When healthy eating becomes an unhealthy obsession

 

from: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/when-healthy-eating-becomes-an-unhealthy-obsession-20140716-ztjz9.html

 

Date

July 16, 2014 - 4:01PM

 

Rose Powell

Journalist

 

The Blonde Vegan, aka Jordan Younger, found her blogging masked an eating disorder. Photo: The Blonde Vegan Facebook Page

Jordan Younger wasn't just any old vegan.
She was 'The Blonde Vegan', whose blog and Instagram account detailed her meals and recipes to tens of thousands of followers.
As someone obsessed with healthy eating, it came as a surprise to Younger when, just over a year into her public journey with veganism, the 23-year-old began to feel tired all the time, suffered skin breakouts and stopped getting her period.

Jordan Younger has turned away from veganism and is recovering from orthorexia nervosa. Photo: The Blonde Vegan Facebook Page

She recently told People magazine she had been diagnosed with orthorexia nervosa, a condition characterised by an overwhelming focus on a limited diet with elaborate rules that can evolve from an obsessive approach to diet, health and well being.

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"I was spending the entire day obsessing about eating only vegetables, green juices, fruits and occasionally nuts and grains," said Ms Younger, adding food was no longer enjoyable. "I was following thousands of rules in my head that were making me sick."
The term orthorexia nervosa was coined in 1997 by Californian doctor Steve Bratman in a book titled Health Food Junkies. He defined the condition as a fixation on healthy eating or pure food such as vegetables. The rigid approach to healthy eating usually includes extensive and even punitive exercise regimes.
While the condition isn’t officially recognised by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Australia’s peak body for body image illnesses said it conforms to the behaviours that define eating disorders, which affect more than 900,000 Australians.
There are four broad types of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating. According to the Butterfly Foundation, Orthorexia fits into the fourth category: identifiable sets of behaviours that make up a condition not otherwise specified.
Chief executive Christine Morgan told Fairfax Media eating disorders have a genetic predeterminant that is triggered by a nutritional deprivation.
“Nutritional deprivation is one of the key behavioural elements of an eating disorder. This can manifest in many forms, either by excluding whole foods groups or food types and then obsessively managing the consumption of these foods. Other behaviours include excessive exercise, withdrawal from social settings where food is involved, secrecy and covert behaviours.”
Jordan Younger launched The Blonde Vegan in early 2013, accumulating more than 70,000 Instagram followers, sharing photos, tips and recipes.
In a recent blog post explaining why she was transitioning away from veganism - she has since renamed herself The Balanced Blonde - Ms Younger said her online persona had obscured her understanding of what she was going through.
"My blog made it hard for me to see that I had an eating disorder. If I wasn't so closely tied to the vegan identity I'd given myself, I would have realised it a lot sooner," Ms Younger said.
Amanda Benham, a practising nutritionist with a masters in health science, said
veganism was an ethical position rather than a fad diet.
“It would be a bit of a stretch to blame veganism for an eating disorder,” Ms Benham said. “My guess is she had a predisposition for this, so whether she went on a vegan or a paleo or a low-carb diet, the outcome might have been the same.”
She said that provided vegans followed a few basic principles, they could maintain a healthy diet and life.
If you are concerned that you or someone close to you is grappling with an eating disorder, seek help. The Butterfly Foundation: 1800 334 673; Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14; Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/when-healthy-eating-becomes-an-unhealthy-obsession-20140716-ztjz9.html#ixzz37cJpAvDn

A vision of better mental health care for children

By Karen Weintraub

| Globe Correspondent July 13, 2014

Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff

In a few weeks, clinical psychologist Robert Franks will take over leadership of the Judge Baker Children’s Center, a century-old Harvard affiliated center that addresses children’s mental health. There’s a lot more that can be done to support children’s mental health, said Franks, currently an assistant clinical professor at the schools of medicine at both Yale University and the University of Connecticut.

Q. What do you think are the most important issues facing children’s mental health today?
A. Ensuring that children and families have access to quality care. There tends to be a gap between what we know works and what’s actually done. I’ve tried to narrow that gap. The other issue that is really important to me is engaging parents and families in care.

Q. Are the mental health needs of children different than the needs of adults?
A. As adults, if we struggle with mental health, it might interfere with work, relationships, leisure. For children, it really disrupts their ability to play, to engage in appropriate social relationships, to live harmoniously in a family environment. It has a huge impact on school performance. It affects their lives, but it also affects their future.

Q. You’ve said that childhood trauma is far more common than most of us realize.
A. About 70 percent of kids, by the time they reach adulthood, have experienced some kind of significant, scary event — abuse, neglect, loss of a loved one. There just hasn’t been quality care for these kids.

Q. Is there effective help?

A. There are proven treatments that really help kids. We have 30 centers in Connecticut that deliver quality care. What we’re seeing is 80 percent of kids who go through [our centers] are having full remission of their PTSD diagnosis, which is just tremendous.

Q. And addressing these problems early helps keep the problems from getting worse later?
A. When bad things happen to kids when they’re very young children, if they go untreated, they can turn into lifelong mental health and health problems: things like cancer, heart, disease and other chronic illnesses as adults. Children who are victimized or struggle with untreated mental health [can] end up later in the juvenile justice system.

Q. How many children need mental health services?
A. In the general population, 20 to 40 percent of kids will need some mental health treatment at some time, particularly if they have a loss or an accident or something terrible happens to them.

Q. Do social norms exacerbate childhood violence?
A. Our children are faced with a lot of violent content; if you look at the video games kids play, the movies and TV shows they watch, we’re feeding them a constant diet of violence. You are what you eat. That’s going to have an effect on young people’s development, particularly people who may have problems to begin with.

Q. Is the stigma around childhood mental illness changing?
A. Stigma is still a big issue. We see stigma issues differ depending on people’s ethnic and cultural backgrounds. [But] we’ve come a long way.

Q. There has been a lot of discussion lately about whether we’re overmedicating kids for mental health issues: 4-year-olds treated with multiple heavy-duty medications, etc.
A. We tend to remember those extreme cases. It’s important to remind people that there are many, many children treated successfully every year — more than not. In any medical field we have to make sure there are checks and balances in place to make sure quality care is being delivered.

Q. What do you see as the biggest issues for parents of children in the mental health system?
A. I’ve talked to a lot of parents who struggle because they can’t take time off work to get to the appointment with their child. They can’t afford to get across town to get to the appointment. These are very practical barriers. And as a result, we are not adequately meeting the needs of our kids.

Q. How does Massachusetts, which is known for its conservative medical care, compare with other states in terms of mental health care for children and young adults?
A. I see Massachusetts as a great seeding ground for innovative and best practices. Compared with other states there’s a much higher density of providers here. There are many providers who were trained originally in very traditional models. It takes time to steer that ship.

Q. Presumably, funding issues are affecting mental health care?
A. It is challenging to make sure many of our community-based providers and practitioners make ends meet. Working in the mental health field is not a lucrative profession, so it’s sometimes difficult to have a stable workforce that is well trained.

Q. What is your vision for Judge Baker? What do you hope to accomplish there?
A. I’ve spent a lot of time in my career focused on implementation. That’s the knowledge I want to bring to the Baker. I’d like to establish the Baker as a resource for the state so we can work to improve the quality of care.

Q. What motivates you to do what you do?
A. As long as I can remember, I’ve loved children.

Q. Is it depressing to care for children who are suffering, who’ve experienced trauma?
A. It’s actually the most hopeful profession there is. When people come to seek help, they want to have change in their lives. And change is possible. They can recover. It’s very gratifying.Interview was edited and condensed. Karen Weintraub can be reached at weintraubkaren@gmail.com.

Blowing mind games up in smoke

from: http://www.punemirror.in/pune/others/Blowing-mind-games-up-in-smoke/articleshow/38332947.cms

Blowing mind games up in smoke

By Nozia Sayyed, Pune Mirror | Jul 14, 2014, 02.30 AM IST

REPRESENTATION PIC

HEALING THROUGH DRUGS?

Many psychiatric patients as young as 14 years, have taken to self-medication with mind-altering substances to gain control over medical disorders

Ruhi, a resident of Vashi, was hit by an overpowering libido when she was barely 13-and-half years old. Not only did she take to unprotected sex with strangers, she even forced her 11-year-old brother into oral sex. She also had a sex clip made of herself in the act and let it go viral.

By 15, not knowing how to deal with her irrepressible nymphomaniac tendencies, she turned to methamphetamine and cocaine. Substance abuse gave her control over her personality disorder, but the minor's selfmedication brought her to the doorstep of a Pune-based NGO, a couple of weeks ago, to cure her of her new addiction.

It is a given that many junkies take to drugs to fight depression or other psychological issues. These were mostly people who have not recognised their state as a clinical condition but just drifted to substance abuse. But lately, de-addiction centres are noting that some cases, alarmingly many of them minors, coming to them are known clinical psychiatric patients who have turned to narcotics as a self-medication initiative.

Twenty-year-old Tejas, from Pune, in his final year of graduation in commerce, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had spiritual hallucinations about the deity Ram, perched atop a mountain. He was prescribed anti-depressants. But struggling with drug adherence, Tejas' condition worsened. Putting away his prescription, he sought solace in marijuana. The cannabis rid him of the apparition that haunted him, but also hooked him into a dependency he could do without.

Waking up to his conditions, his parents brought him to Practical Life Skills De-addiction and Rehabilitation Centre, Pashan. Pune's sixteen-year-old Aditya, in his junior college studying commerce, was on anti-depressants to cope with his clinical condition. But the medication was not helping, when his friends introduced him to the joy of sniffing glue. Aditya's depression drove him to masochistic behaviour and he often nicked or inflicted other physical abuse on himself. The glue came to his rescue.

After eight months of sniffing glue, his failing health caught his parents' attention, who dragged him to the deaddiction centre last month. "In past couple of months, we have admitted about six such cases, all aged between 15 and 24, who have indulged in self-medication with mind altering or mood changing substances.

More than alcohol, children as young as 15-16 are trying to take care of their psychiatric inconsistencies with substance abuse," noted Indrajit Deshmukh, project head at Practical Skills. "Our in-patient department (IPD) earlier dealt largely with people above 40 years in age. However, in the past eight to 10 months we are seeing a stream of young patients mostly in the age bracket of 14 to 20 years.

Many of them took to substances in the hope that they would be cured of their mental distress." said Dr Nitin Dalaya, director at the Nityanand Rehabilitation Centre, a 300 bedded facility at Katraj. Most of his patients come from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Goa. "Some of these kids have even graduated to multiple/poly-drug abuse.

The new thing going around is a combination of Vicks Action 500 along with Nitrazepam, Nitravet and Spazmo Proxyvon, These drugs taken in combination, yield a high far above what comes from cocaine or marijuana. Their physical impact is also equally exponential and prolonged use can use can lead to renal and liver failure or gastric ulcers.

We had two teenagers from Mumbai who had come with renal failures within four months of doing this permutation," Dr Dalaya said. "The age of people with diagnosed clinical psychiatric condition taking to self-medication in this manner, have certainly come down.

Cannabis is the preferred substance for them. Since at Muktanagan we don't admit kids of that low age we cannot give the details, but yes, in the last seven-eight months we were approached by many cases aged between 15 and 18, who we redirected to centres that do pediatric admissions," said Sanjay Bhagat, project co-ordinator, Regional Resource and Training Center West Zone 1, and coordinator at Muktangan De-addiction and Rehabilitation Centre. He added that the rising numbers indicate an urgent need to educate children on the adverse effect of such abuse.

Apart from the de-addiction centres, even psychiatrists are aware of this rising number of patients switching to illegal stimulants as selfmedication. "Five years ago, I would barely get a teenager patient who had taken to narcotics despite being a clinically diagnosed psychiatric patient. In the last six months, however, I have seen over 20 such cases.

All the cases were aged between 15 and 25 years,"said Dr Amod Borkar, a psychiatrist with private practice at Karve Nagar. Dr Ulhas Luktuke, life fellow at the International Council of Sex Education and Parenthood and life fellow at Indian Psychiatrists Association, too acknowledging the increasing trend of self-medication with drugs, pointed out, "Easy accessibility to the drugs and the absence of watchful eyes in a nuclear family is engendering this situation.

More than medication, what is required here is sensitisation of parents through workshops, so they have a better understanding of their growing children and provide the necessary support to them."

►►► We are seeing a stream of young patients between 14 to 20 years who took to substances to be cured of mental distress

- DR NITIN DALAYA, Director, Nityanand Rehabilitation Centre

from: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2014/7/11/report-patientgenerated-data-will-help-shape-future-of-medicine

Report: Patient-Generated Data Will Help Shape Future of Medicine

Friday, July 11, 2014

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Patient-generated data will play a critical role in the future of medicine and will help shape the evidence base that physicians, patients and policymakers use to improve the quality of care, according to an analysis published in Health Affairs, Modern Healthcare's "Vital Signs" reports (Conn, "Vital Signs," Modern Healthcare, 7/9).

Report Details

For the analysis, Duke University researchers examined the effect of collecting real-world data directly from 

from: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2014/7/11/report-patientgenerated-data-will-help-shape-future-of-medicine

patients as opposed to gathering such data through randomized controlled trials (Dvorak, FierceHealthIT, 7/10).

The authors defined patient-generated data as patient-reported outcomes.

Report Findings

The report found that patient-generated data will be "critical to developing the evidence base that informs decisions made by patients, providers and policymakers in pursuit of high-value medical care."

Specifically, the researchers wrote that the "key to high-quality, patient-generated data is to have immediate and actionable data" that allows patients to realize the importance of the data for research, as well as their personal care.

They added, "The easier it is for patients and clinicians to navigate [personal data], the more relevant that information will be to patient care, the more invested patients and clinics will be in contributing high-quality data, and the better the data in the big-data ecosystem will be" ("Vital Signs," Modern Healthcare, 7/9).

The researchers noted that physicians are increasingly using data captured directly from patients to help understand patients' health outcomes. They added that the ability to capture such data is growing in part because of the widespread adoption and use of electronic health records and monitoring devices.

However, they noted that full EHR implementation and interoperability have yet to be achieved (FierceHealthIT, 7/10).

In the meantime, the researchers recommended that physicians take simple steps to better familiarize patients the data collection efforts, such as by physicians telling a patient that they have seen their "symptom report" ("Vital Signs," Modern Healthcare, 7/9).

Adopting a disabled child: could you do it?

from: http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Adopting-disabled-child/story-21447730-detail/story.html

By WBEsme | Posted: July 12, 2014

Joy, Samuel and Nic Constable.

Comments (0)ADOPTING any child is a big responsibility, and for many couples the idea of providing a home to one with disabilities is incomprehensible. But for Cornish couple Joy and Nic Constable the decision to take on three children with additional needs was a simple one.
The pair, who live a short distance from Redruth, were raising their biological son Samuel, when they started to think about adding to their family.
Instead of trying for another baby, they took the decision to adopt a child who didn’t have a home and was in danger of being stuck in the social care system.
Now, 14 years later and with the help of Families for Children – a charity which specialise in the adoption of disabled children, they have added Rachel, 13, Sarah, 7, and Noah, 5, to their fold and are keen to tell other couples about their positive experiences.
“We decided we wanted to adopt a disabled child before we decided if we wanted a boy or a girl,” 54 year-old Joy says.
“We just wanted to increase our family and I suppose you read things about children in care and we thought we would have a go.
“I don’t think either of us thought we would have been successful. We weren’t particularly well off, we were just ordinary.”
After being accepted by the charity the couple went through several months of interviews and tests before they were approved to become adoptive parents.
Joy says: “The process is a long one - although it has got a lot quicker now - and a lot of it is about them [the charity] getting to know you, you getting to know them and actually there is a vast amount of getting to know yourself and a vast amount of dragging things up from your childhood or your past which you might have thought you had put away.
“And once you are approved you start the process of looking for a child, which again is interesting.”
Nic, a 57 year-old acupuncturist, adds: “It is really hard, and they have this magazine called Be My Parent and it is like an Argos catalogue.
“It is just full of children and you sit there and think ‘I’ll have that one, that one, that one and that one.’
“And then you get a bit more discerning and realistic and think ‘well, what kind of children can’t we have?’
“In our house for instance we can have children who are visually impaired, but not blind children and you slowly start to tick off your list disabilities you can’t deal with.”
The decisive moment came when the couple were shown a picture of their eldest daughter, Rachel.
Joy says: “Our social worker came over one day with around half a dozen flyers, and it sounds awful, but it is almost like buying a lawn mower.
“She handed us three bits of paper each and said ‘have a look at these and then swap over’. I started looking at mine and Nic just said ‘you can put those down we are going to have this one’, and that was Rachel.”
Shortly after Nic and Joy travelled to meet Rachel, who was born with a life threatening condition, at a control centre and were given confirmation that they could take her home.
Despite the lack of biological ties, the couple say there was no difference in the development of maternal and paternal feeling between Rachel and Samuel.
Joy adds: “I think it is actually the vulnerability and the need to protect that creates that bond. I am not convinced that it is instant love, but there is an innate need to protect and then that develops in to a deep love.”
So taken by the love which Rachel inspired in them, Nic and Joy went back to the charity twice more and adopted Sarah and Noah who were also born with disabilities.
As with raising any child, the couple have candidly said that bringing up children with additional needs can be incredibly difficult.
Nic says: “There are times when it is hard, if for instance one is in hospital or if one is going through a particular phase.
“But in Cornwall in particular the children’s services are excellent. Whenever we have needed equipment or education they have been there. We have had so much help for them. I honestly think they are fantastic.”
Joy continues: “I think the other thing you really need is an amazing support network. From talking to other adopters I think one thing which is important when adopting any child is to discuss it with your family and friends because you do need help and you can’t do this alone.
“We have got an amazing network of friends. There isn’t one I couldn’t ring at 2 o’clock in the morning and I would do the same for them.”
But both agree that there are many other ordinary couples who would make excellent parents to disabled children.
Nic says: “People sit there and say we must be very special to have adopted three children with disabilities, but the reality is we are just normal people and actually we are the fortunate ones to have them.
“I think people get caught up in the concept of disability. But they are children first and what they want is to be happy and to be loved. They want you to cuddle them and for you to give them some time and some boundaries.
“What they also want is for someone to be an advocate for them because they can’t do that for themselves.
“Ultimately you need to be realistic and appreciate them for the wonderful people which they are. None of our children are going to be brain surgeons, but it is not that we won’t push them to achieve their very best.”
Joy adds: “I just want people to give these children a chance. Just don’t leave them on the shelf.
“Our children are just lovely and I am very proud of them and I will work my socks off for them.
“The hard thing is no one showed any interest in them before us and that is just heart-breaking. They had all been up for adoption for a little while but people must have read the first bit and seen disabled or additional needs and moved on.
“There are so many hard to place children who will spend their lives in foster care, and while foster care is brilliant, it is not a family, not their own family.
“When they were little tiny balls of cells they didn’t make the decision to be disabled, it just happened. It’s not their fault. Don’t condemn them for what is not their fault, embrace them.”

Read more: http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Adopting-disabled-child/story-21447730-detail/story.html#ixzz37ISHXSlz
Read more at http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Adopting-disabled-child/story-21447730-detail/story.html#gsfxHHtUoYDe22oF.99

PTCB Math Review: Pediatric Doses: Clark's Rule

from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYWtfblf4PE

I like making these videos and it gives me great satisfaction to help people study for the exam with my videos.I would greatly appreciate anything you are inspired to give!! Thank you!Here is the link to donate to my YouTube videos: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
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from:  http://www.gizmag.com/robots-angry-birds-rehabilitation/32921/

ROBOTICS

Teaching robots to play Angry Birds helps children's rehabilitation

By Nick Lavars
July 11, 2014

4 Pictures

Researchers at Georgia Tech found that when assigned the task of teaching a robot to play Angry Birds, children were engaged for longer periods of time
Image Gallery (4 images)

If Angry Birds is known for anything, it's an ability to keep youthful eyes glued to the screen for extended periods of time. But a new study conducted at Georgia Tech has shown that teaching a robot how to play the video game keeps kids slinging those wingless birds through the air for even longer, a finding that could help in the rehabilitation of cognitive and motor-skill disabilities.

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The study observed how school-aged children engaged with Angry Birds and how that engagement could be dictated depending on who was sitting alongside them. The kids were first asked to play the game as an adult watched on, and then to teach a robot how to play for themselves.
In preparation, the researchers had paired a small humanoid robot with an Android tablet. The robot was programmed to watch the child's movements and record snippets of useful information, such as where swipes are stopping and starting and how the objects were moving on screen. It then mimicked the movements and offered up life-like reactions to developments in the game, shaking its head following misdirected shots and dancing when it struck a target.
Whereas the children played the game for an average of nine minutes with the adults, session times almost tripled to an average of 26.5 minutes when playing with the robot. The researchers also observed a much higher level of interaction, as seven percent of the session with the adult included eye contact, gestures, while the robot's session drew nearly forty percent.
The robots ability to analyze and adapt to new information suggests they could have a role to play in rehabilitation for disabled children, a process that often involves lengthy and monotonous exercises that can be tiring for a parent.
"Imagine that a child’s rehab requires a hundred arm movements to improve precise hand-coordination movements," said Ayanna Howard, Professor at Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and leader of the project. "The person’s desire to help their 'friend' can turn a five-minute, bland exercise into a 30-minute session they enjoy."
The Georgia Tech researchers will now look at programming the robot to learn other games, such as Candy Crush and ZyroSky, while further testing the technique on children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and children with motor impairments.
You can see a demonstration in the video below.
Source: Georgia Tech