How Can You Keep Your Concentration Sharp? Pay attention! We hear that phrase when we’re very young, but does acknowledging those two words really make focus us better? Probably yes – if they’re a diversion from boredom or mental wandering. People are not machines, no matter how hard we, our parents or our employers try […]
How your brain processes pain (2/25/11)
Does What You Expect Change What You Get? Pain is information, how the brain interprets certain stimuli to form sensations almost all humans fear and detest. As Oxford researchers reported last week in Science Translation Medicine, how we individually interpret pain is markedly changed by context: The Study Subjects – 22 healthy people Method – […]
Getting undepressed – by yourself (2/23/11)
Getting Undepressed Without Drugs I treat many, many sleepy people. Many of them, especially those with sleep apnea, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia, are or have been clinically depressed. Lots of them have seen their GPs and been placed on antidepressants without success. They’re already on a laundry list of medications, and in hard economic times […]
Fat Planet – People are getting fatter, but not everywhere (2/22/11)
Bigger It’s not just pets that are getting fatter. Humans are, too. And though the US ranks 49th in the world in lifespan, our nation is number one in body mass index, a major index of obesity. Sixty eight percent of Americans are now classified as obese or overweight. However, beyond the headlines of Finucane […]
Memory Problems? Take a Walk (2/21/11)
Simple Regeneration Can’t remember names? Birthdays? Sex grows brain memory areas – in mice. But what works in people? Walking. There are numerous studies showing that walking can prevent Alzheimer’s. Can it improve memory? A recent research study at the University of Pittsburgh was simplicity itself. Two groups of adults were looked at, from age […]