syrinx

Call it the poor man's health insurance policy, if you will. Casting aside fear of cultural stereotyping as, uh, folks who don't believe in throwing away money, researchers at two Scottish universities delved into the statistics and noticed that the presence of green spaces reduces visits by the grim reaper,

Across the country, there are "health inequalities" related to income and social deprivation, which generally reflect differences in lifestyle, diet, and, to some extent, access to medical care.
This means that in general, people living in poorer areas are more likely to be unhealthy, and die earlier.
However, the researchers found that living near parks, woodland or other open spaces helped reduce these inequalities, regardless of social class.

Me, I've turned my little eighth of an acre of subdivision into a wildlife refuge and maybe both the native flora and fauna as well as this old man will chill out a little while longer...and without wasting resources, natural or imaginary, like monetary systems. The picture on the left is my front yard. The one on the right is from the NY Times. I'm not poor, but I'm not rich. I got laid off and retired earlier this year. The folks on the right are an illustration of a story of the highest unemployment rate in 14 years (and you know how they fudge THOSE numbers to make them look better than they really are!) I recently had a heart stress test on the treadmill and I'm good to go for another 5 years. Folks on the right - rich or poor or middle class - they look like they could use a little greens pace around them right about now. And remember: manure, like money, works best when it's distributed widely so that all the plants in the garden get a little and every flower gets a chance to bloom.

tags: stress health visual literacy greenspace

Reported today all over the net and published here are the results of a study that found that Compassion Meditation May Improve Physical And Emotional Responses To Psychological Stress. (The second link explains it better).

tags: stress science health depression compassion meditation

I recently read an article that there are health benefits to having a regular job. Of course, I've pointed to several reports and research before that indicates that your job can make you sick. Yin-Yang in the workplace, I guess. Sometimes the work situation can make you sick in spite of all you do to stay healthy. On the other hand, if you want to make yourself sick, here are 7 ways to stress yourself sick on the job.

tags: stress health psychology workplace

Contrary to what was previously believed to be the case, even adult brains can generate new cells and neural networks, which turns out to be important to developing treatments for depression.

Chronic stress can affect the brain and lead into depression: Environmental stressors (e.g. job and family situation, neighborhood) and especially stressful life events such as trauma or abuse are amongst the most potent factors to induce depression. ... Neurogenesis or nerve regeneration can be modified by positive modulators such as learning, physical exercise, and hormonal influence, as well as negative modulators such as acute and chronic stress.

It turns out that glial cells are important for the support and nutrition and regeneration of neurons, and that stress and depression inhibits them as well. Antidepressant therapy counteracts this for both neurons and glial cells.
I guess the take home message is:

• Learn how to keep from getting stressed out by life events through exercise, meditation, etc.
• Get out of stressful environments (job, neighborhood, etc. before they depress you)
• Get help to deal with trauma and abuse and get away from it
• Make sure your psychiatrist is a neuropsychopharmacologist

The EuropeanCollege of Neuropsychopharmacology is the source of the story, and provides several consensus papers on depression and other topics.
Psych Central reported on the story.

tags: stress psychology depression brain therapy

more after the read more link

tags: stress song the worksite midtown dickens job