"Let food be thy medicine..." said Hippocrates. "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," added Mary Poppins, centuries later. Flash forward to the present day, when a team of researchers discover the flavanols found in chocolate help turn back the clock on memory loss. Specifically, flavanols found in chocolate increase blood flow [...]
Vitamin D is a dual nutrient: it is both a vitamin and a hormone the human body can create from sun exposure. It is also vital for bone health and immunity and--according to new research--brain health. (Vancouverites especially should pay attention to these findings, considering the past few weeks' rainfall!) The findings of the study [...]
In this unusual study, researchers used MRI to measure how certain triggers (associations with dental pain vs. contemplating one's own mortality) could affect the human brain's affinity for understanding surrealistic artworks. The study, called Ceci n'est pas la mort: Evidence for the recruitment of self-reference from surrealistic art under mortality salience, was published in the [...]
MRI studies have previously been done on how expensive wine tastes better, because knowing you're consuming something that's got a higher price tag activates more pleasure centres in the brain. But could the same principle work for distributing placebo medication? According to a new MRI study, it can. The study, entitled Placebo effect of medication [...]
A controversial new study suggests that only about one-third of cancers are caused by what the medical community and world at large have hitherto suspected as the cause of the disease: a combination of genetic as well as environmental factors. And the remaining two-thirds? Those are caused by random mutations of DNA in noncancerous stem cells, [...]
A new study published in the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) journal Radiology has reviewed and analyzed the contrasting abilities of MRI and CT scanning of the liver for cancer. The verdict is in: MRI is superior to CT for cancer diagnosis of the liver. And a victory for MRI is, as always, a positive [...]
Are you looking forward to holiday treats and libations but dreading sluggish energy levels and extra weight come January? Turns out those feelings of dread might be the right approach to keeping off the pounds, according to a new MRI study. Why are some people better at resisting food cravings than others? The answer [...]
Every year as the holidays approach, pages are published about the havoc overindulgence will wreak upon your waistline. But perhaps taking a more holistic approach--body and mind--would be more apt, according to a new research. Fluctuations in blood sugar levels have a direct impact on the brain, a new MRI study has learned. Certain areas [...]
Stress is an evolutionary necessity. The ancestral ability to recognize stressful situations--and cope with them--is what has enabled species such as our own to continue through the centuries. When humans were hunter-gatherers, coping with stress meant simply finding the next meal. So where does stress fit into today's ultra-convenient world of instant food and information? [...]
Sign the kids up for French immersion (and take some lessons of your own)! A new MRI study confirms a long-held suspicion that the brains of bilingual people are more efficient at processing not only language, but other tasks as well. The study, published today in the journal Brain and Language, reveals that learning or speaking [...]