This fascinating Forbes account tells how billionaire Sir Richard Branson has given $3 billion to former President Bill Clinton’s global initiative for rewnewable energy–all the profits from his airline and train business.

That’s certainly an astoundingly large donation. But you don’t have to give on a scale like that to write about how your company participates in charitable activities, or even about various things you do to help your employees. Your corporate blog readers want to know about how your company “is” in the world. Talking about the good things you do is one of many ways to let them know.

This is so exciting I had to take a break and post it. Not very long ago, research led scientists to define what they call the inflammatory reflex which connects the immune system directly with the nervous system.

And in 2002 they discovered that the brain controls the immune system via the vagus nerve (which runs throughout the body’s organs). And now, ta-dah: They now have a way to test scientifically the effects that such ancient Indo-Tibetan practices as yoga and meditation have on the activity of the vagus nerve. Read this very clear explanation here. Oh, I love being alive in these times.

Couldn’t resist writing about this exciting news. A UK company called BioBank is about to begin collecting blood from a massive sampling (half a million) of British citizens to create a database of comprehensive blood and health information. What a resource for researchers! Read more here.

Dear Reader,

I am taking a short break from BioMedNews. Since this is one of my favorite blogs, I won’t be gone too long.

But by way of explanation for loyal readers, I am refocusing my business on two of my favorite areas: executive speech consulting, and corporate blogs. If you haven’t checked out my BlogforBusiness – Corporate Style, please do. You’re welcome to come on over.

Back soon!

Barbara

P.S. Visit me anytime at BlogforBusiness – Corporate Style!

Yes, it’s been thought, said, and demonstrated for most of history that people make decisions emotionally rather than rationally. Now hard scientific evidence behind the theory is facilitating a new science called neuroeconomics–studying how actions and reactions of the human mind affect the economy.

It’s always fascinating when science comes up with cold facts to back up popular theories. In this case, professional sales trainers and successful salespeople have known this since long before the age of snake oil. Perceptive men and women have always learned quickly that they could exercise some influence on the direction of events by addressing their partners’ emotions.

Using “win” or “lose” in the instructions generated dramatically different reactions. All responses showed emotional biases even though participants had been told ahead of time that statistically there could be no difference in the results for either decision they could make.

I found the link to this story on the Heartmath newsletter. (I’ve written before about Heartmath here.) Their Freeze-Framer feedback system helps you get your heart into what they call “coherence”–a condition that’s dramatically positive for your health, your creativity, and your frame of mind. Bless them for their hard scientific proof that positive emotions are powerful forces for good, for creativity, and for success in all endeavors.

Even if you end up needing bariatric surgery because you couldn’t control your weight, you need to know how valuable it is to keep yourself fit anyway.

In a very small study surgery results were clearly in favor of those who had higher reserves in the heart-lung arena. So as Richard Simmons in his fun, fab exercise videos encourages, exercise no matter what shape you’re in. One fan says: “It’s hugely inspiring to see the other dancers, of all imaginable shapes and sizes moving through the routine…”

Even if you never lose a pound, your chances of coming out ahead with most kinds of medical issues will be greatly enhanced.

If you haven’t been suffering in the recent unrelenting hot spells, you likely have air conditioning and a reliable power plant in your neighborhood. And maybe you don’t want to hear any more about this global warming thing.

But many with A/C are undergoing periodic deprivation as strained-to-the-limit power sources lose the battle and send customers crashing into darkness and overwhelmingly oppressive heat. Some without A/C break open fire hydrants and seek short-term relief in staying wet. Asthmatics and the elderly are endangered.

Yes, this happens with all heat waves. It’s just that statistics seem to indicate they’re happening more often and more intensely. And that the precious coolness of the night that people need to recover from heat exposure is also in shorter supply.

A lobbyist (representing coal-fired power plants) recently sent reporters a statement saying that more than 50% of the “days at or over 100 degrees in the Washington-Baltimore region occurred between 1874 and 1934.” Since I can’t figure out what that’s supposed to mean (as I think the Washington Post writer Juliet Eilperin couldn’t either, since she made no comment), it sounds to me like one of those lovely non-sequiturs that pass for logic when the truth is unknown–or not acceptable.

If you still don’t believe that heat waves are linked to global warming, that’s okay. But more and more scientists are agreeing that they need to put their heads together on this. Which means we can hope that we’ll soon learn what we can–and must–do so that our children won’t have to watch their children try to figure out how to live in a world even more unrelentingly overheated than this one.

On “the Roof of Peru” the glaciers–which supply much of the country’s fresh water for drinking and for growing crops–have melted by 30%. Temperature rises have been significant in only the last decade. The threat of global warming is no longer up for debate–it’s real.

But as is often the case, because the poor and underprivileged will be the first to suffer the consequences, it’s easy for the powers-that-be to ignore the issue. The Washington Post is courageously giving full exposure to the politics of climate change while it educates the rest of us about the scientific facts.

A doctor from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says “a body needs at least three hours of cooling _ preferably by air conditioning _ to survive excessive heat.” So if you, like me, need it to be really cool at night, it seems maybe we’re not just being so fussy after all.

But the problem with these heat waves is that the air conditioning we need is contributing to the excessive carbon dioxide our industrial world is dumping into the atmosphere–and which is the biggest cause of this warming trend.

I’ve heard it said on a Chicago radio station, “just do one or two small things today to reduce pollution.” I like this idea. As with the millions of poor and hungry around the world, we as individuals cannot save everyone, but we can help a little. So today, walk to a store instead of driving your car (especially if you have a huge gas-guzzling machine). Today, make your air conditioning a degree or two warmer. Think about how precious water is–drink some right now, and maybe only flush the toilet every other time. Today, turn your lights off when you don’t need them; use fewer whenever possible.

This way, even if we’re not scientists trying to solve global warming in the laboratory, at least we can be a tiny bit less of the problem.

Okay, they’re just talking about kids with stunted growth in this particular study, but the principle is the same for all kids. Playing with kids–even just a couple of times a week makes a signficant difference in how happy/well adjusted those kids are when they get older. Report from the British Medical Journal here said nutritional supplements had no effect whatsoever.

You know, this is another one of those that falls into the “well, duh” category for me. Guys, it was in 1957 that Harry Harlow did the experiments with baby rhesus monkeys that proved they just wanted to be loved/touched and that even if you just gave them a cloth-covered wire mother, they developed more slowly, but still became more successful adults than babies who had only a wire mother to feed them.

I think we can stop spending money to prove that loving interaction between babies and their caretakers is the most powerful thing we can do to promote their future health.

A second study has confirmed an earlier one indicating that high blood calcium levels are associated with better outcomes in ischemic stroke patients–and that, at least in rats, infusing a victim with calcium as a treatment seems to improve mortality rates.

Calcium is known to help fight osteoporosis, and it’s thought also to have anticarcinogenic, antihypertensive and hypocholesterolemic properties. More here.

Amazing. I might just have to add this to my list of favorite substances, along with my first favorite nitric oxide. Calcium seems to another natural substance that does so many good things. But then we also hear about calcium deposits which, like the ill effects of NO, can result from too much of a good thing but is usually due to some other action–like deficiencies in magnesium or vitamin D. Here’s more on calcium.

Well, don’t have time to look up more about calcium today. Will put it on my watch list, though, and see what starts coming up.