Glucose Affects Our Ability To Resist Temptation
New research from a lab at Florida State University reveals that self-control takes fuel - literally. When we exercise it, resisting temptations to misbehave, our fuel tank is depleted, making subsequent efforts at self-control more difficult.
Florida State psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and his colleagues Kathleen D. Vohs, University of Minnesota, and Dianne M. Tice, Florida State, showed this with an experiment using the Stroop task, a famous way of testing strength of self-control. Participants in this task are shown color words that are printed in different-colored ink (like the word red printed in blue font), and are told to name the color of the ink, not the word. Baumeister found that when participants perform multiple self-control tasks like the Stroop test in a row, they do worse over time. Thus, the ability to control ourselves wanes as it is exercised.
Moreover, Baumeister and colleagues found that the fuel that powers this ability turns out to be one of the same things that fuels our muscles: sugar, in the form of glucose.
The researchers measured the blood glucose levels of participants before either engaging in another self-control task or a task that did not involve self-control. They found that the group performing the self-control task suffered depletion in glucose afterward. Furthermore, in another experiment, two groups performed the Stroop task two times each, drinking one of two sweetened beverages in between. The control group drank lemonade with Splenda, a sugar-free sweetener; the test group got lemonade sweetened with real sugar. The sugar group performed better than the Splenda group on their second Stroop test, presumably because their blood sugar had been replenished.
The results as reported in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest the possibility of psychological interventions for helping people achieve greater self-control. For one thing, like muscles, self-control may be able to be strengthened through exercise. Results so far are inconsistent, Baumeister says, and some regimens work better than others, but he envisions that greater understanding of the biological and psychological underpinnings of our ability to control ourselves will have important real-world application for people in the self-control business, such as coaches, therapists, teachers, and parents.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Don't Be Depressed Feeling Sad Can Be Good for You ... ; Good Health
Daily Mail - December 04, 2007
THE death of her mother left Janet Grange devastated.
The teacher, who lives in Swanage, Dorset, couldn't stop crying, sleep was impossible and she became anxious about her own health.
Her GP was very helpful; after a quick verbal test, he said she was suffering from depression and prescribed antidepressants.
Janet's experience was far from unique last year doctors wrote 31 million prescriptions for the drugs a six per cent rise in two years. Meanwhile, estimates about the numbers affected by depression have also risen, to as many as one in 12 people.
Depression, it seems, has become an - epidemic. Or has it? A new book by two leading psychiatrists suggests that more of us are not depressed, rather that doctors are turning sadness a normal human emotion into a disease.
Furthermore, they argue, sadness is not a 'bad' state that needs treating, but can actually be good for us.
The authors Allan Horwitz, professor of sociology at Rutgers University, and Jerome Wakefield, professor of social work at New York University argue that while genuine depression undoubtedly needs medical attention, somehow every other sort of normal human gloom has been rolled up into the package marked 'depression'.
They say sadness is a natural state of mind that has existed since time began and is of some use to humanity. It's not something that should be medicated away with a hand- ful of Prozac. .
It may seem extraordinary to think of sadness as a positive thing, but evolution may be the key according to some experts, sadness helps us learn from our mistakes. It also invites sympathy and therefore help from others.
So how has a normal response become a medical condition? The problem, say the authors, is that when the definitions for mental illness were set out (in the psychiatrists' bible, The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders), there was no reference to the context in which symptoms were experienced. FOR instance, in order to be diagnosed with 'major depressive disorder', you need to experience at least five of nine symptoms that include change in appetite and insomnia. However, these are similar to the sort of symptoms a healthy person might develop after a bereavement.
But the psychiatrist's checklist can't take this into account. As a result, what are entirely normal feelings are characterised as a 'disease', and the bereaved ends up with medication.
As a result, many people are diagnosed with depression when they don't have it.
The problem is compounded by the test GPs give their patients to diagnose depression. This takes the form of two questions: 'During the past month, have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed or hopeless?' and 'During the past month have you been bothered by having little interest or pleasure in doing things?' If you answer 'yes' to both questions, as Janet did, you could find yourself on Prozac.
This type of medication is not to be taken lightly. About 25 per cent of patients have problems when they try to stop taking them, and studies have found they can cause a rise in suicidal thoughts and actions. Patients also report a loss of libido.
Furthermore, two studies have linked the drugs with a drop in bone density, leading to osteoporosis and a dramatic fall in the number of sperm a man can produce.
It's not just doctors who are to blame culturally, we seem to have given up on the acceptability of sadness. Eminent psychologist Dorothy Rowe blames sociological changes, too.
'The first problem is that "sad" has become a derogatory word,' she says. 'To be seen as sad, is to be despised.' Meanwhile, in the world of psychotherapy, 'happiness' is the new buzz word. 'There is a notion that you can make happiness your aim when, in fact, it is a by-product of what you do,' she explains.
The reality about sadness, explains Dr Rowe, is that it is usually connected to bereavement 48 due to a job loss, a child leaving home for university, or most commonly the death of a loved one.
'When you lose someone central to your life, you feel like the world is falling apart and that is very frightening. No wonder you feel anxious. What you don't need is a diagnosis of depression and tablets.
'You actually need help talking about your grief and what the loss is. But it is easier to medicate and then pronounce you cured.' She agrees that sadness can be a positive emotion. 'If you never feel sad, it is because you have never become attached to someone, and that is a very lonely way to be.' THE Loss of Sorrow: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C.
Wakefield, (Oxford University Press, Pounds 17.99). Dorothy Rowe, Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison (Routledge)..
(C) 2007 Daily Mail. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
Daily Mail - December 04, 2007
THE death of her mother left Janet Grange devastated.
The teacher, who lives in Swanage, Dorset, couldn't stop crying, sleep was impossible and she became anxious about her own health.
Her GP was very helpful; after a quick verbal test, he said she was suffering from depression and prescribed antidepressants.
Janet's experience was far from unique last year doctors wrote 31 million prescriptions for the drugs a six per cent rise in two years. Meanwhile, estimates about the numbers affected by depression have also risen, to as many as one in 12 people.
Depression, it seems, has become an - epidemic. Or has it? A new book by two leading psychiatrists suggests that more of us are not depressed, rather that doctors are turning sadness a normal human emotion into a disease.
Furthermore, they argue, sadness is not a 'bad' state that needs treating, but can actually be good for us.
The authors Allan Horwitz, professor of sociology at Rutgers University, and Jerome Wakefield, professor of social work at New York University argue that while genuine depression undoubtedly needs medical attention, somehow every other sort of normal human gloom has been rolled up into the package marked 'depression'.
They say sadness is a natural state of mind that has existed since time began and is of some use to humanity. It's not something that should be medicated away with a hand- ful of Prozac. .
It may seem extraordinary to think of sadness as a positive thing, but evolution may be the key according to some experts, sadness helps us learn from our mistakes. It also invites sympathy and therefore help from others.
So how has a normal response become a medical condition? The problem, say the authors, is that when the definitions for mental illness were set out (in the psychiatrists' bible, The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders), there was no reference to the context in which symptoms were experienced. FOR instance, in order to be diagnosed with 'major depressive disorder', you need to experience at least five of nine symptoms that include change in appetite and insomnia. However, these are similar to the sort of symptoms a healthy person might develop after a bereavement.
But the psychiatrist's checklist can't take this into account. As a result, what are entirely normal feelings are characterised as a 'disease', and the bereaved ends up with medication.
As a result, many people are diagnosed with depression when they don't have it.
The problem is compounded by the test GPs give their patients to diagnose depression. This takes the form of two questions: 'During the past month, have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed or hopeless?' and 'During the past month have you been bothered by having little interest or pleasure in doing things?' If you answer 'yes' to both questions, as Janet did, you could find yourself on Prozac.
This type of medication is not to be taken lightly. About 25 per cent of patients have problems when they try to stop taking them, and studies have found they can cause a rise in suicidal thoughts and actions. Patients also report a loss of libido.
Furthermore, two studies have linked the drugs with a drop in bone density, leading to osteoporosis and a dramatic fall in the number of sperm a man can produce.
It's not just doctors who are to blame culturally, we seem to have given up on the acceptability of sadness. Eminent psychologist Dorothy Rowe blames sociological changes, too.
'The first problem is that "sad" has become a derogatory word,' she says. 'To be seen as sad, is to be despised.' Meanwhile, in the world of psychotherapy, 'happiness' is the new buzz word. 'There is a notion that you can make happiness your aim when, in fact, it is a by-product of what you do,' she explains.
The reality about sadness, explains Dr Rowe, is that it is usually connected to bereavement 48 due to a job loss, a child leaving home for university, or most commonly the death of a loved one.
'When you lose someone central to your life, you feel like the world is falling apart and that is very frightening. No wonder you feel anxious. What you don't need is a diagnosis of depression and tablets.
'You actually need help talking about your grief and what the loss is. But it is easier to medicate and then pronounce you cured.' She agrees that sadness can be a positive emotion. 'If you never feel sad, it is because you have never become attached to someone, and that is a very lonely way to be.' THE Loss of Sorrow: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C.
Wakefield, (Oxford University Press, Pounds 17.99). Dorothy Rowe, Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison (Routledge)..
(C) 2007 Daily Mail. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
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