I was screwing around reading stuff on the internet. Mostly what I read about is scientific stuff and even more than that medical stuff since I'm in health care. I really do understand the science behind things and find it really fascinating to say the least. There is more and more understanding about the science down at the cellular level than ever before.
A few weeks ago, smileycreek and I took a one-day course about the chemical science now known about how our various white blood cells react to different things going on inside the body. There are so many chemicals they know about now that they didn't even a couple years ago that are released by our immune system cells responding to infections, injuries and digestion of different foods.
Finally there is true understanding of the chemical mechanisms behind what's termed "chronic internal inflammation" which is behind all the things we associate with degenerative diseases of the elderly including obesity, type II diabetes, arthritis, acquired autoimmune diseases, leaky gut syndrome and dementia. How our immune system responds to things is ultimately behind the eventual development of these problems.
The most important things, to which all of these issues of aging are associated, turn out to be diet and exercise. We've always known this, or at least really suspected it. Now we finally are starting to understand exactly why this is true on a cellular and chemical level. The trick then is to not eat things that causes your immune system to react in ways that causes degenerative disease. Also, simply sitting for periods of time causes chronic internal inflammation to occur. So don't write blogs for KTK without getting up at least a couple times an hour to move and walk some or you'll start to inflame!
Well, OK, I could go on about the why's and how's of this subject but this isn't the subject I actually want to talk about tonight. I'm just using this as a springboard.
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What I really want to talk about is new research that shows the month in which you are born truly does have an effect on your overall temperament and what personality disorders you are more prone to develop. And it has nothing to do with your horoscope.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
Xenia Gonda, lead researcher on this project says, "Biochemical studies have shown that the season in which you are born has an influence on certain monoamine neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, which is detectable even in adult life. This led us to believe that birth season may have a longer-lasting effect."
Gonda, a professor in the Department of Clinical and Theoretical Mental Health at Semmelweis University in Budapest, declared: "We can't yet say anything about the mechanisms involved. What we are now looking at is to see if there are genetic markers which are related to season of birth and mood disorder."
"Season of birth determines several influences which effect the fetus in the mother's womb during gestation while the central nervous system develops and also during the first few months after birth which are also crucial. Season of birth and season during each of the trimesters determines -- and used to determine especially up to the last century -- what foods and nutrients were available, how much physical activity the mother had, what pathogens were in the environment, temperature, light which strongly influences circadian rhythm, which in turn influences a range of phenomena and is thought now to play a key role in depression."
"Season of birth does not only determine a vast array of environmental effects but may also be related to genetic factors related to mood. Very simply, take seasonal affective disorder, which has been linked say to a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene with a small effect."
Well that's enough lifted from the article. She goes on to say you
see these differences in the population as a whole, and cannot predict what any individual will be like especially since we all have different experiences and different families. Obvioulsy if you were brought up in a family that loved you and provided for you you will be different than being brought up in a family that was really dysfunctional regardless of what month you were born.
What did show up in the research is the month you were born does predispose you with your likely temperament and also what mood disorders you have more potential to develop. Clearly the whole nature vs. nurture argument got a little nudge for the nature part actually being a factor.
If you are born in winter months you are more likely to be even keeled and less irritable. You are more likely to be emotionally calm.
If you are born in autumn months you are less likely to be depressive.
Those born in spring and early summer are more likely to have an "hyperthymic temperament" which means excessively positive.
If you're born during the summer months, you are more likely to have a "cyclothymic temperament" which means rapid mood swings between being happy and sad and being an irritable adult.
Summing up how we tend to be when we are born in different months = In the spring and the first part of summer, we tend to be really positive. As summer progresses into late summer we tend to be more bi-polar-like and irritable. As we move into autumn we tend to be less depressive and finally we tend be calmer in winter.
These are just overall tendencies, however. The family your were born into and the environment you grow up in are going to be far more important in how you become than the month you were born. But as Xenia Gonda puts it, “Basically, it seems that when you are born may increase or decrease your chance of developing certain mood disorders."
I find this kind of stuff interesting as hell. I'm always intrigued by it all.
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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