Health & WellnessS


Magnify

Don't Make That Face at Me! Prefrontal Cortex May Help Regulate Emotions


ScienceDaily
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© iStockphoto/Jodi MatthewsA new study suggests that the lateral prefrontal cortex is a brain region that may help people to control their emotional reactions to negative facial expressions from their romantic partners.
Think back to your last fight with someone you love. How did you feel afterwards? How did you behave? Conflict with a loved one often leaves a person feeling terrible and then behaving badly. So much so that these scenarios have become soap opera clichés. After an argument, one partner may brood, slam the door, and then drive to a local bar to drown their sorrows in alcohol. These dramas rarely have happy endings. Given these stereotypes, how do people control their emotional reactions and prevent emotional storms and their attendant use of intoxicating substances?

A new study published in Biological Psychiatry, by Elsevier, suggests that the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is a brain region that may help people to control their emotional reactions to negative facial expressions from their romantic partners.

Christine Hooker and her colleagues recruited healthy, adult participants in committed relationships. The research subjects viewed positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions of their partners during a brain scan. In an online daily diary, participants reported conflict occurrence, level of negative mood, rumination, and substance use.
Read More...
Magnify

Study suggests that others may know us better than we know ourselves

Gerry Everding
Medical News Today
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
Since at least the days of Socrates, humans have been advised to "know thyself."

And through all the years, many, including many personality and social psychologists, have believed the individual is the best judge of his or her own personality.

Now a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that we are not the know-it-alls that we think we are.

Simine Vazire, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, has found that the individual is more accurate in assessing one's own internal, or neurotic traits, such as anxiety, while friends are better barometers of intellect-related traits, such as intelligence and creativity, and even strangers are equally adept as our friends and ourselves at spotting the extrovert in us all, a psychology domain known as "extroversion."
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

New Psychiatric Disorders Flag Normal Human Behaviors as "Diseases"

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
The Disease Mongering Engine, which I invented a couple of years ago and posted on NaturalNews, was initially created as a joke to demonstrate the ridiculousness of the fictitious diseases that are constantly created by the psychiatric industry. This hilarious online disease generator allows you to instantly create your own fictitious diseases and disorders such as:
- Repetitive Dysmorphic Nose Picking Disorder With Itching (RDNPDWI)
- Oppositional Disorganized Speaking Disorder With Indigestion (ODSDWI)
- Chronic Bipolar Anticipation Dysfunction With Smelly Feet (CBADWSF)
... and so on.

Here's the bizarre part: All of a sudden, the new psychiatric diagnostic manual (DSM-V) appears to have adopted as medical fact many of the disorders that were created by the Disease Mongering Engine!
Read More...
Clock

'Biological clock' could be a key to better health, longer life


Oregon State University
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:25 UTC
If you aren't getting a good, consistent and regular night's sleep, a new study suggests it could reduce your ability to handle oxidative stress, cause impacts to your health, increase motor and neurological deterioration, speed aging and ultimately cut short your life.

That is, if your "biological clock" genes work the same way as those of a fruit fly. And they probably do.

In research just published in the journal Aging, scientists from Oregon State University outline for the first time how a key gene that helps control circadian rhythms can improve the health of aging fruit flies if it is intact, but can result in significant health impacts, up to and including earlier death, if it is absent.

Of particular interest, the research found, was that young fruit flies without this gene were able to handle some stress, but middle-aged and older flies were not.
Read More...
Heart

Eating chocolate regularly may prevent strokes

S. L. Baker
Natural News
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:21 UTC
Stroke takes an enormous toll on health. In fact, it's the third leading cause of death in the US, according to the American Stroke Association. So imagine how much money Big Pharma could rake in if drug manufacturers came up with a medication that not only reduced the risk of having a stroke but slashed the risk of dying from a stroke in half. It turns out there's a substance already on the market that does just that. Only, it isn't an expensive prescription drug but a delicious, natural food -- chocolate.

A report just released by Canadian scientists from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and the University of Toronto provides evidence that consuming chocolate regularly significantly reduces the odds of having a stroke. What's more, if a person who eats chocolate does suffer a stroke, their risk of dying afterwards is almost half that of non-chocolate eaters.

The research team reached these conclusions after analyzing three studies for any links between chocolate intake and strokes. Although one study didn't reveal any risk or benefit, two others did. A large study of 44,489 people showed that those who ate at least one serving of chocolate each week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than the research participants who didn't indulge in chocolate.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Flashback Mere Thought of Money Makes People Selfish

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:31 UTC
Just the mere thought of money can turn a person selfish, so that he helps others less often and prefers to play alone, a new study shows.

In a series of nine experiments, researchers found that money enhanced people's motivation to achieve their own goals and degraded their behavior toward others. The concept of money, they suggest, makes a person feel more self-sufficient and thus more apt to stand alone.

The scientists said the study had nothing to do with making a person feel wealthy. When real or fake money, or even a photo of cash, was placed in sight of participants, they became selfish.

The results could explain why the topic of money can be so detrimental to a couple's lasting bond.
Read More...
MIB

Darkness Begets Dishonesty, Study Finds

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:28 UTC
Dim lights can make it seem as if no one is watching, triggering moral transgressions in many people, a new study suggests.

Past research has shown that when people are concealed from view by others, say when they are wearing hoods, these individuals will be more likely to commit criminal acts and other bad behaviors.

But what about times when we're not actually anonymous - people can see us - yet we feel like we're hidden? The researchers of the new study describe it as the adult version of hide-and-seek: Kids often believe no one can see them when they cover their eyes even though they are hiding in plain sight. Turns out, a dark room can have a similar psychological effect on adults.
Read More...
Pills

Even Drugs Thrown in the Trash Can End Up in Your Drinking Water


Dr. Mercola
Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:06 UTC
Image
The federal government advises throwing most unused or expired medications into the trash instead of down the drain, but they can end up in the water anyway, a study from Maine suggests.

Tiny amounts of discarded drugs have been found in water at three landfills in the state, confirming suspicions that pharmaceuticals thrown into household trash are ending up in water that drains through waste, according to a survey by the state's environmental agency that's one of only a handful to have looked at the presence of drugs in landfills.

Concerns have grown in recent years over pharmaceuticals reaching drinking water supplies. An Associated Press investigation in 2008 reported that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans contains minute concentrations of a multitude of drugs.

It's commonly believed that the vast majority of drugs that get into water supplies come from human and animal excretion and that smaller amounts come from flushing them down the toilet or drain, a practice the Food and Drug Administration says is not recommended for most medications.

Sources:

Yahoo News February 7, 2010
Read More...
Wine

Scotland: Thousands of children damaged in womb by drinking mothers

Melanie Reid
The Times
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:23 UTC
Image
© Getty
Thousands of Scots children are born suffering internal organ damage, facial malformation or have learning difficulties as a result of their mothers drinking too much during pregnancy, according to a report.

Women who binge drink in the first three months of pregnancy can cause Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) which manifests in a malformed face and potentially fatal damage to the brain and organs. The less obvious Feotal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), caused by drinking in the later stages of pregnancy, results in learning and concentration difficulties.

A study by Children in Scotland, which has more than 450 members including children's charities and community groups, showed that a "conservative estimate" of 900 children were suffering from the syndrome, and many thousands more from the disorder.
Read More...
Arrow Up

Radical New Treatment May Help Cancer Without Drugs


Dr. Mercola
Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:17 UTC

Developed by Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD., autonomic resonance testing (ART) is a comprehensive diagnostic system that uses changes in muscle tone as a primary indicator. The journal Chiropractic & Osteopathy published a review on the reliability and validity of manual muscle testing in 2007. (Scott C Cuthbert and George J Goodheart Jr, Chiropractic & Osteopathy 2007,15:4 doi:10.1186/1746-1340-15-4).

Dr. Klinghardt is also a world leader in the areas of psychoneurobiology, environmental toxicity, chronic infection, and family systems influences, and how these lead to chronic illness.

Here Dr. Klinghardt shares his more than 25-years of experience synthesizing traditional and alternative medicine, and the many benefits of ART.

If you are interested in learning about more of Dr. Klinghardt's work, he has compiled a five disc DVD set that I highly recommend.
Read More...