psychiatric disorders Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Can Exercise Reduce Anxiety? New Study Gives Us An Answer

AHA Publisher — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 08:00:54 +0000

Ethan Boldt via Dr. Axe – Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S.? Over 40 million adults age 18 and older are affected; this equates to 18 percent of the population. In fact, one of every three teenagers reported suffering some sort of anxiety disorder in the past year. Even if you’re fortunately to not suffer from anxiety, you probably know a loved one who does and perhaps have seen how damaging it can be. After all, it increases one’s risk for other psychiatric disorders like depression — half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. As a result, not only is traditional treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy considered, certain natural ways to reduce anxiety are also under examination. One such natural way to deal with anxiety? Exercise. If fact, some research demonstrates that just a single bout of exercise can help ease anxiety when it arises. But if it was only so simple. Let’s dive in. The Anxiety-Exercise Conundrum Among the damage that anxiety can inflict, it can impact how active a person is. A 2015 study showed that anxiety sufferers were, on average, more sedentary and less inclined to participate in challenging forms of physical activity. Study authors concluded that rather than focusing mostly on high-intensity exercises for alleviating anxiety, it might be more productive to simply increase light physical activity while decreasing the number of sedentary bouts. In an article for Psychology Today, Alice Boyes, PhD, details why anxious people may avoid exercising: The sensations of exertion — raised heart rate, sweating, breathing heard — are similar to anxiety. Worry about getting injured or experiencing pain. Exercise can spike social anxiety, such as concern about how you look during exercise or even having to interact with people you normally wouldn’t. New Study In a recent Frontier In Psychiatry large-scale study of nearly 200,000 active adults, it showedthat being physically active cuts the risk of developing clinical anxiety in half. The study was based in Sweden and focused on cross-country skiers, but researchers declared that nearly any kind of aerobic activity probably protects the individual from excessive anxiety. In the 21-year study, skiers had a significantly lower risk of developing anxiety compared to non-skiers. Interestingly, among women, more demanding physical performance — such as faster finishing times, higher exercise doses, etc. — was linked with an increased risk of anxiety compared to slower skiing women. Nonetheless, the anxiety risk was still less compared to the control group. For men, there was no statistical difference in anxiety levels between fast vs. slow skiiers. To the authors, it was clear: “Our results support the recommendations of engaging in physical activity to decrease the risk of anxiety in both men and women.” Meanwhile, they admitted that the “physical performance level” for women and how it impacts anxiety risk requires further examination. Benefits of Exercise for Anxiety Regular physical activity helps to improve sleep quality, reduce inflammation, boost confidence, improve energy levels and ease stress and tension. People with anxiety can benefit from exercises like yoga and tai chi because they promote relaxation and involve deep breathing techniques that help to reduce stress and muscle tension. A 2012 review published in Alternative Medicine Review found that of the 35 trials that addressed the effects of yoga on anxiety and stress, 25 of them noted a significant decrease in stress and anxiety symptoms as a result of practicing yoga. Did you know that yoga changes your brain by impacting your GABA levels and suppressing neural activity? Besides yoga and tai chi, you can practice other exercises that help to calm the body. For example, running, walking or hiking outdoors, lifting weights and even dancing can help to combat stress. In fact, exercising outside during the winter where you’re exposed to sunlight is thought to be one effective strategy for helping ward off seasonal affective disorder, a type of mood disorder/depression that tends to affect people during the dark winter months. It may be another reason why the cross-country skiers in that above study fared so well. Sunlight and exercise both have a positive impact on your mood for several reasons, including because they help release more “feel good” chemicals, including serotonin and endorphins. Additionally, a 2019 study indicated that exercising helped divert the participant from whatever he or she was anxious about. Anecdotally, this may seem logical to many of us who feel great relief from whatever we were anxious about before our workout, but it necessitates further study. In a Journal of Neuroscience animal study, it seemed to resolve the contradictory findings that running can decrease anxiety while activating the frontal regions of the brain responsible for executive function. How so? “By increasing GABAergic inhibition in the hippocampus in response to stress, running may serve to calm excitatory circuitry that might otherwise produce an overly anxious state.” Best Types of Exercise for Anxiety What is the best type of exercise for anxiety? The general consensus is that any type of exercise will do well to lower anxiety levels, but of course, it depends on the individual. As the studies above demonstrate, tai chi and yoga rate very well … and now, so does cross-country skiing. Here are some helpful tips for choosing the right kind of exercise for you: What exercise do you enjoy and can commit to? Do that! Exercising with others may increase or decrease your anxiety. Go with whatever fits you. For some, working out with a friend or group can improve commitment level and provides social support. When possible, exercise outdoors. Researchers have found that just being outdoors in nature can improve your overall feelings of wellbeing and reduce anxiety. Make exercise a good habit by often doing it a similar time of day, so both your body and brain is not only ready for it but even looks forward to it. Often, morning time can work well for anxious individuals. To read the original article click here.

The post Can Exercise Reduce Anxiety? New Study Gives Us An Answer appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

A Smartphone Technology to Diagnose Psychiatric Diseases

AHA Publisher — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 07:00:52 +0000

ISRAEL21c Staff via Israel21c – According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from diagnosable psychiatric disorders such as clinical depression or schizophrenia. But they can only be diagnosed based on the observation and description of symptoms. That’s the problem Israeli medical startup Montfort (Mon4T) aims to solve with its newly launched Brain Profiler. This science-based method looks at mental disorders as brain disturbances that can be accurately diagnosed in a clinical manner. Developed by practicing psychiatrist and Technion lecturer Dr. Abraham Peled, the approach bridges between classical psychiatry and computational neuroscience. “We cannot fix a system if we do not know exactly what is wrong with it. It is absolutely critical that we discover the causes of mental disorders if we ever hope to cure them,” Peled said. “The frustration of not being able to truly cure these patients drove me to change my approaches and connect to the digital world and to algorithms, including Montfort’s EncephaLog application.” Montfort already uses smartphone technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide FDA-cleared digital neurological tests for patients with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. As a result of the cooperation with Peled in the past year, Montfort added to its test protocol indicators assessing anxiety, depression and more. Montfort translates the collected digital indicators into terms that psychiatrists are familiar with, such as depression, anxiety or psychosis, and suggests a neurological explanation, said Peled. “As a next step, the diagnosed network disturbance will be demonstrated by EEG, a procedure that was previously very complicated to conduct and therefore available only in hospitals, but is now available to any patient at home.” The Brain Profiler will also be used far from home soon, as it was selected as one of the technologies to accompany Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe on his journey to the International Space Station at the beginning of 2022. The astronauts will use the Montfort app to do motor and cognitive self-tests while physicians on Earth monitor their functioning in real time. Montfort CEO Dr. Ziv Yekutieli said, “With the complexity of the human brain in general, and psychiatric disorders in particular, psychiatrists have a hard time keeping up with advances in other medical fields. A practitioner has to take clinical decisions based on subjective and non-quantitative data, which is gathered at random, short clinical visits, that do not reflect the patient’s actual status throughout his or her daily life. These difficulties limit the psychiatrist’s ability to treat the patient optimally, and limit pharmaceutical companies’ ability to develop new drugs.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

The post A Smartphone Technology to Diagnose Psychiatric Diseases appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Understanding Gut Inflammation May Hold Clues to Mitigating Parkinson’s Onset

AHA Publisher — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 07:00:31 +0000

Van Andel Research Institute via EurekAlert – GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (JUNE 8, 2021) — Chronic inflammation in the gut may propel processes in the body that give rise to Parkinson’s disease, according to a study by scientists at Van Andel Institute and Roche. The study, published in Free Neuropathology, is the latest in a growing list that links the gut and the immune system to Parkinson’s. The researchers’ findings in an experimental mouse model of gut inflammation track with several large-scale epidemiological studies that show an association between Parkinson’s and inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Epidemiological evidence from other groups indicates the risk of developing Parkinson’s fades in certain people whose inflammatory bowel disease is treated with anti-TNF, a standard-of-care anti-inflammatory therapy, which suggests that reducing gut inflammation may have promise for mitigating Parkinson’s onset. “There is increasing evidence that changes in the gut can affect a variety of neurological and psychiatric brain disorders,” said Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., VAI deputy chief scientific officer and co-corresponding author of the study. “Parkinson’s is a complex disease with a wide range of factors that work in concert to spark its onset and progression. We need to understand the gut’s likely influence on Parkinson’s development better. This study provides novel insights, and this new knowledge can facilitate the development of improved treatment approaches.” In their disease models, the team found that chronic gut inflammation triggers a protein called alpha-synuclein to clump together in walls of the colon, as well as in local immune cells called macrophages. A similar process may play out in the colons of some people — such as those with inflammatory bowel diseases — thereby increasing their risk to develop Parkinson’s as shown in studies by other groups. Similarly, in the brains of people with Parkinson’s, “sticky” alpha-synuclein aggregates also develop. For reasons that still are unclear, these aggregates can clog the molecular machinery that keep neurons alive. The resulting loss of some of these critical cells — and the chemical messenger they produce called dopamine — causes Parkinson’s hallmark movement-related symptoms, such as freezing and loss of voluntary movement. The additional wide-spread development of alpha-synuclein aggregates throughout the brain also may be associated with the disease’s non-motor symptoms and may fuel its progression, which cannot be slowed or stopped with existing treatments. The study also revealed that chronic inflammation in the gut early in life can exacerbate alpha-synuclein clumping throughout the brain in older mice. While it isn’t clear exactly how this happens, the team has two theories: first, they suggest inflammatory chemicals may travel from the gut to the brain via the bloodstream, triggering a runaway inflammatory immune response that leads to protein aggregation. Another idea is that alpha-synuclein aggregates may travel to the brain via the vagus nerve, one of the longest nerves in the body and a “superhighway” between the gut and the brain. Once there, the proteins may then execute their toxic activity in the brain. “We now know that systems throughout the body contribute to Parkinson’s,” said Emmanuel Quansah, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Brundin’s lab and a key contributor and co-author of the study. “It was striking to see protein aggregation pathology in the brain that mirrored pathology in the colon brought on by inflammation. A particularly intriguing observation was the loss dopamine-producing nerve cells — which play a major role in Parkinson’s onset — in our models that had gut inflammation a year-and-a-half earlier.” Notably, the team also found that modulating immune activation in the colitis mouse model by genetic or therapeutic means tuned the level of alpha-synuclein clumps in the colon up or down. “Our results in mice, together with the genetic and epidemiological data by others in humans, make a strong case for further exploring systemic immune pathways for future therapies and biomarkers for Parkinson’s,” said Markus Britschgi, Ph.D., Senior Principal Scientist and Section Head in the Neuroscience and Rare Diseases Research Department at the Roche Innovation Center Basel and co-corresponding author of the study. Authors include first author Stefan Grathwohl, Ph.D. (previously a Roche postdoctoral fellow), Nazia Maroof, Ph.D. (previously a Roche postdoctoral fellow), Liz Spycher, Krisztina Oroszlan-Szovik, M.S., Helga Remy, Markus Haenggi M.S., and Marc Stawiski of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Neuroscience and Rare Diseases Discovery and Translational Area, Roche Innovation Center Basel; Jennifer A. Steiner, Ph.D., Zachary Madaj, M.S., and Martha L. Escobar Galvis, Ph.D., of VAI; Fethallah Benmansour, Ph.D., of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, pREDi, Roche Innovation Center Basel; Gonzalo Duran-Pacheco, Ph.D., Juliane Siebourg-Polster, Ph.D., Matthias Selhausen, Pierre Maliver, EVCP, Arel Su, DVM, and Annika Herrmann, DECVP, of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Roche Innovation Center Basel; Andreas Wolfert and Thomas Emrich, Ph.D., of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Roche Innovation Center Munich; and Christoph Mueller, Ph.D., of Institute of Pathology, University of Bern. To read the original article click here.

The post Understanding Gut Inflammation May Hold Clues to Mitigating Parkinson’s Onset appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Thyroid Inflammation Linked to Anxiety Disorders

AHA Publisher — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 07:00:17 +0000

European Society of Endocrinology via EurekAlert – Patients with autoimmune inflammation of their thyroid may be at greater risk of developing anxiety, according to a study being presented at e-ECE 2020. The study found that people with anxiety may also have inflammation in their thyroid gland that can be reduced by taking the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, ibuprofen. These findings suggest that thyroid function may play an important role in the development of anxiety disorders and that thyroid inflammation should be investigated as an underlying factor in psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety. At present, up to 35% of the young population (25-60 years) in developed countries have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can have a severe impact of people’s quality of life and ability to work and socialise, and anti-anxiety medication does not always have a lasting effect. Current examinations for anxiety disorders usually focus on dysfunction of the nervous system and do not take into account the role of the endocrine system. The thyroid gland produces the hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) that are essential for regulating heart, muscle and digestive function, brain development and bone maintenance. Autoimmune inflammation in the thyroid occurs when our bodies wrongly produce antibodies that attack the gland and causes damage. Recent studies indicate that anxiety disorders can be associated with the dysfunction of the thyroid gland. Therefore, it is important to understand how this may contribute to anxiety, so that patients can be treated more effectively. Dr Juliya Onofriichuk from Kyiv City Clinical Hospital investigated thyroid function in 29 men (average age 33.9) and 27 women (average age 31.7) with diagnosed anxiety, who were experiencing panic attacks. Ultrasounds of their thyroid glands assessed thyroid function and levels of thyroid hormones were measured. The patients with anxiety showed signs of inflammation of their thyroid glands but their function was not affected, with thyroid hormone levels all within the normal range, although slightly elevated. They also tested positive for antibodies directed against the thyroid. Treatment for 14 days with ibuprofen and thyroxine reduced thyroid inflammation, normalised thyroid hormone levels and reduced their anxiety scores. “These findings indicate that the endocrine system may play an important role in anxiety. Doctors should also consider the thyroid gland and the rest of the endocrine system, as well as the nervous system, when examining patients with anxiety,” Dr Onofriichuk explains. This knowledge could help patients with anxiety receive more effective treatment that improves thyroid function and could have a long-term positive effect on their mental health. However, sex and adrenal gland hormones were not taken in to account in this study, and these can also have a serious effect on anxiety. Dr Onofriichuk now plans to conduct further research that examines the levels of thyroid, sex and adrenal hormones (cortisol, progesterone, prolactin, oestrogen and testosterone) in patients with dysfunctional thyroid glands and anxiety disorders. This research aims to help understand more clearly the role of the endocrine system in the development of anxiety and could lead to better management of anxiety disorders. To read the original article click here.

The post Thyroid Inflammation Linked to Anxiety Disorders appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.