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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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Can Air Pollution Affect Your IQ?

It’s no secret that air pollution is a serious health hazard. According to the World Health Organization, it triggers lung cancer and other respiratory diseases, as well as heart disease and stroke, causing an estimated 4.2 million deaths worldwide each year. Now a recent study out of China suggests that each breath of polluted air we take could be damaging our brains as well.

Writing in PNAS, Xin Zhang, PhD, a professor at Beijing Normal University, explains that older adults and those who work outside are particularly vulnerable to the cognitive effects of poor air quality. “The effect of air pollution on verbal tests becomes more pronounced as people age, especially for men and the less educated,” she explains.

The findings emerged after researchers reviewed the cognitive-test scores of more than 25,000 people of all ages and genders in 162 Chinese counties and compared their performance with local air-quality conditions. And although the authors could only speculate on the neurological connections between pollution and cognitive decline — pointing to its impact on the brain’s white matter and communication between regions — Zhang suggests the consequences are serious.

“The damage on the aging brain by air pollution likely imposes substantial health and economic costs, considering that cognitive functioning is critical for the elderly for both running daily errands and making high-stake decisions,” she writes.

The solution, she argues, is as clear as China’s air is murky — tougher air-quality standards. And she need only look at the United States to see the fruits of those regulations: As a recent report from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates, air-pollution-related deaths from ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and stroke declined by more than half in the two decades after 1990, when the federal government strengthened the Clean Air Act.

This originally appeared as “Air Pollution May Affect IQ” in the April 2019 print issue of Experience Life.

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/can-air-pollution-affect-your-iq/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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Stomach bloating: Four health problems your bloated stomach pain may be a warning sign of

STOMACH bloating is a common problem many people experience. It’s most often caused by overeating, but it is also a symptom of more serious health conditions. Here’s when to see a GP if you have bloated stomach pain. You can read the complete post at https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1114592/stomach-bloating-bloated-symptoms-causes-pain-cancer-IBS-coeliac-disease

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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Five Wellness Trends to Embrace This Summer

Wellness can often feel like an all-or-nothing pursuit — like if you don’t have time to do it all perfectly, you might as well not bother with anything at all. But even small, simple changes can drastically improve your health. Get started with one of these current wellness tips.

1. Practice Mindfulness

Meditation is a powerful tool to build awareness, ease stress and anxiety, and promote relaxation in your body. As with all new habits, it will take some time for you to adjust to a meditation practice, so it’s important that you maintain a consistent routine until it becomes second nature. It doesn’t have to take up a significant portion of your day; start by setting aside five or 10 minutes. (For more meditation tips, see “How to Begin a Daily Meditation Practice.”)

TRY IT:

Meditate first thing in the morning to completely change the way you start your day. Instead of frantically rushing out the door, take some time to tune in to your inner self and set your goals for the day.

Mornings not great for you? Experiment with an evening meditation as a pre-bedtime ritual. Set aside your electronic devices and spend a few minutes focusing on your breath. Over time, your practice will prepare your body for a good night’s sleep.

2. Embrace Natural Beauty

Ditch the mainstream personal-care products, many of which contain harsh chemicals and synthetic fragrances. These days, there are more safe and natural solutions on the market to help you transform your beauty regimen into a green routine. In the long run, it will benefit your health and the environment, too. (For more on the health risks of synthetic fragrances, see “The Problem With Perfume.”)

TRY IT:

Read labels. When reading ingredients labels — for food or personal-care products — a good rule of thumb is “Less is more”: Look for beauty products with few ingredients, especially natural ones you recognize, like coconut oil. Avoid phthalates and parabens whenever you can.

Consider DIY solutions. There are many natural versions of cleansers, moisturizers, and more. You can easily make your own lip gloss by mixing melted beeswax, castor oil, sesame oil, and a little bit of beet juice. You can also use plain, full-fat yogurt as a cleanser or facial mask. (For more recipes and suggestions, see “DIY Beauty.”)

3. Eat Clean

It can be hard to eat healthy all the time, especially if you’re always on the go. But with careful planning, you can eat well wherever you are. This summer will bring some promising food trends that will satisfy your appetite and help you maintain your health priorities. (For more on trends in the food industry, see “A Culinary Trend-Watcher’s Guide to the New Year.”)

TRY IT:

Golden turmeric milk is a popular beverage among health-minded folks, and its health-boosting properties may mean it has some staying power. It contains anti-inflammatory turmeric and curcumin, which are also believed to improve brain function and lower the risk of heart disease. Make golden turmeric milk your go-to drink for the summer to reap the benefits.

Vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters alike can look forward to even more plant-based meats — especially those made without gluten and soy — which are expected to hit shelves hard this year. Many plant-based alternatives look, taste, and cook just like meat, so you can reduce your meat consumption without neglecting your cravings.

4. Try Minimalist Packing

Planning a summer getaway? It doesn’t have to mean a two-week vacation to a foreign country; maybe you’re looking forward to a fun day trip with friends. Whether you choose a nature hike, a beachside picnic, or a bike ride, be prepared with a few travel essentials — but don’t overdo it. (For more tips on carrying your gear, see “How to Pack a Backpack.”)

TRY IT:

The key to minimalist packing is to focus on only the things you need. For example, don’t skimp on sun protection. Bring a hat and a mineral-based sunscreen — and reapply often. (For advice on finding a safe and effective sunscreen, see “Which Sunscreen Is Right for You?”.)

Also, stay hydrated. Bottled water is expensive and wasteful, so invest in a good reusable bottle that you can take with you anywhere you go. (To learn more about why to kick the bottled-water habit, see “Truth on Tap.”)

5. Create a Home Sanctuary

Your home is your safe haven. It’s where you go to unwind, relax, and enjoy time alone — but if your space isn’t welcoming and functional, de-stressing will be that much harder. Make your space work for you by clearing away any clutter. If your desk is smothered in loose papers, file them. If your living room is scattered with throws, fold them and put them away. (For more on how your home mirrors your mental state, see “The Emotional Toll of Clutter.”)

TRY IT:

If possible, create a happy spot in your home that’s only for you. It can be a quiet space in your bedroom, or a reading chair in your living area. You can even set up a meditation corner for those times you need an escape and time to reflect.

Add a comforting scent to your home by diffusing essential oils or lighting a candle. You can make a home instantly cozier with a familiar scent from your childhood or one that is calming, like lavender or vanilla. (For more on choosing your essential oils, see “What You Need to Know About Essential Oils.”)

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/five-wellness-trends-to-embrace-this-summer/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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Stomach bloating: Four signs your bloated stomach pain is a symptom of IBS

STOMACH bloating commonly happens after eating food which is hard to digest, but in some cases it can be a sign of an underlying condition like irritable bowel syndrome. But how do you know if your bloated stomach pain is IBS? Here are four signs. You can read the complete post at https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1112243/stomach-bloating-pain-cramps-IBS-symptoms-bloated-causes

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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THE LIVING EXPERIMENT: Mornings

Maybe you’re a morning person. Maybe you’re not. Either way, could your mornings be better? Less frantic, perhaps? More pleasurable? It’s worth considering, because our mornings tend to set the tone for our days.

In this installment of The Living Experiment, we explore the challenges and opportunities that mornings present, and we offer some smart strategies for redesigning them in ways that work better for you.

We also explain the underappreciated power of your first waking moments and suggest creative ways to make your morning routines more rewarding. Finally, we serve up some practical experiments to help you consciously reclaim your mornings, bust out of stress-inducing ruts, and start each day on your own empowered terms.

Wake-Up Call

Are you waking to a screaming alarm or blaring music? Is an alert-cluttered smartphone the first thing you see? If so, it’s worth looking for a more humane way to come to consciousness.

An alarm that jolts you awake also alarms your central nervous system, sending it into an adrenaline-fueled tizzy. That jangled feeling is not an ideal way to start the day, and it’s not so great for your health either.

Smarter Clock Options

Handy as it might seem, your smartphone requires a level of complex executive function your just-waking brain isn’t yet ready to handle.

Look for a standalone clock that lets you keep your phone out of the bedroom and come to awareness without unnecessary stress.

Light sleepers might be able to get by with a gentle-chime, zen-style alarm. Heavier sleepers might prefer a light-up, sunrise-mimicking clock, one that gradually brightens before sounding the auditory alarm of your choice.

Respect Your Theta State

Those brief moments when you move from sleeping to waking are valuable, an important reason to wake gently and gradually.

As sleep recedes, your brainwaves shift from delta (a long, slow undulating wave pattern) toward beta (a much shorter, faster, spikier pattern). In between, for a few moments, your brain is in theta — a midlength wave pattern associated with daydreaming.

While in theta state, your relaxed mind has exceptional access to its subconscious realms. This makes your theta state ideal for daily meditation, visualization, and intention-setting practices — and a terrible time to interact with electronic devices and mass media.

Pick a Practice

Rather than wasting your theta state on what Pilar calls “the outside world’s agenda for you,” consider keeping these high-value moments for yourself and turning them into a practice you genuinely enjoy.

Dallas makes a conscious routine of his morning coffee: grinding beans by hand, heating water on the stove, and using a manual, single-cup AeroPress device to produce an ambrosia worth savoring.

Pilar observes what she calls her Morning Minutes: Before looking at any electronic devices or tuning in to any outside stimuli, she spends three minutes, at minimum, doing some quiet, analog activity that appeals to her, like playing her guitar or petting her dog.

Think you’re too busy to have a morning practice? Think again. Because when you make the most of your first waking moments, you get a clearer head and a calmer body for support all day long.

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/the-living-experiment-mornings/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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IBS symptoms: Six signs which led to woman’s diagnosis of digestive condition

IBS is a common condition that affects the digestive system and may require a change in diet and lifestyle. But what are the symptoms? One woman experienced six signs before she was diagnosed. You can read the complete post at https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1109509/ibs-symptoms-pain-weight-loss-nausea-bloating-cramping-diarrhoea-treatment

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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Are Sperm Counts Declining?

When researchers in 2017 analyzed the medical records of some 43,000 men in North America and in dozens of Western industrialized nations, the results revealed a decline of as much as 59.3 percent in sperm count over the past 40 years — setting off alarms about worldwide male reproductive health. The report didn’t offer definitive explanations for the sharp decline but suggested that stress and chemical exposure may be contributing to the problem.

Myles Spar, MD, an integrative-medicine practitioner in Southern California, doesn’t have a definitive answer either, but he agrees with the hypotheses.

“It’s clear that life in the 21st century is more stressful than ever, and we know that when people of both sexes are stressed, reproductive drive and capability go down,” he says. “The body can’t tell the difference between our being under actual attack and emotional stress, so it dials down the reproductive drive to shunt energy toward more immediate needs.”

That happens in the pituitary gland, the part of the brain that generates hormones that affect both testosterone and sperm production.

As for environmental toxicity, he says, “we’re seeing a rise in autoimmune disease, inflammatory disease, and infertility, all related to things like chemicals in the environment, pesticides in our foods, and mold in buildings.”

The best way to respond is to take measures that support your general health.

To reduce stress, “we need to engage in some kind of activity that tells the body that everything is under control — even if everything isn’t,” Spar says.

Mindfulness meditation has been proven to decrease certain measures of stress. “And there’s breath work, prayer, yoga, tai chi, and other things that people can experiment with and then try to incorporate into their lives on a daily basis.”

Spar points to eating organic produce and meat from grassfed animals as ways to steer clear of toxins, as well as avoiding direct exposure to chemicals as much as possible.

This originally appeared as “I’ve heard that sperm health is declining across the board. Is that true? And what can I do to protect mine?” in the April 2019 print issue of Experience Life.

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/are-sperm-counts-declining/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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How to Deal With Traumatic Memories

Many people who struggle with traumatic memories work with a psychotherapist to relieve their distress. Alongside that therapy, says psychologist Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Hardwiring Happiness and Resilient, it’s also important to grow psychological resources, such as mindfulness, self-compassion, resilience, and general well-being.

To help you grow more of this goodness in yourself, Hanson has developed a simple four-step process — grounded in what’s called “positive neuroplasticity” — with the acronym HEAL:

Have a beneficial experience: Either notice or create experiences of whatever you’d like to grow inside yourself — such as a sense of gratitude, calm, worth, accomplishment, closeness with others, or happiness itself. This does not mean denying or minimizing what is painful or hard. It simply means being mindful of those genuine opportunities in everyday life to recognize and feel what is reassuring, working, encouraging, helpful, or beautiful, instead of ignoring or rushing past them as we often do. In particular, it can be useful to look for those experiences that are like medicine for old wounds, such as feeling protected or supported today when in the past you weren’t.

Enrich it: “Once you are having this experience, stay with it for a breath, or longer,” he says. “Get a sense of it in your body, so it’s more than just an idea. Help it be big and lasting in your awareness, and recognize why it’s valuable or meaningful for you. There’s a famous saying: ‘neurons that fire together, wire together.’ The longer you keep them firing, the more they will tend to wire this good experience into your nervous system. Then, over time, you will have this inner strength with you wherever you go.”

Absorb it: “Take it in. Intend and sense that this experience is becoming a part of you. Let yourself receive it. You could imagine the experience sinking into you like water into a sponge, or like a balm soothing places that hurt inside. Focus on what feels good about it.” The purpose of the enriching and absorbing stages, Hanson explains, is to transcend mere “positive thinking.” The point is to get lasting value from our positive experiences rather than having them wash through the brain like water through a sieve. Meanwhile our stressful, hurtful, painful experiences are caught due to the brain’s “negativity bias.” By slowing down and deliberately taking in experiences of whatever we want to grow inside, we gradually weave it into the nervous system.

Link positive and negative material: “So far, though, we haven’t touched the traumatic material yet,” he notes. “That’s where the optional fourth stage, linking positive and negative material, comes in. It’s a way to be aware of two things at the same time, or to shift your awareness quickly between them.” In the linking, you are mainly aware of something positive that is good “medicine” for some aspect of the traumatic or simply stressful, uncomfortable material. And off to the side of awareness is the negative material. For example, you could be aware of feeling comforted by a friend while in the background are memories of being criticized or attacked in your childhood. With repetition, the positive will tend to soothe and even eventually replace the negative. Be careful not to be hijacked by the negative; if it’s too powerful, really drop it and focus on only the positive. In one form or another, linking is a part of most therapies for trauma, and it is often best used while working with a therapist.

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/how-to-deal-with-traumatic-memories/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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PUMPING IRONY: Potty Joke

Like many of my geezer peers, I’ve been credibly accused of rowing upstream against the digital currents of the past 20 years. I avoid social-media sites, prefer real books over Kindles, and occasionally even lament abandoning our landline. My Luddite tendencies, however, really burst forth when confronted by medical technology. When my audiologist a few years back confirmed the degree of hearing loss in my left ear prior to prescribing hearing aids, for example, she suggested I crawl inside their MRI machine to determine if a tumor could be the cause. I told her I’d rather house a tumor in my brain than spend an hour trapped inside that rattling tube.

I realize that healthcare practitioners just want to help. It’s their job to consider every possibility, track every metric, and recommend a course of action. And there are seemingly no limits to what technology can now reveal in the pursuit of a diagnosis and treatment. Sometimes, however, medical gadgetry can overrule common sense.

Suppose, for example, you’ve recently returned home from the hospital to recuperate from a heart attack, and your doctor recommends that you install a toilet seat that monitors your heart rate, blood pressure, weight, and other markers of cardiac functionality every time you relieve yourself from a sitting position. And imagine tending to your business there while the computer in the seat analyzes the data and alerts your cardiologist when the numbers dribble outside the normal range. I’m sure this is not how events would proceed, but I can’t help wondering whether an ambulance would show up at the front door before I’ve finished answering nature’s call.

This “smart” toilet seat is not just a pipe dream. Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology have developed a prototype, are actively studying its efficacy, and plan to seek FDA approval. Nicholas Conn, PhD, and his team are pitching it as a cost-effective alternative to hospital readmissions. The way they figure it, the alerts dispatched during your bathroom visits could trigger a phone call from your doctor, who may recommend that you adjust your medication or simply come in for a checkup — all in the interest of keeping you out of the hospital. I suppose this could save lives, but Conn is selling this more as a cost-saving than a life-saving proposition. Sending every heart-attack victim home with a tell-all toilet seat would cost the hospital less, he argues, than incurring readmission penalties.

“Typically, within 30 days of hospital discharge, 25 percent of patients with congestive heart failure are readmitted,” Conn noted in a statement. “After 90 days of hospital discharge, 45 percent of patients are readmitted. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is penalizing hospitals for readmitting patients for heart failure.”

From an actuarial perspective, I suppose this makes a lot of sense, but it’s not hard to imagine some operational challenges. In my house, for instance, My Lovely Wife and I (and occasional visitors) share a single bathroom. So, if I return from the hospital with my own special toilet seat, it seems we could be spending a lot of time installing and uninstalling the fancy version while holding off nature’s call. I have to assume Conn and his team have considered this. Maybe there’s an on-off switch, or maybe it works with a kind of touch-ID, like on my phone. That would be cool, sort of.

But I could imagine there might be times when I’m really not keen on sharing my heart rate, blood pressure, and weight with some hospital bot. Maybe I’d rather not divulge just how often I’m visiting the toilet on a particular day. Maybe the idea that I’m divulging my blood pressure would spike my blood pressure. Data is always open to interpretation, after all. And sometimes it’s better not to know what’s going on in there.

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/pumping-irony-potty-joke/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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What Your Period Is Trying to Tell You

A woman has about 400 periods over her lifetime. Most women see periods as an annoying monthly occurrence that can come with a boatload of symptoms, including fatigue, mood dips, depression, anxiety, foggy thinking, and pain. In response, many well-meaning doctors prescribe birth control pills to “manage” these issues and their hormones.

However, says Lara Briden, ND, your period is essentially a monthly report card on your health. “Fix your health, and you will fix your period,” says Briden, author of Period Repair Manual: Natural Treatment for Better Hormones and Better Periods.

Here are some of our favorite takeaways from Briden’s book.

1. Ovulation Is Key to a Healthy Period

“When it comes to period health, it’s all about ovulation. Ovulation matters because it’s how you progress through all the menstrual cycle phases to your menstrual flow or period. Ovulation is also how you make progesterone, a steroid reproductive hormone produced by a temporary gland in your ovary after ovulation. It’s beneficial for mood, metabolism, and bones.”

2. You Need Carbohydrates to Ovulate

“A low-carb diet can cause you to eventually lose your period because women need carbohydrate to ovulate. Some women need quite a lot of carbohydrate to ovulate, but some need less. If you eat the Standard American Diet, you’re eating cereal for breakfast, bread for lunch, and pasta for dinner. That adds up to more than 400 grams of carbohydrate per day, which is far too much. Instead aim for about 150 to 200 grams of non-inflammatory carbohydrate foods such as rice, oats, potato, sweet potato, gluten-free pasta, and whole fruit. If you can tolerate gluten, you can also enjoy bread, including sourdough spelt, rye, or even wheat.”

3. A Pill Bleed Is Different From a Natural Period Bleed

“A pill bleed is not a real period. A pill bleed does not proceed from ovulation. Instead, it is a withdrawal bleed from the drugs that stimulate your uterine lining but shut down your ovaries. A pill bleed is about the dosing of a drug.”

4. The Pill Switches Your Sex Hormones Off

“On the pill, you have no sex hormones of your own. Instead you have steroid drugs given to you as a kind of ‘hormone replacement’ — not unlike the hormone replacement that is given to women in menopause. The steroid drugs in hormonal birth control are not the same as your own estrogen and progesterone, and that can pose a big problem for health. Your ovarian hormones are estradiol and progesterone. They have many benefits — not just for reproduction, but also for mood, bones, thyroid, muscles, and metabolism. They’re human hormones that are essential for human physiology. In contrast, the steroid drugs in hormonal birth control are ethinylestradiol, drospirenone, levonorgestrel, and others. There’s no progesterone in hormonal birth control.”

5. Having a Heavy Period in Your Teen Years Is Not Unhealthy

“When you first started having periods, estrogen was new to your body. At that young age, you reacted strongly to estrogen because your hormone receptors were still quite sensitive and you were probably not yet making the progesterone you needed to counterbalance estrogen. The result may have been the heavy periods of the early teen years. With time, you reacted less strongly to estrogen because your hormone receptors became less sensitive. You, hopefully, also started to ovulate and make progesterone, resulting in a natural lightening of your periods.”

6. It Can Take Years for Your Menstrual Cycle to Mature

“According to Dr. Jerilynn C. Prior, a Canadian endocrinologist with expertise in reproductive hormones, it can take up to 12 years to develop a mature menstrual cycle with healthy, regular ovulation and optimal level of progesterone. So, what happens if you take hormonal birth control as a teen and hit the ‘pause button’ on that maturation process? You will probably need some time to get things going again, and you may not see regular periods right away when you first stop birth control.”

7. Try Magnesium to Relieve PMS Symptoms

“Magnesium is my front-line treatment for PMS. It improves premenstrual symptoms so dramatically that some scientists have suggested that magnesium deficiency is the main cause of PMS. It reduces inflammation, regulates the stress response, and enhances GABA activity.”

8. Curb Inflammation for a Healthier Period

“Chronic inflammation is a major factor in all types of period problems. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are chemical messengers that your body uses to fight infection. They are part of your body’s inflammatory response. Their primary job is to protect you against infections and cancer. That’s a good thing.

“Unfortunately, inflammatory cytokines also insert themselves into the conversation between your hormones and your hormone-sensitive tissues. Their contribution to the conversation is mostly obstructive. They impede ovulation and impair progesterone production. Inflammatory cytokines also block the receptors for your beneficial hormones, progesterone and thyroid hormone, and hyperstimulate your receptors for estrogen.

“All things considered, inflammatory cytokines are a profound hindrance to period health.

“How do you reduce inflammatory cytokines? You avoid as much as possible anything that overactivates your immune system, such as smoking, stress, lack of exercise, environmental toxins, inflammatory foods, and an unhealthy gut microbiome.”

9. Histamine Intolerance Can Affect Your Period

“Histamine intolerance can cause or worsen headaches, anxiety, insomnia, brain fog, hives, and nasal congestion, as well as cause or worsen period symptoms such as acne, PMS, and period pain.

“Histamine intolerance is more common in women, and is often worse at ovulation and just before the period. Why? Because that’s when estrogen is high compared to progesterone, and estrogen increases histamine. It does so by stimulating your immune system to make more histamine and down-regulating the DAO enzyme that breaks down histamine. At the same time, histamine stimulates the ovaries to make more estrogen. The result is a vicious cycle of estrogen→histamine→estrogen→histamine.

“You may find that taking steps to lower histamine can relieve PMS, period pain, and heavy periods. That usually means avoiding cow’s dairy and high-histamine foods, such as red wine, and by taking vitamin B6, which upregulates the enzyme that breaks down histamine.”

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/what-your-period-is-trying-to-tell-you/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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What No One Tells You About Becoming a Mother: A Q&A With Alexandra Sacks, MD

When a woman becomes a mother, huge shifts happen not only in lifestyle, but also identity, notes Alexandra Sacks, MD. As a reproductive psychiatrist, Sacks helps women with depression and anxiety in planning for and during pregnancy, and after birth. But she has also noticed that some patients who didn’t meet the criteria of postpartum depression still felt better after talk therapy to acknowledge the challenges, stresses, and ambivalence involved in becoming a mother. Sacks is popularizing the term for this transition — “matrescence” — through her upcoming book, What No One Tells You: A Guide to Your Emotions from Pregnancy to Motherhood and podcast Motherhood Sessions in hopes of creating a larger, more honest conversation around motherhood.

We caught up with Sacks to learn how new moms can create a supportive environment and care team when a new baby arrives.

Experience Life | What is reproductive psychiatry, and how did you get into it?

Alexandra Sacks, MD | Reproductive psychiatry became a focus when doctors were seeking ways to help manage medication for women with a history of depression and anxiety who become pregnant. We also help those who have their first experience with anxiety and depression when they’re pregnant or in the postpartum period. We’ll see patients struggling with premenstrual dysphoric disorder, infertility, pregnancy loss, or issues surrounding menopause. I’m trained as a psychiatrist and have an interest in women’s issues, so it really just felt like a calling.

EL | Your popular TED Talk and New York Times essay focused on “matrescence,” the transition women experience when they become mothers. Where did this concept originate?

AS | I was seeing patients who didn’t quite meet the clinical criteria for diagnosis of depression, but they felt better after one or two conversations with me about the transition a woman goes through during pregnancy and new motherhood.

We’d talk about how breastfeeding is stressful, and about how some people are not able to do it. Or about how miscarriage is common; about how parenting is often a strain and a stress on your romantic partnership; about how people often find early caretaking of children to be boring and not only hard but not that inspiring. How it’s absolutely normal to question if you are cut out for motherhood or even if it’s the right decision — that that’s a normal question that most people ask themselves around this transition.

So I was trying to find a word to capture what’s not postpartum depression but also not easy about new motherhood, and I discovered the term that [the late medical anthropologist] Dana Raphael coined in 1973, “matrescence,” to describe the transition into motherhood.

I think mothers should be further defining and figuring out what matrescence is and how to support each other around it. I don’t think it needs to be a doctor leading the conversation because I think it’s a lived experience that women are going through.

I really want to create a vocabulary and put this information out into the world to normalize the experience — to give women permission to talk about it and to encourage them to keep sharing their stories to further define what matrescence has meant to them, and really reduce the stigma and shame of ambivalence in parenting.

EL | Why do you think this hasn’t been discussed more broadly?

AS | We’ve been much better about educating the public about postpartum depression. While many women do suffer from that treatable, but serious, condition, the vast majority of the pregnant and postpartum women I speak to have discomfort, but not this disease. I think there’s been a sort of turning away from that conversation for those people.

EL | How can new parents get comfortable with sometimes feeling ambivalent about having a child?

AS | Every relationship in your life has both good and bad feelings attached to it. With your best friends, with your own parents, with your partner — every day is not perfect. That’s not what human relationships are like, and it’s just not going to be any different for you and your baby. It’s a human relationship like any other and there are good days and bad days; there are good feelings and bad feelings, and sometimes they’re mixed together. Human relationships are complex and that’s part of what makes them so rich and beautiful, but they don’t come in little boxes. It’s not a bad thing when you start encountering those moments of complexity with your child. It simply means that you’re deeply engaging as a human being with another human being.

EL | Social media has played an important role in connecting people, but studies have shown that it can negatively affect our mental health. What advice do you have for new moms, who are particularly vulnerable, when they are using these sites?

AS | Social media allows people to often share a filtered version of many of life’s experiences. Life is hard, and sometimes imagining a prettier version of it is a nice vacation for the 10 minutes you’re looking at your phone.

But it can be harmful to focus exclusively on the good times, because oftentimes when we are engaging with social media, we’re alone and we look to it for connection. And oftentimes, when you look at an example that doesn’t feel consistent with yours, it can make you feel more isolated.

Consider using social media to connect to others in a way that might make you feel more supported and might make others feel more supported. I share my work on social media (@alexandrasacksmd) using #MotherhoodUnfiltered, and encourage others to share a moment of vulnerability. It may open up a whole door of friendship. It may help you when you’re alone at home with the baby or awake in the middle of the night.

EL | What advice or resources do you suggest to pregnant or new moms looking to avoid postpartum mood disorders?

AS | Evidence shows that social isolation is a risk factor for depression. When new mothers are isolated and not talking about their real experiences honestly, it can raise their risk for postpartum depression. My hope is also that, by encouraging more honest conversation about these kind of vulnerable and complex emotional experiences, we may even be able to reduce rates of postpartum depression because we’ll be encouraging social support around new mothers for each other, and essentially encouraging community-based talk therapy. Putting your feelings into words is therapeutic.

EL | What strategies can people use to set themselves up for success before baby arrives?

AS | It’s important to figure out how and who is going to support you once the baby arrives. Talk to your partner about the different roles you’ll have, and who is going to help you in those early months of child care.

Who is going to help you during the day so that you can leave the house, so that you can get fresh air? And at night so that you can get some sleep?

Who will help so that you can go get healthy food?

How will you see your friends?

How are you going to balance that with parenting? Is it going to be with your partner to share daytime care or is it going to be with other family members? Is it going to be with your friends?

If you can afford it, will you get help from someone you hire?

If you’re single, who is going to be the supportive team that you create?

Make a list during pregnancy of your favorite forms of recreation and self-care, essentially the things that bring you pleasure — even the things that seem most obvious to you because those things fall away so quickly once a baby arrives — and post it on the refrigerator. When you stop doing the things that help you relax and that help you take care of yourself, that’s when you start cutting pleasure out of your life, and when we lose access to pleasure, it’s very, very easy to start feeling depressed.

Also, think about how you’re going to see the people in your life in a way that makes you feel connected.

EL | Sleep is so crucial to well-being, and parents of a new baby often don’t get much of it. What suggestions do you have for parents to get more sleep?

AS | Before baby arrives, talk about who is going to help you at night so you can get longer stretches of sleep and how you’re going to handle sleeping shifts. Newborn babies often need to be fed every two hours, but the human brain gets extremely depleted and irritable if you are up every two hours or if you’re not sleeping at all at night.

So can you and your partner split the night into two halves where each of you gets an uninterrupted four-hour block of sleep? Can one of you do one of the feeds? If you’re breastfeeding, can the nonbreastfeeding partner give a pumped bottle or formula bottle so that the breastfeeding mother can have a longer stretch of sleep?

EL | What advice do you have for friends and family of a new mom?

AS | Ask them how they’re doing and how you can be of help, and work hard to quietly listen. Ask genuinely and earnestly, and with curiosity and humility. In order to do that, you have to really reflect on where you’re coming from emotionally.

For example, if you’re a grandma and you’re asking your daughter how you can help, you need to sort of put aside your own way of doing things that worked for you when you were a mom. No two humans are the same, so no two pregnant women have the exact story. Try not to assume that you know what they need. Try to ask them what they need.

When a new baby arrives, people want to congregate and celebrate, but if you go to visit someone with a newborn, remember that you are visiting someone who just went through a major medical event. Your hosts are not throwing you a party; they’re in a moment of tremendous vulnerability. Ask if you can bring food, how long they want you to stay, and don’t take it personally if they need to reschedule. Be respectful, supportive, and potentially even limit your visit.

Go to www.alexandrasacksmd.com to find Sacks’s TED Talk, essays, and learn more about her work and upcoming book, What No One Tells You: A Guide to Your Emotions from Pregnancy to Motherhood.

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/what-no-one-tells-you-about-becoming-a-mother-a-qa-with-alexandra-sacks-md/

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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New brain cells made throughout life

The study could lead to new ideas for treating Alzheimer's disease, say the researchers. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47692495

#Alzheimer's

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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Running for a Reason: Clare Gallagher

Growing up in Englewood, Colo., Clare Gallagher was surrounded by the strip malls that dot Denver’s suburban valleys. But the nearby Rocky Mountains served as an outdoor playground away from the concrete and cacophony. “My parents really valued the mountains, so, like good Denverites, we would regularly head up into the high country to go skiing and hiking,” she recalls.

“My dad was really into scaling 14ers, and Colorado is home to 53 peaks over 14,000 feet,” says the 27-year-old ultramarathoner. But unlike her peak-bagging father, Gallagher didn’t much enjoy hiking. Instead, she swam with local clubs and took up lacrosse and track in high school.

That competitive spirit helped land her at Princeton, where the budding environmentalist studied coral ecology. “I spent a summer in Bermuda researching the impacts of climate change on reefs,” she notes.

She also ran. A lot. “Indoor track, outdoor track, cross-country — it was like 12 seasons of running,” Gallagher remembers. Plagued by injuries from covering so much ground, however, she decided to take a break from the grind.

After graduation, she moved to southern Thailand on a yearlong fellowship to teach English and swimming to kids. While she was there, she cofounded Earthraging with English, a youth environmental and swim program based in Bangsak.

Gallagher also took the opportunity to explore the beauty of Southeast Asia. It was during a backpacking trip that she heard about an ultrarace (a contest covering more than a standard 26.2-mile marathon; typical distances range from 50 kilometers to 100 miles) in northern Thailand.

“It made sense geographically, so I signed up with some of my friends and we made a big, fun trip out of it,” she says. “The race was heinous — and it was awesome! There were four aid stations for what was about a 50-mile race in a remote area, home to poisonous snakes. I was completely hooked!”

Finding Her Stride

Gallagher headed home to Colorado in early 2016 with a reinvigorated passion for running and fell in with a supportive crew in Boulder. In August the then-24-year-old made her debut at the storied Leadville Trail 100 Run (which is produced by Life Time). Fueled by cake frosting, homemade rice balls, and veggie broth, Gallagher took first place — clocking the second-fastest women’s time in race history.

“Winning Leadville completely changed my life,” she says. “I had given up my plans to go to med school already, but winning nabbed me a North Face sponsorship, and I ran for the next year.”

Along the way, Gallagher set the course record at the CCC, a 100-kilometer race around the Mont Blanc massif in the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps. But the dirtbagging life was unsustainable. “That year was incredible, but it’s really hard to be an endurance athlete trying to make ends meet,” she admits. She eventually began a partnership with Patagonia and now serves as the company’s trail-running ambassador. It was the perfect fit.

“Patagonia doesn’t care about race results; they care about how you live your life,” she explains. “Now I can embrace all of my talents. I can do the races that I’m inspired to do, which allows me time to also focus on environmental stewardship.”

Spending all that time running in nature, she adds, “makes me a better, stronger, and more motivated environmentalist.”

In 2017, Gallagher started POW Trail, a branch of the climate-change advocacy organization Protect Our Winters. “Traditionally, trail running hasn’t had a community environmental organization like climbing, snow sports, surfing, hunting, and angling have,” she explains. “I wanted to fill that void.”

Gallagher’s goal is to engage fellow trail runners to register and vote, volunteer for trail-maintenance efforts, and contact their elected officials about environmental policies, such as renewable-energy development.

“During the last election, we organized trail runners to campaign for a Colorado attorney-general candidate who wasn’t backed by the fossil-fuels industry,” she notes.

Gallagher hopes her organizing efforts will inspire everyone to connect with nature regularly. “You don’t have to hike 14ers,” she says. “I grew up in suburban Denver with a backyard, a big garden, and chickens.”

Going With the Flow

“Now, as an adult, I’m reliant on being able to go out in the woods for an hour, to breathe clean air, and to feel what it’s like being in a flow state.”

Finding and staying in that state is a key to Gallagher’s long-distance success. “The goal is to be in flow state coming toward the end of the race,” she explains. “So even if you see a snake or spill your entire soft flask of Coca-Cola all over your face and end up super sticky for the next 10 hours, you just keep mentally going.”

Gallagher employs mind tricks that help her stay in the zone. “For example, I’ll tell myself not to look at my watch for a while,” she says. “Then an hour goes by and I haven’t looked at my watch, which helps me stay in flow state in good or difficult times.”

That mental toughness and resilience come in handy off the trail as well. “Running helps me be resilient to things that would maybe normally throw me off, make me mad, or otherwise distract me,” she says. “I think I’m almost a better person when I’m running, because I don’t let little things bother me.”

Enjoying and submitting to the process of running helps her avoid fixating on each mile or hour that she runs and gets her through injuries and discomfort. “From accepting the process, I’ve learned to focus on the beauty of each unique, imperfect run,” she says. “I’m obsessed.”

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/running-for-a-reason-clare-gallagher/

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