We are often admonished to exercise. It’s anti-inflammatory – we’re told. You’ll get less heart attacks and strokes. Fewer tumors. Clearly less Alzheimer’s disease. And you might lose weight and look better. But what is it we do during exercise? We learn. Become more biologically intelligent. For if learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills, exercise […]
Simple Ways to Treat Insomnia
America is increasingly sleepless. It’s no surprise. Insane politics and politicians cause many sleepless nights. But insomnia can be caused by sleep apnea and shift work; hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism; depression and anxiety; alcohol and marijuana; chronic lung disease and congestive heart failure. Just as there hundreds of causes of insomnia, most people who suffer sleeplessness do […]
The Costs of Sitting
How much does sitting cost mankind’s health? According to several new papers in the Lancet, at least $67 billion a year. About $54 billion of that represents direct medical costs. And that does not include the costs of early death. Can one million people really be wrong? The results, pooling 16 studies of those million […]
Lighting Up the Holidays
Sad Happy Holidays Tis the season to be jolly – and many are not. There’s the reality of seasonal depression li– that a quarter to half of folks in dark environments like the northern US feel down in the winter. Add on a further reality, that about thirty percent of Americans will be depressed lifetime. Perhaps ten percent are […]
Wild Type Humans Like Moving (9/5/13)
Walk on the Wild Side You have been part of a great biological experiment. You did not sign up for it. Yet it has changed the way you walk, the way you sleep, how you talk and socialize. Pretty much everything you do, in fact. In laboratories scientists make a major distinction between species born […]