If you become ill, usually you can pinpoint a reason. A stiff, swollen joint, for example, might be due to injury or to a chronic disease like arthritis, while an upset stomach might be due to food poisoning. The causes of depression are harder to pin down. And unfortunately, they
Being Sedentary Is Like a Disease
It’s well established that exercise is important for good health, but a study published in JAMA Network Open in October reported that there is no upper limit for benefits. After administering a treadmill test to 122,007 people and later recording their mortality rates over a
Moderate drinking (one or two glasses a day) shouldn’t affect your cognitive function and may even provide some mild benefits. But chronic alcohol abuse can lead to alcohol-induced dementia due to the combined toxic effects of alcohol and the nutritional deficiencies often associated with alcoholism. In fact, heavy drinking (more
Your age, race, gender, and genes. You can’t do anything about them, and if they increase your odds of hypertension, they already have you at a disadvantage.
You need a weapon to help you fight back and try to even out the odds.
Fortunately, your lifestyle is that weapon—perhaps the best one!
“What causes depression?” is a question many of us have asked. Responses are all over the map, but it’s fair to say that depression is a disease. Research supports this by demonstrating key differences in the brains of those who are depressed and those who are not.
The Effects of Brain
Although insomnia is a common problem—literally, thousands of people suffer from it—not everyone experiences the same type of insomnia.
The National Sleep Foundation identifies two primary categories of insomnia:
Short-term (acute) insomnia lasts a few nights and can be caused by worry, stress, grief, or another situation that affects us temporarily.
Long-term (chronic)
Although our conscious mind is closed to the outside world when we sleep, the rest of our body is not at rest. If you think of the body as a machine, sleep puts it in “idle” mode so that repairs can be made. Hundreds of biological processes continue: The heart
A Little Exercise Can Go a Long Way in Improving Memory
Your memory may benefit from even very light workouts, such as a 10-minute session of yoga or tai chi. Researchers in California and Japan found greater connectivity in the hippocampus—the region associated with memory formation and storage—in people after just
If you believe the advertisements and label claims of America’s booming supplement industry, there’s hardly any need to bother with an overall healthy dietary pattern or choosing foods associated with brain power benefits. Simply popping a pill—or a handful of pills—you can make up for any nutritional shortfalls in your
The science of whether some dietary choices are really “brain food” continues to unfold. Given the long time frames of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, it’s challenging to prove any cause-and-effect relationship between specific foods and brain health. Most such associations are drawn from observational studies, in
You are trying to access subscribers-only content. If you are a subscriber, use the form below to log in.
Subscribers will have unlimited access to the magazine that helps people live more sustainable, self-reliant lives, with feature stories on tending the garden, managing the homestead, raising healthy livestock and more!
You are trying to access subscribers-only content. If you are a subscriber, use the form below to log in.
Subscribers will have unlimited access to the magazine that helps the small-scale poultry enthusiast raise healthy, happy, productive flocks for eggs, meat or fun - from the countryside to the urban homestead!
