Mental Health - General

Memory loss can have devastating effects on an individual’s quality of life. But according to the results of a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study, having an active social life may slow memory loss among the elderly. Researchers who conducted the study set out to test whether memory loss might be associated with social connectedness and found evidence that being socially active may increase feelings of self-worth and emotional validation that could end up helping maintain memory.

Harvard Medical School has derived a number of healthy practices for all of us to emulate. The following article will try to paraphrase the critical points on exercise, and why all of us should do it. And, for the ones who do it, perhaps they need to do more!

The Benefit of Fitness

Probably by now, everyone acknowledges the health benefits of exercise. Everyone should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily. Daily is not too much, as human beings we were designed to get a lot more exercise than just daily for 30 minutes. Benefits accrue quickly. Among them are:

Chronic pain syndromes, such as arthritis, have a long term history of causing sleep disturbances.

The usual treatment has been to use medications and other alternative therapies at least 3-4 hours prior to the desired sleep time.

Now a new study indicates that taking long acting opiates in the morning, increases the total amount slept during the night by one hour, and reduces the time getting to deep sleep from 2 to 1 hours.

Anti-Stigma: Do You Know the Facts?

Stigma is not just a matter of using the wrong word or action. Stigma is about disrespect. It is the use of negative labels to identify a person living with mental illness. Stigma is a barrier. Fear of stigma, and the resulting discrimination, discourages individuals and their families from getting the help they need. An estimated 22 to 23 percent of the U.S. population experience a mental disorder in any given year, but almost half of these individuals do not seek treatment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002; U.S. Surgeon General, 2001).

Good social networks are even more important than we thought.

A new study, reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry, finds that lonely people have a significantly higher risk of developing dementia similar to that seen in people with Alzheimer's disease, than people with good social ties.

A surprising finding about the "food-mood" connection has turned up in a recent (January, 2007) study.

The study focused on consumption of comfort foods, and we don't mean mother's home-made chicken soup. The researchers defined comfort food as "a quick indulgent snack that tastes good and gives...an immediate 'bump of euphoria'."

In this electronic age, many patients require their health care providers to be available on-line, and this may pose problems for professionals. Not the least of these is determining standards for privileged communication through electronic media. Before the advent of on-line practice, each profession had to establish vitally important standards, both for professional integrity as well as the safety of the patient.

Exciting news on the Alzheimer's and dementia fronts!

A new study by Ernst Schaefer, M.D., of Tufts University in Boston, MA, and colleagues, was reported in the November issue of Archives of Neurology. The results showed that patients with higher plasma levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fatty acid found in fish, had a significant 47% reduction in the risk of all-cause dementia and a 39% reduced risk of Alzheimer's.