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More Drinking…Less Maleness.

Too much drinking? Not performing?

Chronic heavy drinking is bad for you, we all know this, but if you’re a man, have you heard that heavy regular drinking might also make you less able to perform???!!! Studies have shown that when consumed in binge amounts, some men may react by showing a temporary surge in testosterone levels; a hormonal jump that may well in part explain drunken aggression.  In general though, heavy, lengthy and regular use of alcohol has a diminishing effect on testosterone levels. Heavy regular alcohol use robs men of normal testosterone levels, which causes a number of negative health effects.

The Consequences of Lowered Testosterone Levels Include:

• Fatigue
• A decrease in sex drive
• Erectile dysfunction
• Weight gain (fat gain, especially around the mid section)
• A loss of lean muscle
• Irritability
• Body hair loss
• A decrease in bone mass and a resultant increase in the risks of breaks and fractures
• Depression
• Male breasts
• Shrinking testes
• An increase in certain cardiovascular disease risks (men with very low testosterone levels are at a very high risk of heart attack)

Lab tests examining the impact of chronic drinking on testosterone levels have found that as little as 5 days of consecutive binge drinking will cause a lingering fall in testosterone in the body.  So while social norms may seem to demand heavy drinking in certain male focused environments, heavy drinking actually reduces the maleness of those selfsame participants!

If, after a diagnosis of low testosterone levels, you find yourself still drinking alcohol at anything above a very minimal amount and infrequently, you may need to reevaluate your relationship with alcohol – after all, continuing to drink even knowing the harms that alcohol does to your body, is a hallmark sign of an alcohol problem.

WHAT IS ORTHOREXIA?

Too Healthy?

Orthorexia nervosa is one of a little-known group of eating disorders. The term uses “ortho,” in its meaning as straight, correct and true, to modify “anorexia nervosa.” Orthorexia nervosa refers to a fixation on eating proper food.  Orthorexia begins innocently enough, as a desire to overcome chronic illness or to improve general health. Over time, what they eat, how much, and the consequences of dietary indiscretion come to occupy a greater and greater proportion of the orthorexic’s day. The act of eating pure food begins to carry pseudo-spiritual connotations.  But the emphasis is intended to be on “unhealthy obsession.”  One can have an unhealthy obsession with something that is otherwise healthy. Think of exercise addiction, or workaholism.

At times (but not at all times) orthorexia seems to have elements of OCD. It may also have elements of standard anorexia.  But it is often not very much like typical OCD or typical anorexia.  The obsession for healthy foods could come from a number of sources such as family habits, society trends, economic problems, recent illness, or even just hearing something negative about a food type or group, which then leads orthorexics to ultimately eliminate the food or foods from their diet.  While orthorexia nervosa is not a formal medical condition, many doctors do feel that it explains an important and growing health phenomenon.

People suffering from this obsession may display the following signs.

• Spending more than three hours a day thinking about healthy food
• Planning tomorrow’s menu today
• Feeling virtuous about what they eat, but not enjoying it much
• Continually limiting the number of foods they eat
• Experiencing a reduced quality of life or social isolation (because their diet makes it difficult for them to eat anywhere but at home)
• Feeling critical of others who do not eat as well they do
• Skipping foods they once enjoyed in order to eat the “right” foods
• Feeling guilt or self-loathing when they stray from their diet
• Feeling in “total” control when they eat the correct diet

If you or someone you care about exhibits these traits.  There is a solution and there is help before it gets out of control.

Too Skinny….How Does It Happen?

How does this happen?

Anorexia is a complex disease, with myriad causes that range from culture to environment to—as recent studies have shown—genetics. Having a predisposition for anorexia means that a simple decision to diet away those last five pounds triggers something (it’s unclear as to what) that could lead you down a slippery slope.  The drive to become thinner is actually secondary to concerns about control and/or fears relating to one’s body. The individual continues the endless cycle of restrictive eating, often accompanied by other behaviors such as excessive exercising or the overuse of diet pills, diuretics, laxatives, and/or enemas in order to reduce body weight, often to a point close to starvation in order to feel a sense of control over his or her body. This cycle becomes an obsession and, in this way, is similar to any type of addiction.  Studies suggest that a genetic (inherited) component may play a more significant role in determining a person’s susceptibility to anorexia than was previously thought. Researchers are currently attempting to identify the particular gene or genes that might affect a person’s tendency to develop this disorder, and preliminary studies suggest that a gene located at chromosome 1p seems to be involved in determining a person’ s susceptibility to anorexia nervosa.  Anorexia could be caused by a genetic brain disorder shared by sufferers of autism and Asperger’s syndrome.  Noticeably sufferers of anorexia share traits with people who have autism, such as an inability to change rules they have set themselves, perfectionism and a tendency to fixate on details.  A few sources suggest that anorexics are addicted to fasting, apparently because of the chemical changes brought on by starvation. The opioids, enkephalins and endorphins are found to be at elevated levels in the spinal fluid of patients with anorexia.

Studies show that 20% of those affected by anorexia die directly from complications surrounding the disorder.  It is lethal, however, there is help and there is a solution it takes a lifetime of change but the only way for those suffering from anorexia to gain the control they are looking for is to admit the powerlessness over their disorder and behaviors.

Not Seeing Clearly

Warped Perception

What are the contributing factors of an eating disorder?  Even the slimmest women have, on occasion, stood in front of the mirror and asked: “Does this dress make me look fat?”  No matter who you are at some point you have been your own worst critic.  Why do we do this to ourselves and what drives body dysmorphia? Scientists have discovered that the body image a person projects in their own brain is “massively distorted” and can be up to two thirds wider than it is in reality. The brain’s own “body model” is also around a third shorter than the body actually is, according to the study at University College London.  Researchers believe the findings could explain why slim women look in the mirror and see themselves as fat. They may also help explain the cause of some eating disorders.

Dr Michael Longo, a neuroscientist is a leader in brain research, said: “These findings may well be relevant to psychiatric conditions involving body image such as anorexia, as there may be a general bias towards perceiving the body to be wider than it is.” He also says,“Some people look in the mirror and receive information which tells them they are not fat, but they still can’t use that to over-ride their distorted body model and make themselves believe it.”

The scientists had subjects place their hands under a board and relay where specific landmarks such as knuckles and fingertips were.  In doing so people were warped in their sense of size.  Scientists believe the distortion stems from the number of sensory signals being sent to the brain from different parts of the skin.  The brain’s warped “model” of the hand could be conveyed to the rest of the body,  therefore adding to the beginnings or bolstering feelings of negative body image.  For instance, if I am walking around feeling shorter and fatter than I really am these findings are saying that I am way off in my judgement.  Surprisingly, researchers found that subjects could pick their accurate hand size from other templates.  Therefore, researchers believe this shows that people have an accurate visual image of their own body but are still unable to use that information to over-ride the “brain model” which tells them they are larger.

Wide Awake….

Drug addiction exacts a variety of ill effects on a user’s health. Among other things, drug addicts often experience disrupted sleep. The mechanism behind how the substances may change a user’s circadian rhythms remains unknown but new research on mice is providing some insight.  Sleep is extremely important and our R.E.M. cycles are important, circadian rhythm genes help to regulate the brain’s reward system and could influence the addictive properties of drugs such as cocaine.  Circadian gene deficient animals exhibited increased activity in the dopamine neurotransmitter system in the brain, which is heavily stimulated by cocaine use.  The next step is to ascertain the affects of this gene in humans and perhaps find a link between those with low levels and the connection to habitual drug use.

Wide Awake

For example, in one study, human patients addicted to cocaine took much longer to fall asleep. Also, EEG measures of their brain activity showed that they experienced much less deep sleep than did people who did not use the drug. When the subjects were sleep deprived, their immune system had a reduced ability to fight infection.  In another study, heroin patients with less than one year of methadone treatment had poor sleep, the possible cause of which could be measured at the molecular level, Gordon says. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging of these patients showed some energy-indicating molecules in their brain had failed to recover properly after sleep deprivation.  Scientists also have determined that cognitive deficits characteristic of people who regularly use the street drug ecstasy may be based on drug-induced changes in sleep neurobiology. Their altered sleep patterns, cognitive deficits, and impulsivity may be worsened by high levels of catecholamines, brain chemicals that the body produces in response to stress.

Although the neurobiology underlying the sleep disturbance can be directly related to the disease process itself, it is often impossible to determine cause and effect.  Therefore, it is important to study both sleep and the disease simultaneously to get a full understanding.  Researchers also are trying to identify the neurobiological factors that help explain a recovering addict’s vulnerability to relapse.

“Drug addiction is characterized by compulsive drug taking, which occurs even though addicts understand that the behavior is harmful to them. It is also a chronic disorder. Addicts find it extremely difficult to suppress drug taking and often relapse, even after years of abstinence,” says Laura Peoples, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.

The compulsive nature of the behavior and the ever present vulnerability to relapse suggests that drug addiction is accompanied by long-lasting changes in those parts of the brain that control motivation and behavioral choice.  Recent findings have led to a new hypothesis, that experience- and activity-dependent adaptations cause a progressive and persistent increase in the response of specific neurons to specific signals that promote drug-seeking relative to the signals that facilitate other motivated behaviors.