Some girls are born to be anorexic

I have a cousin who eats like a horse,and is yet reed thin...All the other girls are jealous of her.

London, March 30: A new study has busted decades of belief that anorexia is mainly caused by social factors, after researchers have found some girls are born to be anorexic.

Researchers have carried out the study and found that most sufferers are predisposed to the eating disorder because of the way their brains developed in the womb, a finding they claim could revolutionise treatment of the eating disorder.

"Our research shows that certain kids' brains develop in such a way that makes them more vulnerable to commonly known risk factors for eating disorders -- such as the size zero debate, media representations of very skinny women and bad parents," lead researcher Dr Ian Frampton said.

For their study, the researchers at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital tested more than 200 anorexia sufferers from Britain, the US and Norway. All were females aged between 12 and 25 and were being treated in private hospitals.

The researchers found around 70 per cent had suffered damage to neurotransmitters, that help brain cells communicate or had undergone other subtle changes in the structure of their brains, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

One in every few hundred girls may be affected in this way, according to Dr Frampton. He said the condition is caused by random conditions, not poor maternal diet or environmental.

The "imperfect wiring" of the brain is similar to that seen in people with dyslexia, depression or hyperactivity.

"These findings could help us to understand a disease we don't know how to treat. Arguments that social factors, such as girls feeling under pressure to lose weight to look like high-profile women in the media, contain logical flaws because almost everyone is exposed to them yet only a small percentage of young people get anorexia.

"Those things are important but there must be other factors, involving  genetics and science, that make some young people much more vulnerable than others," Dr Frampton said.

Simplicity

Simplicity...something we, as self perceived intellectuals abhor wholeheartedly must be looked upon once again.

Occam's Razor does not mean that the simplest solution is always true...Moreover true reductionism is not always possible.

In the preface to the second edition of 'The Story Of Philosophy', author Will Durant writes 'The worst sin of all-though the critics do not seem to have noticed it-was the omission of Chinese and Hindu Philosophy...'

The aversion seems to have sprung from the banal intelligibility of Confucius,Buddha and Shankara et al.

He writes further'...But we "moderns" have become so accustomed to windy verbiage that when philosophy is presented without the verbiage we can with difficulty recognize it.'

"...he is disreputably intelligible; and nothing could be so damaging to a philosopher...' he adds.

But if you haven't noticed before...the best things in life are simple.

The best things in life are simple,but only in a reductionist sense of view, for even a superficially simple phenomenon may have a complex mechanisms behind it and revealing the apparent complexity will simply make it ...well ...simply no longer the best.

Yes...one must not confuse topicality with simplicity.

Years later, I once again climbed on my mango tree.

Back then, things were simple.We spent endless summer days playing under the hot sun,without a worry or a drop of sunscreen.We never wore helmets,knee-guards,elbow pads while cycling.There was no safety net when we swung from a rope tied  atop the guava tree on my neighbours backyard.

We didn't have computers,internet or cellphones...I took the cycle to my school, parked it with the rest of the cycles.We played in the mud, got dirty,bruised and tired.A cold glass of lemonade awaited us at the end of the day.

So as I used to do, once upon a time, as a kid(was it that long ago?), I climbed on my mango tree.I'm not as nimble as I used to be, and I had to struggle and heave myself to get up...also, the branches groaned unkindly now that I weighed much more in my adulthood.

I plucked a few tender mangoes...green and pungent in aroma...an aroma such that it would render you to salivate as you imagined the taste of the delicious yet sour flesh of the tender mango.

Tender mango diced into small cubes,a generous helping of salt and chili powder and a tablespoon of coconut oil to tamp down the fiery heat of the chillipowder...My exquisitely delicious Mango Pacchadi was ready...which was the staple diet of kids everywhere in our city in the summers.

Each bite of the fiery salty sourness took me back to places I  had not been for a long time...Memories made me nostalgic once again, as I saw a fresh bunch of kids spend their summer vacations in our otherwise sleepy neighbourhood.

But I refrained myself from repeating the old lies that 'those days were better than what you have now'.

Those days were different.

I'm not the Ben 10,Bey blade,Pokemon generation.

I'll never be it no matter how much I try to immerse myself or understand.

For all practical purposes, there exists a threshold of understanding, which we have conveniently termed as 'Generation gap'...because what appears simple to these kids is confoundedly complex to us...and the chasm of understanding is widening as we speak.

The mango pacchadi tasted the best when it had no more than 3 ingredients...But Why So? is another question, something not to be pondered upon.

But...things are neither better nor worse...they are simply different and as the french say

C'est la vie...

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When in Doubt, Seek Opinion of Others

                    ( Stumbling Upon Happiness-Daniel Gilbert -is one of my favourite non-fiction books, eventhough his first chapter titled 'Prospection' was recently proven to be wrong by an ape in a zoo. and in other places.)

When in Doubt Seek Other's Opinion

Other People's Experiences Help You Predict Your Own Happiness, Study Says

 

 

The next time you’re having trouble deciding whether this or that will make you happy, don’t fret too long - just go ask a stranger.

His or her experience may be more informative than your own best guess, says a new Harvard University study.

“If you want to know how much you will enjoy an experience, you are better off knowing how much someone else enjoyed it than knowing anything about the experience itself,” Daniel Gilbert, PhD, a professor of psychology at Harvard, says in a news release.

The study, which appears in the journal Science, notes that previous research has shown that people often have trouble predicting what they’ll like and how much they’ll like it.

Gilbert and a team of researchers set out to eliminate that kind of fickleness from the calculus of the question by asking people to predict how much they’d enjoy a future event that they knew nothing about -- except how much a total stranger had enjoyed it.

Those people, it turns out, made extremely accurate predictions, say the researchers, who included Matthew Killingsworth and Rebecca Eyre, also of Harvard, and Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia.

Do strangers know the best?

Undergraduate women in one experiment predicted how much they would enjoy a “speed date” with a male student.

Some women read the man’s personal profile and saw his photograph; others knew nothing about the guy. But those who didn’t see a picture or read a guy’s profile did find out how much another woman they’d never met had enjoyed meeting him on a speed date. Women who learned about another woman’s experience did a much better job of predicting their own enjoyment of the speed date than women who reviewed the man’s written personality profile and picture.

Both groups of women mistakenly expected the profile and photo to lead to greater accuracy. They also said they’d strongly prefer to have the profile and photograph of their next date.

In another part of the study, two groups of participants were asked to predict how they would feel if they received negative personality feedback from a peer.

Some were given negative personality feedback presumably from a peer, and others received a stranger's report of how it felt to have personally received a negative report. Again, participants who were given information from a stranger describing their own feelings about receiving a negative report more accurately predicted their own reactions to negative feedback, the researchers say.

Gateway to Happiness:Learning From Other's Experiences

“People do not realize what a powerful source of information another person’s experience can be because they mistakenly believe that everyone is remarkably different from everyone else,” Gilbert says.

But the truth is, “an alien who knew all the likes and dislikes of a single human being would know a great deal about the species,” he says in the article.

Gilbert says people “believe that the best way to predict how happy they will be in the future is to know what their future holds, but what they should really want to know is how happy those who’ve been to the future actually turned out to be.”

What Do You Say After You Say Hello?

One more marriage!

This was hilarious because I've never seen the bride before in my life.She is supposedly a distant cousin...which brings me to a philosophical question"Aren't we all distant cousins to each other ?"

This time I followed KCG's trick and surprised quite a few of my relatives!

"Of course I remember You, Uncle...How can I ever forget you?"

Usually I carry  a lifeline(more like a boreline) to weddings...like a book,my iPod or even a newspaper.This is to ensure that I'm not bored even for a minute.But this time, I went commando (No, I always wear boxers), with no lifelines in hand.

This is a brave new phase for me.

Things you notice:

There is an insidious and nefarious nexus of people in a marriage who come there for totally different reasons:Schmoozing, networking, matchmaking,flaunting,information exchange(gossip) and last but not the least...the saddest variety of  people  come here to have a grand wedding feast.

We had a few caucasians...they were from Netherlands.They were simply curious about all the weird and colurful and noisy rituals and wonderfully arcane customs of the wedding.They asked what it all meant.I simply shook my head and said "F#%$ knows"

Mom, as ever ,forced me to meet a few girls...and then surreptiously asked me if I liked any of them.The girls acted coy.I acted confident and charming.We exchanged perfunctory pleasantries.

It was all over within a minute.

Next!

As I've said before, I don't enjoy family gatherings.Once I go there, I meet people who I've categorized into these groups.

1)People I vaguely know.

2)People I don't know, but who know me (and ask me inane questions like "Hey , Remember Me?"

3)People who I am mutually strangers with.

4)People who I know but will avoid at all costs.(like that creepy old lady who likes to be touchy feely a lot)

5)Lastly...the Invisibles (these are people who are there but are not of any concern to you.For all practical purposes, they are invisible)

Group 1) and 2) pose the most problem.The problem being...What do you say after you say Hello?

Hello Aunty...nice seeing you here...Umm...er...excuse me, I've left my defibrillator in the parking lot!

Hello uncle! ...How are you...I'm fine...Hot day isn't it?...Umm...er...excuse me, my cat is getting a divorce, and I'm her lawyer...

What do you say after you say Hello? There's dead air between us...no history,no chemistry,and absolutely no interest in keeping the conversation alive...and that's when you come up with some brilliant excuses!

In any marriage you see, the females are there with a purpose, and men are there clutching their female's purse.

                                           Look at the females...aren't they social creatures?                      They are there for a reason...the old aunties are there to revive the 'Old Girls Network' .The young aunties are there to flaunt their new jewellry and saris.Mothers are on the lookout for eligible bachelors.Unmarried Daughters are there to be noticed.

I'm there because mom dragged me.Her greatest thrill these days is to show me to other people.Predictable reactions ensue "WHAT! DON'T TELL ME YOU HAVE SUCH A BIG SON! YOU LOOK SO YOUNG!"

I'm adopted...I grumble.

In looking at women's clothes in a wedding, one can always tell who's next in line, who's ready to be married off, by the degree of well dressedness.The bride is by default the best dressed female in the wedding.I think that's her only incentive to get married...to be princess for a day, and be envied by all others.

The second best dressed girl is usually next in line for marriage.She's there for a reason.It's her interview with all the people.She's smiling,nodding, and graciously answering everyone's questions.All this for a boy? Honey, he ain't worth all that effort.(But I am)

I met the second best dressed girl today...What do you say after you say Hello?

Apparently we knew each other once upon a time.I apologised and confessed that I didn't know who the hell she was, but spoke to her on the assumption of past chemistry(I used to pull at her pigtails and she used to beat me up when we were six)

What do you say after you say Hello?  Its no longer a problem.I talk about everything as if I've known them for years.

I found out that Me and M/s Pig Tail had a lot to talk about...