The bank of willpower

The bank of willpower

It’s around this time of year that most people will have already given up on their New Year resolutions. Research has shown that roughly only 9% of people who make a New Year’s Resolution will actually succeed. After gaining my degree I spent 8 years working in health...
The benefits of exercise on mental health

The benefits of exercise on mental health

For thousands of years, it has been thought that exercise has had a beneficial effect on our brains. To quote Plato “In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other...
Your brains’ amazing neuroplasticity

Your brains’ amazing neuroplasticity

What is neuroplasticity? Neurons can be thought of as the building blocks of your brain and nervous system. Your brain is thought to contain roughly 86 million of them. Plasticity refers to your brain’s malleability, in other words, its ability to change....
What’s our gut-brain axis?

What’s our gut-brain axis?

Research has shown that the trillions of microorganisms that make up our gut microbiome can play an important part in contributing to an improvement in both our physical and mental health. Our gut microbiome collectively weighs about the same as our brains and is...
How does caffiene affect our sleep?

How does caffiene affect our sleep?

After we have woken up we start to build up our sleep drive ready to sleep later that day. When we are awake we are producing a sleep chemical called adenosine. When we have built up sufficient stores of adenosine, have a good functioning sleep/wake cycle and are not...
Nutrition for mental health

Nutrition for mental health

It’s a common misconception that fat is bad for our health. When we talk about fat we tend to think about it as just one food group. In reality, it’s split into many different groups with a majority of fats being either saturated or unsaturated. Unsaturated fats...