Posts tagged with 'risk'
Recent psychedelic research: what are the risks?
6th January 2019
"The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking." J. K. Galbraith "Although a bad LSD trip can be extremely frightening and distressing, psychedelics overall are among the safest drugs we know of. When the ISCD expert panel were rating LSD and mushrooms (which contain psilocybin) …
Kidney donation: what are the risks?
19th October 2016
I recently wrote a blog post "Kidney donation: why it's well worth considering". I commented that most blog posts on this website are primarily written for fellow health professionals & others interested in an evidence-based approach to stress, health & wellbeing. However this sequence of posts about kidney donation are …
15 minutes of exercise daily reduces mortality by 14% - and each additional 15 minutes gives 4% additional mortality benefit
21st August 2011
There has been a ripple of media interest - and rightly so - in the recent Lancet article "Minimum amount of physical activity for reduced mortality and extended life expectancy: a prospective cohort study." The article's abstract reads "The health benefits of leisure-time physical activity are well known, but whether …
New meta-analysis tells it like it is: television viewing damages our health
14th July 2011
A new meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association tells it like it is: television viewing damages our health. The paper's title is "Television viewing and risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality" and its abstract reads: "Context: Prolonged television (TV) viewing is the most …
Strong relationships improve survival as much as quitting smoking
5th September 2010
The August 11th edition of the British Medical Journal reported: "Having strong social relationships seems to have an effect on survival comparable to that of quitting smoking and larger than controlling traditional risk factors, such as obesity or hypertension. A meta-analysis of social relationships and mortality looked at 308,849 participants …
Recent research: six studies on depression – pregnancy, young children, antidepressant side effects, SAD & CBT, and suicide risk
29th October 2009
Here are half a dozen recent research papers on depression (all details & abstracts to these studies are given further down this blog posting). Yonkers et al's publication is a very welcome one - "The management of depression during pregnancy: a report from the American Psychiatric Association and the American …
Recent research: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on weight, sugared drinks, vitamin D, vegetarianism & climate change
4th June 2009
I like the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN). It comes out monthly and nearly always has an article or two that I find interesting and helpful. The AJCN May edition produced a bumper crop. Interesting articles included a report by Chen and colleagues (see below for all abstracts) on …
Recent research: three depression papers that get me thinking
16th April 2009
Looking back over relevant research papers that caught my attention last month, some stand out for me more than the others. Here are three on depression that stood out and got me thinking. The Fergusson et al paper looks at links between alcohol abuse and major depression. There has been …
Are you at risk of developing cancer from radon gas at home or at work?
15th February 2009
Last month's article in the British Medical Journal on the dangers posed by radon gas in buildings jogged my awareness of this important hazard (Gray, Read et al. 2009). Quoting Wikipedia on radon "Radon is the invisible, radioactive mono-atomic gas that results from radioactive decay of some forms of uranium …
Recent research: six studies on prevalence of depression & anxiety, and risk factors for depression, bipolar disorder & suicide
15th January 2009
Here are a couple of studies on the prevalence of depression and anxiety, and four on risk factors for depression, bipolar disorder and suicide. Strine et al report on a major survey of depression and anxiety in the United States. They found "The overall prevalence of current depressive symptoms was …