Recent research: exercise & mental function, mindfulness, smoking, fatigue, and lots on depression
23rd June 2008
Here are some articles - mostly published in May - that I found particularly interesting: Angevaren, M., G. Aufdemkampe, et al. (2008). "Physical activity and enhanced fitness to improve cognitive function in older people without known cognitive impairment." Cochrane Database Syst Rev(2): CD005381. [PubMed] Exercise seems to improve cognitive function …
NICE guidelines – Promoting physical activity in the workplace
17th June 2008
I described the work of UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in an earlier blog. At the end of May they issued a helpful guideline on "Promoting physical activity in the workplace". NICE point out that "Increasing physical activity levels will help prevent and manage over 20 …
Healthy and unhealthy behaviours can be 'infectious'
15th June 2008
There was an interesting study of over 12,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently (Christakis and Fowler, 2008) looking at the way that stopping smoking seems to help those around us stop smoking as well. So if I stop, the chances of my spouse smoking decrease …
Is depression a problem of meaning or of medicine?
1st June 2008
I'm impressed by this description of personal experience with depression on Julian Sheather's blog. Julian is deputy head of ethics at the British Medical Association. The blog entry raises thoughtful issues about autonomy, antidepressants and the oversimplified argument whether depression is best seen as a biochemical imbalance in the brain …
Some interesting articles from April '08
20th May 2008
Here are details and links for about thirty mainly April articles that I found interesting. Most of these articles (and many others) are also listed on my searchable Connotea online database. Arbor (2008). "Folate and dementia (289)" Arbor Clinical Nutrition Updates 289(March): 1-3. [Full text] Arbor (2008). "Tea and health …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - second reflection
13th May 2008
There's a huge amount more I could reflect on about the group. I'll keep it here, though, to just a final set of thoughts about the overlapping field of group therapy. These peer groups are about all kinds of things - friendship, wellbeing, ‘retreat', fun - and they are also …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - first reflection
12th May 2008
Why are these groups often so great, so welcome, so precious? Real life is very rich - theories only capture aspects of this richness. However a theory, that I like a lot, highlights one reason why these peer groups are so important. The theory is Self-Determination Theory (SDT). It has …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - final day
11th May 2008
I wake feeling sadder this morning - partly because it's the last morning, partly because there are still feelings from yesterday hanging around. It's so interesting to notice the hugely different emotional spaces I move through over the intense four days of this kind of group meeting. Again a blessing …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - third full day
10th May 2008
Up, making time for a longer yoga practice this morning. Settle on Satie's piano music as a background CD. Sitting meditating with Catero. A plunge in the stream. Such a beautiful spring morning. Outside our bedroom window a wren is nesting and, on the other side, just outside our door …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - second full day
9th May 2008
Woke a bit after 6.00am. Lay in bed for a while, then up, washed. How am I feeling today? How am I feeling about the group? How are we doing? A bit pregnant, maybe a bit stuck. But at this stage of the group it isn't unusual to feel something …