Author: Arsen Mayer

A new peer-reviewed study, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, has found that humans experience longer REM sleep in the winter.  REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement and is a stage of sleep associated with dreaming and memory consolidation, according to sleepfoundation.org.  During this sleep stage, the body’s heart rate speeds up and breathing can become […]

Many of my readers know I devote a fair amount of my professional time to trauma work, as I am quite concerned about its psychological impact on both adults and children. Between terrorism, Iranian threats, long power outages, civic discord, and being in an earthquake zone, I sometimes think that as a country, we are […]

Being pregnant is exciting, yet it requires a lot of resources from the body to create this new life and develop the fetus. Among many women before becoming pregnant, the question arises as to how and if it’s possible to work with one’s body to provide a safe environment for the baby to grow.  This […]

Cattle are a major agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide – responsible for 50% to 60% of them – due to their diet of hay and grass, which causes flatulence. Methane is about 30 times more potent at heating up the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Each year, a single cow will belch about 100 kilograms […]

Over the years, the Health Ministry has set up committees, held discussions and initiated projects to reduce suicides of which 600 succeed and 10 times as many are attempted. Gila’s Way, a non-profit organization that promotes mental health awareness and education, has been invited to run a landmark conference on suicide prevention at the Knesset […]

When a relationship isn’t working, our instinct is often to seek couples therapy. If there’s a problem, then you should find a joint solution for it, right? Well, yes and no. Yes, it would be nice to find a common solution, but sometimes the best solution is to start with ourselves, with the mechanism that […]

A memorandum of understanding to promote innovative medical care has been announced by Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer – Israel’s largest hospital – and the government of New South Wales in Australia. The international partnership will see the hospital collaborate with the Australian state government to advance clinical care. Minister for Health Brad Hazzard […]

The feast of dairy products – Shavuot – is almost upon us, which for many people spells trouble for their stomachs. In the eighth episode of Walla’s “Nutrition on the agenda” podcast, Gil Avidor-Aloni hosted Roni Baruch, a senior dietitian in the nutrition unit and the unit for functional diseases of the digestive system at […]

A smart necklace that tracks heat signatures from lit cigarettes in real-time, how much smokers inhale and the time between puffs could help you stop smoking. Researchers at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago developed such a device that resembles a lapis blue pendant and detects users’ smoking habits much more reliably than previous systems.  Called SmokeMon, […]

The World Health Organization is increasing its epidemiological surveillance in Equatorial Guinea after the country confirmed its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, a WHO official said on Tuesday. The small Central African country has so far reported nine deaths as well as 16 suspected cases of Marburg virus disease, with symptoms including fever, fatigue […]