Morning Routine: How Waking Up Earlier Can Help Weight Loss. Being slimmer could be as simple as waking up early for some morning sunshine, US researchers suggested on Wednesday. A small study of 54 volunteers showed that the leanest ones did not necessarily eat better or exercise more than the rest. They simply were exposed to more bright daylight earlier in the day.
The findings by Northwestern University researchers are published in the journal PLOS ONE. "The earlier this light exposure occurred during the day, the lower individuals' body mass index," said co-lead author Kathryn Reid, research associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "The later the hour of moderately bright light exposure, the higher a person's BMI. " Participants' average age was 30. They wore wrist monitors to measure their light exposure and sleep cycles, and kept food logs for the duration of the seven-day study. The study found morning light accounted for about 20 per cent of a person's body mass index (BMI). Meditation Health Benefits: What The Practice Does To Your Body. We hear it all the time: Meditation can improve our creative thinking, our energy, stress levels and even our success.
Prominent artists, businessmen and politicians cop to the practice. Would it work for you? "It did to my mind what going to the gym did to my body -- it made it both stronger and more flexible," said Dr. Hedy Kober, a neuroscientist who who studies the effects of mindfulness meditation, which she has practiced for 10 years, at her lab at Yale University. She admitted during a TED Talk that she started meditating to deal with a break up, but found that it helped her handle stress and unpleasant feelings in all areas of her life. Studies show that meditation is associated with improvement in a variety of psychological areas, including stress, anxiety, addiction, depression, eating disorders and cognitive function, among others. For one thing, it changes our brain. "Think of the end of a neuron as a hand, with thousands of 'fingers,'" said Dr. Want to learn more? Organize your mind to organize your life.
The brain was not designed to focus on more than one thing at a time. The connection between disorganized minds and unhealthy habits is compellingBefore you can focus your attention, you must tame negative emotionsExercise, deep breathing or meditation, and a good night's sleep all help mentally Editor's note: Margaret Moore (aka Coach Meg) is the co-author of "Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life. " She is the director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital and the founder and CEO of Wellcoaches Corporation. (CNN) -- If there's one big lesson I've learned over the past decade while training thousands of health and wellness coaches and coaching many clients, it's this: An organized mind enables full engagement in a health-giving style of life.
The kind of organization I'm talking about is not decluttering your office or home, or purchasing the latest app to organize to-dos and projects. We know that disorganization is not just a problem of ADHD sufferers. Dr. CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. Men who are narcissistic may be at higher risk for more health problems - latimes.com. Unhealthy narcissism was linked with higher cortisol levels in men in a… (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles…) Men who are narcissists may be at risk for some health problems, since they could have inherently higher levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol even when they're not under pressure, a study finds.
Cortisol, which is released by the body when it's under duress or going through an intense activity, can have some benefits--lending an energy surge, helping the body burn fat, and boosting memory. But too much cortisol from chronic stress can have deleterious effects, such as higher blood pressure, lower immunity and higher levels of abdominal fat. Researchers tested the saliva of 106 undergraduate students (79 women, 27 men) twice in a lab setting to check their cortisol levels.
At those times the students were not under stress. The authors noted that more research is needed to determine why men who are narcissists have higher cortisol levels compared with women. Nurturing mothers rear physically healthier adults. Nurturing mothers have garnered accolades for rescuing skinned knees on the playground and coaxing their children to sleep with lullabies. Now they're gaining merit for their offspring's physical health in middle age.
In a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science, Brandeis psychologist Margie Lachman with Gregory Miller and colleagues at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Los Angeles reveal that while children raised in families with low socioeconomic status (SES) frequently go on to have high rates of chronic illness in adulthood, a sizable minority remain healthy across the life course. The research sought to examine if parental nurturance could mitigate the effects of childhood disadvantage. "The literature is very clear that people who are low in socioeconomic status have worse health than their same age counterparts," says Lachman, a phenomenon called the social gradient in health. The study is innovative in several ways. Breast cancer survivors benefit from practicing Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. Women recently diagnosed with breast cancer have higher survival rates than those diagnosed in previous decades, according to the American Cancer Society.
However, survivors continue to face health challenges after their treatments end. Previous research reports as many as 50 percent of breast cancer survivors are depressed. Now, University of Missouri researchers in the Sinclair School of Nursing say a meditation technique can help breast cancer survivors improve their emotional and physical well-being. Yaowarat Matchim, a former nursing doctoral student; Jane Armer, professor of nursing; and Bob Stewart, professor emeritus of education and adjunct faculty in nursing, found that breast cancer survivors' health improved after they learned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a type of mindfulness training that incorporates meditation, yoga and physical awareness.
"MBSR is another tool to enhance the lives of breast cancer survivors," Armer said. Exercise May Alleviate Brain Fatigue. Humans are still evolving: study. Even though humans are still evolving, don’t expect any winged mutants. On TV shows like “Heroes” and movies like “X-Men, ordinary people seem to evolve to have extraordinary capabilities. But people in real life don’t have genetic mutations that give rise to extraordinary capabilities such as telepathy or wings. But human evolution is still happing according to scientists. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science has published a new study that offers some if the best evidence so far. Researchers at the University of Quebec at Montreal examined a very detailed database of church records for residents of Ile aux Coudres, a tiny island northeast of Quebec City, Quebec, between 1799 and 1940.
The data allowed scientists to track the ages at which female residents had their first-born children. The evolutionary change is likely due to falling mortality rates, says Stearns. But why does the study consider the mother’s age at first birth a genetic trait rather than a cultural one? Via CNN. Trying to Be ‘Supermom’ Can Raise Risk for Depression. But study finds that working moms are less depressed than stay-at-home counterparts. By Jenifer GoodwinHealthDay Reporter SATURDAY, Aug. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Working moms are less likely to show symptoms of depression than stay-at-home moms, a new study finds.
However, working moms who don't cut themselves any slack and have unrealistic expectations about how easy it will be to balance work and family have higher levels of depression than their more laid-back counterparts. Researchers analyzed survey results from 1,600 married U.S. women who had children at home and were participating in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The responses to the outdated statements were actually intended to ferret out women's attitudes toward work-life balance by seeing how seamless they thought it would be to juggle work and family. Then, at age 40, researchers measured their levels of depression. So how can working moms cope? More information Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. Submit your opinion: Of Oscars, Orangutans & Oxytocin, Friendship Tales. "A Night at the Oscars" suburban bonding ritual I had a wonderful time last night at a "Night at the Oscars" party hosted by a creative neighbor.
The scene was set with flowers in plastic red and white striped popcorn boxes, signs outside saying "limo parking," champagne cocktails with bitters and a twist of lemon, and vintage record-shaped wineglass markers. There were even Oscar Bingo sheets with check boxes based on outfits worn, length of acceptance speeches, and who won. Drinks and great appetizers aside, the pleasure of the evening was not in watching this year's relatively toned down Oscars, but in the emotional venting, gossiping about celebrities, and sharing of funny stories about (working) motherhood in suburbia. And, all across the nation, groups of women were doing the same thing.
Research studies tell us that across different species, females seek out and maintain same-sex friendships. Orangutans choose to live separately by gender Female bats hanging out together. Delving Into the Mystery of Placebos. Researchers found power of effect countered results of breathing tests in asthma patients. By Randy DotingaHealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, July 13 (HealthDay News) -- A new study finds that the power of the placebo effect left asthma patients thinking that real and fake drugs were doing the same level of good, even though the real medication actually had a much greater physical effect on their lungs.
The effect was so strong that it convinced patients they were breathing much better even if they hadn't taken a real drug and hadn't actually improved much, as measured by a breathing test. "The placebo doesn't change the actual breathing in asthma patients. But it changes people's experience of what's going on as much as a real drug does," said study co-author Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. As researchers have long known, you can give a sugar or dummy pill to someone and they often will feel better. So what did the patients think? A Thin Gene Is Linked to Heart Disease and Diabetes Risk Factors - - TIME Healthland. If there’s a universal truth in health news lately, it’s that being overweight isn’t good for your health.
Extra weight, especially in the form of fat, can lead to heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, among other problems. But a new study hints that being lean doesn’t get you entirely off the health hook either. In a genetic analysis involving more than 75,000 people, an international group of scientists led by Ruth Loos at the Medical Research Council in the U.K. found that lean people with a specific genetic variant were at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease despite their lower body fat. MORE: Study: Baked, Broiled — But Not Fried — Fish Is Good for the Heart The key, say the scientists, is to focus on not just the amount of fat, but the type of fat that you might have. What regulates where you store fat? GRAPHIC: A Look Inside the Heart. Mental Yoga: Why Psychological Flexibility Matters. By Jeremy McCarthyOrganic Spa Magazine, May-June 2011 In an era of terrorism and economic decline, materialism is losing its luster in the cultural mindset of the West, and "happiness" seems to be the new trendy measure of success.
We stock our bookshelves with titles like "Authentic Happiness," "The Happiness Project," or "The How of Happiness," and hope that within the pages we will find the key exercises to bring us more joy and fulfillment. Instead, we find a new standard for bliss that seems impossible to attain, and we are left feeling disappointed and frustrated. Over 2,000 years ago Siddhartha Gautama (now known as the Buddha) is said to have found enlightenment while meditating under the Bodhi tree. Finally, the Buddha found enlightenment on "the middle path" between the extremes of sensual indulgence and austere masochism. So what would "mental yoga" look like? Acceptance. Mental yoga is no different. How meditation might ward off the effects of ageing. High in the mountains of northern Colorado, a 100-foot tall tower reaches up through the pinetops.
Brightly coloured and strung with garlands, its ornate gold leaf glints in the sun. With a shape that symbolises a giant seated Buddha, this lofty stupa is intended to inspire those on the path to enlightenment. Visitors here to the Shambhala Mountain Centre meditate in silence for up to 10 hours every day, emulating the lifestyle that monks have chosen for centuries in mountain refuges from India to Japan. But is it doing them any good? For two three-month retreats held in 2007, this haven for the eastern spiritual tradition opened its doors to western science. As attendees pondered the "four immeasurables" of love, compassion, joy and equanimity, a laboratory squeezed into the basement bristled with scientific equipment from brain and heart monitors to video cameras and centrifuges. The aim: to find out exactly what happens to people who meditate.
It's not just an abstract concept. Dear 16 Year Old Me, The Spread Of Social Obesity. Religion Linked to High Blood Pressure. What's the Latest Development? A study conducted by medical students at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine has found that religiosity appears to have little affect on preventing hypertension, or high blood pressure, and those study participants proclaiming to be the most religious were actually the most likely to have hypertension. "No amount of standing and kneeling at church can compensate for a sprawling ham dinner, or other large meal, after services," says Cristopher Wanjek. Wanjek does not object to faith-based health projects, but thinks worldly advice about a eating well and exercising right should accompany the spiritual lessons of faith.
What's the Big Idea? Many studies have concluded there are some health benefits to religious participation, which has typically meant attending a weekly service. Get Started: From Overweight to Healthy | zen habits. Post written by Leo Babauta. Make one change today. If you’re overweight and unmotivated to change your life drastically, just make a tiny change. You’re not alone. There are more overweight people today than ever before, as a percentage of our population and in sheer numbers. I’ve been overweight (65 pounds heavier than I am today) and I know that it doesn’t feel good. I also know that when we’re overweight, we often go into denial. We think it’s not a problem, or that we’re not that unhealthy, or that it’s something we can fix later. If it were just a body-image thing, I’d say learn to love your body — and I believe that. Scary stuff. But how do you start getting healthier and fitter? For me, it started with quitting smoking (which is a big change), but then I took up running (starting with just 10 minutes), and then I started changing my diet in little ways.
One small change leads to another, forming a spiral of success. What Change to Start With 1. 2. 3. 4. How to Make That One Change.