Healthy Aging: Body, Mind & Spirit

Why optimism is the best medicine

I’ve always thought that optimism beats the heck out of pessimism…

Why?  How much fun can it be to always expect the worst from others, and the world in general?  How can that improve your day or your life?

Now, a recent article in the journal CIRCULATION provides hard evidence that optimism and health are directly connected.

Researchers studied nearly 100,000 women over eight years, tracking how many heart attacks they suffered and how long they lived.  Their conclusion?  Optimism is good for you!  Optimists had a 16% lower risk of having a heart attack.  A 2004 study of nearly 1000 elderly Dutch people also found a connection between optimism and a lowered risk of death from heart disease.

So what is the specific mechanism behind these findings?  Scientists aren’t sure.  If we are predisposed to more positive future expectations, we are more likely to have a can-do attitude about improving our health and our lives.  We know there is a better way to live and so we find it.

Pessimists habitually view life as a bunch of setbacks, permanent, unchangeable and pervasive, so they feel helpless when things go wrong.  These attitudes tend to increase stress and contribute to depression.  And depression is never helpful when we need to do some serious problem solving.

However, being optimistic does not mean taking a “don’t worry, be happy” approach.  Excessive optimism can lead to making some terrible choices.  Believing that bad things cannot happen to you can lead to taking too many risk of getting a bad infection, or smoking because you don’t believe you could ever get lung cancer.  Bad things can and do happen to optimists.  They just don’t spend their entire lives expecting the worst!

There is new type of resilience training to help convert pessimists to a more positive world view.  The key to this training is learning to recognize your natural thought patterns.  By identifying your own negative patterns of thought, you can learn to then replace them with more positive alternatives.  This training usually requires work with an experienced therapist.

This is exactly the focus of my own practice.  As a life change coach, I take my clients’ negative perceptions about themselves and their future, and turn them around.  I teach them how to face whatever happens next in their life, with optimism and curiosity instead of anger or fear.  I teach them how to always ask, “What can I learn about myself from this misfortune?”

Most of us have a gigantic and irrational fear of changing our lives.  We fear that change can only lead to bad outcomes.  When, in actuality, the only way our lives CAN improve is to make major changes in our attitudes, our thought patterns and our lives.

I know.  I’ve changed just about everything in the past few years!  It was not easy, but it has been sooooooooooooooooooo worth it!

“Only those who risk going too far, can possibly find out how far one can go.”    T.S. Eliot

How to lose your belly fat

For years we’ve heard the same old conventional wisdom: eat less and exercise more to lose weight.  Americans have spent billions on diet programs which offer them less food with less nutrition.

New studies suggest the key to weight loss and maintenance is eating a diet that keeps our insulin levels low.  The hormone insulin helps your body store fat, and makes sure it stays put.  This means that if you control insulin, you control fat.  It’s that simple.

Eating too much sugar (in ANY FORM!) makes you fat, by triggering insulin.  It’s also linked to aging, cancer and a compromised immune system.  If you would immediately cut your sugar intake down to 10-15 grams per day (a couple teaspoons), you would greatly reduce your risk for illness, diabetes and cancer.  Cutting down on your body’s production of insulin is key to reducing fat production.  One apple equals 12 grams of sugar.  The American Heart Association recently suggested limiting sugar consumption to under six teaspoons per day.

It is also important to increase the fiber in your diet.  Fiber promotes belly fat loss by creating optimum digestive health.  When you do consume sugar, if you eat it with a good amount of fiber, like an apple, you ease the amount of  sugar going directly into your system.  Artichokes, oats, beans and whole grain products are excellent sources of fiber.  Also add a morning dose of acidophilus to your diet to promote intestinal health!

Exercise to strengthen and tone your muscles and to relieve stress, not to look better.

I know of what I speak from personal experience!  I cut out all sugar, alcohol, antibiotics, most dairy and artificial sweeteners (EXCEPT STEVIA) from my diet this past April, because of an overwhelmingly bad case of Candida overgrowth.  I limited my diet to meat and vegetables and then added in a few apples and blueberries gradually.  And amazingly enough, I found that I was hardly ever hungry!

I now bake my own breads and desserts so I can make them with Stevia instead of sugar.  And I feel 1000% better, lost 20 pounds and inches from my waist and thighs!  The weight comes off slowly, but it does come off.

A friend of mine had terrible headaches and sinus infections with lots of antibiotics for about a year.  Then she spoke to me and cut the sugar and aspartame (Diet Coke) out completely.  A few weeks later,  she’s feeling so much better!

Learn to choose healthier snacks.  Popcorn (my personal favorite!) reigns supreme among whole grain snack foods, with the highest level of antioxidants.  Focus on looking for whole grain snacks (the first ingredient in the list), which are rich in antioxidants.

To learn more about what I learned through my own transitions, please read my books: Midlife Magic: Becoming the person you are inside! and my Midife Change Workbook.

The Positive Power of Nostalgia

CBS Sunday Morning had a great study of nostalgia yesterday!

They asked the question:  Is nostalgia good for you, or is it just another form of depression?

There are scientists who actually study our desire to re-live old memories, why we do it, and what it does for us.

By focusing on past experiences, we may re-connect with important people, shared feelings, and learning experiences.  We may also remember who we were back then, reflect on the good times, and realize our own power and resilience to survive in the worst of times.

Sometimes contemplating how we lived through past difficulties, reminds us of our amazing internal strength and then gives us the energy to move on to better times in our future.  Much like in that old movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” we may realize what might have been, if we had never existed at all.

Smell is the sense which elicits some of our strongest experiences of nostalgia.  Scientists have found that smells bring back memories faster than any other sense.  According to Dr. Alan Hirsch, a neurologist, smells get to our brains faster than sounds or sights, due to odors’ direct path from our noses to our brains.  This also creates “a direct path to the emotional areas of the brain.”

“The quickest way to change somebody’s mood, state of behavior, quicker than with any other sense modality, is with smell,” says Hirsch.  “You smell, and you immediately decide, I like it, or, I don’t like it.”

And smell related memories are different depending on where you were raised in the U.S.  If you were raised on the East coast, the smell of flowers brings back strong childhood memories, in the Midwest it’s the smell of farm animals, and for those from the West, the smell of meat grilling elicits powerful childhood memories.

But beware!  Advertisers also study these natural body reactions.  They may use your childhood memories to lure you in!  Note the 1960′s music in some of your favorite commercials.

For most of us, nostalgia takes us back to a place where we ache to go again.  The sights and sounds of going to Grandma’s house for dinner or going camping with the family as a child.  Things that corrolate with fond memories of belonging and feeling a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Is it healthier to live near open space?

Some Dutch scientists say YES!

Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the authors studied the medical charts of 345,000 people in Holland, noting each person’s address and how close it was to a park, a large garden or some other green open space area.

People living near a green space had lower rates of 15 out of 24 diseases including asthma, diabetes, intestinal complaints, and back problems.  Links were strongest for depression and anxiety.

This Dutch study is the first large-scale look at the relationship between open space and health conditions which relies on medical data rather than individuals’ perceptions of their own health.  Researchers urge urban planners to take this data into consideration when designing future communities.

Harvard experts tell you how to age well…

If you’re worried about your well-being, Harvard experts across an array of fields have some advice:  Eat thoughtfully, exercise often, raise your children well, stash a few bucks away, and stop thinking it’s all about you.  Click here to read full article.

Caffeine may reverse memory loss

In a recent study at the University of South Florida, mice drank caffeinated water daily.  Just a few months later, the mice with dementia scored as well as normal mice on memory tests.

“We may have a therapy for Alzheimer’s right under our nose,”  says neuroscientist Gary Arendash, lead author of this study.  Caffeine suppressed production of the disease-causing protein that builds up in the brain.

The mice had the equivalent of 5 cups of coffee or 10 cups of tea.  Arendash says the average American’s caffeine intake, about the amount in a cup and a half of coffee, won’t affect memory.

The caffeine effect has not been tested on humans yet, but Arendash says for now, caffeine is a readily available, inexpensive and relatively risk-free treatment that could help.

Try out some Brain Games for your mental health!

Dear Laura Lee,

My name is Kathryn and I work for an educational website called ProProfs.com. I wanted to share an addition to our site with you that can help improve mental health for free. ProProfs Brain Games includes an archive of over 4,000 games and a new feature that allows users to create their own custom games and then upload them to any webpage. Now you can make your own Brain Exercises and share them with friends and readers!

We wanted to bring this to your attention:
http://www.proprofs.com/games/
Press Release: http://www.proprofs.com/games/news

The four pillars of mental health are:
1. Mental Exercise
2. Stress Management
3. Physical Exercise
4. Nutrition

ProProfs Brain Games can help you with half the battle. Brain Games are proven to increase your ability to perform specific mental tasks and functions at normal or above skill levels. Doctors are actually prescribing Brain Games to their patients because they also help your brain deal with stress better and stave off mental diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

We invite you to try out ProProfs Brain Games for yourself – we’re sure you’ll feel smarter and enjoy every minute. If you have any questions, I’m here to help!

Thanks for your time,
Kathryn Bresnik
ProProfs.com
http://www.twitter.com/proprofs

Why so SAD?

Do you find yourself singing the winter blues this time of year?  Did you think it was just you?  Perhaps you’ve noticed a tendency to eat more and sleep more as the temperature outside drops and darkness falls earlier.

While these are all normal responses to the changing seasons, those with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) experience a much more dramatic reaction when summer changes to fall and winter.  With SAD, the shorter days and longer nights may trigger depression, lethargy, fatigue and other problems.  Don’t just brush off these symptoms if you seem to react badly to the winter blues.  Perhaps there are things you could do to improve your natural response to these symptoms.

According to the Mayo Clinic, seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression, and it can severely impair your daily life. But they have found effective therapies to help you successfully manage it.  You won’t have to dread winter forever!

Seasonal affective disorder is a cyclic, seasonal condition. This means that signs and symptoms usually come back and go away at the same times every year. Usually, SAD symptoms appear during late fall or early winter and go away during the warmer, sunnier days of spring and summer. But some people have the opposite pattern, developing seasonal affective disorder with the onset of spring or summer. In either case, problems may start out mild and become more severe as the season progresses.

Common symptoms of winter-onset seasonal affective disorder include depression, hopelessness, anxiety, loss of energy, social withdrawal, oversleeping, loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed, appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates, weight gain and difficulty concentrating and processing information.

Although seasonal affective disorder commonly begins in young adulthood, it’s uncommon in people younger than 20. Some studies show that it’s diagnosed more often in women, but that men may have more severe symptoms.

The specific cause of seasonal affective disorder remains unknown. It’s likely, as with many mental health conditions, that genetics, age and perhaps most importantly, your body’s natural chemical makeup all play a role in developing seasonal affective disorder.

Specifically, the culprits may include:

• Your circadian rhythm. Some researchers suspect that the reduced level of sunlight in fall and winter may disrupt the circadian rhythm in certain people. The circadian rhythm is a physiological process that helps regulate your body’s internal clock — letting you know when to sleep or wake. Disruption of this natural body clock may cause depression.
• Melatonin. Some researchers theorize that seasonal affective disorder may be tied to melatonin, a sleep-related hormone that, in turn, has been linked to depression. The body’s production of melatonin usually increases during the long nights of winter.
• Serotonin. Still other research suggests that a lack of serotonin, a natural brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that affects mood, may play a role. Reduced sunlight  causes a drop in serotonin, perhaps leading to depression.

The most recent Canadian research has concluded that SAD is a physiological problem rather than a psychological one.  Jeffrey Meyer, coauthor of a study which appeared in the September 2008 Archives of General Psychiatry, has proven that reduced sunlight in winter leads to decreased serotonin levels.  Sunlight helps to regulate serotonin in the blood and brain, and a lack of sunshine means less of serotonin’s feel-good substances.

Most people experience times when they feel down.  How do you know when to seek medical advice or assistance?  The experts at the Mayo Clinic suggest that if you feel down for days at a time and can’t seem to get motivated to do activities you normally enjoy, see your medical practitioner. This is particularly important if you notice that your sleep patterns and appetite have changed — and certainly if you feel hopeless, think about suicide, or find yourself turning to alcohol or other drugs for comfort or relaxation.

Like depression, it’s often possible to successfully manage SAD.   In milder cases, you may be able to take measures on your own, such as spending more time outdoors or sitting closer to bright windows while at home or in the office.   Consider adding sun exposure whenever possible in the fall and winter.  Make a point of walking or sitting in the sun at least fifteen minutes everyday when it is sunny and warm out.  Think of it as your daily sun prescription and do it regularly.

Other treatments recommended by the Mayo Clinic include:

Light therapy
Because increased sunlight improves SAD symptoms, light therapy is an alternative treatment for those with seasonal affective disorder. Light therapy mimics outdoor light and causes a biochemical change in your brain that lifts your mood, relieving symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. In light therapy, you sit a few feet from a specialized light therapy box so that you’re exposed to very bright light. Light therapy is generally easy to use and has relatively few side effects.

Medications
Some people with seasonal affective disorder benefit from treatment with antidepressants or other psychiatric medications, especially if symptoms are severe. The Food and Drug Administration has approved bupropion extended release tablets (Wellbutrin XL) for the prevention of depressive episodes in people with a history of seasonal affective disorder. Other antidepressants commonly used to treat seasonal affective disorder include Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, and Effexor.

Your doctor may recommend starting treatment with an antidepressant before your symptoms typically begin each year. He or she may also recommend that you continue to take antidepressant medication beyond the time your symptoms normally go away. This strategy can help prevent worsening of symptoms.

Keep in mind that it may take several weeks to notice full benefits from an antidepressant. In addition, you may have to try several different medications before you find one that works well and has the fewest side effects. Like other medications, all antidepressants pose the risk of side effects and some have health precautions that you and your doctor must discuss.

Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is another option to treat seasonal affective disorder. Although seasonal affective disorder is thought to be related to biochemical processes, your mood and behavior also can contribute to symptoms. Psychotherapy can help you identify and change negative thoughts and behaviors that may be making you feel worse. It can also help you manage the major stressors in your life.

There are actions you can take to help you manage seasonal affective disorder. Here are some tips to consider:

• Stick to your treatment plan. Take medications as directed and attend therapy appointments as scheduled.
• Let there be light. Make your home sunnier and brighter. Open blinds, add skylights and trim tree branches that block sunlight.
• Get out. Get outdoors on sunny days, even during winter. Take a long walk, eat lunch at a nearby park, or simply sit peacefully on a bench and soak up the sun.
• Exercise regularly. Physical exercise helps relieve stress and anxiety, both of which can increase SAD symptoms. Being more fit can make you feel better about yourself, too, which can lift your mood.
• Take care of yourself. Get enough rest, eat a balanced diet and take time to relax. Don’t turn to alcohol or other drugs for relief.
• Practice stress management. Learn how to better manage stress. Unmanaged stress can lead to depression, overeating, or other unhealthy thoughts and behaviors.
• Socialize. Stay connected with people you enjoy being around. They can offer support, a shoulder to cry on or a joke to give you a little boost.
• Take a trip. If possible, take a vacation to a sunny, warmer location if you have SAD in the winter.

Non-invasive treatments for Scoliosis

Would you like to learn more about the latest techniques for the treatment of spine disorders?  These young doctors are using spine decompression and other new therapies to successfully treat scoliosis and other back problems non-invasively.  Click here for complete article.

Networked medical records save lives!

She was just going out for a short bike ride around her local neighborhood.  It didn’t really seem necessary to carry an ID, or even wear a helmet.  Ten minutes later she was found lying on the ground unconscious on a bike path.

The bystander who found her, called 911 and an ambulance arrived soon afterwards.  Then the kind and caring Emergency Medical Technicians quickly whisked her off to the emergency room.  Her mind was constantly weaving in and out of consciousness.  Luckily she did remember her name, and the moment she answered that question posed by an emergency room nurse, the Poudre Valley Health System (PVHS) electronic medical records system provided her caretakers with her complete medical history.  All the information they needed to contact her next of kin and provide her with the best medical care in the world, was at their fingertips instantaneously.

This is a true story.  It happened to this writer only last May.  My own up close and personal stumble into a bad bike accident leading to fractured ribs and a traumatic brain injury, taught me how crucial it is for our local health care organization to have an excellent networked electronic records system.  In an emergency, seconds save lives and accurate medical information is critical.

To read the rest of this article, click here.