Happiness And Good Health

I'm always telling you about my mom, who at age 90 continues to take courses that expand her mind. Her latest class is through Osha, and it is given by a professor named Mark Millstein. He is teaching a course in the new discoveries in neuroscience. His lecture last week was on the correlation between happiness and health, and how, through various activities, we can change our level of happiness. What this means is that if you activate the left prefrontal cortex more aggressively, you will create more gamma rays and I think more blood to that area of the brain, which will produce greater happiness. This has been tested by neuroscientist Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin. By learning what stimulates the left prefrontal cortex we can encourage or even train people to be happier. Similarly, by learning what calms the activity in the right prefrontal cortex we can discourage or train people to reduce stress. The world's happiest man is Matthieu Richard, a French genetic scientist. He turned his back on Parisian intellectual life 40 years ago and moved to India to study Buddhism. Now it seems daily meditation has had other benefits-enhancing Mr. Richard's capacity for joy. He was studied by Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin (as part of a meditation study). The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Richard's brain produces a level of gamma waves never reported before in neuroscience literature. The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and reduced propensity towards negativity. Research into the phenomenon known as "neuroplasticity" is in its infancy and Richard Davidson has been at the forefront of this research. Stimulating the left prefrontal cortex brings more blood to that area, thus producing happiness. Some of the things that stimulate the left prefrontal cortex are exercising, dancing, playing a difficult game like chess or bridge, learning a new language and meditation. Doing something like Soduku or crossword puzzles that you've been doing for years, does not stimulate the left cortex in the same way as learning a new task. So how does happiness relate to health? The research is just starting come in, but apparently those that are happier, are also healthier. The interesting thing is that if you are not particularly happy, you can change that, by doing the activities that contribute to a more stimulated left prefrontal cortex. Scientifically, I'm not exactly sure what doing these activities does to the brain, but the brain scans show additional activity in this are when certain types of activities take place. Unfortunately my mom did not take a lot of notes during the lecture, but she did tell me a few other interesting facts that she learned. She was told that brain was three times smaller than it is today 5 million years ago, and today, the prefrontal cortex is six times larger than it was 5 million years ago. Neuroscience is relatively new, yet a fascinating field. Some of the stuff they're discovering sounds like science fiction, yet researchers are realizing these crazy ideas are really science fact. I can't wait for more information from mom's next class. It will focus on sleep and why so many sleep centers seem to be opening. Is there a correlation between sleeplessness and computer use? Stay tuned.