What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0026

1251.  Keeping you mind active by reading, doing crossword puzzles, traveling, taking classes and otherwise acquiring knowledge outside of your typical or usual experience helps to reduce the risk of aging problems;

1252.  Six of ten studies showed that women who took estrogen had a lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD).  The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, where 472 women who were going through menopause or had completed it were followed for up to sixteen years.  Women who never used estrogen during the study were twice as likely to develop dementia.  This study and others showing beneficial effects of estrogen have been contradicted by reports from the Women’s Health Initiative, which found that women who used Premarin (an estrogen made from horse ovaries) were twice as likely to develop AD as non-estrogen users.  However, the Women’s Health Initiative study did not examine the risk of AD using forms of estrogen made by the human ovary, such as estradiol;

1253.  Men who have or have had prostate cancer treatment or men fifty years and older may develop cognitive impairment due to testosterone deficiency, which can be checked by a blood test.  Symptoms including difficulty with vision not due to eye problems, difficulty remembering locations or faces or other objects of interest, breast enlargement, or a change in the distribution of body hair should alert men to check for testosterone deficiency;

1254.  There are some people you should never split a check with. . . . Watch out for people who order a few appetizers and invite you to share in them.  S/he’ll eat most of it and you’ll only have a few bites . . . and then you end up having to pay for an entire appetizer all by yourself;

1255.  Part leftover chili, part bottled, spaghetti sauce and some leftover red wine makes a decent spaghetti sauce;

1256.  Change your thinking so you start thinking like a younger person, a more fit person, a more energetic person, a healthier person, or a thin person.  Your thoughts will translate into actions, and those actions will cause your body to transform into what you have always wanted;

1257.  It is not life that makes us feel depressed, angry, abandoned, and despairing; rather, it is our thoughts that make us feel that way;

1258.  The body is never our problem.  Our problem is always a thought that we innocently believe;

1259.  Bodies don’t crave, bodies don’t want, bodies don’t know, don’t care, don’t get hungry or thirsty.  It is what the mind attaches–ice cream, alcohol, drugs, sex, money–that the body reflects.  There are no physical addictions, only mental ones.  Body follows mind.  It doesn’t have a choice;

1260.  A simple method of inquiry – the Work – to question our thoughts.  It consists of writing down bothersome, worrisome, or negative thoughts, then asking ourselves four questions and doing a turnaround.  The goal of the Work isn’t pie-in-the-sky positive thinking; it is accurate thinking.  The four questions are these: 1.  Is it true?  (Is the negative thought true?)  2.  Can I absolutely know that it is true?  3.  How do I react when I think that thought?  4.  Who should I be without the thought?  Or how would I feel if I didn’t have the thought?  After you answer the four questions, you take your original thought and turn it around to its opposite, and ask yourself whether the opposite of the original thought that is causing your suffering is not true or even truer.  Then turn the thought around and apply it to yourself (how does the opposite of the thought apply to me personally?).  Then turn the thought around to the other person, if the thought involves another person (how does the opposite apply to the other person?);

1261.  One-third of the general population are placebo responders in clinical situations relating to pain, whether the pain is from surgery, heart disease, cancer, or headache;

1262.  Belief in pain relief stimulates the body to secrete its own pain-relieving substance, called endorphins, which act in the same manners as morphine except that they are much more potent

1263.  Tell your brain what you want and match your behavior to get it.  If you mind takes what it sees and makes it happen, it is critical to visualize what you want and then match your behavior to get it.  Too many people are thrown around by the whims of the day, rather than using their prefrontal cortex to focus on what they want and then following through on their goals;

1264.  As successful athletes visualize their success before a game, you must do the same thing to harness the power of your brain for your body.  Too often, people who see themselves as fat and sick actually get their unconscious mind to collaborate on making them fat and sick.  If you see yourself as fat, your brain will continue to do what it takes to make you fat.  If you see yourself as healthy and trim, your brain will help you accomplish your goal for a better body;

1265.  To harness the power of your brain in order to enhance your physical body and health, do these four things: 1.  Clearly define the body you want.  Write it down.  2.  Spend a few minutes each day visualizing your healthy body.  3.  Put up pictures in your home or at work of when you were your healthiest.  4.  Ask yourself every day if your behavior is getting you the body you want;

1266.  Research clearly tells us that being in a loving, healthy, affectionate relationship helps you be happier, live longer, have a better body, and even help to protect you from depression and memory problems.  Having a healthy sex life is a key to having a better brain and body;

1267.  If you want to live longer, get sick less often, feel more joy, experience less pain, and have better fertility, have more sex (preferably with a loving and committed partner);

1268.  Sex reduces stress, and people who have fulfilling sex lives are less anxious, less violent, and less hostile;

1269.  Physical touch increases the hormone oxytocin, which boosts trust and lowers cortisol levels, the hormone of chronic stress;

1270.  For men, studies show that engaging in sex two, three, or more times per week can lower the risk for heart attack, stroke, and death;

1271.  Having sex three or more times a week reduced the risk in males of having a heart attack or stroke by half;

1272.  It has been estimated that the act of intercourse burns about 200 calories, the equivalent of running vigorously for thirty minutes;

1273.  According to research, making love three times a week in a stress-free relationship can make you look ten years younger;

1274.  Sexual activity in women helps to trigger the production of a human growth hormone that helps them maintain their youthful looks.  Sexual activity also pumps oxygen around the body, boosting circulation and the flow of nutrients to the skin;

1275.  Women who enjoy regular sex had significantly higher levels of estrogen in their blood than women experiencing either infrequent sex or no sex at all.  The benefits of estrogen include a healthy cardiovascular system, lower bad cholesterol, higher good cholesterol, increased bone density, and smoother skin;

1276.  Before orgasm, the level of DHEA spikes in the body to several times higher than normal.  DHEA is believed to improve brain function, balance the immune system, help maintain and repair tissue, promote healthy skin, and possibly improve cardiovascular health;

1277.  Testosterone is increased through regular sexual activity.  Testosterone can help strengthen bones and muscles, and is also beneficial to a healthy heart and brain;

1278.  Person who have regular sexual activity have one-third higher levels of immunoglobulin A (IgA), an antibody that boosts the immune system and can help fight colds and flu;

1279.  In one study it was reported that women who perform oral sex on their mates are less likely to suffer from preeclampsia, a condition that causes a dangerous spike in women’s blood pressure during pregnancy.  Plus sperm carries TGF beta, a molecule that can boost the activities of her natural killer cells, which attack the rogue cells that give rise to tumors;

1280.  A study published by the British Journal of Urology International asserted that men in their twenties can reduce by one-third their chance of getting prostate cancer by ejaculating more than five times a week;

1281.  Women who have intercourse with a male partner at least once a week are likely to have more regular menstrual cycles than women who are celibate or who have infrequent sex.  In same-sex couples, women who engaged in sexual activity at least three times per week also had more regular cycles;

1282.  Some research has shown that sexual activity throughout pregnancy may serve as protection against early delivery, especially during the third trimester (between the twenty-ninth and thirty-sixth weeks);

1283.  Through regular orgasm women had higher pain thresholds when suffering from conditions ranging from whiplash to arthritis;

1284.  Gentle pressure to the female G-spot, the vaginal “on switch” for female arousal, on the front inside wall of the vagina, opposite the clitoris, raised pain thresholds by 40 percent and that during orgasm women could tolerate up to 110 percent more pain;

1285.  During peak arousal, the painkilling center deep in the brain is activated.  Signals from this part of the brain give orders to the body to release endorphins and corticosteroids.  These chemicals help to temporally numb the pain from many different causes.  Activating this region also has a calming effect and can reduce anxiety;

1286.  A study form the Southern Illinois University of Medicine found that having an orgasm could help alleviate the pain from migraines;

1287.  Orgasms cause intense increased activity in the deep limbic pars of the brain, which settle down after sex.  Antidepressants tend to calm activity in the limbic parts of the brain as well.  People who engaged in regular sexual activity experience less depression, and orgasm frequency may be one reason why;

1288.  A Canadian study that examined the correlation between sexuality and mental health found that celibacy was correlated with high scores on depression and suicidality indexes;

1289.  After evaluating levels of sexual activity and happiness in sixteen thousand people, Dartmouth College economist David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England found that sex so positively influenced happiness that they estimated increasing intercourse from one a month to once a week is equivalent to the happiness generated by getting an additional $50,000 in income for the average American.  In addition, they reported that despite what most people think, people who make more money do not necessarily have more sex.  The happiest people in the study were married people who had, on average, 30 percent more sex than single folks.  The economists estimated that a lasting marriage equated to the happiness generated by an extra $100,000 annually, while divorce depleted an estimated $66,000 annually worth of happiness;

1290.  Studies reveal that at any point in time, about 6 percent of the population will have a significant depression.  Only 20 to 25 percent of these people ever seek help;

1291.  There is often a genetic link to depression, and it often runs in families where there has been alcohol abuse;

1292.  I think the world would be a better place, if everyone was less selfish and more considerate of others;

1293.  It takes about an hour and a half to walk from the Carlyle area (in Old Town Alexandria) to the National Harbor;

1294.  Rastafarian farming is essentially organic farming;

1295.  If you leave your (red) wine out too long, it gets vinegary;

1296.  If you play with your food, go to Medieval Madness (MedievalMadness.org) in (Old Town) Alexandria.  They don’t give you any utensils so you have to eat your food with your hands;

1297.  The bouncers at 18^th Street Lounge (EighteenthStreetLounge.com) don’t appreciate it when you trick them to letting you in by wearing someone else’s pants over your shorts . . . and once inside walking around in shorts;

1298.  It irks me when people don’t pick up after themselves. . . . How hard is it to throw away your own trash?

1299.  I can say I helped Mayor (William) Euille (of the City of Alexandria) and Congressman (Jim) Moran (of the 8^th District of Virginia) pass out cupcakes;

1300.  2011 marks the 50^th anniversary of the Peace Corps;