Violet S.

It takes many forms, from the tiny particles that are emitted when we cook or clean, to the spores released by mold when it’s damp, and the chemicals that are embedded in our furniture.

Small particles that are inhaled can travel to the lungs and cause problems. Studies suggest that indoor air pollution is linked with an increased risk of certain respiratory problems, such as asthma and bronchitis.

Insomnia affects between a third and a half of U.S. adults at some point in their lives. Worldwide, 10 to 30 percent of the population experience insomnia, but other studies find it is as high as 60 percent.

We can increase the quality of life if we can change how we think about sleep. Instead of worrying about how we can fall asleep, we need to start considering sleep for its transcendent significance.

To suffer from burnout is to be used up, like a spent battery that can't be recharged. Defining symptoms are exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of productivity.

The World Health Organization recognized burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019 but it is not listed as a medical condition. Multiple studies suggest burnout symptoms are identical to depression.

Dreams occur in the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep. We tend to remember the dreams that are seen just prior to waking up, but often the experience of time during our dream and awake stages is skewed.
Swedish and German scientists studied Lucid Dreamers(People who are aware while dreaming and are able to control the dream) and found out that there is a negligible time difference in non-physical tasks done in the dream stage vs in reality.

Physical tasks, like running, took longer in dreams than in reality.

• The DNA carries the instructions on making protein, which is basically the determinant for our physical characteristics.
• A protein is basically made up of a lot of amino acids and it has many functions from aiding digestion to making antibodies for the immune system.
• Protein usually differs from one another, and the particular sequence causes the chain of the amino acids together, this then is encoded in the DNA.

Research shows there may be beneficial effects to baking, like less stress, emotion management and social connection.

Spending time in the kitchen is a kind of self-care that's desperately needed during the long months of isolation.

The World Health Organization recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate to heavy exercise per week, which many of us are not doing as we overestimate our activity levels.

A vigorous exercise, where our heart rate reserve is more than 60 percent cannot be the same for every person, as one first needs to calculate their resting heart rate as well as the estimated maximum heart rate.

• The Paleo diet was born in academic circles in the '70s. Walter Voegtlin wrote that modern kinfolk would be much healthier if only they returned to the pre-agricultural food habits of the Paleolithic era.
• An academic evangelizer, Loren Cordain, trademarked and built a brand around advocating for hunter-gatherer eating.  Celebrities and low-carb enthusiasts have helped fuel the craze.
• Our ancestors didn't actually eat this way. "There is no one 'Paleo diet.' There are millions of Paleo diets. People in East Africa ate different foods than people in West Africa versus the Middle East, and South America, and North America." Daniel Lieberman
• According to evidence, hunter-gatherers ate plenty of grains and other carbs.
• Our bodies have evolved to eat modern foods.
• Paleo diets do help people lose weight — but so do all restrictive diets.

Various new studies outline the benefits of being borderline neurotic, where the worry is coupled with motivation to be disciplined and organized, and taking extra self-care.

Neurotic people have anxiety issues, Obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD) and take too much stress. While they tend to be amusing characters in a Sitcom (think Monica from Friends), the personality trait of constant stress and worry in a neurotic person would result in health issues.

• Pain, whether emotional or physical is practically unavoidable in the entire human existence. Drugs may blunt it to an extent (with severe side-effects), but we all dread pain and wish it wasn’t there in our lives.
• Pain is, at its core, a flashing red light on the cockpit, a warning system of the human body, guiding it on what action, reflexive or respondatory, has to be taken.
• Acute pain, like when you burn your hand on the stove, is essential to our survival and is something all living species(some say even plants) have in common.