Talking to Ourselves: The science of the little voice in your head

Most of us will be familiar with the experience of silently talking to ourselves in our head. Perhaps you’re at the supermarket and realise that you’ve forgotten to pick up something you needed. “Milk!” you might say to yourself. Or maybe you’ve got an important meeting with your boss later in the day, and you’re simulating – silently in your head – how you think the conversation might go, possibly hearing both your own voice and your boss’s voice responding.

By Peter Mosely

Inner speech and talking out loud share similar brain mechanisms. Photograph: Alamy. Image sourced from The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com

It's not Cancer: Doctors Reclassify a Thyroid Tumor

An international panel of doctors has decided that a type of tumor that was classified as a cancer is not a cancer at all.

As a result, they have officially downgraded the condition, and thousands of patients will be spared removal of their thyroid, treatment with radioactive iodine and regular checkups for the rest of their lives, all to protect against a tumor that was never a threat.

By Gina Kolata

Photo by The New York Times. Image of cancer cells under a microscope sourced from The New York Times. Available at: https://static01.nyt.com

Schisandra Berry Pastilles: A Five Flavor Recipe

Schisandra berry is a very special herb in that it has all five tastes. That means that in herbal theory, it contains the qualities and benefits of all five flavors. This explains why it doesn’t do just one thing!

 

Photo by LearningHerbs. Image of schisandra pastilles on a table sourced from LearningHerbs. Available at: https://learningherbs.com

The Year in Fungi

If there is a rule in biology, I can think about how it does not apply to fungi,” Anne Pringle, a mycologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said earlier this year. “They challenge our preconceptions of how biology works.” Neither plant nor animal (though closer to the latter in evolutionary terms), fungi are everywhere.

By Nicola Twilley

Geastrum britannicum, one of 2015’s newly confirmed fungi, was previously dismissed as a variant of another species. Photograph by Dawn and Jim Langiewicz. Image sourced from The New Yorker. Available at: https://media.newyorker.com

The Medicinal Benefits of Myrrh

In the horn of Africa, a small native tree, covered in spines, grows in the arid deserts. When the bark is wounded through to the sapwood, the tree exudes an aromatic, oily, yellow oleo gum resin which eventually hardens into a hard yellow-reddish opaque globule that can be easily harvested from the side of the tree.

Photo by LearningHerbs. Image of myrrh tooth powder in a bowl sourced from LearningHerbs. Available at: https://learningherbs.com

From 1890 to 2016 in NYC's Chinatown

Sharing an image from our friends at Wing On Wo & Co at 26 Mott St. NYC. The oldest shop in NY's Chinatown, originally serving the needs of the new immigrant population as a mail center and providing goods from home. With the same proprietors for the last 91 years, Wing On Wo & Co now stocks fine antique porcelain goods and offers an unprecedented view on the history of the local community. Stop on by to see how they are still a driving force in shaping the future of the neighborhood.

Wild Edibles You Can Forage In The Spring

There’s something magical about wild food: It draws us closer to the earth—and it’s delicious. Maybe it’s easy to romanticize this ease with nature, but it is romantic.

By Annie Graves

Ostrich-Fern Fiddleheads Photo Credit : The 3 Foragers Photo by New England Today. Image of fiddlehead ferns on a plate sourced from New England Today. Available at: https://newengland.com/

How to Make an All-Purpose Herbal Cleaning Spray for Spring Cleaning

As it turns out, spring cleaning is yet another opportunity to integrate herbs into our lives. Herbs can be used to clear and uplift the energy in our homes while herbal cleaning products are a good choice for our health and the health of our ecosystem. Not to mention that inhaling the scent of herbs while we tidy up is downright pleasureful!

Photo by The Herbal Academy. Image of herbal preparation with dried herbs and a mortar and pestle sourced from The Herbal Academy. Available at: https://theherbalacademy.com

Acupuncture with Electrical Stimulation Along the Du Channel

Peripheral nerve injury not only affects the site of the injury, but can also induce neuronal apoptosis at the spinal cord. However, many acupuncture clinicians still focus only on the injury site, selecting acupoints entirely along the injured nerve trunk and neglecting other regions; this may delay onset of treatment efficacy and rehabilitation. Therefore, in the present study, we compared the clinical efficacy of acupuncture at Governor vessel and local meridian acupoints combined (GV/LM group) with acupuncture at local meridian acupoints alone (LM group) in the treatment of patients with peripheral nerve injury.

Archaeologists Discover New Branch of the Silk Road

Famous for facilitating an incredible exchange of culture and goods between the East and the West, the ancient Silk Road is thought to have meandered across long horizontal distances in mountain foothills and the lowlands of the Gobi Desert. But new archaeological evidence hidden in a lofty tomb reveals that it also ventured into the high altitudes of Tibet—a previously unknown arm of the trade route.

silk road.jpg

Source: “Earliest Tea As Evidence For One Branch Of The Silk Road Across The Tibetan Plateau,” By Houyuan Lu Et Al., In Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Article No. 18955; January 7, 2016; Map by Mapping Specialists

Real Parents Get Acupuncture

By Beth Griffing

Parenting is stressful. (Maybe you’ve heard?) But before you reach for that third glass of chardonnay or end up couch-locked during a Dora the Explorer marathon because you forgot that pot is stronger now than when you were in college, consider that acupuncture is one of the best ways for parents to de-stress without the aftereffects of drugs and alcohol, while having a longer term effect.

 

Acupuncture for Equine Allergies

By Taryn Dentinger, DVM, CVA Image of a close-up of a person's eye with an allergic reaction sourced from IVC Journal. Available at: https: ivcjournal.com

Western medicine will sometimes accept chronic conditions as a variant of “healthy” if they’re not life-threatening or debilitating. It has become routine to treat symptoms as they appear, but to disregard the underlying immune system dysfunction that leads to the allergy symptoms in the first place.

Massachusetts Clinic Treats Refugees With Mindfulness and Medicine From Home

Photo by Heidi Shin. Image of people practicing yoga in a serene outdoor setting sourced from Yes! Magazine. Available at: www.yesmagazine.org

After doctors realized their exam room reminded traumatized patients of torture chambers, they invited Buddhist monks and Cambodian healers to bring age-old therapies to the clinic.