How to be Happy in 12 Simple Steps

By SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY






STEP 1 - Show gratitude 

(* There's a lot more to gratitude than saying "thank you." Emerging research shows that people who are consistently grateful are happier, more energetic and hopeful, more forgiving and less materialistic. Gratitude needs to be practised daily because it doesn't necessarily come naturally.)


STEP 2 - Cultivate Optimism


STEP 3 - Avoid overthinking and social comparison

(* Many of us believe that when we feel down we should try to focus inwardly to attain self-insight and find solutions to our problems. But numerous studies have shown that overthinking sustains or worsens sadness.)


STEP 4 - Practice kindnessChewbaaka and Koya



STEP 5 - Nurture social relationships


STEP 6 - Develop coping skills


STEP 7 - Learn to forgive 

(* Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, pardoning or condoning. Nor is it a denial of your own hurt. Forgiveness is a shift in thinking and something that you do for yourself and not for the person who has harmed you. Research confirms that clinging to bitterness or hate harms you more than the object of your hatred. Forgiving people are less likely to be hostile, depressed, anxious or neurotic.


* Forgive yourself for past wrongs. Recognising that you too can be a transgressor will make you more empathetic to others. )


STEP 8 - Find more flow

(* "Flow" was a phrase coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1960s. It means you are totally immersed in what you are doing and unaware of yourself. Happy people have the capacity to enjoy their lives even when their material conditions are lacking and even when many of their goals have not been reached.)


STEP 9 - Savour the day



STEP 10 - Commit to your goals 

(* People who strive for something personally significant, whether it's learning a new craft or changing careers, are far happier than those who don't have strong dreams or aspirations. Working towards a goal is more important to wellbeing than its attainment.)


STEP 11 - Take care of your soul

 (* A growing body of psychological research suggests that religious people are happier, healthier and recover better after traumas than nonreligious people. ...

* Find the sacred in ordinary life ...)

STEP 12 - Take care of your body

"The How of Happiness" Sonja Lyubomirsky - TalkRational



Sonja Lyubomirsky

link: http://lyubomirsky.socialpsychology.org/




 

Multiple Sclerosis has no cure but don't let the facts defeat you.

When something of an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.
- Rousseau


Or you learn to work around the obstacle, if it is an incurable disease like M.S. that is ongoing and causes systematically more disability.


It is important to take an attitude of adapting and thriving in spite of the disease.  

Leave the cure to the scientists and manage your life with the attitude that you can deal with the problems created by the disease. 

You will probably need to give up some activities,like the balance beam (LOL) and other athletic pursuits that require balance, strength or require being on your feet for too long. 


Focus on what you can still do and not on what you have lost.

Chew sugar-free Gum tol Prevent Cavities

Your Assignment for Today: Chew Gum

By EZEKIEL J. EMANUEL

 

Ezekiel J. Emanuel on health policy and other topics.

Tags:

Chewing Gum, Children and Youth, health, Xylitol

Philadelphia


WHEN I was growing up, you would be sent down to the principal’s office for chewing gum in school. We were told chewing gum was bad; it caused cavities.

It turns out that sugar-free gum can actually prevent cavities in children. Instead of banning it, we should require children to chew it in school to promote their oral health.

The human mouth is host to many bacteria. The one that is primarily responsible for cavities is called streptococcus mutans (it’s related to the bacteria that causes strep throat). When the bacteria encounters sugar, it produces acids. Saliva neutralizes acid, so teeth can handle some exposure. But large amounts of sugar — as found in candy or sugary beverages — overwhelm saliva. Prolonged exposure to that acid will damage the protective enamel on teeth — a process called “demineralization” — and eventually cause cavities.

Chewing gum of any kind increases saliva production, and therefore helps neutralize more acid. 

But many gums are sweetened with sugar, which of course increases the acid levels, effectively canceling out the positive benefits. Replacing sugar in gum with xylitol, a naturally occurring sweetener found in fruits and vegetables that has fewer calories than regular sugar, fixes this problem.


More saliva and less acid seems to cause the teeth to remineralize — that is, it actually reverses some cavities. But most important, chewing xylitol gum inhibits the growth of the strep bacteria, which are not able to metabolize the sweetener. Less virulent strains of bacteria slip off the teeth, and this positive xylitol effect lasts years.

The gum seems to work best when it’s chewed routinely just before children’s adult teeth come in, at about ages 5 and 6.

Joren Cull

 

 The United States Army’s Public Health Command recommends that soldiers and their families chew xylitol-sweetened gum. But only schools have the power to make this recommendation a reality, when it really matters in the development of teeth. 

Gums with significant amounts of xylitol include Xylichew, Xyloburst and Hershey’s Ice Breakers Ice Cube gum — which can usually can be found in any deli or drugstore.

But the best way to ensure that all children take advantage of xylitol gum is to have them chew it in school, in kindergarten and beyond. Ideally, they would chew gum three to five times a day for five minutes each time. Not only will it improve their health and school attendance; but they might actually enjoy it.

 
Read More at Source:

Your Assignment for Today: Chew Gum - NYTimes.com

 http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/your-assignment-for-today-chew-gum/

My Sustainability Mantra

A Vegetarian Diet is good for your and good for the Planet.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. - Albert Einstein

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. - Howard Zinn

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION.
-Ethiopian proverb

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

The Summer Day – Mary Oliver – 1992



Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Synthetic Marijuna Fact Sheet

 

1. What is Synthetic Marijuana? Synthetic Marijuana is a man made drug that is not marijuana.

It was invented to act like marijuana; however, it is more powerful and more dangerous than marijuana.

This fake marijuana, often called Spice, K2 or Legal Phunk, is sprayed on real plant products, like leaves, and sold as incense or potpourri. It is usually smoked,but can be eaten too.

When used, it can be very dangerous. Other names for this include Lava Red, Aroma, Dream, Mr. Nice Guy, and many more.

Beware of name changes as they are changed often as is the chemical make‐up.


2. Where is K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) sold?

K2/Spice can be bought very easily on the internet. They can also be found in head shops, smoke shops,convenience stores and some gas stations.

Government officials are trying to make them illegal, but as of yet, they remain legal.


3. Why is K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) sold if they are drugs and harmful?

K2/Spice are sold in a way that outsmarts state and local regulations by stating on the package that they are “not for human consumption.” Because of this, it is very difficult to regulate and track. It is cheap, easy to purchase, sold as fake (synthetic) marijuana that doesn’t show up on standard drug tests.



4. How does K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) affect you?


People who use K2/Spice or any other synthetic marijuana experience:
 
Fast heart rate Convulsions (seizures)
 
Seeing things (hallucinations) Weakness
 
Dry mouth Passing out (coma)
Death has resulted in some cases!


5. What happens to the people who use K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana)?

When people use K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana), they can have heart attacks, brain damage, kidney failure and scary hallucinations (seeing things) that last for many days.


6. Who uses K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana)?

K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) are used by all people, regardless of age, gender, or status.



Bottom Line:  K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) 

A. It is very easy to get. 

B. It is very dangerous and can lead to heart attacks, brain damage, kidney failure and scary images/hallucinations.




For More Information
www.upstatepoison.org




synthetic_marijuna_fact_sheet_public.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Link: http://www.upstate.edu/poison/pdf/news_releases/synthetic_marijuna_fact_sheet_public.pdf

....................................................................................

P.S. This information is posted here because medical marijuana is sometimes used to alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, cancer and 'aids'.  This is a warning to not cut corners and to not use anything but the Real McCoy when it comes to treating your m.s. symptoms.Marijuana has gained the status of alternative medicine... .

Researchers Reveal Why Some Pain Drugs Become Less Effective Over Time

Newswire — Researchers at the University of Montreal’s Sainte-Justine Hospital have identified how neural cells are able to build up resistance to opioid pain drugs within hours. 

“A better understanding of these mechanisms will enable us to design drugs that avoid body resistance to these drugs and produce longer therapeutic responses, including prolonged opioid analgesia”, lead author Dr. Graciela Pineyro said.


Humans have known about the usefulness of opioids, which are often harvested from poppy plants, for centuries, but we have very little insight into how they lose their effectiveness in the hours, days and weeks following the first dose.

“Our study revealed cellular and molecular mechanisms within our bodies that enable us to develop resistance to this medication, or what scientists call drug tolerance,” she added.


The research team looked at how drug molecules would interact with molecules called “receptors” that exist in every cell in our body. 

Receptors, as the name would suggest, receive “signals” from the chemicals that they come into contact with, and the signals then cause the various cells to react in different ways. 

They sit on the cell wall, and wait for corresponding chemicals known as receptor ligands to interact with them. 

Ligands can be produced by our bodies or introduced, for example, as medication. 

“Until now, scientists have believed that ligands acted as ‘on-off’ switches for these receptors, all of them producing the same kind of effect with variations in the magnitude of the response they elicit,” Pineyro explained.

“We now know that drugs that activate the same receptor do not always produce the same kind of effects in the body, as receptors do not always recognize drugs in the same way. Receptors will configure different drugs into specific signals that will have different effects on the body.”


Once activated by a drug, receptors move from the surface of the cell to its interior, and once they have completed this ‘journey’, they can either be destroyed or return to the surface and used again through a process known as “receptor recycling.” 

By comparing two types of opioids – DPDPE and SNC-80 – the researchers found that the ligands (chemicals that enable interaction with the cell) that encouraged recycling produced less analgesic tolerance than those that didn’t. 

“We propose that the development of opioid ligands that favour recycling could be away of producing longer-acting opioid analgesics,” Pineyro said.


Pineyro is attempting to tease the “painkilling” function of opioids from the part that triggers mechanisms that enable tolerance build up. 

“My laboratory and my work are mostly structured around rational drug design, and trying to define how drugs produce their desired and non-desired effects, so as to avoid the second, Pineyro said. 

“If we can understand the chemical mechanisms by which drugs produce therapeutic and undesired side effects, we will be able to design better therapeutic agents.”




Notes:

The study “Differential association of receptor-Gβγ complexes with β-arrestin2 determines recycling bias and potential for tolerance of delta opioid receptor (DOR) agonists” was published in The Journal of Neuroscience on April 3, 2012. 

The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Dr. Graciela Pineyro, MD, PhD is affiliated with the Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the University of Montreal and the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center (UHC)’ Research Center. 

The University of Montreal and the Sainte-Justine UHC’s Research Centre are officially known as Université de Montréal and Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine, respectively.




Contact details:

Dr. Graciela Pineyro is available for interview in English, French or Spanish upon appointment. 

To make an appointment, please contact William Raillant-Clark of the University of Montreal at +1-514-343-7593 or w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca .

Researchers Reveal Why Some Pain Drugs Become Less Effective Over Time

 Source: Universite de Montreal


 

Brain Aerobics make sense considering the discovery of brain plasticity.

My hobby is to listen to lectures from various universities that are posted on-line and listening to TED Conference speakers.


 - some people listen to recorded lectures on mobile devices (my desktop is my chosen device combined with good quality sound speakers)


- how do some sound engineers make these lectures digestible...



 Begin with Guidelines: 


- four experiences:  spatial,  corporeal, temporal  and relational... are a good starting point and can be found in this ancient article:

Van Manen, M. (1997). Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action"


I call this 15 year old article "ancient" because the field is dynamic and probably sound engineers are gaining knowledge at the speed of the many changes in the Internet and digital technologies.


My interest is in listening to the lectures, not in lecturing or in making YouTube vignettes of myself giving speeches.  Sound engineering is well-beyond my 2nd year level physics course or my years of studying and being involved with financial markets.  I am merely a dilettante interested in knowledge for knowledge's sake.


Scientists like Michael Merzinich suggest giving our brain a work-out now and then to stave off dementia and other mental fogginess that arrives along with the aging process.  I know this because I read books and listen to speeches like the following.

Michael Merzenich studies neuroplasticity -- the brain's powerful ability to change itself and adapt -- and ways we might make use of that plasticity to heal injured brains and enhance the skills in healthy ones.

Why you should listen to him:

One of the foremost researchers of neuroplasticity, Michael Merzenich's work has shown that the brain retains its ability to alter itself well into adulthood -- suggesting that brains with injuries or disease might be able to recover function, even later in life. He has also explored the way the senses are mapped in regions of the brain and the way sensations teach the brain to recognize new patterns. Merzenich wants to bring the powerful plasticity of the brain into practical use through technologies and methods that harness it to improve learning. He founded Scientific Learning Corporation, which markets and distributes educational software for children based on models of brain plasticity. He is co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Posit Science, which creates "brain training" software also based on his research. Merzenich is professor emeritus of neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.

"Merzenich is perhaps the most recognizable figure in brain plasticity and how one develops competence through experience and learning."

Dominique M. Durand   Source:  http://www.ted.com/speakers/michael_merzenich.html 

Michael Merzenich on the Web

• Website: Profile on Posit Science
• Website: Posit Science

 LINK to Speech :  http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_merzenich_on_the_elastic_brain.html

Related Speakers

• Sebastian Seung
• Jill Bolte Taylor
• Bill Strickland
• Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra

Related themes

• Evolution's Genius
• How We Learn
• The Creative Spark
• How the Mind Works

Conferences

• TED2004

Dietary fat and Coronary Heart Disease

By David Liu, PHD



Wednesday Aug 15, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) --

A person's risk for coronary heart disease is strongly influenced by his diet.

It has been known that a plant-based diet can completely stop the progression of the disease or even reverse the disease condition in many cases.


A review article by W.C. Willett of Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston MA suggests that dietary fats actually play a major role in the risk of coronary heart disease.


For his report published in the July 2012 issue of Journal of Internal Medicine, Dr. Willett reviewed 95 studies of all sorts including experimental studies, epidemiological studies and trials. 


He has found something that may help food consumers understand the role of each major type of dietary fat in the risk of coronary heart disease.


Trans fat, commonly known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils should be eliminated from everyone's diet, according to the author, as  

they pose clear adverse effects on the risk of coronary heart disease.


It should be noted that beef and dairy products carry naturally occuring trans fat (about 15% of total fat), which is also detrimental.


Harvard nutritionists and epidemiologists have suggested that trans fat is involved in more than 100,000 deaths from heart disease.


Intake of saturated fat should be controlled and reduced intake of this type of fat may also moderately reduce the risk of coronary heart disease if saturated fat is replaced by a combination of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat.


Replacement of saturated fat with certain carbohydrates may also further reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. But it should be remembered that not all carbohydrates are good. Replacing saturated fat with added sugar such as cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup may not help.


Dr. Willett says in his report "both N-6 and N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are essential and reduce risk of heart disease, the ratio of N-6 to N-3 is not useful and can be misleading." 

This does not mean that omega-3 fatty acids are not helpful. Many nutritionists believe a low ratio of N-6 to N-3 is desirable.


Generally speaking, Americans are believed to have too high intake of omega-6 polyunsaturated fat from vegetables, which is not good for the protection against coronary heart disease.


Two undesirable oils are corn oil and soybean oil because they contain too much N-6.


In reality, the author suggests that reducing red meat and dairy products (they likely contain naturally occurring trans fat) and increasing intakes of nuts, soy foods, fish and non-hydrogenated vegetable oils can improve the fatty acid profile and help protect against coronary heart disease.


Additionally, "a diet generous in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low in refined starches, sugar-sweetened beverages, potatoes and salt " helps prevent coronary heart disease. 


This diet is similar to the plant-based diet Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a Cornell University nutrition professor suggests.


Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of University of California in San Fransisco in California used a plant-based diet and a lifestyle program to treat coronary heart disease patients. 


The efficacy is up to 99% and the treatment can stop effectively progression of the disease and in many cases reverse the condition.


President Bill Clinton is now using a plant-based diet (still using some fish) as advised by Dr. Ornish, and he claims that he feels much better now than ever.


Coronary heart disease kills about 600,000 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



foodconsumer.org - Dietary fat and coronary heart disease


Link: http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Diet/dietary_fat_and_coronary_heart_disease_0815120714.html

Blogger: My Fawlty Wiring

Albert Einstein on Giving Back

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...




GET A LIFE NOW


Symptoms of Living

Video: Brown fat measured by thermal imaging - Telegraph

Brown fat measured by thermal imaging

Heat-seeking cameras could be used to measure people's "good fat" and determine which foods they ought to be avoiding, scientists claim. 

Brown fat is good for our bodies because it burns calories by producing large amounts of heat, which could help us avoid storing surplus energy as white fat around our waistlines.

Although it had long been known that newborn babies used brown fat to keep them warm, scientists only recently discovered that we retain small deposits of it even in adulthood.

Now researchers from Nottingham University suggest that by measuring someone's levels of brown fat, and most importantly how hot it is, they could determine which foods will help them lose or gain weight.

In a new study in the Journal of Pediatrics, Prof Michael Symonds and Dr Helen Budge demonstrated that thermal imaging cameras can be used to accurately trace people's brown fat deposits.

Because brown fat produces 300 times more heat than any other tissue type, heat-sensitive technology cannot only identify it but measure how active it is, or how much heat it is producing.

The thermal imaging technique avoids the potentially harmful radiation which has been used in previous studies to measure brown fat in adults, and which has prevented scientists accurately measuring brown fat in children for safety reasons.

By using the new technique on children as well as adults, the researchers demonstrated that children have larger stores of brown fat and produce heat much more rapidly than adults.
Dr Budge said: "Brown fat does appear to be present in higher amounts in larger people than in people of lower body weight, but we think the key difference is in how active it is from person to person.

"The reason this is exciting is that if you "switch on" brown fat and it uses up energy, then potentially that is one way of controlling body weight."

Further studies of how brown fat responds to different food groups could enable food manufacturers to include a new category of health advice on food packaging, the researchers added.

Prof Symonds said: “Potentially we could add a thermogenic index to food labels to show whether that product would increase or decrease heat production within brown fat. In other words whether it would speed up or slow down the amount of calories we burn.”




Link:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9409635/Brown-fat-measured-by-thermal-imaging.html

Video: Brown fat measured by thermal imaging - Telegraph