Some interesting new data about marijuana use is coming out of an Australian study of 3100 young adults. Bottom line: Prolonged, regular use of cannabis often leads to the development of hallucinations, delusions and psychosis.

“Compared with those who had never used cannabis, young adults who had six or more years since first use of cannabis [i.e., who commenced use when around 15 years or younger] were twice as likely to develop a non-affective psychosis and were four times as likely to have high scores on the Peters et al Delusions Inventory [a measure of delusion],” wrote Dr. John McGrath, of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, Park Centre for Mental Health in Wacol, and colleagues. “There was a ‘dose-response’ relationship between the variables of interest: the longer the duration since the first cannabis use, the higher the risk of psychosis-related outcomes.”

The connection between psychosis and marijuana use is not as elemental as it may appear, however.  McGrath and his colleagues found that those who experienced hallucinations earlier in life were most likely to have used marijuana longer and with greater frequency.

“This demonstrates the complexity of the relationship: those individuals who were vulnerable to psychosis [i.e., those who had isolated psychotic symptoms] were more likely to commence cannabis use, which could then subsequently contribute to an increased risk of conversion to a non-affective psychotic disorder,” wrote the study authors.

Small Ideas That Make a Big Difference

Start making a difference.

Every individual can take action to help solve homelessness.

Here are five small things you can start doing now:

Make eye contact: Say hello - greet homeless individuals the same as you would a friend or colleague.

Give small supplies: Instead of money, give Ziploc bags of toiletries, socks, food or grocery coupons. Keep a supply in your car.

Donate clothes: Give your gently worn clothes to a local homeless facility.

Watch your mouth: Don’t call people experiencing homelessness “bums,” “transients,” or even “the homeless.” They are still people first.

Volunteer: Work directly with people experiencing homelessness.

Bust the stigma and share stories: Feeling support and being part of a community is empowering to those struggling with a mental illness. By listening to others or by sharing personal experiences, you help to break the silence that keeps people from being open about their illness.

Special acknowledgment and thanks to TAKE PART- The Soloist.

How to Live a Long, Happy Life

* Be very outgoing.

* Learn how to manage stress.

These two common traits were found in the children of people who lived to 100, and longevity runs in families.

“We have observed that these appear to be really important traits that set the children of centenarians apart from other people the same age who may not age as well,” said Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at the Boston University School of Medicine. The study focuses on older people and their family members, and has tracked the health of children of centenarians as they age, trying to uncover the common denominators of longevity.

Perls and his colleagues looked at 246 children of those who lived to 100 to see if they, now about age 75, had common personality traits. Five personality traits were identified, evaluated and compared to published norms. They were: Neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

The researchers found that the offspring of centenarians were more extroverted than the published norms. That means “they are quite social, establish important friendships and view these friendships as ’safety nets,’ ” important sources of help when needed, Perls said.

Those studied scored lower than the norms on neuroticism, which enables them to manage stress very well.

Women in the study also scored high in agreeableness, a trait that leads to more friendships. The men in the study scored no higher in agreeableness than normal, and men and women scored average levels for openness and conscientiousness.

As for the exact relationship between personality and longevity, “we are relying on scientific literature to understand exactly what it means,” Perls said. For instance, he said, it makes sense that scoring lower in neuroticism — and handling stress well — would contribute to a longer life, because stress has been shown in scientific studies to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Other research has found social ties to be important to an older person’s health.

“We really found that the offspring of centenarians, in their 70s and early 80s, are very much following in the footsteps of their parents,” Perls said. “They have 60 percent reduced rates of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.”

But what to do if you aren’t naturally outgoing and aren’t good at handling stress?

You can get better at each.

Not naturally outgoing?

Make a point of trying to be more outgoing. Travel more, engage others in conversations, join groups with common interests, volunteer.

You don’t handle stress well?

Read all of the stress management posts on this and other sites, and figure out what will work for you—then DO IT!

And take the Life Expectancy Calculator at Living to 100.

You may learn some new tricks to improve your quality of life.

*More on this topic can be found online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Make friends with non-worriers.

Nothing will cause you to worry more frequently or with greater intensity than spending too much time with chronic worrywarts, nay-sayers and fuss-budgets.

Nothing saps your energy more than associating with people who dwell in that faithless, negative state of mind. They’ll suck the joy right out of your life.

Surround yourself with hopeful, optimistic friends. Your life will be much less stressful.

This is the most recent installment in an ongoing series elaborating on 52 proven stress relievers identified by researchers at Texas Woman’s University.

As rates of depression and anxiety increase in older adults, health-care providers are searching for more effective methods of treatment. Since most elderly people already take prescription drugs, many PCPs want a non-pharmaceutical alternative.

New research may have discovered the solution in an old therapy model.

Melinda Stanley, a professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, found that people over age 60 who were treated with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) had less worry, fewer depressive symptoms and improved general mental health at the end of the study compared to people who received biweekly telephone calls from their health-care provider.

“This kind of treatment (CBT) can be useful for people who have anxiety, and it can help them learn how to manage it better,” said, Stanley.

“Many older adults are not…thrilled with the use of medications for anxiety. Many times, they’re already on medications for chronic health conditions, and they may be afraid of side effects. This is a non-medication treatment option,” she noted.

The study included 134 people with an average age of 67. All were being treated in primary care for anxiety. Half of those involved in the study participated in cognitive behavior therapy with experienced therapists. They had up to 10 sessions of CBT over three months that included relaxation training, problem-solving exercises, behavioral sleep management, cognitive therapy and education and awareness training.

The other half received standard primary care, and they were called biweekly to ensure their safety and provide support if needed. Both groups were told to call the therapists if their symptoms worsened.

Response rates in the CBT group were much higher– 40 percent compared to 22 percent — versus the usual care. Worry severity and depression reduced more in the CBT group, and overall mental health improved more in the CBT group, based on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire.

This is good news, and much less expensive than long-term medication management. As managed health care evolves, we must look to both innovative and tried-and-true treatment approaches.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR, a psychotherapy treatment originally designed to alleviate distress associated with traumatic memories, is now being used with success in the treatment of PTSD, panic disorder and generalized anxiety.

During EMDR the client thinks about emotionally upsetting material in brief sequential doses while focusing on an external stimulus at the same time. Therapist-directed lateral eye movements are the most commonly used external stimulus. Hand-tapping and audio stimulation are often used as well.

EMDR helps clients access their own traumatic memory network, accelerating information processing and enabling them to create new associations between the traumatic memory and more helpful, adaptive information.

These new associations result in “complete information processing, new learning, elimination of emotional distress, and development of cognitive insights.”

EMDR uses a three pronged approach:

(1) Past events leading to dysfunction are processed and new associative links with adaptive information are created.

(2) Current circumstances that provoke distress are targeted and internal and external triggers are desensitized.

(3) Future events are imagined and envisioned as positive scenarios to assist the client in acquiring the skills needed for adaptive functioning.

Dr. Francine Shapiro, developer of EMDR, asserts that the human brain has an inherent information-handling system that processes multiple elements of every experience to an adaptive state where learning takes place. She sees memory as being stored in linked networks organized around the earliest related event and its associated affect. These memory networks contain related thoughts, images, emotions, and sensations.

Shapiro believes that unprocessed experiences become the basis of dysfunctional reactions and are the cause of many mental disorders. She proposes that EMDR successfully alleviates mental disorders by fully processing the components of distressing memories. These effects are thought to occur when the targeted memory is linked with other more adaptive information. When this happens, learning takes place, and the experience is stored with appropriate emotions able to guide the person in the future.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) contains many of the same elements found in psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centered therapies. “It is an information processing therapy…used to address the experiential contributors of a wide range of pathologies. It attends to the past experiences that have set the groundwork for pathology, the current situations that trigger dysfunctional emotions, beliefs and sensations, and the positive experience needed to enhance future adaptive behaviors and mental health.”

Interestingly, EMDR seems to be the most effective treatment for PTSD in returning veterans. Twelve sessions of EMDR eliminated post-traumatic stress disorder in 77% of the multiply traumatized combat veterans studied. There was 100% retention in the EMDR condition. Effects were maintained at follow-up.

This is some of the best news I’ve heard in a long time, and I hope those in need have access to this quick, effective treatment.

*Information adapted from Dr. Francine Shapiro’s Accelerated Information Processing model to describe and predict EMDR’s effect.

Do you struggle to get a good night’s sleep?

Do you toss and turn, frequently awaken, or rise in the morning still feeling fatigued?

If so, you have more on the line that just a long, tired day. Your overall happiness may be at stake.

According to a recent Finnish study, people who have difficulty getting a good night’s sleep are three times as likely to be dissatisfied with their lives later on.

While poor sleep and life dissatisfaction each show a strong tendency to be inherited, they do not share the same genetic roots, according to Dr. Tiina Paunio of the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki. This suggests that something about sleeping badly in itself affects “the brain, emotions, and mood.”

Past studies looked at the relationship between life dissatisfaction – as reflected in feelings of well-being and mental functioning — and sleep quality, but none looked at how the two are associated until Dr. Paunio and her colleagues surveyed a group of 18,631 same-sex twins in 1975 and again in 1981.

In 1975, 9 percent of the study participants reported dissatisfaction with life, and were likely to be dissatisfied in 1981. However, their sleep quality did not deteriorate over this period. However, the people who slept “rather poorly or poorly” in 1975 were more than twice as likely to be dissatisfied with life in 1981.

The researchers adjusted for all of the variables including health problems, smoking and drinking habits, and physical activity levels, finding that poor sleep independently tripled the likelihood of life dissatisfaction.

They seem to have proven that poor sleep quality may lead to an overall dissatisfaction with life.

So if you’re sleeping poorly, figure out why and make the necessary changes.

Your future happiness may depend on it.

Watch “The Alzheimer’s Project” for a look at the faces behind the disease - and the forces leading us toward a cure.

Starting this Sunday, mark your calendar or set your DVR so as not to miss “The Alzheimer’s Project,” HBO’s multi-platform series examining groundbreaking Alzheimer discoveries made by America’s leading scientists and the effects this debilitating and fatal disease has on those with Alzheimer’s and their families.

Air dates and times:

Sunday, May 10 at 9 p.m. EST

“The Memory Loss Tapes”

“The Memory Loss Tapes” takes an intimate look at seven individuals living with Alzheimer’s, seeking to introduce a new understanding by sharing the devastating experience of memory loss from the point of view of the person with the disease.

Monday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST

“Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am? With Maria Shriver” and “Momentum in Science, Part 1″

“Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am? With Maria Shriver” is geared toward children and young teens coping with a grandparent’s illness, and presents vignettes that can help a child understand and deal with a relative’s gradual decline into Alzheimer’s.

“Momentum in Science” is a two-part, state-of-science odyssey that takes viewers inside the laboratories and clinics of 25 leading physicians, revealing some of the most cutting-edge Alzheimer research advances.

Tuesday, May 12 at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST

“Caregivers” and “Momentum in Science, Part 2″

“Caregivers” is a collection of five family portraits that illustrate caring for the different stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

The evening concludes with “Momentum in Science, Part 2.”

For updated information about all things Alzheimer’s, visit the Alzheimer’s Reading Room, the “number one blog website on the Internet for advice, information, research, and insight into Alzheimer’s disease.”

Blessings!

‘The Alzheimer’s Project” is a presentation of HBO Documentary Films and the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health in association with the Alzheimer’s Association, The Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund and Geoffrey Beene Gives Back® Alzheimer’s Initiative.

Researchers at Indiana University have learned that even minimal amounts of physical activity, like walking, gardening, housekeeping or circuit training, improve the mood of people with bipolar disorder, major depression or schizophrenia. And this information can easily be applied to anyone searching for relief of anxiety, depression, or a simple, nasty mood.

Working with 11 people from the US and 12 people from Serbia over seven consecutive days, researchers randomly paged the participants, who immediately completed questionnaires about their mood and recent activities. The responses were compared to data collected during the previous 10 minutes using accelerometers worn by the participants that measured activity levels and duration.

The average amount of physical activity of the participants was comparable to that of sedentary adults, somewhat lower than adults with developmental disabilities and significantly lower than activity levels of active adults.

Most important, the study proved that he least active experiences correlated with less positive moods, illuminating the need for physical activity as a regular part of psychiatric rehabilitation.

“We found a positive association between physical activity level and positive mood when low to moderate levels of physical activity are considered,” said study author Bryan McCormick, associate professor in IU’s Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies. “Physical activity interventions that require lower levels of exertion might be more conducive to improving transitory mood, or the ups and downs people with SMI experience throughout the day.”

The lesson learned: If you’re feeling blue or anxious or particularly foul, go for a walk, take a yoga class, get on your bike or go for a swim.

DO something.

Be physically active.

Literally…

Move To Improve!

Here are a few simple ways to prevent brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia:

1. Stay Mentally Active

Mental decline as we age is caused by degrading connections between brain cells; and research has proven that keeping the brain active increases its vitality, builds reserve brain cells and connections, and even generates new brain cells.

Some suggested activities:

• Be a lifelong learner. Take classes, learn new skills and expand on current knowlegde.
• Read, write, do crossword puzzles, jumbles and word games.
• Attend musical events, lectures and theatrical presentations.
• Play board games and card games.
• Garden.
• Walk outdoors every single day.

2. Remain Socially Active

People regularly engaged in social activities retain greater brain vitality, especially if those activities combine both physical and mental activity. Sports, cultural activities, emotional support and close personal relationships together appear to have a protective effect against dementia.

A recent study of 800 men and women aged 75 and older, proved that those who were more physically active, more mentally active or more socially engaged had a lower risk for developing dementia. Those who combined these activities did even better.

Stay socially connected and physically active to stimulate your mind and body:

• Continue to be involved in your life’s work.
• Volunteer in community groups  or for charitable organizations
• Join special interest clubs or other social groups
• Travel

3. Participate in Physical Activity

Physical exercise is the most important factor in maintaining good blood flow to the brain and encouraging new brain cells. It also prohibits heart attack, stroke and diabetes, and thereby protect against those risk factors for Alzheimer’s. In addition, aerobic exercise improves oxygen flow and general brain function and reduces brain cell loss.

Try these activities for 30 minutes a day to improve your physical and mental health:

• Bicycling
• Circuit Training
• Gardening
• Pilates
• Swimming
• Tai chi
• Walking
• Water Aerobics
• Yoga

4. Consume brain and heart healthy foods.

All of us benefit from wise-eating, but those with a family history of Alzheimer’s should be particularly careful to maintain a healthy weight, reduce consumption of foods high in fat and cholesterol,  and eat more protective foods.

Foods that reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, and protect brain cells:

FRUIT

Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Oranges
Plums
Prunes
Raisins
Raspberries
Red Grapes
Strawberries

NUTS

Almonds
Pecans
Walnuts

VEGETABLES

Alfalfa sprouts
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Chard
Corn
Eggplant
Kale
Onion
Red bell pepper
Spinach

FATTY, COLD-WATER FISH

Halibut
Mackerel
Salmon
Sardines
Trout
Tuna

Even with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, adherence to these guidelines, coupled with advances in medical treatments, could lead to an Alzheimer’s-free future.