James' World 2

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It was a beach date that would transform Chris Michaud, though the memorable parts were neither the beach nor the date but what he saw that day. Both in their early 30s, summer of 2017, Chris had met Gemma recently, swiping on Bumble. They decided to head to the New Hampshire coast, not far from where they both lived in Portsmouth. Before arriving at the beach, Gemma suggested they do a little birding.

In a marsh, they spotted egrets, a glossy ibis, and “some other cool stuff.” Later, they went to the beach, as promised, but Chris just kept thinking about the birds. This moment, in birding lingo, is called the “spark,” when a person sees something that inspires them to be a birder for life. (Nearly everyone I talked to for this story had a spark and volunteered their story whether I asked for it or not.)

Since then, Chris has been an avid birder and, like many avid birders, is a frequent user of an app called eBird. Naturally, bird watching today involves going out into the world, encountering something wonderful, strange, perhaps even profound, or moving, and then logging it on your phone.

Along with Merlin, which helps people identify species of birds, eBird lets people keep track of the ones they’ve seen and, in doing so, become part of a crowdsourced, citizen-science mission. Whether users care or not, the millions of birds being observed tell scientists about huge patterns in climate change.

For Chris, though, using eBird is about the thrill of adding every new species he encounters. When we first speak, he immediately summons the exact number of different birds he’d seen: “315 species — pretty cool, right?”

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The phrase “chew the cud” means to further chew partly digested food — but many of us use it to mean something rather more abstract. The scientific word for this is rumination: A process of breaking big things into smaller parts that can then be dealt with or used. It’s apt that we use the same word for the human tendency to feast and dwell on our troubles.

While researchers are still working out exactly what rumination involves, it is generally used to mean excessive, repetitive thinking about personal problems. It often results in emotional distress and it is associated with many mental health issues — especially depression.

Positive rumination, meanwhile, involves focusing on positive states and thoughts. This can improve your health and wellbeing, explains Dane McCarrick, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds who studies rumination.

“In general, we need to learn more about different types of rumination and how they respond to different treatment types,” McCarrick says. “There is no one size fits all approach.”

This article will focus on negative rumination — which can also hinder problem-solving and drive away needed social support — along with the tools researchers have identified as useful in mitigating it. Rumination can get us stuck in a rut. With help, you can get out.

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Rumination involves thinking too much about causes and consequences rather than solutions. Getty Images

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We all have one, and science suggests our blood type may make a difference when it comes to how healthy our hearts are. 

You wouldn’t know it by looking on the surface, but coursing through your veins every second of every day are tiny variations that categorize your blood into one of these groups: A+, A-, B+, B-, O-, O+, AB+, and AB-. Unless you’ve donated blood, were given a transfusion, or found out during pregnancy, maybe you’ve never thought twice about it.

Ongoing research into blood type suggests it may matter more than we give it credit for — at least when assessing risk for certain health conditions, especially heart disease. These invisible differences in the blood may give some people an edge at staving off cardiovascular problems and may leave others more susceptible.

What does blood type mean, and how are they different?

The letters A, B, and O represent various forms of the ABO gene, which program our blood cells differently to form the different blood groups. If you have type AB blood, for example, your body is programmed to produce A and B antigens on red blood cells. A person with type O blood doesn’t produce any antigens.  

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The foods we eat every day certainly play a role in our cognitive functioning. Ever sleep in past your alarm in college and be forced to sprint to take a grueling exam on an empty stomach? Not fun. But as we get older, the connection between nutrition and brain health becomes more pronounced in several ways. For starters, because the brain declines naturally with age, our risk of cognitive decline and disorders (such as dementia and Alzheimer’s) increases as we get older. This is why it’s vital to make sure your meals are incorporating brain-boosting nutrients: They’ll help keep you sharp both today and in the long term.

“Medical professionals and physicians are more than familiar with the general—and natural—cognitive decline that is associated with aging, as the brain does not make new cells as we age,” says neuroscientist Sonja K. Billes, PhD, the founder of August Scientific and a member of the Science Advisory Team at Solaray. “Our brain cells, known as neurons, may not communicate as well later in life, too,” she adds. To caveat, this decline is completely natural for many—but it still may cause weakened neurological activity and response, which affects cognitive functioning, memory retention, concentration, and focus, Dr. Billes says.

How nutrition and brain health are linked

While there isn’t too much we can do to stop the natural decline in brain health due to age (which is due, in part, to damage from free radicals and oxidative stress, which are byproducts that come with the aging process), we can take some amount of legitimate preventative action by adjusting our daily routines—such as getting more sleep and managing stress—and eating more brain-friendly foods on a consistent basis. These lifestyle changes have been shown to result in better cognitive functioning (as well as decreased inflammation, a happier state of existence, a healthier heart, and so on) as we age.

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Photo: Stocksy/Studio Firma

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