WCO Blog

You can’t go more than five minutes these days without hearing about stress: Stress tests, stress management, how everyone’s eventual cause of death will probably be — you guessed it — stress. We humblebrag about stress, we complain about it, we take yoga classes and meditate to get rid of it. We’re obsessed. But I’m about […]

It’s up to us parents to pass on the basic skills our kids will need to be successful adults. Like being able to swim, do their own laundry, or cook a healthy meal. The real question is when should you teach them? Here are age-by-age guidelines for skills kids should learn before they move out […]

As sure as the sun rises in the East and the flu virus arrives on our shores each autumn, I can count on the annual uprising against carbs every January. Anti-carb movements have come in many forms in my lifetime. There was the all-out war waged by Atkins devotees in the 1970s and 1980s, and […]

 Nurses get more up close and personal with sick patients than anyone else does. And yet it’s vital for them to stay healthy: They’ve got hard work to do and can’t be ill around patients with compromised immune systems. We’ve heard countless times that it’s essential to take care of ourselves before taking care of […]

Whether you’re doing a dry January, committing to Whole30, or going Paleo, it would be nice to start a new eating plan knowing science was on your side, right? So, what’s the best way to go? According to a new study published in Cell Host & Microbe, changing the bacteria levels in your gut will […]

There are many misconceptions about what it means to be mentally strong. At its core, mental strength is about regulating your thoughts, managing your emotions, and behaving productively, despite the circumstances you find yourself in. Building mental strength is similar to building physical strength. You need to develop healthy habits and give up the things that rob you of […]

Someday, my daughter is going to kill me for this one, but it’s a story that will vindicate parents everywhere. Researchers in the United Kingdom say parents’ super-high expectations for their teenage daughters–especially if they remind them constantly of those expectations–are among the most important factors in predicting whether young girls will grow up to […]

Picking the right career field can keep you from experiencing disappointment when job hunting. There is so much competition for jobs right now and little job growth in many industries. That is why it is important to find a career track that is growing and not contracting. So, what are the best jobs in America? […]

An estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, 5.2 million of them are age 65 or older. The disease will escalate as baby boomers get older, with a projected 13.8 million afflicted by 2050. Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. As a scientist who works […]

Sugar: natural reward, unnatural fix In neuroscience, food is something we call a “natural reward.” In order for us to survive as a species, things like eating, having sex and nurturing others must be pleasurable to the brain so that these behaviours are reinforced and repeated. Evolution has resulted in the mesolimbic pathway, a brain […]

People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating? Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions. In her new book, “Presence,” Cuddy says that people quickly answer two questions when they first […]

Being helpful is a nice thing and all, but it’s also exhausting — so much so, in fact, that research has shown that offering to help your co-workers too frequently can actually make you worse at your job. Even just being on the receiving end of a colleague’s venting can feel like an energy-sapping emotional […]