From improving sleep and indoor air quality to reducing anxiety and fatigue … houseplants are powerful allies.
— Read on www.treehugger.com/green-home/6-houseplants-boost-well-being.html

Just saw this, thought I’d share.

How an iconoclastic cancer researcher gamed the immune system and unleashed a potent new weapon against the disease.
— Read on discovermagazine.com/2016/nov/checkmate

The immune system baby! Here it’s a hero!

Recent large-scale studies have found that vegetarians and vegans are more likely to be depressed than omnivores. But the reason for this link is unclear.
— Read on www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animals-and-us/201812/the-puzzling-link-between-vegetarianism-and-depression

Very strange, not really known why, but there is a link.

Anatoli Bugorski was hit in the head with a proton beam from a particle accelerator. And he survived.
— Read on blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/12/04/head-particle-accelerator/

This is amazing!!! I can’t believe he survived!! Bonkers!

it doesn’t have anything to do with mental illness, I guess he could have developed one but he didn’t. I just posted it because it is so incredibly amazing!

Are you worrying yourself sick? Learn more about how to manage your stress to help protect your body from the effects of chronic worry.
— Read on health.clevelandclinic.org/can-stress-actually-make-you-sick/

People who have siblings with bipolar disorder but have not developed the illness themselves have unusually high connectivity within a brain network that is most active during wakeful rest, according to a study reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Such connectivity may prevent or delay onset of illness in people whose genetics put them at risk.

Genetics play a strong role in determining who develops bipolar disorder. People who have a brother or sister with the illness are about 10 times more likely to develop it themselves than someone without an affected sibling. Still, only a fraction of these individuals actually develop the illness. (The rate in the general population is estimated at 2.4%)

by Sophia Frangou, M.D., Ph.D., a 2008 Independent Investigator and 2002 Young Investigator at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare brain activity in people with bipolar disorder to that of their unaffected siblings, as well as to a control group of people without the disorder who had no affected siblings. David C. Glahn, Ph.D., a 2014 Independent Investigator and 2005 and 2003 Young Investigator at Yale School of Medicine, was also a member of the research team.

The researchers found that the unaffected siblings shared some patterns of brain activity with their affected brothers or sisters: both groups had poor connectivity within brain circuits dedicated to processing sensory information and generating appropriate motor responses.

However, the unaffected siblings had high degrees of connectivity within the brain’s default mode network, a network involving many different brain regions that is most active when a person is not focused on the outside world or involved in any particular task. High connectivity within the default mode network may offset other deficiencies, effectively protecting against inherited brain changes that put people at risk of developing bipolar disorder, the researchers speculate.

According to Bill Gates, This Book Will Teach You to Stop Worrying and Start Living Anxiety-Free
— Read on www.goalcast.com/2018/12/11/bill-gates-book-stop-worrying/

Wouldn’t that be a miracle!!

Enormous genomic analysis yields tantalizing insights into mechanisms behind conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
— Read on www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07750-x

The causes of schizophrenia have long been a mystery, but new research has just revealed an intriguing clue. A long-term study of 2,602 individuals has confirmed a link between vitamin D deficiency at birth and developing schizophrenia later in lif
— Read on www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-found-a-link-between-vitamin-d-in-the-womb-and-schizophrenia

This is incredible! I wonder if such a link could be found for bipolar disorder?

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.
— Read on www.scientificamerican.com/article/4-days-of-intensive-therapy-can-reverse-ocd-for-years/