Davis and col-leagues (3) provide useful new data that enhance our un-derstanding of the effects of hospitalists on health sys-tems. In their study of a voluntary hospitalist system at alarge rural nonteaching hospital in Mississippi, theyfound that patients cared for by hospitalists had adjustedhospital stays that were 25% shorter, and costs that were12% less, than patients cared for by nonhospitalist inter-nists. For patients in the highest severity group, these sav-ings were even greater. Annualized, the authors extrapo-late that the hospitalists would have saved $2.5 millionhad they cared for all of the internists’ patients. As withprior studies that found similar reductions in resourceuse (4 –7), these substantial savings were achieved with-out diminishing quality or patient satisfaction. Nor wasthere evidence of cost shifting: hospitalists’ patients wereno less likely to be discharged to home (instead of anotherinstitution such as a skilled nursing facility) than werepatients of primary care internists. We can now state withconsiderable confidence that hospitalists markedly de-crease inpatient costs and lengths of stay with no compro-mise in quality or patient satisfaction.

Meditation can not only provide a welcome counterweight to this work with abstractions, it also cultives 10 qualities of character (Pali: paramis) that are useful during the practice of programming.

Polls show that doctors are trusted by the public more than politicians, which means it’s hard for public policy to shape the healthcare system unless medical associations sign off on it.

“It’s about embracing the inscrutable nature of human interactions,” says Chang. Evidence-based medicine was a massive improvement over intuition-based medicine, he says, but it only covers traditionally quantifiable data, or those things that are easy to measure. But we’re now quantifying information that was considered qualitative a generation ago.

“Our biggest opportunity is leaning into that. It’s either embracing the qualitative nature of that and designing systems that can act just on the qualitative nature of their experience, or figuring how to quantitate some of those qualitative measures,” says Chang. “That’ll get us much further, because the real value in health care systems is in the human interactions. My relationship with you as a doctor and a patient is far more valuable than the evidence that some trial suggests.”

Duffy points to the increase in health care interactions online and adds that he would like to see a pervasive culture of in-person care as last resort. “If every organizational decision, technology decision, process decision — assuming all the payment stuff, that’s kind of ticket of entry, transpires — if you view in-person as last resort, that will help pull systems across the country to a more consumer-forward Uber-like experience,” he says

As with other forms of value-based health care, patient-centered care requires a shift in the way provider practices and health systems are designed, managed, and reimbursed. In keeping with the tenets of patient-centeredness, this shift neither happens in a vacuum, it driven by traditional hierarchies in which providers or clinicians are the lone authority. Everyone, from the parking valet and environmental services staff to c-suite members, are engaged in the process, which impacts hiring, training, leadership style, and organizational culture. Patient-centered care also represents a shift in the traditional roles of patients and their families from one of passive “order taker” to one of active “team member.” One of the country’s leading proponents of patient-centered care, Dr. James Rickert, has stated that one of the basic tenets of patient-centered care is that “patients know best how well their health providers are meeting their needs.” To that end, many providers are implementing patient satisfaction surveys, patient and family advisory councils, and focus groups, and using the resulting information to continuously improve the way health care facilities and provider practices are designed, managed, and maintained from both a physical and operational perspective so they become centered more on the individual person than on a checklist of services provided. As the popularity of patient- and family-centered health care increases, it is expected that patients will become more engaged and satisfied with the delivery of their care, and evidence of its clinical efficacy should continue to mount.

Poor health literacy is a silent and ubiquitous health care issue, and the field of neurosurgery is particularly prone to the consequent adverse effects. Failure to address low health literacy has several detrimental health and economic consequences, and numerous policies have been initiated to address these. Better facilitating patient understanding of neurosurgical disease, treatment options, and care surrounding the operative period may have a positive impact on the health care economy and ultimately achieve improved outcomes for patients.

Deyo et al. (8) demonstrated a reduction in the adverse impact of inadequate health literacy in the neurosurgical field. The impact of an interactive videodisc program that informs patients of their treatment options for back surgery on patient outcome and surgical choices was evaluated. The program helped facilitate decision making and ensured informed consent. It also reduced surgery rates for patients with herniated disks. The authors of this study also implemented the use of patient-oriented multimedia to augment comprehension and advocated a similar strategy for other clinicians. Further commitment is needed to put health literacy at the forefront of improving health care and reducing health expenditures, especially in neurosurgery.

Paasche-Orlow et al. (18) suggested 3 principles to ameliorate health literacy disparities. The first is to promote productive interactions. Clinicians need to develop better communication abilities and take appropriate measures to ensure adequate comprehension of health information. Educating youth and establishing health literacy standards in the educational system can help improve existing and future health literacy rates. Incorporating health literacy classes as a component of training for health professionals and in studies of preventive services can increase awareness among providers, facilitating better communication and quality of care (19). Additionally, transmitting complex ideas can be aided with the use of technology platforms. Yin et al. (25) investigated the plausibility of a pictogram-based intervention program to reduce medication administration errors. The authors found that when the intervention was used as part of medication counseling, there was a decrease in medication dosage errors compared with standard medication counseling.The second principle is concerned with addressing the organization of health care. Paasche-Orlow et al. advocated patient-centered care, streamlined access to health care, and incentives to promote collaboration to address the needs of the health illiterate population. The U.S. government created and enacted several major policies that address this principle to diminish the adverse effects of poor health literacy. The first is the Affordable Care Act, which stipulates that health plans and insurers must provide understandable and clear health information regarding coverage and benefits (11). Because most Americans receiving coverage through the new legislative act have limited health literacy, standardized information about health care would greatly assist these Americans in making better-informed health decisions (15). Another policy is the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy (22). This is the first plan of its kind to create health literacy goals for the entire country. It intends to provide all Americans with access to accurate health information, deliver patient-focused services, and support learning and skills that improve health. All of these acts and policies have the potential to improve 3 keys to health care: access, quality, and cost.The third principle from the study by Paasche-Orlaw et al. involves establishing an objective and sincere voice for better delivery of health information to the community. Individuals may have appropriate health literacy levels, but other personal or environmental factors can contribute to a lower understanding of vital health information. Ito (9) analyzed Vietnamese refugees who tested positive for inactive tuberculosis and their response to prophylactic tuberculosis treatment. Ito found that the immigrants were more hesitant to complete the medication regimen because the side effects were too “hot.” Instead, the immigrants preferred Asian herbal medications as they were considered “cooling.” Von Goeler et al. (23) investigated diabetes self-management among Puerto Rican adults with type 2 diabetes and found that the participants regularly self-monitored their blood glucose levels. However, they did not use that information to control their diabetes properly because of financial and social barriers such as competing family concerns. Situations such as these call for a voice, a cultural broker, who understands the environmental obstacles to comprehending and using health information fully.

Koh et al. (11) detailed a cycle of crisis care elaborating the nature of high medical costs, possibly resulting from fear and denial. First, an individual is in need of medical help, so he or she goes to a physician's office where the staff asks the individual to fill out a complex and confusing form. The physician examines the patient and explains the condition and treatment options using medical jargon. Numerous prescriptions, laboratory tests, and referrals are given without confirmation of the patient's comprehension. The staff sends the patient home with complicated instructions. Inevitably, the patient may consume medication incorrectly or miss follow-up appointments, and his or her condition worsens. Eventually, the patient presents to the emergency department, and the hospital staff develops a new treatment plan. Again, no one confirms the patient's understanding. When the patient is discharged, he or she is likely to get sick again and repeat the cycle (11)

Silvia’s father went to prison when she was a baby, and served 10 years for selling drugs. Without his support, her mother struggled to provide financially for her and her brother. Her mother also suffered from a mental disorder for which she received SSI. While Silvia was growing up, the family relied on public assistance and ate mostly cheap food such as canned ravioli and Ramen noodles. Silvia remembers being hungry often and recalls that her mother often ignored Silvia and her brother.

They found that an hour after being released in a room at a relative humidity of 23% or less, 70-77% of viral particles retained their infectious capacity, but when humidity was increased to about 43%, only 14% of the virus particles were capable of infecting cells. Most of this inactivation occurred within the first fifteen minutes of the viral particles being released in the high-humidity condition. The study concludes that maintaining indoor relative humidity at levels greater than 40% can significantly reduce the infectious capacity of aerosolized flu virus.

A review of the health effects of relative humidity in indoor environments suggests that relative humidity can affect the incidence of respiratory infections and allergies. Experimental studies on airborne-transmitted infectious bacteria and viruses have shown that the survival or infectivity of these organisms is minimized by exposure to relative humidities between 40 and 70%. Nine epidemiological studies examined the relationship between the number of respiratory infections or absenteeism and the relative humidity of the office, residence, or school. The incidence of absenteeism or respiratory infections was found to be lower among people working or living in environments with mid-range versus low or high relative humidities. The indoor size of allergenic mite and fungal populations is directly dependent upon the relative humidity. Mite populations are minimized when the relative humidity is below 50% and reach a maximum size at 80% relative humidity. Most species of fungi cannot grow unless the relative humidity exceeds 60%. Relative humidity also affects the rate of offgassing of formaldehyde from indoor building materials, the rate of formation of acids and salts from sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, and the rate of formation of ozone. The influence of relative humidity on the abundance of allergens, pathogens, and noxious chemicals suggests that indoor relative humidity levels should be considered as a factor of indoor air quality. The majority of adverse health effects caused by relative humidity would be minimized by maintaining indoor levels between 40 and 60%. This would require humidification during winter in areas with cold winter climates. Humidification should preferably use evaporative or steam humidifiers, as cool mist humidifiers can disseminate aerosols contaminated with allergens.

Ambient (outdoor) air quality and health

health of the Internet.

So a weighted blanket it is. “We’re not understanding how to deal with [mental health]. Instead, we’re throwing products at it,” says Beautiful Voyager’s Arthur. “It’s very American.”

So, yes, meditation apps may help us meditate, and meditation may reduce anxiety. Weighted blankets may calm us down long enough to fall and stay asleep, which will help us feel better the next day. And fidget devices can distract us so that instead of ruminating on negative thoughts, we’re expending mental energy on something physical.

There are plenty of places to point fingers: your phone, the president, climate change, the recession, FOMO, divorce, social media, student debt, terrorism, the 24-hour news cycle, the economy, “the economy,” living farther from family, toxins in your gut, too many choices, too little sleep, too little sex. Or maybe we’re just overdiagnosing anxiety and actually, everything’s fine.

mental health and addiction services

medical care

Matthew Mayer, a professor of educational psychology at Rutgers’ Graduate School of Education, says that among experts the best solutions to school shootings are not really in dispute: basic gun control, more and better mental-health services and a robust national threat-assessment program. We also need to help educators create an atmosphere where students who hear about a potential threat feel comfortable sharing that information with adults. (Many student shooters, including Gabe Parker at Marshall County, hint about their plans to at least one other person or tell them outright. Getting those others to inform teachers is one of our best options for preventing shootings from happening in the first place.) In February, Mayer and his colleagues circulated an eight-point document titled “A Call for Action to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States of America,” which summarized these and other key actions needed to reduce the risk of school shootings. So far, 4,400 educators and public-health experts have signed it. But political will is still missing. “We keep revisiting the same conversations every five or six years without learning or changing much of anything,” Mayer says. “Armed guards and metal detectors make it look like you’re doing something. You get far fewer points for talking about school climate and mental health.”

The technical and theoretical details underlying clinical informatics are beyond the scope of this chapter. What follows is a concise introduction to topics and resources of general interest in this field, presented to help clinicians use information technology for the benefit of patient care.

Satisfaction with cost to you88.93

Convenience of location for you84.17

Friendliness and courtesy of the staff78.63 High

Accuracy and completeness in filling out reports73.66

Skill and competency of medical staff

Speed in completing examination and reports

Transcriptome-wide association study of schizophrenia and chromatin activity yields mechanistic disease insights

There are many resources available to help you and your health care proxy develop a care plan. These are merely suggestions to get you thinking about possible scenarios and topics to discuss. I hope you found this blog informative, and urge you to share it with anyone who does not have a health care proxy. We always think it will never happen to us, but what if it does? It's best to be prepared!

Further, a doctor, medical center, hospital, EMT, and even assisted living staff can make decisions regarding your healthcare, treatment methods and type of medical care to provide you if you are not married, over 18 years old, and do not have a health care proxy in place

Who would decide what was best for you? Who would advocate on your behalf?

Health care proxy: An advance medical directive in the form of a legal document that designates another person (a proxy) to make health care decisions in case a person is rendered incapable of making his or her wishes known.

The question each proxy should ask when making decisions on behalf of others is, who am I truly serving — the patient or myself?

When the patient is unwilling or unable to make medical decisions, the health care proxy is activated and he or she is obligated to make all health choices on behalf of the patient. These may be related to withdrawing or withholding life support, instituting artificial liquid feeding, attempting resuscitation and even whether or not to participate in autopsy and organ donation.

have been selectively bred

In fact, it's a huge indicator that there are underlying issues.

A beneficial impact of the fat quality on insulin sensitivity is not seen in individuals with a high fat intake (> 37E%).

The domain of personalised medicine, in particular, is overflowing with possibilities for innovation [3].

Government announces it has secured a major strategic investment into UK by MSD ahead of this morning’s publication of its flagship Industrial Strategy Landmark investment comes as a huge vote of confidence in the government’s approach to industrial strategy, with the global healthcare company committing to open a new world-class hub in the UK

The five conditions with the highest burden are (in order) depression, bipolar disorder, alcohol use disorders, social phobia and schizophrenia.

Then Dan Bloomfield reviews what makes nature-based interventions in mental health successful. Follow-ing this there are two accounts of using green spaces in mental health services, from Australia and the UK.

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is important to them

Large computer networks (and their associated users) may “wake up” as superhumanly intelligent entities.

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

Section 139A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: “This section shall not be taken into account for purposes of determining whether any deduction is allowable with respect to any cost taken into account in determining such payment.”.

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

Exercise is often positioned as something that always lowers blood glucose; however, high-intensity exercise, such as sprinting or weight lifting, can sometimes raise blood glucose. This stems from the adrenaline response, which tells the body to release stored glucose. Often, I find this happens when I’m exercising in the morning on an empty stomach. But this is not a reason to avoid high intensity exercise – studies show it can improve blood glucose for one to three days post-exercise! Note that in some cases high-intensity exercise can also drop blood glucose very rapidly (2-3 mg/dl per minute), especially if you have insulin on board in your pump. The best way to see how individual exercise sessions affect your blood glucose is to test prior and after activity. “The Impact of brief, high-intensity exercise on blood glucose levels” (Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes 2013)

“It may sound like an incredibly bold statement, however, Dr. Bergman will discuss exactly how 97% of diseases can be prevented and cured.

Findings In a meta-regression analysis of 49 clinical trials with 312 175 participants, each 1-mmol/L (38.7-mg/dL) reduction in LDL-C level was associated with a relative risk (RR) of major vascular events of 0.77 (95% CI, 0.71-0.84; P < .001) for statins and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.66-0.86; P = .002) for established nonstatin interventions that act primarily via upregulation of LDL receptor expression.Meaning These data suggest statins and nonstatin therapies that act through upregulation of LDL receptor expression are associated with similar cardiovascular risk reduction per decrease in LDL-C. The clinical value of adding specific nonstatin interventions to lower LDL-C to background statin therapy should be confirmed in appropriately powered clinical trials.

In addition, the vast majority of animal studies have shown that oral administration of PS reduces the progression atherosclerosis. However, it has been recently suggested that an increase in PS plasma concentrations may increase CV risk. Evidence to support this hypothesis come mainly from observations in sitosterolemic patients who hyperabsorb PS and cholesterol and display very high levels of PS, which may be associated with a premature atherosclerosis. Some epidemiological studies in non-sitosterolemic subjects have shown a positive correlation between PS plasma levels and coronary heart disease. However, these are observational studies and some of them present major methodological bias. In addition, recent studies with a larger number of subjects have indicated, either an absence or a negative relationship between PS and the incidence of CV disease.

One way exercise can protect against atherosclerosis (and therefore heart disease) is by increasing shear stress on the arterial walls, which causes the endothelium to become less permeable (less accepting of oxidized LDL particles) and produce more nitric oxide (a potent inhibitor of LDL oxidation). You can think of exercise, then, not just as training for your muscles, but also for your arterial walls. It’s enough of an inflammatory stressor to induce an adaptive response. Of course, too much shear stress can be too inflammatory and might actually cause atherosclerosis to progress.

The most effective approach has been minimizing fat stores located inside the abdominal cavity (visceral body fat) in addition to minimizing total body fat.[46] Visceral fat, which is more metabolically active than subcutaneous fat, has been found to produce many enzymatic signals, e.g. resistin, which increase insulin resistance and circulating VLDL particle concentrations, thus both increasing LDL particle concentrations and accelerating the development of diabetes mellitus.

In summary, reducing dietary saturated fat is associated with an increase in LDL-receptor abundance of magnitude similar to the decrease in serum LDL-cholesterol. Thus, an important mechanism by which reductions in dietary saturated fatty acids decrease LDL-cholesterol in humans is through an increase in LDL-receptor number.

“beauty parlor stroke syndrome.”

In line with data in humans [8], feeding of dietary monounsaturated fat to nonhuman primates reduced LDL without lowering HDL, and in comparison to saturated and polyunsaturated fat, provided the lowest LDL to HDL ratio [9•]. On the other hand, replacement of some of the saturated fat with monounsaturated fat was associated with an even greater enrichment of LDL particles with cholesteryl oleate, a change in LDL particle composition that has been shown to confer atherogenicity [9•]. However, caution is needed in applying the results from animal experiments to humans.

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AbstractThe main objective of this prospective longitudinal study was to investigate bidirectional associations between adolescent cannabis use (CU) and neurocognitive performance in a community sample of 294 young men from ages 13 to 20 years.

The study also shows that staying up an extra hour, even if followed by a full night’s sleep, is correlated with slower performance the next day. Going to bed an hour earlier than normal, however, has a negligible effect.

For example, the study shows that people who sleep less than six hours for two consecutive nights are sluggish for the next six days

They think blockchains could make things as varied as financial trades, digital health records, and manufacturing supply chains more efficient and powerful.

(I’m not condoning the stigmatization of mental illness, btw.)

In terms of hardware, before Apple Watch debuted in 2014, there were a lot of rumors about the wearable including a multitude of health sensors that could track things like blood glucose or blood oxygen.

The more vulnerable part of higher ed is professional master’s and certificate programs, which are long and expensive and provide more than someone needs to get the job, said Selingo, the “There Is Life After College” author.

The culture of doctoral work can prompt paranoia, overwhelming desire to please dissertation committees and other faculty.

What is development? How does it happen? How have ideas on development changed since the Second World War? This study guide to International Development: Ideas, Experience, and Prospects will help dig deeper into these questions. Each chapter features a summary of the main conclusions, discussion questions, and suggested readings. The Study Guide Quick Finder is at the bottom of each page.

kids are led to believe all the marketing and advertising on TV,

that doesn't mean the drugs can't be immensely profitable. Treanda is an orphan drug but also Teva's second-best seller, racking up $740 million in sales last year, according to Teva's annual report.

Then, as the Sun of Know-ing begins to rise on the horizon of your consciousness;Then, will you feel the swell of a wondrous strange Breath filling you to the extreme of all yourmortal members, causing your senses almost to burst with the ecstasy of it; then, will there comesurge after surge of a mighty, resistless Power rising within you, lifting you almost off the Earth;then, will you feel within the Glory, the Holiness, the Majesty of My Presence;And then, then you will KNOW, I AM, God.You, -- when you have felt Me thus in such moments within, when you have tasted of MyPower, hearkened to My Wisdom, and know the ecstasy of My all-embracing Love, -- no diseasecan touch, no circumstance can weaken, no enemy can conquer you. For now you KNOW I AMwithin, and you always hereafter will turn to Me in your need, putting all your trust in Me, andallowing Me to manifest My Will.You, when you turn thus to Me, will always find Me an unfailing and ever present help in timeof need; for I will so fill you with a Realization of My Presence and of My Power, that you needonly Be Still and allow Me to do whatever you want done -- heal your ills and those of others,illumine your mind so you can see with My eyes the Truth you seek, or perform perfectly thetasks which before seemed almost impossible of accomplishmen

Lothian Health Services Archive

Getting and staying healthy involves tending to the people-oriented aspects of leading an organization, so it may sound “fluffy” to hard-nosed executives raised on managing by the numbers. But make no mistake: cultivating health is hard work. And it shouldn’t be confused with other people-related management concepts, such as employee satisfaction or employee engagement.

They have helped people reduce chronic pain, improve psoriasis, and increase their immune response to the flu shot. One study of mindfulness/compassion meditation out of Emory University showed reductions in stress markers, and even a simple long exhale (ahhhh) increases vagal tone. And – last but not least – a three-month meditation training program boosted telomerase activity, indicating longer telemores and perhaps a longer life expectancy.

Experiments on humans have found that laughter can increase blood flow and strengthen the heart, much like aerobic exercise does. Laughter also helps decrease one’s threshold for pain, although not all humor is the same in this respect. According to Weems, positive humor—humor that looks for the bright side of troubling situations—is beneficial to our health, while darker, sardonic humor is not.

laughing, probably through its effects on breathingwhich makes you breathe more deeply, actually calms your cardiovascular system. So, it reallyseems to be altering your stress profile as a pathway to physical health.

Hirosaki, for example, has found in a review that bursts of laughterdecrease blood pressure, they enhance your immune function. In certain contexts, for example,when combined with exercise, they will reduce levels of chronic pain. They will improvethe physical health of elderly populations. Other studies by Ko, for example, find laughterimproves depressive symptomatology, how well elderly patients are sleeping.

PAUL: Thank you. How does Substance relate to health? RAJ: Health is the constituting Wholeness of Being, the Orderliness, Integrity, Indivisibility and, therefore, the Perfection of all Conscious Being. Being omnipotent in Its ability to fulfill Its Intent or Purpose, there is no delay or obstacle to that fulfillment. It is this unimpeded Omnipresencing of Substance which constitutes Supply in what is called health or Wholeness.

In answer to why awe would be a potent predictor of reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines, this latest study posits that “awe is associated with curiosity and a desire to explore, suggesting antithetical behavioral responses to those found during inflammation, where individuals typically withdraw from others in their environment,” Stellar said.

In addition to autoimmune diseases, elevated cytokines have been tied to depression. One recent study found that depressed patients had higher levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine known as TNF-alpha than their non-depressed counterparts. It is believed that by signaling the brain to produce inflammatory molecules, cytokines can block key hormones and neurotransmitters—such as serotonin and dopamine—that control moods, appetite, sleep and memory.

There are new psychophysiological findings finding that cytokine levels, cytokinesreally reflect an inflammation in response in your body, which is very tough news onyour health, the only positive emotion that really lowers levels of cytokines is provingto be awe.

research by my colleagues, has linked gratitude to a host of psychological, physical, and social benefits: stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure, more feelings of joy, and a greater sense of social connection, among many others.

people who practice gratitude consistently report a host of benefits: Psychological Higher levels of positive emotions More alert, alive, and awake More joy and pleasure More optimism and happiness Physical Stronger immune systems Less bothered by aches and pains Lower blood pressure Exercise more and take better care of their health Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking Social More helpful, generous, and compassionate More forgiving More outgoing Feel less lonely and isolated.

self-compassion tends to promote health related behaviors such assticking to one’s diet or reducing smoking, or seeking medical treatment when it'snecessary and even exercising.

research has also shown that it’s possible to slow the loss of our brain cells. Normally, we lose about 10,000 brain cells a day. That may sound horrible, but we were born with 1.1 trillion. We also have several thousand born each day, mainly in the hippocampus, in what’s called neurogenesis. So losing 10,000 a day isn’t that big a deal, but the net bottom line is that a typical 80 year old will have lost about 4 percent of his or her brain mass—it’s called “cortical thinning with aging.” It’s a normal process. But in one study, researchers compared meditators and non-meditators. In the graph to the left, the meditators are the blue circles and the non-meditators are the red squares, comparing people of the same age. The non-meditators experienced normal cortical thinning in those two brain regions I mentioned above, along with a third, the somatosensory cortex. However, the people who routinely meditated and “worked” their brain did not experience cortical thinning in those regions.

“One of the important foci in our research is looking at inflammation, which has been implicated in many chronic illnesses,” Davidson says. “And there’s now increasing evidence to suggest that at a very basic biological level, certain kinds of meditation practices seem to modulate inflammatory systems. They down-regulate particular molecules—we call these proinflammatory cytokines—which are directly implicated in inflammation.”

And what they found was that the individuals who participated in the meditation programhad longer telomeres than the individuals who were in the control group after a three-monthexperience. This was first finding in that vein. Elissa Epel and her colleague did anotherresearch project where they looked at a mindfulness-based program for people with eating disorders andshowed that people who did the mindfulness had a 39% increase in telomerase activitywhich corresponds to lengthened telomeres and that this telomerase activity actuallypredicted benefits in other aspects of their treatment program having to do with the people’seating habits. So there’s this interesting effect that is being reiterated that mindfulnessactually seems to make people age more gracefully.

during periods of mind-wandering, regions of the brain’s default mode network were activated. Then when participants became aware of this mind-wandering, brain regions related to the detection of salient or relevant events came online. After that, areas of the executive brain network took over, re-directing and maintaining attention on the chosen object. And all of this occurred within 12 seconds around those button presses.

the Killingsworth and Gilbert study I mentioned earlier found that when people’s minds were wandering, they tended to be less happy, presumably because our thoughts often tend towards negative rumination or stress. That’s why mindfulness meditation has become an increasingly important treatment of mental health difficulties like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even sexual dysfunction.

In my research, we filmed an interaction between a couple and had each partner turn a rating dial as they watched their tape afterward. On this graph (at left), you can see how one couple rated their interaction. The blue dots represent the wife’s ratings over 15 minutes of conversation; the red dots represent the husband’s ratings. When you add them together, these ratings are a constant, which means that in this interaction, her gain is his loss and his gain is her loss. This is what’s called in game theory a “zero-sum game.” You’ve probably all heard of the concept. It’s the idea that in an interaction, there’s a winner and a loser. And by looking at ratings like this, I came to define a “betrayal metric”: It’s the extent to which an interaction is a zero-sum game, where your partner’s gain is your loss. On the other hand, by trust we really mean, mathematically, that our partner’s behavior is acting to increase our rating dial. Even though we’re disagreeing, my wife is thinking about my welfare, my best interests. When we scientifically tested these so-called trust and betrayal metrics, we found that a high trust metric is correlated with very positive outcomes, such as greater stability in the relationship. In a 20-year longitudinal study of couples in the San Francisco Bay Area that I recently completed with UC Berkeley psychologist Bob Levenson, we found that about 11 percent of couples had a zero-sum game pattern, like in that graph. Every six years, we would re-contact all of the couples in the study, and they would come back to Bob’s lab at Berkeley. Yet we noticed that many of the zero-sum couples weren’t coming back. I thought maybe they dropped out because they found the whole thing so unpleasant. Well, it turns out that they didn’t drop out. They died.

Hostility also has been found to be the part of type A behavior that seems to have the most pernicious health effects, such as a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease. Forsaking a grudge may also free a person from hostility and all its unhealthy consequences. It probably isn’t just hostility and stress that link unforgiveness and poor health. According to a review of the literature on forgiveness and health that my colleague Michael Scherer and I published, unforgiveness might compromise the immune system at many levels. For instance, our review suggests that unforgiveness might throw off the production of important hormones and even disrupt the way our cells fight off infections, bacteria, and other physical insults, such as mild periodontal disease.

To ruminate on an old transgression is to practice unforgiveness. Sure enough, in Witvliet’s research, when people recalled a grudge, their physical arousal soared. Their blood pressure and heart rate increased, and they sweated more. Ruminating about their grudges was stressful, and subjects found the rumination unpleasant. It made them feel angry, sad, anxious, and less in control. Witvliet also asked her subjects to try to empathize with their offenders or imagine forgiving them. When they practiced forgiveness, their physical arousal coasted downward. They showed no more of a stress reaction than normal wakefulness produces.

This view might make sense for solitary species, like the golden hamster, which flees upon being attacked, or territorial species, like many birds, that rely upon territorial arrangements to avoid deadly conflicts. But many mammals, and in particular primates, need each other to survive. Ostracism and marginalization are tickets to shortened lives. Among humans, individuals who have fewer and less healthy social bonds have been shown to live shorter lives, have compromised immune function, and be more vulnerable to disease. Our sociality, and that of many nonhuman primates, requires a mechanism that brings individuals together in the midst of conflict and aggression.

suggest that lonely people have significantly more trouble bouncing back from life’s stresses and strains. For instance, lonely and non-lonely college students in their study reported similar daily activities, but lonely college students experienced more stress in those activities. Among older adults, lonely individuals said they felt more helpless and threatened than did non-lonely people. What’s more, higher stress levels were associated with worse health: Lonely college students had higher blood pressure than non-lonely ones, putting them at greater risk for heart disease, and this health disparity was even greater between lonely and non-lonely older adults. Plus, Hawkley and Cacioppo found that these lonely older adults had higher levels of stress-related hormones, such as cortisol and epinephrine, which may weaken the immune system over time.

teaching college students to “count their blessings” and cultivate gratitude caused them to exercise more, be more optimistic, and feel better about their lives overall.

Giving evokes gratitude. Whether you’re on the giving or receiving end of a gift, that gift can elicit feelings of gratitude—it can be a way of expressing gratitude or instilling gratitude in the recipient. And research has found that gratitude is integral to happiness, health, and social bonds.

First Native Case Of Mosquito-Borne Tropical Disease Chinkungunya Confirmed In Spain Aug 26 2015—NEWS—The ECDC said the mosquito species is not the one responsible for the 2013 Americas outbreak. Presence of the Aedes Albopictus mosquito. Source: ECDC. (Click to enlarge) The European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control (ECDC) confirmed the first case of the tropical disease chinkungunya to be transmitted in Spain on August 21. "This is the first chikungunya case reported from Spain without travel history to endemic areas,˝ said the ECDC report. The patient is a 60-year old man of undisclosed nationality who was likely infected in Gandía (Valencia) and who developed symptoms of the disease—which include fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rashes—during a "short" trip to France at the beginning of July. A statement published by the Spanish Health Ministry on August 4 said it was "very likely" the man had been infected by a mosquito of the species Aedes Albopictus in Gandía, "but not conclusive", due to his trip to France "for part of the incubation period". The ECDC believes it "unlikely" the man became infected in France due to the short duration of his stay there and the lack of reported na

El Salvador chikungunya cases near 100,000, Dominican Republic at half-a-million