Jun
29
Two interesting articles on BBC Health recently.
The first talks about a University of Toronto study which claims that one death in 25 is linked to alcohol consumption – one in 10 in Europe and one in seven in the former Soviet Union. The researchers say, “Globally, the effect of alcohol on burden of disease is about the same size as that of smoking in 2000, but it is greatest in developing countries.”
These include India and China, where alcohol consumption is rapidly increasing.
 photo credit: Rivard
Women’s consumption of alcohol is increasing rapidly, but men are still five times more likely to die from alcohol-related illness, and young people are more likely to be negatively affected by alcohol than older people.
The paper says that, although there have been some benefits of moderate drinking in relation to cardiovascular disease, these are far outweighed by the detrimental effects of alcohol on disease and injury.
In addition to diseases directly caused by drinking, such as liver disorders, a wide range of other conditions such as mouth and throat cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, depression and stroke are linked to drinking.
Depression is a particularly worrying one, since global rates of depression are rising anyhow (though the cause and effect relationship between depression and drinking often goes both ways). So is cancer – according to the other BBC article (by Professor Martin Wiseman of the Global Cancer Research Fund), cancer rates are predicted to double in the next 40 years.
photo credit: DON PUGH PERTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Prof. Wiseman, who appears well-named, states: “scientists estimate about a third of the most common cancers could be prevented if people ate healthily, maintained a healthy weight and were regularly physically active.” His article recommends adopting the model of Bogota in Columbia, which has deliberately restructured the city to be friendlier to walking and cycling. This is good news for the New Zealand Government’s National Cycleway Project, too (and I’m seeing more cycleways round and about Auckland, though there is a long way to go before they become a viable network, and I still wouldn’t ride a bicycle here myself).
In terms of health improvement, the recommendations are the usual ones: stay active, eat healthily, drink moderately if at all, stop smoking or don’t start – we’ve heard all these a thousand times. There’s often a crucial gap, though, between what we know we ought to do and what we actually end up doing. Somehow some part of ourselves sabotages the process and we end up back in our old patterns.
That’s what I set out to change with hypnotherapy. People who come to me usually know how to live healthily and they want to do it, but there is that gap between desire and action. In a relaxed state, your mind can bridge that gap and help you live better, more healthily and (we hope) for longer.
Technorati Tags: exercise, cancer, alcohol, hypnotherapy, motivation, healthy lifestyle, personal change
Sign up below to get early notification and a discount on my forthcoming book, How Not to Change Your Life.
May
28
Earlier this week, a few things weren’t going too well for me – nothing too tragic, in the scheme of things, but enough that I felt mildly depressed.
I decided to try a technique that I’d stumbled upon with the help of a colleague. I was going to be doing something that reminded me of a very bad time in my life, and he suggested using a “trauma reversing” NLP technique. Now, I have only basic knowledge of NLP and he was giving me this in a quick Facebook comment, so I probably didn’t practice the technique “correctly”. As so often happens, ignorance created the possibility of coming up with something new.
photo credit: jurvetson
What I did was think of the feeling that you get when you get bad news or something goes badly wrong, that sudden drop in your gut – and run it backwards. Instead of a drop, a lift – such as you get when the news turns out not to be so bad after all, when hope is restored (or when you’re going up in an elevator). Create this feeling very deliberately, and use it a few times, until you’re feeling better. That’s what I call the “gut bump”.
Probably some NLP expert will come along and tell me that they’ve known about it for years and they call it something much, much fancier, but whatever you call it, it works.
I can even hazard a guess as to why. The human gut produces large amounts of serotonin, a chemical which the gut uses to control its functioning. Serotonin is also a key neurotransmitter used by the brain, and a shortage of it is one of the possible causes of depression. This is why many antidepressants, the so-called SSRIs or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, work by preventing the serotonin from being taken back up by the neurons that release it so that its concentration in the brain is increased.
Now, I could be completely wrong about that mechanism. All I know is, the “gut bump” sorted me out when I needed it to. Next time you’re feeling down (or anxious – it should work for that as well), give it a try.
Technorati Tags: serotonin, NLP, depression, anxiety, technique, non-drug alternatives
Sign up below to get early notification and a discount on my forthcoming book, How Not to Change Your Life.
Apr
29
Today’s post is a difficult one, and at first sight an odd fit for the Positive Psychology series. I’m going to talk about suicide.
The reason is that a relative of mine by marriage has just committed suicide, much to the shock and grief of all of us. He had been going through difficult times and had had a serious psychological break last year, but he seemed to be on the mend. Apparently not.
I live in a country with a high suicide rate, especially among youth. Inevitably, I have been touched by it before, though never so closely. One of my closest friends attempted suicide when we were in our 20s, and fortunately didn’t succeed (he is now pleased that he didn’t, though it took him a while to get to that perspective). I myself, at the lowest point in my life, once had suicidal thoughts for eight days running, but never acted on them. I still had enough perspective left to realize how devastating it would be for my friends and family, and that held me to life long enough for me to escape from the situation (and the pain) by a better way.
I think rather than do my usual technical post, the best thing I can do now is tell a story. Many years ago, there was a king who suffered from terrible mood swings. When he was up, he would rave and make terrible decisions, confident of his own greatness; when he was down, he would sit and do nothing, convinced of his own worthlessness. In modern terms, he was manic-depressive. But this was centuries ago, and the wise men and healers he called to advise him could find no solution for him.
At last his Fool approached him. “My Lord,” he said, “I have had made for you a wonderful ring. Slip it on your finger now, without looking, and next time one of your moods comes upon you, take it off and look inside, and you will see something that may help you.”
The king went along with the Fool and wore the ring. Soon afterwards, he became elated and began striding about, issuing grandiose orders – until he remembered the ring, slipped it off, and looked inside. Immediately, he became calmer.
A little later, he was headed into one of his dark moods, when he again remembered the ring and looked inside. What he found there seemed to comfort him.
The king never told anyone what was inside the ring, and nor did the Fool, who received a title and lands. But after a long and wise reign, during which he frequently consulted the ring, the king died, and his eldest son, itching with curiosity, slipped the ring off his father’s finger and looked inside.
Engraved around the inside of the band were the words, “This too shall pass.”
Technorati Tags: suicide, depression, mood swings
Sign up below to get early notification and a discount on my forthcoming book, How Not to Change Your Life.
|
