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Love thy neighbor: It could lower your risk of stroke

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2013Healthchristopher peterson, diabetes, eric kim, heart problems, high blood pressure, love thy neighbor, lower, nansook park, neighborhood, neighborhood social cohesion, people, psychological factors, risk of stroke, social climate, social environment, trustworthy, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — Here’s some neighborly advice for adults over age 50: Stay friendly with your neighbors.

A new University of Michigan study shows that adults in this age bracket who live in a good neighborhood with trustworthy people lowered their risk of stroke up to 48 percent.

Feeling connected with neighbors builds what researchers describe as “neighborhood social cohesion.” The trust and connection with neighbors was associated with a reduced risk of stroke above and beyond the effects of negative psychological factors—such as depression and anxiety, said Eric Kim, a doctoral student in the U-M Department of Psychology and the study’s lead author. (more…)

Brainwaves reflect ability to beat built-in bias

By Guest PostJune 13, 2013Scienceactivity, behavior, brain science, brainwaves, brown institute, brown university, cognitive control, eeg scalp monitors, genetic, humans, ian eisenberg, james cavanagh, marc guitart masip, michael frank, neurological roots, obsessive compulsive disorder, pavlovian bias, prefrontal cortex, psychological factors, quentin huys, situational factors, specific brain activity, symbols, university college london, university of zurich, vertebrates

Many animals, including humans, harbor ingrained biases to act when they can obtain rewards and to remain inactive to avoid punishment. Sometimes, however those biases can steer us wrong. A new study finds that theta brainwave activity in the prefrontal cortex predicts how well people can overcome these biases when a better choice are available.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Vertebrates are predisposed to act to gain rewards and to lie low to avoid punishment. Try to teach chickens to back away from food in order to obtain it, and you’ll fail, as researchers did in 1986. But humans are better thinkers than chickens. In the May 8 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers show that the level of theta brainwave activity in the prefrontal cortex predicts whether people will be able to overcome these ingrained biases when doing so is required to achieve a goal. (more…)

Stress at Work Very Unlikely to Cause Cancer

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2013Healthactive job, amounts of alcohol, bmi, breast, cancer risk factors, cause cancer, chronic inflammation, colorectal, common cancer types, contributing factors, denmark, environmental exposures, european studies, finland, france, high strain job, katriina heikkila, low strain job, lung, mika kivimaki, obese, passive job, prostate cancer, psychological factors, stress, Sweden, the netherlands, tobacco smoke, ucl, uk, uv radiation, work related stress

Work-related stress is not directly linked to the development of colorectal, lung, breast or prostate cancers, but can cause other contributing factors, according to a new study published on bmj.com

Around 90 per cent of cancers are linked to environmental exposures and whilst some exposures are well recognised (such as UV radiation and tobacco smoke), others are not (psychological factors such as stress). (more…)

Tag Archives: psychological factors

Love thy neighbor: It could lower your risk of stroke

Brainwaves reflect ability to beat built-in bias

Stress at Work Very Unlikely to Cause Cancer