Working Out to Ward Off Depression

Physical activity is being increasingly recognized as an effective tool to treat depression. But now researchers have taken the connection one step further.  In a review published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, George Mammen has demonstrated that moderate exercise can actually prevent episodes of depression.

This is the first longitudinal review to focus exclusively on the role that exercise plays in maintaining good mental health and preventing the onset of depression later in life.

Mammen analyzed over 26 years’ worth of research findings to discover that even low levels of physical activity (walking and gardening for 20-30 minutes a day) can ward off depression in people of all age groups.

Mammen’s findings come at a time when mental health experts want to expand their approach beyond treating depression with costly prescription medication. “We need a prevention strategy now more than ever,” he says. “Our health system is taxed. We need to shift focus and look for ways to fend off depression from the start.”

Mammen acknowledges that other factors influence a person’s likelihood of experiencing depression, including their genetic makeup. But he says that the scope of research he assessed demonstrates that regardless of individual predispositions, there’s a clear take-away for everyone. “It’s definitely worth taking note that if you’re currently active, you should sustain it. If you’re not physically active, you should initiate the habit. This review shows promising evidence that the impact of being active goes far beyond the physical.”

Let’s hope so.  Now that I’m back in the gym six days a week maybe all the push-ups and perspiration will keep the Prozac at bay!

 

10 Brain Damaging Habits

According to the World Health Organization here’s 10 habits that can severely damage your brain:

1.  No Breakfast – Skipping breakfast in order to lose weight or save time is totally wrong and directly affects our brain. Those who don’t take breakfast or take unhealthy breakfast having lower blood sugar level and sometime it may cause overweight.

2. Overreacting – causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. High Sugar consumption – Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development by reducing the production of Brain Derived Neutrotrophic Factor, without which the brain cannot learn.

4. Smoking – causes brain shrinkage, damages memory, judgment, learning and thinking powers and may even lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

5. Air Pollution – The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation – Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping – Sleeping with the head covered decreases available air space and forces you to start breathing carbon dioxide instead of oxygen. This leads to a rise in intracranial pressure and results in brain hypoxia which may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness – Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain. When we are sick the brain is at its weakest and becomes more easily stressed. This stress can also affect memory.

9. Drinking too little water – Water is the main source of energy and is essential for brain function and activity of neurotransmitters. Dehydration can lead to anger, stress, exhaustion, depression and lack of mental clarity.

10. Rarely Talking – Intellectual conversations help to train and promote efficiency of the brain. Conversely, lack of stimulating thoughts may cause brain shrinkage. Reading SRxA’s Word on Health and discussing the content with friends is an excellent way to avoid this!  So grab a glass of water and subscribe today. Consider it free brain fuel!

In Vino Veritas?

Happy Hump Day!

While we may not be able to make you laugh quite as much as the GEICO camel, we do bring you news that should at least make you smile.

A new Spanish study suggests that drinking wine might help you avoid depression.

Although drinking a lot of wine or other alcohol may be a sign of depression or other mental health problems, alcohol in moderation may benefit mental health according to the study authors.

“One drink a day, preferentially wine, may help prevent depression,” said lead researcher Dr. Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, chair of the department of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Navarra, in Pamplona.

Researchers followed more than 5,500 light-to-moderate drinkers, aged between 55 and 80 for up to seven years.  None of the individuals had suffered from depression or had alcohol-related problems at the start of the study. Over seven years, with medical exams, interviews with dietitians and questionnaires, the researchers kept tabs on participants’ mental health and lifestyle.  Wine was the most popular drink and participants who drank two to seven glasses a week were the least likely to suffer from depression, compared to nondrinkers. These findings remained significant even after the researchers took factors such as smoking, diet and marriage into account.

But before you start reaching for the corkscrew, we need to warn you that not all experts agree with the findings and even the research team, only saw benefit in moderate drinkers.

Martinez-Gonzalez thinks the apparent benefit of wine in preventing depression may work the same way that moderate drinking helps prevent heart disease.

“Depression and heart disease seem to share some common mechanisms because they share many similar protective factors and risk factors,” he said. However, he added that depression prevention is not a reason to start drinking.

“If you are not a drinker, please don’t start drinking,” he said. “If you drink alcohol, please keep it in the range of one or less drinks a day and consider drinking wine instead of other alcoholic beverages.”

Tony Tang, an adjunct psychology professor at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., said the new research “is consistent with other studies suggesting modest health benefits of very modest drinking.”

But, Tang said other factors may be at work in the potential connection between wine and depression. He noted that compared to nondrinkers, those in the Spanish study who drank a moderate amount of wine were more likely to be married men who were also physically active.  Being single or divorced, living alone and being sedentary are well-established risk factors of depression. Thus, he suggests, the correlation between modest drinking and depression is a coincidence caused by these other known factors.

“An adequate social life is the most important factor we know that protects people from depression,” Tang said. “Perhaps not drinking is a sign of serious social isolation in Spain while drinking a glass of wine a day is simply a sign of having a normal social life.”

Wine with friends anyone?

Cheers!

Stress and Distress at Work

Here’s a classic Catch-22 conundrum for co-workers to consider. Psychological distress, such as feelings of  worthlessness, hopelessness, nervousness, and/or restlessness)  can be predictors  of early stage anxiety and depression. It can also lead to decreased job productivity and absenteeism. But, it may actually be the job that’s creating the mental distress in the first place. Norwegian researchers have identified that perceived role conflicts and emotional demands are the most important and most consistent risk factors for psychological distress. While other psychosocial working conditions have been linked to distress, this study is the first to highlight the importance of these two issues. Håkon A. Johannessen, PhD, and colleagues from the Norwegian National Institute of Occupational Health, looked at how the work environment affected employees’ levels of psychological distress. Sixteen percent of workers said they were at least slightly bothered by psychological distress over the past month. The study focused on two main risk factors: role conflict, such as being given work tasks without enough resources to complete them and receiving contradictory requests from different people; and emotional demands, defined as “dealing with strong feelings such as sorrow, anger, desperation and frustration” at work. Problematic levels of distress were 53% more likely for workers reporting role conflict and 38% more likely for those facing high emotional demands. Other risk factors were low job control, bullying/harassment, and job insecurity. The researchers conclude that employers should focus on the identified risk factors to improve the psychosocial work environment and thus promote good mental health and productivity among employees. Is your job getting you down? Have you any tips for beating work-related stress?  We’d love to hear from you.

Feeling Good about Memorial Day?

We’d like to start this post by wishing all of our US readers a wonderful Memorial Day. And for those elsewhere, Happy Monday!

For some of us, Memorial Day signifies a welcome day off from work and the unofficial start of summer. For others, the day is all about trips to memorials or cemeteries with family. And for a few it may be a day in private introspection and remembrance.

If you’re one of the latter, or tend to keep to yourself on this day, you might want to re-consider this year.  According to research, getting together with friends and family for a grill out or participating in a parade can have positive health benefits.

Holidays offer the opportunity to gather with others to laugh and bond. Social activities have been shown to reduce stress, and satisfying social relationships have been shown to result in fewer health problems and longer, happier lives. In contrast, an isolated, less social life has been linked to depression and cognitive decline, according to reports in the Harvard Women’s Health Watch.

One study of almost 5,000 adults in Alameda County, Calif. showed that individuals who maintained strong social connections live longer than those who lived more isolated lives. Subjects were rated using a social network index, which translated their answers into a number. A high number indicated a strong amount of social contacts while a low number represented social isolation.

Over the following nine years, researchers tracked the subjects’ health. They found that people who placed lower on the social network showed an increased risk of death, implicating social isolation as a major risk factor for poor health.

So why are social connections so healthy? It appears that both biological and behavioral factors are at play. Some research points to stress reduction when we’re happily supported and surrounded by a social circle. Conversely stress, wreaks havoc on our immune system which in turn negatively affect coronary arteries and heart health.

Of course, holidays such as Memorial Day, can also bring out the worst in us.  Excessive drinking, eating and sun-tanning are not good for our health. And sadly, bingeing on beer with a buddy or piling your plate with potato salad in the company of others doesn’t make it any healthier!

Is Your Doctor Burned Out?

Is life / work stressing you out?  Thinking about going to see your doctor for help?  Before making that appointment you may want to think again.

According to a national survey of physicians, released this week nearly 1 in 2 US doctors are themselves suffering from burnout.  That’s more than any other US workers.

Overtaxed doctors are not only at risk for personal problems, like relationship issues and alcohol misuse, but their job-related fatigue can also erode professionalism, compromise quality of care, increase medical errors and encourage early retirement – a potentially critical problem as an aging population demands more medical care.

Survey participants completed a 22-item Burnout Inventory questionnaire, which measured emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (treating patients as objects rather than human beings) and low sense of personal accomplishment. Of the 27,276 physicians asked to participate, 26.7% responded. They had to report only one symptom to be included among those reporting burnout.

Differences in burnout rate varied by specialty: While most people assume that the surgical or cancer specialties would be at highest risk, the researchers from the Mayo Clinic found that emergency medicine, internal medicine, neurology and family medicine reported the highest rates.

“Nearly 60% of physicians in those specialties had high levels of burnout,” says says lead author Tait Shanafelt MD. “This is concerning since many elements critical to the success of health care reform are built upon increasing the role of the primary care providers.”

On the other hand, doctors practicing pathology, dermatology, general pediatrics and preventive medicine had the lowest rates of burnout.

In other words, it’s the physicians on the front line of care who are most likely to burn out.

And that’s not all. When asked about emotional exhaustion, 37.9% of physicians reported signs, compared with 27.8% reported by other workers surveyed.

“The rates are higher than expected,”. Commented Shanafelt “We expected maybe 1 out of 3.

Being asked to see more patients and not having enough time to spend with them creates an atmosphere of being on a hamster wheel, says physician Jeff Cain, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

While the current prevalence of burnout is alarming many predict it could get worse as health care reform takes hold and the medical profession has to take on the additional workload associated with the millions of patients who will be newly insured under the health care law.

While the Affordable Care Act will put more pressure on the front lines, this new study could be an important wake-up call. The country needs to hear to build multidisciplinary health care teams to meet the need and help unburden our poor put-upon physicians, so they in turn can help us.

I Resolve to Lower My Expectations!

After the over-indulgence of the past few days, are you planning to make New Year’s resolutions? If you’re like the rest of us, chances are, you’re probably going to break them too! Most resolutions, although fuelled with good intent, are little more than clichés and empty promises.

How many of us, wake up a little groggy on January 1^st swearing we’re never going to drink /smoke/stay up all night/ (_*******) again?

If, like thousands of others, your noble intentions fall by the wayside before January is out, we have some advice that might just help.

William McCann, Psy.D, a clinical psychologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center says “I think most people make resolutions that they don’t achieve because they seem so overwhelming.”

He recommends that we should make resolutions that we are sure to be able to follow through on. In other words if you want to be able to say “I did it!” next December 31^st, you need to lower your expectations.

McCann’s sample list of attainable New Year’s resolutions:

• I will eat a little less fried food this year.
• I will drive a little more slowly this year.
• I will help others a little more this year.
• I will interfere in my children’s lives a little less this year.
• I will talk a little less and listen a little more.
• I will smile a little more this year.
• I will be a little better person than I was last year.

Me?  I’m going to try a little of all of the above!  Share your resolutions with us – those you’ve tried, those you’ve failed. We’d love to hear from you.

The Violent Torpedo of Truth

Frankly, Word on Health is sick and tired of the whole Charlie Sheen thing.  Nevertheless, lots of people, it seems are not only transfixed, but addicted, to watching him break down, one piece at a time.

Now, some experts have suggested that this may help people with their own mental health. Given all that’s been going on around the world, the crisis in the Middle East, the economy, rising gas prices and, most recently, the heartbreaking destruction in Japan, it appears that people welcome a distraction that doesn’t affect them personally.

In the book Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior, author, Beverly Flaxington says that watching Sheen can make people reflect positively on their own lives.  While the actor’s recent antics, may be symptomatic of a mental health crisis, Flaxington argues that watching Sheen’s personal and professional unraveling has been somewhat of a respite for many people.

“It has many of us thinking, ‘I have challenges in my life, but unlike him, I’m holding it together,’ ” she said.

While some people enjoy the “mighty have fallen” aspects of Sheen’s behavior, Flaxington believes that there’s also a little bit of his behavior that we all connect to. “We’re all capable of doings things we’re not proud of. He has us wondering, ‘Under enough stress, could I get to that point?’ ”

Yes, but thank goodness most of us are doing a lot better than he is. Now that’s what we call Winning!