August 2018

At the height of summer, naps at the beach can be alluring, and many of us may find ourselves tempted to take prolonged vacations from exercise. But two new, admonitory studies involving both older and younger adults who temporarily cut back on their physical activity indicate that the metabolic consequences of not moving much for a few weeks can be pervasive and persistent, lingering to some extent even after people start moving around normally again. Physical activity is, of course, good...

Prison employees experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at a rate that is similar to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and higher than police officers, according to a study by researchers at Washington State University and the University of Alabama-Birmingham that was recently published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The researchers sent surveys to each of the approximately 2,000 members of the union representing WA state prison workers. A total of 355 Washington State...

Research has often cited urbanicity, or dwelling in an urban setting, as a risk factor for developing the symptoms associated with psychosis. A new study, published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, examines the impact of urbanicity, adverse neighborhood conditions, and violent crime victimization on developing psychotic experiences in adolescence. The authors, led by Joanne Newbury of King’s College London, determined that adolescents raised in urban vs. rural areas were significantly more likely...

My wish for all who have experienced ACEs and trauma beyond childhood is hope, healing, joy and tranquility. We all deserve nothing less.

It appears we are experiencing a bit of an economic reckoning in this country. Historic wealth inequality has prompted a wide variety of experts to put some big ideas on the table. Do we need a federal minimum wage, or should we expand the earned-income tax credit? Even more extreme, but gaining traction on both sides of the aisle, do we need a universal basic income? Or is the solution, as many conservatives would argue, less government intervention, not more? While Democrats and...

It’s a summer ritual in many American cities — declaring a juvenile curfew to keep troublemaking teenagers off the streets. This summer at least one city—Austin—has decided not to sound the alarm. The Austin Police Department’s assistant chief, Troy Gay, told The Marshall Project, “We looked at the evidence and decided it was time to discard the curfew law; it wasn't making an impact on juvenile victimization.” The evidence was a report drafted by a consortium of community groups that banded...

The poolside confrontations keep coming. This summer, a black boy was harassed by a white woman in South Carolina; a black woman was asked to provide identification by a white man in North Carolina; and a black man wearing socks in the water had the police called on him by a white manager of an apartment complex in Tennessee. The encounters, some captured on video, have prompted widespread anger and resulted in consequences for white people involved. But they are hardly new: The United...

"W hat are friends for?” This isn’t a rhetorical question. Friendship is one of life’s most important features, and one too often taken for granted. The human desire for companionship may feel boundless, but research suggests that our social capital is finite—we can handle only so many relationships at one time. Social scientists have used a number of ingenious approaches to gauge the size of people’s social networks; these have returned estimates ranging from about 250 to about 5,500...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a different time, at another place, and under other circumstances, you might have run away from Latisha Valenzuela and Glenda Alvarenga. But at Homegirl Cafe, a Los Angeles breakfast and lunch spot with a Latino twist, the two waitresses welcome you with smiles and friendship. “You alone?” Valenzuela asked when I recently visited. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep you company.” After seating me, she tells me, “you’ll want our cinnamon coffee. We make it ourselves.” She says it...

Japanese-American community leaders are gearing up to commemorate 30 years this week since their activism prompted an official apology from Washington for their wartime incarceration. On Saturday in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo, the Japanese American National Museum and Go for Broke , an educational center that teaches about the Japanese Americans who served with the United States Army in World War II despite their families' incarceration, will hold a number of talks and exhibits to remember...

The new documentary on Whitney Houston, “Whitney,” begins with the voice of the late pop star recounting a recurring nightmare. In this dream, Houston is running from the devil. As exhausted as she becomes from this chase, Houston tells us, she keeps going. She can’t let it catch her. This opening scene foreshadows that the film, directed by Kevin Macdonald, is far from a celebratory portrait of the “How Will I Know” singer. It’s a sad one that shows how drug and alcohol addiction poisoned —...

It’s good, healthy and human to want love and seek it out. We live longer, healthier lives when we feel close to someone safe. Some people feel painfully disconnected, and long to open up to others. But then they stop themselves from reaching out. As therapists, we want to empower people to build more meaningful connections. For all of us, healthy relationships matter . In fact, deep relationships are essential to life as a healthy human being. For trauma survivors, the act of deepening...