Author: Lance Garrison
Mood problems, including depression and bipolar disorder, are no laughing matter. More than 20 million American adults have a mood disorder and 40 million an anxiety disorder. And these numbers don’t include the average worrywart or person who suffers an occasional bout of the blues.For depression alone, the annual cost for treatment and lost wages may be as high as $52 billion.With these statistics, it’s no wonder that many people are searching for mood supplements or other mood-enhancing alternatives to drugs.The Need for Mood Enhancers“For so many people, antidepressant medication either stops working or has too many side effects,” says…
[MUSIC PLAYING]ezra kleinFrom New York Times Opinion, this is “The Ezra Klein Show.”Earlier this week, we did an episode on how to use A.I. right now. Now, I want to turn the question around and look at how A.I. is being used on you right now. One of the conversations has been sticking in my head was with this person in the A.I. world who was saying to me that if you look at where use has been sticky, if you look at where people keep using it day after day, you’re looking at places where the product doesn’t need…
SOURCES:Linda Van Horn, PhD, RD, chief of nutrition; professor, department of preventive medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.Donald Boyd, MD, RDN, assistant professor of medicine, Yale School of Medicine.Jerlyn Jones, RDN, spokesperson, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.FDA: “FDA 101: Dietary Supplements,” “Vitamin and Mineral Chart,” “Watch Out for False Promises About So-Called Alzheimer’s Cures,” “How to Report a Problem with Dietary Supplements.” Nutrients: “The Evolving Role of Multivitamin/Multimineral Supplement Use among Adults in the Age of Personalized Nutrition.”National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: “Vitamins and Minerals,” “Ginkgo,” “Using Dietary Supplements Wisely.”Eatright.org: “Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements: Do You Need to…
Part of the explanation for the special fecundity of Alto Adige-South Tyrol, my colleagues suggest, lies in its particular heritage as a Germanic enclave absorbed into the Italian republic, which may instill a special interest in its own cultural survival. Likewise, Carney’s book discusses the Israeli exception to the general rule of rich societies having below-replacement birthrates — an exception that includes secular Israelis as well as the ultra-Orthodox and clearly has something to do with a sense of national mission that the Israeli experiment retains. And another new book, “Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth,” from…
Somewhere along the line you may have decided you are simply not the yoga type. Sure, you’ve heard the raves about yoga for stress management, but you can barely touch your toes. So there’s no way you’re going to stand on your head or twist your foot behind your neck like a human pretzel. And meditate? Last time you tried to lie still for three minutes you ended up obsessing about the stack of bills on your desk and what to have for dinner. Not exactly Zen material.But now that everyone in America seems to be acquainted with the physical…
To the Editor:Re “The West Still Hasn’t Figured Out How to Beat ISIS,” by Christopher P. Costa and Colin P. Clarke (Opinion guest essay, April 1):Two clear lessons have emerged in the decade since ISIS exploded on the world scene. First, as the authors note, pulling all U.S. troops and intelligence assets from fragile conflict zones is a boon to globalized terror movements. Despite political promises, the full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2021 did not “end” those wars; it transformed them into more complex and potentially more deadly challenges.Second, we must reckon with the underlying…
What are the most important steps to follow if you want to feel good from morning to night?David Rakel, MD, spends his days helping people figure that out. He’s the director of the integrative medicine program at the University of Wisconsin and to him, feeling good means that your body and mind are working at their peak level, and you have a general sense of well-being.To feel good day after day, he suggests these tips:Get sunlight during the day.Sunlight stimulates the brain chemical serotonin, which plays a role in helping you feel happy.While you’re outdoors in the sun, use the…
It evokes beer fridges and car parts, Super Bowl ads and maybe even Jerry Seinfeld’s bachelor pad, where he displayed his 17 favorite cereal boxes on a shelf. It’s the man cave: punchline, poker hub and perennial source of masculine escape.To Tristan Bridges, a sociologist who is studying the phenomenon, the man cave is also a window into the dynamics of a home, into friendship and loneliness, hobbies and pastimes — and what our physical spaces can tell us about ourselves. For the past few years, he has been interviewing people about their caves, and now Opinion is, too.Do you…
April 5, 2024 – For decades, I resisted invitations to try, learn, and play golf. Too frustrating, I said. Too expensive. Too much to learn. Too time-consuming. I too-too-too’d myself out of giving it a shot.A lifelong hobby dabbler, I finally decided to give golf a whirl last summer. I bought cheap clubs and took a few lessons. I went to the driving range and slugged around for nine or 18 holes every few weeks. I logged bad scores but hit just enough so-satisfying shots that I fell in love-hate with the sport.It felt right. Ted Spiker, left, can now play golf…
The window to apply to be a NASA astronaut — a window that opens only about every four years — closes this month, on April 16. Though I’ve submitted an application, I don’t expect to make the cut.The educational requirements for the astronaut program are clear: Applicants must possess at least a master’s degree in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), a doctorate in medicine or a test pilot school graduate patch. Though I have a Ph.D., it’s in philosophy. (And though I’m an Air Force pilot, I’m not a test pilot.)I hesitate to tell NASA its business.…