New research suggests that long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to physical changes in the brain, as well as learning and memory problems and even depression. While other studies have shown the damaging effects of polluted air on the heart and lungs, this is one of the first studies to show the negative impact on the brain.
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Meditation actually HEALS by producing powerful pain-relieving effects in the brain (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show, as well as to a wonderful talk with Echo’s interviewer, psychic medium Marla Frees). Nearly one in 3 Americans suffers from chronic pain, which costs more than $600 billion in medical bills every year (back pain alone coasts $90 billion). Rsearchers have found that specific regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger and had more gray matter than the brains of individuals in a control group.read more
Yes, there are problems with cell phones, but there is GOOD news too: A new brain-control interface lets paraplegics make calls just by THINKING of the number. And after a brief training period, these people probably dial fewer wrong numbers than the rest of us do. It could also be the ultimate hands-free technology for people who want to, for example, text or talk while driving.
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You can read a book or magazine article on them, which can be convenient (and maybe they’re even spying on you!) but the people who really like these devices are students, because you can use a computer "search" engine with them, instead of the old method of highlighting the parts of the text you want to remember with a yellow pen. But because of the way the brain works, scientists have discovered that studying on an electronic reader does not produce good test results, because they only engage one of the two parts of the brain that are involved in reading, meaning that it’s harder to REMEMBER things you’ve read this way.
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