Author: Dr. Dean
Walking on sunshine
80-year Harvard study claims to have found the secret to health and happiness
(MarketWatch)
There are some things that money can’t buy. True friends and happiness are among them. In fact, an 80-year-long study at Harvard University claims good pals are the key to a happy life.Scientists began tracking the health of 268 Harvard sophomores in 1938, and have continued the study over the past eight decades. The original participants included President John F. Kennedy and longtime Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, according to the Harvard Gazette. The study originally only included men, as Harvard didn’t admit women at that time, but the ongoing research has expanded, and now includes 1,300 of the original participants’ offspring. In the 1970s, 456 Boston inner-city residents were added to the study.
“The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health,” Robert Waldinger, director of the study and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, told the Harvard Gazette. “Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.” That, he said, is more important than money or fame. “Loneliness kills,” he added. “It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.”
Young People In England Are At The Epicenter Of Britain’s Loneliness Epidemic
Britain, alongside other wealthy nations, has a loneliness epidemic and it’s killing people. The UK government even appointed a loneliness minister to tackle the problem.
And contrary to assumptions about the problem being a consequence of aging, it seems that young people are at the heart of the crisis.
Data released by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week show that adults aged 16 to 24 years in England reported feeling lonely more often than those over 65.
Instagram! Patient Zero For The Orthorexia Epidemic Or Meeting Ground For Recovery?
(Mic)
People with orthorexia are overly concerned with whether their food is “pure,” “healthy” and “clean” enough, and often restrict their diet to a small number of “safe” foods. Those foods tend to be fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and little else.
While anorexia is an obsession with controlling the amount of food consumed, orthorexia is an obsession with controlling the quality of food consumed. The disorder is thought to have a close connection to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Many people, like Coleman, are believed to experience both anorexia and orthorexia concurrently.
Either way, you seem to end up talking a lot about kale looking at even more pictures of food. I wouldn’t know since I avoid both Kale and Instagarm. Though I am told by people in the know I have a lot of followers for someone who has never posted.
The Omnivores Dilemma
As you may know Peter Gabriel titled his first handful of solo albums just Peter Gabriel. Later critics and fans would start to differentiate them names like Peter Gabriel/Car, Peter Gabriel/Scratch. I’ve always felt that Peter Gabriel was being cheeky in his choice of titles but simply say here is some music I did, here’s some more. In starting The Omnivores Dilemma it became quickly apparent to me that Michale Pollan is just telling one big long story. It just happens to be broken up into books you can read as stand-alone pieces should you choose. I choose not to.
I am choosing to go back and read the earlier books I have missed. I want to read them in order and then pick back up with In Defense of Food. I feel like I have stumbled onto this really great show, but it is already in its fifth season. So I owe it to myself and the show to start from the beginning.
Apple’s sorta powered by 100 percent renewable energy worldwide
Apple announced today that its business is now powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources. The news is a major victory that the iPhone maker has been working toward for years through the purchase of green energy bonds and other renewable investments in its supply chain and physical infrastructure. The company’s last milestone, announced two years ago, was 93 percent of its worldwide operations running on clean energy.
The announcement comes just one week after Google announced that it now purchases enough renewable energy to offset its global energy consumption. Similarly, Apple’s global operations, including some suppliers in China and facilities in places without access to clean energy, are not technically 100 percent renewable, meaning not every single joule or electron used is initially created by wind, solar, or other green energy plants and farms.
Hooray!!! (sorta)
Yes, Studying the Humanities Might Make You a Better Person
Slate
Researchers found that the higher the humanities exposure, the higher these students scored on measures of empathy, wisdom, tolerance of ambiguity, resourcefulness, and emotional intelligence, and the lower they scored in signs of burnout.
From personal experience, the people most in need of greater “empathy, wisdom, tolerance of ambiguity, resourcefulness, and emotional intelligence” are the last to ever think they are deficient in any way. Additionally, they are also usually void of any interest in any aspect of the humanities.
For Chronic Pain, A Change In Habits Can Beat Opioids For Relief
There’s a growing consensus among pain specialists that a low-tech approach focused on lifestyle changes can be more effective . . .
Roughly a third of Americans live with chronic pain, and many of them become dependent on opioids prescribed to treat it. But there’s a growing consensus among pain specialists that a low-tech approach focused on lifestyle changes can be more effective.
This kind of treatment can be more expensive — and less convenient — than a bottle of pills. But pain experts say it can save money over the long term by helping patients get off addictive medications and improving their quality of life.
A Brain-Boosting Prosthesis Moves From Rats To Humans
If you want to get technical, the brain-booster in question is a “closed-loop hippocampal neural prosthesis. Closed loop because the signals passing between each patient’s brain and the computer to which it’s attached are zipping back and forth in near-real-time. Hippocampal because those signals start and end inside the test subject’s hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped region of the brain critical to the formation of memories. “We’re looking at how the neurons in this region fire when memories are encoded and prepared for storage,” says Robert Hampson, a neuroscientist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and lead author of the paper describing the experiment in the latest issue of the Journal of Neural Engineering
Chefs and seed breeders collaborate to create flavorful new foods
From The Splendid Table
The unfortunate reality about seeds is that most are not bred and selected for flavor. Rather, they are chosen specifically for the yield, uniformity and shelf stability of their fruit or vegetable. Chef Dan Barber wants to change that. The chef-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns wants to help create seeds that bring forth new foods with unexpected and unique flavors. Which is why he – along with seedsman Matthew Goldfarb and seed breeder Michael Mazourek – cofounded of a new seed company called Row 7. They work directly with professional chefs, who give guidance on what flavors to breed for in their vegetables. Barber explained to Francis Lam that this type of partnership could change how and what we all eat. See the Cook + Grow section of Row 7’s website for more information on growing and cooking with their unique produce.
Dean’s List 