Post-Thanksgiving Sleepies

It’s about the gobbler, but not the one you might think.

It has become a truism: You get sleepy at Thanksgiving because of all that
tryptophan in turkey. But is it true? Yes and no, but mostly no.

It is true that the amino acid tryptophan works as a precursor to other sleep-inducing chemicals. Turkey has lots of it. But cheese and nuts have more. Even Tofu-turkey has more, according to Wired.com.

In 1972 a psychiatrist named John Fernstrom looked into the tryptophan
connection and found that tryptophan alone does not make you sleepy. Instead, he found that it’s really a carb-heavy meal of mashed potatoes, pie, dressing, and bread. Those carbs create loads of sugar and force amino acids to go to work breaking it all down. With amino acids busy fighting sugars, the brain starts converting tryptophan into serotonin and suddenly you feel you just can’t watch another third and 10
on the game. Snores ensue.

It’s not just the chemistry of the meal, however. The parasympathetic nervous
system also has a role to play. This little brain gadget does things in the
background so you don’t think about them; like breathing. When you eat too much, you have to digest a lot. The parasympathetic nervous system kicks in to give the body energy to digest and takes away energy elsewhere. You feel tired and it’s because you ate a really big carb-loaded meal. Too late to do anything about it. Just kick off your
shoes and don’t blame the turkey.

Simple Food Safety Tips for Thanksgiving

Use these safety tips when preparing turkey for the whole family.

• The best way to thaw a turkey is in a refrigerator, according to USDA
recommendations. Allow 24 hours for each four to five pounds, in a
refrigerator cooled to 40 degrees or below. Be sure to let the turkey thaw
in a container so juices will not drip onto other foods.

• If you must thaw a turkey in cold water, be sure it is in a leak-proof bag. The turkey should be submerged in cold water. Allow 30 minutes per pound. Change the water frequently. USDA recommends every 30 minutes. Cook immediately when thawed.

• Cook turkey to 165 degrees in thickest part of the breast, inner thigh, and inner wing.

• Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before touching any food.

• Do not store stuffing inside a turkey. Refrigerate it separately.

• Don’t wash the turkey. According to the USDA, loosely attached bacteria
can contaminate the kitchen when you wash meat or poultry. Studies have found bacteria cling to sinks, sponges and towels. Bacteria is effectively killed in the oven. The best idea is to take the turkey out of the package and put it straight into the pan.

Identifying Alzheimer’s Before Symptoms

New tests to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease are emerging, offering hope for new treatments and therapies.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the memory disease is now the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and more than 5 million people are currently living with the disease. In fact, for seniors, a third of all deaths stem from either Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Although there is no cure in sight, for now, every effort is being made to find a way to diagnose and treat this growing threat.

According to The Wall Street Journal, there is support for a new approach to how Alzheimer’s is identified in the population, and it could lead to dramatically earlier warnings of the disease and accelerate research. New approaches hope to discover the disease before symptoms ever present.

Like finding malignant cells in the body to find cancer or plaque buildup in the arteries for heart disease, the presence of amyloid and tau proteins could be the key to early identification. Previously, doctors could only see these proteins during an autopsy, but improved technology has allowed for these markers to be seen in living patients. These scans are sometimes used to rule out Alzheimer’s in patients with various cognitive issues. Critics of the method agree that the process works to identify amyloid proteins but argue that there is no definitive way to predict whether or not the patient will actually develop symptoms.

Another test involves recognition of smells. One of the first things to decline is the ability to smell, which is associated with the first cranial nerve, according to WebMD. Researchers have found the ability to smell differs between nostrils in Alzheimer’s patients but it is still too early to say definitively if this will be a diagnostic tool for Alzheimer’s

Food Spills on Carpet: A Few Do’s and Don’ts

You vacuum twice a week, like clockwork. You ask everyone to take their shoes off at
the door, leave your muddy shoes on the garage stoop, and toss your throw rugs in the washer every weekend. You do your level best to keep dirt outside where it belongs and pollutants inside your home to a minimum.

But no family is perfect.

Despite your best efforts at keeping spaghetti in the kitchen and dirt in the garden, no matter how careful you are, sooner or later it will happen. Someone will spill food or drink onto your carpet. You may see it the second it happens, or you may not spot it until it has dried and set. Either way, you will panic. You will fear that your beautiful carpet is ruined forever.

And you will wonder what to do.

What you need to know is that whether a simple spill comes out or becomes a permanent stain depends just as much on what you don’t do as what you do. Here are a few recommendations to help increase your chances of a successful stain treating outcome:

DO NOT rub or scrub the carpet with a towel or brush. This will distort the face yarns and cause permanent damage to the surface, which will only amplify the look of any stain.

DO pick up any chunks and then remove the excess liquid by gently blotting or scraping up as much of the spill as you can. If it is a liquid, such as coffee, wine or soda, use a white towel and blot up as much of the spill as possible. Keep blotting until your towel stops absorbing liquid.

DO NOT spread the spot. When scraping up thick spills, such as spaghetti sauce, work
gently from the outside edges of the spot toward the middle. Scrape up as much as
possible before using any spot cleaners.

DO call a reputable professional cleaning company as soon as possible. Experienced
carpet cleaners will have a specialty spotter for just about any type of spill. In addition,
they will have the equipment to promptly remove the stain and flush it with fresh
water. Prompt professional attention is your best chance to remove spills without
damaging the color or texture of your carpet.

DO NOT use cleaning agents from the grocery store. Most often, these products are low quality and ineffective. But even high quality products still need to be used carefully.
A cleaning product must be carefully chosen for the type of spot and the kind of fabric that your carpet is made from. If you try to use the wrong product, or use it incorrectly, you may make the spill more difficult or even impossible for even the most
experienced professional to remove.

While nobody can guarantee that every spot and stain will come out, by following these tips you will make cleaning up spots and spills much easier. You will be more likely to remove the stain completely, leaving your carpet looking good and helping your
carpet to look good for years to come.