Do you know someone who suffers from dementia? Witnessing a loved one slowly lose their memory and reasoning skills can be a very painful experience. Dementia is a persistent syndrome that tends to get worse over time–affecting memory, thinking, and behavior. It is distinct from Alzheimer’s in that Alzheimer’s is a specific disease, but general dementia can stem from a variety of unrelated brain illnesses.

Seventeen years ago, Dr. Stuart Eisendrath piloted research into the therapeutic effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on people experiencing clinical depression. Ever since, he has been helping those who struggle with depression dramatically improve their symptoms and quality of life by changing how they relate to their thoughts and feelings. In When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough: Harnessing the Power of Mindfulness to Alleviate Depression Dr. Eisendrath outlines an easy-to-implement MBCT program that has been scientifically proven in a National Institute of Health study to bring relief to chronic sufferers of depression

Nearsightedness affects around 1.6 billion people worldwide. A study predicts that 49.8% of the world’s population will be affected by myopia by 2050 – that’s a whopping 5 billion people! So below are my top tips to slow down this visual epidemic…

Merryn’s personal experience using castor oil packs for healing. ‘What I find most fascinating is that all parts of the castor plant are extremely poisonous to eat, but when the oil is extracted from the seed of the Ricinus communis plant, the poison remains in the seed, and it becomes “the oil that heals.”

It’s the season for sweets, including pumpkin pie, but professional cook, Nancy Mehagian shares a side dish recipe for Japanese pumpkin that’s fast, healthy and delicious. Nancy has been a massage therapist and Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years. She is the author of the culinary memoir, “Siren’s Feast, an Edible Odyssey”.

Robert Moss is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original method of dreamwork and healing through the imagination. A former professor of ancient history, Robert Moss is also a novelist, journalist, and independent scholar. He has eight books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination including the newly-published Active Dreaming: Journeying Beyond Self Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom (New World Library). In this podcast, Merryn Jose discusses with Robert Moss his latest book Active Dreaming, the meaning of the phrase, “Active dreamers are choosers”, waking up and dreaming, the three modes of active dreaming, dream groups as models for a new community, breaking a dream drought, and more!

I happened to be reading Andrew Weil’s website when I came across information on a small machine called RESPeRATE that actually helps lower blood pressure through paced breathing. Doing some additional research I found it had been favorably reported on NBC nightly news and had the stamp of approval from a number reliable sources. i.e. The Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins, Harvard Medical School, and AARP. This got me interested in finding out more about this little gadget not much bigger than a CD player.

As the American population ages and the peak of the baby boomer generation move into their 70s, there has been a huge increase in the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Fortunately, there is a growing body of research into cause, early diagnosis and treatment, that shows great promise.

“Coconut oil is perhaps the most misunderstood fatty nutrient. Though, simplistically speaking, coconut oil is a saturated fat, it is important to distinguish coconut oil from the saturated fats that come from animal sources like meat and dairy products. Saturated and hydrogenated fats are solid at room temperature. An exception to this would be coconut oil which is solid at low room temperature because it is saturated with medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). MCTs assist with the rapid and complete metabolism of other dietary fats. In a lifestyle that includes regular, moderate exercise, MCTs insure that fat is used as an energy fuel for our cells rather than being stored.”