Beta blockers are medications commonly used for treating cardiac problems such as high blood pressure, chest pain, irregular heartbeat and heart failure. In the US, for example, one in five adults aged 60–79 is prescribed a beta blocker. In a new study, we’ve found the use of beta blockers is associated with lower rates of violence. To explore why this might be, let’s start...

Long-term exposure to even comparatively low levels of air pollution could cause depression and anxiety, according to a study exploring the links between air quality and mental ill-health.Tracking the incidence of depression and anxiety in almost 500,000 UK adults over 11 years, researchers found that those living in areas with higher pollution were more likely to suffer episodes, even when air quality was within...

How Do I Know If I Need Trauma Therapy? If you’ve experienced a traumatic event, it’s normal to feel upset, confused, or scared. Common reactions to trauma can include difficulty sleeping or concentrating, uncontrollable crying, and feeling jumpy or irritable. However, while these can be normal reactions, prolonged symptoms might signify something more is happening. For most people, symptoms go away on their own...

Here it is, yet another blog post inspired by a song from Celine Dion. The song in question is “Taking Chances,” which is a single from the 2007 album of the same name. Apart from being another powerful ballad that we came to know and love from Celine (I’m definitely on a Celine Dion kick, it is what it is), the song has lyrics...

This is a bonus post, following from yesterday’s, in which I interviewed the artificial intelligence known as ChatGPT about meditation.This time I gave the AI the prompt, “Write a Buddhist sutta, in the style of the Pali canon, in which the Buddha tells Ananda to stop playing Candy Crush on his iPhone.”Here’s what ChatGPT came up with.Once, the Blessed One was dwelling at Sāvatthī...

Suicide is one of the most misunderstood and stigmatized of human experiences. We need a call to arms, not in the sense of weapons, but rather with people working together. Most suicides result from a combination of two things: a mental condition—depression, bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, moral injury, survivors guilt, etc.—and aggravating social factors such as relationship problems, death of a...

The "ABC method" of setting boundaries with narcissists Source link

Divorced and single people had the highest prevalence. Asta Hberg is a physician at St. Olav's Hospital, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and a NIPH/FHI researcher. She claims that the survey results surprised her. In the HUNT survey, roughly 150 000 persons from the former country of Nord-Trndelag agreed to have their health information used for research purposes....

Exposure to low levels of air pollution is linked to depression and anxiety, a new study suggests. Research published yesterday (1 February 2023) has discovered that long-term exposure to low levels of multiple air pollutants is likely linked to experience of depression and anxiety. In a study involving nearly 400,000 participants, the rate of depression and anxiety rose with the level of long-term exposure...

With a new year here, it might be time to reset when it comes to your mental health. Stress is a normal physical and psychological response to the everyday demands of life. Small amounts of stress can motivate you to face daily challenges. But when stress becomes too much to manage, it can be unhealthy. Everyone experiences stressful times, but can you tell when stress...