HEALTH | On Schizophrenia and Psychosis

Have you ever met someone who sort of hears voices which other people do not hear? Or someone who sees things that we don't usually see? These are called hallucinations and may point to a mental disorder. Essentially, a lot of them fail to understand what is real and display social behaviors that sometimes other people don't understand.

Sila yung mga nakakarinig o nakakita ng mga bagay na hindi nakikita ng iba. Sila din yung minsan ay may mga paniniwala na mahirap maiwasto gaya ng paniniwala na may laging nakaabang sa kanila o di kaya'y sila ang pinakamakapangyarihang tao sa mundo.

Image Courtesy: DailyStar.co.uk

A while back, our lecturer taught us about schizophrenia being one of the psychotic disorders that some Filipinos have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. One regional survey even found a prevalence of at least 4% in that area; that's relatively high versus the 1% prevalence worldwide. If we come to think of it though, 1% of the Philippine population translates to around 1 million battling schizophrenia. 

And that's just not it; others suffer from other mental disorders too including anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and substance-related disorders.

So, ano nga ba ang psychosis which we see in schizophrenics?

Psychosis is the impairment of specific domains including emotion, perception, and motor function. That's why a lot of psychotic patients tend to be less emotionally stable, perceive things we don't see or hear, and sometimes turn violent and exhibit disorganized behavior.

Note, however, that they did not want this. We need to help them. Kailangan nila suporta natin. Hence, early diagnosis while still young is a must para hindi pa lumala ang kondisyon.

Usually, a parent may seek a psychiatrist's help for his/her child if:

• for young school boys - tend to be lonely, anxious or have discipline problems (palaaway, may imaginary friend, etc)
• for young school girls - tend to be withdrawn socially and isolated

The first psychotic episode is the most critical, since aggressive treatment needs to be done to prevent further decline in the individual's capacity for functioning (or productivity) in society. It's also important that families of those with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders always ensure their adherence to medications because almost all patients relapse if their medications are discontinued during treatment period. 

We also do not want relapses to happen because the more relapses they get, the lower their level of functioning they'd end up with. As much as possible, gusto natin na magawa pa nila mga bagay na nagagawa ng madaming tao tulad ng pagliligo, pag-aalaga sa sarili, pagtratrabaho at kung anu-ano pa.

The Department of Health (DOH) has included mental health issues under the spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases. However, I think that it needs to be given more emphasis and placed in a separate category. This group of disorders needs to be allocated more budget since individuals who face these types of disorders tend to end up having difficulties living their life.

Always remember that everyone needs love and care. Hindi lang yung mga mayayaman. Hindi lang yung mga matatalino. Hindi lang yung mga may kakayahang makaintindi at makaalam kung alin ang totoo sa hindi.

So, let's stop the stigma and guide them (and their families) so that they'd be able to fit in this world too without having to worry about being judged or discriminated.

COOL | Who wants to view Earth from space? Check this out.

Have you ever wondered how it feels to travel the world while on a spacecraft? Have you ever dreamed of seeing different parts of Earth by watching from the point-of-view of the sky? Have you ever wanted to fly in outer space and check if the Earth is really round?

Image Screenshot: NASA, International Space Station

I did have these too when I was still a kid. Now, with science and technology making these goals and dreams achievable, viewing the world from outer space is not impossible. While looking for videos of the Earth as astronauts ride their space shuttle, I found a very usable link.

You can actually watch the International Space Station (ISS) traverse the world in distinct routes! Watch the shuttle as it roams around the Earth minute by minute. See the day turn into night, from up above, right before your very eyes!

Video Courtesy: Youtube channel Space Videos

HEALTH | What happens to your body when you die?

It's almost Halloween, a reason why people are now talking of horror stories, employing scare tactics, and joining parties to celebrate it differently. Cool nerds and geeky kids lol out there may want to have a taste of what's horrific and gruesome in this post.

What actually happens to our body when we die? Ano ba nangyayari sa atin kapag namatay na tayo, except for the fact that we return back to dust?

Here are two cool sources for awesome people out there who are interested in knowing the process of human decomposition. Just click to enlarge!

Image Courtesy: Business Insider

So, konting Tagalog-English summary lang:

• In a few seconds, bagsak temperature ng body natin hanggang umabot sa 25 C.
• In a few minutes, dahil hindi na tayo humihinga, bumabagsak oxygen sa katawan natin. Kapag wala ng oxygen, namamatay yung cells at unti-unting nasisira.
• In several hours, mag-popool yung dugo natin sa pinaka-mababang parte ng katawan natin kapag nakahiga tayo dahil sa gravity. Lalabas din poop natin and ihi kasi wala ng muscles na magko-control sa puwet and ari/pwerta natin. Maninigas din katawan natin.
• In several days, mag-aamoy patay na tayo (like masangsang level) dahil may mga chemicals na nagleleak out dulot ng bacterial processes (at ano pang mga ginagawa ng iba pang mga living things hehe). Yung mga enzymes na mismong tumutulong na magdigest ng kinain natin ang mismo na ring nagdidigest sa sarili nating katawan huhu.
• In weeks, mga bugs naman ang makikihati sa katawan natin -- maggots to be specific. Pati earthworms. Mangingitim din tayo or purplish and pakonti-konting natatanggal buhok natin.
• After at least four (4) months, buto-buto na lang tayo with konting parts pa na natitira, if lucky hehe.

Not yet grossed out? Then watch this video provided by Vox.

Video Courtesy: Youtube channel Vox

Hope you learned a lot today, guys! Take good care of your bodies ('cause nobody will take good care of it once we're dead)! :))

VIDEO | How vast is our universe? Where are we in the scale of things?

Soul searching is what most of the 20-somethings do in the world today. Many of us travel to various places to find ourselves. Marami satin umaalis papunta sa mga lugar na hindi natin alam. Sometimes, we just love to get lost and then found, eventually.

Contemplating on the number of places we've been to and thinking about the numerous places in the Philippines or in the world that we are yet to see make us realize how big the world we know is.

But what's more challenging is when we take a look at things on a grander scale -- the universe and where we are in this vast wide space!

Where are we in the scale of things? How vast is our universe? This makes us wonder, is it possible to reach at least 1,000 years old in order for us to experience the beauty of the other places that are literally out of this world?

Gaano nga ba tayo kaliit sa universe na ating ginagalawan? Watch the video below and be amazed at how lucky we are to have won the sperm race and to have lived in this age. What will soul searching be five, 10, 20 thousand years from now? Enjoy!

Video Courtesy: Youtube channel morn1415

SCIENCE | Letting babies cry themselves to sleep is fine.

Waking up in the middle of the night due to your baby's cry? Let him/her cry to sleep, a study from Flinders University in South Australia suggests. The research concluded that it's okay to let your babies gradually cry themselves to sleep as it does not cause any emotional harm or stress in the long term.

Image Courtesy: www.preciouslittlesleep.com

The habits of 43 pairs of parents troubled sleeping due to their infants' waits were analyzed. These parents have babies aged six to o 16 months old. The babies were left to cry for increasing period of time within three months. And it found out that leaving them be allowed babies to fall asleep 13 minutes faster on average than those who were attended to.

So, ano nangyari? What was done in the study?

Basically, the parents and their babies were divided into three different groups: the crying-it-out group (or graduated extinction), the bedtime fading group (where parents stay until their baby falls asleep), and the control group (no sleep training).

And the results? The graduated extinction group got better benefits vs the bedtime fading group in terms of the time taken to fall asleep by 3 minutes on average, the frequency babies were waking up in the night, and the total sleep time.

The babies' cortisol (hormone associated with stress) levels were taken. And it was found out that there was no significant difference in terms of baby stress levels. Also, the parents did not report increased stress or differences in the level of parent-child bonding.

Do note though that graduated extinction does not mean leaving a baby alone crying for hours on end, but rather slowly raising the amount of time a crying baby is left alone--that is, from 2 minutes to 35 minutes within the week. 

Read up on the study published in the Pediatrics journal here.

SCIENCE | Can you spot slight changes in color? Take the Color Test.

Are your eyes sensitive enough to differentiate a slight change in color? Taking a color test will let you know how hard or easy it is for you to detect colors that vary in hues. Who knows? You could be one of those ultra-sensitive enough to figure out one shade from the others!

Video Courtesy: Youtube channel BuzzfeedBlue

Online content creator Buzzfeed came up with this short video that lets you know how good you are when it comes to color perception. As for the results, I got all 23 letters right! How well did you fare?

So, you may ask, how do we see color?

Cones in the retina found at the back of our eye are the ones that receive and respond to the light waves that reflect from a surface, e.g. that of an apple. When light coming from the apple hits our eyes, it stimulates these cones (red, green, and blue) to some extent. The stimulated cones then transmit the signal along the optic nerve na nagkokoneta papunta sa visual processor/interpreter ng utak natin -- the visual cortex, which then returns with the color red.

We humans are far superior than most mammals when it comes to discerning color, BUT there are some animals outside our turf na mas magaling pa sa pag-perceive ng color. Examples are birds and fish which have more cone types (four rather than three) that allows them to see ultraviolet light or any type of light with wavelengths undetectable by our eyes.

HEALTH | (VIDEO) How vitamins work

For sure, there was at least one point in your life where you asked what vitamins are for. Or simply put, how do vitamins work? Why do some people take multivitamins? What vitamins are important in our everyday lives?

Image ScreenCap: Youtube channel TED-Ed

Well, this animation brought to you by Youtube channel TED-Ed explains the answers to your questions. In this video, you will understand the ways in which vitamins work. Mas maiintindihan mo kung papaano gumagana ang mga vitamins sa katawan. Ano nga ba ang role ng mga vitamins na ito?

Just watch the cool science video below. And don't forget to share it with your friends too!

Video Courtesy: Youtube channel TED-Ed, Ginnie Trinh Nguyen

A Youtube commenter ZestyManifesto listed down some of the general roles of certain vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K). Here are what each vitamin is for.

Water Soluble (dissolves in water)

Vitamin B Complex - Convert food to Fuel 

Vitamin C - Healing Wounds and Forming Scar Tissue 

Lipid (Fat) Soluble (can pass through lipid membranes)

Vitamin A - Makes White Blood Cells for Defense 

Vitamin D - Gathers Calcium and Phosphorus for Bones 

Vitamin E - Antioxidant for Damaged Cells 

Vitamin K - Score ability to Clot Blood

Hope you learned something new today! Araw-araw, binibigyan tayo ng pagkakataon na matutunan ang mga bagay na hindi pa natin alam. For the love of learning!

LIST | 5 awesome Filipino innovations you might not know

Did you know that aside from the creativity that we Filipinos possess, we also have that ingenuity, street-smart attitude, swag skills, and innovative thinking that bring us at par with our international counterparts? In a recent post I made, I talked about several Pinoy entrepreneurs who made it or are currently making it BIG including SALt (salt-powered lamp) innovator Engr. Aisa Mijeno. Now, let's talk about more products of Filipino minds!

Set aside all Filipino problems that brought us to the international headlines (e.g. tanim bala scam). Skip Filipino entertainment-related developments that always get some attention anywhere. Here are five awesome Filipino innovations you might not know, but will now learn about. Enjoy!

1. Plastic-to-Fuel Converter

Screenshot: Youtube channel Reuters

Bacolod native  Jayme Navarro utilized a way to turn thousands of trash into fuel such as diesel, gasoline, and kerosene. The incineration and conversion process begins when the plastics are shredded and dried, which are then placed into an air-tight chamber for decomposition. The plastic granules inside undergoes smelting and evaporates, the vapor of which becomes distilled into the different fuel variants.

The result is a cost-effective way to produce cleaner, cheap fuel from plastic.

2. Amphibious Tricycle (featured in my first blog Spotlight Philippines)

Video Source: Youtube channel Top Gear Philippines

Designed by a group of Filipino inventors and innovators led by Dominic Chung and Atoy Llave, the Salamander amphibious tricycle is the first of its kind to be created. It is a tricycle that can wade through the waters especially when heavy flooding takes place. This water-and-land traveling tricycle is definitely what the country.

3. First Windows graphics accelerator chip

Image Source: Imbenta.Net

Yep, there were a few Filipinos who had the chance to venture into and explore the world of tech when the industry was just starting to grow. The first single-chip graphical user interface accelerator which enhanced computers' performance was developed by Filipino entrepreneur, engineer, and philantropist Diosdado Banatao. The innovation has allowed computer users to use graphics for commands and not the usual typed commands in older computers.

Aside from the graphical UI accelerator, he was also behind the 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator, the first 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS with silicon coupler data-link control and transreceiver chip, and the first system logic chip set.

4. Improvised Medical Incubator, Weighing Scale and Warmer

Image Source: Imbenta.net

Credited for her contributions to the field of medicine, National Scientist Dr. Fe del Mundo is truly a woman, although not known to many Filipinos, who deserves all the love and respect of her countrymen. She became the first Filipino woman and the only woman to have enrolled at the Harvard University School of Medicine during her time. Among her priceless accomplishments, a makeshift incubator that can be used in rural areas without electricity was one of the game-changers at that time. It was composed of two native differently-sized laundry baskets placed one inside another. She also made a cloth-suspended weighing scale for infants and a bamboo warmer for newborns with special care needs.

5. Furniture from Forest Waste

Image Courtesy: Naturecast.com

Let's talk green! Featured on Rappler, Naturescast is a wood-like material actually composed of forest waste (twigs, branches, leaves) which are then ground and bound to form stylish and sturdy furniture from chairs and lamps to walls and ceilings. Some of the products of Nature's Legacy, the company behind Naturescast, are being used by outlets like The Body Shop.

There's just a lot of development nowadays that Filipinos do. Just think about the numbers of start-ups that have flourished in the country. Don't forget the inventions and researches that are being conducted inside top universities.

Other innovative products that Filipinos can usually think of, because they're just seen and heard on the news, are the e-jeepney, yo-yo, patis (fish sauce), body heat-powered flashlight created by Ann Makosinsk, low-cost landslide sensor, Project NOAH and its Philippine-made MOSES tablet, and of course, the Aurelio supercar. But did you also know that Filipinos also innovated an electric firecracker (Elektro firecracker), a 3-in-1 ANOS Patriot fire truck, and an improvised community guard baton? 

Feed your curiosity. Search them up! :)

SCIENCE | Audiology Updates for October and November 2015

Progress related to Audiology continues to run at a great pace. Developments over the past 30 days range from new research outcomes to breakthrough innovative products. Here are some recent updates on the study of hearing and balance.

One study has found out that fitting suitable hearing aids on children is associated with better levels of language development. Published in a supplement of the journal Ear and Hearing, an Outcomes of Children with Hearing Loss (OCHL) study involving children aged six months to 7 years old, showed that children with mid-to-severe hearing loss have poorer language development compared to hearing peers. Furthermore, it found out that a correlation exists between the extent of hearing loss and the impact on language development. The study provides solid proof that early, active intervention helps children with all degrees of hearing impairment catch up or significantly close the gaps with their hearing peers in terms of language development.

Young people have already experienced hearing problems due to exposure to loud sound or noise, this is what a study jointly conducted by French market research specialists Ipsos and the French Week of Sound association has found out. The “Youngsters and the world of sound” study worked on three different population groups: children aged 0 to 6 years old, children aged 7 to 12 years old, and adolescents aged 13 to 19 years old. The study results also showed that earphones or headphone usage when listening to music is common practice among all groups. Those from the adolescents group say they listen with earphones or headphones on for about two hours a day. 8% of 0-to-6-year-olds use earphones, and 16% headphones, for a daily listening average of 31 minutes. Alarmingly, one in every 10 0-to-2-year-olds falls asleep while wearing headphones or earphones.

Image Source: Kickstarter

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old has designed headphones made to protect your hearing which was pitched in Kickstarter and obtained four (4) times his target amount. Kingsley Cheng, together with his electronic industry-veteran dad and a serial entrepreneur Anthony Lye, co-founded AEGIS Acoustics to come up with designs that prevent further hearing loss among headphone-using kids. Their product line, the main product of which is their AEGIS Pro headphones, now includes a hard case and high performance drivers. Their AEGIS Pro utilizes protective hardware and software solutions including its LED lights that change color to notify the user that it’s time to stop listening as per WHO recommendation of a maximum 8 hours, and its digital decibel equalizer technology that normalizes the volume at a safe level (85 dB).