How the Brain Gets Addicted to Gambling
"... neuroscience and genetics demonstrating that gambling and drug addiction are far more similar than previously realized. Research in the past two decades has dramatically improved neuroscientists' working model of how the brain changes as an addiction develops. In the middle of our cranium, a series of circuits known as the reward system links various scattered brain regions involved in memory, movement, pleasure and motivation. When we engage in an activity that keeps us alive or helps us pass on our genes, neurons in the reward system squirt out a chemical messenger called dopamine, giving us a little wave of satisfaction and encouraging us to make a habit of enjoying hearty meals and romps in the sack. When stimulated by amphetamine, cocaine or other addictive drugs, the reward system disperses up to 10 times more dopamine than usual..."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-the-brain-gets-addicted-to-gambling&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_MB_20131106

I guess similar explanation can be used for other addiction like shopping therapy, for example.

Are Believers Really Happier Than Atheists?

"...In the least religious nations—which include Estonia, the Scandinavian countries, Hong Kong and Japan—the role of faith in public life can still be surprisingly complex, however. Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist at Pitzer College, spent 14 months interviewing people in Denmark, one of these hallowed lands where religious belief is low, yet people’s spirits are high. Just 19 percent of the population considered religion important, according to Diener’s survey...

...Denmark and Sweden buck conventions in more ways than one. They have the lowest church attendance in the world. Ask them if they believe the basic tenets of Christian doctrine, and by and large they say they do not. “Even the vast majority of the clergy don’t believe in God,” Zuckerman says. Yet most Danes and Swedes baptize their babies, get married in churches and pay a tax that supports the church.

How the presence of the church contributes to Scandinavians’ well-being is an open question. The institution likely represents a sense of community, a shared moral foundation and a national heritage. Yet as one Danish bishop told Zuckerman, “Danes don’t need to go to church to feel community. They live in Denmark.” The country has been described as a modern tribe; with a language spoken by only about six million people and few immigrants, Denmark’s homogeneity serves as social glue. The country also has egalitarian workplaces, with minimal social distance separating bosses and employees.

That is all well and good for the Danes, but for the rest of us some lessons can emerge. Belief in God or gods is not a prerequisite for a pleasurable existence, although it can make life easier. Socializing with like-minded people on a regular basis, and living and working in a supportive community, can offer many of the same benefits. As Diener puts it, “Religion can certainly help people to be happier, but other things can help you do the same thing. A peaceful, cooperative society, even in the absence of religion, seems to have the same effect.”..." http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=healthy-skepticism&page=4

Originally posted by Don Quixote Well, it is known for a long time that stress weakens the body and causes diseases - in the said article the mechanism how that happens is shown - through producing inflammation-inducing chemicals. This is an important detail, because it may show a way how this can be corrected, by countering the said chemicals. The devil is in the details - otherwise I wouldn't bother to waste my time to read and post it.

Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 18-Apr-2012 at 03:35

Well, it is known for a long time that stress weakens the body and causes diseases - in the said article the mechanism how that happens is shown - through producing inflammation-inducing chemicals. This is an important detail, because it may show a way how this can be corrected, by countering the said chemicals.

The devil is in the details - otherwise I wouldn't bother to waste my time to read and post it.

Chronic Stress Linked To Inflammation And Disease
"...Stress wreaks havoc on the mind and body. For example, psychological stress is associated with greater risk for depression, heart disease and infectious diseases. But, until now, it has not been clear exactly how stress influences disease and health.

A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University's Sheldon Cohen has found that chronic psychological stress is associated with the body losing its ability to regulate the inflammatory response. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research shows for the first time that the effects of psychological stress on the body's ability to regulate inflammation can promote the development and progression of disease...
...In the second study, 79 healthy participants were assessed for their ability to regulate the inflammatory response and then exposed to a cold virus and monitored for the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, the chemical messengers that trigger inflammation. He found that those who were less able to regulate the inflammatory response as assessed before being exposed to the virus produced more of these inflammation-inducing chemical messengers when they were infected.

"The immune system's ability to regulate inflammation predicts who will develop a cold, but more importantly it provides an explanation of how stress can promote disease," Cohen said. "When under stress, cells of the immune system are unable to respond to hormonal control, and consequently, produce levels of inflammation that promote disease. Because inflammation plays a role in many diseases such as cardiovascular, asthma and autoimmune disorders, this model suggests why stress impacts them as well."

He added, "Knowing this is important for identifying which diseases may be influenced by stress and for preventing disease in chronically stressed people." ..."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243702.php

It seems that people who developed PTSD do so because they have genetic predisposition to it:

Study Identifies PTSD Genes

"...Why do some persons succumb to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while others who suffered the same ordeal do not? A new UCLA study may shed light on the answer.
UCLA scientists have linked two genes involved in serotonin production to a higher risk of developing PTSD. Published in the April 3 online edition of the Journal of Affective Disorders, the findings suggest that susceptibility to PTSD is inherited, pointing to new ways of screening for and treating the disorder.

"People can develop post-traumatic stress disorder after surviving a life-threatening ordeal like war, rape or a natural disaster," explained lead author Dr. Armen Goenjian, a research professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "If confirmed, our findings could eventually lead to new ways to screen people at risk for PTSD and target specific medicines for preventing and treating the disorder."
PTSD can arise following child abuse, terrorist attacks, sexual or physical assault, major accidents, natural disasters or exposure to war or combat. Symptoms include flashbacks, feeling emotionally numb or hyper-alert to danger, and avoiding situations that remind one of the original trauma. ..."

"...Affecting about 7 percent of Americans, PTSD has become a pressing health issue for a large percentage of war veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The UCLA team's discovery could be used to help screen persons who may be at risk for developing PTSD.
"A diagnostic tool based upon TPH1 and TPH2 could enable military leaders to identify soldiers who are at higher risk of developing PTSD, and reassign their combat duties accordingly," observed Goenjian. "Our findings may also help scientists uncover alternative treatments for the disorder, such as gene therapy or new drugs that regulate the chemicals responsible for PTSD symptoms."

According to Goenjian, pinpointing genes connected with PTSD symptoms will help neuroscientists classify the disorder based on brain biology instead of clinical observation. Psychiatrists currently rely on a trial and error approach to identify the best medication for controlling an individual patient's symptoms.

Serotonin is the target of the popular antidepressants known as SSRIs, or selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, which prolong the effect of serotonin in the brain by slowing its absorption by brain cells. More physicians are prescribing SSRIs to treat psychiatric disease beyond depression, including PTSD and obsessive compulsive disorder. ..."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243688.php

"...A study from the Stanford University School of Medicine is published this week in Psychological Science showing that children who experience difficulty with math exhibit an altered brain function from anxiety.
The same part of the brain that responds to fearful situations, such as seeing a spider or snake, also shows a heightened response in children with high math anxiety."

Menon and his team used functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans on nearly 50 students with low and high math anxiety. The children were also assessed for math anxiety with a modified version of a standardized questionnaire for adults, and also received standard intelligence and cognitive tests.
As Menon continues, math anxiety has been known about for a long time, but has never really been studied in terms of its effect on students, and especially younger ones, when maths skills are built:
"..."It's remarkable that, although the phenomena was first identified over 50 years back, nobody had bothered to ask how math anxiety manifests itself in terms of neural activity ... You cannot just wish it away as something that's unreal. Our findings validate math anxiety as a genuine type of stimulus- and situation-specific anxiety."
Essentially what he is saying is that his team's observations show that math anxiety is neurobiologically similar to other kinds of anxiety or phobias. In theory, the process may work for many other issues that children and even adults have difficulty dealing with...."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243328.php

Sexualized Clothing on Kids Sends Troubling Signals

http://www.livescience.com/19259-sexualized-childrens-clothing-perception.html

"....A new book by a University of New Hampshire researcher and Vietnam-era disabled veteran sheds new light on the long-term psychological trauma experienced by the coalition force in recent wars in the Gulf and Balkans that, when left untreated, can have deadly consequences....
....Instead of looking at PTSD traditionally as it has been narrowly defined by the Veteran's Administration - requiring that a person be in a combat situation - French found that traumatic stress should be redefined as being on a continuum, with PTSD at the end of the continuum and applied to a wider range of military forces as well as civilians.

This continuum begins with the inability to make an automatic adjustment to a new situation, which creates an adjustment disorder. Residual clinical issues remain if the adjustment disorder is not remedied and can lead to PTSD. There is no single cure for post-traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms include insidious depression, panic and anxiety disorders, and brief psychotic breaks. ...

..."By focusing on only a narrow definition of PTSD, the Veteran's Administration was excluding a lot of people," French says. "Unresolved traumatic stress, regardless of where it falls on the continuum, can result in suicide."..."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243107.php

Thanks, CV. I'll try to stay on the top of it.