Mind & Mood Archive

It's no secret that alcohol affects our brains. Although excessive drinking is linked to an increased risk of dementia, decades of observational studies have indicated that moderate drinking has few ill effects. However, a recent British study seems to have bad news for moderate drinkers.

If you suffer from anxiety, the constant, nagging feelings of worry can be troubling and hard to control. These feelings are usually intense and out of proportion to the actual troubles and dangers in your everyday life. They can make it hard to function at home, at work, or in social situations.

Anxiety can be treated with medication, but several mind-body approaches may also be effective.

Harvard research suggests meaningful relationships are a prescription for better emotional, mental, and physical health.

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You probably know there are many ways to improve your well-being and chances of living longer, such as exercising more or eating better. But did you know that maintaining meaningful relationships also may play an important role in health, happiness, and longevity? "Good, close relationships appear to buffer us from the problems of getting old," says Dr. Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Eight decades of research

Dr. Waldinger is the current director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an ongoing analysis that's followed more than 700 men since they were teenagers in 1938. More than 60 of the original participants, now in their 90s, are still taking part.

By the time memory loss shows up, the disease is well under way. Researchers are finding ways that may reveal brain changes sooner.

For a long time, memory loss was seen as the telltale sign of Alzheimer's disease. While this is certainly the most common symptom, it may not be the best way to identify the disease in its early stages.

"A major problem of Alzheimer's diagnosis, and ultimately effective treatment, is that by the time the first clinical symptoms appear, irreversible damage to the brain has already occurred," says Dr. Seth Gale, a neurologist with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "It is now believed that Alzheimer's-related changes begin in the brain at least a decade before any symptoms emerge."

A discussion with your doctor may minimize your chance of becoming dependent on or addicted to these powerful painkillers.

Opioid misuse is now one of most important health problems in the United States, rivaling smoking as a cause of death. Although news reports tend to focus on an opioid crisis among the young, the opioid epidemic is increasingly affecting older people as well. In fact, the rates of hospitalization for opioid overdoses among Medicare recipients quintupled from 1993 through 2012. Although older people are still less likely than younger ones to become addicted or succumb to opioid overdoses, they are more likely to suffer side effects from extended opioid use, including memory and cognition problems and falls.

"Opioid use and pain management is something we deal with constantly," says Dr. Michael L. Barnett, assistant professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for opioids in 2015, and those who did got an average of five such prescriptions or refills. Dr. Barnett and a team of his colleagues decided to investigate how Medicare recipients get opioid prescriptions in the first place.

There is growing evidence that the placebo effect is at work in most successful medical therapies.

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When you were a child, your mother or grandmother might have used a home remedy that made you feel better, especially when it was delivered with a soothing hand on the forehead or a kiss on the cheek. Perhaps she assured you that a cup of warm milk would help you fall asleep, and you found that it did.

Unbeknownst to you — or her — she was probably harnessing the placebo effect, loosely defined as a favorable response to a medical intervention that doesn't have a direct physiological effect. Although you may have learned later in life that there isn't much scientific evidence to support the practice, you may still sleep better after a cup of warm milk at bedtime.

The brain's fear center may trigger inflammation and lead to a heart attack. But stress reduction techniques can break the chain.

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A small, almond-shaped area deep inside the brain called the amygdala is involved in processing intense emotions, such as anxiety, fear, and stress. Now, a new brain-imaging study reveals how heightened activity in the amygdala may trigger a series of events throughout the body that raises heart attack risk.

"This study identifies a mechanism that links stress, artery inflammation, and subsequent risk of a heart attack," says study leader Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Earlier animal studies have shown that stress activates bone marrow to make white blood cells. These infection-fighting cells trigger inflammation, a process that encourages the buildup of fatty plaque inside artery walls. "But what we didn't know was, does this happen in humans? And what is the role of the brain?" he says.

Don't accept regular fatigue as part of aging.

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Weariness, tiredness, lack of energy. There are many ways to describe those times when you are so fatigued you can't do anything. Often you bounce back after a quick rest or a good night's sleep, but if fatigue is occurring more often and lasting longer, it could be a sign of something more serious.

"Men may chalk up fatigue to aging, but there is no reason you should battle ongoing fatigue," says Dr. Suzanne Salamon, a geriatric physician with Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "Everyone gets tired sometimes, and your endurance may decline with age — you may not move as fast and sometimes tire quicker — but you should never be too fatigued to enjoy an active lifestyle."

Hurting bodies and suffering minds often require the same treatment.

Pain, especially chronic pain, is an emotional condition as well as a physical sensation. It is a complex experience that affects thought, mood, and behavior and can lead to isolation, immobility, and drug dependence.

In those ways, it resembles depression, and the relationship is intimate. Pain is depressing, and depression causes and intensifies pain. People with chronic pain have three times the average risk of developing psychiatric symptoms — usually mood or anxiety disorders — and depressed patients have three times the average risk of developing chronic pain.

Some people live long lives with no disease or serious illness. What can they teach you about healthy living?

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You won't live forever, but it may be possible to live a long and maybe disease-free life by following the lead of "wellderlies."

This is a term to describe a special group of people who have reached ages 90 to 100 without having any major health issue or disease. And if they do get sick, it often happens late in their life and a short period before death.