Being social is good for your health

We are wired to be connected together with strong social ties for better health that much we know. Why this is, is still a bit of a mystery. There has been a pretty substantial amount of research showing that having a healthy social life is vital to improved health, maybe as much as avoiding cigarette smoking. A comprehensive analysis of 148 research studies was done in 2010 by researchers from Brigham Young University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The research review showed that having lots of strong social ties gave a boost to longevity as well as not smoking and even better than regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.

How these increased social ties works to improve our long term health have been demonstrated in a few studies. One such study showed how our heart rate and blood pressure will increase less during a stressful situation when we are accompanied by someone close to us. Our body seems to be able to handle and cope with the stress better with fewer extremes when we are able to be connected with those important to us. This is also seen in studies demonstrating that our immune system seems to work better to fight off illness when we have more social connections. Our immune system reacts to stress hormones, such as catecholamines and glucocorticoids. Strong social support reduces these stress hormones allowing our immune system to work more efficiently to keep us healthy.

Obviously not all relationships are healthy, so promoting healthy good relationships is important. One method to help with this is building our relationships with others around physical activity. The list of long term benefits of being physically active is long, but we forget that it also has immediate benefits of improving our mood. As soon as you start exercising you get a boost of neurotransmitters in the brain (dopamine and serotonin) that give us pleasure and boost our mood. So, if our mood is better it will help with building healthy relationships. Look for opportunities to combine adding social connections along with physical activity such as: joining a team sport (such as volleyball, soccer or biking club), do activities with friends and family (such as going for a walk, playing tennis or bike riding together), or take part in group fitness activities (such as an exercise or dance class).

So make sure you are working to build and maintain your social connections. Having a strong healthy social support system will add years and quality to your life.

Your getting sleepy, very sleepy...

One important health habit that often gets overlooked is getting enough sleep. Some surveys reveal that upwards of 60% of Americans have some sleep difficulties at least a few nights a week or more. Writing about sleep is always an interesting topic, because if it is uninteresting it might put you to sleep. So we will see if we can keep your interest just long enough to learn why getting enough sleep is so important to your health.

So why is sleep so important? Of course there is the obvious, the day after not sleeping enough you will experience moments of drowsiness and may fall asleep or have slowed performance while doing important tasks. According to the DOT (Department of Transportation) 25% of all highway crashes are due to sleepiness. It is estimated that there is around $50-100 billion in indirect costs each year due to sleepiness with decreased productivity and other related costs. But there are other physiological changes that happen when we don’t sleep enough. A research report that came out in the July issue of the journal of Sleep showed that a decrease in sleep also affects our immune system. Our immune system will react to various physical stresses (i.e. flu virus, strained muscle, etc.) that are placed on it. Lack of sleep acts as a physical stress to our bodies and thus kicks in our stress response by increasing activation of our immune system with the granulocytes. This long term increase in immune system stress response has been linked to future health problems such as: obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

So how much sleep do you need? On average most people will require 7-8 hours of sleep, but some can do fine with as little as 6 hours and others need up to 10 hours. After a nights rest you should be able to work the next day without any bouts of sleepiness or drowsiness. If you do experience this then it would be a sign that you may not be getting enough sleep and starting to kick in your immune system a little extra as a response to the extra physical stress you’re placing upon it. If you do have difficulty sleeping you may want to consult a health professional to look at treatment for it. Often times our thought is that getting a sleeping pill is all we need. But a research article in The Archives of Internal Medicine published in October of 2004 showed that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) actually outperformed the sleeping pill. So keep that in mind when looking at treatment options.

So hopefully you were able to make it to the end of this and not fall asleep and learned why getting good rest is so important. If you did fall asleep, it may be a sign you are not getting enough sleep at night; or we need to make the article more interesting.

Disease and Illness

I recently read an excellent post by Tony Ingram who is a fellow Physical Therapist that this post was generated from.  I would encourage you to go to his site and read his post, Disease vs. Illness.

“Disease, then, is something an organ has; illness is something a man has.” - Eric J. Cassell, 1978

Disease and injury are things we all experience at different times and in different forms, they are apart of a normal consequence of life as we move through this world we live in. How that disease or injury affects us is sometimes part of the illness we experience. Let’s look at the difference between the two to help clarify how we cope and return to a more normal way of life after they occur and two important take home points.

Disease or injury is an abnormal condition affecting an organism. You get a virus, cancer, break a bone, twist your ankle, etc. Fortunately with the advancements of medical science and use of our immune system most diseases are treatable and often with complete healing. Likewise most injuries will heal themselves. We are wonderfully equipped to heal our tissues whether a broken bone, sprained ligament, pulled muscle or others through our immune system and our bodies healing mechanisms.

Illness is the feelings that most often go along with the disease or injury; such as pain, weakness, discomfort, distress, fatigue, dysfunction, etc. These feelings can be significantly affected by non-disease factors for example: beliefs, expectations, fears, and anxiety to name a few.

Most often a disease or injury will cause illness to follow and typically the feelings of illness will decrease as part of the recovery process as the disease or injury heals. But, and this can be a big but, they can each occur on their own.

For example you can have a disease and feel no illness. Many people walk around with high blood pressure and are unaware of it till a stroke or heart attack makes them aware of it. Others may have a cancer that is not detected early on. Take home point number one, is why regular physician visits and screenings are so important to help detect a disease that might be present even though you are not experiencing any illness.

The other end of spectrum can also happen when someone has illness, but no disease or injury has occurred often referred to as Somatoform Disorder. This does not mean that person is faking it; it is part of a complex psychological process with some sort of neurological or neuro-immune disorder in play that we don’t fully understand yet.

But lastly I want to point to the fact that illness can affect disease. The extra stress, anxiety and fear that we allow from the illness can increase our body’s production of hormones and sensitization of our nervous system that actually make the disease or injury worse or slows the healing process. This in turn can lead to greater feeling of illness and a horrible illness/disease cycle has begun. Take home point number two, is the importance of using relaxation techniques and other stress reducing skills (understanding the disease and injury process to reduce fear and clarify beliefs and expectations) can actually help you recover faster and improve your healing from an injury or disease process to break you out of the illness/disease cycle.

Switch part III - Shape the path

We have our riders directed and our elephants motivated; now it is time to shape the path. 

First thing is to tweak the environment. When the situation changes, the behavior changes. So change the situation. The best way to eat more fruits and vegetables is to only have fruits and vegetables in the house to eat. If there are no potato chips in the cupboard you are less likely to eat them at night when you go looking for a snack. Use a smaller plate if portion control is a problem. After making your bed place your bible on top so you have to pick it up before going to bed at night and you’re more likely to spend some time reading it. Don’t have clothes drying on the treadmill so it is easier to get on.

Next step is build habits. Look for ways to encourage habits. Place your work out clothes out on the floor, so when you wake up you step into them and get your daily walk done before the TV goes on. Pre-make healthy lunches and diners; so when you are rushed for time you have a healthy option instead of eating fast food. Use checklists to make sure you have walked 30 minutes at least 5 times each week. While recording your 5 fruits and vegetable servings, have a spot to write down one thing your thankful for each day. Find ways to encourage those habits, workout with a spouse or friend. Post on Facebook everyday what your exercise was or something that you are grateful for. Fill your grocery cart up with fruits and vegetables first then go down the processed food isle.

Last thing is to rally the herd. Behavior is contagious. Help it spread. Get the whole family involved. Get your work unit doing an exercise challenge like Live Healthy Iowa or 10,000 steps per day challenge. Start a healthy recipe exchange with friends on Facebook. Start a small group of friends doing a bible study once a week to help develop an attitude of gratitude.

For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently. When it comes to your health that somebody is you. Direct the rider, motivate the elephant and shape the path to help you switch into the healthier you.

Switch - Getting to a healthier you

Chip and Dan Heath wrote a wonderful book entitled “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard”. It looks at ways to try and help us make changes. And most of us will agree change can be hard.  Many of us can improve our health with some changes to our lifestyle and habits, but often times these changes may be hard. Let’s look at applying principles of the book to improving health.

They point out that each us has an emotional side and a rational side. These two parts of our brains thinking are sometimes referred to the rider (rational) and the elephant (emotional). The rider can steer the elephant, but if the elephant wants to go somewhere else it can always overpower the rider. In order to be successful in changing things you have to reach both and clear a path for them to succeed. In short you have to “Direct the Rider”, “Motivate the Elephant” and “Shape the Path”.

Directing the rider isn’t to difficult because most rational people know that better eating, more exercise and controlling our stress is healthy for us. But here are a few things to help the rider.

First when it comes to directing the rider look for bright spots. Investigate times in your past that you may have been a little healthier with better diet, exercise and stress reduction. What was going on then and then clone it. Did you eat better because you ate home cooked meals instead of fast food? But now as the kids got older and you are taxing them to and from places it is easier to drive through for dinner? Maybe make your meals ahead of time so you can do the drive through at your own house. Did you exercise more because it seemed like you had more time? With the business of life, finding time is often times difficult. Maybe create a half hour of time by cutting out a half hour of TV each night.
Another technique to direct the rider is by scripting the critical moves. Don’t think in terms of the big picture (eat healthier, get more exercise, reduce my stress), think in terms of specific behaviors. Think eat one fruit for breakfast each day, two vegetables for lunch and half of my plate at dinner should be fruits and vegetables. Think no more chips and cookies for snacks only fruits and vegetables. Think walk 30 minutes every night with my spouse instead of TV. Think lift some weights on Tuesday and Thursday. Think spend 10 minutes each night before bed doing some meditation and relaxation breathing.

The last point for directing the rider is point to the destination. Change is easier when you know where you are going and why it’s worth it. I will be eating 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day and my cholesterol will be under 200 in 6 months, so I can get off cholesterol medication. I will be walking for 30 minutes each night, so I have energy and endurance to play with my grandchildren.

Next time will discuss motivating the elephant.

Healthy eating can help make a happier you

Having a bag of potato chips or large bowl of ice cream to help us cope with stress may not be as beneficial as we often think. For many people when they feel depressed or anxious out by life events they often turn to comfort foods such as candy, potato chips or other junk foods. These foods may give an impression of comfort initially, but new research is showing that they are actually leading to more mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Felice Jacka, PhD and colleagues from Deakin University and the University of Melbourne in Australia found that better diet quality is associated with better mental health. Those individuals with better diet associated with better mental health in those that they studied. Also when following them over a two year period they noticed that those that improved their diet also saw improvements in their mental health, while those whose diet worsened saw their mental health get worse as well.

This better diet as recognized by this study included 2 or more servings of fruits and 4 or more servings of vegetables whole grains and high-quality meat and fish, along with general avoidance of processed foods including chips, fried foods, chocolate, sweets and ice cream. They found individuals with better quality diets were less likely to be depressed, whereas a higher intake of processed and unhealthy foods was associated with increased anxiety.

Depression and anxiety are very complicated disorders and research has not shown specifically that they can be solved with simple diet changes alone. But an improvement in your diet might help you on your road to improved mental health.

Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset

There has been some growing research and understanding of ways to help reduce stress and improving our health can be associated with the mindset we take with a negative situation. People typically will see a problem with either a “fixed mindset” or a “growth mindset”.

Those with a fixed mindset will avoid challenges due to the failure risk associated with the situation. They are threatened by negative feedback. Someone with a fixed mindset often times has developed learned helplessness; they see problems as outside their control and that a negative experience will just lead to more negative experiences no matter what they do. They see these negative events as permanent ("it will never change"), personal ("it's my fault"), and pervasive ("I can't do anything correctly").

Those that take on a situation with a growth mindset will accept the challenge in spite of the failure that might follow. They understand that failure is a necessary part of change and that while there may be temporary set-backs; these will lead to success later. The growth mindset individual learns to appreciate criticism because it will make them better in the long term. Growth mindset is associated with a more optimistic explanatory model for negative events. They believe bad events are temporary and not permanent (“this is a temporary set-back”), these events are not because of a personal fault but rather an outside cause (“unfortunate bad luck caused this”), and the event also can be compartmentalized and not generalized (“I might struggle in this area, but that is because I’m more gifted in all these other things”).

Those of us with a more fixed mindset to problems and have a pessimistic view of them will have increased stress in our lives, which can lead to significant health problems. The good news is our mindsets can be changed and transformed just like our bodies can with exercise. We can recognize signs of learned helplessness (permanent, personal, and pervasive) and change our thoughts to be more optimistic. With practice this will become a more natural way of coping with negative experiences and stress levels will be reduced and our overall health will drastically improve. Take steps to “exercise” on having a more growth mindset.

“Don’t worry, be happy.”

While we maybe have heard that anger and stress can lead to increase cardiovascular risks, whereas laughter and positive thinking can decrease those risks. Did you know science has proven this? An interesting study looked at people’s responses watching a movie for about 15 minutes. They watched either a stressful movie (beginning of Saving Private Ryan) or a humorous movie (There’s Something about Mary). They found that blood vessels constricted by as much as 30% to 50% when watching the stressful movie, whereas vasodilatation (blood vessels opening up) occurred when investigators measured vascular function in subjects watching the comedies.
The effects of this change in blood flow usually lasted about an hour but some research has shown it to last up to 24 hours. This change in the blood vessel dilation is similar to taking statins (drugs for lowering cholesterol) or physical activity. Unfortunately some of us have lots of stress that lasts longer than 15 minutes and can’t be turned off as easy as a stressful movie.

So next time you feel a little angry or stressed out, maybe sit down a watch a good comedy and laugh yourself to a little better health. Maybe we could tell a few more jokes at work so as to improve our heart and overall health a little. And if you need help laughing more to reduce stress and anger don’t forget about Employee Assistance Programs. Programs such as these (in one study) have shown to reduced depression and reduced waist girth, increased HDL cholesterol levels (the good cholesterol) and physical activity (trend toward improvement), and patients were better at managing their anger and anxiety in eight visits. At one year, the reduction in depression was maintained, and there were significant improvements in self-rated health.

Stress Reducer Tips

While appropriate stress is vital to keep us alive and thriving, excessive stress or what some term “toxic stress” can be detrimental to our health. Keeping stress under control is vital to healthy living. Here are a few tips:

1. Don’t over schedule – it is easy to get our schedule filled up as we add more and more responsibilities to our lives. Learn to say “no” to some things and try to remove things that you maybe don’t need to do off your schedule.
2. Be realistic – be careful when trying to do everything perfect or expecting everyone around you to be perfect. We have to realize we and everyone else is not perfect. Don’t put more stress on yourself or others than needed.
3. Get enough sleep – while it may seem like we can function with less sleep, which is what we often times do when we don’t follow tip #1. Parts of your brain actually shut down when you are lacking sleep. You are functioning, just not at your fullest level, which puts more stress on the parts that are functioning.
4. Treat your body well – regular appropriate exercise is a significant component to reducing stress. Be careful not to go to the opposite side of no exercise, excessive exercise can actually lead to increasing stress. Also a healthy diet is important to decrease the stress to your body trying to function. You wouldn’t expect a car to work very well if you didn’t use good gas for the engine.
5. Watch what you’re thinking – your attitude, outlook and thoughts influence biological functions of your body. People with what is called a “growth mindset” have better control of their stress as compared to “fixed mindset” people. Growth mindset people see that their abilities and situations will grow and change, like a muscle if you work on it. They also accept criticism because they know it will make them better in the long term. Know that with challenges comes some failure but failure is a necessary part of growth and change.

Trying to get to the simple side of complexity with health.

The body is an amazingly wonderfully complex living organism. As we study and research the body looking for ways to improve the health of it, we can very quickly get confused with the complexity of all the different systems interacting with each other to maximize the efficiency of the body as it lives.

I like that phrase, "Simplicity lies on the far side of complexity." It means you must strive to make your way through the difficult, uncertain and often confusing part before things become clear enough to be considered simple. Let’s apply this thought to a few basic health principles:

• Exercise – We can easily get confused with magazine articles from supposed experts and antidotal information from family or friends on how often, how long, what types of exercises are best for weight loss or muscle production, what pace or exertion, high intensity versus lower intensity and debates can go on and on over many of these. But the simple side for most us is we need move more.

• Nutrition – What percent of each macro-nutrient (fat, carbohydrate, and protein) does each of us need? How many calories should I eat? Are some calories better then other calories? How many times a day do I need to eat? Do I need supplements, if so which ones? And the question list goes on and on. But the simple side is most of us need to control portion sizes and be a more balanced, nutritious eater.

• Stress – There are lots of books you can buy to help you reduce your stress, probably enough that trying to decide which one you need stresses you out!!! But the simple side is most of us need to laugh more and worry less. Also take action to walk the delicate line of hoping for the best and let positive thoughts and feelings dominate most of our emotions, but at the same time be realistic and let a small piece of us prepare for the worst.

• Overall health – How do you get healthy? This is the magic question for most of us. With so many different answers to the same question, how do you know what to believe? Everyday there is another guru or fad that we hear works for them or others to get healthier. But the simple side is most of us need to: exercise more, eat better and stress less in a way that works for us and keep working to get better at all of them.

More Stress Signs

A few weeks ago I post about some physical signs that may be due to increase stress (see here for reminder).  Here are a few more few signs that may be stress related, anyone recognizing these signs should see a doctor first to rule out serious illness or injury. The irony of stress is that the very things that will make you feel better--exercise, self-care, eating a healthy diet--are usually the last things you want to do.


Stress Sign: Weight Gain

Stress often pushes us into a vicious cycle of choosing unhealthy foods, binge diet and eating, losing energy and gaining weight. This is due to an increase production of glucocorticoid hormones as a reaction to the stress response.

What you can do: You can jump in anytime in the vicious cycle to put a stop to it. Don't skip meals, decreasing calories too significantly can increase your bodies stress response. Actually eating to little is often a cause for stalled weight loss. Undereating almost always leads to eventually overeating and weight gain. Just make sure the added calories you need come from healthy foods.


Stress Sign: Back Pain

Although the causes of back pain are usually physical, emotional stress can play a role in how severe pain is and how long it lasts.

What you can do: Strength training and cardiovascular exercises are important in keeping your back healthy. Maintaining a healthy weight will also reduce strain on your back and decrease coritsol production which increases sensitivity of your nerves.



Stress Sign: Tension Headaches

These headaches occur when your scalp and neck muscles become too tense.

What you can do: See your doctor to make sure you don't have a more serious headache-related disorder. Utilizing meditation and self-care along with a regular exercise program and healthy diet will decrease frequency and intensity of headaches.

Can your breathing actually decrease your stress?

After taking in a breath slowly exhale. You probably don’t realize it, but your heart has just slowed down a bit. Don’t worry; it will speed up again when you inhale. This regular-irregular beat is a sign of a healthy interaction between heart and brain. Each time you exhale, your brain sends a signal down the vagus nerve to slow the cardiac muscle. With each inhale, the signal gets weaker and your heart revs up. Inhale, beat faster. Exhale, beat slower.


As your stress and anxiety levels increase you typically will take shorter and faster breaths. This is a useful mechanism to protect you in dangerous situations that may last a few minutes; the problem arises when you have chronic long-term stress that lasts days, months or even years for some people. Normally you should be breathing an inhale/exhale cycle about 8-10 times per minute in a quiet, relaxed state. Many people are in an increased stress response state and will breathe more cycles per minute. Also when stressed these short breaths are often mostly performed by the chest and neck muscles and not as much with the diaphragm. When you work on taking bigger, slower breaths you get the diaphragm to work more, as it should.

Increase stress can lead to increases in depression, anxiety and increase your susceptibility to disease (you are more likely to catch a cold when over stressed). It will also increase the sensitivity of the nervous system, so your pain will often times be greater when you are stressed. Your brain uses two different nervous systems to control your body. You have complete control over one of them, which tells you to move your arms, legs, mouth, etc. to do things. The other is automatic (that’s why it’s called the autonomic nervous system) it speeds up your heart rate, alters your digestion and other things that happen without your full conscious control. This autonomic system has a part to it that increases activity to tolerate stressful activity and another that slows things down to allow you to keep some balance and not have your heart race out of control along with other functions. The interesting part is that through conscious control of working to slow down and use diaphragm breathing, you can actually affect the autonomic system and promote increase relaxation. So yes by working slow diaphragm breathing you can decrease your stress!

Stress Signs and How to Reduce Them

Scientific evidence suggests that to much stress lowers immunity, which can lead to many physical symptoms as well as emotional problems. Here is a list of a few sign that may be stress related, anyone recognizing these signs should see a doctor first to rule out organic causes like viruses or serious illness. The irony of stress is that the very things that will make you feel better--exercise, self-care, eating a healthy diet--are usually the last things you want to do.

Stress Sign: Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The colon and how it responds is connected to and controlled by the brain through nerves. That's why when we're worried or anxious; we can experience anything from nervous butterflies to cramps or diarrhea.

What you can do: Exercise, even something simple as going for an easy 20 minute walk, can help you burn off stressful energy while also helping to keep bowel movements and sleep patterns more regular. Increasing foods higher fiber to your diet can also help improve how your intestines work.

Stress Sign: Frequent Colds

Stress will lower our immunity, so we are less able to defend off viruses and bacteria. Research shows that subjects who reported higher levels of stress were twice as likely to catch a cold as their less-stressed counterparts.

What you can do: Build a routine of social stress management techniques (an after-dinner walk, weekly coffee with friends, etc.), and remember to stick to it whether you "feel" like it or not, particularly during times of stress.

Stress Sign: Heart Palpitations

Stress can give you heart palpitations that may feel like your heart is racing or skipping beats. Check with your physician to make sure it is not a heart problem.

What you can do: Multiple studies suggest exercise or meditation in which you progressively and systematically tense and then relax every muscle group in your body or, practicing yoga or tai chi type movements on a regular basis can reduce the frequency of your palpitations.

Stress Sign: Chest Pains

It is not uncommon for women--even young women--to have stress-induced chest pain.

What you can do: Talk to your doctor about whether this is a sign of something more serious. Additionally, don't underestimate the power of just being somewhere quiet or listening to music. Self-care is not selfish care.

Making up your mind to be Happy

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be,” Abraham Lincoln once said.

Current research in neuroscience and psychology shows this statement to be more scientific medical fact then just a witty comment. You are more in control of our emotions and anxiety levels than you think. The negative biological effects from stress come from how you think and react to outside stimulus. People with increased anxious tendencies react in a more fearful way then a person who is able to cope in a calmer fashion.


So here are a few tips to reduce stress:

1. Research has shown that spending time with friends is good for mental health. Schedule regular time, at least one time per month, with friends to ward off chronic stress. Laughter is a key activity that has been shown to decrease cortisol, the primary stress hormone in people.

2. Positive thinking does not add to your already stressful to-do-list. It creates instant good thoughts and helps shift away from negative thinking. Negative thinking enhances anxious tendencies. It’s not as simple as “mind over matter”, but what your mind thinks of does matter. So as hard as it seems with some circumstances, make yourself look at positive things about a situation and focus more attention to them over the negatives.