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28 Dec 2024
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What your feet can tell you about your health

From skin to hair, scabs and even tears, the external appearance of the body can offer clues about the state of your health.

But there’s another part of the anatomy that’s often overlooked: the feet.

Feet are wired up to nerve fibre tracts from the brain so you can stand, balance and wiggle your toes. They’re also plumbed by blood vessels, which lead all the way from the heart.

The appearance and function of our feet, then, can indicate viral infections, diseases of the cardiovascular system and even neurological disorders. Here are a couple of examples.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFM)

Infectious diseases tend to affect different parts of the body.

Measles usually starts off on the face, or in the mouth, as little spots that look like grains of sugar. Pityriasis versicolor, a type of fungal infection tends to begin and stay on the torso. The reasons why they tend to affect these areas is not well understood.

HFM disease begins in exactly these areas. It’s caused by a virus known as coxsackie, and tends to produce raised pink-red spots, that can blister and weep. The name is a bit of a misnomer — the rash can also affect the legs and buttocks too. Noticing a new rash on the feet should prompt a doctor to consider HFM.

HFM is a common childhood illness that’s very contagious. Thankfully, it’s also usually short lived, clearing without treatment after a few days.

It shouldn’t be confused with foot and mouth – or better, hoof and mouth, however. Foot and mouth is a different virus from HFM that (mainly) affects cloven-hoofed animals, like cows and sheep. This is the disease that resulted in a UK epidemic back in 2001.

Heart, vessels and feet

Our circulatory system supplies blood to every part of the body – from the crown of the head, to the tips of the toes. By the time blood vessels reach these extremities, like twigs from a tree, they have branched and got much smaller in size.

At some point, we’ve all experienced the discomfort of icy cold feet, especially when going barefoot around the house or during chillier days. It’s normal for feet to feel cool to the touch, but they should not change colour from their usual skin colour to blue – nor should they ever get painfully cold.

Severe symptoms of discolouration and pain can point toward a phenomenon called blue-toe syndrome. It can be triggered by tiny little masses called micro-emboli, comprised of blobs of cholesterol. These emboli pass easily through large vessels but will struggle as they become smaller.

On reaching the smaller vessels of the feet, they finally become stuck, cutting off the blood supply. The tissues then become starved of oxygen causing the feet to change colour and become painful.

In serious cases, blue-toe syndrome can lead to tissue death, breakdown and the formation of gangrene, which may require amputation of toes – or even the whole foot.

This rare condition is sometimes called “trash foot”, because of the way in which the feet become so discoloured.

What’s the underlying cause of these tiny cholesterol fragments? Most likely aneurysms and atherosclerosis – vessels that have ballooned or hardened upstream of the feet. When trash foot does occur, it is often following surgical treatment for these conditions, such as aortic aneurysm repair. The procedures disrupt the vessel, which can cause emboli to break off.

As well as trash foot, there are other signs in the feet that can point towards cardiovascular disease. Raised red swellings appearing on the feet (as well as the hands) can indicate an infection of the heart called bacterial endocarditis. These can be painless – in which case we call them Janeway lesions – or sore, which are called Osler’s nodes.

The Babinski sign

The toes can signal issues with the nervous system too.

If you’ve ever watched ER or Grey’s Anatomy and heard one of the characters shout “upgoing plantars!” during a patient examination, you know they’re referring to the Babinski reflex. After finding the upgoing plantar, the doctor may then have creased their brow with worry – and for good reason.

The Babinski sign is a simple test which involves stroking the sole of the foot with a blunt ended instrument to check the response of the toes. This is the plantar reflex – plantar relating to the sole of the foot. Normally, when this reflex is triggered, the toes should curl under or flex downwards towards the sole.

It the big toe points upwards, and the smaller toes fan out, this is an “upgoing plantar” response – also known as the Babinski sign, named after the neurologist Joseph Babinski who first described it. It is normal to find this response in babies, whose nervous systems are undergoing development and not capable of all the motor functions of an adult.

In adults, however, finding the Babinski sign is an altogether different story. Most commonly, it signifies that a stroke is disrupting the normal brain circuitry that controls the feet.

Other causes include multiple sclerosis and (rarely) drug intoxication. In some otherwise healthy people, though, the Babinski sign can be observed during deep sleep.

The scope is much wider than just these conditions. Diabetes, kidney failure and even thyroid disorders can affect the feet. They are, therefore, important indicators of our health so regular checks are essential – and seek medical advice if you notice any pain, discolouration or rashes.

Original article here

15 Dec 2024
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The Nordic way to stop bullying

Bullying can make children’s lives a misery and cause lifelong health problems – but scientists are discovering powerful ways to fight it.

Lady Gaga, Shawn Mendes, Blake Lively, Karen Elson, Eminem, Kate Middleton and Mike Nichols – these are just a few people who have spoken about their experiences of being victims of bullying at school, and the pain that it has caused them in childhood and later life. My own nemeses were a pair of Daniels from rural Yorkshire. They had the habit of mimicking and mocking everything I said, so that I barely dared to speak in class.

Anyone who has been victimised as a child will understand the feelings of shame that these kinds of experiences can bring. And the consequences do not stop there. Recent research suggests that the effects of childhood bullying can linger for decades, with long-lasting changes that can put us at a greater risk of mental and physical illness.

Such findings are leading an increasing number of educationalists to shift their views of bullying – from an inevitable element of growing up, to a violation of children’s human rights.

“People used to think that bullying is a normal behaviour, and in some instances, that it could even be a good thing – because it builds character,” explains Louise Arseneault, a professor of developmental psychology at King’s College London in the UK. “It took a long time for [researchers] to start considering bullying behaviour as something that can be really harmful.”

With this change of mind, many researchers are now testing various anti-bullying schemes – with some exciting new strategies to create a kinder school environment.

Inflamed mind, inflamed body

There can be little doubt that bullying is a serious risk to children’s mental health in the short term, with the most notable consequences being elevated anxiety, depression and paranoid thinking. While some of these symptoms may naturally vanish after the bullying stops, many victims continue to suffer from a higher risk of mental illness.

According to a recent paper in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, a woman who has been bullied as a child is 27 times more likely to have a panic disorder as a young adult. Among men, childhood bullying resulted in a 18-fold increase in suicidal ideation and action. “There are all these associations, which are robust and replicated across different samples,” says Arseneault.

Bullying will also have protracted consequences for people’s social lives: many victims find it harder to make friends in later life and are less likely to live with a long-term partner. One possibility is that they struggle to trust the people around them. “Kids who’ve been bullied, might interpret social relationships in a more threatening way,” says Arseneault. Finally, there are the academic and economic costs. Bullying harms people’s grades which in turn reduces their job prospects – meaning that they are more likely to experience financial instability and unemployment in young adulthood and midlife.

Exposure to bullying as a child is linked to markedly higher levels of inflammation at age 45

Arseneault’s research suggests that the resulting stress can take a toll on the body for decades after the event. Analysing data from a 50-year-long longitudinal study, she found that frequent bullying between the ages of seven and 11 was linked to markedly higher levels of inflammation at age 45. Importantly, the link remained even after she had controlled for a host of other factors, including their diet, physical activity, and whether they smoked. That’s important, since elevated inflammation can disrupt the immune system and contributes to the wear and tear on our organs that leads to conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Safety nets

Taken together, these findings suggest that attempts to eliminate bullying are not only a moral imperative to alleviate children’s immediate suffering; they may bring long-term benefits for a population’s health.

When I was at school in the UK in the 90s and early 2000s, there were no systematic campaigns to tackle the wider problem of bullying. Teachers would chastise certain behaviours – if they were observed. But the responsibility was on the student to report the problem, which means that many cases were ignored. Some teachers would tacitly endorse bullying by turning a blind eye to obvious issues, while others – a rare but toxic minority – actively sided with the bullies.

Certain types of bullying may also be tolerated because they reflect broader social prejudices. For example, a significant proportion of children of lesbian mothers in a longitudinal study reported teasing or bullying because of their family type, though parental support buffered the impact. LGBTQ youth are also more likely to experience bullying and other aggression in school. Schools, however, have tended to ignore homophobic bullying in the past.

Fortunately, ongoing research can now provide some proven anti-bullying strategies that are known to help.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is one of the most widely tested schemes. It was developed by the late Swedish-Norwegian psychologist, Dan Olweus, who spearheaded much of the early academic research on child victimisation. The programme is based on the idea that individual cases of bullying are often the product of a wider culture that tolerates victimisation. As a result, it attempts to tackle the entire school ecosystem so that bad behaviour can no longer flourish

Every adult in the school needs some basic training about bullying: the people who work in the cafeteria, the bus drivers, the custodian – Susan Limber

Like many interventions, the Olweus Program starts with a recognition of the problem. For this reason, schools should set up a survey to question the students about their experiences. “Knowing what is going on in your building is really important and can guide your bullying prevention efforts,” says Susan Limber, a professor in developmental psychology at Clemson University in South Carolina.

The Olweus Program encourages the school to set out very clear expectations for acceptable behaviour – and the consequences if they breach those rules. “The [sanctions] should not be a surprise to the child,” Limber says. The adults must act as positive role models, who reinforce good behaviours and show zero tolerance for any forms of victimisation. They should also learn to recognise the locations within the school where bullying is most likely to occur and to supervise them regularly. “Every adult in the school needs some basic training about bullying – the people who work in the cafeteria, the bus drivers, the custodian,” says Limber.

At the level of the classroom, the children themselves hold meetings to discuss the nature of bullying – and the ways that they can help students who are the victims of bad behaviour. The aim, in all of this, is to ensure that the anti-bullying message is engrained in the institution’s culture.

Working with Olweus, Limber has tested the scheme in various settings, including a widescale rollout across more than 200 schools in Pennsylvania. Their analyses suggest that the program had resulted in 2,000 fewer cases of bullying over two years. Importantly, the researchers also saw changes in the school populations’ overall attitude to bullying, including greater empathy for victims.

Limber’s results are not alone in showing that systematic anti-bullying campaigns can bring about positive change. A recent meta-analysis, which examined the results of 69 trials, concluded that anti-bullying campaigns not only reduce victimisation but also improve the general mental health of students.

Interestingly, the duration of the programmes did not seem to predict their chances of success. “Even a few weeks of intervention were effective,” says David Fraguas, at the Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, in Madrid, who was the study’s first author.

Despite the strong evidence, these interventions have not yet been incorporated into most counties’ national education programmes, however. “We are not doing what we now know to be effective,” he says.

Sharing is caring

Bullying does not just end in school, of course, and Limber argues that parents and caregivers should be on the lookout for signs of a problem. “You should be proactive in talking about the subject – don’t wait for it to come up,” she says. “You can have it as part of a conversation to check in. You know, ‘How are things going with your friends? Do you have any troubles?’.”

She emphasises that the adult must take the child’s concerns seriously – even if they seem trivial from an outside perspective – while also keeping a clear head. “Listen thoroughly and try to keep your emotions in check as you hear them out.” The caregiver should avoid making hasty suggestions of how the child can deal with the problem, since this can sometimes create the sense that the victim is somehow to blame for the experience.

If appropriate, the parent or guardian should start a conversation with the school, who should immediately put together a plan to make sure the child feels safe. “The number one thing is to focus on that child and his or her experiences.”

Growing up is rarely going to be easy: children and adolescents are learning to navigate social relationships and that is going to come with hurt and upset. But as adults, we can do a much better job of teaching children that certain kinds of behaviours are never acceptable: there is no one to blame but the bullies themselves. Such lessons could have a widespread impact on the health and happiness of many generations to come.

Original article here

10 Dec 2024
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How to keep your bones strong—and even make them stronger

Our 206 bones do more than just keep us standing, walking, and singing through life. They also protect our organs, harbor bone marrow, and store minerals such as phosphorus and calcium. But just like your muscles, bones require maintenance work. Here’s how to keep them healthy for the long run.

Human bones don’t come ready at full strength. Instead, our bone density starts increasing shortly after birth and continues until we are about 30 years old. After that it plateaus until our 40s, when our skeleton begins to whither. For men, this process is a gradual one. For women, however, this occurs rapidly after menopause. If too much bone is lost, osteoporosis—a chronic disease that causes the body’s framework to become soft and brittle—can occur, and increase a person’s risk of bone fractures.

In the US, osteoporosis is responsible for more hospitalizations than heart attacks, strokes, and breast cancer combined. Invasive operations related to fractures, such as hip surgery, cause medical complications in older people. Nearly 20 percent of those on Medicare hospitalized a week after their fracture dies within a year.

“Osteoporosis is concerning because it’s chronic fracturing. Each break could drastically change your quality of life,” said Kyle Jeray, the chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at Prisma Health, a not-for-profit clinic in Greenville, South Carolina. “You may never be able to live on your own. You may become dependent on [a] walker. It’s a loss of independence.”

Because bone health declines later in life, the American Orthopedic Association recommends women 65 and older as well as men older than 70 should ask their primary care doctors for an osteoporosis evaluation. Those with a risk factor or a history of a fracture after the age of 50, regardless of the cause, should also be evaluated. Risk factors include severely low body weight, steroid use, rheumatoid arthritis, and other chronic diseases. For those concerned about osteoporosis, online risk assessment tests can be a helpful resource.

“It is a silent disease until it’s not. People don’t realize they have osteoporosis until they break something,” said Paul Anderson, the Vice Chair for Own the Bone, an American Orthopedic Association committee that encourages surgeons to take more ownership in the care of osteoporosis patients. “That is why we stress asking for evaluations.”

Half our body’s total calcium stores in women and two-thirds in men are made during puberty. This makes bone density difficult to rebuild past our 20s especially in women. But following a healthy, well-rounded diet can help maintain our skeleton’s strength. You’ve probably been told to drink milk for strong, healthy bones since you were little, and Anderson agrees. Foods like milk, cheese, kale, and sardines are rich in calcium—the building block of bones. Without adequate calcium, your body begins leaching it from the bone for other essential uses like heart and muscle functioning. That’s why the FDA recommends consuming between 1000 to 1200 milligrams of this vital mineral daily. Post-menopausal women and those with dairy allergies or dietary restrictions like veganism should be even more conscious of their calcium intake.

Proper Vitamin D intake is also crucial to a calcium-rich diet. The vitamin helps the gut absorb calcium and helps the kidneys break down and reabsorb calcium that would otherwise be excreted through our urinary tracts. Without it, this bone-building mineral would pass right through our bodies. Vitamin D is rarely found naturally in food, so most people soak it up through sunlight. Those living in northern latitudes where sunlight is scarce such as Chicago, the Dakotas, or Canada can turn to vitamin D-fortified foods like cereal and milk. Whether it’s obtained by basking in the sun’s rays or enjoying an ice-cold glass of milk, the FDA recommends about 800 to 1,000 international units of vitamin D daily.

However, quantity is just as important as quality when it comes to our diet. Without proper caloric intake—especially in our adolescent years—our body is unable to build bone mass.

“You can eat the right amount of calcium and vitamin D and take supplements, but if you are not taking in the proper amount of fuel you can still potentially lose bone mass,” says Jennifer Maynard, a family physician and sports medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville, Florida campus.

This can put people, such as those with a history of eating disorders, at an increased risk of osteoporosis. Think of it like a savings account. Each year of our youth, we invest a bit in our bone bank so that as we age and begin to lose bone, we have a hefty reserve to tap into.

Here’s the other key component to good bone health: exercise, in any form. Bones, like muscles, respond to stress. As the saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. When we don’t actively load our skeletons, calcium begins to leak from bones. Thankfully, just 20 minutes of weight-bearing exercises a day like walking or lifting weights can help maintain or even increase bone mass (though increases are likely minimal) according to Anderson.

Other than a healthy diet and exercise regimen, avoiding harmful toxins is essential for overall bone health. Anderson claims smoking tobacco causes calcium to escape via our urinary tract. It also causes an increase in cortisol, a hormone that’s known to breakdown bone. Tobacco isn’t the only toxin that can influence bone health; excess alcohol intake—defined as more than three standard drinks a day—is associated with chronic liver disease, a precursor to osteoporosis.

Even if you have osteoporosis, there are measures you can follow to avoid fractures. The National Osteoporosis Foundation found that 50 percent of repeat fractures could have been avoided.

Most fractures associated with mortality occur when older people, who have less stable muscles and bones, experience a bad fall. That is why Anderson recommends enrolling in a community-based fall prevention program. These programs focus on balancing exercises and advise participants on how to rearrange household furniture to prevent trips. For those a bit more adventurous, the CDC recommends Tai Chi as a great way to improve balance.

For serious cases of osteoporosis, medications such as bisphosphonates and anabolic agents can be prescribed. Bisphosphonates reduce the risk of fractures between 50 and 70 percent by stopping cells called osteoclasts from breaking down bone mass. Meanwhile, anabolic agents actually energize osteoblasts, the cells responsible for the construction of our skeletal framework.

Doctors and researchers are also trying to better understand the role genetics plays in our chances of developing osteoporosis, says Laura Bruce, a physician at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas who works with orthopedic patients. “[That knowledge] will only help us provide patients with more information.”

For now, getting in those extra steps or reps and getting regular checkups will help keep your bones strong as you age.

Original article here

03 Dec 2024
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Tips To Remain Open To Synchronistic Opportunity

We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. The purpose of incarnating is simply to give us the unique experiences we need for our progressive evolution toward perfection. Within each of our Earthly experiences, there are important lessons we’ve chosen to learn. On a subconscious level, we are attracting the people and experiences that will teach us these lessons.

You can heighten your awareness to help you recognize and embrace the synchronistic opportunities that are always presenting themselves in the form of people, places and events around you. First of all, commit to engaging in the reality that surrounds you, which might also mean turning off devices. You must also make an effort to disengage from the flurry of thoughts swirling through your head that distract you from fully appreciating your surroundings. A powerful practice I use is to say out loud or in my head, “Moment!” This immediately draws my attention back into the present, and I can more effectively engage with the world around me.

A scientific concept that reinforces the importance of our engagement with others is the quantum theory of entanglement. This theory states that whenever we exchange energy with another living being, that energetic connection will remain intact for all time. This means that every interaction you have with another living being will remain forever imprinted on both of you.

With this in mind, ask yourself: “What type of karmic imprint do I want to leave on myself and others throughout the day?” and “How can I improve the quality of the energetic connections I am making?”

Consider that our paths are predestined. We have come here on Earth to learn the life lessons that will allow us to progress on our paths. As such, we naturally create the experiences that are most likely to help us learn and grow. We attract the people, places and things that are most conducive to our soul’s evolution. Spiritual guides may also place certain people in our path to assist us on our journey. The key to recognizing these people and places as opportunities to learn and grow is to continually search for the deeper meaning of our interactions with them.

We have to ask ourselves questions like, “Why have I been placed in this particular location at this particular time, and how is this situation conducive to my growth?” We also have to explore relationships on a deeper level by asking ourselves, “Why have I been connected with this person and how can we benefit each other?” and “What lessons can we learn from each other?” By making a sincere effort to uncover the meaning behind our everyday experiences and interactions, we can reveal their higher purpose and learn to go with the flow.

Here are three powerful ways to remain open to the synchronistic flow of life’s stream:

Use the practice of saying, “Moment!” whenever you notice that you have become disconnected from the present moment.
Be aware of the karmic imprint you are leaving on yourself and others with every reaction and interaction.
Recognize the people, places and things you have attracted into your life all represent opportunities to learn the lessons that are most conducive to your evolutionary path.

After I began to recognize the divinity within the experiences of my life, I developed a strong faith that everything happens just as it should and for a good reason. Trusting in the divine plan has made me feel much more at peace with the events that unfold around me. I know I have projected these experiences in order to learn the lessons I need for my soul’s evolution and refinement.

Now that I am more capable of taming my mind and controlling the emotions of fear, anger and resentment, I am not experiencing those emotions reflected back to me. As a result, I naturally create more harmony and encounter less difficulty. This perspective has made my life so much smoother and more enjoyable. I’ve also become acutely aware that as I project compassion and kindness, these divine traits are reflected back to me.

This is true across the board and rarely does it fail me. When it does, I am able to see the symbolic nature of the experience and then identify my own personal emotions that, left unguarded, created conflict. Negative feelings, or trapped emotions, that still need my attention and repair are exposed. From this perspective, I am then grateful for the conflict because it revealed lessons I still need to learn. I can commit to learning those important life lessons right then and there, and avoid re-creating another experience just like it!

It’s really that easy. By opening yourself up to the world around you in this way, you are opening to spirit. Aligned with spirit, magical synchronicities will unfold as you meet opportunity at every intersection. The power is in the present moment.

Original article here

What your feet can tell you about your health

The Nordic way to stop bullying

How to keep your bones strong—and even make them stronger

Tips To Remain Open To Synchronistic Opportunity

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