Holy smokes, Batman! And by smokes I mean “Lucky Strikes.” Check out this heading and subhead to a research finding:
Lifestyles of the old and healthy defy expectations -
Einstein researchers find centenarians just as likely as the rest of population to smoke, drink and pack on pounds. [source]
Damn. That doesn’t fit in with our mantra of “you are what you eat” and “you are what you smoke and drink, or don’t.”
By the way, the Einstein researchers aren’t necessarily brilliant. Rather they are affiliated with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University.
Okay, this was one study. And the data isn’t fantastic. But in some regards, it’s not bad either. The researchers interviewed nearly 500 Ashkenazi Jews, living independently and more than 95 years old, about their health and lifestyle. Ashkenazi Jews were chosen as the subject pool both due to their alleged longevity and their relative genetic uniformity. They then compared this to previous information gathered from roughly three thousand cohorts. In brief, this what they found:
Overall, people with exceptional longevity did not have healthier habits than the comparison group in terms of BMI, smoking, physical activity, or diet.
What? Really? Okay, so maybe those really long-lived individuals benefit from good genes. Yet lifestyle might matter more for those with so-so genes. Might.
My personal opinion is that soda is bad. It’s like the cocaine of beverages. High on calories, devoid of nutritional value (beyond calories if calories are needed). I additionally suspect it may ‘grow’ a child’s propensity to develop a ‘sweet tooth.’ But maybe it doesn’t.
[Cue cranky old man voice] “And in my day, it was water or milk, and it was good enough for me!”
I have also suspected that the consumption of soda may play a role in the rising proportion of obese children and adults in our society. But I could be wrong. In fact, a recent study…
… suggests that—at least for middle school students—weight gain has nothing to do with the candy, soda, chips, and other junk food they can purchase at school. [source]
Huh? How can that be?
BTW, I like the inclusion of “suggests” — for it is only one study. Kudos for the qualifier “at least for middle school students” as well.
As for the data the study conclusion was based upon: Nearly 20,000 students tracked over 8 years. Not bad, not bad at all.
The authors of the study admit they were surprised by the finding. Which, in brief, was this:
[W]hile there was a significant increase in the percentage of students who attended schools that sold junk food between fifth and eighth grades, there was no rise in the percentage of students who were overweight or obese.
Lead author Jennifer Van Hook recommends looking at younger children to prevent obesity. And that . . .
. . . to reduce childhood obesity and prevent unhealthy weight gain need to concentrate more on the home and family environments as well as the broader environments outside of school.
To both of those I would say yes, but. But remember to do the research. For the causes and solutions to a problem may not be what they seems they should be.
New research proves it: herbal medicine works. Check out the news release headline -
Chinese herbal medicine may provide novel treatment for alcohol abuse
But wait a minute. I think a neglected to put an “an” before “herbal medicine works.” For it was one Chinese herbal treatment, right?
Yes and no.
Yes, in that the ‘herbal medicine’ was the plant Hoventia.
No, in that it wasn’t administered as Chinese medicine is. Rather, the experiment used a component isolated from the plant, the chemical dihydromyricetin.
The research team determined that dihydromyricetin may provide a molecular target and cellular mechanism to counteract alcohol intoxication and dependence, leading to new therapeutic treatments — all based on an ancient “folk medicine” treatment that has been used by humans for at least 500 years.
While I applaud this scientific finding, I question the misleading language used in the write up. For example, this title would be more accurate:
“Treatment based on a Chinese herbal remedy may provide . . . “
Once a laboratory isolates the active chemical in an herb, extract or manufactures it, and then applies the methods of science to that chemical, I no longer consider it a Chinese medicine. Rather, it is traditional/conventional medicine working off an idea for a new treatment from Chinese medicine.
I recall once hearing an adage that went something like this:
Most of the time, the doctor’s job amounts to entertaining you while your body heals itself.
Maybe a better wording would be “distracting you” or “comforting you.” I might also include, “monitoring your condition.”
Indeed, most ailments are self-correcting. The body heals itself. That said, I don’t pooh-pooh the profession. There are those times that what a doctor does goes well beyond placebo effects. A lot of medication really does work, and surgery does not perform itself.
Does the above adage similarly apply to psychotherapists? Like physical ailments, the majority of psychological ailments are self-correcting. But it takes time. And having a person to “hold your hand” during that time can be a welcome thing, if not an expensive thing (regardless of co-pay arrangements).
But compared to the medical health field, the theories and methods of the mental health field are far sketchier. Less informed by hard science. For years one of my beefs with the field is the notion of licensing mental health professionals. Yes, we are told it is to protect the consumer. For licensing assures a level of education and experience. But what does some education in a fuzzy field really bring?
Sure, the licensure hurdle probably keeps a number of hacks and charlatans away from innocent consumers of mental health services. But the licensing also drives up and justifies greater cost. At what over-all benefit?
Two recent studies into the treatment of depression highlight the largely non-specialist nature of psychotherapy.
1) Peer support offers promise for reducing depression symptoms
The sub-head shares this -
Programs in which patients and volunteers share information were found to reduce depression symptoms better than traditional care alone and were about as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy, study finds
I do wonder about the “about as effective.” No elaboration was provided.
2) Therapy for depression can be delivered effectively by non-specialists
Lead author of the study, David Ekers . . . said: “This is a small-scale study and certainly more research with bigger trials is needed but it shows some very promising early findings. The results indicate that with limited training, generic mental health workers can be trained to deliver clinically effective behavioural activation to people with long-standing depression.
“With limited training.”
I suppose nurses could by-and-large do the same for medical doctors, with lesser training. At least for the entertaining and hand-holding part.
Among this uncertainty about the current state of psychotherapy there is some good news. Research continues to be conducted; knowledge is growing by small bits. Maybe at some point the “educational” component to psychotherapy licensure will be justified. At this point I have my doubts.
[recycled material - first appeared here]
Three recent, separate studies have illustrated how chemicals and chemical levels can influence thoughts, feelings, behavior: human psychology. In two of the studies, the chemicals were endogenous, or internally produced, in the third, exogenous.
1) Dopamine and pleasure.
The first sentence to the news release tells it:
Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology. [bold added][source]
Drugs that influence dopamine levels in the brain include cocaine, nicotine, and amphetamines. Caffeine, too.
2) Carbon dioxide and fear.
Yes, your body creates carbon dioxide. Oxygen comes in through the lungs, carbon dioxide out. Higher levels of carbon dioxide have been found to trigger fear and anxiety.
A new study by University of Iowa researchers shows that carbon dioxide increases brain acidity, which in turn activates a brain protein that plays an important role in fear and anxiety behavior. [source]
Like the above on pleasure, this finding on fear has important mental health implications.
[T]he study team, including first author Adam Ziemann, M.D., Ph.D., found that making brain tissue less acidic (raising brain pH) blunted fear behavior produced by carbon dioxide and reduced learned fear. [bold added]
This is your brain; this is your brain with an altered pH. This is your emotional state and behavior; this is your emotional state and behavior with acidic brain tissue.
3) Phthalates and effeminate play.
Phthalates do not naturally occur in the human body. They are used by industry to soften plastics. When humans are exposed to these the can be absorbed. And when in a mother’s body, the can influence the developing fetus.
Phthalates are also found in vinyl and plastic tubing, household products, and many personal care products such as soaps and lotions. Phthalates are becoming more controversial as scientific research increasingly associates them with genital defects, metabolic abnormalities, and reduced testosterone in babies and adults. [source]
The news release containing the above information reported this very interesting finding:
In Swan’s study, higher concentrations of metabolites of two phthalates, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), were associated with less male-typical behavior in boys on a standard play questionnaire….Girls’ play behavior was not associated with phthalate levels in their mothers, the study concluded.
Phthalates have previously been recognized as anti-androgenic compounds: they act against or disrupt the male hormones. How could the mothers’ exposure to this chemical affect their boys’ style of play?
Swan hypothesized that phthalates may lower fetal testosterone production during a critical window of development – somewhere within eight to 24 weeks gestation, when the testes begin to function – thereby altering brain sexual differentiation. [bold added]
Who knew that studying chemistry in school could aid your understanding of human psychology? We now know better.
Recent Comments