Life Changes
Healing Through Storytelling: Lessons from The Odyssey
The journey of Odysseus in Homer's 'The Odyssey' offers profound insights into healing...
- Details
- Written by: Richard Steed, University of Copenhagen
If you use your area’s air pollution as a reason not to exercise, you might need to find a better excuse. Even in heavily polluted areas, the benefits of exercise outweigh the harmful effects of air pollution in relation to the risk of premature mortality, a new study reports.
- Details
- Written by: Gemma Paech, Washington State University
We all suffer from too little sleep from time to time, some more than others. There are many possible reasons, depending on our age, genes and sleep habits; but another possible culprit is using technology before going to sleep.
- Details
- Written by: Kathleen Howland, Berklee College of Music
In my practice as a speech language pathologist and music therapist, I’m able to use music to serve a variety of patients with an array of needs. Children with autism tend to be more attentive to musical sounds than speech sounds. For cancer patients, I’ll use songs of hope and resilience. I’ve helped patients preparing for surgery...
- Details
- Written by: Leslie Orr, University of Rochester
“Our goal is to prevent or reduce obesity and in this paper we’ve shown how to do this in principle,” says Phipps. “We believe that weight gain is not necessarily just a result of eating more and exercising less. Our focus is on the intricate network involved in fat cell development.”
- Details
- Written by: Dr. Bernie Siegel and Sue Memhard
Our body loves us, but it needs to know we love our lives in order for it to do all it can to help us survive. The change in body energy activated by the love alters our internal chemistry and makes a difference. When you are willing to do the work, and live in your heart, magic can happen.
- Details
- Written by: Simon Rosenbaum, George Institute for Global Health
In 1954, the first director-general of the World Health Organisation, Dr Brock Chisholm, famously stated: “Without mental health there can be no true physical health.” More than half a century later, we have large numbers of studies backing up his belief.
- Details
- Written by: Reema Rattan and Nicki Russell, The Conversation
Common over-the-counter painkillers, such as ibuprofen and aspirin, can decrease risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma, according to a study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most common types of skin cancer. The results mean these drugs may have potential as skin cancer preventative agents, especially for high-risk people.
- Details
- Written by: Peter Watt, University of Brighton
The link between exercise, diet and ill health has been recognised for a considerable length of time. The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-370BC), wrote: Eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise. For food and exercise … work together to produce health.
- Details
- Written by: Hazhir Rahmandad, MIT
The prevailing notion about obesity is that if we just work out harder and eat a little bit better, then perhaps the obesity trend will subside in a few years. However, the key to really making a difference is food – the number of calories we eat is the most important factor in obesity.
- Details
- Written by: Craig Scott, University of Hull
Government nutrition guidelines recommend a high carbohydrate diet regardless of the ample evidence of the health risks it promotes. Yet, chronic diseases and obesity rates have risen in correlation with a reduced intake of dietary fat. While science has moved on, nutritional advice lags behind.
- Details
- Written by: Peter Garrard, St Georges, University of London
Might the economic burden and individual suffering associated with Alzheimer’s disease be reduced by the simple and inexpensive expedient of prescribing B-vitamins to those with high levels of homocysteine?
- Details
- Written by: Jonathan Robinson
You can trade massages with a friendly co-worker! Massage in the workplace is no longer reserved for just the wealthy, the weird, or the weary. In fact, individuals and corporations alike are finding it to be a practical and joyful way of increasing employee satisfaction and productivity.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Grossman
Environmental chemicals are wreaking havoc to last a lifetime. 10 to 15 percent of all babies born in the U.S. have some type of neurobehavorial development disorder. Still more are affected by neurological disorders that don’t rise to the level of clinical diagnosis.
- Details
- Written by: Jay Walljasper
Is walking the next big thing? It's been called "America's untrendiest trend." The evidence that millions of people are finally walking again is as solid as the ground beneath our feet.
- Details
- Written by: Richard Steed, University of Copenhagen
Scientists say a new biomarker that predicts the risk of developing dementia can be detected with a simple blood test—a test they hope will be applicable in clinical practice.
- Details
- Written by: Kat Kerlin, UC Davis
Women whose mothers smoked while pregnant are two to three times as likely to be diabetic as adults. Fathers who smoked while their daughter was in utero also contribute to an increased diabetes risk, but more research is needed to establish the true effect.
- Details
- Written by: Darren Saunders, Garvan Institute
What causes cancer? This deceptively simple question has a devilishly complex answer. So when US researchers proposed a relatively simple mathematical formula to explain a long-standing conundrum in cancer earlier this year, it was bound to get a lot of attention.
- Details
- Written by: Cathy Wilde, University at Buffalo
Marijuana appears to ease symptoms of depression caused by chronic stress, new research with animals suggests. The study focused on endocannabinoids, which are brain chemicals similar to substances found in marijuana.
- Details
- Written by: Imogen Rehm, Hailey Meaklim, and Jo Abbott, Swinburne University of Technology
We all have a poor night’s sleep from time to time: those nights when you lie awake for hours trying desperately to go to sleep but can’t stop worrying about tomorrow. Or when you repeatedly wake up throughout the night, or can’t get back to sleep in the early hours of the morning.
- Details
- Written by: Anthony Hannan, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
The human brain is the most extraordinary and complex object in the known universe. So it’s a little surprising that only recently has the concept of brain health begun to emerge. After all, if the body is a “temple”, then surely the brain must be the “high altar” as it generates all our thoughts, feelings and movements.
- Details
- Written by: Yasmin Anwar, UC Berkeley
The awe people feel when they connect with nature, art, and spirituality is linked to lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines—proteins that tell the immune system to work harder.
