Is losing weight as simple as doing a 15-minute writing exercise? In a new study published inPsychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, women who wrote about their most important values, like close relationships, music, or religion, lost more weight over the next few months than women who did not have that experience.
One is a simple lack of self-control. We live in a society where every day we confront an abundance of high-calorie foods. Not overeating in this environment requires extraordinary discipline. The second is an inability to cope with stress. Struggling with ordinary but constant life stresses can drain the cognitive energy needed for discipline, weakening our resolve. Stress-related eating packs on unhealthy calories, contributing to weight gain — and over time to obesity.
“We have this need to feel self-integrity,” says Christine Logel of Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, who cowrote the new study with Geoffrey L. Cohen of Stanford University. When something threatens your sense that you’re a good person, like failing a test or having a fight with a friend, “We can buffer that self-integrity by reminding ourselves how much we love our children, for example,” she says. [continue reading…]
The first changes in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease can be observed as much as ten years in advance – ten years before the person in question has become so ill that he or she can be diagnosed with the disease. This is what a new study from Lund University in Sweden has found.
Physician Oskar Hansson and his research group are studying biomarkers – substances present in spinal fluid and linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The group has studied close to 140 people with mild memory impairment, showing that a certain combination of markers (low levels of the substance beta-amyloid and high levels of the substance tau) indicate a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in the future.
As many as 91 per cent of the patients with mild memory impairment who had these risk markers went on to develop Alzheimer’s within a ten-year period. In contrast, those who had memory impairment but normal values for the markers did not run a higher risk of getting Alzheimer’s than healthy individuals. [continue reading…]
Tri-City Psychology Services is located on the West Coast of British Columbia Canada, and as such we are among the last places in the world to celebrate the arrival of 2012. Many of you reading this post will already have counted down, and set foot into the New Year.
2011 was a great year for us, we relocated and built amazing new offices, we launched a new website, we revamped our practice focus, and holey moley guess what? It’s all been a huge success! We are excited and looking forward with anticipation to an equally great 2012!
To all our readers, clients and friends enjoy your New Years Celebration and choose to make 2012 your best year!
There is a very interesting interview in the Monitor with University of California, Riverside, psychologist Howard S. Friedman, PhD, co-author with Leslie Martin, PhD, of the 2011 book “The Longevity Project.”
This is a relevant and timely interview as many of us look forward to a new year, and resolve to do things differently with some aspect or other in our lives.
Eating vegetables and going to the gym are not as important to our long-term health as having a rich, productive life. ~ Howard S. Friedman, PhD
We all know lots of things that are health-promoting — stop substance abuse, stay active, eat right, sleep well, don’t gain weight, make friends — so why aren’t most people healthy?
Instead, Friedman advises:
“Throw away your lists” because our studies suggest that it is a society with more conscientious and goal-oriented citizens, well-integrated into their communities, that is likely to be important to health and long life. These changes involve slow, step-by-step alterations that unfold across many years. But so does health. For example, connecting with and helping others is more important than obsessing over a rigorous exercise program.
