Mind & Mood Archive

It’s nearly impossible to avoid all sources of stress in your life. While you can’t change the world around you, you can try to change your reactions. Learning the relaxation response — which is the opposite of the stress response — can help create a sense of peace and balance. The relaxation response is a physiologic shift that puts the brakes on stress before it becomes overwhelming. You can elicit this response by practicing techniques such as deep breathing, progressive relaxation, visualization, and meditation.

As we get older, most of us will have some problems with short-term memory and processing new information. That kind of cognitive decline is the aging brain's equivalent of creaky knees. It reminds us that we're not as young as we used to be, but we manage.

Dementia, though, is a different story. If someone has dementia, it means that multiple areas of thinking are affected and that the deficits are likely to get worse. And, by definition, dementia means the deterioration in memory and other areas of thought is bad enough that the tasks and decisions of everyday life become difficult, if not impossible. Dementia has several causes, but in this country, Alzheimer's disease is the main one, and it's responsible for between 60% and 80% of dementia cases.

Numerous studies have identified a correlation between higher consumption of the omega-3 fats contained in fish and fish oil and a lower risk of dementia and cognitive decline. Dig a little deeper, and one of the two main omega-3s, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), seems to deserve most of the credit. Donepezil (Aricept) and other cholinesterase inhibitors are the most common treatment for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. But, at best, they somewhat slow down the pace at which Alzheimer's gets worse, and the side effects are a problem. With the lack of effective treatment and DHA's promise — and low cost — a study to see if the omega-3 might benefit people in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease would seem worth a try.

The Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), a consortium of Alzheimer's disease clinics with funding from the federal government to run clinical trials, conducted a high-quality (randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled) trial of DHA. About 400 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's were assigned to take either 2 grams of DHA derived from algae or a placebo pill every day for 18 months. (Algae-derived DHA is becoming popular because of concerns about overfishing and contamination with pollutants and the growing number of people adhering to vegan diets.) The study participants took a battery of tests to measure attention, language, and other cognitive abilities at the beginning and end of the study.

Most of us spend the vast majority of our time inside. According to one government estimate, the average American spends 90% of his or her life indoors, and as we get older we become even more inclined not to venture out.  But is all this indoor time hurting our health?

The study results are ticking up: spending time outdoors seems to have discernible benefits for physical and mental health. Granted, some are merely by association and can be achieved by other means, perhaps while indoors, but often only with a good deal more trouble and expense. Here are five potential benefits of spending more time outdoors:

If your determination to become more physically active has started to flag, the findings of several studies may help renew your commitment. Research has already documented that higher levels of physical activity can help prevent or ameliorate many conditions that reduce function and hamper independence as we get older, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and depression. Various types of exercise have also been linked with a reduced risk for dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Now four studies, including two randomized trials, add further evidence that regular exercise may be the best thing we can do to stay not only physically healthy but also cognitively sharp into old age.

People bereaved by a suicide often get less support because it's hard for them to reach out — and because others are unsure how to help.

Every year in the United States, more than 45,000 people take their own lives. Every one of these deaths leaves an estimated six or more "suicide survivors" — people who've lost someone they care about deeply and are left with their grief and struggle to understand why it happened.

The grief process is always difficult, but a loss through suicide is like no other, and the grieving can be especially complex and traumatic. People coping with this kind of loss often need more support than others, but may get less. There are various explanations for this. Suicide is a difficult subject to contemplate. Survivors may be reluctant to confide that the death was self-inflicted. And when others know the circumstances of the death, they may feel uncertain about how to offer help. Grief after suicide is different, but there are many resources for survivors, and many ways you can help the bereaved.

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.