Women's Emotions Do Not Cause Their Migraines

A very common misconception is that women's migraines are directly related to their stress and emotions and their inability to manage them. It was also thought that the likelihood of a women getting a migraine would increase when it was her "time of the month" only because that is when women tend to be more emotional. In reality, neurologists have discovered that this abnormal brain activity actually has nothing to do with emotions.

36 million people suffer from migraines in the United States and women are three to four times more likely to experience them. Women's migraines do correlate with their menstrual cycle, though not because of a change in emotions. Hormone fluctuation, along with environmental factors attribute to migraines. Those are not the only factors though. It has been found that variations of more than 40 genes are associated with migraines and there is a genetic component to at least 50% of migraine cases. This genetic predisposition to migraines, along with certain "triggers" (such as light sensitivity) activate networks in the brain that are interconnected and allow for a migraine to occur.

Suffering from migraines myself, this has been an interesting read and has broadened my understanding of why I experience migraines. I have always focused on finding specific triggers to my migraines. I have now learned that even though certain things may seem to increase my likelihood of a migraine, they are not the only piece of the puzzle, and that I am most likely genetically predisposed to experiencing migraines.

http://akhelp.com/907chiro/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/migraine-and-blurred-vision.jpghttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/health/debunking-migraine-misconceptions.html

Emotional Medication Through the Air

At the University of Sussex a study was conducted demonstrating how human emotions could be transferred through the human body, via the palm, without contact. The leader of the research, Dr. Marianna Obrist, explains this technology as a method to stimulate different areas of one’s hand delivering various emotions. Emotions such as sadness are stimulated by the outer palm and pinky. The thumb, index finger, and middle of the palm are told to convey excitement.  The system is called the Ultragraphics system.  This research intends to continue for other senses like taste, touch and smell.

On a minor level, I find this most interesting as I tend to lack control of my own emotions. As Dr. Obrist indicates this would be handy technology to have when emotionally unstable before work or another important event. He also mentions how it could benefits families when undergoing long distance relationships. Most importantly, those suffering sensory impairments will have experiences they never imagined. Making this new technology nearly unimaginable.

The news article can be found here.

Marital Satisfaction linked to Gene Variant

Researches from University of California-Berkeley did a study that suggest that a happy marriage or relationship is linked to genetics and a gene which helps in regulating serotonin can determine a persons emotional outlook on relationships. They say a gene variant, 5-HTTLPR which is inherited from parents, is linked to relationship fulfillment. It also determines how important emotions are to different people.

This study followed 156 couples from 1989 until present day, these couples are now middle aged or older.During the duration of the study each couple was asked every 5 years to come into a lab and have their marital satisfaction and interaction with one another evaluated and observed. Researches were observing conversation each couple had and wold look for facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and the topic of the conversation in which the couples were having. Out of the 156 original couple participating 125 of those couples gave DNA samples which was used to match their genotype with their own marital satisfaction and interactions with each other that were observed in the lab. The study found that couples and participants with 2 short 5-HTTLPR alleles where the most unhappy when there was to much talk and focus on negative emotional, but were the happiest when around happier emotions. Those that had 1 or 2 long alleles were less affected by the emotions that were taking place in their marriage. Neither of these alleles have a positive or negative advantage. Those who had 2 short alleles which was 17% showed a strong connection between emotions and their marriage, 83% of the couples showed no correlation between their emotions and their marriage.

I chose to write about this article because I found it interseting that how happy a person could be in a relationship is do to a gene they have and not how fulfilling the relationship may actually be. But I also found it interesting how more couples had no correlation between their emotions and their marriage. 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/267235.php