Health Blog

A healthy body and a sound mind

Want to Live Longer? Build Lasting Friendships!

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Friendship
It’s been proven that having good friends promotes a happy and healthy life. With friends, particularly of the same gender, a person gets to share a lot of things including their experiences in life whether good or bad. When you start out young, you see each other grow and mature. Women, in particular, crave to have close ties with friends.

Friends are a source of strength and inspiration. In fact, when you are able to establish deep connections, you benefit from it healthwise.

The Mayo Clinic confirms that having good friends equals good health. The reasons are plenty. A person increases his sense of belongingness and purpose, boosts his happiness, lowers stress, improves his self-worth and decreases his risk of serious mental illness.

In addition, friends help people overcome their hardships and traumas such as loss of a loved one, job loss, divorce or serious illness and they provide support when you are in the process of changing your lifestyle. [Read more…]

Originally posted on March 29, 2013 @ 2:33 pm

Common Symptoms of Depression

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Depression is a very real problem that many people go through without even realizing it. A study made by the National Library of Medicine revealed that 20 million people suffer from depression in the United States alone.

Depression can happen to anyone – male, female, young or old. In fact, about 26.2 percent of Americans from ages 18 and up can suffer from a mental disorder that can be diagnosable. That’s one in four adults. Depression can be diagnosed and if you know the symptoms of depression, you can identify if you or a loved one is suffering from it.

Here are some of the more common symptoms of depression. [Read more…]

Originally posted on April 20, 2012 @ 4:13 pm

What is SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)?

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You may be wondering why at certain times of the year you unexpectedly fall into a mild to deep depression. Out of nowhere you suddenly feel despair, loneliness and even have a difficult time getting out of bed. There are no indications as to why you feel this way. Everything in your life seems fine and you are surrounded by loving, supportive people. So therefore you wonder, why the gloom?

SAD

These unexplained symptoms were recognized by the psychiatric community as recently as 1984 which became known as Seasonal Affective Disorder or, more appropriately, SAD. Although there is no official test to determine a SAD diagnosis, it is usually attributed to symptoms reacting to the slow change from light to dark and warm to cold during the winter months. However, SAD can also be experienced when the season changes from winter into spring and sometimes spring into summer, however winter is the most prominent time.

Duration

SAD usually begins around mid to late September and can hang on all the way through November. The good news is that this condition usually dissipates as the season gets into full swing and the body adjusts accordingly. [Read more…]

Originally posted on October 20, 2011 @ 9:44 am

Diabetes and Depression

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DiabetesStudies have shown that pregnant women and new mothers that have diabetes are in far greater risk for developing post partum depression (PPD). Though the reason for the higher risk is not yet exactly known what is known is that out of 11,000 women who were enrolled in New Jersey’s Medicaid program 15.2 percent of those that had diabetes became depressed during pregnancy or up to a year after birth. The percentage of diabetic women who did not suffer from postpartum depression is significantly lower at only 8.5 percent.

What this means for expectant mothers is that if routine diabetes tests give you a positive result you should also discuss with your doctor the possibility of post partum depression and ways to prevent and manage problem. This is very important because post partum depression IS treatable. Since the disorder is underdiagnosed, by being aware and discussing with your doctor the risk factors involved, in case you end up suffering from PPD chances of it going undetected will be minimized, which in turn means fast help for you.

The link between diabetes and depression has already been studied before but it is only now that the figures for diabetes and PPD have come out.

Photo via MsH_ISB

Originally posted on June 9, 2011 @ 1:39 pm