Posts Tagged ‘stress’

A new Cochrane Systematic Review incorporating over 16 thousand subjects has found that flexible working hours can have positive impacts on a variety of health outcomes including blood pressure, sleep and mental health. European countries are looking at the study with interest due to their recent trend towards more flexible working hours. “Flexible working seems to be more beneficial for health and wellbeing where the individuals control their own work patterns, rather than where employers are in control,” said the review lead, Clare Bambra of the Wolfson Research Institute, Durham University in the UK. “Given the limited evidence base, we wouldn’t want to make any hard and fast recommendations, but these findings certainly give employers and employees something to think about.” It’s logical that flexible work hours may lessen stress and improve productivity, but does this hold true for all employees and professions? Would flexible working hours further increase the divide among socioeconomic groups if they were more readily available to higher status occupations? [via Medical News Today]

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The benefits of breast feeding are numerous, from reductions in risks of asthma, diabetes and SIDS to stronger immune systems which fend off infections – just to name a few. And now researchers from Australia believe that children who were breastfed for greater than six months demonstrated better mental well-being and improved ability to deal with stress later in life. After assessing more than 2,000 children at various time intervals, researchers also found that children who were breastfed for shorter periods of time had worse behavior which could translate into aggression or depression. But for each additional month a child was breastfed, behavior improved. These findings did not change even after adjusting for social, economic and psychological factors and early life events. “Interventions aimed at increasing breastfeeding duration could be of long-term benefit for child and adolescent mental health,” the researchers concluded. [via Medline Plus]

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Poor education predisposes one to poorer health. Study after study has confirmed this link, and now experts are honing in on the reasons for it and what can be done.  “Persons with a higher education tend to have better jobs, and better income, better benefits,” said David R. Williams, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and staff director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America. These “better benefits” not only include more accessible healthcare but can include factors such as the ability to take time away from work to see the doctor. As well, people with higher levels of education tend to have more resources to cope with stress and life, such as access to a health club to exercise during periods of stress. Being more educated also means that a person can better understand the complexities that go along with modern medicine. In fact, a report from May, 2009 found that adults who did not graduate from high school were 2.5 times more likely to be in less than very good health, compared with counterparts who have a college degree. Williams is advocating that health promotion should be taught earlier in schools and that improvement in literacy rates could better the health of people as they become adults. [via Businessweek]

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Researchers report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that there may be a seasonality of mortality. After combing through data from Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan they discovered that the lowest mortality rates occurred during the warm months of July to September in the Northern hemisphere and February to March in the Southern hemisphere. A multitude of factors may be at play, including better nutrition or less pandemic diseases during these months. However, the researchers offer up an intriguing thought – could environmental factors, such as taking a summer vacation, lead to decreased death rates? “Vacations can have both physiologic and psychological effects. The positive psychological effects of vacations consist of ameliorating mood, decreasing mental stress and providing a sense of recuperation and well-being that may last for at least a month after the vacation,” said the study authors. Do we really need scientific studies to tell us that vacations are good for the mind, body and soul? I think common sense can tell me that. But, it is interesting data that’s worth looking into. [CMAJ via Medical News Today]

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If you know anything about American college life you know that sleep is often a rarity. Between the activities, festivities, oh, and the education sleep is sometimes not a top priority. Thus, the findings of a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health should not be of any surprise – that only 30% of college age students get at least eight hours of sleep per night (the average required for young adults). Furthermore, on weeknights, 20% of students stay up all night at least once a month and 35% stay up until 3 a.m. at least once a week. Sleep deprivation can induce extra stress on the body, lead to weight gain, not to mention impair the cardiovascular and immune systems. Even more jarring, more than 60% of students have sleep-wake cycle disturbances and many take drugs and alcohol regularly to help them do one or the other. [via Medical News Today]

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After looking at 20 years of records, Swedish researchers found that the number of heart attacks decreased the Monday after daylight savings time ended, possibly due to the extra hour of sleep most people get. Typically, most heart attacks occur on Mondays due to the increased stress load and activity of the new week. The researchers also noted that the number of heart attacks increased throughout the week after “springing forward” an hour. This may be due to the persistence of sleep disturbance following the reduction of sleep time, which may add to the stress load of the work week.

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New research from Yale University shows that acupressure may alleviate some of the stress children experience while awaiting surgery. While acupuncture has been shown to do the same for adults, acupressure is likely to be more applicable to children since the technique does not involve needles. By applying an adhesive acupressure bead to a pressure point between the eyebrows, researchers saw a small reduction in anxiety in the children that were studied. As traditional eastern medicine techniques become increasingly accepted in the west, more and more studies are evaluating their effectiveness. Have you had an experience with acupressure or acupuncture? Share you opinion. Read more.

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