When it comes to the myth that Thanksgiving dinner makes us sleepy, Judith Wurtman takes the side of the big roast bird.

 

Wurtman, a researcher affiliated with MIT's Clinical Research Center, is co-author of a new book on the interaction between nutrition and brain chemistry. And she warns those about to settle in at the groaning board: The turkey is not responsible for drowsiness after the meal.  While it is true that tryptophan--an amino acid present in all protein--does make serotonin, which makes us relaxed, tryptophan from turkey alone is not what makes us tired, said Wurtman, whose PhD is in nutritional biochemistry. 

Born prematurely at 28 weeks, Stella weighed a little more than two pounds when she came into the world. Unbeknownst to doctors, Stella's mother, Brieanne Hollingsworth, had a difficult pregnancy and Stella experienced a low heart rate every time Brieanne had a contraction. Stella was delivered through an emergency Caesarean section and spent the next three months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Savannah's Memorial University Medical Center (MUMC), the only Level III NICU in southeast Georgia. Brieanne and her husband, Kevin, were familiar with the NICU. Their first child, Abigael, was also born prematurely and had to spend time there. But that certainly didn't make things any easier.