Never Again

Green tea..

You have probably heard of all the many possible wonderful benefits of drinking green tea. Green tea increases the metabolism. The polyphenol found in green tea works to intensify levels of fat oxidation and the rate at which your body turns food into calories. Green tea apparently helps regulate glucose levels slowing the rise of blood sugar after eating. This can prevent high insulin spikes and resulting fat storage. Scientists think, green tea works on the lining of blood vessels, helping keep them stay relaxed and better able to withstand changes in blood pressure. It may also protect against the formation of clots, which are the primary cause of heart disease. It's also widely thought to kill cancer cells in general without damaging the healthy tissue around them. Green tea reduces bad cholesterol in the blood and improves the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol. It is said to delay the deterioration caused by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Studies carried out on mice showed that green tea protected brain cells from dying and restored damaged brain cells. Studies suggests that the chemical antioxidant “catechin” in tea can destroy bacteria and viruses that cause throat infections, dental caries and other dental conditions. Regular consumption of green tea is thought to reduce the risk of high blood pressure. Theanine is an amino acid naturally found in tea leaves. It is this substance that is thought to provide a relaxing and tranquilizing effect and be a great benefit to tea drinkers. Tea catechins are strong antibacterial and antiviral agents which make them effective for treating everything from influenza to cancer. In some studies green tea has been shown to inhibit the spread of many diseases. Green tea can apparently also help with wrinkles and the signs of aging, This is because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Both animal and human studies have demonstrated that green tea applied topically can reduce sun damage.

When I googled benefits of green tea, this laundry list is what I found. Pretty impressive right? Recently I discovered a recipe from Dr. Oz for a metabolism boosting green tea drink and decided to try it. It called for 8 cups of green tea, 1 sliced tangerine, and some mint leaves. The tea was steeped for five minutes and then the orange slices (couldn't find a tangerine) and mint leaves and stirred. I let it sit overnight in the fridge. When I poured a glass the next morning (Friday) I added one pack of Splenda and some ice. It smelled like orange juice. Without the Splenda, it tastes like odd bland water with a hint of mint at the end. With just one pack of Splenda, the flavor was dramatically changed. The bland water flavor went away, a stronger orange flavor emerged, and obviously, it was sweeter. For maximum result, you're supposed to drink the whole pitcher (8 cups) a day. I could only get down 4 cups on Friday and finished the remaining 4 cups on Saturday. Saturday night, I made more but I decided to make it 4 cups at a time, still using a whole orange. Sunday morning, it had an orange smell that could knock your socks off and now a more orange bland water flavor without Splenda. I still added Splenda. Sunday morning, I had a really bad stomachache but I drank all 4 cups Sunday and made 4 more that night. I drank 4 more cups Monday and 4 cups Tuesday as well. Tuesday night, I had another really bad stomachache, but worse than the one on Sunday. Laying down made it worse so I didn't sleep much or well, for that matter. I haven't had any more and I WILL NOT have any more. On Wednesday, I woke feeling bad. I was achy all over and had a headache. When I tried to eat, the weird pain came back and I just fell awful. I got up at 10 but ended up going BACK to bed at noon because I felt so bad and slept til noon. That helped some but I just did not feel good all day. Tired. Achy. That weird pain. Yuck. I'm assuming the green tea isn't completely out of my system yet and I'm hoping the pain will stop when it's all out. I also had trouble falling asleep because of the caffeine. Thursday I didn't notice any pain but I had a headache.

I wondered if it was possible I had drank TOO much green tea? So what did do? Yep. I googled it. WebMD says drinking more than two cups a day can be harmful. If you are pregnant or breast-feeding, consuming more than this amount has been linked to an increased risk of miscarriage and caffeine can pass through breast milk. Green tea can worsen anxiety, cause sleeping problems, and may contribute to heart problems. Drinking tea can cause kidney stones and can interact with certain medications. Tea reduces the absorption of non-heme iron (contributing to anemia) and vitamin B. It can weaken gums and irritate the lining of the stomach, causing indigestion and diarrhea. Drinking green tea increases pressure inside the eye. Drinking green tea can increase the amount of calcium that is flushed out in the urine. Increased blood calcium can cause osteoporosis.

So yes, drinking green tea in moderation can have some health benefits. But drinking too much can cause serious health problems. Some recommend one cups a day, some five cups, and other say 10 cups are okay in one day. So the verdict is still up in the air on exactly how much green tea is too much green tea. It can also vary from person to person. A person with irritable bowel syndrome shouldn't drink much, if any. A person with diabetes should limit their consumption.

Maybe someone should inform Dr. Oz. He's telling people to drink 8 cups every day! I have never liked Dr. Oz. He seems like a quack to me. This ordeal only confirmed that.

For me, 4 cups a day was way too much. I had consumed two and a half pitchers in five days. That's 160 ounces! That's almost five of the big one liter bottles of soda! No wonder I felt so crappy! I will probably never drink green tea again!

New Beginnings

Happy 2013!
This year has gone by so fast and now 2013 stands at our feet. I want this year to be full of new beginnings, mainly because I'm graduating college and it kinda has to be...

So Aaron and I have been discussing things. We have decided to get married when we originally wanted. We haven't told my parents yet but his parents were supportive when we mentioned it to them. I have decided to only apply to one PA school, MCG. After comparing it with Mercer and looking into it more, it truly is the best choice for us. MCG has their own online application so I won't have to worry about CASPA.

So now the official plan is to graduate in May. Aaron is going to get a job while I take four classes I'm missing and volunteer at the hospital. I need to tweak my personal statement. (Update: I don't think that they require a personal statement!) Then I'll take the GRE and get certified in CPR. I will apply to the MCG PA program in July. Interviews will take place between August and October and hopefully I will get one. Aaron and I will get married in November. Hooefully by then I will know if i was accepted or not. If I am, we will move in with family until PA school starts in May 2014. MCG has on campus housing for married students. If for some reason, I don't get accepted, then we will find somewhere to live on our own together and I will reapply.

This is going to be a very busy summer!

Continuing with new beginnings, let's talk resolutions. This year, I'm calling mine goals instead of New Year's Resolutions. I want to graduate Berry, take the GRE, and get accepted to PA school. I hope to walk closer with God and get married this year. I'm continuing to eat healthy. I started last summer and now I really have some motivation to keep going if we really do get married this year. Now I hope to reach my goal weight of 145lbs (before the wedding).

Seriously...

I am having some awful House pains.
I miss that show so much.
I have watched it since I was 12!

MCAT...

Dreadful word. Jut thinking about the MCAT makes me feel sick to my stomach.

So I have been doing some thinking. In order to retake the MCAT, I would have to study so twice as hard just to get back to where I was last June AND then some to IMPROVE my score.

The root of the 'problem' back in June was that I wasn't studying. Kaplan gave me a list of things I had to complete and I was just checking things off the list, whether I know them or not; that's not really learning. I SHOULD have studied the flashcards instead of focusing on the quizzes. Then there was the problem of running out if time. My Kaplan class ended in May and I also took the MCAT in May.

Right now, I just feel like I won't be able to retake the MCAT and do well enough to make it worthwhile. It's expensive. It would take extensive excessive studying. And it would probably cause me some actual physical pain somehow, haha.

And they're adding so many sections to the MCAT. I would also have to take time to brush up on my sociology and psychology. More things to study. More time.

Ugh.

I need GRE flashcards.

2012, where did you go?!

New Year's is right around the corner.
Where in the world has this year gone!?

I'm just finished up some nasty antibiotic for a bacterial infection. It is hands down the most awful tasting medicine I had ever taken. There's no coating so it instantly fizzes into powder releasing the foul taste. As if that's not bad enough, it's making me feel awful. My stomach isn't happy. Ugh.

My LAST semester of college is starting in January. I'm graduating in May.
My COLLEGE graduation. Wow. It still doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like I've been at Berry for four years.

This past semester I made all As again. It's my seventh semester making the Dean's List. I have made it every single semester. Now that's an accomplishment in my book. I have completed my minor in Biology and I only need three more class for my major (biochem II, another writing intensive class, and a literature class).

This semester I'm also hoping to squeeze in some shadowing/volunteering hours for PA school.
My schedule is nice. I only have one lab (and it rarely took the whole time last semester).
I will only be tutoring one person, Mallory, from last semester. I'll be a TA for a lab on Thursday.
So my schedule is fairly open and I'm done with class around lunch so I'm hoping to have two days to volunteer each week.

Merry Christmas

I had a good (and BUSY) Christmas this year.

My Christmas Eve started with a stomachache for most of the morning. We went to Nana's around 4pm. She cooked breakfast and we ate around 5:30 and then opened presents, took a few pictures and had some red velvet cake. Mmmm. I got the final House season on DVD and a Vera Bradley purse.

Then we went to Aaron's parents just in time for presents (which was good because we were full and she basically only made desserts!). I got a new pea coat and a Keurig! I simmered in the heat inside that house while we watched the four year old granddaughter open all thirty of her presents before leaving around 9pm. She's cute, but spoiled.

We drove to Aaron's aunt's house in the thickest fog I have ever seen. But by the time we got there, the festivities were kinda over and some people had already left, haha. Oops! We hung out there for a few hours and then he brought me home a little before midnight.

Soon after that, I had an awful stomach pain and severe nausea, bringing flashbacks of last Christmas Eve when I had my first ever spell of almost unbearable heart burn. I wasn't able to lay down because of the nausea so after six pepto bismol, by 2am I was finally able to lay down. But it's not like I slept good or anything after that..

On Christmas morning, we opened presents from Santa Claus. We went back to Nana's for leftover breakfast (for actual breakfast this time). Later, I tried out my Keurig. We went to the parents of Aaron's stepmom at 5pm. It was so crowded. And raining with a storm coming that ended up spitting out over 40 tornadoes that night. Then we managed to make it to my aunt's house.

New Comet: Coming December 2013

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Within days after a new comet is first discovered, astronomers can tell you exactly what its path through the solar system will look like. They can calculate when it will make its closest approach to the Sun, how near it will be to Earth at any given moment and even when — or whether — it’s likely to make a return visit.

What they can’t say for sure is how brilliant a show it will put on for us. Back in the 1970’s,Comet Kohoutek was billed as the “Comet of the Century,” but it turned out to be so disappointing that it ended up as a laugh line for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. Even a well-known comet like Halley’s, whose 1986 appearance was ballyhooed years in advance, can turn out to be a dud.

With that caveat noted, however, there’s a reasonable chance that Earth is in for a celestial display just about a year from now. Comet ISON, discovered by two amateurs — one from Belarus, one from Russia — in September, shows early signs of being truly spectacular. At its brightest, in fact, ISON could put out as much light as the full Moon but concentrated into a smaller area — and if that turns out to be true, the term “dream comet,” now floating around the internet, would be an understatement.

There’s a legitimate possibility this might indeed be the real deal: for one thing, ISON (named for the International Scientific Optical Network, of which discoverers Artyom Novichonok and Vitali Nevski members) was first seen when it was nearly 600 million miles (965 million km) from the Sun, well beyond the orbit of Jupiter. That’s unusually distant for a comet to be spotted: these interplanetary chunks of debris usually live in the frigid realms out beyond Neptune and are more or less invisible until solar heat begins boiling ice and dust from their surfaces, forming a light-reflecting halo (known technically as its coma), that makes them seem bigger than they really are.

The fact that ISON can already be seen means it may be reasonably large — perhaps a couple of miles across — which suggests that when it dips to less than a million miles (1.6 million km) above the Sun’s fires next November 28, it may be robust enough to avoid the breakup that often happens to smaller comets. And if it does survive, ISON could go on to light up the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere for much of December, 2013 and on into January.

Comet experts are also making much of the fact that ISON’s path is very similar to that of Kirch’s Comet, a.k.a. Newton’s Comet, a.k.a. the Great Comet of 1680, which was bright enough to be seen in daylight and had a magnificently long tail (it was also the first comet ever discovered with a telescope). It’s not the same object, but it’s quite possible that both  are chunks of a much larger body that broke apart long ago, maybe during its own passage through the inner solar system. The fact that such larger bodies exist isn’t in doubt: Pluto, for example, is essentially a gigantic chunk of dirty ice.

If ISON is truly destined to become one of the greatest comets in history, we won’t have to wait until November to find out. By August, it will still be more than 200 million miles (320 million km) from the Sun, but that’s close enough for it to start forming its halo. How bright it is then should be a good indication of how much brighter it could get.

Even then, comet-lovers would be wise to stay calm. “Comets are like cats,” the great amateur astronomer and comet hunter David Levy, who has found 22 comets himself, has said. “They have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”

This article is from TIME magazine.