stress

I'll be honest. Vague phrases like "inner balance," "emotional resilience," and "coherence zone," all of which HeartMath uses to describe its new heart rate monitor and corresponding app, aggravate me a bit. After test-driving the product this week, however, I can overlook the language.

Think of the system as a mobile meditation guide. Available as of yesterday on iTunes, HeartMath's free Inner Balance app works exclusively with its Inner Balance earlobe sensor for iOS ($99), which is available at the company's online store or through many major retailers. It uses emWave technology to show the user's heart rhythm pattern (HRV) and trains the user to change that pattern to a healthier, "coherent" state.

The system is easy to set up and, more importantly, use regularly. After installing the app, simply clip the sensor to your earlobe, plug it into your iPhone or iPad using a standard 30-pin connector (you'll need a Lightning-to-30-pin adapter for iPhone 5), and tap the screen to start.… Read more

When the Country Fire Authority in Victoria, Australia, noticed that its firefighters were showing signs of heat stress even when their ear thermometer probes were reading normal temperatures, they decided it was time to find a better gauge in the hopes of preventing heat-related illnesses.

So they tested a smart pill on 50 firefighters evacuating 20 people from a burning medical center, and have already used the readings to change firefighter work patterns, including how long they're exposed to blazes, according to the Australian Associated Press.… Read more

The whole point of Facebook is to keep up with your friends, right? You might think that adding friends means having more fun, but a small Scottish study says it's adding to our stress.

A report by the University of Edinburgh Business School has found that increasing friends -- specifically different groups of friends -- increases the potential for stress.

It's hardly earth-shattering news, but including parents or employers as Facebook friends resulted in the greatest increase in anxiety, according to the report.

"Stress arises when a user presents a version of [herself or himself] on Facebook that is unacceptable to some of their online 'friends,' such as posts displaying behavior such as swearing, recklessness, drinking, and smoking," the university said in a release.

"The more social circles a person is linked to online the more likely social media will be a source of stress." … Read more

Workers cut off from office e-mail for five days exhibited more natural, variable heart rates and toggled between screens less frequently than those with e-mail access, according to new research out of the University of California, Irvine, and the Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center near Boston.

The "A pace not dictated by electrons" study of 13 civilian employees at the Army center is undoubtedly small, and the results, presented this week at a meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery in Austin, Texas, are only preliminary. Still, researchers say the findings were surprisingly consistent in favor of … Read more

QuickField Professional is a Finite Element Analysis tool for creating and analyzing electromagnetic, thermal, and stress simulations. It's used in many science, physics, and design classrooms and labs. QuickField Student is a free version with reduced functionality and a limited number of nodes. It can simulate basic problems in engineering and physics as well as display QuickField models. It's a great choice for engineering and physics students who use QuickField at school. QuickField Student helps users familiarize themselves with the full program as well as letting them view materials at home.

QuickField Student opened with a welcome message … Read more

Yesterday started like so many others, with me standing in the back of a noisy, sweltering bus that smelled of urine. But unlike previous mornings, this time I was able to use my phone to quantify my stress level as it mounted with each jarring pothole.

Armed with a new app called Stress Check on my iPhone, I could verify that the stress I was feeling was real--when I woke up my level was 1 percent, but on the bus it topped 100. And while a number of apps require an external attachment to take health measurements, Stress Check required just me and my phone.

Released a couple of weeks ago, Stress Check is one of several apps from Palo Alto, Calif. start-up Azumio, which recently received $2.5 million in series A funding. The company's first health-oriented app, Instant Heart Rate (also available for Android), has generated 8 million downloads since its release in January. The company has more apps in the pipeline.

If it's easy, and fun, to collect personal health data, more people will likely be inclined to do so--and take action, reasons Azumio co-founder Bojan Bostjancic, who stopped by CNET headquarters last week to demo the company's health apps. … Read more

The notion of erasing memories associated with painful or harmful pasts is not a new one. But it has remained just that: a notion.

Now scientists in Israel say they have devised a method to erase memories that trigger cravings in rats addicted to cocaine--a method that works so well it actually results in rats ignoring the place where they had been scoring the drug.

"Memories can trigger a desire for the drug, including memories of the drug itself, the needle, or the environment in which the drug was consumed," says Hebrew University researcher Rami Yaka. "This research indicates the possibility of erasing these memories in a way that will allow addicts to cancel the associations they have in their minds regarding the drug."

The team worked with a small protein called ZIP, which has been found in other studies in recent years to erase memories and even, as a result, inhibit learning processes.

After giving the rats cocaine in a designated spot in their pens for a few weeks, the team injected ZIP into the nucleus accumbens, a brain region known to control pleasure, reward, fear, and more, and then returned the rats to their pens. The rats proceeded to ignore the location they had only recently sought out, suggesting they no longer remembered either the place, the effect of the drug, or perhaps both.

Yaka, who will present his team's findings at the Facing Tomorrow 2011 conference in Jerusalem next week, sees possibilities not just for drug addicts but also those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and other psychological conditions.

Of course, it remains unclear whether the protein erases selective memories associated with drugs, or if other pleasure-and-reward memories are also affected. Will one also forget the sweetness of chocolate? The ecstasies of copulation? The kiss of a gentle summer's breeze?

If so, will it be worth it?… Read more

It can be hard to get a techie to relax. We are often found toiling away at Internet start-ups, programming under pressure, or blasting away at Call of Duty as enemies swarm across the lines.

The new emWave2 stress management system from HeartMath features several components that geeks love: a gadget, a computer program, and lots of cool graphs. It also has 20 years worth of stress research behind its development, but the glowing lights are what first catch your eye.

According to HeartMath, emWave technology is already being used by more than 10,000 health professionals, including 65 Veteran Administration hospitals and clinics for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. The second-generation emWave2 is designed for personal use and is portable enough to tuck in your pocket. It also adds a computer interface and desktop program that can track your results, and it has several additional applications including a slideshow and a garden game that adds colors and images as you relax.

I got my hands on the emWave2 and took it for a stress-test drive. The $229 kit includes both an ear and a thumb monitor for your heart rate. I used the thumb monitor. It also includes a line of blue lights that give you visual feedback for controlling your breathing.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--After a long, hard week at CES, a little stress relief is in order. But can you achieve a peaceful state through a portable PC gadget?

Being demoed at CES this week is the Emwave 2 personal stress reliever from HeartMath. This portable device lets you monitor your stress levels and help you calm down. Specifically, it monitors your heart rhythms as an indicator of how stressed you may be. To use the device, you connect it to your PC and place your finger on its small monitor. A graph charting your heart patterns then appears on the PC.… Read more