Dr. Ann

When it comes to brain power, your thoughts matter. Stop those negative thoughts! When it comes to brain power, it appears your thoughts matter. That was the eye-opening conclusion of a provocative study published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia. For this study scientists carefully measured the cognitive function of 292 middle-age to older study subjects over a […]

Exercise is a godsend for those with anxiety disorders. That was the upshot of a pivotal new study evaluating how a prescribed regimen of regular physical activity impacted anxiety scores.  For this study 286 adults suffering from clinical anxiety syndromes, some for over a decade, were placed in one of three study groups. Group 1 […]

In a laboratory evaluation, scientists have preliminary evidence that prebiotics, dietary fibers that feed the good bacteria in our guts, may benefit sleep and stress resiliency. For this lab study scientists fed one group of mice a diet enriched with prebiotics and a control group of mice the same diet without the prebiotics. The researchers […]

There is now overwhelming evidence that the bacteria in our gastrointestinal tract, the gut microbiome, plays a major role in our mood and behavior. Knowing that what we eat is the primary determinate of the state of our gut microbes, European scientists performed an in-depth review of past studies looking at diet, mood, and gut […]

In a this revealing study, scientists were able to show that consuming a high fat diet could disrupt normal brain function by altering the bacteria in the gut. There is growing evidence that the ecosystem of bacteria that reside in our guts, referred to as “the microbiome,” plays a pivotal role in mental health. The scientists […]

Good sleep is known to be integral to healthy immune function. And according to an eye-opening study, poor sleep may dramatically boost your risk for catching a cold. For this study, investigators carefully monitored the sleep patterns of 164 healthy adults ages 18 to 55 for one week. For the second week, all study subjects were […]

If you are looking for a simple way to nurture your happiness and mental well-being – eat your produce. In an uplifting report that followed the dietary habits of 80,000 British adults, researchers uncovered a “surprising” relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and enhanced mental well-being. In this analysis, happiness rose in tandem with the number of […]

If the hamster wheel of unpleasant thoughts, better known as negative rumination, is weighing you down, taking a daily dose of probiotics may lighten the load and brighten your mood. In an intriguing new clinical trial, researchers provided 20 healthy subjects a daily dose of a multispecies probiotic for four weeks and a matched group of 20 […]

The brain is especially sensitive and demanding when it comes to nutrition, so I wasn’t surprised to see a new report linking fruits and veggies to enhanced mental well-being. For this evaluation, researchers had 781 young adults keep a daily log of the various foods they ate along with noting how they felt using nine […]

Over the past two decades, omega 3 fats have been rocketed to the scientific forefront as the darlings of the healthy fat world, and according to three new reports, we would be very wise to consume them in abundance. All three of these evaluations were specifically addressing omega 3 fats and brain/mental health. Here are […]