Mental health Archives - The Sciku Project

I knew my dog sensed
my anxiety he scents—
and empathizes!
by James Penha

A new study shows that not only do dogs smell human stress, they are themselves depressed as a result.

Further reading:

‘The odour of an unfamiliar stressed or relaxed person affects dogs’ responses to a cognitive bias test’, 2024, Parr-Cortes, Z., Müller, C.T., Talas, L., Mendl, M., Guest, C., & Rooney, N.J., Scientific Reports. Available: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-66147-1

‘Dogs can smell human stress and it bums them out, study shows’, 2024, Page, S., The Washington Post. Available: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2024/08/08/dogs-smell-human-stress-study/

Author bio:

Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him 🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about James’ poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on Twitter @JamesPenha

Enjoyed James’ sciku? Check out more of his sciku here: ‘Quantumku’, ‘DNAncient’ and ‘If a Tree Talks in a Forest’, ‘Air-Gen-Ku ‘, and ‘Boys Whale Be Boys’.

acts buy our brains time
but dementia risk runs deep . . .
let’s change society
by Timothy Daly

Following years of failed drug trials to find a cure for dementia, many researchers have turned to the strategy of promoting healthy lifestyles to improve brain health. A recent article of mine argues that from the point of view of fair and far-reaching prevention, lifestyle approaches are only the tip of an iceberg of dementia risk, below which we find social inequalities and unhealthy environments. We should encourage lifestyle changes alongside changes in society itself to improve access to health and reduce inequalities.

Further reading:

‘The iceberg of dementia risk: empirical and conceptual arguments in favor of structural interventions for brain health’, 2024, Daly, T., Cerebral Circulation – Cognition and Behavior, 6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cccb.2023.100193

‘Individuals with dementia and populations with dementia’, 2024, Elizabeth Shaaban, C., Cerebral Circulation – Cognition and Behavior, 6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cccb.2024.100221

‘A whole-population approach is required for dementia risk reduction’, 2022, Walsh, S., et al., The Lancet Healthy Longevity, 3(1), E6-E8, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00301-9

Author bio:

Dr. Timothy Daly researches dementia and writes poetry. You can follow him on X/Twitter @PhilAlz

Tag: Mental health

Down Dog by James Penha