The Mindful Body argues against mindlessly accepting age-related decline in cognition and health as inevitable

In 1979, Har­vard researcher Ellen Langer invit­ed elder­ly men to spend a week at a retreat designed to remind them of their younger days, sur­round­ed by the art, music, food, games, décor, and more from the late 1950s. After­ward, the men were test­ed and found to have made sig­nif­i­cant gains in hear­ing, mem­o­ry, dex­ter­i­ty, posture,…

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FDA-approved, Cybin-sponsored clinicial trial to measure ketamine’s impact on the brain via Kernel Flow neuroimaging helmet

Kernel’s Brain-Imag­ing Hel­met Approved For Clin­i­cal Tri­al On Patients Using Ket­a­mine (Forbes): The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion has approved a clin­i­cal tri­al using a neu­roimag­ing hel­met made by Los Ange­les-based Ker­nel to track what hap­pens in the brain when a human takes a psy­che­del­ic dose of ketamine.

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Update: The placebo effect works even when people know they are taking a placebo

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing 14 research find­ings, resources and tips for brain health … and start­ing with this fas­ci­nat­ing study: #1. Wow. The place­bo effect works even when peo­ple know they are tak­ing a place­bo #2. Beat­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease will require a com­bined physical/ men­tal approach: From the ten fac­tors found…

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Study: The placebo effect works even when people know they are taking a placebo

Place­bos Prove Pow­er­ful, Even When Peo­ple Know They’re Tak­ing One, New Study Sug­gests (MSU release): How much of a treat­ment is mind over mat­ter? It is well doc­u­ment­ed that peo­ple often feel bet­ter after tak­ing a treat­ment with­out active ingre­di­ents sim­ply because they believe it’s real — known as the place­bo effect. A team of…

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Large study finds that placebo works as well as vitamin D supplements to prevent depression and improve mood

Large Study Con­firms Vit­a­min D Does Not Reduce Risk of Depres­sion in Adults (Mass Gen­er­al press release): Vit­a­min D sup­ple­men­ta­tion does not pro­tect against depres­sion in mid­­dle-age or old­er adult­hood accord­ing results from one of the largest ever stud­ies of its kind … “There was no sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fit from the sup­ple­ment for this pur­pose. It…

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Study finds mixed results of Adderall as cognitive enhancer (seems to boost emotion more than cognition)

Over the past 15 years there has been grow­ing aware­ness that many col­lege stu­dents with­out an ADHD diag­no­sis use ADHD drugs. On some cam­pus­es, rates of self-report­ed non-med­i­cal use have exceed­ed 30% of stu­dents. The pri­ma­ry rea­son stu­dents report tak­ing ADHD drugs is to enhance their aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance. And, the strong major­i­ty of students —…

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