Traditionally psychologists have attributed negative body image to pictures in the media of unusually thin or beautiful people with whom the rest of us compare our own physique. In June 2011 the American Medical Association released a statement that urged advertisers to stop the use of digitally altered photographs after researchers found links among exposure […]
The Dalai Lama is reknown for his interest in neuroscience. When I stumbled across this very recent article by top neuroscientist Christof Koch about his experience with the Dalai Lama, I knew that I had to share this with you all. So here it is, cut & pasted without apology straight into my newsletter :=) […]
It is quite incredible that even though scientists have been studying strokes for decades, the only intervention available is a drug that breaks up blood clots, and only a small number of patients benefit from it. Brain damage is unfortunately inevitable in most cases. However, new research in rat studies has shown that they were […]
Imagine you get nine hours of sleep every night, squeeze in long naps whenever you can, and yet every waking hour is a blur of exhaustion, poor focus and longing for the next time your head will hit the pillow. That is the reality for people with primary hypersomnia, a poorly understood, rare condition of […]
More than half the world’s population now lives in a large city, and by 2050 that figure will very likely jump to two thirds. China’s megacities in particular are fueling the trend, with more than 10 million new residents every year. Historically, urbanisation has brought about stupendous changes—the Renaissance, the industrial revolution, globalisation. Yet this […]
Romantic relationships can begin anywhere. When Cupid’s arrow strikes, you might be anywhere. My own romance with Sjoerd started with some hilarious double-entendre Dutch-language mistakes, together with an incident in the gas cyclinder storage cupboard (well, better than a bike shed, even if we are in Holland!). Sometimes, however, Cupid seems to have emigrated…so instead […]
I always smile enormously when science starts to catch up with what the healing-therapy-natural medicine community has been doing. So this month I share with you the latest scientific findings on mindfulness and EMDR. Mindfulness to Reduce Social Anxiety Many people who suffer the pain, depression and negative health effects associated with social anxiety […]
Practicing meditation might make you sick from colds less often, and botox treatments that prevent facial muscles from registering negative emotions and could help depression. Have I gone completely mad? Not in the least! The latest scientific research reveals both of these to be true. Meditate Away Your Cold To stop or get rid […]
Traditionally psychologists have attributed negative body image to pictures in the media of unusually thin or beautiful people with whom the rest of us compare our own physique. In June 2011 the American Medical Association released a statement that urged advertisers to stop the use of digitally altered photographs after researchers found links among exposure […]
When someone approaches you to ask, “What’s wrong?” you know that you are broadcasting unhappiness, whether or not you said a word. Perhaps it was a grimace or your sluggish gait that conveyed the message. You cannot help but communicate your mood to colleagues, neighbours and fellow commuters through numerous subtle cues. Sensing the emotional […]
I was standing in the queue, waiting to disembark from the airplane at Leeds Airport, when the strong acrid sweaty odour of a dishevelled man a few places in front of me, filled my nostrils. I found myself transported back into the sitting room of an old lady I used to visit when I was […]
The scientific community is just beginning to appreciate how the fields generated by living systems and the ionosphere interact with one another. For instance, the earth and the ionosphere generate a symphony of frequencies ranging from 0.01 hertz to 300 hertz, and some of the large resonances occurring in the earth’s fields are in the […]