Study: Facial Expressions of Emotion are Innate, Not Learned

Facial expressions of emotion are hardwired into our genes, according to a study published today in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

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Video Games May Do the Aging Brain Good

Older adults might want to take an interest in their grandchildren's' video games, if early research on the brain benefits of gaming is correct. In a study of 40 adults in their 60s and 70s, researchers found that those who learned to play a strategy-heavy video game improved their scores on a number of tests of cognitive function.

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People Who Exercise On Work Days Happier, Suffer Less Stress

People who exercise on work days are more productive, happier and suffer less stress than on non-gym days, scientists revealed today.

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Scientists extract images directly from brain

Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. Further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

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New Study Links Green Spaces to Healthier Bodies & Minds

A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that inner-city kids living in neighborhoods with more green space gained about 13% less weight over a two-year period than kids living amid more concrete and fewer trees.

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Memories may be stored on your DNA

Remember your first kiss? Experiments in mice suggest that patterns of chemical "caps" on our DNA may be responsible for preserving such memories.To remember a particular event, a specific sequence of neurons must fire at just the right time. For this to happen, neurons must be connected in a certain way by chemical junctions called synapses.

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Top 4 Foods To Boost Your Memory

Here are some of the memory foods that you should incorporate into your diet to reap the benefits of memory enhancement.

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Radical Evolution: The Future of Human-Machine Intelligence

Ray Kurzweil sees a radical evolution of the human species in the next 40 years. The merger of man and machine, coupled with the sudden explosion in machine intelligence and rapid innovation in gene research and nanotechnology, will result in a world with no distinction between the biological and the mechanical or physical and virtual reality.

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15 Ways to Hack Your Brain For A Better Life

If you ’re looking to improve mental cognition, increase your memory, and enhance your alertness, here are 15 easy ways to give your brain a six-pack.

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Seven of the Greatest Scientific Hoaxes Ever

The history of science is replete with frauds and fakers. Of course, there are serious cases of scientific fraud, such as the stem cell researchers recently found guilty of falsifying data and the South Korean cloning fraud. The following stories, however, are not so serious.

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Is Oversleeping Hazardous To Your Health?

When it comes to sleep, can you have too much of a good thing? It's true a good night's sleep is essential for health. But oversleeping has been linked to a host of medical problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and increased risk of death.

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Babies respond to classical music at 5 months, study reveals

Even though they are still too young to speak, babies at just five months old are able to distinguish the differences between the works of major classical composers, scientists reveal. Researchers found that babies responded differently to upbeat tunes, such as 'Ode to Joy' from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, compared to a selection of gloomier tunes.

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Brain boost drugs 'growing trend'

Increasing numbers of people are using prescription drugs like Ritalin to boost alertness and brain power, say experts.

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The 'thinking cap' that could unlock your inner genius

A 'thinking cap' capable of unlocking the inner genius in all of us is being developed by scientists. The device uses tiny magnetic pulses to change the way the brain works and has produced remarkable results.

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Baboons and Humans Both Suffer from Hierarchy-Related Stress

Baboons are aggressive, mean-spirited and wild. And when it comes to stress, apparently they are just like humans. Neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky has been decoding the mysteries of stress by studying baboons from Kenya's plains, and he discovered that the animal's rank as a leader or a follower had a direct link to the level of stress.

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Mahatma Gandhi and Non Violence

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in Porbandar the present day state of Gujarat in India on October 2, 1869. He was educated in Law at University College, London. In 1891. In London, Gandhi encountered theosophists, vegetarians, and others who were disenchanted not only with industrialism, but with the legacy of Enlightenment thought. They themselves represented the fringe elements of English society. Gandhi was powerfully attracted to them, as he was to the texts of the major religious traditions; and ironically it is in London that he was introduced to the Bhagavad Gita . After having been admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to India and attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay, and later spent several years in South Africa.

He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. His union with his wife became, as he himself stated, that of a brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk. Indians revered him as a saint and began to call him Mahatma (great-souled), a title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (non-violence), was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion. By the Indian practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Great Britain too would eventually consider violence useless and would leave India.

As S Patel wrote : How could a meek and fragile person of small physical stature inspire millions to bring about a profound change in a way the mightiest had never achieved before? His achievements were nothing less than miracles — his creed was to bring peace to not only those who suffered injustice and sorrow but to espouse a new way of life for Mankind, with peace and harmony. His life was a message — a message of peace over power, of finding ways to reconcile our differences, and of living in harmony with respect and love even for our enemy.

Teaching # 1: Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment. — Mahatma Gandhi

The force of power never wins against the power of love. At this hour of greatest unrest and turmoil in our world, the greatest force to be reckoned with lies within our hearts — a force of love and tolerance for all. Throughout his life, Mahatma Gandhi fought against the power of force during the heyday of British rein over the world. He transformed the minds of millions, including my father, to fight against injustice with peaceful means and non-violence. His message was as transparent to his enemy as it was to his followers. He believed that, if we fight for the cause of humanity and greater justice, it should include even those who do not conform to our cause. History attests to his power as he proved that we can bring about world peace by seeking and pursuing truth for the benefit of Mankind. We can resolve the greatest of our differences if we dare to have a constructive conversation with our enemy.

Teaching # 2: What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?

A war always inflicts pain and sorrow on everyone. History has witnessed countless examples of dictators, including Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin to name but a few, who inflicted sorrow and destruction on our world. A world of peace can be achieved if we learn the power of non-violence, as shown by the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi has proven that we can achieve the noble causes of liberty, justice and democracy for Mankind without killing anyone, without making a child an orphan, and without making anyone homeless with the damage caused by war.

Teaching # 3: There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no cause that I am prepared to kill for. — Mahatma Gandhi

We live for our values and passion but at the core of our existence lies our innate desire to live a peaceful life. The greatest noble cause is to display our desire to bring about peace in this world by our own sacrifice and not that of those who oppose our views. The strength of cowardice is in using power to cause death and destruction for others. The strength of courage is in self-sacrifice for the benefit of all.

Mahatma Gandhi sacrificed his own lucrative law practice in Durban, South Africa to lead a simple life and to share the pain of the powerless and destitute. He won over the hearts of millions without ever reigning power over anyone — simply with the power of altruism. We too can bring peace to our world by showing our willingness to sacrifice our self-centered desires. Our utmost cause in life should be to win the hearts of others by showing our willingness to serve causes greater than ourselves.

Teaching # 4: An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind — Mahatma Gandhi

History can attest to the fact that most human conflicts have been as a result of a stubborn approach by our leaders. Our history would turn out for the better if our leaders could just learn that most disputes can be resolved by showing a willingness to understand the issues of our opponents and by using diplomacy and compassion.

No matter where we live, what religion we practice or what culture we cultivate, at the heart of everything, we are all humans. We all have the same ambitions and aspirations to raise our family and to live life to its fullest. Our cultural, religious and political differences should not provide the backbone to invoke conflicts that can only bring sorrow and destruction to our world.

Teaching #5: We must become the change we want to see in the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

A great leader always leads with an exemplary life that echoes his ideals. Mahatma Gandhi sacrificed his thriving law practice and adopted a simple life to live among the millions who lived in poverty during his freedom struggle. Today, we see modern leaders cajoling the masses with promises that they never intend to keep - let alone practicing what they preach in their own lives. One cannot bring world peace to all unless a leader demonstrates peaceful acts of kindness daily. Mahatma Gandhi believed that we are all children of God. We should not discriminate amongst ourselves based on faith, caste, creed or any other differences.

Mahatma Gandhi taught us that we can bring harmony to our world by becoming champions of love and peace for all. The task is daunting, but he has shown that a fragile, meekly man of small physical stature can achieve feats of incredible magnitude with a staunch belief to practice peace through non-violence. Will you make a pledge to become the change that you would like to see in this world? I have.

Some of his famous quotes

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.   

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.   

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.   

I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.   

I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.   

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always. 

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.   

The Hadron Collider Will Not Destroy the World Tomorrow

You'd better read this today, because it's possible the world will end tomorrow. Strictly speaking, the probability of doomsday isn't any higher than it is on any normal Wednesday, but there's been a fair bit of kerfuffle and hullabaloo over the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and whether it will create a black hole that will destroy the entire pl

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Playing, and even watching, sports improves brain function

The brain boost helps athletes and fans understanding of information about their sport, even though at the time when people are listening to this sport language they have no intention to act.

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Amazing! Intellectual Work Induces Excessive Calorie Intake

A team of researchers have demonstrated that intellectual work induces a substantial increase in calorie intake. Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact that we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialized countries.

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How To Meditate (& Why it May Help You Overcome Depression)

Meditation can be a practical tool for relaxation, concentration and better health; it can also be an invaluable tool to self discovery. If practiced correctly, meditation can be a powerful antidote to depressive thoughts.

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Red Bull gives you wings - and heart trouble?

Red Bull may claim to “give you wings” but drinking too much of the popular energy drink may also lead to heart damage, a study suggests. A study of 30 university students aged between 20 and 24 years old found that drinking just one 250ml sugar-free can of the caffeinated energy drink increased the “stickiness” of the blood and raised the risk...

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Tracking the location of objects in your mind

It depends on what you believe. Imagine yourself in a room surrounded by 11 objects arranged in a circle. You memorize the position of the objects, then you close your eyes, and rotate 1/3 of the way around (120°). Keeping your eyes closed, can you point to the object that was behind you before? Most people can do this without much difficulty.....

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Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression

Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression

Deep brain stimulation, an experimental and invasive treatment that involves stimulating the brain with electrical signals, may help treat otherwise difficult to cure depression, a new study reports.

Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood and thoughts. Imbalances in three brain chemicals, serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, are linked to depression. Unlike normal emotional experiences of sadness, loss or passing mood states, depressive disorders are persistent and can significantly interfere with an individual's thoughts, behavior, mood, activity and physical health.

Depressive disorders affect approximately 18.8 million American adults or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. Among all medical illnesses, major depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States and many other developed countries. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression.

Researchers from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, explained that an early report in six patients suggested that deep brain stimulation of the subcallosal cingulate gyrus (part of the brain) may provide benefit in treatment-resistant depression.

In the study, 20 patients with treatment-resistant depression underwent serial assessments before and after the deep brain stimulation. The researchers analyzed the percentage of patients who achieved a response or remission after surgery. They also examined changes in brain metabolism associated with deep brain stimulation.

The researchers observed both early and progressive benefits with deep brain stimulation. For example, one month after surgery, 35 percent of the patients met criteria for response with 10 percent of patients in remission. Furthermore, six months after surgery, 60 percent of patients were responded to therapy and 35 percent met the criteria for remission. These benefits were largely maintained at 12 months.

Deep brain stimulation therapy was associated with specific changes in the metabolic activity localized to cortical and limbic circuits implicated in the pathogenesis of depression. The number of serious adverse effects was small with no patient experiencing permanent deficits.

The authors concluded that deep brain stimulation provides significant improvement in patients with treatment-resistant depression. The stimulation likely acts by modulating brain networks whose dysfunction leads to depression. They observed that the procedure was well-tolerated and benefits were sustained for at least one year.

Natural Standard

5 Things You Must Know About Sleep

You're tired. You could put your head down on a desk right now and fall asleep immediately. You went to bed late last night, had trouble falling asleep and woke up too early. And let's not kid ourselves: Tonight will be the same unless ... well, read on.

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Is Your Cell Phone REALLY Putting Your Health at Risk?

The World Health Organization & the American Cancer Society maintain that cell phones pose no significant threat, but several new long-term studies cast doubt on the safety of cell phones. What precautions should you take?

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Aging impairs the 'replay' of memories during sleep

Aging impairs the consolidation of memories during sleep, a process important in converting new memories into long-term ones, according to new animal research in the July 30 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings shed light on normal memory mechanisms and how they are disrupted by aging.

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A unique coherence project for the first time on earth - come join.......

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 same frequency range as those of the human heart and brain. Although researchers have looked at some of the possible interactions between the earth's fields and human, animal and plant activity, scientists have barely scratched the surface of what may be achieved with something as sophisticated as the Global Coherence Monitoring System.

A number of important findings already have emerged. For example, changes in the earth's magnetic field are associated with changes in brain and nervous system activity; performance of athletic, memory and other tasks; sensitivity in a wide range of extrasensory perception experiments; synthesis of nutrients in plants and algae; the number of reported traffic violations and accidents; mortality from heart attacks and strokes; and incidence of depression and suicide. It's interesting to note that changes in geomagnetic conditions affect the rhythms of the heart more strongly than all the physiological functions studied so far.

There is also evidence in some cases that people's brainwaves can synchronize with the rhythm of the electromagnetic waves generated in the earth's ionosphere. When people say they "feel" an impending earthquake or other planetary events, such as weather changes, it is possible that they may be reacting to the actual physical signals that occur in the earth's field prior to the event.

The Global Coherence Monitoring System will directly measure the planet's magnetic field, which we postulate should be much more sensitive to the effects of emotion-based collective human interactions than can be detected with other types of detectors. For example, two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather satellites monitoring the earth's geomagnetic field also displayed a significant spike at the time of the September 11th attack and for several days thereafter, indicating the stress wave possibly caused by mass human emotion created modulations in the geomagnetic field .

Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites – Measuring the Earth's Geomagnetic Field.

The Global Coherence Monitoring System will establish a worldwide network of sensing stations to measure fluctuations in the earth's geomagnetic fields for the following purposes:

1. Verify the degree to which earthquake, volcanic eruptions and other planetary energetic events are reflected in and predicted by specific patterns of activity in the dynamics of the earth's magnetic field.
2. Examine the degree to which there is an energetic resonance between the earth's magnetic field and the rhythms of human heart and brain activity.
3. Examine the influence of the earth's field on patterns of human collective behavior.
4. Examine the degree to which collective human emotional resonance in response to mass events of common emotional significance is reflected in the activity of the earth's magnetic field.

We believe the Global Coherence Monitoring System can facilitate a better understanding of the mutual interactions between humans and our global environment. Far more important, however, is enlisting the collaboration of individuals and groups of people in establishing and amplifying coherent out-going fields which interact with planetary fields, thus helping establish global coherence.

Visit this site and join this unique project done for the first time on earth:

http://www.globalcoherenceproject.org/

Music Therapy

Music Therapy for Depression, Anxiety

Music therapy may improve depression, anxiety and relationships in psychiatric patients, a new study reports.

Music is an ancient tool of healing that was recognized in the writings of the Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Aristotle and Plato. The modern discipline of music therapy began early in the 20th Century with community musicians visiting veterans' hospitals around the country to play for those traumatized by war. The positive response prompted many hospitals to hire musicians to play for their patients.

Studies suggest that music may be used to influence physical, emotional, cognitive and social well-being and improve quality of life for healthy people, as well as those who are disabled or ill. It may involve either listening to or performing music, with or without the presence of a music therapist.

Music therapists are professionally trained to design specialized applications of music according to an individual's needs using improvisation, receptive listening, song writing, lyric discussion, imagery, performance or learning through music. They work in psychiatric hospitals, prisons, rehabilitative facilities, medical hospitals, outpatient clinics, day treatment centers, agencies serving developmentally disabled persons, community mental health centers, drug and alcohol programs, senior centers, nursing homes, hospice programs, correctional facilities, halfway houses, schools and private practices.

Infants, children, adolescents, adults, the elderly and even animals can all potentially benefit from music therapy. Research supports all forms of music as having therapeutic effects, although music from one's own culture may be most effective. Types of music differ in the types of neurological stimulation they evoke. For example, classical music has been found to soothe and comfort the listener, while rock music may be unsettling and cause distress.

Researchers from the Graduate School of Art Therapy, Daejeon University, Daejeon, South Korea, tested whether group music therapy effectively improves depression, anxiety and relationships. A total of 26 patients were allocated to either a music intervention group or a routine care group.

The music intervention group received 60 minutes of music intervention for 15 sessions (one or two times weekly).

The study found that after 15 sessions, the music intervention group showed significant improvements in depression, anxiety and relationships compared with the control group.

The authors concluded that despite the positive results, objective and replicable measures are required from a randomized controlled trial with a larger sample size and an active comparable control.

There is evidence that music that reflects the listener's personal preference is more likely to have desired effects. It is possible that music through headphones during medical procedures could interfere with the patient's cooperation with the procedures. Further research is needed in this area.

Man Dies From Heart Attack Caused By To Much Water?

Andrew Thornton, 44, swallowed five times the recommended daily amount of water and gave himself a heart attack as his body rejected the vast intake of fluid.

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Pomegranate Ranked Healthiest Fruit Juice

Pomegranate is the healthiest of them all because it contains the most of every type of antioxidant. It wins in all categories. And it's thought that it might do some very good things; it may protect against some cancers, such as prostate cancer. It might also modify heart disease risk factors, and it could be healthy for your heart.

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Commitment

Winston Spencer Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, in England. He served in the British Army until 1899. The following year, Churchill began his long career in the government. Churchill was elected to various positions for the next several years. After the beginning of World War II, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In early May, the former Prime Minister of England resigned and Churchill was appointed to the position by King George VI. England's army suffered many losses early on and Churchill faced a great deal of criticism. But one of the major contributions he made to eventual victory was his ability to inspire the British people to greater effort by making public broadcasts on significant occasions.

 A brilliant orator, he was a tireless source of strength to people experiencing the sufferings of the German bombing campaign. On October 29, 1941, Churchill made a speech at Harrow School which he attended as a youth. Part of the speech included the line, "Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." He also used the phrase, "Never, never, never give up" in his personal writing and correspondence. Churchill lost his bid for re-election in 1945 and shortly thereafter suffered his first stroke. He remained active in politics, returning to the Prime Minister position in 1951, until his health forced him to retire in 1956. Throughout his life he was an avid writer and even won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sir Winston Churchill passed away on January 24, 1965.

20 Ways to Attack Shyness

Can you remember wanting to ask someone out, but was too shy to do so? Here are 20 ways on how to overcome this shyness.Get off your computers and get practicing!

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The Value of Not Overthinking a Decision

Fishing in the stream of consciousness, researchers now can detect our intentions and predict our choices before we are aware of them ourselves. The brain, they have found, appears to make up its mind 10 seconds before we become conscious of a decision -- an eternity at the speed of thought...

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Marijuana Could Treat Cancer, Glaucoma, and More

"Targeting the CB2 receptor could be a therapeutic strategy to prevent or treat diseases like Crohn's disease [inflammation of the intestinal tract], liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis, and atherosclerosis," said lead study author Jürg Gertsch.

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Stephen Hawking's Explosive New Theory on the Universe

Prof Stephen Hawking has come up with a new idea to explain why the Big Bang of creation led to the vast cosmos that we can see today. Astronomers can deduce that the early universe expanded at a mind-boggling rate because regions separated by vast distances have similar background temperatures.

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7 Simple Rules For How to Take A Nap

We’ve talked about the whys of taking naps on the blog before — they improve mood, creativity, memory function, heart health, and so much else — but never, to my knowledge, have we discussed how to take a nap.

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14 Research-Proven Ways To Boost Brain Power

Until just a few years ago, doctors believed that the brain stopped making new neural connections - meaning that the memory began to get irreversibly worse - when the body stopped developing, usually in the early 20s. And doctors knew that, like any other part of the body, neurons weaken as people age. Loss of brain function due to neural breakdown was assumed to be a normal, unavoidable part of aging. It turns out they were wrong.

In the past few years, it has become clear that you can, in fact, make new neurons starting in your 20s and continuing well into old age. You can literally rewire the brain with new parts as the older parts wear out. How?

There are lots of things you can do right now to preserve, protect and enhance your gray matter.

1Physical exercise

A healthy body really does mean a healthy mind. In the last decade it became clear that regular exercise beneficially affects brain function. Exercise boosts brain power by stimulating formation of new brain cells (neurons), the process known as neurogenesis2. Also, exercise strengthens connections between those cells. Researchers have found the areas of the brain that are stimulated through exercise are associated with memory and learning1.

Physical exercise may even help prevent Alzheimer's disease. Several studies7-9 have confirmed that regular physical activity reduces the risk of cognitive decline and dementia in old age.

2Lifelong learning - your brain is a learning machine

For most of us, after we graduate from high school or college, our pursuit of new knowledge bottoms out over time. We may be masters at what we do, but we aren't learning new things. There is clear evidence10-11 that education and learning produce favourable changes in the brain. Researchers believe that intellectual activity play a neuroprotective role against dementia. Some studies suggest that having a low level of formal education and poor linguistic skills is a risk factor for cognitive decline in later life.

But if you continue to learn and challenge yourself, your brain continues to grow, literally. Recent research12 have demonstrated that learning over time enhances memory and the survival of new brain cells. An active brain produces new connections between nerve cells that allow cells to communicate with one another. This helps your brain store and retrieve information more easily, no matter what your age.

How can you challenge yourself? Scientists agree that anything that is new and expands your knowledge will be effective:

• Learning to play a musical instrument
• Switching careers or starting a new one
• Starting a new hobby, such as crafts, painting, biking or bird-watching
• Learning a foreign language. According to the latest study speaking more than one language may slow the aging process in the mind.
• Staying informed about what's going on in the world
• Learning to cook new dish

If you let your brain be idle, it's not going to be in the best health.

See full article at: http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/brain.shtml

Does Meditation Alter Your Brain Structure?

Ancient traditional therapies do not always stand up to close scientific scrutiny. However, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which is about 80% meditation, has been approved by the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) for use with people who have experienced three or more episodes of depression.

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Foresight- Helen Keller

Helen Keller lived in a world of "white darkness." Born in Alabama in 1880, she was a year and a half old when a case of scarlet fever or meningitis left her deaf and blind. She made signs and gestures, but her inability to truly communicate often left her a frustrated and angry child. Once she locked her mother in the pantry for three hours, and another time threw her baby sister out of a cradle.

When Helen was seven, her parents hired Anne Sullivan to be Helen's tutor. Helen learned the manual alphabet and some words, and for a month Helen signed words without knowing what they meant. One day Anne held Helen's hand under a water pump while signing "water." Helen suddenly realized that the motions of her fingers had meanings. "That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!" she later said. "There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away."

During the next decade, Helen worked on sweeping away those barriers. She learned to read Braille, to read lips, and to write in normal script. Eventually she learned how to speak. She attended schools for the deaf and blind, and, later, mainstream schools. It took Helen longer than her classmates to study, but she excelled. She wrote her memoirs, The Story of My Life, at age 21, the first of almost a dozen books during her lifetime. She graduated from Radcliffe College, the women's counterpart to Harvard University, in 1904: the first deaf and blind person to graduate from a college.

Helen also learned to paddle a canoe, ride a horse and a tandem bicycle, and play chess and checkers. She traveled the country as a lecturer, and until 1922 she even performed in vaudeville shows.

By the age of 24, Helen Keller was already more accomplished and famous than any other deaf and blind person in modern history. But she also had a keen sense of the needs and suffering of others. Having "swept away" her own barriers as much as she could, she began to focus on doing the same for others.

Helen Keller believed in equal rights and economic opportunities for all people. She became involved with the Women's Suffrage movement, the Socialist movement, and labor unions. In 1917 she founded an organization that would later become Helen Keller International to prevent and treat blindness in impoverished nations. This organization still operates in 23 countries. Helen Keller joined the American Foundation for the Blind in 1924 and advocated for policy and technology to allow the blind to live fuller lives. During her lifetime she traveled to 35 countries on five continents. Her visits inspired blind citizens, but also prompted legal and social changes that improved conditions for them.

Helen Keller died in Easton, Connecticut in 1968, a few weeks short of her 88th birthday. In her life she had reached far beyond her own darkness to shape a more compassionate future for the world. As Senator Lister Hill of Alabama said in her eulogy, "Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith."

What is Consciousness

The Problem of Consciousness

Conventional explanations portray consciousness as an emergent property of classical computer-like activities in the brain's neural networks. The prevailing views among scientists in this camp are that 1) patterns of neural network activities correlate with mental states, 2) synchronous network oscillations in thalamus and cerebral cortex temporally bind information, and 3) consciousness emerges as a novel property of computational complexity among neurons.

However, these approaches appear to fall short in fully explaining certain enigmatic features of consciousness, such as:

• The nature of subjective experience, or 'qualia'- our 'inner life' (Chalmers' "hard problem");
• Binding of spatially distributed brain activities into unitary objects in vision, and a coherent sense of self, or 'oneness';
• Transition from pre-conscious processes to consciousness itself;
• Non-computability, or the notion that consciousness involves a factor which is neither random, nor algorithmic, and that consciousness cannot be simulated (Penrose, 1989, 1994, 1997);
• Free will; and,
• Subjective time flow.

Brain imaging technologies demonstrate anatomical location of activities which appear to correlate with consciousness, but which may not be directly responsible for consciousness.

 PET scan image of brain showing visual and auditory recognition (from S Petersen, Neuroimaging Laboratory, Washington University, St. Louis. Also see J.A. Hobson "Consciousness," Scientific American Library, 1999, p. 65).

Read full article : http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/presentations/whatisconsciousness.html

Neurocardiology: The Brain in the Heart

Neurocardiology: The Brain in the Heart

While the Laceys were doing their research in psychophysiology, a small group of cardiovascular researchers joined with a similar group of neurophysiologists to explore areas of mutual interest. This represented the beginning of the new discipline of neurocardiology, which has since provided critically important insights into the nervous system within the heart and how the brain and heart communicate with each other via the nervous system.

After extensive research, one of the early pioneers in neurocardiology, Dr. J. Andrew Armour, introduced the concept of a functional "heart brain" in 1991. His work revealed that the heart has a complex intrinsic nervous system that is sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a "little brain" in its own right. The heart's brain is an intricate network of several types of neurons, neurotransmitters, proteins and support cells like those found in the brain proper. Its elaborate circuitry enables it to act independently of the cranial brain – to learn, remember, and even feel and sense. The recent book Neurocardiology, edited by Dr. Armour and Dr. Jeffrey Ardell, provides a comprehensive overview of the function of the heart's intrinsic nervous system and the role of central and peripheral autonomic neurons in the regulation of cardiac function. The nervous system pathways between the heart and brain are shown in Figure 2.

The heart's nervous system contains around 40,000 neurons, called sensory neurites, which detect circulating hormones and neurochemicals and sense heart rate and pressure information. Hormonal, chemical, rate and pressure information is translated into neurological impulses by the heart's nervous system and sent from the heart to the brain through several afferent (flowing to the brain) pathways. It is also through these nerve pathways that pain signals and other feeling sensations are sent to the brain. These afferent nerve pathways enter the brain in an area called the medulla, located in the brain stem. The signals have a regulatory role over many of the autonomic nervous system signals that flow out of the brain to the heart, blood vessels and other glands and organs. However, they also cascade up into the higher centers of the brain, where they may influence perception, decision making and other cognitive processes.

Dr. Armour describes the brain and nervous system as a distributed parallel processing system consisting of separate but interacting groups of neuronal processing centers distributed throughout the body. The heart has its own intrinsic nervous system that operates and processes information independently of the brain or nervous system. This is what allows a heart transplant to work: Normally, the heart communicates with the brain via nerve fibers running through the vagus nerve and the spinal column. In a heart transplant, these nerve connections do not reconnect for an extended period of time, if at all; however, the transplanted heart is able to function in its new host through the capacity of its intact, intrinsic nervous system.

Read the full article:http://www.heartmath.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=51/index.html

Study: Naps - Coffee, Good Night's Sleep to Combat Tiredness

You probably know how it goes. You've just had lunch and you're back at your desk. 3pm rolls around and home time is still some way off. Then the yawns start and all you can think about is curling up under your desk for a sleep.

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How much sleep do you *really* need?

In 2002, he compared death rates among more than 1 million American adults who, as part of a study on cancer prevention, reported their average nightly amount of sleep. To many his results were surprising, but they've since been corroborated by similar studies in Europe and East Asia.

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How to Make Profound and Lasting Change

Is there an area of your life you’ve tried changing, made some progress but somehow ended up in the same spot you started in? ThinkSimpleNow offers a simple psychological approach and a great exercise for making life changes stick.

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The Science Behind Why You Can't Recall Your Neighbor's Name

It's estimated that, on average, people have a tip-of-the-tongue moment at least once a week. Researchers have located the specific brain areas that are activated during such moments, and even captured images of the mind when we are struggling to find these forgotten words.

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Alliance for a New Humanity

The world is coming together to make tremendous changes and help mankind overcome severe obstacles facing them .One of the  powerful Alliances is ANH . UN and ANH have joined hands to train 100 million young people in new leaderships skills within the next few years.

Alliance for a New Humanity

Our mission is to connect people, who, through personal and social transformation, aim to build a just, peaceful, and sustainable world, reflecting the unity of all humanity.

CONNECT

We are people from all regions of the world and all walks of life who are joined by a common vision; to strengthen and sustain an actively compassionate humanity. Our movement is open to anyone who believes that creating a better world is possible – a world where all beings are valued equally, where the Earth is revered and protected and where the awesome potential of humanity can unite to bring about true peace and harmony.

Are you inspired by this vision? We call upon all people who are tired of passively waiting for things to change – to join us and Be The Change!

COMMUNICATE

We live in a time of great insecurity where humanity is faced with many grave threats. From climate change to political instability, from species extinction to poverty and warfare, it seems humanity is in great crisis. But crisis means not only danger, but also opportunity. Humanity is at a crossroads; our future depends on how we deal with four trends, each enmeshed and interconnected with the others: do we choose war or nonviolence, poverty or equity, environmental degradation or sustainability, discrimination or human rights? The choice is ours.

These problems are all interrelated, but so are the solutions!

INSPIRE

We envision a future illuminated by the truth of unity, a future where any boundary can be taken down because it only has to first come down in our hearts. This vision is a cause for celebration because many millions of people are following it already; soon this alliance of people working for a new humanity will guide a great evolutionary leap for all and provide the basis for sustainable solutions to humanity's greatest threats.

SUPPORT

Our pledge to you is that we will help to support all those initiatives worldwide that are really making a difference. Through our website, our newsletter and our Human Forums, we will provide the space for real change to happen, for people to come together to make a difference, and to share their passion about creating a better world.


Visit their site at : http://www.anhglobal.org and register

You may also visit my site to read principles of enriched thinking and watch a brief video: http://www.madure.org/enrichedthinking

The Ultimate Guide to Motivation - How to Achieve Any Goal

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” - Henry Ford

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Inspiration !!

Norman Rockwell was one of the most prolific and well-known of American artists. During his 47-year career as a painter and illustrator, he depicted people and situations from everyday life. By his death in 1978, his work was familiar to millions of people, and remains iconic today.

Some of Rockwell's most recognized works include his cover art for the Saturday Evening Post, the Four Freedoms series (Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship and Freedom from Fear), A Problem We All Live With, showing school integration during the 1960s, and Triple Self-Portrait, which is featured on The Foundation for a Better Life's "Inspiration" billboard.

Rockwell was born in 1894 and died in 1978. The Great Depression, World War II, The Civil Rights movement, the Space Age - Rockwell lived, and painted, through most of the turbulent 20th century. Even during the most frightening and uncertain moments of that century, Rockwell's work never turned grim or despairing, retaining a fascination with the human drama he saw unfolding around him.

Rockwell's work conveyed a belief in the goodness of humanity. One example is Triple Self-Portrait, where we see the artist (in his 60s at the time of painting) from the back, reflected in a mirror, and in the larger-than-life portrait on the easel. In the mirror we see a man with an aging face, a grizzled moustache, and thick glasses - but he is painting himself as a young, handsome man, ready to take on the world. The viewer gets the sense that this depiction isn't a false one, but that the artist is looking in the mirror and seeing his own best self.

In the same way, Rockwell saw the best in those around him. The Four Freedoms, painted during World War II, made it evident that Rockwell also strove to showcase what he saw as the best of American values and ideals. In the midst of a grim conflict, these illustrations were a reminder of what kind of world Americans were working for through their sacrifice and hardship. Deeply concerned with civil rights, equality, and the war on poverty, Rockwell incorporated these themes into his later work. Even his paintings that deal with troubling subjects show a resistance to despair and pessimism.

Critics have dubbed Rockwell's work as sentimental, overly sweet, and idealized. This may be because his work seemed to say that the ordinary people he was painting were extraordinary at the core. If what Rockwell painted was idealized, he also believed that we, individually and collectively, have the potential to reach that ideal.

"I showed the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed," Rockwell said. He later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country." Norman Rockwell saw the best in us - and so he has given us occasion to see the good in ourselves and each other, and that even an honest look in the mirror can be cause for hope.

50 Habits of "Naturally Thin" People

Eat like a kid. You don't have to give up that quick lunch if you order smaller portions: Instead of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and large fries, opt for the cheeseburger Happy Meal. You can even play with the toy. Saves 390 calories.

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10 Craziest Facts About The Human Body

You need sleep as much as you need food. Many people neglect the importance of having enough sleep without knowing that humans can actually survive longer without food than without sleep.

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Ambition !!

Liz Murray grew up in the Bronx, New York City. Addicted to drugs, her parents sometimes sold household items in order to get their fix. As a child, Liz hated school because when she did go, she was teased: there was no one to make sure that she showered or got up on time. As Liz grew older, her parents lost their apartment, and her father ended up in shelters. For a time Liz was placed in a group home. Her mother, who suffered from AIDS, became increasingly ill and was hospitalized. Rather than submit to the dehumanization and sadness that had characterized her experience in foster care, Liz chose to fend for herself. Liz slept on friends' couches or floors at odd hours, camped outside or rode the subway all night.

After her mother's death, Liz, then 16, felt that event as "a slap in the face" that caused her to question where her life was going. With an eighth-grade education, Liz decided that, as she said, "Life rewards action. I was going to go out there and... have action in my life every day instead of this stagnant behavior that I had been partaking in for so long."

Liz was admitted an alternative high school, the Humanities Preparatory Academy, where she doubled her course-load and completed high school in only two years. One of the top ten students in the school, Liz went on a school-sponsored trip to Boston and walked through Harvard Yard. "It's not as though I had some sort of epiphany at the moment ... It was just more that I got jealous of how these students had so much opportunities, and I'd felt that I'd had very little. And so then I thought, `Well, what's the difference between me and anyone here?' And I filled in all the gaps."

Her grades qualified Liz for the New York Times College Scholarship, and she applied for and was admitted to Harvard. But far from resting on those considerable laurels, Liz continued to break new ground. A member of the Washington Speakers' Bureau, Liz has found she has "a knack for" sharing her story and insights with audiences across the country. Her story was adapted for film by Lifetime Television in the 2003 film "Homeless to Harvard: the Liz Murray Story." Liz is also an avid writer whose memoirs, "Breaking Night," were published in 2005. Liz returned to New York City to care for her ill father, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology and sociology at Columbia University.

20 Common Cooking Ingredients that Also Work as Medications

The use of herbal treatments for everything from sore throats to cancer has become more and more common with every passing year. We all know about the herbal supplements like St. John’s Wort that can help you with chronic health problems, but did you know that many common edible herbs can provide impressive health benefits?

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Retrain Your Brain; Become a Creature of New Habits

It seems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

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5 Tips to Help You Live a Well-Balanced Life

With the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, we often find ourselves yearning for a quieter, more balanced life. If your life has come to resemble an endless race to the finish line, take a look at the suggestions below to bring a greater sense of peace, calm, and even simplicity back into your life.

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16 Tips For Getting Good Sleep

There's a lot of advice out there about getting good sleep -- it's VERY important. We quickly adjust to being sleep-deprived, and don't notice that we aren't functioning at a normal level, but lack of sleep really affects us. If you're feeling blue or listless, try going to sleep thirty minutes earlier for a week. It can really help.

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CONFIDENCE- Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in 1879 at Ulm in Württemberg, Germany. At age five, his father showed him a pocket compass, and Einstein realized that something in "empty" space acted upon the needle; he would later describe the experience as one of the most revelatory of his life. Though he built models and mechanical devices for fun, he was considered a slow learner, possibly due to dyslexia, simple shyness, or the significantly rare and unusual structure of his brain (as seen following his death). He later credited his development of the theory of relativity to this slowness, saying that by pondering space and time later than most children, he was able to apply a more developed intellect.

Einstein began to learn mathematics at about age twelve. There is a recurring rumor that he failed mathematics later in his education, but this is untrue; a change in the way grades were assigned caused confusion years later.

His failure of the liberal arts portion of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (Federal Swiss Polytechnic University, in Zurich) entrance exam the following year was a setback; he was sent by his family to Aarau, Switzerland to finish secondary school, and received his diploma in 1896. In 1900, he earned a teaching diploma at the Swiss Polytechninc University and was accepted as a Swiss citizen in 1901. During this time Einstein discussed his scientific interests with a group of close friends.

Upon graduation, Einstein could not find a teaching post, and instead, started to work at the Swiss Patent office. He judged the worth of inventors' patent applications for devices that required a knowledge of physics to understand. He obtained his doctorate after submitting his thesis "On a new determination of molecular dimensions" in 1905.

That same year, he wrote four articles that provided the foundation of modern physics, without much scientific literature to refer to or many scientific colleagues to discuss the theories with. Most physicists agree that three of those papers (Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect, and special relativity) deserved Nobel prizes. Only the photoelectric effect would win in 1921.

Albert Einstein was much respected for his kind and friendly demeanor rooted in his pacifism. He occasionally had a playful sense of humour, and enjoyed playing the violin and sailing. He was also the stereotypical "absent-minded professor" he was often forgetful of everyday items, such as keys, and would focus so intently on solving physics problems that he would often become oblivious to his surroundings. He died on April 18, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

The Orgasmic Mind: The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure

Achieving sexual climax requires a complex conspiracy of sensory and psychological signals —and the eventual silencing of critical brain areas. Testosterone, a hormone ordinarily produced by the ovaries, is linked to female sexual function, and the women in this 2005 study had undergone operations to remove their ovaries.

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Memory Distortion and its Connection to Reality

"Memory is the scaffolding upon which all mental life is constructed."-GF Memory enables us to learn, make sense of the present, and contemplate the future via exploiting information from our past. The “scaffolding” is fragile and often flawed. Not a surprising claim since we are all prone to forgetting birthdays, names, and the such......

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7 Secrets to Improve Your Ability to Learn

No matter what your age, throughout your life you will be learning. Your formal education ends with high school, but for many the learning never ends. Here are some secrets for improving your ability to learn. Most apply to classes, but you can adapt them to any learning situation

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Don't Let Life Pin You Down- An Excerpt from Finish Strong

"Don't Let Life Pin You Down" An Excerpt from Finish Strong By Dan Green

Kyle Maynard is a regular guy with a love to compete. He knows that to truly live you must set your sights on a goal and never give up. The fire that burns in his belly helped propel him to contend for the Georgia state high school wrestling championship in 2004. Not such a big deal you might say – except for the remarkable fact that Kyle has no arms or legs. He was born a congenital amputee – his arms ending at his elbows, his legs at his knees.

The first time I saw Kyle on an ESPN special (he won an ESPY award for the Best Athlete with a Disability in 2004) I was immediately struck by how normal he seemed. During the special, they showed Kyle doing all of the things that any other person or athlete would do.

He spoke with passion and conviction and he never left me with the impression that the world owed him anything. I was amazed to see him training hard, lifting weights – he has cannon balls for shoulders. Using a specially designed attachment, he was pushing more than double his own body weight. I was instantly inspired to learn more about this amazing person.

From the beginning, Kyle's parents, Anita and Scott, were determined to raise a normal child. They insisted that he learned to feed himself and play with the other kids like any other child would do,

When Kyle saw other kids picking up crayons with their fingers, he learned to pick them up by using the crease in his short, but sensitive biceps.

His grandmother Betty was a source of inspiration and would often take him to the grocery store where she would instill a sense of confidence by encouraging Kyle to sit up and look folks in the eye and smile. He was fitted with prosthetic devices at a young age, but quickly dismissed them because they were too restrictive. He wanted to be free to run and play just like the other kids and those devices kept him from doing so.

Kyle led an active childhood. He played street hockey with his friends (he was the goalie) and in sixth grade was able to make the football team. Kyle hung tough on the football team, but his physical differences put him at a disadvantage against other players. Eventually, his father encouraged him to try another sport that would put Kyle on an even plane with his competition – wrestling.

Kyle started wrestling in sixth grade. He lost his first 35 matches in a row. During this period of time, Kyle had to dig deep to find the confidence to continue. Kyle however, was a warrior and he didn't like to lose. With the support of his father, a former wrestler, he learned to train with weights, became very strong and learned some moves unique to his strengths. Kyle overcame the self-doubt he felt during his early wrestling days and became a winner. In his senior year, Kyle won 35 times on the varsity squad and qualified for the state championship. In the state tournament, Kyle won his first three matches and had to face his final opponent with a broken nose. Although Kyle did not win the state championship, he gained a level of self-confidence and became a source of inspiration for everyone that he met.

Kyle graduated high school and attends the University of Georgia, where he continues to wrestle and inspire others. As a member of the Washington Speaker's Bureau, Kyle is regularly asked to give motivational talks. But what he has to say has little to do with his perceived physical differences. Rather, he talks of overcoming fear and doubt and what it takes to compete and win – just as any other champion would do. To this day, Kyle has never been pinned by an opponent. What a fitting metaphor for his life.

 

8 Reasons Why This Is The Dumbest Generation

Bauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. ...

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The Value of Devotion

The doctors told Dick Hoyt that his infant son Rick should be institutionalized. There was no hope, they said, of Rick being anything more than a vegetable.

Four decades later, Rick and Dick Hoyt have competed over 65 marathons, 206 triathlons and hundreds of other events as a father-son team. Rick, whose father was told he was incapable of intellectual activity, graduated from Boston University in 1993. The devotion of this remarkable pair to each other and their goals has enabled them both to accomplish things that neither would have done alone.

During Rick's birth in 1962, the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, cutting off oxygen to his brain. Rick is a spastic quadriplegic, has cerebral palsy, and is unable to speak. Despite the doctors' grim prognosis, Dick and his wife Judy raised him at home and struggled to get him admitted to public schools.

Though Rick could not speak, his parents knew that he was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick convinced a group of engineers from Tufts University to build a "communicator" for his son. By hitting a switch with the side of his head, Rick selects letters to form words and sentences.

Rick was attending public school two years later, when a five-mile benefit run was held for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Rick wanted to participate. Dick was not a runner, but agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. During the run, Rick felt as though he simply wasn't handicapped anymore - he was just one of the runners. Wanting to give Rick this feeling as often as possible, Dick ran in an increasing number of events with his son.

As "Team Hoyt" began competing in earnest in the late 1970s, they were often treated as outsiders and avoided by other competitors. What began as a way for Rick Hoyt to experience inclusion and equality broadened. It became a way to send a message that, as Rick said, "everybody should be included in everyday life." The duo's first Boston Marathon in 1981 yielded a finish in the top quarter of the field, and attitudes began changing. "In the beginning no one would come up to me," recalled Rick. Now, he says, "many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish me luck."

Dick has ran, ridden and swam literally thousands of miles to be with and support his son. This has enabled Rick to live a full and purposeful life - but it turns out that, in a way, Rick has saved his father's life as well. After a mild heart attack, Dick's doctors told him that he may have died 15 years ago if he weren't in such good shape.

Team Hoyt's total commitment to each other and to what they do ensures that they are constantly challenging themselves. In addition to their athletic events, the Hoyts tour the country to speak about their experiences. They have also established the Hoyt Fund, which is supports educational and technological efforts surrounding persons with disabilities. They anticipate running their 26th Boston Marathon in April.

Can you suffer from chronic tiredness?

Learn what chronic tiredness is and how you can manage it.

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Why Does the Brain Need So Much Power?

It is well established that the brain uses more energy than any other human organ, accounting for up to 20 percent of the body's total haul.

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The Face Betrays Deceiver's True Emotions

The researchers were able to discern rare “microexpressions,” flashes of true emotion that show briefly, from one-fifth to one-25th of a second, on the faces of participants when instructed to deceive.

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Scientists Have Found Real Proof that Astrology is Rubbish

Scientists have found astrology to be rubbish. Its central claim - that our human characteristics are moulded by the influence of the Sun, Moon and planets at the time of our birth - appears to have been debunked once and for all and beyond doubt by the most thorough scientific study ever made into it.

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12 Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Free Time

Are you happier at your job, or during your free time? Unless you’ve followed the research of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi you would probably be surprised at the actual answer. He conducted studies which recorded peoples current levels of happiness at random points both during work and off-hours.

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WARNING: Vitamins may increase Risk of Death

Supplements taken by millions may raise risk of premature death, claims new scientific review.

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Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them

You may think you decided to read this story -- but in fact, your brain made the decision long before you knew about it.

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How much would you pay for a memory chip in your brian?

How much would you pay to have a small memory chip implanted in your brain if that chip would double the capacity of your short-term memory? Or guarantee that you would never again forget a face or a name?

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New Drug Treatment Could Cure Alzheimer's Disease in Minutes

Doctors are calling for a clinical trial of an experimental drug treatment that it is claimed can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease "in minutes". U.S. researchers say the treatment allowed an 82-year- old sufferer to recognise his wife for the first time in years.

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NYU professor discovers a new biological clock

This clock, or biological rhythm, controls many metabolic functions and is based on the circadian rhythm, which is a roughly 24-hour cycle that is important in determining sleeping and feeding patterns, cell regeneration, and other biological processes in mammals.

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9 Things to Stop Worrying about Right Now

From eggs raising cholesterol to cold weather giving you a cold, Health magazine busts the biggest health myths out there.

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Hormone Therapy Health Risks

Hormone Therapy Health Risks

A new study evaluated the health risks and benefits of estrogen and progestin therapy and found an increased risk of fatal and nonfatal illnesses (malignancies).

Researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, reported that the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial of estrogen plus progestin was stopped early, after a mean of 5.6 years of follow-up, because the overall health risks of hormone therapy exceeded its benefits.

The study analyzed health outcomes three years (mean 2.4 years of follow-up) after the intervention was stopped.

The intervention phase was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of estrogen plus progestin (conjugated equine estrogens 0.625 milligrams daily plus medroxyprogesterone acetate 2.5 milligrams daily) in 16,608 women aged 50-79 years. The post-intervention phase commenced July 8, 2002 and included 15,730 women.

The primary end points were coronary heart disease and invasive breast cancer. A global index summarizing the balance of risks and benefits included the two primary end points plus stroke, pulmonary embolism, endometrial cancer, colorectal cancer, hip fracture and death due to other causes.

The study found that after the intervention, cardiovascular risk was comparable by initial randomized assignments: 1.97 percent (annualized rate) in the hormone therapy group (343 events) and 1.91 percent in the placebo group (323 events).

The researchers observed a greater risk of malignancies in the estrogen plus progestin group than in the placebo group (1.56 percent vs. 1.26 percent). More breast cancers were diagnosed in women who had been randomly assigned to receive hormone therapy vs. placebo (0.42 percent vs. 0.33 percent) with a modest trend toward a lower hazard ratio during the follow-up after the intervention.

All-cause mortality was somewhat higher in the estrogen plus progestin group than in the placebo group (1.20 percent vs. 1.06 percent).

The global index of risks and benefits was unchanged from randomization through March 31, 2005, indicating that the risks of estrogen plus progestin therapy exceed the benefits for chronic disease prevention, reported the researchers.

The increased cardiovascular risks in the women assigned to hormone therapy during the intervention period were not observed after the intervention.

The study authors concluded that a greater risk of fatal and nonfatal malignancies occurred after the intervention in the estrogen plus progestin group and the global risk index was 12 percent higher in women randomly assigned to receive conjugated equine estrogens plus medroxyprogesterone acetate compared with placebo.

Integrative therapies with good scientific evidence in the treatment of menopause include calcium, sage and soy.

Calcium is the nutrient consistently found to be the most important for attaining peak bone mass and preventing osteoporosis. Adequate vitamin D intake is required for optimal calcium absorption. Adequate calcium and vitamin D are deemed essential for the prevention of osteoporosis in general, including postmenopausal osteoporosis. There is a link between lower dietary intake of calcium and symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. Calcium supplementation has been suggested in various clinical trials to decrease overall symptoms associated with PMS, such as depressed mood, water retention and pain.

Sage (Salvia officinalis) may contain compounds with mild estrogenic activity. In theory, estrogenic compounds may decrease the symptoms of menopause. Sage has been tested against menopausal symptoms with promising results.

Soy (Glycine max) products containing isoflavones have been studied for the reduction of menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes. The scientific evidence is mixed in this area, with several human trials suggesting a reduced number of hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms, but more recent research reporting no benefits. Overall, the scientific evidence does suggest benefits, although better quality studies are needed in this area in order to form a firm conclusion.

Integrative therapies with fair negative evidence in the treatment of menopause include boron, evening primrose oil and wild yam.

Boron is a trace mineral found in soil, water and some foods. It has been proposed that boron affects estrogen levels in post-menopausal women. However, preliminary studies have found no changes in menopausal symptoms.

Available studies do not show evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) oil to be helpful with these potential complications of menopause. Small human studies do not report that evening primrose oil is helpful for the symptoms of PMS.

Despite popular belief, no natural progestins, estrogens or other reproductive hormones are found in wild yam. Its active ingredient, diosgenin, is not converted to hormones in the human body. Artificial progesterone has been added to some wild yam products. The belief that there are hormones in wild yam may be due to the historical fact that progesterone, androgens and cortisone were chemically manufactured from Mexican wild yam in the 1960s. From Natural Standard