Breakthroughs Today

IRISH poet William Butler Yeats wrote: “The tragedy of sexual intercourse is the perpetual virginity of the soul.” If sexual abandon is dangerous to the “virginity of the soul,” then the Roman Catholic Church may be right in opposing the use of oral contraception (OC). A recent study published in this year’s issue of BMC Women’s Health noted that the use of OCs had been associated with greater sexual interest across all phases of ... ( Read more . ) This article appears in Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on 28 July 2010.

SOMETIME in 1988 I came to know a person in Zamboanga City whose way of showing feelings defied my understanding of emotions. Male and married, he spoke softly and showed no sign of roughness or aggression—even at times when my own aggression meter rose. I learned from his wife that his way of speaking came from his family. Even when pissed off, only those who closely knew him could detect... ( Read more. )  This article appears in Sun-Star Cebu newspaper on 21 July 2010.

IF YOU love probiotic food products, you may have eaten already any of the non-harmful species of Lactobacillus bacteria. One popular species is the L. casei, its Shirota strain being found in the milk-like product Yakult. They are used in fermenting ingredients in yogurt production and cheese, pickles, beer, wine, cider, and kimchi as well. Lactobacilli are normal flora in the vagina and the gastrointestinal tract, including the throat. Their sheer number... ( Read more . ) This article appears in Sun-Star Cebu newspaper on 14 July 2010.

THOSE who have had bouts with gastric ulcer most likely have heard of the bacterium (singular form of bacteria) known scientifically as Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). H. pylori has a long story to tell. It first belonged to a group of corkscrew-looking bacteria called Campylobacter, created in 1963 as a class. But with the advent of electron microscopy, scientists observed that this bacterium possesses a helical body instead. Thus in 1989...  ( Read on ) This article appears in Sun-Star Cebu newspaper on 7 July 2010.

IN MY previous column (“Joy, temperance and repose”), I mentioned the highest and lowest antioxidant-containing products among the 3,100 products tested in the Carlson Food Antioxidant Review. But I purposefully left out the results of their tests on herbs and medicinal plants because of the limitations of our space here. What they found out... ( Read more )   This article appears in Sun-Star Cebu newspaper on 30 June 2010.

If you think depression just comes to adolescents without reason at all, think about. Any reason might do. Read on to find out. BRITISH rowing athlete Penelope Sweet once said: “Depression is nourished by a lifetime of ungrieved and unforgiven hurts.” At times, though, the hurts do not have last a lifetime. Among adolescents, depression comes as a natural part of growing up. That’s what Colleen Conley and Karen Rudolph found out in their recent study, published in Developmental Psychopathology and available online on Jan. 1. Conley teaches at the Loyola University Chicago Department of Psychology while Rudolph at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Campaign). Adolescence comes as a period of multiple... ( Read more. ) This article appears in Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on 23 June 2010.

Like any social destination, the bar can attract patrons based on motives that generally reflects how it is generally perceived by consumers. Find out what motives are these. ERNEST Hemingway wrote in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940): “An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” Each different man or woman has his or her own reason for visiting, even patronizing, a bar or two. Recently, though, eight different focus groups, consisting of 82 individual each including bar patrons and bartenders, identified four clusters of motivations that people have in frequenting bars. ( Read more. ) This article appears in Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on 16 June 2010.