Are Chemical Imbalances All in Our Heads?

It sounds a bit like the start of a science-fiction novel: chemical imbalances are nothing more than a figment of our imagination. But could it be true? In a piece she recently wrote for the BBC, Joanna Moncrieff of the University College, London states that it very well could be the case. She proposes that [...]

Is Depression Inherited?

The World Health Organization estimates that by 2020, depression is likely to become the second biggest cause worldwide of Disability Adjusted Life Years or DALY’s (the sum of years of productive life lost due to disability) for all ages and both sexes. With a health problem this massive, understanding its causes, treatment and prevention are [...]

An Overview of Acupuncture

When considering a medical intervention like acupuncture, which originated centuries ago in non-Western culture (China), it is relatively easy to make it look faintly absurd by contrasting its conceptual vocabulary with that of modern day medical science. Undoubtedly, many practices of bygone days were, we now know, exceedingly dangerous and rooted in magical or religious [...]

The Magic of Yoga

Yoga Yoga is one of the most well known and practiced meditative techniques in the world. It is associated with several religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and while it incorporates various aspects of each school of thought, different types of yoga can include different focuses. For example, in Hinduism yoga refers to one of [...]

Mindfulness

Historically, the use of mental and physical practices to develop mindfulness is as old as civilization itself; subjectively, it is as close as the simple consciousness of being aware. Mindfulness as a phenomenon has only recently become a subject of study by psychologists, psychotherapists, and cognitive researchers in the West, but Eastern cultures have studied [...]

Meditation to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

The use of meditation to reduce stress and anxiety has been a part of everyday life in certain cultures for centuries.  In modern society, the demands of an increasingly complex world have made finding effective coping strategies imperative.  Many are turning to meditation as a way to bring balance into their lives and to learn methods for handling stress before [...]

Information Overload: Myth or Misunderstanding?

There has never been as much information available to people as there is today.  In America alone, over 60 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered annually, and over 41 million photographs are taken daily. 260,000 billboards dot the roads, 40,000 new book titles are published each year nationally – 300,000 globally – as 11,520 [...]