Low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets have been very helpful for people having stubborn physical health problems like Type 2 diabetes and obesity. But these types of diets may not only be beneficial to people having physical health problems; they may also be helpful to those who have psychological issues.

The field of nutritional psychiatry is admittedly in its infancy, and rigorous clinical trials exploring the effect of dietary changes on mental health are few and far between, but a tremendous amount of science already exists detailing how high-sugar diets jeopardize brain health and how low-carbohydrate diets support brain health.

For people with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, psychotic disorders, PTSD, autism spectrum disorders and other psychiatric disorders who prefer not to take medication, don’t improve with medication, can’t tolerate or afford medication, only partially benefit from medication, or have bothersome side effects from medication, trying a simple low-carbohydrate diet (or even a stricter ketogenic diet, particularly in cases of more serious or stubborn chronic symptoms) is well worth trying, with very few exceptions.

So what are the benefits of a low-carb or ketogenic diet in promoting mental health? Georgia Ede of Psychology Today lists 8 of these benefits. One of the benefits is that these types of diets stabilize hormones and appetite:

Refined carbohydrates like sugar, flour, fruit juice, and processed cereals place your hormones on an invisible internal roller coaster. Every time your blood sugar and insulin spike to unnaturally high levels, they soon crash back down, triggering the release of stress hormones, including adrenaline. Adrenaline surges, which can occur four to five hours after consuming too much sugar, can contribute to panicky “hypoglycemic” symptoms like anxiety, sweating, shaking, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and carbohydrate cravings. Low-carbohydrate diets help smooth out highs and lows in blood sugar that lead to hormonal instability in the first place. Protect your precious neurons from hormonal havoc.

Check out the rest over at Psychology Today.

(Image Credit: RitaE/ Pixabay)

Using nanoscale technology, engineers created a material that can be absorbed by our own skin as it heals. The elasticity and the thickness of this synthetic skin can be custom-matched to specific areas of the body.

It incorporates a recently discovered material, known as polyglycerol sebacate, which is stretchy and compatible with human tissue.

Tests with skin cells showed that the material's small-scale fibres provide a scaffold on which newly formed skin can grow.

[...]

"Our technique is a cost-effective way of making artificial skin adapted for all areas of body, to accelerate the wound healing process," says Dr. Norbert Radacsi.

"Dressings made from this new fabric would be absorbed by the body, reducing the need for frequent changes," says Antonios Keirouz.

(Image Credit: Antonios Keirouz)

We may take this thing for granted whenever we go to malls or shopping centres. But little do we know that the literally ground-breaking invention of the escalator would forever change our sense of space, and expand our concept of space and time.

Before the escalator was invented, commerce and transportation were largely one-dimensional. Stairs and elevators were for the committed and purposeful, their limitations constraining vertical expansion, above and below ground. Stairs require patience and effort. Elevators have a unique, precise, and tightly constrained mission. The invention of the escalator changed everything: suddenly, a constant flow of people could ascend into the air, or descend to the depths. The escalator modified architecture itself, creating fluid transitions into spaces above and below. Now, in commerce and transportation, neither the sky nor the ground would be the limit.

Know more about the history of the escalator and how it impacted our lives on the Smithsonian.

(Image Credit: Activedia/ Pixabay)

The everything bagel is just like its own kind: it is a bagel. But what makes it the King of Bagels? It is because every bagel topping used in the bakery can be found in this bagel. Sesame and poppy seeds, garlic and onion flakes, salt and pepper dance around your mouth and excite your taste buds as you take a bite on this bagel.

...it’s also a combination of ancient traditions and new fads, Eastern ingredients and Western techniques. With cream cheese and lox, it creates, more or less, the perfect bite.

But where did the everything bagel came from? Was it invented?

Find out the answers on Atlas Obscura.

(Image Credit: woodleywonderworks/ Wikimedia Commons)

For airplanes and other vehicles like it, it only takes a split second for a drop of water to freeze, which might cause system malfunction, which thus creates safety risks for the plane. In order to prevent this, people at the MIT found out a way “to make water-repellant surfaces better shed a soaking”.

The new method builds on research from about six years ago when it was discovered that small macroscopic features added to a surface, like a series of nearly imperceptible ridges, helped break up a water drop’s shape and symmetry as it recoiled from an impact, increasing the speed at which it bounced away from that surface. The amount of time a drop was in contact with a surface was reduced by about 40 percent, which also reduced the amount of time there was for thermal exchange. In other words, it reduced the risk of raindrops having enough time to turn to ice.

When a droplet hits the macroscopic structure it spreads out and fills it, but only until it hits the bowl’s edge, at which point it’s deflected upward and ultimately away from the surface. The amount of spread isn’t being reduced, but since it’s being deflected away there’s minimal interaction between it and the treated surface—which was the ultimate goal here. The effectiveness of this structure does depend on its size, and the size of the droplet that’s making an impact, but even if every drop isn’t quickly bounced away, overall there’s still a definite improvement.

More details of this study on Gizmodo.

(Image Credit: Henri-Louis Girard, Jim Bales, Kripa Varanasi/ MIT News)

This is Daedalum, an inflatable structure 153 feet in length. This was created by Architects of Air, an organization founded by designer Alan Parkinson. Together with his team, they create a new luminarium every year.

… [The Daedalum has just been] recently installed in London as a part of the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival. Light fills the labyrinth’s tunnels through colored panels made of translucent material, bathing the interior in bright and ethereal hues.

See more information on Colossal.

(Image Credit: Architects of Air)

According to a study which analyzed participants from 35 countries, near-death experiences, “where people report a range of spiritual and physical symptoms, including out-of-body sensations, seeing or hearing hallucinations, racing thoughts and time distortion”, affect 10% (or 1 out of 10) people.

These near-death experiences (NDEs) are equally as common in people who are not in imminent danger of death as in those who have experienced truly life-threatening situations such as heart attacks, car crashes, near drowning or combat situations.

[...]

Experiences most frequently reported by participants in their study included: abnormal time perception (87 per cent), exceptional speed of thought (65 per cent), exceptionally vivid senses (63 per cent) and feeling separated from, or out of their body (53 per cent).

The study group who reported NDEs variously described feeling at total peace, having their 'soul sucked out', hearing angels singing, being aware they were outside their body, seeing their life flashing before them, and being in a dark tunnel before reaching a bright light. Others spoke of being aware of another's presence before they went to sleep, or of a demon sitting on their chest while they lay paralysed unable to move [see Notes to Editors for selected quotes].

Have you experienced any of these things?

(Image Credit: European Academy of Neurology)

What makes a great game? For some, it’s the graphics or the music. For others, it's immersive gameplay and an amazing storyline.

Oftentimes, we take this thing for granted, but we notice it when game developers make it wrong. This thing is the fashion sense of the characters in the game.

"It kind of creates a really jarring experience," said Victoria Tran, a community developer at Kitfox games, the Canadian indie studio behind titles including Boyfriend Dungeon and Lucifer Within Us.

[...]

Getting [the fashion] right, she said, could make a story feel richer and become a form of self-expression, especially when there are options to customise a protagonist's outfits. And for studio chiefs weighing up the costs involved, just consider how much titles like Overwatch and Fortnite have made from selling the "skins" that change their characters' looks.

Ms. Tran would then cite Jill Valentine’s fashion in the game Resident Evil 3.

She wears a blue tube top, black skirt, white jacket tied around her waist and a pair of brown boots.

Even I could tell why Tran would complain to such a thing. Who in his or her right mind would wear something that reveals a lot of skin, knowing full well that there are zombies who’d want a bite of fresh meat?

"Actually, there's nothing exciting about it at all."

There are also other video games who had their share of complaints with regards to fashion. Check them out on BBC.

(Image Credit: Capcom)

Have you ever gone to a shopping centre and ended up coming home with a lot of things that you really did not need but ended up buying anyway? Some time later, you’ll end up regretting that you bought those unneeded things. But have you ever thought about what made you buy those things in the first place?

Turns out that every time we set foot in a marketplace (whether physical or online), there are sales traps that lure us into buying.

Psychology Today outlines six common sales traps that many retailers use to get you to buy. Take, for example, "Presuasion":

The term “presuasion” was coined by best-selling author Robert Cialdini, who described it as the crucial stage preceding attempts of persuasion. In the sales context, it may refer to the way shops attract your attention or to specific tricks employed to put customers in a particular (e.g. generous) state of mind.

This initial stage may be crucial for increasing the prospective customers’ receptiveness for persuasive sales messages. In traditional shops, examples of “presuasion” may include offering free samples, playing pleasant background music, or enticing customers with mouth-watering smells. In online environments, a common practice involves sending customers a personalised email thanking them for previous purchases. Research suggests that such expressions of gratitude can increase the effectiveness of later sales messages by a staggering 100 percent!

Read the rest of the common sales traps at Psychology Today. 

(Image Credit: TeroVesalainen/ Pixabay)

「同棲中の彼ぴっぴのどこを見れば良い夫になるのか分からない😫」と悩んでいる君へ、教えよう。答えは麦茶だ。冷蔵庫内の水出し麦茶がなくなりそうな時、何も言わず次の麦茶を作る男は良い夫になり、少しだけ麦茶を残して相手に作らせる男は駄目な夫になるぞ。 pic.twitter.com/YkUqnStg06

— りっつ (@r_itt_su) June 23, 2019

For many of us, getting married or thinking about marriage can bring about a lot of questions and worries. After all, we are uncertain of the future. Perhaps the most common question, and perhaps also the most important question to ask is, “Will my partner turn out to be a good husband or wife?”

For females asking this question, Japanese Twitter user @r_itt_su may perhaps have found how to find out the answer it. His way (yes, he’s a man giving advice to women!) of finding out is through a liquid-based litmus test.

“If you’re saying ‘I don’t know where to look to see if my beau will be a good husband,’ here’s some advice. The answer is the iced barley tea pitcher. When the pitcher in the fridge is getting low, a guy who doesn’t say a word but goes ahead and makes a new pitcher of tea will be a good husband. A guy who leaves just a little in the pitcher so that his girlfriend has to make the next pitcher will be a bad husband.

For men asking the same question, he has this to say:

“And on the flip-side, a woman who can ask ‘We’re almost out of tea, so can you make a new pitcher?’ and says thank-you afterwards will be a good wife. If she doesn’t say anything until she blows up and says ‘Why am I the only one who makes the tea? You should notice that and make it!’, the guy will probably react with ‘If you want me to make some tea, just say so!’, and they’ll just end up arguing.”

What are your thoughts? Is his advice sound?

(Image Credit: @r_itt_su/ Twitter)

All of us know that there’s a time and place for everything. There’s work time, and there is leisure time. But more often than not, we find ourselves distracted while in the office. We lose focus and this leads to “overwork, stress, and burnout”. The question is: what makes us distracted?

You might be surprised at this, but the answer is not your phone or social media. If it’s not those two things, then what distracts us at the office? 

Fast Company says that there are two types of distractions that we need to worry about, and those are sensory or external distractions, and emotional or internal distractions.

As the name suggests, sensory distractions are things that we sense around us. It could be a ringing phone, the sound of two people chatting, the smell of tasty food, or whatever that’s happening around us.

Emotional distractions, on the other hand, are “the thoughts that make our attention drift from what we’re doing.” It could be something that worries you, like your bills coming, or it could be something that you look forward to like Friday night.

The problem is that most of us only focus on external distractions. It’s easy to blame your lack of focus on notifications and interruptions.

However, according to UC Irvine’s Gloria Mark, we’re just as likely to interrupt ourselves as get interrupted by something external. As Goleman puts it, “It’s not the chatter of people around us that is the most powerful distractor, but rather the chatter of our own minds.”

Know more about these distractions and how to handle them over at Fast Company.

(Image Credit: FirmBee/ Pixabay)

Harrison, Arkansas — 11-year-old Ruby Chitsey likes to go to work with her mom, Amanda, who is a nurse traveling to several nursing homes in their area. One day, during one of their visits, Ruby began to go to the residents and asked them a very thought-provoking question: “if you could have any three things, what would they be?”

Ruby says she was mostly just curious what they'd say.

"I was very surprised. I thought people would say money, houses, a Lamborghini," she said.

But instead, here's what she got: Electric razor, new shoes, Vienna sausage, for some reason a lot of people asked for Vienna sausage and other really basic items.

"Like, that's all they wanted. And I really decided that I needed to do something," Ruby said.

The 11-year-old girl then started a charity called “Three Wishes for Ruby’s Residents”. As her mom takes care of the patients, Ruby goes room-to-room, jots down the wishes, and then sets out to make those wishes come true.

Now, it's not just her. Since we first told this story, Ruby has helped start chapters of her charity in other states. She speaks to advocates for the aging. Of course, she is still very much hands on, proving no one needs a Lamborghini when they've got home delivery of all the happy they can handle.

Bless this child. She’s truly amazing.

(Image Credit: CBS News)

About 30 years ago, scientists have found a strain of bacteria that can kill Anopheles mosquitoes, which are mosquitoes that spread malaria. However, back then the bacteria was not understood, and “it couldn't be replicated or used as an alternative to chemical insecticides”. But now it can be.

An international team led by Sarjeet Gill, distinguished professor of molecular, cell and systems biology at UC Riverside, has identified a neurotoxin produced by the bacteria, and determined how it kills Anopheles. Their work is detailed in a paper published today in Nature Communications.

It took Gill and his team 10 years to achieve a breakthrough in their quest to understand the bacteria, and Gill attributes the success to modern gene sequencing techniques. They hit the bacteria with radiation, creating mutant bacterial strains that could not produce the toxin. By comparing the nontoxic strain to the one that kills Anopheles, they found proteins in the bacteria that are the keys to toxin production.

The neurotoxin does not affect humans, vertebrates, fish, and other insects, making it a safer alternative than using chemical insecticides.

Nearly half the world's population lives in areas vulnerable to malaria which kills roughly 450,000 people per year, most of them children and pregnant women. Progress fighting the disease is threatened as Anopheles develop resistance to chemical insecticides used to control them. There is also great concern about toxic side effects of the chemicals.

(Image Credit: Jim Gathany/CDC)

Now THAT’S cheesy.

Home to 156,000 wheels of cheese, mostly gruyère and emmentaler, is the Kaltbach Cave, a tunnel-like cave in the Santenberg mountain. Inside this, the cheese is meticulously aged, as the cool conditions of the cave are perfect for ripening cheese.

Stretching over a mile, stacked shelves hold the cheeses at temperatures around 50 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, and the cool waters of the river (Kaltbach means “cold river”) that runs through the cave keep humidity levels at around 96 percent. The cave’s unique climate and the interaction of mineral deposits on the sandstone with the cheese create a distinctive flavor and aroma, and give the rinds their signature dark brown color.

[...]

The cave was discovered in 1953 as a natural cheese-aging habitat when local cheesemakers ran out of storage space and began keeping them in the Kaltbach. In 1993, Emmi acquired the cave and has been storing and aging their finest cheeses in it since. The contribution of this tranquil cave in a Swiss mountain to the cheese boards of the world should go unnoticed no more.

For at least nine months, the cheese is stored inside the cave where it is carefully monitored until the cheese reach the right aromatic and textural maturity.

(Image Credit: Emmi Cheese USA/ Atlas Obscura)

The Lightyear One is the world’s first long-range solar electric car and its aim is to be the world’s most sustainable vehicle out there in the market. Aiming to ‘get the most out of every ray of sunshine’, the car is designed to have a sleek, elongated shape “with the hood and roof comprising five square meters of integrated solar cells covered in safety glass.”

By charging from the sun, the car offers an exceptional battery range of 725 km (450 miles).

[...]

Founded only in 2016, Lightyear and their designers set out by following not convention but only the laws of physics. Fast forward over two full years and the brand has revealed the first prototype, with over 100 vehicles already sold and set to go into production in 2021.

In case of emergencies, the car can be charged at stations or regular outlets, which I think is a great innovation for cars.

For a solar car, I am amazed by the vast distance the car can cover. It is really expensive, however, costing €119,000 (around $135,000).

(Image Credit: Lightyear)