DOWNLOAD ENTIRE MAY 2015 NEWSLETER including this month’s freebie. Did you know that depression could be a symptom of something as simple as infection? Doctors have long viewed depression as a complex disorder. Stress, neurochemical imbalances, physical pain and ill health can all precipitate an emotional collapse. Yet a flurry of research during the past […]
DOWNLOAD ENTIRE APRIL 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. Across cultures and throughout history, music listening and music making have played a role in treating disorders of the mind and body. Much of the power of music-based treatment lies in its ability to meld numerous subtle benefits in a single, engaging package. Music is perhaps […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE MARCH 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. Examples of the desperate midlife-crisis stricken characters abound in popular culture (think, Kevin Spacey in American Beauty, Billy Crystal in City Slickers or Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County), and the concept seems to be entrenched in our collective psyche. But are people […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE FEBRUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. “Eye tracking for marketing purposes?!” I was flabbergasted, and not in a good way. This was my reaction a couple of years ago when I attended a training for a machine I was going to be using as part of the neuroscience research I was […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE JANUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. You lie in bed in the morning, reluctant to get out from under the warm embrace of your duvet. After several bleary minutes, you finally rouse yourself, throw on some clothes and head to the office. Having arrived at your desk, you stare blankly as […]
This may sound a bit far-fetched for a cold morning in December but many researchers believe that within the next few years this ‘electrifying’ form of treatment could become commonplace. In fact, some scientists suspect that this could launch a new era in treatment that could rival traditional medicines. The technique, called transcranial direct-current stimulation […]
You can probably remember some morning you struggled to get out of bed. Maybe you kept thinking about the exam you failed, the party you were not invited to or the job you didn’t get. If you are clinically depressed, every day is like this—but worse. Nothing you used to enjoy is fun anymore, and […]
The ST36 Zusanli acupuncture point is located just below the knee joint. This spot in mice—and it is hoped perhaps in humans—may be a critical entryway to gaining control over the often fatal inflammatory reactions that accompany systemic infections. Sepsis is one such infection. Sepsis arises when the body’s response to an infection damages its […]
Neurosurgeon Ivar Mendez of the University of Saskatchewan often shows a video clip to demonstrate his work treating Parkinson’s disease. It features a middle-aged man with this caption: “Off medications.” The man’s face has the dull stare typical of Parkinson’s. Asked to lift each hand and open and close his fingers, he barely manages. He […]
‘Music soothes the savage beast’ as the old saying goes. Music is an intrinsic part of our lives from the song playing when you had your first kiss, to music you revv yourself up with (or calm yourself down with) before you have a stressful meeting. As many of you are packing up to go […]
The general hypothesis in medicine is that a deficiency of certain neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) at synapses, or tiny gaps, between neurons interferes with the transmission of nerve impulses, causing or contributing to depression. One of these neurotransmitters, serotonin, has attracted the most attention, but many others, including norepinephrine and dopamine, have also been granted supporting […]
In spite of The Netherlands being an equal opportunities and very tolerant nation, the Dutch themselves have a saying about ‘not sticking your head above the cornfield’ because it will get chopped off. In English we talk about ‘sticking our necks out’. In both cases, standing out in some way seems to have definite disadvantages […]