be aware of the devastating effects of stress on our health and happiness
I wish to inform and warn as many people as possible against the devastating effects of stress on our health and happiness so I have sent out a mail to all my friends and acquaintances and invited them to download a free copy of my stress-report “How We Worry Ourselves Sick: A Revealing Report on the Devastating Effects of Stress on Our Health and Happiness,”
Iowa State University study: increased levels of stress in adolescents results in overweight
Stress may indeed be a direct contributor to childhood obesity. That’s according to a new Iowa State University study finding that increased levels of stress in adolescents are associated with a greater likelihood of them being overweight or obese.
The study of 1,011 adolescents (aged 10-15) and their mothers from low income families living in three cities — Boston, Chicago and San Antonio — was posted on the Web site of the Journal of Adolescent Health (http://www.jahonline.org/inpress), which will publish it in the August issue. Forty-seven percent of the teens in the sample were overweight or obese, but that percentage increased to 56.2 percent among those who were impacted by four or more stressors.
”We found that an adolescent or youth who’s more stressed — caused by such things as having poor grades, mental health problems, more aggressive behavior, or doing more drugs and alcohol — is also more likely to be overweight or obese,” said lead author Brenda Lohman, an Iowa State assistant professor of human development and family studies (HDFS).
Susan Stewart, an ISU associate professor of sociology; and Steven Garasky, a professor of HDFS at Iowa State; joined Lohman on the research team. Former ISU faculty members Craig Gundersen, a member of the agricultural and consumer economics faculty at the University of Illinois; and Joey Eisenmann, a member of the kinesiology and pediatrics faculty at Michigan State University; also contributed to the study.
The study analyzes data obtained from the “Welfare, Children and Families: A Three-City Study” — a six-year longitudinal investigation. Researchers measured the height and weight of the adolescents to determine their body mass index, which was subsequently used to determine weight status based on two widely used classification systems. Adolescent food insecurity status and individual, maternal and family stressors were also determined through interviews.
The five factors used to determine the individual stressor index for the adolescents were:
* Academic problems
* Consumption of drugs and alcohol
* Depression or poor mental health levels
* Acting out or aggressive behaviors
* Lack of future orientation [...]
The study also found that a mother’s stress, [...]contributes to a child’s chances of becoming overweight or obese. [...]
While this study singles out mothers, fathers aren’t immune to their child’s weight status either.
“My own research focuses on fathers and shows that fathers, too, have an effect on children’s eating habits and obesity,” said Stewart, author of the book “Brave New Stepfamilies,” who had another study posted by the Journal of Adolescent Health last month on nonresident father involvement and adolescent eating patterns.
“In our latest study, we found that kids who are involved with nonresident dads eat better — more vegetables, less fast food,” she said. “However, similar to the Lohman study, living with a single mom was associated with worse eating habits.”
Lohman says the new research should emphasize the need for healthcare professionals to take a more holistic approach in their treatment of obese teens.
“We absolutely have to focus on their (teens) health, well-being, nutrition and exercise — and education of these things for them,” she said. “But we really need to also look holistically at their life and work towards reducing stress [...]
Original title:
Stress, obesity linked
Source and full text here:
http://www.scientistlive.com/European-Science-News/Medical/Stress,_obesity_linked/22357/
Increased cytokine production: a mechanism linking stress and abdominal obesity
Background: Evidence suggests that people who are more responsive to psychological stress are at an increased risk of developing obesity. However, the biological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are poorly understood. The cytokines leptin, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) play a key role in fat metabolism and abnormal circulating levels of these proteins have been reported in obese people and in individuals subject to stress.
Objective: This study investigated whether cytokine responses to acute mental stress are associated with adiposity in healthy young women.
Design and Subjects: A laboratory study of 67 women, aged 18-25 years, recruited from University College London.
Measurements: Height, weight and waist circumference were measured and body fat mass was estimated by bioelectrical impedance body composition analysis. Laboratory mental stress testing was carried out and blood pressure and heart rate were recorded at baseline, during two moderately challenging tasks (Stroop and speech) and during recovery 40-45 min post-stress. Blood samples taken at baseline, immediately post-stress and 45 min post-stress, were used for assessment of circulating cytokines. Saliva samples taken throughout the session were assessed for cortisol.
Results: Women who had larger cytokine responses to stress were more abdominally obese than women with smaller cytokine stress responses. Specifically, there was a positive correlation between waist circumference and stress-induced increases in plasma levels of leptin (r=0.35, P<0.05) and IL-1Ra responses (r=0.29, P<0.05). There was also a significant positive correlation between prolonged diastolic blood pressure responses to stress and measures of total and abdominal obesity (r=0.28-0.33, P<0.05).
Conclusion: Increased cytokine production could be a mechanism linking stress and abdominal obesity.
Source:
http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n3/abs/0803767a.html
Original title of the study:
Stress-induced cytokine responses and central adiposity in young women
Authors:
L Brydon, C E Wright, K O’Donnell and A Steptoe from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Psychobiology Group, University College London, London, UK
I Zachary from Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine, Department of Medicine, BHF Laboratories, The Rayne Institute, University College London, London, UK
J Wardle from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Health Behaviour Unit, University College London, London, UK
comparitis: a zeitgeist disease
We know that comparing yourself with others will inevitably result in stress and unhappiness. The moment you start comparing yourself with others you start making a loser out of youself. Philosophers like Seneca, or Montaigne pointed it out, scientists like Ed Diener or Norbert Schwarz proved it scientifically.
Nevertheless, all the education systems I know – excepting Elliot Aronson’s jigsaw class, the Summerhill and the Waldorf school systems are based on making the kids compete for the attention and acknowledgment of the teacher and for grades. They were established in the industrial age with the aim to perpetuate class differences, to provide the industries with workers, engineers and managers and to keep young people within highly organized and disciplined structures.
Now the Culture Ministers (called Kultusminister, i.e. ministers of cult) of the fifteen German federal states decided to introduce the same standard tests in each state so the can compare students’ performances across the state borders.
The tv programs for kids are mostly structured as team competitions as well.
It looks like those in charge of the reproduction of culture and administration of learning will never learn. Even the tests the designed were full of mistakes: to redesign them will cost the taxpayers 200.000 euros.
My “Revealing Report on the Devastating Effects of Stress on Our Health and Happiness”
My “Revealing Report on the Devastating Effects of Stress on Our Health and Happiness” is finished and I will give it for free to all my friends and acquaintances so they get the latest result of scientific research on the devastating effects of stress on our health and happiness. And I keep on getting daily more and more evidence in support of the results I based my report on, like e.g. this one:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/24/anger.heart/index.html
greed has destroyed the world’s financial system it has created
‘Capitalism Has Degenerated into a Casino’
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus says that greed has destroyed the world’s financial system as Spiegel Online reported: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,583366,00.html
My question:
Degenerated from what? From profit maximization out of greed to profit maximization out of greed? If “greed has destroyed the world’s financial system” it has only destroyed that what it has created, hasn’t it?
His diagnose:
Today’s capitalism has degenerated into a casino. The financial markets are propelled by greed. Speculation has reached catastrophic proportions.
His prescription:
socially minded companies, where earning as much money as possible can only be a means to an end, not an end in itself. One has to invest money in something meaningful – and I would make a case for it being something that improves the quality of life for all people
But Mr Yunus has nothing to tell us about how to handle
the cause: greed.
Buddha and Epicurus tackled that question pretty efficiently.
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