Virtual Me Versus Real Me When I was growing up kids spent a lot of time looking in the mirror and grooming. Getting a girlfriend or boyfriend depended (and still does) on how you looked. So did self-esteem. Today, much of that attention is paid not to the personal appearance but to virtual appearance – […]
Don’t stuff the wrong turkey (11/22/10)
Have Real Fun This Holiday – Before and After This Thanksgiving you’ll follow sensible advice – don’t eat too much, don’t drink too much? Sure you will. Here’s another idea. Follow the way your body is built and you can minimize the damage and maximize the fun. It’s not strange you might want to […]
Don’t let daylight savings get you down (11/21/10)
Messing with Mother Nature It happens like clockwork every year. Patients arrive and tell me they can’t handle daylight savings. The body clock change of merely one hour, compared with a flight to Europe, where the change is usually six hours, makes them feel uneasy, skittish, unhappy, unmotivated, and fatigued. How come? Here are some […]
Text tonight, trouble tomorrow (11/3/10)
The Electronic Life The cyborg future is here. Last week I wrote on “Your kid’s new ‘favorite’ bed partner” – the cell phone. It now appears the era of “mobile computing” is creating mass immobility. Kids are texting like crazy at night – in bed. The Pew Memorial Trust survey I quoted had 82% of […]
Physical Activity + Social Rest = Less Depression (and Fewer Colds) – 11/2/10
It’s a Matter of Moving Forty thousand Norwegians can’t be wrong. They were studied by groups from Kings College, London, and the University of Bergen with a simple question – does exercise decrease depression? The answer was – yes – by about half. With depression now affecting up to 30% of Western populations, that is […]