Just “breathe” we tell ourself and our loved ones when we’re facing stress and trauma. Now scientists can explain why deep breaths with long exhalations actually quell anxiety.
In a paper published in Science, researchers led by Mark Krasnow, a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University, found that in mice, a group of nerves in the brain that regulates breathing has a direct connection to the arousal center of the brain. In other words, breathing can have a direct effect on the overall activity level of the brain.
Krasnow’s team has been studying a group of 3,000 neurons in the brain stems of rodents that control all of a mouse’s different breathing patterns, from the quick, rapid breathing associated with exertion and excitement, to the slower breathing typical of rest, to sighing and crying. Krasnow found that about 60 types of nerve cells make up this so-called “breathing pacemaker”, and each of these nerve cell groups are responsible for different breathing patterns.
It turns out that Krasnow had disrupted a set of nerves with a direct line to the brain’s arousal center; these nerves can either tell the brain there’s an emergency and set off the body’s alarms, or keep the brain on an even keel, maintaining a sense of calm. This is the change that happens when breathing slows down, says Krasnow. “This liaison to the rest of the brain means that if we can slow breathing down, as we can do by deep breathing or slow controlled breaths, the idea would be that these neurons then don’t signal the arousal center, and don’t hyperactivate the brain. So you can calm your breathing and also calm your mind,” says Krasnow.
Breathing, in other words, can change the mind, or the state of the mind.
So why do some people still feel anxious after a few deep inhales and exhales? It’s possible that their genetic variations mean they have a dulled response to this cluster of nerves responsible for regulating breathing, so that it takes more than conscious deep breaths to switch the brain from an aroused to a calm state. In those cases, having something like a drug or other intervention to specifically target the right group of breathing nerve cells and control its activity might be needed.
As of today, people who use the voice-assistant service can launch the WebMD skill on any Alexa-enabled device (such as the Echo, Echo Dot and Amazon Fire TV) and ask a question about a range of health-related topics including conditions, medication, tests and treatments. Alexa will respond with WebMD-sourced answers in easy-to-understand language.
“Every month, nearly one-third of the total online U.S. population turns to WebMD’s websites and apps in search of answers to their health-related questions, but now they have another option -and it’s as simple as asking Alexa,” WebMD Vice President Ben Greenberg, whose product team developed the new voice capabilities, said in a statement. “There are a number of reasons that voice-enabled interfaces are growing in popularity -they are generally hands-free, people can talk faster than they type, and when done right, they make it easier for consumers to quickly and easily get to the information they need.”
As anyone with an Alexa-enabled or other voice assistant device knows, one can attempt to ask it anything and it will go searching across databases, but it won’t necessarily come up with a usable answer. The goal with the WebMD integration is to bypass a potentially misdirected search for health information by taking them right to the company’s content library. Users launch the skill by asking in a certain format, for example: “Alexa, ask WebMD to tell me about type 2 diabetes,” or “Alexa, ask WebMD what is an echocardiogram.”
People can also request the information be sent to them in text form to their Alexa app, and that option will provide the original answer to their question along with a URL to a WebMD page that can offer more resources.
Alexa is a lot like many other apps, and has a free, self-service, open API for third parties to develop their own products on. To date, developers and companies have built more than 10,000 Alexa skills, an Amazon spokesperson told MobiHealthNews in an email. While the company couldn’t share any specifics, they said they are always looking to expand their capabilities, including health and wellness skills.
Amazon has racked up a few health integrations with its voice assistant since launching About a year ago, the company teamed up with Fitbit to allow Alexa to inform users of the activity-tracking wearables about their sleep, activity and weight. In April, Boston Children’s Hospital officially launched its partnership with Alexa in the form of an app called KidsMD that gave the device the ability to give parents simple health advice about their children’s fever and medication dosing. Then, in December, connected home healthcare company Orbita began using Alexa, although not as their exclusive voice assistant. And just recently, at HIMSS 17, HealthTap deployed the Doctor AI app using Alexa.
“We’re excited that WebMD is bringing its skill to Alexa,” Rob Pulciani, director of Amazon Alexa said in a statement. “With the WebMD skill, customers can get answers to health questions simply by asking Alexa. It highlights the convenience of a more natural spoken language experience.”
Infographic for Futurism.com
Even the United States is making some massive strides with this source of renewable energy. In fact, solar energy is faring better than coal—even in terms of the economy. There are more people employed by the solar industry than in coal, and the price of solar power continues to fall. A trend that is likely to continue—especially if we continue to improve the efficiency of harvesting the sun’s energy.
To that end, researchers in Japan are doing their part: a team from the company Kaneko has recently announced breaking the efficiency record of solar panels—which now stands at 26.6 percent. “Improving the photoconversion efficiency of silicon solar cells is crucial to further the deployment of renewable electricity,” says the team.
The research has been published in Nature Energy.
Catching the Sun
The company’s approach—known as thin-film heterojunction (HJ) optimization—improves on a technique that layers silicon inside individual cells to minimize the space where electrons can’t exist. These spaces are call band gaps. A few more innovations allowed for the collection of a greater number of photons, leading to a more efficient panel.
Other approaches have been able to reach an even higher efficiency percentage, but they are not yet viable for consumer-friendly applications.
Continuing on this trend toward efficiency is only going to make the prices of solar power continue to drop. Improvements in production processes will speed this along as well, since panels that are cheaper to produce will cost less for the consumer. Last year, the world was able to double its solar power capacity—so just imagine what will be possible with higher efficiency capabilities.
Here is is again in a more recent video diving through skyscrapers!
And then again, in Europe!
