Mhc Red Cross

The Importance of Mental Health

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:48 +0000

What is mental health?

Though no concise definition exists, mental health is basically your attitude and approach to life. Psychological, environmental, genetic, or physiological factors have a profound effect on overall mental development.

What is mental illness?

Mental illness impairs your ability to perform routine tasks, foster healthy relationships, or cope with anger or stress. It may be classified on the basis of extreme mood swings, irrational or destructive thought patterns, and behavioral problems.

How important is mental health?

Your mental health has a huge impact on every aspect of your life.

o Self-image

Good mental health means appreciating your achievements and accepting your shortcomings. A mental illness can cause an inferiority complex, a negative body image, and intense feelings of self-hate, anger, disgust, and uselessness, which could mutate into extreme depression, psycho-social disorders, or eating disorders.

o Education

Students with mental problems socially isolate themselves, and develop anxiety disorders and concentration problems. Good mental health ensures an all-round educational experience that enhances social and intellectual skills that lead to self-confidence and better grades.

o Relationships

Mental health largely contributes to the functioning of human relationships. Mental illness can hamper even basic interactions with family, friends, and colleagues. Most people suffering from mental illness find it difficult to nurture relationships, have problems with commitment or intimacy, and frequently encounter sexual health issues.

o Sleep

An inability to handle stress or anxiety can cause insomnia. Even if you mange to fall asleep, you may wake up a dozen times during the night with thoughts of what went wrong the day before or how bad tomorrow is going to be. You may develop severe sleeping disorders which leave you exhausted and less productive.

o Eating

People with mental disorders are more prone to indulging in comfort eating or emotional binges. Finding comfort in food is something we all do from time to time. But with a mental illness, it becomes difficult to control yourself. Overeating can lead to obesity, which puts you at a risk for heart disease and diabetes, in addition to creating an unhealthy body-image.

o Physical health

Your mental state directly affects your body. For example, stress can lead to hypertension or stomach ulcers. People who are mentally healthy are at a lower risk for many health complications.

So make a conscious effort to improve and maintain your mental health.

Health – Carbonated Drinks Can Damage Our Health

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:30 +0000

Last week I wrote a health article on how chemicals we use everyday around our homes and offices can be detrimental to our health, and very damaging to unborn and young children.

This week there has been even more worrying health information given about the additive E211 in soft drinks, especially at this time of the year when some children drink vast quantities. Parents have been warned that they should limit the consumption of their children’s soft drinks due to health fears over the safety of a commonly used preservative E211, as laboratory tests have shown that it can switch off vital parts of DNA, causing serious damage to cells. Concern is also given to the fact that tests suggest this could also result in other degenerative diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson’s disease.

E211 is found in many soft drinks including Fanta and Pepsi Max and many other brands of highly consumed carbonated drinks. Peter Piper, a molecular biologist expert carried out the research into sodium benzoate or E211 at Sheffield University, where he found that it could damage the mitochrondia, an important area in DNA. However the Food Standards Agency and drink manufacturers insist that rigorous assessments are made before the approval and use of any of their additives, and it is deemed safe to health in the UK, EU and US for food use. The FSA says that consumers can continue to enjoy soft drinks knowing they are safe.

However, Peter Piper said that “these chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochrondia to the point that they totally inactivate it, they knock it out altogether”. The mitochrondia consumes oxygen which gives you energy, if this becomes damaged the cell starts to malfunction seriously. With this there is a whole range of diseases effecting your health now being linked – through damage to DNA, Parkinson’s foremost, but also several other neuro-degenerative diseases and of course the whole general health process of ageing.

Sodium benzoate is regularly used to kill bacteria, yeast and fungi in soft drinks, fruit juices, jams and spreads, and salad dressings, as well as many other products. But it is in the soft drinks, which are consumed in higher quantities, and been used for decades by the carbonated drinks industry that is causing concern. Peter piper acknowledges the fact that sodium benzoate had passed the UK, European Union and US food safety tests, but claims that these tests were too old to be reliable, and that by the criteria of modern safety testing are inadequate for our health

Safety testing in other areas has moved forward in the past 50 years with new research, and so rigorous new tests should be conducted on E211 and other additives. Sodium benzoate is found naturally in some fruit such as apples, cranberries, prunes, greengages and also cinnamon and cloves and as you know these are good for your health. When sodium benzoate is mixed with vitamin C it forms a carcinogenic substance called benzene.

I believe that we should not stop drinking carbonated drinks altogether, but the consumption should be limited, and maybe production of carbonated drinks with a shorter shelf life, needing less additives would be a good step for manufacturers to take. This would probably bring the price of carbonated drinks more into line with healthier alternatives available, as at the moment they are the cheapest option in most supermarkets.

Hope you find this interesting, as I do not believe any of us are aware just how many different chemicals we consume regularly and the effect they have on our health, especially children.

Health Care – Should We Cover Everyone?

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:10 +0000

Part of the argument we hear daily about health care reform is that we need to get insurance to people who don’t already have it.

Really? Why?

What about people in their early 20′s who don’t have health insurance coverage? Should we make them get insurance, even if they don’t want to pay for it? And even if they can’t pay for it, are we going to force it on them anyway and have taxpayers pick up the bill?

It seems plainly obvious that we shouldn’t waste resources on people who either do not want or need a particular service, and it seems rather peculiar to force it on them. But there’s more to this scenario than you might see at first glance.

Insurance companies actually love the idea of covering young, healthy people. When you have people paying into a system, but not using it, it can keep costs lower for everyone who is part of the plan. This is fundamental to insurance of any kind. The companies who issue insurance policies count on most people using less service than they are paying for. The people who don’t use it essentially subsidize those that do.

If this sounds like socialism, then it’s socialism created by private industry under a capitalist system.

In the US health care system part of the reason this has broken down is that a large number of the healthiest people in our society have opted out of paying for insurance, which ends up driving up the cost for everyone else. People have figured out how to game the system and refuse to pay into it.

This seems like a fair way to go until you realize that the people who opt-out are taking a gamble with your communities resources. That’s because if they get seriously injured they will get treated at a local emergency room whether they have coverage or not. And if they don’t have the means to pay, the hospital will have to absorb the costs (and possibly force the patient into bankruptcy), which raises the fees the hospital charges to those who do pay.

And for those who are chronically ill and who cannot get regular medical care because they are uninsured, they will continue to clog emergency rooms with relatively minor illnesses that should be seen by a primary care physician. The crowded ER’s can potentially keep insured people from being seen for true emergencies – the original purpose of emergency rooms.

By covering everyone, both the healthy and the infirm, it lowers the risk pool for the insurers and helps to direct resources to where they are most effective.