#he has been providing me with serotonin since 2017

[lizardthelizard]

hadn’t changed my icon for 4 years so like..... rip august <3

[simplyclary]

Ewan McGregor: My Serotonin Booster

[P.S: Upon the time of writing, I have yet to watch most of his films including The Island, Beginners, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Trainspotting along with some of his series/documentaries including Fargo, Long Way Round and Long Way Up]

I have known many celebrities who has given me happiness these past few years, but it was during quarantine when I needed someone the most. Don’t get me wrong though, many of the people whom I discovered during the start of quarantine still provides me happiness until now, the only difference being that there is a specific someone who really provides me the dose of serotonin that I really hunt and yearn for, that specific someone being Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.

Before I get to the cheesy part (I guess), let me narrate the timeline on how I found my happiness in him.

I first saw him as the debonair bronze candelabra Lumiere who sang the iconic song “Be Our Guest” in 2017’s live-action Beauty and the Beast. I instantly found Lumiere charming and cute in that film and him being head over heels in love for Plumette (played by the gorgeous Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is so cute and adorable, not gonna lie. Also, a moving candelabra singing and dancing in the middle of your dinner table is such a cute visualization, don’t you think?

A year later, Ewan then brought me back to childhood nostalgia through the lens of Christopher Robin, where he played the titular character. Seeing that film for the first time and watching him interact with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and the other characters in the Hundred-Acre Wood has awakened the child in me. I honestly melt everytime I hear Pooh’s voice (voiced by Jim Cummings) since that voice was what made Pooh one of the cutest bears in the world of cartoons. Also if you observe in the film, there was a scene where he (Christopher) twirled his umbrella like a lightsaber when trying to "kill" a “Heffalump”. That scene kinda made me giggle and also made me think if it was just Ewan’s muscle memory or not.

Fast forward 3 years later to the current year of 2021, I have made a galactic discovery through Star Wars (yes, I know, I’m so late to the rave but hey, better late than never, right?) and through this galactic discovery, I met the sassiest, kindest, strongest and iconic Jedi warrior Obi-Wan Kenobi. I honestly applaud both Ewan and Sir Alec Guinness for their portrayals of the live-action versions of Obi-Wan as well as James Arnold Taylor and Stephen Stanton who voiced Obi-Wan in the animated series The Clone Wars and Rebels.

Now, believe me when I say that I fell in love with the animated Obi-Wan first because of The Clone Wars. Falling in love with the animated version then made me fall for the live-action version which Ewan portrayed flawlessly. It was really obvious in Ewan’s performance as Obi-Wan how much he paid homage to the Obi-Wan of Sir Alec Guinness and I really admired that. Plus, the iconic (and meme-worthy) lines are utterly unforgettable and it made me so happy to hear that he’s coming back as Obi-Wan in his own series on 2022. It was honestly through the character of Obi-Wan where I really started to love Ewan and because of this, I started to dig and binge some of his past and recent work.

Now armed with the yearning to look for and watch more of his movies, I scoured the internet and I found Birds of Prey among the list of his movies. First of all, I was utterly surprised when I found out he was involved in an all-female movie, but I was even more surprised when I found out that he was playing Roman Sionis, a.k.a Black Mask, who is the main villain in the movie. Truth be told, I have a history of loving villainous characters and he was no different. I honestly found him convincing as a villain, egotistical at best and was kind of saddened when he *spoiler alert* died at the end. I was hoping he would come back in a somewhat miraculous way, but I could accept if that’s how his story ends.

After watching Birds of Prey and witnessing him play a villain, I delved into the world of fashion design through the lens of Halston which is a Netflix series about Roy Halston, a famous fashion designer back in the 70s. Ewan played Halston flawlessly, and while some scenes made me cover my eyes because of explicit content, I still enjoyed the show overall not only because of Ewan but because I got to understand what Halston was really like behind the curtain, if you’d like.

Now, I am not the biggest horror movie fan but I faced my fear when I met Doctor Sleep himself, Danny Torrance. Considering that this is the sequel to “The Shining” which is deemed the scariest horror film ever made, I braced myself for it to be horrifying and I would be jumping out of my skin while watching it, and I did in several scenes. I applaud Ewan for playing the grown-up version of Danny and making me understand his story through this film.

After that horror experience, I decided to watch something that speaks to my heart and that is a movie with music, and Moulin Rouge was the perfect one. Now, this movie is highly recommended for every Ewan McGregor fan, because he showcases both his acting chops and his powerful vocals in this movie. I instantly fell in love with the penniless writer Christian, his sweet smile, kind spirit and utter obsession with the idea of love. Also, those songs he sang with Satine (played by the angelic soul that is Nicole Kidman) are automatic auditions to my playlist. Also, that drama at the end when Satine died and Christian was grieving, it made me tear up indeed.

After drama comes more drama, I went into a real-life story and that is The Impossible where he played Henry who is the husband to Maria (played by Naomi Watts) and father to 3 kids, one of them being my favorite Spiderman Tom Holland. Believe me when I say that the movie pulled at my heartstrings, especially after the tsunami hit and the family got separated as well as the scene where Henry (Ewan) was at this one camp and he was speaking on the phone while crying. I really felt the “dad” emotions there, knowing that he is a dad in real-life. This movie, even though you are a fan of Ewan and Tom, is not for the faint of heart.

The latest addition to my list is the knight-in-shining armor that is Elmont from Jack the Giant Slayer. He is a feisty one, let me tell you that. He does not give up easily and boy, does he look hot with that crossbow. Anyways, him as Elmont was a fantastic casting, showcasing the selfless persona of a knight who was willing to protect his kingdom above all else. The mini swordfights in between serve as bonuses.

Please do know that I will be watching more of his work as the days progress, but while writing this, this is all that I have seen.

Finally, I’m done with that lengthy timeline narration and now, onto the chessy-ish part, because it depends on perception if you are willing to think of my love for him as obsession or just dedication.

For the most part, I can’t really describe how happy he makes me. It’s as simple as me hearing him talk in interviews with that lovely Scottish accent of his, hearing him sing covers of songs and seeing his pictures on Pinterest (I have about a hundred of him on a board on the app, along with a few Star Wars characters) and the internet in general or it’s as bizarre as me smiling when I see a photo of him with a silver hoop piercing on his left ear or as scenic (I don’t even know if that’s the right word) as when I see a clip/GIF of him running his hand through his hair. I don’t really know and therefore can’t describe what is this feeling I feel when I see him.

Recently, I’ve been binge-watching his interviews on Graham Norton, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and other outlets and I can’t help but smile amidst him repeating stories and saying the same spiels and all, there’s just something about his presence that makes me feel happy. I’ve also been listening to his covers of songs and him playing the guitar and I melt. I mean, even with his mundane fashion sense, his charisma just stands out for me. Also, his point of views on career and why he chooses the projects that he does is inspirational. I just love, adore and admire him, amidst all the controversy (which I’m not gonna go deep into because that’s all in the past) that happened.

At the end of the day, all I can takeaway from all of these, is that Ewan really makes me happy. With his expressive blue eyes, charming smile, melodic voice, and sweet personality, he can easily lift up my spirits as high as the galaxies can reach. If only I could tell him all of these, but I would just faint and stutter if I were to see him face-to-face. But seriously, given the chance to speak with him, I would tell him how much he means to me and how much brighter the world is because of him.

I’ll just end this lengthy narration with a line from “Your Song”, which is originally sang by Elton John and Ewan sang it beautifully in Moulin Rouge and is now one of my favorite songs.

“How wonderful life is, now you’re in the world”

[jcruceweb]

HOW CAN MARIJUANA HELP PTSD?

PTSD, short for post-traumatic stress disorder, is a mental health condition that’s triggered by witnessing or experiencing a terrifying event. PTSD can cause symptoms like flashbacks to traumatic experiences, nightmares, and severe anxiety, all of which can have an enormous impact on your quality of life. There are various solutions to fight this disorder and medical marijuana is considered as one of the alternative methods of treatment for PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a common issue among the general population, and it’s even more common among veterans who have returned from serving our country. Whether you are a veteran or a civilian, if you’re experiencing PTSD, it’s important to seek treatment for your symptoms. Having PTSD can make you feel like you’re trapped in a prison of your own thoughts. It can have a tremendous negative impact on how you feel from day-to-day, and it can cause problems with your social relationships and work life. So, if you have PTSD, what can you do to treat it? Doctors often recommend a multi-pronged treatment approach to those with PTSD. Doctors may recommend trying both cognitive behavioral therapy and medications. They may also advise patients to practice good self-care and build a strong support network to help them deal with their PTSD symptoms. Additionally, some doctors prescribe medical marijuana to help patients suffering from PTSD manage their symptoms. While the scientific research surrounding PTSD and cannabis use is still in its infancy, there have been some initial studies that found cannabis use may be helpful in managing PTSD symptoms. And currently, doctors can prescribe medical marijuana for PTSD in around half of all US states. But how can marijuana help PTSD? Why do some doctors prescribe medical marijuana for PTSD? Below, we’re taking a closer look at using medical cannabis for PTSD. We’ll talk about PTSD symptoms, potential cannabis benefits, cannabis vs. prescription medications for PTSD, and more. Understanding PTSD Symptoms Before we talk about the specifics of how medical marijuana is sometimes used to ease post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, we’ll first talk a bit about the symptoms of PTSD. Each person’s unique PTSD symptoms can vary. And your doctor may suggest you try a specific type of cannabis that may work best for your unique PTSD symptoms.

According to the Mayo Clinic, PTSD symptoms generally fall into one of four categories: - Intrusive memory symptoms, such as: - Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of a traumatic event - Flashbacks (reliving a traumatic event) - Upsetting dreams or nightmares - Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of a traumatic event - Avoidance symptoms, such as: - Attempting to avoid thinking or talking about a traumatic event - Avoiding places, activities, or people that remind you of a traumatic event - Negative changes in thinking or mood, such as: - Hopelessness - Memory problems - Negative thoughts - Difficulty maintaining close relationships - Feeling detached from family or friends - Lack of interest in things you once enjoyed - Numbness - Difficulty experiencing positive emotions - Changes in physical and emotional reactions (also called “arousal symptoms”), such as: - Being easily startled or frightened - Always being on guard for danger (hyperarousal) - Self-destructive behavior - Trouble sleeping - Trouble concentrating - Irritability - Overwhelming guilt or shame While this list of symptoms can give you a general idea of the symptoms of PTSD, know that each person’s symptoms can vary. A person with PTSD may experience some, many, or all of these symptoms. Then, for each individual, the intensity of their symptoms can also vary. Medical Cannabis For PTSD A doctor may prescribe medical cannabis to help ease some of the disruptive symptoms of PTSD. In the state of Nevada, where our dispensary is based, people who suffer from PTSD (including military veterans with PTSD) can qualify for medical cannabis use. Some medical cannabis users who have tried cannabis for PTSD say that cannabis can have different functions: - Pain reliever - Sedative or sleep aid - Antidepressant (depending on the strain) - Anti-anxiety aid (depending on the strain) Some medical cannabis users also claim that medical cannabis does more than just treat their symptoms; it allows them to also be more fully engaged and active in their lives.

How People are Normally Treated for PTSD: Prescription Medications People who are suffering from PTSD and chronic pain (many people, particularly military veterans, who have PTSD also experience chronic pain) are usually prescribed these types of prescription drugs to treat PTSD: - Antipsychotics - Tranquilizers - Antidepressants - Opioid painkillers

Unfortunately, these prescription treatment options can sometimes create a “zombie-like” effect, leaving the patient feeling numb and detached from everyday life. Numbness and detachment are symptoms that can sometimes already be present in a person with PTSD. So some patients with PTSD may find that certain prescription drugs can exacerbate their existing issues. Then, antipsychotics and antidepressants, while they may work for some, can make things worse for others due to unpleasant side effects. For example, SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) can help with depression for some, while they can also produce suicidal thoughts and behaviors in others. So, in certain cases, prescriptions can sometimes worsen existing mental health problems. Additionally, it’s important to note that opioid painkillers are potentially dangerous. Opioids can be highly addictive and overdoses and death due to opioids are common. The Use of Cannabis vs. Prescription Drugs for the Treatment of PTSD: One Veteran’s Experience While some people find that prescription medications for PTSD are a good option for them, other people don’t want to use prescription medications. Or, they may have found that prescription drugs do not work for them personally. And among those who do not want to use prescription medications, there are many who tout the benefits of marijuana use. Take, for example, Cody Barlow, a Navy Veteran who is also an advocate for medical cannabis. In a 2018 press conference presented by the Oklahoma Cannabis League, Cody Barlow shared his experience using cannabis to treat his symptoms. Barlow stated that after serving in the Navy from June of 2013 to September of 2017, he was diagnosed with, “PTSD, major depressive disorder, panic disorder with agoraphobia, among many other things – chronic pain, insomnia, the list goes on.” Barlow continued, saying: “The only option for treating those, aside from therapy, is prescription drugs. The VA has been well-known to prescribe drugs heavily. That’s their go-to. Over the course of 2017, I averaged out the number of pharmaceutical drugs that I had taken in pill form to be 9,000 for the year. Averaging about 24 a day, I had some other pills that were ‘as needed’ so I would take upwards of 24 up to 30 pills a day.” But Barlow found that his prescription treatments did not work for him. He stated: “Through that course of treatment, I wasn’t getting any better. Things weren’t improving, I just felt really numb to the world. I felt dulled out and was tranquilized. I was on so many heavy sedatives I couldn’t function as a normal person anymore. I was giving up hope that that’s what was supposed to help me and it wasn’t. I felt like I was reaching the bottom and I was ready to end it.” Barlow then said that that was when he finally decided to try cannabis for himself. He visited a friend in Colorado, since cannabis was not legal in his home state of Oklahoma at the time, and tried cannabis for the first time. Barlow spoke on the positive effects self-medicating with cannabis had on his symptoms, saying: “I felt more normal than anything. I felt balanced out, my racing thoughts had slowed down, my depression had lifted. I felt like I was in the moment with my friends and family in the room like I could function again.” While advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana use in his home state of Oklahoma (where medical marijuana is now legalized), Barlow has also said that medical marijuana is “drastic and life-changing for me. Medical marijuana helps me with PTSD, depression, anxiety, pain, many ailments, and illnesses.”

Cannabis For PTSD: Understanding THC and CBD The feelings of fear, worry, hopelessness, and anxiety associated with PTSD cannot be fully eliminated. But many do say that the use of marijuana provides a respite sans all the debilitating effects of prescriptions. Still, it’s important to note that the results of using cannabis are dependent on the type of cannabis you are using since the different types of cannabis will affect the endocannabinoid system differently. For instance, cannabis contains two major cannabinoids, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is the more popular of these two cannabinoids because it’s associated with feelings of euphoria. But, because it activates the amygdala (the part of the brain responsible for fear), it’s also linked to feelings of anxiety and paranoia. CBD, on the other hand, is a non-psychoactive compound that can counteract these feelings. In fact, there are studies that show that taking CBD on its own can reduce or even eliminate anxiety. Final Thoughts on Marijuana For PTSD Treatment Many people who have tried medical marijuana for PTSD have reported that it is incredibly helpful for alleviating their symptoms. If you’re interested in trying marijuana for your PTSD (and doing so is legal in your state), we encourage you to ask your doctor whether or not medical marijuana may be right for you and your overall health care plan. Club Cannabliss Newsletter Be inspired by the unconventional wisdom of our peers and experts as they help us get to a higher state of consciousness. Sign-in and edit your profile. Not yet a Member? Register and claim your spot among the anointed ones! LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING CANNABIS PRODUCTS Indica vs Sativa. Which type of bud comes out on top? You can decide for yourself as we now dive deep into the world of the various types of cannabis strains.  

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[i-am-very-very-tired]

Like most people my age, I found out that the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) had passed the House of Representatives via social media. My Twitter feed was filled with outrage about defunding Planned Parenthood and so my rage focused there, too. I wrote my representatives, composed a tweet of my own, decided to donate my time and money, and vowed that the next time I saw some old, white men protesting outside of my local Health Center I would give them more than just a dirty look. I thought that was the worst of it. But the next day, I saw #IAmAPreExistingCondition trending on Twitter, and after that, my entire outlook on the AHCA changed. As I scrolled through the tweets, it hit me that the AHCA could destroy more than just my reproductive rights. It could ruin my whole life. I had never had to deal with insurance issues like this before. I was covered under my mother’s insurance until I took my first job —ironically enough, working in a phone bank for a company that mainly denied appeals for Medicare coverage— and none of my health struggles emerged until months after I’d been hired. Too late for Blue Cross Blue Shield to hold them against me. When I switched to insurance I selected under the Health Insurance Marketplace in 2015, no insurance provider could deny me coverage, raise my premiums, or refuse to pay for benefits because of a pre-existing condition. The same held true when I became a Massachusetts resident in 2016 and applied for MassHealth. I didn’t even know how many pre-existing conditions I had. I panicked, googled “American Health Care Act pre-existing conditions,” and read everything I could find from reliable sources. According to The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, CNN, Time, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and NH Health Cost, I have 17 pre-existing conditions that, before the ACA took effect, insurers could have used as an excuse to refuse to cover me or to severely raise my premiums, including: ▪A mild-to-moderate alcohol use disorder. ▪Back pain. ▪Mental disorders, including: Mild agoraphobia. Anxiety. ADHD. Bipolar disorder. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Depression. Seasonal affective disorder. ▪Menstrual irregularities. Sleep disorders, including: ▫BruxismREM Sleep Behavior Disorder. ▪Trauma as a result of domestic violence and sexual assault. Oh, and I guess I should also mention that I’m into BDSM and being choked, as those are sexual masochism disorders listed in the DSM-V. Why? Because according to experts interviewed by Time, having a “sexual deviation or disorder” could be a problem. Considering the Vice President’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights, being a queer, gender non-conforming, polyamorous woman who often wears men’s clothes may also be an issue, especially since it’s in my psychiatrist’s files. This brings my grand total to 19 pre-existing conditions. If you count my sexuality, dating lifestyle and gender expression, that’s 22. Based on my family history, I’m at risk for three more—Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, and diabetes— and since I’ve applied for disability twice, that could also factor against me, according to Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). It can take no more than one of my medical conditions to disqualify me from coverage or to make my premium so high as to be unaffordable. Right now, I pay almost nothing for health care. I live in Massachusetts and qualify for MassHealth CarePlus based largely on my income; since I don’t make more than 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($1,305 a month), I don’t pay premiums or copayments. I haven’t had to enter treatment for alcohol abuse, but if I did, it would be completely covered. When I threw out my back (again) a few months ago, all my treatment was covered, and when I ended up in the hospital because the muscle relaxants I was prescribed gave me serotonin syndrome, I never received a bill. I see my trauma therapist and psychiatrist and attend group therapy for free, and when I went for four hours of neuropsychological testing to confirm my ADHD diagnosis, all it cost me was time. The same was true when I got an IUD (at Planned Parenthood, bless them), which I use for birth control and to eliminate my formerly monstrous periods. Are you getting the picture? None of my pre-existing conditions affect my life in any way because I’m covered by a system that’s essentially the same as the Affordable Care Act. The only costs I incur are for my six medications: Seroquel, two types of Depakote, Klonopin, Effexor, and Adderall. They each cost $3.65 per month, $21.90 all told. That’s the extent of the financial obligation to my health, apart from prescriptions for routine things, like strep throat (I’m prone to it) or UTIs and yeast infections. Even then, there’s some wiggle room. According to my MassHealth handbook, I never have to pay more than $250 in any given year for prescriptions and if I can’t afford a copayment, all I have to do is tell my pharmacist. Legally, they still have to give my the medication and the fee is “put on my tab,” as it were. Setup Timeout Error: Setup took longer than 30 seconds to complete. If I applied for insurance under AHCA policies and was denied, I would end up paying around $100 per hour for therapy, $125 to 285 per hour for psychiatry, about $50 per session for group therapy, and $588.42 for my medications (using a discount card). My basic mental health care costs would be $1,688.42 to $2,328.42 per month, hundreds more than I make. Even by cutting every possible cost (canceling my cell phone, placing the full burden of household expenses on my partner, and never spending a cent on clothes, personal care products, or other “extras”), I’d still come up short. There is also the possibility that, if Massachusetts adopted the AHCA’s guidelines, I would end up in a high-risk insurance pool, a state-created health care market for people who are especially sick or who were denied other health insurance coverage. The problem is that whereas “normal” insurance companies receive premiums from healthy people to cover the costs of the sick, no such offset exists in these pools. As a result, premiums and deductibles skyrocket, yearly and lifetime coverage costs can be limited, and what coverage there is tends to be inadequate. Even still, people end up on waitlists for this impotent insurance because there isn’t enough funding to meet demand. But let’s say I could afford a premium of $298.75 to $478 per month, a deductible of about $10,000 per year, and that I wouldn’t end up on a waitlist. Even then, I’d most likely be subject to a waiting period during which treatment for my pre-existing conditions would not be covered. As of 2013, Massachusetts’ group health plans allowed a maximum exclusion period —the period during which insurers can refuse to cover treatment related to pre-existing conditions— of six months, half a year in which I’d be paying that $1,688.42 to $2,328.42 a month, plus hundreds more for insurance that wouldn’t cover my basic needs. Since my treatment and medication would cost so much with insurance, I might even be tempted to go without—as I imagine many others in my situation would. However, Section 133 of the bill would almost eliminate any desire to get coverage if my financial situation changed; it forces insurers to increase premiums by 30 percent for anyone with a break in coverage of 62 days or more. Anyone with pre-existing conditions, especially those who also experience financial difficulty, would be practically legislated into debt, whether they chose to seek coverage or not. The state itself might not even feel that it’s worthwhile to make a high-risk pool. Section 132 of the AHCA states that in order to receive their share of funding to create these pools, they have to match federal funds “at a rate that grows from 7 percent in 2020 to 50 percent in 2026.” That probably has something to do with the AHCA also repealing the tanning tax and the Net Investment Income Tax, and would allow insurance companies to deduct employee salaries of $500,000 or more. Hey, the money to take care of sick people has to come from somewhere. But it won’t be from tanning salons that cause skin cancer or the richest 2 percent of the population. Certainly not from the insurance companies that pay next to nothing in taxes, anyway. My worries about the AHCA extend beyond my own health. My partner, to whom I’m committed in all but marriage, has often helped me financially. He works full time at a marketing firm and his paychecks are steady, whereas mine are sporadic. I pay any bills under my own name, but we negotiate rent, food, and creature comforts based on the state of my checking account. I mention this only because he has four pre-existing conditions of his own: ADHD, anemia, depression and hypertension, and has a family history of seven more: addiction, asthma, brain cancer, high cholesterol, obesity, sleep apnea, and ulcers. Although he receives health insurance through his employer, he’s still not safe. The mandate that large employers must provide affordable health insurance to their employees would be repealed under the AHCA, as would the penalty for large employers that don’t cover essential health benefits, like pregnancy costs and preventative medicine (not to mention the mental health coverage we both need). His company might decide to cut costs in one of two ways: by offering cheap plans that don’t cover essential benefits, or by offering expensive plans that do. Either way, his plan couldn’t deny or change his coverage based on the AHCA, but if we were to throw aside our choice of commitment and marry so I could be covered as his dependent, we might not be able to afford it due to my health history. If the AHCA were to pass, I’d be left in a precarious situation. Under AHCA policies, cost sharing for low-income individuals like myself would be gone by 2020, as would the premium assisted tax credit, which allows me to receive a return on the unused amount come tax time. The heightened costs of health care (or going without care due to those costs) would push my anxiety through the roof. I have already been admitted to inpatient psychiatric units twice for this reason, and, under the AHCA, I’m sure I would soon be back. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, there were 67 million women who met the narrow definition of a pre-existing condition in 2014, 8 million people in my age group (25 to 34), and 45 million Americans who qualified on the basis of a behavioral health disorder. I may be just one, but I am one among millions whose lives would be irreparably sabotaged by the American Health Care Act, a bill that treats the health of American citizens with anything but care. Liz Lazzara is an essayist and mental health advocate living and working in Boston, MA. She is currently working on a memoir about complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

[mamusiq]

The science of songs: how does music affect your body chemistry?

Classical music makes shoppers buy more. Gentle tunes can cure insomnia. How? Writer, composer and science lecturer John Powell explains

John Powell  Tuesday 16 May 2017

Like many music lovers I’ve always had a fascination withthe emotional power. How can a combination of sounds make all the hairs on your arms stand on end, or make you cry? I’ve always enjoyed reading newspaper and magazine articles about the psychological effects of music, but apart from the general conclusion that “music is magical”, they rarely provide any scientific answers.

But there are answers as to why music has such power over us. Since the middle of the 20th century, music psychologists have been carrying out a wide range of fascinating research into how our brains and bodies respond to music – but most of this has been relayed to us in formal scientific language, so I thought it would be a good idea to gather together the most interesting facts and theories from this large body of work and present them in plain language for the general reader. 

I spent four years gathering information for my book, Why We Love Music, reading textbooks and papers packed full with phrases like “spectral structure and harmonic syntax” and “amplitudes of transglottal airflow”. Translated into conversational English, the science – I think – is of interest to everyone who loves music (and even those few of us who don’t). For example, experiments have demonstrated that music is extremely effective at curing insomnia; that shoppers spend more money in stores playing classical music; and that communal singing helps humans to bond with each other by releasing oxytocin into our system - the same chemical we experience during sex or breast-feeding.

My main problem in preparing the book was deciding which subjects to leave out. There are lots of interesting snippets I wish I could have included but they simply didn’t fit into any of the chapters, like how rock singers only appear to be singing louder when they reach the climax of their songs. What they are actually doing is putting more emotional stress into their voices, which we pay more attention to and so they sound louder than they are.

The effect of music on our body chemistry is particularly fascinating to me. Our bodies effectively contain an internal pharmacy that dispenses various chemicals to help us deal with life’s challenges. For example, if you’re in a dangerous situation, you’ll receive a shot of adrenaline to give you energy, and if you do something which is good for you, you get a dose of serotonin (which encourages you to do the same thing again). Research has revealed that music holds the keys to your body’s pharmacy, and can promote or suppress the release of these chemicals. For example, loud and rhythmic music can increase your adrenaline levels, which will help to keep you awake during a long, boring drive. But in the case of insomnia, relaxing music can help you drop off to sleep by reducing the amount of the ‘vigilance chemical’ Noradrenaline in your system. Just half an hour of calming classical music at bedtime can help you to re-establish a healthy sleep pattern – I’d suggest lute music, like Nigel North’s Cantabile. On that note, sweet dreams!

Extract

Professors North and Hargreaves put music speakers on the top shelf of an end-of-aisle wine display in a supermarket to see if different sorts of music could influence the choices we make. The display consisted of four shelves, each of which had a French wine on one side and a German wine on the other. The wines on each shelf were matched for price and sweetness/dryness so there was a fair competition between the two countries.

Then all they had to do was change the music occasionally and monitor which wines were bought when each type of music was playing.

The results were astonishing:

With no music playing the French wine was slightly more popular than the German. However, when they played German music through the speakers the German wine sold twice as fast as the French stuff.

When they played French music the French bottles sold five times as fast as the German ones.

This implies that we are as helpless as krill in the path of a blue whale as far as marketing music is concerned. And the effect is subconscious – only one in eight of the wine buyers realised that the music had influenced their choice.

More about this book

In “Why You Love Music,” John Powell, a physicist who has also studied musical composition, offers an array of answers that mainly reflect his scientific background. He conveys some basic musical information painlessly, including tuning and scales, the construction of melodies, and elements of timbre and key. His writing is chatty and unpretentious; he is informal and down-home, at times quite funny. If you have ever felt intimidated by music and its terminology of whole and half steps, scales and chords, this book will put you at ease. – Peter Pesic, Wall Street Journal

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/16/the-science-of-songs-how-does-music-effect-your-body-chemistry

[iblamedan]

Trouble at the RSPCA, BBC Panorama Program

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On Thursday 3rd of August the Beeb, shown a program – Panorama – Trouble at the RSPCA – this program was advertised showing issues with ‘being heavy-handed by prosecuting them and taking away their animals” also within the 30 min program was shown ex-staff of the RSPCA and ex-staff of the Charity Commission.

To go into detail the program shown three examples of people accusing the charity of being heavy handed with prosecutions – I have no doubt the RSPCA were correct to prosecute in all three cases! Since the program the RSPCA has released statements on each case – which the BBC should have sought prior to publishing the program and explained in better detail.

62 Cats in one house

62 Cats – don’t protect this persons feelings – that womans was a hoarder – if provided with advice by the RSPCA (where she used to work, so knows what it takes) and that was ignored then yes she should have been prosecuted to reduce those numbers down. The woman is now refusing to accept the court conviction and trying to claim against the RSPCA – a ridiculous notion which her solicitors should have advised against due to cost – even when she knows the RSPCA were advised by her VET1 of the situation! I play with my cat at least an hour a day and she has FIV and herpes, something some of those cats will have also had. All cats should be monitored for temp, weight, toilet habits and how much she is eating, as they don’t show signs of distress as easily as other animals – this couldn’t be done with SIXTY TWO of them along with other animals too!

Yaay maths time; let’s say you needed to spend just 10mins with each cat a day (be that grooming on a monday, weighing on a tues, claw clipping wed etc) thats 10.5 HOURS A DAY!!! That doesn’t even include feeding or litter cleaning and 10mins per day doing anything with a cat is not really enough, not to mention she had other “pets” too! Articles also state “She doesn’t have the inclination or the means to inoculate them”2 so the cats didn’t even have the needed vaccinations to protect them from the virus prevalent in the house!

The show implied it was just her and there were no others in the house with her to spread the tasks to, nor did the show or any other media advise of any paid help either. So unless this woman is some form of McFly then an average person wouldn’t be able to provide a suitable domestic environment. What if they were allowed out too, it makes no comment if they were house cats – how could you do any tasks needed and monitor 62 cats you didn’t even know if they’d been in the house, advertising as a ‘sanctuary’ you’d like to think they weren’t roaming the streets!!!

This is a clean cut case! Hoarding to the point of Cruelty is still Cruelty, regardless of intentions!

        Essentially what Panorama have done here is provide validity to people who have abused animals to say – i’m allowed to and shouldn’t be stopped. The BBC should not have allowed the program to air.

Trustees

too many allegations are thrown his way and I agree the governance doesn’t sound correct! He should step down to protect the charity from further disrepute coming from his involvement

Governance

changes since the 70s but only after charity had correclty gone through a governace review 34

Barristers – known people who have protected animal abusers – why the hell would the RSPCA not make complaints about someone who is supposed to have a moral requirement to uphold the law and the law is the Animal Welfare Act.

ex-CE of the Charity Commission involved in the show is not appropriate and not acceptable that a person in such a position involves themselves regarding a specific charity – along with putting their names to a program which tried to make animal abusers seem like they’re disadvantaged by prosecution.

Heavy handed with prosecutions – no chance – 1 in 200 prosecuted is nowhere near enough! Don’t be ridiculous!

Our investigation into the RSPCA with @johnsweeneyroar, now on iPlayer. https://t.co/W1cQ2oaHiV http://pic.twitter.com/1WmJsie6Qi

— Panorama (@BBCPanorama) August 4, 2017

  Sensitisation is poor reporting! This is clear from the advert directly after the program asking “Is it possible that a pill prescribed by your doctor can turn you into a killer?” – this question is clearly worded in a manner not suited to unbiased publishing and is the TV version of Clickbait! Its well known Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors remove some emotion, obviously, their main aim is to reduce depression and work by stopping serotonin from being reabsorbed – so it builds up within the body rather than being removed by the body. One of the most prescribed medications in america Prozac is an SSSI medication. Medication does not make people kill, medication removes the depression which held them back from killing and increases their emotional state and motivation to do what makes them happy, sadly some people are psychopaths – you cannot blame the medication but the services that went with it, anyone on high doses of medication or with severe depression should be receiving frequent therapy to guide them and make certain they’re not going down dangerous paths (even then most people who have a want to murder don’t go telling people about it!)  The author of this received much backlash on Twitter, and rightfully so – Correlation does not mean Causation – every journalist should have this tattooed on their wrist.

Transcript of the Program - Click Here

Tonight the animal owners who claimed that one of our best loved charities is being too hard on them. It is the way they handle things. It is their away or the highway. The British public backs the RSPCA to prosecute animal cruelty, but does it always get it right? To be told I was mistreating birds of prey has left me feeling absolutely broken. And is the charity so determined to succeed it ignores the human cost? It went on for years and years, and it ground me down. I still feel injured. Former RSPCA insiders worry there is chaos at the top. I personally think that the RSPCA commentary is not fit for purpose.

We ask is the world’s oldest animal charity doing its best to keep public trust? We love our animals. My dog is called Bertie. Shall we go for a run? He is going to be my sidekick on this investigation. Or is it the other way around? Where is the stick, Bertie? He’s half toy poodle and half whippet, so he will keep me on my toes. Sometimes… It feels like he’s the master and I’m the dog. Woofety woof woof woof. Some animals don’t get love and affection like Bertie. That is why we need the RSPCA. The RSPCA has a full-scale rescue service…

It has been standing up for animals since 1824. The RSPCA gets more than 100 million per year in donations and legacies. Its inspectors see some extremely distressing sights. From stray dogs shown in this campaign video, outright cruelty. All of these dogs, filmed by an inspector, died. Many of them are in rigor mortis already. The RSPCA prosecuted the dog breeders who did this. They didn’t go to jail but were banned for life from owning dogs. The charity’s most powerful weapon in protecting animals is bringing private prosecutions. But some animal owners complain it is being too heavy-handed. This is the RSPCA headquarters here in Sussex. Critics say the charity has long been too quick to prosecute animal owners and too aggressive. Three years ago in independent report took the charity to task over the way it prosecutes people. How much has changed?

Good morning. This is Bertie. Hello, Bertie. Steve Rainton has been displaying birds of prey for 20 years. He is now helped by his partner, Natalie. Amazing, we’ve had her for five years. Stand well back… Last year Steve and Natalie faced getting criminal records when they were prosecuted by the RSPCA. Good girl. Steve said it all started when somebody he knew took four birds from his farm. Worried the rest of the birds were at risk Steve took them home in cages for temporary safekeeping and rang the RSPCA. Originally we asked the RSPCA for some help. Where we were keeping the birds wasn’t safe and we needed somewhere else to keep the birds. What Steve didn’t know was that the RSPCA had received a complaint about him mistreating the birds. When inspectors called at his home he let them in. He wished he hadn’t. Once they were in they started taking photographs, you know, trying to gather evidence against me. And that’s the way I felt bullied by the RSPCA. RSPCA inspectors do not have powers of seizure, so they called the police who took Steve’s birds away. Steve was charged by the RSPCA with eight animal welfare offences. Natalie, who does not own the birds, also faced eight charges. They used my partner. They basically said they would drop all charges against my partner if I took the rap, basically. I’d never broken the law. I’ve never been in trouble. To be told I was mistreating birds of prey, it just left me feeling… Absolutely broken. Earlier this year magistrates cleared Steve and Natalie of two charges. The other 14 were dismissed. The RSPCA says it is because of police mistakes. The whole thing of them being there to help you, in my case, wasn’t the case. Up until the day they knocked on my front door while we saw them as a good charity. The RSPCA said it acted properly and lawfully throughout. There was sufficient evidence. And that it was in the public interest.

It says it prosecuted around 800 people last year, down by 50% in four years. If an RSPCA inspector investigates a complaint of cruelty, that person has less than one chance in 200 of being prosecuted. Certainly not trigger-happy. Most of it is now dealt with by way of advisory notices and warnings. In fact most of it is dealt with by a reasonable conversation on the doorstep. Giving reasonable advice. Reasonable people take reasonable advice. The RSPCA and its inspectors do good work. No question. And criticising a much loved animal charity may not make me popular. But what can happen to an animal owner if there is no reasonable conversation on the doorstep? If no advice is given?

Gwyn Protheroe farms over 5000 sheep in mid Wales. These sheepdogs are working animals. Without them he cannot do his job. Last year the RSPCA prosecuted Gwyn following the death of one of his dogs. She was a working dog. It’s not clear why she died. But she was thin and had been a small dog from birth. From the vet’s report and postmortem done by the RSPCA they found a problem with her liver and her heart. The dog lay unburied for two days. She died while Gwyn was working 60 miles away. An RSPCA inspector called the police, who removed the dead dog and two of the sheepdogs. The RSPCA said he hadn’t done enough to prevent the death and that living conditions were poor. He was charged with three animal welfare offences. It’s the way they handled things, you know? It is their way or the highway, basically, you know? The case took a year to come to court and had a big effect on the family. What was it like when he was charged? Scary. It wasn’t a nice feeling. I felt really bad for dad because he isn’t a bad person. He didn’t really, like, deserve it. What did you say to them? That it would all be all right? Which it was proved, wasn’t it? I’m sorry… A judge dismissed the case, saying Gwyn has considerable expertise as an animal owner and acted reasonably. How did you feel when that verdict came through not guilty on all counts? Relieved. A sense of justice. Because he was cleared the dogs should have been returned. But, extraordinary as it seems, they were not. RSPCA staff asked if they could keep the dogs and re-homed them. I got a phone call, she asked the question again, the people in the kennels have got attached to the dogs. The RSPCA said it kept hold of the dogs while it considered to appeal. It would be two months before they found out if they would get their dogs back. I couldn’t work out why they wanted to keep, again, prolonging the process of us getting the dogs back. You keep thinking everything is coming to a close. But it was like they were ripping the wound open again. The RSPCA says it was right to prosecute. And while some cases don’t succeed 92.5% of its prosecutions are successful.

There is very, very rigorous process by which the evidence is checked to make sure we meet the evidential test. We get the experts in, we depend on an independent veterinary opinion as to the degree of suffering. Once the matter goes to court it is for the magistrate to convict or acquit. Fighting animal cruelty is important but has the RSPCA sometimes gone too far? Barrister Jonathan Rich stopped defending RSPCA cases nine years ago. I gained a firm impression that I was really being personally targeted. It reached a stage where my involvement in cases was actually not helping my clients, because they would throw significant resources at any case in which I was involved. He also faced a number of professional misconduct complaints linked to animal welfare cases. Two from the RSPCA. I have seen a lot of the rough and tumble of the bar. But this was in an entirely different league. And it went on for years and years and years, and it ground me down. I still feel today, I still feel injured. None of the complaints succeeded. One from the RSPCA took eight years to be fully resolved. I got pretty low. I was treated for depression. I’m not embarrassed to say that. Do you still defend animal cases? If the RSPCA are involved I will not be appearing as an advocate. Which is a great shame, given the expertise I believe I brought. Barrister Sara-Lise Howe believes she has been singled out, too. She says the CPS was warned she wanted to undermine RSPCA private prosecutions. I have no doubt that they have been targeting me. I was 16 years in court, I’d never had these accusations. Just trying to represent my client. To get the court to look at the law. The RSPCA says the criticism to the CPS about Sara-Lise Howe was made in error and nnot at their request. It respects and upholds the vital role played by defence lawyers in testing the prosecution’s case. For the RSPCA to do its job properly it must be well run.

This June the Chief Executive Jeremy Cooper resigned. The second to do so in three years. Trouble at the top should be a worry for any charity. If I am a donor I want to know my money is going to be well spent. And the chances are significantly higher that my money as a donor is going to be well spent if the charity is well governed, well led, sound decisions are made. The RSPCA staff are overseen by 25 unpaid trustee is called the council. They are supposed to keep an eye on things, not run the show.

One of the key rules, really, is that trustees in a large charity shouldn’t really dabble in operational matters. That is for paid staff. But we’ve discovered that’s what’s been going on at the RSPCA. Chris Lawrence used to be the charity’s chief vet before he became a trustee. The RSPCA are essentially is a great organisation. Fantastic staff who work incredibly hard. But you come to a point where you have to say enough is enough, I can’t any longer support the way this is happening. I had real concerns about the way the RSPCA was being run at council level. He’s never spoken publicly about leaving the charity he loves. The Council found it really difficult to properly delegate. What does that mean? It means almost micromanagement. Chris Laurence resigned as a trustee last year. His fellow trustee, David Canavan, is still there. The RSPCA spends £50 million a year responding to complaints from the general public about abuse of animals. He’s speaking to MPs about fundraising. The two years, the RSPCA allowed him and another trustee to run the charity unpaid, while it was without a chief executive. For any charity, doing both jobs at the same time, for such a long time, would be a no-no. For a large charity, that is off the bscale, in terms of being so unusual. I find it difficult to see how a large charity could properly run itself if it doesn’t have a permanent chief executive who is independent from the nonexecutive trustee team. This is the Manchester Animal Hospital, the RSPCA’s busiest. It provides extremely subsidised neutering, micro-chipping, vaccinations, to quite a poor -ish area within Manchester. Three years ago, Steve Carter was asked to look at redistributing some of its vet services to branches across the North of England. Among them, Rochdale, 16 miles away. It was a branch that struggled financially. It tried to do the best it could, but it overextended itself. Steve Carter says getting more vet services could have helped Rochdale’s finances and says David Canavan was keen on the move. At the time, he was also an unpaid trustee of the Rochdale branch. That’s a conflict-of-interest, isn’t it? I believe it is. I made it very clear to trustees and two senior management that this was not a decision I could support in any way, shape or form. Steve feared it could have meant closure for the Manchester Animal Hospital. I did not want to see that provision deteriorate in any shape or form. That was one of the main reasons that I decided I had to leave the RSPCA. The RSPCA says it did discuss its Northern operations. No changes were made and there was never any suggestion the Manchester hospital would close. It says there was no improper interference by David Canavan and as acting chief executive he oversaw a period of stability and sound management.

Brighton, a stone’s throw from RSPCA HQ. We’ve been told that what happened here reveals more cracks behind the scenes. Nationally, the RSPCA has a policy against anyone importing dogs for commercial purposes. But here in Brighton, the local branch was re-homed scores of dogs from Spain and Portugal in apparent conflict with that policy. Around 150 dogs over three years were imported by another animal welfare organisation, and brought to these RSPCA kennels. They were then re-homed. The Brighton branch had lots of British Staffies, which are hard to home, and was keen to offer a mix of breeds. The RSPCA said the dogs were not being imported for commercial purposes. The RSPCA told us the Brighton branch didn’t profit from re-homing these animals, but we found out the issue did worry some staff. They couldn’t support others transporting animals hundreds of miles across Europe, when there were plenty of British dogs to help at home. Trustee David Canavan got involved in 2014. At the time he was also effectively running the charity. We understand that David Canavan told the branch that so long as 40% of the dogs in my kennels were brought to them by inspectors, they could fill the remaining space is how they wanted, providing the trustees and legal department didn’t object. The RSPCA said any suggestion David Canavan acted contrary to its policies is completely untrue. He referred the matter to the Chief Vet and the RSPCA revised its policy, so the branch had to get permission on a case-by-case basis. It says the branch was trying to help as many unwanted dogs as it could, and its main focus remains local animals. At the top is the RSPCA a smoothly running organisation? I personally think that the RSPCA, currently, is not fit for purpose. I think it stems from the background of counsel. I don’t think the government process and structure has moved on much since the 1970s. Wipe-out this is the headquarters of the Charity Commission, it’s the body charged with making sure our charities are up to snuff. It told Panorama that the RSPCA’s governance is below the standard it would expect from a modern charity. It is monitoring the trustees’ role in leading change will consider regulatory action if the required improvements aren’t made quickly enough. The RSPCA says its trustees are working with the Charity Commission to implement the recommendations of a recent independent review. The RSPCA has its own reform agenda.

It wants for more powers to investigate, so it has to rely less on the police. Its supporters say only the charity has the necessary expertise and resources to prosecute. Critics argue it should be left to the police. The type of cruelty that the public disapproves of is obvious. It doesn’t require a specialist organisation to prosecute. I’m on my way to see one of Sara-Lise Howe’s clients. Sarah Mellanby lost her appeal against conviction for seven animal welfare offences earlier this year. That some of my cats there. That’s Leonard and Elmo. Puff Daddy, Thomas O’Malley and that’s Hubert. Sarah used to a large home to shelter unwanted cats. So who have we got here? That is Lionel Blair. LAUGHTER I know, super hair. Dennis the Menace, Charles Worthington. Some people would say looking at this that you are a mad cat lady. Yes,

they probably would. Are you a mad cat lady? Guests. Where are your cats? I don’t have any. Four years ago she had more than 60. You had 60 cats, 62 cats. Isn’t that a bit crazy? Well, I’m too soft, I’m just too soft. They were unwanted cats and I was homing them. Some of the cats she took and had cat flu, which is contagious and can be nasty. I kept them and kept them comfortable. It’s not good, but they were alive, they were as well as they could be. The RSPCA, which made repeated visits, disagreed. It says some were emaciated, as well as cat flu others had problems with their eyes and teeth. And it says she failed to seek appropriate care from a vet. All her cats were removed and Sarah was tried and convicted. I think a lot of the people who have had problems with the RSPCA are people who would be described as vulnerable. The mad old lady who takes into many cats, they have got themselves into a mess for caring, because they care too much. I think that is a big difference from someone who delights in seeing an animal suffer. The RSPCA tried to help and advise Sarah. The appeal judge said she was deaf to that advice and the idea that the RSPCA were treating her harshly was not supported by the evidence. But he did reduce her sentence, so, after four years, 21 cats could come home.

A vet who supported Sarah throughout, is no fan of the RSPCA. What does somebody like Sarah do with cats that are left on her doorstep? Take those cats in or discard them, shut the door and leave them to die? What’s the options? Yes, we know that a lot of these cats were chronically infected with cat flu. They have been and they will remain that way. The RSPCA asked the court to make Sarah pay some of their costs. She now has a £100,000 charge on her home, to be paid to the RSPCA when she sells it.

My heart’s been broken. They’ve just warn me down and I’ve been depressed. They’re just like this giant machine that just crawls through people’s lives and they’ve got no way of getting out of it. The RSPCA says it prosecuted as a last resort. It was endorsed by the appeal judge and the Crown Prosecution Service. The costs were high because it took so long to conclude the case, and this was not the RSPCA’s fault. The RSPCA says it only prosecute when mistreatment is serious, cruelty blatant and when other ways to help animal and owner have been exhausted.

Back in Wales, the Protheroes are still waiting to hear if they’ll get their sheepdogs back. Three days after Panorama wrote to the RSPCA, the dogs were finally returned. Can one if you open the door while I left her in, please? Outside the Protheroes’ solicitors… It’s a big relief. It’s nice to see them. They’re looking OK, aren’t you? Hope they’ll be as happy to be home as we are to have them home. The RSPCA says the delay in returning the dogs was lawful and proper, while it decided whether to appeal. For many, including its critics, the

RSPCA remains a great British charity. I think the RSPCA is overall a force for good. The inspectors do good work every single day, there are out there in all conditions. Charity fight the RSPCA depend on more than donations, they also need public support. Public trust and public confidence in the work that charities do will only be sustained if charities are seen to be doing the right thing. That means behaving in a responsible, transparent and accountable way.

The RSPCA says it is committed to continually improving everything it does. But to its critics, it stands accused of being a charity that sometimes lacks charity – to humans.

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from Trouble at the RSPCA, BBC Panorama Program

[sherristockman]

Mind Hack — How Corporations Took Over Our Bodies and Brains Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola The science is in: Processed food is addictive, can make you extremely unhappy and will prematurely kill you. How did this happen? And how have food manufacturers been able to deceive the world about these facts? Dr. Robert Lustig has written a new book, “The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains,” in which he explains how and why this occurred. He is perhaps most well-known for his brilliant research into sugar and obesity, and his previous book, “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease,” was a New York Times Best Seller. Lustig is an emeritus professor of pediatrics in the division of endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, and a member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies. Since the last time I interviewed him, he’s also completed a master’s in public health law. The Genesis of ‘Hacking of the American Mind’ The motivation for “The Hacking of the American Mind” began some 30 years ago, while still a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Rockefeller University. There, he learned about the interaction between dopamine and serotonin in the brain. At the time, only basic correlational data existed, but there appeared to be a very specific interaction going on between these two neurochemicals. “As I was researching the data for ‘Fat Chance,’ four years ago, it became very clear that the data had come in on the role of diet and behavioral health,” Lustig says. “In addition, we also now had neuroimaging studies. I realized everything was falling into place — that this issue, dopamine and serotonin, was actually at the core of what had now become our depression and opiate crises. At the same time, I was giving Psychiatry Grand Rounds at a U.S. medical school in 2014. The woman who ran their outpatient treatment program took me on a tour of their facility. She was a recovered addict herself. She said something to me that was so jarring. She said, ‘When I was shooting up, I was happy. What my new life has brought me is pleasure.’ I thought to myself, ‘That’s wrong. That’s exactly turned around.’ But I didn’t say anything to her. I went home and talked to some psychiatry friends. They said, ‘Oh yeah, a lot of people seem to get addicted with this concept in mind.’ I said, ‘Well, there’s a book there.’ That was the genesis of this book.” Why Processed Food Diets Fuel Depression Download Interview Transcript Tryptophan, which is the precursor for serotonin, is one of the rarest amino acids in our diet. But it’s a mistake to think the answer to depression is as simple as taking tryptophan to boost serotonin. The reason for this is because most of the tryptophan is converted to serotonin in your gut, and it does not freely travel into your brain. Lustig explains: “Tryptophan is the only amino acid that can be converted into serotonin. Tryptophan is the rarest amino acid in our diet. Eggs have the most. Certain poultry and other avian species have some [tryptophan]. There’s very little in vegetables. Obviously, carbohydrates have virtually no tryptophan whatsoever. It’s actually pretty hard to get tryptophan into your body to start with. Take processed food on top of that, then it’s even harder because it tends to be tryptophan-depleted. [Moreover], 99.9 percent of the tryptophan you ingest either gets turned into serotonin in the gut for your gut’s purposes, or it goes into your platelets to help your platelets help you clot. [So] very little tryptophan actually gets to the brain. Top that off with the fact that tryptophan has to share an amino acid transporter with two relatively common amino acids: phenylalanine and tyrosine, which, by the way, are the precursors for dopamine. You can see that the more processed food you eat, the more dopamine you will make because you will have the precursors for that. They will actually crowd out the ability to get tryptophan across the blood-brain barrier … Yet, serotonin is the nidus of contentment, of happiness. It explains why diet is so problematic … ” Face-to-Face Interaction Has Neurochemical Effects Many try to bolster their happiness through certain food choices, but this actually does not work, and Lustig provides compelling arguments that the foods you crave drive up dopamine and drive down serotonin. Rather, it’s experiences that make you happy. People can make you happy. You can make yourself happy. In his book, Lustig outlines a number of different strategies to become happier. “Ultimately, the goal is [to increase] your serotonin,” he says. There are four ways to boost your serotonin, and they’re all free. They’re also things your grandmother likely told you to do. First and foremost is making human connections. “Turns out that Facebook does not count as connection. When we’re talking about interpersonal connection, we’re talking about eye-to-eye,” Lustig says. “The facial emotions of the person you’re talking with activate a set of neurons in your brain called ‘mirror neurons,’ which are the drivers of empathy and specifically linked to serotonin.To be able to generate a feeling of empathy, which ultimately turns into contentment/happiness, you actually have to connect. You can’t do it over the internet. You can’t have a connection with ‘anonymous.’ It just doesn’t work.” On the contrary, social media generate dopamine, associated with pleasure, and hence can drive addiction. The main problem is that when dopamine goes up, serotonin goes down. So, online communication is actually a major causative factor of unhappiness. Lustig also elaborates on how companies — both food manufacturers and electronics companies — capitalize on the biology of dopamine versus serotonin to get us addicted to their products. There’s even a book on this topic written by Nir Eyal, called, “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.” Dopamine Versus Serotonin It’s important to realize that the dopamine (or reward-generating) pathway is the same no matter what your source of pleasure is. It can be a substance, such as nicotine, alcohol, heroin or junk food; or it can be behavior, such as internet surfing, shopping or pornography. The problem, in a nutshell, is that dopamine is an excitatory neurotransmitter, and in excess is neurotoxic. When dopamine is released, and the neuron on the other side accepts the signal, it can damage that neuron. Over time, excitatory neurotransmitters can cause cell death. To protect itself from damage, the postsynaptic neuron employs a self-protective mechanism — it downregulates its receptors. By having fewer receptors, the dopamine cannot do as much damage. So, each time you get a “hit” or rush of dopamine, the number of receptors decrease. As a result, you need increasingly larger doses or “hits” to get the same rush. Eventually, you end up with tolerance, a state where even a large dose produces no effect. Once the neurons start to actually die off, you’re a full-blown addict. “The point that you need to know is that it takes three weeks for the receptors to repopulate. The cravings can go on for upwards of a year when you’re addicted. This is a long-term process that sometimes requires medical intervention and medical management by physicians who understand addiction medicine,” Lustig says. Serotonin, on the other hand, is not an excitatory neurotransmitter. When it acts on the serotonin-1a receptor (the “contentment” receptor), no damage occurs. Hence, happiness does not lead to addictive behavior. Keep in mind that dopamine downregulates serotonin, so it’s basically impossible to achieve happiness (related to serotonin) through pleasure-seeking behavior (related to dopamine). One of the cheapest pleasures that stimulates dopamine is sugar. Many reach for sweet junk food when they feel down, thinking it’ll help them feel better, but neurochemical science reveals this simply cannot happen. Add the stress hormone cortisol to the mix, which downregulates the serotonin-1a receptor, and you have a recipe for both addiction and depression. “That’s what we’re seeing throughout all of civilized society, not just in America, but around the world,” Lustig says. Other Serotonin Boosters There are three other ways, besides connecting, that boost serotonin and happiness. The remaining three of the four C’s are: 1. Contribute: Meaning the act of contributing to something greater than yourself; making a contribution to society. “You can get happiness and contentment from your job, but there are certain criteria that have to be met,” Lustig says. “Most people, unfortunately, have a boss who is not contributing to their happiness. The workplace is not usually the best place to achieve meaningful contentment.” 2. Cope: Lack of sleep, insufficient exercise and multitasking are all causes of unhappiness. Sleep is extremely important for healthy serotonin production. Here, avoiding exposure to electronic screens is important, as blue light inhibits melatonin production, thereby making sleep more elusive. Electronics will also disrupt your sleep and deteriorate your health by exposing you to unnecessary microwaves, discussed in this recent article on depression. 3. Cook: If you cook, you’re likely going to increase your tryptophan, reduce your refined sugar intake, and increase your omega-3 fats (anti-inflammatory) and fiber. Overall, this will result in improved gut health, which has tremendous impact on your mood and mental health. “Numerous investigators … have shown that your gastrointestinal flora tell your brain what they want through signals that go through the bloodstream, and potentially even neural ones as well. If you do not feed your bacteria, you cannot get happy. Eating real food you prepare yourself is super important,” Lustig says. Eating Real Food Helps Optimize Tryptophan and Other Vital Brain Nutrients As mentioned, a big part of the happiness equation is to increase serotonin by optimizing tryptophan. However, the dilemma is that most of the serotonin produced in the gut is used there locally. It does not enter your brain. Lustig explains: “There are many diversions for tryptophan away from the brain. It can be metabolized in the intestine itself. It can be metabolized in the platelets. It can be turned into kynurenine, which is a secondary metabolite in the liver. It may not be transported across the blood-brain barrier because of phenylalanine and tyrosine taking up the aromatic amino acid transporter. In addition, of course, your serotonin neurons must be functional. There are things that will kill off serotonin neurons, including party drugs. For instance, MDMA, or Ecstasy, is a famous dopamine and serotonin killer … Once you’ve lost those serotonin neurons, it’s pretty hard to get any sort of happiness signal.” So, how do you boost systemic tryptophan? One of the keys is to eat real food, and to make sure you include high-tryptophan foods, the highest of which is egg whites. You also need omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA, which is a component of every cell in your body. More than 90 percent of the omega-3 fat found in brain tissue is DHA. “Omega-3s are probably the single most beneficial thing you can put in your body. They are anti-inflammatory. They are anti-Alzheimer’s. They increase membrane fluidity. Therefore, they increase neuronal distensibility, which means it’s less likely that any given neuron will die,” Lustig says. “The problem, of course, is that when we took the fat out of the food, we took ALL the fat out of the food. It’s been a real chore to get the medical cognoscenti to turn around on this. I do want to do a shoutout to the American Heart Association, because they have now debunked their long-standing cholesterol-fat hypothesis. They now recognize that saturated fat was not the demon they made it out to be, and that there are seven classes of fats, and that you actually have to consume omega-3s. You have to consume monounsaturated fats. In fact, you do have to consume some saturated fat because it’s a major component of membranes.” The Corporate Takeover So, how have food companies contributed to the problems of food and drug addiction? According to Lustig, “If you look at the Supreme Court decisions that took place between the mid-‘70s and mid-‘80s, they took away individual rights and loaded up corporate rights in a very distinct fashion.” In his book, he describes four specific Supreme Court decisions, one of which basically deregulated corporate speech. Corporations can say anything they want, whenever they want, regardless of whether it’s actually true. Our current epidemics of opioid and food addiction are outgrowths of corporate dishonesty. “We are now seeing the advent of the post-truth society because of how the Supreme Court chipped away at our own individual rights,” Lustig says. “By doing so, corporations have affected our ability to experience pleasure and happiness. They’ve actually inserted propaganda into our limbic system, our reward generating system, so that we constantly seek reward at the expense of our own happiness. This is why we currently live in the world we live in. The late political philosopher from Princeton, Sheldon Wolin, wrote a poignant book called ‘Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism,’ [in which] he envisioned that corporations and government … would become one and the same. If you look at what’s going on in the White House today, you can see that Wolin’s nightmare scenario has been realized. It’s fascism in the sense that we don’t seem to have a voice of our own. It’s not fascism in the sense that it’s corporations that’s told us what to do. It’s that we’ve basically abdicated our own responsibility for our own health and safety.” The EatREAL Trust Mark Speaking of living in a post-truth society, you might not realize there’s no regulation against restaurants blatantly lying about what they’re serving you. Larry Olmsted, in his book “Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don’t Know What You’re Eating and What You Can Do About It,” addresses this. There are no consequences, no regulatory action, for lying to customers. The deception will only enrich them — until or unless they’re publicly outed and perhaps boycotted. One way to protect your interests when eating out is to make sure the restaurant is affiliated with Responsible Epicurean and Agricultural Leadership, better known as EatREAL, a nonprofit Lustig helped create. It teaches restaurants what they “should be doing,” and provides a trust mark to the public — a green fork. The High Cost of Added Sugar Processed fructose, mostly in the form of corn syrup, has become a major contributor to the $3 trillion health care budget in the United States, and there’s clear data linking sugar consumption to de novo lipogenesis — a disease process associated with fat accumulation in the liver, causing insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, metabolic syndrome and associated diseases. That includes Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lipid problems, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. “We have the mechanism by which this occurs. In fact, our paper in Gastroenterology1 demonstrates that if you take sugar out of the diet of children with metabolic syndrome and substitute starch — calorie for calorie exchange, glucose for fructose exchange with no change in calories … — in 10 days, you can reverse metabolic syndrome. You can reverse the insulin resistance. You can reverse the liver fat. You can reverse the burden on the pancreas. Basically, all of the metabolic perturbations go away. This is the smoking gun,” Lustig says. “In addition, we have a paper in BMJ Open2 which models what could happen in terms of health care expenditures and disease rates if we reduced our sugar consumption by 20 percent, which is what taxes would do. Or if we reduce sugar consumption by 50 percent (which is what the United States Department of Agriculture suggested we do), for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease alone … the United States, over the next 20 years, could save $103 billion, just on that disease alone. Ultimately, this is where the money goes. This is why health care will be defunct. This is why Medicare will be broke by the year 2026 … We have to deal with health. Health is going down the tubes. There’s no amount of health care that can fix what’s wrong with our diet, unless we fix the diet first … The bottom line is we are in trouble. But you can’t fix a problem until you recognize what the problem is. This book, ‘The Hacking of the American Mind,’ demonstrates how the science, how the biology, ultimately has influenced not just our health, but in fact, our policy.” More Information In the past, people had a much better understanding of happiness and pleasure. Lustig’s book describes how these terms have been purposely conflated and confused by businesses and governments because it helped sales. To turn the trends of addiction around, you have to understand the difference between the two. “So, what’s the difference between pleasure and happiness? There are seven differences: Pleasure is visceral; happiness is ethereal. Pleasure is short-term; happiness is long-term. Pleasure is usually achieved alone; happiness is usually achieved in social groupings. Pleasure is taking; happiness is giving. Pleasure can be achieved with substances; happiness cannot be achieved with substances. The extremes of pleasure all lead to addiction, whereas there is no such thing as being addicted to happiness. Finally, pleasure is dopamine and happiness is serotonin. Understanding the difference between the two is something, for some reason, that the American public just never got. We have to make them get it in order to turn this problem around. Academics don’t get it. Businesses don’t get it. The federal government certainly doesn’t get it. We have to make them get it. That’s why this book is so crucial.” I couldn’t agree more, and “The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains” will certainly help you understand the distinction between dopamine, serotonin and the variables that help optimize these neurotransmitters. Most importantly, the way he explains it all has the power motivate healthy behavior. “The bottom line is it’s about the science,” Lustig says. “There will be detractors who will say this is garbage. But the bottom line is there are 600 references to the primary literature to demonstrate that this is not gobbledygook. The science actually predicts the phenomena that we see and the society we’ve become.”

[listeningpostnola-blog]

July’s Survey Results

In 2016, there were more drug related deaths than murders in New Orleans. Mostly due to opioids. Mayor Landrieu says he has a plan to deal with the growing national opioid epidemic.

1. What evidence of the opioid epidemic have you seen? How has it impacted you?

Have seen used syringes on the ground, in my neighborhood & last week, a man was seemingly unconscious, on my front steps, w his eyes glazed over & wasn’t…

TV, but I think the true extent is not accurately reported in local media.

Only heard of kids dying for r no reason

No impact.

Mayor =\= national. Mitch needs to focus on safety in the City before he starts tackling national issues.

No

None fortunately

Not personally yet, but I know it's here. I used to think drug addiction was fueled by despair, but now the chemistry of these new opioids it's frightening. Just a few days even if it's a legitimate need (meaning Rx) you're body is hooked. And it's just too easy, the pills too available.

Doctor I worked with just got arrested w 6000 pain pills and a gun!

I have not personally been impacted. Thank God!!

I used to have an addiction treatment center as a client so I am aware of the opioid crisis but I haven’t been personally affected. I don’t have any friends or family members who have been addicted.

Have family and friends who've both had issues.

I've seen a guy on my street corner a few times strung out, laying like a zombie in the sun. I haven't been directly impacted, but after reading this article, I feel like it's just a matter of time. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/the-addicts-next-door

My brother was an opioid addict. Question: why didn't everyone show same concern during crack epidemic as they do for opioids? Eg federally funded treatments and "listening tours"? Oh right because crack was in black communities and opioids in white communities. Got it.

Friends of mine who work in the service industry in the quarter say opioid use is rampant among their peers. A high school classmate of mine recently died from an overdose. She was 27, engaged and had just finally gotten her degree a week or two prior. That's the scariest part to me- opioids killing relatively functional people who'd only think of themselves as recreational users rather than addicts.

I'm a prosecutor in a city court in a small town on the MS coast. 20 folks who have been in Court for various minor charges related to their addiction, ie. shoplifting, RX forgery, etc have died in the past 2 years. It's tragic what the corporate distributors of these drugs - including doctors - have allowed to go on in the name of profits. No conscience. It makes one despair.

I haven't seen any direct evidence, but I think that perhaps the uptick in broad daylight robberies in areas where there is the likelihood that the act will be taped by numerous cameras may be linked to addicts desperate for money.

The opioid epidemic is a result of the HMOs such a signal and what have you that said all these kids need to be on ritalin or Adderall Concerta whatever because they have ADHD so bad and me personally I was put on Ritalin when I was 5 and I've been on it ever since and my body my brain cannot produce serotonin on its own because of dr. Walker when I was five a Cigna pediatrician my parents I don't blame them they just did with the doctor said I blame doctor on the HMO Cigna the way I got hooked on opioids is because of running out of my usual medication my the Adderall that I have to take to produce serotonin nor dopamine I am a victim of the hmos and of the times because they prescribed it to me when I was five years old a little boy who gets put on Ritalin and the rest of his life gets ruined before it gets started it's not fair that I have to take these medications to live a normal life and it isn't fair to be treated this way nor is it fair to penalize and scrutinize me for being a quote-unquote addict because of someone's thought they could make good money off of my generation and keep them on drugs the rest of their lives why do these are dangerous drugs and I hope there's another 9/11 the government needs to go I know there's a heaven and there's a hell cuz this is just a holding pen this Earth and I believe the United States government is the evil empire because they let it go on death and hatred to the United States government and anyone who works for it

One of my best friends died from an overdose last April. A couple others have danced with Mr. Brownstone and lived to tell the tale, but only with family support.

As a practicing pharmacist, I have filled opioid prescriptions for questionable "patients."

I've seen clients and friends die

Percocet. Molly Percocet.

4 people I know have had drug and alcohol related deaths in the past decade. Once they wade into the deep end, it's too late.

I keep hearing about a heroine epidemic.

None not at all

No

2. What would you do if someone you knew was addicted to opioids, like heroin or oxycodone?

I would recommend treatment/rehab.

I would do what my friend's grandfather did and take them to our camp in Manchac and work them until drugs were you of their system.

I would try to get them to go to a treatment facility. The problem is there are not enough and Trump's plan cuts funding to DHHS. So no help in site. Also trump cuts funding for the nurse workforce act. He is the first person to do this in over 50 years.

Try to get them help.

I'd recommend help

Get them into treatment. With the potency and availability of these drugs I don't know if people can do it alone.

Honestly don't know

Probably insist they go to rehab or if they were not able to care for themselves anymore take the legal steps to have them committed to a hospital

I would try to get them to get help at an addiction treatment center or from a doctor who specializes in treating addiction.

Help find them medical help!

I'm not sure. I feel like I'd try to get them into treatment ASAP. But that can be costly

My brother was addicted. We put him in rehab. He’s still on the suboxone (prescription meds, like methodone)

I'd insist they get treatment and do everything I could to be supportive

Get them into treatment - but the prognosis for these folks is bleak. Treatment for this addiction has a huge failure rate - 80-90 percent.

Might try to get them help but every situation like this I know of eventually fails the addict. Cynically, I think it's almost impossible to solve.

Accept them for who they are and embrace them for who they are because it's not all of always our fault when we're children were told to take these medications and we took them and now look where we are I hope there's another 9/11 only this time I need Donald Trump and the rest of its his cabinet to Parish with him. Point in case being you don't ostracize somebody because they have to be an addict because they got put on Ritalin when they were only five 5 years old I was a little boy and my parents still scrutinizing ostracize me but it's they let it happen and it's not fair to be labeled like that and expected to be sober after 27 years of being prescribed ritalin and adderall and everything in between for my whole life. I like to accept responsibility for my actions but honest to God when one's brain can produce serotonin or dopamine on its own and I have to resort to something like that I should be living off of a settlement Sic semper tyrannis death and hatred to the United States government death and hatred to the New Orleans Police Department. they're a bunch of corrupt f****** pigs as it is the only good cop is a dead one who would ostracize and arrest me and have me put in prison for being an addict because the circumstances were went beyond my control from as being a little boy five years old and was put on good one and I've been on it ever since

Talk to them about getting clean. I also couldn't trust them until they were clean.

Refer to qualified help.

Advise rehab or NA...but really, I don't believe there is anything others can do. Pray if your religious...cross fingers if you’re superstitious.

Get them far, far away in rehab.

Stay away from them

3. What strategies do you think would help communities better deal with drug epidemics?

Greater funding for treatment programs, & rehab facilities.

Acknowledgement

Illogical and discompassionate

Diversion programs for users--not just for opioids. Users of Crack cocaine and other addictive illegal drugs should be treated with compassion.

Work with the docs to stop prescribing so many pills. And then get community groups to organize and educate ourselves on the signs of addiction. And lobby for treatment programs. Not sure if churches could provide treatment like they used to provide adult day care. And clean needle exchange and I think it's Narcan in the first responders supplies.

Treatment

More mental health facilities and clinics where they could safely turn themselves in.

The biggest problem right now is that addiction doctors and professionals don’t agree on the causes or treatments of addiction. That being said, there has to be access to affordable treatment and care. This means addiction treatment has to be covered by insurance (and Medicaid) with little or no out of pocket cost. Drugs like Buprenorphine or Naltrexone need to be readily available and affordable as well.

More free medical clinics that have strong proven strategies for helping with addiction.

JOBS! And good housing. When people aren't idle, and feeling thrown away, most of them can move in a positive direction

Treat drugs— all drugs, not just those that white people use— as public health issue not a criminal one

Better mental health services, more outpatient rehab and support services for people who don't have access to expensive residential treatment facilities, accessible awareness and prevention programs for at risk populations, more rehabilitative group homes with employment opportunities.

To be honest - not much a community can do. 35 years prosecuting drug offenses has accomplished NOTHING. Look at what was going on by the DEA - agents were dealing; drugs are sold in jails and prisons. If someone has a good idea of what to do I'd like to hear it myself.

Legalization has worked in other countries. I believe Portugal for one. Instead of forcing addicts to buy and use stuff that can be laced with deadly additives, they could get their safe fix and also not have to rob and steal.

For the government the pharmaceutical lobbyists they take responsibility for what they did and accept us addicts for Who We Are because it isn't fair the circumstances were Beyond My Control I was only 5 and my parents should be held accountable for their ignorance

Education for the kids, methodone clinics and needle disposal clinics for the junkies.

Continue with current efforts, such as the prescription monitoring program, link PMP among more states, and take action against providers who use their credentials to sell unwarranted prescriptions for narcotics.

Stop the drugs from getting to people. Legalize marijuana and let people get high more safely.

Create the dangers of the awareness.

[easyweight101]

Garcinia Cambogia Warning (UPDATED 2017): Don’t Buy Before You Read This!

What is Garcinia Cambogia?

Garcinia Cambogia has increased in popularity as a breakthrough natural ingredient for the reduction of appetite and fat.

Garcinia Cambogia pills are often used to help support weight loss and it’s offered by many brands, though there is a proper combination of ingredients that can maximize weight loss. Some of the other touted benefits include improved mood, more energy, reduced fatigue, the regulation of blood sugar levels, lowered bad cholesterol, better concentration, help against sugar cravings, and the loss of joint pain according to some studies.

This pumpkin like citrus fruit has been traditionally used as a food source and in particular, it is found in curries in some Asian countries. There is a lot of information available about this breakthrough weight loss ingredient which is why it is often found in supplements. Recently there has been more clinical studies performed which reveal what its capabilities are, and how exactly it can be used as a way to manage weight. It has a unique effect which is different from most weight loss ingredients as it is stimulant free, and will not promote unwanted side effects when it is used as directed.

Studies have shown it can help deliver weight loss results, which his further maximized via the use of a wholesome formula.

The Benefits of Garcinia Cambogia Pills

One of the most functional ways to enjoy Garcinia Cambogia is via the intake of supplements. This offers a concentrated version of the pure Garcinia Cambogia and makes it easier to take than having to buy it whole and cooking it.

You also get access to the pure extract form with high levels of HCA or hydroxycitric acid. This is the key extract inside which is responsible for the weight loss effects. This is why often Garcinia Cambogia reviews will mention the total amount of HCA, as it’s important receiving an optimal amount for maximizing weight loss.  HCA will often be the key focus in clinical studies that look to examine the effects of Garcinia Cambogia. While it is found in many tropical plants, it is especially concentrated as an extract in Garcinia Cambogia.

A 50% extract is advised for weight loss as Harry G. Preuss, a medical doctor who reviewed this ingredient has found in his studies:

“can be an effective “fat loser”…. If a good extract is used”

“(has beneficial effects with a) minimum of 50% HCA”

He was able to review this ingredient as he is a professor of Medicine and Pathology at the respected Georgetown University.

His study concluded 3 important findings as well:

Garcinia Cambogia can reduce appetite. This is due to the effect HCA can have on serotonin. By increasing serotonin within the brain it can provide noticeable changes in limiting ones desire to eat. He also mentioned that people who are in a caloric deficit can experience dips in blood sugar, which can lead to an insatiable appetite. By using the optimal amount of HCA you can reduce this urge to want to eat.

Garcinia Cambogia limits the amount of calories which are used in fat storage. The mechanism behind this is by blocking an enzyme that the body will create to help form fat. The belief is that fat was once helpful in ancient times, but with modern schedules it is less important to store fat.

He considers it a great advancement in weight loss that has been experienced in the past couple of years. Though it is important to get it in the optimal dosage and from a respected brand that has not had issues of scams or misrepresentations of Garcinia Cambogia’s real capabilities.

Examine.com has looked at Garcinia Cambogia extracts and said:

“very good source of hydroxycitric acids”

It’s because of this fact that it is the preferred HCA extract out of any other natural substance.

This is also known to not have any stimulant like effects or any likelihood of side effects when taken as directed. Targeting both fat storage and appetite are important aspects of weight loss, but they are not comprehensive enough to fully offer maximized results. One still has to deal with proper digestion, blocking things like carbohydrates or fats, regulating metabolism, supporting blood pressure, and other forms of support. The reason why Garcinia Cambogia is not described as the end all be all ingredient is that it requires more for well-rounded coverage.

This is why it is important to find the right blend of ingredients which is covered in the next section.

Optimal forms of Garcinia Cambogia Extract

Garcinia Cambogia when used individually has a limit on its possible weight loss support. The preferred way to use Garcinia Cambogia is via multiplying the effects through other added wholesome ingredients. Some of the best additives to include are:

Aloe Vera: Long used digestive aid that has laxative effects. This can help aid digestion and make it easier to get rid of waste and water weight. In it are compounds which can provide antioxidant benefits as well as antibacterial support.

Cascara Sagrada: Soothing plant used as a natural laxative since the 19th century. This can help promote contractions in the intestines, leading to easier stool movements.

Chitosan: Extract from shellfish that acts as a fiber source to help block the intake of both bad cholesterol and dietary fat. Often used as a way to help those who are struggling to control their obesity. This can effectively reduce the intake of calories from certain macronutrients.

Legume Protein (Phaseo Vulgaris): White kidney bean that helps to reduce the intake of carbohydrates. This is particularly important for those who eat heavy carbohydrate meals. Also shown effective for the balance of blood sugar levels which happens after a meal is taken. High levels of blood sugar can lead to insulin resistance and an increase in cardiovascular disease.

These are just some helpful all-natural and safe to use ingredients which can help one lose weight. One noted supplemented which was ranked as the best of its kind is Sletrokor, which contains all the above ingredients as well as other helpful stimulant free compounds. This helps to ensure one can maximize their weight loss results, since Garcinia Cambogia is helpful, but on its own it won’t deliver the most optimal results.

Sletrokor provides a healthy amount of Garcinia Cambogia by adding a 50% HCA extract, and not mixing it alongside any harsh or potentially dangerous ingredients.

Another thing to keep in mind is that taking excess amounts of Garcinia Cambogia, such as in 500 mg or more won’t help to increase its weight loss effects, but may result in some minor side effects.  This further showcases how important it is to supplement with additional compounds.  One will not be able to enjoy lasting and noticeable weight loss effects if there are no additional ingredients used.

Garcinia Cambogia Reviews

Garcinia Cambogia has been thoroughly reviewed in many clinical studies, which often highlight how it works as a weight loss ingredient. One particular 2003 study was published in the Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry journal which said:

“treatment of HCA…. Resulted in a reduction of body weight”

They also managed to look at whether or not it affected DNA or the body in any negative way. Their findings revealed that it did not, and that it is in fact a safe ingredient to use in controlled amounts. No harsh changes were shown in any of the lab mice which were used to perform the study.

Dr. Oz has also had segments which are available on YouTube which highlights the benefits of Garcinia Cambogia, and how it has been used effectively as a weight loss ingredient. He also revealed how some companies will not add proper amounts of the active HCA, which is why it is important to make sure the brand is backed by a GMP certification.

Catherine Ulbricht who is a pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital also said:

“some studies have shown… HCA stops an enzyme that turns sugar into fat”

This is highly important and can help ensure that excess amounts of certain foods will not be immediately transformed into fat. When looking to lose weight it can be difficult to always have a diet in mind. This is why the occasional enjoyment of certain foods can be a setback which can be difficult to burn off.

Web MD has also reviewed Garcinia Cambogia and they revealed how it:

“could help keep blood sugar and cholesterol levels in check”

Their findings showed that it can raise serotonin, which can prevent one from feeling hungry as well as boost overall mood.  The improved blood sugar and cholesterol levels is an important benefit as it reduces the likelihood that one would experience any lasting damage to the body. This means it can be used as an all-around health aid.

The Journal of Obesity published a study showing that users lost 2 pounds more than people who didn’t take it. Their double blind clinical study showcased how Garcinia Cambogia:

“can cause short-term weight loss… (though the) magnitude of the effect is small”

This is another reason why taking Garcinia Cambogia pills on their own are not suitable enough for effective weight loss results. Other additives are important to include  ensuring lasting and potent fat loss. The benefit of using a top rated weight loss supplement like Sletrokor is that it has a blend of ingredients in it which won’t stop the effects of Garcinia Cambogia, but can help to further maximize its potential for weight loss.

The compounds in Sletrokor are also beneficial due to the fact that they are unique in their proprietary blend, which can provide potent effects that last. The following are some customer reviews of Sletrokor:

“really keeps you from being hungry”

“Sletrokor gave me a chance to transform my life”

“so easy to lose weight now”

“dropping a pound about every other day”

Many users have provided insightful reviews about how they were able to continuously lose weight when using Sletrokor.  No online reviewers mentioned any difficulty in use or any kinds of side effects. There were people who concluded that it did promote all of its claimed effects.

Conclusion – Main Points of Pure Garcinia Cambogia

Scientific studies have shown what the capabilities are of Garcinia Cambogia extract, and while it is effective, there are other ways one can maximize the weight loss effects. Taken individually it is a great way to decrease fat storage and appetite, but it won’t offer complete coverage.

Garcinia Cambogia is meant more for:

Helping to raise serotonin which in turn can reduce appetite. This can help to stop one from emotional eating, as serotonin effects mood. This is especially important when one is dieting and limiting calories, as blood sugar levels will be affected and it is more likely one will have an increased appetite.

Supporting the decrease of an enzyme called citrate lyase, which is used to promote the storage of fat. Citrate lyase can also help to turn carbohydrates into an energy source. When one is overloaded with this macronutrient, it can make it harder for one to lose weight even during a caloric deficit.

With added compounds it can simplify the often difficult journey to weight loss. The best option that contains Garcinia Cambogia as well as other added ingredients is Sletrokor, as both reviewers and customers have said it can help deliver functional weight loss support. This has all-natural ingredients and is produced in a GMP compliant, FDA approved facility to ensure 3rd party inspections.

Each ingredient in Sletrokor has a unique weight loss purpose which makes it easier to control one’s weight.

Sletrokor is the number 1 weight management aid of its kind due to its ability to target many aspects of fat loss. This can include aiding digestion, blocking carbohydrates, calories, fats, or sugars, regulating blood sugar, reduced appetite, and other forms of weight loss support. Sletrokor can help provide noticeable weight loss effects which you can read about in the form of testimonials featured on their official website.

from Easy Weight Loss 101 http://ift.tt/2pqQh8e via The Best Weight Loss Diet In The World