Published: November 23, 2012
Image: istockphoto
Today the BBC reports a warning from Dr Aric Sigman that screens “may produce” an increased level of dopamine in children’s brains.
He suggests this could lead to a dependency on screen media when they are older.
There are calls for more research to be carried out as there is currently no conclusive evidence on the effects of screen media on young children’s brains.
There is also growing concern around the world that very young children should not watch any screens at all. read more
ᔥBBC
Published: November 22, 2012
We all have a story – it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This Thanksgiving as we show gratitude for our beautiful life – take some time to reflect on a beautiful end, too. Know the answers to just these five questions for yourself, and for your loved ones. Commit to advocating for each other. Please share, pass this on. Let’s start a revolution.
WHY IT MATTERS
MANY OF US DO NOT DIE IN THE WAY WE WOULD HAVE CHOSEN
73% of Americans would prefer to die at home
but anywhere between 20-50% of Americans die in hospital settings.
More than 80% of Californians say their loved ones “know exactly” or have a “good idea” of what their wishes would be if they were in a persistent coma, but only 50% say they’ve talked to them about their preferences
Eight out of ten people say it is “very” or “somewhat” important to write down EOL wishes, but only 36% actually have written instructions.
According a NY Times article,
Dr. John E. Wennberg of Dartmouth Medical School, the chief author of the study, said doctors and hospitals that provided more care, or more intensive care, did not necessarily achieve better results for patients. He stated, “Some chronically ill and dying Americans are receiving too much care — more than they and their families actually want or benefit from
AND IT COMES AT A GREAT COST A study by the California Healthcare Foundation compared patients who received palliative care services (i.e. reducing the severity of symptoms, not trying to cure the disease) versus those who did not over the last three days of life. The cost for patients who received palliative care services was $492 versus $2,671 for those who did not, creating a savings of $2,179 in the last three days of life.
People don’t talk about death, which means that often times, people aren’t able to die in the way that they lived — with intent. Some people die in a hospital when they would have preferred to be at home. Others are kept on life sustaining treatments way beyond the point they would have wanted. This comes at a high cost to us, our families and the healthcare system.
Communicate your wishes. Engage with Grace.
Learn more: Engage with Grace and the One Slide Project have one goal: To help ensure that all of us – and the people we care for – can end our lives in the same purposeful way we lived them. engagewithgrace.org
Published: November 21, 2012
Image: istockphoto
If you are among the 50 percent of Americans who suffer from insomnia, then you have probably tried everything – from warm milk to melatonin pills or prescription medications to induce sleep – with varying degrees of success and side effects. But what if sleep could be achieved not by a substance, but through ‘balancing’ brain activity?
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have conducted a pilot clinical study to determine whether a non-invasive approach, that uses musical tones to balance brain activity, can ‘reset’ the brain and effectively reduce insomnia.
The study, was published online in October, advance of print, in the journal Brain and Behavior. It was funded by a $26,696 grant from Brain State Technologies, LLC, Scottsdale, Ariz., the company that owns the technology used in the study.
Charles H. Tegeler, M.D., professor of neurology at Wake Forest Baptist and principal investigator of the study explained how the technology works. “The human brain is made up of the left and right hemispheres that work together as parallel processors. When a person undergoes trauma or a major stressor, their autonomic survival responses kick in and the brain can become unbalanced. If those imbalances persist, symptoms such as insomnia can result. Our study looked at a new technology that is intended to facilitate greater balance and harmony in brain frequencies, which may result in improved symptoms.”
The new technology is called HIRREM, high-resolution, relational, resonance-based, electroencephalic mirroring or, as it’s commercially known, Brainwave Optimization™. The non-invasive procedure uses a system that is designed to reflect the brain’s frequencies back to itself using musical tones. Resonance between the musical tones and the electrical energy in a person’s brain can bring balance to the two hemispheres of the brain. [continue reading…]
Published: November 19, 2012
