carmen fernandez de cordoba

I witnessed in a public hospital in Spain how gastroenterologists, when asked whether diet affects cognitive processes, respond with an emphatic NO , almost like an outburst—whether due to their surprising certainty or the disbelief provoked by such a resounding denial. At that moment, my only evidence was empirical. A family member with serious memory problems, hospitalized and on intravenous fluids for 15 days, completely recovered the lost memory and, more importantly, regained control of...

Before assessing whether exceeding the limits of the human body is natural or not, we should first ask ourselves whether we truly know those limits. And the truth is that we do not. What we know are certain statistical thresholds based on average samples, which shed very little light on our true potential. Every time we encounter stories of human achievement that challenge these ranges, we realize that as long as we do not understand the true potential of the human brain, we will not know the...

The fact that not all parts of the body are equally important to our brain proves the relationship between mind and body—just as one would expect. It is enough to recall how good or bad news can physically affect our bodies to realize this connection.   Very recent studies have revealed not only that the heart has its own neuronal field, but also that it communicates with the brain through the vagus nerve. We also know how intuition guides some of the most important decisions in our lives and...