Abby Tang: How are you feeling? Graham Flanagan: I
played that song, ♪ You had a bad day ♪ Alex Appolonia: I wrote down some points because my brain is like mush lately. Fran Lam: Sad, worried, stressed. Victoria Barranco: Physically, like all of the negative emotions. Abby: This probably sounds super familiar, and that’s because a lot of us are feeling stressed right now. But this isn’t normal stress. This is pandemic stress, and it is messing with our
brains in a particular way. When you get stressed, it
triggers a chain reaction that starts in the amygdala, your emotional-processing headquarters. Your eyes and ears send
info to the amygdala, and it determines if what you’re seeing and hearing is stressful. If it is, it sends a signal to your command center, the hypothalamus. It’s in charge of getting the word out to the rest of your body by way of the autonomic nervous system. The adrenal glands get the message first and pump adrenaline into your bloodstream. Your heart beats faster; you breathe more rapidly because your muscles need extra blood and your brain needs extra oxygen. They’re preparing to
react to whatever threat is causing your stress response. All of this happens in
the blink of an eye. It’s like how people can
jump out of the way of a car without really thinking about it. The emotional amygdala overrides
your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain
where all the logic happens. So you don’t get a chance
to think things through; you just react. Once the threat dies down, though, the parasympathetic
nervous system takes over and returns all those
heightened reactions to normal. But if the brain still detects danger after the initial adrenaline rush, the hypothalamus sends out another message to the rest of the HPA axis. This triggers another series of hormones that lead to the release of cortisol, which signals to the body that it needs to stay on high alert and keep
pumping out stress hormones. Right now for a lot of us, that threat is still very much alive. The amygdala is still overriding
the prefrontal cortex, which is in charge of
decision-making and planning. So those feelings of
forgetfulness and tiredness, they’re likely a product
of this stress response that won’t turn off. Stress hormones and the
accompanying bodily responses are super helpful in the short term, but our bodies aren’t
meant to function in this heightened state for
weeks or months at a time. And over time, your brain will burn out. When it does, it can lead to allostatic load, the cumulative wear, and tear
that happens to your body when you’re dealing with chronic stress. A high, prolonged cortisol level can mess with a lot of stuff. It’s even been seen to decrease the volume of your hippocampus, the area responsible
for learning and memory, and a reduced hippocampus
is more often seen in people with depression than those without. So all this is to say that the extra stress is probably not doing your brain or your body any favors. And humans are historically
bad at making decisions when they don’t know
what’s going to happen? So, what can you do to
reduce the allostatic load? Reduce stress. Eating well, exercising, and maintaining a regular sleep schedule cannot be overlooked. Exercising alone can
reduce stress hormones, even with just a 20-minute walk. And a different way of
thinking could also help us: an idea called model-free learning. It’s trial and error. Instead of basing your risk assessment on similar examples from the past or envisioning future scenarios, you just take it one step at a time. This way, you reassess and
update your estimate of what’s happening and how to prepare. We’re dealing with a new virus, constantly changing policies, and likely a completely different schedule and maybe even environment. Our brain is on high alert at all times to identify potential threats. This means that even if you’re spending most of your time laying around, your brain isn’t, so try not to beat yourself up for feeling tired or fuzzy, or unmotivated. You just don’t need anything
else to stress about. Now that you know all of this, how are you feeling? Alex: To be honest, I
do still feel the same. Fran: I think I’m feeling a
bit better after watching it. Victoria: It’s
my body is exhausted from feeling things and being under stress all day, all the time. Graham: Whenever I feel
that allostatic load starting to weigh down on me, you know, I can put a
name on it, a face on it, and it makes it a lot
easier to deal with it.As found on YouTubeAnimationStudio ꆛ☣ꐕ Be The “Middle Man” And Profit With AnimationStudio Agency License. Here’s How You Can Earn $100, $200, or even $300 For Every Video You Create With AnimationStudio… Activate Your Profit Machine With The Agency License … $197/month For Just $67 One Time Payment
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Watch the rest of this video series featuring Dr. Ramani instantly HERE: https://bit.ly/3a96JjYThere’s a lot of anxiety surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. Here’s advice from a psychologist on what you should know right now. A a legitimate, thorough understanding of anxiety is crucial right now in maintaining your mental health.This video alls sheds light on when to know if anxiety becomes clinical, and how to cope with it.Anxiety during the coronavirus outbreak is extremely widespread. Psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula is a leading expert on anxiety and the psychology of how it affects day to day life, especially during times of crisis.The panic can be hard to deal with. In this interview discussion, Dr. Ramani and MedCircle host Kyle Kittleson discuss what to do when this panic around such a widespread disease becomes clinical anxiety.– Coronavirus fear / coronavirus stress vs clinical anxiety
– What an anxiety disorder looks like
– The average age of onset of clinical anxiety
– What co-occurring disorders you or someone you love may be experiencing during the coronavirus outbreak
– How many different types of anxiety there are (so you can spot the signs of what you may be experiencing during the coronavirus outbreak
– What agoraphobia, panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety all look likeFear around the coronavirus spread, coronavirus symptoms, and other COVID 19 effects is real. Seek more mental health help at MedCircle.com.More information from the CDC on the corona virus: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
World Health Organization (WHO): https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Food banks in El Paso, Texas are feeding some 35,000 families per week with the help of the National Guard. Unemployment is rampant, and officials warn it could take years for the city to recover from the effects of coronavirus. SPECIAL OFFER: To thank you for your support, here’s a deal on a Washington Post digital subscription: $29 for one year http://washingtonpost.com/youtubeoffer.Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqKFollow us:
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Access this full video series on anxiety for FREE here: https://bit.ly/3a96JjYThere’s a lot of anxiety surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. Here’s advice from a psychologist on what you should know right now. A a legitimate, thorough understanding of anxiety is crucial right now in maintaining your mental health.This video alls sheds light on when to know if anxiety becomes clinical, and how to cope with it.Anxiety during the coronavirus outbreak is extremely widespread. Psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula is a leading expert on anxiety and the psychology of how it affects day to day life, especially during times of crisis.The panic can be hard to deal with. In this interview discussion, Dr. Ramani and MedCircle host Kyle Kittleson discuss what to do when this panic around such a widespread disease becomes clinical anxiety.– Coronavirus fear / coronavirus stress vs clinical anxiety
– What an anxiety disorder looks like
– The average age of onset of clinical anxiety
– What co-occurring disorders you or someone you love may be experiencing during the coronavirus outbreak
– How many different types of anxiety there are (so you can spot the signs of what you may be experiencing during the coronavirus outbreak
– What agoraphobia, panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety all look likeFear around the coronavirus spread, coronavirus symptoms, and other COVID 19 effects is real. Seek more mental health help at MedCircle.com.More information from the CDC on the corona virus: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
World Health Organization (WHO): https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
This week for BuzzFeed News, Adam Serwer and Katie J.M. Baker unravel the conflicting history and messages of men’s rights leader Paul Elam. Read that and these other great stories from BuzzFeed News and around the web.
Illustration by Jonathan Rodriguez for BuzzFeed News
Paul Elam has become the face of the modern men’s rights movement by rallying against false rape accusations and divorce courts that favor mothers. But interviews with his estranged daughter and ex-wife show that his pet causes are very, very personal. Read it at BuzzFeed News.
An incredible piece by Elizabeth Weil that explores what happens when a child dies in the hand of a parent and family, physicians, and authorities don’t know whom to blame. “Does anyone know the truth?” Read it at Matter.
Mark Seal chronicles the massive hack into Sony Pictures prompted by The Interview — and the subsequent leaks that created devastating consequences for its senior executives. “We always say, ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall,’ and these e-mails made us privy to all these conversations.” Read it at Vanity Fair.
Rock Hudson was desperately trying to get treatment for AIDS in France in 1985. Much of that story has been told but, as Chris Geidner finds, one part hasn’t: After a simple plea came in for White House help to get Hudson transferred to another hospital, First Lady Nancy Reagan turned down the request. Read it at BuzzFeed News.
After decades of being at the forefront of the marijuana legalization movement, California has been left in the dust by other states. Amanda Chicago Lewis explores how infighting between activists may turn 2016 another losing year. Read it at BuzzFeed News.
Americana is a small town in Brazil where descendants of Southern defectors, or “Confederados,” still rally around the Stars and Bars. Mimi Dwyer visits to learn how its residents are — or aren’t — reconciling a present they claim is innocent with the legacies of the past. Read it at Vice.
Jina Moore reports from Cambodia where, little more than two years ago, there wasn’t a single recorded case of women trafficked from Cambodia to China to marry. Now, there are more than 150 — and experts expect that number to soar. Read it at BuzzFeed News.
Hundreds of people have caught hellish bacterial infections and turned to Eastern Europe for a century-old viral therapy. With the world on the cusp of an antibiotics crisis, Azeen Ghorayshi asks, should we all follow suit? Read it at BuzzFeed News.
Illustration by Cristiana Coucerio for The New Yorker
Alice Gregory dials into the Crisis Text Line, a service that seeks to make therapy more accessible to teens. “A lot of times, when chatting with young people, it’s clear that they just need someone to listen to them.” Read it at The New Yorker.
Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for our Sunday features newsletter, and we’ll send you a curated list of great things to read every week!
Some of these photos are artistic, others are terrifying.
Colin Salter’s new book, Science is Beautiful (Batsford, 2015), shows us some amazing images of the human body under a microscope. When the photos are colorized they look like masterpieces of art. Check them out below:
1. This is what bone marrow making blood looks like.
Stem cells in bone marrow divide and transform into blood cells. This process is constantly happening because blood cells don’t live for a very long time: “Red ones about 120 days, some white ones as little as three,” writes science writer Colin Salter in his book Science is Beautiful.
“[Glands that produce adrenaline] are controlled by the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for instinct and emotion,” writes Salter. We always have small amounts of adrenaline in our blood, but when we’re stressed we get more.
“It widens the airways of the lungs and constricts small blood vessels. This makes the muscles work harder and produces a ‘fight or flight’ response,” he wrote.
Ninety percent of the serotonin in our body is found in our gut (yes our digestive system, this includes our bowels). Seratonin is often called the “happy hormone”, though it’s a lot more complicated than that. It also plays a part in memory, learning, mood, appetite and sleep.
There’s a tiny stone in each of our ears that’s responsible for our sense of balance. The stones are attached to sensory hairs that are sensitive to gravity and acceleration. When we tilt our head the hairs send nerve impulses to our brain so that we can stay balanced.
“Insulin is produced in the pancreas, and its function is to regulate blood sugar levels,” Salter wrote. If not enough insulin is produced then your blood will accumulate too much glucose which can lead to diabetes. Even if your body produces insulin correctly you can still get diabetes if your cells don’t respond to it.
7. This is what human skin really looks like up close.
“The outer layer of the skin, the epidermis (top half of this image) consists of dead cells that are constantly sloughed off and replaced from below,” he wrote. The yellow things are a protein called keratin which makes the skin waterproof and strong, so that your organs inside don’t get damaged. The black things are hair follicles.
When it gets dark, your eyes send messages to a gland that produces melatonin – a hormone linked to sleep. “In middle age, melatonin secretion drops off. This may be responsible for aging symptoms such as insomnia and irritability,” he wrote.
Fat cells are some of the largest cells in the human body. The thick layer of fat under our skin cushions us and stores energy. In this picture, the fat deposits of the cells have been removed.
“When we put on weight, the cells swell with additional fat, and eventually extra cells are added too,” he wrote.
“Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria,” he wrote. The orange spider-looking thing is a bacteriophage that has just injected its viral DNA into an E. coli bacterium (the blue image).
The “legs” are syringe-like tubes that puncture the cell membrane in order to empty its DNA contents into the bacterium.
“New phages then grow, kill and depart from the host cell within 30 minutes,” he wrote.