in 2-year smartphone sleep tracking study Not sleeping enough or getting a bad night’s sleep over and over makes it hard to control your appetite. And that sets you up for all sorts of health problems, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. The link between poor sleep and a greater body mass index (BMI) has been shown in study after study, but researchers typically relied on the memories of the participants to record how…
Self-esteem is a popular topic these days, with even parenting guides encouraging parents to start young in encouraging their children’s self-esteem. It’s not hard to see why — people with a good sense of self-esteem consistently have better mental health and are happier and more successful. But what happens when you don’t have a high self-esteem? It’s not too late. When you struggle with low self-esteem, improving your sense of self-worth can be a journey that takes both time and…
It’s normal to feel anxious or worried from time to time. Work deadlines, writing an exam or giving a presentation, for example, can trigger short-lived anxiety. People with an anxiety disorder, however, experience persistent and intense anxiety, worry or fear that’s out of proportion to everyday occurrences. Symptoms interfere with daily life, impacting thoughts, emotions, behaviour and physical health. Anxiety disorders include panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (excessive worry about ordinary, everyday situations). Anxiety often…
Positive psychology often is passed off as pop psychology or New Age-y by those who haven’t actually looked into it. The actual theory behind positive psychology was defined in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [1] and looks at all aspects of a person’s psychology. It does not discount traditional psychology, nor supersede it. Rather than viewing psychology purely as a treatment for the malign, however, it looks at the positive. Positive psychology is a recognized form of therapy…
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found that social connection may be the strongest protective factor against depression, and suggest that reducing sedentary activities such as TV watching and daytime napping could also help reduce the risk of depression. The team identified a set of modifiable factors from a field of more than 100 that could represent valuable targets for preventing depression in adults. The findings are published in The American Journal of Psychiatry. “Depression is the leading cause…
The main lifestyle factors that increase your life expectancy are reducing stress and avoiding smoking, heavy drinking and type 2 diabetes, a study reveals. Type 2 diabetes can be prevented naturally by doing regular physical activity, healthy eating, and getting enough sleep. A person’s quality of life, such as poor sleep and lifestyle risk factors such as obesity will all influence longevity. Researchers found that diabetes and smoking are the leading causes of life shortening for both men and women….
High levels of this vitamin are associated with 20 pounds more weight loss. Higher levels of vitamin D are linked to more weight loss, research finds. People who are dieting have been shown to lose 20 pounds more when they have high vitamin D levels. Vitamin D at higher levels in the body is also associated with burning belly fat. The conclusions come from a study of 4,421 people whose total body fat and belly fat was measured. Across men…
Your workout has so many benefits for your mental health, longevity, immune system and more. Many people who loathe exercise arguably feel that way because of how the activity has been marketed to them. For too long, exercise and weight loss have been indivisibly bound, leading many to fall into the comparison trap, experience shame or engage in negative self-talk. But moving your body grants so much more than a fit figure or relief from the guilt of indulging in…
The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that one in every five U.S. adults lives with a mental illness. This number adds up to nearly 50 million people. Sadly, these numbers likely underestimate the extent of the problem. Why is mental health important? A bit of a rhetorical question, right? Clearly, mental health directly affects the quality of our life. Our mental health determines our productivity, feelings of self-worth, confidence, and skillfulness in navigating life’s inevitable challenges. Good mental…
Grief, fear, heartbreak, depression — book therapy promises to treat it all. Eight months ago, when his father died suddenly of a stroke, the last thing on James Mitchell’s mind was literature. There were, of course, far more pressing matters to consider, far more natural instincts to confront than the strange impulse to seek refuge in a novel. The dimensions of grief are always unimaginable, and a desire to see reading, of all things, as the logical solution to its…