_ Sleep Health Sleep and "Exploding Head" Syndrome By Jane Farrell article “Exploding head syndrome” sounds like the latest slang term, but it’s a real, though underdiagnosed, sleep disorder. People who have the syndrome usually hear loud noises – doors slamming, fireworks or gunshots – as they are going to sleep and waking up.
_ Women Recover Faster from Concussions By article A study of concussion patients at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that males took longer to recover after concussion than females did. The study, which shows that using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as a bias-free way to predict concussion outcome, was published online May 6th 2104 in the journal Radiology.
_ Alzheimer's Subtype Often Misdiagnosed By Jane Farrell article Neuroscientists have defined a subtype of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that they say is neither well recognized nor treated appropriately. The variant - called hippocampal sparing AD - made up 11 percent of the 1,821 AD-confirmed brains examined by researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Florida.
_ Mental & Emotional Health Stress Management Stress-Free Living Stress Is Contagious By article Watching somebody else try to cope with a stressful situation, even on TV, can be enough to bump up your own level of the stress hormone called cortisol. That is the finding of research done at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and the Technische Universität Dresden and published on April 17th 2014 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
_ Better Medicine for Serious Ailments By Jane Farrell article Scientists have discovered a crucial element in a cellular process that could help develop a new class of drugs for treating epilepsy, heart disease and cancer. Researchers from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, found that T-type channels can shift the way they generate electrical signals to cells. The rhythmic signals produced by a normal action of this process support the contraction of heart muscles as well as “firing” in parts of the brain
_ Maximizing the Use of Donated Organs By article The quality of kidney and liver donations is fundamentally important for the longevity of transplants and the health of recipients. That’s why it’s critical to know which organs are suitable for transplantation, as well as to use techniques that preserve an organ’s function after donation. Several studies published in the British Journal of Surgery in April 2014address these issues and offer ways to maximize the use of donated organs.
Why Do More Women Develop Alzheimer's Disease? By blog Recently, I turned on the radio in my car and heard the last few minutes of an MPR [Minnesota Public Radio] All Things Considered segment about Alzheimer’s disease. A few days later I googled the subject matter and found this MPR link to the audio and an accompanying online story. Take a few minutes to read or listen to the broadcast.
10 Ways Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT or Tapping) Work to Heal Trauma and Other Stresses of Life By blog When we think of people healing from trauma, we often picture people dealing with the effects of natural disasters, soldiers returning from battle, or people recovering from childhood violence or sexual abuse. But stress and trauma impact many more of us than most people recognize and Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as EFT or Tapping, can be of tremendous help.
_ Sex Tips to Spring Clean Your Relationship By article Winter weather is behind us and the signs of spring are everywhere: temperatures rising, buds budding, birds chirping, and bees buzzing. Now’s the time to spring-clean our homes—and also our relationships.
_ Women's Health and Wellness Proof of WomenΓÇÖs Intuition By article If you suspect that you have what is popularly called women’s intuition, you may be right. Researchers at the University of Granada, the Barcelona Pompeu Fabra University, and the Middlesex University of London have shown that the tendency to be intuitive could have a biological component related to the lower prenatal exposure to testosterone females receive in the womb. This team says this would lead women to have a "more intuitive and less reflective" attitude to life than men. The study was published in 2014 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
_ Take a Walk to Spark Your Creativity By article When the task at hand requires some imagination, taking a walk may lead to more creative thinking than sitting, according to research published in April 2014 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, a publication of the American Psychological Association. A release from the association quotes researcher Marily Oppezzo PhD of Santa Clara University, as saying, "Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking, "With this study, we finally may be taking a step or two toward discovering why."
Mental & Emotional Health Counterintuitive Tx for Depression By article Could ratcheting up the activity of neurons in the brain known to be involved with stress-induced depression have the counterintuitive effect of banishing the blues and helping people bounce back?. Yes, say researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City who published their study online April 18th 2014 in the journal Science.
_ Special Ambulances for Stroke Victims By article Using an ambulance that included a computed tomography (CT) scanner, point-of-care laboratory, telemedicine connection and a specialized prehospital stroke team resulted in decreased time to treatment for ischemic stroke, according to a study in the published in the April 23/30 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association, a neurology theme issue.
Alzheimer's Disease and the Early-Onset Colombian Connection By blog I’m a huge fan of the CBS news show Sunday Morning. It’s 90 minutes of quality programming that I look forward to every week.
_ Why You Should Get Creative with Your Food! By article By Jon Yaneff People show their creativity in different ways. You may sing, dance, rap, paint, sculpt, design, direct, write, cook, or go with the flow with something else and give it your own unique spin. Your canvas can be anything that you desire, including your plate.
The "A-to-F" Guide To Self-Acceptance By blog Aging gracefully is difficult when it comes to our changing bodies. It is almost like some alien force takes over and brings with it extra weight, a slower metabolism and “curves” where they never existed before. Here‘s my “A-to-F” guide to accepting your body, and your value, in life after 50.
_ Getting Rid of Bad Memories By Jane Farrell article When it comes to bad or embarrassing memories, it’s better for you to focus on the whole picture rather than only on what you did, a new study shows. “Sometimes we dwell on how sad, embarrassed, or hurt we felt during an event, and that makes us feel worse and worse. This is what happens in clinical depression—ruminating on the negative aspects of a memory,” said psychology professor Florin Dolcos of the Cognitive Neuroscience Group, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois.
_ Delirium Severity Measure for Older Adults By Sondra Forsyth article Researchers from Harvard, Brown, and the University of Massachusetts have developed a new method for measuring delirium severity in older adults. A release from the Hebrew Senior Life Institute for Aging Research, a affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston explains that delirium is defined as the sudden onset of confusion or change in mental status that is often brought about by physical illness, surgery, or hospitalization. Delirium is a common and often costly condition that is a leading complication among older adults who are hospitalized.