Does Your Partner Look Like Your Opposite Sex Parent?

Scientists have now demonstrated a statistically significant link between the facial appearance of a person’s partner and that of their opposite sex parent. So when Cole Porter penned the song “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” he was merely presenting in verse what folklore has known for centuries. And now the scientists have come up to speed by presenting quantifying evidence for this phenomenon. Researchers at the University of Pecs in Hungary have found in their investigations that males tend to be attracted to women who look like their mother, and conversely, women are drawn to men who displayed similar facial … Continue reading →

Everyone’s a Winner at the Olympics

For sports fans the Olympics is the epitome of human achievement. How exciting is it to watch the gold medal winner for any event step up onto the podium to receive their 15 minutes of fame. But what about the athletes who have trained for four years and go home empty-handed? It’s only human to focus on the best swimmer, the best gymnast, the best diver. Yet it is an outstanding achievement simply to be selected to go to the Olympics. To come home empty-handed is not a sign of failure. There is much we can learn about the human … Continue reading →

Homosexuality: Inborn or Learned Behavior? (2)

In our previous article on this topic we saw how researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden found that testosterone compounds found in male sweat were attractive to both heterosexual females and homosexual males. Conversely, estrogen compounds found in female urine were attractive to heterosexual males, but not homosexual males. Dean Hamer, a geneticist from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland concluded that “this is one more line of evidence that there’s a biological substring for sexual preference”. In short, when homosexual men inhaled the odor of male sweat, the region of their brain that governs sexual response … Continue reading →

Homosexuality: Inborn or Learned Behavior? (1)

Scientists have long debated whether homosexuals are born or bred. Ongoing research by neuroscientists at the Karolinska Institutet, one of Europe’s largest medical universities in Stockholm, Sweden, presents more evidence for the former being the case. Homosexuality has gone from being once classed as a mental illness to being regarded as either a sin or an acceptable variation of human behavior. Whatever your view, research in this area points to a biological origin for homosexual behavior. In the Swedish study, the scientists exposed heterosexual man and women as well as homosexual men to naturally-occurring chemicals containing male and female sex … Continue reading →

Weight Loss Surgery and Mind Games

Changing your beliefs systems about yourself is just as big a part of losing weight as exercise and diet. The most dramatic example of the enmeshed mind/body relationship as regards weight loss is the unfortunate stories that emerge from people who have undergone radical procedures such as gastric bypass surgery. Although procedures such as gastric bypass, gastric banding and liposuction can result in dramatic weight loss, and in some cases, even save the person from an early death, unless the reasons for overeating are identified and addressed, the weight often returns. Where food has become an addiction, surgery only solves … Continue reading →

Men in Aprons Get More Sex

Now there’s a headline that should be on the front page of every newspaper from the larger city to the smallest town. Sociologist Scott Coltrane of the University of California reports what most women have known for decades: The more housework that men chip in with around the house, the higher the level of marital satisfaction felt by women. Despite the fact that WWII changed the world forever, and had a bigger long-term effect on gender boundaries than it probably ever had on the changing boundaries of post-war Europe, men have been lagging far behind in terms of housework contribution … Continue reading →

Men’s versus Women’s Brains: We Are Different!

Sick of trying to figure out why the man in your life is so different to you and your girlfriends? Well, wonder no more. Research into brain function between males and females provides more and more evidence for why males think and act so differently to females. Although the male brain is roughly 9% larger than the female variety, they both contain the same number of cells, it’s just that in the female brain they are more tightly packed. Bu there’s more. Women have over 10% more neurons located in the part of the brain that is responsible for language. … Continue reading →

9-11 and Other Traumas

That morning in 2001 will go down in history as being a morning that truly changed the world. Despite the horror of the events of that day, it was also a day of world solidarity, as people of all races and creeds came together to stand in awe and disbelief at the magnitude of what had occurred. But this event was much more than the death of a relative handful of people and the destruction of mere bricks and mortar. As with any disaster, there is always a spark; a light that never goes out. That light is the human … Continue reading →

Does Your Doctor Think You Are A Hypochondriac?

There certainly exists a disorder involving the belief that you are suffering from illnesses that you aren’t. It’s called hypochondriasis and there is also an associated illness called somatization disorder. Fortunately, both conditions are quite rare. Therefore most people who go to the doctor with a physical ailment that concerns them need either a positive diagnosis that they can work with or reassurance that there is nothing to be concerned about. However, if your file should include a diagnosis of a mental illness, all that may change. Unless you have a reasonable doctor, many of the physical conditions you may … Continue reading →

Does Your Doctor Not Understand Mental Illness?

I am often frustrated when one of my clients goes to see their doctor for a physical ailment and is basically dismissed, or at best, condescended to, simply because they have a record of mental illness, either past or present. It seems that once you have suffered from depression or anxiety, or worse still, one of the major mental illnesses, every little twinge, whether it be in your stomach or your big toe, is often put down to a symptom of mental illness. Yes, they will tell you that “It’s all in your mind, dear.” I once had a patient … Continue reading →