Living with pain is stressful, but a surprisingly short investment of time in mental training can help you cope.
A new study examining the perception of pain and the effects of various mental training techniques has found that relatively short and simple mindfulness meditation training can have a significant positive effect on pain management.
Though pain research during the past decade has shown that extensive meditation training can have a positive effect in reducing a person's awareness and sensitivity to pain, the effort, time commitment, and financial obligations required has made the treatment not practical for many patients. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte shows that a single hour of training spread out over a three day period can produce the same kind of analgesic effect.
The research appears in an article by UNC Charlotte psychologists Fadel Zeidan, Nakia S. Gordon, Junaid Merchant and Paula Goolkasian, in the current issue of The Journal of Pain.
Health & Wellness
Alex Riley follows in the footsteps of Morgan Spurlock in exposing the less appetizing aspects of food
With his gangly frame and thick-rimmed spectacles, Alex Riley makes an unlikely assassin. Unfortunately for Britain's £182bn-a-year food and drink industry, his wisecracks about its unsavoury practices in a new BBC TV series are little short of deadly.
In Britain's Really Disgusting Foods, the dry-witted comedian and TV presenter checks out the nutritional content of low-budget meat, interrogates the sourcing of endangered creatures and generally gets in the face of food manufacturers purveying products of dubious environmental and nutritional quality.
Like Morgan Spurlock - the Super Size Me documentary-maker who humbled McDonald's by eating its food - Mr Riley asks awkward questions about what is served up to the public by grocery chains and catering outlets keen to provide products for customers "at a certain price point".
The chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee wants an investigation into the risk of deadly E. coli getting into school lunches.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., is worried about a recent outbreak that killed at least two people and sickened about two dozen others in 11 states.
The E. coli outbreak was linked to ground beef produced by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y.
No schools were involved in the outbreak. But Miller said he's worried that tainted food might be purchased for school meal programs.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., is worried about a recent outbreak that killed at least two people and sickened about two dozen others in 11 states.
The E. coli outbreak was linked to ground beef produced by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y.
No schools were involved in the outbreak. But Miller said he's worried that tainted food might be purchased for school meal programs.
Kellogg began adding extra antioxidants to its cereal last year, which it says help support the immune system. The company began advertising the change with large labels on cereal boxes that read in bold letters: "Now helps support your child's immunity."
But the food maker said Wednesday that given the public attention to swine flu, it has decided to phase out the message from its packages.
Highly Recommended!
Teresa Forcades is a Benedictine nun at the monastery of San Benet at Montserrat, near Barcelona, Spain. Before joining the monastery Teresa practiced medicine for several years as a physician, specializing in internal medicine. She is a Doctor of Public Health having received her Phd from Barcelona University. She also conducted a period of research at NY State University USA.
In this video presentation (divided into 6 part totaling about 50 minutes) Teresa discusses the likely origins of the current H1N1 Flu virus, its likely origins and why, despite the claims of the WHO organisation, there is no pandemic. She also discusses the details and risks of the vaccination program, the politics and economics that are driving it and the danger that, under a contrived WHO "pandemic" frenzy, mandatory vaccinations may be introduced.
Part 1
Teresa Forcades is a Benedictine nun at the monastery of San Benet at Montserrat, near Barcelona, Spain. Before joining the monastery Teresa practiced medicine for several years as a physician, specializing in internal medicine. She is a Doctor of Public Health having received her Phd from Barcelona University. She also conducted a period of research at NY State University USA.
In this video presentation (divided into 6 part totaling about 50 minutes) Teresa discusses the likely origins of the current H1N1 Flu virus, its likely origins and why, despite the claims of the WHO organisation, there is no pandemic. She also discusses the details and risks of the vaccination program, the politics and economics that are driving it and the danger that, under a contrived WHO "pandemic" frenzy, mandatory vaccinations may be introduced.
Part 1
A number of studies have made links between junk food advertising and rising levels of childhood obesity
Children are being bombarded by junk food advertising according to a study of US television networks.
Researchers at the University of California-Davis found that children's networks exposed viewers to 76 per cent more food commercials per hour than other networks.
New York - Iodine supplements may improve mental function in children with even mild deficiencies in the nutrient, a small study suggests.
Iodine is a chemical element necessary for normal growth and development of the brain and body. Because the body does not make iodine, it must be obtained from the diet -- from sources like seafood, dairy products, plants grown in iodine-rich soil and iodized table salt.
Severe iodine deficiency has long been known to cause mental impairment, stunted growth and other problems in children. Such deficiency remains a major problem in parts of the world -- typically where the soil is iodine-poor, people eat little seafood and salt is not iodized.
Iodine is a chemical element necessary for normal growth and development of the brain and body. Because the body does not make iodine, it must be obtained from the diet -- from sources like seafood, dairy products, plants grown in iodine-rich soil and iodized table salt.
Severe iodine deficiency has long been known to cause mental impairment, stunted growth and other problems in children. Such deficiency remains a major problem in parts of the world -- typically where the soil is iodine-poor, people eat little seafood and salt is not iodized.
People who become ill from harmless smells are not being silly, says Dutch researcher Patricia Bulsing. Rather, they perceive these smells differently than other people. The smell is detected more rapidly by the brain and processed more deeply. If you expect to become ill from a smell, then the smell in question might really make you ill.
Would your favourite perfume smell just as attractive if the bottle displayed a large label saying 'Warning: perfume can be toxic'? Probably not. But some people react even more violently, actually becoming ill. Analyses of odour molecules and receptors in the nose have not yet been able to show why people become sick from what are actually harmless odours. According to Patricia Bulsing, our unconscious perception may well have a part to play in this. She has discovered, for instance, that people subconsciously associate the notion of odours with illness. Also, our own experiences exert a significant influence on the way our brains process incoming odours.
If you've ever eaten anything that actually made you ill, you know that afterwards you cannot tolerate the smell of the food concerned for a while. You then associate the odour with a feeling of queasiness. This is the sort of association that Bulsing taught her trial volunteers. She combined a smell with a painful stimulus in the nose. This led to the volunteers expecting a specific odour to be associated with pain.
Not in your nose and not between your ears, but in your brain.
Would your favourite perfume smell just as attractive if the bottle displayed a large label saying 'Warning: perfume can be toxic'? Probably not. But some people react even more violently, actually becoming ill. Analyses of odour molecules and receptors in the nose have not yet been able to show why people become sick from what are actually harmless odours. According to Patricia Bulsing, our unconscious perception may well have a part to play in this. She has discovered, for instance, that people subconsciously associate the notion of odours with illness. Also, our own experiences exert a significant influence on the way our brains process incoming odours.
If you've ever eaten anything that actually made you ill, you know that afterwards you cannot tolerate the smell of the food concerned for a while. You then associate the odour with a feeling of queasiness. This is the sort of association that Bulsing taught her trial volunteers. She combined a smell with a painful stimulus in the nose. This led to the volunteers expecting a specific odour to be associated with pain.
Not in your nose and not between your ears, but in your brain.
Overweight people get heart disease and diabetes - and more severe swine flu - because their fat triggers inflammation, an immune response meant to fight infection. Now the protein responsible for this sequence of events may have been found.
Jerrold Olefsky and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, killed the bone marrow cells in mice that make immune cells called macrophages. Then they injected the mice with macrophages lacking a surface protein called TLR4.
When the team fed the mice high-fat diet, all grew obese, as did a group of normal mice. But unlike the normal mice, those with altered macrophages showed no signs of inflammation, such as changes in insulin production, high levels of immune chemicals, and macrophages in their belly fat.
Jerrold Olefsky and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, killed the bone marrow cells in mice that make immune cells called macrophages. Then they injected the mice with macrophages lacking a surface protein called TLR4.
When the team fed the mice high-fat diet, all grew obese, as did a group of normal mice. But unlike the normal mice, those with altered macrophages showed no signs of inflammation, such as changes in insulin production, high levels of immune chemicals, and macrophages in their belly fat.
Authors say long-term consequences are destructive to society
In their new book, The Narcissism Epidemic, psychologists Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell explore the rise of narcissism in American culture and explain how this can lead to aggression, materialism and shallow values. An excerpt.
Introduction
We didn't have to look very hard to find it. It was everywhere.
On a reality TV show, a girl planning her sixteenth birthday party wants a major road blocked off so a marching band can precede her grand entrance on a red carpet. A book called "My Beautiful Mommy" explains plastic surgery to young children whose mothers are going under the knife for the trendy "Mommy Makeover." It is now possible to hire fake paparazzi to follow you around snapping your photograph when you go out at night - you can even take home a faux celebrity magazine cover featuring the pictures.
A popular song declares, with no apparent sarcasm, "I believe that the world should revolve around me!" People buy expensive homes with loans far beyond their ability to pay - or at least they did until the mortgage market collapsed as a result. Babies wear bibs embroidered with "Supermodel" or "Chick Magnet" and suck on "Bling" pacifiers while their parents read modernized nursery rhymes from This Little Piggy Went to Prada. People strive to create a "personal brand" (also called "self-branding"), packaging themselves like a product to be sold. Ads for financial services proclaim that retirement helps you return to childhood and pursue your dreams. High school students pummel classmates and then seek attention for their violence by posting YouTube videos of the beatings.
In their new book, The Narcissism Epidemic, psychologists Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell explore the rise of narcissism in American culture and explain how this can lead to aggression, materialism and shallow values. An excerpt.
Introduction
We didn't have to look very hard to find it. It was everywhere.
On a reality TV show, a girl planning her sixteenth birthday party wants a major road blocked off so a marching band can precede her grand entrance on a red carpet. A book called "My Beautiful Mommy" explains plastic surgery to young children whose mothers are going under the knife for the trendy "Mommy Makeover." It is now possible to hire fake paparazzi to follow you around snapping your photograph when you go out at night - you can even take home a faux celebrity magazine cover featuring the pictures.
A popular song declares, with no apparent sarcasm, "I believe that the world should revolve around me!" People buy expensive homes with loans far beyond their ability to pay - or at least they did until the mortgage market collapsed as a result. Babies wear bibs embroidered with "Supermodel" or "Chick Magnet" and suck on "Bling" pacifiers while their parents read modernized nursery rhymes from This Little Piggy Went to Prada. People strive to create a "personal brand" (also called "self-branding"), packaging themselves like a product to be sold. Ads for financial services proclaim that retirement helps you return to childhood and pursue your dreams. High school students pummel classmates and then seek attention for their violence by posting YouTube videos of the beatings.
Comment: There are fats and there are fats. Unfortunately, the fats most prevalent in the North American diet are precisely the worst ones to feed the body: hydrogenated "vegetable" oils and transfats. Those mice would have done just fine on a diet heavy in cold-pressed olive or grapeseed oil.
Why not skip the drug and just consume fats that are good for the body? Oh right, no money in that.
See also: Autoimmune Disease: How To Stop Your Body From Attacking Itself