Tag: brain

Nutrition to Help Prevent Depression

Nutrition to Help Prevent Depression

You just ate a bowl of pasta and feel tired. Or you ate a tuna salad and feel ready to tackle the day. Ever wondered why you feel differently after eating? We at Unified Caring Association (UCA) have been curious about this as well. After doing some research on nutrition, we now have a better understanding of why food affects us so much. For example, recent studies show that a healthy diet may not only prevent depression but could effectively treat it once it’s started. 

Nutritional Psychiatry

An evolving body of research on nutrition shows that a healthy diet can help prevent depression. The field of research on how food affects us psychologically is called nutritional psychiatry. Nutritional psychiatry is relatively new and it is not limited to one place or group. Nutritional psychiatry observes data regarding the association between diet quality and mental health across cultures, countries and age groups. One topic within these groups is depression and how the food we eat contributes, fixes or prevents depression.

An example of this research in action is a study mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Researchers took a look at whether improving the diets of people with major depression would help reduce or eliminate their depression symptoms. Half of these people were coached on their nutrition by a dietitian. The other half were given one-on-one social support, a common technique for reducing depression. “After 12 weeks, the people who improved their diets showed significantly happier moods than those who received social support. And the people who improved their diets the most improved the most.” (Wall Street Journal) Other subsequent studies have found similar results: Eating a balanced diet that has fewer processed sugars, grains, etc. will help with depression.

In 2013, Dr. Jacka helped to found the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research. This Society held its first conference in the summer of 2017. Dr. Jacka also launched Deakin University’s Food & Mood Centre. This is an institute that focuses on researching and developing nutrition-based strategies for brain disorders, such as depression. With new and evolving research on how food affects us, other conferences and universities are including these findings in their lectures. An example of how this information applies is by the production of serotonin, which regulates mood and sleep. Not enough serotonin can result in depression. 

Food Interactions

Eating a ton of high-processed foods and refined sugars often increases the risk of mental and physical health issues at any age. If we think about our heart or other muscles in the body, we take extra effort to condition them and keep them healthy. The brain is not much different. Our lifestyle choices reflect our brain’s health. Mental health should be just as important as physical health. A healthy brain is more resilient in difficult times, like while when we feel depressed. “A bad diet makes depression worse, failing to provide the brain with a variety of nutrients it needs… And processed or deep-fried foods often contain trans fats that promote inflammation, believed to be a cause of depression.” (Dr. Ramsey)

A bad diet also affects our microbiome, A.K.A., your gut bacteria. The bacteria in our guts have complex ways of communicating with our brain by signaling the body to produce different chemicals and hormones. This communication changes our mood. Think about when we get “hangry” from not eating, or the opposite, happy when we eat strawberries. To maintain a healthy and stable mood, we need to maximize the good bacteria and minimize the bad.

It is not to say that a good diet can replace medicine or therapy. However, it can serve as a supplemental treatment. The added bonus is that it can prevent other health problems, like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and more!

Be open to the cornucopia of food.

There are so many different diets and articles out in the world for “healthy eating.” The main point is to eat in a way that your body responds best to. As some might say, “hacking” your body. A diet made up primarily of fruits and vegetables, good fats and proteins, yogurt and cheese, legumes, nuts, seafood, whole grains and small portions of red meat can provide nutrition our brain needs. It can also regulate our inflammatory response and support the good bacteria in our gut.

Mood Lifting Nutrients and Foods

If we take everything in moderation and monitor our health, we can maintain a healthy lifestyle. The critical point is to listen to our bodies so we can understand what we need. Is it sleep? An activity like hiking? Or do we need to eat more berries and yogurt because we are feeling down? If we begin making small changes based on these observations, we can bring more caring into our bodies and lives.

Would you like to read more about UCA caring resources? We have other blogs on topics on UCA benefits: Medical Bill Negotiation, 2020 Clear Sighted Year, and Gut-Brain Connection! If you would like caring messages throughout the week, follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Gut-Brain Connection

Gut-Brain Connection

When someone says, “I have a gut feeling…” we all understand the importance of that intuition. Scientist are now posting findings that the nerves in our stomach are just as sensitive as those in our hands. Understanding this gut-brain connection can help us create more caring lifestyle choices.

Brain 1 and Brain 2

Most people think about all the nerves in our hands, mouth, and feet; this is the central nervous system. What is interesting is the nerves that comprise a network of nerves that line the digestive tract, aka the enteric nervous system: Brain 2. The second nervous system is a two-ply lining made up of 100 million plus nerve cells. This “the second brain” is in constant contact with the brain in our headl. Ever wonder why you feel butterflies in your stomach before a big speech, or get hungry when watching an ad for a restaurant. These are examples of the gut-brain connection.

Scientists thought the two systems communicate only by hormones produced by cells in the gut’s lining. This process happens once food or bacteria are detected. The cells release a message that prompts the nervous system to act accordingly. However, this process is now found to be more direct. Diego Bohórquez from Duke University discovered that the two nervous systems make physical contact to form synapses with nerves. 

How can we see this process?

Diego Bohórquez and his colleagues use a 3D electron microscopy to take a look at the guts. The images revealed that there are actually tiny protrusions in the gut that also have a foot-like portion that extends out. Imaging them in this way reveals a whole new structure. “It became evident that enteroendocrine cells have similar physical attributes to neurons, so we wondered whether they might be wired to neurons, too.” (ideas.ted.com) In the procedure, the cells of the gut began glowing green. This provides physical evidence that the sensor cells indeed behave as neurons. 

Feelers in the gut- neurons

The future…

This discovery can help further treatment research for conditions such as eating disorders, IBS, and more that are often under the label: psychological. These diseases all share a symptom, hyper- or hypo sensitivity to gut stimuli. “For instance, clinical observations have suggested that some children with anorexia may be hyper-aware of the food they ingest from an early age…Under normal circumstances, this process happens without detailed spatial and temporal awareness, but those children can feel what’s going on in there, which triggers anxious feelings.” (Bohórquez) These discoveries go beyond the gut to the lining other organs. Some examples include our lungs, prostate and vagina which all have sensor cells similar to our guts. “Future exploration will continue to uncover how the brain perceives signals from these organs and how they affect how we feel.” he says.”  (Bohórquez)

If you are looking forward to reading more about Unified Caring Association and other caring acts, check out our other blogs: Volunteering for Health, It all Starts with Self-Care, and Monitoring Health with Biofeedback. Or visit our website to check out our Caring News, membership benefits, and other healthcare tools! Would you like more? Follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Meditation as a Tool for Healing

meditation and yoga

Meditation as a Tool for Health

At times life is chaotic, stressful and noisy. Luckily, there is a self-care tool available to use that can help calm the chaos of everyday. Additionally, this tool can help improve your health! This tool is meditation, also known as mindfulness activities or quiet reflection. Oftentimes when we quiet our minds, we are better able to cope with our everyday lives, during high-stress times, and even improve our overall health.

What is Meditation?

Meditation has many forms, but all forms have four main elements: a quiet space, feeling comfortable, a focal word or image, and allowing our minds to let go. For hundreds and hundreds of years, meditation has been used for increasing calmness and relaxation, coping with and healing illness, and enhancing our well-being. We can see how meditation has increased in popularity over the past five years; the number of people using meditation and meditation techniques has grown by 5%-15%.

Looking for Meditation How To?

When we look around the internet, there are many different articles and videos about how to meditate, much like the 15 Minute Healing Meditation: You Are Your Own Healer / Mindful Movement. Unified Caring Association (UCA) has a variety of meditation videos to help our members start and maintain a self-care routine that includes meditation. Our list includes videos and audio files that are uplifting and positive, relaxing and rejuvenating, as well as for healing and physical health.

Yoga and Meditation Videos

How does it help with our health?

Stress can increase our heart rates, blood pressure, breathing and more. It is harmful if the stress is experienced over a longer period of time. Our adrenal glands become taxed and “…overproduce the hormone cortisol. Overexposure to this hormone can affect the function of your brain, immune system, and other organs.” (Harvard Health Publishing) Recently, health studies have shown that meditation has beneficial effects in combating stress, thus preventing adrenal gland “burnout.” Meditation is a way to be productive while your attention is focused inwards. This self care induces more relaxation. “Meditation is thought to work via its effects on the sympathetic nervous system, which increases heart rate, breathing and blood pressure during times of stress.  “It will help you lower your blood pressure, but so much more: it can help your creativity, your intuition, your connection with your inner self, says Burke Lennihan, a registered nurse who teaches meditation at the Harvard University Center for Wellness. (Harvard Health Publishing)

Results from research on meditation and the brain have been published and reviewed for years now. Benefits of meditation, or quieting the mind, are “…now being confirmed with fMRI and EEG instruments. The practice appears to have an amazing variety of neurological benefits – from changes in grey matter volume to reduced activity in the “me” centers of the brain to enhanced connectivity between brain regions.” (Harvard Health Publishing) This reduced activity allows for creativity and problem solving to dominate without overtaxing the mind. (a.k.a. it basically becomes effortless and allows for new solutions to present themselves.)

Moving Meditation

One form of mindfulness or meditation is yoga. Most of us are familiar with yoga from the numerous studios dotting the streets and the even more videos online. Unified Caring Association also has a select list of videos to help members with their mental and physical health. An example is the YouTube video “Yoga for Complete Beginners” that blends the two ideas of yoga and meditation seamlessly. In this video, we are walked through a 20 minute meditation yoga combination that gets the body moving while the mind becomes restful.

Yoga

If you are looking forward to reading more about Unified Caring Association and other caring acts, check out our other blogs: Volunteering for Health, It all Starts with Self-Care, and Monitoring Health with Biofeedback. Or visit our website to check out our Caring News, membership benefits, and other healthcare tools! Would you like more? Follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Dancing for Happiness

Dancing for Happiness
Nietzsche dancing quote

Nothing evokes a feeling of dancing like the natural rhythm of a heart beat and the sway of the trees. We often have a natural inclination towards rhythm and music. We can see this in the unconscious swaying in a crowd during a moving piece of music, or when small children clap their hands when they are listening to music they like. This unconscious and spontaneous response relates to a human need for connection and expression of emotions, specifically happiness.

Unified Caring Association (UCA) celebrates different techniques and tools for developing and improving emotional intelligence and communication. Much like Moonbeam Feeling Packs, or the caring apps found on our website to help grow caring children and teens, music and dancing can help people express emotions. Almost every culture around the world has some form of music and dance. It has been “…discovered that people of different cultures react emotionally in the same way when listening to different types of music.” (Jennifer Delgado) Dancing and music help us communicate in social networks and are also useful for our mental and physical health. According to recent studies, a key to happiness is found through dancing.

And a 1-2-3-4

Psychologists at the University of Örebro tracked a group of teenagers who suffered from social and mental difficulties. Half of the group was asked to join a dance class that met twice a week; the rest continued with their daily routines. After two years, the psychologists found that the group that attended dance classes had less stress or anxiety and felt happier

This was backed up by another study conducted at the University of Derby. These psychologists worked with those suffering from depression. This group received “salsa” lessons for nine weeks. After only four weeks, improvements began to appear. After finishing the course, participants said they had less negative thoughts as well as improved concentration and a greater sense of calm, peace and tranquility.

Dance is an excellent therapeutic resource and has a positive effect on our lives. Australian researchers from Deakin University conducted an interview of 1,000 people. They found that the people who were dancing were feeling happier, more satisfied with their lives, relationships and health. Additionally, these people who incorporated dance into their lives were more easily able to achieve their goals.

Still need more to convince you? There is another report of psychologists at the University of New York, who discovered similar effects in children. 120 children, ages 2-5 years old, were exposed to different types of sound stimuli. Some of these stimuli were rhythmic and others were completely arrhythmic. The children that heard the rhythmic sounds followed the rhythms with body movement and showed more positive emotions and felt happier. If we take all four of these studies and put them together, we have a strong case for having a tendency to move to the beat of the music, and that dancing helps us feel happier.

The Science as to Why Dancing Improves Happiness.

While dancing, our brain releases feel-good endorphins that help us feel comfortable, relaxed, like we are having fun and are empowered. “Music and dance do not only activate the sensory and motor circuits of our brain, but also the pleasure centers.” (Jennifer Delgado) We at UCA agree with neuroscientists at Columbia University who claim that when we move along with a rhythm, positivity is amplified. 

Our bodies also respond to dancing in positive ways. As we move, our muscles relax, allowing us to sink further into the music and dance. Our bodies can easily release tension built up during the day. Our bodies become happier and more fluid in their functions, as well as more resilient to the daily activities.

Dancing is not just all about us and our brains. It is also a way to connect with others as much as connect with yourself. Dancing allows us to “…share experiences and meet new people, which has a very positive effect on our mental health.” (Jennifer Delgado) 

If we are to do something each week to help promote our happiness, we can dance. Dance in your kitchen, go to tango classes, or turn up some fun tunes and jump around with your kids! All of these will help your mind and body feel better and promote a happier connection with others.

Would you like to read more about UCA caring resources? We have other blogs on Mental Strength, How Can Mindfulness Help Us Solve Problems, and Moonbeam for Emotions! If your would like caring messages throughout the week, follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Your Words Help Create a More Caring World

words

Your Words Help Create a More Caring World
communication-and-caring-understanding

Communication is always evolving. With the newest technologies available to us, we are modifying how we talk and understand communication. (Do we all remember the #hashtag phase? If not Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake did a comedy skit that sums it up perfectly!) One thing is true, we love to communicate with each other. If we are striving to be authentic and impeccable during this communication, we can continue to create a more caring and positive world.

Your Brain

Everyone has a slightly different way of thinking, and thus a different way of interpreting what is being said. If we break down the process of communication we have two parts of the brain that are performing tasks simultaneously. First we have listening and then talking. In his TedTalk neuroscientist Uri Hasson goes through a research study he helped perform. During this study, people were placed in an MRI machine to record which areas of the brain light up while being told/telling a story. What was observed was the areas of the brain that light up during these tasks and the wave patterns that are another depiction of the brains activity. At first the people that were in the MRI machines had irractive results (a.k.a. their minds were thinking about all different things). But when the story began, all of the brains synced up to display almost the same results. These results are an example of neural entrainment. “…we believe that these responses … become similar across listeners because of the meaning conveyed by the speaker, and not by words or sound. ” (Uri Hasson) Uri might be onto something when he comments that this alignment that we are seeing is vital for communication. This communication is stronger when the speaker and the listener are communicating in the same/familiar language. For example, if you have a strong grasp on English, a story told to you in English will be better comprehended verses a story told in an unfamiliar language. It is important to note that retelling a story or memory results in the same activities in the brains of the speaker and listener.Think about the warm fuzzy feeling that you get when telling someone your favorite memory.

Ok, when we both listen and talk our brains have the same activity. But what about truly understanding and the different perspectives people have? Misunderstandings happen all the time in our lives because we often understand the same occurrence in different ways. Uri had another phase in this experiment. He recounts the results on how a story is interpreted by two groups of listeners, where each group had a different framing as a preface to the story. “This one sentence before the story started was enough to make the brain responses of all the people …be very similar [within each group] in these high-order areas and different than the other group. And if one sentence is enough to make your brain similar to people that think like you and very different than people that think differently than you, think how this effect is going to be amplified in real life… that give us very different perspectives on reality.”

Click Here if you would like to watch the full TedTalk by Uri Hasson.

Be Thoughtful and Deliberate- Reaction vs Interaction

Now that we understand a bit more about the science side of talking and listening, how can we use this knowledge to be authentic with our communication? A lot of this deals with being present, thoughtful and deliberate with our words when communicating with others and yourself. (Remember, self talk is super important too!) When reading a Harvard Business Review article by Tony Schwartz and Emily Pines titled Great Leaders Are Thoughtful and Deliberate, Not Impulsive and Reactive, we come to the two-fold idea once again. The part of us that is what we are most familiar with and use day-to-day for scheduling, working, etc. This part is  “…run by our pre-frontal [sic.] cortex and mediated through our parasympathetic nervous system. This is the self we prefer to present to the world. It’s calm, measured, rational, and capable of making deliberate choices.” The second part is operated by a small cluster of nuclei in the midbrain called the amygdala. The amygdala “…is mediated by our sympathetic nervous system. Our second self seizes control any time we begin to perceive threat or danger. It’s reactive, impulsive, and operates largely outside our conscious control.”

Prefrontal-Cortex & Amygdala

(A.K.A. the lizard brain, great for surviving an attack by a t-rex or bear, less great for current day issues like when to do the laundry or talk with our partner about an issue.) Most conflicts from triggering the ‘lizard brain’ today are a result of our self value and worth being threatened. You can feel your face get hot, muscles get tense, and breathing can become irregular at these moments. “…but the danger we experience isn’t truly life-threatening. Responding to them as if they are only make things worse.” (Tony Schwartz and Emily Pines) We can do a number of things to remain conscious of these dueling ‘selfs’ as Tony Schwartz and Emily Pines dub them. Some examples that help us check in with our brains and what they are doing/deciding are meditation, journaling, taking a breather, etc.

If this sounds familiar, you would be correct. Taking the time to self-reflect on your thoughts before speaking is a part of self-care, understanding who you are, and how you would like to conduct yourself. This takes a lot to recognise your internal experience. “You can’t change what you don’t notice, but noticing can be a powerful tool for shifting from defending our value to creating value.” Self observe or a stoic stance helps to recognise the emotions and thoughts. Then we are able to interact with the situation/problem/feeling to promote a positive outcome. One way to improve your capacity to self-observe is to begin with a strong emotion such as impatience, frustration, or anger. When you feel it arising, it’s a flashing red light that you’re sliding into the “second self”. If all you can do is just name the emotion, you have made a huge first step to being able to transform them to a positive. 

Unified Caring Association has a tool that we love to use and share to help with this. We have a deck of cards and accompanying book called Moonbeam Feeling Pack. With these we can pull a card that has an emotion depicted, read the description, and then decide on what to do with that emotion.  If it is a heavy or depleting emotion, we can choose the opposite lighter and renewing emotion Moonbeam identifies which we might just prefer.

Moonbeam-deck-of-cards

What are other red flags for us? “…watch out for times when you feel you’re digging in your heels. The absolute conviction that you’re right and the compulsion to take action are both strong indicators that you‘re feeling a sense of threat and danger.” (Tony Schwartz and Emily Pines) At these times it can be helpful to ask yourself questions like, ‘Is there a different perspective here?’ or ‘What part of this is my responsibility?’ These regular inquiries on your thoughts and feelings help to offset “… your confirmation bias — the instinct to look for evidence that supports what you already believe. By always looking for your own responsibility, you’re resisting the instinct to blame others and play victim and focusing instead on what you have the greatest ability to influence — your own behavior.” (Tony Schwartz and Emily Pines) With practice these new skills will allow us to better interact with others while communication, not just react to the other person’s words. This interaction often promotes more creativity, productivity, and overall satisfaction. Know thyself can become a lasting mantra. Knowing our truth/authentic self/who we are is a core foundation to being impeccable with our words. Without our self-awareness and inner confidence we often struggle with actually knowing what to say.

What we say matters as much as how we say it.

“It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice…being kind, being compassionate, being inclusive and straight up and just being good to people is what matters.” [Dwayne Johnson]

Yes this is a quote from ‘The Rock’ and it holds a ton of truth to it. Being nice goes a long way. We are now having a better grasp on what to do, now we need to practice how to interact. There is a bit of an art to this interaction while stating your new found, productive truth. We want to stand up for ourselves while maintaining a nice and positive attitude. This is not always easy to do, especially during an argument or giving bad news to another person. Joyce E. A. Russell talks about this a bit in her article on Forbes.com titled Being Honest And Nice At Work Actually Works: “…you do have to stand up for yourself and you have to give honest feedback to people who are not doing what they should be doing, but you can still do this in a kind, compassionate, nice and firm way.” This returns us to the original idea that we should be impeccable with our words. Have you ever received a bad review at work is such a nice way that you really heard the feedback? It not only leaves you feeling motivated, but you then have a better comprehension of what you should improve. 

understanding

Our brains love stories. We see through studies like Uri Hasson’s where we can map and measure how active and where the activity occurs. But the stories and words we hear often are not exactly what the speaker/teller means. It is important to be  thoughtful and deliberate when speaking and listening. This helps us ensure we are fully communicating and comprehending what is being said. This takes a bit of work, but being authentic, thoughtful, and deliberate helps with our caring communication. This all builds to the belief that  what we say and how we say it matters. We all want to help make the world a more caring and thriving place to live. We can do this by being impeccable with your caring words.

Works Cited

  • Hasson, U. (2016, February). This is your brain on communication. Retrieved August 21, 2019, from https://www.ted.com/talks/uri_hasson_this_is_your_brain_on_communication
  • Pines, T. S. (2019, April 18). Great Leaders Are Thoughtful and Deliberate, Not Impulsive and Reactive. Retrieved August 21, 2019, from https://hbr.org/2019/04/great-leaders-are-thoughtful-and-deliberate-not-impulsive-and-reactive
  • Russell, J. E. (2019, June 25). Being Honest And Nice At Work Actually Works. Retrieved August 21, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/joyceearussell/2019/06/24/being-honest-and-nice-at-work-actually-works/#2cf744106d46

Want to read more about UCA and get an extra dose of positivity on you news feeds? Read our other blogs on caring, member benefits, and or follow us on social media: Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. We are looking forward to sharing more with you!

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