January 31, 20089:14 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

Empathetic listening is important in both personal and professional relationships

Being an empathetic listener is important in both personal and professional relationships, not only because of the relational consequences that you may suffer from not showing empathy but also because people are valuable and simply need to be treated as important. Ask yourself; do you really put effort and concentration into listening? How does it make you feel when others are not truly listening to you?

Sometimes people are just too busy to demonstrate empathetic listening, or perhaps one has simply never considered what it means to be a good listener. Either way, the consequences of not being an empathetic listener can be devastating. Personal relationships can suffer or ultimately end. Professional relationships can suffer causing distrust, decreased productivity, and poor morale. So then, knowing that we need to be good listeners, just what does it mean to be empathetic? The following is an excerpt of an article from Advance Magazine that discusses some practical tips on empathetic listening:

What does it mean to be empathetic? It means to stand in someone else’s shoes and look at life from their reference point. For that moment, you attempt to look at and assess the situation through their eyes. It does not mean that you must agree, simply that you understand what they are saying and how they are feeling. When you can relate to another at this level, you respect them as a human being. And it is this need that people have to feel respected-for simply being alive, for having thoughts and ideas and a perspective-that lessens people’s fear of insignificance. It makes people feel important when you show them that they matter simply by listening to them.

Communication is a powerful tool, perhaps the most powerful tool we have as human beings. It has the power to hurt or heal, hinder or help, tear down, tear apart, or bring together. Only 7 percent of communication is verbal. This means, it is what you say when you are not speaking that matters most. This includes your actions, body language, and presence-how you show up in the world through your attitude, mood, and energy-as well as how you do what you do, how you say what you say, and your ability to listen to understand.

Here are 3 steps to mastering the skill of listening:

Click here to read the rest of the article

Click here for information on Brookhaven’s outpatient marriage and family counseling services

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9:13 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

One joint equivalent to the risk of smoking 20 cigarettes

Previous studies have equated one joint to five cigarettes with regards to lung damage. However, a new study equates one joint to the damage risk of smoking 20 cigarettes. The study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, stated that those who had smoked on average one joint a day over ten years were 5.7 times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who do not smoke.

According to Dr. Richard Beasley, M.B. Ch.B., of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, marijuana smoke has twice as many carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons than tobacco. Additionally, marijuana users inhale differently, much deeper, and do not use filters, a bad combination. Due to the prevalence of cannabis use, it is a good idea for physicians to ask suspect patients if they are smoking marijuana. The following is an excerpt of an article from Medpage Today that goes into greater detail about the study:

Lung cancer patients were identified from hospital databases or the national cancer registers from 2001 through 2005. Most had non-small-cell lung cancer (80%) and none had lung metastasis from a distant primary.

The proportion of controls who had ever smoked cannabis was 36% after adjustment for the general population age distribution.

Overall, 26.6% of lung cancer patients in the study reported smoking at least 20 joints in their lifetime, whereas 12% of control participants had.

For every one joint-year — the equivalent of one joint per day for one year — smoked, the risk of lung cancer rose 8% (relative risk 1.08, 95% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.15).

The association between cannabis and lung cancer was strengthened with adjustment for the growth rate of lung cancer, by excluding exposure in the five years before baseline or diagnosis (RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.18), “as would be expected if a causal association existed.”

The association was similar to the 7% risk seen for each pack-year of tobacco smoking (RR 1.07, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.09).

Click here to read the entire article

Click here for information on drug treatment options

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January 29, 20088:08 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

Mental health crisis training for religious leaders

Most churches have purposely positioned themselves to provide charitable services to the communities they are in, such as food pantries, clothing ministries, support groups and the like. Due to the charitable nature of church communities they often encounter people with mental illness, especially churches in metropolitan areas. This is a wonderful opportunity to express the love and support of Jesus Christ; as such, it is prudent for key church staff to have training surrounding how to appropriately interact with those dealing with mental illness.

Captain Mark Sawa, of the Austin, Texas police department, is one of many individuals taking up the initiative to provide training for Pastors and clergy surrounding mental health issues. Capt. Sawa decided to promote a community training specifically for crisis intervention after having several clergy ask him how they should kindly approach situations wherein persons with mental illness disrupt service.

The training provided attendees with tools to identify signs of mental illness. Team leader Sam Hart suggested clergy should be aware of behaviors such as illogical or obsessive thoughts, the belief that God is giving them obscure orders, or the belief that one is God. The underpinning approach that the trainers taught was one in which clergy “stay calm, speak clearly, and use empathetic language.” The following is an excerpt of an article from The Statesman that discusses the Austin community training:

The minister had just begun his sermon when a gray-haired woman in the second pew at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church jumped up and turned to the congregation. With her arms flailing, she shouted, “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! He doesn’t come from God!”

An usher strode down the aisle of the Central Austin church and spoke gently to the woman. “Ma’am, can I talk to you for a moment? My name is Sam.”

After a moment, the woman relented and followed the usher out of the sanctuary. The minister continued his sermon.

The scene wasn’t real. It was part of a crisis intervention training seminar conducted this month by the Travis County sheriff’s department for religious leaders. But such disruptions in worship services are common, which is why Capt. Mark Sawa urged the audience to have a plan in place before an incident occurs. A plan should include a 911 call to request either a sheriff’s department crisis intervention team or a similarly trained officer from the Austin Police Department, Sawa said.
Those officers, he said, will assess the situation and determine what mental health services are needed.

Click here to read the rest of the article from The Statesman

Beginning in February of each year, Renewal Christian Care hosts a free luncheon to equip ministers with resources surrounding mental illness and drug addiction. The trainings are held every other month on the last Thursday of the month with the exception of December, which is held on the second Thursday of the month. You and your staff are formally invited to attend any of our intriguing and practical free luncheons.

Click here to view Renewal Christian Care’s list of free upcoming community trainings for Pastors, Chaplains, and clergy and to register online.

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January 28, 20089:26 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

Burgers, Fries, and Diet Soda Are Recipes for Metabolic Syndrome

Middle aged adults between the ages of 45 and 64 years old, whom eat a double burger, fries, and a diet soda, increase their chances of metabolic syndrome by 25%. Lyn M. Staffen, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, conducted a study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) on the eating habits of more than 9,514 of these middle aged individuals; 3,782 of the individuals had three or more of the risk factors that are typical of metabolic syndrome.

The participants were categorized into either having a Western-pattern diet (refined grains, processed meats, fried foods, red meat, eggs) or a prudent-pattern diet (whole grains, fish and seafood, fruit, vegetables, poultry, Low-fat dairy products). “We specifically studied food intake; since when we start to think about making recommendations it is easier to do so using the framework of real foods, eaten by real people.” The researchers found that, “after adjusting for demographic factors, smoking, physical activity, and energy intake, consumption of a Western dietary pattern was adversely associated with incident (metabolic syndrome)”.

Click here to read a review of the study from Medpage Today

Click here for information on eating disorders

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January 18, 20084:34 pm
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

PTSD three times more common in troops “engaged in combat”

A recent study revealed that combat, rather than deployment alone, accounts for a sharp increase in new-onset post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among U.S. soldiers. Specifically, PTSD was three times more common in troops “engaged in combat” during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than those that did not engage. Exposure to combat increased PTSD the most in air force and army troops, perhaps due to the “eyes on” nature of their engagements. Navy and coast guard troops showed decreased odds of PTSD after exposure to combat but still more than double compared to those who had not engaged. According to the authors of the study, “the results… … emphasize that specific combat exposures, rather than deployment itself, significantly affect the onset of symptoms of PTSD after deployment.” The following is an excerpt of an article from Medpage Today that reviews the study:

Combat exposure increased the likelihood of PTSD most for those in the army (odds ratio: 3.59) or the air force (OR: 3.38), found Tyler C. Smith, Ph.D., of the Naval Health Research Center here, and colleagues in a prospective population-based cohort study.

The odds were also more than doubled for those exposed to combat in the navy or Coast Guard (OR: 2.48) and Marines (OR: 2.78), they reported online in the BMJ.

Overall, the rate of new-onset self-reported symptoms in combat personnel was 4.3% compared with 2.3% in non-combat personnel.

Click here to read the entire article

Click here to learn about treatment options for PTSD

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January 17, 20085:59 pm
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

How to keep your New Year’s resolutions on track

It’s a praiseworthy action, creating a list of New Year’s resolutions, but let’s face it, we are human. Realizing our short attention and commitment spans necessitates planning if we are to achieve the goals we have created. The following is a list of ten ideas for keeping your New Year’s resolutions on track:

1. Use a daily goal assessment as a way of checking your progress. Assessing your goals on paper keeps structure in the process of achieving your New Year’s resolutions.

2. Make it a habit. It’s a good idea to associate your assessment and planning time with another predictable continuous activity that you perform on a daily basis, or weekly basis. For instance, you might make your shaving time a moment in which you review that check list plastered to your bathroom mirror.

3. Make sure your goals are attainable. One unattainable goal can crash the rest of your list. If your goals are not attainable, if they are not palatable, then you’re setting yourself up for failure that could translate into feelings of frustration and self-defeat strong enough to make you oust the rest of your list. So keep it simple Simon.

4. Another important point when considering the maintenance of your New Year’s resolutions is to identify stressors. It may well be that the very thing you have resolved to do is becoming irrelevant because of the stress it is causing you. You may need to reframe your goal or the timeline associated with it.

5. Check yourself for excuses about barriers and impediments to progress. What are you doing to deal with those “bumps in the road?” You may just need some motivation. Try giving yourself a pep talk or writing one down on paper that you could read from time to time when you are feeling “an excuse” coming on.

6. Sometimes it’s not the goal you’re having difficulty with but an obstruction preventing you from addressing, or implementing, the goal in the first place. Perhaps your schedule is such that you’re not allowing enough time for implementation or maybe you’re simply allowing random “things” to eat up your time by not creating healthy boundaries. In scenarios like this a minor tweak or two could be the answer.

7. Stay focused on goals that are a priority. Odds are that your list of New Year’s resolutions contains goals that are forthcoming as well as goals that can wait. Don’t frustrate yourself by trying to take on every goal at once.

8. Leave yourself adequate time to balance work, family and personal commitments. You may find that your New Year’s resolutions are eating up time with family, recreation or personal commitments. It may be time to take a step back and see if you have too much on your plate.

9. Avoid engaging in the old, dysfunctional behaviors that derail your progress. This is kind of an “if / then” situation. You may not be planning on dropping the ball but engaging in seemingly unrelated behaviors, or activities, may cause you to. “Sleeping late may eat up your time for, overeating may make you sluggish when,” you get the idea. Avoid derailing your progress with dysfunctional behaviors.

10. Avoid an “all or nothing mentality.” Resolute Ryan, after missing the mark, says, “Well, that’s it. I broke my New Year’s resolution. I guess I can start back up next year.” That kind of thinking will end your progress before it begins. Give yourself room to make a mistake now and then; in fact, expect mistakes.

Keeping on track with your New Year’s resolutions is a process of patience and planning. If you are willing to approach your goals intelligently and with preparation you will increase your likelihood of succeeding. I wish you the “best of planning.”

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January 16, 20087:59 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

Stress link to asthma?

According to a recent study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, children whose mothers are chronically stressed are more likely to have asthma than children whose mothers are not. According to Anita Kozyrskj, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba, “It is increasingly clear that traditional environmental risk factors do not fully explain the origins of asthma… evidence is emerging that exposure to maternal distress in early life plays a causal role in the development of childhood asthma. In a cohort of children born in 1995, we found that maternal distress which persists beyond the postpartum period is associated with an increased risk of asthma at school-age.” The researchers analyzed the medical records of almost 14,000 children native to Manitoba who were registered with Manitoba Health Services from birth in 1995 to 2003 to determine the presence of asthma at age seven. The following is an excerpt of an article from Medical News Today that reviews the study:

Dr. Kozyrskyj and her colleagues analyzed the medical records of nearly 14,000 children born in Manitoba in 1995 who were continuously registered with Manitoba Health Services until 2003. They determined whether the children had current asthma at age seven by analyzing records of doctor visits, hospitalizations and medications in the year of the child’s seventh birthday, and related it to maternal distress as defined by doctor visits, hospitalizations and medication for depression and anxiety. Maternal distress was categorized according to onset and duration into four categories: no distress, postpartum distress only, short-term distress and long-term distress.

Click here to read the entire article from Medical News Today

Click here for information on the treatment of stress related problems

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January 15, 20088:18 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

Family Mealtime Reduces Eating Disorders in Teens

Taking time out of the day and eating regular meals with the family may reduce the risk of eating disorders in teenagers. After a five year evaluation, teenage girls were 29% less likely to suffer from eating disorders, such as purging, binge eating, or using diuretics, than their peers when they ate most of their meals with family throughout the week. Among teenage boys, family meals seemed to have little effect on the presence or absence of eating disorders.

Health care providers play an important role in reinforcing the importance of family meal time. According to Dr. Neumark-Sztainer, “Without being judgmental, providers can help families set realistic goals and come up with creative ways to increase frequency of meals together.” The following is an excerpt of an article from Medpage Today that reviews the study:

The prospective findings add to a growing body of literature suggesting family meals play an important role in the health and well-being of adolescent girls.
“Health care professionals have an important role to play in reinforcing the benefits of family meals,” they said.

Without being judgmental, providers can help families set realistic goals and come up with creative ways to increase frequency of meals together, Dr. Neumark-Sztainer added.

“This may be eating breakfast together if dinner doesn’t work,” she suggested. “It can be challenging, I just think we have to put it up there with our priorities.”

The researchers’ Project EAT (Eating Among Teens) study had previously shown that extreme weight control behaviors increased in prevalence from 14.5% to 23.9% as the girls progressed from middle to late adolescence.

These behaviors can cause physical and psychological problems, including weight gain, depressive symptoms, and the onset of eating disorders, they noted.

Click here to read the entire article

Click here for information on the treatment of eating disorders

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January 11, 20088:42 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

Study: Girls’ Self Image May Affect Future Weight

“Where a teenage girl finds herself on the social ladder during her school years” can determine her weight gain proximity in the future. Over 4000 girls, average age of fifteen, were studied over a two year period. Where they saw themselves ranked among their peers was a determinate factor in weight gain. Although all teenage girls in the study naturally gained some weight over a period of years, girls that thought themselves to be less popular among their peers were 69% more likely to increase their body mass index by 2 units (11 excessive/ unnecessary pounds). Conversely, girls who found themselves to rank higher in popularity also gained weight, but only about 6 ½ pounds.

One limitation to the study was that data collected by the researchers was from ‘self-reports” of changes in height and weight, rather than reporting to a physician for documentation. Before collecting data for the study, the researchers took in to account the participant’s weight, BMI, diet, household income, race/ethnicity, and whether or not they had reached puberty.

All the teenagers were asked the same questions; for instance, “Where would you place yourself on the ladder?” The ladder represented a social scale from 1-10, 10 being the highest and associated with the most respect from peers and 1 being the lowest. 4, 264 girls ranked themslves 5 or higher on the ladder, while 182 said they were 4 or below on the ladder.

The study reflected that teenage girls are sensitive and easily affected by their social environments, possibly affecting physical health and or mental health. Adina Lemeshow, who began the study as a Harvard School of Public Health graduate student, stated, “How girls feel about themselves should be part of all obesity- prevention strategies.” Clea McNeely of John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called the study strong and stated, “Subjective social status is not just an uncomfortable experience you grow out of, but can have important health consequences.” McNeely went on to state that adults are still the most influential role models in the lives of teenage girls.

I believe, as women, it is our job to be examples throughout the lives of these young girls. Respect is not outdated; it is time tested and key to fostering relationships that will increase trust and affect change.

Click here to read an article from CNN that discusses the study

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January 10, 20088:21 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

Increased risk for hypertension, heart attack, and stroke, years after the events of 9/11

Acute stress caused by the 9/11 attacks increased the risk for hypertension, heart attack, and stroke, for years after the event, according to a recent study conducted by Alison Holma, F.N.P., Ph.D., of the University of California at Irvine. The study followed 2,729 adult participants for three years after the attacks in 2001. Participants that reported extreme stress reactions in the days immediately following the attacks were twice as likely to develop hypertension and three times as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. The odds ratio for those reporting ongoing worry after the attacks was 4.67 compared to those that did not report ongoing worry.

The study has public health implications, specifically with regards to the way that governmental organizations and news agencies communicate risks of terrorist events. According to Dr. Holma, “The message from this research is that we need to be very clear about the way in which we communicate information about terror attacks to the public.” The following is an excerpt of an article from Medpage Today that reviews the study:

The impact of ongoing worry about terror attacks has public health implications “in terms of the way that we communicate risk of events like terror attacks,” she said.

Dr. Holman said that in the years since 9/11 there have been a number of times when Homeland Security has raised alert levels, but there has been no research to determine the effect these terror alerts have on the health of the general public. “The message from this research is that we need to be very clear about the way in which we communicate information about terror attacks to the public,” she said. Raising the alert level may, she said, have the unwanted side effect of increasing worry and anxiety.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that acute psychological responses to 9/11 predicted increased incidence in reports of physician-diagnosed cardiovascular ailments for three years in adults, most of whom did not have known existing cardiovascular disease,” she wrote.

Acute stress response was measured using a modified Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire. Acute stress symptoms, Dr. Holman said, are similar to the symptoms of posttraumatic stress except in the case of acute stress symptoms occurring immediately.

Click here to read the rest of this article from Medpage Today

Click here to learn about treatment options for stress related behavioral conditions

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