Bipolar Disorder

There are plenty disorders to the brain. I’m going to explain about the bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is when you experience off and on stages of madness and depression. There is a second bipolar disorder called bipolar ll. bipolar ll is the same thing as regular bipolar but it has more tame symptoms.
Bipolar is most common between the age groups 18-29. http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/docs/FactsandFiguresfactsheet.pdf
Up to 25% of people, who have bipolar disorder; commit suicide while having the disorder. They have found out that the cause of bipolar disorder is a problem in the cellular activities, so in other words the neurotransmitters are not functioning correctly with the receptors. http://www.brainexplorer.org/brain_disorders/focus_bipolar_disorder.shtml
There are treatments for bipolar disorder. First, they actually have a prescribed medicine for it, and sometimes the person who has bipolar disorder will simply just go to therapy.

The Ruc people of Vietnam

Now, due to a very low amount of available information, this will be a relatively short essay.
The Ruc is a tribe that is located in the Country of Laos, which is right next to Vietnam. Something that is strange, but not surpising, about the tribe is that if a man or woman in the tribe is bitten or attacked by an animal, they are believed to be cursed and are banished from the tribe, unable to return for 2 or 3 months. Ancestoral worship is not practised in each home of the tribes, but instead is observed in the house of the Village Cheif. They worship a line of spirits, and spirits of the earth, humans, animals and the forest are believed to be the most powerful. Their language is that commonly used among other Chut tribes (the Ruc being a "branch" of the Chut), and they have no native Ruc language; although they are believed to have had a native language until recently. Unfortunately, that is all I was able to find about the internal interactions of the Ruc tribe.

Getting Better Grades

Understanding one’s mind, is a way to describe the word psychology. Understanding is something most people search for whether it be of themselves or of another. The mind, not to be confused with the brain, is used to understand something and similar to such. Therefore, getting better grades would come from better understanding the knowledge your mind is trying to absorb and being able to act on it, would be apart of psychology.
One can get better grades simply by studying that can help you recall forty percent of the information or a method found even more sufficient with sixty-one percent recall on the information, known as self-testing frequently. We all know how to study, we just don’t take the time to do so! Go ahead, push yourself to take the time to do some studying. Some people know, but not many, that self-quizzing can lead to better memory of the information and can lead you to have a better memory and get a better grade on that test! Testing takes, normally, a good portion of percent or our overall percentile grade. Expand your mind, prepare yourself, push yourself, and try your best to get better grades; which helps your mind and the knowledge helps you better understand what you’re capable of, meaning the ability to use psychology on yourself everyday.
I reference all my ideas and way of thinking back to an all about psychology website. I do, indeed, believe in their ideas and they have so much to share. Learning of the self-quizzing thing to improve your memory and ability to recall does give me a new idea of how to do good on tests. It helps me get better grades, and I do love to push myself to succeed. So, I was quite happy to learn a new psychological way to do better in school and enhance my mind.

Correct grammer

Nice work on your first blogs!

These blogs will be treated like a written assignment. Thus, it is important to apply standard English conventions in order to effectively convey your message to the reader. In other words, be sure you are spelling words correctly, sentences are punctuated correctly, watch for subject-verb agreement, and use paragraphs, etc. I will be monitoring your posts on a regular basis, as will many others.

I look forward to reading more of your blogs.

Isolated Tribe of New Guinea: Reactions with the Outside World

The second largest island - the first going to Greenland, New Guinea is home to an estimated 44 uncontacted tribal groups. The world is closing in on them, though. Those who live in such remote isolation, is like they don’t live in the same world as we do, though they do. Today’s society is closing in on them and slowly deforesting their homes and places they live.
They live in forest depths in huts and up in the trees. Surviving by hunting, fishing, gathering plants, and berries, is how they live. So isolated from our world today, knowing nothing of television, Internet, and all our technological we have today, that have even become almost accustomed into our everyday lives. They know of airplanes but only because of the fact that there are airplanes that fly close and low to their settlements from time to time. Since they are so distanced from the world we have today, some wonder whether we should leave them to their course of fate or help them and push them to our way of living.
The isolated tribe of New Guinea try to stay isolated but as we search for oil and log, we destroy their homes, making it that much harder for them to stay as they are. They aren’t really sure on who we are, how we exist in such manners, or know much of how we live. Yet, we study them and watch them as we slowly face them to what fate has decided or we can push them into our society and hope they can survive the diseases they never have had to make contact with and if they survive, slowly they’d lose their grip on their old culture as they adjust to our world. Only few will maintain their spiritual beliefs, languages, and culture.
Though, the isolated tribes that live within New Guinea have one of the highest numbers on our planet, they still face such problems. Maybe because of their lack of mixing with people from outside their tribes, or maybe from not adapting as life has. Whichever way it is, we have studied and come to learn that they do not like to react with the outside world. They know little of what we know so much of. As we grow and they continue to not react with the changing outside world that is around them, it makes it difficult for either we or them to learn anything about one another. Leaving us with a blind spot in our knowledge, whether it be for good or bad, no one can know.
I reference my writing to several articles, readings, and wikipedia. That is how I have come to the conclusion that they do not seem to be a group who would like to mix with the outsiders, in this case being us. They have survived so long by hunting, fishing, and gathering, living huts and tree houses. They are so high on their own spiritual beliefs, enriched with their cultures and languages, it’s no wonder they don’t want to change what it is they know and how they live. They try to stay hidden and away from our world.
I find it quite disheartening to read that because they don’t mix with our world that we are slowly destroying their homes and their way of life. We make it almost impossible for them to survive more than a little longer. I do personally think that they are stuck in their own ways because we do not try hard enough to mix with them, rather than they mix with us. We’re the ones who have changed and become different, while they have stayed the same. They have stayed the same for so long and have maintained their lives just by not reacting with us. They probably won’t react with us, the outside world, any time soon either.

Pintupi's Internal Affairs

Pintupi is a isolated people who live in Western Australia. They are one of the nine aboriginals groups in Australia. They live their traditional lifestyles in the desert. They socially organize themselves by means of ritual life or justify one's presence in a place. Their leaders would be elders who have schooled in folk lore and organizes meeting for a consensus. Social control is found through meditation with friends or kin. Conflicts are violent and not really stopped. Most conflicts will start around the subject of women and people may die or be injured.

The Pintupi ususally are always moving among the desert. Camps are temporary and sometimes only for overnight. These camps are segregated by gender and marital status. Most of the camps made would be very small which explains how they more constantly.

Pintupi live a traditional style of life. Meaning that most of the jobs would be hunting and gathering. Farming is not really an option when everyone constantly moves night after night at times. They also have their own art that they create as most aboriginal people do.

The Pintupi live a simple life and remain isolated from any outside cultures. Even though they may be isolated, these people are surviving and living their own way of life.

Flash Mobs; where and why are they occurring

Flash Mobs have been occurring frequently in Philadelphia. Teenagers have been grouping together hundreds at time at local malls and stores, creating reckless and violent destruction. The mayor Mr. Nutter in an attempt to stop the teenagers from causing more harm he has set up a curfew that requires all persons under 18 to be off the streets by 10p.m. Mr. Nutter has been appearing publicly to spread the message and enforce his new laws to keep teens off the streets and away from temptation of violence.

Why are teenagers committing these flash mobs? Some blame it on the social networks, poor parenting, and even the teenage generation all together claming that we’re way to violent. Maybe those reason do have a purpose to them but psychologists think that the reason teenagers are attracted to violence is because they have grown up with violence and don’t know better, they have been neglected and feel the need to lash out, hang out with the “wrong crowd” and get into drugs.
Many think that now a days teenagers are so much more violent now that they were a few decades ago. According to statistics that it true, but only because they have been allowed to do so resulting in mass violence like the flash mobs in Philadelphia

New Guinea Tribe's communications with modern man

Isolated Tribe of New Guinea
There are many tribes today which have seen some form of modern technology. The Isolated Tribes of New Guinea however, have not. Until recently. Modern man has come to their village and met with this tribe to show them how we live today.

Communication between the isolated tribe of New Guinea and modern man.
This video depicts how the Isolated tribe communicates with the new world. At first, the people are afraid, but soon adapt to the kindness of the outside people. They learn about new foods, new gadgets, etc. The tribe met modern man on June 23, 2011. This video is a perfect example of the way uncontacted peoples live, and their reaction to us, and how we live.

The Brazilian government has discovered a new tribe in the Amazon. It is just over 700 miles away from Manaus, Brazil. The land they are settled on is a reserve roughly the size of Ireland, but this reserve contains fourteen other tribes. The new tribe is possibly a branch of the korubo tribe. The last time we have ever contacted with the korubo was in October of 1996 and here is a video of them.
It is very rare to contact these tribes due to the Brazilian Policy. The policy doesn’t want other people to communicate with the tribes partly because they don’t want us to disrupt their natural habitat. Another reason is the Brazilian government doesn’t want us to give them diseases they are not immune to yet. We try not to disturb them to keep their population grow. Brazil is constantly watching over them so no one tries to take their land such as ranchers or loggers. “There is massive logging on the Peru side of the Border, and unfortunately the Peru side of this border is a no-man’s land and everything is permitted,” Meirelles. The government refuses to give GPS coordinates because they are scared someone would want to find them. As you can see the government is very protective of these tribes. I think this is very smart. Let these tribes be who they want to be, if they wish to be not bothered, then so be it.

Natural warning signs

Photo: Levi BrownBy Dr. Mehmet OzThe body is an excellent communicator, and often the messages are obvious: Red skin means you've had too much sun; a rumbling stomach means you're running out of fuel. But many other distress signals are less well known. Take a few moments to give yourself a quick check for these surprising warning signs.

If you see: Shortened eyebrowsIt could mean: Thyroid disorder
Hold a pencil perpendicular to the outer corner of your eye; if your eyebrow falls short of the pencil, it could indicate an underactive thyroid. Thyroid hormones have many functions, and one of them is to regulate how quickly your cells replenish themselves. When your levels of thyroid hormones are out of whack, the effect can be seen in almost every cell in your body, even your hair follicles. (You may also notice that the hair on your head has become thinner and drier.) Some other telltale symptoms include weight gain, fatigue, and constipation.
What to do: Your doctor can administer a blood test to measure your hormone levels. If they're low, you'll need prescription medication to restore them to normal levels.

If you see: Long ring fingersIt could mean: A higher risk of osteoarthritis
According to a 2008 study in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, women whose ring fingers are longer than their index fingers may be twice as likely to suffer from osteoarthritis. Though scientists aren't sure why the connection exists, it may be related to testosterone exposure in the womb. Longer ring fingers are linked to higher prenatal levels of testosterone. This lowers the concentration of estrogen, which is critical to bone development. Finger length also has a notable implication for the opposite sex: If a man's index finger is longer than his ring finger, his risk of prostate cancer drops by a third.
What to do: If you're overweight, losing just 5 percent of your body weight can help reduce your risk of knee osteoarthritis (one of the most common types), according to a 2009 study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

If you see: Yellow nailsIt could mean: Diabetes
Discolored nails may simply indicate an infection, but if you're also making extra trips to the bathroom, constantly reaching for your water bottle, and feeling fatigued, a likely culprit is diabetes. The condition can cause glucose to attach to collagen proteins in the nail, turning them from pink to yellow.
What to do: See your doctor for a diabetes test. If it's positive, he can recommend a combination of lifestyle changes and medication to keep the disease under control.

If you see: Thick, dark facial or body hairIt could mean: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

Many women see a few wisps on their upper lip, but coarse, dark hair that shows up in unusual places—like the chin, cheeks, chest, abdomen, or back—can signal a hormone imbalance associated with PCOS. Women with this condition, in which the body produces more androgens (male sex hormones) than usual, may also experience irregular periods and cystic acne and have a hard time maintaining a healthy weight.
What to do: See your doctor for a blood test to check your hormone levels. PCOS increases your risk for diabetes and infertility, but lifestyle changes (such as quitting smoking and losing weight) and hormone-regulating medications (such as birth control pills) can help reduce symptoms and prevent complications.

Ayoreo Contact with the Outside World

Ayoreo Contact with the Outside World

The Ayoreo that live sedentarily outside the forest, although coexistence with surrounding society has changed their external manners and useful items, still have the basic attitudes and views that reflect essentials of Ayoreo traditional culture: high degree of mobility; non-accumulation; profound trust in nature, in the world and themselves; high degree of personal autonomy within the structures of collective organization; and an attitude of equity – non-superiority – for the world and nature.

The seizure of vast historical Ayoreo land by outside settlers and surrounding society has led to important changes and a notorious decline in the quality of life for the Ayoreo. Ancestral practices of balanced coexistence with the environment were abruptly interrupted when the local Ayoreo groups, who lived on and gave life to a huge extension of forest in the Gran Chaco, were pulled out of their habitat, deported to missionary settlements and forced to lead sedentary lives.

Today the Chaco forests are increasingly affected by the gradual destruction of its eco-system, which are being turned into cattle grazing land. Current business and productive transactions are incompatible with Ayoreo culture and the Chaco. At present, apart from a few small groups that continue to live in voluntary isolation in the forests, most of the Ayoreo natives live permanently in about 22 settlements in Bolivia and currently 13 settlements in Paraguay (June 2005). Only 3 of the settlements in Paraguay are in traditional Ayoreo land. The total number of Ayoreo people continues to stand at around 4,000 people, half of which live on Paraguayan territory.

It is important to note that before the encroachment onto their territory about 45-60 years ago, the Ayoreo had no knowledge of what is called poverty. Persuaded to abandon life in the forest under false promises and settled into large and permanent communities, with a non-indigenous economic model totally foreign to their way of living. Their close and special rapport with the forest and the environment is starting to change and lose its meaning. Presently, the situation of the Ayoreo shows the effects of an accelerated process of impoverishment and of increasing loss of autonomy.

Their dependence on the way of living of surrounding society is growing, but without opportunities to reach a new standard of living compatible with human dignity and the respect for the environment. A number of Ayoreo now live near centers with significant non-indigenous population, in extremely poor conditions, looking for precarious odd jobs as laborers in an insecure, irrational and excluding labor market. Many young Ayoreo have no clear prospects for the future nor constructive possibilities.

Ayoreo Culture

Religious Practitioners: The shaman and the wise man, who know myths and therapeutic songs, are primarily responsible for religious practices.

Ceremonies: The Aroyeo engage in pinčiakwá , a ritual practice to propitiate rain, and perform paragapidí , a rite to keep killers from falling prey to the harmful influence of the victim's soul and blood. Apart from these two practices, the sole ceremony held by the Ayoreo is the festival of Asohsná, which is essentially a ceremony related to the annual cycle.

Arts: The only artifacts that are always decorated are twine bags and plaited objects. The designs are inspired by clan insignia and executed in the appropriate combinations of naturally colored red and blue string. The remainder of Ayoreo output is poor in decorative motifs, which are only occasionally applied to wooden artifacts or utensils of calabash or ceramic.

Medicine: Therapeutic procedures are carried out by the ordinary individual and by the daihsnái. In the first instance, curing is essentially done through the use of chants provided by the various nanibaháde, that is, the already mentioned countermeasure songs that cure illnesses specific to a particular nanibahái that caused them. For example, possession, which stems from taboo infringments relating to the consumption of certain parts of the peccary, can be cured with songs that this animal's nanibahái left behind. Individuals who cure by therapeutic chanting do not go through a process of initiation, nor do they wear special garments. The only precondition is knowing many chants, a prerogative generally attached to the so-called wise men. Since the power of a particular curing chant comes directly from the nanibahái who composed it, the singer functions simply as its intermediary vehicle.
Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Ayoreo-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html#ixzz1VhDqfi7y

Addiction a brain disorder, not just bad behavior

Source:http://www.apa.org/news/psycport/PsycPORTArticle.aspx?id=ap_2011_08_16_ap.online.all_D9P51D100_news_ap_org.anpa.xml

Addiction isn't just about willpower. It's a chronic brain disease, says a new definition aimed at helping families and their doctors better understand the challenges of treating it. "Addiction is about a lot more than people behaving badly," says Dr. Michael M. Miller of the American Society for Addiction Medicine. That's true whether it involves drugs and alcohol or gambling and compulsive eating, the doctors group said. And like other chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes, treating addiction and preventing relapse is a long-term endeavor, the specialists concluded. Addiction generally is described by its behavioral symptoms - the highs, the cravings, and the things people will do to achieve one and avoid the other. The new definition doesn't disagree with the standard guide for diagnosis based on those symptoms. "The behavioral problem is a result of brain dysfunction," agrees Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Then there's the frustration of relapses, which doctors and families alike need to know are common for a chronic disease, Volkow says. "You have family members that say, `OK, you've been to a detox program, how come you're taking drugs?'" she says. "The pathology in the brain persists for years after you've stopped taking the drug."

Genetics plays a role, meaning some people are more vulnerable to an addiction if they, say, experiment with drugs as a teenager or wind up on potent prescription painkillers after an injury. Age does, too. The frontal cortex helps put the brakes on unhealthy behaviors, Volkow explains. It's where the brain's reasoning side connects to emotion-related areas. It's among the last neural regions to mature, one reason that it's harder for a teenager to withstand peer pressure to experiment with drugs. Even if you're not biologically vulnerable to begin with, perhaps you try alcohol or drugs to cope with a stressful or painful environment, Volkow says. Whatever the reason, the brain's reward system can change as a chemical named dopamine conditions it to rituals and routines that are linked to getting something you've found pleasurable, whether it's a pack of cigarettes or a few drinks or even overeating. When someone's truly addicted, that warped system keeps them going back even after the brain gets so used to the high that it's no longer pleasurable. Make no mistake: Patients still must choose to fight back and treat an addiction, stresses Miller, medical director of the Herrington Recovery Center at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wis.

But understanding some of the brain reactions at the root of the problem will "hopefully reduce some of the shame about some of these issues, hopefully reduce stigma," he says. Meanwhile, Volkow says intriguing research is under way to use those brain findings to develop better treatments - not just to temporarily block an addict's high but to strengthen the underlying brain circuitry to fend off relapse.

It was still their bad behavior originally that got them addicted so it is still bad behavior but the brain disorder makes it much harder to stop.

It might make it easier for doctors to help treat people with addictions because they understand them better.