Anxiety Archive

Although poor health can lead to unhappiness and a shorter life, unhappiness alone is not associated with a shorter life span, according to a recent report from the Million Woman Study. That investigation has followed hundreds of thousands of women throughout the United Kingdom beginning in 1996 and has tracked deaths among the participants.

In the third year of the study, the women were asked to rate their health, happiness, stress, feelings of control, and whether they felt relaxed. When the researchers looked at data from 720,000 women with a median age of 59, they found that 83% reported being generally happy and 17% said they were unhappy. During 10 years of follow-up, 4% of participants died. When the researchers factored out poor health, which was strongly associated with unhappiness, they found that the risk of dying was essentially the same for happy and unhappy women. The study was published online Dec. 6, 2015, by The Lancet.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently updated their guidelines on screening for depression. This time around, they recommended widespread screening through primary care practices, plus gave special attention to women who are pregnant or recently gave birth. These matter-of-fact, achievable guidelines and goals have the potential to reap enormous health benefits.

Light therapy, either alone or in combination with an antidepressant, can alleviate major depression.

This ancient practice can transform the way you think about food and set the stage for a lifetime of healthy eating.

Like most of us, you've probably eaten something in the past few hours. And, like many of us, you may not be able to recall everything you ate, let alone the sensation of eating it. According to a 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American spends two-and-a-half hours a day eating, but more than half the time, we're doing something else, too. Because we're working, driving, reading, watching television, or fiddling with an electronic device, we're not fully aware of what we're eating. And this mindless eating—a lack of awareness of the food we're consuming—may be contributing to the national obesity epidemic and other health issues, says Dr. Lilian Cheung, a nutritionist and lecturer at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Ask the doctor

Q. My daughter had a miscarriage a few months ago and since then she has been depressed and withdrawn. Do you know anything I can do to help?

A. Miscarriage can involve a difficult emotional recovery, and many women and their partners are surprised at the intensity of their feelings. Many women who have experienced a miscarriage feel that they have done something wrong. They may worry that the miscarriage resulted from stress or lifestyle choices they made during pregnancy. In fact, most miscarriages are the result of chromosomal abnormalities, structural abnormalities of the uterus, or maternal endocrine or autoimmune disorders.

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Four steps—following a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, socializing, and challenging your brain—can improve your mental skills, even as you age.

Observational studies over the past few years seem to be repeating the same message: regular physical activity, a good diet, taking on new mental challenges, and maintaining strong social connections may each help you hang on to your mind. The latest and most impressive study goes a step further by suggesting that if you follow all four practices, you may even reverse lost mental capacity. The results of the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) indicated that doing so not only kept cognitive skills from declining, it also improved reasoning skills and speed in performing mental tasks.

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Tau proteins, and not necessarily beta-amyloid, may be the key to unlocking a viable treatment.

Alzheimer's disease affects more than five million people, and that number is expected to more than double by 2050. While there is no cure, attention has refocused on what many researchers believe is a major player in Alzheimer's: tau proteins.

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In the journals

A study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging and Neuroscience (Aug. 25, 2015) has found that fitness levels in older adults correlates with activation in areas in the brain's frontal lobe responsible for executive function—mental skills used to manage time, plan and organize, and remember details. The researchers examined brain imaging and cardio fitness data from 128 adults ages 50 to 80. Cardio fitness level was determined by measuring maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) while a person walked at increasing speed on a treadmill. Executive function skills were measured by how fast and accurately a person responded to computer stimuli like numbers and letters.

The results: People with a higher cardiorespiratory fitness level showed greater brain activation in the frontal lobe. They were also better at performing two simultaneous tasks compared with a single one. This is important since older adults have more difficulty processing multiple tasks, says the researchers. While this study found a link between good cardio health and better cognitive function, more research is needed to show you can improve your brain function by increasing your fitness.