• Check if you have any nutritional imbalances (i.e. B vitamins, vitamin D).

• Are you addicted to sugar, caffeine, cigarettes or other substances?
• How much time do you spend outdoors?  Fresh air, outdoor exercising such as walking is highly restorative.
• How is your sleep?  Remove electronics such as tv’s from the bedroom, and don’t sleep with the tv on.
• Change how you think.  There are numerous books on the topic.  Our thoughts shape our reality.  If your thoughts are terrorizing you, learn how to change them.
• Explore homeopathic medicine; this natural approach is free from side-effects and helps to get at the core of the problem.
• Explore flower essences.
• Acupuncture can help too.
• Watch funny movies.  Laugh.
• Join a local Laughter Yoga chapter in your community.  Can’t find any?  Start one.  Which leads to the last solution on the list.
• Find someone to help.  As you count your blessings and develop an attitude of gratitude you will become more peaceful.

Sadness in America

• About one in 10 Americans aged 12 and over takes antidepressant medication.

• About 14% of Americans taking antidepressant medication have done so for 10 years or longer.
• Females are more likely than males to take antidepressant medication at every level of depression severity.

• Non-Hispanic white persons are more likely to take antidepressant medication than persons of other races and ethnicities.

• Fourteen percent of non-Hispanic white persons take antidepressant medications compared with 4% of non-Hispanic black and 3% of Mexican-American persons.
• There is no difference by income in the prevalence of antidepressant usage.

Slightly over one-third of persons aged 12 and over with current severe depressive symptoms were taking antidepressants. According to American Psychiatric Association guidelines, medications are the preferred treatment for moderate to severe depressive symptomatology. The public health importance of increasing treatment rates for depression is reflected in Healthy People 2020, which includes national objectives to increase treatment for depression in adults and treatment for mental health problems in children.

References: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1. Have a light healthy breakfast.  Try a smoothie with added protein powder, or steel cut oats.
2. Skip the soda and drink water or tea through the day.
3. Consider including vegan, vegetarian dishes or gluten-free options on the menu.
4. Eat slowly.  Chew your food thoroughly.
5. Are if you are in the process of changing your diet, plan and prepare ahead of time what you will eat.
6. Reduce or elimante the use of meat in gravies and sauces.  Use vegetable bouillon cubes or broth to season vegetables and for gravy.
7. Consider allowing guests to mix the size of their plates. Plenty of research shows that people tend to eat all the food on their plate.  Small plate size=less eating all around.
8. Just because there will be food everywhere, don’t throw all caution to the wind.  Avoid over eating.
9. Consider saving an animal and have a meatless thanksgiving celebration.
10. Skip the white bread and white rice.  Add whole grains to the menu.

Pre-pregnancy diet affects the health of future offspring

Poor maternal diet before conception can result in offspring with reduced birth weights and increased risk of developing type II diabetes and obesity.

This work, which is being presented at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Glasgow on Saturday the 2nd of July 2011, used an animal model to illustrate the importance of maternal diet even before pregnancy begins.

During the study mice that were fed a low protein diet for ten weeks before conception (but had a normal diet during pregnancy) gave birth to offspring that had lower birth weights, showed catch-up growth after weaning and increased insulin sensitivity.

These effects combined can lead to problems later in life. MSc researcher, Ms Anete Dudele, from the University of Aarhus, explains: “Low birth weight and catch-up growth is associated with enhanced insulin-sensitivity in young adults, this then deteriorates into insulin resistance and type II diabetes with increased age. There is also evidence that male offspring are more likely to develop obesity.”

Humans and mice respond in the same way to poor diet during pregnancy; their offspring show low birth weights and increased risk of obesity, type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. “If humans respond in the same way as mice to pre-conception diet as well then women should not only consider what they eat during pregnancy but also before pregnancy if they want to reduce the risk of their future children acquiring lifestyle diseases,” says Ms. Dudele.

Cardiovascular disease is often associated with obesity and type II diabetes and future research by the team will determine whether offspring born to mothers who had poor pre-conception diets are predisposed to these types of problems as well.

Walnuts are a good source of fiber, healthful fatty acids and minerals. They can be sprinkled on breakfast cereal, tossed with crisp greens for a lunch or dinner salad, or simply eaten out of hand as a snack.

Walnuts — 1 ounce, about 9 walnuts

Protein Foods Group: counts as 2 ounce equivalents protein foods and 2 teaspoons oil

Dietary Walnut Suppressed Mammary Gland Tumorigenesis in the C(3)1 TAg Mouse.

Nutr Cancer 2011 Jul 20
Hardman WE, Ion G, Akinsete JA, Witte TR.

Source: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology , Marshall University School of Medicine , Huntington , West Virginia , USA

Scientists discover first gonorrhea strain resistant to all available antibiotics

An international research team has discovered a strain of gonorrhea resistant to all
currently available antibiotics. This new strain is likely to transform a common and
once easily treatable infection into a global threat to public health. The details of the
discovery made by Dr. Magnus Unemo, Dr. Makoto Ohnishi, and colleagues will be
presented at the 19th conference of the International Society for
Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) which runs July 10-13 in Quebec City, Canada.

The team of researchers successfully identified a heretofore unknown variant of
the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Analyzing this new strain,
dubbed H041, allowed researchers to identify the genetic mutations responsible
for the bacterium’s extreme resistance to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics
— the last remaining drugs still effective in treating gonorrhea.

“This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery,” noted Dr. Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria. “Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for
gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop
resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it.”

“While it is still too early to assess if this new strain has become widespread, the
history of newly emergent resistance in the bacterium suggests that it may spread rapidly
unless new drugs and effective treatment programs are developed,” Dr. Unemo continued.

Gonorrhea is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world.
In the U.S. alone, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the
number of cases is estimated at 700,000 annually.

Gonorrhea is asymptomatic in about 50% of infected women and
approximately 2-5% of men. When symptomatic, it is characterized by a burning sensation
when urinating and pus discharge from the genitals. If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to
serious and irreversible health complications in both women and men.

In women, the infection can cause chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancy. It can lead
to infertility, mostly in women but also in men, and it increases the risk of HIV transmission.
In 3-4% of cases, untreated infections spread to the skin, blood, joints, or even the heart and
can cause potentially mortal lesions. Babies born of infected mothers are at high risk of developing
serious blood and joint infections, and passage through the birth canal of an infected mother
can cause blindness in the infant.

###

Use of vitamin D supplements during pregnancy has long been a matter of concern but now researchers writing in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research report that even a high supplementation amount in healthy pregnant women was safe and effective in raising circulating vitamin D to a level thought by some to be optimal. The study also found no adverse effects of vitamin D supplementation, even at the highest amount, in women or their newborns.

The research team, led by Dr. Bruce Hollis from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, used a randomized controlled trial with healthy expectant mothers to discover how varying dosages of daily supplements could safely sustain a circulating vitamin D level of at least 32 nanograms per milliliter.

“Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy remains controversial largely due to severe misconceptions about the potential harm it may cause to the fetus,” said Dr Hollis. “Surprisingly the scientific debate has made little progress since Dr. Gilbert Forbes made a recommendation of 200 IU (international units) per day in 1963, which was based on a hunch.”

While the threat of vitamin D during pregnancy has remained little known, it has been established that the vitamin plays a role in homeostasis, the body’s internal regulation, during pregnancy and that a deficiency can effect immune, pancreatic and cardiovascular systems.

Dr Hollis’ team monitored the pregnancies of 350 women, from a variety of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, who were all between 12 and 16 weeks into gestation. The women were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group received 400 IU of vitamin D per day, the second group received 2,000 IU per day and the third received 4,000 IU daily.

The team found that women who received the highest level of supplementation (4,000 IU per day) were more likely to achieve and sustain the desired level of circulating levels of vitamin D throughout their pregnancy. Moreover, the researchers found that pregnant women who received lower levels of vitamin D supplementation did not attain the threshold circulating level of the vitamin.

“In our study subjects, a daily dosage of up to 4,000 IU of vitamin D was required to sustain normal metabolism in pregnant women,” concluded Dr Hollis. “Furthermore, following decades of speculation into its safety our research has demonstrated vitamin D supplementation to be both safe and effective.”

###

Exercise is a magic drug for many people with depression and anxiety disorders, and it should be more widely prescribed by mental health care providers, according to researchers who analyzed the results of numerous published studies.

“Exercise has been shown to have tremendous benefits for mental health,” says Jasper Smits, director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “The more therapists who are trained in exercise therapy, the better off patients will be.”

Smits and Michael Otto, psychology professor at Boston University, based their finding on an analysis of dozens of population-based studies, clinical studies and meta-analytic reviews related to exercise and mental health, including the authors’ meta-analysis of exercise interventions for mental health and studies on reducing anxiety sensitivity with exercise. The researchers’ review demonstrated the efficacy of exercise programs in reducing depression and anxiety.

The traditional treatments of cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy don’t reach everyone who needs them, says Smits, an associate professor of psychology.

“Exercise can fill the gap for people who can’t receive traditional therapies because of cost or lack of access, or who don’t want to because of the perceived social stigma associated with these treatments,” he says. “Exercise also can supplement traditional treatments, helping patients become more focused and engaged.”

The researchers presented their findings March 6 in Baltimore at the annual conference of the Anxiety Disorder Association of America. Their workshop was based on their therapist guide “Exercise for Mood and Anxiety Disorders,” with accompanying patient workbook (Oxford University Press, September 2009). For links to more information see www.smuresearch.com.

“Individuals who exercise report fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, and lower levels of stress and anger,” Smits says. “Exercise appears to affect, like an antidepressant, particular neurotransmitter systems in the brain, and it helps patients with depression re-establish positive behaviors. For patients with anxiety disorders, exercise reduces their fears of fear and related bodily sensations such as a racing heart and rapid breathing.”

After patients have passed a health assessment, Smits says, they should work up to the public health dose, which is 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity activity. At a time when 40 percent of Americans are sedentary, he says, mental health care providers can serve as their patients’ exercise guides and motivators.

“Rather than emphasize the long-term health benefits of an exercise program – which can be difficult to sustain – we urge providers to focus with their patients on the immediate benefits,” he says. “After just 25 minutes, your mood improves, you are less stressed, you have more energy – and you’ll be motivated to exercise again tomorrow. A bad mood is no longer a barrier to exercise; it is the very reason to exercise.”

Smits says health care providers who prescribe exercise also must give their patients the tools they need to succeed, such as the daily schedules, problem-solving strategies and goal-setting featured in his guide for therapists.

“Therapists can help their patients take specific, achievable steps,” he says. “This isn’t about working out five times a week for the next year. It’s about exercising for 20 or 30 minutes and feeling better today.”