Fish: The untold story
When I counsel clients seeking weight loss, disease prevention or reversal, improved mood – and anything else they want to fix – to cut down on or entirely eliminate their animal product consumption, most can accept pretty easily that the great weight of scientific evidence supports this advice. But then the question always comes up:…
From fear of failure to rousing success
“Andrea” (not her real name) works in an industry in which safety is of paramount importance. Every 6 months, she must sit for accreditation exams so that she can continue working in her job. Although she has taken these exams many times, she told me that she is always nervous to the point of feeling…
Why you should make “Be Kind to Myself” your #1 New Year’s Resolution
Recently, I received an email from one of my clients, whom I had just introduced to EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques, popularly known these days as ‘tapping’). This woman, whom I’ll call Dixie, has lived a full and interesting life. Along with her many personal and professional achievements have come significant challenges, including a brush with…
Good mood food
Depression, anxiety, feelings of overwhelm and general stress are modern-day epidemics. Yet when people go to see a doctor or psychologist about their mental health, they are hardly ever asked what they eat. According to this fascinating study, that’s a huge mistake. Researchers at Arizona State University have found that a diet free of all flesh…
Rumination inflammation
“Don’t dwell on what has passed away, or what is yet to be”, rasps Leonard Cohen in what I consider to be one of his finest songs, ‘Anthem’. But for many people, that’s easier said (or sung) than done! If you’ve ever found yourself running through a past conversation over and over in your mind,…
Depression: bringing your black dog to heel
Antidepressant drugs are only marginally effective for most people, and come with a laundry list of side-effects (see my article, 5 reasons to think twice before taking antidepressants). But when the black dog (as Winston Churchill famously referred to his gloomy spells) is nipping at your heels, you’re obviously going to want relief. Fortunately, there…
Want to feel happier? Change what’s on your plate!
Google the search terms ‘happiness’ + ‘research’ and you’ll retrieve about 56,300,000 results. Yet, as economists David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, and Professor of Public Health, Sarah Stewart-Brown, pointed out in a recent study, of the many thousands of scientific papers published on the various determinants of people’s happiness and psychological health, virtually none have…
Inflammation: why you’re fat, sick, tired, depressed and in pain… and what to do about it
You may never have stopped to think about it, but every time you become unwell in any way, inflammation plays a key role. That role is obvious in diseases like arthritis – inflammation of the joints, but perhaps less obvious in, for example, the common cold – major symptoms of which are rhinitis, or inflammation…
Junk food makes kids dumber
If you’re old enough to remember the Skyhooks song ‘Horror Movie’ (and not too embarrassed to admit knowing it), you might recall the lyrics: “It’s a horror movie right there on my TV Horror movie right there on my TV Horror movie and there’s known abuse Horror movie, it’s the six-thirty news.” Well, my version…
Get a good night’s sleep – at last!
“The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to,” lamented F. Scott Fitzgerald, and anyone who has spent restless nights wrestling with the frustration of not being able to fall asleep, stay asleep, or sleep until the desired waking time, might be inclined to agree! Somewhere between 13 and 33% of…