The bread is rising… and may explode

The bread is rising… and may explode
Since ancient times, when Romans used bread and circuses to placate the plebes, flour shortages have been synonymous with revolt. Now, with rising demand pushing up global grain costs, a growing list of rulers face bread rebellions. Violent protests calling for government action to ease grain prices have broken out from Morocco to Uzbekistan. In Yemen, where bread prices recently jumped almost 100 percent, riots led to 12 deaths. In Egypt, affordable loaves have become so scarce that men have donned veils to sneak into shorter bread queues for women. Such bread-line unrest will likely affect local council elections in April, with the hard-line Muslim Brotherhood poised to benefit, says Steven A. Cook, Egypt expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. He notes that in 1977 rising bread prices sparked urban riots that almost toppled Anwar Sadat. World leaders would do well to remember: inflation hurts, but bread price inflation can kill.

Good news, you can never oversleep
Does oversleeping make one feel more tired than sleeping a normal seven to eight hours? That depends on what is meant by oversleeping, said Dr. Charles P. Pollak, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. A long period of sleep may be just what the doctor ordered. “People do not necessarily sleep a long time arbitrarily,” Pollak said. “Sometimes it is in response to insufficient sleep. People make up for lost sleep on the weekend, and the sleep may be very long. But that is not the same as oversleeping. It does not contribute to feeling groggy and tired, but helps make up for sleep you should have been getting during the week.” Pollak explains that most people cannot sleep more than the amount they need, which varies a great deal from person to person and from age to age. “Extending sleep beyond what is normally required might sometimes make you feel groggy,” he said, “but it is not easy to do.”

Meditation helps, it’s as easy as sitting down
Nancy Muriello, 37, decided a few years ago that she wanted to “empty all the junk” from her mind. So she began studying meditation techniques and practising breathing and mindfulness, or being aware of the present moment. Now Muriello spends 15 minutes per day clearing her head of clutter. “You can really picture it as a reversal,” says Muriello, who owns Big Apple Power Yoga in New York City. “All the junk, all the stimuli are pouring out of you, so you’re left with a clearer, lighter mind and body. You feel very refreshed, very relaxed, and you have more capacity to take on new things.” Recent studies have shown meditation can yield a host of health benefits, from increased concentration to some relief from depression. Hospitals and clinics are including meditation as therapy, and medical schools are including it in their curricula.
Brain-imaging research has shown that meditation reduces stress and can enhance one’s sense of well-being. Novice practitioners have increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that can produce positive feelings and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, says Richard J. Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin and the director of its Lab for Affective Neuroscience. Long-term practitioners are able to better focus their attention and cut down on a psychological effect called the “attentional blink” that causes people to overlook rapidly changing visual stimuli.
Wallace, who is currently studying how meditation can be used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says the practice can also lower anger levels and act as a supplementary treatment for depression, heart disease and social-anxiety disorders.