Clipmarks | abailart's 'health' clips

Mechanism Behind Mind-body Connection Discovered

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:47:25 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The study reveals how stress makes people more susceptible to illness. The findings also suggest a potential drug target for preventing damage to the immune systems of persons who are under long-term stress, such as caregivers to chronically ill family members, as well as astronauts, soldiers, air traffic controllers and people who drive long daily commutes.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Immune cells (stained blue) end in protective caps called telomeres (stained yellow) that are shorter in the elderly -- and in persons suffering chronic stress. A new UCLA study suggests cortisol is the culprit behind premature aging of the immune system in stressed-out people.

Every cell contains a tiny clock called a telomere, which shortens each time the cell divides. Short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging. Previous studies show that an enzyme within the cell, called telomerase, keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing.

UCLA scientists found that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase. This may explain why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres.

Tags: mind, body, health, stress

Filling the Hole Within

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:54:32 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: hole and whole

Clip Source: blogs.psychologytoday.com

We are all searching for something. What that something might be is never really a certainty, but it typically displays itself as a nagging sense of something unfinished or a thing undone that plagues our days and troubles our sleep. It is a restlessness within the human heart described by St. Augustine as "...humanity's innate desire for the infinite...

we try to fill this emptiness with things outside of ourselves -- objects, money, love, release or our perception of it, sex, drugs, new experiences, whatever is at hand. We also fail to see the sacredness in ourselves and, in doing so, visit upon ourselves all manner of violence, neglect and disregard.

What will, ultimately, fill this space? You will.

Evolving our potential is a full time occupation. It takes patience, self-acceptance, tolerance, humor, introspection and a willingness to face our own truth and speak it aloud. I

Tags: health

UK Female Prisons are MENTAL: Self-Harm, Suicide

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:22:45 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Women's wing at a prison

Sick and suicidal: plight of women in UK jails

Most women prisoners have mental health problems, and nine of out 10 were convicted of non-violent offences. Now a new study shows an alarming rise in suicides and self-harm - and behind the statistics lie ruined lives and shattered relatives. With four inquests about to open, Amelia Hill reports on the growing scandal in Britain's penal system

Kent set herself on fire in her cell

two months ago, she had already tried to hang herself twice

five weeks after her suicide attempt

lay in a medically induced coma in the intensive-care unit

third-degree burns from her thighs to her earlobes, the loss of use in her fingers and a face

she was virtually unrecognisable.

48 per cent rise in the number of self-harm incidents in women's prisons in the past five years

530 per cent increase since 2003

harm themselves an average of 6.3 times a year

increased by two thirds in just five years

female prison population

doubled between 1997 and 2006

Tags: uk, prisoners, female, suicide, health

Vegan Diet helps Arthritis Patients

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:38:44 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: seeds and nuts are my natural diet, and give me my sleek coat.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Rheumatoid arthritis patients may be able to reduce their high risk of heart attacks and strokes with a gluten-free, vegan diet, a study suggests.

Heart attacks and strokes are among the leading causes of death for sufferers, as the inflammation caused by the disease impacts upon the arteries.

But an Arthritis Research and Therapy study found those who pursued a vegan regime had less "bad" cholesterol.

They placed 38 volunteers on the diet, in which protein accounted for 10% of daily energy intake, carbohydrate 60% and fat for 30%.

It included nuts, sunflower seeds, fruit and vegetables, millet and corn. Sesame milk provided a daily source of calcium.

Tags: health, vegan diet

The Science of Siesta

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:03:51 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Research Finds That Napping Improves Brain Functioning..

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Let’s hear it for siesta time. What better news than to hear that taking midday naps are good for your grey matter? Companies that want smarter employees should let them take 90 minute midday nap-time. Researchers at the University of Haifa in cooperation with the Sleep Laboratory at the Sheba Medical Center and researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Montreal recently concluded that a daytime nap changes the course of consolidation in the brain in several positive ways. This research mirrors several other recent studies with similar conclusions.

A ninety-minute daytime nap helps speed up the process of long term memory consolidation

"We still don't know the exact mechanism of the memory process that occurs during sleep, but the results of this research suggest the possibility that it is possible to speed up memory consolidation, and in the future, we may be able to do it artificially,"

What? Artificially? Why do scientist hate REAL sleep so much?

Tags: sleep, napping, health

Sexercising keeps you fit and healthy

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:09:37 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The NHS has some new advice for people struggling to schedule a fitness routine into their daily lives - a workout between the sheets.

According to the NHS Direct website, "sexercise" can lower the risk of heart attacks and helps people live longer.

Endorphins released during orgasm stimulate immune system cells, which also helps target illnesses like cancer, as well as wrinkles, it states.

"Forget about jogging round the block or struggling with sit-ups.

"Sex uses every muscle group, gets the heart and lungs working hard, and burns about 300 calories an hour."

The advice suggests "regular romps this winter" could lead to a better body and a younger look.

Increased production of endorphins "will make your hair shine and your skin smooth," it adds.

"If you're worried about wrinkles - orgasms even help prevent frown lines from deepening."

keep mild illnesses like colds and aches and pains at bay

feeling fabulous inside and out

Tags: health

Eat Only Food

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:26:14 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.

Perhaps you're suspicious of an approach that can be summed up in just seven words - but that injunction to "eat food" is not quite as simple as it sounds.

It used to be that food was all you could eat, but today there are thousands of foodlike substances in our convenience stores and supermarkets. Brightly coloured packages boast of their low-fat, no-cholesterol, high-fibre credentials.

I write as an American and, because I know them best, I use many American examples, but the story I have to tell is no longer just an American story. The epidemic of chronic diseases - obesity, diabetes, heart disease and several types of cancer - that can be traced to the modern diet may be more advanced in the US, but today the American way of eating is spreading around the world.

Tags: food, nutrition, health

Loneliness Breeds Belief in Supernatural

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:29:58 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Chats with older folk, the church was almost an excuse for having get-togethers And I think a lot of those who live away from families really miss the extended family - that has died in Australia.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

People who feel lonely are more likely to believe in the supernatural, whether that is God, angels or miracles, a new study finds.

Humans have evolved as social creatures, so loneliness cuts to the quick. Living in groups was critical to the survival and safety of our ancient ancestors, and "complete isolation or ostracism has been tantamount to a death sentence," said University of Chicago researcher Nicholas Epley, who led the study.

While group living isn't critical to survival in the modern world, feeling socially connected is. Feeling isolated and lonely is a very painful emotional state for people, Epley said, and can lead to ill health, both physically and mentally.

"Being socially isolated is just not good for you," he said.

Tags: health

Worrying about Health makes You Sick

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:36:00 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Worrying about your health is apt to make your health worse, finds a new study that reports highly anxious persons with heart disease face double the risk of heart attack or death than those with a more tranquil view of their medical condition. While a diagnosis of heart disease naturally causes anxiety and stress, individuals who learn to cope and find internal calm markedly reduced their risk while individuals whose anxiety increased over time were in greatest peril.

“I’m convinced that spending time with the patient and the family and interacting with them as a caring human being is critically important to clinical outcomes.”

“The results of this study demonstrate that we may need to consider more thoroughly evaluating patients with mood disorders such as anxiety, as treatment may very well reduce the risk of heart disease.”

“My hunch is that for the majority of patients, the greatest anxiety-reducing effect comes from having a good relationship with a doctor,”

Tags: health, cardiac disease, modd disorders

Real Health

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:58:49 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: What does the hysteria for pills and potions and technologies and magic herbs and so on tell us about the spiritual health of 'advanced civilisation'?

Clip Source: www.spiked-online.com

Now that health has replaced heaven (in either terrestrial or celestial forms) as the goal of human existence, health has been reduced to the anatomical and physiological functions of the human organism. The highest aspiration of the modern individual is biological survival, complemented by the state of bovine contentment celebrated as ‘happiness’ by government advisers, a condition to be achieved by making healthy lifestyle choices, appropriately corrected by short courses of cognitive behaviour therapy.

Yet, as the literary critic Terry Eagleton reminds us, for Aristotle a true state of health meant a ‘flourishing life’, not merely in terms of prolonging our bodily existence, but in terms of personal achievement (2). What matters is not merely feeling good about ourselves, but living and acting well. Happiness is the result of human activity in the world; it is not just a state of mind, and even less mere animal fitness.

Tags: health

The acid test

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:19:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "It may be that we can use LSD to answer questions like: what is a religious experience? What is consciousness? What is sense of self? What stops us spending a whole afternoon looking at one leaf on a tree?" McGregor adds

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

It's been banned for 35 years, but some scientists argue that a comeback for the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs is overdue. Is there a place for LSD in medicine today?

Cycling home from the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Laboratories in 1943, the Swiss biochemist Albert Hofmann found himself on the trip of his life. The familiar route had unexpectedly been transformed into an undulating boulevard like a Salvador Dali painting, fringed by buildings that yawned and rippled, "as if seen in a curved mirror".

This was not a fantastical dream, but the result of a rather unorthodox experiment. Five years earlier, in a search for novel therapeutic agents to treat migraines, Hofmann had combined an ergot alkaloid, lysergic acid, with a diethylamine building block to create the 25th molecule in a series of lysergic acid compounds. At the time, pharmacological assessment of the new molecule, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), had revealed nothing of interest.

Tags: health, mind, albert hofman, altered states, lsd, therapeutic use

Normal ageing 'can addle brain'

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:32:17 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Scientists may have discovered why we tend to slow down mentally as we age.

Harvard University used medical imaging techniques to compare the brains of 93 healthy people aged 18 to 93.

The scans showed the brain gradually loses the material it needs for one major region to communicate effectively with another.

The study, published in Neuron, suggests this slowly undermines sophisticated "higher" cognitive functions such as memory and learning.

This may help to explain why advanced age is often accompanied by a loss of mental agility, even in an otherwise healthy individual.

Lead researcher Jessica Andrews-Hanna said: "This research helps us to understand how and why our minds change as we get older, and why some individuals remain sharp into their 90s, while others' mental abilities decline as they age.

"One of the reasons for loss of mental ability may be that these systems in the brain are no longer in sync with one another."

Tags: ageing, brain, neurology, health

The United States of Hypochondria

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:15:46 GMT

clipped by: Geshizar

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

WASHINGTON—We Americans like to think of ourselves as strong, rugged and supremely confident—a nation of Marlboro Men and Marlboro Women, minus the cigarettes and the lung cancer. So why do we increasingly find ourselves hunkered behind walls, popping pills by the handful to stave off diseases we might never contract and eyeing the rest of the world with a kind of us-or-them suspicion that borders on the pathological?

Last week, I heard some of the nation’s leading cultural anthropologists try to explain these and other phenomena. I came away convinced that we, as a nation, definitely should seek professional help.

The American Anthropological Association held its annual meeting here in Washington, and I was invited to an afternoon-long panel discussion titled “The Insecure American.” I decided to overlook the fact that my hosts, Hugh Gusterson of George Mason University and Catherine Besteman of Colby College, had recently co-edited a book called “Why America’s Top Pundits Are Wrong.”

Tags: health, cancer, drugs, medicine

Preventable Illness to Take Lives of 388 Million

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:27:10 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Add war, famine, poverty and I wonder what the total of 'man made' death would be?

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

An "epidemic" of health problems such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes will kill about 388 million people worldwide over the next decade unless governments take concerted action, according to a report from public health experts in 55 countries.

The group has formulated a list of 20 measures which, if implemented, would help to prevent deaths. The preventable diseases now account for about 60% of deaths worldwide, and 44% of premature deaths. Eight out of 10 of the deaths occur in middle or low income countries.

"This is not 'affluenza' for the rich and the old," said Dr Stig Pramming, executive director of the Oxford Health Alliance, which part-funded the report. "[These diseases] have been written off in many countries as an individual's problem."

Tags: disease, mortality, health

Mentally ill ignored: report

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:45:34 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: People who read know this; why not the politicians? It appears to be the same everywhere. And it can't be thrown away as drug related. For example, depression is doing great harm to our farmers as they battle the drought.

Clip Source: www.theage.com.au

CRIES for help from the mentally ill are being ignored because state-funded community crisis teams are overstretched and underfunded, a government-commissioned report has found.

As Victoria's public hospital system struggles to deal with a deluge of mentally ill patients, the report concludes that specially trained Community Assessment and Treatment teams — designed to keep these patients out of hospital — are too busy to carry out their core duties.

"What is of concern is that CAT services' ability to provide acute treatment in the community seems to be compromised," the report said.

Instead of spending more time with individual patients, CAT teams often only had time to perform initial patient assessments. "The question needs to be asked whether CAT services can ever realistically fulfil the expectation for immediate urgent response to all requests."

Tags: health