Education
Once used in ancient India, now embraced by natural health experts, ashwagandha is an herb long-known for its medicinal properties. For more than 3,000 years, ashwagandha has been used in a form of natural healing called Ayurveda. You may have heard that word thrown around in recent years, but if you're not familiar, Ayurveda is a type of alternative medicine practiced in both ancient and modern-day India. For millennia, practitioners have believed that ashwagandha benefits the body by enhancing immunity, longevity, and stamina.
The brain is an energy demanding organ that is fueled by glucose. Have you ever wondered how brain function is impacted by excessive sugars from the standard American diet?
Excessive sugar can impair our cognitive function, mood and even our self-control. Sugar can also have an addition-like effect on the brain, impacting our ability to control what and how much we eat. This can result in unhealthy weight gain and loss of energy. Keep reading for more information on the impacts of excess sugar plus 7 helpful tips to detox and cleanse your system.
At some point you’ve likely heard the term ‘cognitive function,’ but you might have wondered, ‘what does it really mean?’ A good starting point is understanding the word cognition.
Cognition comes from the Latin word cognoscere, which means ‘to get to know.’ Cognition refers to your ability to perceive, react, make decisions, and respond appropriately. Key to your everyday function, cognition helps you distill information down to what is important and meaningful.
Your memory is a fascinating thing. But how does it work? Even now, the human brain remains largely mysterious to the scientific community. But what we do understand is that our memory isn’t just one function. There are many types of memory, and to understand how it fits together, we have to look at each individual part. Scroll down to learn about your memory: how it moves through different phases and how it changes as you age. Also, in this article, you can discover answers to common questions about your memory function.
It’s easy to forget, but your eyes, like every other organ, need to be cared for and maintained as you get older. Eyesight is something most of us take for granted, but it’s estimated that up to half of adults develop some kind of cataracts by the time they are 75 years old. The good news is that there’s a lot you can do for your eyes, no matter what your age may be. Some of these things are lifestyle measures, and others have to do with nutrition and supplementation. To learn more about your eyes: how to care for them and what you can do to protect them, keep scrolling down.
Caffeine is for many people a constant morning companion, and a lot of us couldn’t imagine life without it. But is it healthy? Over the years, news reports seem to conflict on whether or not caffeine is a good or bad thing. To put the matter to rest, we rounded up the definitive scientific research on the matter. In this article, we review the benefits, potential negatives, and some of the most frequently asked questions about America’s favorite stimulant.
If you're a seasoned veteran of the gym or just been working out a few months, you've likely started seeing some benefits from exercise that you didn't expect. We all know that working out helps us look good and feel good, but it's not until we actually start doing it that we realize just how many hidden benefits there are. Your body is like an ecosystem. When one part is affected, it can have a downstream effect on all of the others. This can be true in a bad way, but also in a good way. Although the connection may not be obvious, exercise can have an important impact on our sleep. Today we take a look at some of the benefits of exercise for our sleep as well as recommendations for how to incorporate the best workout routine for your rest.
It seems these days that we see the word 'antioxidant' everywhere, especially when it comes to food advertising. More and more brands are labelling their products 'antioxidant-rich,' as though that were universally understood. The funny thing is that unless we have a background in medicine or nutrition, we may only vaguely understand that antioxidants are a good thing. So the question remains: what's behind the antioxidant hype? As it turns out, antioxidants really are a big deal, and having enough of them can be critical for our health. The reason for this is because antioxidants protect us from a chemical process that is at the root of many health issues. On the flip side, getting enough antioxidants can help us stay looking good and feeling good. Today we take a close look at antioxidants--what they are, why they matter, and some practical ways that you can get enough of them in your diet.
If you’re like most Americans, stress is something you manage on a regular basis. As a country we’re stressed out, and the increasing popularity of yoga and meditation reflect our need for rest and relaxation. Peace of mind isn’t always easy to come by, but rediscovering ancient remedies from natural ingredients may help. Let's look at a class of herbs called adaptogens, which are gaining widespread attention for their ability to fight stress. We will look at some of the most popular adaptogens and examine some of the science behind how they work.
Many of us don’t realize how much we rely on our joints every day for simple tasks. Your joints are responsible for every conceivable action in the body, and our quality of life depends to a great extent on how well (and painlessly) our joints function.
If you’ve ever experienced a ‘sugar high,’ or eaten ‘comfort food,’ you know full well how much food can alter your emotional state. In fact, it’s the emotional component that makes us love food—and in some cases get addicted to it.
What’s interesting, however, is that many times foods can affect our mood in ways we don’t realize. There exists a complex network between the gut and the brain, and what we eat can literally become fuel for our emotions—for better or worse.
When it comes to being mentally sharp, we all have good days and bad days. There are times when our minds seem to fire on all cylinders, but in other moments we may feel sluggish or forgetful. That’s a completely normal thing and just part of life. However, if our minds feel constantly unclear, tired, or slow, that could point to a different problem. Today we look at an issue called brain fog, a somewhat mysterious phenomenon that can cause our thinking to become cloudy. We will take a look at what scientists are saying about the cause of brain fog and some effective ways that you can help clear it up for good.
