Archives for February 2018

“In this world,” Benjamin Franklin is purported to have said, “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Were the venerated patriot to be transported to the hyper-competitive, hyper-kinetic twenty-first century, he might very well have added “stress” to his list of life’s certainties.

Though it is inevitable, stress can be managed. Check out these three types of exercise that can help.

Cardiovascular Exercise
Vigorous exercise, the kind that raises your pulse, breathing, and heart rate, has long been determined to proffer loads of benefits to the body. But aerobic exercise like running, jogging, Zumba, and spinning also have a marked effect on the brain.

Science has shown that aerobic exercise, done regularly, can:

• Decrease overall anxiety
• Elevate and/or stabilize your mood
• Improve sleep quality
• Improve alertness and focus
• Increase cognitive function

There’s a scientifically-proven neurological basis to these claims. Cardiovascular workouts reduce stress hormone levels. They also increase the amount of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators, in the brain.

Meditative Exercises
You don’t have to risk your hip or knee joints in order to reduce stress and reap the mental rewards of exercise. Meditation and meditative exercises, including some variations of yoga and tai chi, afford the same benefits.

At Coventry University in Great Britain, a review of eighteen studies on the effects of meditation, yoga, and tai chi on the human genome revealed that mind-body activities work on the genetic level to ease depression and alleviate poor health. This works, in part, by muffling what stress and anxiety can do to your body on the molecular level.

Group Sports
Group sports have multiple benefits. First, engaging in group exercise via a team, whether it be kickball, bowling, dodge ball, or tennis, increases the probability that you’ll stay on track. It’s a lot easier to skip that early-morning sub-zero run than it is to skip a pick-up baseball game when the team is counting on you.

The second benefit is to your mental health. The Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise studied the connection between team sports and mental health in two Australian club sports, tennis and netball. They determined that women who took part in team sports enjoyed stronger mental health and overall life satisfaction than women who worked out on their own.

If you’re looking to reduce stress levels using exercise, don’t make the exercise another source of stress. Be sure to choose a fitness routine that fits your life and makes you happy.

You’ve probably heard the terms ADHD and ADD bandied about indiscriminately. Maybe you’ve been exposed to them in reference to children who have similar symptoms and behaviors, which makes parsing out the diagnosis codes difficult. Check out this brief primer on the difference between these acronyms, and how the diagnosis of patients has changed.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is actually an outdated term. It used to refer to individuals who have trouble focusing and organizing, but who do not suffer from the constant energetic eruptions of hyperactivity. A child like this may be dreamy, inattentive, quiet, and disorganized, but by no means boisterous or disruptive. This form of the attention disorder is more often manifested in girls and women, but as of 2013, patients are no longer diagnosed with it.

In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association changed the way the range of attention and hyperactivity disorders are labeled. ADD has been replaced by one of three distinct types of ADHD:

• Primarily Inattentive ADHD
• Primarily Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD
• Combined ADHD

A child exhibiting the inattentive behaviors of what would formerly have been called ADD would now be diagnosed with ADHD-inattentive.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Hyperactivity (along with impulsive behaviors) is what separated ADD from ADHD when ADD was still a recognized diagnosis.

Hyperactivity includes a distinct set of behaviors:

• Impulsivity
• Excessive movement
• Excessive talking
• Difficulty “settling down” for periods of quiet
• Difficulty waiting, taking turns, etc.

Since the 2013 revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a child who exhibits hyperactivity and impulsive behaviors but does not show inattentive behaviors would be diagnosed with ADHD-Hyperactive/Impulsive.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Combined
In case the conflation of ADD and ADHD didn’t confuse us enough, the changes in diagnosis have included a third version of the overall condition.

ADHD Combined is, as evident by the label, a diagnosis that includes all three major elements of the disorder: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness.

Diagnosis labels like ADD and ADHD and others evolve as psychiatric science makes greater strides in understanding the underlying issues. If you’re concerned that someone you love may be suffering from ADHD, contact a mental health professional for testing. The sooner a diagnosis is made, the sooner your loved one can get the help he or she needs.