Don't think for a moment that the human brain is simple. It would certainly be nice if there was one on switch for awake and one off switch for sleep. As I have already explained you have a sleep department and a wakefulness department residing within your hypothalamus gland. The new science shows that you also have an arousal thermostat in your...

Awakeness is tied to an arousal thermostat that directly senses the degree of stress in your environment. If you are under high stress or ongoing stress then this system may have its volume knob turned up so that you are more vigilant and prepared to deal with issues. Obviously, this is a survival mechanism. Problems come about when the extra vigilance...

It is very common that individuals who are overweight have a majority of the symptoms associated with a sluggish thyroid function. This is especially true for those who have a history of yo-yo dieting or have difficulty losing weight by cutting back on calories and trying to exercise more. Leptin is known as the fat-hormone, as it is made in your white...

One of the key factors that helps induce weight gain and reduces the ease with which you can lose weight is the issue of environmental toxins, chemicals in food and water, and toxins from low-grade infections (like Candida or bacterial overgrowth). This issue is always made worse if your internal plumbing systems are not up to the challenge (constipation,...

Getting your day started on the right foot is very important to keeping your metabolism functioning properly as the day goes along -- which significantly impacts your ability to metabolize cholesterol correctly. Many individuals do not eat adequate dietary protein at breakfast -- or even worse tend to skip breakfast because they are in a hurry. This tends...

Resveratrol is a nutrient known to activate a potent gene signal called SIRT1. SIRT1 first drew attention as the primary gene signal involved with the longevity benefits of calorie restriction. A very simple explanation is that when you are in a food scarcity situation, SIRT1 is activated to help break down your stored fat to use as fuel as well as boost...

There is a right way to lose weight and a wrong way. The wrong way is to go on a starvation low-calorie diet and induce the leptin starvation response. When this happens you lose bone mass and weight, and you are much more likely to gain the weight back later. New research shows that the jolt to your bones may continue even after the weight loss has...

Almonds, an excellent dietary source of vitamin E, magnesium, fatty acids, and fiber are not only a great part of a healthy weight management program, they help lower LDL cholesterol. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that when woman who ate 344 calories worth of almonds per day felt more satisfied and did not gain weight. There...

A new study closely tracks the relationship of appetite to the development of obesity in children, hoping to shed light on why some kids don't get fat and others do. The researchers found that as a child's waistline gets larger, the full signal is blunted or delayed and the desire for food intake increases.

It was just discovered that belly fat cells make an appetite signal which increases as you become overweight, causing you to crave more food, which makes you even fatter in the abdominal area, in turn causing you to crave even more food.

Hypertension, COPD, obstructive sleep apnea, poor cardiac function, and aorta stiffness are well known disorders linked with poor brain health and neurodegeneration. Hypertension in midlife has been associated with more brain atrophy in later life, but it is now understood that elderly with low blood pressure have more brain atrophy than those with...

In a rather sobering study scientists have demonstrated that a high-fat diet has the potential to drastically alter the architecture of the brain, resulting in poor circulation within the brain, down-regulated metabolism, and outright brain damage in areas of the brain central to appetite regulation. The implications of the study are that once a person...

Resistance Training as an Aid to Standard Smoking Cessation Treatment: A Pilot Study

Treatment of moderate to severe premenstrual syndrome with Vitex agnus castus (BNO 1095) in Chinese women.

The premenstrual syndrome: effectiveness of Vitex agnus castus