So just what is the brain doing during sleep? We know sleep is necessary to cognition, glucose control, weight, memory, even life asleep. But what’s really going on in there? The layers of information that control and constantly renew the human body are strikingly complex. One of the most useful theories to explicate how was […]
When Sleep Is Not Enough
When You Can’t Sleep Like depression, insomnia used to be treated as a symptom of “something else.” Not anymore. At this year’s national sleep meetings in Denver, it became clearer how big a national and international problem insomnia is – as well as how to fix it. As insomnia researcher Charles Morin pointed out, the […]
Sleep Loss and the Munchies
An Anatomy of Hunger Unlike marijuana, sleep loss has been entirely legal in all states since the very beginnings of the Constitution. Like marijuana, sleep loss produces a lot of effects you don’t want, ranging from more frequent colds to more common weight gain. But could the actions of brain cannabinoids be common to the effects […]
Depression Screening – What Is It Worth?
The U.S. government has recommended all American adults undergo depression screening. But how will that work, and what are the most pragmatic ways to aid the public health? The Recommendations: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s US Preventive Services Task Force (someone has to come up with better names) suggested every primary care physician use on every […]
Preventing Holiday Colds
Stopping Colds It’s winter, time for holiday coughs, colds and flus – and ways to prevent them. True, it does not look like winter; Christmas time temperatures in the seventies across the northeast US should give even the most hardened global climate change “hoaxist” real pause. But though cold weather with its changes in nasal and sinus temperatures, […]
