Mindfully Healing

How coffee consumption is linked to both mental and physical health. Moderate coffee consumption is linked to reduced depression risk and lower levels of Parkinson’s and dementia, new research finds. Not only that, but the review of more than 200 studies found that drinking 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day is linked to many other benefits. These include lower levels of heart disease, reduced risk of some cancers, diabetes and liver disease. The study’s authors write: “Coffee consumption was consistently associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease,

New study provides insights into how parents pass anxiety and depression onto their children. An over-active network of brain areas is central to how children inherit anxiety and depression from their parents. The network consists of three regions in the brain which work together to control the fear-response. Genes passed down from parents to children influence how these three regions function together, the new study finds. Professor Ned Kalin, one of the study’s authors, said: “Over-activity of these three brain regions are inherited brain alterations that are directly linked to

Back pain treatment could also help treat depression, fatigue and common digestive disorders. Taking a placebo — a fake pill — reduces back pain 30% even when people know it is fake. Professor Ted Kaptchuk, one of the study’s authors, explained: “These findings turn our understanding of the placebo effect on its head. This new research demonstrates that the placebo effect is not necessarily elicited by patients’ conscious expectation that they are getting an active medicine, as long thought. Taking a pill in the context of a patient-clinician relationship —