Our bodies and brains are integrated systems. In the Back to Basics blog series, Sheila Ohlsson Walker, Ph.D. illuminates how and why a handful of synergistic, simple, and scientifically grounded lifestyle choices offer protection from the novel coronavirus and fortify mental and physical health for life. Follow Dr. Ohlsson Walker on Twitter.
In 1938, in the middle of the Great Depression, one of the longest-running studies examining adult life began at Harvard University. Some 80 years later, the data is clear: IQ, genes, economic… Read More »Why Staying Close to People Who Feel Like Sunlight is as Important as Food and Water
The natural drug that makes us healthier, happier, smarter, and younger. We’ve all heard, over and over, that regular exercise keeps us healthier, happier, smarter, more creative, and turns back the chronological… Read More »Why Exercise Is Mother Nature’s Magic Pill
Leveraging this time to emerge stronger, healthier and more resilient than ever. Crises, while extraordinarily disruptive, also present opportunities for growth, agency, and transformation. While COVID-19 has uprooted our sense of stability,… Read More »The Recipe for Reducing Stress and Boosting Health
Whether in the workplace, at school, or home with our family, we social animals operate not in isolation, but in the context of relationships with others – where emotions are contagious –… Read More »Quality Time – How Connection Is The New Vitamin C
Look no further than the extraordinary altruism in support of our country’s healthcare workers to see how selfless acts of service bring a community together in tangible and palpable ways. Lovingly home-cooked… Read More »The Neurobiology of Service — How 1+1 Can Equal 3
Too often, we human beings leapfrog from one perceived need to the next, missing moments of beauty happening right here, right now. In the midst of the COVID-19 quarantine, we are living… Read More »Setting Gratitude As Your Magnetic North
The invisible, unremitting, unpredictable and life-threatening characteristics of the coronavirus pandemic, combined with fragmented, conflicting and inconsistent dosing of frightening information have our world, collectively, living through a traumatic experience. This trauma… Read More »Why Meditation is a Medically Proven Vaccine For Chronic Stress
With COVID-19, many families are struggling like never before. Healthy, high-quality food wasn’t always accessible for many low-income families before the crisis. Now, more and more Americans are stretching their resources to… Read More »Use Your Fork Wisely to Clean up Your MMES
Welcome to the third article in our Back to Basics series: a conversation on the science of sleep. Our bodies and brains are integrated systems, and in this series we will illuminate… Read More »Why Sleep is the Clean-Up Crew for Your Brain
Welcome to the second article in our Back to Basics series: a conversation on the story and the science of exercise. Our bodies and brains are integrated systems, and every Friday over… Read More »Exercise is Mother Nature’s Magic Pill