MENTAL HEALTH - IV

 

Mental Health- IV

 

 

Mental health: What's normal, what's not

Deciding what's normal mental health and what's not is tricky. See how feelings, thoughts and behaviors are classified on the ever-evolving continuum of normalcy.

How do mental health providers determine whether the signs, symptoms and dysfunctions you're experiencing are normal or abnormal? Experts often use a combination of the following approaches:

• Your own perceptions. How you perceive your own thoughts, behaviors and functioning can help determine what's normal for you. You may realize that you aren't coping well or that you aren't able to or don't care to do routine activities or the things you used to enjoy. If you have depression, the dishes may go unwashed for days, you may stop bathing or you may lose interest in hobbies. You may feel sad, hopeless or discouraged and realize that something's amiss, that you don't enjoy life anymore. Or you may not be able to pinpoint what's wrong.

·         Others' perceptions. Your own perceptions are subjective and may not give you an accurate assessment of your behavior, thoughts or functioning. Objective observers, on the other hand, might be able to do so. To you, your life may seem perfectly normal or typical. Yet to those around you, it may seem odd or abnormal. This is often the case with schizophrenia. If you have schizophrenia, you may have auditory hallucinations — you hear voices and carry on conversations with them, believing it's a normal interaction with another person. To witnesses who observe this behavior, it may seem abnormal.

"It's common that people have something wrong and not know it," Dr. Williams says. "That's true of both mental and physical disorders. People can have heart disease and not know it. Similarly, an individual may be clinically depressed and be unaware of the problem."

·         Cultural and ethnic norms. Many times what's normal behavior or thinking is defined by your culture. But that means what's normal within the bounds of one culture may be labeled abnormal within another. Conversing with voices only you can hear may be an indicator of schizophrenia in Western cultures. But these kinds of hallucinations may be a normal part of religious experience in other cultures.

And something may be normal or acceptable within your own family culture that's considered abnormal and in need of changing outside of your home. For instance, the behavior of a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder may be unacceptable in a structured school environment, but be perceived as normal and acceptable in a less structured home environment, notes Jennifer Fisher, Ph.D., a psychologist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

• Statistical values. Normal is often defined by what's statistically average. Most people fall in the middle ground, the average, while others fall to one extreme or the other. Those in the extremes are often labeled abnormal because they aren't average, or the same as most others.

Evaluating your mental health

In evaluating your mental health, all four of these approaches — your own perceptions, others' perceptions, cultural and ethnic norms, and statistical values — are typically taken into consideration. Mental health experts may ask how you feel, whether others have noticed a difference in your behavior or mood, and what your cultural background is. They also may ask you to fill out psychological questionnaires.

Other factors also are considered. Among them:

• How long you've had symptoms
• How severe your symptoms are
• How upsetting the symptoms are to you
• How the symptoms disrupt your life

It's normal to feel sad after a valued relationship ends. But if you feel intensely sad and upset for several weeks and you lose interest in daily activities, you may have depression. Similarly, if you get anxious before a presentation to a big client but manage the signs and symptoms, such as sweating or rapid breathing, you may just have a case of normal stage fright, and not social anxiety disorder. And if you cut someone off in traffic or yell at a store clerk, you may just be having a bad day or be a generally ornery person. But if you're abusive, violent, manipulative, exploitive and disregard the law, you may have antisocial personality disorder, sometimes known as sociopathy.

Mental health as an evolving continuum

Despite these criteria and efforts to back up diagnoses with sound science, a precise definition of normal mental health remains elusive. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual acknowledges the difficulty and resorts to defining mental disorders as behavioral or psychological syndromes or patterns that cause distress, disability in functioning, or a significantly increased risk of death, pain or disability. And that syndrome or pattern can't just be an expected and culturally accepted response to a particular event, such as grieving the death of a loved one.

The Surgeon General's 1999 report on mental health states that mental disorders are "health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning."

By most accounts, mental health and mental illness don't have well-defined boundaries.

"I think of it more as a continuum than an absolute," Dr. Fisher says.

It's not just a continuum, it's an evolving continuum. In some ways, this is no different from the diagnosis or classification of physical disorders. For years, a blood pressure of 120/80 was considered normal, for instance. That changed overnight in 2003 when scientists announced that 120/80 was an abnormal condition called prehypertension, putting you at risk of life-threatening cardiovascular problems.

Just as with blood pressure, new medical information can lead to changes in the classification of mental disorders. New disorders will be added while existing ones will be removed, or the associated signs and symptoms will be modified as new opinions develop over time. Today, some mental health experts, for instance, are proposing that severe premenstrual signs and symptoms that some women experience every month be classified as a mental disorder — premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

Revisions may also reflect evolving social and cultural attitudes. Homosexuality, for instance, used to be classified as a mental disorder but was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1973.

Mental health treatment available but not always needed

Even if you do have a diagnosable mental disorder, it may not pose a problem in your daily life to such an extent that it requires treatment.

"It can be abnormal but be OK," Dr. Fisher notes.

Consider spiders, for example. You may have a terrible fear of spiders, but if you never encounter spiders, or you can get someone else to dispatch them for you, that phobia may have little or no impact on your life. It doesn't impair your ability to go about your normal routine.

"Would we recommend therapy in a case like that?" Dr. Fisher asks. "No. The condition may be diagnosable but not require therapy. You're in need of therapy when something impairs your functioning."

Some critics even contend that too many characteristics or quirks are being pathologized — labeled abnormal — to make money. The pharmaceutical industry in particular has come under fire for bringing new drugs to market to treat recently labeled conditions that used to be chalked up to harmless eccentricity or normal parts of life.

But there is a bit of good news amid the controversy.

"We have many effective treatments for the abnormal mental health problems people experience," Dr. Williams points out. "Chances are, something is going to help you."

 

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MENTAL HEALTH - III

Mental Health- III

 

 

Mental health: What's normal, what's not

Deciding what's normal mental health and what's not is tricky. See how feelings, thoughts and behaviors are classified on the ever-evolving continuum of normalcy.

What's the difference between mental health and mental illness? Sometimes the answer is pretty clear.

People who hear voices in their heads may have schizophrenia, for instance. And those with such grandiose ideas as becoming the secretary-general of the United Nations without any experience may have a form of bipolar disorder.

But more often, the distinction between mental health and mental illness isn't as clear-cut. If you're afraid of giving a speech in public, does it mean you have a disease or simply a run-of-the-mill case of nerves? If you feel sad and discouraged, are you just experiencing a passing case of the blues, or is it full-fledged depression requiring medication?

Just what is normal mental health, anyway?

Culture, science and mental health

Scientists, researchers and mental health experts have wrestled with this issue for hundreds of years, and even today the line between normal and abnormal is often blurred. This is why the fields of psychiatry and psychology are sometimes mired in controversy.

"There's a broad range of what's normal," says psychologist Donald E. Williams, Ph.D., a medical specialty editor at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

What's normal is often determined by who's defining it. Normalcy is ambiguous and often tied to value judgments particular to a certain culture or society. And even within cultures, concepts of normal mental health may evolve over time if societal values or expectations change. New medical research and knowledge also can lead to changes in definitions of normal mental health.

One thing that makes it so difficult to distinguish normal mental health and abnormal mental health is that there's no easy test to show if something's wrong. There's no blood test for obsessive-compulsive disorder, no ultrasound for depression and no X-ray for bipolar disorder, for example. That's not to say mental disorders aren't biologically based. Most mental health experts do believe that some mental disorders are linked to chemical changes within the brain, and they're beginning to map these changes visually using imaging studies. But for now, there's no physiological diagnostic test for mental illness.

Distinguishing mental health from mental illness

Mental health providers define mental disorders by signs, symptoms and functional impairments. Signs are what objective observers can document, such as agitation or rapid breathing. Symptoms are subjective, or what you feel, such as euphoria or hopelessness. Functional impairment is the inability to perform certain routine or basic daily tasks, such as bathing or going to work.

In mental illness, signs and symptoms commonly show up as:

• Behaviors, such as repeated hand washing
• Feelings, such as sadness
• Thoughts, such as delusions that the television is controlling your mind
• Physiological responses, such as sweating

Signs, symptoms and functional impairments that mark specific mental illnesses are spelled out in detail in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This 2-inch-thick book classifies and describes more than 300 types of mental disorders. The book, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is used by mental health providers to diagnose everything from anorexia to voyeurism. For instance, a mental health provider can evaluate your signs and symptoms and refer to the DSM to see which illness you might have. The first edition of the DSM was published in 1952, and revisions have been made periodically since. The most recent update was published in 2000, and it has been translated into nearly two dozen languages.

Why is it important to diagnose people and attach labels that could be stigmatizing? Why does a specific diagnosis even matter if the line between mental health and mental illness is sometimes blurry? One reason is that the health insurance industry uses the diagnoses spelled out in the DSM to determine coverage and benefits and to reimburse mental health providers. But more important is that in order to get appropriate treatment, you must know what condition to treat — and whether it needs to be treated.

Role of laughter in anti stress therapy.

 Role of laughter in anti stress therapy.

 

The popular folk-idea that 'Laughter is the Best Medicine' has never had much basis in strict medical research until now. It was always assumed to be a psychological effect only. But recent findings are starting to identify laughter as an effective anti-stress therapy.

A couple of years ago, it was shown that laughter lowered the blood pressure, though the reasons remained obscure.

Since then, researchers have begun to see a link between laughter and the suppression of those stress-hormones that appear to damage the heart, predispose towards diabetes and weaken the immune system. One test showed that the mere anticipation of laughter could achieve this effect.

A group of men were told that they would be shown a comic film. Immediately their bodies' production of two major stress chemicals - cortisol and adrenaline - dropped by about half.

Attention is starting to centre on the fascinating idea of a 'humour zone' of the brain, though there may be more than one of these. Laughter is known to be one of our survival-emotions, buried deep in the brain's primal region.

But neurologists are only now starting to trace the complex pathways that link the respiratory aspect of laughter with the satisfaction/reward reflex and the release of mood-elevating hormones.

Equally obscure is the mechanism by which laughter can help to protect the heart. But it seems that deep, prolonged laughter lowers the level of cortisol, the stress-hormone which can attack the protective lining of the blood-vessels and lead to cardiac problems.

Laughter has also been shown to boost the antibodies that reduce the deposit of atheroma in the arteries.

Although these research findings are recent, there is nothing new about laughter therapy, which can be traced back to Buddhist Forced Laughter (yogic asana), but both psychologists and 'new-worlders' have been quick to harness the beneficial effects of laughter for purposes of therapy.

Humour therapy may be conducted on a group basis, sharing humorous experiences, however, as one person's sense of humour may differ from the next person's, it has been found more effective on a one-to-one basis.

This enables a personal humour profile to be built up from the client's own background, and a programme of laughter-inducing exercises to be constructed.

One branch of meditation also utilises laughter, though it treats laughing and crying as two halves of the same emotional response.

The main part of this programme is a slow-motion laugh, starting with a gradual smile and climaxing with a deep belly-laugh that may turn to tears under the emotional charge. As this is not spontaneous, some find it awkward to perform in a group.

Others prefer the communal atmosphere, and in India, many yoga practitioners incorporate laughter into their routines. China has also seen an explosion of laughter-related movements.

 

 

 

MENTAL HEALTH - II

 

Mental Health- II

 

 

Warning Signs of Mental Illness?

In an adult:
A person with one or more of the following symptoms should be evaluated by a psychiatrist or other physician as soon as possible:

• Marked personality change
• Inability to cope with problems and daily activities
• Strange or grandiose ideas.
• Excessive anxieties.
• Prolonged depression and apathy.
• Marked changes in eating or sleeping patterns.
• Extreme highs and lows.
• Abuse of alcohol or drugs.
• Excessive anger, hostility, or violent behavior.

A person who is thinking or talking about suicide or homicide should seek help immediately.

In a child:
Having only one or two of the problems listed below is not necessarily cause for alarm. They may simply indicate that a practical solution is called for, such as more consistent discipline or a visit with the child's teachers or guidance counselor to see whether there is anything out of the ordinary going on at school. A combination of symptoms, however, is a signal for professional intervention.

• The child seems overwhelmed and troubled by his or her feelings, unable to cope with them.
• The child cries a lot.
• The child frequently asks or hints for help.
• The child seems constantly preoccupied, worried, anxious, and intense. Some children develop a fear of a variety of things--rain, barking dogs, burglars, their parents' getting killed when out of sight, and so on--while other children simply wear their anxiety on their faces.
• The child has fears or phobias that are unreasonable or interfere with normal activities.
• The child can't seem to concentrate on schoolwork and other age-appropriate tasks.
• The child's school performance declines and doesn't pick up again.
• The child's teachers, school administrators, or other authority figures in the child's life ask the parent what might be troubling the child.
• The child is having difficulty mastering school work.
• Teachers suggest that the child may have a learning disability or other type of school-related problem.
• The child loses interest in playing.
• The child tries to stimulate himself or herself in various ways. Examples of this kind of behavior include excessive thumb sucking or hair pulling, rocking of the body, head banging to the point of hurting himself, and masturbating often or in public.
• The child has no friends and gets into fights with other youngsters. Teachers or others may report that "this is a very angry or disruptive kid."
• The child isolates himself or herself from other people.
• The child regularly talks about death and dying.
• The child appears to have low self-esteem and little self-confidence. Over and over the child may make such comments as: "I can't do anything right." "I'm so stupid." "I don't see why anyone would love me." "I know you [or someone else] hates me." "Nobody likes me." "I'm ugly. . . too big. . . too small. . . too fat. . . too skinny. . . too tall. . . too short, etc."
•  
• Sleep difficulties don't appear to be resolving. They include refusing to be separated from one or both parents at bedtime, inability to sleep, sleeping too much, sleeping on the parent's or parents' bed, nightmares, and night terrors.
• The child begins to act in a provocatively sexual manner. This is more common in girls as they approach puberty and thereafter, but even much younger girls may flirt with men in sexually suggestive ways.
• The child sets fires.

Some symptoms or reactions are so serious that a pediatrician or a psychiatrist should be consulted immediately:

• The child talks about suicide. Children don't talk idly about suicide to get attention. Once they have begun to talk about it, they also may have begun to plan a way to do it.
• The child appears to be accident prone. In younger children a succession of accidents can become the equivalent of suicide attempts.
• The child mutilates himself in some way--cutting or scarring himself, pulling out his hair, or biting fingernails until nail beds bleed.
• The child mutilates or kills animals.
• The child's eating habits change to the point that his weight is affected. This can be caused by either overeating or undereating.
• The child adopts ritualistic behaviors. This is indicative of obsessive-compulsive disorder. A child may have to line up her toys in a certain way every night, for example, or get ready for bed following a routine that never varies. If she forgets one item in the routine, she must start all over again.
• The child beats up others--another child, a parent, or other adult.
• The child is using alcohol or other drugs.
• The child is sexually active or on the verge of becoming so. Again, this is rare in children 12 and under but certainly not unheard of, especially since there is great pressure on kids today to become sexually active at progressively earlier ages. When children are depressed or their self-esteem is low, they may be more vulnerable to that pressure. Also, if they are still hurting from feelings of rejection and loneliness related to the divorce, they may be searching for love and affection and have a need to prove their lovability.

Improving your Memory: Tips and Techniques for Memory Enhancement

If our brains were computers, we'd simply add a chip to upgrade our memory. However, the human brain is more complex than even the most advanced machine, so improving human memory requires slightly more effort.

 

Just like muscular strength, your ability to remember increases when you exercise your memory and nurture it with a good diet and other healthy habits. There are a number of steps you can take to improve your memory and retrieval capacity. First, however, it's helpful to understand how we remember

 

What is memory?

Simply put, memory is the mental activity of recalling information that you have learned or experienced. That simple definition, though, covers a complex process that involves many different parts of the brain and serves us in disparate ways.

Memory can be short-term or long-term. In short-term memory, your mind stores information for a few seconds or a few minutes: the time it takes you to dial a phone number you just looked up or to compare the prices of several items in a store. Such memory is fragile, and it¡¯s meant to be; your brain would soon read ¡°disk full¡± if you retained every phone number you called, every dish you ordered in a restaurant, and the subject of every ad you watched on TV. Your brain is also meant to hold an average of seven items, which is why you can usually remember a new phone number for a few minutes but need your credit card in front of you when you¡¯re buying something online.

 

Long-term memory involves the information you make an effort (conscious or unconscious) to retain, because it¡¯s personally meaningful to you (for example, data about family and friends); you need it (such as job procedures or material you¡¯re studying for a test); or it made an emotional impression (a movie that had you riveted, the first time you ever caught a fish, the day your uncle died). Some information that you store in long-term memory requires a conscious effort to recall: episodic memories, which are personal memories about experiences you¡¯ve had at specific times; and semantic memories (factual data not bound to time or place), which can be everything from the names of the planets to the color of your child¡¯s hair. Another type of long-term memory is procedural memory, which involves skills and routines you perform so often that they don¡¯t require conscious recall.

Certain areas of the brain are especially important in the formation and retention of memory:

The hippocampus, a primitive structure deep in the brain, plays the single largest role in processing information as memory.

The amygdala, an almond-shaped area near the hippocampus, processes emotion and helps imprint memories that involve emotion.

The cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, stores most long-term memory in different zones, depending on what kind of processing the information involves: language, sensory input, problem-solving, and so forth.

In addition, memory involves communication among the brain¡¯s network of neurons, millions of cells activated by brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Stages of memory foundation and maintenance

There are three stages that the brain goes through in forming and retaining memories.

Stages of Memory Foundation and Maintenance
Acquisition ¡ú	Consolidation ¡ú	Retrieval
New information enters your brain along pathways between neurons in the appropriate area of the brain. The key to encoding information into your memory is concentration; unless you focus on information intently, it goes ¡°in one ear and out the other.¡± This is why teachers are always nagging students to pay attention!	If you¡¯ve concentrated well enough to encode new information in your brain, the hippocampus sends a signal to store the information as long-term memory. This happens more easily if it¡¯s related to something you already know, or if it stimulates an emotional response.	When you need to recall information, your brain has to activate the same pattern of nerve cells it used to store it. The more frequently you need the information, the easier it is to retrieve it along healthy nerve cell connections.

Tips for memory improvements

Do you feel that you have a poor memory? You may just have some less-than-effective habits when it comes to taking in and processing information. Barring disease, disorder, or injury, you can improve your ability to learn and retain information.

Brain exercises

Memory, like muscular strength, is a ¡°use it or lose it¡± proposition. The more you work out your brain, the better you¡¯ll be able to process and remember information.
Novelty and sensory stimulation are the foundation of brain exercise. If you break your routine in a challenging way, you¡¯re using brain pathways you weren¡¯t using before. This can involve something as simple as brushing your teeth with your nondominant hand, which activates little-used connections on the nondominant side of your brain. Or try a ¡°neurobic¡± exercise ¨C an aerobic exercise for your brain ¨C (see Keep Your Brain Alive Exercise) that forces you to use your faculties in unusual ways, like showering and getting dressed with your eyes closed. Take a course in a subject you don¡¯t know much about, learn a new game of strategy, or cook up some recipes in an unfamiliar cuisine. That¡¯s the most effective way to keep your synapses firing.

General guidelines to improve memory

In addition to exercising your brain, there are some basic things you can do to improve your ability to retain and retrieve memories:

1. Pay attention. You can¡¯t remember something if you never learned it, and you can¡¯t learn something ¡ª that is, encode it into your brain ¡ª if you don¡¯t pay enough attention to it. It takes about eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information through your hippocampus and into the appropriate memory center. So, no multitasking when you need to concentrate! If you distract easily, try to receive information in a quiet place where you won¡¯t be interrupted.
2. Tailor information acquisition to your learning style. Most people are visual learners; they learn best by reading or otherwise seeing what it is they have to know. But some are auditory learners who learn better by listening. They might benefit by recording information they need and listening to it until they remember it.
3. Involve as many senses as possible. Even if you¡¯re a visual learner, read out loud what you want to remember. If you can recite it rhythmically, even better. Try to relate information to colors, textures, smells and tastes. The physical act of rewriting information can help imprint it onto your brain.
4. Relate information to what you already know. Connect new data to information you already remember, whether it¡¯s new material that builds on previous knowledge, or something as simple as an address of someone who lives on a street where you already know someone.
5. Organize information. Write things down in address books and datebooks and on calendars; take notes on more complex material and reorganize the notes into categories later. Use both words and pictures in learning information.
6. Understand and be able to interpret complex material. For more complex material, focus on understanding basic ideas rather than memorizing isolated details. Be able to explain it to someone else in your own words.  
7. Rehearse information frequently and ¡°over-learn¡±. Review what you¡¯ve learned the same day you learn it, and at intervals thereafter. What researchers call ¡°spaced rehearsal¡± is more effective than ¡°cramming.¡± If you¡¯re able to ¡°over-learn¡± information so that recalling it becomes second nature, so much the better.
8. Be motivated and keep a positive attitude. Tell yourself that you want to learn what you need to remember, and that you can learn and remember it. Telling yourself you have a bad memory actually hampers the ability of your brain to remember, while positive mental feedback sets up an expectation of success.

Mnemonic devices to improve memory

Mnemonics (the initial ¡°m¡± is silent) are clues of any kind that help us remember something, usually by causing us to associate the information we want to remember with a visual image, a sentence, or a word.

Common types of mnemonic devices include:

1. Visual images - a microphone to remember the name ¡°Mike,¡± a rose for ¡°Rosie.¡± Use positive, pleasant images, because the brain often blocks out unpleasant ones, and make them vivid, colorful, and three-dimensional ¡ª they¡¯ll be easier to remember.
2. Sentences in which the first letter of each word is part of or represents the initial of what you want to remember. Millions of musicians, for example, first memorized the lines of the treble staff with the sentence ¡°Every good boy does fine¡± (or ¡°deserves favor¡±), representing the notes E, G, B, D, and F. Medical students often learn groups of nerves, bones, and other anatomical features using nonsense sentences.
3. Acronyms, which are initials that creates pronounceable words. The spaces between the lines on the treble staff, for example, are F, A, C, and E: FACE.
4. Rhymes and alliteration: remember learning ¡°30 days hath September, April, June, and November¡±? A hefty guy named Robert can be remembered as ¡°Big Bob¡± and a smiley co-worker as ¡°Perky Pat¡± (though it might be best to keep such names to yourself).
5. Jokes or even off-color associations using facts, figures, and names you need to recall, because funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than mundane images.
6. ¡°Chunking¡± information; that is, arranging a long list in smaller units or categories that are easier to remember. If you can reel off your Social Security number without looking at it, that¡¯s probably because it¡¯s arranged in groups of 3, 2, and 4 digits, not a string of 9.
7. ¡°Method of loci¡±: This is an ancient and effective way of remembering a lot of material, such as a speech. You associate each part of what you have to remember with a landmark in a route you know well, such as your commute to work.

Healthy habits to improve memory

Treating your body well can enhance your ability to process and recall information.

Healthy Habits that Improve Memory
Regular exercise	Increases oxygen to your brain. Reduces the risk for disorders that lead to memory loss, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. May enhance the effects of helpful brain chemicals and protect brain cells.
Managing stress	Cortisol, the stress hormone, can damage the hippocampus if the stress is unrelieved. Stress makes it difficult to concentrate.
Good sleep habits	Sleep is necessary for memory consolidation. Sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea leave you tired and unable to concentrate during the day.
Not smoking	Smoking heightens the risk of vascular disorders that can cause stroke and constrict arteries that deliver oxygen to the brain.

Nutrition and Memory improvement

You probably know already that a diet based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and ¡°healthy¡± fats will provide lots of health benefits, but such a diet can also improve memory. Research indicates that certain nutrients nurture and stimulate brain function.

B vitamins, especially B6, B12, and folic acid, protects neurons by breaking down homocysteine, an amino acid that is toxic to nerve cells. They¡¯re also involved in making red blood cells, which carry oxygen. (Best sources: spinach and other dark leafy greens, broccoli, asparagus, strawberries, melons, black beans and other legumes, citrus fruits, soybeans.)

Antioxidants like vitamins C and E, and beta carotene, fight free radicals, which are atoms formed when oxygen interacts with certain molecules. Free radicals are highly reactive and can damage cells, but antioxidants can interact with them safely and neutralize them. Antioxidants also improve the flow of oxygen through the body and brain. (Best sources: blueberries and other berries, sweet potatoes, red tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, green tea, nuts and seeds, citrus fruits, liver.)

Omega-3 fatty acids are concentrated in the brain and are associated with cognitive function. They count as ¡°healthy¡± fats, as opposed to saturated fats and trans fats, protecting against inflammation and high cholesterol. (Best sources: cold-water fish such as salmon, herring, tuna, halibut, and mackerel; walnuts and walnut oil; flaxseed and flaxseed oil)

Because older adults are more prone to B12 and folic acid deficiencies, a supplement may be a good idea for seniors. An omega-3 supplement (at any age) if you don¡¯t like eating fish. But nutrients work best when they¡¯re consumed in foods, so try your best to eat a broad spectrum of colorful plant foods and choose fats that will help clear, not clog, your arteries. Your brain will thank you!

 

Memory and aging

Several factors cause aging brains to experience changes in the ability to retain and retrieve memories:

• The hippocampus is especially vulnerable to age-related deterioration, and that can affect how well you retain information.
• There¡¯s a relative loss of neurons with age, which can affect the activity of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters and their receptors.
• An older person often experiences decreased blood flow to the brain and processes nutrients that enhance brain activity less efficiently than a younger person.

However, in healthy older adults, these changes represent more of a slowing in the ability to absorb, store, and retrieve new information, not a loss. The factual information you¡¯ve accumulated over the years remains largely intact, as does procedural memory. You can make and recall new long-term memories; the process just takes a little longer.

Of course, some older adults do develop more significant problems with memory that are the result of diseases such as Alzheimer¡¯s or stroke; injury; poor nutrition; other physiological issues; or emotional problems.

Myths about sex

 

Expert(s):
Dr. Achal Bhagat Psychiatrist Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi Dr. Rajan Bhonsle Sex Therapist, Mumbai

DrNDTV: Does masturbation lead to impotence and insanity?

Dr. Bhagat: No, it does not lead to impotence, insanity, blindness or any other such thing. These are all myths and the reality is that 90 percent of the people, men or women, masturbate and most of them masturbate in a reasonable manner and there is no such thing as a bad consequence of masturbation.

DrNDTV: Is it harmful?

Dr. Bhagat: It is not.

Dr. Bhonsle: It is okay to masturbate and is harmless, provided it is done in privacy, on your own, in a manner that you maintain hygiene and also that you don't injure yourself. And moreover if a person is married and if he starts preferring masturbation over intercourse when his partner is very much ready, then of course it may not be regarded as normal and also when a person get obsessed with masturbation so that he just cannot do anything else, then also it can be regarded as abnormal. Physiologically, there are no ill effects of masturbation on one’s sexuality, sexual power or fertility.

DrNDTV: A woman does not enjoy sex as much as a man does.

Dr. Bhonsle: This is not true; men as well as women both are capable of enjoying sex equally. This myth exists because there is a basic difference between male and female sexuality. Male sexuality is body oriented. A man gets attracted to a woman's body. If he finds her body attractive, he gets interested in sex, irrespective of whether he loves her or not. Female sexuality is more heart oriented. She can be interested in having sex with a man mostly if she is in love with the person. This is the basic difference. Moreover, there is another difference wherein a man's sexuality is very intercourse oriented. He is very eager to have intercourse and unless intercourse happens he doesn't get satisfied. Against this, a woman does enjoy intercourse but her sexuality is very much foreplay oriented. Good foreplay is very much required for a woman to enjoy sex and ultimately to enjoy intercourse. If there is not adequate foreplay, she may not enjoy intercourse that much or she may not be able to achieve orgasm. This is the difference between male sexuality and female sexuality.

Caller: Is it true that only males masturbate?

Dr. Bhagat: This is not true, but more men are reported to masturbate than women.

DrNDTV: Do you think abstinence from sex is good for health?

Dr. Bhonsle: Abstinence has nothing to do with physical strength. On the contrary if a person has had sex he enjoys it, he get de-stressed, he becomes more capable of doing any work. The kind of exhaustion that people experience after intercourse or after ejaculation is not a loss of power. It is like at the end of any exercise you feel tired, which is perfectly physiological and normal. I absolutely do not believe that sex makes a person weaker in any manner.

Caller: Is it safe to have sex while I am pregnant?

Dr. Bhagat: This is a matter of choice and differs from case to case. For example, if you have an unsafe pregnancy then you might be advised by the gynaecologist not to have sex.

DrNDTV: Does the length of the penis make a difference in satisfying a woman?

Dr. Bhagat: This is not true because the length of an erect penis in most men is almost the same, and the other important thing to remember is that the sensitive part of the female vagina is only the first three centimetres. So, the length of the penis does not really matter.

Dr. Bhonsle: Only the outer one third of the female vagina is sensitive to sexual stimulation. So if a man's penis on erection is two inches in length, he should be able to satisfy his partner. But many men carry the anxiety that even if their partner does get satisfied, but if she sees his small penis – it might put her off! I would like to tell these men that women are invariably not very much interested in looking at a man's anatomy, and 90 percent of the women while having intercourse, even if it is dark outside, prefer to close their eyes. So they are not interested in looking at the size of your penis and once they have satisfied themselves in intercourse even with a penis which is as much as two to three inches long on erection they are not going to be bothered about the size of the penis. So, size of the penis does not determine sexual pleasure in women.

DrNDTV: There are many advertisements on e-mail for lengthening the penis and enlargment of the penis. There must be something to it. Is there any scientific evidence to prove that a short penis does not satisfy women?

Dr. Bhonsle: There was an experiment performed in US where a beautiful professional prostitute, who was not carrying any sexually transmitted disease, was invited for an experiment. Her eyes were kept closed, and three men were told to perform intercourse with her. One man had a penis only two inches in length on erection, another man had a penis four inches long on erection and the third man had a penis six inches in length on erection. She did not know who was performing intercourse with her. After all the three men performed intercourse her eyes were opened and she was asked by a team of doctors to tell them what according to her was the size of the penis of the three men. She was unable to tell the size. Even a professional prostitute who was experienced could not make out what the length of their penis was, even though the difference was two inches, four inches and six inches. So the satisfaction of women does not depend on the size of the penis.

DrNDTV: I smoke pretty heavily and that too only a particular brand. I have heard that if I continue to smoke the same brand for too long I will become impotent. Is this true?

Dr. Bhagat: It is not about a particular brand, but smoking definitely is a risk factor for atherosclerosis and atherosclerosis ultimately leads to impotency.

DrNDTV: Aphrodisiacs are things that stimulate people to want and enjoy sex. Do you think aphrodisiacs improve the sexual urge?

Dr. Bhagat: The only aphrodisiac that I have known which has a potent effect is the ‘human thought’. There are many myths about chemicals but none of them has proven to be an aphrodisiac.

DrNDTV: What about alcohol?

Dr. Bhagat: Alcohol actually decreases interest and arousal. It causes more problems than it helps. It is a depressant drug and not an exciting drug.

DrNDTV: Can you get HIV by kissing?

Dr. Bhonsle: If it is dry kissing, HIV cannot be transmitted. But if it is a deep wet kiss where body fluids or saliva get exchanged and if there are any ulcers or wounds in the mouth, there is a possibility of HIV getting transmitted.

DrNDTV: Do people who have had circumcision done enjoy sex more?

Dr. Bhonsle: I don't agree with this. There is no difference between the sexual pleasure experienced between men who are circumcised and those who are not, because during intercourse anyway the foreskin gets retracted and the glans penis gets exposed, which is sensitive to sexual stimulus. So, even a person without circumcision can enjoy sex as much as a person who is circumcised.

Caller: Is it possible for a man to know whether his wife is a virgin or not, and if she doesn't bleed during the first intercourse, does that means she is not a virgin?

Dr. Bhonsle: First of all the hymen may not be present since birth in some women. Moreover, even if it is present during childhood, during many athletic activities and sports activities the hymen may get ruptured. So, the absence of the hymen does not mean that a girl has lost her virginity. It is not true that during the first intercourse if a woman does not bleed or her hymen does not get ruptured, that means she was not a virgin.

DrNDTV: Does every woman get pregnant after a first intercourse?

Dr. Bhagat: It is not true that women get pregnant after their first intercourse. A lot of women do, while a lot don’t.

DrNDTV: Can lifting heavy weights affect sexual pleasure?

Dr. Bhagat: I don't think lifting heavy weights can causes any problems related to sexual pleasure.

DrNDTV: Can you discuss any sexual myth you have come across?

Dr. Bhonsle: There are many myths associated with semen. Very often it is considered that the loss of semen is loss of virility or the loss of sexual strength, and semen is considered very precious and a drop of semen is almost equivalent to something like 20 or 40 drops of blood. All these are myths.

Semen is nothing but a mixture of three things - 10 percent are sperms that are produced in testicles, 60 percent are secretions of seminal vesicles and 30 percent are the secretions of the prostate gland. So, it is nearly a secretion of these glands and these three glands keep functioning throughout the life of a person.

Dandruff - causes & Remedies

Dandruff - causes & Remedies

 

Dandruff can be a rather annoying malady of the hair and scalp (not to count embarrassing) and the condition is characterized by silvery scales that separate from the scalp and build-up in the hair. The symptoms of dandruff are aggravated when the hair is combed or brushed, as the flakes tend to fall off on clothes and may appear as lumps on the hair and scalp. Excess oil, dirt, grease or product build-up complicate symptoms and make the problem appear worse than it is. Dandruff may be accompanied by itchiness or redness. Determining the causes of dandruff can help people find appropriate remedies.

 

Causes of dandruff

 

Any kind of health impairment is reflected on the health of one's hair as well. Intake of wrong food products, constipation or any infectious disease can lead to dandruff. Toxic conditions due to intake of wrong food products are considered a major cause of dandruff. Also application of harsh chemical hair products or harsh shampoos can also lead to dandruff problems. Other causes include extreme climatic conditions, emotional stress, general exhaustion or use of damaging shampoos. Physiologically, scalp psoriasis, scalp acne, and poor hygiene or overactive sebaceous glands can lead to clogged pores, infection, bacteria and generally poor scalp health.

 

 

Remedies for Dandruff

Dandruff treatment with Fenugreek seeds

 

Fenugreek seeds are considered to be a very effective "home remedy" in the treatment of dandruff. Soak 2 tablespoons of Fenugreek seeds in water and leave overnight. Grind this into a paste and apply all over the scalp and leave for half an hour. Wash off hair thoroughly using soap-nut (ritha) solution or shikakhai.

 

Anti-dandruff hair care products

 

There are a wide variety of anti-dandruff shampoos available in the market today which are also effective in the treatment and prevention of dandruff. It is important to go in for a reputable brand and ensure that the shampoo is not too harsh for your hair type. Deep cleaning dandruff shampoos with Zinc PCA combined with Fenugreek are found to be the best at cleansing the scalp and hair. Zinc PCA helps regulate the sebaceous gland - reducing oils that lead to bacteria, dirt and infection. Emu Oil active ingredients are anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial and help ward-off bacteria and fungus.

 

Using lime for the treatment of dandruff

 

A teaspoon of fresh lime juice in the last hair rinse combined with a light weight conditioner can also be effective to treat dandruff. Furthermore, this adds much needed luster to the hair as well.

 

Beet for dandruff

 

Boil both the top and root in water and massage this water into the scalp every night. White beet is even more effective to treat dandruff.

 

Brush hair daily and thoroughly

 

Brushing your hair on a daily basis improves blood circulation to the scalp and removes any kind of flakes. Massaging the scalp helps improve circulation and should be done after brushing. Massaging stimulates circulation and dislodges any flakes and promotes hair growth.

 

For the "do-it-yourself-er", home remedies can be very effective. An organic stimulant, Fungreek stimulates circulation that feeds the bulb and hair follicle. Other natural remedies work equally as well. However,dandruff shampoo formulations often are developed to provide added benefits. As mentioned, Zinc PCA reduces oil secretion and deep cleans the scalp, Emu Oil helps moisturize and heal the scalp as well as provide anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties - both vital components when fighting dandruff.

 

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental health is how we think, feel and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices. Like physical health, mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

Everyone feels worried, anxious, sad or stressed sometimes. But with a mental illness, these feelings do not go away and are severe enough to interfere with your daily life. It can make it hard to meet and keep friends, hold a job or enjoy your life.

Mental illnesses are common – they affect about one in five families in the U.S. It is not your fault if you have one. These disorders – depression, phobias, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and many others - are real diseases that you cannot will or wish away. Fortunately, they are often treatable. Medicines and therapy can improve the life of most people with mental illnesses.

 

Mental Health: Keeping Your Emotional Health

What is good emotional health?

People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They feel good about themselves and have good relationships. They can keep problems in perspective.

It's important to remember that people who have good emotional health sometimes have emotional problems or mental illness. Mental illness often has a physical cause, such as a chemical imbalance in the brain. Stress and problems with family, work or school can sometimes trigger mental illness or make it worse. However, people who are emotionally healthy have learned ways to cope with stress and problems. They know when they need to seek help from their doctor or a counselor.

 

 

What about anger?

People are sometimes not aware of what causes their anger, how much anger they are holding inside or how to express anger. You may be angry about certain events or your own or other people's actions. Also, many little things can build up to make you feel that life is unfair.

If you find yourself becoming increasingly irritable or taking unhealthy risks (like drinking too much or abusing drugs), you may have a problem dealing with anger. It's very important to talk with your doctor or a counselor about getting help.

 

What can I do to avoid problems?

 

First, notice your emotions and reactions and try to understand them. Learning how to sort out the causes of sadness, frustration and anger in your life can help you better manage your emotional health. The box to the right gives some other helpful tips.

 

How does stress affect my emotions?

Your body responds to stress by making stress hormones. These hormones help your body respond to situations of extreme need. But when your body makes too many of these hormones for a long period of time, the hormones wear down your body -- and your emotions. People who are under stress a lot are often emotional, anxious, irritable and even depressed.

If possible, try to change the situation that is causing your stress. Relaxation methods, such as deep breathing and meditation, and exercise are also useful ways to cope with stress.

 

Can emotional problems be treated?

Yes. Counseling, support groups and medicines can help people who have emotional problems or mental illness. If you have an ongoing emotional problem, talk to your family doctor. He or she can help you find the right type of treatment.