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20 | GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com IN THE KNOW To read more about the ideas featured, visit us online GravitasMag.com BODY Walnuts Improve Health Doctors have been prescribing nuts to patients' diets for years as a key to better health, but many are reluctant to add them because of the higher calories. Now a new study shows the benefits of eating nuts, especially walnuts, outweighs the additional calories. Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, commissioned a study with the California Walnut Commission to prove his results. Katz and his team recruited 112 patients who were at a higher risk of developing diabetes. For six months, the group added walnuts to their diet and then spent another six months skipping the nuts. Only half of the group was counseled on whether they should adjust their diet to allow for the extra calories from nuts. In the study, published in BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care, Dr. Katz found that every patient's diet improved, regardless of any adjustment to the daily caloric intake. How happy you are may be determined by how much you use Facebook. A new study – ironically by the Happiness Research Institute – found that people who stayed off Facebook are actually happier. e study looked at the lives of 1,095 people in Denmark, with an average age of 33. Researchers divided them into two groups: one who used Facebook per usual during the day and the other group completely stopped using the social media site. A week later, 88% of those who gave up Facebook said they were happy compared to the 81% still on the site. Also, 84% of those non-users said they appreciated their lives while only 75% of Facebook users felt the same. e study also concluded that 55% of Facebook users felt stressed while the nonuser group reported a better social life and less trouble concentrating. BUSINESS Funding Science Research Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz wants to transform the health and science field by digitizing biology. e company is committing $200 million to fund start-ups that share that same goal of improving life sciences using software, smartphones and the cloud. Vijay Pande, a former professor at Stanford who is now overseeing the new venture with Andreessen Horowitz, says the costs of software components has decreased significantly over the years and its easier for researchers to find solutions. Pande is focused on three core areas: digital therapeutics, which are online programs designed to encourage behavioral changes that prevent or cure diseases; cloud biology, which allows experiments to be conduced in remote labs; and computational medicine that uses artificial intelligence to help doctors analyze data or diagnose medical problems. So far, Andreessen Horowitz has invested in a few companies and is seeking others that want to change and impact the science world. Sign up to receive our weekly E-newslet ters with the latest news, ideas, giveaways and inspiration. GravitasMag.com TECHNOLOGY Is Facebook Ruining Our Happiness?

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