Lessons Learned from Dealing with Bad Emotions

EVERYONE should read this article.

Reminds me of how after taking Interpersonal Communication Skills, for a Speech credit in College, I thought to myself - THIS should be a required course for everybody in order to graduate!

Top 7 Lessons Learned on Dealing with Bad Emotions - Sources of Insight

29 OCTOBER 2010 

“Genius is the ability to renew one’s emotions in daily experience.” — Paul Cezanne

Editor’s note: Bad emotions happen. The test is — what will you do about them?

Here are the top seven lessons I learned on dealing with bad emotions …

Lesson #1 – Bad feelings are just signals
Lots of people never manage to understand the fact that bad feelings are signals sent by their minds in order to motivate them to do something. Just like hunger is a signal that shows that you need food emotions are signals that show you that you are in need of something.

Lesson #2 – Dealing with the root cause is the key
When most people feel bad they try to change their mood by doing something new, traveling, keeping themselves busy or even by using drugs. Bad moods intensify when you ignore them that way and the only way to end them to deal with the root cause. Think of a bad mood as a tree, if you want to get rid of it you have to cut the root instead of dealing with branches that will grow once again

Lesson #3 – 1+1= 14
The presence of two bad emotions at the same time will dramatically increase the intensity of bad feelings so make sure you never allow problems to accumulate. For example loneliness alone might be bearable, stress alone is bearable but both together would be a killer combination.

Lesson #4 – The faster you respond the better you will feel
When your subconscious mind sends you signals in the form of bad feelings and you don’t respond it will send you stronger signals later on. That’s how mild depression turns into severe depression and that’s how prolonged stress ends into nervous breakdowns. In short, respond as soon as you get the message.

Lesson #5 – Look for signs of problems
Bad dreams, insomnia, bad moods that seem to come out of nowhere are all signs that you have been suppressing bad emotions instead of dealing with them. If those signs started to appear then take immediate action

Lesson #6 – Mood swings
Mood swings are nothing more than changes in your feelings that happen when you see something that quickly reminds you of one of your unsolved problems. If for example you wanted to lose weight but were doing nothing about then seeing a swimsuit model could trigger a mood swing

Lesson #7 – You don’t have to solve the problem, you just have to start
Just like intense hunger is reduced to half the moment you start taking the first bite bad emotions are reduced to a great extent the minute you start taking actions. So you don’t have to solve your problems in order to feel good, you just have to start solving them.

Photo by lensbug.chandru.

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I'll tell you no lies. I'll answer nearly anything.

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Wednesdey (Wednesdey) | Formspring

With the rate of diabetes in the US, I'm hoping this proves to me a great help.

Scientists discover new mechanism for controlling blood sugar level

November 29, 2010

This hematoxylin- and eosin-stained pancreatic slice illustrates an islet of Langerhans adjacent to a capillary. Credit: University of Leicester

Medical scientists at the University of Leicester have identified for the first time a new way in which our body controls the levels of sugar in our blood following a meal.

They have discovered the part played by a particular protein in helping to maintain correct blood sugar levels.
The breakthrough was made in the University of Leicester by a team led by Professor Andrew Tobin, Professor of Cell Biology, who is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. The research is published online ahead of print in the prestigious international scientific journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor Tobin said: "The work, which was done wholly at the University of Leicester, is focused on the mechanisms by which our bodies control the level of sugar in our blood following a meal.
"We found that in order to maintain the correct levels of sugar, a protein present on the cells that release insulin in the pancreas has to be active. This protein, called the M3-muscarinic receptor, is not only active but also needs to undergo a specific change. This change triggers insulin release and the control of blood sugar levels."
Professor Tobin added: "Without the change in the M3-muscarinic receptor protein sugar levels go up in the same way that we see in diabetes. We are of course testing if the mechanism of controlling sugar levels we have discovered is one of the mechanisms disrupted in diabetes. If this were the case then our studies would have important implications in diabetes."

More information: M3-muscarinic receptor promotes insulin release via receptor phosphorylation/arrestin-dependent activation of protein kinase D1 appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) http://www.pnas.or … stract?ct=ct
Provided by University of Leicester

Critter Carols. For my kitty loving friends.

Have yourself a merry winter solstice!

Imagine cute computer generated cats singing Jingle Bells.  Visit the link if you want to actually hear it.

Critter Carols e-Card - petcentric by Purina

We spend more time sick now than a decade ago

I've often wondered what the statistics were for this.

We spend more time sick now than a decade ago

Monday, December 13, 2010

(Photo: Paul Barker/STOCK.XCHNG)

Increased life expectancy in the United States has not been accompanied by more years of perfect health, reveals new research published in the December issue of the Journal of Gerontology.

Indeed, a 20-year-old today can expect to live one less healthy year over his or her lifespan than a 20-year-old a decade ago, even though life expectancy has grown.

From 1970 to 2005, the probability of a 65-year-old surviving to age 85 doubled, from about a 20 percent chance to a 40 percent chance. Many researchers presumed that the same forces allowing people to live longer, including better health behaviors and medical advances, would also delay the onset of disease and allow people to spend fewer years of their lives with debilitating illness.

But new research from Eileen Crimmins, AARP Chair in Gerontology at the University of Southern California, and Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, a postdoctoral fellow at the Andrus Gerontology Center at USC, shows that average "morbidity," or, the period of life spend with serious disease or loss of functional mobility, has actually increased in the last few decades.

"We have always assumed that each generation will be healthier and longer lived than the prior one," Crimmins explained. "However, the compression of morbidity may be as illusory as immortality."

While people might be expected to live more years with disease simply as a function of living longer in general, the researchers show that the average number of healthy years has decreased since 1998. We spend fewer years of our lives without disease, even though we live longer.

A male 20-year-old in 1998 could expect to live another 45 years without at least one of the leading causes of death: cardiovascular disease, cancer or diabetes. That number fell to 43.8 years in 2006, the loss of more than a year. For young women, expected years of life without serious disease fell from 49.2 years to 48 years over the last decade.

At the same time, the number of people who report lack of mobility has grown, starting with young adults. Functional mobility was defined as the ability to walk up ten steps, walk a quarter mile, stand or sit for 2 hours, and stand, bend or kneel without using special equipment.

A male 20-year-old today can expect to spend 5.8 years over the rest of his life without basic mobility, compared to 3.8 years a decade ago — an additional two years unable to walk up ten steps or sit for two hours. A female 20-year-old can expect 9.8 years without mobility, compared to 7.3 years a decade ago.

"There is substantial evidence that we have done little to date to eliminate or delay disease while we have prevented death from diseases," Crimmins explained. "At the same time, there have been substantial increases in the incidences of certain chronic diseases, specifically, diabetes."

From 1998 to 2006, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease increased among older men, the researchers found. Both older men and women showed an increased prevalence of cancer. Diabetes increased significantly among all adult age groups over age 30.

The proportion of the population with multiple diseases also increased.

"The increasing prevalence of disease may to some extent reflect better diagnostics, but what it most clearly reflects is increasing survival of people with disease," Crimmins said. "The cost of maintaining and providing care for people with chronic conditions is an important part of determining the economic well-being of countries with established social security and government-provided health services."

Crimmins and Beltrán-Sánchez note that only delaying the onset of disease through preventive care will clearly lead to longer disease-free lives.

"The growing problem of lifelong obesity and increases in hypertension and high cholesterol are a sign that health may not be improving with each generation," Crimmins said. "We do not appear to be moving to a world where we die without experiencing significant periods of disease, functioning loss, and disability."

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University of Southern California: http://www.usc.edu

Thanks to University of Southern California for this article.
The sole purpose of the posting of this press release is to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below.

So far it works for mice with PTSD?

http://www.labspaces.net/108049/Drug_prevents_post_traumatic_stress_syndrome

Drug prevents post-traumatic stress syndrome

Monday, December 6, 2010

 (didn't see a photo credit listed for this awesome pic)

Post-traumatic stress syndrome – when a severely stressful event triggers exaggerated and chronic fear – affects nearly 8 million people in the United States and is hard to treat. In a preclinical study, Northwestern Medicine scientists have for the first time identified the molecular cause of the debilitating condition and prevented it from occurring by injecting calming drugs into the brain within five hours of a traumatic event.
Northwestern researchers discovered the brain becomes overly stimulated after a traumatic event causes an ongoing, frenzied interaction between two brain proteins long after they should have disengaged.

"It's like they keep dancing even after the music stops," explained principal investigator Jelena Radulovic, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Dunbar Scholar at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. When newly developed research drugs MPEP and MTEP were injected into the hippocampus, the calming drugs ended "the dance."

"We were able to stop the development of exaggerated fear with a simple, single drug treatment and found the window of time we have to intervene," Radulovic said. "Five hours is a huge window to prevent this serious disorder." Past studies have tried to treat the extreme fear responses, after they have already developed, she noted.

The study, conducted with mice, was published Dec. 1 in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

An exaggerated fear disorder can be triggered by combat, an earthquake, a tsunami, rape or any traumatic psychological or physical event.

"People with this syndrome feel danger in everything that surrounds them," Radulovic said. "They are permanently alert and aroused because they expect something bad to happen. They have insomnia; their social and family bonds are severed or strained. They avoid many situations because they are afraid something bad will happen. Even the smallest cues that resemble the traumatic event will trigger a full-blown panic attack."

In a panic attack, a person's heart rate shoots up, they may gasp for breath, sweat profusely and have a feeling of impending death.

Many people bounce back to normal functioning after stressful or dangerous situations have passed. Others may develop an acute stress disorder that goes away after a short period of time. But some go on to develop post-traumatic stress syndrome, which can appear after a time lag.

The stage is set for post-traumatic stress disorder after a stressful event causes a natural flood of glutamate, a neurotransmitter that excites the neurons. The excess glutamate dissipates after 30 minutes, but the neurons remain frenzied. The reason is the glutamate interacts with a second protein (Homer1a), which continues to stimulate the glutamate receptor, even when glutamate is gone.

For the study, Northwestern scientists first subjected mice to a one-hour immobilization, which is distressing to them but not painful. Next, the mice explored the inside of a box and, after they perceived it as safe, received a brief electric shock. Usually after a brief shock in the box, the animals develop normal fear conditioning. If they are returned to the box, they will freeze in fear about 50 percent of the time. However, after the second stressful experience, these mice froze 80 to 90 percent of the time.

The animals' exaggerated chronic fear response continued for at least one month and resembles post-traumatic stress disorder in humans, Radulovic said.

For the second part of the study, Natalie Tronson, a postdoctoral fellow in Radulovic's Dunbar Laboratory for Research on Memory and Fear, and Radulovic repeated the two stressful experiences with the mice but then injected them with MPEP and MTEP five hours after the immobilization. This time the mice did not develop the exaggerated fear response and froze for only 50 percent of the time.

"The mice's fear responses were completely normal," Radulovic said. "Their memories of the stressful event didn't trigger the extreme responses anymore. This means we could have a prevention approach for humans exposed to acute, severe stressful events. "

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Northwestern University: http://www.northwestern.edu

Thanks to Northwestern University for this article.
The sole purpose of the posting of this press release is to serve as a topic for discussion.

A great modern song for the holidays

Really? Index Finger Length Related to Prostate Cancer?

This theory is still in early stage research. Just curious though guys, is your index finger longer than your ring finger? Any of you had or know you are genetically predisposed to prostate cancer? I've generally thought that the great majority of people their ring finger was longer, so this info doesn't seem very compelling to me. However, it is a topic of interest to me since men on both sides of my family have


Index finger length prostate cancer clue

Georgia farmer fined $5K for growing too many veggies | Food Freedom

Georgia farmer fined $5K for growing too many veggies | Food Freedom

What ever is the country coming to!  Difficult to believe this is real.  Will have to do more reading of the back story.