healthy body tips

Sticks and stones may break your bones. But words may hurt you in ways that you didn’t even know.

A Yale University study found that women who’ve reported high levels of discrimination have more visceral fat, a type of fat that lies deep and surrounds abdominal organs.

Unlike the kind of fat that manifests in rolls and flaps, visceral fat can accumulate without people realizing it. Even skinny people can have unhealthy amounts of visceral fat wrapping their organs. This type of fat has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and other major health problems.

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology examined 402 African-American and white women in the Chicago area. They were asked whether they had been discriminated against based on their sex, age, race and other issues over the last year. This included insults about intelligence, subtle slights, mistreatment in restaurants or stores and harassment.

Researchers did not ask about weight discrimination, because they didn’t want it to bias the results.

Then, the women’s abdominal fat was measured in tomography scans.

Yale researchers found that women who reported more discrimination carried more visceral fat.

It’s widely believed that overweight people are discriminated based on their hefty size. But author Tené Lewis said, “We didn’t find an association with the fat you see – the subcutaneous fat hanging over people’s belt. It’s the fat that’s not visible to the naked eye.”

Her study suggests that discrimination could contribute to increased internal fat. The biological mechanism of how that could occur is unknown, said Lewis, assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health.

But one of their hypotheses is that the body releases a hormone called cortisol under stress. That hormone is believed to spur the accumulation of visceral fat.

Lewis did not find a difference between whites and African Americans in terms of health and discrimination.

“Anyone who experiences this is at risk for health consequences,” she said. “You don’t have to be black, Hispanic or in the ethnic minorities. Having this kind of experience is bad for you.”

She concluded: “The way people treat one another has a real effect on health outcomes. These experiences make a difference. "

When a psychiatrist compares his office to a bus station, you know something's up. The New York Times has an eye-opening piece about how psychiatrists today mainly prescribe medications and don't have time to talk to patients anymore. Dr. Donald Levin, the centerpiece of the story, keeps telling patients that if they need to delve into their problems, they should see a therapist. Unfortunately, with rigid health insurance structures and limited access to care, that's not always possible.

And given that research has shown that mental health care is best given as a combination of talk therapy and medication, that's a big problem, notes Carol Bernstein, president of the American Psychiatric Association, in a letter to the New York Times.

At the same that psychiatry moves away from an all-encompassing approach to treatment, psychiatric problems are on the rise in the United States.

A recent survey of 11 countries found that the United States has the highest rate of bipolar disorder, at 4.4%, Health.com reported via CNN.com. Eating disorders are more prevalent among teens than previously thought, Bloomberg Business Week says, reporting on a study from Monday's Archives of General Psychiatry. This research also found that teens with eating disorders have a higher likelihood of suicidal thoughts and other mental health problems, the Los Angeles Times reports. Clearly, there is a real, critical need for good mental health care.

But people with these disorders who have deep-seated problems that they want to discuss may have a hard time scheduling that conversation with the same person who prescribes the medication they need. And the psychiatrists aren't saying that's a good thing, either. Levin laments that he doesn't have time to get to know his patients well at all; he works 11-hour days treats 1,200 people.

A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates an ancient form of complementary medicine may be effective in helping to treat people with mild traumatic brain injury, a finding that may have implications for some U.S. war veterans returning home. 

The study involved a treatment known as acupressure in which one's fingertips are used to stimulate particular points on a person's body - points similar to those stimulated with needles in standard acupuncture treatments, said CU-Boulder Professor Theresa Hernandez, lead study author. The results indicate a link between the acupressure treatments and enhanced cognitive function in study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI. 

"We found that the study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury who were treated with acupressure showed improved cognitive function, scoring significantly better on tests of working memory when compared to the TBI subjects in the placebo control group," said Hernandez, a professor in CU-Boulder's psychology and neuroscience department. "This suggests to us that acupressure could be an effective adjunct therapy for those suffering from TBI." 

The acupressure treatment type used in the study is called Jin Shin. For the study, Hernandez and her colleagues targeted the 26 points on the human body used in standard Jin Shin treatments ranging from the head to the feet. The study subjects all received treatments by trained Jin Shin practitioners. 

According to practitioners, Jin Shin acupressure points are found along "meridians" running through the body that are associated with specific energy pathways. It is believed that each point is tied to the health of specific body organs, as well as the entire body and brain, Hernandez said. 

"Think of the meridians as freeways and the pressure points as towns along the way," she said. "When there is a traffic jam in Denver that causes adverse effects as far away as Boulder, clearing the energy blocks, or in this case traffic jams, helps improve flow and overall health." 

The study involved 38 study subjects, each of whom was randomly assigned to one of two groups - an experimental group that received active acupressure treatments from trained experts and a control group that received treatments from the same experts on places on the body that are not considered to be acupressure points, acting as a placebo. The study was "blinded," meaning the researchers collecting data and the study participants themselves did not know who was in the experimental group or the placebo group until the end of the study. 

The team used a standard battery of neuro psychological tests to assess the results. In one test known as the Digit Span Test, subjects were asked to repeat strings of numbers after hearing them, in both forward and backward order, to see how many digits they could recall. Those subjects receiving active acupressure treatments showed increased memory function, said Hernandez. 

A second standard psychology test used for the study, called the Stroop Task, measured working memory and attention. The test subjects were shown the names of colors like blue, green or red on a computer screen. When the names of the particular colors are viewed on the screen in a different color of ink - like the word "green" spelled out in blue ink - test subjects take longer to name the ink color and the results are more error-prone, according to Hernandez. The Stroop Test subjects in the CU-Boulder study wore special caps wired with electrodes to measure the brain activity tied to specific stimuli. The results showed those who received the active acupressure treatments responded to stimuli more rapidly than those who received the placebo treatments, Hernandez said. 

"We were looking at synchronized neural activity in response to a stimulus, and our data suggest the brains of those in the active acupressure group responded differently when compared to those in the placebo acupressure group," she said. 

A paper on the subject was published in the January issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication on the latest advances in both clinical and laboratory investigations of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. Co-authors on the study included CU-Boulder's Kristina McFadden, Kyle Healy, Miranda Dettman, Jesse Kaye and Associate Professor Tiffany Ito of psychology and neuroscience. 

Funded by the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund, the study is believed to be one of the first placebo-controlled studies ever published in a peer-reviewed medical journal showing the benefit of acupressure to treat patients with TBI, Hernandez said. 

"We would like to see if the Jin Shin treatment is useful to military veterans returning home with traumatic brain injury, a signature wound prevalent in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Hernandez. The Jin Shin acupressure treatment can be taught to family and friends of those with TBI and can even be used as a self-treatment, which could allow for more independence, she said. 

In a 2010 stroke study led by Hernandez, the researchers concluded that Jin Shin acupressure triggered a larger and faster relaxation response during active treatments and a decreased stress response following active treatments compared with what was seen in placebo treatments. Hernandez and her colleagues are embarking on a new study on the use of Jin Shin acupressure in athletes to see if the enhanced relaxation response and decreased stress seen in the stroke study can reduce the likelihood of athletic injury. 

In 2002, Hernandez partnered with former Colorado Rep. Todd Saliman to initiate the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund, a statute that has generated nearly $2 million to the state annually since 2004 from surcharges to traffic offenses like driving while impaired and speeding. Roughly 65 percent of the money goes toward rehabilitation and care services for individuals with TBI, about 30 percent goes for TBI research and 5 percent for TBI education. Because of the statute, nearly 4,000 Colorado citizens with TBI have received care and rehabilitation services for brain injuries. 

Hernandez will be honored on March 3 in Denver by the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Program with the establishment of the annual Theresa D. Hernandez TBI Trust Fund Community Award, becoming its first recipient. Saliman also will be honored at the ceremony.