Antidepressant Use More Than Doubles After Weight-Loss Surgery
A recent Danish study found that gastric bypass patients’ prescription drug use decreased after surgery. However, the use of psychiatric drugs like antidepressants more than doubled. Why could this be? Researchers studied over 9,000 Danish patients who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, currently the most common weight-loss surgery used today. They examined the prescription drug . . . . Continue Reading
Inside The Biggest Loser: Did Contestants Suffer Metabolic Damage?
Imagine spending months on national television losing massive amounts of weight only to gain it back later. The show “The Biggest Loser” has aired for 17 seasons and continues to shock viewers when they see contestants shed half their body size in just a few weeks. Many of the “Losers” drop the pounds by exercising 8 hours . . . . Continue Reading
Florence Welch Reveals Past Struggles With Alcoholism
Florence Welch, the lead singer of the band Florence and the Machine, recently opened up about her decision to get sober in the last year of her twenties. The 29-year-old admitted to going on a destructive path that ultimately led her to desire healing in her life. Now, despite her pre-show jitters, she says . . . . Continue Reading
Billion-Dollar Abstinence Program Failed To Stop Spread of HIV
Abstinence-only sex education continues to fail, yet the United States has funded billions of dollars to promote abstinence in Africa with the intention to stop the spread of HIV. Now, data is revealing that the efforts failed to prevent the spread fo HIV in Africa. In 2003, President George W. Bush passed the President’s Emergency . . . . Continue Reading
How Fat Affects Our Hormones
If you thought weight gain only affected your appearance, you were wrong. While gaining weight can cause feelings of insecurity about the way we look, over time the increase in fat results in psychological changes too. Excess fat stores hormones and affects our mood. For a long time, fat was considered extra storage or reserved . . . . Continue Reading
5 Common Misconceptions about Antidepressants
I’ll be honest, the first time I heard about someone close to me taking antidepressants, I responded with an uninformed misconception. While I was empathetic towards the situation, having dealt with depression and anxiety issues myself, I assumed taking the medication was a quick-fix solution. You had to be tough in this world, right? Taking . . . . Continue Reading
Does Social Media Really Lead to Depression?
The negative implications of social media use continue to be a heavily debated topic. Now, researchers believe that excessive social media use can lead to depression. While social media has been linked to negative psychological effects for quite some time now, this is the first study to actually associate a correlation between social media and . . . . Continue Reading
Could a Cookbook Help Those Struggling With Eating Disorders?
A cookbook for eating disorder recovery? As someone who struggled with eating disorders, the entire concept sparked my interest. Francesca Baker, 29, recently created a cookbook to help people who have suffered eating disorders overcome food anxiety. The book is titled, Eating & Living: Recipes for Recovery and alongside each recipe will feature stories of . . . . Continue Reading
3 Mental Health Myths Debunked
With the internet, we can find answers to our questions with the click of a button. However, sometimes too much information can be worse than no information at all. Anyone who has gone online can attest to that. Medical information online is a great tool because it allows us to become informed before seeing our . . . . Continue Reading
The Unfortunate Decline in Responsive Communication
Looking for a roommate over the past few months has motivated me to delve into the decline of responsive communication. From my experience, the unresponsiveness of potential roommates, whom I had already acquired rapports with, grew increasingly frustrating. Suddenly, I found myself pondering the psychology behind the decline in responsive communication. I desired to understand the reasoning behind it all. What . . . . Continue Reading