Is Money Making You Stressed? It Could Be Making You Sick Too.

Stressing Over Money Can Make You Sick — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Do you stress over money? I do. With the way the economy is going, if you’re not stressing over money now, you sure could be in the near future. Gas prices are going up, home values are going down, and what money we do have is buying less and less. The thing about stressing over money is…It doesn’t pay the bills. What it can do is make you sick.

Yes, stressing over money (or anything for that matter) can and does make you sick. How sick? Here is an excerpt from an article at About.com, that addresses Health Problems Associated With Stress…

Science is constantly learning about the impact that stress has on your overall health. Stress is or may be a contributing factor in everything from backaches and insomnia to cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (many people believe that CFS and fibromyalgia are the same illness).

Stress is often a key factor when women experience either absence of menstruation or abnormal bleeding. Hormonal imbalances caused by stress may proliferate the symptoms of fibroid tumors and endometriosis, as well as make pregnancy difficult to achieve for couples with fertility problems.

Heart disease is the number one killer of American women. High blood pressure, heart attacks, heart palpitations, and stroke may be stress related cardiovascular conditions. Some women experience changes in their sexuality and encounter various sexual dysfunctions such as loss of desire and vaginal dryness as a result of stress.

Often people feel the effects of stress as fatigue, various aches and pains, headaches, or as emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances. Stress affects others by causing gastrointestinal disorders such as ulcers, lower abdominal cramps, colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Frequently people under the effects of over stress will have more colds and infections due to lowered immune system responses. Stress can initiate dermatological conditions such as itchy skin and rashes.

Wow. That’s a lot of problems. So, what is a person to do? Well, learning to control the things we can control, and letting go of the rest, is a good first step…and potentially, the hardest step. Maybe we can find something that will help…

Here is a post from ChEsKa’S pRiDe — The 10 Essentials for Relieving Stress

Also check out WebMD’s Letting Go of Stess.

Everyone feels stressed these days. But do you really know what that means? Do you understand what daily stress does to your body, mind and spirit? Over the next four weeks, you’ll learn to identify exactly what causes you stress. Equally important, you’ll find out how to manage your stress and become more relaxed.

From About.com — Money, Stress, and Happiness

If you stress about money, you’re not alone: a significant amount of Americans are deeply in debt, living beyond their means, don’t have a clear plan to solve their financial problems, and stress about it quite a bit. The fear, stress and conflict associated with money issues can also impact your personal happiness. The following resources can help you to create a plan for yourself to get out of debt, if necessary, make your money go further, and plan for your future. Once you have a plan, you should feel significantly less stressed about money. When money is less of an issue, rather than being enslaved by it, you can use it to do the things that make you truly happy.

Also See:

Your 6 Biggest Money Problems, Solved.

Are you stressing over money? Is it making you sick? Is there something special you do that helps reduce your stress?

Weight Loss: The All You Can Eat Diet Plan

Happy New Year everyone! This is one of my most popular posts, and since everyone seems to be talking about dieting and weight loss, I figured now was a good time to re-post. Hope you like it.

THE-ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT DIET PLAN — by Catherine Morgan 

You heard right. All you can eat. And it’s not a gimmick. How can that be? All you can eat diet? No diet is all you can eat? Well you are right, and wrong. No starvation or quick fix theme diet, is ever going to be an all you can eat diet. And we all know there is no pill or powder that allows you to eat anything you want and still lose weight. So, what exactly is an ALL YOU CAN EAT DIET?

READ FULL POST HERE

Top Ten Gifts For The Body, Mind, and Spirit.

Originally posted at BlogHer, under Health & Wellness, and BlogHer Holiday Guide.

SEE MY TOP TEN PICKS FOR THE BEST HEALTH AND WELLNESS GIFTS FOR THE BODY, MIND, AND SOUL.

Oprah Show Controversy: Dr. Northrup Seems To Be Blaming Women For Their Diseases

Is Your Illness All Your Fault? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

It seem that Oprah has ruffled a few feathers while explaining her recent bout with thyroid problems. Some are saying that she is just using a thyroid problem as an excuse for a recent 20 pound weight gain. Others find her method of treatment [a one month trip to her Hawaii estate for total relaxation and healthy eating] to be a bit grandiose, and not exactly a treatment available to the average woman with thyroid disease. And then others are a bit taken back by her “expert” Dr. Northrup, and her attempt to blame the patients (mostly women) for their thyroid disease.

See what I mean at Oprah’s Thyroid Club (with 85 comments) —From The New York Times

…The downside is that the talk show host has been vague about her diagnosis and treatment and even suggested that her body’s imbalance of thyroid hormones was the result of working too hard and not relaxing enough. Her main “treatment” approach seemed to be quitting work for a month and eating only fresh food at her tropical Hawaiian estate.

“While good nutrition, exercise, and self-care are certainly part of overall good health, they are not likely to cure your thyroid condition,’’ writes Mary Shoman, founder of a well-known thyroid disease Web site and the author of several books on the topic. “It may have worked for Oprah, but …I doubt most of us could ever aspire to such a luxurious recuperation.”

Ms. Winfrey hasn’t detailed her specific diagnosis, but Ms. Shoman says the description sounds like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease that is characterized by the thyroid’s gradual decline into hypothyroidism, interspersed with periods “when the thyroid sputters to life and becomes temporarily overactive.” Avoiding medical treatment is only an option for those with very mild thyroid problems, notes Ms. Shoman, who worries some women may try to self-treat rather than consulting a doctor about their symptoms…

BlogHer Contributing Editor Laurie wrote:

“Here’s what else Dr. Northrup has to say about thyroid disease:

“In many women thyroid dysfunction develops because of an energy blockage in the throat region, the result of a lifetime of ’swallowing’ words one is aching to say. In the name of preserving harmony, or because these women have learned to live as relatively helpless members of their families or social groups, they have learned to stifle their self-expression….It’s no coincidence that so many more women than men have thyroid problems. Thyroid disease is related to expressing your feelings…”"

For me, there is no doubt that some degree of a mind/body connection exists. Personally, I know that when under great stress or anxiety, that my medical problems will often become worse. However, there is a thin line between “connection” and “blame”…and it seems this Dr. Northrup may have just crossed that line.

This is what she had to say…

Dr. Northrup says your health depends on what’s going on with your mind, body and soul, and your symptoms are actually your soul’s way of bringing deeper issues to your attention. “You’re in labor with yourself because everything that no longer serves your highest purpose and your optimal health starts to go away and your body gives you signals—’Hey, you’ve been putting too much stuff under the carpet emotionally, nutritionally, not exercising … putting everyone else first. The kids, the husband, the job, whatever,’” Dr. Northrup says. “And your soul is saying, ‘What about me? What about me?’ And your body will start getting symptoms to hit you over the head with till you wake up.”

Well, that just doesn’t make much sense…There are plenty of depressed people that don’t have a single medical problem wrong with them, as there are plenty of people who suffer with numerous medical issues that are not in the least bit depressed.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all just go to our “happy place” and will our medical problems away? Yes, it sure would be…But, in “reality” medical problems happen…regardless of your state of mind. So all of this talk about Thyroid disease stemming from an underlying emotional problem…well, no wonder why people are getting a bit upset. Oprah may be spotlighting thyroid disease, but the medical community blaming the patient for their health problems is not new at all. Just ask anyone who suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowl Syndrome, just to name a few. And actually, Dr. Northrup names many more…

The first thing Dr. Northrup wants Rachel to do is to make a list of five things she wants to do—and then do them! The five things Rachel chooses to do may help improve her health in the long run. “When you do those, they decrease cellular inflammation. This isn’t just some kind of pop psychology. They decrease inflammation in your cells and cellular inflammation is the beginning of all chronic degenerative disease,” she says. “So headaches, high blood pressure, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, it all begins with cellular inflammation. Things that bring you joy quell stress hormones in the body and decrease cellular inflammation.”

I imagine Dr. Northrup doesn’t actually suffer from any of these pesky “cellular inflammations”, otherwise how could she even say any of this with a straight face. She is basically saying that people with cancer, thyroid disease, and many other chronic illnesses, have brought this all on themselves. When someone suffering hears this kind of crazy talk, they actually begin to believe that their illness is their own fault. And that’s not even the worst thing. What is worse, is when that person believes that if they could just emotionally “fix” themselves, they could make themselves better [in this case, just like Oprah]. And when they don’t get better…again, they will feel it is their own fault.

From Stop The Thyroid Madness

And when she finally has a program which somewhat addresses the thyroid issue this week, she allows her hallowed guest, Dr. Christiane Northrup, to state “your symptoms are actually your soul’s way of bringing deeper issues to your attention.” Hogwash! And thyroid patient Mary Shoman has rightly proclaimed that “thyroid disease is NOT your fault, despite what Dr. Northrup says.”

How do you feel about these comments by Dr. Northrup?

Also See:

Domestic Divapalooza

The Beach Life

THE MAGAZINE ARTICLE THAT STARTED IT ALL

What’s the number, Oprah? — from Cardiogirl

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com and The Political Voices of Women

Is Dark Chocolate Good For Your Health? Or does someone just want you to think it is?

 

Questioning The Motives of the Chocolate Industry — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at CatherineBlogs.com)

Fool me once, shame on you…fool me twice, shame on me. Could dark chocolate be good for your? Could it help lower your blood pressure? Cure symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

When news of scientific studies about the benefits of dark chocolate came out a few months ago, I thought…maybe there could be something to this, it seemed odd, but still possible? And, I wouldn’t have had too much reason to doubt these claims…until they just took the whole thing a little bit too far.

I first became skeptical when I read that another new study found dark chocolate could help with symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It didn’t seem to me that we needed scientific research to prove that a product with caffeine in it would increase a persons energy. However, that is not necessarily the best way for a person with CFS to get additional energy. But, the thing that made me question the research was that they never mentioned caffeine at all, they just made it seem that “something” in the chocolate is helping with fatigue. Pretty vague if you ask me, but it sure is selling a lot of dark chocolate.

The “report” finds that strong consumer interest in the reported health benefits of dark chocolate and a general trend towards product premiumization (including organic and fair trade products) are the main drivers in current market growth.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…seriously…how many more times are we going to have to read about these (alleged) health benefits of chocolate? Is anyone actually buying this argument or is it simply a lobby to help people mitigate self-imposed guilt? Are you purposefully putting chocolate in your diet to take advantage of these healthy claims? I’d love to hear if you are. — read full article

So, why then is this dark chocolate “research” getting so much press? Could it be that the chocolate industry itself is behind all of the recent “chocolate propaganda”? Well, I didn’t want to think that could be true, I already know we can’t trust most of Corporate America…But the sweet little chocolate factories, they would never deceive us…right? WRONG?

The Hershey Co. is expanding its Goodness Chocolate portfolio with the debut of Hershey’s Antioxidant Milk Chocolate and Hershey’s Whole Bean Chocolate. These chocolates join Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate and Hershey’s Sticks brands in offering consumers Hershey’s brand of chocolate with good-for-you benefits.

“Consumers are very interested in the goodness benefits of chocolate, including the antioxidants found naturally in dark chocolate,” said Michele Buck, senior vice president, chief marketing officer, The Hershey Company. “This interest is driving explosive growth in dark chocolate. Now, Hershey’s Antioxidant Milk Chocolate and Hershey’s Whole Bean Chocolate bring the goodness benefits of dark chocolate to the broader milk chocolate category.” — read full article

 

Can anyone say, “give me a break”?

All the chocolate companies are jumping on this band-wagon. Have you noticed that just about every chocolate candy now also has a dark chocolate version (ie: kit-kat, m&m, kisses)? Does anyone really think that eating more dark chocolate is going to lower the rate of heart disease in this country? I think it could actually have the opposite affect.
U.S. Chocolate Sales Forecast to Reach $18 Billion by 2011!

Well played chocolate industry. No need to even waste money on advertising, just let the media report on bogus research that deceives the public into thinking chocolate is good for their health. You can bet some PR guy is getting a huge bonus and a raise.

Central to the company’s outlook for 2007 is building on its presence in the dark chocolate sector - one of the fastest growing businesses in the Hershey portfolio last year.

In September, Hershey introduced a new range of single origin dark chocolate products and went on to further capitalize on consumer trends by entering the organic market with the acquisition of the Dagoba chocolate company in October. — read full article

So in conclusion…I love dark chocolate and nothing will ever change that. But I am appalled by the deception that the chocolate industry is using to increase their sales and profits. If “flavanols” help lower blood pressure, then eat foods that contain them, but that don’t also have caffeine. Caffeine increases a person’s blood pressure, so it doesn’t make any sense to use chocolate as a means to lower it. As you can see by Hersey’s own studies, every other food with this beneficial ingredient has no caffeine and is 100% natural.

ORAC per serving of foods which contain antioxidants.

So yes, get you antioxidants…Go buy yourself some blueberries, or raspberries, or pecans, or cranberries, or walnuts, or almonds, or red grapes, or prunes (well, maybe not prunes). Save the chocolates for a treat not a treatment.