Dear Meredith...

Dear Meredith Melnick,
     I am a senior at Roncalli High School and I am doing my quarter project about you. My classmates and I had to choose and op-ed writer and blog about them. I have a few quetsions for you, so if you could respond to me at any time, it would be great. I was not able to find much about your background, so if you could tell me about some awards or achievements you are proud of, I would like to hear them.
    For my third blog, I had to pick one of you articles and say what a I thought about it. I chose the article, Where Does Fear Come From? (Hint: It's Not the Creepy Basement). I was interested in it becasue I'm currently taking psychology, where I'm learning about parts of the brain the cause us to react a certain way to situations. I was wandering if you had any related articles that I would also be interested in. Also, if there are any other articles you would like to send that are not related, but you think I may be interested- that is good with me.

She has not yet responded back to me, but if i hear anything i will post it. :)

Absence of Fear

A woman with no fear- Where Does Fear Come From? (Hint: It's Not the Creepy Basement) 
by Meredith Melnick

CLAIM--

"Because of a degenerative condition that left her with damage in certain brain structures, researchers say, SM is incapable of feeling fear."

1. "...because they spent several days trying to scare her silly. They exposed SM to snakes and spiders at a   pet store, showed her clips of horror movies like The Shining and The Blair Witch Project, and took her through a haunted house in a former sanatorium."

2. "SM says that she hasn't felt afraid since a childhood incident involving a snarling Doberman pinscher."

3. "The authors note that SM's response to what would normally be considered fear-inducing situations was not characterized simply by a lack of responsiveness, but rather a heightened arousal and interest."  

• SM is not able to respond or show emotion because there is something wrong with her amygdala
• the amygdala is the part of the brain that stores emotions and some past memories
• with the amygdala not acting correctly would cause someone not able to connect certain emotions to a situation, the person would come off as emotionless

here is a description of a situation that she was in-

A man jumped up from a park bench, pressed a knife to her throat and hissed, "I'm going to cut you."
SM, who heard a church choir practicing in the distance, looked coolly at him and replied, "If you're going to kill me, you're going to have to go through my God's angels first."
The man suddenly let her go. She didn't run home. She walked.
"Her lack of fear may have freaked the guy out," Feinstein said.
But it also got her into that situation in the first place, he noted. SM had willingly approached the man when he asked her to, even though it was late at night and she was alone, and even though she thought he looked "drugged out."

 

sentence of CONCESSION--

"To the average observer, it would seem that 44-year-old patient "SM" was just another typical mother of three: she scores normally on IQ tests, has good language skills and a decent memory."

I do agree that a corrupt amygdala would cause someone not able to show emotions because that is the part of the brain that houses emotions. If someone is not able to realize what emotions they are feeling then they  are not going to be able to connect those emotions to a situation.

The Cure: Eating Fat?

     Last Friday, Melnick posted her article, "Sometimes a 90% Fat Diet Is Good For You." This article reveals interesting news to me and probably to you too. She talks about an author form the New York Times Magazine, Fred Vogelstein. Volgestein shares that his young son has epilepsy and the diet that his doctor has currently put him on. This diet is supposed to cause epileptic episodes to decrease. The diet involves taking in 90% of fat every day. Melnick says,

To treat him, the family has put Sam on a special diet: a typical breakfast consists of eggs mixed with heavy cream and served with bacon; lunch is full-fat yogurt mixed with coconut oil; dinner: hot dogs, cheese, nuts, more bacon.

     I think she mainly wrote the article because she was shocked by the news that she read about in Vogelstein's article about his son. It is interesting to think that a 90% fat diet would actually help bring someone back to good health. It can be an interesting news for everyone, since nobody really finds that much fat appealing to eat in one day, but for this boy, its what is keeping him healthy. Melnick agrees that this treatment, even though a newly arrived treatment, is good for some people's health. This diet is obviously not right for everyone. Also, even though the diet can have side effects, she still believes it is a good treatment because the great results outweigh the side effects.

• "... research suggests that there are few long-term health effects of the diet after you stop it."
• 'that 38 percent of patients on the diet had their seizure frequency reduced more than 50 percent and that 7 percent had their seizure frequency reduced more than 90 percent.'
• "The diet, which contains nearly 90% fat, is designed to trick the body into starvation mode, forcing it to burn fat for energy instead of carbohydrates — the body barely gets any carbohydrate to burn.

     I think Melnick is using scare tactics like, " Minor slips are unacceptable; this is an exact science of grams, ratios and dire consequences: after eating half a piece of his friend's toast, Sam went into uncontrolled seizures for a week." This shows that this treatment is not a joking matter. Some people might see this as a way to persuade others to make sure that if they take part in the diet that they have to be precise or their health could worsen. This article is directed, I think, more toward people that have epilepsy of know someone that has epilepsy. These scare tactics are effective because they are also backed up with facts and statics of what will happen if one goes through with the diet and flows every instruction carefully. This is effective because it shows both sides of the scenario so the audience can evaluate which is better, which is basically made obvious in the article.

bacon is one of the main components of the diet: for breakfast and dinner. yummm!

     

Meredith Melnick

Meredith Melnick is a reporter for the Healthland column in Time Magazine, where she has been working for four months. Her work has also been published in Newsweek.com, and in the New York Daily News, The Record, CITY Magazine and House & Garden. She gives her insight about diet and fitness. She graduated from Columbia University and also went to their graduate school for journalism.
     I couldn't find anything that lists specific acheivements or awards.

more about Melnick--http://www.linkedin.com/pub/meredith-melnick/14/a17/922