Tag: social

Man Up? According To Science, The Man Flu Might Have Merit

Post author By Michael Taylor
Post date February 9, 2018

Do men really complain more when they’re sick? Do they really act like big babies when they get the sniffles? That’s the subtext behind the “Man Flu,” that sarcastic phrase describing how men deliberately overplay symptoms of illnesses (like the common cold) to gain sympathy from their partner.
But is this comical perception that men handle illness worse than women accurate? Or is it just an insulting stereotype or urban myth?
Perhaps the Man Flu is more than just a dismissive, mocking term. What if it has merit? What if men actually do experience sickness in a different way than women?
Well, science is now playing a part in the discussion. According to medical professor Kyle Sue, MD, men might not be complaining just to get attention. They may actually feel as rotten as they claim.
https://twitter.com/ChristianPlante/status/959227888292769792
Sue released a study on Dec. 11, 2017, entitled “The Science Behind ‘Man Flu’,” “to determine whether men really experience worse symptoms and whether this could have any evolutionary basis.”

It is worth noting that Sue’s study was published in The BMJ’s December Holiday Issue, which is the one issue a year when the journal takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to its subjects. Sue writes that he was inspired to do the study because he was “tired of being accused of overreacting.”
But despite the article’s comedic angle, Sue wrote that the no joke: “Men may not be exaggerating symptoms, but [they] have weaker immune responses to viral respiratory viruses, leading to greater morbidity and mortality than seen in women.”

My daughter just told me I have the "manny-est man flu in all of mankind."

— Gareth L. Powell (@garethlpowell) February 5, 2018

So let’s take a look at the research to see why the Man Flu might not be such a laughing matter after all.

It’s all about the hormones.

Sue drew upon several studies of mice, which he declares are “good models for human physiology.” And his research revealed that female mice have stronger immune systems than male mice. The reason? Hormones.

Board certified infectious disease physician Amesh Adalja says that while more research needs to be done to validate Sue’s claims, his theory isn’t so far-fetched: “Men and women obviously have different levels of estrogen and testosterone, and those hormones do influence a person’s immune response. The majority of symptoms someone experiences with influenza are an interaction between the virus and the immune system. What some studies suggest are that the higher levels of testosterone that are found in men do cause a more robust immune response, therefore more severe symptoms. So there is biological plausibility for the experience of influenza being more severe for a male than a female.”

Dena Nader, MD, regional medical director at MedExpress Urgent Care, expands upon this, saying, “Men, in general, have weaker immune systems than women due to hormonal differences. Take the female hormone estrogen, for example. Estrogen boosts the immune system, which makes it easier for women to recover more quickly and may even help take the edge off of symptoms. The male hormone testosterone, on the other hand, suppresses the immune system and makes for a longer-lasting, more severe illness.”
What’s more, Nader says that Sue’s theory of an “immunity gap,” which suggests that sex hormonal differences may affect the effectiveness of flu vaccines “could also play a role in how well the immune system can do its job in protecting the body from viruses.”

It’s a numbers game.

Another factor that could support Sue’s theory is that men are more prone to illness. This evidence came to light in a separate study, done in 2010 by the University of Cambridge entitled “The Evolution of Sex-Specific Immune Defenses,” which used a mathematical model that posits that men get sick, and sicker more often, than women.

Olivier Restif, PhD, an epidemiology lecturer the University of Cambridge, discussed the study with The Telegraph, saying that “in many cases, males tend to be more prone to getting infected or less able to clear infection.”
Ultimately, the study states that sex differences in immunities came about due to evolution, leading to “lower resistance in males, ultimately leading to the counterintuitive situation where males with higher susceptibility or exposure to infection than females evolve lower immunocompetence.”

It suggests that men were more concerned with mating than with recuperating, while women were more focused on staying healthy.
More statistics seem to bear this out, including this 2014 study that revealed more adult men suffered lethal cases of the flu virus than women (regardless of other underlying serious conditions) between 1997 to 2007, while a 2015 study entitled “Age and Sex Differences in Rates of Influenza-Associated Hospitalizations in Hong Kong” observed that men under 18 and most over 40 were admitted to hospitals at a higher rate than women in those same age ranges.

Adalja adds that men make it worse for themselves since they’re less likely to go to the doctor than women: “There’s definitely a discrepancy between male and female health behaviors. …It’s hard to untangle some of the biology from some of the cultural differences between males and females. It’s true that if you wait longer to go to the doctor, your symptoms are going to be worse, and you have to couple that that there are some hormonal defensive issues with how males and females handle influenza viruses.”

It’s all in the mind.

It’s not just hormones or lack of self-care that suggests Man Flu might be for real. The mind could also be a major factor with how men process illness. And according to a 2016 study from Stanford University, another reason men may experience more severe flu or cold symptoms is about how big their brains are. Or at least, the size of their preoptic area.

It turns out that this portion of the brain, which helps regulate fevers during infections, is larger in men than women. This could potentially result in symptoms feeling more severe for men.
And there could be another mental issue at play: a separate study from the University of Glasgow suggests that men are less in touch with their biofeedback signals (which help us understand how our body feels), and that could result in reporting their symptoms are more severe than they truly are.

So…is the Man Flu real or not?

Can we now definitively say there is a Man Flu? And do men overstate their symptoms when they get sick? The debates continue.

I have the man flu, unlikely to last much longer. Tell my Twitter followers I lo…ach…arrrghggg

— Charles McGuire (@c_mcguire1982) February 7, 2018

Unsurprisingly, Sue’s study has had more than its fair share of critics. Ed Cara of Gizmodo took Sue to task for trying to sell satire as medical research, only to have the doctor double down on his observations. “The research is all real,” the doctor responded, “despite the humorous lens it’s being examined through.”
In an interview with CNN, Sabra L. Klein, PhD, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, says that Sue’s research doesn’t factor in age, noting that while young men (pre-puberty) and men over 65 are consistently hospitalized more than women of the same ages; females are hospitalized more during their reproductive years as pregnant women have more severe reactions to the flu virus.
She also adds that studies in countries where women have less access to medical care could result in statistics that aren’t fully representative of their population: “In my opinion, we do not yet have enough science to conclude that ‘man flu’ is real.”
Adalja tends to think the notion of Man Flu is also a misnomer, as the study specifically looks at how both sexes react to influenza, not some separate strain of flu only men are prone to. In other words, if we’re going to seriously suggest men react stronger to symptoms, such a divisive, farcical term may be counterproductive.

Nader adds that even if Man Flu doesn’t technically exist, it’s worth acknowledging that the sexes do experience health issues quite differently: “For years, we’ve known that men are more prone to certain diseases, like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and we test them earlier and treat them differently than we would a woman because of that. Why would the cold or flu be any different?”

How to Treat the Man Flu (If It’s Really a Thing)

So, to play devil’s advocate—if Man Flu is real (or if men experience the flu more severely, according to Adalja), what’s the best method of treatment?

Sue offered his own prescription in the conclusion of his study, which drew chuckles from some and eye rolls from others: “Perhaps now is the time for male-friendly spaces, equipped with enormous televisions and reclining chairs, to be set up where men can recover from the debilitating effects of man flu in safety and comfort.”
In the end, there are tried and true methods to treat the flu (or other respiratory infections), and they work for both genders: Drink plenty of fluids, get lots of rest, use humidifiers (or take hot showers to breathe in steam), and take cough suppressants and fever reducers if needed.

And if you’re still not better in five to seven days, head to your doctor for a checkup.
The Man Flu may be a source of humor to some and annoyance to others, but perhaps we can come together over the realization that it’s just no fun being sick, and no one wants to suffer in silence.
Maybe that last bit is key, according to Jennifer Capezzuti, DO, an internist with Tenet Florida Physician Services, who adds that to be fair to men, a 2010 survey showed that “women call in sick twice as often as men do.”
However, men shouldn’t feel too emboldened by that factoid, because: “Women are 10 times more likely than men to stay at home to care for sick children and elderly relatives.” She suggests that to truly examine whether the Man Flu is a thing, perhaps it is worth contemplating, “If a man has the flu in a forest and no one is around, is it still the Man Flu?”

Tags 50038151, care, hemingway, social

Motherhood

Barley, Bunnies, And Blue Lines: The History (And Future) Of Pregnancy Tests

Post author By Gretchen Bossio
Post date February 9, 2018

Since starting my family, I’ve taken at least a dozen pregnancy tests. It’s always such a rush of emotions: a dose of excitement, a little fear, and lots of anticipation. My hands usually shake as I open the package, review the instructions, pee…and then wait.
Is there a new little life forming inside my womb? Will I see two lines or one? With the line be too faint to read? Am I testing too early? Do these dollar store pregnancy tests really work?
They do work, I can assure you, and I’m so happy my midwife encouraged me to stop spending more than necessary for at-home pregnancy tests!

In the 21st century, it’s easy to determine whether or not you’re pregnant. But just two generations ago, things weren’t as predictable. In the 1940s, when my grandmother was first expecting, there were no tests she could take at home. It took a visit to the doctor and lots of waiting to determine if there was a bun in the oven.
It wasn’t until 1976 that the first FDA approved at-home pregnancy test, called e.p.t., short for “Early Pregnancy Test” and later “Error Proof Test.” In 1977, it hit the market. “For your $10,” read a 1978 article in the magazine Mademoiselle, “you get pre-measured ingredients consisting of a vial of purified water, a test tube containing, among other things, sheep red blood cells…as well as a medicine dropper and clear plastic support for the test tube, with an angled mirror at the bottom.”

That test took two hours to produce results. Considering my complaints about the two minutes I’ve had to wait for my own fate…well, let’s just say that I’m thrilled I didn’t start taking pregnancy tests until 2010!
Nonetheless, women immediately appreciated the convenience of at-home testing. “By 1978 home testing was a $40 million market,” The New York Times reports, and that number is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2020, said the co-inventor of Lia, “the first flushable, biodegradable home pregnancy test.” More on Lia later.

Seeing that women have been suspecting pregnancy and having babies since the beginning of human history, there were plenty of other ways to confirm—or try to confirm—pregnancy before home testing became available. Some realistic, others…well, read on.

The First Urine Test

The Egyptians were the first to discover a somewhat accurate way to determine pregnancy around 1350 BCE, according to the NIH report.
It was similar to modern days tests in the fact that urine was tested, but in the Egyptians’ case, the wondering woman would urinate on a barley and wheat seeds over the course of a few days. If the seeds grew, she was expecting. If they did not, she was not.

This theory was tested in 1963, and scientists found it to have a surprising level of accuracy when it came to pregnancy: 70 percent. “Scholars have identified this as perhaps the first test to detect a unique substance in the urine of pregnant women, and have speculated that elevated levels of estrogens in pregnant women’s urine may have been the key to its success,” wrote the National Institute of Health’s office of history.

French Persuasian

Jacques Guillemeau, a 16th century surgeon, believed that a woman’s eyes were the tip-off for pregnancy.

In Child-birth; Or, The Happy Delivery of Women, he wrote that a pregnant woman’s eyes become deep-set with small pupils. They would also have droopy eyelids and swollen veins in the corners. Well, it turns out none of Guillemeau’s observations are indicative of a bun in the oven, though eyesight does often change during pregnancy.

Jump ahead to the 19th century, and another French physician, James Read Chadwick, observed that a woman’s cervix, labia, and vagina would significantly darken or turn a blue color hue around the eighth week of pregnancy. This sign is accurate, but was an unlikely test due to the modesty of the times. Still, the method has been historically noted and today is often called the Chadwick’s sign.

A Hop and a Prayer

“When I started medical school, we literally had to wait for the rabbit to die to see if someone was pregnant,” recalled Mary Jane Minkin, MD, in a previous interview with HealthyWay.
Starting in the 1930s and lasting into the ’70s, a somewhat barbaric test was done where a woman’s urine was injected into the veins of a live, female rabbit. If the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) was present in the urine, the rabbit would ovulate and confirm that the woman was pregnant.

“Unfortunately, this method came at a tremendous cost to the rabbits—their lives!” wrote Jenny Lelwica Buttaccio for HealthyWay. “The rabbit’s ovaries couldn’t be seen without an autopsy or surgery to remove the ovaries; the latter was typically deemed a waste of effort.”
A similar test could be done with African clawed toad, but, since toads externally ovulate through spawning, the test didn’t cost them their lives. Rather, frogs were just observed to see if they would spawn within 24 hours of the injection.

To Wait, Or To Test

The most basic and non-invasive way to determine pregnancy has always been to pay attention to symptoms. Pregnancy symptoms peak early in the first trimester, so if exact conception dates are not known, other signs surely tell the tale.
Sunny Jun, MD of The Colorado Center of Reproductive Medicine San Francisco lists the following and signs that usually mean a baby is on board: missed period, swollen and tender breasts, increased fatigue, moodiness, nausea, food aversions or cravings, spotting, headaches, and light headedness.

But those symptoms don’t always point to pregnancy. Hence, the interest in pregnancy tests: something more exact. Women have always craved answers about their bodies, then and most definitely now.
Now, when a woman browses the aisles of the drugstore, she has countless options of at-home pregnancy tests. They all, in effect, do the same thing: evaluate the concentration of the hCG. If taken in the proper window, the tests are 99 percent accurate, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“A urine or blood pregnancy test is checking for the beta subunit of the [hCG] hormone,” says Jun. “The urine test can detect as early as several days prior to the two weeks after ovulation. If done too early, it may come back as falsely negative.” For optimal accuracy, the Mayo Clinic recommends women take at-home tests one day to one week after their missed period.
Blood tests are more accurate but require a visit to the doctor, whereas a urine test can be done at home…or in the bathroom of the store where the test was purchased, if time is of the essence!

What All Pregnancy Tests Have in Common

No matter the testing method—modern day or way back when—there are a number of commonalities when trying to find out if a woman is pregnant. First, is the analysis of urine. This is most common and most accurate, although as we’ve learned the accuracy wavered over time depending on the exact method.

Second is the observation of physical changes. Accuracy varies greatly with this, but upon conception, a woman’s body begins to change inside and out. Eventually, whether through a test, calculated dates, or a growing belly bump, pregnancy becomes obvious.

What’s next?

It has been four decades since the at-home pregnancy test became available for regular consumers. Science and medical advances are made every day, and yet, for years, there have been no updates in the realm of pregnancy testing. Until now.

In mid-2018, a new pregnancy test launches from Lia Diagnostics.
Lia, as the test is being called, is 99 percent accurate and encompasses the same science as the tests that currently line drugstore shelves. But there is one important difference: Lia is flushable and therefore “better for the environment and more discrete for women,” according to Jun.
Just like other at-home pregnancy tests, Lia assesses the level of hCG in a woman’s urine. Simply pee on the stick, lay it flat, and read the line(s) that appear. One line is negative, two lines, positive. Then, though, you can flush the test. That’s the game changer.

All other pregnancy tests are plastic and must be thrown in the garbage. This is both bad for the environment and bad for the suspecting woman’s privacy. With a flushable test, not only can the test stay out of the landfill, the results can be kept private. A woman can choose to reveal her positive or negative test to whomever she chooses, whenever she chooses, without fear of the results being discovered in the waste bin.
From the days of watching wheat and barley seeds grow, to the discreet, flushable hCG-reading devices on the horizon, pregnancy tests span a huge portion of human history. They show how far science has come.

In coming years, advancements will surely be made in the rate of accuracy in detecting early pregnancy. Currently, the most sensitive test reads with a 79 percent accuracy at six days before a woman’s missed period. Perhaps one day it will be even earlier with an even higher rate of accuracy.

Tags 50037886, hemingway, parenting, social

Lifestyle

Long-Term Loneliness: The Hidden Suffering Of The Chronically Ill

Post author By Jenny Lelwica Buttaccio
Post date February 6, 2018

I was 32 years old when I had my first serious battle with loneliness. Gradually, I began to develop a list of health problems. Dizziness. Insomnia. Fatigue. Heart palpitations. A burning sensation along my spinal cord and in my brain. Weight loss. Sensitivity to light and sound.
I dragged myself from doctor to doctor—close to 20 of them in all—but none of them knew what was wrong with me. Eventually, I had to take a three-month medical leave of absence from my job as an occupational therapist. I had high hopes that 12 weeks of rest would revive my drained body, but that’s not how things played out. Three months turned into nine months, and I was involuntarily terminated from my employment because I was too sick to return.
My body was weak, and my spirit was crushed. How was it possible that I built a career by helping people, and yet, I was unhelpable? I felt like a failure, and I wondered why my body couldn’t just plow through these crippling symptoms. Instead of toughing out the mysterious illness, one day, my body collapsed, and I could no longer get out of bed. As my health continued to decline, I spent my days maneuvering between the couch and the bed.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Whereas most people associate loneliness and isolation with interpersonal loss, those with CMCs (chronic medical conditions) also experience the loss of control over their bodies and the impact that has on their identity and relationships.”
—Elizabeth Aram, PsyD[/pullquote]
Sadly, I became too ill to leave the house or, at times, even talk on the phone. I lived with my husband, who had been forced into the role of my caregiver, and my two senior beagles. One by one, I lost contact with my friends, and most of my family lived out of state. Months passed before I had any face-to-face contact with other people. I was profoundly lonely—I craved human contact—but my symptoms isolated me from everyone except the medical professionals who were trying to help me.

After a few years, a doctor diagnosed me with a persistent case of Lyme disease—an illness that, when not caught in an acute stage, can lead to chronic and disabling symptoms. At the time of my diagnosis, I’d been bedridden for nearly two years. The prolonged period of social separation was undoubtedly the darkest time in my life, and I’ve had an ongoing fight to regain some semblance of my former self.
During my journey toward healing from a chronic illness, I’ve learned that many people battle feelings of loneliness and isolation. A survey conducted on behalf of the American Osteopathic Association found that 72 percent of Americans have felt lonely.
With so many people lacking meaningful relationships, I began to wonder what effects long-term loneliness has on our health. And for those of us with chronic illnesses, can the drawn-out periods of loneliness influence our symptoms? Let’s take a closer look.

Who’s affected by loneliness, and how does it impact our health?

“Loneliness and isolation affect all human beings, so patient demographics are widely diverse in age, gender, race, culture, religion, and socioeconomic status,” says Elizabeth Aram, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist in Illinois.
“Another subgroup of patients whose experience of loneliness and isolation are particularly poignant are those diagnosed with chronic medical conditions (CMCs). Whereas most people associate loneliness and isolation with interpersonal loss, those with CMCs also experience the loss of control over their bodies and the impact that has on their identity and relationships.”

Although much of the research surrounding loneliness has been done on the senior community in America, it seems no one is immune from its impact. In 2017, the American Psychological Association released a statement at their 125th annual conference which read: “Loneliness and social isolation may represent a greater public health hazard than obesity, and their impact has been growing and will continue to grow.” Ultimately, long-term loneliness may place people at a greater risk of experiencing negative physiologic changes in the brain and body.

“Long-term loneliness is also associated with inflammation and dysfunction in our immune, hormonal, and cardiovascular systems,” says Aram. “It can increase levels of stress hormones, overwork the heart, and reduce the quality of sleep. Over time, the damage can limit our ability to fight infection and heal after trauma.”
[pullquote align=”center”]”On the positive side, I believe many people ultimately adjust to pain and loss and learn to view their strength and resilience as part of their story.”
—Elizabeth Aram, PsyD[/pullquote]
“Moreover, as we age, it is important to keep our brain stimulated to protect from degenerative conditions like dementia. Without adequate opportunities for social connection and mental stimulation, we may experience greater deterioration in cognitive and emotional functioning.”

Why are so many people lonely?

“Lack of support is just one of many factors that contribute to loneliness. Failure, disappointment, regret, rejection, emotional invalidation, pain, and loss are all frequently associated with experiences of loneliness or isolation,” says Aram.

A 2015 study in Health Psychology noted older adults who have chronic illnesses were more likely to report feelings of loneliness. But chronically ill individuals of all ages struggle with loneliness and social isolation from their family and peer groups. Aram cites limitations to freedom, mobility, and social connections as contributing factors to the feelings of loneliness and social isolation—though more research is needed to find out just how widespread these issues are among other age groups.
“On the positive side,” Aram says, “I believe many people ultimately adjust to pain and loss and learn to view their strength and resilience as part of their story.”
Although Aram has never met me in person, it’s as if she read my mind. Through my personal experiences with long-term loneliness, I too believe people can adjust to pain and loss, persevere, and discover newfound strength and depth. So, how do you make it through the desolate sea of chronic illness and symptoms that isolate you and come out on the other side?

How do you navigate loneliness?

My sincerest desire for chronically ill individuals is that I could provide easy answers to overcome feelings of loneliness and isolation, but that isn’t the case. Like many aspects of treating and healing from an illness, combatting loneliness and isolation requires commitment, self-care, and, at times, willingness: a willingness to be temporarily vulnerable and try something different than what you’re accustomed to doing.

Adrienne Clements, a licensed marriage and family therapist associate, integrative psychotherapist, and relationship counselor in Texas, says loneliness and isolation require both internal and external actions to overcome them. “The first step is to name and accept what you are feeling and remind yourself that loneliness and isolation are normal human experiences which are trying to motivate you to connect. Without awareness and self-compassion, it’s hard to take action to create positive change,” she says.

While many of us with chronic illnesses have felt the yearning for human interaction like Clements describes, we become static—unsure of what to do next. Clements adds, “Second is to identify some reasonable ways to increase your connection with others, and then force yourself to take action in spite of the loneliness.”
“Examples include reaching out to friends or family members instead of waiting to hear from them, getting out of the house—whether to connect with friends or simply to be in public and around others—get a pet, and get involved by volunteering or joining a club or group.”

To further the idea that all individuals, including those who are chronically ill, must implement steps toward fruitful change, David Kaplan, PhD, chief professional officer at the American Counseling Association, suggests inviting people to your home. “It may be for just a few minutes, but it is the quality, not the quantity of social relationships that counts. Being around someone you truly like for 15 minutes is more beneficial than spending an entire day with a family member that you can’t stand.”
Does social media impact isolation? Can our online relationships break the loneliness and isolation many of us feel?

Aram cautions against the use of social media to combat loneliness and isolation, though she affirms it has its place, “I think social media has both positive and negative influences on our experiences of loneliness and isolation. It can be a source of connection for those who have limited mobility, as well as a celebrated source of entertainment and personal expression,” she says.

“On the other hand, we live in a comparison culture where technology makes it easy for us to see the idealized version of everyone’s lives. Thus, some may experience social media as a constant reminder of what they are missing, leading to feelings of frustration and low self-worth.”

But Kaplan says as much as he—a part of the baby boomer generation—would like to say that social media makes our situations worse, there is little research to back up this claim. Instead, he says, “Healthy social relationships are healthy social relationships. If the relationship happens through social media, that is fine.” According to Kaplan, the primary key to relationships on social media is “to terminate the unhealthy ones.”

At what point should you seek professional services?

If, despite your best efforts, you can’t seem to shake your feelings of long-term loneliness and isolation, you should seek out a mental health professional.

“A person should seek professional help from a therapist or doctor if loneliness or isolation is making it difficult for them to function in their daily life or they are experiencing suicidal thoughts,” Clements recommends. “Loneliness can be overcome, but only with self-action and support.”

Tags 50037921, care, hemingway, social

Nosh Nutrition x Advice

The Rise Of Ramen (And How To Make It Good For You)

Post author By Jennifer Purdie
Post date February 5, 2018

A staple of dorm rooms around the world, ramen noodles remain the go-to food of choice for those living on tight budgets. In fact, ask any college student if they eat prepackaged ramen and they’ll likely skip right to their favorite flavors. Why so popular? You can pick up a week’s worth of meals for a few measly dollars.

On top of their affordability, the noodle bricks are good for those with limited access to kitchens. See, you only need to add one ingredient to ramen: hot water. This makes ramen noodles accessible to those with the most limited of cooking resources.
But as of late, the ramen tide is shifting. Upscale versions of ramen dishes have soared their way into restaurants, ranging from small pop-ups to five-star dining experiences. According to Fast Company, New York and Los Angeles are “saturated with gourmet ramen shops,” and their ramen supplier, Sun Noodle, produces about 90,000 servings of ramen per day.

Chefs at Ippudo, a ramen restaurant in New York (Robert Wright/The New York Times)

This uptick in gourmet ramen consumption is due to restaurant owners following a longstanding Japanese marketing strategy, according to the Fast Company piece: Restaurateurs manufactured a food craze by using the media to their advantage and securing coverage on food blogs.
Now, with ramen noodles consumed by anyone from wallet-conscious students to gourmet diners, enthusiasts of this food should familiarize themselves with its (lack of) nutritional value.

Serving up Sodium

This might surprise you, but a package of ramen noodles’ serving size is only half a block. This means you ingest about 830-850 milligrams of sodium per serving—twice that if you eat the entire package.

According to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, you should consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. “To do the math, by consuming one pack of ramen, you are consuming 72-73 percent of your daily sodium allowance,” says Jennifer Kanikula, a registered dietitian and blogger at The SoFull Traveler.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that your body does need sodium to function properly, but too much of it is bad for your health. Sodium can increase blood pressure and boost your risk for stroke and heart disease.

Even children are not immune to sodium issues. Almost nine out of 10 children eat more sodium than recommended, and one in nine has elevated blood pressure.

Ramen Research

A study published in the Journal of Nutrition shows that eating instant noodles is linked to heart risk, especially in women. Researchers in South Korea (a country with a high consumption rate of instant noodles) used 10,700 participants (54.5 percent women) ranging in age from 19 to 64.
They assessed the people’s diets using a 63-item food-frequency questionnaire and identified two major dietary patterns: a traditional dietary pattern that was rich in rice, fish, vegetables, fruit, and potatoes, and a meat- and fast-food dietary pattern that had less rice intake but was rich in meat, soda, and fast food, including instant noodles.

Researchers found that those who followed the second dietary pattern had a higher prevalence of abdominal obesity. Further, the women who ate instant noodles at least twice a week had higher incidence of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome includes health risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, and high cholesterol—basically anything that can increase your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It did not even matter what type of dietary pattern they followed—sixty eight percent off women who ate ramen twice or more per week had metabolic syndrome.
In a study conducted by Stefani Bardin, a teacher at Parsons School of Design, and Braden Kuo, MD, director of the gastrointestinal motility laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard University, it was found that instant ramen is difficult to digest.

In their study, Bardin and Kuo asked two volunteers to eat different meals: One had a meal of processed food, instant ramen being the main course, and the other ate a meal consisting of handmade noodles. After eating, the participants swallowed tiny camera capsules that recorded the inside of their gastrointestinal tracts. Results showed significant differences in the processes; the instant ramen did not break down into the tiny matter necessary for proper digestion, and the other meal did.
Although this is not positive news, ramen noodle lovers do not need to fret. According to an article published in The New York Times, you can still eat instant noodles, just in moderation. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard University, said in the article, “Once or twice a month is not a problem. But a few times a week really is.”

Instant comfort?

Under duress, people often turn to eating ramen noodles as a way to make themselves feel better. Stressed college women are likely to experience an increased appetite and propensity to consume unhealthy foods, according to a study in Nutrition Research.
It’s not just women who indulge in comfort eating, either—a study in Physiology & Behavior shows that while women are more likely to increase food consumption while stressed, stressed women and men increase their intakes of unhealthy (particularly fatty) foods.

In terms of ramen, it seems men may be more likely to eat it when stressed: Men more often report seeking out “hearty, meal-related comfort foods,” whereas women often prefer “snack-related” comfort foods like chocolate and ice cream.
But research indicates stress eating is a short-lived, and short-sighted, stress solution. While “comfort eaters may experience reduced perceived stress compared to those who do not engage in this behavior,” per research in the journal Appetite, another study shows that combining food with stress “promotes the compulsive nature of overeating.” The mood-improving effects of tasty (as opposed to “unpalatable”) chocolate only last for three minutes, a third study finds.
In a sense, people use food they enjoy as a form of self-medication when they experience bad days. Ramen noodles, for some, is that medication. And when you pair those noodles with healthy trimmings, it can become a wiser choice than a piece of chocolate cake.

How to Make It Healthier

If you limit the amount of noodles to keep the sodium down but beef up the dish with healthy options, you can create a hearty, tasty meal fit for one—or your entire family.

Here are a few options:

Add in protein.

“The best way to up the health factor of ramen dishes is to choose lean protein sources to go with it,” says Emily Braaten, a registered dietitian. She notes that numerous restaurant entrees feature fatty meats. “These kinds of protein make the dishes richer, but also are high in saturated fat.” She says instead, when cooking at home, you can add shredded chicken (or other lean meats) and a soft- or hard-boiled egg.

Ditch the flavor pack and augment the dish with your own savory seasonings.

“Add more flavor with herbs and less sodium,” says registered dietitian nutritionist Rebecca Scritchfield. “Try steeping fresh mint and cilantro in the hot broth and use your own salt plus red pepper flakes for spice instead of [using] the instant sodium packets.”

Mix in your favorite vegetables.

Any veggies you have in your refrigerator or freezer will work, says Scritchfield. “Or leftover roasted veggies can be added to ramen to make it more colorful and more balanced.”

Women should consume 130 grams of carbohydrates per day. Carbohydrate equivalents: One cup of fresh cooked, no-salt-added broccoli and spinach = 11 grams. One cup of frozen spinach = 8 grams. One cup of yellow and white canned corn = 30 grams.

Give soba a try.

Rather than cook with high-sodium ramen noodles, try switching to soba noodles, a healthier alternative.
“Soba is actually made of buckwheat, which contains no wheat or gluten,” says Monica Auslander Moreno, a registered dietitian. “Buckwheat has much more protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals than wheat noodles—13 grams of protein per 100 grams, 10 grams of fiber per 100 grams, and 57 percent of the daily value of magnesium.”

Bonus: soba noodles have a “nuttier taste and are not as bland as the regular wheat noodles.” She does note that you will still consume a lot of starch, but, she emphasizes, it is healthier starch.

Cook Like a Ramen Master

So, you’ve decided you can’t give up your ramen noodles. That is no problem—up your ramen prowess and cook healthier versions of the dish by simply following the sage cooking advice of celebrated chef Tracy Chang, a ramen noodles master. Her award-winning Guchi’s Midnight Ramen dish, available at her restaurant PAGU, won Best Ramen by Boston Magazine.

Here are Chang’s ramen cooking tips:

You can amplify the flavor of the dish by adding in dried shiitake mushrooms. This vegetable has vitamins D, B, and C. It also contains essential minerals like zinc, iron, and potassium.
For protein, dried seafood contains calcium, iron, and omega 3s for skin and hair.
When making your own stock, you should cook the bones at a boil, and then at a simmer. You can choose either a pork or chicken bone, depending on your taste preference. Doing this releases essential minerals from the marrow and bone.
Adding gelatin helps boost the immune system. “Gelatin comes from the skin and fat (for example, chicken backs, chicken feet and pork belly),” she says.

The Final Slurp

Ramen noodles do contain excessive amounts of sodium, and too much of it can lead to significant health issues in the future. However, if you simply limit the noodles and amplify your dish with tasty vegetables, lean proteins, and bone broth, you can satisfy your noodle love while still getting the necessary nutrients to keep you focused and strong.

Tags 50038056, fuel, hemingway, social

Nosh Nutrition x Advice

Snack Scheming: Popular Snack Foods With Terrible Secrets

Post author By Gretchen Bossio
Post date February 4, 2018

“I always had an extreme sweet tooth,” confesses Kari Hamilton, a mom of four who has transformed her eating habits from the inside out. “I would bake a ridiculous amount of cookies and eat a dozen.”
Difficult pregnancies due to hyperemesis gravidarum spurred Hamilton to restructure her diet with the help of a wise nutritionist, and she eliminated inflammatory foods altogether. Since turning her diet around, Hamilton happily says, “I feel sustained and energized because my body is getting the fuel it needs to take care of my husband and four kids.” What a concept—trading treats for energy!
It’s easy to invite popular snack foods and treats into our daily food selection, and it takes a daunting amount of commitment to seek out healthier, more natural options. These snack foods are undeniably enticing—they’re delicious! But it isn’t just the taste that keeps us coming back for more. In fact, there is quite the scheme propelling popular snack foods into—and keeping them in—our daily lives.

Most popular snack foods come from large brands with giant advertising budgets. Their goal is to get their product into the hands and hearts of consumers. Teams of marketing experts lead this cause and, with their ample funds, have catapulted many not-so-healthy foods into society’s diet. Their task has science on its side—these snacks draw us in from first bite, addicting us with sugar and carbs that provide short-term highs.
Jeanette Kimszal, a registered dietitian nutritionist shares exactly how this happens: “[Popular snacks] are engineered with just the right sweet and salty tastes to trigger pleasure areas in the brain. Liking these sensations, the brain wants to experience them over and over, so you become hooked on these foods.”

Although addicting might sound like a strong word, it’s definitely accurate. The New York Times described the situation in a 2014 article: “In animal studies, animals experience sugar like a drug and can become sugar-addicted. One study has shown that if given the choice, rats will choose sugar over [coke] in lab settings because the reward is greater; the ‘high’ is more pleasurable.” So there you have it, the proof is in, dare I say, the sugar-filled pudding.
Has your brain been taught to reach for these addictive foods? Is one in particular coming to mind?

Below you’ll find a line up of popular snack foods that are hiding terrible secrets, whether that’s sugar content, chemical-coated bags, or “vanishing caloric density.” Brace yourself—you might be a bit alarmed by what we’ve uncovered. But the good news is, if you’re willing to break your addiction, we’ve rounded up some amazing and healthy alternatives that your body will learn to love.

Plain is best.

Greek yogurt is all the rage. And rightly so: It’s so tasty, it’s practically dessert! But this “health food,” depending on the type, is full of sugar. “Flavored Greek yogurts have 12–15 grams of sugar per small portion,” says Paul Salter, a registered dietitian and former nutrition editor of bodybuilding.com.

Salter proposes a much better alternative than the pre-sweetened yogurts filling grocery store shelves: “Plain, low-fat Greek yogurt plus properly portioned additives of your choosing to enhance the taste, such as dark cocoa powder, oats, honey, fresh fruit, cinnamon.”
Honestly, a “yogurt bar” of sorts with all those natural additions sounds like a smorgasbord I can get on board with.

Don’t drench your veggies with this.

Choosing veggies as a snack or side dish is fabulous, but there is one way to spoil those good intentions: salad dressing, especially low-fat, low-calorie ones. According to Salter, they’re “loaded with sugars and trans fats to compensate for the reduction in fat.”

“Embrace the healthy fats found in oil-based dressings!” says Salter. “These fats support a healthy heart, possess anti-inflammatory properties, and may support optimal cognitive functioning; you may also look into lower-calorie Greek yogurt-based dressings.”
Again with that Greek yogurt. Best get that on my shopping list!

Get your crunch on!

Nacho Cheese, Cool Ranch, Spicy Sweet Chili: Do those varieties ring a bell? I’m sure they do, because Doritos have become a cultural icon and a snack that many of us love.
Kimszal has some sad news about these chips though. Not only does the Nacho Cheese flavor boast 140 calories per ounce (that’s just 11 chips!), they also list maltodextrin as the third ingredient. What’s maltodextrin, you ask?

“Maltodextrin is corn sugar,” Kimszal says. “As we know, sugar is very addicting, so you cannot just eat one chip. This is also true of any other chips with sugar.” So learn those hidden sugar words and watch out! For reference, Kimszal notes that sugar “is known as everything from maltodextrin to dextrose, corn syrup, and fruit juice concentrate.”
“The consumers are defenseless and have no idea there could be three types of sugar in one product. For example, [some kinds of] Ritz crackers have three types of sugar—sugar, maltodextrin, and high fructose corn syrup—but to the untrained eye, it only looks like one.”

Are there any healthier choices for the chip lover to embrace? First, Kimszal encourages us to wean ourselves off sugar slowly. Then, find better options to fill both the crunch and the sugar rush. For crunch, try nuts, seeds, and higher fiber crackers (three or four grams per serving) with no additives.
“If you are craving sugar,” she continues, “have a piece of fruit instead so you are getting fiber. Berries, pomegranates, apples, and oranges can be a good alternative to get natural sugar.”

For granola, it’s best to DIY.

Who doesn’t love granola? I, for one, am quite the fan of a bowl for breakfast and in bar form as a snack on the go, but Salter warns that some granola is “heavily processed and loaded with sugar.”

Although convenient, it’s best to do it yourself when it comes to granola. Buy your own ingredients and mix your heart out! Salter encourages making your own granola with a “focus on oats and portion control.” Here, we provide a recipe for low(er) sugar granola bars.

Pop away from this kind of popcorn.

Popcorn itself isn’t bad, but the microwave kind is holding on to a terrible secret. Well, maybe not so much of a secret, now that the FDA has exposed that perfluorinated grease-proofing agent, which often coat the bags, can have toxic effects on humans.

Luckily, there is an easy alternative to microwaving popcorn—the homemade, plain variety! This recipe from Baked Bree shows how quick and easy it is to make popcorn on your stovetop; or you can always purchase an air popper. Kimszal makes plain popcorn a real treat by tossing it with natural additives like “garlic or onion powder, cinnamon, or your own raw honey for a little sweetness and flavor.”

Orange and Addicting

Have you heard of the Cheeto effect? Food scientist Steven Witherly, PhD, believes these cheese puffs are one of the most addicting junk food options out there due to their “vanishing caloric density.”
He went into this in detail in a New York Times interview, saying, “If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there’s no calories in it … You can just keep eating it forever.”

Avoid mindless, empty calories by intentionally choosing the foods you want to enjoy. Portion them out, and be satisfied with a realistic snack.

The deception is in the name.

When you think fruit snacks, you think fruit, of course! And while fruit is healthy, fruit snacks are most definitely not. Many varieties have a touch of fruit, but Salter says they often have an “overstated vitamin/mineral content [and are] high in sugar.”

Don’t be fooled: Gummy fruit snacks are a dessert, and a sugary one at that. Rather than making them a favorite, turn to the real deal. Real fruit has true vitamins, minerals, and natural sugar your body can grow to love—and even crave!

Beware of these breakfast options.

“Most breakfast cereals,” Kimszal says, “even the ‘healthy’ ones, have a lot of chemical preservatives and are enriched with synthetic vitamins. They are not truly whole grains.”

Rather, she encourages steel cut oats or a chia bowl. She shares a quick, easy recipe for chia bowls: “Take one cup chia seeds and add one cup water, a fourth cup pumpkin seeds, and a little bit of unprocessed cacao and coconut flakes. Mix well and serve.”

Should you completely cut these popular snack foods from your diet?

Probably. But any step in the right direction is a good idea. Aiming for balance in your diet is a realistic goal. In a 2016 HealthyWay article, fitness instructor Shaun T recommended that you treat, not cheat. He did this by following the “85/15 rule.”

Shaun T leading the “Insanity: Max 30” workout (via The Dysfunctional Parrot)

“I eat 85 percent foods that are healthy and 15 percent foods that are fun,” the fitness instructor of Insanity and Hip Hop Abs fame wrote. “Start by getting out a piece of paper and drawing a line straight down the middle. On the left hand side write down all the healthy foods that you like. On the right hand side write down some of the fun foods that you love. Make sure you are eating more from the left than you are the right, and don’t beat yourself up when you choose food from the fun category.”
Hallelujah and happy day. You don’t have to give up your precious chips or favorite sweet treat! Instead, you just need to temper their role in your life—an occasional snack versus a daily essential.

Tags 50037476, fuel, hemingway, social

Motherhood

From Push To Pool: Birthing Techniques Pros And Cons

Post author By Mary Sauer
Post date February 2, 2018

Giving birth is one of the hardest, most rewarding things I have ever done. I carried three babies and then welcomed them into the world. Each experience was wildly different: one induction, one short labor and delivery, and one long birth that stalled so many times I thought he’d never arrive.
At the same time, in the grand scheme of things, my births were all very simple. They were unique and special for me, but there was nothing extraordinary about them when compared to the huge spectrum of potential birth experiences. I had contractions, I got an epidural, and I pushed until my baby joined the world.
Birth is an experience that is different from mom to mom. It’s completely natural and typically follows the same pattern of events, but it can also be unpredictable and unexpected. For new moms, or moms who simply want a different experience from their last, there are seemingly endless birthing decisions to make. Will you have your baby in a hospital or at home? Will you get an epidural or use other methods to manage the pain? Here are the options.

Getting Things Started

Unless you are scheduled for a cesarean section, your body has to go into labor before you can actually give birth. Modern moms are offered the option to wait for spontaneous labor or have their labor induced, typically through the use of a drug called Pitocin.

When it comes to getting things started, there are many benefits to letting nature take its course. It is generally accepted that spontaneous labor is associated with a lower risk of intervention, specifically decreasing the risk of needing a c-section or an epidural, as documented in a study published in The Journal of Reproductive Medicine. Elective induction, meaning induction without a clear medical need for it, is found to increase the risk of needing a c-section, having an epidural, and causing concerning heart rate changes in the unborn child.
At the same time, benefits of induction do exist for mothers who are over 41 weeks gestation. For these moms, who have carried longer than typical pregnancies, elective induction actually reduces the risk of a c-section compared to moms who wait for spontaneous labor past 41 weeks, according to a medical data compiled by Stanford-UCSF Evidence-Based Practice Center.

Of course, there are also cases when induction is no longer considered elective because the mom or baby’s condition requires an early delivery. In some cases, such a placenta previa, a scheduled c-section is required to protect the baby and the mother’s help, according to James Betoni, a leading high risk maternal fetal medicine OB-GYN Boise, Idaho.

Does environment matter?

We’ve covered the question of when a mom gives birth, but what about where? Moms can choose between a hospital birth, home birth, or birthing center. Although the popularity of home births has increased over the last decade and a half, most mothers still plan to have their babies in the hospital. Home births accounted for .89 percent of all births in 2012, the last year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected data on this subject, and .39 percent of moms chose a birthing center.
It’s difficult to compare the benefits of in-hospital and out-of-hospital births. For instance, a 2015 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine did find differences existed between in-hospital and out-of-hospital births, but they were not only insignificant, the study also noted that negative outcomes of births were very low in both situations. More specifically, fetal death was more likely in an out-of-hospital births, but only slightly, and the difference was not enough to be considered statistically significant. One thing worth noting was that obstetrical intervention, specifically c-sections, were more likely in planned hospital births than in planned home births.

Even so, the choice to deliver a baby at home or in a birthing center is a controversial one. Although the United Kingdom has taken an official stance on the subject, encouraging low-risk mothers to consider home births, the United States is more resistant to the idea.
“For low risk women who are properly screened, home birth is a safe option,” says Christina M. Kocis, certified nurse midwife and doctor of nursing practice, director of the Division of Midwifery at Stony Brook University Hospital. “I think we don’t have an infrastructure or a system here that supports that as they do in the UK.”

She also notes that because the UK supports home births, these births tend to be attended by certified midwives who are actually part of the national healthcare system; this isn’t the case in the United States. Of course, it is possible to find properly trained and licensed midwives in the United States, but mothers should be aware that there are lay midwives practicing here and ensure that their home birth team has received proper licensure.
In addition to the choice between hospital, home, and birthing center, there is the choice of water birth or giving birth in bed. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of research available on potential negative outcomes associated with these two choices. One study, published in 2016 in The Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, found no risks for babies associated with their mother choosing a water birth but noted that moms might be at an increased risk for genital tract trauma.

Of course, risk factors aren’t the only thing worth considering. For moms who are looking for alternative pain management options, a water birth might be an appropriate choice since it is believed to offer the benefits of added comfort and helping to calm the mother, according to the American Pregnancy Association.

Drug-Free or Pain-Free?

The next choice moms have to make might be among the most debated of birthing choices. Should mom get an epidural, or should she opt for a birth free of pain medication?

There are some downsides to electing to have an epidural, according to a study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology International. Research suggests that having an epidural is associated with a slower second stage of labor which may increase the likelihood of c-section. And mothers who have an epidural are at an increased risk of an assisted delivery, meaning medical instruments are used during the delivery to remove the baby from the birth canal.

There are no risks associated with giving birth without pain medication, however, as Kocis points out, physiological effects are not the only thing to consider in this decision.
“There may be patients who need pain medication who, as a result of using pain medication, may … have a birth that, in retrospect, was either calmer or, in their opinion, may be less traumatic for some women,” she explains. “But the same can hold true for women who get the medication.”
This choice is one that is difficult to generalize, according to Kocis, and that seems to be true based on what moms who have experienced either an epidural or a drug-free birth share with HealthyWay.

“The whole experience was fantastic. I was fortunate to have a quick labor, but I really appreciated being in control of my body,” shares Betsy Larson, a mom of one who opted out of an epidural for her planned hospital birth. “I wasn’t confined like I was concerned I would be with an epidural.”

In comparison, Erin Heger, a mom of one who also had a planned hospital birth without an epidural, says that the advantage of being in control and having the support of her doula was great, but it wasn’t worth the pain and exhaustion she experienced.
“I will not be doing it again,” she says of her drug-free birth.

Laboring Techniques

An epidural isn’t the only method for managing pain during labor. When it comes to laboring techniques, HypnoBirth and the Bradley Method seem to be the most popular among today’s moms. Much of want is known about the benefits of these laboring techniques is anecdotal, according to a comparison of the two written in The Journal of Perinatal Education.

However, this research does make it clear that each of these methods holds benefits for moms with specific desires and circumstances. HypnoBirth, for instance, is heavily focused on pain management through self-hypnosis, making it a great option for women committed to managing their pain themselves or who are without a supportive partner.

In comparison, the Bradley Method is all about the partner, teaching the significant other to be the laboring mother’s coach through the labor and delivery. Each of these methods can be incredibly helpful to laboring moms, according to Kocis, but much of the success is dependent on the mother (and her partner) and their ability to commit to really learning the practices of the technique.
https://twitter.com/pwilsonnn13/status/955837893683138560
Ultimately, when it comes to making choices about how and where a mom will labor, the choice is all about her specific medical needs and her preferences. What one mom wants or needs may be vastly different from another mom’s hope for her birth, and it is important to spend time reflecting on that before making a decision. Most importantly, moms should be sure they are educated so they can make good choices for themselves and their baby.

Basics for the complex:
The way you give birth is NOT a competition. Natural, C-section, or Epidural does not define you as a mom. A mom is a mom.

— Tanya Sparkles (@Tanya__Sparkles) January 22, 2018

“There is no one answer,” explains Betoni. “Every patient is different and every story is different. When there is an option, as long as the patients are educated, the mom should have a say.”

Tags 50037836, hemingway, parenting, social

Nosh Nutrition x Advice

5 Things About Obesity That Everyone Still Gets Wrong

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date February 1, 2018

The conversation about obesity in America is filled with loaded questions and misconceptions. Even worse, discussions carry an element of cruelty that’s proven frustratingly hard to eradicate. We don’t just mean adolescents on social media and wanton fat shamers in the media; even doctors can harbor prejudices. Even weight-loss gurus can paint the issue with an overly broad brush.
No one knows this better than Cheryl Springer. The graphic designer, who struggled with her weight for years, says that, too frequently, doctors look at an obese patient and stop searching for other health problems—potentially leading them to miss life-threatening diagnoses.
“People, especially women, are dying because doctors can’t see past the fat,” Springer tells HealthyWay. “They fail to diagnose cancers and other diseases because they only want to talk about weight (in a way that shames patients and without any practical advice on how to actually lose the weight).”
The science backs Springer up. One study suggests that doctors’ bedside manner suffers when confronted with overweight and obese patients; they are literally more compassionate to their thinner visitors. Another uncovered evidence of anti-fat bias in the healthcare community. A significant portion of health professionals in that study harbored stereotypes about their obese patients, associating them with laziness, stupidity, or even worthlessness.

There are all kinds of myths surrounding health and weight, and they can be deadly. Our list is far from exhaustive, but here are five things that we continue to get wrong about obesity:

1. It’s all in the genes.

If someone is overweight, their genetic makeup is obviously to blame, right? While there is some evidence of genetics playing a role in how some bodies store fat, it’s not the end-all-be-all answer to the question of obesity. This is much more complex than “It’s just your genetics.”
HealthyWay
The rate of obesity in America has increased so dramatically over the years that it would be impossible for genes to be the only cause. While obesity rates vary depending on geographic location, community, gender, and race, America has been dealing with increasing obesity levels for decades. Childhood obesity rates have tripled since 1980, and adult obesity rates have increased by about 30 percent from 1990 to 2016.
The State of Obesity report is a yearly study administered by the medical nonprofit Trust for Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Lately, the report has begun to suggest that the rate of obesity is finally stabilizing rather than shooting upward year after year. However, with 38 percent of American adults currently considered obese, we still need to change our approach. The genetic component won’t fix the problem alone.

2. It’s all about willpower.

Another seriously damaging misconception is that overweight people simply can’t control themselves. If they could muster up more willpower, all their problems would be fixed, says this myth. It couldn’t be further from the truth.

One reason willpower isn’t the answer to losing weight is that there are many factors that contribute to success when it comes to self-control. You might think each person chooses to eat unhealthy foods or take those extra bites of dessert—that they can just stop eating like that and lose weight. But studies show that self-control is actually limited. When people are presented with tasks that require strict discipline, they are more likely to give in to urges later. In fact, our brains don’t function well when we’re under stress—or when we’re feeling lonely or hungry.

So while it’s a nice idea that we are always in control to make healthy choices, the truth is that our brains are often working against us and want us to seek out comfort food. Biological differences also play a part in this as well. Multiple individuals can subscribe to the exact same weight loss plan, and all have completely different outcomes—regardless of effort or willpower exerted.
More to the point, diet is far from the only root cause of obesity. You can have the will of an ascetic and still end up overweight or obese.

3. It’s all about dieting.

Dieting goes hand in hand with the myth of self-control: If someone can restrict their calorie intake, they’re bound to lose weight. That’s true in the short term. The bad news is that most people who lose weight by severely limiting their caloric intake will gain back the weight eventually.

And lose-weight-quick schemes like fasting, skipping meals, or using laxatives are associated with feeling more depressed and despondent throughout the weight-loss journey. That often ends in a weight loss staycation.
There are also physiological factors that can cause certain bodies to stop reacting to calorie-restrictive diets. Joseph Proietto is an endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes and obesity. For years, he has helped people lose weight at his facility in Australia, only to see almost everyone gain back every pound they worked so hard to shed. Proietto believed there was more to this weight gain than people not trying hard enough, or not following their diet plans.

In 2009, Proietto recruited 50 obese men and women to participate in a study. For eight weeks, the participants replaced “all three of their daily meals with a very-low-energy dietary formulation … and 2 cups of low-starch vegetables, according to the manufacturer’s guidelines, which provided 2.1 to 2.3 MJ (500 to 550 kcal) per day.” After 10 weeks, the 34 remaining dieters lost an average of 30 pounds. Despite being counseled by nutritionists and working toward maintaining their lower weight, each participant slowly started gaining back all the weight they lost.
After they lost weight, the participants found themselves feeling hungrier and more obsessed with food than they were before the study. Proietto discovered that, even a year later, the participants’ bodies were still in an altered state from the weight loss. Their bodies were literally acting like they were starving, showing an influx of the ghrelin, the “hunger hormone,” and low levels of the appetite suppressant hormones leptin and peptide YY.

The diet put each person’s body into a strained metabolic state that is completely different from those who hadn’t attempted dieting at all. Proietto’s study may have been small, it does shine some light on how little we actually know about treating obesity.

4. Losing weight is always healthy.

Tying into what Proietto found in his study, sometimes weight loss comes at a price. Hormones change and fluctuate as our bodies change. When we use unhealthy or extreme tactics, we subject ourselves to serious health risks.

Extremely low-calorie dieting is not only impossible to keep up long term, but it’s been shown to increase levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body. Chronic stress isn’t great for the body, which brings us to an important point: Mental health issues also come into play with weight loss. Not only can psychiatric disorders lead to weight gain, they can damage self-esteem, making it harder to get motivated to actually lose weight. You can’t understand the body without understanding the mind, it seems, and vice versa.
Donald Hensrud, MD, writing for the Mayo Clinic, recommends weight loss of one or two pounds per week for most otherwise-healthy people. Any more than that, he writes, and you could be veering into unhealthy territory.

5. Doctors always know best.

Over at the healthcare journalism site Stat, columnist Jennifer Adaeze Okwerekwu tells the story of a young woman who complained of the symptoms of a growing lung tumor for seven years. The doctors consistently attributed her increasingly debilitating cough to obesity-related disorders. Finally, after years of this treatment, a doctor ordered a CT scan of her torso, revealing the tumor. By that time, it was so advanced that they had to remove the entire lung.

In a chilling sentence, Okwerekwu writes, “Fat shaming … cost her a lung, and it could have cost her her life.”
This story would sound familiar to Springer. She knows too well the frustration and sorrow caused by doctors who focus on weight to the detriment of all else.
“Because of misconceptions about obesity, I have suffered deeply in my life,” she tells HealthyWay. “No matter what issue you see a doctor regarding, they assume it is weight related. This has caused deaths. And it caused me to lose my child. This has been the running theme throughout my life.”

Springer suffered from chronic low blood pressure, but during her pregnancy the opposite occurred, and all of a sudden she was dealing with high blood pressure. “It wasn’t taken seriously because obese people have high blood pressure. As it turned out, what I had was pre-eclampsia,” Springer says. “I was 38 weeks pregnant and my child passed away in utero specifically because I had pre-eclampsia that went undiagnosed because my blood pressure wasn’t that bad for my size.”
[pullquote align=”center”]“It was my own doctor’s willingness to listen to me … that opened the door to real conversations and finding a medical solution.”
—Cheryl Springer[/pullquote]
But the news isn’t all bad. Susan Besser, MD, practices at the Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, and is board-certified in obesity medicine. She says that an open conversation with patients is crucial to good care.
Doctors should ask questions and listen to patients to create as honest of a medical history as possible. “We are all trained to do that, but frequently due to time or other constraints, it doesn’t happen,” says Besser.

It’s also incredibly important to talk about weight along with everything else. Whether it’s fair or not, patients might need to push the conversation to places their doctor isn’t leading. “The basic problem, as I see it, is that most patients (especially obese ones) do not know how to advocate for themselves,” says Springer. “They experience so much shame, they don’t even know where to start.”
“You as a patient are your own best advocate,” Besser tells HealthyWay. “You need to take an active part in your health care, communicate with your doctor. Many patients and doctors are afraid to talk about obesity because it has such negative feelings—treat it like the disease it is, not a moral weakness.”
That advice explains how Springer finally began to lose weight. Her success was possible because her doctor listened to her.

“It was my own doctor’s willingness to listen to me that I was not eating whole pizzas and washing them down with 2-liters of soda that opened the door to real conversations and finding a medical solution,” Springer says. “It turned out I had a medical problem whose only known solution was gastric bypass (as my issue is insulin related and only a bypass can fix it). In 15 months, I am down 190 pounds.”
If you feel like your doctor isn’t taking your health seriously, it’s time to find someone new.
“Many of us medical professionals were not trained to deal with obesity. It just wasn’t really discussed in school in the past,” says Besser. “So, if you feel you aren’t making progress with your doctor, look for another [primary care physician], preferably someone who is comfortable treating obesity.”
Hopefully, someday soon, that will describe every physician.
“Lives are depending on it,” says Springer.

Tags social

Healthy Relationships Wellbeing

The Psychology Of Proposals: Why We Say "I Do"

Post author By John Kelly
Post date January 31, 2018

When the big news came in, we all swooned. Even the cynics and curmudgeons among us couldn’t help getting just a little bit swept up by the magic and romance of it all.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—the pond-crossing power couple of British royalty and American celebrity–got engaged. Engaged!
And once we heard, there was one question spilling from our collective lips: How’d he pop the question? Even the BBC jumped right to the query in its exclusive post-engagement interview with the couple: “Can we start with the proposal and the actual moment of your engagement? When did it happen? How did it happen?”

It’s not just that we’re starstruck by #Harkle, as some are Brangelina-ing the two, or are The Crown-addicted, corgi-obsessed Anglophiles.
It’s that we, as a culture, are absolutely fascinated with marriage proposals. Proposees daydream their ideal engagements, from beachside sunsets to skydive surprises. Proposers scheme their knee-dropping, including ever elaborate—and ever public—songs and dances.
But why?
Of course, the marriage proposal is a significant and singular moment in one’s relationship, if not life, marking the passage into that greater commitment of marriage (unless the partner says no, that is).
That’s an incredibly intimate moment. So why do we care how Prince Harry asked Meghan Markle to marry him? Why do some partners orchestrate flash-mobs? Why is the marriage proposal, well, such a thing?

The marriage proposal is an important ritual.

For Lisa Hoplock, PhD, it all comes down to ritual.
Currently working at the University of Manitoba, Hoplock dedicated her dissertation to the psychology of the marriage proposal and is an expert on this under-researched area. “Marriage proposals give us a sense of control and predictability,” she tells HealthyWay. “They provide a script for important life events.”

And we all know the script thanks to its consistent appearance in popular media. As Hoplock outlines the steps, the proposer:

Asks for the blessing of the proposee’s parents
Makes the proposal a surprise
Gets down on one knee
Presents a ring
And asks the proposee, “Will you marry me?”

Even Prince Harry followed the same formula, though his script had some additional elements—him being, oh, fifth in line to the Throne of England and all. We talked to the orchestrater of one of the most romantic proposals we’ve heard of, and guess what? He followed it, too—though, as you’ll see at the end of this piece, it was anything but easy.
Harry asked for the blessing of Markle’s parents. He also asked for the blessing of his grandmother, the Queen, as required under law by the UK’s Succession to the Crown Act 2013. He dropped to one knee and presented a ring—which he designed with diamonds from the collection of his late mother, Princess Diana—that jewelers have valued at up to $350,000. And before he could even finish asking the question, Markle blurted out her “Yes!”
Royalty: They’re just like us!

Monarchy aside, they kind of are, actually. Their proposal itself was a simple and private affair, as we’d imagine a high-profile pair would want for an engagement announcement that made international headlines and sparked its own hashtag. Markle told the BBC that Harry proposed on a “cozy night” at their cottage. “We were roasting chicken. It was just an amazing surprise. It was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got down on one knee.”

The proposal script provides guidance and communicates values.

Now, the origins of the proposal ritual as such aren’t exactly clear, but Hoplock notes that many of the individual elements are very old.
The parental blessing may have grown out of the ancient practice of the dowry, when a bride’s father gave the husband money or property upon marriage. We can find evidence for engagement rings in ancient Rome, with future brides brandishing a gold ring in the forum and a less expensive iron counterpart around the villa. The diamond ring as the go-to band, meanwhile, was the marketing brainchild of De Beers, the jewelry giant, during the Great Depression. And evoking chivalry and supplication, the genuflection expresses “subservience,” as Hoplock puts it, with the question conveying “intention.”

But while each particular component of the marriage proposal has its meaning and symbolism, the power of the ritual is as a whole.
First, as we’ve seen, the ritual offers guidance through the proposal, a momentous, but stressful, situation “where someone might get accepted or rejected,” Hoplock says. Both actors know the scene and their parts, to continue the script metaphor—though a rejection is a plot twist, not the dramatic climax the individuals may have rehearsed. And on a broader level, Hoplock also supposes the marriage proposal ritual provides a larger sense of social continuity and stability in the “tumultuous world” we inhabit.

Second, rituals “communicate one’s values and one’s bonds,” Hoplock explains. “They are a way to connect to other people, a way to demonstrate to others that we share these values.”
For Hoplock, the marriage proposal expresses the traditional “marriage ideal” of a committed, stable partnership founded on love and fidelity—you know, all that squishy-squashy feel-good stuff. We can even understand a proposal rejection as upholding that ideal, declined because of an unreadiness or unwillingness to make the more serious commitment marriage demands.

A good engagement story can be vital to the relationship.

We also value the engagement story itself—so much so that we actually judge the strength of a couple’s relationship based on it. A 2007 study found that “relationships were evaluated as stronger when they conformed to a traditional proposal script,” like the one described above.

Based on the details of the proposal, friends and families deem the couple a good match with a healthy relationship when their engagement follows the traditional steps, and are more likely to support their upcoming union. “If any of the elements are lacking,” says Hoplock of the study’s results, “especially if there’s no ring, [others] might see the proposal as illegitimate. They might think that the relationship isn’t as strong, that it’s a weaker relationship, and it might not last as long or be not as sincere or they don’t actually mean it.”
The marriage proposal, then, isn’t just the performance of a ritual for a hoped-for spouse-to-be: It’s also a performance to our social network to help us secure their investment in our marriage.

Despite the stereotype and media messages, many may be relieved to learn that the size of the ring didn’t matter for the traditional script. The study found ring size made no difference to its participants’ perceptions of the quality of the marriage proposal. It did matter, however, who was asking the question.

We still think of proposing as the guy’s job.

We may be living in a time of greater, if still insufficient, gender equality, but when it comes to marriage proposals, we’re still very conservative. With heterosexual couples, we by and large still expect the man to the do the proposing.
A 2012 study of nearly 300 undergraduate students found that about two-thirds of both women and men said they would “definitely” want the man to propose—zero percent of women said they would definitely want to propose, and zero percent of men said they would definitely want their partner to propose to them. “Given the prevalence of liberal attitudes among students at the university where data collection took place,” the authors discuss, “it is striking that so many participants held traditional preferences.”

Striking, indeed. Over 41 percent of women and over 57 percent of men largely cited traditional gender roles for why they want the man to propose. They wanted men to propose because men are the ones who are supposed to propose—because that’s just the way it’s always been. The authors refer to this as “benevolent sexism” or the “belief that men should protect, cherish, and provide for women,” also manifested in everyday behaviors like the expectation that men should pay for dinner.
There may also be so not-so benevolent forces at play, too. Writer Miranda Popkey thinks heterosexual women face an insidious catch-22: “We’re supposed to want to get married,” she wrote, “but if we advertise that desire too loudly, we become unmarriageable.”
A quick search around the web yields countless articles for how to get him to “put a ring on it,” as Beyoncé would sing: 15 Psychological Tricks To Make Him Propose, 10 Steps to Get An Immediate Marriage Proposal From Your Boyfriend, Get a Guy to Propose Naturally Without Being Obvious. There’s even the myth of the engagement chicken, a dish so delicious, it will make a boyfriend drop down straight to one knee—much humorous speculation arose after we learned Harry proposed to Markle over such a dish.

But if a woman dares to ask the question herself? She risks coming across as too desperate or assertive. She breaks the mold, Hoplock says of the lady-in-waiting. “It’s a minority of women who are the ones who propose,” she says. “In my studies, the women were more likely to be rejected. … It is really looked down upon … They think it would be more comfortable if the man is the one to propose.”

The Myths, Media, and Manipulations of Public Proposals

So, for better or worse, we favor traditional proposals. We also like those proposals to be private—another point for Harry. In a 2015 survey she conducted, Hoplock found that 69 percent of respondents said their ideal proposal would involve just the two of them. “Most people want a private proposal, and if they could change it, they would change it to be more private,” she tells HealthyWay.
And yet it seems we’re continually seeing bigger, showier productions of marriage proposals. On YouTube—and yes, we’ve all fallen down this rabbit-hole on YouTube—there are countless flash-mob proposals with millions of views. They’re staged in squares in Barcelona. They’re staged in Times Square, at airport arrivals from LAX to LHR. They’re staged during half-time at sports games, broadcast to cheering fans on the Jumbotron. They’re even staged at the checkout lines at IKEAs.
As flash-mobs, many of them develop in the same way. Music unexpectedly comes on—in the video above, Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)”—and dancers follow. Amused and intrigued by the incongruous event, a crowd forms. Seemingly out of nowhere, more and more participants join in until the proposer emerges on one knee, asking for the proposee’s hand in marriage before dozens, hundreds, sometimes even thousands of people.
The audience claps, cheers, shouts “Say yes, say yes!” The proposee dips her head. She covers her mouth. “Say yes, say yes!” It’s part of the typical proposal script, after all, for her to say yes. The crowd wants her to say yes.
We want the man to be rewarded for the grand, romantic gesture, declaring his love so widely and openly, even exposing himself to humiliation for it. We’re rooting for love.
And public proposers could be manipulating that very expectation, some think. As psychologist Glenn Wilson told the BBC of the phenomenon: “It’s possible that some men think that this will pile pressure upon her and increase the likelihood of getting a positive response, that she must think that he really loves her if he goes to this extent of trouble and trickery.”
Hoplock, for her part, thinks various media may also be contributing to the trend. “Technology allows for sharing and recording proposals” like never before, she notes, perhaps compelling some proposers and proposees to feel a viral proposal is a more memorable one.

Proposers might also feel expected to put on an elaborate public proposal because of how they’re romanticized and celebrated in film and television—often as a daring, last-ditch effort to demonstrate to the proposee that, despite previous mistakes and shortcomings, the proposer is truly prepared to take the relationship to the next level.
But this thinking is just the stuff of fiction, says Hoplock. “People think that the proposal will save the relationship.”

Why and How Women Reject Proposals

In a sweeping review Hoplock carried out of written descriptions of proposals on online forums like Reddit, she found that the second most common reason women rejected the proposal was that the couple had broken up. “There’s a big fight, and he goes back to the ring.”
The most common reason? Women said they were too young: “They were 18 and not even thinking about marriage yet.”
Also, Hoplock has a word to the wise: Avoid proposing at malls or food courts. She’s found that they usually result in a no.

And speaking of rejections, Hoplock had to weed out a lot of videos of proposal rejections for her research, as she discovered a number of them are actually staged for sociological research—or sometimes, incredibly, for the sheer entertainment of it.
But in the real ones, the pain and humiliation—for both parties—is very real. One aspect of Hoplock’s research focused on how women behave when rejecting a proposal from men in public. She’s found a pattern: Cortisol, the hormone released by the adrenal gland when we’re under stress, spikes during a proposal.
“The women seem to freeze in surprise at first,” Hoplock says. “But then the women would try to halt the ritual or pace in distress. The fight-or-flight response seems to occur, where they start arguing or maybe slap the partner or maybe back away from the partner before running away.”

This guy will show you how a proposal is done.

Nobody wants their marriage proposal culminating in consolation from a mascot. So what makes for the ideal proposal? “The ideal is one where the couple talks in advance,” advises Hoplock, emphasizing the importance of discussing a timeline and general expectations for what the proposal should be like. “If in doubt, propose in private with a ring and make the other person feel valued.”
That doesn’t mean it still can’t be magical, though. Take a page from Jim Fisk, director of wellness at an assisted living community in Cincinnati. “I’m a big storybook person,” he shares, recalling his Summer 2017 proposal story. “I wanted it to have meaning.”
Fisk began by observing Hoplock’s golden rule the year prior. “We had talked about it for sure,” he says. The talk gave him assurance that he and his girlfriend were on the same page, relationally speaking. It gave him a timeline: She was interested in getting engaged in 2017 but didn’t want to know when it was exactly coming. It also gave him a sense of what she wanted out of a proposal, which he was able to respect but also use to heighten the all-important surprise.
So Fisk started planning.
The blessing: He took her father out for a drink in Cincinnati and called her mother, who lives not far from where Fisk was planning to propose. That fact would help provide Fisk some cover for the surprise.

The ring: After talking to his girlfriend about her taste in bands, Fisk asked his mother for further guidance in this department—“I didn’t really know what I was doing,” he admits. He discovered his late grandmother had left him a band studded with diamonds, which he took to a small family jeweler for some further modifications.
The setting: Longboat Key, Florida, where the two took their first vacation together. (Hoplock has found that the number one ideal proposal spot is by the water, usually on the beach, so points to Fisk.)
“[The trip] set the stage for the relationship … it got serious from then on … . It would be meaningful to come back around to where we started it all,” Fisk says. He called her boss, shared his plan, and secured a week vacation. The couple took a private sailboat tour that first trip, so he also called the operators to set up the literal vehicle for his “Will you marry me?” Guests could bring food and drink, and the drivers made for excellent photographers.

But as the day drew near, things, as they do, happened.

His girlfriend got jury duty. He had to convince her not to file another postponement in case she was called up around the time of trip, planned for mid-August. Her grandfather was ill, and her family wanted everyone to gather together out of state before he passed away—in mid-August. He talked to her sister about his plans, and the family gladly helped him reschedule the visit with the grandfather.
Then, on the Sunday just two days before they were flying off for the surprise vacation, Fisk says his girlfriend tells him she wants to take a few personal days. Beset by yet another snag, he pulls off some artful maneuvering, convincing her that they will take a proper vacation soon and that when they get back, they’ll do some earnest engagement ring shopping. He threw her off the trail.
The proposal: The following Tuesday, Fitzs reveals, to her elation, that they’re headed to Florida. His birthday is coming up, he says, and they’re overdue for a visit with her mother down there.
“My shoulders were up to my ears. She was totally relaxed.”
They arrive, get settled in, and head out to a restaurant near the dock, where the special sailboat is waiting. But Fisk has one last obstacle.
“We get there, we walk into the restaurant. She’s starving.”
“‘Oh, honey, look over there—is that the boat we took?'” he recounts to us, playing out the drama. “‘I don’t care, I’m starving. Why do you want to go over there?’ She’s kind of perturbed that I’m taking a detour from the food.”
Again, Fisk persuades her. He pretends it was a chance encounter. On cue, the boat operator fakes a cancellation and invites the couple aboard—let us photograph you for our new website, they say, and we’ll give you a free ride and even throw in some food and drink. Soon, the couple’s aboard.
They make it out into the Gulf when the photographer asks, as planned, to photograph Fitz’s girlfriend at the brow of the boat. The photographer has her do her best Titanic pose so her back is to Fisk.
“That’s when I was suppose to come up behind her on one knee. I’m standing midship, I kid you not, and it all hit me at that point. The sun is coming down, there was some music playing. It all hit me. Holy s***. It’s here. I froze up,” he remembers. “It wasn’t until the captain … took a hand and put in on my shoulder, just a nudge. I walked up and was down one knee,” her back still to him. He took her hand and explained how being in this boat with her was like coming full circle. He popped the question.
She said yes.

“I felt so relieved,” Fisk says—not just that she said yes, but that he’d overcome all the hectic hitches leading up to the big moment. “If I did this in another lifetime, a lot less moving parts would help me!” he jokes.
But we’re not so sure Fisk would actually change anything were he to do it over. He told his fiancée all the hurdles he had to jump over as they basked in the post-engagement glow—and for Fisk, the relief. When people ask them how they got engaged, they have quite the story to tell.
Roast chicken? Pshaw, Prince Harry.

Tags 50037441, balance, hemingway, social

Fitness Advice x Motivation Sweat

Is It Time To Ditch Your Ear Bud? The Benefits And Drawbacks Of Music During Exercise

Post author By Jennifer Purdie
Post date January 31, 2018

Natasha LaBeaud Anzures forgoes listening to music during exercise. “Running without music allows me to be completely disconnected from technology and completely engaged in the terrain around me and my inner-most thoughts.”
Semena Morgan also opts for silence during her outdoor runs, as she considers it the only time of day she does not face distractions. “I’ve solved many problems out on the pavement. Music would take away from my serenity.”
But not everyone shuns music. In fact, the majority do not. According to a survey of runners around the world by Brooks Running Company, 53 percent of runners choose music as their prize accessory.

Naomi Jayne is one of them. She turns to music for more than just a pump-up—she uses it to create art in her head, which she then goes on to paint. “When I am running, I always see colors in my mind that go along with the music, or each note has a certain personality to me. When I hear the note in the music, the color forms, and as I am listening to the music, I will decide upon a color palette as a result of the music that I am listening to,” she says.
Even medical professionals recommend music. Jasmine Marcus, doctor of physical therapy, says that she advises patients to listen to music when exercising to make working out more enjoyable. “I pick fast-paced songs to listen to when doing cardio on the bike or elliptical, and I encourage my patients to do the same.”

These examples show the two ends of the music-while-running spectrum—but you never find many people in the middle. Since headphones popped up on heads, it has seemed that runners fall into two categories: those who must listen to music and those who consider it too much of a distraction/safety issue. Whichever group describes you, chances are you are pretty adamant about it.
So, we won’t try to sway you. Let’s just look at the benefits and drawbacks of music during exercise.

Music, the Motivator

“There is a reason why there are exercise playlists,” says Caleb Backe, a certified personal trainer. “There is a reason why … songs are formatted (or reformatted) to fit certain types of beats-per-minute patterns.”
The reason is that appropriate music increases endurance. In a study published in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, researchers found that carefully selected music can significantly increase a person’s endurance by 15 percent, as well as improve positive thinking “even when they are working out at a very high intensity—close to physical exhaustion,” according to Science Daily‘s roundup of the study.

Costas I. Karageorghis, a researcher from the study, even took these findings and applied them to a race. The 2008 Sony Ericsson Run to the Beat half marathon was the first race to provide scientifically selected music along the course to keep runners’ endurance levels up. The race became popular and attracted around 19,000 runners in 2013, according to News Shopper.
Other research shows similar results. In a study published in the peer-review journal Chest, researchers put 19 participants through two “endurance walk tests, one with and one without listening to self-selected music throughout the test.” They measured, among other things, the participants’ endurance times and levels of labored breathing—”the primary symptom limiting exercise tolerance,” the study says—upon completion. The results showed that self-selected music “increased tolerance of high-intensity exercise” and reduced labored breathing at the finish line.
“Practically, the effect was modest but may represent an aid for exercise training of these patients,” they concluded.

Aditi G. Jha, MD, agrees that music choice matters. “Most gym-goers prefer R&B to work out to, which is okay. But hard metal and too-loud music can defeat the purpose, which is to give your body a mental push and to feel good,” she says.

Watch the noise level.

You need to stay cognizant of your music noise level. Bryan Pollard, president of the nonprofit Hyperacusis Research, which funds scientific research into noise-induced pain, says any loud music can cause health issues.
“[Loud music], whether it is coming from earbuds while jogging or speakers in spin class, contributes to assorted hearing dysfunction,” he says.

Hearing loss is a widespread health condition. Approximately 36 million Americans have it, and one in three developed their hearing loss as a result of exposure to noise, according to the American Academy of Audiology. In Europe, the number is higher—52 million people self-report hearing loss, says The European Coalition on Hearing Loss and Disability. The World Health Organization estimates that it costs Europe €178 billion each year for untreated hearing impairments, according to the coalition’s report.
How loud should you go when listening to music to not become part of these statistics? Not very high, according to the American Academy of Audiology. Noise-induced hearing loss can occur from any continued exposure to noise more than 85 decibels. To put this into perspective:

Normal conversations = 60 decibels
Dishwashers = 60 decibels
Alarm clocks = 80 decibels
MP3 players = 100 decibels at full volume—which is probably where you have the volume during a hard exercise session or during a race, where your music competes with lots of background noise

You also need to exercise caution in group fitness classes, as research shows these classes play music too loud as well. In a paper published in the Archives of Environment & Occupational Health, Australian researchers studied noise levels during 35 low-intensity and 65 high-intensity classes in 1997 to 1998, and again in 2009 to 2011. In high-intensity classes in the later time frame, decibels averaged 93.1—a level in which hearing loss can occur. In low-intensity classes, decibels dropped to 85.6, but that is still too high.
Oddly enough, the 2009–2011 teachers preferred the music for high-intensity classes to be much louder than their clients did. So beyond ear plugs, you might not have much of a say.

Further, a study from Australia’s National Acoustic Laboratories found that the music in fitness classes reaches almost as high a level as a jet engine.
Oliver F. Adunka, MD, professor of otolaryngology and neurosurgery in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head, and Neck Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, does not provide any better news. He says hearing loss is a hidden disability; most people do not even notice it is happening—and you cannot turn it back once it begins. Hearing loss occurs when hair cells start to die in your ear, and “these hair cells do not regenerate. Once they are gone, they are gone.”

So, what preventive measures can you take? Adunka recommends keeping a lower volume in your headphones—no matter if you wear big Beats by Dre headsets or small earbuds. “Even small headsets can produce high levels of sound,” he says, noting that people who exercise for more than an hour should definitely hit the down button. He also recommends only listening to one or two songs at a high volume before taking a listening break.
Most importantly, he emphasizes, get a hearing test frequently.

For group classes, Pollard advises wearing protective earmuffs or earplugs. “The problem with earplugs is that people do not wear them properly and are afforded little protection. It is best to find instructions online and practice till you get it right. If earplugs fall out, you are doing it wrong,” he says. Pollard also suggests wearing noise-canceling headphones that let you still hear the music.

The Flip Side of the Cassette

Runners who loathe music and enjoy the sound of their footsteps instead, as well as the added safety benefits, can also make their exercise experiences better.

Use the time to think.

In a Washington Post interview, Chris Friesen, director of Friesen Sport & Performance Psychology, said that running keeps your brain semi-activated and frees up lots of cognitive space.
You don’t need to listen to anything to access the extra brain availability created by your run—”Even without music,” said Friesen, “running can put you in a state of mind to solve problems and think creatively.” Without music, you can spend your runs thinking through problems you are facing, brainstorming ideas for a work project, or setting new goals—it truly is the perfect time to do so.

While Friesen did note benefits of listening to some form of media during runs, he also suggested that runners forgo music and opt for mindfulness: “When your negative thoughts or worries inevitably come up when running, you can practice acknowledging them for what they are—just thoughts and feelings that our brains are programmed to generate—and train your brain to not get hooked by or fused to them and to stay longer in the present moment.”

Appreciate the sport.

In a study published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, researchers found that listening to music and watching videos during high-intensity exercise resulted in significantly less “perceived exertion” and significantly more “dissociative focus,” or thoughts about other things. This may be good for endurance, as we’ve seen, but it also detaches you from your body’s signals.

The Finish Line

If you prefer to jam out to your Spotify playlist, ensure you choose the appropriate music to keep your endurance level up; yet all the while, keep the noise level down.
On the flip side, if you choose to listen to nothing but the sweet sounds of nature, use the time to contemplate, create, or listen to your body—your brain has the space.
But whatever side you fall—pro-music or anti-music—you are working out and keeping yourself healthy. That should make you proud.

Tags 50037801, body, hemingway, social

Motherhood

Parents Reveal What They Regret Most About Raising Their Children

Post author By Gretchen Bossio
Post date January 31, 2018

I wish I was one of those people who could let things go.
Some things, I can. Like how my car seems to pile up with coats, books, and ten sippy cups. Other things, I cannot. Like how I don’t craft with my kids enough, especially my super artistic daughter. Or how I turn to the television as a babysitter more days than not. Or raise my voice over a glass of spilled milk (literally, it happened this week).
At night, when my precious children are tucked into bed, I sneak into their rooms and often whisper, “Mama is sorry, I’m trying, I love you so very much.” I’ll kiss them, tuck their covers, and tiptoe out, promising that tomorrow will be better. I’ll be better.
[pullquote align=”center”]
“When we feel guilt, it is a signal that we are making a choice that is not aligned with who we want to be in the world.”
—Alexandra Solomon, PhD[/pullquote]
In many ways, I am a wonderful mother. But it’s those nagging regrets that I mull over at night. As much as I detest the weight of that guilt, part of me is happy for my parenting regrets. Wyatt Fisher, PsyD, a licensed psychologist, says, “ … having some guilt is a sign of being an effective, conscientious parent because you’re reflecting on how you’ve done and where you could have improved.”
Regrets push me to become a better parent, show my kids that mistakes are okay, and most importantly, teach them how to resolve their own regrets by modeling the path I take with my own. That’s what I’m thankful for: the teaching opportunity that regrets provide.
I think most moms and dads would concur that our parenting regrets are bountiful. But through them, we adapt and grow. “Strange as it may sound, guilt can actually be a helpful emotion when we relate to our guilt in a healthy manner,” says Alexandra Solomon, PhD, a practicing clinical psychologist and Northwestern University professor. “When we feel guilt, it is a signal that we are making a choice that is not aligned with who we want to be in the world. … We can use guilt as a motivation to course-correct.”
So, what regrets do parents have most of all when evaluating their parenting? I’m sure you can agree, regrets range from simple and light-hearted to serious game-changers. A few parents are baring it all with the regrets they’ve experienced, and their transparency is no doubt an opportunity for us to all learn.

Letting Screens Rule

Jody Fritz, a mom of two grown children, says, “I have very few regrets, but two nag me. I wished I’d significantly limited screen time and increased the amount of family responsibility through chores and yard work.”

This really resonates with me. Fewer screens, more outside time and training for real life. After all, we only have 18 years to make sure our kids are ready for adulthood. Television, iPads, and the like don’t do much in the way of preparing kids for the responsibilities to come. Shadowing us through daily life and then adopting some of our responsibilities as their own do.

Resolving this regret begins with, you guessed it, y-o-u. Fisher says, “… if you regret not setting better boundaries for [your kids] with technology … be sure to model healthy boundaries now with technology because actions speak louder than words.” Phones down, mom and dad—it starts with us.

Going Too Fast

It’s common these days to hear about being present—the whole “stop and smell the roses” mentality. It’s easy to say, much harder to practice. Life is fast. Our to-do lists are long. Day in and day out, our kids need us hundreds of times, and parents are run ragged trying to keep up. It’s hard to slow down and just enjoy the little things.

Lori Heller, a mom of three, says her biggest parenting regret is not “slowing down more [and] enjoying the everyday moment.” She continues: “I’m realizing how fast it goes by. My kids are growing so fast, I feel like I missed so much by trying to be the perfect mom.” And even the “perfect moms” (the ones we see while scrolling through social media) make mistakes. Promise.

Heller isn’t the only one with this regret. Melissa Swofford, a mom of five, shares, “Life is so busy and chaotic so much of the time—I have to stop and remind myself that I won’t get these moments back. So what if our sink is overflowing with dishes? Stop for that one second to take in what ever ‘the moment’ may entail.”

Being a Worrywart

So many parents shared that they regret allowing worry to consume them. From babies’ milestones to coughing fits to school choices to grades, worry is a natural part of parenting. But the goal is to push that worry to the backseat.

“Choose to be led by love instead,” Tesse Struve, founder of Millennial Mom Coachin g says. “When you lead with love and choose your actions from a place of love instead of fear, you will start to feel better about your choices and actions around your family.”

Prioritizing the Wrong Things

Most parents would say that their family is their number one priority, the driving force behind all they do. But do our actions really line up with our words? Not always. Daniel Reeser, a dad of two, provides a great example of what aligning our priorities really looks like. He says that he regrets “not taking enough time off work (even though I had extra time to take) after my first child was born to support mom at home more.”
The good news is that baby number two followed, and Reeser made a change: “[With my] second, I took more time off work than mom did, and it was great!”

Gayla Duerr, a mom of four grown children, says that when she reflects back on raising her children, she “would opt for much less time sitting in bleachers and more time serving together as a family.” Sports are such a part of our culture that it’s hard to say no, especially when our kids participate alongside their friends. But I think Duerr relays an important idea. Are we trying to raise athletes or people who are ready and willing to give back to their community? Where we devote our time speaks volumes.

Not Taking Care of Myself

Heidi Duncan, a mom of one, points to the earliest days of her parenting when thinking about her regrets. “[I regret] that I didn’t address my postpartum depression earlier. It sucked the life and joy out of early motherhood.”

Duncan isn’t alone: More than 600,000 women suffer from postpartum depression every year. Self-care doesn’t stop at postpartum though. Parents can’t pour from an empty cup, and as I always say, a well taken care of mom is able to take care of her family well.

Giving Social Media Power

We live in a digital age, and social media isn’t something that can be 100 percent avoided. Many parents regret how social media affects them, and Jamie Durham, a mom of four, says that she most regrets “allowing social media to dictate how I raise my kids … I felt condemned that no matter what I chose to do, I was doing it wrong according to someone.”
https://twitter.com/tracybromero/status/957484776864264193
Durham says that since identifying this, she has worked to set boundaries and focus more on knowing her own family, “[which] turns out to be the best way of knowing what they need. No article or blog post can teach me that!”

Mom Twitter is canceled. Y’all are too much.

— michelle (@lynnmishy11) January 27, 2018

Mark Sharp, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist, sees all too often how the influx of information affects parents. He says, “I would encourage parents to make sure they are forming their own values and acting from them rather than listening too much to the myriad of messages out there telling them how to be a good parent. Our culture is quick to judge parents, but the most important things are simple: love your kids, value them, let them know those things, and then do the best you can.”

Struve affirms the steps Durham took to overcome her regret: “The first step to handling any guilt or regret over a parenting choice is to identify what you are feeling and why.” That’s exactly what Durham did. And now she balances a little social media with a lot of family knowledge.

Say goodbye to regret.

Solomon says the first step in moving past regret and the shame associated with it is to say it out loud: “Shame grows in silence, so one step toward shifting out of a place of shame is giving it voice—to your partner, to your therapist, to your trusted friend. Receiving some empathy from someone you trust can break the shame and help you move into a place of committing to making different choices.”

If you’re holding on to some deep-seated regret within your parent/child relationship, make plans to get it off your chest. That momentum will empower you to revisit your values, apologize if needed, and move into a better place.
Struve recommends putting a positive spin on regret, “… sit down and write down all of the wonderful things you have done right as a parent. When you start focusing on the positive, then you can release the regret and the guilt, and move your family into a space of joy and fulfillment.”
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“There’s no such thing as a perfect parent, so each parent’s journey is to figure out how to be good enough.”
—Alexandra Solomon, PhD
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And who doesn’t want more of that? This might even be an opportunity to get the kids involved. More than anyone, they’ll be able to identify what you’re doing well. According to my son, I’m “the best snuggler ever,” and my daughter told me that I’m “really good at planning fun things.” It warmed my heart to hear, and now, during my night time rounds, I’m choosing to focus more on the positive highlights of our day rather than dwelling on my missteps.
Solomon notes: “If you are beating yourself up about mistake and regrets, you are actually keeping yourself stuck. Shifting to more positive self-talk will help you find the strength you need to practice the kind of parenting you want to practice.”
So, say it with me: “I’m a really awesome parent!” Say it loud and proud because you are. You have an amazing heart brimming with love and devotion for your children. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be evaluating your regrets and striving to grow as a parent. Solomon shares a final bit of encouragement: “Parenting stirs up every single old wound, trauma, insecurity, and fear that we have. Every. Single. One. Every parent needs to do the difficult and courageous work of figuring out what it means to be a ‘good enough parent.’ There’s no such thing as a perfect parent, so each parent’s journey is to figure out how to be good enough. Stay committed to doing your emotional work as a parent…for your sake and for your kids’ sake!”

Tags 50037506, hemingway, parenting, social