Free Learning Videos Sites
If you like to learn by video, here are some sites with many free learning and educational videos and sometimes even courses (listed in no particular order).
- Coursera
- Khan Academy
- MIT Open CourseWare
- Webcast.Berkeley
- Stanford Engineering Everywhere
- UCTV
- Mini Medical School for the Public
- Udacity
- Open Yale Courses on YouTube
- University of Arizona Science & Technology
- Hawthorn University Webinars
Brain At Work and Mindfulness
David Rock explains how the brain works and a bit about mindfulness in this Google Talk video …
In the talk, he mentions that in order to be successful, one has to have good emotional control.
He wrote the article “The Neuroscience of Mindfulness” which explains that we have two modes of thinking: (1) the default narrative thinking, and (2) direct experience.
When you switch into the direct experience, the narrative dampens. This is in essences mindfulness.
PermalinkChris Masterjohn explains fats and cholesterol in relational to heart disease
Chris Masterjohn presents at the Ancestral Health Symposium that it is the oxidation of the lipids and cholesterol that is what is damaging to heart disease.
Lipids gets oxidized and LDL goes from large fluffy to the more dangerous small dense type as they stay in the blood longer and more likely to get oxidized. Why causes the lipids to stay in the blood? Because the LDL receptors of the cells are not taking them up fast enough or low thyroid hormones.
He says that having nutritional abundance would offset the oxidation process.
PermalinkThe difference between relative versus absolute risk reported in studies
New reports often reports the relative risk or benefits between two groups (say a control group versus treatment group). This number is usually deceptively higher than the absolute risk or benefit.
What is the difference between relative risk versus absolute risks?
KnowBreastCancer.org has a good explanation. Suppose that 2 person out of 100 in a control non-treated group ended up with cancer. And supposed that only 1 person out of 100 in a treatment group ended up with cancer. Hence the relative risk would be a 50% decrease in breast cancer in the treatment group. This is arrived at by taking the change and dividing by the initial value: (2 – 1) / 2 = 0.5 = 50% This is the number often reported. Sounds pretty good right?
But consider the absolute risk. Since the risk of cancer is 2% in the non-treated group, and the risk of cancer in the treated group is 1%, the treatment only reduced the risk from 2% to 1%. This is only a 1% reduction in absolute risk. Now it doesn’t sound that great. This number is arrived at by taking the change in percentage divided by the overall percentage: (2-1)/100 = 0.01 = 1%.
Presentation by Sally Fallon-Morell also gives examples of how distorting the reports of relative risk are. Video presentation on YouTube.
Tom Naughton is a comedian that did a bit at the Ancestral Health Symposium called “Science for Smart People” in which among the other topics talked about relative risk versus absolute risk…
PermalinkVideo Explaining Why Cholesterol and Saturated Fat do not cause heart disease
Sally Fallon-Morell presents the research of Marg Enig PhD.
The video is called “The Oiling of America” and explains why cholesterol and saturated fats do not cause heart disease. It debunks some of the studies that shows otherwise, including Ancel Keys “Seven Country Study”.
It explains how sometimes studies are either intentionally or unintentionally misleading due to things like “varying the scale”, “relative risk”, and “omitting data”.
It also explain about fats. Some studies lump trans fats with saturated fat. And saturated fats incorrectly get the blame. Trans fats really is bad because of a translocation of an atom which creates dead spots in the electron cloud and hindering cellular reactions. Polyunsaturated fats are bad because they break upon heat and causes uncontrolled reactions (inflammation).
PermalinkProfessor Talk about Brain and How to Help Reduce Dementia Risk
Joel Kramer, Professor of Neuropsychology, gave a talk about the brain some of the ways in which we can reduce dementia. These includes: cognitive reserve, aerobic exercise, cognitive exercise, diet, and more.
Some points mentioned are …
* high level of activity is associated with 38% decrease risk of cognitive decline
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