[ 21022007 12.57pm discoveries! ]

reading the papers today brought a sense of enlightenment... let me share some news with you.

article 1
Menstrual Cycle Link to Injuries
"fluctuating hormone levels.. affect the muscles and ligaments"
"both tissues (ie, tissue and ligaments) appear to be vulnerable midway through the menstrual cycle, while the ligaments are at greater risk at the end"
"midway through the cycle, the level of the female sex hormone oestrogen, which gives strength to muscles and ligaments, drops dramatically, resulting in sudden weakness. at the end of the cycle levels of another hormone, relaxin, rise. this is to allow the cervix to open so that menstrustion can occur, but it also means that ligaments in general are softened."
"the majority of pain reported mid-cycle was lumbar or pelvic, compared with lumbar or neck pain at the end of the cycle."

so dun blame your gf when she asks for massage during certain times... or need to sleep excessively.

article 2
No Sleep Means No New Brain Cells
"a Princeton study has shown that for rats which stayed awake for 72 hours, their brains showed reduced levels of cell production...a lack of sleep affected the hippocampus, a brain region involved in forming memories."
this could be the effect of a stress hormone called corticosterone which forms when the body is stressed from lack of sleep. it appears to inhibit cell production in the brain.
"(after) sleep patterns were restored to normal within a week, levels of nerve cell production (neurogenesis) were not restored for two weeks..."

the article goes on to give a few disclaimers, like, we arent rats, so u cant compare, the rats were kept awake for 72 hours - something that humans dont normally do.... etc etc. so they suggest conducting another experiment on how insufficient (as opposed to TOTAL LACK OFF) sleep affects neurogenesis.