Are the Well Read More Likely to Succeed?

By: Alexandria Addesso

With television, movies, and the internet to entertain us many have been reading less and less. So much information can now be attained in small sound bites or social media posts, which often leaves large knowledge filled tomes on the shelf. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, “reading has declined among every group of adult Americans,” and for the first time in American history, “less than half of the United States adult American population is reading literature.” But could this trend be detrimental? How important is reading and how does it affect a person’s chances at achieving success in their lifetime?



Studies done at The New School, a New York City private University found that reading is crucial for socialization especially in children. Researchers also found evidence that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling. In one study done by the university and published in Science, participants read non-fiction/nothing, popular fiction, or literary fiction then were tested on their ability to understand other people’s thoughts and emotions. Participants that read non-fiction/nothing showed unimpressive results. When they read excerpts of popular fiction their test results were dually insignificant. But, when they read literary fiction their test results improved vastly and so did their capacity for empathy.

Reading is also the key for those who want to be leaders or chief executive officers (CEO). Reading in general has shown to increases verbal intelligence, making a leader a more adept as well as a more articulate communicator. Being that reading is a form of leisurely recreation, it has been shown to be a good stress reliever which overall leads to a more peaceful work environment. Some very well read successful people include Steve Jobs the founder of Apple, Phil Knight the founder of Nike, and Winston Churchill who won the Nobel Prize for Literature.



Currently about 60 million Americans suffer from some form of a sleep disorder. A lack of sleep can negatively affect a person’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Sleep experts often recommend establishing a regular de-stressing routine before bed to calm your mind and ready your body for rest. Reading is one of the top strategies recommended to add to your routine right before going to sleep. Bright lights from electronic devices signal the brain to wake up, whereas reading a book under a dim light can tell your system to do the inverse.

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Robot is Helping Autistic Children with their Social Skills

"This is nice, it tickles me," Kaspar the social robot tells four-year-old Finn as they play together at an autism school north of London.

Kaspar, developed by the University of Hertfordshire, also sings song, imitates eating, plays the tambourine and combs his hair during their sessions aimed at helping Finn with his social interaction and communication.

Finn is one of around 170 autistic children that Kaspar has helped in a handful of schools and hospitals over the last 10 years.

But with approximately 700,000 people in Britain on the autism spectrum, according to the National Autistic Society who will mark ‘World Autism Day’ on Sunday, the university wants Kaspar to help more people.

"Our vision is that every child in a school or a home or in a hospital could get a Kaspar if they wanted to," Kerstin Dautenhahn, professor of artificial
intelligence at the University of Hertfordshire, told Reuters.



Achieving that goal will largely depend on the results of a two-year clinical trial with the Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, which, if successful, could see Kaspar working in hospitals nationwide.

TRACKS, an independent charity and specialist early years center for children with autism in Stevenage, have seen positive results from working with Kaspar, who sports a blue cap and plaid shirt for play sessions.

"We were trying to teach a little boy how to eat with his peers. He usually struggled with it because of his anxiety issues," said deputy principal Alice Lynch.

"We started doing it with Kaspar and he really, really enjoyed feeding Kaspar, making him eat when he was hungry, things like that. Now he's started to integrate into the classroom and eat alongside his peers. So things like that, are just a massive progression."



Many children with autism find it hard to decipher basic human communication and emotion so Kaspar's designers avoided making him too lifelike and instead opted for simplified, easy to process features.

Autism support groups have been impressed.

"Many autistic people are drawn to technology, particularly the predictability it provides, which means it can be a very useful means of engaging children, and adults too," Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society's Centre for Autism, told Reuters.

"This robot is one of a number of emerging technologies which have the potential to make a huge difference to people on the autism spectrum."

Source: Fox News, Health

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Robot Eavesdrops on Men and Women to See how much They Talk

Who would you get to observe differences in how men, women and children interact? A robot in a fur-lined hat, of course.

Experiments using a robotic head, called Furhat, aimed to uncover inequalities in people’s participation when working on a shared activity, and see if a robot could help redress the balance. They revealed that when a woman is paired in conversation with another woman, she speaks more than if paired with a man. And two men paired together speak less than two women.

But this only holds for adults. “Surprisingly, we didn’t find this same pattern for boys and girls. Gender didn’t make much difference to how much children speak,” says Gabriel Skantze at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, who is also one of the robot’s creators.

Furhat interacted with 540 visitors at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology over nine days. Two people at a time would sit at an interactive table with a touchscreen opposite the robot. They were asked to play a game that involved sorting a set of virtual picture cards, such as arranging images of historical inventions in chronological order.
The people worked with the robot to try to solve the task. During this time, the robot’s sensors tracked how long each person spoke for.

“This turned out to be a really nice opportunity to study the differences between men and women, and adults and children,” says Skantze.



Pairs of women spoke for 45 per cent of the time on average, compared with just 26 per cent for pairs of men. When women were paired with men, the speaking time was 28 per cent, with each gender sharing the time about equally. For children, there was no significant difference between gender pairings.

Making conversation
In cases of adults paired with children, the former dominated the conversation. The largest imbalance occurred when a male adult was paired with a female child, with the men speaking more than twice as much as the girls.

When it was the robot’s turn to say something, its behaviour was randomly selected from four options, such as addressing a question to the dominant or non-dominant speaker. This hints at how a robot could influence the conversation.

“When Furhat directly addressed the less dominant speaker, they were more likely to speak,” he says. “We want to use this idea to make interactions with the robot more equal.”
The research was presented at the Conference on Huma-Robot Interaction in Vienna, Austria, last week.



Most studies of this type are performed in a lab, so it’s interesting to see the outcomes in a more natural setting, says Sarah Strhkorb at Yale University. However, the results may be affected by the fact that interacting with a robot is still an unusual situation for most people. The findings could also differ for different cultures.

But having a robot that can successfully influence conversations could have useful applications, such as in educational settings, says Strohkorb. “It’s really exciting to see robots used to help change behaviour for the better.”
Source: Timothy Revell / Journal reference: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

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Poor Diet to Blame for almost Half of Cardio Vascular Deaths

Researchers say that a poor diet contributes to more than 415,000 deaths from CVD in the U.S.

It is well established that a poor diet can raise the risk of cardiovascular death. New research, however, sheds light on the leading dietary risk factors for death from cardiovascular disease, as well as how many cardiovascular deaths these risk factors equate to.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an umbrella term for conditions that affect the heart and
blood vessels. These include heart attack, heart disease, heart failure, and stroke.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), CVD is the leading cause of death across the globe. In 2012, CVD was the cause of around 17.5 million global deaths, accounting for around 31 percent of all deaths that year.

How does diet contribute to the burden of CVD death in the United States?
Dr. Ashkan Afshin, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, and colleagues sought to answer this question with their new study.



Results were recently presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health 2017 Scientific Sessions, held in Portland, OR.

“Almost half of CVD deaths could be prevented with a healthful diet”

The researchers used data from a variety of global sources to reach their findings, including 1990-2012 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and food availability data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The team then looked at the number of CVD deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2015 and used a systematic approach to quantify how certain dietary factors contributed to these deaths.
The researchers calculated that both a lack of healthful foods and high intake of unhealthful foods contributed to more than 415,000 CVD deaths in the U.S. in 2015. Of these deaths, more than 222,000 occurred in men and more than 193,000 occurred in women.



The team found that low intake of nuts and seeds and a low intake of vegetables were the two leading dietary risk factors for CVD death, accounting for 11.6 percent and 11.5 percent of deaths, respectively.

A low intake of whole grains accounted for 10.4 percent of CVD deaths, while excess salt intake was responsible for around 9 percent of CVD deaths.

Dr. Afshin and colleagues say that their findings show that adopting a healthful diet could help to save tens of thousands of lives every year.

"Low intake of healthy foods such as nuts, vegetables, whole grains, and fruits combined with higher intake of unhealthy dietary components, such as salt and trans-fat, is a major contributor to deaths from cardiovascular disease in the United States.

Our results show that nearly half of cardiovascular disease deaths in the United States can be prevented by improving diet."
Source: Written by Honor Whiteman

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The Incredible Benefits of Exercise

Many people hit the gym or pound the pavement to improve cardiovascular health, build muscle, and of course, get a rockin’ bod, but working out has above-the-neck benefits too. For the past decade or so, scientists have pondered how exercising can boost brain function. Regardless of age or fitness level (yup, this includes everyone from mall-walkers to marathoners), studies show that making time for exercise provides some serious mental benefits. Get inspired to exercise by reading up on these unexpected ways that working out can benefit mental health, relationships, and lead to a healthier and happier life overall.

1. Reduce stress. Rough day at the office? Take a walk or head to the gym for a quick workout. One of the most common mental benefits of exercise is stress relief. Working up a sweat can help manage physical and mental stress. Exercise also increases concentrations of norepinephrine, a chemical that can moderate the brain’s response to stress. So go ahead and get sweaty—working out can reduce stress and boost the body’s ability to deal with existing mental tension. Win-win!



2. Boost happy chemicals. Slogging through a few miles on the ‘mill can be tough, but it’s worth the effort! Exercise releases endorphins, which create feelings of happiness and euphoria. Studies have shown that exercise can even alleviate symptoms among the clinically depressed. For this reason, docs recommend that people suffering from depression or anxiety (or those who are just feeling blue) pencil in plenty of gym time. In some cases, exercise can be just as effective as antidepressant pills in treating depression. Don’t worry if you’re not exactly the gym rat type—getting a happy buzz from working out for just 30 minutes a few times a week can instantly boost overall mood.

3. Improve self-confidence. Hop on the treadmill to look (and more importantly, feel) like a million bucks. On a very basic level, physical fitness can boost self-esteem and improve positive self-image. Regardless of weight, size, gender, or age, exercise can quickly elevate a person’s perception of his or her attractiveness, that is, self-worth. How’s that for feeling the (self) love?



4. Enjoy the great outdoors. For an extra boost of self-love, take that workout outside. Exercising in the great outdoors can increase self-esteem even more. Find an outdoor workout that fits your style, whether it’s rock-climbing, hiking, renting a canoe, or just taking a jog in the park. Plus, all that Vitamin D acquired from soaking up the sun (while wearing sunscreen, of course!) can lessen the likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms. Why book a spa day when a little fresh air and sunshine (and exercise) can work wonders for self-confidence and happiness?

5. Prevent cognitive decline. It’s unpleasant, but it’s true—as we get older, our brains get a little…hazy. As aging and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s kill off brain cells, the noggin actually shrinks, losing many important brain functions in the process. While exercise and a healthy diet can’t “cure” Alzheimer’s, they can help shore up the brain against cognitive decline that begins after age 45. Working out, especially between age 25 and 45, boosts the chemicals in the brain that support and prevent degeneration of the hippocampus, an important part of the brain for memory and learning.

6. Alleviate anxiety. Quick Q&A: Which is better at relieving anxiety—a warm bubble bath or a 20-minute jog? You might be surprised at the answer. The warm and fuzzy chemicals that are released during and after exercise can help people with anxiety disorders calm down. Hopping on the track or treadmill for some moderate-to-high intensity aerobic exercise (intervals, anyone?) can reduce anxiety sensitivity. And we thought intervals were just a good way to burn calories!

7. Boost brainpower. Those buff lab rats might be smarter than we think. Various studies on mice and men have shown that cardiovascular exercise can create new brain cells (aka neurogenesis) and improve overall brain performance. Ready to apply for a Nobel Prize? Studies suggest that a tough workout increases levels of a brain-derived protein (known as BDNF) in the body, believed to help with decision making, higher thinking, and learning. Smarty (spandex) pants, indeed.



8. Sharpen memory. Get ready to win big at Go Fish. Regular physical activity boosts memory and ability to learn new things. Getting sweaty increases production of cells in hippocampus responsible for memory and learning. For this reason, research has linked children’s brain development with level of physical fitness (take that, recess haters!). But exercise-based brainpower isn’t just for kids. Even if it’s not as fun as a game of Red Rover, working out can boost memory among grown-ups, too. A study showed that running sprints improved vocabulary retention among healthy adults.

9. Help control addiction. The brain releases dopamine, the “reward chemical” in response to any form of pleasure, be that exercise, sex, drugs, alcohol, or food. Unfortunately, some people become addicted to dopamine and dependent on the substances that produce it, like drugs or alcohol (and more rarely, food and sex). On the bright side, exercise can help in addiction recovery. Short exercise sessions can also effectively distract drug or alcohol addicts, making them de-prioritize cravings (at least in the short term). Working out when on the wagon has other benefits, too. Alcohol abuse disrupts many body processes, including circadian rhythms. As a result, alcoholics find they can’t fall asleep (or stay asleep) without drinking. Exercise can help reboot the body clock, helping people hit the hay at the right time.



10. Increase relaxation. Ever hit the hay after a long run or weight session at the gym? For some, a moderate workout can be the equivalent of a sleeping pill, even for people with insomnia. Moving around five to six hours before bedtime raises the body’s core temperature. When the body temp drops back to normal a few hours later, it signals the body that it’s time to sleep.

11. Get more done. Feeling uninspired in the cubicle? The solution might be just a short walk or jog away. Research shows that workers who take time for exercise on a regular basis are more productive and have more energy than their more sedentary peers. While busy schedules can make it tough to squeeze in a gym session in the middle of the day, some experts believe that midday is the ideal time for a workout due to the body’s circadian rhythms.

12. Tap into creativity. Most people end a tough workout with a hot shower, but maybe we should be breaking out the colored pencils instead. A heart-pumping gym session can boost creativity for up to two hours afterwards. Supercharge post-workout inspiration by exercising outdoors and interacting with nature (see benefit No. 4). Next time you need a burst of creative thinking, hit the trails for a long walk or run to refresh the body and the brain at the same time.

13. Inspire others. Whether it’s a pick-up game of soccer, a group class at the gym, or just a run with a friend, exercise rarely happens in a bubble. And that’s good news for all of us. Studies show that most people perform better on aerobic tests when paired up with a workout buddy. Pin it to inspiration or good old-fashioned competition, nobody wants to let the other person down. In fact, being part of a team is so powerful that it can actually raise athletes’ tolerances for pain. Even fitness beginners can inspire each other to push harder during a sweat session, so find a workout buddy and get moving!

Working out can have positive effects far beyond the gym (and beach season). Gaining self-confidence, getting out of a funk, and even thinking smarter are some of the motivations to take time for exercise on a regular basis.
Source: Sophia Breene for Greatist.com

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Mindfulness Meditation and Anxiety Disorders

Research evaluates the effects of meditation training on patients’ biological reaction to stress

Characterized by persistent and excessive worry, generalized anxiety disorder affects nearly seven million adults in the U.S

Those who are prone to anxiety tend to have greater difficulty managing and coping with stress, experts say, where chronic stress is shown to have physiologic effects including raising heart rate and blood pressure and increasing one's risk for heart attack and stroke. In an effort to find calm, research shows those struggling with anxiety may be well-served by turning to mindfulness meditation – a technique that involves focusing on the present and non-judgmentally paying attention to thoughts and feelings as they arise.

“If you think of anxiety – there are anxious thoughts and there are anxious feelings, and those go together,” says Judson Brewer, director of research for the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “There are two ways that we can deal with them.”

One is our natural learned response that since anxiety feels bad, he says, we need to do something to make it feel better. “So we avoid it, we suppress it, we repress it – we do all these things to distract ourselves from the anxiety itself.” However, attempts to avoid uncomfortable thoughts and feelings may worsen anxiety. “The paradox here is that mindfulness helps us turn toward those and learn to change our relationship to the actual thoughts and the physical sensations, rather than try to change them in any way,” Brewer says. “By changing that relationship, we actually stop feeding those cyclical processes and they start to die off on their own.” By learning mindfulness-based stress reduction – an approach first developed at UMass that uses meditation to lower stress levels – research finds many people report reduced anxiety and stress levels.



Taking that a step further, a recent National Institutes of Health-funded study published in January in the journal Psychiatry Research also looked at the biological responses of patients with generalized anxiety disorder to stress, after they’d undergone MBSR. In the study, 70 participants were randomly assigned either to receive the mindfulness meditation training or to undergo stress management education – the study’s control group. “This was a sort of a wellness class where there was a series of lectures on different topics, like sleep improvement and exercise and nutrition,” says Dr. Elizabeth Hoge, an associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. Hoge conducted the research while she was a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Participants were asked to give an impromptu speech in front of an audience of testers – a typically stress-inducing experience – before and after the 8-week intervention, either the mindfulness meditation training or the stress management class. They were also asked to do mental arithmetic: “Start with the number 996 and subtract by seven all the way down to zero, which is really hard to do in front of an audience,” Hoge notes. “The testers had all the numbers in front of them on a clipboard and they were wearing white lab coats, and we videotaped and had microphones and photography flood lamps. [We] basically set up the laboratory stress test to be like the worst kind of speech challenge that a person can experience.”

Even so, blood testing revealed that study participants had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone ACTH and inflammatory reactions to stress (measured by looking at inflammatory proteins IL-6 and TNF-α) following mindfulness meditation training. That compared to the control group for whom biological stress responses actually increased somewhat the second time they underwent the social stress test.



The results offer biological data showing how mindfulness meditation training can affect the ability of a person with generalized anxiety disorder to be resilient in the face of stressful circumstances. “You can’t fake that,” Hoge says; nor could the results be explained by the placebo effect or a patient’s expectation that meditation would help, since their reactions were measured at a physiological level. “For people who have generalized anxiety disorder, our research provides evidence that this might be a reasonable treatment option,” she says.

Hoge says one of the reasons she was interested in pursuing the research was to look at alternatives to standard treatments for anxiety disorders, typically antidepressant medication and psychotherapy. “It’s hard for some people to get those treatments, either because of insurance, financial limitations and also the stigma that’s involved with coming to a psychiatric clinic for treatment," she says. "And a lot of people don’t want to go on medications.”

Though standard treatments work well for many patients, experts say it’s important to provide various options to match individual preference.

One question that remains is whether the stress levels – measured on a biological level – would be reduced over the long term by meditative techniques, says Dr. Madhav Goyal, an internist at NorthBay Healthcare in Vacaville, California, and an assistant professor of general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Goyal has done research on meditation programs to address stress and improve well-being. “We know that people who are more stressed in general tend to be more susceptible to getting infections” among other health issues, Goyal says.



If meditation can treat anxiety disorder and help those with anxiety better cope with stress, it could also improve a person’s overall health in the long term. But more research is needed to determine the impact that meditation might have on chronic stress levels, Goyal says.

In the immediate term, for individuals considering meditation to treat anxiety disorder, Brewer suggests MBSR, which has been well-studied in this regard. The Center for Mindfulness has a worldwide online directory of MBSR teachers certified by the UMass Center for
Mindfulness.

Ultimately, experts say, meditation may help those with anxiety gain a greater understanding of more troubling underlying emotions, such as sadness or anger, while improving their ability to cope with stress. “Instead of being drawn into these long worry bouts, people can have more freedom to deal with those thoughts in a way that’s more constructive,” Hoge says.
Writer: Michael O. Schroeder / Health.news.com

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How to Get Mentally Ready to Start a Diet

Lasting weight lost and heathly eating begin with the right motivation

Whether you're doing the DASH diet, attempting Atkins or trying the TLC diet, finding the right mindset is your first step. Below, experts help set you up for long-term success, whether you're trying to lose weight or just eat in a healthier way.

Make a commitment to change. Starting a diet on a whim might work, but the most successful people are truly prepared to make a change, says Sheila Forman, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Santa Monica and author of "The Best Diet Begins in Your Mind." It's about incorporating changes into your life to make a lasting difference. "People have to have some sort of commitment and plan in mind," she says. Within the classic five stages of change, she says, "I want to grab the person in the third stage, called 'preparation.' That's where they're thinking, 'OK, I do want to eat healthier. What am I going to do?'" Preparation gets people ready for the next step: action.



Learn from past attempts. If you've failed at diets in the past, don't blame yourself – just try a different approach, says Michelle Segar, author of "No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness." To get mentally prepared for future success, people should think about and learn from what they've already attempted and whether that's had any real sticking power, says Segar, who directs the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center at the University of Michigan. That information can steer you in a better direction when deciding on the best diet for you.

Have an "if-then" plan in place. Being strategic and plotting key decision points makes it easier to avoid willpower pitfalls. An "if-then" plan can help, Segar says, such as "When I go to the grocery store, I'm going to do X, Y, Z," or "At lunchtime, I'm going to do X, Y, Z." "Getting very specific helps make the behavioral choice in the context automatic," she explains. "[That] necessitates less self-control."



Add, don't subtract. Deprivation can sap motivation. "I advocate more of a non-diet approach as a clinician," Forman says. "But I support my clients when they want to add healthier food as one of their approaches, rather than take food away. Food plays an enormous emotional role in our lives. If we just yank it away without understanding [that role] and how else we might meet needs the food is meeting for us, it can lead to disaster." To clients, she suggests: "Instead of saying, 'I'll never eat a cookie again,' how about when you have a cookie, you also serve yourself some fruit?" Adding on instead of eliminating works well for many people, she says.

Eat mindfully. You don't need to follow the MIND diet to be thoughtful about eating. "The premise of mindfulness eating is that we eat with attention and awareness," Forman says. "It's really the opposite of mindless eating." With mindful eating, she says, there are no good or bad foods. But you're aware of how much you eat, and you eat food with intention. "You're tasting it," she says. "You're noticing its flavor. You're noticing if it's satisfying or not." Over time, she says, excess food starts to fall away, and people who need to lose weight discover they're consuming fewer calories. Mindfulness actually incorporates a little meditation – but it takes less than a minute, Forman says.



Be realistic, not rigid. With clients, Forman prefers to set behavioral goals. "Weight loss fluctuates, and there are so many variables over which we have little control, [such as] hormone cycles and salt retention," she says. A behavioral goal, for instance, could be having a daily salad. The jury's still out on whether routinely weighing yourself is helpful, but Forman believes that can lead to disappointment if scale numbers don't reflect your efforts. Similarly, Segar says, too-rigid food rules can cause people to throw in the towel. "It's the way we've been taught to be healthy – to follow very specific prescriptions." she says. "But those prescriptions don't translate from the science they're based on to the messy lives everyone lives." Instead, she says, people should think in terms of continuums of success.

Check your emotions. Two kinds of hunger exist. "There's that physical hunger to satisfy our body's requirement for nourishment," Forman says. "Then there's our emotional hunger that meets our requirement for some sort of emotional soothing," a dynamic she's explored in her book, "Do You Use Food to Cope?" The bottom line, she says, is "if you're emotionally hungry, food isn't going to satisfy you." Learn to ask yourself: "What are you really hungry for?" she advises. Is it food, a friend or a hug? "The more you're able to pursue that – the friend, the hug, the cry, the shout; whatever it is that you need – you won't lean on the food as a coping mechanism."



Tie food choices to feeling good. "What we want is a daily, consistent, health-related choice to be associated with a continued positivity," Segar says. "It could be 'I feel more energy' or "I feel better about myself when I make this choice.'"
Source: Lisa Esposito**

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The 24 Hour News Cycle Could Be Bad For Your Health

By: Alexandria Addesso

News is everywhere, no longer just in the paper but on the radio, television, social media, and all over your phone. Up-to-date, minute-by-minute, soundbyte-by-soundbyte, in your pocket, and in the palm of your hand.

The news is fed to the consumer at the slant deemed appropriate to the outlet and its backers. Objectivity is no longer the standard the news that is at our fingertips is usually perpetuated to further a particular agenda. It is truly sad times for journalism and the consumers of such information as well. And it is not just the news industry that is suffering, but also the consumer.

After the 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon a survey was done on how the news coverage affected people. The survey sample included adults from Boston, New York City and other parts of the nation just under 5,000 participants. Of those who reported watching more than six or more hours of news coverage during the 2-4 weeks after the attack were 9 times more likely to report suffering from high acute stress levels than those who only reported minimal media exposure. Those who were actually present at the scene of the bombings, although they did suffer from trauma, reportedly were affected by less high acute stress levels than those who only watched news coverage for long periods of time. A repeated viewing of such traumatic images, have been linked to fear circuitry.



“There are so many factors one needs to consider—prior life history (trauma, stress, health, social, family circumstances), ongoing post-Boston Marathon Bombing stressors, coping skills, and emotion regulation skills,” said E. Alison Holman, PhD, head author of the study. “It is possible that this could happen, although I would caution that many people have acute stress symptoms that dissipate over time. We are currently looking into the question of quantity versus content that might predispose someone to developing lasting posttraumatic stress and other mental health issues. At this point, all I can say is that it seems that both really matter.”

So how can such trauma triggering content be avoided? Should we become oblivious to world events and shun the news completely? Obviously this would not be a good option because it is good for an individual to stay informed and to avoid all such bad news, one would have to cut off contact with society completely and become a hermit (not that there is anything wrong with being a hermit).



Once attaining the information you need to stay abreast of current events, issues, and activism, simply shut off the TV, put down the newspaper and the smartphone. Do not become consumed by it. If you need to be plugged into graphic news coverage for work, add leisurely, stress-relieving activities to your schedule. But it is also important to never let news desensitize you, never become immune to human suffering because in doing so you can lose your own humanity. Also, always question your news sources.

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