THURSDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) — Feeling stressed? A dose of dark chocolate could cheer you right up by lowering your stress hormone levels, a new study suggests.

Swiss researchers, who report their findings in the online issue of the Journal of Proteome Research, tracked volunteers who said they were highly stressed.

 ”The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of two weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” wrote the researchers, from the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The chocolate also appeared to help correct other imbalances in the body that are related to stress.

 But won’t chocolate make people gain weight? That’s certainly possible, but the scientists pointed out that dark chocolate contains antioxidants, which are beneficial to health, and other substances that appear to reduce the risk of heart disease and other conditions.

 But until now, the researchers wrote, not much has been known about how chocolate affects stress.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/chocolatesoothesthestressedoutsoul.html

My 2 Cents:  Now they come up with this chocolate theory for stress, and I can’t even take advantage of it!  As a longtime migraine sufferer, one chocolate bar could equal a 3 day migraine.  I’ll live with the stress; it’s easier to live with.

This may be of assistance as you journey through my blog…

DEPRESSION

 ANXIETY DISORDERS

 Anxiety disorders are a group of disorders which affect behaviour, thoughts, emotions and physical health. Research into their origins continues, but it is believed they are caused by a combination of biological factors and an individuals personal circumstances, much like other health problems, such as heart disease or diabetes. It is common for people to suffer from more than one anxiety disorder; and for an anxiety disorder to be accompanied by depression, eating disorders or substance abuse. Anxiety disorders can also coexist with physical disorders, in which case the physical condition should also be treated.

Some of the signs to look for are:

Panic Disorder – As the name suggests, panic disorder is expressed in panic attacks which occur without warning, accompanied by sudden feelings of terror. Physically, an attack may cause chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, abdominal discomfort, feelings of unreality and fear of dying. When a person avoids situations that he or she fears may cause a panic attack, his or her condition is described as panic disorder with agoraphobia.

Phobias – Phobias are divided into two categories: social phobia, which involves fear of social situations, and specific phobias, such as fear of flying, blood and heights.

Social Phobia – People with social phobia feel a paralysing, irrational self-consciousness about social situations. They have an intense fear of being observed or of doing something horribly wrong in front of other people. The feelings are so extreme that people with social phobia tend to avoid objects or situations that might stimulate that fear, which dramatically reduces their ability to lead a normal life.

Specific Phobias – Fear of flying, fear of heights and fear of open spaces are some typical specific phobias. People suffering from a specific phobia are overwhelmed by unreasonable fears, which they are unable to control. Exposure to feared situations can cause them extreme anxiety and panic, even if they recognize that their fears are illogical.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – A terrifying experience in which serious physical harm occurred or was threatened can cause post-traumatic stress disorder. Survivors of rape, child abuse, war or a natural disaster may develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Common symptoms include flashbacks, during which the person re-lives the terrifying experience, nightmares, depression and feelings of anger or irritability.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder – This is a condition in which people suffer from persistent unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and / or rituals (compulsions) which they find impossible to control. Typically, obsessions concern contamination, doubting (such as worrying that the iron hasn’t been turned off) and disturbing sexual or religious thoughts. Compulsions include washing, checking, organizing and counting.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder -Characterized by repeated, exaggerated worry about routine life events and activities, this disorder lasts at least six months, during which time the person is affected by extreme worry more days than not. The individual anticipates the worst, even if others would say they have no reason to expect it. Physical symptoms can include nausea, trembling fatigue, muscle tension, or headache.

 SAD

Weather often affects people’s moods. Sunlight breaking through clouds can lift our spirits, while a dull, rainy day may make us feel a little gloomy. While noticeable, these shifts in mood generally do not affect our ability to cope with daily life. Some people, however, are vulnerable to a type of depression that follows a seasonal pattern. For them, the shortening days of late autumn are the beginning of a type of clinical depression that can last until spring. This condition is called “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” or SAD.

 Information and online source:  Canadian Mental Health Association

Patient/caregiver roles often take the place of a partnership, researchers say

TUESDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) — Although many wedding vows include the phrase “in sickness and in health,” a stroke can put that promise to the test by causing major relationship problems for married couples, according to British researchers.

The University of Ulster study included 16 married stroke survivors (nine males, seven females), aged 33 to 78. The time since their stroke ranged from two months to four years, with an average of 18 months.

The researchers found that the stroke significantly affected sexual activity, led to blurred relationship roles, and feelings such as anger and frustration were confounded by persistent fatigue and lack of independence.

Among the findings:

• All but one of the stroke survivors experienced a reduction or total loss of sexual desire. Some believed this was due to the effects of medication or fear of another stroke.
• Most of the females lost interest in their appearance, regardless of age.
• All the survivors said they’d changed since their stroke. Many said they experienced irritability, anger, agitation and intolerance due to their frustration at not being able to perform daily activities. In some cases, over-protective spouses increased feelings of anger and frustration.
• Many survivors were reluctant to resume social activities with their spouses because of fatigue, anxiety and swallowing problems.
• Fatigue was often associated with reduced independence and guilt because survivors didn’t know how they’d feel from day to day and couldn’t plan ahead.

“All the participants perceived a stroke as a life-changing event. They faced a continuous daily struggle to achieve some sense of normality and that required huge amounts of physical and mental effort,” study co-author Assumpta Ryan, of the University of Ulster’s Nursing Research Institute, said in a university news release.

The study was published online in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_91677.html

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – November 11, 2009 – People with bipolar disorder who smoke appear to have a heightened risk of suicidal behavior — possibly because they are generally prone to impulsive acts, a new study suggests.

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is marked by dramatic swings in mood — ranging from episodes of debilitating depression to periods of euphoric recklessness. Previous studies have found that bipolar patients who smoke have a higher suicide risk than their non-smoking counterparts, but the reasons have not been clear.

The new findings suggest that high levels of impulsivity — one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder — may draw some patients to both smoking and suicidal behavior.

Dr. Michael J. Ostacher and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that among 116 bipolar patients they followed, current smokers generally scored higher on a standard measure of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Moreover, smokers were more likely to make a suicide attempt over the next nine months, the researchers report in the journal Bipolar Disorders.

Five of the 31 smokers in the study (16 percent) attempted suicide during the study period. By comparison, only 3 of 85 non-smokers (3.5 percent) attempted suicide during the study.

The researchers also used a standard questionnaire to gauge patients’ impulsiveness — such as how often they speak or act without thinking and how well they plan for the future.

When those scores were factored in, the link between smoking and suicidal behavior diminished. The implication, according to Ostacher’s team, is that high levels of impulsivity partly explain why smokers were at greater risk.

From a practical standpoint, the researchers write, the findings add more evidence that smoking can be considered a “clinical marker” of higher suicide risk in bipolar patients.

Smoking, in and of itself, may not be a strong predictor of patients’ suicide odds, but doctors can still consider it as part of a comprehensive patient assessment, the researchers suggest.

It is unknown, they note, whether helping bipolar patients quit smoking would have any effect on their risk of suicidal behavior.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_91755.html

I used to ask myself, practically every day during my illness; is this it?  What if I never get better?  Does it get any better?

Sounds pessimistic, but my history of recurring hospital admissions and medications that were ineffective, coupled with suicide attempts and unrelenting depression, didn’t illustrate a positive picture.  At separate hospital admissions, I was frequently greeted by the same bed, same patients and same nurses who knew precisely my medications.  Nothing changing; asking “is this as good as it gets?”

It’s frightening, and no one should ever have to endure this type of life.  Depression, for me, proved a nasty existence.  After spending months in hospital, then at last discharged, I would forever feel that I was one footstep away from hospital waters every waking day.  Always just a step away from hell; existing only on the surface.

And now I feel somewhat selfish.  I do have a new life now; but a life filled with stress and I feel overwhelmed at times.  Yes indeed, I have broken free from the jaws of depression to a degree, but now have taken on the next chapter after the illness.  Although I am not consumed with depression and suicidal pain currently, I now must mesh with people and mental illness stigma.  For me, hospitalization was a sort of incarcerated life; that of daily rituals of set meal times and social activities, lights out at 11:30 pm, and scheduled visits from family (friends were long gone).   Then finally discharge, after serving my “time”, which meant adjusting to home life all over again.

Depression tears your life into pieces of paper.  At different stages I had to piece them back together again.  It’s a very difficult life we live with mental illness, and all of us should be congratulated with what we have accomplished.  But to answer the question:  Does it get better?  Yes, it does, but (my opinion only) it’s not without sweat on the brow and a constant daily struggle.

Written by: Me

Treatment for mental illness took a turn in the mid 1940’s with ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) and insulin shock therapy and the use of frontal lobotomy. In modern times, insulin shock therapy and lobotomies are viewed as being almost as barbaric as the Bedlam “treatments”. The effect of a lobotomy on an overly excitable patient often allowed them to be discharged to their homes, which was seen by administrators (and often guardians) as a preferable solution than institutionalization.

Lobotomies were performed in great numbers from the 1930s to the 1950s.

A new Mental Disorders and Treatment Ordinance were introduced in 1935. The term ‘lunatic’ was changed to ‘person of unsound mind’. Doctors were given the power to admit patients and voluntary treatment was allowed.

Restraining devices used in hospitals in the 1800’s and early 1900’s included the padded helmet which was attached to the patient’s head to keep him from banging it against sharp or hard objects, the hand mitten which looked like a boxing glove and prevented patients from gouging and scratching, the straight jacket which restrained the patient’s arms, and cold wet packs which were used by wrapping the patient in ice cold, wet sheets. In addition, patients having seizures were given hydrotherapy, in which they were restrained in bath tubs, covered up to their necks with canvas and bathed with warm water. Electroshock, insulin shock and lobotomies were used only in rare uncontrollable cases.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2009) — Getting a flu shot this fall? Canadians scientists have found that focusing on a pretty image could alleviate the sting of that vaccine. According to a new Université de Montréal study, published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), negative and positive emotions have a direct impact on pain.

“Emotions — or mood — can alter how we react to pain since they’re interlinked,” says lead author Mathieu Roy, who completed the study as a Université de Montréal PhD student and is now a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. “Our tests revealed when pain is perceived by our brain and how that pain can be amplified when combined with negative emotions.”

As part of the study, 13 subjects were recruited to undergo small yet painful electric shocks, which caused knee-jerk reactions controlled by the spine that could be measured. During the fMRI process, subjects were shown a succession of images that were either pleasant (i.e. summer water-skiing), unpleasant (i.e. a vicious bear) or neutral (i.e. a book). Brain reaction was simultaneously measured in participants through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The fMRI readings allowed the scientists to divide emotion-related brain activity from pain-related reactions. “We found that seeing unpleasant pictures elicited stronger pain in subjects getting shocks than looking at pleasant pictures,” says Dr. Roy.

The discovery provides scientific evidence that pain is governed by mood and builds on Dr. Roy’s previous studies that showed how pleasant music could decrease aches. “Our findings show that non-pharmaceutical interventions — mood enhancers such as photography or music — could be used in the healthcare to help alleviate pain. These interventions would be inexpensive and adaptable to several fields,” he stresses.

The study was authored by Mathieu Roy, Piché, Mathieu, Chen, Jen-I, Isabelle Peretz and Pierre Rainville of the Université de Montréal.

Support was provided by the Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110105357.htm

Women More Likely Than Men To Suffer Depression After Stroke

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2009) — Depression occurs in as many as one-third of patients after a stroke, and women are at somewhat higher risk, according to a large new review of studies. Post-stroke depression is associated with greater disability, reduced quality of life and an increased risk of death.

The systematic review appears in the November-December issue of the journal Psychosomatics.

Brittany Poynter, M.D., and colleagues from the University of Toronto looked at 56 studies on stroke and depression comprising more than 75,000 people, about 12,000 of them women. The time between the stroke and onset of depression ranged from less than two weeks to 15 years.

In women, rates of post-stroke depression ranged from about 6 percent to 78 percent, while in men depression rates ranged from 4.7 percent to about 65 percent.

These findings are important, Poynter said, because women who have had a stroke generally do more poorly than men. They tend to have higher rates of disability and longer hospitalization times. The authors say this might be due in part to higher rates of depression. In addition, “women may have less access to care,” Poynter said.

“People think of stroke as a ‘male’ disease — and it is slightly more common in men — but because it increases with age, more women end up having strokes because they live longer,” said Linda S. Williams, M.D., chief of neurology at the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis. She is not associated with the review.

“Post-stroke depression is often unrecognized, both by the patient and the provider,” Williams said. “Patients may have symptoms, but they think that’s a natural reaction to having a stroke. Providers may think it is natural that the patient feels down after having this major life event. So there is a watch-and-see approach instead of a more of an aggressive screening-and-treatment approach.”

It is uncertain what the best treatments for post-stroke depression might be. “There may be multiple treatments beyond antidepressants and counseling, such as exercise, physical rehabilitation and support groups,” Poynter said. “A multimodal approach may be the most effective.”

Both Poynter and Williams emphasized that all stroke patients should be routinely screened for depression.

Adapted from materials provided by Center for Advancing Health.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110210509.htm

MONDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) — Pregnant women who are depressed may suffer severe symptoms if they catch seasonal flu, a new study suggests.

Ohio State University researchers assessed depressive symptoms and took blood samples from 22 pregnant women before they received a seasonal flu shot. Those with significant symptoms of depression had a stronger inflammatory response to the flu shot than the other women.

 This finding suggests that a depressed pregnant woman’s immune system doesn’t function normally, which means they may experience more serious symptoms if they’re infected with seasonal flu.

 ”Inflammatory responses to vaccination do no harm, are mild, and typically go away within a few days. But an extended inflammatory response to vaccination, such as the one seen in women with the most depressive symptoms, isn’t expected, and it serves as a way to estimate how somebody might respond to an actual infection or illness,” lead author Lisa Christian, an assistant professor of psychiatry, said in a university news release.

 The researchers said their study shows the need for pregnant women to get seasonal flu shots. The study was published online in advance of publication in the November print issue of the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

 Public health groups advise pregnant women to get seasonal flu shots, but only 12 percent to 13 percent of them have done so in recent years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 ”It will be interesting to see how that might change this year,” in light of CDC recommendations that pregnant women receive both seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccinations, Christian said.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/depressedandpregnantflushotmaybeneeded.html