Bad relationships don’t just take a toll on your mental health, they do damage to your heart and metabolic processes as well.
While both men and women in “strained” unions, those marked by arguing and being angry, were more likely to feel depressed than happier partners, the women in the contentious relationships were more likely to develop high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and other markers of what’s known as “metabolic syndrome,” said study author Nancy Henry, a doctoral candidate in clinical healthy psychology at the University of Utah.
Metabolic syndrome is known to boost the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
If your relationship isn’t headed in a direction you’re happy with, you have yet another reason to ask, is it worth it?
In a just published study in the Review of General Psychology, researchers looked at couples from college and middle-age brackets who experienced romantic, passionate, or friendship based love in short and long-term relationships. Couples who kept the romance going had the most satisfaction in both types of relationships. Couples in more obsessive relationships were happier in the short-term, than long. Since it’s just a handful of couples, much more research needs to be done, which could shift our understanding of human partnerships.
This year the US Department of Health and Human Services wants to remind you that HIV isn’t just a third world epidemic, the disease takes its toll domestically as well. There are educational events taking place all over the country today to offer American women information on HIV prevention and transmission.
Check out the Red Pump Project (launched by The Fabulous Giver) for more information about how women are fighting the further spread of HIV amongst their sisters and how they’re helping those who’ve been diagnosed.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn more. Here are some resources to get you started.
Prevention:
Find an STD testing site near you to get tested with your partner(s).
Always use a condom when having sex (unless absolutely sure your not-philandering partner is disease-free, and you’re using another type(s) of birth control).
Epic tome And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts provides excellent coverage of the early reactions to the emergence of the virus by the medical, political, and gay communities.
As you should know by now, one of my random interests in research into human sexuality and relationships. It’s fascinating. So I periodically bring you news of the latest, often preliminary findings, announced by researchers…
1. Can’t help but seriously date more than one guy at a time? Consistently bored with your main squeeze? Blame it on sex hormone oestradiol.
The researchers found that a woman’s oestradiol level was positively associated with self-perceived physical attractiveness. Women with a higher oestradiol level also reported a greater likelihood of flirting, kissing and having a serious affair (but not a one-night stand) with a new partner.
Oestradiol levels were negatively associated with a woman’s satisfaction with her primary partner.
I am a notoriously bad pancake maker and have long resigned myself to restaurant pancakes. Not any more.
These are the best pancakes ever, and I wanted to share the recipe (from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007). I used unsweetened coconut flakes in mine.
Overall, Cooking Light puts together an amazing cookbook of their previous year’s magazine recipes. Some of my favorite recipes hail from their publications.
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flaked sweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (13.5 oz can) light coconut milk
1 tbsp butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine coconut milk, butter, and egg, stir well. Add coconut milk mix to flour mix, stirring until smooth.
2. Pour about 1/4 c batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet. Cook 3 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over, cook 2 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.
Yield 4 svgs, 3 pancakes each
300 calories/29% from fat; 9.7g fat, 7.6g protein, 46.6 g carb, 1.4g fiber, 60mg chol, 521 mg sodium, 14mg calcium
Throughout the United States “Good Samaritan” laws are in place to provide legal protection for everyday citizens that choose to help someone that has fallen ill or is injured in an accident, whether roadside or at the office or any other place you could imagine someone needing immediate care. Under these laws you can’t be sued or arrested for “assisting,” as long as you’re acting within reason.
For almost a decade now, I’ve been CPR certified. During my last CPR certification renewal, I also completed a First Aid course that is good for 3 years. As someone who teaches in a gym, I’d like to be ready, just in case. I’m happy to report that it’s training I’ve never had to use.
But a California Supreme Court decision makes me reconsider my Girl Scout-esque preparedness.
A woman pulled her co-worker from a vehicle after a car accident on Halloween 2004. As a result of her injuries, the co-worker was left paraplegic. The woman is being sued for damages for her contribution to the injuries inflicted.
The woman and her lawyer fought the lawsuit arguing her Good Samaritan status.
The Supreme Court has sided for the injured party in a decision that could discourage people from helping those in crisis situations. Essentially, only the medical actions taken are protected under California law. So while you’re OK if you perform CPR or the Heimlich maneuver* or apply a tourniquet to gushing wound (knowing help is hours away), if you pull a person out of the middle of the road to administer that care, you can get sued for any damages caused by that act.
From a dissenting judge:
“One who dives into swirling waters to retrieve a drowning swimmer can be sued for incidental injury he or she causes while bringing the victim to shore, but is immune for harm he or she produces while thereafter trying to revive the victim,” [Judge Marvin R.] Baxter wrote. “Here, the result is that defendant Torti has no immunity for her bravery in pulling her injured friend from a crashed vehicle, even if she reasonably believed it might be about to explode.”
Instructors in the courses I’ve taken have always reminded students to follow several rules
You never move the body when a neck injury is suspected; always suspect a neck injury.
If the options are a) possibility of a dead body or b) move the injured body to prevent it from being a dead body, you’re better off alive than dead
Because of this legal finding, it appears I’m actually unable to help anyone unless they’ve fallen or landed out of danger and in a bodily position that doesn’t require much shifting before applying my first aid training. Moving a body won’t necessarily be protected as medical care, so I’d be risking civil liability.
Hopefully, the California State Legislature will redefine Good Samaritanism to include all non-medical action required to save a life. Otherwise, it seems that the only crisis safe to handle is applying adhesive bandages to paper cuts.
* The American Red Cross no longer refers to choking victim rescue as the Heimlich maneuver, but as “abdominal thrusts.” I’m told the Heimlich family wanted royalties for use of the name. Seriously.
Romantic comedies are not your best date night movie option!
Romantic comedies set up unrealistic expectations in relationships. Researchers at Hariot Watt University found their study subjects, after watching such films, to be more apt to believe in soul mates, magical consistent sex with one’s partner and that in a good relationship one’s partner should be able to predict your needs, even if you don’t explicitly state them.
Kimberly Johnson, who also worked on the study, said: ‘Films do capture the excitement of new relationships but they also wrongly suggest that trust and committed love exist from the moment people meet, whereas these are qualities that normally take years to develop.’
You can help out with their next study on relationships, personality and media consumption, you can take part in a survey here.
A while back I read about a study that found couples were more likely to hook up after watching a horror film than other genres included in the study. (A study I, of course, can’t locate right now). Horror films get the adrenalin pumping and the blood flowing with the disadvantage of making your call into questions various aspects of your current relationship.
The age at which a women feels most sexy is 34, according to a new study, that also found those in their twenties and thirties have the most sex – 10.4 times a month on average
This figure is double the amount middle-aged women have, which works out at just 4.5 times a month, but the research suggests the older women take more pleasure from it.
More than half – 56 per cent – said they enjoyed sex more than they did when they were younger.
Seems reasonable. Women feel sexiest when they’re getting the most nookie. Their partner(s) make them feel more desirable, yielding more sexual encounters. Like everything else in life, practice makes closer to perfect. Older women have spent years figuring out what feels good to their bodies, so one would hope a good partner who understands one’s need would make for better sex.
Birth control pill available without a prescription in London
Here’s a solution to the Bush administration’s planned HHS regulations allowing medical professionals and staff to deny procedures and sales of medications that violate their own moral code.
A John Hopkins University review of more than 21 studies looking at post-abortion mental health found no linkage between abortion and depression, but instead found “post abortion syndrome” to be a convenient political gimmick for the pro-birth movement.
‘Based on the best available evidence, emotional harm should not be a factor in abortion policy. If the goal is to help women, program and policy decisions should not distort science to advance political agendas,’ added Vignetta Charles, a researcher and doctoral student at Johns Hopkins who worked on the study.
The average professional work day runs 8am-5pm or 9am-6pm + any overtime. But given our global economy, which allows people in multiple time zones to contribute to the same project, are those arbitrarily selected work hours really necessary anymore?
I know plenty of people who can be at work wide awake pre-8am. I am not one of them. While I can easily work til 2am when need be, my body rebels against early mornings even when I get a full night of sleep. And for my early AM peeps, they struggle with late nights and would much rather get up even earlier when needed.
So it comes as a bit of a relief to see my high school struggle to focus in an 8am French class explained by new research. Researchers are encouraging high schools to start an hour later, allowing night owl teens to get the extra hour of sleep they need to function and focus at school the following day. In trials of a later school start, students not only got more sleep, but number of car incidents caused by teens dropped, as the rate rose in surrounding districts not participating in the trials.
But what of adults who are naturally inclined to wake up a bit later and to do their best work later in the day? Projects are due when projects are due, regardless of when you’re working on them. Isn’t there some wiggle room for the work days of individuals who aren’t high functioners at 8am?
Given the obsessive use of email communication and taking advantage of Indian outsourcing to see project work continue after Western hemisphere businesses shut down for the night, if a manager trusts you enough to hire you, shouldn’t he trust you to get the job done regardless of your work hours? Wouldn’t that flexibility improve job satisfaction and potentially productivity?
I hope I get to answer those questions some day. Until then, it’s dual alarm clocks for me.
Posted by zak 
Posted by zak 
Posted by zak 
