By Sarah McKay, Ph.D I’ve been writing this brain health blog since April, and very quickly it has become one of my life’s great passions—my “north star.” I wake up every morning buzzing with excitement and feeling so blessed I’m doing what I love. Besides trying my hardest to be the best Mum and wife I can be, my passion…
A mother and pediatrician extols the many benefits of yoga for children
Last year my friend Sarah got pregnant and immediately kicked into mother mode. She switched to only organic products, researched natural childbirth, began training with a hypno-birth program, and started a regimen of vitamin supplements to ensure the baby’s physical, mental, and intellectual health. This kid was going to have the best possible head start. After 10 weeks, when her…
Did you know that according to the American Chiropractic Association, 31 million Americans experience low back pain on any given day? It’s the leading cause of disability and the most common reason for missing work, and it costs us more than $50 billion per year! But most back pain isn’t the result of serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture, or…
By Douglas LaBier, Ph.D. In a previous post I described new research showing that a sense of purpose in life is linked with greater longevity. That’s just one of an increasing number of studies that add to the recognition that we are biological-psychological-spiritual-social beings. All dimensions—internal and external—interact with each other and shape our total experience of life: our overall health, level…
I bought it as an expensive, therapeutically perfect gift for a stressed-out friend with back, foot, teeth, and job pain. What better present to give her than one hour of being held, with no obligations or responsibilities to the holder (which, in this case, is 10 inches of skin-temperature water with so much Epsom salts—1,000 pounds—that you are weightless and…
I read a terrific article in Outside magazine about “The Best Meditation Retreats in the U.S.,” and it reminded me that sometimes it’s important to take time for ourselves and get out of our day-to-day routines to really rewire. I was fortunate enough to visit two of the places on Outside’s list, and each of them contributed to my rewiring…
How can anyone not love magnets? They’re about as close as we can get to magic, with their ability to move things around invisibly and defy gravity by picking up nails right off the floor. And how about the North Pole, which manages to make a tiny compass needle thousands of miles away point toward it? Physicists long ago determined…
We know that stress—especially of the traumatic variety—can affect the shape and function of structures in the brain. For example, studies on survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reveal that the amygdala (the almond-shaped threat and danger detection center of the brain) can actually enlarge in the presence of an ongoing, unmitigated survival response. Conversely, the hippocampus (a horseshoe-shaped entity…
