smoking Archives | Global Paranormal

Tag: smoking

Smoking Gun to Provide Classes on UFO and Paranormal –

Sep. 15 Investigation, News no comments

The Orange-based Smoking Gun Research Agency (SGRA) will host new classes, “Exploring Unsolved Mysteries,” as part of the Foothills Continuing Education programs in Litchfield, Southbury and Thomaston in October.

The classes will be led by SGRA Director Jon Nowinski, and members of the SGRA staff will provide participants of the class a detailed overview of what Mr. Nowinski considers the philosophy, history and methodology of investigating the unexplained.

The sessions will be at Pomperaug Regional High School, in Southbury, Education Connection in Litchfield and Thomaston High School in Thomaston.

“Many people have seen the way the paranormal is depicted on T.V., but as with most programs, that’s not always realistic,” Nowinski said. “Our aim is to give participants in the class insight into how SGRA examines the unexplained, from our reasons and philospohy to how we actually conduct investigations, to a look at cases that both were able to be explained as well as remind unexplained.”

Read the full article at www.countytimes.com.

Tags: classes, gun, investigation, paranormal, smoking, ufo

‘important’ Risk Factor For Schizophrenia is Smoking

Mar. 28 News no comments

Before I switched to electronic cigarettes over a year ago I smoked two packs a day or more. I don’t recall thinking I wanted aliens off my roof and Homeland Security to stop spying on me. I tend to think of myself as sane as the next guy….well as long as he isn’t a chain smoker. Below is the story from the Daily Mail.

Smoking should be considered an ‘important’ risk factor for schizophrenia, a scientist has claimed.

Professor Boris Quednow, from the University Hospital of Psychiatry in Switzerland, led new research suggesting smoking increases the impact of schizophrenia genes.

Healthy smokers carrying a certain gene variant responded to an ‘acoustic stimuli’ test in the same way as individuals suffering from the serious mental disorder.

The effect also appeared to be stronger the more a person smoked.

The study involved more than 1,800 participants who underwent a simple test which involves listening to a sequence of similar clicks.

Brainwave measurements show that most people suppress other, irrelevant, stimuli while processing the sounds.

However patients with schizophrenia appear to lack this filtering mechanism.

As a result their brains are thought to be inundated with too much information.

Psychiatrically healthy people carrying variants of the gene TCF4 that increased the risk of schizophrenia also displayed poorer acoustic filtering, the study found.

However, smoking appeared to amplify the effect, resulting in greater deficits.

The findings are published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Prof Quednow said: ‘Smoking alters the impact of the TCF4 gene on acoustic stimulus filtering. Therefore, smoking might also increase the impact of particular genes on the risk of schizophrenia.

‘Smoking should… be considered as an important cofactor for the risk of schizophrenia in future studies.’

Full Article | Source: www.dailymail.co.uk