
Breast-feeding:
The stress buster that lasts for years
Breast-feeding
offers a host of benefits to both mother and baby, including a stronger
immune system for the baby and faster weight loss for mom. There are
even some known psychological benefits from breast-feeding, such as a
stronger parent-child bond.
But British researchers have recently discovered another mental bonus
— children who are breast-fed seem to cope with stress and anxiety more
effectively when they reach school age. In a group of almost 9,000
children between the ages of 5 and 10, children who weren’t breast-fed
and whose parents were getting divorced or separated were 9.4 times more
likely to be highly anxious when compared to other children. But,
children who were breast-fed as infants whose parents were getting
divorced were only 2.2 times as likely to be highly anxious, the study
found.
“Breast-feeding is associated with resilience against the
psychosocial stress linked with parental divorce/separation,” the
study’s authors concluded in a recent issue of the Archives of Diseases
in Childhood.
The authors theorized that the physical contact between mother and
child in the first few days of life could help form certain neural and
hormonal pathways that affect a person’s ability to cope with stress
later in life.
Breast-feeding experts have long been aware of the mother-baby bond
that occurs during breast-feeding. “There’s a lot less verbal
communication, but lots of tactile communication and eye contact that
promotes positive physiological responses,” said Liz Maseth, an
outpatient lactation consultant at Akron’s Children’s Hospital in Ohio.
“Breast-feeding does seem to suppress stress responses in babies, and
it does seem that there’s a protective effect,” she said.
“In terms of the biological possibility, breast milk is pretty
amazing stuff, and the tactile interaction that goes along with
breast-feeding does have an influence on the development of neurons,”
explained Judy Hopkinson, an associate professor of paediatrics in the
section of nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Hopkinson added that babies who aren’t breast-fed may be able to reap
similar benefits with lots of holding and touching. The study authors
also suggested that the bond created during breast-feeding might affect
the way the child and the mother interact, and that effect might be
long-lasting.
Hopkinson pointed out that mothers who are successful at
breast-feeding often have a supportive social network, which could also
help lessen a child’s stress in times of crisis.
Whatever the reason for the association, it was clear that children
who had been breast-fed were less stressed.
Both Maseth and Hopkinson said it’s very important to try to begin
breast-feeding as soon as possible after birth — no more than one hour.
Maseth said this is because the breasts contain glands that release the
same scent as amniotic fluid, a scent that babies will recognize.
“For most mothers, breast-feeding doesn’t come naturally. If the baby
doesn’t latch on, it can lead to feelings of failure and concern about
whether or not the baby is getting enough milk. Women need lots of
encouragement and education,” Maseth said.
“Don’t give up, though, seek help” she advised, adding that your
baby’s paediatrician will likely have information on what local
breast-feeding resources are available.
“Breast-feeding is something for mothers and babies to enjoy. A time
for them to cherish and nurture each other,” said Hopkinson. For women
who can’t breast-feed, she said, that skin-to-skin contact between
mother and baby can also help build a similar bond. -Health Day News
Can music help autistic children?
It was sometime during college, when I was lucky enough to play in a
swing band touring Scotland, that I first started to grasp the universal
reach of music. We had unpacked the bus for an impromptu gig in a pub at
the University of St. Andrews, and by the time we hit our third
number-Duke Ellington’s “Perdido” - the joy-soaked crowd was dancing
right into the sax section.
Here was a roomful of people living along the North Sea bouncing to
African-born rhythms heard in a style forged in America. Three distant
points on the globe, strung together by a song. The next day we played
to a grammar school, and those little kids went totally nuts for a sound
they’d never heard before.
Music began as communication and remains the ultimate means to
keeping people connected. It’s a culture’s connective tissue, weaving us
together regardless of race, faith, education or experience.
Researchers are now trying to harness the power of music to reach
children who otherwise appear emotionally unreachable-like children
suffering from autism and related disorders.. Ever since psychiatrist
Leo Kanner first introduced the term “autism” in 1943 and noted that
several of his subjects showed musical affinity, therapists have amassed
evidence that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) frequently
respond to melody and rhythm.
Some are able to recognize, recreate or remember pitches at a skill
level that matches or even exceeds neuro-typical children. In one
particularly dramatic case, the blind, autistic savant Leslie Lemke
shocked his mother by playing the entirety of Tchaikovsky’s “Piano
Concerto No. 1” after hearing it once on television. Lemke went on to
tour the world giving note-perfect performances of complex compositions.
But for all the heaps of behavioral evidence gathered over the years,
no one has explored why. What’s happening in the brain of someone with
ASD that allows music to make neurological connections no other
emotional stimulus can? That is the mystery Dr. Istvan Molnar-Szakacs,
research neuroscientist at the UCLA Semel Institute’s Tennenbaum Center
for the Biology of Creativity, aims to unlock in a new study funded by
the GRAMMY Foundation.
Neurologists don’t know a great deal about what, exactly, goes on in
the brain of someone with ASD.
In recent years studies have focused on the brain’s mirror neuron
system, which processes both how we observe emotions in others and how
we “mirror” their sadness or happiness with an empathic response.
Emotional mirroring is what makes social interaction possible. But
the ASD brain has trouble mirroring. Functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) shows less activity in the mirror neuron system of people
with autism.
“The easy thing to say is that their mirror systems must be broken,”
says Molnar-Szakacs, “but there are so many other interpretations.
Perhaps it’s not properly connected. Or maybe that part of the brain is
not getting the input it needs to function properly.” Molnar-Szakacs
believes music may be a way of breaching the walls of this closed-off
neural system.
A part of the brain called the limbic system is known to be involved
in processing emotion.
Molnar-Szakacs and his colleague Dr. Katie Overy, co-director of the
Institute for Music in Human and Social Development at the University of
Edinburgh in Scotland, have speculated that this emotional hub may be
linked to the mirror system, and thus involved in music perception.
As they stimulate their subjects with emotional music, they’ll try to
trace whether both brain systems “activate” during an fMRI and determine
how the activity and connectivity between them differs in children with
ASD.
With this study of the pathway between the two systems, the pieces
may come into place to use music to teach kids with ASD how to improve
their recognition of everyday emotional stimuli, such as facial
expressions.
“Other stimuli that neuro-typical children understand don’t make
sense to autistic children-but music does,” asserts Molnar-Szakacs.
“Let’s use it to shed more light on how the brain works.”
MSN Health
Are vegetarian diets healthier?
Some people follow a “vegetarian” diet, but there’s no single
vegetarian eating pattern. The vegan or total vegetarian diet includes
only foods from plants: fruits, vegetables, legumes (dried beans and
peas), grains, seeds and nuts.
The lactovegetarian diet includes plant foods plus cheese and other
dairy products. The ovo-lactovegetarian (or lacto-ovovegetarian) diet
also includes eggs. Semi-vegetarians don’t eat red meat but include
chicken and fish with plant foods, dairy products and eggs.
Are vegetarian diets healthful? Most vegetarian diets are low in or
devoid of animal products. They’re also usually lower than nonvegetarian
diets in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol.
Many studies have shown that vegetarians seem to have a lower risk of
obesity, coronary heart disease (which causes heart attack), high blood
pressure, diabetes mellitus and some forms of cancer.
Vegetarian diets can be healthful and nutritionally sound if they’re
carefully planned to include essential nutrients.
However, a vegetarian diet can be unhealthy if it contains too many
calories and/or saturated fat and not enough important nutrients.
What are the nutrients to consider in a vegetarian diet? Protein: You
don’t need to eat foods from animals to have enough protein in your
diet.
Plant proteins alone can provide enough of the essential and
non-essential amino acids, as long as sources of dietary protein are
varied and caloric intake is high enough to meet energy needs.
Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, seeds and nuts all contain both
essential and non-essential amino acids. You don’t need to consciously
combine these foods (complementary proteins) within a given meal. Soy
protein has been shown to be equal to proteins of animal origin. It can
be your sole protein source if you choose.
Iron: Vegetarians may have a greater risk of iron deficiency than
nonvegetarians. The richest sources of iron are red meat, liver and egg
yolk — all high in cholesterol. However, dried beans, spinach, enriched
products, brewer’s yeast and dried fruits are all good plant sources of
iron.
Vitamin B-12: This comes naturally only from animal sources. Vegans
need a reliable source of vitamin B-12. It can be found in some
fortified (not enriched) breakfast cereals, fortified soy beverages,
some brands of nutritional yeast and other foods, as well as vitamin
supplements.
Vitamin D: Vegans should have a reliable source of vitamin D. Vegans
who don’t get much sunlight may need a supplement.
Calcium: Studies show that vegetarians absorb and retain more calcium
from foods than nonvegetarians do. Vegetable greens such as spinach,
kale and broccoli, and some legumes and soybean products, are good
sources of calcium from plants.
Zinc: Zinc is needed for growth and development. Good plant sources
include grains, nuts and legumes.
Shellfish are an excellent source of zinc. Take care to select
supplements containing no more than 15-18 mg zinc.
Supplements containing 50 mg or more may lower HDL (good) cholesterol
in some people.
What meal plans are recommended? Any type of vegetarian diet should
include a wide variety of foods and enough calories to meet your energy
needs.
Keep your intake of sweets and fatty foods to a minimum. These foods
are low in nutrients and high in calories.
Choose whole or unrefined grain products when possible, or use
fortified or enriched cereal products.
Use a variety of fruits and vegetables, including foods that are good
sources of vitamins A and C.
If you use milk or dairy products, choose fat-free/nonfat and low-fat
varieties.
Eggs are high in cholesterol (213 mg per yolk), so monitor your use
of them.
Limit your cholesterol intake to no more than 300 mg per day.
Health Day News
Have you ever experienced shyness!
Dr. R. A. R. Perera, Visiting Psychologist, Colombo.
Of a large group of people surveyed in California, 99 percent
indicated that they had experienced shyness, and 42 percent of that
group said that shyness was a basic part of their personality. Of those
who labelled themselves as basically shy, 63 percent said that shyness
posed a real problem in their day to-day-life. There was no gender
difference in the intensity of the problem.
Being in a large group and being the focus of attention seem to
create the most intense discomfort for many people, with strangers or
members of the opposite sex posing particular difficulties. Speaking
before an audience created more anxiety, outranking the anxiety about
sickness or death.
Shyness can produce both physical and emotional consequences. The shy
person experiences increase in heart rate, perspiration [especially on
the palms], and feeling of nausea. Intellectual performances and memory
for recent events may be impaired. During heterosexual interactions they
converse less frequently and for a smaller percentage of the time. They
allow more periods of silence to develop, and they break fewer periods.
Shy people feel less comfortable about heterosexual encounters. Shyness
may reflect the kind of apprehension a person has about self-evaluation.
An individual may feel shy when he or she is apprehensive about failing
in the view of others. Newcomers to groups may be especially vulnerable
while other group members are making decisions about their
acceptability. Only after some time, they shift to minority cliques or
become independent.
Can anything be done to help persons suffering from shyness? Many
psychologists believe that specialized training in social skills may be
helpful. Such training often encourages the individual to try various
techniques for getting along more effectively with others. In Sri Lanka
we lack facilities for assertive training which is a specialized subject
at school level in most developed countries.
This could be started at secondary school level by introducing dramas
and group discussions where all the students take part in the activity
at different times. A person can overcome this by switching off the
external stimuli and focusing on the immediate task ahead. For example
if you have to perform in front of an audience you can imagine that you
are not in front of anyone and perform the task to yourself. A person
who has taken a risk several times and has spoken up finds typically
that shyness begins to recede. The initial try often is the most
difficult. |