All About Allergies

The New Oxford English Dictionary defines the word ‘allergy’ as: “a damaging immune response to the body by a substance, especially a particular food pollen, fur, or dust, to which it has become hypersensitive.” This succinct and condensed little statement is perhaps as good a place as any to start unraveling the complicated and at [...]

Suffering with Dyspepsia? Try Hypnosis.

Any individuals who have suffered from dyspepsia will know what an irksome and often distressingly painful condition it can be. It is also a condition which baffles medical scientists; whilst the major symptom is hardly ambiguous – persistent upper abdominal pain – isolating the cause has proved more elusive. In fact, dyspepsia is diagnosed as [...]

Heart Risk Factors on the Rise

Progress Reversed? Some disturbing trends emerged in a study published in Circulation: the Journal of the American Heart Association in September 2009. There has been a worrying partial reversal of the slow but observable progress in combating the prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease amongst Americans over the last decade. For two decades, the [...]

Idle Minds and Intelligent Brains

It has been traditional in most educational establishments to discourage children from daydreaming. By not concentrating, so the logic goes, they not only miss out on what they are supposed to be learning, but develop sloppy and lazy habits of mind. There have always been dissidents to this point of view, such as the philosopher [...]

Why Darkness Helps Alleviate Migraine – a View From Neuroscience

The pain of migraine, as all who suffer from the condition will be aware, is a good deal more than a bit of a headache. Usually unilateral (affecting one half of the skull only), it is a throbbing, pulsating ache often associated with nausea, vomiting and excruciating sensitivity to light (photophobia). Many migraine sufferers can [...]

Alternatives to Anti-Depressants in Overcoming Moderate Depression

The consumption of anti-depressant medication has risen inexorably over the last few decades; according to the World Health Organization, major depression afflicts as many as 121 million worldwide and is one of the major causes of disability on the world. In the United States alone, it affects approximated 6.7% of the adult population, or 14.8 [...]

Dopamine and Decision Making

Frequently, when asked to account for a particular course of action or for one decision over another, respondents will reply that their behavior was influenced by a ‘gut feeling’ or ‘gut instinct.’ A recent study published in the journal Cell Biology strongly suggests that, despite the visceral metaphors, human decisions are more powerfully influenced by [...]

Rosacea

The Prevalence of Rosacea Rosacea is not a life-threatening condition but it can certainly become a life-blighting one. Characterized most prominently by reddening of the skin, especially on the face, it is a highly visible condition. The National Rosacea Society estimates that more than 75 percent of rosacea sufferers feel the condition has adversely affected [...]

Using the Alexander Technique to Significantly Improve Back Pain

Those who suffer from chronic back pain know what a debilitating and frequently excruciating blight on life the condition can be. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, most of the population will suffer a degree of back pain at some point in their lives sufficient to interfere with work, recreation and [...]

There is a Benefit to Swearing: Increased Pain Tolerance

Most parents try to teach their young children not to use profanity, although in reality most of the human population – young and old, male and female, rich and poor – end up swearing on at least some occasions. And one of the most frequent occasions producing outbursts of swear words is sudden, unexpected pain, [...]

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