Hormonal contraception and women’s mental health
A massive Danish study has sounded alarm bells about the effect of hormonal contraceptives (including oral contraceptive pills, patches, vaginal rings and hormone-releasing IUDs) on women’s risk of developing depression… but who is listening? Researchers from the University of Copenhagen utilised Denmark’s excellent centralised medical record-keeping system to track over 1 million women aged between…
5 surprising benefits of exercise you never knew about
You already know how important exercise is for your physical health, right? A varied, balanced exercise program: Improves your cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, flexibility and balance; Helps you avoid weight gain or regain (although it’s not that effective for promoting weight loss); Improves your sleep quality; Reduces your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular…
Rumination inflammation
“Don’t dwell on what has passed away, or what is yet to be”, rasps Leonard Cohen in what I consider to be one of his finest songs, ‘Anthem’. But for many people, that’s easier said (or sung) than done! If you’ve ever found yourself running through a past conversation over and over in your mind,…
Depression: bringing your black dog to heel
Antidepressant drugs are only marginally effective for most people, and come with a laundry list of side-effects (see my article, 5 reasons to think twice before taking antidepressants). But when the black dog (as Winston Churchill famously referred to his gloomy spells) is nipping at your heels, you’re obviously going to want relief. Fortunately, there…
Want to feel happier? Change what’s on your plate!
Google the search terms ‘happiness’ + ‘research’ and you’ll retrieve about 56,300,000 results. Yet, as economists David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, and Professor of Public Health, Sarah Stewart-Brown, pointed out in a recent study, of the many thousands of scientific papers published on the various determinants of people’s happiness and psychological health, virtually none have…
5 reasons to think twice before taking sleeping pills
“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together,” wrote Thomas Dekker. Yet for too many people in the modern world, that chain is stretched to – and often well past – breaking point. People who suffer from depression, arthritis, asthma, back problems, diabetes, obesity and just plain stress have an increased…
‘Depressed’ or just going through a rough patch – have you been misdiagnosed?
2 June 2014 In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had several interesting conversations with clients who have a history of mental health diagnoses such as depression and anxiety. In each case, the client has expressed some doubt over whether their diagnosis was accurate, and consequently, whether the treatment they were prescribed – usually an…