Amygdala De-Dah! (video)

Shift from fear to cheer, harnessing the brain’s amygdala with vibrant movement

The Amygdala part of the brain’s limbic system registers intense feelings, preparing the body to fight, flee or freeze instantly should there be a threat. Some people overreact to stressors rather than stepping back, analyzing the situation and taking a more rational approach.

Why not harness the amygdala, using cheers, handshakes, and other energetic actions like dancing and sports to arouse intense feelings of joy? At the Illinois conference for Health Physical Education, Dance and Recreation professionals showed ‘A-Mig-Dah-La’ gestures then created De Dah! with a simple cheer!

Daily Physical Education with vibrant movement is an excellent way to help students regulate intense feelings in wholesome ways – important during these stressful times.

5 Levels of Healing

The miracle of the inner movement called “healing”

According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, Ph.D., “Healing is the greatest of all joys.” True healing requires simultaneous work on all five levels – Level one, the physical body; Level two, electromagnetic body; Level three, the mental body; Level four, the dream body; and Level five, the spirit body.

Dr. Klinghardt’s vertical healing system gives us an understanding of holistic medicine. .. “a road map that makes it easier to navigate the sometimes chaotic landscape of healing techniques.”

Romp in the Mud

Ease up on Antibacterial soap and get down and dirty

Peaceful Playgrounds reports research from Northwestern University suggesting that children be allowed to get dirty playing outdoors, exposing them to common, everyday bacteria and microbes needed to build their defensive inflammatory systems. Handling everyday germs is part of our evolutionary protection system.

Hooray for sandboxes and playgrounds!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

America on Drugs

Is our health care system costing us our health?

Craig Stellpflug’s article, Misguided Trust – America on Drugs, presents a bleak picture of health care in America. Emphasis on drugs, rather than on healthy lifestyle is costly. America’s health care costs will soar to $4.1 trillion annually. We spend more for health care than any other country, yet we are only 34th in the world for infant mortality and 42nd for life expectancy.

Craig presents other startling statistics, then ends his article, encouraging us to eat quality food, exercise daily and find positive ways to focus on positive things and creative hobbies. Check out Craig on his Healing Pathways website.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Healthy Fat Mass in Girls

May have a positive long-term impact on bone health

Newswise.com reports latest research from The Endocrine Society that,
“Fat mass in girls during puberty may have a long-term impact on bone health as they grow into adulthood... Excessive reduction in fat mass could have adverse effects on the developing skeleton particularly in girls, leading to an increased risk of osteoporosis in later life.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Stronger, Faster, Smarter (Video)

Physical exercise boosts brainpower for students and the elderly

Mary Carmichael’s article in Newsweek cites research showing how aerobic exercise increases Nerve Growth Factors, such as BDNF, Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor, called Miracle Gro for the brain by Dr. John Ratey in his book, SPARK, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.

Understand why we need Daily Physical Education in our schools, and why all people throughout life, especially the elderly need daily exercise to maintain their mental sharpness.

Kudos to scientists William Greenough, Charles Hillman, Arthur Kramer, and physical educators performing a short Genetic Expression -- BDNF movement routine, all from Illinois, involved with moving this science forward!

Start the Year with Weil

Dr. Andrew Weil gets you behind the wellness wheel

There is no better way to start the New Year than visiting Dr. Weil’s website focused on integrated medicine and natural health; check out the food pyramid and read the many self-empowering body and brain enhancing ‘Weil Lifestyle’ articles. Listen to his interview on the Diane Rehm radio show. Search your favorite articles on his Daily Blog – Your Health Today. These are 'Weilly' good wellness resources!

Happy New Year!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Review the Year and Celebrate!

Wellness QUEST for YOUR BEST! Find a quiet moment to reflect on family, friends and other special people who have helped, loved, and inspired you throughout the past year. Celebrate all of them with an expression of gratitude before the year ends.

Health BENEFITS: Gratitude has a unique relationship with well-being. Wikipedia reports research suggesting how grateful people are happier, more satisfied with their lives and social relationships, and more in control of personal growth. They are less depressed, less stressed, and sleep better.

QUOTE: He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ~Epictetus

HUMOR: An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan

POST SCRIPT: In addition to being thankful for other people’s positive effect on your life, give yourself credit. Your positive efforts deserve to be celebrated as well.

Note: The Health Cartoon shown above is taken from the perpetual Health Care-toons Calendar by Jeff Haebig and cartoonist Ed Fischer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

QUEST CRYPTOGRAM answer from December 28th

"Triangle of Fitness... strength, flexibility, aerobics"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Take New Fitness Steps

Wellness QUEST for YOUR BEST! With the New Year fast approaching, consider how you can improve your physical fitness. If you are not sure, consult a fitness specialist or knowledgeable friend who is physically active. You might want to improve your strength, flexibility, or stamina with aerobic training such as walking. Read the web links highlighted above and consult with your health care provider if you are just getting started. Make sure you start well within your fitness level for safety and ease into any new exercise for maximum enjoyment.

Health BENEFITS: Aerobic training strengthens the heart, lungs and circulatory system for disease prevention, helps boost body and brain energy throughout the day, regulates insulin, burns excess calories for weight management, and improves restfulness and sleep. Flexibility training, such as yoga and pilates, keeps muscles and joints supple for greater range of motion, injury prevention and relaxation. Strength training builds muscle tone, making your daily work easier to manage.

QUOTE: To follow without halt, one aim; there’s the secret of success. Anna Pavlova

HUMOR: He’s developing a more active lifestyle. Now he sits and watches aerobic shows on television.

QUEST CRYPTOGRAM: EAMPRDVZ FJ JMERZWW: WEAZRDEO, JVZKMHMVMEC, PZAFHMBW

Clues: D=g and M=i The solution is given on the next blog posting.

Note: The Health Cartoon shown above is taken from the perpetual Health Care-toons Calendar by Jeff Haebig and cartoonist Ed Fischer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Treat Santa to Dulce

Replace cookies and milk with tasty sea weed!

Give Santa a body-brain boost tonight with a delicious health snack that will help him spring to his feet, and spread Christmas joy. Leave a dish of Dulce by the chimney… it’s tasty, and full of vitamin B6, iodine, Potassium and Iron. Santa will love the pan-fried, crispy snack by itself, or crumbled on pop corn or a salad. Santa’s reindeer will love it too!

Daily Physical Education Rush

Go to NFLRush.com and become an advocate… huh?

I can appreciate the NFL’s advertizing campaign through this football season, emphasizing the need for 60 minutes of childhood play and exercise every day. The ads encourage people to go to NFLrush.com and become a fitness advocate. I went to this website and was deeply disappointed. The “Kids Club Fitness Alarm” displayed poorly produced videos encouraging leg squats, side lunges, Triceps dips… as if these calisthenics are key to fitness… Whoa! The videos kept playing despite my many efforts to turn them off.

Nowhere on the site was a compelling case made for physical fitness. Nor was there a way to influence school boards to add daily physical education to the curriculum. Click on ‘Fuel Up to Play 60’ and come to the National Dairy Council’s answer to fitness… Ugh!

This Body-BrainBoogie blog has repeatedly emphasized the importance of Daily Physical Education, with many researched articles making the case. I wish the NFL would have taken time to study, then present the benefits of exercise for disease prevention and academic success.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Quest Cryptogram answer from December 22nd
"Resolve to do it and then do it"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Make the Ultimate New Year's Resolution

Wellness QUEST for YOUR BEST! Replace your mega list of resolutions with ‘one’ practical way you want to improve yourself. Spend ‘one’ week thinking about ‘one’ health goal, focused on ‘one’ person (you) that will be completed next year. Write your resolution down and post it on a wall or mirror, making it the first thing you see in the morning.

Health BENEFITS: Keeping a New Year’s resolution can pay many health dividends if you stick to it. Read the article, watch the video... then set your goal and ‘do it!’

QUOTE: We must never try to escape the obligation of living at our best.
Janet Erskine Stuart

HUMOR: A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown

Quest cryptogram: tbnapwb da xa yd omx rzbs xa yd
Hint: A=O... The solution is given on the next blog post.

Note: The Health Cartoon shown above is taken from the perpetual Health Care-toons Calendar by Jeff Haebig and cartoonist Ed Fischer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

New Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Makes you smarter, prevents cavities, lowers blood pressure…

RealAge.com has a treat for us… more research suggesting body and brain benefits of dark, dark chocolate… 70% cocoa content. More antioxidants, lower blood pressure, heart disease protection, improved cholesterol, longevity and more. Can this be? Read the article and links to salve your guilt about eating an ounce once in a while. Oh yeah!

Health Care-toon taken from the Health Care-toons Calendar (undated) by Jeff Haebig and Ed Fischer.

Fibromyalgia Fitness Facts

There are natural ways to manage muscular and joint pain

Jeanie Lerche Davis writing for WebMD explains how home remedies and alternative treatments work . Moderate massage, pressure put on pressure points, acupuncture and application of heat and cold on tender spots are mentioned. Links are provided helping people understand and manage Fibromyalgia. I especially enjoy the chronic back pain videos.

Fit Teenage Boys are Smarter

Cardiovascular fitness positively influences higher cognition

Newswise.com reports research conducted by Nancy Pederson of the University of Southern California and colleagues in Sweden showing how cardiovascular fitness (not muscular strength) correlates with higher cognitive functioning including verbal ability, to logical performance, to geometric perception and mechanical skills.

Over a long term, boys who were most fit at the age of 18 were more likely to go to college than the less fit counterparts.

Once again, Daily Physical Education is scientifically supported to optimize cognitive performance, as seen time and again on this blog.

Cell Phone Tower Health (video)

Protest cell phone towers – is it worth it?

Read the research on this blog, December 2nd to know people’s deep health concerns relating to the placement of wireless cells, towers and facilities close to where they live and work. I took my little song and dance… it’s really a Rhythm and Rhyme routine to the City of Scottsdale, AZ Development Review Board, who were considering the placement of a wireless communication facility within a 100 yards of our homes and future city park and playground.

Other groups have protested cell phone towers with petitions and lawyers… I just wanted them to postpone the vote until they read health related research. The result…within a heartbeat following my strange appeal, the proposed tower was passed. There was no discussion. However, to the surprise of the Review Board chairperson, one council member voted ‘nay’. The chairperson responded with two words… “Really?” “Really!”

Watch my brief routine… read a bit of the research posted on December 2nd… and vote. Is this an issue we need to be concerned about?

Cell Tower Health Risks (video)

Learn the serious health risks of Radio Frequencies!

Strong evidence shows electromagnetic radiation from cell phone towers is damaging to human and animal health according to EMwatch.com. Serotonin and melatonin levels are disturbed affecting brain messaging, mood, sleep regulation and immune system function. Cancer rates are higher. Short term effects include headaches, sleep disorders, poor memory, mental excitation, confusion, anxiety, depression, appetite disturbance and listlessness. Living within 400 meters of the cell phone towers has shown to increase risks. BioInitiative.org provides a comprehensive report of RF health risks. Links to many research-based EMF related websites can be found on LessEMF.com.

An insightful article by B. Blake Levitt on EnviroLink.org explains how laws were passed taking away cities and citizen’s control over cell tower placement. Read about the substantial nonthermal hazards of RFs, largely ignored by the FCC. This article is disturbing to those of us working for wellness.

Learning less than two weeks ago that a Wireless Communication Facility is proposed to be built less than 200 meters from our home, I decided to create the Radio Frequency Rhythm and Rhyme routine to share at the Development Review Board Public Hearing. The video entertains people to take this matter seriously. I am hoping it prompts the public and elected officials to take decisive action -- and not dance around this serious health issue!

Body Laterality and Learning

See what side of your body and brain is in control

Prodigy.net offers a most comprehensive series of articles helping us understand laterality, and crossed or mixed dominance. Find out what eye, ear, hand, foot is dominant within your body. Understand ways to correct faulty dominance when it results in learning problems.

Insist on daily physical education to assure your child builds a strong sense of laterality which leads to midline mastery of the hands and eyes needed for effortless reading and writing. Once again movement prevails as the leading way to achieve academic success!

Rope Skipping and Learning (Video)

Watch this amazing video.



These rope jumpers show astonishing skills that can be directly related to high body/brain function. Think of how their sense of balance, rhythm, coordination, midline mastery and directionality enhance academic performance skills, as well as their sense of self-worth, and eagerness to work with others. Remarkable!

Physical Activity and Academic Performance

How does physical activity influence academic performance?

Leslee Scheuer and Debby Mitchell writing for SportaPolis review several research projects analyzing the effect of physical activity and academic performance. California’s Statewide Study of Physically Fit Kids, and Dwyer’s study of academic performance and fitness in children in Australia is briefly mentioned.

The conclusion stated in this article: “Enhanced brain function, energy levels, body builds/perceptions, self-esteem, and behavior have been attributed to physical activity and to improved academic performance. One cannot make direct correlations from the information offered. However it is obvious that many positive relationships have been suggested. Perhaps instead of decreasing physical activity, school officials should consider developing enhanced physical activity programs.”

Beating Time to Success!

Beat competency can be nurtured and improved

Rebecca Eddy writing for MAD Academy expounds on beat competency linked to physical and intellectual capabilities. Reference is made to BBC News article, Poor rhythm ‘at the heart of dyslexia’. It is surprising how many people are unable to maintain a steady beat. More amazing is how rhythm relates to language and reading development, even mathematical success.

Music and Movement

Instrumental in Language Development

Maryann Harman writes a comprehensive article in Early Childhood News citing research showing how music combined with physical movement significantly boosts reading, writing and language skills. The research of Dr. Alfred Tomatis is cited, including how sounds (phonemes) and movement of the fetus are linked during gestation.

One Amazing Brain Site!

What an absolute delight finding this body/brain-based website!

Christopher McPeck has amassed hundreds of articles and links related to body and brain fitness. What a phenomenal contribution Christopher is making. One of his passions is sharing the addictive nature of the Internet and Television. Take a moment to scan the comprehensive nature of this super insightful website including topics focused on the Brain, Arousal, Hearing, Indoor Air Pollution, Muscle Tension, Posture, Sensory Processing, Sleep, Vision, Research Topics, and Other Suggestions.

Smart Foods

Food Combination and Mental Performance

Joshua has compiled a list of articles that make a great deal of sense for those of us interested in optimizing body brain function. This article on Smart Foods advises us how to eat a balanced diet that both stimulates and relaxes the brain. Check out Joshua's website for other helpful information focused on natural brain fitness. Many articles relate to Avoidant Personality Disorders and Depression.

Auditory Function in Academics

Expanding auditory digit span remediates many learning problems

Kay Ness, MS Neurodevelopmental specialist has written an intriguing article citing the importance of the auditory system for reading, conversational language, understanding complex instructions, learning long words using phonics, solving psychological problems and improving maturity. ADD, ADHD, autism and Down syndrome are mentioned. Much of the article is focused on auditory digit span. This is very interesting.

Kay said, “If I was going to pick the greatest functional problem in our society today, I would choose auditory processing.” Kay definitely made her case.

Body Brain BOOGIE’s Birthday!

Can you believe our outreach is one year old, today!

Thanks to the researchers, authors, websites, and body brain-enhancing practitioners who add joy to people’s lives; I have written over two hundred postings aimed to help people find their inspired work.

Our goal is seeking vibrant living and learning potential… naturally.

All the best to you as we pursue the second year of life-enriching discoveries! Let’s boogie on! Jeff

Steady Beat Improves Academics

Reading and Mathematics are improved with steady beat competence

Phyllis Weikart’s article cites research supporting the use of steady rhythm while moving, talking, singing, and reciting poetry as a way to build reading, vocabulary, math and physical coordination. Children’s behavior, concentration, and understanding of body in space were all positively impacted. Many suggestions are given to parents and teachers wanting to help their children explore and develop their steady beat.

‘Poor rhythm is at the heart of Dyslexia’, an article by BBC news, cited research from the University College of London, finding dyslexic children were less able to detect beats in sounds with a strong rhythm.

Success in Teaching

Visit this comprehensive website for many marvelous ideas

Ronald Fitzgerald’s Success In Teaching website is jam-packed with many exceptional articles related to brain-friendly teaching. Ron’s vast experience in education and his passion, moving schools towards excellence is reflected in his keen writings. Plan to visit this amazing website often and enjoy Ron’s articles including his monthly Classroom Tips Newsletters.

Alternate Nostril Breathing (video)

Soothe chronic pain and promote relaxation

Timothy McCall, MD. writes in the Yoga Journal explaining how yoga breathing practices can quickly relax the fight-or-flight sympathetic nervous system, shifting energy to the restorative parasympathetic nervous system. Pain can be effectively reduced.

Researchers from Nepal Medical College found that alternate nostril breathing can have a powerful calming effect. Other research is reported on CRPS/RSD A Better Life blog, including interesting ways alternate nostril breathing stimulates the brain hemispheres. A video describing this technique is shown.

Why Kids Need Recess

Even the Kids Who Misbehave!

Rae Pica originator of Moving and Learning.com, author of 18 books related to movement and active learning has written a number of excellent articles including, 7 Reason Why Kids Need Recess. Check out her other insightful articles, like Linking Literacy and Movement along with her blog, The Pica Perspective.

All the research Rae Pica reports establishes the need for Daily Physical Education, morning and afternoon recess for children, and frequent use of physical movement teaching classroom concepts in order to optimize the body brain and firmly establish new neural networks that comprise in depth learning.