These days pretty much everyone has a friend or family member who seems to be pre-occupied with healthy eating. There are eating trends to match pretty much any taste – clean eating, raw food, paleo, low carb, slow carb, non-GMO, organic, to name a very few.
When a close friend or family member is on a real healthy eating kick, it can do more than just make it tricky to pick a good restaurant - the topic can dominate conversations and focus to the point of becoming a downright pain for anyone not also enjoying the trend.
I don’t want to discuss the merits of any particular diet or the dangers of any one kind of food today. I certainly don’t want to discourage people from taking an interest in their health and doing their best to eat well as part of a healthy lifestyle.
My intention in this column is to discuss when a desire to be healthy crosses from being a worthy objective into being an unhealthy obsession.
Orthorexia is a term coined to label a proposed eating disorder characterized by an extreme preoccupation with avoiding foods perceived to be unhealthy. The word means ‘correct diet’, and implies a disorder that parallels other eating disorders. Rather than focusing on quantity of food eaten and a desire to be thinner (as in anorexia), individuals with orthorexia focus on eating only food they believe to be right or pure.
Although this is not a labeled eating disorder within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it is a term coined in 1997 to describe a distorted way of thinking about food that is becoming more common with the spread of individual diet fads through books, television programs, and, of course, online. In the last decade alone, the number of people who claim to be avoiding whole food groups as part of a new eating system or ‘cleanse’ has noticeably increased.
Of course, not everyone who is limiting their sugar intake or cutting out dairy is dealing with a serious eating disorder. The eating becomes disordered when the person persists in severe limitation, even as their health deteriorates.
In some cases, people are so focused on avoiding foods they believe to be dangerous or unhealthy, they don’t eat enough appropriate food, and become malnourished and extremely underweight just as in other eating disorders. The difference is in motivation – those exhibiting orthorexic behaviour are not doing so to lose weight, but to be healthy, natural, or pure. Unfortunately, the results can be just as devastating, regardless of motivation.
To date, there has not been much research into the causes or treatment of orthorexia. I would be very interested to see more work done in this area, particularly because of the popularity of healthy eating trends. I imagine it has similarities to all eating disorders, with links to obsessive compulsive tendencies and anxiety. Some of the mainstay eating disorder treatment options may be effective for individuals dealing with orthorexia.
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Dr. Paul Latimer - Mar 2, 2016 / 11:23 am | Story: 159575
Photo: Contributed - Evgeny Sergeev
Chronic stress changes the brain
We have known for some time that chronic stress is not good for our physical or mental health. Along with various negative effects on physical health, people who live with chronic stress are at an increased likelihood of developing mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety disorders.
Although we have seen the effect of stress on health outcomes, until recently we have had little understanding on how, exactly, stress impacts our brains to make them more susceptible to illness.
Research out of the University of California Berkeley shed some light on this topic. These findings have shown chronic stress generates long-term changes to the brain.
Doctors already knew of brain abnormalities present among individuals with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These involved differences in the amount of grey and white matter in the brain.
Without going into too much detail here, grey matter is mostly neurons and white is composed of axons (appearing white because of the myelin sheath surrounding them). Myelin speeds the connectivity between cells.
Researchers in these studies examined only the hippocampus of the brain (an area known to be important in the regulation of emotions and involved in several psychiatric conditions). Findings in rodent studies indicated that chronic stress generates more myelin-producing cells and fewer neurons than normal. This leads to more white matter and changes the way the brain’s cells communicate with one another.
These researchers also found chronic stress to cause changes in stem cells in the hippocampus – stress changing the cells to mature into white matter cells rather than neurons as they would in normal circumstances.
If brain matter is changed and causes different areas of the brain to connect with one another too much and others not enough, it is not too difficult to imagine how this could lead to various symptoms.
Results to date have been interesting, but this is still early days - studies are underway to test this hypothesis in people with PTSD and other conditions. The hope is to get more information and try to gain a better understanding of exactly how all of these elements interact with one another.
Along with greater understanding, we may be able to develop new ways to protect people from the harmful effects of chronic stress or to prevent these changes in the brain from occurring and thus prevent later mental illness.
For now, we can try to reduce stress as much as possible and speak to a doctor if symptoms such as anxiety or depression are interfering with life.
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Dr. Paul Latimer - Feb 24, 2016 / 1:54 pm | Story: 158536
Photo: Contributed - Andrew E Weber
Usually when the topic of memory comes up, I am writing about ways to enhance it or how to identify and deal with signs of memory loss associated with age or the onset of conditions such as Alzheimer’s.
Research is often focused on preserving memory and stopping the brain deterioration that causes symptoms such as forgetfulness, but there are instances when it would be helpful to enhance our ability to forget experiences. One study may prove valuable for just that.
Researchers from MIT uncovered information about the way our brains work to extinguish or replace memories. It turns out there may be a gene for forgetting - and it could lead to new treatments for difficult conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or addictions.
A gene known as Tet1 appears to be very important in the process of memory extinction, and after studying its effects in mice, researchers believe that if we can learn to enhance the activity of this gene, it could be beneficial to PTSD patients or others needing to replace fearful memories with more positive associations.
In these studies, normal mice were compared to mice with the Tet1 genes removed. When it came to learning or creating new memories, both groups of mice were the same. However, the mice without the Tet1 genes were unable to extinguish an old memory.
Normal mice could be taught to fear a particular cage, then gradually extinguish that fear after several positive exposures to the feared space. In the mice with no Tet1 gene, repeated positive exposures did not erase the previously learned fear.
These studies taught on the way Tet1 affects gene expression in the brain, and how this process can affect the brain’s ability to re-learn.
Research is ongoing, but early findings offer considerable promise for future potential treatments in the areas of PTSD or addiction. If we can find a safe and effective means of enhancing the activity of Tet1 genes, we will have a novel approach to helping people with these difficult conditions.
Current behavioural treatment for PTSD and some anxiety disorders attempts to help patients to condition their brains’ reaction to stimuli that can trigger unpleasant associations. If there were an artificial way to boost this effect, we would likely have a much higher success rate with these and some other conditions.
It will be interesting to see what else this research uncovers, and what will be learned about the way the brain creates, stores, and erases memories.
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Dr. Paul Latimer - Feb 17, 2016 / 12:00 pm | Story: 158525
Photo: Contributed - Comstock Photography
We’ve known this intuitively since – well, since forever. Nature is good for us. Even before there was Western medicine as we now know it, people with many kinds of ailments were prescribed time in the country or out in nature to alleviate symptoms and bring back well-being.
Somehow, we’ve always known that being surrounded by nature is healthful.
Still, just because we’ve always had a hunch about it, doesn’t necessarily mean it is so. We have ‘intuitively’ known lots of stuff about medicine that has turned out to be completely false and harmful. Thankfully, on this subject we now have a growing body of scientific evidence showing that nature is, indeed, good for our mental health.
The most recent data supporting this idea was published late last year out of the UK. This study found that people living in urban areas with good access to green spaces enjoyed long-lasting positive effects on their mental health.
Compared against other positive life changes such as pay raises or job promotions, moving to a greener space provided a long-term impact. While other positives did boost well-being for a short amount of time, living near
This data was gathered to add to an earlier study, which found those living in greener urban areas were developing less anxiety and depression. Now we know that not only is that true, but the positive effect is not just a fleeting one.
This information is already being used to advocate on behalf of more quality parks and green spaces within our cities – they are pleasing to behold, good for the environment, and good for public health too.
More research needs to be done in this area to further qualify what it is about green space that is healthy for us. Do we just need to be near it? Do activity level or amount of time spent actually in the green space play a role in its degree of healthfulness?
For those of us living in the beautiful Okanagan, we are very fortunate to be surrounded by abundant, varied, and pristine green spaces on all sides. There is something here to suit everyone’s tastes, with enjoyable spaces for all seasons.
Although further research is needed – we can all enjoy the positive physical and psychological effects of the incredible place we call home. I encourage you to get outside, go for a walk in the woods, and breathe in the beauty around you.
If you live with mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety, simply getting out in nature will likely not serve as sufficient treatment for your symptoms. Speak with your doctor to learn about the options available to you.
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