Tools for Well-Being (MAS S64)

The notion of the “cue” is worthy of its own discussion and at the core of several of our devices/proposals for the class. Charles Duhigg suggests that the cue can be anything –a location, a time, emotional state, or pattern of behaviors. He narrowed it down to identify the time between 3:00 and 3:30 PM that was the cue for his cookie craving. Further analyzing the “routine” and “reward” mechanisms made him realize it was more about socializing and a mental break from work. But the cue was my main problem during the Tiny Habits exercise. It was simply difficult…

Frankly speaking, I’ve never heard of “Tiny Habits” before I was introduced it in the class. When I first saw the video, I thought it’s an interesting idea and it reminded me of another tip my friend Anne, who is also a bipolar like I am, shared with me:  During a depressive episode,  we usually find ourself lack of motivation to go out and do whatever, for example, to get exposed to some sunshine even when we’re aware that it’s gonna make us feel better. Her doctor told her not to think about “going out”, just think about leaning forward,…

Over the last week of engagement with the behavior change theories of Prochaska, Duhigg and Fogg, I’ve come to a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by the formalization of habit formation. Proschaska’s Transtheoretical Model is the theory with which I have the most experience. As a student of Public Health with a background in the development and evaluation of digital health tools, I frequently call upon the Transtheoretical Model for insight into the design of interventions for individuals and populations at different stages of technology acceptance, adoption and use. The six stages of behavior change and the…

Fooducate is an app available on iPhone as well as on Android. It is like personal grocery advisor, helping people make healthy choices on their food. Its features include basic diet tracking, a library of food with knowledge about nutrition and ratings, a scanner for you to quickly check the nutrition fact and rating of the food, or to do diet tracking. There’s also “daily tips,” which provides tips and tricks to help make you a better shopper of nutritious food. Topics from nutrition fact labels current events and public health policy. Another feature that I’d really love (but requires…

The neuropolitical shift in our understanding of autism, from a pre-programmed disorder to an emergent, processual condition, speaks not only to the failure of genetic and molecular therapeutic interventions, but to a wealth of observational data implicating diet, sleep, activity, nurturing, and environmental factors in the modulation of autism.[1] While it is heartening to see from Herbert’s articles that infants are no longer summarily institutionalized, the burden of brain-training specifically and lifestyle management generally that comes with an emphasis on neuroplasticity will fall on individuals and their mothers in our society.[2] At the same time, reframing autism as an emergent,…

Association of Nut Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Morality. New England Journal of Medicine Link: http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa1307352 The paper is powerful in its endorsement for nuts as a way to improve health and decrease mortality. A person who eats nuts 7 times a week or more was 20% less likely to die during the 16 year study following over 50,000 men and women. Whether it was Peanuts or Tree Nuts, there is a clear inverse correlation between consuming nuts and mortality. Moreover, the data suggests a visible sliding scale where the more often a person eats nuts, the less chance of…