If you know what's good for you...

...and it IS good for you.

You don't have to sit funny...you don't have to chant...you don't have to join some strange religion.

Its easy and I promise you'll like it.

This study from  Harvard, called "Eight weeks to a better brain" shows, conclusively, that meditating rebuilds your gray matter in as little as 2 months.

Try it.  You can thank me later.

Here's some links to check out for the beginner:

5 tips for beginners

a beginner's guide

Its easy.  Its free.  It's good for you.  What's not to love?

Vitamin K

While anyone using blood thinners is all too aware of vitamin K and its influence on blood clotting, the general population is a little less informed.

Recent tragedies at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have brought vitamin K and its use for newborns, into the spotlight.

There's no question that newborns simply don't have the intestinal flora to make vitamin K within their own bodies.  At issue is whether the vitamin K shots given routinely after delivery are more dangerous than the bleeding newborns can experience without the ability to clot.

This is a particularly good article weighing the benefits and dangers of vitamin K shots.  Its long, but if you're a new parent or expecting, its well worth your time to read to understand the issues.

Its all about the response time.

There's a maxim in EMS about the "golden hour".  

In general, across a broad spectrum of traumatic (and some medical) issues, EMS has 1 hour from inception until Emergency Room arrival and that every minute after that hour degrades the patient possibility for a positive outcome.  

The concept has been, for the most part, proven to be inaccurate, but it still lingers in EMS training and in EMS methods.  

In Dubai, they're trying to address the issue with 160 mph first responder sports car.

As this article points out, “Overemphasis on response-time interval metrics may lead to unintended, but harmful, consequences (e.g., emergency vehicle crashes) and an undeserved confidence in quality and performance,”  but it's GREAT for PR.

Coffee.

Coffee.  

You need it.  

Well, maybe you don't, but I do!

Here's a fascinating (and short!) article from Scientific American about the evolution of caffeine producing plants...arabica, robusta, tea, chocolate...



So how DO you get your caffeine fix?  Coffee?  Chocolate?  Soda pop (ick)?  Energy drinks (double ick!)?  Tea?

Oh...and did you know that black tea is nothing except oxidized green tea?  Just like rust is oxidized iron....black tea is oxidized green tea.   And Oolong is half oxidized.

Its thought that the practice started because black tea will retain it's flavor much longer, making it suitable as a trade item.

Enjoy!

8. Active social life.

Last, but not least, in our list of 8 things you can do to improve your overall wellness is to lead an active social life.


As this article points out, if stress is the villain of the story, then an active social life is the hero.

An active social life has been shown to delay dementia, Alzheimers and other age related disorders.

Whether volunteering in your community, taking adult ed classes at a school, bowling, bingo, square dancing, joining a writer's or reader's group, it's good for you.

And no, I don't think playing farmville on facebook is quite what the researchers have been looking into...

7. Reduce stress

We've written before about the value of optimism and meditation. 

It's long been known that some stress, acute stress, can be good for you.  

We evolved to run from giant predators.

But chronic stress, long term stress, is terrible for you. It accelerates aging, contributes to dementia and Alzheimer's, increases the severity of cardiovascular disease.

Eliminating chronic stress is one of the most successful methods you can adopt for increasing your overall health.

Exercise, meditation, gratitude practice:  there are a lot of mechanisms to help you deal with stress.  Find one that works for you.

Ebola - should you worry?

The Ebola virus is incredibly virulent, killing 50-90% of those that have become infected. 

There's no vaccine and there's no cure.

Should you worry that we're bringing a patient back to the US?  This article suggests that no, the facility was built to contain diseases far more infectious than the Ebola virus.

Is this the worst known Ebola outbreak in history?  Yes, it appears to be...but I encourage you to browse this quick article about Ebola...it's not all doom and gloom.