Stressed Out Parents Can Affect Their Kids Health

Stressed Out Parents Can Affect Their Kids Health

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recently discovered that increased parental stress is related to higher rates of childhood obesity and fast food consumption, along with lower rates of physical activity.

In particular, the study found that, for parents who are more stressed out, their children consume fast food more often than the kids of parents who are less stressed out.
“Stress in parents may be an important risk factor for child obesity and related behaviors,” explained the study’s lead researcher Dr. Elizabeth Prout-Parks, a physician nutrition specialist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a prepared statement. “The severity and number of stressors are important.”

Previous studies have hinted at the connection between parental stress and childhood obesity. With the current study, the researchers looked at a more diverse population in terms of ethnicity and socioeconomic status. They looked at self-reported data from 2,119 caregivers and parents who were part of telephone surveys conducted in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs; these surveys were part of the 2006 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey/Community Health Database. The researchers analyzed factors like adult levels of education, age, body mass index, gender, health quality, parental stressors, parent-perceived stress, race and sleep quality. These issues were looked at in terms of the influence on childhood obesity, fast food consumption, physical activity as well as fruit and vegetable consumption.

In the study, the scientists discovered that parental stressors that tend to impact child obesity include weak physical and mental health, financial difficulties and households that are managed by one parent rather than two. For single-parent households, they had the strongest correlation with child obesity. On the other hand, financial difficulties were the leading cause for low physical activity. The study conducted by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was the first to discover a relationship between parent-perceived stress and the increased fast food consumption of children.

The alarming rates of fast food consumption are a concern as it is high in fat and sugar, which can heighten the risk for child for obesity. Parents who have higher levels of stress may buy fast food more often for their children in order to save time. It is also possible that parental stress may lead to less supervision of children, which could in turn cause the child to make faulty choices in terms of physical activity and fast food consumption. The scientists recommended that there be an increased number of interventions to decrease parental stress and to train individuals on how to cope with stress.

“Although multiple stressors can elicit a ‘stressor pile-up,’ causing adverse physical health in children, parent’s perception of their general stress level may be more important than the actual stressors,” the authors wrote in the article.

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Mental Health and Leadership – A Sampling of Perspectives

 Mental Health and Leadership – A Sampling of Perspectives

With election season quickly drawing to a close and voters faced with important decisions about which leaders each of them will cast their respective ballots for, we take a brief look at some interesting perspectives on the makings of a "good leader."  *Please note that Infinite Ways Network, Inc. does not necessarily espouse or support any of the diverse views included in this or any other post on our blog or homepage; the information presented herein and therein is done so for strictly informational purposes only. 

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"What Befits a Leader in Hard Times? An Intimate Knowledge of Insanity"

The premise of Dr. Nassir Ghaemi’s book about leadership and mental illness is simple. It need not be reiterated as frequently as Dr. Ghaemi repeats it. But he begins A First-Rate Madness by writing, “This book argues that in at least one vitally important circumstance insanity produces good results and sanity is a problem.” To put it only a shade differently: “When our world is in tumult, mentally ill leaders function best.” Or: “In the storm of crisis, complete sanity can steer us astray, while some insanity brings us to port.”

A First-Rate Madness hammers hard to make its one big point. Sometimes Dr. Ghaemi uses textbook-style italics: “The best crisis leaders are either mentally ill or mentally abnormal; the worst crisis leaders are mentally healthy.” At other times he captures the textbook experience via pedantic tone. “What made Churchill see the truth where Chamberlain saw only illusion?” he asks rhetorically. “A key difference was that Chamberlain was mentally healthy (which we’ll discuss more in Chapter 14), while Churchill was clearly not.”

Dr. Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, also favors an overeager, textbook-type weakness for generalizations that are glib but easy to remember. “Gandhi was depressed,” he writes at one such moment. “India’s populace was normal. That distinction may explain it all.” And he does his utmost to provoke controversy, as when he gives President John F. Kennedy “an unlikely bedfellow” in Adolf Hitler.

In articulating the flip side of a premise that is essentially flattering to the gloomy and even the unhinged, Dr. Ghaemi demonstrates remarkable powers of condescension toward his designated dullards. Dismissing the part of Tony Blair’s memoir that deals with 9/11, Dr. Ghaemi writes: “To his credit, Blair maintains a somewhat open mind.” Writing about President George W. Bush, his thinking is similarly patronizing and also vague. “Bush’s rise was not easy, but it was not very hard either,” he notes.

Dr. Ghaemi does not intend this as an addition to the much-debunked field of psychohistory; rather, he sees it as something more sophisticated. He covers a broad swath of important-sounding material and uses a greatest-hits lineup of famous leaders, affecting a therapist’s intimacy with them all. He arranges them more or less chronologically, although an early section on Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who fulfilled Dr. Ghaemi’s criteria for interesting mental aberration by burning Atlanta, somehow leads to a passage on Ted Turner, who started CNN there.

Sourcing is a serious problem throughout A First-Rate Madness. Sometimes he delves into psychiatric records. But he also relies on Jane Fonda’s memoir for information about Mr. Turner’s manic sexual excesses and on secondary sources, like Chris Matthews’s “Kennedy and Nixon,” for anecdotal evidence. The endnotes to A First-Rate Madness can be downright maddening.

In discussing Kennedy’s dangerous, potentially mind-altering Addison’s disease, Dr. Ghaemi refers to an old movie (presumably Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life) in which a patient, treated with cortisone as Kennedy was, becomes psychotic and commits murder. He reveals the name of the Kennedy biography from which this anecdote comes but not the name of the movie.

A First-Rate Madness moves from big target to big target at a fast, perfunctory clip. The section on Lincoln demonstrates the book’s method: Look for family history of mental illness. Look for suicide attempts or other evidence of despondency. Look for manic episodes as well, and then explore the implications of any medicines that the subject may have been given. (For Lincoln treatment may have involved cold showers, bleeding and mercury tablets.)

Then, depending on the degree of sanity on display, either conclude that the man rose above tremendous obstacles to become a great leader or was too ordinary to be anything but flummoxed by his life’s challenges. All the book’s subjects are men.

To read the rest of this book review, please click on thisurlink

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"We Need A Bipolar President"

In recent months, discussions about the boom and bust cycles of our economy going back to the Great Depression have been the focus of many news stories. During boom cycles, too many of us experience periods of inflated feelings of power or delusions of grandeur, characterized by excessive risk taking and out of control spending. During bust cycles, many of us experience periods of indecisiveness, black and white thinking, loss of energy and fatigue, even feelings of worthlessness and suicidal thoughts. These reactions are classic symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Companies can and do prosper during times of economic turmoil. What do GE, Disney, HP, Microsoft, and Apple have in common? They were all startups during steep declines in the U.S. economy. GE started during the panic of 1873, Disney started during the recession of 1923-24, HP began during the Great Depression, and Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft during the recession of 1975. Even today, while the economy is in the worst down period since the Great Depression, Apple is thriving. All these companies realized that they had an advantage by adopting a different mindset, a different way of seeing the crisis. Instead of succumbing to the situation, they saw it as an opportunity to innovate and grow.

Those of us who have changed our mental condition from bipolar disorder to bipolar IN order have something important to share. We have found strength in what was at one time a debilitating weakness. We have learned how to function in all states, including the extremes of mania and depression. The insights we have and the tools that we use can help our companies to function better in both boom and bust times. We can inspire everyone to move forward instead of being crippled by fear and doubt.

It is times like these that call for a different kind of leader. We need someone who understands bipolar and can inspire us all. We need a bipolar president.

Dr. Nassir Ghaemi is a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and the director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He serves on the faculty of Harvard University’s Medical School, and has degrees in history, philosophy and public health. His new book comes to the same conclusion.

In A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness, Dr. Ghaemi argues that the very qualities associated with mood disorders have produced brilliant leadership under the toughest circumstances. He focuses on those leading during very turbulent periods and he identifies four key elements essential to crisis leadership: realism, empathy, creativity, and resilience. All, he posits, can be directly enhanced by mental illness: empathy and realism by depression, creativity by mania, and resilience by both.

To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink

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"Winston Churchill and Manic-Depression"

In 2006, a British mental health charity defended a statue it commissioned of Churchill in a straitjacket, after the statue sparked a public outcry.

Some people were outraged by the attempt to link Winston Churchill and manic depression (bipolar disorder). The charity claimed it was trying to project a more positive image of people with mental illness. According to a spokesperson:

"The message we want to portray is that it is possible to recover from mental illness and overcome it and be successful - because Churchill is an example of someone who was able to do that."

In fact, some believe that it was more complex than that - that Sir Winston's achievements were because of his bipolar - not in spite of it. In a sparkling essay in his book Black Dog, Kafka's Mice, and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind, psychiatrist and historian Anthony Storr wrote:

"Had he been a stable and equable man, he could never have inspired the nation. In 1940, when all the odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgment might well have concluded that we were finished."

"I don't like standing near the edge of a platform when an express train is passing through. I like to stand right back and if possible get a pillar between me and the train. I don't like to stand by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A second's action would end everything. A few drops of desperation." - Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Churchill made frequent references to his depression, which he called his "black dog".

Many believe Sir Winston coined the expression "black dog" himself, but this expression is actually much older.

Churchill's depressive periods tended to be intense and prolonged. Sometimes they were connected with traumatic external events such as his dismissal from the Admiralty after the Dardanelles disaster in WWI. Other times they could not be atributed to such outside causes, fitting the classic profile of serious unipolar or bipolar depression. His depressions came and went throughout his long and remarkable life, and commenced in his youth.

Churchill seemed to be aware that his depression was a medical condition. In 1911 a friend of Churchill's claimed to have been cured of depression by a doctor. Churchill wrote about this with some excitement in a letter to his wife, Clementine:

"I think this man might be useful to me - if my black dog returns. He seems quite away from me now - it is such a relief. All the colours come back into the picture."

However, Churchill was writing at a time before the development of effective medication, when the main medical approach to mood disorders was psychoanalytic. Churchill's doctor, Lord Moran, wrote a memoir about his famous patient, emphasizing the black dog - it describes plenty of symptoms but no treatment. (Although when Churchill was almost 80, Dr Moran did prescribe some speed to give Sir Winston enough of a boost to make a final speech in Parliament.)

Today we can only make a retrospective diagnosis linking Winston Churchill and manic depression if we have evidence of mood swings - not depression alone. According to Sir Winston's close friend Lord Beaverbrook, the great man was always either "at the top of the wheel of confidence or at the bottom of an intense depression." This does sound like a description of Winston Churchill and manic depression.

To read this rest of this article, please click on this urlink

China’s Elderly population to double by 2053

China’s Elderly population to double by 2053

The number of Chinese senior citizens is expected to skyrocket from the current 185 million to 487 million, or 35 percent of the population, by 2053, according to the China National Committee On Aging.

"The aging problem came late to China and the country is still struggling to create mature policies addressing the issue," Zhu Yong, vice director of the committee, said Monday at a seminar on aging held by the committee, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and HelpAge International.

China had about 185 million people above the age of 60, or 13.7 percent of the population, as of the end of last year. The figure is expected to surge to 221 million in 2015, including 51 million "empty nesters," or elderly people whose children no longer live with them.

Zhu urged authorities to draw experience from developed countries in order to reduce uncertainties and risks.

At the seminar, experts recommended improving economic and health support, building more facilities for urban and rural senior residents, encouraging them to participate in social activities and establishing a medical treatment network for the aging population.

Figures from UNFPA show that out of the global population, one out of every nine people is at or above the age of 60. The ratio is expected to climb to one in five by 2050.

To read the entire article, please click on this urlink

Bullies Nearly Twice as Likely to Have Mental Health Disorder

Bullies Nearly Twice as Likely to Have Mental Health Disorder

  

Mental disorders plague many adults who were bullied as children, but a new study suggests that those who had mental health disorders during childhood are three times more likely to become bullies.

Researchers at Brown University analyzed survey responses from parents of nearly 64,000 children ages 6 to 17 who were identified as having a mental health disorder, and those who were identified as bullies.

An estimated 15 percent of U.S. children in 2007 were identified as bullies by a parent or guardian, according to the responses, which were part of the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health.

Those who were considered the bullies were more than twice as likely to experience depression, anxiety and attention deficit disorder. They were also six times more likely to be diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, characterized by ongoing episodes of anger and hostility, especially toward authority figures, such as parents, teachers or other adults.

"This study gives us a better understanding of the risk profiles of bullies," said Dr. Stefani Hines, director at the center for human development at Beaumont Children's Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.

Hines was not involved in the study, which was presented Monday at the American Academy of Pediatrics annual meeting in New Orleans.

The findings do not surprise many experts, who say the symptoms of these disorders characterize many bullies.

According to Alan Hilfer, chief psychologist at Maimonedes Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., the disorders, such as ADHD, "often lead to impulsive and at times aggressive behaviors" that are common among bullies.

Bullies often continue the cycle of social abuse that they have experienced themselves, he said.

"They can be depressed, fearful, and they often take out some of their anger and frustration on others down the pecking order," said Hilfer.

Support is often given to the bullied peers who are seen as victims, the researchers said. Many bullies should also be viewed as victims and offered help to change their behavior, they said.

"This finding emphasizes the importance of providing psychological support to not only victims of bullying but bullies as well," the researchers wrote.

The study did not look at the likelihood that bullies would have a mental health disorder, only that some children who have a disorder were more likely to be identified as bullies.

To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink

Teen Dies in Jail After Guards Disregarded Calls for Help

Accused of faking illness, a Florida youth died of a brain injury in a state lockup as supervisors refused to call for help

For two hours, juvenile detainee Eric Perez cried, screamed, banged on his cell wall, and insisted he heard voices.

But prison guard Terence Davis was convinced that the youth was “faking it.”

Davis, a state report released Friday said, told a colleague it was not worth the paperwork to send Perez to a hospital.

In a scene hauntingly similar to the death of a teen at the Miami lockup nearly a decade earlier, guards, supervisors and the superintendent of the West Palm Beach juvenile detention center all did nothing for hours while Perez slowly died from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Perez’s July 10, 2011, death sent shockwaves through Florida’s chronically troubled juvenile justice system: Though administrators had pledged years earlier to “treat every child as if he was your own,” detention staff had, once again, neglected a youth to death.

The last day of Perez — who turned 18 while detained at the center, and was scheduled to be released imminently — is detailed in a 48-page report, dated Oct. 16, by the Department of Juvenile Justice’s Inspector General. It was released Friday morning. The teen’s death sparked the firing of nine employees of the detention center, including the superintendent.

“We have cleaned house,” said DJJ spokesman C.J. Drake, “and we are continuing to clean house.”

DJJ Secretary Wansley Walters released a statement Friday morning: “On behalf of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and all whom we serve, I first wish to say how much I continue to regret the death of Eric Perez in our agency’s care on July 10, 2011. I think about Eric every day. I still see his face every day. His death continues to be a very painful memory for this agency. While I hope that Eric’s family has found closure, we will continue to improve what we do every day with him in mind.”

She added: “I want to emphasize that DJJ will not tolerate conduct that puts kids, employees or the public at risk. We are committed to operating a safe and secure juvenile justice system and will take firm and decisive action against those who do not share that commitment.”

The report outlined a series of failures involving lockup staff, including nurse Marcia Clough’s decision not to examine the youth when she arrived for duty the morning Perez died; the actions of two guards who engaged in “improper searches and horseplay” with several detainees; and two guards’ failure to follow lockup procedures for medical emergencies.

To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink.

The New Face of Infidelity

The New Face of Infidelity

Research shows women may be cheating now almost as much as men; the toll of new temptations

Some 60 years ago, Alfred Kinsey delivered a shock to midcentury sexual sensibilities when he reported that at some point in their marriages, half of the men and a quarter of the women in the U.S. had an extramarital affair. No one puts much stock in Dr. Kinsey's high numbers any more—his sampling methods suffered from a raging case of selection bias—but his results fit the long-standing assumption that men are much more likely to cheat than women.

Lately, however, researchers have been raising doubts about this view: They believe that the incidence of unfaithfulness among wives may be approaching that of husbands. The lasting costs of these betrayals will be familiar to the many Americans who have experienced divorce as spouses or children.

Among the most reliable studies on this issue is the General Social Survey, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, which has been asking Americans the same questions since 1972. In the 2010 survey, 19% of men said that they had been unfaithful at some point during their marriages, down from 21% in 1991. Women who reported having an affair increased from 11% in 1991 to 14% in 2010.

A 2011 study conducted by Indiana University, the Kinsey Institute and the University of Guelph found much less of a divide: 23% for men and 19% for women. Such numbers suggest the disappearance of the infidelity gender gap, but some caution is in order.

An enduring problem for researchers—even those who sample with meticulous care—is that any such survey is asking for confessions from people who are presumably lying to their spouses. Researchers generally believe that actual infidelity numbers are higher than the results indicate.

It should also be emphasized that cheating in the U.S. isn't epidemic or inevitable, for either sex. Surveys consistently find that by far the majority of respondents value monogamy and think that infidelity is harmful. And if you believe the General Social Survey's finding that 14% of women are cheating, keep in mind that 86% aren't.

Still, even though survey accuracy is difficult to achieve and experts are by no means unanimous, it would appear that women are, indeed, catching up. In my own work as a psychologist and in my social circle, I see more women not only having affairs but actively seeking them out. Their reasons are familiar: validation of their attractiveness, emotional connection, appreciation, ego—not to mention the thrill of a shiny new relationship, unburdened by the long slog through the realities of coupledom.

Researchers also point to other factors that might be leading women to stray more. One is what might be called "infidelity overload." Scan the plots on any given week in television, and there seems to be more extramarital sex than marital sex. (Few spouses stay put in "Mad Men.") With women portrayed as eager participants and aggressive instigators, there may be a feeling that infidelity has become more acceptable.

And then there is the opportunity factor—more travel, more late nights on the job and more interaction with men mean that the chances and temptations to stray have multiplied for the new generation of working women.

A 2011 study at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, published in the journal Psychological Science, argues that infidelity is also a function of greater economic and social power, which creates confidence and personal leverage for both genders. Women can now use their power in ways to which men have long been accustomed.

Social networks are another factor, if only by expanding the pool of possible partners. Emotional friendships that turn physical are the traditional point of entry for female affairs. It is now easy for those friendships to take root online. 

To read this entire article, please click on this urlink.

Home Health Aides Often As Old As Their Clients

Home Health Aides Often As Old As Their Clients

  

In a red brick rambler in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., Onether Lowery begins her daily shift as a caregiver. She skillfully helps 86-year-old Rosalie Lewis into her electric wheelchair, holding her from the back, then bending over to ease her down.

It's an impressive feat: Lowery herself is 80 years old.

"My mother, she was 89 when she passed away," Lowery says. "I took care of her and I just fell in love with older people. I get along with them very well."

As America ages, its 2.5 million home health workers are graying right along with the clients they care for. And by all accounts, these older workers are especially well suited to the job.

Lowery is proud of how she can patiently coax clients to eat — even when they don't feel like it — how her experience helps her sense what they need. She used to care for Lewis' sister as well. At one point, the sister needed extra help, and Lowery says an agency sent younger caregivers.

"Well, she would always tell me when they wasn't around that they didn't do anything, not unless she asked them to do it," she says. "But me, I see things and I do it."

As a whole, home health aides are largely female and far older than women in the general workforce. The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute says more than a quarter of aides are 55 or older, a share that's expected to rise to a third by 2020.

"A number of our clients will ask for a more 'mature' worker," says Marla Lahat, who heads Home Care Partners in Washington, D.C., the agency that employs Lowery. In this case, "mature" means "older."

"Sometimes they're a little bit afraid of the younger generation," she says, "and they know that a worker that's closer to their age is somebody that they feel more comfortable with and more trusting."

And in an industry where turnover is high, Lahat says, it's older workers who tend to stay in the job.

To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink.

Financial Wellness: Black Friday Deals Are Not Deals

Financial Health - The Myth of the Black Friday Deal

Attention Black Friday shoppers: You're probably wasting your time.

After crunching two to six years' worth of pricing data for a number of typical holiday gifts, The Wall Street Journal has turned up the best times to go deal hunting — and they almost never involve standing in the freezing cold all night.

It turns out that gifts from Barbie dolls to watches to blenders are often priced below Black Friday levels at various times throughout the year, even during the holiday season, and their prices follow different trajectories as the remaining shopping days tick down.

Watches and jewelry, typical last-minute quarry for well-heeled shoppers, get more expensive as the season progresses, according to Decide Inc., the consumer-price research firm that gathered and analyzed the data for this article. Blenders, which might sit around for months if they aren't bought in the holiday window, get much cheaper at the end.

To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink.

The Infinite Ways Network Blog

Welcome, once again, to the Infinite Ways Network Blog.

Infinite Ways Network, Inc. is a grassroots, community-participatory social service agency that currently offers targeted case management and counseling services for the residents of the Greater Miami area in English, Kreyol, and Spanish.

Our blog is an extension of our homepage and here we share news and notes that relate to - in one way or another - mental and emotional health, and wellness as a whole.  We invite you to stay and scroll a while and read some of the interesting articles we posted for members of the community interested in research, studies, and trends in the broad area of social development.

We also love to have an ever-expanding diverse set of perspectives and, to that end, our blog welcomes guest columnists.  For more information, please send us an email at infinitewaysnetwork@gmail.com.

Again, we welcome you to our blog.

- The Infinite Ways Network family