O2 #2 2020 Decade of Health&Wellbeing (via HomePage)

There are five ways to Wellbeing and 2020 the Decade of Health and Wellbeing is about encouraging people to build these ways into their daily routines and potentially add 7.5 years to their life expectancy.

The underlying message through the five ways is that mental health and wellbeing is as important as physical health; feeling good is an important part of being healthy: Connect with others whether it is at home, work, school or within the local community. Taking the time to develop these relationships can enhance everday life.

Get to know here, the web page of this amazing initiative from the Liverpool city council: Health&Wellbeing

O2 #1 How to Rewire your Brain to be More Optimistic (via TheBostonGlobe)

Winston Churchill, Britain’s prime minister during World War II, once described success as the “ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” He might have been more than a little prescient because researchers have since found that optimism plays a key role in achievement in life — as well as increasing our odds of living longer and healthier.

But where scientists once thought that having a sunny outlook, or a rainy one, was set in stone on the day we were conceived, the latest research suggests that genes play only a 30 to 40 percent role in our outlook and that, with a little training, our brains have the ability to shift over time from a more negative outlook to a more positive one.

A book published last week provides a road map for rewiring the brain and redefines what optimism is. “It’s not just positive thinking but positive actions,” said Oxford University cognitive neuroscientist Elaine Fox, author of “Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain.” Persistence is key: Rather than sitting and passively waiting for life to happen, optimistic people take steps to implement their goals.

Read this article, which tells something new about optimism, here: RewireBrain

CO2 #3 'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help (via TheGuardian)

Logging companies keen to exploit Brazil's rainforest have been accused by human rights organisations of using gunmen to wipe out the Awá, a tribe of just 355. Survival International, with backing from Colin Firth, is campaigning to stop what a judge referred to as 'genocide'.

Watch a video and read an article about the "Rainforest Genocide": EndangeredTribe

CO2 #2 Michael Hudson: Productivity, The Miracle of Compound Interest, and Poverty (via NakedCapitalism)

Suppose you were alive back in 1945 and were told about all the new technology that would be invented between then and now: the computers and internet, mobile phones and other consumer electronics, faster and cheaper air travel, super trains and even outer space exploration, higher gas mileage on the ground, plastics, medical breakthroughs and science in general. You would have imagined what nearly all futurists expected: that we would be living in a life of leisure society by this time. Rising productivity would raise wages and living standards, enabling people to work shorter hours under more relaxed and less pressured workplace conditions.

Why hasn’t this occurred in recent years? In light of the enormous productivity gains since the end of World War II – and especially since 1980 – why isn’t everyone rich and enjoying the leisure economy that was promised? If the 99% is not getting the fruits of higher productivity, who is? Where has it gone?

Under Stalinism the surplus went to the state, which used it to increase tangible capital investment – in factories, power production, transportation and other basic industry and infrastructure. But where is it going under today’s finance capitalism? Much of it has gone into industry, construction and infrastructure, as it would in any kind of political economy. And much also is consumed in military overhead, in luxury production for the wealthy, and invested abroad. But most of the gains have gone to the financial sector – higher loans for real estate, and purchases of stocks and bonds.

Read this extensive essay about the emerging "Financial Feudalism" here: InterestPovery

CO2 #1 Credit Card Debt and Emotions Can Be a Bad Mix (via CreditCardGuide)

What’s the best way to pay off credit card debt?

The traditional formula generally goes something like this: pay down the debt with the highest interest rate first. Once that is paid off, proceed to the debt with the next highest interest rate and so on. However, that’s not the way most people go about paying off debt.

Picking battles

According to a recent study headed by Israeli marketing professor Moty Amar and Duke University’s Dan Ariely, when it comes to paying down debt, we often don’t act logically. If we are saddled with multiple debts, we tend to prioritize paring back the total number of loans, rather than reducing the total debt. In other words, we’ll tackle smaller debts first so that we have the peace of mind that comes with checking them off the list — even if it means paying more in interest charges in the long run.

Read more about the relations between humans and credit cards here: EmotionsCreditCards

CO2 #3 Sweets make you dumb, but salmon makes you smart (via AlaskaDispatch)

There's bad news for sweets lovers out of the University of California. A study from there indicates corn-syrup-laced sweets could make you dumb. But you might be OK if you eat your bonbons with a side of salmon -- or better yet, eulachon.

The UCLA findings, published in Journal of Physiology, "also show omega-3 fatty acids helping to negate the effect,'' reports Medical News Today.

Salmon, especially fresh Alaska salmon, are loaded with healthy Omega-3s. So, too, are the eulachon, or "hooligan" as they are commonly known.

Those fish are so rich omega-3-laced oil that they used to be called "candlefish." When dried, the fish will actually burn and were sometimes used as candles.

Read more about the relation between food and the brain: SweetSalmon

CO2 #2 DIY Health: You're Smarter Than The Health Care System (via BigThink)

"We’ve basically led people to believe that their health has to be in the hands of the health care system, that they don't have the power to control their health, to regulate their health, to create health," says Dr. Mark Hyman, the author of a new book called The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now!

And yet, you don't need to rely on our "top heavy," "doctor and hospital-centric" system to take control of your own health. Dr. Hyman says self-care is the key to being a healthy person today.

Watch here this relevant presentation about why we should be empowered patients: SmarterHealthSystem