Why would a non-vegetarian try to defend vegetarianism? It is a pure coincidence that I had the idea for this blog piece a couple days before David Foster Wallace died, and my piece on him mentioned his essay of ‘Consider the lobster’ (free audio download, text of his essay). So when I listened to his…
enriched environment
brain health, enriched environment
Brain storming for better brain health and potential prosperity
by Ward • • 0 Comments
Using your brain, living in an ‘enriched environment’, is one of the best, cheapest, and easiest ways to maintain (or improve) your brain health. We have all heard about brain storming – which sounds like some corporate brain drain of individual brain cpu cycles. People also do individual brain storming for coming up with new…
brain health, enriched environment
Is having no fixed address good for your brain health ?
by Ward • • 1 Comment
One general idea is that we need to constantly challenge ourselves to keep the brain and body healthy. Not only challenge ourselves with new physical and mental tasks, but also challenge some of our long held beliefs and behavioral patterns. We have the basic needs of food, water and shelter. Humans have advanced to the…
brain fitness, brain health, enriched environment, exercise
How a road trip is good for your brain health
by Ward • • 2 Comments
Taking a road trip, or most other forms of travel for that matter, is good for your brain health because you are constantly exposed to novelty (assuming you don’t keep on taking the same trip). And we know from previous research (see this post on enriched environment) that novelty increases brain health by promoting neurogenesis.…
enriched environment, exercise, lifespan, longevity
45 minutes of vigorous exercise 6 days a week 52 weeks a year to increase your survival rate.
by Ward • • 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia Yesterday, I wrote a piece about a recent paper that found that runners had a higher survival rate and a lower rate of disability as they aged compared to non-runners. While I had a few problems with the study in the end I agreed with the authors conclusions (mainly a problem of…
brain health, enriched environment
Meditation can change gene expression
by Ward • • 5 Comments
A recent paper (freely available at PLOS one) is reporting how relaxation response (RR) (a form of meditation) changed whole blood gene expression. In the introduction they report previous research that found that meditation decreases oxygen consumption, reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. The current paper wanted to look at more the underlying molecular…
enriched environment, exercise, lifespan
Walking speed.
by Ward • • 2 Comments
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Yesterday, I posted a piece about research that indicates that walking speed is a good predictor for mortality in 70-79 year old (original research paper). I then challenged people to see if they could walk as fast as the those people in their 70s. “Now most of you reading…
enriched environment, exercise
The good side of high gas prices – better health?
by Ward • • 2 Comments
Image via Wikipedia Will the high gas prices increase the number of people walking and biking to get groceries and work and lead to a turn around in the obesity rate in developed countries? I previously wrote about: diabetes, obesity and gasoline keep on rising and now Wired has a piece on their site, “Rising…
brain health, enriched environment, genetics
Do ‘smart’ people live longer and what does this mean for Americans?
by Ward • • 4 Comments
: and why fly research does not always translate to humans. We all have heard, or read, that the lifespan of humans has steadily climbed over the centuries and the recent decades. This trend is generally true, but not absolute. The latest research published in the May 14, 2008 issue of PLoS ONE (complete text…
brain fitness, brain health, enriched environment, exercise
Combining exercise and an enriched environment: walking book club
by Ward • • 3 Comments
In previous posts (here, here, here, here) I have explained how the two simplest things you can do for better brain and body health is live in an enriched environment (new learning, novelty, etc), and exercise. But we all are limited by time. That is why I was quite excited by a post by Alvaro…