Chasing Rainbows

Is Romantic Love A Basic Human Need?

In an interesting article I just read, author Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH explores the theory that romantic love is, indeed, a basic need for humans.  I reproduced the majority of the aarticle here for your reading pleasure, or perhaps your reading amusement, depending on how you view the research and it's relevance and/or validity.

Falling in love is an intense experience that can leave you feeling breathlessly out of control. Romantic comedies bring in millions of dollars portraying the zany antics of the love-stricken, while daytime dramas intrigue us with the plots and schemes of those in love.

Romantic Love, Lust, and Long-Term Attachment

Whether you’ve fallen in love at first sight or not, you’ve probably felt the rush of sensations of early romantic love: elation, heightened energy, low appetite, sleeplessness, and the inability to concentrate on anything other than the object of your affection. Brain research has shown that lust and long-term attachment are controlled by specific centers in the brain. It seems reasonable to think that the same centers are responsible for romantic love. But new research has shown otherwise.

Love Is Like…Thirst?

Researchers in New York and New Jersey studied 17 college students who had been intensely in love for a relatively short period of time—17 months or less. The subjects looked at photographs of their beloved while undergoing functional (magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Functional MRI is a scanning technique that indicates which areas of the brain are most active at any given moment. The researchers found that the brain region associated with early romantic love was not the region already known to be related to lust or long-term attachment. Instead, the area of the brain most active in early romantic love is one associated with the most basic human drives: thirst, hunger, and craving. This region, located in the caudate nucleus and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), is also involved with reward-seeking and motivation. The VTA releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is increased when people anticipate a reward. For example, dopamine sites are more active in gamblers when they score or win.

According to the study researchers, the fact that early romantic love is associated with neural activity in a brain region responsible for our most basic human needs shows that early romantic love is an “important evolutionary reproductive strategy.” It also provides a biological explanation for the intense drive associated with passionate love—explaining why, for example, some people contemplate stalking or suicide when rejected. Whereas lust drives us to find any suitable mate, romantic love pushes us to focus on a particular suitable mate. Later, in relationships that continue, long-term attachment encourages partners to share parenting duties to ensure their offspring survive, thus passing their genes on to the next generation.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

In a follow-up study, the same researchers are studying the brain activity of 17 men and women whose partner recently broke off the relationship. The subjects are being assessed with functional MRI as they look at photographs of their ex-partner. Early results indicate that during a break up, brain activity is heightened in areas of the brain near those associated with romantic love. These early findings may explain why being dumped can sometimes intensify romantic love.

According to Helen Fisher, one of the study researchers, “As humans we have a highly motivated drive toward romantic love.” It may not matter to you or your beloved that the source of this drive is the same brain region that motivates you to go find a bottle of Evian or a plate of chocolate chip cookies when you’re parched or hungry. But it may explain why we pay millions of dollars to see "Sleepless in Seattle," "The Wedding Singer," and "Bridget Jones’s Diary." After all, romantic love is as basic to us as eating.

RESOURCES:

Aron A, Fisher H, Mashek DJ, et al. Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. J Neurophysiol. 2005;94:327-337.

Fisher H. Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love. New York, NY: Owl Books; 2005.

References:

Aron A, Fisher H, Mashek DJ, et al. Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. J Neurophysiol. 2005;94:327-337.

Carey B. Watching new love as it sears the brain (May 31, 2005). New York Times website. Available here. Accessed September 21, 2005.

Fisher HE, Aron A, Mashek D, et al. Defining the brain systems of lust, romantic attraction, and attachment. Arch Sex Behav. 2002;31:413-19.

National Public Radio. The evolution of Valentine’s Day. Available at: http://www.npr.org/programs/musings/2004/feb/valentine.html. Accessed September 21, 2005.

Tom Ashbrook. Love is all in your head [transcript]. WBUR. June 2, 2005.

Food Cravings

Throughout the majority of my teen years and adulthood, I have been told (and readily believed) that the foods I craved most were foods that carried nutrients of which my body was deficient.  New scientific research has recently de-mythicized that theory and it has punctured irrepairable holes in my belief system regading cravings.  To put it more succinctly, the new findings have disrupted my list of excuses for eating whatever I had a craving for.....no longer will I feel at ease and as if I am doing my body a favor when I scarf down that Carmello bar or that bowl of chocolate crunch ice cream.  I have to admit, however, that I experienced a certain undetectable discomfort when trying to qualify half of a double cheese with extra pepperoni pizza as nutritionally suitable to satisfy some craving.  Here is the article. See for yourself and let me know if you can find some loopholes in it so I can go back to my belief that my body needs everything that i choose to pile into it.

Marcia Pelchat, a biological psychologist at Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center who looks at how people make food choices, says part of what characterizes food cravings is a desire so strong that you'll go out of your way to satisfy it. But beyond that researchers are hard-pressed to define cravings with any rigid scientific criteria. And that makes it hard to understand how, and to what degree, they influence what we eat.

Cravings Not Tied to Nutrients

One thing seems pretty certain: They're not based on specific nutrient needs, as many people suspect. That is, if you crave potato chips, it's not because your body needs the salt they contain. And if a man craves a high-protein food like steak or a burger, it's not because his body is telling him to stockpile protein for his muscles.

Craving a food for your health is "a much nicer story" than craving a food simply because you feel like eating it, says Richard Mattes, a professor of foods and nutrition at Purdue University who, like Pelchat, studies the hows and whys of people's food choices. "But the literature just does not suggest that."

Take salt cravings, for example. Mattes points out that even in studies where people were "depleted of sodium through heroic means" such as being put on diuretics, "they didn't really express a craving for sodium," a component of salt. Further, he notes, at the beginning of the century, miners who lost excessive amounts of sodium by sweating profusely during hard labor "had to be threatened with physical violence by their supervisors to get them to take their salt capsules." Even in cases of Addison disease, a very rare condition in which sodium levels become dangerously low, only 15% of patients crave salt, Mattes says.

On the flip side of the same coin, Monell's Pelchat points out that Americans in general consume thousands of milligrams of sodium a day, when the body requires only about 500. In other words, the desire for more sodium far outweighs any need for the mineral.

Are Hormones to Blame?

But what about women and their desire for chocolate at certain points during the menstrual cycle? That theory is floating around (remember Debra Waterhouse's book).

The problem: Plenty of foods contain carbohydrates. So why aren't women craving bran flakes?

It's not that women don't have cravings around the time of their menstrual flow; that association has been very well documented. It's just that what they crave doesn't appear to have anything to do with physiologic need. It's the same for cravings during pregnancy. Many women certainly experience them. But no one has been able to connect the dots between the foods craved and the mother's or baby's health.

Familiarity May Cause Cravings

As for why so many cravings are for chocolate, Mattes notes that's largely a Western phenomenon. "The study burning in my back pocket that I haven't done," he says, would be to look at chocolate cravings throughout the world. "I would be willing to bet that if you do a study on cravings in Asian countries, you'd find nothing special about chocolate," he states. "It's a Western-culture food."

"Through repeated exposure, a food becomes preferred," Mattes points out. "Familiarity begets acceptability," and acceptability begets cravings. "You crave things that you've had positive experiences with," he explains.

"The Japanese," he says, "show a preference for MSG [monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer] in relation to the U.S. population." But little is written about cravings for MSG because most of the research on cravings has been done in the United States and Canada. And in those two countries, at least, chocolate is the number-one craved food. Pizza is number two. In other words, as Mattes puts it, calorie-rich foods are "the most common" food-craving targets.

Cravings Shouldn't Cause Weight Gain

But, he points out, cravings are not thought to cause people to become overweight. When talking about cravings, he says, "you're usually referring to the overconsumption of a specific food. Overweight," on the other hand, tends to come from "small but sustained increases in food intake in the general diet."

Cravings aren't even believed to wreck weight-loss diets, at least not diets that people are able to follow over the long term. Research suggests that while people may be tempted by cravings when they first embark on a weight-loss plan, the cravings tend to wane over time. Even the initial cravings can be "tamed" to some degree, by making sure the diet's not too restrictive and too monotonous. The fewer foods a person is "allowed" on a weight-loss regimen, the more frequent—and intense—the cravings will tend to be.

If you're not trying to lose weight (or are not on a medically restricted diet that makes certain foods off limits), let the craving win, the experts advise. That will help keep it from getting out of hand. Indeed, says Mattes, "you'll probably do more psychological damage by denying a craving than nutritional damage by indulging it."

RESOURCES:

American Dietetic Association
http://www.eatright.org

International Food Information Council Foundation
http://www.ific.org/index.cfm

Stages of Dying

Each of us deals with grief and dying in different ways.  Coping with loss is often one of the most difficult things each of us has to do within a lifetime and the closer we are to the person we have lost, the more difficult the mourning process becomes.  Additionally, when the person we are mourning is ourself, the process becomes even more compounded by fear.  There are 5 stages of dying/grieving that we go through, according to Elisabeth Kubler Ross who postulates the following 5 stages.  These stages do not necessarily have to be utilized in the order presented and some individuals do not go through all of the 5 stages.

1. Denial - Denial is a conscious or unconscious refusal to accept facts, information, really, etc., relating to the situation concerned. It's a defence mechanism and perfectly natural. Some people can become locked in this stage when dealing with a traumatic change that can be ignored. Death of course is not particularly easy to avoid or evade indefinitely.
2. Anger - Anger can manifest in different ways. People dealing with emotional upset can be angry with themselves, and/or with others, especially those close to them. Knowing this helps keep detached and non-judgemental when experiencing the anger of someone who is very upset.
3. Bargaining - Traditionally the bargaining stage for people facing death can involve attempting to bargain with whatever God the person believes in. People facing less serious trauma can bargain or seek to negotiate a compromise. For example, "Can we still be friends?.." when facing a break-up. Bargaining rarely provides a sustainable solution, especially if it's a matter of life or death.
4. Depression - Also referred to as preparatory grieving. In a way it's the dress rehearsal or the practice run for the 'aftermath' although this stage means different things depending on whom it involves. It's a sort of acceptance with emotional attachment. It's natural to feel sadness and regret, fear, uncertainity, etc. It shows that the person has at least begun to accept the reality.
5. Acceptance - Again this stage definitely varies according to the person's situation, although broadly it is an indication that there is some emotional detachment and objectivity. People dying can enter this stage a long time before the people they leave behind, who must necessarily pass through their own individual stages of dealing with the grief.       

Colors Influence On Foods We Eat

According to Larry Lindner in an article on Beliefnet.com, research indicated years ago that the redder the food, the sweeter it is perceived to be---and kids like their food sweet so it is no accident that Hawaiian punch is such a deep red.  This is true not only of the color of the food.  Food marketers also work to elicit particular responses by the use of color on  boxes, bottles, and cans. 

Eric Johnson the head of research at the Chicago-based Institute for Color Research says that "Color...impacts our appetite, sexual behavior, business life and leisure time."  Corporations have spent considerable time and money conducting confidential marketing research so that the packaging of their products will hopefully promote sales. 

Academic researchers, as well as marketers have conducted studies to measure whether reactions to color that are predictable, whether men and women respond similarly to color cues and whether a person's age influences his or her color "psychology" One study found that consumers in China and Japan associate purple with expensive products and gray with inexpensive ones.  But it is just the opposite in the United States. 

Orange Means Affordablee                                                                                                   Orange appears to be associated with monetary value.  It has been shown to indicate affordability.  Americans do not think of orange "as a classy color," therefore orange is great on burger stands, says Johnson.  It is in the logos of both Burger King and Howard Johnson's. 

Black Means Classy; Gold Means Quality                                                                                   Black has become a sort of anti-orange these days.  But the color now connotes status and elegance This is probable why Breyer's ice cream and yogurt containers are largely black.  Rich colors like gold reflect quality which may be a reason that Haagen-Dazs ice cream has a gold and burgundy motif. 

Pink means Sweet; Red is inviting                                                                                             Pink containers convey sweetness- often intense cotton-candy-like sweetness.  But pink, unlike red doesn't get the hormones going Johnson states that " When the eye sees primary red, the pituitary sends a signal" that leads to the secretion of adrenaline, "which causes the body to go into a state of arousal." The heart beats faster, you breathe faster, blood pressure rises and the muscles tense.  Of course, red is also thought of as a "warm and inviting color," so you may not be so much making love with certain red-packaged foods and snuggling up.

Green means Healthy                                                                                                                 The "healthy," environmentally friendly, calorically correct color, experts says is green.  Consumers surveyed about candy bars removed from yellow wrappers and put into green ones speculated that they had fewer calories, more protein, and less fat then candy bars packaged in their usual yellow.

White means Light White                                                                                                          Like green it signifies less calories.  You may have noticed that Lean Cuisine Entrees come in boxes that are mostly white.  Silver also stands for fewer calories.  Diet Coke cans have a lot of silver, while regular Coke cans are mostly red.  White is also used for less expensive and bulky foods, such as sugar and flour, and to convey hygiene or cleanliness in the packaging of milk and cheese.

Deep versus Light                                                                                                                  Deep colors, such as shades of brown, indicate roasted, baked or very rich, states Johnson.  Consumers state that deep-colored wine bottles contained more expensive wine then light-colored ones. 

Yellow Jumps Out at You   T                                                                                                        The color that hits your eye fastest is yellow--no small thing for marketers, who believe that "for a package design on a supermarket shelf to halt a customer's attention, it must do its job within one twenty-fifth of a second, according to Johnson.  That's probably why there's loads of yellow on cereal boxes. There are so many brands to choose from it behooves the manufacturing trying to be the first to literally catch your eye.

Little Known Facts About the Human Body

1.  A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day.

2.  A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.

3.  Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.

4.  A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.

5.  A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.

6.  An average human drinks about 16,000 gallons of water in a lifetime.

7.  An average scalp has 100,000 hairs.

8.  By age 60, most people have lost half of their taste buds.

9.  By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring   an average of 70 beats per minute).

10.  Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

11.  Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

12.  Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour-about 1.5 pounds.

13.  Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.

Science and the Bible

In the book entitled  "Science - Was the Bible Ahead of Its Time?" Author Ralph O. Muncaster states it's surprising that some of the most obvious medical practices today - though outlined in the Bible - were not "discovered" until recently.  In about 1500 B.C., the Hebrews, led by Moses, left Egypt and faced the rugged challenge of surviving away from a well - developed civilization.  ...God promised by following His laws, the Hebrews would avoid the diseases of the Egyptians (Exodus 15:26).  The Bible's ancient laws have tremendous insights not known until the germ research of the late 1800's.  In one example set forth by Muncaster dealing with Blood As a Life Source to the Flesh, he states "Only comparatively recently has medicine recognized that blood is in fact the life source to all parts of the body.  It provides oxygen and carries vital nutrients that are essential for life.  The Bible indicated this fact 1500 years before Christ (Leviticus 17:11) - "the life of the flesh is in its blood." For centuries, physicians would drain blood from patients in an attempt to rid the body of poison, which resulted in death for many people.  My next post will expand more on Muncaster's evidence that the Bible is scientifically reliable.

Human behavior & Personality

The debate about human behavior and personality has interested me for many years.  While theories of Personality are rampant, most fall within the parameters of 3 distinct categories:  1): Intrapsychic explanations which applies concepts of psychological processes and "structures" within the mind. It focuses more on the contents of the mind, e.g. particular desires, thoughts and emotions, but it typically explains more complicated structures as "defense mechanisms", ""complexes" etc.  2): The second approach focuses on the individual also, but relies on the physiology of the brain rather than mental processes.  3):  This approach focuses on environment (or the situation) of the individual as the source to explain human behavior.  This theory comprises "Simple learning theory" and a "Social learning theory", et al.  It still boils down to "Nature vs. Nurture".  I'd be interested in your opinions on whether behaviors are "learned" or "inborn".