If you’ve got some spare time, you might want to read two or three articles summarizing the work of Claudia Goldin, the first woman to be a solo winner for the Nobel Prize in Economics. Most involves gender inequalities, especially in marriage and the workplace. The results of which I observe with painful regularity in […]
Tag: anxiety
Not One Nibble More Than 25 Grams Of Sugar A Day
Of course, everyone reading this already knows that sugar is “bad” for you. It’ll make you fat, you can get addicted to it, and it causes all sorts of health problems, like early heart disease, diabetes, depression, cancer susceptibility. But recently, a massive study out of China was able to determine how much sugar taken […]
A New Treatment For Chronic Anxiety
Far and away, the most common mental illness troubling the human animal is Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which can make life really miserable for almost 25% of women and 15% of men. When it’s not “chronic”, i.e., with you all the time, a little anxiety is actually useful. You feel a little anxious when you’re deciding […]
Longevity Medicine: Chronic Anxiety Speeds Aging
A diagnosis of anxiety covers a lot of territory. Psychologists organize patients suffering symptoms of anxiety into groups that include: generalized anxiety disorder (with or without panic attacks), obsessive-compulsive disorders, social anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, and the various phobias (heights, snakes, germs, etc.). However, the symptoms are all pretty much the same. According to […]
Winter Wellbeing
It’s hard to overstate the degree (minus 11 F tomorrow here in Chicago) to which the Midwest has settled into the dead of winter. With the rush of the holidays behind us, two dark, cold months lie ahead. Snowstorms, sub-zero temps, and icy pavement prompt many of us to stay indoors when we’d rather be […]
Preparing for Less Daylight and Seasonal Depression (SAD)
My staff and I brace ourselves for the autumn day when clocks are set back an hour and the already dwindling sun-filled days diminish to darkness at 5 p.m. Add the overcast skies of winter and the “I’m NOT going outside” bitter cold, and we all may wonder why we’re not living in Santa Barbara. […]
The Benefits of Mindfulness
More than ever before, researchers and scientists are studying the health benefits of mindfulness practices for a wide variety of conditions. And they’re discovering overwhelmingly similar results: mindfulness decreases mood disturbances, enhances coping skills, and promotes wellbeing. Enter “benefits of mindfulness meditation” into your search engine and you’ll find dozens of articles and studies published […]
Depression, Anxiety, Probiotics, and Camel’s Milk
Most thoughtful people who take medication for depression, anxiety, or both do so with mixed emotions. The symptoms of these conditions can be pretty horrible, and when you’re tossed a life preserver in the form of an effective prescription med, you’re thankful to be living at a time when they’re are available. Of course, good […]
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety and Depression
If you’re troubled by chronic anxiety, panic attacks, or depression, you may be put off by pill-popping treatments. Maybe you had a bad experience in the past or you’re concerned about side effects. All in all, you’d rather not feel nostalgic about your libido or gain a single ounce. You know that psychotherapy makes the […]
Depression, Anxiety, and Acupuncture: A Major Breakthrough
Posted 04/07/2014 The statistics are simply staggering. The National Institutes of Health estimates that more than 20 million people in the US, roughly 10% of the population, have depression, defined as a recurring major depressive disorder, a constant state of depression (dysthymia), or bipolar disorder. Officially, these three are called mood disorders, considered separate from […]
An Occasionally Pleasant Minimum Security Prison
What three things do the following occupations have in common: teacher, nurse, secretary (now called administrative assistant), and information technologist? First, I would classify them all as helping professions. Second, based both on surveys and my own experience as a physician, they all work under conditions of stress, suffer a lot of anxiety and depression, […]
Dentist Anxieties? Fear of Flying?
Posted 01/23/2012 One of my favorite books has always been the 1964 classic The Myth of Mental Illness, by Thomas Szasz, MD. A psychiatrist and still writing at the ripe age of 91, Szasz castigated his fellow professionals for labeling too many people with relatively mild emotional symptoms “mentally ill,” especially when it came to […]
Stress Less: Meditation
Meditation is the simplest relaxation technique to explain and by far the hardest to master.
Fibromyalgia Explained: Why the Pain?
To understand fibromyalgia and why so many doctors tell their fibro patients, “All your tests are normal,” you need to think about serotonin, the brain chemical that acts as a buffer against stress.
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
I recently listened to the sociologists-epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett discussing their book The Spirit Level on NPR. A few days later, they were on Book TV and soon I was reading a lengthy piece on them in the London Review of Books. The publicity worked and I bought the book. By the way, a spirit level is the same as a bubble level, the carpenter’s device containing a bubble in liquid to ensure whatever’s being constructed is plumb.
Valerian
For centuries, the tall perennial herb with pinkish flowers known as valerian (Valeriana officinalis) has been enlisted to help restless insomniacs get a sound night’s sleep. Today this mild, nonaddictive sedative is quite popular both as a sleep aid and as an anxiety fighter, particularly in Germany, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. And in recent years its popularity has grown enormously in the United States as well.
St. John’s Wort
St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), a common shrub-like perennial, bears bright yellow flowers that contain numerous therapeutic substances when dried. Europeans have used the herb for centuries to calm jangled nerves and heal wounds, among other ills. And so it’s not surprising that North Americans have recently embraced its use as a treatment for depression and conditions associated with it.
Oat Straw
Native to the warm Mediterranean regions, oats have been cultivated for thousands of years as a source of food and folk remedies. Today, the oat plant (Avena sativa) is most famous for the nutritious cereal grain that it provides–think morning oatmeal. However, the whole plant, referred to as oat straw, gathered when the grains are ripe, includes also the leaves, stems. The whole plant is then dried and chopped, and used in both internal and external forms by traditional herbalists. The grain itself, harvested in late summer, is milled to produce oatmeal and oat bran. Oatmeal, the ground grain, has a high silica content, and can be used externally for skin problems. Oat bran, produced from the coarse husks of the grain, is good at reducing cholesterol levels.
Your Brain: Maybe You’re Depressed
Depression is the result of low levels of the stress-buffering brain chemical serotonin trying, but failing, to protect you against assaults of unchecked stress.
The same holds true for similar disorders, like anxiety, fatigue, and fibromyalgia.
Does Meditation Work?
Meditation is embraced by conventional medicine today as a perfectly acceptable means of lowering blood pressure, reducing pain, helping migraines, easing menstrual cramps, and, most importantly, reducing stress and anxiety.