To diet or not to diet

I’ve gone on endless diets and always  gain it all back, sooner or later. I always wonder “Why?”

That is the question for millions of individuals. Samuel Beckett has been quoted as saying, ‘Probably nothing in the world arouses more false hopes than the first four hours of a diet.’ Those concerned about their weight can get caught in dieting traps. UCLA researcher Stuart Wolpert reported that dieting does not work. By their very nature diets are designed to fail. Initially you many lose a few pounds as the brain and body respond temporarily to something new and different. But dieting cannot be maintained over time, especially when it involves food deprivation. Within a space of just two to three years, most eventually gain back everything they lost—often more—and risk damaging brain and body systems in the process. A study published in the journal American Psychologist found that dieting does ‘not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.’

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Obesity & Alzheimer’s Risk

Please tell me there is not a link between being obese and an increased risk of Alzheimer’s.

I could tell you that. However, it would not align with current research. Maintaining an optimum weight is a vital part of protecting your health. Studies of 8,000 twins found that being overweight doubled the risk of dementia, while being obese quadrupled that risk. Estimates are that reducing risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, obesity, and inactivity by 25% could prevent half-a-million cases of Alzheimer’s annually in the USA. The goal is to stave off the disease long enough so you can live life to its fullness without ever suffering Alzheimer's symptoms. (Gary Small, MD. The Alzheimer's Prevention Program)

Your Odortype

We spent a week with close friends during Thanksgiving. Now my husband tells me, "You smell different." What causes that?

Your genetically determined body odor or Odortype, acts like an olfactory nametag, helping to distinguish one person from another. What can alter your odortype? If you eat a great deal of garlic, it can impact your breath for 24-28 hours, and if you are sweating a lot, sometimes it can temporarily alter the odor of your sweat. Many people are familiar with stress-related odors. When you are stressed, you tend to secrete more apocrine from the apocrine sweat glands in your armpits. In combination with the bacteria on your skin, this milky fluid, most commonly secreted in the presence of emotional stress, can create a rather unpleasant odor. Drinking plenty of fluids, practicing good body hygiene, using appropriate deodorants, and taking appropriate steps to manage emotional stressors, can help reduce these stress-related odors. Some very rare conditions can impact one’s odortype, as well. For example, a genetic disorder known as trimethylaminuria (TMAU) affects about 1 in 200,000 people. They don’t process trimethlamine efficiently and it tends to build up in the body, resulting in a fishy odor in urine, sweat, reproductive fluids, and breath.

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Can Intuition be Improved?

My friends and I have an ongoing argument: can intuition be improved? What's your take?

In his book Answers for Aristotle, Massimo Pigliucci pointed out that research on intuition has clearly shown that it is a domain-specific ability. This means that a person can be very intuitive about one thing but just like an average person about other things. Intuition can often be improved with practice. To use it effectively, however, intuition needs to be combined with rational thought and analysis. Here are some ideas. 

 ·       Take a walk. Sometimes intuitive thoughts will surface or solutions to problems pop up.

·       Learn to recognize and pick up on changes in your body quickly. If suddenly your body signals a sense of uneasiness, ask yourself what that dis-ease is trying to tell you.

 ·       Pay attention to your hunch and evaluate it. Does it fit within your moral values? Is there some way it could benefit you? If it appears to be safe, take a small step in that direction and evaluates where it leads.

 ·       Spend a few minutes daydreaming and pondering a question in your mind and pay attention to what your mind perceives.

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Male-Female Intuition Differences

I suppose some male-female differences have been identified related to intuition?

 Intuition studies have shown that females seemed more attuned to intuitive information from the heart and were more responsive to prestimulus information than were males. Processes in the prefrontal cortex were moderated by the heart. In general, females appear to process the prestimulus more frontally; males process it more in the posterior portions of the brain. The bottom line: the heart and the brain together are linked in the actions of receiving, processing, and decoding intuitive information. The concluding hypothesis was that intuition is a system-wide process in which the heart and the brain (and possibly other body organs or systems) are involved together in responding to intuitive information. According to the author of The Intuitive Compass, Francis Cholle, the best decisions result from a combination of intuition and rational thinking. Unfortunately, many disregard their intuitive hunches—to their detriment. 

Benefits of Intuition

Does the function of intuition really have any benefits to human beings?

According to French Philosopher Henri Poincare, through science we ‘prove’, while through intuition we ‘discover.’ Human brains have a built-in ability to pick up on patterns and respond to them in a nanosecond in the form of intuitive insights. What have studies shown about the benefits intuition can provide:

     ·       Augments your analytical brain in decision making

·       Opens your brain to new ideas that can lead to success

·       Enhances your ability to identify potential dangers

·       Assists with brainstorming and problem-solving

·       Assists in identifying your life vision and goals

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Intuition and the Heart

 

You have blogged about the close connection between the heart and the brain. Is the heart ever involved in intuition?

 Until very recently the prevailing belief was that intuition was related only to the brain and nervous system. Recent studies have found surprising electrophysiological evidence of intuition with a definite heart component. Researchers discovered that the heart appears not only to receive intuition information but also to respond to it. Furthermore, the heart is directly involved in processing the information about a future emotional stimulus seconds before the body actual experiences the stimulus. At times, the heart seems to receive intuitive information even before the brain. In the brain, the prefrontal cortex, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions all appear to be involved with the processing of the information. So, the brain and the heart may work together—at least sometimes—to produce the flashes of insight or the gut feelings by which intuition is characterized.