News Mental Health
Whatever Happens in Vagus, Stays in Vagus
Photo by Kelvin Valerio from Pexels There is a nerve in the human body that regulates heart function, influences digestion, informs you when it’s safe to relax, and promotes efficient swallowing and speaking. This longest cranial nerve (originating in the brain) also receives…
To Sleep, Perchance, To Sleep Enough
Photo by Lux Graves on Unsplash In case you don’t remember, you’ve probably spent a third of your life laying dormant, experiencing deep periods of unconsciousness alternating with patterns of symbolic, poorly understood, yet altogether vivid and emotional hallucinations. For…
Being in the Zone
Photo by S Migaj on Unsplash Last time we talked about neuroplasticity and how the brain can change itself based on what is demanded of it and how it is used. Among the various restructurings that have been studied are…
Your Brain on Plastic
Photo by Rebe Pascual on Unsplash Not long ago neuroscientists believed that the human brain developed along a predictable timeline and that windows for certain types of growth closed at some point, creating a kind of final draft of the…
Screen Time!
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Humans spend an awful lot of time staring at screens. You’re probably reading this on a screen. I’m certainly writing it on one, and if you’re actually lucky enough to be holding some good-old…
Finding the Balance
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels Balance is such an important factor in health that the human body evolved several distinct systems to keep itself upright in all kinds of shaky situations. When one or another is compromised, the others kick in more efficiently…
Humboldt’s Opioid Crisis – Part 2
Photo by Jonathan Rados on Unsplash This is the second part of a three-part feature on how the national opiate crisis is affecting the Southern Humboldt community. Any members of the community who wish to share their accounts and experiences…
Breathe Easy
Photo by Alexandr Podvalny from Pexels What do you do roughly 20,000 times a day but barely realize it’s happening? What is the first thing you do when you are born and the last thing you do before shuffling off this mortal coil?…
Humboldt’s Opioid Crisis – Part 1
Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash This is the first part of a two or three-part feature on how the national opiate crisis is affecting the Southern Humboldt community. Any members of the community who wish to share their accounts…
Sitting Pretty
Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash You may have seen sitting described as “the new smoking” by various media outlets, as though folding our bodies into the shapes dictated by chairs were a risk equivalent to that of a gripping…