Health Psychology and Human Nature – Details, episodes & analysis

What is Happiness? Is happiness more than just feeling good? What do different people mean when they use the word happiness? What did ancient philosophers like Aristotle mean when they used the word happiness?

Joar Vittersø is a professor in Psychology and have spent many years studying and researching the ancient concept of Eudaimonia. He is also the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Eudaimonic Wellbeing which I highly recommend if you want to get a better grasp of what Eudaimonia is.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Joar and hope you will too.

Too much demand? Too little recovery? Stress is something that affects all of us to some degree. But what is Stress? How could a scenario look like from healthy to clinically burned out? Perhaps most importantly, what can you do about it?

Giorgio Grossi is a licensed Psychotherapist and Head of Research at the special stress clinic Stressmottagningen in Sweden.  He is an author of many stress-related books such as Hantera din Stress med Kognitiv Beteendeterapi and Vägen ur Utmattningssyndrom.

For more episodes follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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How ought one to live? Epicureanism is a Philosophy created by Epicurus who lived 341-270 BC. It is famous for it's thoughts about the meaning of life/how you should live your life. Epicureanism focus on reducing your mental and emotional pain and satisfying your basic needs such as food, shelter and connection with others. This is believed to create a peaceful enjoyment/tranquility named Ataraxia.

Dr. Catherine Wilson is a former Professor of Philosophy with degrees in Philosophy from Yale, Oxford and Princeton. She has written three books related to Epicureanism: How to Be an Epicurean, Epicureanism: A Very Short Introduction and Epicureanism at the Origin of Modernity.

For more episodes, tips and inspiration follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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Is it possible to affect how long we live and our long term health? Can you live until you become 100 with the health of a 60 year old? Luigi Fontana have a science based broad approach to both longevity and long term health(healthspan). He also shares his great thoughts about the good life and how we can affect the state of our planet. I highly encourage you to check out his new book named "The Path To Longevity".

Luigi Fontana is a Professor of Medicine and Nutrition and a Leonard P. Ullman chair in translational metabolic health. He is also the director of the healthy longevity research and clinical program.

You find him on Twitter at: @LuigiFontana22

For more episodes, tips and inspiration follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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Can the adult brain change for the better? In todays episode the friendly and knowledgeable Michael Merzenich tells us all about Neuroplasticity (the brains ability to change), the physical underpinnings of the changing brain, what happens to the brain as it gets older, brain training and a lot more.

Professor Emeritus Michael Merzenich have published more than 150 articles in scientific journals (some in Science and Nature) and received numerous awards and prizes. An example is one of the world's top neuroscience prizes named the Kavli prize. He is also the brain behind BrainHQ (a brain training company) and the author of the book Soft-Wired.

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How does a week of exercise optimized for health and longevity look like? How does a one minute workout at high intensity compare to a 50 minute workout at moderate intensity? What is interval training and why is it important? Answers to these and many other  questions will be given in todays episode by the pedagogical expert Martin Gibala.

Martin Gibala is a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. His main interest is the physiology of exercise, including the effects of training and nutrition and application to health and performance. Martin have also written the bestseller the One Minute Workout which you will learn more about in today's episode.       

If you want to connect to Martin you can do that through Twitter or his personal website.

He and a college also created an online course about exercise which you can find here.

For more episodes, tips and inspiration follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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What are emotions? What problems can one get from emotions? How can you handle your emotions in a better way? These questions and other will be answered today by the Swedish clinician Kristoffer Pettersson.

Kristoffers have specialized in experience-based methods, such as Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Affect Focused Therapy. He is the co-author of two Swedish books on Affect Focused Therapy, the latest one being "I befintligt skick". He also run the education company Mendeleo which brings together lecturers in the field of applied psychology and offers further education to professionals in human care professions.

For more episodes, tips and inspiration follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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How does calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, exercise, stress, drugs and supplements affect our ageing and health? You'll learn all about it in todays episode with professor Brian Kennedy. It is highly important to focus on ageing as it is a big risk factor when it comes to many chronic diseases such as Heart Disease, Alzheimer's, Diabetes and Cancer.  

Brian is the Director of National University Health System (NUHS) Centre for Healthy  Ageing in Singapore. He and his lab is directed at understanding the biology of ageing and translating research discoveries into new ways of delaying, detecting, preventing and treating ageing and associated diseases.

For more episodes, tips and inspiration follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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Can we live longer due to a healthy microbiome? Dario have done some fascinating work when it comes to how fish age due to it's microbiome. How much longer do they live and why? You'll get the answers in todays episode.

Dario Valenzano is a group leader at the Max Planck institute. He is interested in ageing, the microbiome, evolution and a lot more.  He has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and have worked at Stanford University before starting his work at the Max Planck institute.

Darios Twitter:

@darissambaya

For more episodes, tips and inspiration follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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Health really begins at the cellular level according to professor Terry Wahls. Terry is a patient with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, which confined her to a tilt-recline wheelchair for four years. Although Dr. Wahls restored her health using a diet and lifestyle program she designed specifically for her brain and is now able to pedals her bike to work each day. Today we talk about her recovery, her current studies and Mitochondria.

Dr. Terry Wahls is a clinical professor at the University of Iowa where she conducts clinical trials testing the efficacy of therapeutic lifestyle to treat multiple sclerosis related symptoms. In addition, she is the author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles ,and the cookbook The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life: The Revolutionary Modern Paleo Plan to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions.          

For more episodes, tips and inspiration follow me at @healthpsychologyandhumannature on Instagram and FB.

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