How long does our Brain works after Heart stops beating

We all know that our brain works through electrical signals / impulses travelling through neurons. Brain is one of the most mysterious organs of human body, which is still not completely understood by medical science. From past few decades some researchers are conducting researches on its functioning. When a person dies, his brain can still work for some time due to some oxygenated blood present in it and electrical impulses travelling inside brain. These things are sufficient to keep the brain alive even after heart stops beating. It the person revives through some medical intervention by making his heart beat before brain dies, then it is called near-death-experience (NDE).

Actual Death of a person can only be considered when all levels of consciousness is lost and all electrical activity shuts down completely. Electrical activity inside the brain can be measured by scientific instruments.

How long does our brain works after Heart stops beating

According to some researches it takes 3 to 5 minutes for all electrical activity to seize inside brain after heart has stopped beating. However some researchers are in dilemma if consciousness also seizes with electrical activity.

Depolarization is a shift in electrical charge distribution among cells. Chemical changes that leads to actual death of brain begin with depolarization of brain cells. As the depolarization spreads across the brain and final wave of electrical activity travels through brain, it is called "spreading depression". According to researchers this "spreading depression" shuts down the brain completely. Once this condition has occurred then even restarting the heart no longer works, as damage to the brain becomes irreversible.

Where this research will be used ?
This research can play a crucial role in reviving a person who has just passed away due to heart failure. It can also help in such organ transplants where blood supply to brain needs to be stopped for a very short period of time.

How does a person feel when his heart stops but brain is not dead ?
Collecting such experiences is a major part of such medical researches. Such researches of some previous decades reported experiences like flashes or tunnels of light, which were anecdotal in nature. Such experiences are collected from such patients who revived after medical intervention minutes after their heart stopped beating. In some recent researches patients reported peaceful, fearful or feeling being dragged under water. Some survivors reported hallucinations, while some heard their own death being declared by doctors. Most of such memories remain only for a short time, but some survivors can recall all conversation that occurred between doctors and nurses while trying to resurrect him/her.

Note: Some experts believe that a healthy person can revive even hours after death. But in such cases there are chances of substantial amount of brain damage.

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Can you Survive in Himalayas in just Shorts

This question seems a bit insane but someone has achieved this superhuman capability. That person has not just survived in Himalayas in shorts but also climbed Mt. Everest. It was a unique achievement that no one has ever dared to do in history of mankind. The name of this achiever was Wim Hof and he did it in year 2007 and reached up to 23,600 feet. However he did not succeed in his attempt but still made a world record by doing it in shorts and sandals. According to Wim Hof, also known as "Ice-man" , he achieved this superhuman capability through the power of controlling breathe and mind. According to him anybody can achieve this through dedication and strong will power.

Climbing mount Everest is just one of the tasks that Wim Hof has done to show his capability. He has got 26 world records in his name for tasks such as under-ice swimming (57.5 metres in year 2000), running a marathon in  Namib Desert without water (2009) and reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro wearing just shorts in 2 days (2009). Wim Hof says that he has developed a method known as WHM (Wim Hof Method) to survive in extreme cold.

Do you know that when an investigative journalist, Scott Carney, tried to debunk his method, he ended up learning WHM himself.

What do scientists say about WHM (Wim Hof Method)

According to scientific studies WHM suppress the innate immune response and increases the heart rate and adrenaline levels. WHM consists of cold therapy, breathing exercises and meditation. According to some experts his method works but not equally for every one. There are two ways that our body utilize to deal with cold: shivring and non-shivering thermogenesis. In the non-shivering method our body burns the brown adipose tissue (which is a type of fat) to generate heat for body. WHM has increased the brown adipose tissue in the body of Wim Hof, which might be a reason behind his cold resistance.

Four practitioners of Wim Hof Method did drown in year 2015 and 2016. So according to scientists, the breathing exercises and meditation definitely improved the cold resistance and immune response but checking your limits can be dangerous.

Personal life of Wim Hof : Wim Hof was born in year 1959 and has got an identical twin brother who does not have such cold resistance. Some people believe that Wim Hof learnt the breathing meditation to get rid of sadness after passing away of his first wife in 1995. He has got 4 children from his first wife and 2 from second. 

Note: WHM (Wim Hof Method) is similar to Tibetan Tummo meditation and Pranayama meditation, as both of them teach similar breathing meditations and known to improve the immune response and psychic powers.

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Sumo Wrestlers : Fat or Fit ?

Sumo wrestlers are one of the most reputed athletes in Japan and people take blessing from them for a good health. But people from other parts of world often wonder if a Sumo Wrestler should be considered healthy of not. Their physique gives an impression of a diseased person, who has gained enormous amount of fat. But when we see them in wrestling rings, they give a tough fight to wrestlers of any other form of wrestling. Some of you must have seen sumo wrestlers in WWE.

On an average a sumo wrestlers is 185cm in height and 148kg in weight. It gives us a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 43. Anything above 30 on BMI scale means that the person is suffering from Obesity, which is a disease in modern terminology and can lead to lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

Know your BMI

Most of you must have already made their mind about health of sumo wrestler, but we will suggest you to read this article without any preconceived notion. Usually we see sumo as a wrestling sport but the truth is something beyond. We will tell you that after discussing about the health perspective.

Diet of a Sumo Wrestler

Diet of a sumo wrestler is not composed of fatty food, as usually believed, and they don't eat all over the day. They eat just two heavy diets in a day and eat Chanko Nabe (or Sumo Stew), which is a protein rich diet made with all kinds of vegetables (bok choy, mushroom, daikon, anything you can think of) in a rich dashi and chicken, fish, meatballs, tofu. Their diet is composed of 4000 to 5000 calories per day, while some wrong sources mention it as 10000 to 20000 calories (which is something inhuman). Actual sumo diet is more than twice of a normal man, but it does not increase the visceral fat. which is main cause of obesity related diseases in normal people.

Difference between Visceral Fat and Subcutaneous Fat

Training Routine of a Sumo Wrestler

Unlike other seasonal sports that happen only at a part of year, Sumo Wrestling tournaments occur all over the year, so professional sumo wrestlers train themselves all over the year and eat accordingly. Some facts about training sessions of Sumo Wrestlers are listed below.
Sumo Wrestlers are not allowed to have breakfast, instead they have a large lunch after training session. If we talk about their training, then it is intense and one of the toughest. Some facts about Sumo training are listed below.

• Leg stomps: moving forwards while barely lifting upward-turned feet
• Slapping wooden pillars with open palms
• Standing stationary absorbing charges from other wrestlers
• They are trained to do all kinds of splits. Lifting their legs as high as possible or spreading their legs and touching the floor with chest or cheek are part of their tough training.
• A single workout session can make them sweat in kilograms. Profession Sumo wrestlers can loose upto 5 kg of weight in a single session.
• Some sumo wrestlers have even died while training.

Behavior of a Sumo Wrestler

Sumo Associations have made various rules to keep Sumo Wrestlers well disciplined. Some of these rules are:

• They can't drive a car
• They need to live in communal sumo training stables.
• They need to grow their hair long to form a topknot (chonmage).
• They should wear traditional Japanese dress when in public.
• A Sumo wrestler must always speak softly.
• Sumo Wrestler's rand decide the type and quality of their dress.
• They need to wear wooden sandals known as geta that make a distinctive clip-clop sound.
• When in stable (the training gym of sumo wrestlers), juniors wake up at the earliest and also help in daily chores like cooking, cleaning and preparing bathrooms for seniors.
• Ranking hierarchy is maintained in bathing and eating lunch. Junior wrestlers even wipe the senior wrestler's sweat with a towel.
• Only senior wrestlers get their personal room in stable, while junior wrestlers use dormitories to sleep.
• They should not show joy at winning or disappointment at losing.
• If a sumo wrestler breaks the rules then fine or suspension can be awarded to both the offending wrestler and his stablemaster.

Due to such strict rules the dropout rate of new recruits is quiet high. Life of juniors is considered harsh among sumo wrestlers.

Health of a Sumo Wrestlers

Most of the sumo wrestlers are not as huge as we have seen. Normally we only watch those sumo wrestlers on television who have got famous after winning championships. Sumo Wrestlers live a healthy adult life due to their tough workout routine. As they retire after growing old and get away from training, the fat in their body start to show the negative consequences and they suffer from type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis and liver problems. Due to these diseases in old age the average life expectancy of Sumo Wrestlers is 60 to 65 years, which is 10 year less than normal Japanese people. Know your Life Expectancy
But living a life of Sumo Wrestler is not about living a long life but about making it large and developing better soul inside. Due to this reason Japanese people respect Sumo Wrestlers just as if they are monks.

Sumo wrestling is a part of Japanese tradition and their religion. Most of the sumo wrestlers don't end up as professionals, but they spend years at stable to prepare themselves for some other professions. They learn discipline and self control while also increasing the physical capability in handling any kind of pressure. They are not just tough from body but also from their brain. A number of sumo wrestlers have become famous chefs as they learned the cooking skills in the stables.

In past few years the sumo associations have set a minimum height requirement of 173 cm (5 feet 8 inches) to be a sumo wrestlers. Now the weight gain requirement are also not as strict as past, to save the wrestlers from health consequences.

What do you think about sumo wrestlers after reading this article. Please mention you views in the comment section.

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Drinking Cobra Venom : Deadly or Not !

If you are asked to drink cobra venom, then most probably you will not. But do you know that some people really drink it. Cobra is one of the snake species known for its deadliest neurotoxic poison. One bite of cobra have enough venom to kill 20 men or even an elephant. In-spite of such facts some people survived after drinking cobra venom. Is it really possible, or it is just a magic trick where audience are made to believe that the person is drinking venom, while he/she just sips a energy drink. The answer to this question is going to surprise a lot of people.

My curiosity to get an answer to this question arise when i watched an Indian Guru ingesting the cobra venom. I was sure that he was not doing any sort of cheating. He even told some benefits of the cobra venom.

Note: Never try to drink any kind of venom after reading this article as sometimes it can cause threat to your  life.

Drinking Cobra Venom : Deadly or Not !

When i researched about the drinking of cobra venom, i came across some very interesting facts. These facts are listed here.

• One liter of snake venom costs more than $200,000 . So King Cobra Venom will definitely cost more than that.
• Cobra Venom is used is used to made medicines and beauty products. Pain killers made using cobra venom are 20 times more effective than any other pain killer. Some venom are even used in cancer treatment.
• Pain killers developed from cobra venom have no side effect, which is some thing very unique.
• Cobra Venom contain a protein named Ohanin, which is a small protein made up of 107 amino acids. This protein is unique and not found in any other snake family. It is responsible for medicinal properties of cobra venom.
• Cobra venom is not poison. Poison are such type of things which can kill you when ingested. 
• Cobra Venom is a protein, which contain some neurotransmitters, that can harm you only if it enters your blood stream and then attack your nervous system to paralyze you to death.
• If you ingest cobra venom then the proteins present in it will be broken down by saliva and acids in the stomach.
• Drinking cobra venom can harm you only if you have some ulcers in your stomach or a cut in your mouth as it will give the venom the way to enter blood stream.
• Cobra snake is considered as a holy creature in India as lord Shiva wears it as garland. According to Hindu mythology, the consciousness level of King Cobra is very high, and no other animal can attain that much consciousness.
• Cobra is the only snake which builds nest, and keep their offspring in it.
• Cobra is considered as a shy snake and don't harm humans unless it feels danger.

Those who practice drinking venom do it either with a belief to improve their immunity or to be known as superhero. They start it by drinking very mild amounts and then increasing the amount over a period of months and years after analyzing its effect on body.
At the end of this article, we wound again suggest you to never try it. This article is only for information purpose, so that you know the science behind drinking cobra venom. One more thing told in this article is that snake venom are source of some of the best medicines and researches are still going on to find cure for some deadliest diseases by using them.

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Cancer Treatment coming soon ! Thanks to Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy has given a hope to millions of cancer patients as clinical trial for cancer treatment done on 90 mice was made public a few days ago. Such research might sound cruel for these mice but it can give humans a good cancer treatment. This successful clinical trial has attracted the attention of both doctors and cancer patients around the world. Now the pharma companies and scientific community are looking towards immunotherapy as a medical revolution of the 21st century.

According to Ronald Levy, MD, professor of oncology at Stanford School of Medicine, they run the trial on 90 mice after transplanting lymphoma tumors on two sites on their body. Then they injected two agents into one of the tumor. The results were surprising as it cured 87 mice. It not only regressed the tumor injected with agents, but also the other tumor. Remaining three mice, which were not cured, went through the same procedure again and got cured.

How does our immune system struggles with cancer normally ?
Our body have T-Cells which are part of out immune system. As soon as T-cells recognize the proteins present on cancer cells, it tries to attack them and kill them. But as the cancer tumor grows the activity of T-cells is suppressed, which leads to further development of cancer.

How does immunotherapy cures cancer ?
Some agents are injected into the cancerous tumor, which activates the suppressed T-cells again and they start killing cancer cells.

How does Professor Levy's method Work ?
He and his team has developed two immunotherapy agents for this approach. Both of these agents are injected into cancerous tumor in micogram amount, which is one-millionth of a gram. A short stretch of DNA called a CpG oligonucleotide, finds the T-cells already present in the tumor and amplifies the expression of OX40 (its activating receptor). The other agent, which is an antibody, binds itself to OX40 and activates the T-cell for fight against cancer cells. As those T-cells were already inside the tumor and sent by body to destroy cancer-specific protein, they act as a better destroyer of cancer cells, just by improving their expression and activation.
This approach not only treated the tumor injected with agents, but also the second one in those 90 mice. These results made this immunotherapy approach more interesting. However the above approach was initially used to treat lymphoma tumors, but the researchers witnessed similar results in breast, colon and melanoma (skin cancer) tumors.

Now as the world is waiting for human trials to be completed successfully, some lymphoma patients are already enrolling themselves for the clinical trials. We hope that all those who enroll themselves in this trial get cured successfully and open the gates to cancer treatment.

Reference:
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/01/cancer-vaccine-eliminates-tumors-in-mice.html

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Creative Gardening : Exploring Yourself for Something Beautiful

Creative Gardening is something that i came across a few days ago, and i can't stop myself from saying it "Beautiful". When we see something beautiful, it makes our mind happy and uplifts our mood and well being. But when we create such thing which make the viewers happy, then it has a more powerful impact on our well being. Here the motive behind this article is to inspire some people to create their own garden and show some unique creativity in it to make it beautiful. The pics that we have shown below will definitely give you some idea about what creativity we are talking about.

Vertical Garden: Best for those who have shortage of space, but still want a garden or kitchen garden. Hanging vases and unused hard boxes or tin cans can be utilized in such garden. Here an image shows how drainage pipes used in houses can be utilized to a vertical garden.

    

Recycled Garden : By using some old and unused things in your home and putting some creativity in it, can make a good looking garden for you.
               

Something for Kids : Such things inspire kids to build a garden. You may use the help of kids and their creative ideas. Such creative garden items are liked by both kids and adults. Making them brings the kid out of an adult.
               

Creative Ideas : Coping the ideas of others is not easy every time. Somethings that look easier are sometimes harder to implement. Try to create something new that is your original idea. You may take help from the following creative gardens to develop your own.
                 
So what are you waiting for. Just get the tools and start exploring yourself to create something beautiful.

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Drinking Cold Water : Good or Bad ?

Drinking cold water is favorite task of most of the people after returning home on a hot day. But have you ever tried to find if it is a healthy habit or not. Normally we feel that cold water reduces the body temperature and helps in relaxing, which is true up to some extent. If you are doing a workout and drinking cold water during intervals then it keeps your core body temperature low and also keeps you hydrated. But the truth is that drinking cold water have an overall negative effect on your health.

Negative effects of Drinking Cold Water

• Temperature of stomach plays an important role during digestion. Drinking cold water just after a meal hinders the digestion as it reduces the temperature below the optimum temperature required for digestion.
• Cold water makes stomach muscles unable to work properly unless body raises their temperature. Proper functioning of stomach muscles is necessary to break the food before passing it into the intestine. If you have got a little knowledge of workout science, then you must have known the fact that warming-up of muscles is necessary before a workout (especially during winters), as cold muscles can't contract and relax easily and may result in muscle damage.
• Drinking cold water can decrease the sterilization capacity of gastric acid. It can make some germs in your stomach food to be passed to your gut which may result is typhoid, dysentery, infectious diarrhea or enteritis.
• When we drink the cold water, it disturbs the organs which come in direct contact with that water. So it affects respiratory system and the gastrointestinal system the most. Thus long term drinking of cold water makes our oral cavity and respiratory system mucous membrane more fragile. It may also result in inflammation, cough, pneumonia and bronchitis.
• Cold water shrinks the blood vessels and reduces blood flow. It can increase the blood pressure temporarily. If you have got a bad habit of drinking cold water then are at increased risk of hypertension and cardio-vascular diseases. If you are already a patient of hypertension then drinking cold water increases your chances of cardio-vascular diseases.
• If you drink cold water just after a meal then it results in excess mucus build-up, which may result in other side effects. An old study done during 1978 which involved 15 human subjects, found that drinking cold water made nasal mucous thicker.
• A 2001 study found that drinking cold water can trigger migraine pain in those people who are already a patient of this disease.
• According to Ayurveda and ancient Chinese medicine system, cold water with hot food creates imbalance in body. Drinking luke-warm water is recommended by these old traditional systems to get best results and better health.

Some people believe that drinking cold water make our body use some calories to rise its temperature to body temperature and thus helps in reducing weight. But in reality that type of calorie consumption is very less. The benefits of drinking cold water are lesser than disadvantages, so we don't recommend to drink cold water to reduce weight.

So if you ever have an urge to drink cold water then don't gulp it fast, instead sip it slowly and keep it for sometime in your mouth and then drink it. It will help in better relaxation from hot with least side effects on your body. You may drink cold water if you feel necessity but don't make it a habit. 

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Circumcised Foreskins are used for Surprising things

Have you ever wondered about the circumcised foreskins, if they use to throw them in garbage bins or they use it somewhere ? The answer to this serious question might surprise a number of people. Before telling you the answer, let me tell you that each foreskin is worth thousands of dollars in market. Several religions and communities make it compulsory for boys to get their foreskin circumcised. A number of hospital and surgeons do these minor operations to remove the foreskin. They collect these foreskins and sell them to some research laboratories and some private organisations, as these foreskins have a lot of value.

Usage of Circumcised Foreskins

• Some high-end skin cream manufactures use foreskins. Some skin creams contain fibroblasts, which is compound grown on foreskins and harvested from it. Same foreskin can used for many years to harvest fibroblasts from it. Fibroblasts produce Collagen, which is a protein that can hold connective tissue together and hence helps in maintaining smooth and youthful skin.
• Skin grafts are another major usage of foreskins. Burn victims are treated with these foreskins as a new skin to replace old burned skin. Baby foreskins suits best in this usage as their chances of rejection by the recipients immune system are very less.
• Cosmetic Testing is also done on foreskins. Instead of using a real human subject or a lab-rat to test the newly developed cosmetics, foreskins often act as a better subject to test upon. Thus it saves humans and rodents from any possible side-effect on skin.

Are such usage good or bad ?
Different people may have different views on that. Those who feel it right due to religious beliefs, will find these uses beneficial for the society, but they might also feel themselves cheated as doctors usually don't reveal such facts to those who visit them for circumcision. Those who are already against circumcision and take it as mutilation of human body, find something good being done with it, but they also feel that doctors and religious clerics might be earning a lot by prescribing such mutilation and endangering the lives of kids. We are nobody to decide the good or bad unless the parents of such kids don't know the complete truth of circumcision.

The motive of this article is not to hurt religious sentiments of people, but to tell the truth. Most of the innocent public don't know how some people are earning a lot through their baby's skin.

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Do Deodorants cause Breast Cancer

A very interesting fact about most of the breast cancer cases is that most of the cancerous tumors are found in left upper / outer breast region (in both men and women). Most of the right handed people (which are majority), spray deodorants and antiperspirants on that region primarily and then other parts of body. It is enough to explain the seriousness of this issue.

People often due deodorants to get rid of body odor. Newer deodorants guarantee that they will keep your body odor null for a complete day. They do it by using certain chemicals that either make you sweat less or by killing the good bacteria on your skin which makes your sweat smell more. Such products are usually released in market after doing some short term researches which show that these products are safe for normal usage. Researches are going on to know the actual effect of these deodorants / chemical after long term usage. Some recent researches have shown some interesting results which can make the whole world think twice before using any deodorant in market.

 Before we go further, you must know about the type of products which are used to get rid of body odor.

• Perfumes were just to put on clothes to override your body odor.
• Deodorants mask the smell with a fragrance
• Probiotic deodorant promote certain bacterial colonies which can make you smell better.
• Antiperspirants reduce the amount of sweat.

When we searched about this issue on internet we found a website named cancer.gov which contain some authoritative information about it. According to cancer.gov Antiperspirants contain some aluminium based compounds which temporarily plugs the sweat duct and hence the sweat flow from the skin is reduced. Some experts believe that these aluminium compounds when applied for longer duration, may cause estrogen-like hormonal imbalance in body. As current researches suggest that estrogen can promote breast cancer cell growth, so some researchers believe that aluminium compounds in antiperspirants may promote breast cancer.

But does that mean that men are on safer side ?  Read further.

Parabens are a kind a preservatives used it deodorants and antiperspirants, which can also mimic the activity like estrogen and may cause cancer. However parabens are currently not used it most of the deodorants and antiperspirants in US, but still it is being used in cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical products.

Some studies were done by examining breast cancer patients and examining their history of usage of antiperspirants and underarm deodorants and underarm shaving habit. However most of these studies don't conclude a solid result, but still more researches are going on.
Manufacturers of such products always advertise on the basis of some major researches which found them safe for use, but still consumers use their own brain sometimes.

A fact published in dailymail.co.uk made a number of consumers feel something serious about usage of deodorants and antiperspirants. Britain is one of the leading consumers of such products and number of breast cancer cases in UK has doubled from 1970. Every year 13000 women in UK die due to breast cancer, which is something serious. The cases of breast cancer has not only affected women but also men, where the cases have also doubled in past 30 years.

 It doesn't matter if researches have found something or not, but if people get fearful of something then its consumption starts decreasing gradually. Some safety guidelines like frequency of usage and amount of usage should be printed on these products to save the consumers from any possible side effects. Hormonal imbalance is one of the primary reasons behind cancerous tumors in breast, so think twice before using any such product which may or may not harm you.

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Can you remember your Dream !

People often say that they can't remember what they dreamed about last night except some situations when the dream is either too joyful or a scary nightmare. Even if you can remember a dream just after waking up then most probably you will forget it within a few hours. Chances of remembering dream are more when you get awake in middle of it. Those who study sleep and dreams know the reason why you can't remember all your dreams.

Dreams are meant to be forgotten

On an average we sleep for one-third part of our life. 20% of that time is REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep during which we dream. Everyday we dream at least 5 different dreams. If our brain remembers all those dreams then it will take a lot of memory. Remembering all those dreams can also make it harder for us to distinguish between real memory and dream memory, as sometime dreams revolve around real subjects and circumstances. We are meant to forget dreams only to make our life easier. Sometimes the dreams are either too joyful or too scary and remembering them for long duration can take us away from reality in actual life. Usually we remember only the last dream that we had last night and the chances of forgetting that dream within a few hours are quiet high. The probability of remembering a dream increases if we wake up in middle of it.

Science behind Sleep and Dreams

If you study a little about sleep cycle the then you will come to know that sleep can be put into two main stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep and Non-REM Sleep. Non-REM Sleep can be further partitioned into four different stages. Out of these stages "Stage 4" is the deepest sleep during which we never dream and our body repairs broken tissues and builds bones and muscles. We dream during REM phase and the duration of REM phase increases as the sleep cycle increases and so does the duration of your dreams. So most probably your last dream will be lengthier than other dreams and may take up to 1 hour of your sleep. If you try to remember your last dream within 45 seconds after waking up then most probably you will remember that.
50% sleep time of babies is dedicated to REM sleep, while this duration decreases to 20% in adults. It means that kids dream more than adults. You may notice the kids dreaming by noticing the movement of their eyeball inside their closed eyes, which is easily visible (that is why they call it REM, Rapid Eye Movement). Due to more REM sleep in kids, the probability of remembering a dream increases in them.

The more time we take after REM phase to wake up, the lesser are the chances of remembering that dream. So now you know why we remember some dreams while some we don't. And the dream that we remember is usually the last dream of that sleep.
Creative people do remember their dreams more often. A number of extra ordinary scientists have have accidentally made some discoveries through their dreams.

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Whose muscles are better: Athlete or Bodybuilder ?

Health conscious people often compare the body/muscles of an athlete with bodybuilders. The truth is that even professional bodybuilders can't beat the strength of muscles of a professional athlete. The looks of a bodybuilder's muscles might be more fascinating compared to an athlete, but not the strength. Even the best bodybuilder in the world with best leg muscles can't beat Usain Bolt on a racing track.

What makes muscles of an athlete work better than a bodybuilder ?
Muscles of an athlete are trained for strength, while muscles of a bodybuilder are made to look bigger in size. There is a major difference between their body types. More strength in the body of an athlete is a result of better nervous system. Bigger muscles are not a proof of better nervous system functioning behind. More power generated by athlete's muscles is done by both muscles and nerves connected to brain. It would not be wrong to say that real strength lies in your brain. Practice is necessary in both cases, but exercises of a bodybuilder are totally different from athletes. Training programs of an athlete train their nervous system equally with their muscles.

Science behind improving nervous system for more strength

Intense physical activity causes motor unit recruitment to increase the strength. Motor Units (motor neurons connected to muscle fibers) make our muscles contract by bringing the electrical signal sent by brain from spinal cord to muscle fiber. Motor Unit Recruitment is activation of more motor units. Intense physical activity activates more motor units and thus increases the strength of contraction of muscles.

Our brain fires electrical impulses to motor units to contract a muscle. The strength of contraction depends on two factors.

• How many muscle fibers are connected to each motor unit.
• How fast is the firing rate of electrical impulse sent fro brain to motor unit.

Regular intense physical activity increases both of these factors. It increases the strength of contraction by 2 to 4 times. 

When we exercise regularly our brain get used to increased blood supply and adapts the ability to turning some genes ON and OFF as per need of body at that time. When we exercise our body take that moment as a moment of stress, due to increase of blood pressure and breathing (as if we are fighting or fleeing from some enemy). To protect our brain from this stress a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) is released, which empowers our memory neurons.
So in more easy terms you can say that exercise or intense physical activity not only increases your muscle size but also improves your memory and ability of your nervous system to contract your existing muscles with more power.

Athlete versus Bodybuilder

After reading all of the above content you will believe it if we say that size has nothing to do with actual strength.

• Body of a professional sportsperson is trained to use its muscles with speed and strength. While the body of a bodybuilder is trained to show how much it can pump .
• No matter how big are muscles of bodybuilder, they can't push the body to attain the speed of an athlete. It is due to lesser motor unit recruitment, which empowers the nerves behind the muscles to show more strength at a certain time.
• The coordination between different body muscles is better in athletes/sportsperson. Even eye's coordination with other body parts is better in them.
• Muscles of a bodybuilder may be bigger but their flexibility is lesser that a sportsman. 
• Muscles of an athlete can bear more burden for a longer duration. Again it is due to better nervous system functioning behind.

If you understand the difference between exercises of Athlete and Bodybuilder, then you will be better able to know why athlete's muscles work better in certain sports while the bodybuilder's bigger muscles can't do that.

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Why do men have nipples ?

Some say that nipples in men is just an evolutionary baggage and believe that men once used to feed babies. Some say that it is just for looks, else the chest region would look empty. Most of such talks don't really make an intellectual person believe them. So we decided to know the real motive behind men's nipples. The facts that we got are really interesting and make us understand the human body better.

Men and Nipples ! What do Science say ?

In the beginning as the embryo is formed inside the uterus, you can't determine its sex, as it is neither male nor female. By that time nipples have formed. After 6 or 7 weeks certain changes occur, which determine its gender. If it is going to be male, then testes start to form and testosterone hormone begins to produce. It is the testosterone hormone that makes a male from the uni-sexual embryo.

According to one more scientific hypothesis, we are all females inside the mothers womb for upto 7 weeks. After than the Y chromosome develops in some embryos to make the male. By that time nipples and some undeveloped breasts have already developed. Even the labia and clitoris have also formed by that time. But as the testosterone hormone production starts, labia fuse to become scrotum and clitoris develops to become penis.

Why men can't feed a baby ?

Nipples in men as just dummy and can't produce milk. Prolactin hormone in females stimulates lactation and milk is formed inside the breasts to feed babies. Absence of this hormone in males makes men incapable of producing milk.

Can a man lactate ?

Yes, in some very rare cases it has happened. It happens only when pituitary gland in males secrete prolactin hormone, which is responsible for lactation in women. In 2010 a study was published where a man lactated due to pituitary tumor. Normally a woman have double amount of prolactin hormone in her body compared to man. During and after pregnancy this amount can become 10 times which makes a woman lactate. It means that a man needs 20 times more prolactin to be able to lactate which can happen only under certain rare medical conditions.

Can a men have breast Cancer ?

Yes, however the chances are very rare. Only 1% of all breast cancer cases happen in men. It is because men have underdeveloped breasts under their nipples. Obesity play an important role in developing breast cancer in men.

Those of you who feel more proud to be a man should must know that once you were a baby girl and god left you with those non-useful nipples to keep you reminding of that.

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