Blogs / Articles
Meditation Reduces the Feeling of Pain
Mindfulness meditation can help ease your pain. The technique can reduce pain intensity by as much as 32 percent, a new study has discovered—and even people who haven't meditated before can quickly achieve these benefits. The key is in not associating with the pain,...
Mental Illness and Dementia
Why do psychiatric conditions multiply the risk of cognitive decline? Age is the single biggest risk factor for dementia, with the odds doubling about every five years after age 65. But many things influence those odds for a given individual. Genetic vulnerability is...
The Gut-Brain Axis
Cynthia Thurlow likes to remind her patients that digestion begins in the brain, in the way people think about their food before they have even taken a bite. Conversely, 95 percent of the mood-regulating neurotransmitter serotonin, which is targeted by conventional...
Fight or Flight Concept Updated
The old concept of Fight or Flight was helpful in helping to explain the stress response. It's just not good enough anymore. Our nervous system is much more complex than that.Hans Selye gave us his theory on stress and Walter Cannon gave us his concept of fight or...
The Epidemic of Sleep Deprivation: Anxiety, Stress, Other Causes – and what to do about it
Prepared by Sigfried and Susan Othmer, ca 1990-1995How many of us lie awake at night, with ruminating thoughts, unable to fall asleep? Or we finally nod off, only to reawaken and cannot get back again. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, about one in...
Risking: Good Idea, Bad Idea
Certain actions or activities carry risks, whether you are engaged in combat for your country, sky diving, investing in high-risk stocks, as a pioneer exploring unknown territory, or simply going beyond your established comfort zone. Clearly, there is a distinction...
From Timid to Warrior: Boosting Self-Esteem
Low self-esteem can be described as lacking self-confidence, and self-worth, in one’s abilities. So, how to transcend it, not let it hold us back? My definition of a warrior is someone who acts in spite of fear. Fear is normal – even healthy when an action for...
Smoke gets on the brain
Health impact studies of air pollution, including wildfire smoke, have mostly focused on the lungs. But toxicologist Matthew Campen of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque is looking at the brain. In a study of the inflammatory effects of smoke PM2.5 on the...
The Vast Potential of the Vagus Nerve
Some say a cure for ailments like anxiety is flowing from the brain. But much is unknown. By Christina Caron In recent years, the vagus nerve has become an object of fascination, especially on social media. The vagal nerve fibers, which run from the brain to the...
Mom’s voice loses its grip for teens
As kids grow up, unfamiliar voices get more interesting By Laura Sanders Young kids’ brains are especially tuned to their mothers’ voices. Teenagers’ brains, in their typical rebellious glory, are most decidedly not. That conclusion, reported on April 28 in the...