My first brush with Feng Shui taught me something very interesting: It’s not about what you put in the “gua” it’s about the intention you put it with and the meaning behind the symbol you use. A great book that exemplifies these principles for applying the Chinese art of conscious environment decor is Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life, written by Karen Rauch Carter. The author not only explains the role of intention in purposeful positioning of furnishings and symbols, she also does so with wit, simplicity and a whole lot of hilarity.
Let’s explore the basics. In Chinese, feng shui means “wind and water”, and the principles of this art appropriately use elements in order to achieve a desired energetic and psychological result for a particular area of your life. Although traditional feng shui uses an octagon, for the sake of simplification think of your home (or office, or any space – you can apply these principles even to your desk area. I do.) as if it were a big square, and divide this big square (with the front door at the bottom of the square) into nine squares of equal size.  Each of these mini squares is an area that goes by the name of “gua” and the entire square is called a “bagua”. As you can see from the picture above, each gua is assigned to a particular area of life (clockwise from the top center): Fame, Love and Relationships, Creativity and Children, Helpful People and Travel, Career, Knowledge and Skills, Family, Wealth and Prosperity, and the center square is Health. Each gua works with a color and a number and some have an element (the five elements used are water, fire, metal, wood and earth), secondary colors and a geometric shape. The rough list goes like this:

Fame:  Fire, Red, Triangle, 1
Love:  Pink (Red and White), 2
Creativity:  Metal, White, Round, 3
Helpful People/Travel:  Gray (Black and White), 5
Career:  Water, Black, Undulating, 6
Skills/Knowledge:  Blue, 7
Family:  Wood, Green, Rectangular, 4
Prosperity:  Purple (Green and Gold), 8
Health:  Earth, Yellow (Earth Tones), Square, 9

The idea is to work with these colors, numbers, elements and shapes in each area of your house to generate positive results in an area of your life. Does this work? When I lived in Miami, I met an architect whose thesis had been on the psychological effects of particular shapes and colors in design, and this brought home the perspective that a particular shape and color had psychological and therefore wellness benefits. As you can read in our article A Perspective on Color, there are plenty of studies that confirm this. The Chinese as well as many American corporations are known for applying Feng Shui principles to their office designs (ever seen a water fountain at the entrance of a business? Check what life area water is associated with.)

So where do intention and symbolism come in?  Colors, elements, shapes and numbers are all symbols. Intention is the driving force behind the placement energy.  So, let’s say you want to work the love gua of your home. If you’re a guy, you may not want to decorate your bedroom pink. But what is pink? The combination of red and white. Use those colors in various proportions (maybe you use mostly white, a la Mondrion Hotel, and add red in small proportions, maybe even under the bed.) And you don’t have to include a picture of the number that corresponds – use whatever accessories you want in the number proportions: The number of love is two (partnership), so use two candles, two lamps, two bookends on the shelf, a picture of you and your sweetie (this is not the area for family pictures. The family gua is.)

Let’s say your career corner’s element is water. Does that mean you have to make like the Fortune 500s and plant a huge water fountain in your office area? No. A tiny one would be great, but even a symbol of water – a picture of the ocean – positioned with conscious intention will do.

If your fireplace is not positioned in your fame gua, you can bring in the symbol of fire with various items like candles (they don’t even have to burn – just be representative of fire. This is the point of using symbols.) and images of heat, like the sun (sunburst mirrors are in style, by the way. Check out some decor blogs we included in our Home Decor: Support and Inspiration article, to get some ideas.

The point: Use this ancient Chinese wisdom but get creative. Use this knowledge along with the power of intention and symbols in order to achieve a living space that not only inspires you but also supports you goals and aspirations. And have fun while you’re doing it – there’s no better energy to work with than the energy of laughter and enjoyment.

]]> http://hlifemedia.com/2010/08/feng-shui-an-art-of/feed/ 2 http://hlifemedia.com/2010/08/the-hreport-in-the-journals-2/ http://hlifemedia.com/2010/08/the-hreport-in-the-journals-2/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:00:00 +0000 Maryl Celiz http://hlifemedia.com/?p=6084

Consumer: If you’re a woman ovulating, stay away from your favorite store. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research provides some evidence that consumer behavior is influenced by hormonal factors. Specifically, the researchers found that during the short period when they were ovulating, women chose sexier fashion products than they would normally choose at other times, especially if exposed to images of attractive women in their environment. The study authors say this is probably a subconscious attempt at attracting the best romantic partner available. Better put off deciding on surgery too – the researchers said this five to six days of vulnerability applied to all products and services that enhance physical appearance, such as shoes, cosmetics, and medical procedures.

Communication: What you say about others says a lot about you, a study says. Your perceptions of others reveal things about your own personality, and researchers found that a person’s tendency to describe others in positive terms is an important indicator of the positivity of the person’s own personality traits. They discovered particularly strong associations between positively judging others and how enthusiastic, happy, kind-hearted, courteous, emotionally stable and capable the person describes oneself and is described by others. The study also found that how positively you see other people shows how satisfied you are with your own life, and how much you are liked by others. In contrast, negative perceptions of others are linked to higher levels of narcissism and antisocial behavior – and the simple tendency to see people negatively indicates a greater likelihood of depression and various personality disorders. The research was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Anti-aging: Harvard University researchers have uncovered the key to reversing nerve damage due to aging. It’s diet and exercise to the rescue again, and the specific mechanism is explained in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While prior findings noted that exercise as well as restricted-calorie diets help to stave off the mental and physical degeneration of aging, the exact way this happens was unclear. Joshua Sanes and Jeff Lichtman at Harvard conducted research with mice and discovered that it is the connection between a nerve ending and its receptor – which deteriorates with age – that is positively affected by eating less calories and exercising more. When we age, our nerves can shrink and disconnect from our muscles, and our muscles can waste away, a common problem for the elderly. The new work showed that exercise partially reversed the damage, while calorie restriction reversed all aspects of nerve synapse disassembly.

Green: Need to know what your farming’s effect is on the environment? Check the output of various crops by county with the Farming Systems Greenhouse Gas Emissions Calculator, a simple web-based tool to help users make economically and environmentally sound decisions. Experiments with the calculator were included in the 2010 Journal of Natural Resources and Life Science Education, published by the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America.

Psychology: Today’s superheroes are not the role models of yesterday, a study says. Watching superheroes beat up villains may not be the best image for boys to see if a society wants to promote kinder, less stereotypical male behaviors, according to psychologists who spoke at the 118th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. “Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns,” said Sharon Lamb, PhD, professor of mental health at University of Massachusetts-Boston. She said the comic book heroes of the past were different. They also fought criminals, “but these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities.” Lamb’s study also found that the media sells boys two options for masculinity – the player or the slacker stereotypes, both unproductive. These stereotypes were found to negatively affect psychological adjustment as well as relationships. Another interesting find: boys who remained close to their mothers, siblings and peers did not act as tough and were more emotionally available to their friends.

Teeth: In the latest issue Nutrition Today, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine debunks common dental myths and outlines how diet and nutrition affect oral health. These myths include the idea that the consequences of bad oral health are restricted to the mouth (tooth decay in children affects school performance and food choice), that more sugar means more tooth decay (actually, it is the amount of time that the sugar is in the mouth and in contact with the teeth that matters), and that osteoporosis only affects the spine and hips (the jawbone can also suffer the consequences of a diet lacking essential nutrients such as calcium and vitamins D and K, and this can lead to tooth loss).

Sleep: Can’t sleep in your noisy city apartment? Blame your spindles. Researchers found that the ability “to sleep through anything” has everything to do with spindles, a term that refers to brief bursts of faster-frequency brain waves. Those bursts of activity are generated by the thalamus, which serves as a way station for most types of sensory information (everything except smell). In people who sleep through very noisy situations, the thalamus is likely preventing sensory information from getting to areas of the brain that perceive and react to sound. The researchers found that the spindle was the marker of this sensory blockade: More spindles means more stable sleep, even when there is noise. Research is currently being done on ways to enhance sleep spindles through behavioral techniques. The report was published in the journal Current Biology.

Heart: Choosing healthier protein-rich foods instead of red and processed meats may reduce heart disease, a study says. According to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, eating more fresh red meat, processed red meat and high-fat dairy carried an increased risk of heart disease. “Our study shows that making substitutes for red meat or minimizing the amount of red meat in the diet has important health benefits,” said Adam M. Bernstein, M.D., Sc.D, the study’s lead author. In the study, women who substituted red meat with other protein-rich foods experienced significantly lower risk of coronary disease, with nuts as the lowest risk option at 30%. Although the research included only women, Dr. Bernstein said, “our overall knowledge of risk factors for heart disease suggests that the findings are likely to apply to men as well.”

Nutrition: Drinking tart cherry juice daily could help reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food. In an experiment, adults who drank eight ounces of tart cherry juice in the morning and evening for two weeks reported significant reductions in insomnia severity and saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep on average. The researchers suspect tart cherries’ natural benefits could be due in part to their relatively high content of melatonin – a natural antioxidant in cherries with established ability to help moderate the body’s sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin is produced naturally by the body in small amounts and it plays a role in inducing sleepiness at night and wakefulness during the day. Cherries may help boost the body’s own supply of melatonin and increase sleep efficiency.

Weight: There is a correlation between weight and memory for older women, a study says. According to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, the more an older woman weighs, the worse her memory is. The study also says that this effect is more pronounced in women who carry excess weight around their hips, known as pear shapes, than women who carry it around their waists, called apple shapes. “The message is obesity and a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) are not good for your cognition and your memory,” said the study’s lead author Diana Kerwin, M.D. “Obesity is bad, but its effects are worse depending on where the fat is located,” Kerwin added. The type of fat deposited around the hips versus the waist is likely related to memory deterioration. Cytokines, hormones released by the predominant kind of fat in the body that can cause inflammation, are likely to affect cognition.

Diabetes: Cashew seed extract shows promise as an effective anti-diabetic, according to a new study. Published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, the investigation analyzed the reputed health benefits of cashew tree products on diabetes, notably whether cashew extracts could improve the body’s response to its own insulin. The team tested the impact of leaves, bark, seeds and apples from cashew trees on cells that respond to insulin. “Of all the extracts tested, only cashew seed extract significantly stimulated blood sugar absorption by muscle cells,” said senior author of the study, Pierre S. Haddad. Cashew tree products have long been thought to be affective anti-inflammatory agents, to counter high blood sugar and prevent insulin resistance among diabetics; this study corroborates the particular benefit of the cashew seed with respect to diabetes.

Food: Easy on that cup – or cups – of tea. Black tea, a Southern staple and the world’s most consumed beverage, may contain higher concentrations of fluoride than previously thought, says a study. This could pose problems for the heaviest tea drinkers. “The additional fluoride from drinking two to four cups of tea a day won’t harm anyone; it’s the very heavy tea drinkers who could get in trouble,” said Dr. Gary Whitford, who presented his findings at a conference in Spain last week. The previously reported amount of this chemical in a liter of black tea was 1 to 5 milligrams but the new study shows that number could be as high as 9 milligrams. Long-term ingestion of excessive amounts of fluoride could cause bone problems. The average person ingests a safe amount – 2 to 3 milligrams daily through fluoridated water, toothpaste and food. It would take ingesting about 20 milligrams a day for a significant risk to bone health to take place, about 1-2 gallons of tea daily, according to the findings. “The bottom line is to enjoy your favorite tea,”, said Whitford, but “in moderation.”

Psychology: Lucky charms work – because they give us confidence, says a study. New research published in the journal Psychological Science shows that having some kind of lucky token can actually improve your performance by increasing self-confidence. Michael Jordan used to do this by wearing his college team shorts underneath his NBA uniform for good luck ,while Tiger Woods wore a red shirt on tournament Sundays, the last and most important day of a tournament. The study found that a belief in superstition and following through by carrying the lucky token improved people’s performance by improving their confidence, while the reverse was also true: bringing a lucky charm to a test but not being able to use it or have it with them made volunteers perform worse. Looks like the mind will create what the mind believes.

Relationships: Here’s a way to tell a romantic relationship is going to fall apart: find out what people really think about their partners. As a departure from most tests that directly ask people how they feel about their partners and if they are happy (something people oftentimes don’t know), the researchers in this study used a so-called implicit task, which shows how people automatically respond to words – in this case, whether they find it easier to link words referring to their partner to words with pleasant or unpleasant meanings. The study found that volunteers in the experiment who found it easy to associate their partner with bad things (words like death, tragedy, and criticizing) and difficult to associate the partner with good things (words like peace, vacation, and sharing) were more likely to separate over the next year. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.

Brain: Looks like romantic love, under both happy and unhappy circumstances, may be a ‘natural’ addiction. Researchers have linked rejection by a romantic partner to brain activity associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers recorded the brain activity of 15 college-age adults who had recently been rejected by their partners but reported that they were still intensely “in love”. Upon viewing pictures of their former partners, several key areas of the participants’ brains were activated, including: the ventral tegmental area (controls motivation and reward and is known to be involved in feelings of romantic love), the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex (associated with craving and addiction, specifically the dopaminergic reward system evident in cocaine addiction), and the insular cortex and anterior cingulate (associated with physical pain and distress). By tying these specific areas of the brain to romantic rejection, the research provides insight into the anguished feelings that can accompany a break-up, as well as the extreme behaviors that can occur as a result, such as stalking, homicide and suicide.

Fungus: A team of scientist have identified Vitamin B3 as a potential anti-fungal treatment. The study published in Natural Medicine shows that Vitamin B3 strongly reduced Candida albicans virulence. Infections by the Candida yeast represent a significant public health problem and a common complication in immunodeficient individuals. The researchers found that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of a Candida Albicans enzyme with nicotinamide, a form of Vitamin B3, reduced both normal and drug-resistance strains of the yeast. In addition, nicotinamide prevented the growth of other pathogenic Candida species and Aspergillus fumigatus (another human pathogen), demonstrating the broad anti-fungal properties of nicotinamide.

Protein: Overweight and postmenopausal women who reduced their energy intake and raised their protein intake to lose weight were found to also lose bone mineral density faster than women who consumed normal protein diets that did not contain any meats. This finding is of concern for this age group and individuals that are susceptible to osteoporosis. Researchers analyzed data from two controlled diet studies. In one of these, one group of women aged from 43-80 consumed a vegetarian (meat-free) diet with a normal amount of protein that did not come from meat, while another group of women of the same age ate a diet high in protein from lean pork such as loin and ham. The women, on average, lost about 19 pounds each, but those who ate the higher-protein, meat-containing diet lost bone mineral density as well. In a second study, all participants consumed the same 1,000-calorie vegetarian diet, but 15 women received 250 calories from chicken breast meant, 14 women received 250 calories from beef tenderloin and 14 women received 250 calories from shortbread cookies and sugar-coated chocolates. Another 11 women served as the control group. The researchers observed, again, that all of the women who ate the energy-reduced diets successfully lost weight, but the groups that consumed the higher-protein, meat-containing diets also lost bone mineral density compared to the control group. The findings were published online in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

A new friend and I had a bet going on how to pronounce famed psychologist Abraham Maslow’s surname, and this prompted me to do a little research and revisit some of this visionary’s landmark concepts. Maslow is the father of humanistic psychology (I say it’s “maslov”, that’s how my college psych teacher pronounced it – Maslow’s parents were Russian immigrants after all, and we’ve all heard what happens to ‘w’s in Russian accents; my friend says it’s “maslow” as in “low price guarantee” – he was born in Brooklyn, which makes him American and likely to have adopted that pronunciation). Unlike Freud,  who focused on studying mental illness, Maslow researched and developed theories about the healthy aspect of the mind and human potential, which of course is so very HLife of him (our focus is optimal-centered, not on a sick or barely functional concept of health), so I had to share some of his less-talked-about work with you, which I found fascinating: The humanistic concept of values.

We mostly know Maslow for his hierarchy of needs (pictured above), the various levels of needs humans have and need to fill, with the most fundamental at the bottom and the more complex and abstract at the top: physiological (basic body functions), security, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. When I first learned about him and the hierarchy of needs over a decade ago, I was told each division of the pyramid was actually not a solid line but a dotted one, because we move up and down the ladder as our needs change. In other words, we don’t reach self-actualization and the party ends there – all of these needs are concepts we need to continue to fill and refill in our lives, which is a very dynamic way to look at challenges. If we lack something, we can get it, and move up to the next level and reach those goals. If we fulfill this or that need, we may need to fulfill it again at some other point. And that’s the way it goes. Just studying each one of these concepts and where we currently fall on the ladder on a given day or a stage of our lives is worth the neuron activity.

But a concept I wasn’t familiar with was his theory on B-values, and I wanted to share these with you because I think they are important for holistically healthy living. Maslow studied famous people like Albert Einstein, who he thought continuously reached the top “self-actualization” rung of the hierarchy of needs, and he concluded these people had what he called “peak experiences” – moments of extraordinary existence in a state of understanding profound concepts, experiencing great love, a deep fascination with the world around them, a clear awareness of reality, and harmony with all that is. As he studied these peak experiences, he decided these encompassed a way of thinking that included what he called “Being-values” (or B-values). These are:

- Wholeness (a holistic perspective)
- Perfection (as an idea to strive for, not the implication that we would already be so)
- Completion (fulfillment and destiny are both included here)
- Justice (fair is much better than nice, I say)
- Aliveness (I love this one. How many people do you know who are truly alive?)
- Richness (complexity, not material possessions)
- Simplicity (honesty is included here. And does honesty not simplify things?)
- Uniqueness (do you know who you are?)
- Effortlessness (grace – enough said)
- Playfulness (I know a wonderful sociologist who argues that play is a necessary human emotion – and I agree)
- Truth (deal with reality; beauty is truth, truth beauty – Keats is a classic for a reason)
- Self-Sufficiency (before you can be interdependent, you need to be independent)

In today’s fast-paced and infinitely mobile global community, a word like “values” may make you cringe or think “ancient” or “outdated”. There is nothing outdated about mental health and the ability to experience life optimally. With this in mind, I invite you to do your own research and analysis on what each of these values means in general and what it means to you personally, as well as how they – and IF they – manifest in your life today. I think you’ll find this exercise enlightening, or, at the very least, a little self-revealing. Oh, and if you can confirm the pronunciation of this wonderful forward thinker’s last name, do let me know.

]]> http://hlifemedia.com/2010/07/abraham-maslow-and-values/feed/ 5 http://hlifemedia.com/2010/05/hreport-in-journals-week2may/ http://hlifemedia.com/2010/05/hreport-in-journals-week2may/#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 07:10:01 +0000 Maryl Celiz http://hlifemedia.com/?p=4806

Psychology: Looks like washing your hands has more than a physical benefit. A recent study concludes that the activity “wipes the slate clean,” affecting us psychologically by removing doubts about recent choices, in addition to the feeling of being clean of germs as well as the already established link to feeling morally restored. “It’s not just that washing your hands contributes to moral cleanliness as well as physical cleanliness, as seen in earlier research” said Spike W. S. Lee, a doctoral candidate in social psychology. “Our studies show that washing also reduces the influence of past behaviors and decisions that have no moral implications whatsoever.” The researchers say that the “clean slate” effect may be relevant to many choices and decisions in life, not just the complex ones where ‘good behavior’ is implicated (for example, cheating) but also with simple choices like whether to buy one car over another (buyer’s remorse). The study was published in the May 7th issue of Science.

Sleep: According to a new study to be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, just one night of short sleep duration can induce insulin resistance, a component of type 2 diabetes.  “Sleep duration has shortened considerably in western societies in the past decade,” said Esther Donga, MD, lead author of the study. “And simultaneously, there has been an increase in the prevalence of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.”  The researcher says that the co-ocurring rises in both situations may not be a coincidence. “Our findings show a short night of sleep has more profound effects on metabolic regulation than previously appreciated.” Previous studies found that multiple nights of less sleep than normal resulted in impaired glucose tolerance, but this is the first to examine the effects of only a single night of partial sleep restriction on insulin sensitivity. The data indicated that the sensitivity depends, not on the health of the person (all volunteers in the study were healthy and had no sugar problems) but on the amount of sleep you actually get the night before.

Cancer: In the race to find answers about ovarian cancer, researchers now have something to cluck about.  Researchers have been using the chicken as a model to study this disease and have discovered that a diet enriched with flaxseed decreases the severity of ovarian cancer and increases survival in hens. “The chicken is the only animal that spontaneously develops ovarian cancer on the surface of the ovaries like humans,” explained Janice Bahr, professor emerita at the University Illinois Department of Animal Sciences. Several studies have already shown that flaxseed inhibits the formation of colon, breast, skin and lung tumors. The results showed that hens fed a flaxseed-enriched diet for one year experienced significant reduction in late-stage ovarian tumors. Though hens fed the flaxseed diet did not have a decreased incidence of ovarian cancer overall, they did experience fewer late-stage tumors, which translated into higher survival rates. Also, hens with the flaxseed diet had better weight control, which is important because obesity increases cancer risk. Ultimately, the flaxseed-enriched diet helped the birds maintain a healthy weight and resulted in less sickness and death, which Bahr says may provide the basis for trials that evaluate how effective this can be for women.

Sex: A new study suggests that it may not help older men and women with sexual problems to talk to a doctor, but men who talk to their partner about their issues report greater happiness, while those who talked with friends felt less depressed. The research, to be published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, shows that the way men and women deal with sexual health and stress in their later years varies greatly and that there is not one solution that can help ease unhappiness caused by sexual problems. “Older adults are advised to talk to their doctors about sexual health issues, but not all people do so and talking with a physician is not as helpful as you might expect,” said Ryo Hirayama, Ph.D. However, confiding in a partner or with friends was found to be effective for many men in reducing stress and unhappiness related to sex. Unfortunately for women, this same benefit was not reported. “In fact, women with higher levels of sexual stress who confided in their close friends reported lower happiness,” said Hirayama. Researcher Alexis Walker said that, “what this tells us is that women’s sexual issues are complex,” adding, “a woman with a great deal of sexual concerns could feel threatened by talking to her spouse about it, or perhaps simply confiding in a friend is not enough.” Most importantly, the researches say the findings show that men, who are typically considered to be less conversational or sharing than women, can greatly benefit from social networks and confiding in their mates.

Parenting: Want your kids to eat more veggies? Serve those first, says a study. Researchers at Penn State University found that when serving meals in various combinations and proportions to preschool children, the earlier the vegetables were served, the more were consumed. “We gave children carrots first without other competing foods,” explained Barbara J. Rolls, Chair of Nutritional Sciences at the university. “When they are hungry at the start of the meal, it presents us with an opportunity to get them to eat more vegetables.” Rolls explained that this challenged the conventional belief that children simply won’t eat vegetables, because they don’t have a taste for them, for example. It also provides parents a simple strategy to get their children eating a more healthy and nutritious diet. Putting out veggie snacks when children are hungry is a good idea, while setting an example by eating vegetables yourself as the parent while your kids are still young and impressionable also helps. The study was published in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Exercise: Apoptosis, the natural ‘programmed’ death of cells, is arrested in the aftermath of strenuous exercise, says a new study. Researchers studied blood samples taken from people finishing a marathon and found that the mechanism that drives this cell death shifted after the race. “Apoptosis is a normal physiological function dependent on a variety of signals, many of which can be modulated by strenuous exercise. Here, we’ve shown for the first time that exercise modulates expression of the sirtuin family of proteins,” explained Gabriella Marge, lead author of the study. Sirtuin proteins may play the crucial role of mediators in the maintenance of skeletal and cardiac muscle tissues as well as neurons, which explains the protective effects of physical exercise for survival and aging. The findings appear in the journal BMC Physiology.

Nutrition: Consuming more nuts appears to be associated with improvements in blood cholesterol levels, according to analysis of data from 25 trials reported in the May 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Nuts have been the focus of intense research recently because of their potential to reduce coronary heart disease risk and to lower blood lipid (fat and cholesterol) levels based on their unique nutritional attributes, said the authors of the study. “The effects of nut consumption were does related, and different types of nuts had similar effects on blood lipid levels,” the authors write.

Cancer: Scientists in California are reporting for the first time that walnuts, already famous for being rich source of omega-3 fatty acids that fight heart disease, reduce the size and growth rate of prostate cancer in test animals. The researchers, who shared their findings at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, said that walnuts should be a part of a prostate-healthy diet, along with lots of fruits and vegetables that also contain anti-cancer properties. Eating the walnuts whole is key, “because when a single component of a food linked to cancer prevention has been tested as a supplement, that food’s cancer-preventative effects disappear in most cases,” concluded Paul Davis, Ph.D, who headed the study.

Women: Ladies whose diets are rich in foods containing omega-3 oils might be less likely to develop endometriosis, suggests new research. The study – the largest to have investigated the link between diet and endometriosis risk – found that the types of fats in the diet of a woman made a difference when it came to risk for this condition. While omega-3 oils made women 22% less likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis that those who ate the least of this “good” fat, trans fats did just the opposite: They increased a woman’s chance by 48%. The study was published in the journal Human Reproduction.

Liver: Turmeric, already a star when it comes to fighting inflammation, has now been found to help the liver.  According to a study published in the journal Gut, curcumin, a component of the Indian spice, seems to delay the liver damage that eventually causes cirrhosis. The research found that curcumin significantly reduced bile duct blockage and curbed liver cell damage and scarring by interfering with several chemical signaling pathways involved in the inflammatory process.

Psychology: Feeling better about the future might help you feel better for real. In a new study, researchers studied how law students’ expectations about the future affected their immune response. The conclusion: Optimism may be good for your health. The researchers found that the students’ general outlook on life – whether they had an optimistic disposition or not – didn’t matter. Instead, as each students’ expectations changed from positive to negative and vice versa, their immune response changed accordingly. At more optimistic times, they’d have bigger immune responses while at more pessimistic times, they had a more sluggish immune response. Looks like having a positive outlook about something in specific might, at least, bring you good health. This was reported in the journal Psychological Science.

Joints: Osteoarthritis sufferers, be glad it’s Spring. A new study published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research is now saying that flip-flops – as well as sneakers with flexible soles – are easier on the knees than clogs or even special walking shoes. “Our study demonstrated that flat, flexible footwear significantly reduces the load on the knee joints compared with supportive, stable shoes with less flexible soles,” said Dr. Najia Shakoor, a rheumatologist and the primary author of the study. The research indicated that these types of shoes reduced knee load in a percentage comparable to knee braces and wedged orthotic shoe inserts used by patients with osteoarthritis, but that care should be taken in making this choice for the elderly and infirm individuals who may find that flip-flops contribute to falls due to their loose-fitting design.

Gender: Men and women respond differently to stress, says a new study. Published in the journal Psychophysiology, the investigation found that women who are more defensive are at increased risk for heart disease, while it is men who are less defensive have the higher cardiovascular risk. Defensiveness is characterized by avoidance, denial or repression of information perceived as threatening. In women, a strong defensive reaction to judgment from others or a threat to self-esteem will result in high blood pressure and heart rate. Contrarily, older men with low defensive reactions have higher cardiovascular rates. What part social expectations play in these differences is not detailed in the study, but the researchers said the reactions are probably due to the basic human need to maintain self-esteem and secure social bonds.

Pollution: Looks like one of the best things you can do for your lungs and the environment may be eating at home. Your senses may prevent you from perceiving this but scientists now claim that commercial cooking may be a contributor to air contamination. According to a study presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, restaurants are a surprisingly large source of a range of air pollutants that could pose risks to human health and the environment. The investigation found that it is fatty foods that create the most emissions in commercial kitchens, stuff cooked with high heat and open flames, such as cooking a hamburger patty on a conveyor broiler. “Not only do these emissions affect air quality,” said Deborah Gross, Ph.D., “but they contain chemicals that are known carcinogens.” How good does a salad sound now?

Nutrition: We now know that spices have antioxidants – oregano and others typically used in the Mediterranean diet – but who’s got the most? According to research published in the Flavour and Fragrance Journal, cloves are king when it comes to these benefits. “Out of the five antioxidant properties tested, cloves had the highest capacity to give off hydrogen, reduced lipid peroxidation well, and was the best iron reducer”, said Juana Fernandez-Lopez, one of the authors of the study. The researchers hope that the high antioxidant properties of this and other spices will make the food industry consider them for usage in preserving food, instead of using synthetic chemicals that cause toxicity and other side effects. But, until then, you can just make some clove tea for yourself and enjoy the taste as well as the benefits.

Love: To thine own self be true, said Shakespeare – and it turns out he was right, if you want a good relationship. A new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences examined how dating relationships were affected by the ability of people to see themselves clearly and objectively, act in ways consistent with their beliefs, and interact honestly and truthfully with others. The conclusion: If you’re true to you, better romantic relationships will follow. “If you’re true to yourself, it is easier to act in ways that build intimacy in relationships, and that’s going to make your relationship more fulfilling,” said Amy Brunell, lead author of the study. Authenticity also leads to acting less destructively with your partner, feeling like your relationship is more positive, and a sense of general personal well-being – for both men and women. Sign us up, Sherlock.

Parenting: Put those dancing shoes on…on the baby, that is. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition, researchers have discovered that infants respond to rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging that speech at an early age, suggesting babies may be born to dance. “Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants,” said Dr. Marcel Zentner, “We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music, the more they smiled.” Guess you better play that funky music for your baby, white boy.

Diabetes: Men, good news for you. According to research published the journal Nutrition and Metabolism, selenium may be a key nutrient in protecting you against diabetes. The study that included both men and women found that men whose plasma selenium concentrations were highest had a significantly lower risk of developing dysglycemia over the following years. The same did not happen for women, which may be due to many factors like possible differences in how men and women’s bodies process this trace mineral. Looking for a selenium source? Brazil nuts are the highest by far, containing almost ten times the amount found in either tuna or beef.

Psychology: Bullies can be shy, too, says a study. According to research published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, there is a subset of adults diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder who, rather than manifest their anxiety with inhibitive or submissive behavior, act out violently. Parents and teachers might think their kid is a bully because he has a conduct disorder but it may actually be extreme fears of being judged that is the cause, says researcher Todd Kashdan. “In the adult world, the same can be said for managers, co-workers, romantic partners and friends. It is easy to misunderstand why people are behaving the way we do and far too often we assume that the aggressive, impulsive behaviors are the problem. What we’re finding is that for a large minority of people, social anxiety underlies the problem,” said Kashdan. He also said training people to be more self-disciplined in all aspects of their lives improves will power and may be a technique to modify this behavior.

Sex: Cat calls hurt everyone, says a new study. Research published in the journal Sex Roles found that the actions of one sexist man affects not just the woman he is making remarks to, but also female bystanders, whose feelings and behavior toward men in general are greatly impacted by this indirect action. “Women are obviously implicated because they suffer direct negative consequences as targets of prejudice and, as the current work demonstrates, indirect consequences as bystanders. But sexism also harms men as well. Whenever a single man’s prejudiced actions are attributed to his gender identity, male perpetrators impact how women view and react to men more generally,” said Stephanie Chaudoir and Diane Quinn, authors of the study.  In other words, sexist remarks ruin it for the offended woman, other women witnessing, and the men who will then be judged by these women according to one sexist man. Help a sister – and a brother – out and keep it respectful.

Green Living: The latest survey of existing data about the hazards of plastic to human health and the ecosystems we depend on are sobering. According to research published in the Annual Review of Public Health, the annual production of plastic would fill a series of train cars encircling the globe. Adverse effects to human health remain unclear and controversial, though BPA and phthalates used in making stuff like water bottles and food packaging can leach out over time and are known to be toxic. As recently as this January, the FDA has expressed concern for potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. The author of the study said that we are at a critical time to change into more healthy and sustainable materials to replace plastic and its harm to us and the environment.

Psychology: Looks like Trevor McKinney was right – paying it forward does work. Much in like the 2000 film with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, a study done by UC San Diego and Harvard has now provided laboratory evidence that cooperative behavior is contagious and that it spreads from person to person. As illustrated by the experiment where strangers played a game, when people benefit from kindness, they “pay it forward” by helping others who were not originally involved, and this creates a cascade of cooperation that influences dozens more in a social network. “The flow of good and desirable properties like ideas, love and kindness is required for human social networks to endure,” said Nicholas Christakis, co-author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “In turn, networks are required for such properties to spread. Humans form social networks because the benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs.”

Food: According to research presented at the AACR Dead Sea International Conference on Advances in Cancer Research, seaweed extract may be a key to treating lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. The researchers looked into a new treatment strategy using active compounds derived from a commercially available seaweed extract, basing their hypothesis on previous studies that reported that fucoidan, a sulfated polysaccharide found in seaweeds, had anti-tumor activity in mice and some cell lines. They found the extract had an inhibitory effect on lymphoma cells, but left healthy cells intact.

Love: Breaking up is hard to do, and there’s more to that than we previously thought. According to research published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, when a relationship ends, an individual’s self-concept is vulnerable to change too. The study found that after a breakup, individuals have reduced self-concept (a person’s sense of “me”) clarity, which can contribute to emotional distress. Because romantic partners develop shared friends, activities and overlapping self-concepts, the loss of the relationship has multiple psychological consequences, including the tendency for people to change part of who they are as well as the feeling that their selves are less clear and even smaller.

Cancer: Papaya may stop the growth of cancer cells, says a new study. Researchers from University of Florida and Japan have documented papaya’s anticancer effect against a broad range of lab-grown tumors, including cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas. They used an extract made from dried papaya leaves, and found that the anticancer effects were stronger when cells received larger doses of the tea. “Based on what I have seen and heard in a clinical setting, nobody who takes this extract experiences demonstrable toxicity; it seems like you could take it for a long time as long as it is effective,” said Nam Dang, M.D., Ph.D., lead author. The study was published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

Green Living: Looks like corn may not be the fuel answer. Research published in the March issue of BioScience indicates that an increased production of this potential biofuel would trigger land-use changes that would boost carbon dioxide emissions.  In other words, in trying to produce the corn needed for fuel, the amount of land that would be turned to maize crops would generate enough greenhouse gas emissions to cancel out the benefits of the corn ethanol on global warming.

Exercise: Good news for lazy bums and busy bees – less is now more when it comes to working out. According to new research published in the Journal of Physiology, short duration high-intensity training (HIT) is a time-efficient and safe alternative to traditional types of moderate long term exercise. “Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously,” said Martin Gibala, author of the study. HIT means doing a number of short bursts of intense exercise with short recovery breaks in between, here shown to be equally as effective as conventional time-consuming endurance training, which means the “no time” excuse is out the window.

Heart: Preventing and treating heart disease could be as simple as supplementing with Vitamin D. According to two new studies presented at the American College of Cardiology scientific session, there is a link between levels of this vitamin and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and kidney failure. The role of Vitamin D in bone strength through its interplay with calcium is known, but this is the first study to show its connection to heart disease, and to suggest the need for more of this vitamin in the diet than previously thought. Vitamin D is also available to the body through sunlight (20-30 minutes of sun exposure can provide up to 10,000 IU) but it is important to remember to use sunscreen and avoid the hottest parts of the day to protect skin from harmful UV rays and skin cancer.

Parenting: Time to make some changes, minority mommies. Efforts to prevent childhood obesity should begin far earlier than currently thought – perhaps even before birth for some populations, according to a study. Research that tracked 1,826 women from pregnancy through their children’s first five years of life found that this was a key period for childhood obesity prevention, especially for minority children. “Almost every single risk factor in that period before age 2, including the prenatal period, was disproportionately higher among children,” said Elsie Taveras, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School. Looking at risk factors, researchers found that African-American and Hispanic infants were more likely than their Caucasian counterparts to be born small, gain excess weight after birth, begin eating solid foods before 4 months of age and sleep less. The good news: most of these can be modified by getting updated information, not just “wisdom” handed down through generations. The study was published in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics.

Hearing: According to a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Medicine, regular use of aspirin, acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increases the risk of hearing loss in men. This is particularly the case for younger men, below age 60, say a group of investigators from Harvard University, Bringham and Women’s Hospital, Vanderbilt University and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder in the US, affecting over 36 million people. Even mild hearing loss can compromise the ability to understand speech in noisy environments or with multiple participants in a conversation, leading to social isolation, depression, and poorer quality of life. “Given the high prevalence of regular analgesic use and health and social implications of hearing impairment, this represents an important public health issue,” said the researchers.

Weight-loss: A low-carb diet, a low-fat diet and the Mediterranean diet were equally effective in helping obese people to reverse carotid atherosclerosis, reports a study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. To reverse atherosclerosis – a slow, progressive condition in which the arteries thicken with plaque buildup, increasing risk of heart attack and strokes – the key is a diet that supports sustained, moderate weight loss. “Long-term adherence to weight-loss diets is effective for reversing carotid atherosclerosis as long as we stick to one of the current options of healthy diet strategy,” said the lead author of the study. A lifestyle change to a vegan diet is our favorite long-term weight-control diet option here at HLife.

Brain: Find your purpose and preserve your mind. According to a report in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, individuals who say they have greater purpose in their lives are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.  “Purpose in life, the psychological tendency to derive meaning from life’s experiences and to possess a sense of intentionality and goal directedness that guides behavior, has long been hypothesized to protect agains adverse health outcomes,” said the researchers. Fortunately, purpose in life is a factor that can potentially be modified, through effort and specific tasks. Identifying purposeful behavior and a specific goal on which to work on a consistent basis is important, as well as reinforcing thoughts like “I feel good when I think of what I have done in the past and what I hope to do in the future.” Another brain-booster: service.  Doing things that benefit others has been shown to generate feel-good chemicals in the brain.  Find your purpose – and share it with others.

Obesity: Obesity and depression are birds of a feather. According to a meta-analysis of various studies, obese individuals have a higher risk of developing depression, and depressed individuals have a higher risk of becoming obese. As to why this is, the theories are: Obesity may be considered an inflammatory state, and inflammation is associated with the risk of depression. Because thinness is considered a beauty ideal in both the United States and Europe, being overweight or obese may contribute to body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem that places individuals at risk for depression. Conversely, depression may increase weight over time through interference with the endocrine system or the adverse effects of antidepressant medication. The study appears in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

Psychology: Looks like if we’re going to lose weight as a nation, instead of helping us buy broccoli we should be penalized for buying junk. The results research published in the journal Psychological Science demonstrated that taxes imposed on unhealthy foods were more effective in reducing calories purchased over subsidies offered to buy healthy foods. For the study, consumers were given “lab dollars” to buy groceries and feed their family on a specific budget. When faced with a tax for food like chips and soda, they opted for healthier purchases. But when the store offered incentives like a subsidy for healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables, more consumers used the money they saved to buy more junk food instead.  A much better idea? Being conscious of how much junk food will cost you later on – in health care dollars.

Men: Bachelors beware. According to a large study presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference, single men may have an elevated risk of fatal stroke in the coming decades.  But you’re not alone: The same goes for unhappily married men. The research reports that single men had a 64% higher risk of fatal stroke than did married men, compared to the risk of fatal stroke faced by men with diabetes. The same goes for men who reported dissatisfaction in their marriage, 64% higher risk compared to men who considered their marriages very successful. The best case scenario: Being happily married.

Today is the day you have been waiting for.

On New Year’s Eve, there was an eclipse/blue moon that activated us and put us on a path of change, cleansing and regeneration. This is a new year – a better year – and everyone we’ve spoken with can feel the goodness, even see it.  Things are moving forward. They’re working out. Other stuff, inner stuff, pending stuff, is moving out from your cellular memory, through your mind and to the surface, showing up in your body.  Your body is a map – it tells you what is going on inside of you that you cannot see. And you may have been seeing a lot of change.

Perhaps you have been feeling uncomfortable – sick even – physically…maybe you’ve been upset and had one of those “no more, I will not do this ever again” moments with a particular habit or pattern you have identified and want to dismiss for good.

Perhaps you have been feeling uncomfortable – sick even – physically…maybe you’ve been upset and had one of those “no more, I will not do this ever again” moments with a particular habit or pattern you have identified and want to dismiss for good. Perhaps you’re emotional and you don’t know why. Maybe old behaviors that you thought were gone from your mind came back with a vengeance, and you’re bent out of shape with the experience, confused as to why something you thought you healed has resurfaced.

Instead of staying in confusion, take a deep breath and get informed. What you are going through is normal, natural, as a dynamic interaction with the current environmental and planetary energies. The music of the Cosmos does affect you – you just haven’t been listening or paying attention.  There is a Universal Body that is going through transformations, one that you are a part of and whose transformations will affect and change you as well. But this are not bad things – they are opportunities for growth, as change always is. You just have to see it for what it is and take advantage of the opportunity.

Don’t fight this cleansing – go with it.  Ride the wave instead of falling victim to it.

Today there will be another eclipse, at 11:11 p.m. PST.  This eclipse is the “closing” of the transformative purging period begun on New Year’s Eve. This eclipse will cement the new insights that you have had throughout this period and make them a part of Who You Are. This has been a learning period, a time for you to take those things that have come to the surface, study them, let them go if they don’t serve you, or modify them and  make them a new part of you. Be diligent, be conscious, and do the work. This is a time for introspection. As much as you can, take the rest of the day as a day of sacred practice, and use one of the best tools to access the subconscious: a pen and paper. Write down your thoughts, your feelings of the last two weeks, situations that have come up and how you handled them, what they taught you, how you reacted and how you wish you had reacted differently. Jot down what you want to do about the things you see that need change.  Tell yourself that you can do this work, that you understand the significance of the current energetic environment and that you will embrace and internalize the current of change, and ask the Universe to work with you, that you are done working against it, for the necessary changes that will make your life the greatest, most beautiful and fulfilling version it can be.

Our friends at Evolve, a community committed to information that generates awareness, have written something that will help you understand this further.  You can read all about the eclipse, it’s meaning and what to do here: Evolve Human Experience: Solar Eclipse

May this be the end and beginning of the wonderful journey you were always meant to live.