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Tag: Duke University

  • Belle Knox Sheds Light On Porn Industry In New Docu-Series

    Becoming Belle Knox is a five part docu-series about the story of Miriam Weeks, the Duke University student who gained prominence when it was revealed she was doing porn to send herself to school.

    Known by her stage name “Belle Knox,” also as “the Duke porn star,” Weeks says it was Condé Nast who came to her with the concept for the series.

    “I was approached by Condé Nast about doing a documentary about my life. I feel like with my story there are a lot of misunderstandings about who I am, and nuances about being a student and a sex worker,” Weeks said in a report. “The documentary really humanizes me. I’m proof that porn stars can be real people.”

    Condé Nast Entertainment, the publisher behind Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, produced the docu-series on their digital site, The Scene. The series hopes to reaffirm the idea that no one but sex workers should be able to decide what’s best for sex workers.

    Is porn really empowering Belle Knox or degrading her?

    In the documentary, the Duke porn star talks about how she loves what she does, and why she makes no apologies for joining the adult industry to pay tuition. She also admits to having grown a great deal since she started doing porn: “I think my experiences have aged me,” she says in the documentary. “I don’t have the mind of an 18-year-old. I kind of have the mind and the emotional baggage of somebody much, much older than me.”

    The series is a glimpse into the world of porn, showing details like how Knox got tested for STDs among others. Both moving and illuminating, it tries to dispel the misconceptions and fantasies the public has about the industry.

    In talking about how life has changed since she was outed, the struggle of attending school, and being cyber-bullied, Knox reveals the burden that sex workers are forced to bear as a consequence of the cultural condemnation of their profession. At one point, she says flatly, “A lot of sh*t in my life has been ruined because of sex.”

  • Alzheimer’s May Be Predicted by Brain Plaques

    According to a new study conducted by Duke Medicine, brain scans using radioactive dye may help to predict an impending development of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as future cognitive decline in otherwise healthy adults.

    In an article published in the online journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers revealed that identification of residue that forms in the brain called silent beta-amyloid plaque could help direct treatment options for patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Lead author P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the neurocognitive disorders program at Duke commented, “Our research found that healthy adults and those with mild memory loss who have a positive scan for these plaques have a much faster rate of decline on memory, language, and reasoning over three years.”

    Information describing how PET scans are conducted:

    Alzheimer’s disease is typically diagnosed based on the patient’s history, history from relatives and an assessment of the patient’s behaviors. The affliction is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people worldwide by 2050. There is no cure for the disease, and is progressive, eventually leading to death. While AD is mostly seen in patients over 65 years old, it can manifest in much younger patients. There presently is no cure, and is the most expensive disease in the United States.

    The Duke study comprised 152 adults aged 50 or older, and was intended to discern if positron emission tomography (PET) scans could predict cognitive decline. Radioactive dye called florbetapir (Amyvid) was used during the PET scans, which binds to the beta-amyloid plaques that are indicative of Alzheimer’s. The dye allowed researchers to discern what regions of the brain plaques were forming. The PET scans were then rated as positive or negative.

    Of the participants who had positive scans, 35 percent progressed to full-blown Alzheimer’s, compared to 10 percent who had negative scans. Ninety percent of those with negative scans, who had displayed mild cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study did not progress to Alzheimer’s. The study has revealed the value of PET imaging in identifying patients who aren’t likely to see a progressive cognitive decline.

    Doraiswamy commented, “Having a negative scan could reassure people that they are not likely to be at risk for progression in the near future.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Weight Loss Through Aerobics More Effective Than Resistance Training, Shows Study

    A new study shows that aerobic exercises are more effective at burning fat than resistance training or a combination of resistance and aerobic training.

    The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, analyzed the body composition of overweight or obese adults without diabetes who took on one of three different exercise regimins. The researchers state that it is the largest randomized trial to have done so.

    “Given that approximately two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight due to excess body fat, we want to offer clear, evidence-based exercise recommendations that will truly help people lose weight and body fat,” said Leslie Willis, lead author of the study and an exercise physiologist at the Duke University Medical Center.

    234 overweight or obese adults were enrolled in the study. The participants were randomly assigned to either aerobic training, resistance training, or a combination of the two. Aerobic training consisted of approximately 12 miles per week of aerobic exercise, such as walking, running, or swimming. Resistance training consisted of lifting weights three days per week, lifting three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions. Participants assigned to the combined training completed both the aerobic and resistance training goals.

    The results show that the participants assigned to the aerobic and combined training groups lost more weight than those who did resistance training only. Unsurprisingly, participants assigned to the resistance training group actually gained weight, with a corresponding rise in lean body mass.

    Aerobic exercise alone was shown to be a more efficient way to lose body fat. Even though the combination group participants spent more time exercising, they did not significantly reduce fat mass over those in the aerobic group. The combination group did, however, see the largest decrease in waist circumference. The resistance group also did not see significant decreases in fat mass.

    “No one type of exercise will be best for every health benefit,” said Willis. “However, it might be time to reconsider the conventional wisdom that resistance training alone can induce changes in body mass or fat mass due to an increase in metabolism, as our study found no change.”