Just 20 minutes of contact with nature will lower stress hormone levels

April 4, 2019

Science Daily/Frontiers

Taking at least twenty minutes out of your day to stroll or sit in a place that makes you feel in contact with nature will significantly lower your stress hormone levels. That's the finding of a study that has established for the first time the most effective dose of an urban nature experience. Healthcare practitioners can use this discovery, published in Frontiers in Psychology, to prescribe 'nature-pills' in the knowledge that they have a real measurable effect.

"We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now it was unclear how much is enough, how often to do it, or even what kind of nature experience will benefit us," says Dr. MaryCarol Hunter, an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and lead author of this research. "Our study shows that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, you should spend 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature."

A free and natural stress-relieving remedy

Nature pills could be a low-cost solution to reduce the negative health impacts stemming from growing urbanization and indoor lifestyles dominated by screen viewing. To assist healthcare practitioners looking for evidence-based guidelines on what exactly to dispense, Hunter and her colleagues designed an experiment that would give a realistic estimate of an effective dose.

Over an 8-week period, participants were asked to take a nature pill with a duration of 10 minutes or more, at least 3 times a week. Levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, were measured from saliva samples taken before and after a nature pill, once every two weeks.

"Participants were free to choose the time of day, duration, and the place of their nature experience, which was defined as anywhere outside that in the opinion of the participant, made them feel like they've interacted with nature. There were a few constraints to minimize factors known to influence stress: take the nature pill in daylight, no aerobic exercise, and avoid the use of social media, internet, phone calls, conversations and reading," Hunter explains.

She continues, "Building personal flexibility into the experiment, allowed us to identify the optimal duration of a nature pill, no matter when or where it is taken, and under the normal circumstances of modern life, with its unpredictability and hectic scheduling."

To make allowances for busy lifestyles, while also providing meaningful results, the experimental design was novel in other aspects too.

"We accommodated day to day differences in a participant's stress status by collecting four snapshots of cortisol change due to a nature pill," says Hunter. "It also allowed us to identify and account for the impact of the ongoing, natural drop in cortisol level as the day goes on, making the estimate of effective duration more reliable."

Nature will nurture

The data revealed that just a twenty-minute nature experience was enough to significantly reduce cortisol levels. But if you spent a little more time immersed in a nature experience, 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking, cortisol levels dropped at their greatest rate. After that, additional de-stressing benefits continue to add up but at a slower rate.

"Healthcare practitioners can use our results as an evidence-based rule of thumb on what to put in a nature-pill prescription," says Hunter. "It provides the first estimates of how nature experiences impact stress levels in the context of normal daily life. It breaks new ground by addressing some of the complexities of measuring an effective nature dose."

Hunter hopes this study will form the basis of further research in this area.

"Our experimental approach can be used as a tool to assess how age, gender, seasonality, physical ability and culture influences the effectiveness of nature experiences on well-being. This will allow customized nature pill prescriptions, as well as a deeper insight on how to design cities and wellbeing programs for the public."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190404074915.htm

Circadian clock plays unexpected role in neurodegenerative diseases

Seemingly counterintuitive evidence shows that disrupted sleep protects the brain

April 2, 2019

Science Daily/Northwestern University

Researchers induced jet lag in a fruit fly model of Huntington disease and found that jet lag protected the flies' neurons.

While your body might bemoan the many uncomfortable effects of jet lag, your brain may be thanking you for that cross-time zone travel.

In a new study, Northwestern University researchers induced jet lag in a fruit fly model of Huntington disease and found that jet lag protected the flies' neurons. The team then identified and tested a circadian clock-controlled gene that, when knocked down, also protected the brain from the disease.

The findings reveal potential new treatment pathways to slow the progression of or prevent neurodegenerative diseases.

"It seems counterintuitive, but we showed that a little bit of stress is good," said Northwestern's Dr. Ravi Allada, a circadian rhythms expert who led the research. "We subtly manipulated the circadian clock, and that stress appears to be neuroprotective."

The study will be published April 2 in the journal Cell Reports. Allada is the Edward C. Stuntz Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of neurobiology in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

Patients with neurodegenerative diseases often experience profound disruptions in their circadian rhythms, or sleep-wake cycles. They may sleep more than usual or lose the ability to stay asleep. This can lead to nighttime wandering, increased agitation, general stress and a decreased quality of life.

"We have long known that a disrupted clock is an early indicator of neurodegenerative disease," Allada said. "In many cases, sleep disruption precedes any other symptom. But we didn't know whether the circadian disruption is a cause of the disease or a consequence of the disease."

To probe this question, Allada employed the fruit fly model of Huntington disease, a well-studied model organism for both circadian rhythms and neurodegenerative diseases. Although fruit flies might seem completely different from humans, the neurons that govern flies' sleep-wake cycles are strikingly similar to humans'. Fruit flies that have the mutant Huntington gene also demonstrate similar symptoms as humans with the disease: reduced lifespan, motor deficits, neurodegeneration, disrupted circadian rhythms and an accumulation of diseased proteins in the brain, which aggregate and cause neurons to die.

"Normally, fruit flies wake up, get very active, then go to sleep and become inactive," Allada explained. "It's a 24-hour pattern. In the Huntington model, there is no rhythm. The flies wake up and fall asleep all the time."

Allada's team altered the flies' circadian rhythms two different ways. For one group of flies, the researchers altered the flies' environment by changing the daily timing of light-dark cycles. This manipulation caused the flies to live a 20-hour day instead of a 24-hour day. And for another group of flies, the researchers mutated a gene that is well known for controlling the internal circadian clock.

"We essentially gave the flies jet lag for every day of their lives," Allada said. "It's like traveling four hours east every day."

In both cases, the mutant Huntington disease proteins aggregated less and fewer neurons died. Allada, who expected jet lag to inflict even more damage on the brain, was surprised. "We had wondered if the clock played a role in the disease," he said. "It turned out that the clock was important -- but in a manner that we did not predict."

Allada and his team were so fascinated by the result that they took the study one step further. They decided to screen through dozens of clock-controlled genes to pinpoint one that also might similarly protect the brain against neurodegenerative diseases.

The team zeroed in on a gene that encodes the "heat shock organizing protein," or "hop" for short. Not only is hop controlled by the body's circadian clock, the gene is also responsible for protein folding. Because misfolded proteins can result in many different neurodegenerative diseases, Allada thought hop made an interesting target. He and his team knocked down the hop gene in flies with the protein that causes Huntington disease and -- again -- were surprised. Knocking down the gene restored the flies' arrhythmic circadian clocks, reduced the aggregation of diseased proteins in the brain and reduced the number of neurons killed by those proteins.

"We thought that inhibiting this gene that helps your proteins fold properly would make things worse, but they got better," Allada said. "It again shows that a little bit of stress is probably good."

Next, Allada plans to test this method in a fruit fly model of Alzheimer's disease. He believes that targeting and knocking down the hop gene could potentially be an early intervention for slowing the progression of various neurodegenerative diseases.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190402113220.htm

Just seeing reminders of coffee can stimulate the brain

March 27, 2019

Science Daily/University of Toronto

Just looking at something that reminds us of coffee can cause our minds to become more alert and attentive, according to a new University of Toronto study.

"Coffee is one of the most popular beverages and a lot is known about its physical effects," said Sam Maglio, an associate professor in the department of management at U of T Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.

"Much less is known about its psychological meaning -- in other words, how even seeing reminders of it can influence how we think."

The study, co-authored by Maglio and published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition, looks at an effect called priming, through which exposure to even subtle cues can influence our thoughts and behaviour.

"People often encounter coffee-related cues, or think about coffee, without actually ingesting it," says Maglio, an expert on consumer behaviour.

"We wanted to see if there was an association between coffee and arousal such that if we simply exposed people to coffee-related cues, their physiological arousal would increase, as it would if they had actually drank coffee."

Arousal in psychology refers to how specific areas of the brain get activated into a state of being alert, awake and attentive. It can be triggered by a number of things, including our emotions, neurotransmitters in the brain, or the caffeinated beverages we consume.

In this case the researchers, including Maglio and Eugene Chan, a former PhD student at Rotman, wanted to explore how simply being exposed to things that remind us of coffee may have an effect on arousal.

Across four separate studies and using a mix of participants from western and eastern cultures, they compared coffee- and tea-related cues. They found that participants exposed to coffee-related cues perceived time as shorter and thought in more concrete, precise terms.

"People who experience physiological arousal -- again, in this case as the result of priming and not drinking coffee itself -- see the world in more specific, detailed terms," says Maglio, whose past research has looked at how uncertainty can affect our perception of time.

"This has a number of implications for how people process information and make judgments and decisions."

However, the effect was not as strong among participants who grew up in eastern cultures. Maglio speculates that the association between coffee and arousal is not as strong in less coffee-dominated cultures.

"In North America we have this image of a prototypical executive rushing off to an important meeting with a triple espresso in their hand. There's this connection between drinking caffeine and arousal that may not exist in other cultures."

Past U of T research has looked at the effect of other primed associations, notes Maglio. One study found that merely looking at a fast food restaurant logo may lessen our ability to slow down and savour pleasurable experiences in life.

Maglio says next steps for the research will look at associations people have for different foods and beverages. Just thinking about energy drinks or red wine, for example, could have very different effects on arousal.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190327164713.htm

Had enough water? Brain's thirst centers make a gut check

Mouse study suggests gut sensors monitor hydration potential of each drink you take

March 27, 2019

Science Daily/University of California - San Francisco

Water bottles are everywhere these days, along with all kinds of advice about exactly how much water you should be drinking. But how does your brain actually know when you've had enough and can stop feeling thirsty? A new UC San Francisco study -- published March 27, 2019 in Nature -- may have the answer.

Until recently, scientists believed that a brain region called the hypothalamus makes us thirsty when it detects a drop in the hydration of our blood. But UCSF neuroscientist Zachary Knight, PhD, an associate professor of physiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, realized that this couldn't be the whole story -- in particular because a refreshing beverage begins to quench our thirst almost as soon as it touches our lips, despite taking 10 minutes or more to actually change our overall hydration.

In a 2016 study, Knight lab graduate student Christopher Zimmerman helped to explain this phenomenon by showing that sensory signals from the mouth and throat make thirst neurons in the hypothalamus shut down immediately when mice take a drink. These sensors appear to predict how hydrating a drink will be, based on the volume of liquid an animal swallows, and they are particularly attuned to cold fluids, which may explain why an icy drink is so refreshing.

"This fast signal from the mouth and throat appears to track how much you drink and match that to what your body needs," Zimmerman said. "But we also knew that this fast signal couldn't explain everything."

In particular, the researchers wondered how the brain knows exactly how hydrating a drink will be. After all, sea water doesn't quench thirst, but it would activate many of the same receptors in the mouth and throat as ice water from the fridge.

In their new study, Zimmerman and colleagues used flexible optical fibers implanted near the hypothalamus to watch the activity of thirst neurons as mice drank salty water. In agreement with the team's earlier results, these neurons did go quiet as soon as the thirsty animals took a drink, but then quickly switched back on, as if some other sensor were testing the water the animal had just drunk and alerting the brain: "Too salty -- stay thirsty!"

To see whether these signals could be coming from the gut, the researchers infused liquid directly into the stomachs of thirsty mice while watching the activity of their thirst neurons. They found that infusing fresh water deactivated these cells just as well as taking a drink does, but after infusions of salt water thirst neurons remained active. When mice were given a salt infusion and then allowed to drink pure water, their thirst neurons initially went quiet as they drank, but soon switched back on, as if signaling the need to drink more to make up for the added salt in their stomachs.

These results suggest that the sensors in the mouth and throat that Zimmerman discovered in 2016 let the brain temporarily quench thirst to reward animals for taking a drink, but that the thirst neurons then review this decision based on a second level of sensors in the gut (probably at the beginning of the small intestine, the authors suggest) that predict how well the drink will rehydrate the animal and tell it whether it needs to keep drinking.

"Interestingly, salt water didn't drive drinking in well-hydrated mice, just in mice who were already thirsty," Zimmerman said. "This suggests that signals from the gut are needed to quench thirst, but that you actually need to become dehydrated to trigger thirst in the first place."

The researchers showed that the gut's hydration signals travel via the vagus nerve to activate thirst neurons. Using a technique called optogenetics, which lets scientists activate or shut down particular groups of neurons using beams of light, the researchers showed how these cells -- which are located in the hypothalamus's subfornical organ (SFO) -- pass messages to the nearby median preoptic nucleus (MnPO), which can respond by driving animals to drink and telling the kidney to conserve water in the bloodstream.

The researchers were intrigued to discover that a subset of individual neurons in the MnPO appeared to respond to and integrate drinking signals from the mouth and throat, satiation signals from the gut, and information about an animal's overall hydration level from the bloodstream. Other nearby cells also encoded other information like an animal's stress level or the availability of water sources.

"This is the first time we've been able to watch in real time as single neurons integrate signals from different parts of the body to control a behavior like drinking," Knight said. "This opens the door to studying how all these signals interact, such as how stress or body temperature influences thirst and appetite."

In addition to studying the normal function of the SFO and MnPO thirst neurons, the researchers hope to use these insights to understand whether defects in how these neurons regulate fluid balance within the body could explain the origins of diseases like high blood pressure.

"The hypothalamus is a critical center for keeping our physiology within a healthy range, whether it's hydration, appetite, making sure we're the right temperature, or controlling blood pressure -- and all of these needs compete with and modify one another," Knight said. "It has been difficult to study how all of these factors interact in the brain of a living animal, but studies like this are beginning to allow us to investigate this critical question."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190327142026.htm

A simple strategy to improve your mood in 12 minutes

March 27, 2019

Science Daily/Iowa State University

We all have a remedy -- a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate -- for lifting our spirits when we're in a bad mood. Rather than focusing on ways to make ourselves feel better, a team of Iowa State University researchers suggests wishing others well.

"Walking around and offering kindness to others in the world reduces anxiety and increases happiness and feelings of social connection," said Douglas Gentile, professor of psychology. "It's a simple strategy that doesn't take a lot of time that you can incorporate into your daily activities."

Gentile, Dawn Sweet, senior lecturer in psychology; and Lanmiao He, graduate student in psychology, tested the benefits of three different techniques intended to reduce anxiety and increase happiness or well-being. They did this by having college students walk around a building for 12 minutes and practice one of the following strategies:

·     Loving-kindness: Looking at the people they see and thinking to themselves, "I wish for this person to be happy." Students were encouraged to really mean it as they were thinking it.

·     Interconnectedness: Looking at the people they see and thinking about how they are connected to each other. It was suggested that students think about the hopes and feelings they may share or that they might take a similar class.

·     Downward social comparison: Looking at the people they see and thinking about how they may be better off than each of the people they encountered.

The study, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, also included a control group in which students were instructed to look at people and focus on what they see on the outside, such as their clothing, the combination of colors, textures as well as makeup and accessories. All students were surveyed before and after the walk to measure anxiety, happiness, stress, empathy and connectedness.

Love and kindness wins

The researchers compared each technique with the control group and found those who practiced loving-kindness or wished others well felt happier, more connected, caring and empathetic, as well as less anxious. The interconnectedness group was more empathetic and connected. Downward social comparison showed no benefit, and was significantly worse than the loving-kindness technique.

Students who compared themselves to others felt less empathetic, caring and connected than students who extended well wishes to others. Previous studies have shown downward social comparison has a buffering effect when we are feeling bad about ourselves. ISU researchers found the opposite.

"At its core, downward social comparison is a competitive strategy," Sweet said. "That's not to say it can't have some benefit, but competitive mindsets have been linked to stress, anxiety and depression."

The researchers also examined how different types of people reacted to each technique. They expected people who were naturally mindful might benefit more from the loving-kindness strategy, or narcissistic people might have a hard time wishing for others to be happy. They were somewhat surprised by the results.

"This simple practice is valuable regardless of your personality type," Lanmiao He said. "Extending loving-kindness to others worked equally well to reduce anxiety, increase happiness, empathy and feelings of social connection."

Social media comparisons

Social media is like a playground for comparisons: he makes more money than I; she has a nicer car. While the study did not look specifically at social media, Gentile says the results demonstrate that comparison is a risky strategy.

"It is almost impossible not to make comparisons on social media," Gentile said. "Our study didn't test this, but we often feel envy, jealousy, anger or disappointment in response to what we see on social media, and those emotions disrupt our sense of well-being."

Comparison works well when we are learning something or making a choice, Gentile said. For example, as children we learn by watching others and comparing their results to ours. However, when it comes to well-being, comparison is not as effective as loving-kindness, which consistently improves happiness.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190327112705.htm

Eating small amounts of red and processed meats may increase risk of early death

March 27, 2019

Science Daily/Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center

A new study out of Loma Linda University Health suggests that eating red and processed meats -- even in small amounts -- may increase the risk of death from all causes, especially cardiovascular disease.

Saeed Mastour Alshahrani, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at Loma Linda University School of Public Health, said the research fills an important gap left by previous studies that looked at relatively higher levels of red meat intake and compared them with low intakes.

"A question about the effect of lower levels of intakes compared to no-meat eating remained unanswered," Alshahrani said. "We wanted to take a closer look at the association of low intakes of red and processed meat with all-cause, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer mortality compared to those who didn't eat meat at all."

This study, "Red and Processed Meat and Mortality in a Low Meat Intake Population" is part of the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2), a prospective cohort study of approximately 96,000 Seventh-day Adventist men and women in the United States and Canada. The principal investigator of AHS-2 is Gary E. Fraser, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Loma Linda University Health.

Adventists are a unique population -- approximately 50 percent are vegetarians, and those who consume meat do so at low levels. This allowed researchers to investigate the effect of low levels of red and processed meat intake compared to zero-intake in a large setting such as the Adventist Health Study.

The study evaluated the deaths of over 7,900 individuals over an 11-year period. Diet was assessed by a validated quantitative food frequency questionnaire and mortality outcome data were obtained from the National Death Index. Of those individuals who consumed meat, 90 percent of them only ate about two ounces or less of red meat per day.

Nearly 2,600 of the reported deaths were due to cardiovascular disease, and over 1,800 were cancer deaths. Processed meat -- modified to improve flavor through curing, smoking, or salting (such as ham and salami) -- alone was not significantly associated with risk of mortality possibly due to a very small proportion of the population who consume such meat. However, the total intake of red and processed meat was associated with relatively higher risks of total and cardiovascular disease deaths.

Michael Orlich, MD, PhD, co-director of AHS-2 and co-author of the present study, said these new findings support a significant body of research that affirms the potential ill health effects of red and processed meats.

"Our findings give additional weight to the evidence already suggesting that eating red and processed meat may negatively impact health an

Spending too much time sitting down linked to around early 50,000 deaths per year in the UK

And ill health associated with sedentary behavior costs the NHS at least £0.7 billion per year

March 25, 2019

Science Daily/BMJ

Spending large amounts of time sitting or lounging around during the day is linked to around 50,000 deaths per year in the UK and the NHS spends in excess of £0.7bn per year treating the health consequences, suggests research from Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

A large proportion of the UK population have sedentary jobs and leisure activities, and official physical activity recommendations regarding sedentary behaviour are vague.

Previous studies have shown that spending large parts of the day sitting down increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and death and is a burden on health services.

But no estimate of the financial impact that sedentary behaviour has on the NHS has been calculated, so the authors set out to do just that.

Figures calculated by other researchers on the impact sedentary behaviour has on the relative risks of five specific health conditions (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, endometrial cancer and lung cancer) and deaths from all causes were combined with figures on the percentage of adults who are sedentary on any given day of the week to estimate the overall impact sedentary behaviour has at a UK population level (population attributable fraction).

Figures on sedentary behaviour were taken from the Health Survey for England 2012, which reported that 30% of adults in England spent at least six hours/day sedentary on weekdays and that this increased to 37% of adults on weekends.

Actual overall NHS spending on each of the five conditions, uplifted for inflation, was used to estimate the financial impact sedentary behaviour had on the NHS for each of the conditions in the UK in 2016-17.

For all five conditions combined, this amounted to £0.8bn in 2016-17.

As a proportion of patients will have more than one of the five conditions, for example around 30% of people with type 2 diabetes will also have cardiovascular disease, the researchers revised their figures to adjust for double-counting caused by comorbidity. This reduced the overall cost of sedentary behaviour to the NHS for these five health conditions to £0.7bn in 2016-17.

Next they took the figure calculated for the fraction of deaths from all causes that could be attributed to a sedentary lifestyle and multiplied it with the actual numbers of deaths that occurred in the UK in 2016.

The researchers say their results suggest that 11.6% of all deaths were associated with sedentary behaviour and that 69,276 deaths might have been avoided in 2016 if sedentary behaviour was eliminated in the UK.

This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish cause, and it also relied on estimates of people's self-reported activity levels, which may not be accurate. The study was also limited by the evidence available for the link between sedentary behaviour and health outcomes.

The authors point out that these costs are probably a conservative estimate of the true burden of sedentary behaviour because sedentary behaviour is likely to be associated with several other cancers, musculoskeletal disorders, and mental health disorders, not included in their analysis.

Official physical activity recommendations regarding sedentary behaviour are vague, they say. Lead Investigator, Leonie Heron from the Centre of Public Health at Queen's University Belfast, said: "Many individuals in the UK spend their leisure time in sedentary behaviour, and the workplace represents a significant proportion of unavoidable daily sitting time for many people."

Measures should be taken to reduce sedentary behaviour with the aim of improving population health and reducing the financial burden to the health service, they conclude.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190325184118.htm

Health and Wellness in Addiction Recovery

Story contribution by Hailey Parks

Living a healthy lifestyle is something that can easily fall to the wayside in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven society. Health and wellness can easily become something that is taken for granted. For people in recovery from addiction or alcoholism, health and wellness can be a tool used to treat mental health and help maintain sobriety. 

Addiction and Malnutrition

Those who suffer from addiction are likely to be malnourished, lacking the essential vitamins and nutrients to fuel their bodies for various reasons. 

• Opiate withdrawal can cause diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting which can lead to a lack of nutrients and an electrolyte imbalance. However, eating balanced meals during detox, including foods high in fiber, whole grain carbohydrates, and lean protein, can actually help make the detox process go smoother. 

• Alcohol abuse is one of the top causes of nutrient deficiency in the U.S. as people who abuse alcohol tend to lack B vitamins. In addition, many people who abuse alcohol can cause damage to their liver and pancreas, leading to metabolism problems. 

• Stimulants typically reduce user’s appetites causing weight loss, poor nutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances. 

Although abusing drugs or alcohol can lead to nutrient deficiencies, eating a balanced diet and getting sober can help reverse many of these issues. 

Nutrition in Recovery 

Eating a nutritious diet in early recovery can benefit both physical and mental health. For those choosing to detox, a great way to jump-start the detox process is to eat raw foods like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Another essential aspect of making the detox process more bearable is by staying properly hydrated. 

After detox is over, it is important to keep in mind that drug or alcohol abuse can take a toll on the heart, liver, and brain. To help keep these essential organs healthy, one should consume foods like:

• Leafy greens

• Berries

• Nuts

• Avocados

• Almonds

• Dark chocolate

• Edamame

• Whole grains

• Green tea

• Beans

• Broccoli

• Lean protein

Eating this type of diet in early recovery can be especially difficult because it is common for people in recovery to crave sugary foods. When drugs and alcohol are removed, levels of dopamine drop. Eating sugar, on the other hand, can cause a surge in dopamine levels similar to that of the effects of drugs and alcohol. However, sugar can become an addiction in itself and lead to weight gain. In addition, eating excess sugar can cause fluctuating blood sugar levels. When blood sugar fluctuates up and down, a person can become anxious or depressed, causing their mental health to become unstable. When it comes to sobriety, mental health is just as important as physical health.

Exercise for Mental Clarity

Along with nutrition, exercise can be beneficial in promoting mental health in sobriety. Exercise can help boost mental health in several ways. 

• As little as 1 hour of physical activity a week is related to less anxiety and fewer drug cravings.

• Those who make exercise a regular part of their routine are less likely to suffer from depression, panic disorders, and anxiety.

• Serotonin increases during exercise which helps regulate sleep, appetite, and mood. 

• GABA and Glutamate are responsible for processing emotions and thought patterns. These chemicals are released during exercise which can prevent depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mood disorders. 

• Exercise lowers stress and is a great outlet for mitigating negative emotions.

Keeping one’s mental health as a top priority during sobriety can help prevent relapse. After all, those who suffer from co-occurring mental illness and addiction typically have a difficult time maintaining sobriety due to the unique obstacles they face. By enjoying an active lifestyle, people in recovery can prevent their mental health symptoms from getting worse.

Mindfulness for Relaxation and Decision Making

It’s easy to let human instincts run the show when feeling anxious, but this can be a recipe for disaster in sobriety. Instead, it is important to learn how to relax in sobriety and to be mindful about making the right decisions. Mindfulness is a useful technique for relaxation and decision making that can be easily incorporated into daily routines 

Mindfulness has been proven to help alleviate stress by improving emotion regulation. When individuals have an appropriate way of regulating and processing emotions, they will be able to think clearly about decisions that need to be made. Practicing mindfulness can be as easy as laying down in a comfortable position, closing the eyes, and focusing on breathing. Another way to practice mindfulness is through looking up free mindful meditation videos on the internet. This practice will raise a person’s awareness of their body, energy, feelings, and surroundings. 

Practicing mindfulness is also attributed to:

• Increased attention and focus

• Lowered anxiety

• Relaxation

• Higher brain function

• Decreased heart rate and blood pressure

• A shift in perception and mental clarity

Health & Wellness in Maintaining Long Term Sobriety

By eating a nutritious diet, getting adequate exercise, and participating in mindful relaxation exercises, individuals help keep their mind and body healthy in sobriety. After all, people don’t get sober to feel unhealthy and depressed - people get sober to change their lifestyles for the better. Taking care of mental and physical health is a key aspect of living healthy and maintaining long term sobriety 

Hailey is a recovering alcoholic and addict who enjoys writing about addiction. After years of neglecting her physical and mental health in sobriety, she began to make dramatic changes in her lifestyle to be happier and healthier. Her passions include helping others, taking hikes with her dog, and spending time by the beach. 

Hailey Parks hailey.parks01 @ g mail .com

Skip the Medication: Try These 6 Things to Boost Your Mental Health

While mental health is at the top of our priorities if often gets cast aside and then remedied with medication. More often than not, however, taking care of your mental well-beingcan be done without medicinal intervention. If you are looking for ways to boost your mental health without turning to drugs, take a look at these six tips.

1.  Take Care of Your Body

Having a regular workout regimen, getting enough sleep, and eating healthy has long been proven to directly affect mental health. Working out releases endorphins into your body to help mitigate depression, and eating foods that are heavy in grease tend to make your body and mind sluggish and also have been proven to alter your hormones to leave you feeling anxious and depressed. These changes do not happen overnight so try and start slow. Consider starting each day with easy morning stretches and sun salutations and try and replace one meal a day filled with nutritious ingredients. Work your way up from there.

2. Create Attainable Goals

Constantly feeling like a failure because of setting unrealistic goals can take a toll on your mind. If you have a huge goal in mind, consider breaking that up into smaller, more realistic goals. Sometimes having a huge burden on your shoulders can make you paralyzed in fear, with crippling anxiety. 

Try to recognize when you’re setting yourself up for failure when setting goals. For example, maybe you need to complete a project at work or need to fix a few things at home. Instead of trying to fix everything yourself, focus on the work you have to do yourself and set a goal to call your home repair company. Set goals that will challenge to become a better version of yourself, not a completely different version of yourself. If you aren’t a professional at something, don’t try to be—let others handle it for you. 

3. Avoid Toxic Friends

Surround yourself with friends and family members that will lift you up, instead of feeding into negative thoughts that can bring you down. This may seem like a struggle depending on who your current social circle is filled with. If needed, try going to different meet-ups based on your interests to find new friends that emit positive energy.

4. Take Advantage of Daily Meditation

One of the biggest factors that affect your mental health is becoming bogged down with the day-to-day tasks that cause underlying stress and anxiety. What’s more? Depending on the industry your work in, it may be hard to unplug from work even after your shift. Take time each day for daily meditationto help clear your mind or to help work through what may be currently causing stress in your life, such as work, money, or social media. Consider creates goals in your daily meditation to help release parts of your life that are particularly stressful.

5. Change Up Your Routine

Having a change in your life helps you stay engaged and interested, instead of falling into complacency. Believe it or not, but boredom is a huge factor in anxiety and depression. If you can’t change your daily routine at work, consider trying a new hobby to look forward to, create a weekly meetup group, or join a sports team for weekend games. Discover what will help you get more engaged and go after it.

6. Learn When to Ask For Help

Keep track of how you’re feeling throughout these tasks and learn when you need professional intervention. These tips are not the “end-all-be-all” of mental health and sometimes medical intervention may be needed. If you usually use medication and want to try a more holistic approach, be sure to regularly check in with your therapist and document the success rate you feel you are making without medicine.

In parasitic worm infection both the host and the worm produce cannabis-like molecules

August 22, 2018

Science Daily/University of California - Riverside

Like mammals, parasitic worms have an endocannabinoid system that may help the worm and the hosts it infects survive by reducing pain and inflammation in the host, according to a "wild" new discovery by an interdisciplinary research team at the University of California, Riverside.

The research, done on a mouse model, identifies cell signaling pathways associated with the endocannabinoid system that could be targeted to develop therapeutic treatments aimed at eliminating worm infection or improving infection outcomes.

Endocannabinoids are cannabis-like molecules made naturally by our own body to regulate several processes: immune, behavioral, and neuronal. As with cannabis, endocannabinoids can enhance feeding behavior and reduce pain and inflammation.

"Upon worm infection, the host's intestines produce these cannabis-like molecules maybe as a safety net to dampen pain response," said Nicholas V. DiPatrizio, an assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the UCR School of Medicine and co-leader of the research project. "What we now have found is that the worms, too, are producing these natural cannabinoids throughout the infection process and especially when the worms penetrate the skin, further dampening the host's pain response."

Study results appear in the journal Infection and Immunity.

"Until now, no one had investigated endocannabinoids in worm infection," said immunologist and senior author Meera G. Nair, an assistant professor of biomedical sciences in the UCR School of Medicine, who co-led the research project along with DiPatrizio. "We found that endocannabinoids are elevated following worm infection, and they contribute to optimal worm expulsion from the host's body. This is a protective pathway that operates within infection that we were unaware of before. To increase its chances of survival, the worm may use this pathway so the host increases its feeding behavior -- that is, eats more food -- and it can also reduce tissue damage that inflammation and pain cause."

The endocannabinoid system is present in all mammals, but recent studies suggest that it may be more primitive. Indeed, one study reported that black truffle mushrooms make anandamide, a type of endocannabinoid, possibly as a mechanism to attract truffle hogs that eat the truffles and disperse their spores. The worm C. elegans also has an endocannabinoid system that may operate to regulate its feeding.

"This system is known to dampen pain responses," said DiPatrizio, a physiologist specializing in endocannabinoid research. "Upon worm infection, the host's intestines produce these cannabis-like molecules maybe as a safety net to dampen pain response. What we now have found is that the worms, too, are producing these natural cannabinoids throughout the infection process and especially when the worms penetrate the skin, further dampening the host's pain response. This is advantageous to the worm because if the host could detect these parasites, it would respond to kill them. It's a pro-survival signaling pathway in the body that may have a therapeutic advantage in treating worm infection."

Parasitologist Adler R. Dillman, a co-author on the paper, was surprised to find helminths naturally producing cannabis-like molecules in their own bodies.

"We were taken aback by this finding," said Dillman, an assistant professor in the UCR Department of Nematology. "It may be important in other infections as well. Consider that the endocannabinoid pathway is present in almost all the worms we examined in this study. What it is telling us is that the pathway is evolutionarily conserved across a vast number of species. This clearly is an old and important system in the body that predates humans."

Dillman's lab found that N. brasiliensis, a gastrointestinal parasite of rats and a widely-studied helminth parasite, produces endocannabinoids, especially anandamide. A bioinformatic search of parasitic worm databases revealed this system is conserved within many parasitic nematodes, including the most prevalent helminths of man: roundworm and hookworm.

For Nair, this is the team's "wildest discovery, its biggest finding."

"It could impact behavior, pain, and host-helminth interactions," she said. "Without the endocannabinoid system, infected hosts would have bigger worm burdens. In the lab, when we inhibited this pathway in mice, they were worse off -- they ended up with more worms in their bodies."

Nair, DiPatrizio, and Dillman recently received a two-year, $275,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further pursue the research and investigate how the endocannabinoid system affects immune response.

"Our current study focused on hookworms; we are ready now to investigate other helminths," Nair said. "We will investigate whether the host and worm induce endocannabinoids so that the host may have less tissue inflammation and may have improved feeding behavior. Since the worms depletes the host of nutrients, it would make sense that they would trigger strategies to improve feeding."

Nair, a hookworm expert, explained that hookworms bite the intestine and feed on blood, leading to micro-injuries and likely localized pain throughout the well-innervated intestine.

"Since endocannabinoids relieve pain and inflammation, local endocannabinoid production may be beneficial for the host, and perhaps the worm to still remain undetected by the host," she said. "We plan to investigate this further."

"The anti-inflammatory endocannabinoid system gives us insight into potential therapeutic targets for not only hookworm infection, but also celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease," said DiPatrizio, whose laboratory is also the only one at UCR authorized to study the impact of cannabis exposure, which hijacks the endocannabinoid system, on a host of pathologies and behavior, including gastrointestinal function.

Dillman stressed that until now no one knew worms were manipulating the endocannabinoid pathway.

"Our work has provoked more interesting research questions for us to pursue, and could lead to promising treatments," he said. "We are at just the initial point of discovery."

Nair, DiPatrizio, and Dillman were joined in the research by UCR's Hashini M. Batugedara, Donovan Argueta, Jessica C. Jang, Dihong Lu, Jaspreet Kaur, and Shaokui Ge; and the University of Minnesota's Marissa Macchietto.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. The UCR School of Medicine provided additional support.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180822164157.htm