MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'flexibility'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:11:59 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4450475&cid=t_155998_136_f&fid=39016&url=http%3A%2F%2Fturquoisegates.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fschool-is-reallysimple.html We've neglected the lessons, from time to time, when people are in hospitals or we travel to far away medical centers, or the side effects of cancer burrow their way into our routines. The loveliness of homeschool is that somehow, we catch up. Because we can do it any time of day, in any order we please, using whatever tools and ideas and books we please.Today we circled chairs around the couch - the best way to get four kids varied in age and intellect onto the same page - and did our lessons. It was a beautiful thing, for this Mama's heart.First, a book about nocturnal animals, the older girls drawing pictures in their dictation journals as "prompts" for their memory later on. The younger ones at rapt attention as we learn about mouse eyeballs and leopard teeth and the way the pads of th... Turquoise Gates blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4450475 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:36:00 +0100 4450475 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4436883&cid=t_155998_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FST767NYz5bE%2F Sure osteoporosis meds allegedly can reduce the risk of fractures in osteoporosis patients, but can they really add five years to your life? That’s exactly what an Australian study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism claims. The research shows that participants taking bisphosphonates (or drugs that prevent bone loss) for an average of three years had a significantly longer life span than those treating the disease with treatments such as Vitamin D and hormone therapy. According to Medical News Today, “Among younger women with osteoporotic fractures, where one might expect about 20-25% of deaths over five years, there were no deaths at all.” The study’s authors (who admittedly thought there was an error when they first saw the results) say that the extended l... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4436883 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:48:41 +0100 4436883 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3560235&cid=t_155998_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2F10-reasons-to-be-a-doctor%2F2010.05.12 With all the negative press, the pay cuts, and the uncertainty of healthcare reform, I am approached by people who secretly whisper in my ear, “Would you have your child go into medicine?” On first blush I am tempted to answer, “Heck no!” given the administrative hassles, the changes in the public’s perception of our profession, the frontload of education, and the long hours involved. But those observations, while real, are superficial at best. Drilling down with more careful analysis after a challenging weekend on call, I find it worthwhile to stop and ask myself what makes medicine special for those of us crazy enough to subject ourselves to this lifestyle. I decided to put together a list of things that were important to me and would welcome additions from ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3560235 Wed, 12 May 2010 18:00:00 +0100 3560235 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2682074&cid=t_155998_129_f&fid=36035&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.everydayhealth.com%2Fblog%2Flife-with-chronic-pain%2Fbend-or-break-in-your-life-with-chronic-pain%2F No, I’m not talking about physical therapy, hauling groceries or that cracking sound you hear when you move; although those are all a reality of life as we know it, so why not talk about that first?  Flexibility comes in many forms and who can tell you more about that than someone who no longer has it? I remember physical flexibility and suppleness and miss both of them. I think of them fondly along with other things in life I miss like having one chin, upper arms that don’t jiggle and the energy to “go all day.” I miss waking up each morning without pain and that sweet feeling of falling asleep without pain and so much more. For me, and I expect for many of you, they have all gone the way of bell bottom pants, tie-dyed T-shirts, sandals and bold jewelry. What? They’re all popul... Life with Chronic Pain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2682074 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:20:54 +0100 2682074 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2313535&cid=t_155998_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F04%2F08%2Fgetting-started-with-yoga-in-3-easy-steps%2F Midweek Mental Greening I used to be into yoga. Like, really into yoga. So much so that a few of my friends teasingly called me “Yogi.” (Though, don’t misunderstand – I was nowhere near being the “accomplished practitioner” the name suggests. I just really liked yoga and I think they thought the name was cute.) I don’t know why I fell out of yoga, but I’ve been making some serious attempts to get started with it again. I’ve noticed, though, that despite how into yoga I was before, getting started with it again offers some of the same challenges that getting started with it the first time offered. Why is it I want to do this again? What will I gain? Am I ready? Do I have time? Because I’m not a “Yogi,” I’m not going to attempt to teach you how to pr... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2313535 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:51:22 +0100 2313535 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2028455&cid=t_155998_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F478160740%2F Spectacular article by Dr. Denise Park in this month's Cerebrum: Working Later in Life May Facilitate Neural Health - "Carmi Schooler at the National Institutes of Health, using a technique that allowed him to assess causal relationships, found that adults who performed intellectually challenging jobs across their life span showed more cognitive flexibility in late adulthood than those who performed less demanding jobs." - "Perhaps the most compelling evidence regarding the impact of novel experiences on brain volume and function comes from a study at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Adults with a mean age of 59 spent three months learning to juggle three balls. Although only about half the participants were able to achieve competence in this complex skill, those who suc... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2028455 Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:10:12 +0100 2028455 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1816187&cid=t_155998_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F399010221%2F A recent CNN article explains well why a growing number of companies use brainteasers and logic puzzles of a type called “guesstimations” during job interviews: - "Seemingly random questions like these have become commonplace in Silicon Valley and other tech outposts, where companies aren't as interested in the correct answer to a tough question as they are in how a prospective employee might try to solve it. Since businesses today have to be able to react quickly to shifting market dynamics, they want more than engineers with high IQs and good college transcripts. They want people who can think on their feet." What are technology companies (Google, Microsoft, Amazon) and consulting companies (McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture...) looking for? They want employees w... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1816187 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:47:07 +0100 1816187 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1583152&cid=t_155998_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F328139158%2F Here you have 4 of the most popular brain games in our blog, plus a bonus stress management tip. Brain Teaser 1. In which direction is the bus pictured below traveling? Do you know the answer? The only possible answers are "left" or "right." Still don't know? When pre-school children were shown this picture and question, they all answered "left." When asked why, they answered "Because you can't see the door." Believe it or not, this simple teaser generated a very lively controversy with over  50 comments...some of my favorites "I've been looking at the bus for a long time now and it is not moving at all" (Peter), "Fools! It is falling, because there is no ground under it! How's that for logic? (Richard), and "I would like to r... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1583152 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:41:16 +0100 1583152 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1538394&cid=t_155998_129_f&fid=36038&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.healthtalk.com%2Fmultiple-sclerosis%2Flife-with-ms%2Fdoes-your-ms-make-you-more-adaptable%2F To say that my past month has been a little busy would be like telling a woman in her 42nd week of pregnancy that she’s a little pregnant! In the past two weeks, I’ve spent several days in both Florida and Alaska for work. To add to that busy schedule, Caryn’s (my fiancée) graduate school commencement festivities occurred, so hopefully you’ll forgive (or at least understand) the lull in my postings. However, I didn’t plan on missing any posts last week because I was staying at a “business class” hotel in the capital city of Alaska. I expected Internet access at a business center where I could jot my tri-weekly musings and post from the land of the midnight sun. This was not the case, and I just had to look around and accept that a couple of postings were going to be miss... Life with MS blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1538394 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:02:11 +0100 1538394 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1072585&cid=t_155998_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F195556995%2F This study shows that chimps can memorize at a glance the numerals presented on the screen, and that they can do so just as well - and even better - than humans can. Note that the superior performance came from a young chimp, and that the performance of older chimps on the same task was more similar to that of humans." - Watch video Impressive, isn't yet? Yet, a clear indication that memory is not all that matters. Please compare the "intelligence" (in any way you want to define it), the quality of thinking, displayed by those apes, with the one displayed in this recent interview with Bill Drayton at Good Magazine, founder of Ashoka and one of the parents of the social entrepreneurship movement. Quotes: - "Ashoka (and all of us in the GOOD community) are serving the mos... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1072585 Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:53:38 +0100 1072585 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1018996&cid=t_155998_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F182889832%2F Conclusion, he writes that - "Flexibility is the hallmark of human evolution...In other mammals, exploration, play and flexibility of behavior are qualities of juveniles, only rarely of adults. We retain not only the anatomical stamp stamp of childhood, but its mental flexibility as well...Humans are learning animals" He then relates this story from T.H. White's novel The Once and Future King - God, he recounts, created all animals as embryos and called each before his throne, offering them whatever additions to their anatomy they desired. All opted for specialized adult features-the lion for claws and sharp teeth, the deer for antlers and hoofs. The human embryo stepped forth last and said: Please God, I think that you made me in the shape which I now have for reasons best know... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1018996 Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:42:51 +0100 1018996 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=487392&cid=t_155998_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F03%2Fflexible-minds.html What does it take to have a flexible mind? Memory, for one thing - researchers found that areas important for juggling information (working memory) were the best correlated with task switching efficiency.In the figure below, the VLPFC (ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) figures prominently in task switching activities (red arrow, bottom); look at the comparable location on the maturing brains (above)...they are still quite immature in the late elementary school years. Flexibility is often confused with creativity and intelligence, and consequently its converse, a lack of flexibility or rigidity, a lack of it. But this dichotomy is overly simplistic. A strong working memory is a valuable tool for creative and intelligent thinkers, but it isn't essential. In fact, the biographies of many famou... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=487392 Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:02:00 +0100 487392