An impatient kid running around all the time, one who cannot stop talking while the class is going on, a kid who never completes any of his/her assignments on time or one who keeps daydreaming always are typical pictures of kids with ADHD. If you notice, these symptoms are predominantly found across the male population compared to the female population. A cheerful, energetic and smart girl who works hard to excel in academics is dismissed as over enthused but never diagnosed as having ADHD. ADHD can remain undiagnosed in girls for a long time such that these girls might even succumb to risky affairs such as unprotected sex, substance use, poor academic performance and low self-esteem in the long run. Boys Vs Girls ADHD manifests itself as three groups of symptoms-hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention. Superficial knowledge might make us believe that more number of boys are affected greatly by ADHD compared to girls during childhood but diagnostic rates as adults seem to equally divide the disorder between males and females. This is a clear indication that girls are not less affected, but their diagnosis goes undetected during childhood. ADHD brings out different symptoms and reactions in boys and girls. Almost 50-75% of ADHD cases in girls are missed during childhood due to the peculiar way in which the disorder crops up in girls. Boys with ADHD tend to display a variety of behavioral problems whereas, in girls it is more about how the disorder affects them.
If you doubt that your daughter might have ADHD, it is wise to meet a physician who is a pro in diagnosing and treating this disease. Few parents diagnose themselves and start giving their own treatment in the form of cutting down food additives or keeping the child gluten-free which is wrong. A physician is the right person to tell you what to do and what not to do. Does going gluten-free or being food additive-free decrease the intensity of ADHD? Get your answers from the website www.firsteatright.com. The physician interacts with your child, observes her response and involvement in different activities, talks to her teachers and gets a detailed history from the child’s pediatrician firstly. Some parents put off the notion that their child might be affected with ADHD as the kid is perfectly normal when she chats with her friends, goes out or plays video games. We need to remember that a child is judged based on her attention and involvement doing activities that bore her or require extra efforts and not based on those tasks that attract her. Age is no bar for unconditional affection and love. One of the greatest joys of lives is to hold your newborn child in your hands! To become a parent is an exhilarating experience and there is no age limit/suitable age to enter parenthood. Our Bollywood celebrities such as Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt to our Hollywood celebrities such as George Clooney and Michael Douglas are living examples that age is just a number! Irrespective of all these, there are certain hardcore facts attached to fathering a child at an old age.
The Standard Question Every married woman in her 30s without children goes through the age-old ritual of being asked the same question “You’re well into your 30s, haven’t you still planned for a baby?” or “You’ll need to conceive as early as possible.” While their husbands should also be well into their 30s, they are never bombarded with such awkward questions. This brings us to ask a question ourselves- Is it only a woman’s biological clock that ticks away and do men remain fertile and healthy forever? Or, maybe the society is too concerned about the woman in the family and unaware of the risk factors and issues surrounding male fertility and health of the offspring. After 40s It is true that men continue producing sperms lifelong at the same rate, but there are plenty other factors that affect the birth of a healthy infant. Also, women in their late 30s start experiencing difficulties conceiving whereas the risk of not able to produce good-quality sperms can start either at 40s, 50s or even 60s in the case of men. Fathering a child well into your 40s is pretty difficult and foremost important is staying fertile enough to advocate pregnancy. Various factors such as sperm quality (number of sperms remain the same, but their shape and movement deteriorate as one grows old increasing fertility difficulty levels) and having an old partner (older men mostly have older partners and female fertility rates decline steadily after the age of 35) make conception a bigger problem in life. Also, older sperms might have more mutations that can be damaging. While there are suggestions that an aging sperm has longer telomeres that promise longevity of the child, there is no strong evidence backing this. Problems that Your Age Picks on the Way One is quite aware of the number of tests and ultrasounds that a mother-to-be undergoes these days to deliver a healthy child. This is mainly due to different lifestyle practices followed-individuals marry late, conceive even later and follow numerous unhealthy food habits-that can result in babies born with defects or ill-health. Research show that there are quite a few genetic conditions linked to babies with older fathers. The major conditions that can affect a newborn child whose father is above the age of 40 include:
IVF Success Rate A study shows that in couples requiring IVF to conceive, the chances of giving birth to a live baby decreased when the father’s age increased. Harvard researchers who analyzed more than 7000 couples undergoing IVF procedure found that:
The sound of nail/chalk scraped against a blackboard, a fork on a glass or squealing cycle brakes are extremely annoying noises/sounds in general. A handful of people go overboard and find even the common ever day sounds such as clicking a pen, eating crisps or snoring trigger a feeling that makes them want to scream or hit. Such people might suffer from misophonia, a disorder where people have abnormally strong and negative reactions to common sounds such as chewing, crying or even breathing. Ask yourself these following questions and seek help if your answer is ‘yes’ to any of these:
Individuals with misophonia (the word means ‘hatred of sound’) are extremely affected by the common sounds made by other individuals that most of us don’t even pay attention to. This disorder remains unexplored and rarely studied as people suffering from it don’t mention it to their healthcare providers due to embarrassment and avoid social contact isolating themselves from gatherings to avoid any sounds that could trigger them emotionally. This cripples the treatment options available making it even more annoying. Misophonia affects the mental health of the affected person as it hinders the functioning and socializing capability and this can start any time after the age of 12. Research A new study analyzed 20 adults with misophonia and 22 adults without it asking both the groups to rate the unpleasantness of different sounds. Common sounds such as eating and breathing, universally disturbing sounds such as baby crying and people screaming and neutral sounds such as rain were included in the rating list. People with misophonia rate common sounds such as eating and breathing to be highly disturbing and both groups rate universally disturbing sounds to be annoying as well. This shows that individuals with misophonia are greatly affected by even the slightest sounds but don’t show much difference regarding other types of sounds (neutral and disturbing sounds). The study team analyzed that the part of the brain that joins our senses with our emotions (the anterior insular cortex [AIC]) was extra active and connected/wired to other brain parts differently in people with misophonia. The AIC specifically caused increased reaction in parts of the brain responsible for long-term memory, fear and other emotions. They also revealed that anger not disgust was the most common reaction of these people when they hear trigger sounds. A whole-brain MRI scan mapping participants’ brains revealed that people with misophonia had higher amounts of myelination. Myelin is a fatty substance that covers nerve cells in the brain to provide electrical insulation (just like insulation on a wire). But, we still don’t know if this is one of the reasons for extreme sensitivity to certain sounds. Diagnosis Misophonia is not classified as an auditory condition and there are no standard diagnostic criteria. Generally, people become self-aware with the symptoms. Physicians and researchers are still confused whether misophonia must be classified as a symptom or as a condition. Individuals with this disorder experience muscle tightness, increased heartbeat, body temperature, blood pressure and chest pressure that can affect his/her physical health. One study even found that 52.4% people with misophonia could also be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). Common Triggering Agents Research shows that certain sounds cause increased reaction than few others. They include:
Treatment The condition affects quality of life, but it is manageable. Certain relief methods include:
Obesity, blood pressure and diabetes are the two foremost resident evils causing disastrous health effects in people living worldwide. We started to deal with weight gain by cutting down on fats, blood pressure was attacked with decreased salt intake and diabetes overruled by slashing sugar quantities during meals and snacks. With fats, sugar and salt almost completely cut out of our meal plans, we are left with a handful of options to choose from. Sometime later when the world faces the crisis of another health problem, are we going to cut out the food group or ingredient responsible for the problem? By doing this, we are channelizing our meals towards imbalanced intake of foods thereby paving way for further health problems. Sugar-Not So Sweet After All! Cutting down or avoiding sugars seems to be the primary task of many people these days. There are numerous sugar-free diets to choose from and these diets solely rely on the dangerous effects of excess intake of sugars such as obesity which in turn lead to problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancers to gain popularity and acceptance among the general public. One must also not deny that on an average, people worldwide are consuming far excess quantities of sugar than the recommended values due to the mushrooming of empty-calorie and excess-sugary beverages, processed foods and baked goods. To shun out all these problems, quitting sugar intake is not the solution. This is not going to improve your well-being, a sugar-free diet is confusing and relies upon a set of rules that aren’t scientifically proved and chiefly, such restrictions can tangle your relationship with food and cause fear in your mind on anything that you choose to eat. When you rely upon a sugar-free diet that has its own list of allowed and disallowed foods, it cultivates a notion of diet mentality and terrorizes the one following the diet on consuming any food that does not belong to the ‘allowed’ list. There are certain diets that request people to cut out food groups such as fruits and dairy that are considered to be healthy universally and ultimately result in nutritional deficiencies. They might even suggest avoiding fruits for a certain period of time and then re-introduce a small quantity of exotic, expensive fruits such as berries while avoiding locally available, cheaper ones such as bananas. Certain other diets ask individuals to completely refrain from dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and cheese owing to the belief that these contain sugar. Sadly, the sugars available in fruits and dairy are natural fructose and lactose that only benefit the body by providing energy. Avoiding these food groups will only lead to nutrient imbalance, conditions such as osteoporosis due to insufficient calcium levels and so on. Apart from those fearing sugar, individuals who worry about their health, the impact of certain nutrients on their health and above all, about food are likelier to diet. Such individuals might also suffer from orthorexia, a condition in which the individual involved gradually starts narrowing the list of foods and food groups that are deemed acceptable and freaks out when he/she sees something unhealthy in the plate. This is nothing but the precursor to an eating disorder. Even if you believe that cutting down on those nutrients that add calories is the perfect way to stay healthy and fit, research shows that continuously dieting for a prolonged period can cause weight gain in the long run. This is because, the system misunderstands dieting as famine and starts accumulating fat for using it during future shortages. Secondly, dieting adds stress to the person’s mind and causes the body to release cortisol, the stress hormone, which promotes fat storage in the body, specifically more in the abdomen. Deconstruct Sugar People rely on anything that is fanciful or expensive. A self-proclaimed sugar-free recipe that boasts on using rice malt syrup, maple syrup or dates as sugar replacements is only a fad as these are nothing but expensive sugar alternatives that are still sugars and contain more or less the same number of calories as any other sugar. These alternatives might benefit in other ways, for instance dates adds fiber to your body and rice malt syrup comes in handy for those suffering from fructose malabsorption. On the contrary, people tend to consume more of such foods that are proclaimed to be healthy than when they understand that it is unhealthy. The real talent lies in consuming a bit of every food group and nutrient but staying healthy and fit all along. To ensure this:
Given a choice between juicy cheesy burgers and a bowl of colorful salad (with enriched salad dressings and even edible flowers!), what would you prefer to eat? If your answer is ‘burger’ don’t worry as you are not committing a grave sin by enjoying it and if your answer is ‘salad’, again there is nothing to be proud of, but it is indeed a good choice as you wish to go healthy even when offered a choice. People call it will power, health consciousness or the ruling of mind over body when individuals choose to eat healthy food despite a varied spread of dishes available. If we come across an overweight person indulging in a dessert treat while having our dinner at a restaurant, we assume the person to lack self-control or determination to lose weight and stay healthy. Why does it never cross our mind that this dessert could be a cheat meal that has happened after months or after losing a few kilograms? Such cheat meals are even linked with character flaws sometimes. The best thing we are all good at doing is to judge people mindlessly based on what we see at that point of time!
Classic Dilemma For weight-conscious individuals (especially women), food choices involve a long-standing dilemma between relishing and enjoying the food consumed versus the long-term goal of being slim and healthy. Making healthy food choices isn’t always easy. A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience reveals that our food choices might not always indicate a character flaw and our ability to implement self-control is linked with our neuroscience. This study was a highly reputed one performed by a team of researchers who are a part of INSEAD and INSERM in France. The Research The research comprised of four tests that involved 123 people (78 women and 45 men). During the first three tests, participants were placed inside an fMRI scanner, shown photos of food items and asked whether they wanted to consume it with response options ranging from ‘strong yes’ to ‘strong no.’ Also, these participants were asked to take decisions based on health, tastiness or their own natural inclination. There was a vast array of food items ranging from Brussels sprouts to chocolate chip cookies. The last test did not impart any decision-making rules and the participants were asked to ‘indulge’ in the food, stay away from what they crave or choose the ones they would normally eat. These individuals were also asked to quote a price they would pay for a food item to obtain permission to eat it at the end of the experiment, with prices ranging from $0 to $2.50. To exactly know what kind of foods that participants would love to eat, these individuals fasted for four hours before they began. The research group also promised the participants that they would be allowed to eat any food randomly from the list the participants had rated. By chance, if the random item was one that the participant had expressed no desire to eat, he/she would not be offered the food. At the end of the experiment, all these promised were fulfilled and the participants paid money for the foods they wished to eat. The research team, on analyzing the test subjects’ brain anatomy along with their food choices found that the amount of self-control exhibited (this includes the participant’s ability to focus on health and let go of taste when asked to do so) depended on the grey matter volume (GMV) in two brain regions. Individuals with higher GMV in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) displayed increased self-control. Neuroscientists still debate as to which of the two regions of is responsible for self-control. The vmPFC is normally said to be involved in valuation and decision-making while the dlPFC is linked to cognition, memory and self-regulation of emotions only when impulses are successfully resisted. How the two regions play a crucial role to impose self-control was not dealt by the research team and remains as a matter for further investigation. But according to researchers, the vmPFC is responsible for unifying traits such as healthiness and tastiness into a holistic value signal and the dlPFC takes care of the self-control portion. Neuroplasticity The research might arise a question in each of our minds whether the extent of self-control is already established in our brains biologically. Absolutely not! We are all born with different IQ levels and sharpen our brains as we grow depending on our upbringing, exposure to outside world and the education we are provided. Likewise, the structure of brain regions can change based on many other factors which can be called as ‘neuroplasticity.’ In simple terms, GMV can be compared to a muscle that can be developed with exercise. How GMV channelizes our mind and brings about self-control can be effectively used to look at various other methods for treating eating disorders such as anorexia and binge eating. Diagnosing these disorders to the dot is extremely challenging and psychiatrists would love to have objective biomarkers to help them assessing a patient. At the same time, neuroanatomy could also help to single out overweight/obese people whose lack of self-control have put them at an increased risk of becoming obese later in life. GMV can help in the early diagnosis of obesity which is the need of the hour. Once diagnosed, it becomes essential to treat obesity in the natural way by following a healthy diet coupled with exercises based on the recommendations of nutritionists/dietitians at www.firsteatright.com. The world is trying to find a cure for obesity and policymakers are looking forward to creating an environment that encourage people to make more healthful food choices. But, they should be conscious that neuroplasticity and GMV differ at the base level between individuals. Some people might respond to health better than taste and likewise. Hence, there cannot be one set of health rules laid down for an entire population and policymakers should look out for better alternatives. The world’s future relies upon its ability to promote the mental and physical health of the next generation which in turn depends on numerous external factors. Exposure to various situations, environments and people thereby learning to cope with catastrophe is an essential part of a healthy upbringing of kids.
Response to Stress Children exposed to stress alongside the presence of adults develop healthy stress response systems. The same children exposed to critical stress issues for a prolonged period in the absence of adult supervision experience increased emotional distress and brain functioning damage that stay as side effects forever. Similar to how we say that healthy competition brings out the best in children, the same is applicable in the case of stress too. Stress can bring out a positive response (for example, during the first day of a new class or meeting the pediatrician for an immunization) elevating hormone levels mildly, a tolerable response that impacts the body much more strongly (such as in the case of an injury, some natural calamity or loss of a beloved one) but the child copes with the situation due to the presence of an adult without whom the consequences would be damaging or a toxic response which is commonly seen as a result of mental/physical abuse, prolonged neglect, violence or family burden, all of which happen without the presence of much parental/adult support. Toxic response to stress can have long-lasting effects on the child’s brain and impair cognitive development. Brain Maturation Vs Delayal-The Ultimate Stress Effect According to a new research, stress during early childhood accelerates brain maturation while stress during adolescence delays maturation. Back in 1998, 129 one-year-old babies and their parents were tested, subjected to MRI scans and followed-up on their play dates, interaction with peers, parents and caretakers and analyzed how stress in various life stages impacted the brain functioning of these children. It is during adolescence that various structural modifications happen due to the biological changes happening in the body and the brain undergoes a trimming process wherein connections between brain cells are established such that they become more efficient and useful. Stress causes a strong impact on certain regions of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. Sadly, these are the same regions that mature during adolescence as well as involved in social-emotional functioning. These brain regions become profoundly naïve during adolescence due to increase in hormone-related stress. But, apart from the age or timing of the stress, nature of the stress can also impact neurodevelopment. Therefore, the research team considered two different stress categories-negative life events experienced during childhood (0 to 5 years) such as divorce of parents, illness, etc. that triggered stress and stress due to negative social environment during adolescence (14-17 years) such as poor peer relationships that induce poor self-esteem and likewise. The researchers evaluated that stress during early childhood accelerated maturation of the prefrontal cortex and amygdala during adolescence whereas, stress during adolescence was connected to slower maturation of the hippocampus, anterior cingulate, parahippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Such social stress has strong ties with slower maturation of the hippocampus and a part of the prefrontal cortex. The effects of childhood and adolescent stress on longitudinal changes (14-17 years) in grey matter volume (GMV) was analyzed on 37 (of the total 129) healthy adolescents. Greater personal stress in early childhood was attached to more reduction in GMV over the anterior prefrontal cortex, amygdala and other subcortical regions. Stress during adolescence was associated with decreased reduction of the GMV. Evolutionary Biology Growing up in a stressful environment accelerates maturation during adolescence to enable survival of the species as per the theory of evolutionary biology. But this also makes it problematic for the brain as it finds it difficult to adjust to the current environment in a flexible way. What surprised the researchers the most was the fact that stress during adolescence delayed brain maturation. Stronger the effect of stress, greater is the risk of developing antisocial personality traits. Every child is the gift of nature and the responsibility falls totally on the parents to groom the child into a great citizen. Explore the various parenting techniques that can work wonders on your child from the website www.firsteatright.com. Create an environment in your home that spreads healthy, happy and positive vibes to your kid. Make him/her explore the beauties of life, enjoy the little fun and entertainment that life has to offer him/her and nurture them into responsible, emotionally stable and healthy citizens who can take their family forward and bring pride to the nation. Keep young kids away from stressful situations and be cautious to fight, shout or cry in their absence. Let them enjoy life as their time is not far away to shoulder responsibilities, face stressful situations and deal with mishaps. Our minds keep processing information and storing new ones continuously. It is only during our sleep that our minds also take rest and energize themselves for further activity. Our brains never stop thinking, we either think about the previous day’s events, think about what the future holds or even while living the present, we think about how to handle the present situation in a better way. At home, at office or elsewhere, this thinking process continues.
If suppose you are done with your project and the project has gone live. It’s time for a well-deserved break after all the hectic hours invested in wrapping up the project successfully. But your thoughts keep going back to the bugs that might crop up, hurdles that your project might encounter after becoming live and alternate methods in which you could have handled the project in a better way. How simple is it to quickly change your work attire into something much more comfortable, in terms of mental thoughts too? Do you feel ok to ignore workplace stresses at work and call it a day when you go home? Worse, if you do work from home, do you find it possible to bring an end to your workload by yourself or switch off your lappy only when it’s time to sleep? If your answer is a straight no and frankly, I don’t expect something other than ‘no’ from most of you, then you are surely in trouble. Switch On-Switch Off Button Frankly, to a dedicated worker or a workaholic it isn’t always easy to totally step out of your work attire and change over to a party attire immediately. This is prevalent right from the period of Archimedes, the ancient Greek scholar who uttered the word ‘Eureka’ with euphoria after he stepped into a bath and noticed a sudden rise in water level which made him clear his doubts on a science research in which he was currently working. Archimedes did not shut off his brains outside working hours but was constantly thinking of a solution to the problem at hand. There are millions of Archimedes nowadays who refrain to stop thinking about office work outside office hours. But new studies have found that failing to stop thinking about work can affect the well-being of your body and impact health. When we don’t ignore e-mails outside office hours or tend to switch on our laptops to pump in few extra hours, what we do here is failing to give ourselves enough time to recover from work-related stress before starting a fresh day of new workload. Overburdening yourself with extra work leads to lack of rest continuously and finally ends up in stress/tension. Hence, not only do you physically involve yourself in office work, but you also get mentally pressurized. This study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology reveals frequent bouts of insomnia in people who carry their stressful work commitments outside office hours compared to those who can successfully be void of any work-related thoughts outside working hours. The researchers also found certain other shocking facts-Individuals suffering from negative work experiences such as those who were constantly put down by managers, those who were unsatisfied with their job or lacking job satisfaction were likelier to suffer from poor sleep, wake up multiple times every night or experience other symptoms of insomnia. Such disturbed sleep can affect the quality of health of individuals and make them energy-deprived most of the time as discussed at www.firsteatright.com. Hard but Doable Our work is our source of bread and butter. Glitches at work, boss turning down promotion offers, manager abstaining from giving a green signal to our project or teammates shifting all the blame onto us for no mistake of ours are not small things that can be ignored once we start back from work. It is understandable that there’s no straightforward solution to the problem, but every problem has some solution which must be utilized in an efficient way to get effective results. Outside work hours, think of a hobby class you can register yourself for or explore a new activity that has always fascinated you but failed to happen due to lack of time and involve yourself in this hobby/activity after work. This might help to turn off negative thoughts and shy away from conflicting emotions which in turn might leave you with a good night’s sleep. If you love to draw, read some book or take a quiet walk after dinner, don’t deny yourself of these small pleasures in life. Some people find it relaxing to do vigorous-intensity exercises at the gym or dancing fervently to Zumba take away all their stress. These might prove to be helpful in avoiding getting overstressed at work and maybe, even improve performance. It also helps when the managers refrain from sending work-related emails post work timings as much as possible. Managers who encourage healthful work cultures and environments at office are always supported by their team members. There are also research studies that show that a supportive manager always minimizes chances of a depression or stress amongst his/her employees. You and I cannot achieve great things individually but together as a team, we can cross hurdles, barriers and attain prolific success. Amidst glowing lamps, heart-warming devotional songs and hundreds of devotees, some people feel possessed by the immortal and act weirdly while others remain normal. Are these individuals hard-wired to experience God or are they the blessed few to receive His ultimate blessings? That’s neurotheology for you! Neurotheology Neurotheology or ‘spiritual neuroscience’ helps a person understand the underlying relationship between brain science and religion. This is a diversified domain that includes fields of theology, religious experiences and studies, philosophy, cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology and anthropology. Neuroscience is the study of nerve cells and theology is the study of God. Since time immemorial, there are plenty of important yet unanswered questions on religion such as Who is God? Am I religious? But till recent years there was no impending research done on the neurological study of religious and spiritual experiences. Dr. Andrew Newberg is a neuroscientist who is a pioneer in this research experiences (neurotheology). Science and religion are considered to be two different poles that repel each other but what the common man forgets is that, both are sculpted deeply in the inner workings of the human brain. Holistic Perspective: Brain is divided into two hemispheres-left and right. Each has its own potential advantages and contributes to the smartness of an individual. The right hemisphere always sees things in whole rather than the intricate details within it. For example, it sees the whole human body disregarding the cells and organs that comprise it. Looking at it from the spiritual perspective, humans understand the concept of absolute oneness as pertaining to God. This makes a person feel the presence of God anywhere and everywhere, whatever might be the research done or deciphered. Quantitative Perspective: Quantitative approach greatly helps in mathematics and also serves as the foundation to understand science and scientific methods. Scientists explain the universe based on mathematics and such quantitative descriptions have hugely influenced philosophers such as Pythagoras who used maths to explain the nature of universe and God. Pythagoreans believed every matter to be made of numbers and equated it to digits-one represents origin, two represents matter, three was considered as the ideal number, four consisted of the four elements and seven represented the seven planets (although now scientists insist on few other planets too existing in the solar system). Three was considered to be the symbol of the Greek God Apollo. The Bible uses specific numbers repeatedly, for example the number 40 (40 days and 40 nights, Jews wandering the desert for 40 years, etc.). Islam also uses special numbers in the Quran. Sunni Muslims believe in the Five Pillars of Islam and the Six Articles of Belief. Binary Perspective: We always talk about two sides of a coin such as good vs evil or justice vs injustice. Religion always plays a critical role in solving the problems created by these opposites. Theology understands these opposites, the problems created by them and how such problems are solved by religious beliefs. Willingness & Behaviour: Brain functions help humans accommodate themselves within the world and possess the ability to support wilful or purposeful behaviour. Such wilful function is said to arise from the frontal lobes that are predominantly involved in planning, coordinating movement and behaviour and initiating and developing language skills. There are also research evidences showing that the frontal cortex is activated when an individual performs meditation or prayer as the person shows complete focus on the specific activity. Meditation comes with its own set of advantages as described in www.firsteatright.com. The Pioneer in Neurotheology: Dr. Andrew Newberg A pioneer in neurological study of religious and spiritual experiences, Dr. Andrew tried to understand the nature of religious and spiritual practices and attitudes by scanning the brains of those individuals immersed in prayer, meditation, rituals and transcendental states. Beliefs rely solely on emotions, cognition, perception and social interaction and starts developing right after birth. Only change is that, these beliefs are chiselled by the way we think, feel and experience in our course of life. We are what we think. Beliefs can have a constructive or destructive effect on our body. They can either make us feel good, positive, adapt better to the surrounding environment and result in better overall health or cause stress, downgrade our health and make us behave violently towards others. Andrew Newberg’s research indicates that brain is the only path through which we can question about God, understand God or experience God. But, one question that even our brain cannot answer is whether or not God exists. When a person sees an image, different parts of the brain are activated but we can never conclude whether there is a picture or whether the person is creating the picture in his/her own mind. A Dedicated Brain Part for Spirituality Religion and spirituality are complex processes involving emotions, sensations, thoughts and behaviours and there is extremely limited scope that these processes arise solely from one part of the brain. Researchers feel that multiple structures in the brain work together to experience such religious and spiritual feelings. Although Andrew’s research indicates that the temporal lobe (most importantly, amygdala and hippocampus) plays a vital role in meditation, experiences of vision and memory, this lobe definitely interacts with other parts of the brain to bring out complete religious and spiritual experiences. While religious experiences and brain disorders are always related to each other, it is always not true. Normal individuals do have normal or abnormal religious experiences and likewise, abnormal people too have normal or abnormal religious experiences. Our brain primarily performs two functions, self-maintenance and self-transcendence, all through our lives and surprisingly, religion too performs these two functions. This is more than enough to prove that brain and religion go hand in hand and will remain forever unless there are any changes fundamentally. How Do Religious Practices Shape an Individual? Newberg and his team of researchers used brain imaging studies to understand what happens inside people’s mind when there are deeply involved in religious practices like meditation or prayer. Then, they compared it with the same brain when it was in a state of rest. Brain scans of people involved in meditation showed increased activity in the limbic system (regulates emotions) and decreased activity in the parietal lobe (part of the brain responsible for space and time orientation). Buddhist monks and Carmelite nuns whose brains were scanned during meditation and prayer showed increased activity in the frontal area (concentration) but those who spoke during the religious meet showed decreased activity in the same area. While these nuns claim their souls to have mingled with God and Buddhist monks claim to strive for unity in the world by focusing their thoughts on a sacred object, researchers feel that they are not proofs of interaction with a supreme power but mere blips in brain chemistry. The researchers comment that attaining a transcendental experience is easy as the human brain is wired in such a way and this is the reason why every culture has a definite religious base making it an indispensable part of humanity. Religion & Health Neurotheology can also prove to be extremely useful in providing scientific information by understanding the link between spirituality and health. Religion can affect health positively-physical and psychological. Research in the forthcoming periods can help individuals understand the reason behind decreased blood pressure, lower heart rates, decreased anxiety and depression levels due to meditation and other religious practices. There are a number of studies already that show positive and negative effects on mental and physical health due to spirituality. These studies show that religious people experience improvements in depression and anxiety, enhanced immune system and reduced mortality rates. Research also shows that people who have mixed religious beliefs or strict negative views of God and religion experience increased stress, anxiety and health problems. Neurotheology offers a great potential to delve into the intricacies of the human mind and body. It even has the potential to help us understand the universe in the right way and our place within it. It can serve as the connecting factor to bridge the science of neurology to the spirit of theology. |
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Dr. Nafeesa Imteyaz of First Eat Right clinic, is the Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Bangalore. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Pune. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Hyderabad. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Chennai. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Mumbai. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Delhi. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Kolkata.