Category Archives: Mental health

Lose weight now and you could reduce risk of dementia later

July 26, 2010

We are already aware that being overweight can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke but how many of us are aware that increased flab, particularly around the abdomen, could lead to dementia.

Now a new study carried about by Dr Sudha Seshadri from the Boston University School of Medicine has found that losing belly fat may actually help prevent you from getting dementia later in life.

“From a public health point of view, I think the immediate message is, if you aren’t as concerned about reducing belly fat for concerns of heart attack and stroke, do consider that it might also increase your risk of dementia” said Dr Seshadri.

Dr Seshadri’s research spanned almost forty years was based on more than 730 participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. The average age of the participants was 60, with 70 percent of them being female. Each person’s waist circumference, BMI and waist to hip ratio measurements were recorded.

Abdominal fat was measured using CT (computer tomography) scans as this type of scan is able to distinguish between visceral fat and subcutaneous fat. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of the brain were taken to identify any differences in the brain. None of the patients in the study had dementia at the time.

The researchers noted that the more belly fat a person had, the less brain volume they had and this was independent of BMI. Previous studies have shown that people who had a smaller brain volume are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of Dementia than those with a larger brain volume.

“Our results confirm the inverse association of increasing BMI with lower brain volumes in older adults and with younger, middle-aged adults and extends the findings to a much larger study sample,” noted Dr. Seshadri.

“More importantly, our data suggests a stronger connection between central obesity, particularly [abdominal obesity], and risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease”.

The researchers say that more research will be required in order to back up these findings and to look deeper into why fat around the abdomen might increase the risk of dementia.

“Further studies will add to our knowledge and offer important methods of prevention” concluded Seshadri.

The study was published in the American Neurological Association’s online journal Annals of Neurology.

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Cyber bullies and their victims more at risk from mental health problems

July 11, 2010

Playground bullying has always existed but cyber bullying is an undesirable product of modern society and is a term used to describe the actions of people who use the internet or mobile phones to intimidate or bully others.

Now a Finnish study led by Dr. Andre Sourander, from Turku University has found that both the cyber bullies and their victims are more likely to suffer from mental health problems such as emotional distress and concentration problems as well as physical symptoms such as headaches and abdominal pain, and loss of sleep.

The definition of cyber bullying used by the researchers was aggressive, intentional, repeated acts using mobile phones and computers, including the use of emails and social networking sites like Facebook, or indeed other electronic media against victims who cannot easily defend themselves.

The study involved a survey of around 2,215 teenagers aged between 13 and 16 years of age and analysis of the data revealed that more than 7 percent of them had indulged in online bullying, just under 5 percent reported that they had been targets of online bullying and just over 5 percent said they had both bullied and been bullied online.

The researchers discovered that those who had been victims of bullying were more likely to come from broken homes and to have emotional and behavioural problems.

The Cyber bullies were also more likely to suffer from similar emotional and behavioural problems and in addition to this often had trouble communicating with others and were more likely to participate in behaviour such as smoking and drinking.

“Of those who had been victimized, one in four reported that it had resulted in fear for their safety” the researchers wrote.

“The feeling of being unsafe is probably worse in cyber bullying compared with traditional bullying” the authors said in a statement.

The reason for this is that traditional bullying typically occurs on school grounds, so once victims return home they can feel safe again, whereas with cyber bullying, “the victims are accessible and at risk 24 hours a day, seven days a week”.

The researchers are advising parents, teachers and children to be aware of the harm that cyber bullying can cause and that parents should be familiar with their child’s use of the internet.

The Finnish study was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

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Watching football can be good for your mental health

June 30, 2010

Supporting a football team and watching world cup matches can be a lot of fun but scientists from Indiana University, reckon it can also be good for your mental health too.

HealthDay news reported on why watching football can feel so good and apparently it’s all about feeling connected.

“The main thing that people achieve via sports fanship is a sense of belongingness, or connectedness, with others,” said Edward Hirt, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University.

“Sharing a common allegiance with others bonds people together in a special way. We can relate to others who share fanship with our team and feel a camaraderie with them that transcends ourselves.”

Back in the 1990’s, Professor Hirt showed fans of Indiana University’s basketball team pictures of attractive members of the opposite health and asked them to rate their ability to get a date.

The interesting thing is, after the team won, the fans not only rated their ability to get a date as higher, they also rated their ability to do other tasks as higher too, like throwing darts, solving word games and even rolling a dice, and this applied to both men and women.

“The ‘basking in reflected glory’ notion states that people can elevate their self-esteem in the eyes of themselves and others by their association with successful others” said Professor Hirt.

“Because the team’s success reflects positively on its fans, sports fans feel better about themselves when their team does well.”

So what about when your favourite team is always losing? Many loyal fans wouldn’t dream of switching allegiance to the winning team and will stick by their team through thick and thin.

According to Hirt, that is part of being a time tested fan as opposed to a fan that just wants to be on the winning side.

“We watch games with others, celebrating our team’s successes, but also commiserating over our team’s defeats” he said.

“I think that fans take a perverse pride in their loyalty, and see it as a badge of honor to suffer through the tough times of their team’s mediocrity or failure; doing so makes one feel like a ‘true fan’ and one that deserves to revel in the team’s successes, unlike those fair-weather fans.”

So go ahead and enjoy the world cup tournament and know that each time your team scores a goal, you are reaping the benefits too.

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Working all day without a break increases risk of anxiety and depression

June 16, 2010

According to a recent survey by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in the UK, a quarter of the working population work all day without taking a break and this is posing a serious risk to their mental and physical health.

The survey involved more than 2,600 adults and an analysis of the results showed that one in four employees did not take a lunch break and this increases their risk of depression and anxiety as well as back pain, heart disease and even cancer.

Not only that, but more than 50 percent of the people surveyed went to work even though they were feeling stressed or ill.

So why are we putting our health at risk?

The reasons given by those who took part in the survey was either that they had too much work to do and didn’t have time to take a break, or because there were staff shortages.

Almost half of those involved in the survey said that they felt stressed at least once a week.

Stress isn’t always a bad thing, it can help us cope with challenging situations; however, prolonged stress can have a severe effect on our health and lead to an increased risk of depression and other health problems.

“A certain level of pressure at work is of course desirable. However when the pressure people face exceeds their ability to cope – in other words stress – it is likely to lead to time off work and is linked to conditions such as depression, anxiety and heart disease” Ann Green, Chairman of the CSP told the BBC.

The CSP survey comes at the same time as new report from McCrindle Research which involved a survey of around 600 Australian workers.

The results of this survey were similar and showed that more than a quarter of the employees chose to work whilst eating their lunch and one in six skipped lunch altogether.

The researchers said there was a general trend towards overworking with more than a quarter of the employees working more than 50 hours a week.

The thing is, if workers took their breaks, not only would it reduce stress levels, it would improve productivity for their employers too.

Businesses are being advised to look out for staff who are overworked and who are missing out on breaks.

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UK Mental health research is severely under-funded says Professor

June 3, 2010

Mental health in general has been getting a lot of press attention lately, partly because organisations and the government have launched a number of campaigns to reduce the stigma associated with mental health and partly because mental illness is becoming such a huge problem.

It’s shocking to learn that only 5 percent of medical research in the UK is devoted to mental health whereas around 16 million people will experience a mental health problem in the next 12 months.

Shocking because that figure is far greater than the number of people who will suffer a stroke or a heart attack, or be diagnosed with cancer, says Professor Til Wykes who is a clinical psychologist from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, and yet the amount of cash devoted to cardiovascular research is double what it is for mental health and in the case of cancer research it is five times as much.

Yes admittedly, the effects of cancer, stroke and heart attacks are devastating and research needs to be done. However, mental illness can be equally devastating and poses a huge problem not just for individuals but for society too and yet it receives very little funding by comparison.

Apparently around 15 percent of all disability in the UK can be attributed to mental illness and yet mental health doesn’t seem to be getting the attention it badly needs. Professor Wykes says that mental health research requires “the same rigorous research as demanded for tackling physical illness” but that mental illness is often ignored or misunderstood.

Professor Wykes was writing in the BBC’s “Scrubbing up” article series and says that mental health research is “incredibly under funded” and is asking for the research funding into mental health to be overhauled.

She says that prejudice about mental health problems makes it more difficult to fund research into the causes and possible treatments for mental illness, and yet mental illness can affect anyone of any age. “”Mental health problems frequently start in childhood and persist throughout the rest of a person’s life,” says Professor Wykes.

“Finding better ways to treat – or preferably prevent – poor mental health as early as possible will bring enormous benefits to individuals, their families and society as a whole. We simply can’t afford to ignore this problem any longer” she says.

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How about a Mental Health First Aid Course?

June 3, 2010

Chances are if you ask someone what they know about basic first aid they’ll tell you about the recovery position, how to check that the airways are open and they may even be able to perform the kiss of life.

People with this knowledge can be life savers if they happen to be around when an accident takes place or when someone is injured. However, what do you do if someone has a mental illness?

A brand new course has been set up to teach family and friends of people with mental health problems how to spot the signs of mental distress and more importantly, what to do about it.

Many people are still afraid of people with mental health issues, and that is despite the massive awareness campaigns that have been attempting to try to change the attitudes and views of mental health in general.

Yes, coming across someone who is having a panic attack, is hallucinating, or hearing voices can be frightening for anyone, particularly for those who don’t understand what’s going on. However, by taking a first aid course in mental health could put someone in a better position to deal with it.

Annie Yau-Karim from Berkshire West Primary Care Trust is the brains behind the mental first aid course and she reckons the course teaches people not to be frightened.

So far, there have been 150 people who have taken the 12-hour training programme which covers a number of different topics including depression and anxiety as well as psychosis and suicide over the four sessions.

According to Yau-Karim, the course is not about training people up to be therapists but is there to inform people about when to get professional help.

“For example with depression – the signs can be lethargy, lack of motivation, lack of personal hygiene, and in the case of work colleague you might notice long term absence or productivity suddenly drop” Yau-Karim told the BBC.

“With anxiety it could be physically trembling, nerves and difficulty going to sleep. There are some overlaps with depression.”

Part of the course also involves developing an understanding of what it might be like for someone suffering from mental distress.

“We have exercises from the hearing voice network” the BBC quotes Yau-Karim.

“The participant can hear people hearing voices and what it’s like for them. From there they can develop an understanding.”

For more information on training and courses you can visit the mental health first aid website.

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Foods that can boost your brain and your mental health

June 3, 2010

Nutrition and the role that a good diet can play in keeping your mind healthy, has been hitting the headlines lately. Eating the right foods is essential for keeping your brain in good working order and to keep your spirits high.

To feel good we really need to have a steady flow of the feel good neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in order to sustain our mood. However, too many people choose junk food over healthy food to get a quick fix, and this is probably because sugary snacks can release chemicals in the brain that are similar to the chemicals released by taking drugs.

Yes, we are literally addicted to junk food. However, that isn’t going to do much to keep our mental health intact because although it works in the short term as we get a massive surge of dopamine, it will be short lived and leave us feeling down in the dumps and dopey when the levels fall, not to mention obese if we make a habit of it.

There are a number of different healthy things you can eat on a regular basis to lift your mood, ward off depression, and boost your powers of concentration and improve your memory at the same time.

In order to keep our brains functioning well we need Omega 3 essential fatty acids which will help to build and maintain myelin which in turn ensures that we have good cell signalling in the brain. There have now been countless studies which have shown how beneficial Omega 3 fish oil can be for keeping our brains in good working order.

Fish oil contains Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) both of which are required for health brain development and function. Making sure you eat fresh fish regularly or by taking a daily dose of fish oil you can boost your powers of concentration, improve your mood, and help prevent depression.

As a recent article in the Daily Mail pointed out, another way of making sure we get plenty of dopamine is to supply our brains with precursors of dopamine, one of which is Phenylalanine. Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid which turns into tyrosine, which is necessary for making brain chemicals such as dopamine as well as others. A lack of phenylalanine in the diet has been linked with depression, decreased concentration and poor memory. Foods which contain phenylalanine include beef, chicken, fish, dairy produce, soy products, and some nuts and seeds.

For good memory we also need to have enough of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Low levels of acetylcholine have been associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. One of the best sources of Acetylcholine is eggs so make sure you include them in your diet but other foods that can boost Acetylcholine levels include liver, brassicas like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, nuts, and fatty fish.

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Adolescents coping with the stigma of mental illness

May 26, 2010

Being diagnosed with a mental illness is not a pleasant experience for anyone at the best of times but what about when an adolescent is diagnosed with a mental health problem, the experience must surely be much worse.

An increasing number of young people are being diagnosed with a mental health problem for which they receive medication but at the same time they also have to cope with the stigma that still surrounds mental health making them feel more isolated than ever.

Previous studies into stigma have generally focussed on adults but now, in one of the first studies to concentrate on adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 who were taking medication, the researchers discovered that the majority of those involved, in fact a whopping 90 percent of these kids, had experienced some sort of stigma which led to shame, secrecy, and which limited their social interactions.

The study came from Case Western Reserve University Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. The researchers noted that everyone suffers some sort of stigma whether from the public or from themselves and much is already known about adult stigma but the researchers were interested to find out if the adolescent experience of stigma was the same as adults.

The findings from this stigma study came from secondary data from a major study that investigated the subjective experience of adolescent psychotropic treatment.

Forty youngsters in the study reported that the attitudes of their parents and teachers at school either protect against or magnify their feelings of being different or ashamed because of their mental illness.

“Parents, who embrace and love their children for whom they are and accept the illness as part of their child’s being, help their children overcome these stigmas” said Derrick Kranke, the lead author on an article in Children and Youth Services Review article, ‘Stigma Experience Among Adolescents Taking Psychiatric Medications.’

The researchers also found that if at school, the kids felt ostracised by their peers and teachers, the effect could be devastating and lead to dropping out of school or even suicide.

It’s vitally important that we tackle stigma at all levels, particularly as it could prevent someone who really does need help from seeking that help with tragic consequences. Until we all learn that mental health problems do not discriminate against anyone and that everyone is at risk throughout the whole of their lives, stigma will persist.

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder may increase risk of diabetes says study

May 25, 2010

A new study involving military personnel has found that people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder have an increased risk of developing diabetes.

The study carried out by Dr Edward J Boyko of the Department of Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle and his colleagues involved 44,754 military personnel who enrolled in the Department of Defence’s long term Millennium Cohort Study. None of them were diagnosed with diabetes when they enrolled.

Three years later, almost 400 of these personnel, or roughly 3 in 1000 had developed diabetes. Those who developed diabetes were more likely to be older, overweight, of African-American or Asian descent, have post traumatic stress disorder and who had left the military.

The results revealed that depression didn’t contribute to the risk of developing diabetes but post traumatic stress did and after taking into consideration other factors that would normally increase the risk of diabetes, the risk of developing diabetes was more than twice as high if the individual had post traumatic stress disorder.

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“In our analyses, depression really was not significantly related to the increased risk of diabetes but PTSD was” Professor Boyko told Reuters.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can result after an individual experiences an event where extreme physical or psychological harm is threatened or which actually occurs and is characterised by recurring thoughts, images and memories of that incident. Events which can lead to post traumatic stress disorder include physical attacks, natural disasters, or military combat.

Sufferers often experience nightmares, sleep problems, can become socially withdrawn, detached, and psychologically “anesthetized” by their experience, particularly with loved ones and friends and have an exaggerated response to being startled or surprised.

What the researchers found was that those who were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder had widespread inflammation in the body and had lower sensitivity to the blood-sugar regulating hormone insulin, which could lead to diabetes.

The results didn’t reveal why there should be a link between post traumatic stress disorder and diabetes or whether another factor, for example maybe drugs prescribed to treat post traumatic stress disorder, could have raised the risk.

However, before doctors start screening people with post traumatic stress disorder for diabetes more studies are required say the researchers.

“The American Diabetes Association has recommendations about when someone should be screened for diabetes, and right now we don’t need to add PTSD to that” professor Boyko told Reuters.

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80’s singer Adam Ant detained under mental health act

May 24, 2010

Pop icon Adam Ant is back in hospital again after launching a tirade of abuse at Christians during a charity gig recently.

The 55 year old pop star suffers from the depressive illness known as Bipolar disorder or manic depression. Back in 2002 he threatened some people in a pub with an imitation pistol but wasn’t sent to prison on the grounds that he had a mental illness, then a year later in 2003 he had a dispute with a neighbour and threatened to smash his patio doors and was found lying naked in a basement.

Adam has also admitted himself into hospital on several occasions but it was only a few weeks ago that he declared he had learned to live with his bipolar. He’s only one of a long line of celebrities who also suffer from the mental illness and who have spoken openly about their suffering, including Stephen Fry, Kerry Katona and Sinead O’Connor, but there are literally countless other famous writers, artists, composers, musicians and entertainers in the past and present who have had to or who live with bipolar disorder.

The thing is, bipolar disorder doesn’t go away, and sufferers have to find coping strategies to help them deal with this distressing disorder on a day to day basis. The disorder is characterised by extreme highs and lows or massive mood swings that can result in an individual swinging from highly excited and euphoric to deeply depressed and miserable. Whilst on a high they feel invincible, that they can do anything but on a low they feel hopeless, helpless and lost. Bizarre behaviour and thoughts are common. No one knows what causes Bipolar and there isn’t a cure.

It is believed that bipolar affects roughly one in a hundred people in the general population, however, there are believed to be more than a few individuals with bipolar that go undiagnosed, particularly in the entertainment industry. It seems that many people with bipolar are also highly creative and are unwilling to trade this in by taking medication in order to put them on a more level plateau. What isn’t known is whether the creativity is what makes one more disposed to bipolar or whether the bipolar is what unleashes the creativity.

Meanwhile, Adam Ant has sent a message to his fans. ‘I am having a well earned rest at Her Majesty’s Pleasure and am painting and continuing being an art student. I have a great view and am considering gigs later in the year’ it said.

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