New proof on the "soundness" of some old advice Anyone who knows you-know-what from Shinola will tell you the same thing: If you've got a stumper of a problem on your hands... Sleep on it. This advice has stood countless people in good stead (including me) for many a year. And I'd be willing to bet that there isn't a soul on this green Earth who doesn't believe in the fundamental soundness of this little gem of folk wisdom. After all, some things are just plain TRUE, and we don't need scientific proof to know they're true. But leave it to the lab-coated pointy-heads (who have to find ways of spending all their government grant money somehow) to seize upon these truths, dissect them, and turn them upside down and inside out in the name of science. Such was exactly the case in some recent German research testing the veracity of the old "sleep on it" bit of folk wisdom. Here's how it worked: For the study, two groups of volunteers were taught a series of rules for solving mathematical problems involving the ordering of numbers. One of these groups was then allowed to sleep, while the other was forced to remain awake. Sure enough, the "sleep group" proved twice as adept at applying these rules to solving the study's problems as did their wakeful counterparts. As usual, the tried and true wisdom of the ages has stood the test of science. However, the research failed to pinpoint WHY sleep increases our ability to solve problems creatively - only that it indeed DOES. According to the journal Nature (where the findings were published), one of the study's authors suggests that sleep restructures and reorganizes your mind's most recently acquired memories, allowing new insights to take hold based on the re-prioritization of these thoughts. At the very least, these findings should reinforce to us all the importance of sound, restful sleep. Not just to your body's overall health, but to your mental functioning and problem solving ability as well. But then, anybody who's ever gone to bed perplexed about something and arisen clear-headed already knew that... Isn't that more or less everyone?
**************************************************** Mercury rising I've written many times about the benefits of eating fish - especially cold-water varieties like salmon, trout, and cod. Among other vital nutrients, they're high in the Omega-3 fatty acids your heart needs to stay healthy and beating strong. But mass-produced "farmed" varieties of these healthy fishes often have higher-than-safe levels of mercury, lead, and other heavy metals accumulated in their tissues. And when people eat these foods, those toxins can find homes in their systems - or the bodies of their unborn children. A Harvard School of Public Health affiliated study showed that children whose mothers ate fish and other seafood high in mercury while pregnant can suffer irreparable brain damage in the womb. This heavy-metal contamination also affected the children's heart function. Within a week of this study's publication in the Journal of Pediatrics, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report that more than doubles previous estimates of the number of U.S. infants with unsafe levels of mercury in their blood. Actions to take: Fish and fish oils are good for you - but only if you're not ingesting a lot of mercury and other heavy metals along with them. It's important (and I've said this before, too) that you obtain these foods from a certified NATURAL source, not from a "fish-farm." So ask your grocery store or fish market for more details before you buy those filets. Best "fishes," William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
