Mastering Your Mind: EffectiveStrategies to Prevent Anxiety Attacks
Guest Post by: Nicole Rubin
Anxiety, a pervasive phenomenon in today's fast-paced world, can manifest in the form of uncontrollable worry, excessive fear, and physical symptoms such as rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, and muscle tension. These anxiety attacks can be debilitating, disrupting daily life and causing significant distress. Fortunately, with proactive strategies and a commitment to self-care, you can gain control over your anxiety and reclaim your peace of mind. Read on for some insights from MindSpa.
Do Deep Breathing Exercises
Deep breathing, a cornerstone of relaxation techniques, can effectively alleviate anxiety by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for calming the body and mind. When anxious, Medical News Today suggests taking a few minutes to practice deep, diaphragmatic breathing. Slowly inhale through your nose, expand your abdomen, and exhale through your mouth, letting go of any tension. Repeat this process several times, allowing your breath to become your anchor in the midst of anxiety.
Evaluate Your Career Choices
Sometimes, the source of anxiety may be rooted in your career. Evaluating your job satisfaction and considering a career change can be a pivotal step in preventing anxiety attacks. You can start by polishing your resume, making the process of job hunting more manageable. Remember, finding a career that aligns with your passions and values can have a profound impact on your overall well-being.
Share Your Life With a Pet
Adopting a pet, whether a dog, a cat, or another suitable companion, can provide invaluable emotional support and reduce anxiety. Johns Hopkins Medicine notes that interacting with pets can lower cortisol levels, the stress hormone, and increase the production of oxytocin, the "love hormone," promoting feelings of calm and well-being. Pets can also offer a sense of purpose, reduce loneliness, and encourage physical activity, all of which contribute to anxiety management.
Explore Alternative Ways to Reduce Anxiety
Beyond traditional therapy, various alternative modalities can effectively manage anxiety. Consider the following:
Mindfulness Meditation: Practicing mindfulness can help you stay grounded, reduce stress, and manage anxiety by focusing on the present moment.
Aromatherapy: Using essential oils like lavender or chamomile in diffusers or massage oils can provide soothing effects and help calm anxious feelings.
CBD: Derived from cannabis, CBD (Cannabidiol) is a non-psychoactive compound known for its potential in alleviating anxiety symptoms, especially social anxiety. For a unique twist, you might even want to explore the allure of the THCA flower, a highly concentrated form of THCA, the acidic precursor to THC, for potential anxiety-reducing benefits.
Flotation Therapy: Immerse yourself in a buoyant salt solution to reduce external stimuli and promote deep relaxation through sensory deprivation.
These alternative approaches can complement your existing anxiety prevention strategies.
Maintain a Solid Support System
Surrounding yourself with supportive friends and family can provide a protective barrier against anxiety. Share your struggles with trusted individuals, allowing them to offer empathy, encouragement, and practical assistance. A robust support system can help you navigate challenging situations, reduce feelings of isolation, and provide a reassuring sense of connection.
See Situations in a Positive Light
The way you perceive situations can significantly impact your anxiety levels. Challenge negative thought patterns and practice positive reframing, which involves viewing challenging situations from a more optimistic perspective. Instead of dwelling on the worst-case scenarios, focus on the positive aspects and potential solutions. This shift in mindset can significantly reduce anxiety and foster a more resilient outlook.
Optimize Your Home Office for Remote Work
If you work remotely, creating a dedicated workspace can make a significant difference in your anxiety levels. Designate a quiet, well-lit area free from distractions. Ensure your workspace is ergonomically designed to prevent physical discomfort. Personalize the space with elements that promote relaxation and focus, such as plants, natural light, and soothing music.
Introduce Structure to Your Life With a Scheduling System
Uncertainty and lack of structure can exacerbate anxiety. Implement a structured schedule that includes regular mealtimes, exercise, and relaxation activities. Planning your day and adhering to a schedule can provide a sense of control and reduce anxiety associated with unpredictable situations.
In the relentless pursuit of a more balanced and anxiety-free life, it is imperative to adopt a proactive and holistic approach. Incorporating these strategies into your daily routine can significantly diminish anxiety's grip on your life. Remember, the journey to managing anxiety is ongoing, and these strategies are here to support you every step of the way. As you embark on this path towards emotional well-being, may you find the peace and resilience you seek, allowing you to fully embrace the positive changes these strategies can bring.
Image via Unsplash
Look Good, Feel Great: The Role of Daily Rituals in Enhancing Your Life
Guest post by Nicole Rubin
The way we look and feel is deeply intertwined with our daily rituals. Whether you're a student, entrepreneur, or parent, the practices you incorporate into your routine can significantly influence your self-perception and overall well-being. Presented below by MindSpa, here are some effective strategies to help you cultivate a lifestyle that enhances your confidence and boosts your appearance.
Indulge Self-Care and Your Passion
The secret to a radiant appearance and a fantastic sense of well-being often lies in a tranquil mind. Reserving time for relaxation for yourself or immersing yourself in hobbies that you're passionate about offers an essential escape from everyday stressors, keeping you revitalized. Whether it's getting lost in the world of a captivating book, expressing yourself through art, or embarking on nature trails, these activities can significantly impact your mental health. A relaxed mind often mirrors itself in a vibrant physical appearance. Moreover, engaging in activities you love fuels your happiness, naturally enhancing your attractiveness and radiance.
Discover the Benefits of Meditation
Mindful.org notes that meditation is a powerful technique for nurturing mental well-being. It empowers you to declutter your mind, stay rooted in the present, and foster inner calmness. Regularly practicing meditation can reduce anxiety, strengthen stress resilience, and encourage a positive body image. The tranquility achieved through meditation often shines outwardly, contributing to a glowing physical appearance. Additionally, consistent meditation improves emotional stability, leading to a more contented and fulfilling life.
Get In Plenty of Sleep
Getting good sleep is crucial for maintaining overall health and well-being. It offers numerous benefits that extend beyond simply feeling rested. Adequate sleep improves cognitive function, enhancing memory, decision-making abilities, and creativity, making it easier to learn and solve problems. It also plays a vital role in emotional and psychological health, helping to regulate mood and reduce the risks of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
Physically, good sleep supports the body's healing processes, bolstering the immune system and reducing the risk of chronic conditions like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Moreover, it helps to balance hormones related to hunger, thus aiding in weight management. Furthermore, quality sleep contributes to better performance and productivity, reducing errors and accidents in daily activities. In essence, prioritizing good sleep is foundational to achieving a healthy, balanced life, impacting nearly every aspect of our physical and mental health.
Build a Network of Positive Influences
The energy radiated by those around you can significantly mold your mood and self-perception. Surrounding yourself with positive and supportive individuals can profoundly elevate your self-esteem and overall emotional health. This internal positivity doesn't remain confined within; it radiates outwardly, enhancing your appearance and aura. Furthermore, being around positive influences encourages personal growth and helps foster a more optimistic outlook on life.
Develop and Improve Professionally
Investing in your professional development and education adds to your self-esteem. If you find yourself in a job that is either not challenging enough or overly stressful, considering a career switch can significantly benefit your mental health. The convenience of online degree programs allows you to pursue higher education while managing full-time work or family commitments. For instance, obtaining an online doctoral degree in education enables you to contribute to curriculum development and policy, as well as assess and enhance instructional strategies, all while improving learning outcomes. You can easily explore the different options before choosing an accredited program (this deserves a look).
Master Makeup Techniques
Luvo points out that mastering the art of makeup application to draw attention to your best features can transform your appearance. The secret lies in subtly applying makeup to emphasize your best attributes and achieve a natural, effortless look. Begin with mastering basic techniques, then experiment with different styles until you discover what suits you best. Not only does this enhance your physical features, but it also allows you to express your personality and style.
Give Your Wardrobe a Makeover
Your clothes are pivotal in shaping your appearance and how you feel about yourself. Investing in new attire that compliments your physique can instantly elevate your confidence. Consider adding a flirty yet comfortable nightgown to your collection – something that makes you feel attractive and comfortable. Remember, genuine style is a seamless blend of comfort and fashion. As you begin to wear clothes that truly represent you, you'll find your confidence and sense of self-identity growing stronger.
Quality Skincare Routine
Taking care of your skin, the body's largest organ can dramatically improve your appearance. Using a high-quality face moisturizer helps maintain skin hydration, prevents premature aging, and imparts a healthy, youthful glow. Identify a moisturizer suitable for your skin type and incorporate it into your daily skincare regimen. Consistent skincare not only enhances your physical appearance but also signifies self-respect and love, which are key to feeling good about yourself.
From indulging in self-care and pursuing passions, practicing meditation, and surrounding ourselves with positive influences, to investing in professional development, mastering makeup techniques, revamping our wardrobes, and maintaining a quality skincare routine - each plays an integral role in shaping our self-perception and confidence. As we consistently incorporate these practices into our routines, we not only enhance our physical appearance but also cultivate a sense of inner tranquility and contentment. Therefore, the journey towards looking good and feeling great is indeed a holistic one, deeply rooted in our daily rituals and lifestyle choices.
Navigating Life After an Incurable Diagnosis: Vital Steps to Take
Guest Post by: Nicole Rubin
Receiving an incurable disease or chronic condition diagnosis is undoubtedly life-altering. The emotional and physical toll can be overwhelming, but it's important to remember that you're not alone in this journey. In this article from MindSpa, we'll guide you through essential steps to take if you've been newly diagnosed. Let's begin.
Create a Strong Support Network
While a diagnosis of a chronic or incurable condition can be an isolating experience, it's vital to recognize that you're not alone; you have a network of people who deeply care about you. Your friends and family can be irreplaceable sources of emotional sustenance and can often provide practical support as well. Whether they are taking on the role of chauffeur for medical appointments or serving as empathetic confidants, their contributions can significantly alleviate the weight of your journey.
Improve Your Home
Your physical environment plays a crucial role in your well-being, especially when facing a chronic condition. A living space that accommodates your unique needs can significantly improve your quality of life. Whether that means installing mobility aids or relocating closer to healthcare providers, investing in your living conditions is a step towards self-care.
Purchase a More Accessible Home
Purchasing a more accessible home can greatly enhance the quality of life for individuals with mobility issues or other special needs. When embarking on the home-buying process, it's crucial to work with a real estate agent who has experience in finding properties that meet accessibility requirements, such as wheelchair-friendly ramps, wider doorways, or single-story layouts. Inspections and walk-throughs should be more meticulous to ensure all accessibility features are up to code and meet your specific needs.
Financial planning is also key, as accessible homes may sometimes come at a premium, so exploring grants or loans aimed at accessibility can be beneficial. You’ll also need to start saving for a down payment; depending on the situation, you may be required to put around 20 percent down.
Symptom Management
Harvard Medical School notes that management of your symptoms should be a priority. Consult your healthcare team for a tailored management plan that might involve medication, lifestyle alterations, or possibly physical therapy. Empowering yourself through a proactive approach to symptom control can help give you a semblance of normality and control, both of which are necessities.
Take Good Care of Your Mental Health
One Medical points out that your emotional well-being is as important as your physical health, particularly given the added stress and psychological burden of your diagnosis. Consider engaging with a mental health professional like a counselor or therapist. They can equip you with coping strategies to handle the emotional rollercoaster you might be experiencing as you progress through this time in your life.
Exploring Alternative Therapies
While conventional treatments are foundational, exploring alternative therapies could offer additional relief. Techniques like acupuncture, yoga, or mindfulness meditation may complement your current treatment and offer holistic health benefits. However, always consult your healthcare provider before incorporating new therapies into your routine.
Maintaining Hope
Maintaining a positive mindset amid the difficulties of a chronic illness or incurable diagnosis is not just uplifting but crucial for your overall well-being. Engaging in activities that bring you joy and positivity can serve as both emotional relief and mental rejuvenation. Whether it's immersing yourself in a creative endeavor like painting, enjoying your favorite music, or cherishing quality time with loved ones, these moments of happiness act as valuable pauses, offering a respite from the constant focus on health challenges.
Advocating for Yourself
You're the principal stakeholder in your healthcare journey. Equip yourself with the knowledge about your condition and the treatments available. Being well-informed enables you to ask pertinent questions during medical consultations and even seek second opinions when in doubt. Your engagement and advocacy can lead to more personalized and effective care.
Streamline Your Medical Records
Being organized is another way to advocate for yourself effectively. Well-organized medical records can facilitate clear communication with healthcare providers and ensure you receive timely care. You can use non-proprietary digital formats like PDFs to keep your medical history, treatment plans, and other documents neatly organized and easily accessible.
Being diagnosed with an incurable disease or chronic condition is an immensely challenging experience that can make you feel like you've lost control over your life. However, the actionable steps detailed earlier offer a roadmap to regaining a sense of autonomy and well-being. From creating a robust network of friends and family to improving your living situation, efficiently organizing your medical records in PDF formats, and more, you can face these difficult times armed with resilience and a proactive approach.
Fluctuating blood pressure: A warning sign for dementia and heart disease
October 16, 2023
Science Daily/University of South Australia
A new study by Australian researchers has shown that fluctuating blood pressure can increase the risk of dementia and vascular problems in older people.
Short blood pressure (BP) fluctuations within 24 hours as well as over several days or weeks are linked with impaired cognition, say University of South Australia (UniSA) researchers who led the study.
Higher systolic BP variations (the top number that measures the pressure in arteries when a heart beats) are also linked with stiffening of the arteries, associated with heart disease.
The findings have been published in the journal Cerebral Circulation -- Cognition and Behaviour.
Lead author Daria Gutteridge, a PhD candidate based in UniSA's Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neuroscience Laboratory (CAIN), says it's well known that high blood pressure is a risk factor for dementia, but little attention is paid to fluctuating blood pressure.
"Clinical treatments focus on hypertension, while ignoring the variability of blood pressure," Gutteridge says.
"Blood pressure can fluctuate across different time frames -- short and long -- and this appears to heighten the risk of dementia and blood vessel health."
To help explore the mechanisms that link BP fluctuations with dementia, UniSA researchers recruited 70 healthy older adults aged 60-80 years, with no signs of dementia or cognitive impairment.
Their blood pressure was monitored, they completed a cognitive test, and their arterial stiffness in the brain and arteries was measured using transcranial doppler sonography and pulse wave analysis.
"We found that higher blood pressure variability within a day, as well as across days, was linked with reduced cognitive performance. We also found that higher blood pressure variations within the systolic BP were linked with higher blood vessel stiffness in the arteries.
"These results indicate that the different types of BP variability likely reflect different underlying biological mechanisms, and that systolic and diastolic blood pressure variation are both important for cognitive functioning in older adults."
The links were present in older adults without any clinically relevant cognitive impairment, meaning that BP variability could potentially serve as an early clinical marker or treatment target for cognitive impairment, the researchers say.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231016222120.htm
Parents of elementary-aged children may engage in more helicopter parenting than they think
Report suggests gap between what parents say about fostering children's independence and what tasks they actually let their kids do without them
October 16, 2023
Science Daily/Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
While most parents agree that kids benefit from opportunities to be independent, they may be engaging in more 'helicopter parenting' than they realize, suggests a new poll.
As they grow, children start doing certain activities without their parents watching over them, including trick-or-treating with friends, staying home alone or biking to a friend's house.
And while most parents agree that kids benefit from opportunities to be independent, they may be engaging in more "helicopter parenting" than they realize, suggests a new University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.
"There's a sizable gap between parent attitudes about promoting children's independence and what they actually allow or encourage their children to do without supervision," said Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.
"This suggests some parents may be missing opportunities to guide their children in tasks of autonomy and unintentionally hindering kids' development of independence and problem-solving skills."
Four in five parents of children ages 9-11 agree that it's good for children to have free time without adult supervision. But fewer report their child actually does certain things without an adult present, the poll suggests.
About three in five parents have let their tween-aged child stay home for 30-60 minutes while half say their child has separated from them to find an item at another aisle in the store. Less than half say their child has waited in the car while the parent runs a quick errand, walked or biked to a friend's house or played at the park with a friend, and less than a sixth of parents have let their child trick-or-treat with friends.
The top reason behind parents' hesitancy to promote such independent milestones was safety. Yet, while a little more than half worried someone might scare or follow their child, just 17% of parents say their neighborhood is not safe for children to be alone.
"To some extent, worrying about your child is natural. But some parents are limiting their child's independent activities due to highly publicized media reports, even if those outcomes are very unlikely to occur or cannot be prevented," Clark said.
"Parents can ease in with small steps such as letting their child spend time with a friend at a familiar public place. Discussions before and after can help parents assess if their kids understand the importance of following safety rules."
Other parents say they keep children from taking on such tasks alone because they don't believe they're ready while some parents believe state or local laws don't allow children that age to be alone and that someone might call the police. A little more than one in 10 parents also think others will think they are a bad parent if their child is seen unsupervised.
Over half of parents say that unsupervised children cause trouble while a quarter have criticized another parent, and 13% have been criticized for not adequately supervising their child.
"Parents may be affected by 'blame culture' -- the expectation that they will be criticized if something happens to their child," Clark said.
The poll report also suggests a disconnect between what parents of younger children ages 5-8 say and what they do in fostering independence.
Nearly three quarters say they make it a point to have their child do things themselves. But less than half of these parents say their child regularly engages in actions such as talking with the doctor or nurse at health visits, deciding how to spend allowance or gift money, speaking to unfamiliar adults in business situations, such as ordering at a restaurant, or preparing their own meal or snack.
Among reasons were safety, getting stuck in habits, the parent belief that their child doesn't want to do things themselves or isn't mature enough, thinking it will take too long or that it won't be done in the parent's preferred way.
The elementary school years, Clark notes, is an important phase for developing independence with parental guidance.
"Becoming independent is a gradual process of allowing children increasing amounts of freedom, with parents there to teach skills and help the child understand the consequences of their choices," Clark said.
"As children become more experienced and comfortable with tasks, they can assume responsibility for doing them regularly. Research shows encouraging independence fosters a child's self-confidence, resilience, problem-solving ability, and mental health."
The nationally representative poll is based on responses from 1,044 parents of children 5-11 years surveyed in August.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231016163128.htm
Depression, anxiety common among college students
Study underscores role of building culture of belonging for minority
October 17, 2023
Science Daily/University of Georgia
Depression and anxiety among college students is a growing public health problem. And new research from the University of Georgia suggests the problem may be worse for students who aren't the same race as most of their peers.
The new study found that students who were not the majority race at a predominantly white college reported significantly higher rates of depression than their white peers.
At the mostly white university, more than half of the students who self-identified as races other than white reported feelings of mild depression. An additional 17% said they were experiencing moderate to severe depression.
Students at the predominantly white institution all reported similar levels of anxiety, regardless of race, with more than three in every five students saying they experience mild to severe levels of anxiety.
At the historically Black college, students who weren't Black experienced higher rates of anxiety and depression as well.
"Our study adds to the evidence of how important the work around inclusivity and mental health is in the college environment," said Janani Rajbhandari-Thapa, an associate professor in UGA's College of Public Health. "It's important to be mindful that not all students come with the same background, and we need to support them more."
First-generation students more likely to suffer depression
More than 3,100 students participated in the study during the COVID-19 pandemic, answering questions about feelings of hopelessness, sleep issues and lack of energy, among other topics.
The researchers found that first-generation students were also significantly more likely to experience depression compared to students who weren't the first to attend college in their families.
All first-generation students surveyed expressed that they had some level of depression, regardless of the institution. Most reported mild symptoms, but more than half at the predominantly white university said they had moderate to severe levels of depression.
"I was an international student myself and can relate to the stresses of settling in during the first semester in the U.S. a little bit" Rajbhandari-Thapa said. "Being a first-generation student and experiencing college for the first time in your family comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities, and it is important that university faculty and staff work towards addressing the challenges.
"There are trainings and workshops in the workplace, but we need to do more to help new college students feel at home."
Socializing, sense of belonging helps safeguard against mental illness
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted daily life for most Americans. College students were particularly hard hit.
Where they would normally be socializing and engaging in group activities, many were masked up and socially distanced, preventing some of that integral interaction that strengthens social bonds. The additional stressors likely led to increases in stress and anxiety, but the researchers suggest that not all groups were affected equally.
Female students, for example, were harder hit with depression and anxiety than their male counterparts, which reflects the larger social pattern of mental health problems hitting women more intensely.
But the researchers say investing in diversity, equity, and inclusion resources can help students feel more at home on campus, regardless of their race or first-generation status.
"Belonging is so important," Rajbhandari-Thapa said. "I don't think there is ever enough support for first-generation and minority students. Universities are starting to do this already, but it's important that we provide as much support as possible."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231017123422.htm
Assessing 'readiness' by tracking fluctuations in daily sleep duration and their effects on daily mood, motivation, and sleepiness
October 13, 2023
Science Daily/National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Self-reported sleepiness relates to poorer performance in tasks requiring vigilance, such as driving and has also been associated with reduced motivation to engage in social or physical activities. Better mood can result in more productive behavior, better job performance and higher academic achievement. Finally, higher motivation has been tied to greater productivity among working adults and higher grade-point averages in students.
A good night's sleep prepares us for the next day. Conversely, inadequate sleep diminishes performance in tasks requiring attention, memory, and executive functions that have real world consequences.
'Readiness scores' currently provided by consumer fitness and sleep trackers were designed to predict physical performance rather than how we would handle daily tasks and social interactions. Both manufacturers and users loosely assume the latter as well but that has never been scientifically tested. A simple gauge of preparedness to take on a new day would be highly desirable.
Professor Michael Chee, Assistant Professor Stijn Massar and Alyssa Ng from the Centre for Sleep and Cognition at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) led work to create such a gauge by having 119 university students report their mood, motivation, and sleepiness (MMS) after waking and before going to bed, daily for between 2 to 6 weeks.
Self-reported sleepiness relates to poorer performance in tasks requiring vigilance, such as driving and has also been associated with reduced motivation to engage in social or physical activities. Better mood can result in more productive behavior, better job performance and higher academic achievement. Finally, higher motivation has been tied to greater productivity among working adults and higher grade-point averages in students.
Sleep was measured with Oura Rings and cross-referenced with smartphone app based self-reports that also captured daytime naps and their duration.
Nights with longer sleep than the participant's average were associated with better mood, higher motivation, and lower sleepiness in the post-wake period. Better scores in mood and sleepiness persisted into the pre-bedtime period. Interestingly, these associations between nocturnal sleep and MMS did not affect ratings for the subsequent day, meaning that a good night of sleep following a poor one could be helpful to restore one's social function.
Irregularity of sleep duration over a week had a negative impact on MMS ratings, extending work done elsewhere that found multiple ill effects of having irregular sleep duration.
Significant associations between MMS and nap duration suggest that day-time naps may alleviate the effects of inadequate nocturnal sleep that university students are well known for.
Attesting to the importance of personalized sleep information, a person's average sleep duration did not significantly predict between-subjects differences in average mood or motivation ratings in the post-wake window. This suggests that there are significant interindividual differences in the amount of sleep necessary to maintain mental well-being.
"This work lends credibility to provision of a daily 'readiness' score for purposes other than athletic performance based on measurements of nocturnal sleep duration" said Alyssa Ng the graduate student who drove the work.
"People say they know all they need about their sleep within a few weeks of using a sleep tracker but our work suggests, there is real value in continuing to measure sleep to help you judge when to push it and when to hold back in work or social settings" said Professor Chee who has been a significant contributor to research evaluating the utility of wearable sleep trackers.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231013114906.htm
Americans will spend half their lives taking prescription drugs
October 12, 2023
Science Daily/Penn State
An American born in 2019 will spend a larger share of their lifetime taking prescription drugs than being married or receiving an education, according to new research by Jessica Ho, associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State. She found that American males will spend approximately 48% of their lives taking prescription drugs. The number jumped to 60% for females.
Ho reported her findings this week (Oct. 1) in the journal Demography.
"As an American, I'd like to know what medications I'm putting in my body and how long I can expect to take them," said Ho, who is also an associate of Penn State's Social Science Research Institute. "The years that people can expect to spend taking prescription drugs are now higher than they might spend in their first marriage, getting an education or being in the labor force. It's important to recognize the central role that prescription drug use has taken on in our lives."
Ho used nationally representative surveys conducted by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1996 through 2019 to study prescription drug use across the United States. The surveys include information from approximately 15,000 households chosen annually and collect information every five months, offering better recall than surveys taken once a year. In addition, nearly 70% of survey respondents allow the AHRQ and CDC to verify their prescriptions with their pharmacies, affording the surveys higher levels of accuracy.
The researcher then used mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Human Mortality Database to estimate how long Americans born in 2019 could expect to live. She then combined this information with the survey data to estimate the percent of their lifetimes they could expect to spend taking prescription medications.
She found that the majority of American men are taking prescription drugs by age 40, while most American women are taking prescription drugs by age 15. On average, a newborn boy in 2019 could expect to take prescription drugs for approximately 37 years, or 48% of his life. A newborn girl in 2019 could expect to take them for approximately 47.5 years, or 60% of her life.
"We see that women start taking prescription drugs earlier than men do, and some of that is related to birth control and hormonal contraceptives," Ho said. "But it is also related to greater use of psychotherapeutic drugs and painkillers among women. If we consider the difference between men and women, excluding contraceptives would only account for about a third of the difference. The remaining two-thirds is primarily driven by the use of other hormone-related drugs, painkillers and psychotherapeutic drugs used to treat conditions such as depression, anxiety and ADHD."
Men, on the other hand, tend to take more statins and other medications to treat cardiovascular disease, explained Ho. But statin use varies across race and ethnicity, she said.
"Non-Hispanic Black men have lower rates of statin use than non-Hispanic whites or Hispanics," Ho said. "That's concerning because we know that cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders are really high among Black men. There's no reason that they should be taking these drugs for fewer years of their lives than men in other racial and ethnic groups. Health care access, differential treatment by medical providers, and available socioeconomic resources vary across populations and may help to account for these differences."
She also found that rates of polypharmacy, or when an individual takes five or more drugs at the same time, have risen to alarming levels. In the mid-1990s, most people taking prescription medications were on one drug. Today, individuals taking prescription medications are equally likely to be taking five or more medications, according to Ho.
The findings have implications for Americans' health and health care expenditures. Many of the drugs that individuals are on for 40 or 50 years have only been on the market for the past five decades, so their long-term effects on the body are still unknown, Ho said. Further, polypharmacy puts the individual at greater risk for drug interactions and adverse health outcomes, she said.
As for health care costs, prescription drug expenditures hit $335 billion in 2018. Out-of-pocket expenditures on prescription medications account for 14% of drug spending, and prescription drug spending is projected to hit $875 billion, or 15.4% of national health expenditures, by 2026.
"This paper is not trying to say that use of prescription drugs is good or bad," Ho said. "Obviously, they have made a difference in treating many conditions, but there are growing concerns about how much is too much. There's a large body of research that shows Americans are less healthy and live shorter lives than our counterparts in other high-income countries. The prescription drug piece is part and parcel of that reality. What we find is, even above and beyond what we might expect to be seeing, the rates of prescription drug use in the United States are extraordinarily high."
The National Institutes of Health, through the National Institute on Aging, supported this work.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231012161832.htm
Fresh light shed on mystery of infant consciousness
October 12, 2023
Science Daily/Trinity College Dublin
There is evidence that some form of conscious experience is present by birth, and perhaps even in late pregnancy, an international team of researchers from Trinity College Dublin and colleagues in Australia, Germany and the USA has found.
The findings, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Trends in Cognitive Science, have important clinical, ethical and potentially legal implications, according to the authors.
In the study, entitled 'Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience', the researchers argue that by birth the infant's developing brain is capable of conscious experiences that can make a lasting imprint on their developing sense of self and understanding of their environment.
The team comprised neuroscientists and philosophers from Monash University, in Australia, University of Tübingen, in Germany, University of Minnesota, in the USA, and Trinity College Dublin.
Although each of us was once a baby, infant consciousness remains mysterious, because infants cannot tell us what they think or feel, explains one of the two lead authors of the paper Dr Tim Bayne, Professor of Philosophy at Monash University (Melbourne).
"Nearly everyone who has held a newborn infant has wondered what, if anything, it is like to be a baby. But of course we cannot remember our infancy, and consciousness researchers have disagreed on whether consciousness arises 'early' (at birth or shortly after) or 'late' - by one year of age, or even much later."
To provide a new perspective on when consciousness first emerges, the team built upon recent advances in consciousness science. In adults, some markers from brain imaging have been found to reliably differentiate consciousness from its absence, and are increasingly applied in science and medicine. This is the first time that a review of these markers in infants has been used to assess their consciousness.
Co-author of the study, Lorina Naci, Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, who leads Trinity's 'Consciousness and Cognition Group, explained: "Our findings suggest that newborns can integrate sensory and developing cognitive responses into coherent conscious experiences to understand the actions of others and plan their own responses."
The paper also sheds light into 'what it is like' to be a baby. We know that seeing is much more immature in babies than hearing, for example. Furthermore, this work suggests that, at any point in time, infants are aware of fewer items than adults, and can take longer to grasp what's in front of them, but they can easily process more diverse information, such as sounds from other languages, than their older selves.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231012161754.htm
No universal body image experience in pregnancy
New meta-analysis finds large differences in people's body image dissatisfaction
October 12, 2023
Science Daily/Anglia Ruskin University
A new study has discovered large variations in how pregnancy can affect women's perceptions of their own body, including experiences of negative body image.
Negative body image during pregnancy is known to have serious adverse effects on both the mother and baby. Overall, average levels of body image dissatisfaction were found to be similar for pregnant women compared to the general female population, but the research discovered large differences -- both positive and negative -- on an individual basis.
The study, published in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, is thought to be the first meta-analysis comparing the two groups of women, and was led by academics from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and the University of York.
The researchers initially screened 2,017 separate academic studies, before focusing on 17 studies that provided comparable data. In total, the research included 5,200 responses from women who were pregnant and 4,172 responses from women who were not pregnant.
By synthesising results from multiple studies, the new research found women's body image dissatisfaction overall was not statistically different during pregnancy compared with when not pregnant. However, when looking at the separate studies that formed part of the meta-analysis, there are significant variations on an individual level.
The researchers believe that body image dissatisfaction in pregnancy is made up of a combination of complex factors related to the experiences of each woman -- some positive, some negative.
For some women, body image satisfaction will worsen during pregnancy because of "feeling fat," while others describe feeling that their body is out of their control because they are aware their body will change but cannot stop it. Unrealistic portrayals of pregnant women in the media, often edited to remove uneven skin tone and stretch marks, are also believed to contribute to body image dissatisfaction.
However other pregnant women report having improved body positivity compared to when not pregnant, as they no longer compare their body to the "thin ideal" body type. Some say the improvement is because they place less attention on how their body looks and more on its functionality, focusing on the fetus' health and their maternal role.
Understanding the causes of body image dissatisfaction in pregnant women is important because it can have a serious effect on the mental and physical health of both mother and baby. Many women who display body image dissatisfaction during pregnancy also exhibit depression and anxiety, both postnatally and longer term. This can lead to negative emotional, cognitive, and behavioural outcomes for the child, as well as poor quality mother-infant interactions.
In addition, body image dissatisfaction has been linked with physical illness as the expectant mother may engage in practices such as unhealthy eating, dieting, purging, and fasting. This can have unwanted negative effects on the fetus, such as low birth weight and premature birth.
Lead author Anna Crossland, University of York, said: "Due to the impact that body dissatisfaction can have on the expectant mother and fetus, it is vital to understand how body image dissatisfaction may change on an individual basis when women are pregnant. What our study has found is there is no universal experience during pregnancy, and so we shouldn't assume how people feel. Pressures about how we look are still felt by some people during pregnancy and it is much more helpful to ask how someone is, rather than commenting on their appearance."
Co-author Dr Elizabeth Kirk, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, said: "Our earlier work found that women who didn't feel good about their changing bodies in pregnancy reported lower feelings of bonding with their unborn baby. Therefore, it is crucial that we better understand and support women's body image during pregnancy, to help women on an individual basis."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231012161748.htm
Shyness could impact young children's performance on language tests
October 12, 2023
Science Daily/Southern Methodist University
A recent study from SMU psychologist Sarah Kucker and a student she mentored at Oklahoma State University suggests shyness can influence a child's performance in language assessments, depending on the level of social interaction required to complete the test.
Shy children tend to be reserved in everyday life, including communicating with others. The study concludes that the behavior can make accurately assessing a child's language abilities more challenging since shy children find it harder to verbally engage with clinicians and teachers than during less socially demanding tests.
The research by Liesl Melnick, now a graduate student at Eastern Illinois University, and Kucker was published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, and involved 122 children of varying temperaments between the ages of 17 and 42 months. Each child underwent a series of three language tasks that required different levels of social interaction: a looking task, a pointing task, and a production task that required children to say the answer verbally. In each, the children were asked to find a known object from a set of pictures. The order of tasks was randomized for unbiased results and data was collected through Zoom. Parents reported their child's shyness using an early childhood behavior questionnaire.
The results revealed significant differences in children's performance across the tasks depending on shyness. Shyer children did worse on the production task than their less-shy counterparts. However, all children performed well on the pointing task regardless of their shyness level. The looking task yielded more nuanced results, indicating that shyer children were occasionally more accurate but less likely to respond.
"A child's temperament, especially their shyness, could strongly impact how they will do in language tasks," said Kucker, SMU assistant professor of psychology. "When children are given assessments to evaluate their language abilities, clinicians and teachers should take into account the child's shyness level, perhaps using tasks that are less burdensome for them, such as pointing tasks instead of verbal ones."
Kucker believes acknowledging the impact of shyness will help professionals ensure language assessments are more effective and provide a more comprehensive understanding of a child's linguistic development. Moving forward, she and her team plan to explore the performance of shy and less-shy children on standardized language assessments.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231012111635.htm
Jet lag disorder associated with shift work can lead to brain changes increasing appetite
October 11, 2023
Science Daily/University of Bristol
Scientists have uncovered why night shift work is associated with changes in appetite in a new University of Bristol-led study. The findings, published in Communications Biology, could help the millions of people that work through the night and struggle with weight gain.
Scientists from Bristol and the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Japan, sought to understand how 'circadian misalignment' -- a phenomenon commonly associated with 'jet-lag' whereby the body's biological clock is disrupted -- affects the hormones responsible for regulating appetite.
Prevalent in night shift workers, in this new study, the international team reveal how circadian misalignment can profoundly alter the brain's regulation of hormones controlling hunger to the detriment of metabolic health.
The team focused on glucocorticoid hormones in the adrenal gland which regulate many physiological functions including metabolism and appetite. Glucocorticoids are known to directly regulate a group of brain peptides controlling appetitive behaviour, with some increasing appetite (orexigenic) and some decreasing appetite (anorexigenic).
In an experiment using animal models, comprising a control group and a out-of-phase 'jet-lagged' group, the team found misalignment between light and dark cues led the out-of-phase group's orexigenic hypothalamic neuropeptides (NPY) to become dysregulated, driving an increased desire to eat significantly more during the inactive phase of the day.
Strikingly, the team discovered that rats in the control group ate 88.4% of their daily intake during their active phase, and only 11.6% during their inactive phase. In contrast, the 'jet-lagged' group consumed 53.8% of their daily calories during their inactive phase (without an increase in activity during this time). This equated to nearly five-times more (460% more) than what the control group consumed during the inactive phase. These results show that it is timing of consumption that has been affected.
This new discovery revealed how completely, and significantly, disordered the neuropeptides become when daily glucocorticoid levels are out of synch with light and dark cues. However, the authors suggest the neuropeptides identified in this study may be promising targets for drug treatments adapted to treat eating disorders and obesity.
Dr Becky Conway-Campbell, Research Fellow in Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (THS) and the study's senior author, said: "For people working throughout the night, a reversed body clock can play havoc with their health.
"For those who are working night shifts long-term, we recommend they try to maintain daylight exposure, cardiovascular exercise and mealtimes at regulated hours. However, internal brain messages to drive increased appetite are difficult to override with 'discipline' or 'routine' so we are currently designing studies to assess rescue strategies and pharmacological intervention drugs. We hope our findings also provide new insight into how chronic stress and sleep disruption leads to caloric overconsumption."
Stafford Lightman, Professor of Medicine at Bristol Medical School: THS and co-senior author on the study, added: "The adrenal hormone corticosterone, which is normally secreted in a circadian manner, is a major factor in the daily control of brain peptides that regulate appetite. Furthermore when we disturb the normal relationship of corticosterone with the day to night light cycle it results in abnormal gene regulation and appetite during the period of time that the animals normally sleep.
"Our study shows that when we disturb our normal bodily rhythms this in turn disrupts normal appetite regulation in a way that is at least in part a result of desynchrony between adrenal steroid hormone production and the timing of the light and dark cycle."
Dr Benjamin Flynn, one of the study's co-authors who conducted the study while at Bristol but is now based at the University of Bath, added: "This is further evidence of how phase shift 'jet-lag' affects feeding behaviours and neuronal gene expression -- data important for shift work co-morbidity research."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231011182220.htm
Practicing mindfulness with an app may improve children's mental health
New research suggests daily mindfulness training at home helped reduce kids' stress levels and negative emotions.
October 11, 2023
Science Daily/Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Many studies have found that practicing mindfulness -- defined as cultivating an open-minded attention to the present moment -- has benefits for children. Children who receive mindfulness training at school have demonstrated improvements in attention and behavior, as well as greater mental health.
When the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, sending millions of students home from school, a group of MIT researchers wondered if remote, app-based mindfulness practices could offer similar benefits. In a study conducted during 2020 and 2021, they report that children who used a mindfulness app at home for 40 days showed improvements in several aspects of mental health, including reductions in stress and negative emotions such as loneliness and fear.
The findings suggest that remote, app-based mindfulness interventions, which could potentially reach a larger number of children than school-based approaches, could offer mental health benefits, the researchers say.
"There is growing and compelling scientific evidence that mindfulness can support mental well-being and promote mental health in diverse children and adults," says John Gabrieli, the Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, and the senior author of the study, which appears this week in the journal Mindfulness.
Researchers in Gabrieli's lab also recently reported that children who showed higher levels of mindfulness were more emotionally resilient to the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"To some extent, the impact of Covid is out of your control as an individual, but your ability to respond to it and to interpret it may be something that mindfulness can help with," says MIT graduate student Isaac Treves, who is the lead author of both studies.
Pandemic resilience
After the pandemic began in early 2020, Gabrieli's lab decided to investigate the effects of mindfulness on children who had to leave school and isolate from friends. In a study that appeared in the journal PLOS One in July, the researchers explored whether mindfulness could boost children's resilience to negative emotions that the pandemic generated, such as frustration and loneliness.
Working with students between 8 and 10 years old, the researchers measured the children's mindfulness using a standardized assessment that captures their tendency to blame themselves, ruminate on negative thoughts, and suppress their feelings.
The researchers also asked the children questions about how much the pandemic had affected different aspects of their lives, as well as questions designed to assess their levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and negative emotions such as worry or fear.
Among children who showed the highest levels of mindfulness, there was no correlation between how much the pandemic impacted them and negative feelings. However, in children with lower levels of mindfulness, there was a strong correlation between Covid-19 impact and negative emotions.
The children in this study did not receive any kind of mindfulness training, so their responses reflect their tendency to be mindful at the time they answered the researchers' questions. The findings suggest that children with higher levels of mindfulness were less likely to get caught up in negative emotions or blame themselves for the negative things they experienced during the pandemic.
"This paper was our best attempt to look at mindfulness specifically in the context of Covid and to think about what are the factors that may help children adapt to the changing circumstances," Treves says. "The takeaway is not that we shouldn't worry about pandemics because we can just help the kids with mindfulness. People are able to be resilient when they're in systems that support them, and in families that support them."
Remote interventions
The researchers then built on that study by exploring whether a remote, app-based intervention could effectively increase mindfulness and improve mental health. Researchers in Gabrieli's lab have previously shown that students who received mindfulness training in middle school showed better academic performance, received fewer suspensions, and reported less stress than those who did not receive the training.
For the new study, reported today in Mindfulness, the researchers worked with the same children they had recruited for the PLOS One study and divided them into three groups of about 80 students each.
One group received mindfulness training through an app created by Inner Explorer, a nonprofit that also develops school-based meditation programs. Those children were instructed to engage in mindfulness training five days a week, including relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, and other forms of meditation.
For comparison purposes, the other two groups were asked to use an app for listening to audiobooks (not related to mindfulness). One group was simply given the audiobook app and encouraged to listen at their own pace, while the other group also had weekly one-on-one virtual meetings with a facilitator.
At the beginning and end of the study, the researchers evaluated each participant's levels of mindfulness, along with measures of mental health such as anxiety, stress, and depression. They found that in all three groups, mental health improved over the course of the eight-week study, and each group also showed increases in mindfulness and prosociality (engaging in helpful behavior).
Additionally, children in the mindfulness group showed some improvements that the other groups didn't, including a more significant decrease in stress. They also found that parents in the mindfulness group reported that their children experienced more significant decreases in negative emotions such as anger and sadness. Students who practiced the mindfulness exercises the most days showed the greatest benefits.
The researchers were surprised to see that there were no significant differences in measures of anxiety and depression between the mindfulness group and audiobook groups; they hypothesize that may be because students who interacted with a facilitator in one of the audiobook groups also experienced beneficial effects on their mental health.
Overall, the findings suggest that there is value in remote, app-based mindfulness training, especially if children engage with the exercises consistently and receive encouragement from parents, the researchers say. Apps also offer the ability to reach a larger number of children than school-based programs, which require more training and resources.
"There are a lot of great ways to incorporate mindfulness training into schools, but in general, it's more resource-intensive than having people download an app. So, in terms of pure scalability and cost-effectiveness, apps are useful," Treves says. "Another good thing about apps is that the kids can go at their own pace and repeat practices that they like, so there's more freedom of choice."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231011182140.htm
How plant-derived nutrients can affect the gut and brain
Study tests link in overweight adults
October 10, 2023
Science Daily/Universität Leipzig
Prebiotics are used to foster the colonisation of beneficial bacteria in the gut. These indigestible dietary fibres are found in plant-derived foods such as onions, leeks, artichokes, wheat, bananas, and in high concentrations in chicory root. They support gut health by promoting the growth and activity of beneficial gut bacteria. Researchers have now investigated whether certain prebiotics can also influence brain function by improving communication between the gut microbiome and the brain.
The interventional study led by the University of Leipzig Medical Center indicates that consumption of high-dose dietary prebiotics leads to a reduction in reward-related brain activation in response to high-calorie food stimuli. "The results suggest a potential link between gut health and brain function, in this case food decision-making," says PD Dr Veronica Witte, co-author of the study and a scientist at the University of Leipzig Medical Center.
Young to middle-aged adults with overweight were selected for the study who followed an omnivorous, Western diet. The 59 volunteers consumed 30 grams of inulin, a prebiotic from chicory root, daily for 14 days. During functional MRI imaging, participants were shown pictures of food and asked how much they desired to eat the meals depicted. Following the MRI experiment, they were provided with their highest rated dish and asked to consume it.
The MRI examination was repeated at four timepoints, before and after the prebiotic administration and before and after a placebo phase in which the participants were given a preparation with identical energy density but without prebiotics. When the participants evaluated high-calorie foods, there was comparatively less activation of reward-related brain areas after they had consumed the prebiotic fibre. This effect was accompanied by a shift in the composition of the gut bacteria.
The findings, derived from advanced neuroimaging, next-generation sequencing of gut bacteria, and combined analyses of potential metabolic pathways, suggest that functional microbial changes may underlie the altered brain response towards high-caloric food cues. Fasting blood samples from the participants underwent analysis for gastrointestinal hormones, glucose, lipids, and inflammatory markers. In addition, gut microbiota and their metabolites, namely short-chain fatty acids, were measured in stool samples. The research was conducted within the Collaborative Research Centre 1052, "Obesity Mechanisms."
"Further studies are needed to investigate whether treatments that alter the microbiome could open up new avenues for less invasive approaches to the prevention and treatment of obesity. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms between the microbiome, gut, and brain could help to develop new strategies that promote healthier eating habits in people at risk" says Dr Witte. A follow-up study is currently underway, examining the effects of long-term, high-dose prebiotic administration over six months on eating behaviour, brain function and body weight in people living with overweight and obesity.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231010133552.htm
Scientists says identifying some foods as addictive could shift attitudes, stimulate research
October 9, 2023
Science Daily/Virginia Tech
Researchers from the United States, Brazil, and Spain, including scientists with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, published an analysis in a special edition of the British Medical Journal with a timely and controversial recommendation: It's time for an international shift in the way we think about ultra-processed food.
"There is converging and consistent support for the validity and clinical relevance of food addiction," said Ashley Gearhardt, the article's corresponding author and a psychology professor at the University of Michigan. "By acknowledging that certain types of processed foods have the properties of addictive substances, we may be able to help improve global health."
While people can give up smoking, drinking, or gambling, they can't stop eating, said co-author Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. The challenge, and the open and controversial question, is defining which foods have the most potential for addiction and why.
Their work was published Oct. 10 in Food For Thought, a special edition of the British Medical Journal, a high-impact publication and one of the world's oldest medical journals.
DiFeliceantonio is also associate director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute's Center for Health Behaviors Research and an assistant professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.
Not all foods have the potential for addiction, the researchers said.
"Most foods that we think of as natural, or minimally processed, provide energy in the form of carbohydrate or fat -- but not both," DiFeliceantonio said.
Researchers gave the example of an apple, salmon, and a chocolate bar. The apple has a carbohydrate to fat ratio of roughly 1-to-0, while the salmon has a ratio of 0-to-1. In contrast, the chocolate bar has a carbohydrate to fat ratio of 1-to-1, which appears to increase a food's addictive potential.
"Many ultra-processed foods have higher levels of both. That combination has a different effect on the brain," DiFeliceantonio said. Researchers also called for more study into the role of food additives used in industrial processing. Key takeaways from the analysis include:
• Behaviors around ultra-processed food, which are high in refined carbohydrates and added fats, may meet the criteria for diagnosis of substance use disorder in some people. Those behaviors include less control over intake, intense cravings, symptoms of withdrawal, and continued use despite such consequences as obesity, binge eating disorder, poorer physical and mental health, and lower quality of life.
• This global health challenge needs to consider geographic differences. In a review of 281 studies from 36 different countries, researchers found ultra-processed food addiction is estimated to occur in 14 percent of adults and 12 percent of children. In some countries, ultra-processed foods are a needed source of calories. Even within high-income countries, food deserts and other factors could limit access to minimally processed foods. People facing food insecurity are more reliant on ultra-processed foods, and therefore more likely to demonstrate food addiction, researchers noted.
• Viewing some foods as addictive could lead to novel approaches in the realm of social justice, clinical care, and public policy. Policies implemented in Chile and Mexico -- taxes, labelling, and marketing -- are associated with decreases in caloric intake and purchases of foods high in sugar, saturated fat, and salt, for example. And in the United Kingdom, a salt-reduction program was associated with a decline in deaths from stroke and coronary artery disease.
The co-authors represent international expertise on food addiction, nutrition physiology, gut-brain reward signaling, food policy, behavioral addiction, and eating disorders. They call for more study and science surrounding ultra-processed foods,
"Given how prevalent these foods are -- they make up 58 percent of calories consumed in the United States -- there is so much we don't know." DiFeliceantonio said.
The researchers call for more study into such areas as: how complex features of ultra-processed foods combine to increase their addictive potential; better defining which foods can be considered addictive; differences among countries and communities, including disadvantaged communities; the value of public-health messaging; and clinical guidelines for preventing, treating, and managing addiction to ultra-processed foods.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231009191727.htm
Unifying matter, energy and consciousness
Understanding the interplay between consciousness, energy and matter could bring important insights to our fundamental understanding of reality
October 10, 2023
Science Daily/University of Technology Sydney
With the rise of brain-interface technology and artificial intelligence that can imitate brain functions, understanding the nature of consciousness and how it interacts with reality is not just an age-old philosophical question but also a salient challenge for humanity.
Can AI become conscious, and how would we know? Should we incorporate human or animal cells, such as neurons, into machines and robots? Would they be conscious and have subjective experiences? Does consciousness reduce to physicalism, or is it fundamental? And if machine-brain interaction influenced you to commit a crime, or caused a crime, would you be responsible beyond a reasonable doubt? Do we have a free will?
AI and computer science specialist Dr Mahendra Samarawickrama, winner of the Australian Computer Society's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Professional of the year, has applied his knowledge of physics and artificial neural networks to this thorny topic.
He presented a peer-reviewed paper on fundamental physics and consciousness at the 11th International Conference on Mathematical Modelling in Physical Sciences, Unifying Matter, Energy and Consciousness, which has just been published in the AIP (the American Institute of Physics) Conference Proceedings.
"Consciousness is an evolving topic connected to physics, engineering, neuroscience and many other fields. Understanding the interplay between consciousness, energy and matter could bring important insights to our fundamental understanding of reality," said Dr Samarawickrama.
"Einstein's dream of a unified theory is a quest that occupies the minds of many theoretical physicists and engineers. Some solutions completely change existing frameworks, which increases complexity and creates more problems than it solves.
"My theory brings the notion of consciousness to fundamental physics such that it complements the current physics models and explains the time, causality, and interplay of consciousness, energy and matter.
"I propose that consciousness is a high-speed sequential flow of awareness subjected to relativity. The quantised energy of consciousness can interplay with matter creating reality while adhering to laws of physics, including quantum physics and relativity.
"Awareness can be seen in life, AI and even physical realities like entangled particles. Studying consciousness helps us be aware of and differentiate realities that exist in nature," he said.
Dr Samarawickrama is an honorary Visiting Scholar in the School of Computer Science at the University of Technology Sydney, where he has contributed to UTS research on data science and AI, focusing on social impact.
"Research in this field could pave the way towards the development of conscious AI, with robots that are aware and have the ability to think becoming a reality. We want to ensure that artificial intelligence is ethical and responsible in emerging solutions," Dr Samarawickrama said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231010105350.htm
Young children who are close to their parents are more likely to grow up kind, helpful and 'prosocial'
October 9, 2023
Science Daily/University of Cambridge
A loving bond between parents and their children early in life significantly increases the child's tendency to be 'prosocial', and act with kindness and empathy towards others, research indicates.
The University of Cambridge study used data from more than 10,000 people born between 2000 and 2002 to understand the long-term interplay between our early relationships with our parents, prosociality and mental health. It is one of the first studies to look at how these characteristics interact over a long period spanning childhood and adolescence.
The researchers found that people who experienced warm and loving relationships with their parents at age three not only tended to have fewer mental health problems during early childhood and adolescence, but also displayed heightened 'prosocial' tendencies. This refers to socially-desirable behaviours intended to benefit others, such as kindness, empathy, helpfulness, generosity and volunteering.
Although the correlation between parent-child relationships and later prosociality needs to be verified through further research, the study points to a sizeable association. On average, it found that for every standard unit above 'normal' levels that a child's closeness with their parents was higher at age three, their prosociality increased by 0.24 of a standard unit by adolescence.
Conversely, children whose early parental relationships were emotionally strained or abusive were less likely to develop prosocial habits over time. The researchers suggest this strengthens the case for developing targeted policies and support for young families within which establishing close parent-child relationships may not always be straightforward; for example, if parents are struggling with financial and work pressures and do not have much time.
The study also explored how far mental health and prosocial behaviour are fixed 'traits' in young people, and how far they fluctuate according to circumstances like changes at school or in personal relationships. It measured both mental health and prosociality at ages five, seven, 11, 14 and 17 in order to develop a comprehensive picture of the dynamics shaping these characteristics and how they interact.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231009191705.htm
Fathers' parental leave might protect men against alcohol-related morbidity
October 6, 2023
Science Daily/Stockholm University
Men who have been on parental leave have a significantly reduced risk of being hospitalized due to alcohol consumption. This is shown by a study published in Addiction from researchers at the Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University.
The aim of the study was to assess whether fathers' parental leave influences alcohol-related morbidity and mortality. In order to try to find out if that is the case, the researchers have investigated the effects of parental leave policy that was implemented in Sweden in 1995. The policy encouraged fathers to use parental leave by reserving 30 days of leave for their use alone and resulted in the proportion of fathers using parental leave increasing from 43 percent to 75 percent.
"Our findings were pretty remarkable considering the severity of the studied outcome. Although alcohol-related hospitalizations were rather uncommon, we found that after the policy was implemented there was a 34% decrease in these hospitalizations among fathers in the two years after birth, as well as smaller decreases up to 8 and 18 years after birth," says Helena Honkaniemi, researcher at the Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University.
"Most changes were found among hospitalizations for alcohol intoxication and alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders. Additional analyses evaluating actual changes in parental leave use from before to after the policy suggest that these health consequences could be explained by the increase in fathers' parental leave use, rather than other underlying trends," says Helena Honkaniemi.
However, no changes were found for alcohol-related mortality.
Co-author Associate Professor Sol Juárez believes that the results of the study could be useful for policymakers.
"Policymakers should consider that fathers' parental leave not only promotes more gender-equal participation in childcare, but can also reduce alcohol-related harms," Juárez says.
The study "Alcohol-related morbidity and mortality by fathers' parental leave: A quasi-experimental study in Sweden" draws on Swedish register data of all fathers of singleton children born from January 1992 to December 1997, three years before and after the policy was implemented.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231006104552.htm
Protein that could help defeat Alzheimer's and increase productive lifespan
October 5, 2023
Science Daily/Temple University Health System
Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, a disorder of progressively worsening memory and other thinking abilities. It rose up in the ranks of leading causes of death over the past several decades. It can also limit the duration of a working career, create uncertainty in the financial planning for retirement and rob patients of enjoyment and happiness in the final years. An effective treatment against this disease could give back to the patient the decision when to retire and improve quality of life in advanced age.
Now, scientists at the Alzheimer's Center at Temple at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University are on the trail of a promising new therapeutic target -- ABCA7, a protein known to protect from Alzheimer's disease. The study, published online in the journal Cells, uncovers new information about the relationship between ABCA7, cholesterol, and inflammation in human brain cells.
The importance of ABCA7 in the development of Alzheimer's disease first emerged in genome-wide association studies, which are large investigations of the human genome that involve thousands of participants. "But genome studies only point to a protein and do not tell us anything about how it functions or how it affects a disease," said Joel Wiener, an investigator with the Alzheimer's Center at Temple and first author on the new report. "Our goal is to reveal ABCA7's functions and to use what we learn about its role in pathology to turn it into an effective therapy against Alzheimer's disease."
Previous work led by Nicholas Lyssenko, PhD, an investigator at the Alzheimer's Center at Temple and corresponding author on the new study, suggested that individuals between ages 63 and 78 who have low ABCA7 protein levels in the brain are at a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This finding corroborated the conclusions of earlier genome studies and further indicated that the protein protects the human brain.
In the new study, Dr. Lyssenko's team addressed how cholesterol metabolism and inflammation may manipulate ABCA7 levels in human brain cells and thus affect Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. In one set of experiments, the researchers depleted cholesterol in different neural cell lines, such as microglia, astrocytes and neurons, and then treated the cells with rosuvastatin, a medication that suppresses cholesterol synthesis. To determine the effect of inflammation on ABCA7, the team carried out another set of experiments in which the same cell lines were treated with one of three major proinflammatory cytokines: IL-1β, IL-6, or TNFα. Cytokines are small molecules that can trigger inflammation following their secretion from certain types of immune cells.
The researchers found that ABCA7 levels dropped by about 40 percent in microglia cell lines and about 20 percent in an astrocyte cell line after the cells were depleted of more than half their usual amount of cholesterol. Meanwhile, no changes were observed in ABCA7 levels in a neuronal cell line following cholesterol loss. In addition, IL-1β and TNFα suppressed ABCA7 expression only in microglial cells. The third cytokine, IL-6, had no impact on ABCA7 in microglia, and none of the three cytokines induced changes in ABCA7 levels in either astrocytes or neurons.
These observations advance understanding of how ABCA7 is regulated in the brain. "Our findings suggest that cholesterol loss downregulates ABCA7 in many cells in the human brain. Previous work in mice showed that cholesterol loss upregulates ABCA7," said Mr. Wiener. "In addition, other investigators found that inflammation suppresses ABCA7 in astrocytes, and we show now that this can also happen in microglia. Overall, cholesterol depletion and inflammation may reduce ABCA7 levels in the brain and cause the onset of Alzheimer's disease."
The Temple team is taking multiple approaches to studying ABCA7, using not only human cells but also carrying out experiments in animal models and in postmortem human brain tissue. "The greatest challenge now is to figure out how to measure ABCA7 levels in the brain of living humans," Dr. Lyssenko added. "If we achieve this, we could verify whether inflammation suppresses ABCA7 in the human body. Effective testing for ABCA7 levels in the brain will also identify individuals who are at greater risk for Alzheimer's disease and spur the development of new ABCA7-based therapies."
Other researchers who contributed to the study include Sindy Desire, Viktor Garliyev, Nicholas Lyssenko III, and Domenico Praticò, Alzheimer's Center at Temple, Department of Neural Sciences, Lewis Katz School of Medicine.
The research was supported by funding from the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement Program.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231005173755.htm
Brain is 'rewired' during pregnancy to prepare for motherhood
October 5, 2023
Science Daily/The Francis Crick Institute
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shown that pregnancy hormones 'rewire' the brain to prepare mice for motherhood.
Their findings, published today in Science, show that both estrogen and progesterone act on a small population of neurons in the brain to switch on parental behaviour even before offspring arrive. These adaptations resulted in stronger and more selective responses to pups.
It is well known that while virgin female rodents do not show much interaction with pups, mothers spend most of their time looking after young. It was thought that hormones released when giving birth are most crucial for this onset of maternal behaviour.
But earlier research also showed that rats who have given birth by Caesarean section, and virgin mice exposed to pregnancy hormones, still display this maternal behaviour, suggesting that hormone changes already during pregnancy may be more important.
In the current study, the researchers found that female mice indeed showed increased parental behaviour during late pregnancy, and that exposure to pups wasn't necessary for this change in behaviour.
They found that a population of nerve cells (galanin-expressing neurons) in an area of the brain called the medial preoptic area (MPOA) in the hypothalamus, associated with parenting, was impacted by estrogen and progesterone.
Brain recordings showed that estrogen simultaneously reduced the baseline activity of these neurons and made them more excitable, whereas progesterone rewired their inputs, by recruiting more synapses (sites of communication between neurons).
Making these neurons insensitive to hormones completely removed the onset of parental behaviour during pregnancy. Mice failed to show parental behaviour even after giving birth, suggesting there is a critical period during pregnancy when these hormones take effect.
While some of these changes lasted for at least a month after giving birth, others seem to be permanent, suggesting pregnancy can lead to long-term rewiring of the female brain.
Jonny Kohl, Group Leader of the State-Dependent Neural Processing Laboratory at the Crick, said: "We know that the female body changes during pregnancy to prepare for bringing up young. One example is the production of milk, which starts long before giving birth. Our research shows that such preparations are taking place in the brain, too.
"We think that these changes, often referred to as 'baby brain', cause a change in priority -- virgin mice focus on mating, so don't need to respond to other females' pups, whereas mothers need to perform robust parental behaviour to ensure pup survival. What's fascinating is that this switch doesn't happen at birth -- the brain is preparing much earlier for this big life change."
Rachida Ammari, postdoctoral fellow at the Crick, and first author along with PhD student Francesco Monaca, said: "We've demonstrated that there's a window of plasticity in the brain to prepare for future behavioural challenges. These neurons receive a large number of inputs from elsewhere in the brain, so now we're hoping to understand where this new information comes from."
The researchers believe the brain may also be rewired in a similar way during pregnancy in humans, as the same hormonal changes are expected to impact the same areas of the brain. This could influence parental behaviour alongside environmental and social cues.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231005161752.htm