​How you can lose weight with the help of purified sand ● Cats bond with their owners, but do not want to show it ● How memories are formed during sleep ● Video games have a beneficial effect on the brain

How can you lose weight with the help of purified sand

It’s not exactly the kind of diet you’d expect the average person to eat, but some researchers in Australia and Ireland say the silicon particles in refined sand can help you lose weight. As it turns out, such particles have the role of inhibiting enzymes that help digest fat, sugar or starch, which eventually makes you look like the Michelin Man.

So far, studies have shown a positive effect on laboratory mice. Specifically, they were given a high-fat diet, but at the same time they were also given silicon particles. After all, you can observe a decrease in body fat. In 2020, some tests were also done on obese people and a reduction in cholesterol and blood glucose was observed.

Even more encouraging is that no abdominal discomfort was reported. But that doesn’t mean it’s good to swallow a shovelful of sand after a meal to look like the Olympian gods. Not that he wasn’t fascinated by these desolations today. However, the authors of the study, published in the journal Pharmaceutics, say that so far they have realized that only silicon nanoparticles with a size of 6 to 10 nanometers have produced good results.

However, even they say more tests are needed to give a 100% certain result. Until then, stick to the diet!

Cats become attached to their owners, but do not want to show it

If you have a cat under your care, most often you get the impression that it is a profiteer who wanders around you only when it needs food or scratches. Sometimes not even then. You may get the impression that she often treats you as her slave, which is not far from the truth.

Cats, however, are very receptive to their owners, with whom they create a strong bond, say several French specialists from the University of Paris Nanterre, who have nothing better to do than to publish a study on this topic in the journal Animal. Cognition.

And they say they checked 16 cats, what and how. For example, the tip of the tail hurts in cats when they hear the recorded voices of strangers. But they instantly reacted when they heard the master’s voice. Interestingly, the reactions (tingling in the ears, dilated pupils or agitation) occurred when the owner’s voice was addressed directly to them.

Bad reaction when the owner talked to strangers on neutral topics or when strangers called him by name. Also, cat owners don’t realize that often when they talk to their cats, they tend to change their voice. Well, cats know and react to such things.

As it turns out, the vital information for humanity in this news is that cats are not as insensitive as it might seem at first glance. They love you, but they try not to get carried away. So you know.

How memories are formed during sleep

The fact that sleep has an important effect on the retention of information in the brain has been known for a long time, it is not something new. It was not known how all this was happening. More recently, we also received an answer to this question, an answer published in the journal PNAS by several specialists from Princeton University, USA.

To find out what and how, these American researchers created a computer model that simulates neural connections. It turned out that during sleep, namely during the period of eye movement (REM), the hippocampus explains to the cerebral cortex what it learned during the day. The cerebral cortex, in turn, takes information and experiences gathered throughout the day and turns them into long-term memories.

Essentially, one part of the brain teaches the other, and together they work to store information and turn it into memories. According to data obtained by specialists, the hippocampus collects this information several times a night. If they are not repeated, there is a good chance that they will be forgotten. That is why the alternation of REM sleep and sleep without a phase is fundamental in the formation of long-term memory.

However, the test also has flaws, and the authors acknowledge this. They say that only those options were taken into account when the sleeper is an adult with a sound sleep. Data on people with sleep disorders have not yet been tested. Why they did not bring the case to the end is not reported. In the end, that’s a good thing, and that’s because, you know, as they say, free scientific information is taken from the disaffected.

Video games have a beneficial effect on the brain

When it comes to the brain, look it up, believe it or not, but an American study recently published in the journal JAMA Network Open says that video games have a beneficial effect on children’s brains. This after years of being bombarded with information claiming that they are evil in the world, that they incite violence, lack of compassion and all kinds of anti-social behaviour. We are not even talking about the lack of exercise.

Overall, the study authors said, tests of more than 2,000 children ages 9 to 10 showed that those who played video games for at least three hours a day had improved cognitive skills compared to those who did not play at all. .

In particular, the parts of the brain associated with attention, memory and quick reaction are activated in video game lovers. And this translates into measurable neurocognitive effects. In order not to offend others, experts admit that too many hours spent at the computer are not good for children either.

By the way, most importantly, the study showed that video games are a better way to use a computer than videos on You Tube or Tik Tok. At least in the case of the former, you are choosing something positive.

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