Tag: health

behavior · children · learning · school

When the future becomes detrimentally more important than the present

Beth Kelley

I read this article in the New York Times a couple of days ago, and it really bothered me:

Since second grade, Nathaly has taken advantage of a voluntary integration program here, leaving her home in one of the city’s poorer sections before 6:30 a.m. and riding a bus over an hour to Newton, a well-to-do suburb with top-quality schools. Some nights, she has so many activities that she does not get home until 10 p.m.; often she’s up past midnight studying.

“Nathaly gets so mad if she doesn’t make the honor roll,” says Stephanie Serrata, a classmate.

Last Wednesday, Nathaly did it again, with 5 A’s and 2 B’s for the first marking period.

via Let’s Get Ready Offers Help for College Admissions – NYTimes.com.

At first I couldn’t figure out why; it was a story essentially about all the great programs that our K-12 education system has for getting help and getting ahead in school and prepping to apply for prestigious colleges. Then, when I looked closer at the lead picture of the article it hit me:

Nathaly Lopera in her Passport class, one of several programs she attends to help her get into college. Article by MICHAEL WINERIP, New York Times, Nov 20th, 2011

This 17 year old girl is yawning in her class, and it’s not from boredom or because she stayed up too late the night before chatting with her friends online. It’s because she is working so hard to get into college she isn’t getting enough sleep. Her health is suffering for a future prospect of getting into a “good” secondary education facility.

I find this idea horrible. Yes, it’s great that all these programs exist for kids to get help in applying to college and help in school. I was a tutor in high school, and I took SAT-prep courses which helped me immensely. I applaud this girl’s dedication to her education and her future. I absolutely appreciate the idea of staying up late to study for finals every once in awhile. However, constant sleep deprivation is REALLY dangerous, both in the immediate present (poorer performance, slowed reaction times) and in the future (delayed physical and mental growth). Being sleepy is just as dangerous and being drunk behind the wheel of a car.

I truly believe that this push to get kids into a “good” school, focusing on the future, is a really bad idea.

There was the uproar earlier this year about the self-described “Tiger Mom” and her pride in how hard she pushed her kids. Again, while I appreciate how much she is dedicated to her daughters’ success, there have been numerous studies that show kids do just as well without the focused drilling by their parents. An extra push every now and then, and support driving them to piano lessons or football games? Absolutely! But a parent does not need to be a drill sergeant, nor does the kid need to be literally killing themselves to get into a decent college. A documentary came out in April discussing the phenomenon, called The Race To Nowhere, which does a really nice job of capturing how a lot of this college-prep focus is about as useful as a chicken running around with their head cut off.

I understand this kind of drive starts as early as preschool in many communities, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy into it! Yes, of course I want my future children to get a good college education. Yes, I want them to receive quality primary education. But focusing so much on the future is absolutely detrimental to the health of the child and to the parent.

I would love to hear back from people who have either dropped out of this school rat race to focus more on developing and spending time with their child now, or from people who feel this kind of dedication is essential and worth the health risks.

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architecture · design · environment · health · Nature · Social

Rehabilitating Vacant Lots Improves Urban Health and Safety

Beth Kelley

Humans are greatly effected by the greenery in their environments, but remember how a few weeks back I was lamenting that not much robust analysis or study had been done on this kind of positive impact? Well, voila!

ScienceDaily (2011-11-17) — Greening of vacant urban land may affect the health and safety of nearby residents. In a decade-long comparison of vacant lots and improved vacant lots, greening was linked to significant reductions in gun assaults across most of Philadelphia and significant reductions in vandalism in one section of the city. Vacant lot greening was also associated with residents in certain sections of the city reporting significantly less stress and more exercise.

more at ScienceDaily

Journal Reference:

  1. C. C. Branas, R. A. Cheney, J. M. MacDonald, V. W. Tam, T. D. Jackson, T. R. Ten Have. A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of Health, Safety, and Greening Vacant Urban Space. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2011; DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwr273
anthropology · architecture · community

Vancouver BC improving urban living for its older residents

Beth Kelley
Crosswalk button ne.
Making cities safe for residents of all ages is a major step to creating a more lively, sustainable community. Image via Wikipedia

Great article in the Vancouver Sun about the city working to make urban living more conducive to older folks:

City planners, engineers, seniors and health researchers came together to discuss things such as pedestrian crosswalks, which often don’t allow enough time for a safe crossing, given that at many lights the halting hand starts to flash after just seven seconds.

“It takes all hands on deck,” said Heather McKay, director of the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, referring to the necessity of collaboration when making infrastructure changes to the so-called “built environment.” That’s why the Vancouver Coastal Health centre helped organize the second annual research and community partnership symposium, called “If we build it, will they walk?”

Using a $1.5-million grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, McKay and her colleagues are examining factors that help make cities good places to grow older. Their goal is to identify the things that can prolong active and independent living, which will also help improve physical and emotional health, plus reduce dependency on the health care system.

Living in an urban environment makes a lot of sense for retired folks – easy access to public transportation, food, activities – as long as those resources are made accessible to their needs.

What other cities are making their spaces and infrastructure better for residents of all ages?

behavior · health · learning · psychology

There’s more to health than food, and there’s more to life than health – The Healthy Skeptic

Beth Kelley
New Zealand postage stamp, 1933: Public health.
Image via Wikipedia

Great post by Chris Kresser, also known as The Healthy Skeptic, although these days he’s just blogging under his name. Usually focusing how to be healthy by what food you put in your body, particularly for pregnant women, Kresser takes a step back and looks at the value of measuring overall health. Not just what you put in your body, but also how much sleep you get, how much stress is in your life, and if you make time for enriching activities.

“…it’s a mistake to assume that food is the only consideration that matters when it comes to health, and that all health problems can be solved simply by making dietary changes. Unfortunately, this seems to be an increasingly common assumption in the Paleo/Primal nutrition world these days.

I see a lot of people in my practice that have their nutrition completely dialed in, but don’t take care of themselves in other ways. Maybe they don’t manage their stress, they don’t exercise, or they don’t sleep well.

Even if this person eats a perfect diet, are they really healthy?

And what about the person who doesn’t eat particularly well, but sleeps like a baby, gets a massage a couple times a month, has a lot of fun, spends lots of time outdoors, and doesn’t have any health problems?”

more via There’s more to health than food, and there’s more to life than health.

It’s nice to see a holistic view when so many specialists only focus on one element of overall health.

What are some “blind” areas in your life? Areas where you ignore or neglect taking care of yourself?

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behavior · community · happiness · hugs · psychology

10 Psychological Effects of Touch — PsyBlog

Beth Kelley
A closeup of a hug.
A hug or touch can have a major influence on mood, overall attitude, and even income. Image via Wikipedia

I’m not a very “huggy” person, but this article makes me give that attitude a second thought. Touch, particularly the non-sexual kind, has many benefits for humans, such as creating friendly feelings, calming nerves, and help others be more sympathetic.

Touch is a sense that’s often forgotten. But touch is also vital in the way we understand and experience the world. Even the lightest touch on the upper arm can influence the way we think. To prove it, here are 10 psychological effects which show just how powerful nonsexual touch can be.

via 10 Psychological Effects of Nonsexual Touch — PsyBlog.

The ten benefits of touch mentioned in the article are:

  1. Money
  2. Help
  3. Compliance
  4. More touch leads to more compliance
  5. Fighting (there’s a benefit to fighting, really)
  6. Selling
  7. Dating (yes, nonsexual touch helps sexual touching too)
  8. Power, influence
  9. Clearer communication
  10. Boosting brain power!

Find out more details in the article, plus the multiple studies used to contribute.

 

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behavior · brain · children · environment · family · learning · psychology

How To Help Your Child’s Brain Grow Up Strong : NPR

Beth Kelley

A lot of parents freak out about how to provide enriching environments for their children and help them grow, from music lessons to early reading to math flash cards.

In one of those “well duh” books, two neuroscientists, Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang remind us it doesn’t take all that much…

Babies may look helpless, but as soon as they come into the world, they’re able to do a number of important things. They can recognize faces and moving objects. They’re attracted to language. And from very early on, they can differentiate their mother from other humans.

“They really come equipped to learn about the world in a way that wasn’t appreciated until recently,” says neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt. “It took scientists a long time to realize that their brains are doing some very complicated things.”

Aamodt and fellow neuroscientist Sam Wang explain how the human brain develops from infancy to adolescence in their new book, Welcome to Your Child’s Brain. The two researchers also offer tips for parents to help their children eat their spinach, learn their ABCs and navigate elementary school.

more via How To Help Your Child’s Brain Grow Up Strong : NPR, on Fresh Air.

They talk with Terry Gross about complicated concepts like self control, abstract thought, and things that are even hard for some grown-ups, and how to create an environment that makes kids want to practice these things.

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behavior · disease · emotion · mental health

10 Things I Learned From People Who Survive Cancer | Care2 Healthy Living

Beth Kelley

This is a great article that was shared with me by a friend who has survived cancer (that’s a huge deal, by the way, I’ve had plenty of friends and family the last couple of years who didn’t). It was written Lissa Ranken for her project The Woman Inside. Lissa noticed that all of the cancer survivors she met shared some characteristics in common:

They had all faced down death and decided to live every day like it might be their last. And then they all beat cancer.The more interviews I did, the more I noticed that these women were living differently than most of the people I knew who had not been diagnosed with cancer. Here’s what I learned from those survivor women. Learning these lessons changed my life, and I hope they’ll change yours.

read on for 10 Things I Learned From People Who Survive Cancer | Care2 Healthy Living.

What they all boil down to is being yourself and living for the moment. These women all had days where that moment might have been their last, so they made the most of it. They got angry, they put themselves and their health first, and they got better.

It is a lesson that we can all learn, to not worry about doing what’s “right” for the future so much, or “right” for someone else. Yes it’s important to be nice and get along with people and make sure you have enough money saved for retirement, but so much of the time I’ve seen people, myself included, act a certain way or do something because they thought it would make other people happy, when the truth is if they did what they wanted to do for themselves it would have worked out just as well, if not better!

So go read the 10 things, and then tell yourself you’re beautiful and being feisty is a good thing!

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brain · health · mental health · neuroscience · psychology

Strain on the Brain can lead to long term health problems: Scientific American

Beth Kelley1 Comment
PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer's disease
Image of a brain of a patient with Alzheimer's. Image via Wikipedia

As I sit here stressing out about working on my master’s thesis, a knot in my stomach about the training manual due by the end of day tomorrow, worried about my dog’s injured knee, and wondering why my mom hasn’t called me back yet, I was reminded of an article I read recently in Scientific American about the really, really damaging effects of stress, particularly over the long term.

A recent wave of research has unveiled an important environmental player in the genesis of neurodegenerative disease: stress.Pairs of identical twins developed Alzheimer’s disease in concert only 40 percent of the time, showing that factors other than genetics must contribute to the disorder.Stress seems to impede the ability of certain brain cells to recover from insults, triggering or aggravating the symptoms of disorders such as Parkinson’s.

more via Strain on the Brain: Scientific American.

We’ve been aware for awhile that long-term, ongoing stress is bad for us, even before Robert Zapolsky’s Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers came out, but it’s still a nice reminder how important it is for all of us to take a break every once in awhile.

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behavior · brain · emotion · mental health

The One Minute Vacation from The Business School of Happiness

Beth Kelley
Animation of a diaphragm exhaling and inhaling
Follow this cartoon's directions and fill your lungs all the way to your diaphragm, and push the air out from the same place. Image via Wikipedia

Just a nice reminder to breathe every once in a while, courtesy of the Business School of Happiness:

The mere thought of taking a vacation can bring a smile to almost anyone’s face. The idea of getting away from work loads, demanding children, school and any and all other commitments that make up daily life is immensely appealing.

Unfortunately, time and money may hamper making those visions of relaxation reality. This need not be the case because that the same relaxing benefits of taking a vacation can be found in minutes of simple meditation interspersed throughout the day. In fact, three one minute sessions of deep breathing–taken at pre-set intervals throughout the day may indeed deliver the deep sense of peacefulness that might have seemed elusive.

The secret? Schedule a minute of relaxation every two to three hours–just like you would an appointment or meeting. Mark it on your calendar so you don’t forget. Then, find a quiet place. Lock yourself in a bathroom stall if it is your only option or pull over while driving. Close your eyes and take a series of 10-20 very deep, thoughtful breaths.

more tips on breathing via The One Minute Vacation » The Business School of Happiness.

In all honesty I am the worst when it comes to taking time for myself, even a minute. But I posted this exercise, or at least one very similar, to my desk cubicle at work, and even if I don’t give myself a relaxing vacation every couple of hours, it does remind me that that is an option, and it is much more productive than fretting for those two or three minutes.

It may feel weird at first, but give it a shot: breathe innnn sloooooowwwly until you think you can’t fill your lungs any fuller, and then let sloooooowwwly let it out. There, I bet you feel better already. Remember, the more breathing you do the better it is for your brain.

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behavior · environment · happiness · health · mental health · Nature

The healing effects of forests, gardens, greenery

Beth Kelley1 Comment
Hopetoun Falls, Beech Forest, near Otway Natio...
Visiting natural environments even for a short time can be beneficial for one's health. Image via Wikipedia

After spending some time this weekend in my garden, lounging in the dappled sunlight, it reminded me just how powerful nature is to rejuvenate and heal both physically and emotionally.

Many studies show that after stressful or concentration-demanding situations, people recover faster and better in natural environments than in urban settings. Blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and the level of “stress hormones” all decrease faster in natural settings. Depression, anger and aggressiveness are reduced in green environments and ADHD symptoms in children reduce when they play in green settings.

via The healing effects of forests.

So remember the next time you’re stressed, just staring at a house plant can help destress you.

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