February 2018

Not happy with what you see when you look in a mirror? Well, you can take a hike . Seriously. New research from the United Kingdom finds strolling in nature—or even looking at photographs of the natural world—leaves people feeling better about their bodies. In recent years, a series of studies have found that time spent in nature offers a range of benefits , from easing depression to increasing altruism . This latest work suggests it can also mute internal criticism of one’s...

Grand Opening | Merced, California Starting out as a small non-profit in Merced County, ACE Overcomers has grown and developed into a world-wide outreach. With thousands of lives being being transformed and changed everyday, we are pleased to share with you how ACE is now positioned to become Central California’s Hub for trauma informed training. ACE OVERCOMERS is now the Center for Resiliency & Trauma Informed Training . On December 15, 2017 many from the community joined us for an Open...

Thanks to #MeToo there is now less stigma and a great deal of empowerment surrounding those who choose to come out about sexual harassment and assault. As there was a veritable tsunami of people posting the hashtag, victims were released from becoming the focus of attention or being pressed by friends and family for details that the victim is not yet ready to give, or can find retraumatizing. It was enough to post those simple words and stand, freed from shame and blame, in solidarity with...

Depression is one of the most common mental disorder in the United States. The statistics collected by the National Institute of Mental Health on depression in the United States are very concerning. In 2016, 6.7 percent of all U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode (16.2 million). If we focus only on teens, the prevalence jumps to 12.8 percent. The rates are even higher in adolescent females, 19.4 percent. In other words, almost one every five female teens have experienced a...

In 2016, 17 million painkillers were prescribed in Buncombe County, a sum that amounts to about 68 pills for every person living in the county. Opioids, a broad category of drugs that includes codeine, oxycodone, Vicodin, fentanyl and heroin, are at the center of a nationwide epidemic that counties across the U.S., including Buncombe, are scrambling to solve. Between 2014 and 2015, North Carolina was one of 20 states that witnessed an increase in the number of drug overdoses related...

Today is exactly twenty years, eight months and five days since my last cigarette. This happened after 16 years of heavy smoking, struggling to quit, getting a few days or a few weeks and then relapsing and getting full-on addicted immediately and feeling ashamed and demoralized. I started to smoke because I heard I'd lose weight. And I did! At first. My mother smoked heavily while I was in the womb, and I wondered if this explained why the little buzz of nicotine felt so wonderfully...

New research shows adults who develop psychotic disorders experience declines in IQ during childhood and adolescence, falling progressively further behind their peers across a range of cognitive abilities. The researchers from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the United States found falls in IQ start in early childhood, and suggest educational interventions could potentially delay the onset...

Guidelines for teenagers should stress the importance of vigorous physical activity and fitness to cut the risk of heart disease, new research suggests. Current NHS guidelines say people aged 5 to 18 should do at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day to improve their current and future health. But in a study of adolescents aged 12 to 17, University of Exeter researchers found significant differences between the effects of moderate activity (such as brisk...

In September 1944, trains in the Netherlands ground to a halt. Dutch railway workers were hoping that a strike could stop the transport of Nazi troops, helping the advancing Allied forces. But the Allied campaign failed, and the Nazis punished the Netherlands by blocking food supplies, plunging much of the country into famine. By the time the Netherlands was liberated in May 1945, more than 20,000 people had died of starvation. The Dutch Hunger Winter has proved unique in unexpected ways.

An announcement Tuesday by three of the nation’s corporate titans — Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — that they are joining forces to address the high costs of employee health care has stirred the health policy pot. It immediately sent shock waves through the health sector of the stock market and reinvigorated talk about health care technology, value and quality. Though details regarding the undertaking are thin, the companies said in a release that their...

EVERETT, Wash. — Unable to walk or talk, barely able to see or hear, 5-year-old Maddie Holt waits in her wheelchair for a ride to the hospital. The 27-pound girl is dressed in polka-dot pants and a flowered shirt for the trip, plus a red headband with a sparkly bow, two wispy blond ponytails poking out on top. Her parents can’t drive her. They both have disabling vision problems; and, besides, they can’t afford a car. When Maddie was born in 2012 with the rare and usually fatal genetic...