Poor Body Image Makes You Unhealthy

People who are happy with their weight experience fewer physically unhealthy or mentally healthy days, than those that want to lose weight.

Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health have concluded that there is a direct correlation between people’s weight loss goals and the number of days they report being unhealthy. They suggest this indicates that pressure to lose weight and low body-esteem is a bigger contributing to mental and physical well-being than body mass index.

Apparently if you’re overweight but don’t give a toss, your health is better than that of people that want to lose even a small amount of weight. For example, if you weigh 180lb (81.8kg) and want to lose 1% of this weight i.e. 1.8lb or 818grams, you will be marginally less healthily than those who are happy with their weight.

However, if you set your sights on losing 10% of your current weight (18lb or 8.2kg) then over a period of a month you’re likely to report almost one extra day of feeling unhealthy compared to your body satisfied counterparts. Over a year it amounts to nearly 11 extra ‘unhealthy’ days.

Ramp it up to a goal to lose 20% of your current weight and the figures jump to an extra 4.3 days per month of reported feelings of being physically or mentally unwell. Extrapolate this over a year and you’re talking about feeling unhealthy on a whopping 51.6 days.

This all points to the need to making changes from the inside out, and to get away from measuring your self-worth as a function of your weight.

Too often I see people going through the emotional roller coaster of battling with the scales. Periods of restraint and feeling pleased with themselves, followed by periods of overindulgence and dealing with the resulting guilt and disappointment. This research suggests that the route to good health comes from loving your body now, rather than making that self-love conditional upon attaining your desired jeans size or weight goal.

“Our data suggest that some of the obesity epidemic may be partially attributable to social constructs that surround ideal body types,” said Peter Muennig, MD, MPH, Mailman School of Public Health assistant professor of Health Policy and Management. “Younger persons, Whites, and women are disproportionately affected by negative body image concerns, and these groups unduly suffer from BMI-associated morbidity and mortality.”

Approximately 66% of the more than 150,000 U.S. adults studied wanted to lose weight, and about 26% were satisfied with their current weight. With respect to BMI, 41% of normal weight people, 20% of overweight people, and 5% of obese people were happy with their weight. Older persons were also more likely to feel positively about their weight than were younger persons. However, in all models, perceived difference was a stronger predictor than was BMI of mentally and physically unhealthy days.

Researchers now conclude that the additional stress that people experience from negative body image is affecting their health. Body image (measured as desired weight loss) was a stronger predictor of poor health than body mass index (BMI). Or, put in simple terms it’s not how much you weigh that matters, it’s how you feel about your weight that influences your physical and emotional health. Not surprisingly, this was found to be more predictive of health in women than men, and in Whites than among African-Americans or Hispanics.

The paper, I Think Therefore I Am: Perceived Ideal Weight as a Determinant of Health, will be published in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Recreational Drugs for Depression?

A horse tranquiliser could hold the key to treating depression.

Ketamine, which is used as an anaesthetic for humans and animals, and is also sold as a street drug to induce a "high", is being considered as a possible treatment for depression in those that have not responded to conventional treatments.

Researchers may be able to develop an antidepressant which takes effect almost immediately by directly targeting novel molecules in the brain instead of taking a less direct route, which can lead to longer times for medication to take effect, according to a study presented this week at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) annual meeting.

The antidepressant is also thought to be effective in people for whom previous treatments have been ineffective. This human and rodent research is among the first to examine the effects of rapid antidepressant strategies.

Lead researcher and ACNP member Husseini Manji, M.D., director of the mood and anxiety disorders program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), says one of the major limitations in existing pharmacological treatments for major depression is the time between starting to take the medication, and when it starts to alleviate the depression, often a period of one month or longer. He adds that strategies that work at much faster rates would have a tremendous impact for Americans who suffer from depression – nearly 21 million annually, according to NIMH.

"Today's antidepressant medications eventually end up doing the same thing, but they go about it the long way around, with a lot of biochemical steps that take time. Now we've shown what the key targets are and that we can get at them rapidly," says Dr. Manji. “This research is leading to some very real possibilities for a whole new generation of antidepressant medications."

The study looked at patients in a “difficult to treat” group, meaning individuals who had not responded to other treatments including psychotherapy, traditional antidepressants or electroconvulsive therapy.

Researchers treated the depressed patients intravenously with ketamine, a general anesthetic usually used for minor surgical procedures in which muscle relaxation is not required. The doses of ketamine used in this study were considerably lower than when it is used as an anesthetic. These tests are part of an ongoing study

Ketamine produced results much more quickly than traditional antidepressants because it acted directly upon critical molecules in important neuronal circuits instead of having to bypass multiple locations en route to those circuits. Typically, currently available antidepressant medications work via serotonin or norepinephrine, neurotransmitters which act within the brain to help regulate emotion and cognition.

The results showed that patients responded after only two hours, and within 24 hours, 71% had responded. Patients were followed over time, and 35% maintained their response for up to one week. Traditional antidepressants usually take many weeks, or even months, to begin to work. “This is intriguing data which suggests that targeting these important molecules in critical circuits would be extremely helpful in treating depression more quickly, before it worsens and becomes more severe,” Dr. Manji said.

The researchers also studied rodents to determine whether they could get medication to highly responsive brain areas more quickly. By looking at different biomarkers – specific physical features used to measure the progress of a disease or condition – in mice and rats, researchers came closer to identifying at what point in the biochemical process medication might become effective, which would ultimately lead to faster treatment.

Treating patients with rapid strategies is essential since some patients who suffer from depression are tempted to stop their medication if it doesn’t work quickly enough.

Ongoing human studies using magnetoencephalography (MEG) are also helping to identify the specific brain circuits through which these rapid antidepressant effects occur. Identifying these precise circuits may lead to the development of molecules with even more precise effects, and therefore fewer side effects.

It's unclear whether Ketamine can be developed as a commercially viable antidepressant due to its side-effects. However, by identifying the underlying actions of the components of Ketamine and correlating these to biomarkers, scientists hope to develop fast-acting safe treatments for depression.

Sources:
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) press release
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)press release

Decreasing Food increases "Pleasure" Chemical

New research provides evidence that the brain's "reward" chemical, dopamine, is linked with obesity, and that restricting food can increase dopamine levels - known as a reward or pleasure chemical.

At this stage the brain-imaging study has only tested rats, but scientists are confident that the findings will also apply to people. The researchers found:

• Genetically obese rats had lower levels of dopamine D2 receptors than lean rats
• Restricting food intake can increase the number of D2 receptors, partially attenuating a normal decline associated with aging.

According to Brookhaven neuroscientist Panayotis (Peter) Thanos, lead author of the current study, published online in the journal Synapse on October 25, 2007

This research corroborates brain-imaging studies conducted at Brookhaven that found decreased levels of dopamine D2 receptors in obese people compared with normal-weight people.

Because food intake can have such a dramatic effect on dopamine receptor levels, this study also provides further evidence for the interplay of genetic factors with the environment in the development of obesity in our society.

What isn't yet clear, is whether the lower levels of dopamine are a cause of obesity, or occur as a result of overeating. Thanos hopes that further research will determine whether obesity is a result of biology or bad dietary choices. Thanos also raises the possibility that adjusting dopamine levels through medication or diet may aid weight loss efforts.

Why you want that chocolate

Have you ever wondered why some people like chocolate, and others can take it or leave it? According to a new study chocolate lovers have a different metabolic profile.

Scientists working on a project funded by chocolate giant, Nestlé, think they have discovered chemical reactions in people’s bodies that correlate to a strong desire for chocolate. Nestlé scientists developed a new methodology called nutrimetabonomics to make associations between individual metabolic phenotypes and nutritional preferences.

Researchers discovered that people who like chocolate, have lower levels of the ‘bad’ cholesterol LDL, higher levels of a beneficial protein, albumin, and also have different activities of the gut microbes involved in digestion. This occurs, even when they are not consuming chocolate suggesting a strong link between our metabolic profile and the foods we desire.

"Our study shows that food preferences, including chocolate, might be programmed or imprinted into our metabolic system in such a way that the body becomes attuned to a particular diet," says Sunil Kochhar of the Nestlé Research Centre.

"We know that some people can eat a diet that is high in steak and carbs and generally remain healthy, while the same food in others is unhealthy," he explains.

The study was conducted on men, as the researchers were concerned that metabolic changes during women’s menstrual cycle may influence the results. I guess they had visions of PMS women suddenly discovering a hankering for chocolate!

Mouse experiments reveal 'flight or fight' hormone's role

Both extensive psychological research and personal experiences confirm that events that happen during heightened states of emotion such as fear, anger and joy are far more memorable than less dramatic occurrences.

In a report this week in Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers and their collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor and New York University have identified the likely biological basis for this:

a hormone released during emotional arousal “primes” nerve cells to remember events by increasing their chemical sensitivity at sites where nerves rewire to form new memory circuits.

Describing the brain as a big circuit board in which each new experience creates a new circuit, Hopkins neuroscience professor Richard Huganir, Ph.D. says that he and his team found that during emotional peaks, the hormone norepinephrine dramatically sensitizes synapses – the site where nerve cells make an electro-chemical connection – to enhance the sculpting of a memory into the big board.

Norepinephrine, more widely known as a “fight or flight” hormone, energizes the process by adding phosphate molecules to a nerve cell receptor called GluR1. The phosphates help guide the receptors to insert themselves adjacent to a synapse. “Now when the brain needs to form a memory, the nerves have plenty of available receptors to quickly adjust the strength of the connection and lock that memory into place,” Huganir says.

Huganir and his team suspected that GluR1 might be a target of norepinephrine since disruptions in this receptor cause spatial memory defects in mice. They tested the idea by either injecting healthy mice with adrenaline or exposing them to fox urine, both of which increase norepinephrine levels in brain. Analyzing brain slices of the mice, the researchers saw increased phosphates on the GluR1 receptors and an increased ability of these receptors to be recruited to synapses.

When the researchers put mice in a cage, gave a mild shock, took them out of that cage and put them back in it the next day, mice who had received adrenaline or fox urine tended to “freeze” in fear – an indicator they associated the cage as the site of a shock – more frequently, suggestive of enhanced memory.

However, in a similar experiment with mice genetically engineered to have a defective GluR1 receptor that phosphates cannot attach to, adrenaline injections had no effect on mouse memory, further evidence of the “priming” effect of the receptor in response to norepinephrine.

The researchers plan on continuing their work by going in the opposite direction and engineering another mouse strain that has a permanently phosphorylated or “primed” receptor. “We’re curious to see how these mice will behave,” Huganir says. “We suspect that they’ll be pretty smart, but at the same time constantly anxious.”

Get free help for your depression

The Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and The New York State Psychiatric Institute is looking for people to participant in mental health research relating to depression, bipolar and PTSD and more.

If you are based in New York you could be eligible to participate in research and receive free outpatient treatment. Check out the current studies on depression and bipolar for more details.

Beautiful people earn 12% more than Ugly Bettys

Those who consoled themselves with the thought that there is more to life than being really good-looking are in for a shock. For the beautiful people are not just pleasing on the eye: it seems they are also wealthier, more successful and much easier to get on with.

Researchers investigating whether there is a beauty premium to be had in the workplace have found that those they deemed the most attractive make 12 per cent more money than those regarded as less goodlooking. Average Joes and Joans have little to smile about either, with the moderately attractive taking home seven per cent less in earnings than the prettiest people.

Researchers state that attractive people are consistently judged and treated more positively. No doubt, this will be welcome news for the beauty and cosmetic industries.

Personalised meds for depression and other illnesses

One of the goals of the Human Genome Project is to identify the interaction between medications and the genetic makeup of individuals. Scientists hope to be able to predict which medications will work best for each individual depending on their genetic markers.

Researchers studied DNA provided by patients participating in a recently completed NIMH clinical trial, the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study. The trial showed that depressed patients who don't benefit from the first medication they try have a fair chance of being helped by others.

After the trial, researchers spelled out the DNA codes contained in 68 genes suspected of being involved in depression, collected from 1,297 of the patients who had participated in STAR*D. The genetic material included the occasional variations that occur from person to person. Comparing the DNA codes of those who had responded to citalopram (Celexa) and those who hadn't, the scientists found that responders were more likely to have a variation in a gene called HTR2A. Results of that study were published in May 2006.

In the newest study, researchers examined the genetic material of more of the patients who had participated in STAR*D, for a total of 1,816 samples, and repeated the comparison of DNA from citalopram responders and nonresponders. They discovered that people with the variation in the GRIK4 gene had a higher likelihood of response, and again found that the variation in the HTR2A gene also made people more likely to respond. The results were reproduced, strengthening their validity.

"We know that a number of biological mechanisms underlie depression and affect treatment. Findings like this one are building a picture of what they are and how they interact, and can reveal potential molecular targets for faster-acting and more effective medications," said McMahon.

Researchers have now concluded that a variation in a gene called GRIK4 appears to make people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram (Celexa) than are people without the variation, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, has found. The increased likelihood was small, but when people had both this variation and one in a different gene shown to have a similarly small effect in an earlier study, they were 23 percent more likely to respond to citalopram than were people with neither variation.

The finding addresses a key issue in mental health research: the differences in people's responses to antidepressant medications, thought to be based partly on differences in their genes. Some patients respond to the first antidepressant they attempt, but many don't. Each medication takes weeks to exert its full effects, and patients' depression may worsen while they search for a medication that helps. Genetic studies, such as the one described here, may lead to a better understanding of which treatments are likely to work for each patient.

Results of the study are in the August issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, reported by lead researcher Francis J. McMahon, M.D., Silvia Paddock, Ph.D., of NIMH, and colleagues. Scientists from the National Human Genome Research Institute, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center also contributed to the research.

"We're moving steadily closer to being able to personalize treatments based on patients' genetic variations. This is a crucial need for the millions of Americans who suffer from depression," said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D. "New techniques have led to advances that would have been inconceivable a few years ago and are making individualized treatment an achievable goal."

Your Friends are Making You Fat (or Thin)

Researchers have discovered that your social network has a significant impact on your weight. In short if your friends gain or lose weight, you are highly likely to do the same. This is especially true if they are same sex friends, and applies to friends that live in other countries, or friends of friends that are part of your larger circle of acquaintances.

You might imagine that birds of a feather flock together, and that finding networks of obese friends is a matter of self-selection i.e. people choosing to befriend others of similar size. However the latest research shows that there is a direct causal link between changes in your weight and that of your friends.

Appearing in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a study coauthored by Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of UC San Diego suggests that obesity is "socially contagious," spreading from person to person in a social network.

The study -- the first to examine this phenomenon -- finds that if one person becomes obese, those closely connected to them have a greater chance of becoming obese themselves. Surprisingly, the greatest effect is seen not among people sharing the same genes or the same household but among friends.

If a person you consider a friend becomes obese, the researchers found, your own chances of becoming obese go up 57 percent. Among mutual friends, the effect is even stronger, with chances increasing 171 percent.

Christakis and Fowler also looked at the influence of siblings, spouses and neighbors. Among siblings, if one becomes obese, the likelihood for the other to become obese increases 40 percent; among spouses, 37 percent. There was no effect among neighbors, unless they were also friends.


The researchers analyzed data over a period of 32 years for 12,067 adults, who underwent repeated medical assessments as part of the Framingham Heart Study. They were able to map a densely interconnected social network of the study's subjects by using the tracking sheets (which had previously been archived in a basement) that recorded not only the subjects' family members but also unrelated friends who could be expected to find them in a few years.

The network map took two years to assemble and includes information on the participants' body-mass index. Among the first things the researchers noticed was that, consistent with other studies finding an obesity epidemic in the U.S., the whole network grew heavier over time.

Also immediately apparent were distinct clusters of thin and heavy individuals. Statistical analysis revealed that this clustering could not be attributed solely to the selective formation of ties among people of comparable weights.

"It's not that obese or non-obese people simply find other similar people to hang out with," said Christakis, a physician and a professor in Harvard Medical School's department of health care policy. "Rather, there is a direct, causal relationship."

Further analysis also suggested that people's influence on each other's obesity status could not be put down just to similarities in lifestyle and environment, to, for example, people eating the same foods together or engaging in the same physical activities. Not only do siblings and spouses have less influence than friends, but also geography doesn't play a role. The striking impact of friends seems to be independent of whether or not the friends live in the same region.

"When we looked at the effect of distance, we found that your friend who's 500 miles away has just as much impact on your obesity as [one] next door," said Fowler, an associate professor of political science at UC San Diego and an expert in social networks.

In part because the study also identifies a larger effect among people of the same sex, the researchers believe that people affect not only each other's behaviors but also, more subtly, norms.

"What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size. People come to think that it is okay to be bigger since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads," said Christakis.

"This is about people's ideas about their bodies and their health," Fowler said. "Consciously or unconsciously, people look to others when they are deciding how much to eat, how much to exercise and how much weight is too much."

"Social effects, I think, are much stronger than people before realized. There's been an intensive effort to find genes that are responsible for obesity and physical processes that are responsible for obesity and what our paper suggests is that you really should spend time looking at the social side of life as well," said Fowler.

This has intriguing implications for weight loss support groups such as Weight Watchers, and for online support forums. What happens if you befriend people in your support group, either online or in real life, who fail to lose weight? Could this undermine your own weight loss efforts?

Check out the study for an animated graphic showing the effects of social networks on obesity and other background information and graphs.

Psychic Hotline Addiction Costs $33,000 a year

According to a researcher at Auckland University, psychic phone line addicts, are spending up to NZ$33,000 per year (US$26,500) to seek guidance on their finances, their love life and other burning issues from psychics, tarot card readers, astrologers and other telephone hotline services. The average expenditure is in the range of NZ$6,000-7,000 (US$4,770-5,565).

Dr Robin-Marie Shepherd, from the Centre for Gambling Studies at University of Auckland is conducting global research into users of psychic hotlines. Preliminary data from approximately 30 regular phone line users has been analysed to date.

“Users of psychic hotlines seem to demonstrate a number of addictive behaviours,” says Dr Shepherd of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. “Regular users talk of relapsing or needing a fix, and many exhibit signs of anxiety or depression. This study is looking at why people call psychics and whether this behaviour should be viewed as addictive and require policymakers to take notice.”

I suspect many users were exhibiting signs of anxiety or depression prior to phoning. From my discussions with users and providers of psychic hotline services, the majority of callers are lonely, sad or facing difficult decisions. Many use psychic hotlines in place of counsellors to provide guidance in life issues, or when they are in need of someone to fill them with hope about the future.

Dr Shepherd is looking for more psychic phone line users to participate in this global study. She's also interested in hearing from people who work for psychic hotlines or others involved in the industry. You can contact Dr Shepherd via email or telephone +64 (0)9 373 7599 ext 86573.

Brain Fitness Carnival July 2007

We are excited to host the July 2007 edition of the Brain Fitness Carnival, which includes articles on Health and Well-Being and the latest education and research.

Healthy Mind

Senia presents The A.P.E. Method to Get Out of a Bad Mood posted at Positive Psychology News Daily.

Jeremy Wong presents Becoming Smarter by Meditation posted at Becoming Smarter, saying, "Meditation and it's benefits on the brain – become smarter, a higher brain activity, heightened awareness, better focus, better memory and better learning ability."

Shaheen Lakhan presents Working Out Your Brain posted at GNIF Brain Blogger.

Marc and Angel presents 10 Irrational Thoughts Rational People Often Think posted at Marc and Angel, saying, "Irrational thoughts occasionally occur in the minds of all people. Intelligence does not make someone immune to irrational
thought."

Research, Education and Professional Development

FitBuff presents Don't Get Glad, Get Mad! posted at FitBuff.com's Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog, saying, "Their findings, detailed in this month's issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, suggest that anger helps people focus on the cues that matter most to making a rational decision and ignore cues that are irrelevant to the task of decision-making."

Joshua Hwang presents Education from a Buddhist perspective: Jinfeng's Rice Cake posted at Learning, The Gravy Way, saying, "A little post on how we can use some Buddhist teachings in everyday learning: both as a teacher and student. After reading it again the tone seems a little tough, but I'm actually a softy."

Brett Steenbarger presents Bridging the Gap Between Hot and Cold Cognitive States posted at TraderFeed.

Stephanie West Allen presents Mind advice? Bring attention to the conflict posted at Brains On Purpose™.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Health for lawyers and us all posted at SharpBrains Brain Fitness Blog.

Health and Wellness

Matt presents Keep Your Mind Active posted at EverydayChange.com, saying, "Keeping your mind active and young with neurobics."

James Bishop presents Depression, Omega 3 and Clever Fries posted at Finding Optimism, saying, "New "functional" foods, with nutrients added, are hitting supermarket shelves everywhere. Manufacturers like McCain are clearly concerned about our diets."

Anne-Marie Nichols presents An Interview with Nordine Zouareg, author of Mind Over Body: The Key to Lasting Weight Loss Is All in Your Head posted at A Mama's Rant.

Michael Scanlon presents Five foods for your brain posted at Lumosity.

Jimson Lee presents Pre-Competition, Energy, Focus and Mental Alertness Drinks posted at Speedendurance.com, saying, "A good collection of OTC drinks to improve alertness, awareness, and focus during exercise."

Medicine

Christian Bachmann presents Make use of early Alzheimer's plateau posted at Med Journal Watch, saying, "When the brain is attacked by Alzheimer's disease, it fights back and gives you a last chance to make the best of the rest of your life. Take it!"

Eli Feldblum presents Alzheimer's Disease: Causes, Symptoms, Treatments posted at B12 Patch

Science

Charles H. Green presents Lie Detection and a Truthful Society posted at Trust Matters, saying, "Will infallible lie detectors ever exist? And what would it mean if they did?"

Andreas Engvig presents Apes, Speedy Learners, and new Brain Fitness Channel posted at SharpBrains Brain Fitness Blog.

Personal stories and techniques

Tracee Sioux presents Second Generation Mean Girl posted at So Sioux Me, saying, "Can we heal our childhood fashion wounds through our children? I think if we try we create new wounds where there were none. A look at what is driving the school clothes fashion show – is it a mother's memory of Mean Girls?"

almomento presents Simple Steps to Discover Your True Destiny posted at BurstCreativity.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of brain fitness using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Comfort eating really does make people happier

As anyone who has dived into a chocolate cake or pizza in moments of stress will tell you, emotional eating is comforting and can cheer people up. Now researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have confirmed that comfort eating:

• makes rats happier (Yeah, I know, you'd think they'd have had plenty of human volunteers for an experiment of this sort. There surely can't be any shortage of people who are prepared to munch on high fat chippies and pies in the name of science!)
• affects brain chemicals in rats and other animals, and is therefore a biologically driven process not a psychological one
  

The scientists believe these findings also apply to humans. According to the researchers ‘comfort eating’ is not a socially contrived phenomenon – but rather one based in biology.

This must be a relief for people who find themselves feeling out of control when faced with temptation at times of stress. Unfortunately, it can also be a good excuse to indulge! Evidence to date is that comfort or emotional eating is a combination of biology, learned behaviour, cognitions (what you tell yourself about the situation) and coping skills.

Professor of Pharmacology, Margaret Morris, says she was surprised by findings linking a high-fat diet and pleasure in animals that had experienced stress early in life.

“What this might be telling us is that there is something going on in the brain circuits that regulate feeding if you are stressed while very young - but if you are given nice things to eat, you are more able to experience pleasure,” said Professor Morris, from the School of Medical Sciences.

“You choose that behaviour because it makes you feel good,” she said.

Professor Morris’s other findings are that:

• Brain chemicals that regulate feeding can be changed early on in life
• Animals over-fed while young are usually heavier as adults, with poorer cardiovascular outcomes

“While we know there are strong genetic and environmental components in obesity, there is also a strong nexus between hormones produced in your fat and what happens to your brain appetite circuits, your hunger and your drive for food,” she said.

Depression often untreated in Parkinson's disease patients

While depression appears to be common in early Parkinson’s disease (PD), it is often not treated or diagnosed, according to newly released research. A contingent of researchers from across North America found:

• just over 27% of Parkinson’s disease subjects screened positive for depression
• but depression went untreated in 40% of those subjects
  

This study, authored by Bernard Ravina, MD at the University of Rochester and funded by the National Institutes of Health in the USA, is the first to systematically examine the impact of depressive symptoms in early, untreated PD. Previous research has found that depression, in some form, affects up to 50 per cent of patients with PD and is associated with increased disability and reduced quality of life.

“Our results show that depression in PD appears to be under diagnosed, especially at the early stages of PD. That may be because symptoms of depression, such as fatigue and insomnia, may be attributed to PD rather than as symptoms of depression,” said Dr. Richard Camicioli, assistant neurology professor at the University of Alberta and a co-author of the study. “As seen in this study, many treated patients remained depressed and may require more intensive psychiatric treatment.”

Depression was also found to be associated with impairment on daily life activities, such as eating, bathing and dressing.

“Over time it appears that depression does not actually influence the progression of motor signs, but increases the disability associated with a given level of observational motor signs of PD,” said Camicioli.

For this study, 413 early, untreated PD subjects were administered the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), a validated screening tool to assess for depressive symptoms and the use of antidepressant or referral for further psychiatric health evaluation as a marker for the treatment of depression.

In another study based on data collected at the University of Alberta and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Dr. Richard Camicioli has also found that depressive symptoms were the largest influence on health-related quality of life in older people with Parkinson’s disease.

“While we found that depression is common in early Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, we’ve also uncovered that depressive symptoms have the most significant influence on health-related quality of life in older people with Parkinson’s disease,” said Camicioli “That is why it is crucial for health care professionals to make an effort to detect, diagnose, and properly treat depression in Parkinson patients.”

Meaningful Leisure means different things in different countries

No matter what form your holidays take, the benefits of leisure time can be powerful. And simple activities at home can be just as meaningful and satisfying as an exotic vacation.

“To get the maximum benefits from leisure, you don’t have to take the ultimate holiday. Focus on the quality of the experience instead of the actual activities,”

said Yoshi Iwasaki, who explores leisure and quality of life (QOL) across cultures in the June issue of Social Indicators Research.

Iwasaki, professor of therapeutic recreation at Temple University, compared Western leisure to non-Western, specifically looking at Indigenous, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures, and found that meaningful leisure that contributed significantly to quality of life, did not resemble popular Western ideas of leisure. Instead it was culturally based and most interestingly, in some cultures, existed despite a variety of socioeconomic hardships. His findings demonstrate the importance of enjoyable “leisure-like” activities for people of all socioeconomic levels with different cultures.

“In third world countries, for example, living conditions are not good. But even so, people are very resilient and seem to integrate culturally oriented enjoyable activities into daily life as an expression of cultural strength and as a way of having positive experiences that can lead to a good quality of life,” Iwasaki said. “Leisure doesn’t have to cost money or involve major consumption. People value enjoyable and expressive activities in all cultures and if they can find meanings of life from these activities, the quality of life can be enhanced.”

While it’s known that leisure promotes quality of life, what is not yet understood is how leisure contributes to quality of life. By comparing different cultures, Iwasaki hoped to identify the common major pathways or mechanisms by which leisure can contribute to QOL. The researchers also wanted to explore uncharted areas in leisure research, as most of the body of existing work focuses on Western cultures. This required looking at leisure-like activities from a cultural perspective.

“The concept of leisure is Western,” Iwasaki explains. “Aboriginals have no equivalent term but they do have culturally expressive forms of activities such as dance, music, sewing, craft circles, storytelling, painting, spirituality, and humor, which lead to benefits, including pride, stress release, self-esteem, survival, and harmony for both the individual and the group.”

Iwasaki and others have found that meanings can be derived from leisure-like activities in a number of ways. People who engage in these activities experience positive emotions and well-being, positive identities and self-esteem, social and cultural connections, enhanced learning and development across the life-span, and human strengths and resilience.

Middle Eastern women provide another example of culturally-based leisure-like pursuits that generate a great deal of meaning and promote good QOL. In their male-dominated society,