Healthy by Nature website LINK  |   Blog LINK | Video Course LINK| Books LINK  |  June 13, 2024  Vol. 15, #16

 

• Anyone who has had a garden, a yard or even not been living in a cave knows that climate influences plants. What surprised me a bit is a finding from a study which shows the reverse—plant diversity affects climate…at least in Europe.

• My gut feeling has long been that there is truth to the old adage “laughter is the best medicine” – well if not the best, surely at least very good and without dangerous side effects. I use that conviction as justification for starting my day with the comics in the newspaper (and sometimes skipping the rest), for watching sitcom reruns at lunch and reading anything written by Dave Barry before bed. Now I’ve found a review of studies that confirms my suspicions and further relieves my guilt about being a bum.

• Brain training. The following quote is from an article about the brain—called use it or lose it: “challenge your brain to the point where you need to make an effort to remember things, pay attention, and later to execute tasks. The evidence from clinical trials, including ours, shows this type of brain challenge is effective in slowing and even reversing cognitive decline. However, formal brain training is not the only way to improve brain plasticity, observational studies suggest associations between improved performance and lower dementia risk by engaging in a range of number or word puzzles, cards, board games, crosswords, and Sudoku.” [Okay, so now I can skip the guilt when doing the puzzles I enjoy.}

Animals helping each other

Copyright 2024 Martie Whittekin, CCN