Tag: Health

Categories
Health

Troian Bellisario Shares Mental Health Advice For Her Younger Self


Opening up about one’s experiences with mental health is far from an easy thing to do, especially when stigma is still very real. Many celebrities, however, have begun to break this barrier in years past, one of them being actor Troian Bellisario. The former Pretty Little Liars star has been vocal about her journey with mental health, sharing her experiences with anxiety and an eating disorder in order to help young fans who may be going through similar battles.

In a recent video, Troian opened up once again about what she has faced, joining the Child Mind Institute‘s #MyYoungerSelf campaign. In the clip, she gives useful advice to her younger self about how to do deal with and embrace her feelings, whether they be happy, sad, or painful. “It’s totally normal for you to feel like somedays you might be overwhelmingly sad, or some days you might be very angry,” she says in the clip. “Some days you might be really happy, and all of these [feelings] are real, and they’re legitimate, and they’re yours.

She adds: “Don’t hide them or push them away…. You’re an incredible person, you’re a sensitive person… You don’t have to take it out on yourself or hurt yourself in any way because you are loved; you are worthy of being loved.”

The #MyYoungerSelf campaign was created in order for actors, athletes, and others in the public eye to share hope with those who may be dealing with their own mental health journey. Others who have participated in the campaign are Isaac Mizrahi, Bo Burnham, and Alyson Stoner.

Troian has been very vocal about her eating disorder in the past. In 2017, while promoting her film Feed, she told Teen Vogue: “For somebody who’s experienced it, you know that when that voice speaks, you feel compelled to listen. You’re either trying to avoid its punishment, or avoid the pain that comes from not listening to it. For somebody who doesn’t experience an eating disorder, they have to understand why somebody would be motivated to follow its orders.” In an essay for Lenny Letter, she opened up further, explaining that that voice follows her every single day, even if her eating disorder itself has alleviated as she’s grown older and attained help.

Troian ends the video saying, “You will grow and you will experience different things and I’m really proud of you,” reminding us all that we are seen, worthy, and loved.

[embedded content]

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, NEDA‘s toll-free, confidential helpline (800-931-2237) is here to help: Monday-Thursday from 9AM to 9PM EST and Friday 9AM to 5PM. NEDA’s helpline volunteers offer support and basic information, locate treatment options in your area, and can help you find answers to any questions you may have.



Source link

Categories
Health

How To Talk To Your Boss About Your Mental Health


How can you get that kind of support from your boss? Should you bring up your mental health condition at all? We asked the experts how to tackle these toughies, whether you need a long lunch for a weekly therapy appointment or a leave of absence for more intensive care.

1. Test the waters
What will my coworkers think? Will my boss judge me differently? Will it hurt my career? Those are all valid questions, says Theresa Nguyen, vice president of policy and programs at Mental Health America: “Even though everyone has rights to accommodations, the reality is that asking for them is scary.” You can check the company handbook or website for any official policies. If you feel comfortable with your direct supervisor, it’s ideal to speak with her first, says Tanisha Ranger, a Nevada-based psychologist who has helped many clients broach the topic of mental health with their employers. Start by testing the waters, asking general questions such as, “If I have a recurring doctor’s appointment during the work day, how do you want me to handle that?” Her response can be a good indicator of whether or not she’ll be open to giving you some flexibility. Once you’re ready to talk to your boss about your specific situation, schedule some time to speak privately.

2. Do your homework
Before you have a more private meeting, do some due diligence—it’s important to walk into your boss’s office as prepared as possible and offer a plan that you’ve discussed with your therapist, Ranger says, rather than just unloading your diagnosis and waiting for your boss to provide the solutions. It helps to provide a list of requested accommodations and explain how each will help you perform to your potential.

In other words, you want to present your boss with a solution, not a problem. So explain how your mental illness may affect your work and how specific accommodations will allow you to perform to the best of your ability. For example, if you deal with PTSD and sometimes struggle with concentration, detail how working from home where you can control your environment could help you stay on course.

3. Be open to their suggestions
Employees have a right to “reasonable accommodations” but it’s ultimately up to employers to determine what reasonable means. Your boss may not immediately agree to all your requests, so be open to working together to finding creative solutions that will work for both you and your employer.

If an accommodation is minor, such as taking a long lunch once a week for a therapy appointment, a brief conversation with your boss will often suffice. But for bigger accommodations that will more drastically change your schedule, be prepared to work with HR too.

4. Know when to involve HR
If you don’t have a good relationship with your supervisor or you’ve tested the waters and gotten the impression that she won’t be understanding, you can opt to go directly to human resources to discuss your situation.

This is often a more discreet option, since they can’t legally share the reason for your medical accommodations if you don’t want them to, says Jessica Methot, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. “This information is confidential explicitly because supervisors cannot be given information that can be used to discriminate against employees,” she says. “In this case, you would be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act.” This means that even if you need to take a leave of absence, your boss doesn’t need to know why—you can work with your doctor and your HR team to fill out the appropriate Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) paperwork. “All you need to tell your boss is that you have a medical condition and you’ve completed the FMLA paperwork with HR,” Ranger says.



Source link

Categories
Health

The Best—and Worst—Foods for Vaginal Health


You are what you eat, and apparently, so is your vagina. Your diet affects pretty much everything from your menstrual cycle to your mood, so eating the best foods for vaginal health can help keep things running smoothly down there.

For the ultimate vaginal health-boosting diet, we asked the experts for their favorite foods.

Your vagina, like your gut, requires healthy bacteria to fight infections and maintain a normal pH. Luckily, any foods that help promote gut health, can also help promote a healthy balance of vaginal bacteria, says Jennie Ann Freiman, M.D. Consuming probiotics has actually been shown to help women with vaginitis—chronic vaginal discomfort that can lead to pain during sex, says Brian A. Levine, M.D. To improve your gut health and your vaginal health, she advises eating a combo of prebiotic foods like garlic, onions, and raw leeks along with probiotic foods like yogurt, kimchi, pickles, sauerkraut, tempeh, and kombucha. (One thing to note: prebiotic and probiotic supplements aren’t as good as actual prebiotic and probiotic foods, says Dr. Freiman. “Lab formulations don’t beat Mother Nature.”)

Healthy fats like those found in nuts, olive oil, and avocados are often touted as superfoods for their role in helping to regulate your cholesterol. But that in turn also helps keep your estrogen levels in balance, creating a healthy mucosal lining that can help ward off infections. Almonds and other types of nuts are especially good, says Dr. Levine, because they contain B vitamins and calcium that prevent vaginitis.

While prebiotic and probiotic foods add helpful bacteria to the gut and vagina, Dr. Freiman says processed foods depress your immune system, which can allow harmful bacteria to take over. This can lead to all sorts of problems down there, including bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, dryness, pain during sex, and urinary tract infections.

Too much sugar isn’t good for your vagina either. Specifically, it can damage or kill the important vaginal bacteria (dubbed Lactobacilli), says Burt Webb, M.D. Basically, sugar is the opposite of a probiotic. The bacterial imbalance can lead to yeast infections, soreness, and irritation—three things you really don’t want to deal with.

Certain meats and dairy products contain xenoestrogens—artificial hormones that imitate estrogen. According to Dr. Webb, these can block estrogen from the vagina, preventing the mucosal lining from forming which again, can leave you open to infection.

“The vagina is just like the inside of the mouth—when a woman is thirsty and parched, her vagina probably is too,” says Dr. Levine. Hydration can also help prevent any unusual odors from surfacing down there, says Octavia Cannon, D.O.—just one more reason to gulp down those eight glasses a day.



Source link

Categories
Health

A Chronic Illness Is a Full-Time Job—And It's Messing With My Mental Health


With a chronic illness, even something as simple as going on a date has an added layer of complexity. I could usually make it through a couple of dinners without anyone noticing that I was checking my blood sugar (not just my phone) under the table, but if things got hot and heavy, there inevitably came the moment when I’d have to fess up and explain that I may have to stop mid-romp to check my blood sugar.

Bionic woman: My insulin infusion port, left, and continuous glucose monitor sensor and transmitter, right. In my pocket is my insulin pump.

Ashley Batz

When I was in my teens and 20s, I tried to pretend my diabetes was a peripheral part of my life—I wasn’t ready to own the fact that I had a permanent, chronic illness that could result in very real complications like kidney failure, eye disease, neuropathy, or heart disease if I didn’t maintain well-controlled blood sugars. Unless I was with close friends or family, I often hid my blood glucose testing and insulin delivery.

But downplaying it, of course, didn’t change the fact that I do have diabetes. What I couldn’t quite bring myself to admit until recently was that I felt an intense loneliness attached to my disease. I hated the idea that my condition could slow me down or spoil the fun. While other people my age were eating whatever they wanted and partying their faces off, I knew that for every drink I had or handful of fries I ate, it could mean I’d be on a blood sugar roller coaster for hours afterward.

Now that I’m in my 30s and actively planning for a future with my partner, I’ve been forced to look at the emotional toll my diabetes has taken on me—and I’ve realized I’m just beginning to understand another layer of my already complex disease.

The daily stress of maintaining healthy blood sugar levels might seem like a small thing to people who don’t experience it—even I tried to write it off as general “life” stuff for a long time, piling it alongside things all young adults deal with, like building a career, paying bills, and navigating relationships. But all the blood sugar math, and finger pricks, and stress over what’s on my plate, really add up. Going for a run, eating at restaurants, getting dressed, traveling, driving—heck, even having my period—all involve additional checklists to ensure my glucose is in control and I can be comfortable. Plus, managing diabetes is expensive. It’s a lot to keep track of.

Hands drawing insulin with a syringe.

Insulin injections or infusions will be a part of my daily life—forever.

Ashley Batz

I’ve been lucky so far to have not developed any serious physical complications, but it’s become clear in the past few years that a large part of my emotional turmoil—acute anxiety, worry about money and safety, fear of making mistakes—is, and always has been, directly related to my diabetes.

The research backs this up: having diabetes may add to your risk of depression, and can actually lead to a condition called diabetes distress, which is similar to depression in that it involves feeling out-of-control or powerless, but specifically related to diabetes. The irony is, it’s not always clear whether the diabetes fuels the depression or if it’s the other way around; high stress levels can elevate blood sugars, which can contribute to even more stress around keeping blood sugars in check. “When you’re asked to take on this extra work of managing your disease, burnout and having an emotional response is common,” says Dr. Polonsky. “It can be like a ball and chain, making it even harder to manage this disease successfully.”

That’s the thing about living with diabetes: No matter how “good” you are about checking your blood sugars and eating what you should to keep them in check, there are just some days—and sometimes long stretches—when you feel completely out of control. It’s easy to feel like a failure when you’re trying your best and it doesn’t pay off.

I recently realized that I can’t simultaneously improve my health and let fear run the show. Instead of downplaying the demands of my disease as I did in my teens and 20s, I’m now trying to examine and embrace them. That means asking questions and getting curious about the many ways in which my disease impacts my life and the lives of others. It means going back to therapy to specifically address the fear and anxiety I feel about my diabetes. And I’m trying to forgive myself for judging my worth based on the numbers I see on my glucose monitor.



Source link

Categories
Health

Grammys 2019: Lady Gaga's Acceptance Speech Addresses Mental Health


Lady Gaga took home took home the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born at the 2019 Grammys on Sunday night (February 10), and she used her speech as an opportunity to talk about mental health and the importance of reaching out for help.

“I’m so proud to be a part of a movie that addresses mental health issues,” Gaga said. “They’re so important. And a lot of artists deal with that, and we’ve got to take care of each other. So if you see somebody that’s hurting don’t look away. And if you’re hurting, even though it might be hard, try to find that bravery within yourself to dive deep and go tell somebody and take them up in your head with you.”

Watch Lady Gaga‘s speech for yourself, below:

Fans took to Twitter to applaud Gaga for her candor:

Gaga has been quite open about her struggles with mental health. “One in four of us will have to deal with a mental health condition at some point in our lives, and if we’re not directly affected, someone we care for is likely to be,” Gaga and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, wrote in an essay for The Guardian back in October 2018 . “Yet despite the universality of the issue, we struggle to talk about it openly or to offer adequate care or resources. Within families and communities, we often remain silenced by a shame that tells us that those with mental illness are somehow less worthy or at fault for their own suffering.”

Gaga’s already won three Grammys this evening, two for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born and one for “Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?).” “I’m not gonna be able to wear any makeup tonight,” she wrote in an emotional tweet celebrating her wins. A star really is born.



Source link

Categories
Health

4 Weird Ways Your Vagina Health Changes When You're Sick


When you’re sick, you’re probably not thinking about your vagina. Chances are, trying to squeeze in a doctor visit and figuring out which show to binge while you’re laying low in bed are higher on your list of priorities. But a surprising number of seemingly unrelated health issues can show up in your vagina—from stress to dehydration to the common cold, the flu, or a fever.

How your vagina is affected when you’re sick depends on a few key things: your body, what you’ve come down with, and what meds you’re taking to treat it. Here are the most common ways your vagina can change when you get sick, according to experts.

Dehydration

Any sickness that dehydrates you will also dehydrate your vagina, explains Peter Rizk, M.D. an ob-gyn specializing in fertility at Fairhaven Health. That means you may not get as wet as usual during sex (if you feel up to having it), so lube could be extra important. It also means you might see less of the vaginal discharge that normally shows up on your underwear throughout the day. When you’re sick, it’s even more important to hydrate—especially if you want to keep things slick down there.

Extra discharge

On the flip side, if you have a viral infection, things could go the other way down south. Part of the immune system’s response to any viral infection, such as a flu or cold, is to make the blood vessels more permeable, leading to an increase in all secretions containing white blood cells. And that doesn’t just mean blood: Your vaginal discharge actually contains a bunch of white blood cells, which help keep the vagina’s bacteria and yeast levels balanced, says Candace Howe, M.D., a board-certified ob-gyn in California.

If you take medicine, however, it could cancel out that effect, Dr. Howe says. Decongestants, antihistamines such as Benadryl, and mucus-reducing meds like guaifenesin can dry up your body’s mucus membranes—including those in your vagina.

Yeast infections

If you’re taking antibiotics, they can have their own effects on your lady bits. In the process of killing the bacteria that’s causing your infection, they can also kill healthy vaginal bacteria, which can increase your risk for bacterial infections like yeast infections and vaginitis, says Yvonne Bohn, M.D., an ob-gyn in California.

This bacterial issue can last long after your original infection is over, says Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., a clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale School of Medicine. “Even if you took antibiotics a few weeks [ago], you could still show up with a yeast infection related to the antibiotics,” she says. Dr. Bohn’s recommendation: Take a probiotic to keep vaginal infections at bay, especially if you’re on antibiotics.

Irregular bleeding

Another issue Dr. Minkin points to is vaginal bleeding. Some women who get medically-prescribed steroid injections for joint problems will experience “funky irregular bleeding related to the steroid injection,” she says. If this happens to you, check in with your gyno and make sure to bring up any recent steroid treatments in the process.

The good news is, any changes that happen to your vagina while you’re sick will likely pass along with the illness. If they don’t, there may be a separate issue causing trouble. If anything seems off or different from your norm, it’s worth a chat with your doctor.



Source link