Physical Illness

Despite the rosy picture painted in the ads of a miracle cure for high cholesterol and its attendant heart disease, the reality of taking statins may be far less pretty. Dr. Barbara H. Roberts, director of the Women’s Cardiac Center at the Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island, discusses both the benefits and health risks of these popular drugs in this comprehensive guide that finally reveals the questionable science behind the research studies. This honest, patient-friendly appraisal of the most widely used medications in the world may shock you, but it may also save your life.

In Anyway You Can, Dr. Bosworth shares her "accidental" discovery of ketosis and its wide array of health benefits as she supplemented her mom's chemotherapy with ketones. Her story of courage, faith, and tenacity helps young and old achieve better physical, mental, and emotional health through ketosis.

Kelly Bouldin Darmofal suffered a severe TBI in 1992; currently, she holds a Masters in Special Education from Salem College, NC. Her memoir, Lost in My Mind: Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), tells her story of tragedy and triumph. Kelly will be teaching "TBI: An Overview for Educators" at Salem College. Kelly's "tips" were learned during two decades of recovery and perseverance.

Nine million Americans are touched by aneurysms during their lifetimes. This is one story of love. Brainstorm is the candid and powerful memoir of the author's harrowing experience of an aneurysm and his road to recovery. It is a journey of love and devotion and a clash of medical beliefs and countercultures.

Dream Constellation is an all-night-long soundscape created by sound therapy composer Rich Lucano. Composed to cocoon you in ambient soundscapes and gentle orchestral waves, specially designed to help you relax, fall asleep and stay asleep. Press play to take a gentle sonic journey through the stars.

We often associate beautiful memories with nature sounds. Together with relaxation music in 432Hz, these gradually have the effect of lowering blood pressure, breathing becomes more even and thus lead body and mind into a beneficial relaxation. The sounds of nature affect our body in many different ways: they bring us to rest, gradually reduce stress in everyday life, bring us to beautiful thoughts and we can let go of the day's events.

Sloths are the slowest mammals on earth. They can hardly see. They live in rainforests among jaguars, pumas, and countless other predators. Yet they survive. And they do it by being so incredibly slow, and living a life covered in algae. In this episode, we hang with a sloth in the jungle of Costa Rica as he spends a month digesting one single leaf, and we see the symbiosis and collaboration that surrounds him.

Many know Kimberly Williams-Paisley as the bride in the popular Steve Martin remakes of the Father of the Bride movies, the calculating Peggy Kenter on Nashville, or the wife of country megastar Brad Paisley. But in 2014, Williams-Paisley revealed a tragic secret: Her mother had been diagnosed with a rare form of dementia called primary progressive aphasia at the age of 61.

Meditation makes you more productive because it lets you earn back time. For each minute you spend meditating, you'll earn around nine minutes back, as Chris Bailey - author of The Productivity Project and Hyperfocus - will show in this candid and counter-intuitive guide to the productivity benefits of meditation.

Film and TV star Keke Palmer tenderly shares the Ojibwe folk tale of the first dreamcatcher and shows how its message of our connection to the natural world persists to this day. Bedtime stories are narrated by the world’s most celebrated voices and written with no beginning, middle, or end so you don’t stay up to hear what happens next. They're interesting enough to give your mind something to focus on, but delivered in a way that encourages sleep.

The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.

Humpback whales are among the most intelligent animals on Earth. Some scientists believe they might even surpass humans in self-awareness, empathy, and communication skills. In this episode, we swim with a whale as he teams up with other humpbacks to use bubbles to catch fish, rescues a sea lion, and puts his own spin on melodies sung by whales across the Pacific Ocean. This is the world in its natural state, defined by seasons, routines, and cycles. By the time this whale is ready to close one eye and go to sleep, you will be too.

Unlike canned nature sounds created in a studio, renowned acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton travels the world recording remarkable locations that capture the essence of the place itself. His lifelong mission is to preserve nature through sound, and his soundscapes are produced with such care and quality that you feel as if he has truly brought a slice of the world into your home...

The soothing steady sound of the rain, the constant splashing and plopping of the raindrops makes the soul and the mind calm down and thus also has a gradually relaxing effect on the body. The rain triggers in us thoughts - imagination - such as freshness, tranquility, growth and purity. This imagination promotes a healing power within us. Let this soothing sound of nature lead you into a healthy sleep. The regularity and recurring multi-layered rhythm of the rain sound resonates your body and allows your breathing to become harmonious. Nerves are calmed, stress flows away.

Humans are embedded in rhythms and frequencies that determine their lives: Day and night, waking and sleeping, the seasons, the breathing rhythm, the heartbeat frequency and hormonal rhythms that determine our biological clock. Nowadays, some of these rhythms have become confused, and the relationship between tension and relaxation is often no longer correct. Due to our modern world we often do not experience the seasons intensively enough, we often work against the inner bioryhthmic clock e.g. in shift work and have little time for harmonization and energy reflux.

Do you struggle to Sleep Sound? Let Australian musician and swimmer Cody Simpson take you on a journey towards sleep. Featuring a selection of soothing visualisations and immersive soundscapes inspired by the meditative beauty of water. Settle into a comfortable position, relax your body and let the soundscapes wash over you as you escape to sleep.

Imagine regaining peace of mind when intrusive tinnitus noise steals your concentration or sleep. Sound therapy – the use of pleasant or calming sounds to reduce the intrusion of tinnitus – is clinically proven to diminish the perception of ringing by giving your brain something else to focus on. Numerous studies on tinnitus retraining therapy show significant improvement in about 80% of patients, with 22% achieving major relief. These findings underline why sound therapy is recommended by leading audiologists and tinnitus clinics.

Elephants are the largest land animals in the world. They are also intensely social and have advanced long-term memories. In this episode, a parade of Asian elephants makes its way through the Sri Lankan forest to a lake for drinks and mud baths, stopping periodically for group naps. The female leading the parade uses infrasonic rumbles—inaudible to humans, but traveling as far as two miles along the surface of the Earth as seismic waves—to invite friends and family around the forest to join her at the reservoir.

Welcome to our voyage of discovery. In this series we’ll be travelling to many hard to reach places. Some hidden from view entirely: deep waters, high skies, the vastness of space. We’ll fly with a bee across a summer meadow all the way into her hive. Dive deep into the ocean to visit the miraculous Black Smokers. And we’ll even travel on the inside of a water molecule before it turns into a hailstone. We’re on an extraordinary audio journey of imagination – to learn something fascinating about our world and gently relax or fall asleep along the way.

In the misty Puerto Rican El Yunque rainforest, coquí frogs no larger than your thumb fill the air with their distinctive two-note song: “co-quí, co-quí.” They alternate routines—one night singing to attract potential mates, the next hunting to fuel up for tomorrow’s performance. In this episode, we follow a singer and a hunter amid the vibrant nighttime chorus.