Category: Mental Health

The Dietary Changes That Benefit Women’s Mental Health

Dietary changes are the first choice for women to overcome mental problems such as mood swings, anxiety, depression, and stress.

Dietary changes are the first choice for women to overcome mental problems such as mood swings, anxiety, depression, and stress.

Dietary factors have a much bigger impact on women’s mood and mental health than men’s, but exercise can get rid of mental distress caused by specific foods in women.

Gender and brain maturity are two key factors that influence mental health.

A study wanted to see if gender and brain maturity, when combined with diet, can influence mental health.

They tested if changing diet based on individual requirements would improve a person’s mood aged 30 years or older.

Researchers wanted to know what type of exercise and diet make people feel better and can enhance their mental wellbeing.

The study showed that customizing diet and exercise improves women’s mental health more than men’s.

Dr Lina Begdache, the study’s first author, said:

“We found a general relationship between eating healthy, following healthy dietary practices, exercise and mental well-being.

Interestingly, we found that for unhealthy dietary patterns, the level of mental distress was higher in women than in men, which confirmed that women are more susceptible to unhealthy eating than men.”

These findings suggest that a healthy diet combined with physical activity may be the first choice for women to overcome mental problems such as mood swings, anxiety, depression, and stress.

Dr Begdache said:

“Fast food, skipping breakfast, caffeine and high-glycemic (HG) food are all associated with mental distress in mature women.

Fruits and dark green leafy vegetables (DGLV) are associated with mental well-being.

The extra information we learned from this study is that exercise significantly reduced the negative association of HG food and fast food with mental distress.”

Personalised nutrition plans and exercise, together with good sleep quality have been shown to improve mental health in all adults.

The study was published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine (Begdache & Patrissy, 2021).

Spend This Long In Nature To Feel Fantastic (M)

How long to spend in nature to feel the greatest improvements to mood and reductions in anxiety.

How long to spend in nature to feel the greatest improvements to mood and reductions in anxiety.

Keep reading with a Membership

• Read members-only articles
• Adverts removed
• Cancel at any time
• 14 day money-back guarantee for new members

Become a member

A Key Element Links Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar And More (M)

Problems with interoception link many mental health issues including anxiety, major depression, bipolar, anorexia and schizophrenia.

Problems with interoception link many mental health issues including anxiety, major depression, bipolar, anorexia and schizophrenia.

Keep reading with a Membership

• Read members-only articles
• Adverts removed
• Cancel at any time
• 14 day money-back guarantee for new members

Become a member

Teenagers Now Have More Mental Health Problems Than Ever

This generation is under increasing psychological pressure.

This generation is under increasing psychological pressure.

Mental health problems are on the rise among teenagers, research finds.

Depression has risen by around two-thirds in teenagers, in comparison to the previous generation.

Teenagers are now also more likely to self-harm, be overweight, sleep deprived and to suffer body image problems.

However, modern teenagers are less likely to perpetrate antisocial behaviour or drink and take drugs.

Dr Suzanne Gage, study co-author, said:

“It has seemed for a while that mental health difficulties in young people are on the rise, but this study really highlights the scale at which this increase might be occurring.

The next step is to understand why these increases are occurring, so young people can be supported better.”

The conclusions come from data culled from two British studies.

One followed 5,600 children born in 1991-92, the second followed 11,000 born in 2000-01.

The results showed that modern teenagers are in worse psychological shape than those born ten years before.

Almost 15 percent of teenagers reported being depressed in 2015, compared with 9 percent in 2005.

Self-harm had increased from 12 percent to 14 percent.

Along with depressive symptoms rising by two-thirds, obesity had almost doubled in the ten years.

Dr Praveetha Patalay, the study’s first author, said:

“The increasing trends of poor sleep, obesity and negative body image might help explain rising mental health difficulties experienced by young people.

Where the trends are moving in opposite directions – decreasing substance use and antisocial behaviour – the interpretation becomes more complicated.

Identifying explanations for these high prevalences and changing trends are key for preventing further poor physical and mental health for future generations of young people.”

→ Read on: 3 signs of depression in young people.

The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology (Patalay & Gage, 2019).

One-Third Are Anxious/Depressed From Pandemic Measures (M)

One-in-three adults are anxious and depressed as a result of quarantines, lockdowns and social distancing — but some groups are suffering more.

One-in-three adults are anxious and depressed as a result of quarantines, lockdowns and social distancing -- but some groups are suffering more.

Keep reading with a Membership

• Read members-only articles
• Adverts removed
• Cancel at any time
• 14 day money-back guarantee for new members

Become a member

Happy Childhoods Do Not Guarantee Good Mental Health

Mental health problems can strike anyone.

Mental health problems can strike anyone.

A happy childhood does not guarantee against developing mental health problems later on, a study finds.

Even people who experience many positive early childhood experiences can go on to develop anxiety and depression or other mental health issues.

It shows how mental health problems can strike anyone.

The research also reaffirms the connection between negative childhood experiences and mental health problems, like depression and paranoia.

While childhood experiences can set the tone for our lives, they do not determine our destiny.

Rather our mental health depends on how we adapt to stressful circumstances in adulthood.

Those who fail to cope are those who are more likely to succumb.

The conclusions come a study that tracked over 300 children in Australia.

Ms Bianca Kahl, the study’s first author, said:

“This research shows that mental health conditions are not solely determined by early life events, and that a child who is raised in a happy home, could still grow up to have a mental health disorder.

There’s certainly some missing factors in understanding how our childhood environment and early life experiences might translate into mental health outcomes in adulthood.

We suspect that it’s our expectations about our environments and our ability to adapt to scenarios when our expectations are not being met, that may be influencing our experiences of distress.

If, as children, we learn how to adapt to change, and we learn how to cope when things do not go our way, we may be in a better position to respond to stress and other risk factors for poor mental health.

Testing this hypothesis is the focus of the next research study.”

The study was published in the journal Current Psychology (Kahl et al., 2020).

Get free email updates

Join the free PsyBlog mailing list. No spam, ever.