are now no longer funding the abortion giant.
“Without question, lives will be improved, changed and saved as a result of directing these tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood’s abortion facilities in Memphis and Nashville,” said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life. “At risk women and families will now have the opportunity to receive quality care from ethical providers whose underlying goal is not to sell an abortion.”
Tennessee pro-lifers had spent three weeks on the edge of their seats, after the final decision on whether to defund Planned Parenthood in Shelby County was delayed in late September after the organization filed an appeal.
But despite fears that Planned Parenthood would find a way to protect its funding, the Shelby County Commission voted 9-4 on October 17 to award the contract to CCHS, saying that Planned Parenthood’s appeal was without merit.
Planned Parenthood expressed its disappointment in a statement. “This decision is not in the best interest of the women and families of Shelby County and was the result of state and local political pandering,” they said. “It is unfortunate that politics trumped people’s needs.”
The abortion organization said it is exploring a “number of options” to respond, including legal action.
