Simple, healthy choices can decrease the risk of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, is a marker that the darkest days are behind us and the sun is going to be shining longer each of the coming days as we end one year to begin another. Unfortunately, by the time that we reach this milestone and a promise of a less distant Spring, your body may still be suffering ill effects from the recent…
Suicide prevention efforts shift towards improving mental health of everyone Renowned chef Anthony Bourdain has been found dead in France while working on CNN program. He’s part of an age cohort with rising suicide rates in the U.S. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press) The deaths this week of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and designer Kate Spade come at at a time when new numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show suicide is on the rise. The CDC said…
Gut health could be the biggest trend in the health field right now. Everywhere I turn people are discussing the importance of their gut health and how it is linked to their overall health, as well as the benefits of probiotics. And, for good reason: a growing body of research shows that what happens in our gut expands well beyond the gut. Now new research shows that the health of your gut is significantly influenced by what you eat. A…
There’s a link between your emotional health and your physical well-being, so take time to nurture both. To be completely healthy, you should take care not only of your physical health, but your emotional health, too. If one is neglected, the other will suffer. What’s the Connection Between Emotional and Physical Health? There’s a physical connection between what the mind is thinking and those parts of the brain that control bodily functions. According to Charles Goodstein, MD, a clinical professor…
We shortchange our well-being by reserving this resource just for Thanksgiving. “When I look back on the suffering in my life, this may sound really strange, but I see it now as a gift. I would have never asked for it for a second. I hated it while it was happening and I protested as loudly as I could, but suffering happened anyway. Now, in retrospect I see the way in which it deepened my being immeasurably.” ~Ram Dass It’s…
Do you find that food deeply affects your mood? Science is beginning to back up such gut feelings. The link between poor diet and mood disorders has been long known, but what has been less clear is the direction of causality. When we’re depressed, we tend to reach for lower-quality comfort foods, but can more comfort foods contribute to depression? And if we’re depressed, can improving our diets improve our symptoms? New research is helping to pave the way toward…
What is oxalate? Oxalate is a naturally occurring molecule found in abundance in plants and humans. It’s not a required nutrient for people, and too much can lead to kidney stones. In plants, oxalate helps to get rid of extra calcium by binding with it. That is why so many high-oxalate foods are from plants. In humans, it may work as a “prebiotic,” feeding good bacteria in the gut. How does the body process it? When we eat foods with…
The probiotic buffered the body against the damaging effects of stress. Depression has been reversed in mice by feeding them probiotic bacteria, new research reports. Lactobacillus is a type of ‘good’ bacteria found in yogurt, among other foods. The role of the gut microbiome — the bacteria which live in our gut — has become a focus of research interest recently. Dr Alban Gaultier, who led the study, said: “The big hope for this kind of research is that we…
Cannabis has been stigmatized for decades, but scientists and society cannot deny that the plant’s active ingredients, known as Cannabinoids, provide a natural remedy to a host of health issues. While CBD, extracted from the cannabis plant, is structurally similar to THC, part of the allure is that it won’t get you high. “CBD is now the most researched cannabinoid on the market and rightly so because the studies go back to the 1940s proving its effectiveness on the nervous…
If getting a good night’s sleep is not on your list of New Year’s resolutions, you might be setting yourself up for failure with the other goals on your list, including health-related ones, according to a sleep specialist from Ryerson University. “If you’re having poor quality sleep it can actually interfere with some of your weight loss and weight maintenance goals,” said Colleen Carney, director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson University. “It actually affects your metabolism, your…