Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Putting off things for later is something we all tend to do. And with exams looming large on the horizon it is often very tough to keep your attention focussed on one single subject. So, if you do find your mind wandering away, here are some ways to reign it in and keep that focus where it should be. The first step is to get rid of any kind of distraction. This can range from small things, like cleaning up a cluttered desk. A cluttered desk may indicate the disorder of your thoughts - so clearing it up might just help in sharpening your focus. If you are working on your computer for a project or researching a topic you need to study, be sure not to have unnecessary programs running. Turn off your TV and your stereo. You need to concentrate. Of course, if you feel that you can work best while listening to music, then leave it on - but softly, so that it's more in the background. Another great distraction in this age of technology is the ring of your cell phone. Phone calls and

Although smoking “moderate” doses of cannabis helps reduce pain in healthy research volunteers, pain is actually increased at high doses, a new study shows. The November issue of the journal Anesthesiology features a study showing that marijuana, or cannabis , reduces pain only within a smaller dose range. “Our study suggests that there is a therapeutic window for analgesia, with low doses being ineffective, medium doses resulting in pain relief and high doses increasing pain ,” said lead author Dr. Mark S. Wallace of University of California, San Diego, in a news release. Wallace and colleagues evaluated the effects of smoking marijuana on pain responses in 15 healthy volunteers. On different days, the research subjects smoked low, medium or high doses of cannabis (based on the content of 9-delta-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main active chemical in marijuana), or an inactive placebo. Pain was induced by injecting capsaicin, the “hot” chemical found in chili peppers, into the skin . Caps