Coma and Wakefulness – Anesthesia Creates Coma, not Sleep Does anesthesia put you to sleep? A long review of what really happens in anesthesia, published recently in the New England Journal, points out what cognitive scientists have known for a long time – our usual layman’s terms give little credence to the extraordinary variety of […]
Your New Year’s Revolutions (12/29/10)
Take Charge It’s a New Year, so it’s time to take charge. Americans are often unhappy with their lives and even more unhappy about their futures. Start with not a resolution but a revolution – a new way of looking at your body and brain that let’s you more fully control your fate. You’re not […]
How should I sleep (and rest) when I diet? (12/28/10)
If Diets Don’t Work, What Change Can You Make? People know that diets don’t work without considerable lifestyle change, but Americans can’t stop trying them. Perhaps the reason is that two thirds of American adults are obese or overweight, or that one third of the country is slated to become diabetic. Yet to work […]
Did Neanderthals get depressed? (12/27/10)
The Four Different Kinds of Human It’s not every year you recognize four different human proto-species were operating at the same time – and relatively recently. What’s even stranger is that we still carry many of their genes. In neurological terms, these groups were close – really close. That fact may help explain what […]
Caffeine, alcohol, and the holidays (12/23/10)
What Will You Do This Year? What do people do during the holidays? Many will drink too much and eat too much (please see the recent article “Don’t Stuff the Wrong Turkey” for help controlling excess eating.) What else do lots of us do? Stay up late with relatives and friends, talking and drinking – […]