Learn To Stay Stress-Free This Holiday Season

One in five Americans worry that holiday stress can affect their physical health, and with good reason: With all the shopping, party-going, cooking, family functions and the never-ending quest to find the %26quot;perfect%26quot; gift, it’s no wonder we’re all wound a little more tightly during November and December.
To help consumers reduce holiday stress, Tempur-Pedic International Inc., the leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of premium mattresses and pillows worldwide, released today the third podcast in its %26quot;Health and Wellness%26quot; series, focusing on the importance of a restorative night’s sleep in combating stress.
"Consumers have made it clear they want to find new ways to bring a sense of balance and well-being to their lives, and this couldn’t be truer around the holidays," said Rick Anderson, President of Tempur-Pedic North America. "Tempur-Pedic offers consumers a restful and rejuvenating night’s sleep that’s especially important during this busy, and often stressful, time of year."
The featured guest speaker on Tempur-Pedic’s November podcast is Dr. Howard Fidler, Tempur-Pedic Wellness Advisory Board member and chiropractor at Davis Chiropractic in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in pediatrics, sports medicine and rehabilitation. In his podcast, "Relieving Stress During the Holidays," Dr. Fidler shares the seven major signs that stress is adversely affecting your health, as well as the top three ways to relieve stress and eliminate its negative side effects.
Tempur-Pedic’s "Health and Wellness" podcast series is designed to educate the public about the importance of a balanced life and the role quality sleep plays in achieving that goal, reminding consumers that sleep is the foundation for living healthy.

UM Debuts New Depression Treatment Therapy

The Depression Center and University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry are now offering a new option for the treatment of depression called Repetitive Transcrancial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS).
"Despite advances in treating depression, more than 30 percent of patients with this disease do not benefit from or are intolerant of antidepressant medications," says Stephan Taylor, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and co-director of the Psychiatric Neuromodulation Program. "Now, we have the option of offering patients a non-invasive treatment for depression that is completely different from medication."
rTMS delivers highly-focused, pulsed magnetic energy to stimulate nerve cells in an area of the brain that is linked to depression. It is non-systemic (does not circulate in the bloodstream throughout the body) and non-invasive (does not involve surgery). The treatment is a 40-minute outpatient procedure prescribed by a psychiatrist that does not require anesthesia or sedation. Patients remain awake and alert while it happens. The treatment is typically administered daily for four to six weeks.
The U-M was part of a 300-patient international clinical trial from 2004-2005 that showed that rTMS was effective and safe in the treatment of depression in one in three patients. Daniel Maixner, M.D., clinical director of the Neuromodulation Program, oversaw the study site, which involved patients who failed to see improvement from prior antidepressant medication. These patients had received about four prior antidepressant treatment attempts in the current episode, one of which was deemed to be at an adequate dose for a substantial period of time.
"Our own experience is that this treatment is well-tolerated and may be particularly helpful for patients who have not responded to or cannot tolerate medications," Maixner says.
Over 10,000 treatments were safely performed as part of the study without the side effects that are sometimes seen with medication, which include weight gain, sexual dysfunction, nausea, dry mouth, and sedation. The most common adverse reaction related to treatment was pain or discomfort on the scalp during treatments. This side-effect was transient and mild to moderate in severity. The incidence of stimulation discomfort declined significantly after the first week of treatment. There was a less than 5% discontinuation rate due to adverse events. In the strength of the treatment effect, rTMS proved as effective as anti-depressant medications.

Global Health Trax Fights Autism With Jenny McCarthy

Actress and author Jenny McCarthy has established herself as a tireless crusader in the search for an autism treatment and advocate for nutritional regimens to help manage autism.
McCarthy incorporated the Global Health Trax(TM) (GHT) flagship specialty probiotic product, ThreeLac(TM), into her autistic son’s nutritional regimen and shared her experience about fighting autism in her book Louder than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism. For instance, on page 200 McCarthy writes, “This is the stuff that really made Evan excrete yeast and start talking more.”
On July 19th McCarthy and Jim Carrey will host a private celebrity fundraiser for Generation Rescue. Global Health Trax is proud to be a sponsor of the event. Generation Rescue approaches childhood neurological disorders as symptoms of underlying physical conditions including build ups of toxins in their young bodies, food allergies, gastrointestinal distress, and yeast overgrowth.
ThreeLac(TM) probiotic is a fungal and yeast-recovery/reduction product providing selected beneficial microflora to the intestinal tract. It is distributed exclusively through Global Health Trax. Many parents of autistic children have adopted nutritional therapies and diet changes including what is known as a gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) diet which restricts wheat and milk products.
“We admire and praise the autism community and Jenny McCarthy for their inspiring passion and commitment to find help for this heart-breaking disorder,” said Global Health Trax President & CEO Tom Dixson, Co-Founder and former CEO of Petco. “Global Health Trax is proud to know that so many families including Jenny’s have chosen GHT nutraceuticals including ThreeLac for their nutritional regimen.”

Vitamin D Deficiency Associated with Depression Risk, Again

Perhaps you remember an old John Denver song in which he noted that sunshine falling on a certain part of his body made him happy. Georgia State University researchers reveal that people with insufficient vitamin D are at an 85 percent increased risk of depression compared with those who have sufficient levels.

Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin for more than one reason

Although previous research has indicated that a vitamin D deficiency is associated with a risk of depression, results of a new study add more support for this relationship. Vijay Ganji, PhD, RD, and his research team evaluated data from 7,970 individuals aged 15 to 39 in the United States. All the participants underwent an assessment of depression through use of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Diagnostic Interview Schedule.
The investigators found that subjects who had blood levels of vitamin D of 50 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L) or less had an 85 percent increased risk of experiencing current depressive symptoms when compared with subjects who had blood levels of at least 75 nmol/L.
According to the Vitamin D Council, a healthy blood level of vitamin D is between 125 and 200 nmol/L (or between 50 and 80 nanograms per milliliter). Most people in the United States and more than half the world’s population reportedly has insufficient levels of vitamin D. A deficiency of this vitamin has been implicated as a major factor in heart disease, stroke, hypertension, depression, chronic pain, osteoporosis, and many other conditions. Vitamin D levels can be determined by a simple blood test.
To help achieve a healthy level of vitamin D, the Council recommends taking 5,000 International Units (IUs) daily for two to three months, and then getting a blood test to monitor progress. Doses should be adjusted so blood levels reach between 125 and 200 nmol/L. Individuals can also regularly expose their unprotected skin to sunlight for 20 to 30 minutes a day, being careful not to burn. A combination of supplements and sunshine is often followed.
In a previous study, Dutch researchers reported that low levels of vitamin D and higher blood levels of the parathyroid hormone were associated with higher rates of depression among 1,282 individuals aged 65 to 95. A 2010 article in Psychosomatic Medicine reported that vitamin D deficiency is associated with late-life depression in northern latitudes. A 2010 report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism noted that vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for depressive symptoms in older adults.
Dr. Ganji and his team note that “The mechanism through which vitamin D plays a role in mental health is not clearly understood,” and that their study results do not prove that a vitamin D deficiency causes depression. However, they also point out that “it is important to identify persons who are at risk for vitamin D deficiency and/or for depression and to buy Valium early because these two conditions have enormous negative consequences on long term health.”