If you or someone you love is thinking about suicide, a new review points to effective treatments that can reduce suicide risk. Some involve therapy — cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) — while others involve medication, such as ketamine (by infusion) or lithium. “People should be aware that there are treatments, such as CBT or DBT that can be helpful for people who have thoughts of suicide,” said the study’s lead author, Kristen D’Anci. She’s senior associate director of the Center for Clinical Evidence and Guidelines at the ECRI Institute in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. D’Anci added that medications, although less well-studied, can be an option, too. The study’s findings were published Aug. 26 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Suicide is a growing concern in the United States. The nationwide rate increased 30% between 2000 and 2016, researchers said. Why is death by suicide on the rise? One reason rates have gone up is that people are more likely to report a suicide now because it’s a known mental condition, said psychologist Jill Harkavy-Friedman, vice president of research for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. As for other reasons why the rate is climbing, she said, “Suicide is a complex behavior, and each person’s risk is a little different.” For some, it may be lack of access to mental health or…  read on >

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 21, 2019 (HealthDay News) — It would be welcome news to millions if fish oil supplements were proven to help prevent diabetes. But new research delivers very disappointing data on the prospect. Previous research has hinted that fish oil supplements — which contain omega-3 fatty acids — might improve blood sugar metabolism and possibly stave off type 2 diabetes. But this latest research found no evidence that popping a daily fish oil pill could keep diabetes at bay. “This large systematic review included information from many thousands of people over long periods. Despite all this information, we don’t see protective effects, and the most trustworthy studies consistently showed little or no effect of long-chain omega-3 fats on diabetes,” said study author Lee Hooper. Additionally, she said that her group’s previous research has shown that these types of supplements also don’t protect against heart disease, stroke or early death. Hooper is a reader in research synthesis, nutrition and hydration at Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia, in England. Fish oil supplements can help reduce high levels of triglycerides (a type of blood fat that contributes to heart disease), Hooper noted. She said the supplements are generally considered safe to take, but added that this review found that larger doses — above four or five grams per day — of fish oil…  read on >

A staggering number of teen girls are experiencing an insidious form of relationship abuse: reproductive coercion. Researchers report that it affects 1 in 8 adolescent girls who are sexually active. Reproductive coercion is a form of abuse in which a girl or woman is pressured into pregnancy. From a male partner threatening to leave if his female partner refuses to have his baby, to poking holes in condoms before sex, the coercion can take shape in a variety of ways. “Reproductive coercion is a form of power and control exerted via influencing women’s health, sexuality and health care behavior,” said study co-author Heather McCauley, an assistant professor of social work at Michigan State University. She added that the findings highlight a broader public health issue. “Our society so often normalizes the abusive experiences girls and women have in their relationships, making it difficult for young people to recognize that what they are experiencing is not healthy,” McCauley said. Researchers described the new study — published in the August issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology — as the largest look to date at how many teen girls face this pressure. Most studies of reproductive coercion have focused on young adult women. For the study, McCauley and her colleagues analyzed data collected from 550 sexually active girls between age 14 and 19 at eight school-based health…  read on >

If you’re satisfied with your life, you probably have emotional well-being. Emotional well-being can be mastered just like any other skill, according to Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. How? By developing four key traits, said Davidson, a neuroscientist. The first is resilience. Research at the Center for Healthy Minds found that, over time, regular mindfulness meditation can help you learn how to bounce back from adversity. Mindfulness meditation teaches you to become aware of your thoughts and emotions, center yourself and decide how you would like to proceed with the rest of your day. (Find out more at mindful.org.) Having a positive outlook is the second key trait — both finding the positive in others and being positive in the way you approach life. Another type of meditation called compassion meditation is said to bring measurable changes after two weeks of 30-minute-a-day sessions. The goal is to switch from being judgmental to being caring. Next is improving your attention level. A Harvard study found most people spend nearly half of their waking hours not paying attention to what they’re doing. Letting the mind wander typically makes people unhappy, the researchers concluded. Practice focusing on the here and now, one task or activity at a time. Finally, become more generous of spirit. This means feeling happy for…  read on >

Living in the city can be hard on the senses and the spirit, but spending some time in a tree-lined park could counteract that stress, new research suggests. “Over a three-month period, we collected tweets from 4,688 Twitter users before, during and after they posted from the park,” explained study author Aaron Schwartz. He’s a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vermont’s school of environment and natural resources and the Gund Institute for Environment. All of the 160 parks that were visited in the study were located in the city of San Francisco. About 100,000 tweets were analyzed by a hedonometer, a kind of online happiness dictionary that ranks words according to their happiness content. Tweeting “jail,” for example, would bank a score of less than 2, while a tweet of “hahaha” would render a score nearly 8. After comparing pre-park tweets to post-park tweets, the study authors concluded that parks trigger a mood bump equivalent to that seen at Christmas, the day hedonometer happiness levels hit their peak. The team didn’t track how long participants spent in parks, so they can’t say how short a visit might trigger a mood change. And some parks turned out to be better mood boosters than others. Large regional parks with lots of tree cover and vegetation conferred the biggest happiness lift, while paved urban plazas offered the…  read on >