Category: Depression

Depression makes world look Dull

Depression literally converts the world in all shades of Gray and Black

A depressed person often says that the world looks dull and gray and flowers no longer smell sweet. He might seem to speak figuratively, but now there is some truth in it. According to two recent studies conducted in Germany there are concrete evidences that sensory perception is diminished in depressed individuals.

The study was conducted by neuropsychiatrist Ludger Tebartz van Elst of the University of Freiburg. He tied up depressed patients and controlled subjects to a pattern electroretinograph which is a device to measure electrical signals in the retina. When viewing black-and-white checkerboard images, people who had depression showed lesser electrical impulses as compared to the other controlled subjects.

As per Tebartz van Elst, using this technique, it would be easy to diagnose depression without the need of the patient to open up verbally. They just need to keep their eyes  open and the test can be performed.

Top findings of this Study on Depression grays and blues

 

In the study below are the key findings which the scientists measured:

  1. People with major depression were not able to detect differences in black-and-white contrasts on the checkerboards.
  2. People with no depression were able to identify the changes in pattern and contrasts on checkerboard very effectively.
  3. The level of activity on the retina was lowest in the person with worst depression.
  4. The depressed patients had dramatically lower retinal responses to the varying black-and-white contrasts than healthy individuals.
  5. The results held regardless of whether patients were taking antidepressants.

The retina ECG shows the response of neurons inside the retinal cells. It is not the conscious vision, but a very much earlier response of the retina to changing patterns.

Best tips to Deal with Depression and its Gray World

Everyone wants to know the ways to get out of the blues and gray of depression and conquer it from the bottom. But, rarely, we find something which can do this miracle. Here are some tips to perform this action with ease and speed.

  1. Bond with mother nature

Do not ever underestimate the healing power of the natural world. You need to be connected to Earth and it is crucially important to restore the energy levels by staying connected.  The great outdoors is a very precious stress-free zone. Without a wifi zone, cell phones buzzing, cameras, noise, etc. all around us, we are bound to get the time of the day.

Few tips to consider is to head to a park during lunch, exercise outside rather than in a gym, and plan regular weekends away to escape the oppressive urban jungle.

 

  1. Turn off the TV

Switch off the idiot box to stop feeling like an idiot all the time.  TV according to many studies is like a drug which can change your brain chemistry. If you can’t stop watching TV altogether at least, try to cut down on your consumption. You should see positive, funny, uplifting or educational stuff on TV sometime, but limit that too.

 

  1. Get involved

 

There is nothing which can be achieved by sitting and cribbing about global issues and concerns at hand. There are many such issues from which you can choose one and concentrate your energy in that cause instead of putting only thoughts on multitude of issues. Dwelling on the many urgent global issues isn’t going to help you or anyone else. If you care or concern about animal cruelty, you could offer to help out at your local shelter.

So stay involved and do not doubt about the things which a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can do to change the world.

  1. Nurture yourself

Believe in yourself and always do things to reward and nurture yourself. Exercise, sleep and eat well. Do what you love. Give yourself a break. Be your own best friend. Dancing around your living room to uplifting music will give you an instant energy and endorphin boost. Sing in the shower. Smile even if you don’t feel like it.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS The Ice Bucket Challenge or simply Ice bucket challenge is an adventurous activity in which the person accepts the challenge and dumps a bucket of ice water on his head. This activity was created to promote awareness and knowledge of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS. It included the donations for the cause of the disease and raised millions in a span of a month. This challenge became viral on the internet and became popular world over during July 2014 to August 2014.

In the US and UK, many people accepted the challenge while many others donated the money to the Ice Bucket challenge cause – the ALS organization.

Modus Operandi of ALS challenge

In the ALS challenge people nominate others to participate in the challenge. The participants who are nominated accepts the challenge and within 24 hours, they need to pour ice water over their heads and upload the video of the same on the social media sites. If they are not accepting the challenge, they need to donate 100 USD to the ALS cause. They can nominate others for accepting the challenge before they complete the challenge themselves. In this way the chain going on.

Popularity of the challenge

The challenge first came into media attention on 30th June 2014, when Golf channel performed the ALS ice bucket challenge live on the show. Some time later, other TV show hosts also took the challenge and depicted the popularity it raised.

Soon the ALSO challenge raised in popularity with celebrities, politicians and athletes posting ALS challenge videos of social media or television. There were about 1.2 million video shared about this on Facebook from June 1 till August 13. There was a lot of criticism which this challenge brought with itself with people claiming using fun to contribute donation for a rather serious illness.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge fundraising campaign raised about $15.6 million so far for the research on ALS. A total of 307,598 new donors were involved. Before this event, the ALS has received about $2.8 million during the same time last year.

Foods That Fight Depression

Foods that reduce Depression

If you find yourself feeling down, irritable, and depressed, you may change your eating habits because the food you consume influences the chemical flow in your brain. Certain foods have specific properties that stimulate certain glands and hormones to ignite happiness and contributing to your overall mood. Here are some foods that fight with depression:

 Iron rich foods

Depression is often occurring due to iron deficiency. Meat is the easiest and richest source of iron;  the main source include beef or chicken liver, oysters, turkey, salmon, lentils, beans, and spinach. Proper iron intake can reduce your depression level.

Foods Rich In Vitamin B

Vitamin B also improve mental and emotional well-being in several different ways. Certain B-complex vitamins decrease depression, lessen aggression, and help to reduce anxiety. Some foods high in vitamin B such as bell peppers, cabbage, asparagus, turmeric, garlic, salmon, bananas, celery, kale, and brussels sprouts.

Coconut

Coconut is also help to boost your mood. Coconut milk is a healthy complete fat that helps re-build tissue, improve body functions and help to reduce depression too. Fresh coconut contains certain fats that enhance your mood and coconut shavings boost your mood and also improve the health of your brain.

Vitamin C Rich Foods

Foods high in Vitamin C are important to the production of neurotransmitters in the brain. One study found that vitamin C enhanced the mood of patients who were hospitalized. The main source of vitamin C includes grapefruit, parsley, collard greens, lemon, guava, turnips, broccoli, red chili peppers, mustard greens, kiwi and strawberries.

Omega 3 Rich Food  

The food that is rich in Omega-3 help depression. The foods include flax seed, walnuts, mustard greens and collard, turnip, as well as dark green leafy vegetables. Although these foods do not provide as much omega 3 as the fish, but you can eat theses foods as an excellent alternatives of omega 3.

Eggs

Eggs are rich source of proteins, vitamin B, zinc and Omega 3. Eggs give you that boost of energy needed for an entire day’s activity. This helps you maintain a healthy weight that is free of unhealthy indulgences. This makes you happier and helps to boost your mood.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes are carbohydrate food. This is not only good in taste but also contains folate and vitamin B6. These two things are known to support our brain’s neurotransmitter’s balance, so good for fighting depression.

Asparagus

Asparagus are high in folate, which is essential for keeping you cool. You can eat steamed asparagus, or can add to salads. You can eat as many as you’d like.

Chamomile tea

Chamomile helps you to get calm. A new study from the University of Pennsylvania tested chamomile supplements on some participants with generalized anxiety disorder for 8 weeks, and then found it led to a significant drop in anxiety symptoms. You can drink it in tea form. In addition to calming nerves, chamomile promotes sleep.

Whole grain

Good carbs help you fight sadness and depression. This is another reason why you should not fear carbhohydrates. Whole grain products have the essence of happiness.

Depression May Be Handled Through Body Psychotherapy

A well rounded process

Part of the treatment of depression involves the use of body psychotherapy. This is a procedure that has been used by many people over the years as a means of supporting the ways how the human body and its functions can influence the behaviors that someone often engages in.

This involves reviewing the many relationships that a person’s mental thoughts have with a number of different problems. This is often important as a means of helping to control the cause of depression.

What is reviewed?

The points that are reviewed in body psychotherapy involve physical motions and movements. These include ways how a person’s body moves when getting into different kinds of actions. Body language is often read as a means of seeing if there are any aggressors involved with the activities that a person is dealing with.

Emotional and verbal expressions are also reviewed. This includes seeing how tones change as one speaks.

Sexuality is even covered. This includes taking a review in body psychotherapy on how well a person is going to respond to different stimuli and if any depression symptoms may be sexual in nature.

Relationships are essential

The key that is used here involves seeing all of the relationships that deal with the body and mind that relate to different functions. The big point about body psychotherapy is that it can involve many controls that involve seeing what types of events or problems might have led to depression or other mental disorders that a person is dealing with. It is an interesting point but it may still be essential when it comes to handling the problem of depression to keep it from being worse.

This may also be used regardless of the cause of depression. This is a big part of why sexual signs are often viewed. This is used because all physical activities in life may be factors for depression.

The Use of Bionomic Psychotherapy for Depression

Studying relationships

Sometimes relationships with other people can cause depression to occur or to be worse than it could be. This is where bionomic psychotherapy may be used to help control one’s mental processes. The use of bionomic psychotherapy works to help review how well a person’s relationships are with other people.

How it is used

The process of bionomic psychotherapy involves a patient discussing relationships to a doctor. This includes all relationships that one has towards other people in all walks of life. This includes family members, people at work and neighbors among others.

The attitudes and feelings that are had towards others are discussed and reviewed. This can also include a full look at the ways how a person will feel comfortable with different people or actions in mind. In fact, some considerations that involve aggressive or sexual thoughts may be reviewed in a typical bionomic psychotherapy session to see if a person’s attitudes are too much of a risk.

The review entails results

There are many cases where a full review in bionomic psychotherapy will involve a therapist taking a look at what could be the potential problem that might have been causing the depression to occur. This includes thinking about the way how depression may be adjusted to the point where it could be risky or hard to handle because of certain people.

The key is to see if there are any certain types of people that might be controlled as a means of dealing with certain problems involving certain people in one’s life. There is a potential in bionomic psychotherapy that depression may be caused by a difficult person or group of people that someone is dealing with. Controlling relationships with certain people or even avoiding them altogether is often required in order to keep this controlled as well as possible before a person could be put at a further risk.

Biofeedback Allows Anyone to Control Mental Disorders

Control is key

One of the most interesting procedures that may be used for handling depression and mental disorders is biofeedback. This is a procedure that involves the body learning how to control itself. This uses a procedure where the body is connected to a series of sensors that are used to measure many points in the body. These include things like heart rate or body temperature.

The body is then trained to work with making changes to help control the body to reach certain feedback results. This works with relaxation in mind to help control the way how the body is responding to different stimuli and may work to keep the body secure.

Used for handling depression

Biofeedback is popular in that it may be able to work with controlling depression. This is because biofeedback is used to help teach a person how to work with controls that are used to help relieve the body of pains and irritation that might come from difficult thoughts.

This can also work for mental disorders that relate to anxiety or focus. The need to learn how to control one’s body is important because it will help to keep one’s worries at bay.

Does it work for everyone?

Biofeedback is useful in that it is not invasive and may work instead of many medications to help control the body to the point where it may feel a little more comfortable and prepared for different functions. It can also work with regards to giving anyone to ability to not only control mental concerns but to also control physical parts of the body.

However, there are a few points that need to be reviewed when it comes to biofeedback. It may be irritating to some people. Also, there are some risks that might involve different kinds of problems that relate to different functions that are rough or challenging to the point where one is not able to get signals read properly unless the sensors are attached properly.

Bioenergetic Analysis May Work for Depression

A unique union

A vital process that is often used for controlling depression is bioenergetic analysis. This is a kind of analysis that involves the union of the mind and body together to form a fully functional union with each other. This is used to create a unique procedure that is impressive and works to help keep a person under control. It is an essential function that needs to be used and reviewed carefully when being treated for depression and many other kinds of mental disorders.

How it is reviewed

A therapist that works with bioenergetic analysis will handle different functions that relate to different kinds of points that involve the ways how a person acts. The body’s expressions will involve different meanings and some holding patterns involved. These are used to help create an idea that involves the way how the body’s energy is being used and how its feelings are being processed.

This is often used for analysis as a means of seeing if there is any sign of depressed behavior. It can also work with a discussion of the story that the client has to offer during this problem. This is an interesting point that may influence the way how the mind works.

The reviews are important

The process of a review in bioenergetic analysis is used to help determine if there are any tensions in the body as the movements are being handled. This includes any signs that suggest how a person may become depressed or irritated as a result of different problems that go on when telling one’s story. The physical movements that a person makes are often used as a means of seeing if a person needs to deal with certain controls in order to keep depression controlled. This is an interesting yet vital approach that needs to be used when finding a way to handle depression.

Iraq war veterans suffering from depression

Soldiers returning home from Iraq are found to be suffering from depression during their first months at home, according to a new study. The number of veterans sustained brain injuries at about 320,000. They are caused by the post traumatic stress disorder and severe Chronic Depression. The soldiers suffer from depression and alcoholism. The symptoms appears after a months. The adjustment struggle was more profound for the National Guard troops and reservists than it was for the active-duty soldiers.

According to the study conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, about 42% of the Guard and reserves compared to 20% of active-duty soldiers needed mental health treatment in two screenings. The first testing was immediately after return from Iraq and the second after six months. Problems became more severe in the second screening with rise in interpersonal problems and difficulty in adjusting in home.

The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that over 88,000 returning soldiers showed signs of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, conflicts in relationship and other problems after six months. The screening techniques for stress disorders are improved vastly.

According to the study some active soldiers avoid the diagnosis of mental health, fearing the negative consequences diagnosed with a stress disorder or depression and about an 19.5% veterans receive a traumatic brain injury during the combat tour. The suicide rate of soldiers is going on increases in Iraq war veterans.

To cope with the problem the US army has created a training program called Battlemind that helps soldiers and their families to prepare for the stress of war and what signs of war to watch for. After returning they have rapid medical triage and treatment. There are lot of care are taken like connect with the returning veteran,connect veterans with each other and family care. Along with these some therapies are done like exposure therapy, pharmacotherapy.

Some soldier suffered from brain injury, stress disorder, or both. Mental disorder is more prevalent. The veterans returning from Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm had higher death rate than for veterans who had not served in theater. Many soldiers ends up using drugs.

Thousands of US soldiers and hundreds of UK soldiers have been diagnosed with PTSD and also related to the depression. Some soldiers avoid a diagnosis of a mental health problem, fearing negative result. They worry about their military careers and relationships with coworkers.

Treatment of Iraq war veterans suffering from depression

The clinicians do the work with veterans with chronic PTSD by using their skill and experience with those which are return from Iraq war. The veterans suffering from the trauma will required educating patients and families about traumatic stress reactions, teaching skills of anxiety and anger management, facilitating mutual support among groups of veterans, and working with trauma-related guilt will all be useful and applicable for that.

First Iraq war patients will not suffer from the mental disorder but they have been suffered from mental health. After diagnosis it is clear that the condition caused due to PSTD. The department of veterans provide them a necessary care.

During treatment it is found that the patients work with a psychologist to address their traumatic memory, revisiting and examining it again and again upto the emotional response connected. About 42% of the guard and 20% of active-duty soldiers needed mental health treatment in two screenings.

Conclusion – The soldier which are return after Iraq battle they suffer from the depression. It is due to stress disorder. The number of veterans sustain from brain injury. The study found many members who take treatment face a death of healthcare providers with expertise in war-related mental disorders.

Depression and Osteoporosis in women

Depression has its fallout on the physic of the depressed as signified in a series of researches. An Archive of Internal Medicine study found that women suffering from depression are more prone to bone loss from osteoporosis compared with women who are not clinically depressed. Osteoporosis is metabolic bone disease characterized by bone fragility and bone fracture.

Osteoporosis is also internal disorder. Some scientist said that osteoporosis is a silent disease. There is a strong relation between depression and osteoporosis. Both these causes due to chronic vitamin D deficiency. This chronic vitamin D deficiency causes depression and bones become brittle which causes to the osteoporosis. Osteoporosis causes due to loss of bone mass.

It is known that women are more prone to both depression and osteoporosis than men, with half of all women compared with only one in five men suffering from bone loss after the age of 50. Blood and urine samples indicate that depressed women had overactive immune system that produces higher level of chemicals that promote inflammation. A protein IL-6 is responsible for triggering bone loss. The connection between brain and skeleton influences the depression on bone mass.

The After bone mineral density researchers found 17% had thinner bones in the femoral neck compared with only 2% of women who were not depressed. In the lumber spine area of the body, 20% of depressed women had low bone mass compared with only 9% of non-depressed women.

Mostly the higher chances of depression causes due to abnormal hormonal activity. The higher chances of depression in women is mostly due to a combination of gender-related differences in cognitive styles, some biologic factors and a higher incidence of psychosocial and economic stresses in women.

What are the risk factors for osteoporosis in women?

  • High bone loss
  • Smoking
  • Depression
  • Low calcium intake
  • Lack of physical activity
  • Poor nutrition.
  • Soft drinks

What is the relation between depression and osteoporosis in women?

The women having mild depression have less bone mass than their nondepressed peers. The osteoporosis most prevalent bone disease causes due to high level of bone mass, smoking, low calcium intake and lack is physical activity. The depressed women have overactive immune system.

The women having ages 50 and over which regularly take antidepressants means selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have double rate of fractures as the women which are not use such medications. The 17% women with depression show thinner hip bone while the 2% women with non-depression shows the same feature of bone thinness. This thinning of bones take place through out the life.

Depression is closely associated with increased risk for both low bone mineral density (BMD) and fractures. Depressed women has lower levels of inflammation fighting proteins than the control group. Mood and brain chemistry help to determine the strength of our bones.

In both condition depression and osteoporosis there is a common cause deficiency of Chronic vitamin D. The more idiotic media outlets are exposure that depression which causes to the osteoporosis. The depression causes to the loss of bone due to lack of calcium which increases the risk of osteoporosis.

Poor sleep also leads to the depression and associate with loss of bone which ultimately causes to the osteoporosis. Drug is not the treatment on this but reuptake of selective serotonin is common prescription for depression. Low level of cadmium is associated with an increased loss of bone mineral density. On research study indicate that the soft drinks can also increases the risk of osteoporosis.

Conclusion – The depression increases the high risk of osteoporosis. However, a question remains to be answered that whether the high rate of osteoporosis in depressed women can be attributed to their mental condition or it is the side effect of anti-depressant drugs taken by the women who participated in the study. The US study is silent on this issue.