Restless Leg Syndrome

Restless Leg Syndrome

Has anyone ever had a hard time falling asleep at night because they just can't keep their legs still? Has anyone ever experienced what feels like burning, creeping, tugging, or like insects crawling inside the legs? You might have something called Restless Leg Symdrome (RLS). I have an extremely difficult time falling asleep due to these symptoms, so I decided to do a little bit more research to find out exactly was RLS is and how to treat it.

• So what exactly is RLS?
  RLS is a neurological disorder characterized by unpleasant sensations in the legs and an uncontrollable urge to move when at rest in an effort to relieve these feelings. The sensations range in severity from uncomfortable to irritating to painful.

What causes RLS?
Most research claims that RLS is a genetic disorder. Some other factors (that are not yet proven) include:

• People with low iron levels or anemia may be prone to developing RLS.


• Chronic diseases such as kidney failure, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and peripheral neuropathy are associated with RLS. Treating the underlying condition often provides relief from RLS symptoms.


• Some pregnant women experience RLS, especially in their last trimester.


• Certain medications-such as antinausea drugs (prochlorperazine or metoclopramide), antiseizure drugs (phenytoin or droperidol), antipsychotic drugs (haloperidol or phenothiazine derivatives), and some cold and allergy medications-may aggravate symptoms.

How is RLS treated?

For those with mild to moderate symptoms, prevention is key, and many physicians suggest certain lifestyle changes and activities to reduce or eliminate symptoms. Decreased use of caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco may provide some relief. Physicians may suggest that certain individuals take supplements to correct deficiencies in iron, folate, and magnesium. Studies also have shown that maintaining a regular sleep pattern can reduce symptoms. Some individuals, finding that RLS symptoms are minimized in the early morning, change their sleep patterns. Others have found that a program of regular moderate exercise helps them sleep better; on the other hand, excessive exercise has been reported by some patients to aggravate RLS symptoms. Taking a hot bath, massaging the legs, or using a heating pad or ice pack can help relieve symptoms in some patients. Although many patients find some relief with such measures, rarely do these efforts completely eliminate symptoms.
Another option is for a physicians to suggest a variety of medications to treat RLS.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for this disorder.

For more info on RLS visit http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/restless_legs/detail_restless_legs.htm#84743237

Animals That Inhabit the Oceans

For this weeks blog, I wanted to make a comprehensive list of who lives in the ocean. A big part of why I want to do this is because I have a degree in Marine Science and I feel that I never use that knowledge anymore. This will be great for me to refresh my memory, and will hopefully be a great learning experience for you!


There are hundreds of animals inhabiting the oceans. The following losts only the major groups:
Sponges (phylum [order] Porifera)

Coelenterata

• hydroids (phylum Hydrozoa)
• jellyfish (phylum Scyphozoa)
• sea anemones (phylum Anthozoa)
• coral

Ctenophora

• comb jellies

Marine Worms

Bryozoans (phylum Bryozoa)

Mollusca (100,000 species; 7 classes; these are found close to shore)

• snails and other single shelled (univalved) animals (Gastropoda)
• chitons (Polyplacophora)
• two-shelled (bivalved) mollusks (Bivalvia)
• squids and octopuses (Cephalopoda)

Anthropoda (75 percent of all animals - land and ocean)

• chelicertes (horseshoe crabs, spiders, and mites)
• insects
• crustaceans (crabs, shrimps, lobsters; neary all marine arthropods are crustaceans)

Echinoderms

• sea stars
• brittle stars
• sea urchins
• sea cucumbers

Tunicates (phylum Chordata)

• sea squirts or ascidians
  
  
  
  
  

Fish (vertebrates; nearly 50 percent of the 40,000 known species of vertebrates are fish)

• Cartilaginous fish (phylum Chondrichthyes - sharks, rays, and skates; 10 percent of all fish)
• Bony fish (phylum Osteichthyes - tuna, cod, salmon, etc.; 90 percent of all fish)

Marine reptiles (14 percent of the 40,000 known species of vertebrates are reptiles)

• crocodiles
• sea tutrles
• sea snakes

Birds(sea and shore)

• puffins
• shorebirds (shallow water waders)
• egrets, herons, and ibis
• sea ducks
• gulls, terns, and skimmers
• cormorants
• pelicans
• gannets
• frigatebirds
• pelagic birds (such as strom petrels)
• kingfishers
• ospreys

Marine Mammels

• whales (cetaceans) - baleen and toothes (toothed includes dolphins and porpoises)
• seals, walruses, sea lions (Pinnipedia)
• manatees or sea cows (Sirenia)
• sea otters (Mustelidae)
  
  

All of this information was obtained from "The Handy Ocean Answer Book."

Does Sugar Make Children "Hyper"?

Does Sugar Make Children "Hyper"?

I have worked with children of all ages and it always seems that when they are given sweets, they become hyper and hard to handle. So my question for this weeks blog is "Does Sugar Make Children'Hyper'?"

I was sooo SUPRISED to see that scientifically, there is no link to show that sugar causes children to become hyperactive.

According to Dr Kleinman, Professor of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, "There are no studies to show that sugar in the commonly eaten foods makes children overly active or causes them to be hyperactive and have attention deficit."
In all the studies that have been done over the years, some kids were given sugar, and some were given sugar substitutes. The results have shown that if you have somebody watching the children and they don't know which child was given the sugar or the substitute, they can't tell which child had the sugar or the non sugar.
Therefore, as Dr Kleinman sees it, sugar's not the culprit — the child's environment is.
"Let me explain this a little bit. You bring a child to church and most children are going to sit there quietly and not be terribly active. You bring them out to a playground and they're going to be running all over the place. The setting makes a difference. There's no relationship between eating that food and being normally active," she says.
So, sugar and excess activity may appear to be linked because sugar is often consumed at events like birthday parties or other social events which tend to produce excitement and greater activity levels even in the absence of sweets.

So I guess that bottomline is that sweets do not make children hyper, but still limit the amount. A normal child is supposed to get 4-5 teaspoons of sugar a day, but most consume up to 25 teaspoons a day!

Creatures of the Deep

Creatures of the Deep

My blog this week is about creatures of the deep. Obviously, I love marine science, so I thought it would be really interesting to take a look at the scary looking creatures that live 1000's of meters below the surface. Who lives there? How do they survive? What are some common characteristics? What fish was found the deepest?

Let me first give you a very quick and very basic layout of the sea:

• Epipelagic: Top layer of ocean near the surface where the water is warmed by the sun and photosynthesis is most effective.
• Mesopelagic: Mid-ocean layer between 200m and 800m where sunlight can still penetrate.
• Bathypelagic: Deep-water between 800m and 4,000m where sunlight penetration is extremely low.
• Benthopelagic: The layer of water just above the seafloor.
• Abyssal: The sea floor.
• Hadopelagic: The really really deep ocean water that is found within trenches.

Now that we know all that, lets take a look at who lives there:

Viper Fish

Warty Angler

Fangtooth

Rat Tail

Okay, you get the point... these guys are UGLY!!!

How do they survive all the way down there?:

Many species of deep ocean fish have special adaptations to living in extremely high pressure, low light conditions. Viper fish (Mesopelagic - found at 80-1600 meters - about a mile down) are some of the most wicked looking fish dredged up from the depths. Some of them are black as night all over with light organs (called photophores) in strategic places on their bodies, including one on a long dorsal fin that serves as a lure for the fish it preys upon. Some viperfish (and many other deep ocean fish species) don't have any pigment (color) at all - they're "see through". They also have enlarged eyes, presumably for gathering as much light as possible where there is little or no light at all. The light organs create lights by using a chemical process called bioluminescence. Other deep ocean fish, such as the the gulper eel have a hinged skull, which can rotate upward to swallow large prey. They also have large stomachs which can stretch to accommodate a fish much larger than itself. The gulper eel is particularly well-known for its impossibly large mouth - big enough to get its mouth around (and swallow!) creatures much bigger than itself. Fish that live down here must adapt to a very low food supply, eating only "scraps" that sink down from above, or sometimes eating each other.

So who wins the prize for being the deepest fish in the ocean???:

The world's record holder for deepest fish goes to the brotulid family, about which scientists know almost nothing. These fish are benthopelagic, living at depths of 7000 meters or more. The world's deepest fish (Abyssobrotula galatheae) was found in the Puerto Rican Trench at a depth of 8,372 meters (that's over five miles down!).
Their eyes appear to be virtually nonexistent. Maybe it's because there is never enough light for the fish to see, so why bother with the eyes? After all, eyes in most organisms are designed for gathering light in the creature's visual field and transmitting it to the brain - giving it useful information about its environment. In a world where no sunlight ever penetrates there's probably little use for eyes. The brotulids probably have other, highly developed senses to compensate for their lack of vision, which help them to find their way around in the dark depths.

All of this info and more can be found at Creatures of the Deep.