Have you ever had a patient who, when trying to excuse some behavior or condition, blamed it on their genes? We tend to see genes as the determining factor for everything from our weight to our propensity to develop certain neurological diseases and while genes can play an important role in many areas of health, […]
Improve Your Brain Health: Eat Curry
I have to admit, I didn’t grow up eating curry. It just wasn’t a mainstay in the New England diet, and my parents still aren’t much into trying new foods. And while this follows the whole “you can’t teach old dogs new tricks” thinking, anyone who doesn’t at least try curry, or more importantly, turmeric, […]
How Altruism Can Change the World
I recently read a story that amazed me so much I wanted to share it with you. It started when Rick Ruzzamenti, a New Yorker, decided to donate a kidney after hearing a story about organ donation at his local yoga studio. The result? One altruistic act started a chain of events that linked 60 […]
The Science of Altruism: A Daily Act of Kindness
I recently read about a new blog started by a man who wanted to do one act of kindness a day for the entire year in celebration of his daughter’s birth. So far, he has done things like buy lunch for firefighters, put change in vending machines, compliment strangers, and let people go ahead of […]
The Benefits of Exercise for the Brain
I was just reading about the abnormally severe winter that folks in Europe are currently enduring. Last year at this time, my house was surrounded by six-foot snow piles and topics of conversation were about how to shovel snow off the roof. At any rate, my exercise regiment had fallen by the way-side, with snow […]