The Miracle Cure

As miracle cures are hard to come by, any claims that a treatment is 100% safe and effective must always be viewed with intense scepticism. There is perhaps one exception. Physical activity has been called a miracle cure by no less a body than the Academy of Medical Sciences (http://bit.ly/2lTqDvc); and, like those who avail…

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We’ve Reached Peak Wellness. Most of It Is Nonsense.

In Silicon Valley, techies are swooning over tarot-card readers. In New York, you can hook up to a “detox” IV at a lounge. In the Midwest, the Neurocore Brain Performance Center markets brain training for everything from ADHD, anxiety, and depression to migraines, stress, autism-spectrum disorder, athletic performance, memory, and cognition. And online, companies like Goop promote “8…

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The Doctors Prescribing Nature

In recent years, a grassroots movement of physicians have begun prescribing time outdoors as the best possible treatment for a growing list of ailments, from anxiety and obesity to attention-deficit disorder and high blood pressure. Meanwhile, research institutes for nature and health are opening at major medical centers and a couple bold insurance companies are…

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Here’s What We Know About Mental Fatigue

Back in 2009, a research team at Bangor University in Wales published a study showing that mental fatigue impairs physical performance. Subjects spent 90 minutes sitting in front of a computer screen either watching a bland documentary or playing a simple but focus-demanding computer game. Afterwards, when they hopped on an exercise bike for a time-to-exhaustion test,…

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