The Mystery of Memory

On Mother’s Day, I found myself making rice crispy treats for the first time. After catching my youngest licking the butter and rescuing the marshmallows from her sisters, I wondered once again why I allow myself to get sucked into these projects.  To be honest, though, I actually enjoy random frivolous projects with my girls. I think they make the best memories.

I have a childhood memory of my mother making lemon icing for some cookies she had just baked. The icing was a complete failure. I coated my cookies with that delicious mess as we laughed at her effort. Most of the things that my mother has done for me are much more important than making icing for cookies. Yet I remember this time when she went out of her way for something that was completely unnecessary.

I often wonder why we remember some events and forget others. The happenings of our early childhood seem to be particularly forgettable. However, researchers who study the brain describe childhood memories as a paradox: Though we may not remember the events of our earliest years, the feelings that come along with those events can last for a lifetime. Recent research suggests that our early childhood memories do not completely disappear as we grow up. Even though we may not remember any details, we continue to carry traces of these experiences in our brains for our whole lives. These traces of memories can impact our behavior later in life. Exactly how this happens is unclear, but researchers are starting to show that negative childhood experiences can actually affect the structure of our brain.

We don’t often pick what we remember about others. We certainly don’t pick what others remember about us. By filling their childhood with as many good moments as I can, I hope that my girls always remember how much they are loved.

Matters of the Heart

Valentine’s Day is arguably February’s biggest claim to fame, but I must confess that I’m not a big fan of this holiday. It seems a bit unfair that the perfect gift on a single day should serve as a litmus test for an entire relationship. However, every time I take a trip to the store around this time of the year I see those giant teddy bears trying to tell me otherwise. Luckily for me and my sanity, February is also a time to discuss matters of the heart of a much more serious nature.

February is American Heart Month, where various health organizations focus on heart disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. I decided to learn a little more about heart disease, and I found out that several factors can increase our risk of a serious heart problem. Some factors such as age and family history are beyond our control, but others like high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes can be influenced by our lifestyle.

I was relieved to learn that there are several simple steps that we can take to reduce our risk of heart disease.  Healthy eating, being physically active, quitting smoking, and managing stress are all great ways to improve heart health.

In addition to a healthy lifestyle, it is important to know the symptoms of heart disease and the signs of a heart attack such as chest pain, upper body discomfort, and shortness of breath. Interestingly, the symptoms of a heart attack can be different in women and in men. Symptoms such as pain in the upper back, neck, or jaw, dizziness, and fainting are more common in women, and though these symptoms may appear to be less severe, they are no less serious. It is very important to seek treatment for any symptom that you may have and to encourage your loved ones to do the same.

A disappointing Valentine’s Day may break your heart, but it probably won’t kill you. Heart disease, on the other hand, is often life-threatening. Learn the symptoms of heart disease and aim for a heart-healthy lifestyle, and you’ll be well on your way to many more opportunities to show your love every day of the year.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Another holiday season has come and gone. We have visited with family, given and received gifts, and our bank accounts are empty. Considering how much stress the holidays can cause, why do we go through this cycle year after year? 

Perhaps it is because for the most part, the holidays fill us with gratitude. We are grateful for the events of a great year or for the end of a challenging one. Interestingly, research is showing that this feeling of gratitude is an important part of the human experience. 

The experts say that grateful people are happier, have more satisfaction with life, feel less materialistic, and are more likely to have a healthy lifestyle. Also, when people acknowledge that someone has done something nice for them, it makes them feel valued and important, and this boosts self-esteem (because who doesn’t like to feel important?). 

Grateful people are more generous and more considerate. This helps to strengthen our relationships with others both at home and at work. In fact, researchers are investigating whether making people participate in activities that focus on gratitude can help with health and wellbeing.

In a sense, then, the holidays are a yearly gratitude therapy session, helping us to re-focus on what’s important to us. January can be a bleak month. But if we carry over our holiday gratitude into the new year, we can have a healthier, happier year!

Forever Young?

It’s a scene that plays out in countless homes all around the world: On a morning just like any other, you’re getting ready for the day. You start to comb or brush your hair when you notice your first GRAY HAIR!! Suddenly, you are face-to-face with your own mortality. Your youth is over. The rest of your life spans before you like a wasteland of disease and eventual death. It’s all downhill from here.

Why does the thought of aging cause such a strong (and often overly-dramatic) emotional response? This may be because aging is often associated with aches and pains, decreased strength, memory loss, and as the plastic surgery industry wants us to believe, decreased beauty. Regardless of how much we may hate it, we have come to accept this loss of health and vitality as a natural part of the life cycle. But what if old age did not automatically mean the decline of our minds and bodies?

According to the National Institute on Ageing, people are living longer than they used to. Some researchers even claim that if the illnesses associated with aging could be cured, there is no limit to how long a person could live. In most cases, though, the goal of ageing research is simply to extend our “healthy years”; the number of years that we can live a full, vibrant life. For example, the onset of age-related illnesses could be delayed until a person reached their 90s or beyond. This would give us about 30 more healthy years to spend with our families, to travel the world or to make up for our wasted youth. A healthy older population would also ease the pressure on health services currently strained with the care of the elderly. 

Obviously, there are many benefits of extending our healthy lifespan. Unfortunately, this is not a simple task. The combined influence of our genes and the cumulative effect of our environment over the years makes it difficult for researchers to pinpoint drugs that would slow down, prevent or cure all age-related illnesses. The most promising candidate is a drug called rapamycin, which is normally used to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients and to treat certain cancers. In the laboratory, animals treated with low doses of rapamycin start showing signs of ageing at a later age and generally have a longer lifespan than untreated animals living under the same conditions. The effects of rapamycin are currently being studied in detail in laboratory animals. These studies may someday lead to the use of rapamycin to slow down ageing in people, though this is still a long way off.

While we wait for researchers to work their magic, there are several steps that we can take to extend our healthy years:

1)      Have an exciting social life - Research has shown that deep connections to friends, family and our communities creates a sense of purpose especially as we age. A strong social network gives us an essential support system, which helps prevent depression and its associated ailments. 

2)      Reduce stress - Continuous stress lowers our immune response, ages the body and reduces our lifespan. Finding fun, stress-relieving activities keeps us young, both in body and in spirit.

3)      Exercise - Regular exercise, even for a few hours a week, helps ward off age-related conditions like muscle and joint pain, heart disease and high blood pressure. 

4)      Give your brain a workout too - Adding crossword puzzles, sudoku and other brain games to our daily routine keeps our minds active, improves our problem-solving ability, and helps keep away memory loss associated with aging. 

5)      Enjoy your meals, in moderation - Life would be dull without tasty treats. However, moderation helps limit diet-related effects of aging such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

6)      It’s all in the attitude! - Surprising research findings show that having a positive attitude has a strong impact on our health and wellness later in life. People who go through life with an optimistic outlook are less likely to suffer from depression, and more likely to engage in all the aforementioned ways to improve your old age.

The thought of aging and all its unknowns can be scary. It helps to know that it’s never too early or too late to start taking better care of ourselves. The next time you realize that Father Time may be catching up with you, just pick up the phone and call a friend, go for a brisk walk, or solve a puzzle. You’re working your way to a vibrant old age. 

PS: If you could be relatively healthy, would you want to live forever?

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

I am often surprised by the sheer number of choices I have to make every day as a parent. While most of these are as simple as what to feed my girls for dinner, others carry life-long implications. For my children’s healthcare, though, my plan was simple: listen to their doctor, and do what the doctor says. Well, that simple plan flew out of the window on day one when their first pediatrician insisted that my twins were identical just because they had the same blood type. I realized that I would have to be their advocate, actively making decisions instead of blindly trusting the experts. This led me to the issue of vaccines. Vaccination to me was standard healthcare and not something I had ever questioned. However, with all the buzz about the safety or otherwise of vaccines and vaccine schedules, this also became a decision I had to make. Would I get my children vaccinated?

To make this decision, I had to get informed. I found that the consensus among credible sources such as the World Health Organization (WHO)  and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was that vaccines are a safe and very effective  way to prevent or reduce the severity of several infectious diseases. Why then did several sources claim that startling numbers of people were injured or killed every year by vaccines?  Was there a genuine risk associated with vaccination?

If one word could capture my search for facts about severe vaccine side effects, it would be “frustration”. I found that credible sources often provided a very one-sided view on the issue: A lot of talk about the benefits of vaccines but not much information on any potential problems. This may stem in part from genuine difficulties in determining exact numbers. For instance, in the US, suspected reactions to vaccinations are reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Since this system is based on self-reporting, anyone- parents, doctors, nurses, or vaccine manufacturing companies- can file a report. Consequently, a particular incident may get reported multiple times. Moreover, there is no requirement for proof of a link between a vaccination event and the supposed side effect.

The VAERS only collects information on possible vaccine side effects. Parents seeking compensation for serious side-effects suffered by their children are able to file a claim with the  US Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (often called Vaccine Court). Here, alleged cases of severe vaccine side effects are reviewed, and compensation is given as the court finds appropriate. In this system, successful petitions are not considered an admission that an illness or a condition was caused by vaccines, but simply that it may have been. Last year, out of the 887 cases tried in this court, 696 were awarded some compensation. Since there are specific guidelines as to what can be reported as a vaccine-related injury deserving compensation by the government, this number gives a good idea of what experts consider possible vaccine-related effects.

Genuine limitations or not, this defensive stance taken by health organizations is problematic. The existence of a vaccine court and a compensation system points to the fact that there may indeed be some cases of severe reactions to vaccines. The absence of easily-accessible numbers then gives the impression that the authorities are hiding something. I also noticed that my kids’ pediatricians and nurse practitioners did not readily provide information on possible serious reactions to vaccines. I was told to expect mild reactions such as a low-grade fever or a rash.  Interestingly, I readily found a lot of information from propaganda-based anti-vaccination websites. If credible information is not easily available or readily given to balance out the argument, it handicaps a person’s ability to make decisions based on facts. Doctors and researchers may not have all the answers on whether, why or how frequently genuine severe side effects of vaccines happen, but even this is worth communicating to the public. There is much value in an honest “we don’t know yet”. Such openness would build trust between the scientific and healthcare communities and the public.

As a scientist, the evidence in support of vaccines is clear. As a parent, though, things are less straightforward.  The odds of an adverse reaction may be slim, but that means nothing if your child is affected. I realize, though, that I regularly expose my children to all kinds of risks. For example, my daredevil daughter climbs around the playground with the speed and agility of a circus acrobat. “Look, Mummy, I’m a ninja!” she shouts as I have another near-heart attack just watching her. In the US alone, there are 200,000 serious playground-related injuries every year. Even more astonishingly, 150 children are treated in emergency rooms every hour for car crash-related injuries, which are the leading cause of death by injury in children 5-19. Yet there is no talk of banning playgrounds or cars. We simply work to make them safer for our children.

The unfortunate irony seems to be that the efficacy of immunization may be the one factor inducing increased complacency, as most new parents have no personal experience with widespread outbreaks of preventable infectious diseases. Deadly outbreaks seem to have disappeared, along with our fear of them. However, if we stop vaccinating our children, these diseases will return.

I still cringe just a little bit when my kids get their shots, but I know that we have made the right decision for them. Whether or not I get my own booster shots on time is a different question! 

My little ninja

The Value of a Great Dad

I grew up convinced that my father knew everything. As a young child just learning to add, I would give him what I called “very hard math” to do, asking him to add up all the numbers from 1 to 10. I still wonder how he managed to keep a straight face at my amazement at his mathematical abilities, considering his engineering background. As my questions became more complex with time, so did his answers, and these displays of knowledge took on new meaning for me. In my mind, if someone who had all the answers to life’s questions believed in me and my abilities, what was stopping me from believing in myself? If he was right about everything else, he must also be right about me being able to achieve anything. I once asked “Daddy, if I ever wrote a book, would you buy one?”. He didn’t laugh or ask what on earth I would write about, but immediately said “I would buy the first one”.  Those simple words meant the world to me.

A father’s particular brand of parenting is often overlooked and highly underrated. When conducting research for his book on fatherhood, author Paul Raeburn noted that about half of all research on child psychology did not even mention a father’s input or perspective. However, fathers have a lot to offer their children beyond a paycheck and strict discipline. Research shows that children with loving and attentive fathers have better self-esteem and a more positive view of the world. Spending time with Dad also increases empathy, an effect that lasts into adulthood (surprisingly, spending time with Mom had a much lower influence on this). Additionally, though depression in mothers negatively affects child development, having a sensitive, caring father significantly reduces these effects on a child.

As with mothers, fatherhood is also marked by biological changes.  There are measurable differences in the brains of fathers when compared to non-fathers, and fathers display strong brain activity when they hear their children cry. Fatherhood is also marked by a reduction in testosterone and an increase in prolactin and oxytocin. However, there is a catch: Unlike in mothers where these hormonal changes occur naturally during and after pregnancy, in men these changes only happen when fathers take an active part in childcare. This means that for men, close interaction with their children, starting as early as possible, is critical to a strong father-child bond. It may seem unfair that mothers have a biological head start, but considering the importance of a great dad, the efforts invested into this relationship are definitely worth it.

I haven’t written that book yet, but I did give my father a copy of my thesis when he visited for my graduation. I later saw him carefully place it in his hand luggage with all his other valuables, and in that moment, I had arrived.

Happy Fathers’ Day to all fathers and father figures out there, to my husband, who is everything from story-teller to princess to horsie, and whose congratulatory high fives already make his girls beam with pride, to my brother, who is hands down the best diaper changer I know, and  to my Daddy, who taught me that my best was always good enough. Your confidence in me still gives me courage to take on the world.

My Daddy and Me                                                                              My Girls and their Daddy

The Biology of Motherhood

Mothering is a universal concept associated with all that is strong, kind and loving. All my life I have heard stories of the feats that my grandmothers accomplished to help their children succeed, and I have seen the sacrifices that my own mother has repeatedly made for her family. I have watched with admiration the efforts that mothers, some in very difficult situations, put in every single day to make life better for their kids, never complaining and never growing weary, and the idea of me being that model strong mother to anyone has always been intimidating. What if my maternal instincts didn’t kick in, and I didn’t intuitively know what my kids needed? What if I didn’t have what it took to be the stuff of legends?

Mother’s intuition is advertised as a magic sauce, a secret ingredient that turns women into moms. It makes sense, though, that something so important would have a strong biological component to it. As researchers study the changes that occur during pregnancy and soon after birth, we are learning more and more about how the state of pregnancy itself prepares a woman for motherhood. A lot of maternal behavior is regulated by changes in the levels of hormones in an expectant mother. For example, oxytocin, a hormone known to give the feeling of happiness, is produced in women during pregnancy and soon after birth. High levels of oxytocin make mothers more attached to their children, more attentive and more in-tune with their children’s needs, and a mother’s oxytocin levels increase as she interacts with her child. Oxytocin also increases in babies as they interact with their mothers, creating a feedback cycle that cements the mother-child bond.  The effects of this hormone are not limited to biological mothers, though, as the oxytocin feedback cycle also helps strengthen the attachment between foster and adoptive mothers and their non-biological children.

The hormone prolactin, popularly known to control milk production in mothers, is also involved in making new brain cells during pregnancy. These brain cells are involved in increasing a mother’s sense of smell, which helps her bond with her baby. (Is this why mothers are often the first to smell a poopy diaper, or does everyone else pretend to have an inferior sense of smell just so that mom always gets to do the diaper changes? I’m eagerly awaiting the results of that study!). Surprisingly, testosterone, a hormone very strongly linked to masculinity, also affects maternal behavior. High testosterone in mothers increases vigilance and attentiveness,  both of which are hallmarks of mother’s intuition . Obviously, then, the desire to love, protect and care for our offspring is encoded in our DNA. Yet, biology can only take us so far. The decision to give the best of ourselves to our children is one that mothers everywhere make constantly, and this is well worth celebrating. 

A little over three years in, I can’t pretend to know much about mothering. I make mistakes every day. Yet I wake up every morning determined to do the best I can, and I’m starting to believe that this is what motherhood is all about. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is mothering in any way, and especially to my own Mummy, to whom I owe a thousand apologies and a debt of gratitude which I can never repay. I still haven’t met anyone I’d rather have as my mother.

My mummy and me.