Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Tip: To manage stress, sleep better. To sleep better, keep a good routine and manage stress.

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Dis­rupt­ed rou­tines and wor­ries about coro­n­avirus have made it hard­er for us to sleep this year. For exam­ple, reports sug­gest there was a 15% increase in pre­scrip­tions for sleep med­ica­tion pre­scrip­tions at the begin­ning of the pan­dem­ic in the U.S., and a 37% increase in insom­nia in China.

Impor­tant­ly, if you’ve been feel­ing out of sorts over the past few months, the lack of sleep could be part­ly to blame. [Read more…] about Tip: To man­age stress, sleep bet­ter. To sleep bet­ter, keep a good rou­tine and man­age stress.

Here’s a toast to a Healthy, Happy & Meaningful New Year!

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“Think­ing about you” — clas­sic Mafal­da by Joaquín Sal­vador Lava­do Tejón, known as Quino, who left us in 2020 to explore future endeavors

And, if you’re look­ing for New Year Res­o­lu­tions, here you can find some inspi­ra­tion and ideas… 

1. To har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, start with enthusiasm

2. How learn­ing changes your brain

3. What you should know about neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and dance

4. Three ways to pro­tect your men­tal health dur­ing –and after– COVID-19

5. Can you grow your hip­pocam­pus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters

6. Five rea­sons the future of brain enhance­ment is dig­i­tal, per­va­sive and (hope­ful­ly) bright

7. What are cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties and how to boost them?

8. Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-dam­ag­ing stress

9. Solv­ing the Brain Fit­ness Puz­zle Is the Key to Self-Empow­ered Aging

10. Read, Play, Train: 3 New Year Res­o­lu­tions and 36 Ideas for a Hap­pi­er & Health­i­er 2021

Update: Understanding Brain Health via Cosmological Health, and vice versa

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LEFT: SECTION OF CEREBELLUM, WITH MAGNIFICATION FACTOR 40X, OBTAINED WITH ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (DR. E. ZUNARELLI, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF MODENA); RIGHT: SECTION OF A COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATION, WITH AN EXTENSION OF 300 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS ON EACH SIDE (VAZZA ET AL. 2019 A&A). CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing find­ings, books and resources for life­long brain health.

#1. “The human brain (sec­tion; left image above) func­tions thanks to its wide neu­ronal net­work that is deemed to con­tain approx­i­mate­ly 69 bil­lion neu­rons. On the oth­er hand, the observ­able uni­verse (sec­tion sim­u­la­tion; right image) can count upon a cos­mic web of at least 100 bil­lion galax­ies. With­in both sys­tems, only 30% of their mass­es are com­posed of galax­ies and neu­rons. With­in both sys­tems, galax­ies and neu­rons arrange them­selves in long fil­a­ments or nodes between the fil­a­ments. Final­ly, with­in both sys­tems, 70% of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of mass or ener­gy is com­posed of com­po­nents play­ing an appar­ent­ly pas­sive role: water in the brain and dark ener­gy in the observ­able Uni­verse.” Under­stand­ing Brain Health via Cos­mo­log­i­cal Health, and vice versa

#2. One very smart and gen­er­ous brain to bright­en your day: Indi­an teacher Ran­jitsinh Disale wins annu­al $1M Glob­al Teacher Prize; shares half with 9 finalists

#3. “Of all the qual­i­ties par­ents can cul­ti­vate in their chil­dren, hope and opti­mism are the most pre­cious. We can nur­ture hope and opti­mism in our kids by demon­strat­ing that we always have some con­trol over our envi­ron­ment and our­selves. The future isn’t a tide that’s going to crush us, it’s a wave we’re a part of.” — Made­line Levine, author of Ready or Not. Three favorite 2020 books on par­ent­ing and men­tal health

#4. A superb mem­oir on becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: Becom­ing Myself, by Irvin D. Yalom

#5. This sur­vey of 2500 fam­i­lies about what ADHD treat­ments seem to work/ not work finds that 49% of par­ents report Exer­cise to be ‘Extreme­ly or Very Effec­tive;’ above any oth­er treatment.

#6. On the dan­gers of “pro­duc­tiz­ing” lifestyle guide­lines that help build brain reserve and delay cog­ni­tive prob­lems; Buy­er beware: The sto­ry of a pricey and “cre­den­tialled” pro­gram to end Alzheimer’s Disease

#7. Now, giv­en that “In a new McK­in­sey report, 62% of employ­ees con­sid­er men­tal health issues a top chal­lenge,” it is good to see grow­ing resources and approach­es aimed at address­ing the chal­lenge: Calm rais­es $75 mil­lion, expands into cor­po­rate men­tal health and wellness

#8. And, step by step, dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics are going main­stream: Click Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $30 mil­lion in debt to advance com­mer­cial­iza­tion of smok­ing ces­sa­tion app Clickotine

#9. Nev­er two with­out three: Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

#10. Final­ly, we asked our team and trust­ed advi­sors to com­pile a list of ideas to stay sane and healthy in the months ahead, pri­or­i­tiz­ing habits shown to pro­mote brain health, resilience and pos­i­tive neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: Enjoy these 3 New Year Res­o­lu­tions and 36 Ideas for a Hap­pi­er & Health­i­er 2021

Wish­ing you a safe, healthy and hap­py New Year

Three favorite 2020 books on parenting and mental health

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For a lot of fam­i­lies, par­ent­ing has nev­er been hard­er than it was this year. Many have been strug­gling for months try­ing to pro­vide child care and school­ing at home while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly work­ing either along­side their chil­dren or as essen­tial work­ers in the com­mu­ni­ty, if they haven’t already lost their jobs.

The theme that emerges across our favorite par­ent­ing books of the year is how impor­tant con­nec­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion are. These 2020 books offer sci­ence-based prac­ti­cal tips and sam­ple scripts to help you com­mu­ni­cate bet­ter with your chil­dren, build clos­er rela­tion­ships, and set them up for hap­pi­ness and resilience in life. [Read more…] about Three favorite 2020 books on par­ent­ing and men­tal health

On becoming a psychotherapy pioneer and bestselling writer: A fantastic memoir by, and window into, the unique mind of Irvin D. Yalom

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If you’re inter­est­ed in the life of the mind, here you have an awe­some win­dow into a unique mind — a pro­found mem­oir by best­selling writer and psy­chother­a­py pio­neer Irvin D. Yalom. It was pub­lished back in 2017 but, like good wine, it has aged well and is more rel­e­vant today than ever.

Irvin D. Yalom, MD, is an emer­i­tus pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty and a psy­chi­a­trist in pri­vate prac­tice in San Fran­cis­co. He is the author of many books, includ­ing Love’s Exe­cu­tion­er, The The­o­ry and Prac­tice in Group Psy­chother­a­py, and When Niet­zsche Wept. He lives with his wife in Palo Alto, California.

Descrip­tion: Irvin D. Yalom has made a career of inves­ti­gat­ing the lives of oth­ers. In this pro­found mem­oir, he turns his writ­ing and his ther­a­peu­tic eye on him­self. He opens his sto­ry with a night­mare: He is twelve, and is rid­ing his bike past the home of an acne-scarred girl. Like every morn­ing, he calls out, hop­ing to befriend her, “Hel­lo Measles!” But in his dream, the girl’s father makes Yalom under­stand that his dai­ly greet­ing had hurt her. For Yalom, this was the birth of empa­thy; he would not for­get the les­son. [Read more…] about On becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: A fan­tas­tic mem­oir by, and win­dow into, the unique mind of Irvin D. Yalom