We are frequently reminded that Americans are getting fatter and fatter. How many times have you seen television footage of headless people walking down the street with the camera focused on the abdomens, thighs and buttocks of very overweight people? A former surgeon general of the United States believed obesity was a greater threat than [...]
What is stress? Stress is the mental and/or physical tension or strain the body experiences in response to events happening in a person's life. Stress affects our internal organs, like the heart and stomach, and impedes our mental state, emotional reactions, relationships and spirituality. Medical problems, such as heart disease, are stressful in many ways: [...]
One of the most challenging aspects of eating disorders treatment and recovery is dealing with body image. A big reason for this is that the body image expectations depicted in every form of media give the clear message that NO body is acceptable the way it is. So, if the average person without an eating [...]
“Orthorexia Nervosa” is an obsession with eating the “right” foods or the “healthiest” food for the purpose of optimal health. It begins with an enthusiastic interest in following a stringent dietary practice, such as vegetarianism or raw food veganism. It is not that these diets cause orthorexia. Rather, when these practices are taken to extremes, [...]
The body and mind are inevitably linked and the profound influence of one on the other is becoming much more accepted in the medical and lay communities. An unhealthy body can cause emotional disturbances just as psychiatric conditions can trigger or exacerbate diseases within the body. The stomach, liver and thyroid are organs and, so [...]
We’ve all known someone who is extremely impatient, driven and who conducts business on the cell phone while rushing to her kid’s soccer game that started 30 minutes ago. While often hurrying herself and others, too busy for chit-chat and overly committed, she still looks successful and we wonder “how does she do it?” Maybe [...]
The new year is almost upon us and, of course, we are being inundated with commercials for diet and weight loss products. ‘Start this program’ or ‘take this pill’ are old and uninspiring messages from companies that survive off of the failure of their products – there is something really messed up with that, isn’t [...]
Recovering from an eating disorder is a complicated endeavor because of the interplay between genetic predisposition, symptom severity, environmental/lifestyle factors and often, the patient’s ambivalence about changing behaviors they both ‘want’ and hate. I have attended several presentations by Ovidio Bermudez, MD, the Medical Director of Child and Adolescent Services at Eating Recovery Center in [...]
Most people are aware that there is a connection between stress and heart disease. “Stress” refers to excessive pressures or demands that are placed upon us or that we place upon ourselves. In our fast paced, technology-driven, do-things-to-the-extreme culture, persistently increasing pressures and demands are part of everyday life. Unfortunately, our heart health has taken [...]
Most people are familiar with the Type A – intense, overachieving, perfectionistic – and Type B – noncompetitive, relaxed – personalities and the link between Type A personality and heart disease. But now, Type D personality seems to be an even stronger predictor of cardiovascular health. Psychologist Johan Denollet, a professor of medical psychology in [...]
