Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/635319
healthy living By Laura G. Owens Rock Body YOUR AROMATHERAPY AFTER SURGERY F acing an upcoming surgery can make some people nervous enough to feel sick to their stomachs. It turns out post-operative nausea (PON) from anesthesia can also be a problem. While anti-nausea medications improve symptoms, they aren't always reliable. Researchers found in a 2011 study that aromatherapy (sniffi ng certain scents) may be a better solution to treat PON. Patients who sniffed either a single essential oil (ginger) or a blend of ginger, peppermint, spearmint and cardamom were less nauseous and less likely to ask for medication. The blend was slightly more effective than the single scent. S unshine helps beat the winter blues, but cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) lasts longer. University of Vermont researcher Kelly Rohan found that talk therapy was more effective to reduce future recurrences of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) than light therapy. Moreover, patients who tried CBT but were still depressed had less- severe symptoms than if they used light therapy. CBT subjects learned to challenge negative thoughts about dark winter months and avoid behaviors such as social isolation that can affect mood. "Light therapy is a palliative treatment that requires you to keep using the treatment for it to be effective," said Rohan. By contrast, CBT designed to treat SAD is preventative, enduring and gives patients a sense of control. TALK BEATS LIGHT FOR SAD M en might seem like they're from Mars and women from Venus, but our brains are, in fact, far more similar than we once thought. Daphna Joel, a behavioral neuroscientist at Tel Aviv University, compared the gray and white matter of 1400 brain MRI images of men and women and found that while there were some gender distinctions, there was more overlap than disparity. While men tend to have larger amygdalas, an area associated with emotion, the difference is small and highly infl uenced by the environment (cue nature vs. nurture). And although the left hippocampus, an area associated with memory, is generally larger in men, the data showed signifi cant overlap between the sexes in every region of the brain. Less than 8 percent of the subjects' brains had all male or all female structures. Despite the overwhelming overlap between men and women's brains, the minor differences have long been used to reinforce gender-expectations. But the belief that the sexes innately behave differently is, for the most part, a myth. "There is no sense talking about male nature and female nature," said Joel. "No one person has all the male characteristics and another person all the female characteristics." The fi ndings have important implications including debunking the benefi ts of single-sex education based on supposed innate gender differences, and perhaps even our defi nition of gender as a social category. MARS AND VENUS? MAYBE NOT en might seem like they're from Mars and women from Venus, but our brains are, in fact, far more similar than we once thought. Daphna Joel, a behavioral neuroscientist at Tel Aviv University, compared the gray and white matter of 1400 brain MRI images of men and women and found that while there were some gender distinctions, there was more overlap than disparity. While men tend to have larger amygdalas, an area associated with emotion, the difference is small and highly infl uenced by the environment (cue nature vs. nurture). And although the left hippocampus, an area associated with memory, is signifi cant overlap between signifi cant overlap between signifi cant the sexes in every region of the brain. Less than 8 percent of the subjects' brains had all male or all female structures. Despite the overwhelming overlap between men and women's brains, the minor differences have long been used to reinforce gender-expectations. But the belief that the sexes innately behave innately behave innately differently is, for the most part, a myth. "There is no sense talking about male nature and female nature," said Joel. "No one person has all the male characteristics and another person all The fi ndings have important implications including february/march 2016 15