The British Medical Association recently (2009) released a comprehensive, evidenced-based guide to infant and childhood health and nutrition, called "Early Life Nutrition and Lifelong Health." This is a timely e-book in light of the epidemic of life style diseases that now afflict our youngest citizens. These concerns and trends have been detailed in the previous post, Obesity - #1 Childhood Health Concern ...

The research arm of the University of Oxford* reports that even moderate levels of obesity can significantly reduce one's life span. In the largest ever study of the effects of obesity on mortality, researchers analyzed 57 studies that tracked approximately 900,000 participants for an average of 10-15 years. The results will appear in a future volume of The Lancet. Body mass index, or BMI, was used to asses ...

Roulette William Smith, Ph.D. details a potentially ground breaking theory that purports to unravel the mystery surrounding the underlying causative factors of autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, and a host of other mental and physical illnesses in his paper entitled, "Inferring an Autovirulent Epigenetic Etiology for the Autism Spectrum and Schizophrenia*." Dr. Smith's theory originated from insights ...

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently published* the results of their investigation into the varying levels of pesticide contamination of 47 domestically available fruits and vegetables. The EWG analyzed approximately 87,000 pesticide tests conducted from 2000-2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The complete study results and a nice "Shopper ...

Researchers* report in a yet unpublished study (2009) that patients with anti-social personality disorder benefited from extended quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG)-guided neurofeedback sessions in a clinical case series. QEEG-guided neurofeedback provides individually tailored neurotherapy sessions based on a patient's unique EEG and comparisons to age appropriate, normative databases. This is the ...

I obtained a letter that will be sent to the American Psychological Association (APA) from concerned psychologists regarding APA's failure to acknowledge the positive contributions of clinicians and researchers involved in quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) and neurofeedback. The writer also briefly touches on a current controversy in the field that involves admittance of QEEG evidence into legal pr ...

I am pleased to provide this unsolicited announcement for my friends at The International Society For Neurofeedback & Research (ISNR). It is time to pre-register for the ISNR 2009 Annual Conference, which will be in Indianapolis, Indiana this year. ISNR conferences provide fantastic learning and training opportunities for professionals who are involved in biofeedback, neurofeedback, and quantitative EEG (QE ...

After many weeks of debate and sorting through available options, I finally updated The Behavioral Medicine Report to a fresh, more modern look. I hope that everyone enjoys the new design! This innovative layout is simple, yet clean and professional, and the 3-column design allows for more information to be displayed on each page with less clutter and without overwhelming the reader. I also like the earth t ...

This review covers an open access article* that investigates prevalence rates of adult non-medical (illicit) methamphetamine use. Check the end of this post for a link to download a free PD of the original journal article. This is truly a sad topic because chronic methamphetamine use can lead to not only major physical health problems, but also to psychosis, suicide, violent behavior, sexual promiscuity, an ...

In a long term follow up (median = 11 years) study, researchers* report that women with breast cancer who received group therapy (i.e., psychological treatment in a group format) versus those in an assessment only group (n = 227) experienced statistically significant improvements life expectancy 11 years after diagnosis. Group therapy consisted of 8-12 participants and 2 psychologists with an overall focus ...