SEXUALLY REJECTED FLIES TURN TO BOOZE

BARFLIES: SEX-DEPRIVED MALE
FRUIT FLIES GO FOR THE BOOZE

New York Times News Service - They were young males on the make, and they struck out not once, not twice, but a dozen times with a group of attractive females hovering nearby. So they did what so many men do after being repeatedly rejected: They got drunk, using alcohol as a balm for unfulfilled desire. Fruit flies apparently self-medicate just as humans do, drowning their sorrows or frustrations for some of the same reasons, scientists reported in the journal Science.  Their work suggests that some elements of the brain’s reward system have changed very little during evolution, and these include some of the mechanisms that support addiction. To test the relationship between stress and alcohol in fruit flies, researchers at the University of California allowed one group of male flies to mate freely with available virgin females and another group were mingled with females which had already mated and were thus indifferent to any approach.

After four days, the flies in both groups fed in glass tubes outfitted with four straws, two providing a regular diet of yeast and sugar and two containing yeast, sugar and 15 percent alcohol. All fruit flies like it, but the rejected flies drank a lot more on average, supping from the spiked mixture about 70 percent of the time, compared with about 50 percent for their sexually sated peers. The flies were apparently using the alcohol as a way to compensate for their frustrated desire. “Reading this study is like looking back in time, to see the very origins of the reward circuit that drives fundamental behaviors like sex, eating and sleeping,” said Dr. Markus Heilig, the clinical director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Heilig, who was not involved in the research, said the findings also supported new approaches to treating alcohol dependence. Researchers are investigating several compounds aimed at blunting alcohol urges.

Fruit flies, like many humans, develop a taste for alcohol. Researchers theorize that pleasurable activities like having sex boost the activity of fly brain circuits that use a chemical substance, and that feels good. If a fly is denied sex, the system goes into deficit, driving the fly to seek other rewarding activities such as drinking alcohol.  A similar chemical is linked to drinking in humans.  Instead of alcohol, why don't try with mantras which produce significant benefits?

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Spiritual disciplines recommend meditational practices such as silent meditation, silent recitation of mantras and also the verbal repetition of specific mantras out loud. A Clinical Test of the Benefits of Mantra Chanting was performed on three groups of sixty-two subjects, males and females of average age 25. They chanted the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra twenty-five minutes each day under strict clinical supervision.  Results showed that regular chanting of the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra reduces Stress and depression and helps reduce bad habits & addictions. These results formed a PhD Thesis at Florida State University. Spiritual practitioners claim many benefits from Mantra Meditation such as increased realization of spiritual wisdom, inner peace and a strong communion with God and the spiritual realm. These effects may be experienced by following the designated spiritual path.

Śrīpad Bhakti Bhāvana Vishnu Mahārāja :
(David H. Osborn) ‘Science of the Sacred’
‘Ancient Perspectives for Modern Science’
“Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge”
“Vedic Sound and Mantras”
http://gosai.com/writings/science-of-the-sacred