Tagged With "chronic stress"
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Biomarkers for Diabetes May Differ Based on Childhood Experiences [Diabetes In Control]
MIDUS study looks at individual adverse childhood experiences and their impacts on future diabetes. An adverse childhood experience (ACE) is any experience that produces long-lasting stress in a child’s life and leads to worse overall health, both psychological and physical as an adult. Research has shown that even a single ACE increases the risk of diabetes, but little is known about the mechanism behind this phenomenon or how to prevent its occurrence. Currently the CDC only recommends...
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Family Resiliency and Childhood Obesity
Abstract Background: Traditional research primarily details child obesity from a risk perspective. Risk factors are disproportionately higher in children raised in poverty, thus negatively influencing the weight status of low-income children. Borrowing from the field of family studies, the concept of family resiliency might provide a unique perspective for discussions regarding childhood obesity, by helping to identify mediating or moderating protective mechanisms that are present within the...
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Food Aid and Nutrition Education for women reducing rates of domestic violence
What do food insecurity, nutrition, and domestic violence have to do with each other? A study on reducing domestic violence, came out of a study on nutrition in Bangladesh, run by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Did women who were given food (or cash to buy food) improve their household's health when they were also educated on healthy diets? Yes! But the women's status also were improved. This article is not solely about nutrition and food but empowerment of women,...
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‘Food for Thought’ teaches cooking skills (nashuatelegraph.com)
Cius and Sako sauteed garlic, wilted spinach and mixed ricotta for baked ziti Thursday afternoon, as the Family and Consumer Sciences classroom filled with the chocolatey aroma of the brownies they had made earlier. They are just two of the students who have participated in Food for Thought, a program teacher Kate Paraggio started at the school last year “in an effort to provide a positive and empowering experience for students,” an explanation of the program said. “Middle school is a...
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Food Prescription to Treat (Mental) Illness [NPR]
One man's story of improving his mental and physical health with careful use of nutrition. https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2019/06/04/future-of-food-as-medicine?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR00KriXrmSj1Q8Hb0eGYA8mIxwUR4t7AKmOwRcuBencwLfE_hFaIf7Cm_A
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From Gut to Brain – The Inflammation-Depression Connection (wakeup-world.com)
Psychiatry has known about the role of the immune system in certain presentations of depression for the better part of the last century, and more recently, pioneering thinkers like Maes , Raison, and Miller have written about the role of altered immune set points and inflammation in models of depression. Our immune systems are largely housed in the gut and the interplay between the gut and the brain is a complex and profoundly important relationship to appreciate. How Does Inflammation...
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Gut Health and PTSD study
More research on diet, gut health, and PTSD. " Johns Hopkins Medicine says that keeping the gut healthy is an important part of overall health. One suggested way to maintain intestinal health is by eating enough fiber, sticking with a diet including plenty of fruits and vegetables." https://www.newsweek.com/gut-instinct-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-may-related-gut-bacteria-scientific-study-says-1467372?fbclid=IwAR1UeHlYKfcuXvrRtJmC2iDQ3yR2O2r2q1b_ddEU2bmamDgrGT73I_z7YIM
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Gut Instincts: Researchers Discover First Clues On How Gut Health Influences Brain Health (scienceblog.com)
New cellular and molecular processes underlying communication between gut microbes and brain cells have been described for the first time by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus. “Our study provides new insight into the mechanisms of how the gut and brain communicate at the molecular level,” said co-senior author Dr. David Artis , director of the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease , director of the Friedman Center for Nutrition and...
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How the Brain Controls Food Cravings
“For example, aerobic exercise has been shown to enhance it, while lack of sleep and stress can impair it – so there may be a link between these lifestyle factors and overeating via their impacts on the brain.” https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-food-cravings-9598/
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Parenting Aggravation Associated with Food Insecurity Impacts Children’s Behavior and Development [poverty.ucdavis.edu]
Parents struggling with food insecurity can experience heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. These pressures may negatively affect their parenting, which may in turn affect the behavior of their children. In this study, we investigated the parenting aggravation levels of parents who experienced food insecurity in the aftermath of the Great Recession. We also explored the extent to which such aggravation may be responsible for the link between food insecurity and children’s...
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Pasta Primavera: HOPE Style [HOPE Garden Project blog]
Pasta Primavera: HOPE Style Pasta Perfect Last week our crew made Pasta Primavera from scratch (noodles included) and it was wonderful to watch the kids take turns digging into the dough. It was my first time to take part in the Summer Program here at (click link:) H.O.P.E . and being a part of the process was a special treat. I remember the first time I ever dug my hands into something messy. . . it was meatloaf and I was a lot more hesitant and dare I say grossed out than our crew members...
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Possible cellular pathways for how we develop disease from trauma
This research may one day illuminate how toxic stress damages our metabolic processes and lead to chronic disease. Might this also open an opportunity for good nutrition to promote healing on a cellular level? https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2018-09-07-chronic-diseases-driven-by-metabolic-dysfunction.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1cXInVmnnyQlW6gU8AU1DJvSS7i4MWX5PaDjVYR3R7u6dG3eEr2l03lTk
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Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness [California Community Colleges]
Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness March 7, 2019 Sacramento — More than half the students attending a California community college have trouble affording balanced meals or worry about running out of food, and nearly 1 in 5 are either homeless or do not have a stable place to live, according to a survey released today. Click HERE to read the press release and click HERE...
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Stress and self-esteem in adolescence predict physical activity and sedentary behavior in adulthood
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a newly-published study in the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity examines how long term exposure to stress correlates with the level of exercise in adulthood. The study also examines the association of higher self esteem and physical activity, and the role that stress and self esteem play in adult obesity. Read more here
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Stress can Override Benefits of Healthy Eating
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/27/494922257/chill-out-stress-can-override-benefits-of-healthy-eating?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160927
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Stress Eating is Life-Affirming and Can Help Us Cope in Troubled Times
https://medium.com/@lucy.aphramor/stress-eating-is-life-affirming-and-can-help-us-cope-in-troubled-times-4a798adf1b73
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Study: Stress Disorders Linked to Greater Infection Risk [mercurynews.com]
By Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, October 31, 2019 People who have stress disorders like PTSD may be more vulnerable to potentially life-threatening infections, especially if they are diagnosed at younger ages or dealing with other psychiatric issues, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 144,919 people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adjustment disorders common after a major life change like a death or move, and other stress-related conditions. They also...
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To Head Off Trauma's Legacy, Start Young
Dr. Roy Wade, from the Cobbs Creek Clinic in West Philadelphia, works on his own screening tool to measure young patients "adversity score" -- indicators of abuse, neglect, signs of poverty, racial discrimination, or bullying. "Wade wants to take action because research suggests that the stress of a tough childhood can raise the risk for later disease, mental illness and addiction." https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/09/377569414/to-head-off-traumas-legacy-start-young
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Trauma Affects Your Relationship with Food & Your Body [huffingtonpost.com]
When I was invited to deliver the Keynote Speech on Trauma, Food and the Body at the “9th” Annual SCTC Conference in October I immediately pinpointed my biggest area of trauma, sexual abuse. I wrote about my sexual abuse and how it contributed to me developing an eating disorder in my memoir so this was a no brainer for me. Then I began to create my power point presentation. I decided to revisit the ACES test, (adverse childhood experiences), that not only identifies trauma but also...
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Trauma, Food Addiction, and “Painful” Pounds [HuffingtonPost.com]
For years I’ve listened to women and men recount an agonizing spectrum of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse and trauma that occurred during their childhood, often continuing through adolescence. Most remember that period in their life as the time when they began to overeat. Neglect, abandonment, isolation, and physical harm usually send young people on a desperate search for a way to numb and soothe their pain. Of course, food is the main accessible and primal reward. Laurie has her...
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Understanding How Trauma Impacts Eating Can Help Us Cope With The Covid-19 Crisis
https://medium.com/@lucy.aphramor/understanding-how-trauma-impacts-eating-can-help-us-cope-with-the-covid-19-crisis-a2f73c60c723
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What Children understand about Food Insecurity
https://civileats.com/2018/03/26/what-children-understand-about-food-insecurity/
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What Cookies and Meth Have in Common
"Neuroscientists have found that food and recreational drugs have a common target in the 'reward circuit' of the brain, and that the brains of humans and other animals who are stressed undergo biological changes that can make them more susceptible to addiction. -- [People] will literally have a different brain depending on [their] zip code, social circumstance, and stress level." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/opinion/sunday/what-cookies-and-meth-have-in-common.html
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Why Emotional Eating Can Be a Consequence of Trauma
Research suggests that trauma can be a cause of emotional eating, or the drive to consume “comfort foods,” to manage the negative emotions directly related to past negative events.
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Re: Food Prescription to Treat (Mental) Illness [NPR]
Whole Foods, Plant-Based, No oil!!! That’s what I believe is the best because it can reverse CAD and Type 2 DM. Plus growing communitiy gardens is a great way to bring back communities to broken communities. And the China Study showed definitively that meat and dairy cause cancer. The less serious medical Iillness, the less stress and the less medicine leading toless trauma.
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Re: Why We Need to Talk About Trauma in Public Health Nutrition [lucyaphramor.com]
Well written article and fantastic articulation of the approach around trauma and dietary consumption and consultation. There are many great points to this article and is a sector that needs to be crucially explored. Pointing out in addition to these strong points, the importance of exploring the types of foods we consume and the scientific insight of its impact on our physiological health, emotional regulation, and behaviour change. As similar to therapeutic context of defining trauma,...
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Re: Stress can Override Benefits of Healthy Eating
"Close, personal relationships are perhaps the world's greatest stress reducer," - very powerful statement!
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Trauma and Childhood Obesity – LIVE WEBINAR
Trauma and Childhood Obesity – LIVE WEBINAR CLICK HERE TO REGISTER Presented by: Leah N. Owen, MC, LAC Friday, October 2, 2020 8:30am – 4:30pm (Arizona Time) $50.00 Feel confident working with clients with obesity issues Gain resources to share with clients and their families See childhood obesity in a new way Be more effective in assessing clients and addressing the entire person Training Description The session titled Trauma and Childhood Obesity will begin with an overview of childhood...
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Elevated “Hunger” Hormone Leaves Trauma-Exposed Teens at Higher Risk for PTSD
Chronic stress increases a blood-based hormone called acyl-ghrelin for years after the initial traumatic stressor exposure in some adolescents, and those with elevated levels of the hormone are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to experience more severe cases of the condition, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published August 20 in JAMA Network Open . ...
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Immigrant Families Reconnect to Cultural Practices During the Pandemic (yesmagazine.org)
From making comfort food to speaking with ancestors, immigrant families across the U.S. are turning to cultural traditions to cope with the isolation and stress of quarantine. Latino communities have been affected disproportionately by the virus. In Texas, Latinos make up almost 40% of the population but account for 53% of the state’s COVID-19-related deaths, according to CDC data from December 2020. During a challenging pandemic, comfort food has helped many of us sustain ourselves, whether...
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How adverse childhood experiences influence eating disorders
People who have eating disorders frequently have a history of adverse childhood experiences and trauma. Find out what parents need to know
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To Exist Comfortably in My Own Skin...
This writer expresses an essential idea about health. She writes about existing comfortably in her own skin as the motivation to be fit and eat healthy. I often think the field of health and wellness is doing a disservice to us all by ignoring this message and instead promoting healthy eating/exercise for weightloss or illness prevention. Sure exercise and diet can affect those things, but our messages also promote confusion, stress and anxiety, unattainable standards, body shaming, and diet...
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How ACEs Impact Unconscious Eating
If you suffer from unconscious eating, your ACEs may be impacting your ability to lose weight. Unfortunately, a simple diet or exercise program won’t work because it doesn’t address the WHY behind your unconscious eating patterns in the first place. Learn the link between ACEs and unconcious eating.
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For children, food insecurity means not only hunger but also stress, sadness
"ANN ARBOR—Parents who experience food insecurity might think they’re protecting their children from their family’s food situation by eating less or different foods so their children can be spared. But a new study led by University of Michigan researchers shows that children know more about food insecurity—the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food—than their parents give them credit for." Finish reading here : ...
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This is What Trauma-Informed Hunger Relief Looks Like
CUMAC’s two-story facility in Northern New Jersey has the look and feel of a standard food bank, with a warehouse, a handful of trucks, a client-choice pantry, and even a small garden. In practice, the operation has a mission that goes much further than giving out food or even addressing the root causes of hunger. In the view of Executive Director Mark Dinglasan, problems related to food insecurity go back — way back — to childhood traumas and the harmful impacts they collectively have on...
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How “Solitary Gardens” Help Envision a World Without Prisons (yesmagazine.org)
In a small patch of green space on Andry Street in New Orleans’ lower ninth ward, nine garden beds lie next to one another, each 6 feet by 9 feet, each the size of one standard solitary-confinement cell. Each garden bed grows a mix of herbs and flowers, among them pansies, stinging nettles, onions, mugwort. They are a mix of plants with medicinal properties and some that just bring pleasure to the eyes, and their growth is limited to the parts of the tiny space where a person would be free...
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Nourishing the Brain Wounded by Childhood Adversity
The right mix of nutrients revitalizes the brain that's been wounded by ACEs. Good nutrition can quickly improve mood and functioning in the present, while improving the potential to rewire disturbing memories imprinted in childhood.
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The Health Benefits of Gardening (healthiergeneration.org)
From a young age, individuals learn about the world through observation, discovery, and interaction with their surroundings. If you have ever taken a walk through a park with a child, you may have noticed a change in their behavior. Spending time in nature benefits the health of both our minds and our bodies . A home, community, or school-garden provides the perfect setting to explore the wonders of nature. With spring just around the corner, there is no better time to start planning a...
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When eating is traumatic and what parents can do to help
Sometimes eating can be traumatic. Traumatic sensations and memories of eating can lead to an eating disorder. Parents must work hard to understand which foods and eating environments are triggering. It also helps to know why they are triggering and learn how to make eating less stressful. Why is eating traumatic? There can be many reasons why food becomes traumatic. A combination of sensory issues, beliefs, and experiences can come together to create a stressful eating environment for some...
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Food Insecurity & Children With Disabilities
Dear PACEs Community, Sharing out my new policy brief about the developmental consequences of food insecurity among children with disabilities: Household Food Insecurity Associated with Decline in Attentional Focus of Young Children with Disabilities A downloadable PDF version is attached. Please feel to forward to your networks who might find this relevant to their work. And, of course, please reach out if you have any questions or comments. Thank you! --Kevin Kevin A. Gee, Ed.D. Associate...
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Paradox of Listening to Our Bodies
The Paradox of Listening to Our Bodies Interoception—the inner sense linking our bodies and minds—can confuse as much as it can reveal. By Jessica Wapner July 6, 2023 "My husband worries a lot about his heart. “I feel something right here,” he’ll say, pointing to a spot on his chest. I have a hard time knowing how to respond to these reports; unless I’m doing cardio, I’m never aware of my heartbeat, and even then I can’t really feel it. After my husband’s cardiologist told him that there was...
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They Rejected Diet Culture 30 Years Ago. Then They Went Mainstream.
It’s 6 p.m. on the patio at Il Moro, a twinkly-lit Italian gastro pub in West Los Angeles, and Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole are intuitively eating their dinner. They start with warm, crusty bread, liberally dipped in olive oil, and then move on to salad, branzino and the penne tossed with little pillows of burrata that Ms. Resch ordered for the table. In accordance with one of intuitive eating’s 10 principles — “challenge the food police” — neither woman moralizes about the carbs. “The...
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The Surprisingly Dramatic Role of Nutrition in Mental Health | Julia Rucklidge
To listen to Julia Rucklidge TedTalk, please click here. "In 1847, a physician by the name of Semmelweis advised that all physicians wash their hands before touching a pregnant woman in order to prevent childbed fever. His research showed that you could reduce the mortality rates from septicemia from 18%, down to 2% simply through washing your hands with chlorinated lime. His medical colleagues refused to accept that they themselves were responsible for spreading infection. Semmelweis was...
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Using syndemic theory to understand food insecurity and diet-related chronic diseases
Syndemic Theory (ST) provides a framework to examine mutually enhancing diseases/health issues under conditions of social inequality and inequity. ST has been used in multiple disciplines to address interacting infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases, and mental health conditions. The theory has been critiqued for its inability to measure disease interactions and their individual and combined health outcomes. This article reviews literature that strongly suggests a syndemic between...
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Whole Body Mental Health
The British psychologist Kimberley Wilson works in the emergent field of whole body mental health, one of the most astonishing frontiers we are on as a species. Discoveries about the gut microbiome, for example, and the gut-brain axis; the fascinating vagus nerve and the power of the neurotransmitters we hear about in piecemeal ways in discussions around mental health. The phrase “mental health” itself makes less and less sense in light of the wild interactivity we can now see between what...
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How stress can damage your brain and body
We all know what stress feels like physically — though the symptoms vary by person. Some people experience shakiness or a racing heart, while others develop muscle tension, headaches or stomach aches. But what we might not realize is that our physiological responses to life’s stresses and strains can have deeper, less obvious, repercussions for just about every organ and system in the body. “I think people really underestimate just how big the effects are,” said Janice Kiecolt-Glaser,...
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Trauma, trust and triumph: psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk on how to recover from our deepest pain
When Dr Bessel van der Kolk published The Body Keeps the Score in 2014, it was a huge hit with yoga people. That is not a euphemism for “rich, underoccupied people”, it is just people who do yoga. Certain physical activities do something weird to your brain: ancient memories resurface, often with new feelings or perspectives attached; you start treating yourself with more compassion. It doesn’t make sense until you read Van der Kolk. After that, nothing has ever made more sense. His thesis...
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Early Relational Health Innovators Partner In Program Supported by PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities Members in Twelve California Counties
Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...
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Re: Why Nutritional Psychiatry Is The Future of Mental Health Treatment (theconversation.com)
I like the idea of nutritional psychiatry that takes into account individual needs. I think it's important to not only eat healthy foods, but also take natural supplements that can improve your mood and reduce stress. For example, I read that theanine and vitamins can increase dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain, which promotes relaxation and reduces anxiety. I myself tried gaba theanine from https://www.amazon.com/GABA-Su...eanine/dp/B0BZQBB3CX and felt the difference. I recommend...