Healthbolt
Serious Health and Wellness - Injected With Humor
URL: http://blisstree.com
Updated: 11 hours 43 min ago
96% Of Us Are More Stressed Than Our Moms Were; Cut Yourself Some Slack
On the Today show this morning, they reported that a whopping 70% of moms in the U.S. say mothering is “incredibly stressful.” On top of that, 96% feel we are far more stressed than our own mothers were. While I can certainly relate (I am a working mom with two kids), I always find reports like that interesting, because I think they can paint a picture of us as martyrs, when in fact, we’re the ones who typically bring this stress upon ourselves. And if we would just cut ourselves some slack, we could probably alleviate a lot of this angst.
Yes, things like the economy, financial insecurities, job losses, family illnesses and caring for aging parents are stressful. There’s no doubt about that. And sometimes those situations leave us little choice in how harried our lives are–at least temporarily. But then there are other stressors that we do choose, like a more intense parenting style, packing too much into our daily agendas, higher expectations for the type of lifestyle we lead and striving for a life of bigger and better that Americans are famous for.
All of this can not only lead to us walking around like over-stressed zombies, but it can be responsible for a decline in our overall health, wellness and happiness–not just for ourselves, but for our spouse and children as well. Chronically stressed moms tend to be more insensitive to their kids (we’re probably all guilty of not looking up from our iPhone on occasion when our kids are trying to tell us something important). Studies also show that a parent’s ability to manage stress is a strong predictor of the quality of her relationship with her children and how happy they are.
To combat this, Today show contributor and psychologist, Michele Borba, prescribed various “mom de-stressors” like giving ourselves a 5-minute “time out”, learning deep breathing techniques, dancing with our kids in the living room, taking time to be spontaneous like baking the dog a birthday cake, and finding a “mommy coach” in a mom chat room. All of which sounds a little, well, ridiculous if you ask me. Not because I don’t think those things could help relieve a little stress (except for baking the dog a cake–isn’t that just adding more to-do’s to our already crazy list?), but because those tactics don’t really get to the heart of the issue. They just give us so-called coping techniques, when what we really need are solve-the-problem techniques.
Which brings me to my point: Outside experts, coaches and even friends are not going to make our stress go away. The only person who can do that is us. It boils down to personal responsibility, in my mind. Meaning, no one is making us live a life of chronic stress. No one is making us work so much just so we can afford a bigger house than we really need. No one says we have to be the class mom, the soccer mom, the PTA chair or the lead volunteer on every community project. No one says we have to spend 24/7 with our kids. In short, no one, except us, is forcing us to be the supermom. The same supermom who is chronically stressed-out, irritable and tired, according to this report.
Ladies, isn’t it time we cut ourselves a bit of slack?
It’s high time we say, screw-it to feeling like we have to do it all and be it all. We don’t have to work so much just so we can buy more things we don’t need. We don’t have to be the go-to volunteer for every school and community project. We don’t have to get all of the chores done every day. And we don’t have to drive our kids here and there and everywhere. We don’t have to be perfect. You get my drift.
Like I said, yes, sometimes there are unfortunate circumstances in our lives that leave us no choice but to pick up a second job or dealing with a family illness, and those are certainly not fun. But what I’m talking about is the rest of our lives, beyond those situations. We are the only ones who can cut down on our stress–not by using some silly coping techniques, but more so by lowering the bars we set for ourselves.
Because, really, we are the only ones who set it so high to begin with.
Photo: thinkstock.com
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Demi Moore Reportedly Hospitalized Over ‘Whip-Its’; Couldn’t She Have Just Had Some Wine?
After days of rumors, reports now indicate that “whip-its” could have been the drug of choice for Demi Moore and the reason she was rushed to the hospital earlier this week. And here I thought sucking the air out of whipped cream bottles was just for teenagers to do as a cheap and stupid way of getting high when working at Ground Round or Ben & Jerry’s.
Media outlets are now claiming the actress reportedly had a seizure after inhaling nitrous oxide at her home. Known commonly as doing “whip-its,” the activity generally involves inhaling the gas from a whipped cream dispenser for a cheap, quick high, which can produce effect similar to alcohol.
But not all the side-effects from “whip-its” are as simple as that. Adverse reactions can include nausea, dizziness, fainting–and in the case of Moore, a seizure due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. Other reactions can happen over time, such as vitamin B12 deficiencies and negative impacts on DNA and cell growth.
“Whip-its” are usually reserved as a stupid thing that teens do–not someone of Demi’s age and social status. If she was really that stressed-out over her failed marriage with Ashton Kutcher, couldn’t she have just had a few glasses of wine? Surely that would have been a more respectable way to handle things.
Meanwhile, her soon-to-be ex is reportedly partying in Brazil and Demi remains in the hospital.
Photo: nydailynews.com
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
At 62, Vera Wang Looks Healthy And Awesome In Harper’s Bazaar
Fashion and healthy bodies don’t always get along, but in a gorgeous spread for the February edition of Harper’s Bazaar, Vera Wang is doing her darndest to merge the two. Images from the shoot displaying the 62-year-old fashion icon’s healthy, awesome-looking body have just been released, and all I can say “Damn, Vera.”
The point of the spread wasn’t to show off Wang’s muscular gams and enviable arms–it was to give the world a tour of her epic new Beverly Hills mansion. In fact, she says, she didn’t even mean to end up in the swimsuit–she’d initially envisioned a corsted top with a boyshort or something less revealing. But the swimsuit makes sense–Wang says that she, unlike many celebs, actually uses her pool regularly, which explains her athletic body.
Wang, who is also photographed in a smart dress and a pantsuit, admits in the magazine that the idea of a swimsuit shot making it into the magazine made her a little nervous, stating that usually, she’s so modest at the beach, she usually looks “like Lawrence of Arabia.” And, to be fair, the swimsuit is by no means revealing–though, for a woman who’s made her life behind the seams (sorry, I couldn’t resist that pun), being photographed as the model must seem a little strange. And, despite the amazing images, she’s still modest. From the article:
Asked if she’s impressed with the results, as someone even half her age should be, she sighs. “No, honey, I’m a little horrified. But I still love that bustier.”
Sure, Wang has always been thin, and yes, these photos have clearly been touched up a little. But it’s pretty inspiring to see a woman who’s not only honest about her age, but about what her body looks like, in the pages of a fashion magazine.
You can see the rest of the images here.
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Demi Moore Called Paramedics To Treat Her Exhaustion; Why Didn’t Anyone See This Coming?
Demi Moore was taken to a hospital by paramedics on Monday night after an emergency call, and today her rep issued a statement saying she’s being treated for exhaustion due to the stresses in her life. But after her strange interview in Harper’s Bazaar at the beginning of the year, and her ever-diminishing frame in the two months since her divorce from Ashton Kutcher, wasn’t it obvious she needed some help?
According to New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed that she’d called for help on Monday night. This afternoon, Moore’s rep issued the following explanation:
Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health. She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends.
Headlines are already speculating about the cause of Moore’s “exhaustion”–some are citing drug abuse. But it’s been obvious for some time that she wasn’t coping well with her divorce; in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar earlier this month, she openly admits that her weight has become dangerously low, explaining that she struggles to accept her body as it ages and even “…now experiencing my body as extremely thin — thin in a way that I never imagined somebody would be saying to me, “You’re too thin, and you don’t look good.”
In the same interview, she also made disconcerting statements about her emotional insecurities:
I would say what scares me is that I’m going to ultimately find out at the end of my life that I’m really not lovable, that I’m not worthy of being loved. That there’s something fundamentally wrong with me.
Which, it should be said, all sounded like a woman being totally honest about her body image and emotions in the interview, but given her dramatic weight loss and sudden absence from Twitter (where she was formerly active), it’s not altogether shocking that she’s now hitting a wall.
Reports say that Moore might be in a rehab facility; after her emergency call on Monday, she was rushed to an unknown hospital in the L.A. area. We hope she gets better, and hope that the people around her are able to come to her rescue so that paramedics don’t have to.
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Psychedelic Mushrooms Reduce Brain Activity (And That’s A Good Thing)
In my college days, I was no stranger to the odd hit of acid or bag of ‘shrooms, and I’ve long believed in the power of drugs like these to be therapeutic under the right circumstances. I’m reading a book right now, in fact, by Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert), a Harvard psychology professor turned yogi and spiritual leader who was part of that whole 1960s scholarly cohort (including Timothy Leary) studying psychedelics. But although serious scholars (and lay people like myself and my college friends) have been studying psychedelics for decades, no one has been quite sure just what affect they have on the brain—until now.
It turns out, serious academic study of psychedelics is back in vogue, only with less mysticism and more neuroscience this time around. And neuroscience is opening up whole new realms of possibilities for the study of psychedelic drugs. In a new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, British researchers used brain scans to measure what physically went on in people’s brains when they took psilocybin, the drug contained in ‘magic mushrooms.’ Their results were surprising—but could potentially lead to some novel treatments for depression.
Contrary to what the researchers expected, the psilocybin didn’t lead to an increase in subjects’ brain activity. Instead, reduced it. I’ll let Time’s Maia Szalivitz explain:
Under the influence of mushrooms, overall brain activity drops, particularly in certain regions that are densely connected to sensory areas of the brain. When functioning normally, these connective “hubs” appear to help constrain the way we see, hear and experience the world, grounding us in reality. They are also the key nodes of a brain network linked to self-consciousness and depression. Psilocybin cuts activity in these nodes and severs their connection to other brain areas, allowing the senses to run free.
“The results seem to imply that a lot of brain activity is actually dedicated to keeping the world very stable and ordinary and familiar and unsurprising,” says Robin Carhart-Harris, a postdoctoral student at Imperial College London and lead author of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That’s generally a good thing—if your brain took in all the stimuli in your environment, you would never be able to focus on anything. But psychedelic drugs—and practices like meditation—allow us to tune into all the things our brain would normally tune out.
Interestingly, the two brain regions that showed the most reduced activity on psilocybin were the medial prefontal cortex (mPFC) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). An overactive mPFC is linked with rumination, obsessive thinking and depression. All of the depression treatments that have proved effective—from Prozac to electroconvulsive therapy to talk therapy—reduce activity in the mPFC.
Neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt, who gave a briefing about the study, said the results shouldn’t encourage you to “go out there and eat magic mushrooms. But…this drug has such a fundamental impact on the brain that it’s got to be meaningful — it’s got to be telling us something about how the brain works. So we should be studying it and optimizing it if there’s a therapeutic benefit.”
I hope they do. And I hope findings like these encourage folks in the U.S. Department of Justice to reconsider its classification of psilocybin as an illegal, Schedule 1 drug, a class of substances considered to “serve no legitimate medical purpose in the United States” which sets up all sorts of restrictions on their scientific study. Considering marijuana is also a Schedule 1 drug here, though, I won’t hold my breath about psilocybin. But maybe, just maybe, neuroscience will have the power to legitimize the study of psychedelics in a way Leary and his gang of merry mystics never could?
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Can’t Stand Your Co-Worker’s Perfume? There’s A Reason For That.
You know that co-worker whose perfume smells really bad? Or that friend’s house that reeks of dirty socks? If you can’t stand these smells and they give you headaches, you may not just be overly-sensitive to bad odors, you may actually suffer from a chemical intolerance.
According to a new study from psychology researcher, Linus Andersson, at Umeå University, normally our smell perceptions diminish pretty quickly after we first get a whiff of a friend’s scent of her apartment. Most people tend to notice a smell as soon as we enter the door, but then the smell goes away. For the lucky people with a chemical intolerance though, that smell persists. And in some cases, we perceive that it’s getting stronger.
This hypersensitivity is due to our brain activity. People without a chemical intolerance showed a reduction in brain activity to certain smells over a period of time, while those with an intolerance did not. The inability to grow accustomed to certain smells was seen by heightened reactions in the brain, leading researchers to believe that it’s not all in our heads–or noses, as the case may be. Being intolerant to certain smells is something we are hard-wired for.
The study also showed that sensitivity to smell impacts the entire body, including the nose and mouth. Chemically intolerant people react stronger to substances that irritate the mucous linings of their nose and mouth, and they cough more when they inhale something like capsaicin, the hot compound in chili peppers. Interestingly enough, the researchers also report that up to 10% of the Swedish population are bothered by everyday smells, whereas roughly 2% experience severe symptoms.
I’ve always thought I had a smell disorder. Certain perfumes and colognes, in particular, really bother me. I get headaches and am just generally grossed-out by their strong smells. My husband usually doesn’t notice the smells I do, leading him to believe that I smell things that aren’t really there–sort of a phantom smeller, I guess. But, I was the first to detect a dead squirrel in our attic once. I am able to determine that certain foods have gone bad in our refrigerator the minute I walk in the door. And I can be downstairs and tell if our kids have dirty laundry upstairs that hasn’t made its way to the washer yet.
Of course, this hypersensitivity also comes with certain downfalls. I must confess that I once threw out my mother’s “God-awful” perfume and claimed I didn’t know what happened to it, simply because I couldn’t take it anymore. I’ve also changed seats at the movie theater more than once to get away from “old lady” or “old man” smells. And one time I even had to ask an employee to stop wearing her perfume to work. I mean, it trailed behind her like Pigpen.
But, at least now, thanks to science, I can say I have a medical explanation for my “rude”behavior.
Photo: perfumeshrine.blogspot.com
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Gossiping May Be Malicious, But Here’s Why It’s Good For Our Health
As much as we don’t like to admit it, most of us probably gossip from time to time. Learning that so-and-so just broke up with so-and-so can be too juicy to keep to ourselves, right? It’s malicious, back-stabbing and reputation-ruining, but that doesn’t stop us. And according to a new study, it might not have to. Researchers are now saying that this so-called “information sharing” can actually be good for our social and psychological health. Here’s why.
Published in this month’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, scientists tested “prosocial” gossip, which is essentially warning others about untrustworthy or dishonest people.
For the study, researchers conducted four experiments. First, they observed 51 volunteers playing a game. When one player did not play by the rules and hoarded points, the observers’ heart rates increased, and most seized the opportunity to slip a “gossip note” to warn new players which helped to alleviate their negative feelings and frustration.
The second experiment had 111 participants fill out a questionnaire about their levels of altruism and cooperativeness. When they noticed that one player had cheated, observers reported feelings of frustration, and once again felt better after passing a gossip note to others.
In the third experiment (the most interesting of all), participants were asked to pay money if they wanted to send a gossip note. And a large majority of them agreed and forked over the cash to gossip.
And in the last experiment, 300 participants from around the country were recruited via Craigslist to play several trust games online. When players were told that others could potentially gossip about them, most became more generous in the game. It seems that the threat of being gossiped changed their behavior to be a better person.
C-author of the study, Robb Willer, said:
Gossip gets a bad rap, but we’re finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the maintenance of social order.
Oh yeah, maintaining social order…that’s why we gossip. Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that sometimes it just feels good to know how messed-up someone else’s life is compared to our own.
Photo: Thinkstock
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Yes, Even Mentally Ill Women Have Reproductive Rights
File this in the really, they can do that? category: A judge in Massachusetts tried to order a mentally ill pregnant woman to have an abortion, and thereafter be sterilized. Thankfully, an appeals court intervened.
According to the Boston Globe, the 32-year-old pregnant woman, identified by the pseudonym Mary Moe, was schizophrenic, bipolar and had been hospitalized several times. Earlier this month, judge Christina Harms declared her incompetent, and ordered her to have an abortion, even though she was Catholic and opposed it. The judge said she could be “coaxed, bribed, or even enticed” into hospital for the surgery. He also directed that she be sterilized “to avoid this painful situation from recurring in the future.”
Whoa, right? Even if the woman was incompetent or unable to care for a child, the judge could certainly have ruled that, instead of having an abortion against her wishes, she give the baby up for adoption. I’m not one of those abortions-are-bad-because-all-babies-could-be-adopted! types, but it does seem like a pretty good option when a woman doesn’t want an abortion but can’t care for a child. And I’m pretty sure forced sterilization is never okay.
The state’s appeals court struck down the decision, writing:
“The personal decision whether to bear or beget a child is a right so fundamental that it must be extended to all persons, including those who are incompetent.’’
It also balked at the sterilization order, “a directive that several legal specialists said they had not heard of in recent memory,” according to the Globe.
“No party requested this measure, none of the attendant procedural requirements has been met, and the judge appears to have simply produced the requirement out of thin air.”
Of course in situations like these there needs to be balance between respecting the reproductive and bodily autonomy rights of mentally ill women, and the interests of any children they might conceive. And there is the health of unborn baby in utero to consider—Moe apparently refuses to even acknowledge she is pregnant or get obstetrical care. But if we started policing how much care or testing every pregnant woman receives … well, as Jezebel’s Anna North notes, that’s a slippery slope:
Abortion politics get complicated when the pregnant person is mentally ill or very young — but when we start taking away the right to choose based on our own view of mental competence, we go down a very slippery slope. A fourteen-year-old girl needs the right to carry her pregnancy to term, even if her family doesn’t like it — and similarly, we can’t start stripping away women’s reproductive rights because they have schizophrenia. [...] Sadly, this country has a long history of forcibly sterilizing those the government deems “feeble-minded” or otherwise defective. Part of atoning for that crime is to make sure that we stay out of the business of deciding who’s worthy of having a kid.
Besides which, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are not untreatable. Even severely mentally ill women can get better. Sometimes mental illness is even triggered or compounded by pregnancy.
I don’t know much about the laws (or ethical thinking) on making women in situations like these get an IUD, but that seems like a potential solution—IUDs are safe, long-lasting and reversible. And women who are truly a danger to themselves or their fetuses while pregnant could be placed under supervised care. At any rate, there are less extreme ways than abortion and sterilization to look out for the health of even the most severely mentally ill women and their unborn children.
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Strange TODAY Show Story Reminds Us That “Hysteria” Is Still A Thing
Yesterday on the TODAY Show, a group of 12 teenage girls from New York discussed the sudden, bizarre onset of a Tourette’s-esque disorder that’s resulted, for no clear reason, in all of them displaying tics, twitches, and uncontrollable outbursts. And while the epidemic itself sounds strange and interesting (there’s a RadioLab about a similar outbreak), it’s the clinical diagnosis by a doctor on the show that made me pause–Conversion disorder…or mass hysteria. Really? With it’s gendered, pejorative, and non-scientific roots, that’s still a word that’s being used medically?
The ailment that’s befallen the girls who appeared on the TODAY show may be slightly beyond the reaches of an easy medical conclusion–it’s a pretty strange set of behaviors, and all environmental causes have been rules out–but is hysteria really the right word to apply to a group of a dozen teenagers, who are already prone to being talked about and viewed in diminutive terms? Doesn’t that sort of downplay the severity of the experience for the people suffering?
Hysteria, which is usually used to describe a frantic, irrational, or uncontrolled state of mind (you know, like the way women get) has a pretty loaded background. Stemming from both the Greek and Latin words for “uterus,” hysteria is essentially what medical professionals used to diagnose crazy women with, when their wombs were to blame for their insanity or irrational thought processes. In the past, it’s been used to describe everything from psychotic episodes to mild mania.
And, it seems, it’s still being widely applied to situations of extreme group behavior and unexplained oddities. Like the one of the twitching girls in New York. And to be honest, I didn’t realize it was still something I could be diagnosed with, if I were to present with womanly symptoms, like uncontrollable tics or a frenzied state of mind.
The meaning has shifted away from the uterus-specific roots, but the implications are still there. Linking fragility of mind to the female reproductive organs still sits a little uncomfortably with me–and I don’t think I’m alone. And while it’s true that medicine seems to always be the last to know when a word has simply become too incorrect or too loaded to use–many medical professionals were using or continue to use “transvestite” to describe those in the transgender community–hysteria is definitely one that’s long past its prime.
Regardless of what’s found to be the cause of the girls’ behavior–there are plenty of junior detectives on TODAY Show’s Facebook page ranging from vaccines to mold toxicity to other rare neurological disorders, and I’m fairly sure none of them are correct–the final, gendered, inconclusive, umbrella-term, diagnosis is what’s bothersome. Maybe it’s time to finally get that particular diagnosis off the books, or at least, re-name it to something less specific to my womanly parts.
Here’s the video of the TODAY Show segment. What do you think?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Image: The TODAY Show
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
How Anxiety Could Be Wrecking Your Physical Health
Even though a reported 20% of the American population is now on mental health drugs, we still don’t talk about the related conditions and diseases nearly enough. Yes, depression makes the headlines often and people are finally becoming more open about it, but what other other mental health conditions like anxiety? That’s one that affects 40 million adults in the U.S., but do you really know what it is and how to tell if you are suffering from it? And do you know how it can affect your physical health? To find out, we consulted Dr. Catherine Ulbricht, founder of Natural Standard Research Collaboration, clinician at Massachusetts General Hospital and author of Natural Standard, The Authority on Integrative Medicine. Here is what she had to say:
What exactly is anxiety and why don’t we hear as much about it as depression?
Anxiety is an unpleasant complex combination of emotions including fear, worry, and nervousness. It originates from a person’s often excessive and unrealistic thoughts about a perceived threat, event, or other situation and may hinder physical and psychological abilities. Anxiety disorders are sometimes more difficult to diagnose than depression, and as a result may be misdiagnosed and under-reported.
Is anxiety as common as depression?
According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA), anxiety disorders affect 40 million adults age 18 and older in the United States. This totals 18% of the U.S. population and women are 60% more likely to be affected than men. Interestingly enough though, only 39% of those with anxiety disorders are receiving treatment.
If someone is suffering from anxiety, how would they know it? Wouldn’t some people just tend to think they are more high-strung or nervous by nature?
While most people are affected by some form of mild anxiety over common life events, generalized or severe forms of anxiety are characterized by more than typical everyday worries. They’re often accompanied by specific physical and psychological symptoms. More extreme types of anxiety disorders may cause the person to become unable to perform normal everyday activities, such as performing their job or going grocery shopping, and it may seriously affect both short-term and long-term physical health. A diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder is given when a person worries excessively about everyday problems for at least 6 months.
Demi Moore Reportedly Hospitalized Over ‘Whip-Its’; Couldn’t She Have Just Had Some Wine?
Gossiping May Be Malicious, But Here’s Why It’s Good For Our Health
Heather Locklear In Hospital For Booze And Drugs; So What If She Has Mental Issues?
Depression, SAD Or Just A Funk: The Differences And How To Cope
We know there are a number of ways anxiety affects us mentally, but how about physically? Can it wreak havoc on our bodies?
Of course. The primary symptoms of anxiety disorders are fear and worry. However, anxiety disorders are also characterized by additional emotional and physical symptoms. Physical symptoms of anxiety negatively affect the brain, heart, lungs, muscles, stomach, and overall bodily functions. This may lead to inability to function normally and may seriously affect many systems in the body over time.
What are some of the short-terms effects anxiety can have on our bodies?
Short-term effects of anxiety affect many organs and systems in the body, including the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurological, respiratory, and muscular systems. Cardiovascular symptoms involve the heart and blood vessels and include heart palpitations (irregular heartbeat) and angina (chest pain). Gastrointestinal symptoms involve the stomach and digestive tract and include stomach upset, nausea, and diarrhea. Neurological symptoms involve the brain and nerves and include vertigo (dizziness), insomnia (inability to sleep), irritability, hot flashes or chills, and overall mental confusion. Respiratory symptoms involve the lungs and include shortness of breath or difficult, labored breathing. Muscular symptoms include tremors and muscle tension or aches.
What about longer-term effects? How can unresolved anxiety affect our physical health after months or years?
Long-term effects of misdiagnosed, unresolved, or inadequately treated anxiety involve the same areas, but in a more extreme form. For example, the cardiovascular effects may include hypertension, recurrent heart attacks, and worsening of mitral valve prolapse. Gastrointestinal effects may include worsening of indigestion, heartburn, ulcers, and irritable bowel syndrome. Neurological effects may include chronic tension headaches and worsening of other pre-existing psychological conditions such as depression and bipolar disorder. Endocrine effects may include worsening of adrenal gland dysfunction, blood sugar disorders including hyperglycemia, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Effects on the respiratory system may include worsening of pre-existing asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
What are some of the most extreme ways anxiety can affect our physical health?
Anxiety has been associated with an increased risk of heart attack. Anxiety disorders may also lead to development of alcoholism and other forms of substance abuse, delusions, and an increased risk for suicide. Individuals with some forms of anxiety, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, may experience physical injury such as skin problems from excessive washing, injuries from repetitive physical acts, and hair loss from repeated hair pulling.
OK, how about treatments for all of this? What are some of the best ways to deal with these physical effects?
Treatments are specific to the cause of anxiety, but can include counseling, psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy. You can also incorporate physical exercise, relaxation therapies for stress reduction, such as meditation, yoga, and deep-breathing exercises, eating a healthy diet and making sure you get adequate sleep. Medications, including anti-anxiety agents and antidepressants or thyroid-regulating medication can also help.
Also, there are other alternative therapies, such as St. John’s wort, acupuncture and certain herbs, but those have unclear or conflicting reports of effectiveness.
Anxiety may have very negative effects on work, school, and relationships, and may decrease the individual’s overall health. It affects each person differently, and so it is necessary to consult with a healthcare provider for treatments specific to one’s individual condition. Individuals experiencing severe symptoms that are not easily treated or that do not quickly subside, should seek immediate medical attention.
Photo: Thinkstock
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Masterpiece Revivals: 5 Downton Abbey-Inspired Trends We’d Rather See Than Recipes
Tonight brings the second episode of eagerly-anticipated Downton Abbey‘s second season. But with the hit Masterpiece Theatre show has come a flurry of recipes inspired by the show which, aside from this cute Garden Cake from Apartment Therapy, is a trend we find less-than-exciting. World War I-era British food? No thanks. Most of it isn’t wholly appetizing; even the cute tea cakes and scones aren’t what you’d call ‘healthy.’ But that doesn’t mean we can’t draw some inspiration from the show.
In lieue of meat pie, meat stew and pastries, here are five healthier Downton Abbey-themed trends we’d like to revive:
current_scroll = 1; gallery_size = 5;
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Heather Locklear In Hospital For Booze And Drugs; So What If She Has Mental Issues?
After reportedly taking a dangerous mix of prescription drugs and alcohol, Heather Locklear was rushed to the hospital by ambulance yesterday afternoon, leaving many to question her mental state. And while that’s a valid concern, let’s not rip her apart for something that any of us could be vulnerable to.
Apparently Locklear’s sister called 911 worried about Heather’s state of mind and afraid she was going to harm herself. When the fire department, along with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department responded, paramedics examined Heather and agreed that the 50-year-old star needed to be hospitalized.
This is not the first time Locklear has reportedly had a medical emergency due to drugs. In 2008, her doctor thought the actress may have overdosed on prescription meds and called 911. The operator described the situation as a “suicide attempt”, although it turned out to be a false alarm.
Speculations (a.k.a. gossip) are swirling that Locklear’s recently called-off engagement to Jack Wagner may have contributed to a weakened mental state, causing her to overdose on booze and pills. No one’s clear if this was a suicide attempt or just a lapse in judgment due to depression or other emotions, but one thing is clear: Locklear is just like the rest of us. Not that we’re all likely to overdose, but we are all vulnerable to different emotional states, be it depression, anxiety, stress or an inability to cope with a difficult situation from time to time.
I think sometimes we put celebrities up on a pedestal and expect them to be perfect. Then when they fall, it’s such major news. But if you consider the fact that one in 20 Americans is depressed today, for example, it’s really not all that shocking when someone in the public eye struggles with a mental health condition.
Like I said, they are human too. The good news is that Locklear’s parents say she is now “medically stable” and is going to be just fine. Let’s just hope the same holds true for her “mental stability” and that she can get the treatment she needs to feel well again.
Photo: askmen.com
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Internet Makes Your Brain Act Like Its On Drugs; We’d Rather Get Drunk
In news that makes us think about how much time we actually spend on the Internet, researchers now say our inability to log off could be due to Internet addiction (not because we tell ourselves that we just have to see if so-and-so responds to our Facebook post or if we can get to the next level of whatever mind-numbing game we are playing).
This so-called addiction is very real according to a new study that says it creates changes in our brains similar to the effect of drugs and alcohol. Am I the only one who thinks that gaming is lame? If you want to get high, why not just go out and party, right? (In moderation, of course.)
But that’s not entirely realistic. Maybe because this research was conducted with underage 17-year-old. OK, they need to avoid all drugs and alcohol, but how about getting “high” with exercise? Just saying. Maybe that’s a shameless plug to get more kids exercising, but hey, as any runner knows, there is not much else that’s better than a runner’s high.
Anyway, researchers in China scanned the brains of these teens who are web addicts and found some interesting effects on their brains when they were online–gaming, for the most part. Apparently, the changes were similar to brain alterations observed in people addicted to alcohol and cocaine. Yikes.
And prior studies tell us that it’s not just uninspired, socially-awkward teens who can’t turn off the Internet. Nearly 69% of adult Americans are Internet users and almost 14% of us admit that it’s hard to stay away from it for a few days. Another 6% also say it negatively impacts our relationships, while almost 8% say they hide their real Internet usage from friends and family.
Worried that you might be an Internet addict? Unless you’re one of the 5-10% of the population who uses the Internet for hours of gaming without food and drink while and neglecting, say, your job or your family, you are probably not. Then again, there are probably plenty who do the exact same thing in front of the TV.
Still, if we’re looking for a high, we’d vote for an occasional girl’s night out with a glass or three of wine instead.
Photo: Thinkstock
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Depression, SAD Or Just A Funk: The Differences And How To Cope
The holidays are over, and that means you’re either jumping for joy because you’re finally rid of the stress, extended family and expectations of the season, or you’re possibly sinking into a case of the post-festivity blues. While feeling a bit of a let-down after a major event is normal, if your mood has turned into a general “funk” or feelings of depression that you just can’t shake, you’re not alone.
From Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) to depression, the winter blues are more common than you think. To find out the differences and how to deal with them without just trying to will yourself to “get happy”, we consulted with Dr. Deborah Serani, an author and psychologist specializing in depression. Take a look at our conversation:
Even though the holidays are over along with most of its related stress, how common is depression right now?
Most people are getting back to the monotony of daily life after the high octane holidays, so feeling blue or holiday let-down are common experiences. The most common form of depression that spikes from November through spring is the subtype that has a seasonal onset, commonly called Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Many people I know talk about being in a “funk”. Is that a state of depression too?
To be human is to experience an array of different emotions. We can feel upbeat and hopeful, cool and unconcerned, frustrated or in a funk in a given day, even in a given moment. It’s important to remember that how long a funk lasts and its intensity will help determine if you’re dealing with a true clinical condition. If your funk lasts several weeks, it’s a good idea to contact a professional and get things checked out medically and psychologically. Remember, there are medical conditions that can look like depression (hypothyroidism, anemia).
And what exactly is SAD? And how common is that?
It’s important to clarify what SAD really is. It’s a Major Depressive Disorder with a seasonal onset. SAD affects millions worldwide, primarily those living in higher latitudes from the equator and generally affects women more than men. Research reports approximately 3% of children experience SAD, with girls having a higher rate of the disorder than boys. Interestingly, SAD has existed for more than 150 years, but was only recognized as a disorder in the early 1980s. Remember, SAD is a type of Major Depression. The difference though, is that symptoms resolve each spring and tend to occur again in late fall.
So how can we tell the difference between being in a funk, SAD and being depressed?
Again words like “chronicity” (the time or duration of your symptoms) and “pervasiveness” (if your symptoms cut across your daily life from morning to evening, at work, at home, etc.) and “intensity” (mild, moderate, severe) will help determine if you are living with a clinical disorder or just moving through a blue phase. In this day of apps, tech devices and portable phones, you can track your daily moods to get a sense of what you’re experiencing each day.
Is it possible that some people walk around in any one of these states and don’t even know it?
Simply said, yes. The only world we know is the one we live in. That’s why knowledge is power. I’ve worked with many individuals who didn’t realize they were living with a mood disorder. If you read about depression and measure it against your own experiences, you may discover that you have a real medical condition. And with that awareness comes the hope that a healthier, more uplifting life awaits you.
There are certainly days when all of us just want to stay in our pajamas and watch TV all day. How long before we know that’s a problem?
A couple of days is not a big deal. More than that should raise some eyebrows. Moving onto a week is likely to signal some alarms. And longer than 10 days to two weeks tips the scale that something more serious is going on. Remember, being able to shake off a sad, blue or depressed state is not a testimony of one’s merit or strength. It doesn’t signify that you’re weak or lazy or unable to “buck up” and be strong if you can’t “feel better”. Mood disorders are a real medical condition. Emerging out of a depression is like saying you can change your blue eyes to brown by just willing so.
Will any of these cases of the “blahs” tend to resolve themselves or do we always have to seek some sort of treatment?
I never think feelings just evaporate into thin air. We help them move on by feeling them and using problem solving techniques. If we don’t feel them and shove them aside, they find a way to come back, which forces the feeling-them-and-problem-solving issue back on the table! Give yourself some time to work through the bumps in life’s road, but should you find yourself stuck on the shoulder, or unable to get back on the highway at all, that’s when you should consider reaching out for professional help.
Related posts: Post from: Blisstree
Healthiest Cities: What Does This Actually Mean?
Men’s and Women’s Health magazines have ranked the ‘healthiest U.S. cities‘ for each gender, with Raleigh, N.C. topping the list for women and Burlington, Vermont topping the list for men. But what does that actually mean? And can you be healthy in an ‘unhealthy’ city?
Rankings like these—based on 30 different criteria, ranging from obesity and breast cancer rates to how often residents saw doctors to the percentage of adults who ate the recommended daily serving of fruits and vegetables—take a pretty comprehensive approach. But I still feel like these types of surveys often miss the mark, or at least don’t tell me enough about how possible it is to live healthily in different cities.
Why do rankings of ‘healthiest’ places—cities, states, countries—captivate our attention the way they do, anyway? Can you actually glean meaningful information from this data? I’m not sure. We can certainly see patterns like ‘diabetes is more common in certain southern states’ and infer that something about lifestyle in those states gives rise to more diabetes, right? But it tells us nothing meaningful about how easy (or not) healthy living and eating are in a given city, how possible it is to be a healthy, eco-friendly person there.
Women’s Health editor Sascha de Gersdorff acknowledges this.
“Southern states fare worse,” said de Gersdorff. “That’s not surprising. Obesity rates there are among the highest. The percentage of people who eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables is quite low.”
She said the bottom 10 also suffered higher rates of illness, including heart disease and cancer, compared to the top 10.
“But these are obviously averages and of course it is possible to be healthy there,” she added.
I guess stats like overall obesity rates and incidences of depression are supposed to, taken all together, stand as a proxy for how possible it is to live a healthy lifestyle in some place. But sometimes that just tells us where a city has been, not where it’s going.
I’d like to see cities rated not on how healthy residents currently are in some broad swatch of measures, but on that city’s potential for promoting healthy living amongst residents. While I guess it’s good to know how many residents in an area have heart attacks or get yearly Pap smears or work long hours, I’d rather know how walkable a city is; how many farmer’s markets CSAs or other opportunities for buying local produce it provides; how many healthy restaurants are in the area; whether the streets are safe for walking and biking and how prevalent grocery stores are (can I buy a tomato or onion without getting in the car?).
Big cities tend to vary by neighborhood in a lot of these areas, but stats like these could at least give you a fuzzy overall picture.
And because I know you’re curious: The magazine’s 10 healthiest cities for women include Raleigh and Burlington; Madison, Wisc.; San Jose, Boise, Austin and Virginia Beach. The 10 unhealthiest (for both sexes) include Memphis, Tenn.; Birmingham, Alabama; Philadelphia; Detroit; St. Louis; Kansas City; and both Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio. You can see the whole list—100 cities ranked—here.
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
4 Million Americans Are Constipated: 5 Foods To Help ‘Relieve’ This Problem
It’s OK, you’re not alone. A whopping 4 million Americans have trouble in the bathroom department, and let’s face it, being constipated is not fun. It not only makes us bloated, but it can cause cramping, gas, headaches and all-around irritability.
Constipation is often the result of consuming too little fiber, but it can also be caused by certain medications, hormones and Iron supplements. In addition to drinking more water and exercising more (even certain yoga poses can help) adding more fiber to your diet is a simple remedy. The average adult needs between 25 and 30 grams of fiber a day to ward off constipation–which is far less than most of us typically eat.
So, for all 4 million of us who suffer from occasional constipation, here are five of the best foods that can help “relieve” that problem. You can thank us in the morning!
Photo: thinkstock
current_scroll = 1; gallery_size = 5;
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Study Says Brain Function Declines At Age 45; Possibly Explaining John McCain’s Recent ‘Senior Moment’
We used to think that we had a lot longer before we had to worry about those embarrassing “Now why did I come in here?” and “What was I going to say?” and in the case of John McCain, “Who was I endorsing?” moments. That’s because scientists used to say our mental abilities didn’t start to deteriorate until age 60. But now there’s new research out about the declining state of our brains at the not-so-old age of just 45. Gads.
In a study published in the British Medical Journal, over 7,000 British folks had their brain function analyzed. For men and women who were between 45 and 49 when first tested, the ability to reason declined 3.6% over the next decade. The decline was even faster for people in their 50s and 60s, especially men.
In addition to reasoning, other mental abilities that faded after the age of 45 included memory, and verbal fluency, which measures a person’s ability to quickly say words in a particular category.
Hey, maybe this could explain Senator John McCain’s recent “senior moment” while he was supposed to be campaigning for Mitt Romney.
On the campaign trail last week, the 75-year-old apparently forgot who he was campaigning for and mistakenly endorsed Obama, not Romney.
I am confident with the leadership and the backing of the American people, President Obama will turn this country around. We believe in America. We believe that our best days are ahead of us…
OK, OK, we know he’s well beyond 45 years old, but it was a funny senior moment, to say the least. And somehow, it makes us feel better when we lose our keys. Again.
Take a look:
Photo: blogrunner.com
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
From Gluten-Intolerance To Disordered Eating: Celiac Sufferers At Risk
Does gluten intolerance lead to depression and disordered eating? That’s what researchers from Penn State are saying, after finding that women with celiac disease were at a higher risk for both depression and eating issues—regardless of whether they were on a gluten-free diet.
Celiac disease—a condition in which eating gluten triggers damage to the small intestine lining that prevents the body from properly absorbing nutrients—has previously been linked to depression. And it’s not just because the intestinal damage causes awful symptoms, like cramping, gas, vomiting and diarrhea; or because avoiding all wheat, barley and rye—all of which contain gluten—really sucks. No, the small intestine’s failure to absorb essential nutrients—like zinc, tryptophan and B vitamins—can actually trigger depression by halting production of neurochemicals like serotonin (food and mood are so linked!). A 1998 study found about one-third of those with celiac disease were also clinically depressed.
But if we accept all of that, than eating a gluten-free diet should eventually end a celiac patient’s depressive symptoms. Which—according to this new Penn State study—isn’t the case. The researchers looked at 177 women with celiac disease, most of whom did adhere to a gluten-free diet. Avoiding gluten was “related to increased vitality, lower stress, decreased depressive symptoms and greater overall emotional health,” said study co-author Josh Smyth.
“However, even those people who were managing their illness very well reported higher rates of stress, depression and a range of issues clustered around body image, weight and shape when compared to the general population.”
Now perhaps the increased depression rates can still be attributed to nutrient deficiencies—even after going on a gluten-free diet, it can take someone with celiac disease as long as two or three years to fully catch up, and the study doesn’t say how long participants had been eating gluten-free.
But how to explain the body-image and disordered eating issues? The researchers aren’t sure. Does the obsessive focus that avoiding all gluten requires trigger an unhealthy relationship to food? Are eating issues triggered by depression? Or can the higher depression rates—even in those on a gluten-free diet—be explained as a consequence of disordered eating?
“What we don’t know is what leads to what and under what circumstances,” Smyth said in a Penn State press release. “It’s likely that the disease, stress, weight, shape and eating issues, and depression are interconnected. But we don’t know if women with both higher stress and celiac disease are more likely to develop symptoms of disordered eating and then become depressed, or if women with celiac disease are depressed and then become stressed, which leads to disordered eating. In the future, we plan to investigate the temporal sequence of these symptoms.”
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Eva Longoria Says Thinness Isn’t A Good Measure of Health
In an interview with Health magazine, 36-year-old Eva Longoria spoke about her eating habits and exercise, but she also pressed an important point: That health isn’t only about what you look like, eat, or do at the gym. Specifically, she points out that being thin doesn’t equal being healthy, despite what so many tabloids have trained us to think.
When asked about how she defines a healthy life, Longoria responded:
People think health only has to do with your physical being, but for me, it’s so much more. I remember after my divorce, I was so thin and everyone kept saying how great I looked and it was probably the most unhealthy place I’ve ever been. So it was funny what people would see as “healthy.” In my worst time, people were saying I’ve never looked better. [But now] I have a great diet and exercise routine. And I try to have a healthy outlook. I’m your everlasting, hopeless optimist!
Although she does get into details about her diet and workout, it’s nice to get this reminder that weight loss isn’t always a sign that someone has a good handle on their health. And, thankfully, the rest of her interview doesn’t read like a bunch of pro-ana tips. Kudos, Health!
Photo: Health
Related posts:
Post from: Blisstree
Blogroll
- Black Triangle
- CorpWatch : Pharmaceuticals
- FiercePharma
- Health Affairs Blog
- Healthbolt
- HealthLawBlog
- Medical Marketing and Media
- Nation Master Stats: Health Category
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases
- NHS Blog Doctor
- Pharmaceutical Technology
- PharmaGossip
- Pharmalot
- Pharmamanufacturing.com | Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
- ScienceBlogs Channel : Medicine
- ScienceRoll
- Trusted.MD - Medical Marketing