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…
How would your life change if you could have what ABC News reports as “an orgasm for the brain?” Let’s set the stage. Think back to a time when you experienced pleasure from the feeling of being touched (nonsexually). Maybe it was your back or your forehead or the nape of your neck. Or perhaps you were receiving a shave,…
We all know that internet porn is tremendously popular. Its dominance on the Internet is nothing short of stunning. According to Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, there are more visits to pornography sites each month than to Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined. A quick Google search reveals some startling stats: “Sex videos”: 480 million links “Video porn”:…
Writing about visiting her mother who has Alzheimer’s disease, Priscilla Warner observes, “I try not to go with expectations, but that’s hard, since… I want my visits to go well. But it’s hard to define ‘well’ when my mother doesn’t know who I am.” Watching her mother deteriorate over time, Warner sometimes forgets herself and asks (then immediately regrets), “What…
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…
Music can provide therapeutic benefits
I’ve been doing a bit of traveling lately. Today I dropped in on the neighborhood where I grew up in Ohio, then headed off to an artist colony in New Mexico where I’d spent time in the late ’90s. Next came Traverse City, Michigan; Mojacar, Spain; and Ojai, California. No, I don’t have a private jet. I’ve been cyberstalking the…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, current life expectancy in the United States is about 79 years. Of course, many factors determine life span, and the aging process is accelerated by stress, disease, and trauma, both physical and emotional. But can we reverse the aging process? Findings reported in Genome Journal by Steve Horvath, Ph.D., Sc.D., professor of…
