Category: neuroscience

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The Health Impacts of Stress

Not everyone is affected similarly by the same stressor. Stress is both Stressor and Stress Reaction. I hear a lot of times in the clinic how an individual was doing fine until another person or an unfortunate circumstance contributed to their increased stress, anger, and pain. We cannot live a stress-free life. When we speak of stress, it is beneficial to consider two sides of it: the stressor – that which exerts stress – and the stress reaction – our response to the stressor. We may not be able to control what the outside may bring to us, but we can control our attitude and the response we generate. Required in this is the ability to regulate our nervous system to generate calm and reframe a stressor.

Negative and unprocessed stress can be harmful to our health. Unequivocally, it can impact our bodies. How we cope with it can be a second hit to our health and attract us to potentially harmful and addictive behaviors.

In the article, Hanna Keith Santos Barrios defines stress and specifically how our body responds to it. The hope is that the knowledge can equip the reader with a tool to consider the ways in which attach to a stressor and they can reframe it to provide the energy for transcending any obstacle.

EMDR: Its History and Effectiveness

EMDR was born of serendipity. As a survivor in the human condition, there is a frequent dance with stress or anxiety. Some individuals can overcome it more easily than others. As neuroscience instructs us, we can emerge from cyclical thought patterns. The search for ways we can improve […]

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Social Media & Mental Health: Taking Back Your Time

Our time is precious. We often do not realize how quickly it goes as we live it. The way we spend our time can influence our health. Enter social media. It might be common behavior to pass “in between” time – a busy doctor’s waiting room or waiting […]

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The Evolution of the Approach to Mental Health: Towards a More Preventive Strategy

The pandemic has given us a lot to think about regarding mental health. Already on an incline, the rates of depression and anxiety have increased over the last few years.

Psychiatry is on the reactive side of mental health, addressing issues as people present with more serious conditions.

The ACEs study showed an association of trauma with mental and physical health impacts. Envisioning preventive strategies could start at the pregnancy, address parenting approaches, and enhance community and scholastic programs.

Medications have limited efficacy. A multi-pronged preventive approach will likely be the most effective.

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Tending the Garden Within: Does Meditation Reverse Aging?

by Sydney Bright and Christopher Cirino What if as time passes, our bodies did not age? Does growing older always have to lead to a sharp decline in physical health? Is it possible to live long with a vibrant, healthy body? Modern science is beginning to challenge our […]

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The Gut-Brain Axis and Its Relationship to Health

Introduction to the Gut-Brain Axis Everything is connected. At a large scale, this is true when thinking about our planet: our choices influence our environment, which affects the plants and animals of our ecosystem. Ultimately, the systems come back to influence us once again. These same effects occur […]

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