How self-employment affects the brain | Daniel Glaser

The current debate about the rights of the self-employed raises the question of how much control we have over our work. Is an Uber driver really their own boss if they are controlled by a corporation? And how much does it affect work performance?

A great deal, from a neuroscientific perspective. There is a crucial difference between movements you control and movements you make when you slavishly follow external direction. The cerebellum predicts what these movements will be depending on how planned they are. If, for example, you move your arm to follow a dot on the screen, rather than tracing your own path, the brain activations will be different.

When you have no idea what you’re doing in advance, your movements are inherently more clumsy – the body works better when you are in charge. Being able to predict them enables you to regulate, flexibly and gracefully, and adapt in response to changing circumstances.

Similarly, self-employment, where you actually make your own plans and decide what you want to do, could benefit everyone, but the gig economy doesn’t allow for this degree of autonomy.

Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London

How self-employment affects the brain | Daniel Glaser

How music affects the brain | Daniel Glaser

La La Land is tipped for Oscar success following its triumph at the Golden Globes. Some have wondered if its appeal is partly as an escapist response to these troubled times.

Whether or not such a retreat is politically helpful, there is sound neurobiology behind it. Patients with even fairly advanced dementia can still respond to a piece of music if they were familiar with it in their youth. It can be comforting, but also allow them to engage and even dance.

Evidence suggests music and dance have therapeutic value for patients with Parkinson’s disease, inspiring them to perform movements which they normally can’t do. But the most moving biological phenomenon is in stroke patients who have lost the power of speech. For some, the brain areas responsible for singing words are distinct and can be spared from damage which destroys the main speech areas. These patients can sing all the words of a song, but can’t repeat them in prose or even say their own name.

If politics renders us speechless, there is comfort to be had in activating our neural song centres, if only for refuge.

Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London

How music affects the brain | Daniel Glaser

The Way Saizen Affects Children – What You Need to Know About It!

The Way Saizen Affects Children – What You Need to Know About It!

The Affects Of Stress On Your Prostate

It is well known that stress can have a big effect on your overall health and wellbeing. High levels of stress can leave you feeling run down, tired, and increase the risk of catching viruses. If you are battling a long-term illness then stress can have a big impact on how your body copes with the disease.
What isn’t so well known is the severity of the effect stress and anxiety has on prostate conditions such as prostate cancer, prostatitis and an enlarged prostate, known as benign prostatic hyperplasia or BHP. The benefits of stress management and emotional therapy on prostate health may also be surprising to many.

Stress and prostate health
High levels of stress and anxiety can impair the body’s immune system and prevent it from fighting off disease and illness. When a man is diagnosed with any kind of prostate problem they can experience increased levels of stress and anxiety resulting from worry, fear or even anger about having the problem. This can lead to the prostate disease worsening due to the immune system being unable to fight it.
It is important to recognize the role that stress and anxiety plays in contributing and causing prostate problems. It is always better to try and prevent a disease than attempting to treat it once it has already developed. Therefore, addressing stress and its causes is highly important when considering prostate health.

Stress and prostate cancer
The progression of early prostate cancer can be slowed by reducing the amount of stress in your life whilst also eating a healthier diet and exercising regularly, according to Dean Ornish MD. Ornish and his team at the University of California found that these lifestyle changes could put a stop to the progression of prostate cancer.
The study followed 93 men who had prostate cancer. Some of the men followed a primarily vegan diet, exercised regularly and took part in relaxation methods such as yoga for one hour a day and were found to score much better on the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test which was used to follow prostate cancer growth. The men who followed this healthy lifestyle noticed a 4% decline in their PSA count compared to the men who did not follow the healthier program who saw a 6% increase in the PSA count. In addition, the men who adopted the healthy lifestyle changes were less likely to require additional treatment.
A research team at Ohio State University has found a like between stress and the spread of cancer cells in many types of cancer, including prostate cancer. Their research shows that stress triggers a “master switch” gene in the body known as ATF3, which is expressed in all types of cells as a response to stressful conditions. This gene usually causes normal and benign cells to self-destruct if they have been irrevocably damaged, but the research suggests that cancer cells coax the immune system to release ATF3 in order for them to travel round the body and infect other areas. With stressful conditions being the most likely trigger for the release of this gene, the research shows that stress can cause the cancer to worsen and spread.

Stress and prostatitis and BPH
Prostatitis is an inflammation of the prostate that results in pain in the pelvis and genital area and is the cause of a variety of urinary tract symptoms. In a small percentage of cases, prostatitis can be caused by a bacterial infection with the remainder of cases mostly being the result of chronic non-bacterial prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome. Stress can have a large impact on both types of prostatitis. Stress can worsen the symptoms of bacterialprostatitis but it can actually have a role in causing non-bacterial prostatitis developing.
Some experts believe that men who suffer stress unconsciously focus their stress on their pelvic floor muscles; in the much the same way as a person may get tight back or neck muscle due to stress. Chronic tightening of the pelvic floor muscles can lead to prostatitis and so men who take steps to reduce stress in their lives can lower the risk of developing the disease. Lowering stress levels can also ease the symptoms of someone who already has prostatitis.
Stress can have an impact on men who suffer and enlarged prostate, or BPH. Symptoms such as painful urination, urinary frequency and urinary urgency can be made worse by stress and anxiety. In 2007, a study carried out by the University of Iowa found that men who reacted the strongest to mental stress had the most severe BHP symptoms. One explanation for this could be that adrenaline is released in the body as a response to stress. This adrenaline causes the urethra to narrow, making passing urine more difficult and sometimes painful.

Emotional therapy
If you suffer from any kind of prostate condition then your healthcare provider should be able to inform you and organize any treatment you require. You should also enquire about emotional therapy as part of your treatment to help you combat stress and anxiety.
Emotional therapy can include a variety of different methods including:
Psychotherapy
Group therapy
Meditation
Breathing therapy
Guided visualization

Self-hypnosis
The goal is to reduce stress, anxiety and tension and promote a sense of calm and peace. Another critical part of emotional therapy is social support. If you are suffering with any kind of prostate problem then you may greatly benefit from emotional support from friends and family, as well as other men who are going through the same conditions.

Natural Supplements
Another way to help improve the symptoms of prostate problems is to take a nutrient supplement to help ensure your body is getting the right amount of nutrients to help combat the symptoms of prostate problems and maintain prostate health. Knowing your body is receiving the best and right nutrients can also help to relive any stress you may be feeling about whether or not your lifestyle is healthy enough. So if you are suffering any prostate problem then you should ensure not to ignore emotional therapy in your treatment as a natural way to combat stress and improve prostate health.

So do you want to know how I naturally cured my own enlarged prostate and dropped my PSA from 4.2 to 2.1  in just three short months? To find out Click Here. 

References

Ong, Ben. All About The Prostate. USA: bensprostate.com, 2016. Print.

Collins MM, Meigs JB, Barry MJ, et al. Prevalence and Correlates of Prostatitis in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study Cohort. Journal of Urology 2002;167:1363–66. PMID:11832733.

Ullrich PM, Turner JA, Ciol M, Berger R. Stress Is Associated with Subsequent Pain and Disability Among Men with Nonbacterial Prostatitis/Pelvic Pain. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 2005;30:112–18. PMID: 16173907.

Wallner LP, Clemens JQ, Sarma AV. Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Prostatitis in African American Men: The Flint Men’s Health Study. Prostate 2009;69:24–32. PMID: 18802926.

The Affects Of Stress On Your Prostate

As a psychiatrist I"ve seen how culture affects views of mental illness

“I am already dead! I have been buried.” said a young south Asian girl on the psychiatric ward. Prior to her admission she had stopped going to school, and instead isolated herself in her room spending hours on the internet searching for her grave. She was not eating much and losing weight. There had been occasions when she wandered off at night. With poor eye contact and slow speech, she added: “I can feel the worms crawling inside my body.”

After an assessment she was found to have developed a severe form of depression with Cotard syndrome (a rare mental illness in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that he or she is already dead).She wanted me to let her access the internet so she could view her grave online. Her family thought that the girl was possessed by a jinn (a demon in Muslim culture). The family wanted to take her to a spiritual healer, away from the hospital, but we were concerned about her wellbeing.

I spent hours explaining to them the need for medical treatment while listening to their cultural understanding of such mental health problems. As mental illness is a taboo in so many cultures, it is easier to see it as a spiritual problem rather than a medical one. I agreed to talk to the spiritual healer, so that he could explain to the family the serious nature of her mental health problems. We finally came to an agreement whereby the girl would continue to have treatment in hospital and the family would place spiritual amulets around the room. There was a good outcome and the young girl was discharged after recovery.

This was my first exposure, as a psychiatry trainee, to cultural issues entwined with mental health problems in England. Although I had an understanding of some of the cultural issues highlighted in this case, I learned it was important to make sure we listened to and respected all views before coming to a decision.

The UK has become more ethnically diverse in the past 20 years. Generally, stigma and shame have heavily influenced any help-seeking behaviour in the black and ethnic minority groups. Even if they do seek help, the lack of cultural and spiritual understanding of their problems may lead to non-attendance and disinterest by the patient and the family. We come across this in our daily practice.

A middle-aged women of African descent was referred to us for dependence on prescribed painkillers. Following a thorough assessment it transpired her initial complaint of “aches all over her body” were cultural expressions of low mood and depression rather than actual pain. This was explained to us by her young daughter who described how feelings of lethargy and lack of energy are expressed as weakness and body aches.

Related: How can mental health services deliver better care for black patients?

Once we helped the person detoxify from the painkillers, we started treating her for depression which dramatically improved her life.

We need to target communities to increase awareness and challenge stigma which would help to reduce the barriers in seeking help. We should work to develop community champions and work with spiritual healers who can refer individuals needing mental health treatment.

As a British south Asian Muslim, I can identify with some of the issues I see in my clinical practice. I think appropriate, localised training on cultural awareness for all staff in the NHS can help in a better understanding of the patient’s needs.

Transcultural psychiatry has always been at the forefront of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ agenda and now it is needed more than ever.

If you would like to write a blogpost for Views from the NHS frontline, read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

As a psychiatrist I"ve seen how culture affects views of mental illness

Watch out… This is How Stress Affects Your Body

Stress impacts the psychological state of a human being negatively, but do you ever think about how it affects the physiological function of the body? And your health as a whole? In this article, I will explain to you briefly how stress may affect various body organs, even though you might not realize it. Stress symptoms are the culprit for that nagging headache, weak vitality, and frequent insomnia.

Being able to recognize common stress symptoms can help you get an idea of what you’re dealing with and the long term physiological effects that you might have to face if you ignore this problem.

Common symptoms of stress and anxiety:

• Accelerated heart rate


• Headache


• Stiff neck or shoulders


• Back pain


• Reflex acceleration of respiration


• Excessive sweating


• Insomnia


• Digestive disorders such as nausea and diarrhea.

Stress and tension may affect various body organs, including:

The immune system:

The stress hormone corticosteroid can curb the performance of the immune system, for example, lowering the number of lymphocytes (B and T cells) produced by the body to fight invading viruses and bacteria.

Heart:

Stress makes you more likely to develop high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, strokes, and hardening of the arteries, as it is linked to coronary artery disease that affects the arteries that supply blood to your heart muscle.

In addition to an increase in blood cholesterol levels and the clumping of cholesterol particles leading to clots in the blood and in the artery walls.

Muscle:

Often, people who experience muscle aches can easily determine the cause. This is because most cases of myalgia result from too much tension, stress, or physical activity. Constant stress and tension causes pain in the neck and back and can make rheumatic pain worse.

According to a recent study by Jay Winner, M.D., author of Stress Management Made Simple says “When stressed, your body produces hormones that increase muscle tension and pain sensitivity”.

Stomach:

The digestive system is completely sensitive to our psychological mood, especially for those who have digestive problems without any clear physical cause.

However, the short-term stomach problems are usually nausea, diarrhea, indigestion and acid reflux. In the long term, continuing stress can trigger chronic illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, heartburn, ulcers and can even worsen symptoms of Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Fertility:

More and more studies seem to emphasize a link between stress, depression, anxiety and infertility. Chronic stress can impact ovulation by altering signals to the hypothalamus, the center of the brain that coordinates some of the hormones that arouse the ovaries to release eggs monthly.

Women under constant stress are more likely to ovulate less regularly, which shrinks the window of fertility and making it harder to plan babymaking when they’re most fertile. Some research shows that stress may also impact testosterone levels and sperm production in men.

Respiratory system:

Stress can make breathing difficult. That’s not an issue for most people, but those with respiratory diseases such as asthma or emphysema, getting sufficient amounts of oxygen is much harder. Some research shows that chronic stress can trigger asthma attacks, in which the airway between the lungs and the nose constricts.

Also, stress can trigger rapid or deep breathing also known as hyperventilation causing a panic attack in someone prone to panic attacks and it may leave you feeling breathless.

Skin:

The body releases cortisol and other hormones in response to stress and low blood-glucose concentration. Which tells the sebaceous glands to produce more oil. And as you know, oily skin is more prone to acne flare-ups and other skin problems. In addition, stress can aggravate cases of psoriasis, eczema, rosacea and acne.

How stress impacts a person’s thoughts and feelings?

• Living under constant pressure and stress can make you feel unstable and unable to handle even the simplest problems that weren’t an issue before.


• Stress causes frustration and a tendency to lose one’s temper quickly. It appears in the form of bouts and in places that you’d feel less comfortable.


• Feeling tired and exhausted all the time.


• Difficulty concentrating while studying or at work.


• Excessive anxiety even on the most trivial things.


• Being pessimistic and always expecting bad things.

The emergence of these symptoms varies from the course of your life and your personality. As well the support you get from family and friends to help you overcome difficult obstacles. Keep in mind that the body responds to the psychological tensions and can be reflected on your health in the form of symptoms and chronic diseases.

So try as much as possible to maintain your mental health intact because it is the key to physical health and less stressful life.

Reference:

Watch out… This is How Stress Affects Your Body

Think Zika just affects Brazil? It"s here in the US now | Celine Gounder

On Friday the Florida State Department of Health reported four cases of Zika, and on Monday, another ten. All were likely contracted locally from mosquitoes in Wynwood, a north Miami neighborhood. The CDC is advising pregnant women not to travel to the area. Meanwhile, hundreds of women have tested positive for Zika virus in Puerto Rico. At least 2% of blood donors in Puerto Rico have recently been infected with Zika: another ominous sign the infection is spreading rapidly.

Given the geographic distribution of the Zika-transmitting Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the US, we fully expected to see Zika cases in Florida, Texas and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean. What we didn’t expect was that Congress would be so slow to fund emergency efforts to control the spread of Zika.

Congress just went on vacation without approving emergency funds to fight the disease. They won’t reconvene until after Labor Day. In February, President Obama requested $ 1.9bn from Congress, and the Administration has continued to press Congress for funds since then. But according to US House Speaker Paul Ryan, “There is plenty of money in the pipeline right now, money that is not going to Ebola, that was already in the pipeline, that can go immediately to Zika.”

Republicans haven’t wanted to allocate new emergency funds, wanting hold to caps under the routine appropriations process.

The Ebola epidemic should have taught us the importance of strengthening disease surveillance and health systems at home and in those parts of the world where new disease threats are most likely to emerge. I suspect Republicans have been quick to push for reallocating Ebola monies to the Zika fight because they think it’s foreign aid. But, by analogy, is it foreign aid to gather intelligence or train foreign troops in the Middle East? Or are we doing that to protect ourselves?

Strategically supporting disease surveillance and health systems in Africa and elsewhere is very much about protecting our national security. But that takes time and money.

Related: Florida issues warning after cluster of new Zika cases in Miami neighborhood

Meanwhile, the Zika funding bill currently before Congress includes provisions to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. Democrats argue that Planned Parenthood provides important obstetric and gynecological services, especially to poor women. These services include birth control, and when necessary, abortions – all services that women will need to prevent having Zika-affected microcephalic babies.

American views on abortion shifted in part due to another infectious disease: a rubella outbreak in the 1960s resulting in over 20,000 babies being born with microcephaly and other birth defects. Abortion was no longer just a sign of moral failure. It became a white, middle class issue, in much the same way that opioid abuse has today. But regardless of where you stand on abortion or Planned Parenthood, I’d argue that we need new funding to fight Zika.

Our system for financing public health emergencies is broken. If we were under attack by Russia or North Korea, you can bet that Congress would immediately approve emergency funding to fight back and defend our shores. We have federal disaster relief funds on hand should an earthquake or hurricane or flood hit. But when a public health threat strikes, we’re caught off guard with our pants down.

We can’t keep playing this shell game: defunding long-term, strategically important public health programs to respond to emergencies. Siphoning off funds from other public health programs – such as the national strategic stockpile of vaccines and other emergency supplies to combat epidemics – to fight Zika doesn’t make sense either. Moreover, local public health departments – our frontline defense against disease outbreaks –have suffered huge funding cuts and lost one-fifth their manpower since the 2008 recession.

We know that the combined forces of globalization, climate change, population growth, urbanization and poverty will lead to more frequent disease outbreaks. It’s our “new normal.” And we can be certain that members of Congress will try to leverage any crisis to their party’s advantage. But politics must not get in the way of our ability to protect the American people. We must insist on stable, permanent funding for public health emergencies because we know there are many more to come.

It’s time to acknowledge that sometimes being a world leader means doing what’s best for our people – even when that means doing good for the rest of the world too.

Related: Democrats demand Congress end its vacation to approve Zika funding

Think Zika just affects Brazil? It"s here in the US now | Celine Gounder

The Kitchen Thinker: how anosmia affects the pleasure of consuming

When Duncan Boak cooks chicken in a cream sauce, he chops fresh tarragon to stir in at the end. Absolutely nothing surprising in this – tons of people appreciate that classic French mixture. The difference is that Boak can not taste the tarragon in the completed dish. He is one particular of an estimated a single-to-five per cent of the population with anosmia, an inability to smell. Offered that most of what we phone “flavour” is truly smell, to be anosmic is to be denied a lot of the pleasure of eating.

Often, medical doctors have no notion why an individual has become oblivious to all smells from minimize grass to burned toast. Anosmia can go with nose and sinus problems or stroke or Alzheimer’s or basically ageing. In Boak’s case, the reason is head damage, damaging the olfactory nerve. Nine years in the past, aged 22, Boak went out drinking and fell down a flight of stairs backwards. Right after a week in hospital, he was content to be back at property, eating risotto and drinking “a tiny glass of red wine”. Till he realised: it did not taste of anything at all.

Many anosmia sufferers shed their former interest in foods. I cannot say I blame them. Picture not getting capable to smell chocolate! Or garlic. But Boak – a impressive man or woman – found the optimistic. He set up Fifth Sense, a charity to help sufferers of smell and taste ailments. While he felt “colder and angrier” than just before, he created a determined hard work to compensate for a lack of flavour in his cooking.

Most anosmia sufferers can still detect the standard tongue-tastes of sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Several consume much less healthily than they did prior to, craving the massive hit of salt and sugar in junk foods now the subtler flavours are lost. Boak, even so, found that by focusing on taste he could appreciate specific things in a new way. He could select out various coffees and beers just through variations in the bitterness. Texture grew to become an additional passion – the way that slippery pappardelle could be enhanced by tangly rocket and sweet soft courgettes. Boak has just began a weblog celebrating the “multi-sensory” experience of eating.

We do not just eat with our mouths and noses. Take into account the trigeminal nerve in the face. Without this, wasabi would lack fire, and you would never get that faintly thrilling buzz from fizzy water. Some anosmia sufferers find that with all the aroma gone, the feeling in the trigeminal nerve is horribly strong. Cinnamon with all of the heat and none of the perfume can be alarming. Other individuals relish the buzzing sensation.

Boak’s largest revelation has been how essential the develop-up to a meal is. He grew up with excellent home-cooked meals. To make chicken in tarragon sauce with out the tarragon would just come to feel wrong. He utilizes parsley a lot also, even though, frankly, he cannot distinguish it from tarragon, except visually. But just the look of the components can stimulate appetite. He relishes the vivid green of the herbs on the chopping-board.

He also loves feeding other folks, who can enjoy the trouble he has taken. No one particular would choose to be anosmic but, to his shock, Boak has identified a world of meals past flavour.

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The Kitchen Thinker: how anosmia affects the pleasure of consuming

How Secondhand Smoke Affects Children

Secondhand smoke is the smoke emanating from cigarettes, pipes, cigars and the smoke a smoker exhales.  It is also referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), involuntary smoking, or passive smoking.  Smoke emitted from cigars, cigarettes, or pipes is at times referred to as sidestream smoke whereas exhaled smoke from a smoker is referred to as mainstream smoke.  Many concerned dad and mom and caregivers want to know how secondhand smoke impacts children.

How secondhand smoke affects young children

No matter the quantity of smoke, no volume is protected.  Every single and every time a person smokes, toxic chemicals get in the air and into every little thing including curtains, carpets, dust, furniture, and clothing, to identify a handful of.  Secondhand smoke consists of hundreds of toxic chemical substances, with far more than 70 chemical compounds that lead to cancer.

The Centers for Ailment Control and Prevention (CDC) warns parents to not smoke, or permit other people to smoke about newborn infants.  Chemicals from smoking impact an infant’s brain in techniques that interfere with their breathing.  Infants exposed to secondhand smoking are at a greater chance of acquiring Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Infants and young children exposed to secondhand smoke also get sick far more frequently than young children not exposed to these carcinogens in the air they may possibly get bronchitis, asthma, phenomena, painful ear infections, and they may commence coughing and wheezing.  A child’s potential to do math and study may be at harm due to publicity to passive smoking.  They are also at chance of creating leukemia or a type of liver cancer called hepatoblastoma.  Young children exposed to smokers are a lot more most likely to create lung cancer when they turn into grownups.

Protecting infants and children from secondhand smoke

Concerned mother and father and caregivers take steps to steer clear of smoking in or close to their homes and vehicles.  They live their lives, smoke-totally free.  They do not depart ashtrays, cigarette or cigar butts in a child’s attain.  The American Cancer Society suggests parents and caregivers avoid all smoking indoors in buy to shield youngsters from secondhand smoke.  They also warn us that secondhand smoke affects blood circulation, the heart, and blood vessels eventually it can result in stroke, heart attacks, and heart illness.  If you or a person you know needs aid to quit smoking, get in touch with the American Cancer Society at (800) 227-2345 or go to their website: Guide to Quitting Smoking

Read a lot more of George Zapo’s articles about public, global, and environmental well being at his web site: Healthy Habits.

How Secondhand Smoke Affects Children