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not exist it really precludes doing any

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kind of

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ambitious or reasonable work looking at

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mechanisms and the data's not clear does

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intercessory prayer actually influence

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positive health health outcomes we're

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just not certain

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let's assume that it does influence

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positive health outcomes there is still

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no accepted biomedical explanation for

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ip's alleged healing effects

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there's very little data for example in

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say the bird study or the harris study

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where there were positive findings we

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have the outcomes but we don't have any

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of the pathways we don't have any of the

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physiological data that may indicate

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that there are shifts within these

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people

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that would help justify why in fact they

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had a better course so we're lacking

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data

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ip's healing effects if they do exist

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appear to be non-local

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so are the mechanisms naturalistic

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is there some latent force or energy

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that's actually being tapped through ip

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that influences healing and perhaps

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there is something that exists and

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science just simply isn't able to

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measure it yet or to verify verify it in

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a way that would satisfy mainstream

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science perhaps the mechanisms are

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supernatural

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perhaps it is god who underlies the

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benefits of prayer but god can god be

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tested

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we would also have to consider that if

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prayer can indeed

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provide positive effects then are there

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no sibo effects or are there negative

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effects that could come from prayer

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there's data that indicates uh

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approximately five percent of people at

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least admit that they pray for harm for

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someone else that something befalls some

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negative consequence before someone else

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so if there's a positive and potentially

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negative consequence to prayer

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what does that mean in terms of our own

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ethics about subjecting patients to an

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intervention that may actually harm them

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there is a range of methodological

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criticism directed at trials um the

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standards of which uh seem to be at

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times somewhat higher

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than the criticism that's levied towards

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more traditional kinds of medical

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research but it's out there

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that studies essentially lack scientific

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rigor with a number of problems

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depending on what the study may be

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uh there's also an argument that we

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cannot have true uh controls in these

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studies because there's no way to

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control for off protocol prayer

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humans are likely to be prayed for by

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family or friends as well as receiving

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the intercessory prayer

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we certainly can't ask people to not be

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prayed for so can we really actually

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capture the effects of in

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additional intercessory prayer

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and there's also a range of criticism

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relative to potential confounds to the

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ip effects that have to do with the

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human subjects themselves

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saying that any effects of ip actually

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have to do with psychologic factors or

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social factors inherent in being human

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or potentially placebo effects

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so i decided to do my study uh

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one being is one way to begin to counter

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some of those criticisms

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and as i was reflecting on this whole

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issue

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i

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would be to control for for example

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human confounds

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to help control for off protocol prayer

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even though there are some individuals

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who pray for healing and well-being of

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all life on the planet those people are

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fewer than the individuals who would be

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praying for humans only

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and so a non-human primate model in

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particular provides an interesting

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parallel for us to take a look at the

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effects of ip but again offering for a

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variety of controls

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also controlled access to data

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animals always show up for their

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lab appointments

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it can be challenging though to find a

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comparable disorder one we find in

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animals

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that we can compare to humans

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self-injurious behavior is one of those

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disorders

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self-injurious behavior refers to

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potential a potentially severe form of

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behavioral pathology it's often found in

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subgroups of primates captive primates

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it can consist of a variety of behaviors

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like hair plucking for example over

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grooming to the point of creating new

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wounds or perhaps aggravating existing

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wounds there seems to be a psychologic

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component so the etiology of this of

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this disorder appears to be found in

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primates who have been subjected to

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particularly adverse early experiences

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and have a variety of stressful

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experiences across their life

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and there are similarities between sib

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in primates and obsessive compulsive

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disorder in humans we can see people who

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perhaps engage in aggressive repetitive

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hand washing and they can actually end

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up creating wounds on their hands

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sib is believed related to serotonergic

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system dysregulation it's thought that

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there is too little serotonin centrally

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we see that an obsessive-compulsive

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disorder in people as well there's also

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data that suggests that there's hpa axis

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dysregulation that's occurring too some

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data suggesting too high levels of

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glucocorticoids particularly cortisol

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other data suggesting that it may be

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too little low levels

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what are the therapies for treating

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self-injurious behavior increasing the

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central levels of serotonin particularly

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through the administration of a

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particular class of antidepressants

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ssris or selective serotonin reuptake

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inhibitors you'd know it as paxil prozac

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that class of antidepressants

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it works in people it also works in

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primate

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however there are many animal labs

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primate labs who are too small and don't

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have the funding to be able to afford

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ssri therapy it's really quite expensive

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so an alternative that's been used is

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oral l-tryptophan

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it's a dietary component it's taken

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orally

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with the thought that let central levels

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of serotonin would increase and in turn

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change

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the consequent behavior or reduce the

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wound healing is a complex biological

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process it occurs across three

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non-linear phases the first phase is

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inflammation significant for blood

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clotting and migration of a variety of

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immune cells to the wound site the

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second is proliferation and granulation

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tissue formation there is new tissue

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that's formed it's temporary tissue it's

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viable but temporary to seal the wound

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creating a new epidermal surface and

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tissue remodeling with the goal of

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actually getting the tissue back to the

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original structure and function

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there are a number of factors that come

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into play across these three

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processes these three phases such as the

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immune system growth factors

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chemoattract and cytokines and oxygen is

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also

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very important not initially a hypo

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hypoxic environment helps promote

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healing but

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oxygen is needed needed later on in the

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process

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it's also important to consider

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psychological stress in large part

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because of the hpa axis and the hormonal

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cascade i made reference to earlier

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because that dysregulates many aspects

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of the body including the immune system

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and definitely influences negatively the

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so in addition to creating this study to

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address some of the criticisms that were

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levied there were three other purposes

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to this study one was to assess the

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effectiveness of of ip on wound healing

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the second to assess the effects of ip

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on self injurious behavior and the last

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was to monitor a variety of

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physiological data some blood data some

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data relative to the immune system and

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also levels of cortisol so we had a

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snapshot of the neuroendocrine system

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all of which relate to

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wound healing

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the animals were garnet bush babies

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they're prosimian primates they're small

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relatively easy to handle they're about

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two two and a half pounds depending on

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the sex they are nocturnal and provide

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the benefits of a true primate model

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22 animals were used they were resident

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of the jackson state university center

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for persimmon studies ranging in age

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from two to fifteen years they were

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allowed to free feed nothing changed in

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terms of their behavior throughout the

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study and they were maintained on a 12

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12 light dark cycle with dark onset at 8

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a.m so that they were active when we

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were active coming into the lab

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we measured

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wound area and severity

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some blood measures red blood cell data

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including the account of red blood cells

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00:09:10,630 --> 00:09:08,640
we took a look at levels of hemoglobin

231
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which is the protein that

232
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assists in the transport of oxygen

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throughout the body hematocrit to take a

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look at the proportion of red blood

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cells and the volume of blood we were

236
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looking at

237
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mean corpuscular volume was there

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changes in the size of the red blood

239
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cell

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what happened to the amount of

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hemoglobin that the individual cells

242
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were carrying

243
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there were a variety of leukocyte levels

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white blood cells that were assessed and

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again plasma cortisol

246
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i was also interested in behavior i

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wanted to see what happened with these

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animals grooming so they were videotaped

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for 15 minute intervals both am and pm

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counterbalanced so that we were able to

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achieve

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some

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representative sampling across time

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there were two variables of interest to