Keeping up with relevant research
7th February 2008
I spend about three hours weekly scanning medical and psychological journals on the internet. Typically I zoom through the article titles looking for anything relevant to stress, health & wellbeing. If something seems interesting, I read the article's abstract. I may well then download it to my bibliographic database - …
Some interesting articles from January ‘08
2nd February 2008
Here are details and links for a couple of dozen January articles that I found interesting. Most of these articles (and many others) are also listed on my searchable online Connotea database. Adam, J. G., R. Rick, et al. (2008). "A Randomized Controlled Trial of D-Cycloserine Enhancement of Exposure Therapy …
Both negative & positive emotions can be functional or dysfunctional
30th January 2008
Unpleasant, negative emotions can be highly functional. For example, anxious hypervigilance in a dangerous situation can keep me on my toes, very aware of potential threats and more able to react rapidly and appropriately. Healthy anger when I am being taken advantage of can help me respond strongly and assertively …
Savouring – initial thoughts
27th January 2008
Back in my post of January 5, I mentioned that I was looking at Sonja Lyubomirsky's book "The How of Happiness". On pages 73 to 77 of the book she describes a ‘person-fit' exercise to help readers decide which happiness-boosting activities to work with initially. I came up with a …
Drink lots of water: an urban myth
20th January 2008
The Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal usually has a series of light-hearted articles in it. Last month's copy was no exception. In one of the articles, entitled "Medical myths" (Vreeman & Carroll 2007), the authors wrote "We generated a list of common medical or medicine related beliefs espoused …
“The demon drink” – social costs and social responses
18th January 2008
Modest alcohol intake seems pretty harmless and maybe even does a bit of good healthwise. However last month's editorial (Gilmore and Sheron 2007) in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal drummed in points it's important to remember. Ian Gilmore is President of the Royal College of Physicians and …
Helping adolescents suffering with depression
12th January 2008
6.15am and I'm sitting in front of my computer. Berg's violin concerto is playing on Radio 3 (it's through their "listen again" feature). This seems appropriate as the work is dedicated "To the memory of an angel". The "angel" was a teenager, Manon Gropius. Paralysed by polio at age 17, …
Does healthy lifestyle really make much difference?
8th January 2008
In an earlier post (January 3, 08), I looked at how common sense isn’t common, at least for healthy behaviours. Only about 3% of the population are ticking all the right boxes for non-smoking, alcohol use, exercise, weight and diet. This is interesting and maybe surprising, but does it really …
Sonja Lyubomirsky and "The How of Happiness"
5th January 2008
The postman delivered piles of post-holiday letters and parcels yesterday. In amongst the late Christmas presents and even a late Christmas card, was a book I had ordered called “The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky. I spent half an hour browsing through it in the evening. It looks good. …
Common sense isn’t common
3rd January 2008
Common sense isn’t common, at least with healthy behaviours. The vast majority of us know that we should eat sensibly, be a reasonable weight, exercise regularly, not abuse alcohol, and avoid smoking. Do you know what percentage of people actually follow all this obvious advice? A survey (Reeves and Rafferty …