Having studied the healing power of music for decades, scientists know it has a profound effect on the mind, body and emotions. Music has a way to move us that seems to go to our very core as living beings and can transcend borders, cultures and race. Music can be highly therapeutic and healing. Stroke victims, for example, have recovered through intonation therapy when many
To avoid sleep deprivation, doctors recommend at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night. That’s just for adults. For teenagers, the suggestion is for nine to 10 hours, because their minds and bodies are growing fast! Younger children should be allowed more than 10 hours. Some researchers believe the deepest period of sleep is when young children’s neural networks of are produced in the
“Memory is all we are. Moments and feelings, captured in amber, strung on filaments of reason. Take a man’s memories and you take all of him.” Mark Lawrence, King of Thorns Sleep Deprivation and Memory Loss If we are the sum of our memories, the loss of them can be devastating. Memory loss is attributed to a number of conditions such as age, Alzheimer’s, injury,
Have you ever noticed a physical reaction in your body when you experience intense emotions? Maybe you’re happy about seeing an old friend, or you passed an important test, or you discovered a five-dollar bill on the dresser that you thought you’d lost—whatever the reason, such experiences generate an elation that expresses as an actual sensation in your body. That’s why we refer to a
Our busy lifestyles often leave us little time for rest, which has resulted in a major change in sleep patterns. Now people sleep an hour to two hours less than they did just 50 years ago. While some people might consider this great for productivity, it’s not a good situation for our health. Recent research indicates there’s a link between those shorter hours of sleep
Back pain can be serious. Unfortunately, an uncomfortable back ‘tweak’ isn’t all that uncommon. It’s easy to strain yourself just doing every day activities such as pulling weeds, lifting children, taking out the trash, rearranging furniture, carrying grocery bags, or climbing a ladder If you don’t bend or stretch your body in just the right way while doing your chores, your back will suffer. There are
Did you ever wonder why cold weather causes joint pain and aching bones? Or what you can do to alleviate your pain? Weather-induced inflammation Some scientists believe it’s not actually the cold that affects your joints, but the changes that occur in the weather when temperatures drop from warm to cold. Before the start of bad weather, the atmosphere changes and barometric pressure drops. Barometric
The flu is a miserable virus that strikes anywhere from 5% to 20% of the U.S. population each year. More than 200,000 people are hospitalized annually. Symptom of the flu include fever, chills, fatigue, nausea, coughing, a sore throat, a runny or stuffed up nose, headaches, general body aches, and, in children, diarrhea. These symptoms can move beyond mild to debilitating, and if they grow
More than 54 million people suffer low bone mass and osteoporosis in the United States. To some extent it’s a preventable condition, but if someone is affected and the condition is allowed to progress, it can lead to a bent posture, which means a loss of height, sometimes a humpback, and often acute pain. What is osteoporosis? If you aren’t familiar with osteoporosis, let’s define
What Is Your ‘Core’ and Why Is It Important? There’s no specific definition of what the body’s ‘core’ is, but it’s usually a reference to the abdominal muscles. Fitness trainers place a major emphasis on exercises to strengthen your core. Your ‘core’ includes both the front and back muscles of the entire trunk and consists of the muscles running up your back and stretching down
