What to Look For, Who Can Help
Tuesday, November 6, 2007; HE04
Warning signs of mental illness:
* Finding little or no pleasure in life
* Feeling worthless or extremely guilty
* Crying a lot for no particular reason
* Withdrawing from other people
* Experiencing severe anxiety, panic or fear
* Having very low energy
* Losing interest in hobbies and pleasurable activities
* Having too much energy, having trouble concentrating or following through on plans
* Feeling easily irritated or angry
* Experiencing racing thoughts or agitation
* Hearing voices or seeing images that other people do not experience
* Believing that others are plotting against you
* Wanting to harm yourself or someone else
SOURCE: National Mental Health Awareness Campaign
Finding help:
College students who think they or someone they know may be suffering from mental illness should contact their school's counseling center or call the suicide prevention hotline at 800-273-8255. If there is an immediate danger, call 911.
For help finding counseling, Active Minds recommends these Web sites:
* Half of Us. http://www.halfofus.com/FindHelpNow.aspx.
* Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, nonprofit group offering education and support. http://www.dbsalliance.org.
* Findcounseling.com, therapist-locator site. http://www.findcounseling.com.
* More info on Active Minds: http://www.activemindsoncampus.org.
-- Michael S. Gerber from The WashingtonPost.com
Alimentos Anti estress
Leche. En especial por la noche.
El plᴡno es fundamental en la dieta diaria. Contiene: vitaminas A, B y C, ademas contiene hierro, calcio, potasio, cobre y magnesio.
Espinacas y-o broccoli. La espinaca aporta vitamina A y el broccoli, vitamina C y complejo B, potasio, calcio, magnesio, hierro y cobre.
Semillas de girasol. tienen vitamina E y B.
La almendra, contiene las vitaminas del complejo B y cobre, hierro, calcio y potasio. Ingerir sin piel.
Germen de trigo. contiene vitamina B, hierro, fro, vitamina E, magnesio, cobre y potasio.Las pasas de uva, contienen: hierro calcio, magnesio, fluoruro, potasio, cobre, y vitaminas B1 y B6 .
RECOMENDACIONES Generales
Como una forma de prevenir los efectos del estres se recomienda:
1. Identifique sus estresores y los sintomas que senalen el estres
2. Descubra sus mecanismos de defensa, identifique y ajuste aquellos que le son funcionales.
3. Elija los ajustes que mas se acerquen a sus necesidades integrelas a su estilo de vida.
4. Comente sus problemas y no esconda sus emociones y sus pensamientos con sus personas de confianza.
5. Organice lo mejor posible su tiempo y recuerde reservar un periodo diario para usted.
Datos de un registro local Ataque cerebral: sólo el 30% recibe rehabilitación
Faltan centros especializados en el país
Tomado de La Nación 16 feb 2006
Cerebro y corazón, los mismos factores de riesgo06-03-06REUTERS PREVENCIONCada vez son más las evidencias que apuntan que aquello que es bueno para la salud del corazon tambien lo es para evitar el envejecimiento del cerebroUna revisión de 26 estudios sobre ancianos, publicada por la revista 'Journal Alzheimer's & Dementia' , ha concluido que determinados factores de riesgo cardiovascular -como la hipertension, diabetes y la actividad fisica- resultan tambien clave en la salud mental.Las capacidad cognitiva hace referencia a la destreza de las personas para aprender, razonar o recordar, entre otros, habilidades que disminuyen con la edad. En algunos casos el declive forma parte del desarrollo del mal de Alzheimer y otras formas de demencia.Pero un gran numero de estudios apuntan que los factores de riesgo controlables como el ejercicio moderado y la actividad intelectual y social pueden modificar el riesgo de una persona de declive cognitivo y demencia.Dar un paseo diario no previene el mal de Alzheimer, pero puede ayudar a retrasarlo, explica el doctor Hugh C. Hendrie del Centro de Investigacion del Envejecimiento de la Universidad de Indiana, en EEUU.La investigacion incluye 96 análisis de 26 estudios europeos y norteamericanos sobre ancianos en los que evaluaron su salud mental. Segun Hendrie, estos analisis revelaron una inesperada consistencia en la relación entre los factores de riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular y cerebral. "Nos sorprendio tal consenso", ha señalado a Reuters.Los resultados de los calculos estadisticos del estudio vinculan la hipertension con una funcion cognitiva pobre y el ejercicio fisico regular con capacidades cognitivas mas agudas. Un gran numero de los estudios revisados asocian la diabetes y el exceso de peso con la aceleración del declive cognitivo propio del envejecimiento.Daño en los vasos sanguíneosLas razones por las que se establece este vinculo entre factores de riesgo de corazon y cerebro no están del todo claras, ha indicado el autor, pero la explicación más plausible es el daño que se produce en los vasos sanguineos, tanto en los principales -por un infarto, por ejemplo-, o la acumulacion a largo plazo de placas en los mas pequenos.De esta forma, las recomendaciones para mantener la salud del corazon y del cerebro son las mismas: una dieta sana, ejercicio moderado y el control de la presion sanguínea y la diabetes.
Respecto al ejercicio, los estudios con animales han sugerido que protege de alguna forma a las celulas del cerebro. "La actividad fisica es un un factor de riesgo modificable importante", subraya Hendrie. "A pesar de que aun no este claro si el ejercicio es necesario, la actividad fíiica moderada como caminar es siempre positiva para la salud en general", reconoce. "Nunca es tarde para empezar", ha comentado refiriendose a los mayores.El ejercicio mental tambien parece ser muy importante, de acuerdo con las conclusiones de un gran numero de estudios. Los ancianos que permanecen intelectualmente estimulados a traves de la lectura o aficiones o que mantienen su vida social activa retrasan el declive cognitivo.
"Las cosas que son positivas para tu bienestar general son buenas para la salud de tu cerebro", ha asegurado Hendrie a modo de lema.
October 17, 2006 from Medscape— A review of the literature on the health effects of dietary fish or fish-oil intake has a reassuring message, according to an article in the October 18 issue of JAMA.
"The main message is really that everybody should be eating one or two servings of fish or seafood per week for their health," Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, told heartwire.
In Dr. Mozaffarian's analysis, coauthored with Eric B. Rimm, MD, from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, regular "modest" intake of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and the 2 long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) abundant in finfish and shellfish is associated with a 36% drop in coronary disease mortality (P < .001) and a 17% decrease in total mortality (P = .046). The n-3 PUFAs, the authors also concluded, appear to be important to early brain development.
"Potential risks of fish intake must be considered in the context of potential benefits," according to Drs. Mozaffarian and Rimm. "Avoidance of modest fish consumption due to confusion regarding risks and benefits could result in thousands of excess CHD [coronary heart disease] deaths annually and suboptimal neurodevelopment in children."
Those potential benefits are immense compared with the highly publicized but apparently low health risks associated with methylmercury, dioxins, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that have been found in some fish species, the authors write. The evidence suggests a potential for neurodevelopmental deficits from early exposure to methylmercury, but the risk is likely diminished by limiting intake of fish with high methylmercury concentrations.
And the cancer risk from consuming PCBs or dioxins in fish appears to be negligible, especially when stacked up against the likely cardiovascular protection, according to Dr. Mozaffarian. "In statistical terms, its background noise relative to the benefit.... You're talking about a 300-to-one, 500-to-one, thousand-to-one benefit to risk ratio." Moreover, he said, the evidence for CV [cardiovascular] benefit is far stronger than that for a cancer risk. "For benefits, we're talking about randomized trials and prospective studies in humans. For the risks, they're really theoretical risks based mostly on animal studies and a few limited studies in humans at much higher doses."
"I think they've put things into perspective. This is an area that gets a tremendous amount of controversy and mixed messages going out to the public," Alice H Lichtenstein, MD, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, told heartwire. The conclusions of Drs. Mozaffarian and Rimm, Dr. Lichtenstein said, are "well founded" and "consistent with what a lot of people have concluded that the benefits [of fish and fish-oil consumption] outweigh the risks."
Benefits and Risks of Fish Intake for WomenThe report's recommendation that most everyone can benefit from a couple of servings of fish per week was directed not only to the general population and those with cardiovascular risk factors, but also to women who could become pregnant or who are nursing and are urged to avoid a few species of fish that generally have higher contaminant levels.
"I think it's important that women of childbearing age and nursing mothers not worry so much about mercury, which is present at high levels really in only four fishes that they're not supposed to eat," Dr. Mozaffarian said. "They shouldn't worry so much that they reduce their fish intake overall."
The report specifies that such women should avoid shark, swordfish, golden bass, and king mackerel, and restrict intake of albacore tuna to 6 oz per week to limit exposure to methylmercury. "However, emphasis must also be placed on adequate consumption — 12 oz per week — of other fish and shellfish to provide reasonable amounts of DHA and avoid further decreases in already low seafood intake among women."
For persons with CHD, the report says, the currently recommended target of 1000 mg/day of EPA and DHA may be higher than necessary. "Our analysis suggests that lower doses may be sufficient, but given this population's higher risk and that most data are from primary prevention studies, a target intake of 500 to 1000 mg/d[ay] — consistent with the largest secondary prevention trial to date — appears reasonable. This could be approximated by one 6 oz serving per week of fish richest in n-3 PUFAs (eg, farmed salmon, anchovies, herring), more frequent consumption of other fish, or supplements."
For the general population, write Drs. Mozaffarian and Rimm, a weekly target of 1500 to 2000 mg of EPA and DHA is "reasonable" and could be met by one 6 oz serving per week of "wild salmon or similar oily fish, or more frequent intake of smaller or less n-3 PUFA-rich servings."
Data AnalysisTo arrive at these numbers, the authors analyzed published studies that estimated the risk for cardiovascular disease, neurologic events, or cancer associated with fish or n-3 PUFA intake, and the effects of methylmercury, PCBs, and dioxins, "focusing on the evidence, when available, from randomized clinical trials and large prospective studies," pooling data or conducting meta-analyses when possible.
Collectively, the literature suggests that CHD mortality decreases by 14.6% for every 100 mg/day intake of EPA and DHA, reaching a plateau of 36% at about 250 mg/day, according to the authors. The observed 17% total-mortality reduction associated with n-3 PUFA intake in the analysis was driven largely by the reduction in CHD deaths. Statins, the authors observe, were associated with a 15% drop in total mortality in a recent meta-analysis.
One major caution in the report is for people who eat fish that is not purchased from commercial sources. "Some of the inland lakes in the United States are more highly contaminated with PCBs and dioxins," Dr. Mozaffarian said, "so someone who sports fishes and eats their catch frequently should consult regional advisories about what levels of PCBs and dioxins are in the different fish."
Another caveat: "Anybody who eats fish at one or more servings per day, just to be on the safe side, should make sure they're eating a variety of different fish, making sure that at least some are lower in mercury levels," Dr. Mozaffarian said.
The report notes that the n-3 PUFA alpha-linolenic acid is rich in some terrestrial plant sources, such as flaxseed, soy, and walnuts. Two to 3 g of alpha-linolenic acid per day, it says, "may reduce cardiovascular risk or affect neurodevelopment, but benefits are less established compared with those for EPA and DHA."
The analysis was supported by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Rimm has disclosed receiving research funding from Merck, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline and payment or honoraria for presentations about food and diets from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the Culinary Institute of America, the International Chefs Association, and academic conferences funded by Bunge and Unilever. Dr. Lichtenstein's center is operated by Tufts University through a "cooperative agreement" with the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.
JAMA. 2006;296:1885-1899.
Realizar ejercicio al menos tres veces por semana podria reducir hasta un 32 por ciento el riesgo de demencia
La actividad fisica durante el proceso de envejecimiento ha mostrado ser beneficiosa para la salud en numerosas areas
Fuente: EL MEDICO INTERACTIVO, 8/10 abril 2006.-
Las personas de la tercera edad que realizan ejercicio al menos tres veces a la semana son mucho menos propensas a desarrollar demencia que aquellas menos activas, hasta un 32 por ciento menos, segun un estudio del Instituto Nacional sobre Envejecimiento de los Estados Unidos que se publica en la revista Annals of Internal Medicine.
La investigacion no demostro de forma directa que el ejercicio reduzca el riesgo de demencia, pero se une a un numero cada vez mayor de investigaciones que apuntan a una asociación entre el ejercicio y el declive cognitivo.
Los científicos siguieron a 1.740 individuos de 65 años o más adscritos a los servicios de salud de la ciudad estadounidense de Seattle durante una media de 6,2 años entre 1994 y 2003. Cuando el estudio comenzó, los participantes informaron del numero de días por semana en los que dedicaban al menos 15 minutos a la actividad fisica, como pasear, realizar senderismo, practicar con la bicicleta, realizar ejercicios de gimnasia o pesas.
Los investigadores evaluaron su funcionamiento cognitivo e identificaron los casos de demencia cada dos años. Al final del estudio la tasa de desarrollo de demencia entre aquellos que realizaban mas ejercicio, tres o más veces a la semana, fue un 32 por ciento menor.
Segun Dallas Anderson, director del estudio, la actividad fisica ha mostrado ser beneficiosa para la salud y el envejecimiento en numerosas areas. Segun Anderson, es cada vez mayor comprender esta asociacion entre el ejercicio y la salud cognitiva. Investigaciones como esta, senala el científico, ayudaran a aclarar si el ejercicio reduce el riesgo de declive cognitivo o si otros factores asociados al ejercicio, como una mayor interaccion social, juegan un papel en él.
12/04/2006 - 08:32
EN LAS PORCIONES CHICAS ESTARIA LA CLAVE DE LA ETERNA JUVENTUD
La reducción de un 25 % del consumo de calorías incrementaría la longevidad de las personas, según un estudio realizado en Washington.
La reducción en un 25% del consumo cotidiano de calorías durante seis meses tuvo efectos positivos en varios indicadores bioquímicos y celulares del envejecimiento en los humanos, según un estudio divulgado en Estados Unidos. La investigación fue publicada en el Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
El trabajo estableció las bases para conducir futuros estudios que pretenden determinar los efectos a largo plazo de la restricción de calorías en los humanos y saber si este abordaje podría prolongar realmente la vida.
Y aunque todavía faltan elementos para aseverar en un 100 por ciento estos datos, parece ser que la clave para vivir más años se esconde en un plato pequeño de comida, los expertos afirman que este trabajo aporta la primera prueba.
En las últimas dos décadas se han realizado numerosos estudios en animales que han mostrado que una dieta baja en calorías ofrece un efecto beneficioso a largo plazo. Sin embargo, ningún trabajo había podido demostrar estos resultados en humanos, algo que consiguió el equipo de la doctora Leonie Heilbronn de la Universidad de Lousiana (USA).
Durante seis meses, 48 voluntarios sanos con sobrepeso fueron asignados a cuatro tipos de alimentación: el grupo control tomó una dieta diseñada para mantener el peso de cada participante, la comida del segundo fue variada pero con un 25% menos de calorías; otro grupo disminuyó su ingesta energética en un 12,5% y aumentó su nivel de ejercicio para quemar un 12,5% de calorías; el cuarto grupo se sometió a una dieta extrema de 890 calorías al día (menos de la mitad de lo que la mayoría de adultos necesitan) durante dos o tres meses hasta perder un 15% de su peso y luego varió su comida para mantener su peso.
Al finalizar el estudio todos los participantes habían perdido peso. Las reducciones iban del 1% en el grupo control al 13,9% en los voluntarios que habían tomado la dieta más restrictiva. Sólo en estos últimos y en el grupo que había realizado ejercicio y dieta baja en calorías se observó una disminución del nivel de insulina y de la temperatura corporal. Esos dos factores están relacionados con un efecto antienvejecimiento.
Además, en este trabajo también se ha detectado que las personas con una dieta baja en calorías presentan un descenso en las hormonas tiroideas y en el daño de su ADN.
Es que expertos piensan un factor importante en el envejecimiento es el daño del ADN originado por los radicales libres, moléculas altamente reactivas que contienen oxígeno y que se producen durante el metabolismo normal, según cita esta mañana por su parte el diario El Mundo. Al comer menos disminuye el metabolismo y se generan menos radicales libres.
Sólo tres de cada diez pacientes que sufrieron un accidente cerebrovascular (ACV) reciben en el país atención fisioterapéutica para rehabilitar el habla o las zonas del cuerpo con secuelas, como la cara, los brazos o las piernas.
Así lo muestran los datos actualizados en estos últimos siete meses de un registro de vigilancia epidemiológica de ACV o stroke, en el que trabajan ad honorem 92 medicos miembros de la Sociedad Neurologica Argentina.
"Que un 30% de los pacientes con ACV concurra a centros de rehabilitacion es muy poco. En realidad, ocurre que hay muy pocos centros en la Argentina y los que son muy buenos estan con la capacidad saturada", dijo ayer a LA NACION el doctor Luciano Sposato, director del Registro Nacional de Accidentes Cerebrovasculares (Renacer), horas antes de viajar a los Estados Unidos para presentar hoy los resultados en la Conferencia Internacional de Stroke, organizada por la American Heart Association.
En esta segunda etapa del registro, que comenzó en julio de 2005, los datos epidemiologicos de 2056 pacientes mayores de 18 años de 222 hospitales públicos y privados del país permitieron a los investigadores saber que el destino de la mayoria de ellos al salir del hospital era el hogar (72%); es decir, que no recibieron reeducación fisioterapeutica.
"Cuando esto ocurre, se pierde un tiempo fundamental que son los primeros días, cuando el paciente esta mas permeable a rehabilitarse dada una mayor plasticidad neuronal, un fenómeno que permite que las neuronas sanas reemplacen el trabajo de las danadas", explico Sposato, coordinador del Servicio de Enfermedades Neurovasculares del Hospital de Clinicas.
Cada ano, en el país se producen unos 100.000 ataques cerebrales y recibir tratamiento en las tres primeras horas eleva la posibilidad de revertir las consecuencias. "De todos modos, si un paciente no hizo rehabilitacion en los primeros meses, aun tiene posibilidades de rehabilitar brazos y piernas", agregó.
El registro tambien senala que el 11% de los pacientes muere en el hospital, el 5% es trasladado a un geriatrico y el 3% pasa a un regimen de internacion domiciliaria, con controles en el hogar.
De los pacientes estudiados, el 83% de los ataques fueron isquemicos (infarto cerebral) y el 14%, hemorragicos (hemorragia cerebral). "Los primeros ocurren por una obstruccion arterial causada por una obstruccion de la irrigacion en un lugar del cerebro [isquemia], mientras que los ACV hemorragicos o derrames cerebrales se dan cuando se produce la rotura de una arteria cerebral que sangra", explicó Sposato.
A diferencia de los países de America latina, esas cifras confirman que la Argentina sería mas parecida epidemiologicamente a Europa y a los Estados Unidos, donde los ACV isquemicos alcanzan el 80% y los hemorragicos, el 20 por ciento. Una hipotesis para explicarlo, segun ensayo Sposato, seria que "aqui, a diferencia del resto de America latina, influiria la ascendencia italiana y espanola".
HOW LIFE SHAPES THE BRAIN
25 November 2005 ; Helen Phillips: extracted from New Scientist Magazine issue 2527
From meditation to diet, life experiences profoundly change the structure and connectivity of the brainOUR brains form a million new connections for every second of our lives. It is a mind-blowing statistic, and one that highlights the amazing flexibility of our most enigmatic organ. While the figure emphasises how much we still have to learn about brain structure, it also reveals the huge importance of our everyday experiences in making our brains what they are.
Anatomy, neural networks and genes are yesterday's hot topics. Today, neuroscientists are increasingly concentrating on how the way we live our lives creates profound and often long-lasting changes in the structure and connectivity of our brains. They are focusing on how influences as diverse as our emotions, environment, social interactions and even our spiritual lives help make us tick.
MEDITATION EXPERIENCE IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED CORTICAL THICKNESS.
Lazar SW et al
Previous research indicates that long-term meditation practice is associated with altered resting electroencephalogram patterns, suggestive of long lasting changes in brain activity. We hypothesized that meditation practice might also be associated with changes in the brain's physical structure. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess cortical thickness in 20 participants with extensive Insight meditation experience, which involves focused attention to internal experiences. Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. Between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might offset age-related cortical thinning. Finally, the thickness of two regions correlated with meditation experience. These data provide the first structural evidence for experience-dependent cortical plasticity associated with meditation practice.
Neuroreport. 2005 Nov 28;16(17):1893-1897.
Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t
By DENNIS OVERBYE January 2, 2007 NEW YORK TIMES
Correction Appended
I was a free man until they brought the dessert menu around. There was one of those molten chocolate cakes, and I was suddenly being dragged into a vortex, swirling helplessly toward caloric doom, sucked toward the edge of a black (chocolate) hole. Visions of my father’s heart attack danced before my glazed eyes. My wife, Nancy, had a resigned look on her face.
The outcome, endlessly replayed whenever we go out, is never in doubt, though I often cover my tracks by offering to split my dessert with the table. O.K., I can imagine what you’re thinking. There but for the grace of God.
Having just lived through another New Year’s Eve, many of you have just resolved to be better, wiser, stronger and richer in the coming months and years. After all, we’re free humans, not slaves, robots or animals doomed to repeat the same boring mistakes over and over again. As William James wrote in 1890, the whole “sting and excitement” of life comes from “our sense that in it things are really being decided from one moment to another, and that it is not the dull rattling off of a chain that was forged innumerable ages ago.” Get over it, Dr. James. Go get yourself fitted for a new chain-mail vest. A bevy of experiments in recent years suggest that the conscious mind is like a monkey riding a tiger of subconscious decisions and actions in progress, frantically making up stories about being in control.
As a result, physicists, neuroscientists and computer scientists have joined the heirs of Plato and Aristotle in arguing about what free will is, whether we have it, and if not, why we ever thought we did in the first place.
“Is it an illusion? That’s the question,” said Michael Silberstein, a science philosopher at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. Another question, he added, is whether talking about this in public will fan the culture wars.
“If people freak at evolution, etc.,” he wrote in an e-mail message, “how much more will they freak if scientists and philosophers tell them they are nothing more than sophisticated meat machines, and is that conclusion now clearly warranted or is it premature?”
Daniel C. Dennett, a philosopher and cognitive scientist at Tufts University who has written extensively about free will, said that “when we consider whether free will is an illusion or reality, we are looking into an abyss. What seems to confront us is a plunge into nihilism and despair.”
Mark Hallett, a researcher with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said, “Free will does exist, but it’s a perception, not a power or a driving force. People experience free will. They have the sense they are free.
“The more you scrutinize it, the more you realize you don’t have it,” he said.
That is hardly a new thought. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said, as Einstein paraphrased it, that “a human can very well do what he wants, but cannot will what he wants.”
Einstein, among others, found that a comforting idea. “This knowledge of the non-freedom of the will protects me from losing my good humor and taking much too seriously myself and my fellow humans as acting and judging individuals,” he said.
How comforted or depressed this makes you might depend on what you mean by free will. The traditional definition is called “libertarian” or “deep” free will. It holds that humans are free moral agents whose actions are not predetermined. This school of thought says in effect that the whole chain of cause and effect in the history of the universe stops dead in its tracks as you ponder the dessert menu.
At that point, anything is possible. Whatever choice you make is unforced and could have been otherwise, but it is not random. You are responsible for any damage to your pocketbook and your arteries.
“That strikes many people as incoherent,” said Dr. Silberstein, who noted that every physical system that has been investigated has turned out to be either deterministic or random. “Both are bad news for free will,” he said. So if human actions can’t be caused and aren’t random, he said, “It must be — what — some weird magical power?”
People who believe already that humans are magic will have no problem with that.
But whatever that power is — call it soul or the spirit — those people have to explain how it could stand independent of the physical universe and yet reach from the immaterial world and meddle in our own, jiggling brain cells that lead us to say the words “molten chocolate.”
A vote in favor of free will comes from some physicists, who say it is a prerequisite for inventing theories and planning experiments.
That is especially true when it comes to quantum mechanics, the strange paradoxical theory that ascribes a microscopic randomness to the foundation of reality. Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist at the University of Vienna, said recently that quantum randomness was “not a proof, just a hint, telling us we have free will.”
Is there any evidence beyond our own intuitions and introspections that humans work that way?
Two Tips of the Iceberg
In the 1970s, Benjamin Libet, a physiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, wired up the brains of volunteers to an electroencephalogram and told the volunteers to make random motions, like pressing a button or flicking a finger, while he noted the time on a clock.
Dr. Libet found that brain signals associated with these actions occurred half a second before the subject was conscious of deciding to make them.
The order of brain activities seemed to be perception of motion, and then decision, rather than the other way around.
In short, the conscious brain was only playing catch-up to what the unconscious brain was already doing. The decision to act was an illusion, the monkey making up a story about what the tiger had already done.
Dr. Libet’s results have been reproduced again and again over the years, along with other experiments that suggest that people can be easily fooled when it comes to assuming ownership of their actions. Patients with tics or certain diseases, like chorea, cannot say whether their movements are voluntary or involuntary, Dr. Hallett said.
In some experiments, subjects have been tricked into believing they are responding to stimuli they couldn’t have seen in time to respond to, or into taking credit or blame for things they couldn’t have done. Take, for example, the “voodoo experiment” by Dan Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard, and Emily Pronin of Princeton. In the experiment, two people are invited to play witch doctor.
One person, the subject, puts a curse on the other by sticking pins into a doll. The second person, however, is in on the experiment, and by prior arrangement with the doctors, acts either obnoxious, so that the pin-sticker dislikes him, or nice.
After a while, the ostensible victim complains of a headache. In cases in which he or she was unlikable, the subject tended to claim responsibility for causing the headache, an example of the “magical thinking” that makes baseball fans put on their rally caps.
“We made it happen in a lab,” Dr. Wegner said.
Is a similar sort of magical thinking responsible for the experience of free will?
“We see two tips of the iceberg, the thought and the action,” Dr. Wegner said, “and we draw a connection.”
But most of the action is going on beneath the surface. Indeed, the conscious mind is often a drag on many activities. Too much thinking can give a golfer the yips. Drivers perform better on automatic pilot. Fiction writers report writing in a kind of trance in which they simply take dictation from the voices and characters in their head, a grace that is, alas, rarely if ever granted nonfiction writers.
Naturally, almost everyone has a slant on such experiments and whether or not the word “illusion” should be used in describing free will. Dr. Libet said his results left room for a limited version of free will in the form of a veto power over what we sense ourselves doing. In effect, the unconscious brain proposes and the mind disposes.
In a 1999 essay, he wrote that although this might not seem like much, it was enough to satisfy ethical standards. “Most of the Ten Commandments are ‘do not’ orders,” he wrote.
But that might seem a pinched and diminished form of free will.
Good Intentions
Dr. Dennett, the Tufts professor, is one of many who have tried to redefine free will in a way that involves no escape from the materialist world while still offering enough autonomy for moral responsibility, which seems to be what everyone cares about.
The belief that the traditional intuitive notion of a free will divorced from causality is inflated, metaphysical nonsense, Dr. Dennett says reflecting an outdated dualistic view of the world.
Rather, Dr. Dennett argues, it is precisely our immersion in causality and the material world that frees us. Evolution, history and culture, he explains, have endowed us with feedback systems that give us the unique ability to reflect and think things over and to imagine the future. Free will and determinism can co-exist.
“All the varieties of free will worth having, we have,” Dr. Dennett said.
“We have the power to veto our urges and then to veto our vetoes,” he said. “We have the power of imagination, to see and imagine futures.”
In this regard, causality is not our enemy but our friend, giving us the ability to look ahead and plan. “That’s what makes us moral agents,” Dr. Dennett said. “You don’t need a miracle to have responsibility.”
Other philosophers disagree on the degree and nature of such “freedom.” Their arguments partly turn on the extent to which collections of things, whether electrons or people, can transcend their origins and produce novel phenomena.
These so-called emergent phenomena, like brains and stock markets, or the idea of democracy, grow naturally in accordance with the laws of physics, so the story goes. But once they are here, they play by new rules, and can even act on their constituents, as when an artist envisions a teapot and then sculpts it — a concept sometimes known as “downward causation.” A knowledge of quarks is no help in predicting hurricanes — it’s physics all the way down. But does the same apply to the stock market or to the brain? Are the rules elusive just because we can’t solve the equations or because something fundamentally new happens when we increase numbers and levels of complexity?
Opinions vary about whether it will ultimately prove to be physics all the way down, total independence from physics, or some shade in between, and thus how free we are. Dr. Silberstein, the Elizabethtown College professor, said, “There’s nothing in fundamental physics by itself that tells us we can’t have such emergent properties when we get to different levels of complexities.”
He waxed poetically as he imagined how the universe would evolve, with more and more complicated forms emerging from primordial quantum muck as from an elaborate computer game, in accordance with a few simple rules: “If you understand, you ought to be awestruck, you ought to be bowled over.”
George R. F. Ellis, a cosmologist at the University of Cape Town, said that freedom could emerge from this framework as well. “A nuclear bomb, for example, proceeds to detonate according to the laws of nuclear physics,” he explained in an e-mail message. “Whether it does indeed detonate is determined by political and ethical considerations, which are of a completely different order.”
I have to admit that I find these kind of ideas inspiring, if not liberating. But I worry that I am being sold a sort of psychic perpetual motion machine. Free wills, ideas, phenomena created by physics but not accountable to it. Do they offer a release from the chains of determinism or just a prescription for a very intricate weave of the links?And so I sought clarity from mathematicians and computer scientists. According to deep mathematical principles, they say, even machines can become too complicated to predict their own behavior and would labor under the delusion of free will.
If by free will we mean the ability to choose, even a simple laptop computer has some kind of free will, said Seth Lloyd, an expert on quantum computing and professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Every time you click on an icon, he explained, the computer’s operating system decides how to allocate memory space, based on some deterministic instructions. But, Dr. Lloyd said, “If I ask how long will it take to boot up five minutes from now, the operating system will say ‘I don’t know, wait and see, and I’ll make decisions and let you know.’ ”
Why can’t computers say what they’re going to do? In 1930, the Austrian philosopher Kurt Gödel proved that in any formal system of logic, which includes mathematics and a kind of idealized computer called a Turing machine, there are statements that cannot be proven either true or false. Among them are self-referential statements like the famous paradox stated by the Cretan philosopher Epimenides, who said that all Cretans are liars: if he is telling the truth, then, as a Cretan, he is lying.
One implication is that no system can contain a complete representation of itself, or as Janna Levin, a cosmologist at Barnard College of Columbia University and author of the 2006 novel about Gödel, “A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines,” said: “Gödel says you can’t program intelligence as complex as yourself. But you can let it evolve. A complex machine would still suffer from the illusion of free will.”
Another implication is there is no algorithm, or recipe for computation, to determine when or if any given computer program will finish some calculation. The only way to find out is to set it computing and see what happens. Any way to find out would be tantamount to doing the calculation itself.
“There are no shortcuts in computation,” Dr. Lloyd said.
That means that the more reasonably you try to act, the more unpredictable you are, at least to yourself, Dr. Lloyd said. Even if your wife knows you will order the chile rellenos, you have to live your life to find out.
To him that sounds like free will of a sort, for machines as well as for us. Our actions are determined, but so what? We still don’t know what they will be until the waiter brings the tray.
That works for me, because I am comfortable with so-called physicalist reasoning, and I’m always happy to leverage concepts of higher mathematics to cut through philosophical knots.
The Magician’s Spell
So what about Hitler?
The death of free will, or its exposure as a convenient illusion, some worry, could wreak havoc on our sense of moral and legal responsibility. According to those who believe that free will and determinism are incompatible, Dr. Silberstein said in an e-mail message, it would mean that “people are no more responsible for their actions than asteroids or planets.” Anything would go.
Dr. Wegner of Harvard said: “We worry that explaining evil condones it. We have to maintain our outrage at Hitler. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a theory of evil in advance that could keep him from coming to power?”
He added, “A system a bit more focused on helping people change rather than paying them back for what they’ve done might be a good thing.”
Dr. Wegner said he thought that exposing free will as an illusion would have little effect on people’s lives or on their feelings of self-worth. Most of them would remain in denial.
“It’s an illusion, but it’s a very persistent illusion; it keeps coming back,” he said, comparing it to a magician’s trick that has been seen again and again. “Even though you know it’s a trick, you get fooled every time. The feelings just don’t go away.”
In an essay about free will in 1999, Dr. Libet wound up quoting the writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, who once said in an interview with the Paris Review, “The greatest gift which humanity has received is free choice. It is true that we are limited in our use of free choice. But the little free choice we have is such a great gift and is potentially worth so much that for this itself, life is worthwhile living.”
I could skip the chocolate cake, I really could, but why bother? Waiter!
Correction: January 4, 2007
An article in Science Times on Tuesday about the debate over free will misstated the location of Elizabethtown College, where Michael Silberstein, who commented on free will and popular culture, is a science philosopher. It is in Pennsylvania, not Maryland.
Rating by Nature.com 05-06-07
Depresi Enfermedades Cl���cas:
Enf Oncolas y DepresiR>
Interact?n muchas maneras, su incidencia ha disminu��� en los ?os a tal vez, por menos cirug��� desfigurantes, y mejor apoyo psicolo. En los distintos estudios va del 25 al 50 %.
Las pacientes oncolos tinen mayor incidencia de depresi por otra parte, la depresimpeora el pronco del cancer, incluiso acelerando su progresi(Katon & Sullivan, 1990 ? Weitzner 97)
El problema es que esta minor���significativa de pacientes oncolos no es diagnosticada por interpretar los s���omas depresivos como causados por la neoplasia o su tratamiento , p la reacciormal a 鳴os.
Algunos factores asociados a la enfermedad cra son de riesgo para la depresidolor, invalidacipeor al ser mayor) y severidad de la enfermedad.
Comorbilidad psiquiᴲica de Enfermedades Oncolas:
El 47% es cl���camente aparente:
6% depresiayor(Derogatis 1983)
13% Trastornos de ajuste
12% Trastornos de ajuste con s���omas depresivos
El 90% de estos pacientes fueron interpretados por su cl���co como reactivos o relacionados al tratamiento o a la neoplasia en s���Estas cifras se elevan si inclu���s la distimia.
En un estudio metaanal���co se informa que la prevalencia ha bajado en los ?os 20 a(Van Spyker 97) gracias a mejoras en el tto.
El 25% de lo s pacientes oncolos internados presentan Dsr. Depresivos (Katon 90)Por otra parte, la prevalencia de depresis del 66% en los pacientes que solicitan suicidio asistido. (Cochinov 1995)
En general, la depresis subdiagnosticada, en particular pues los s���omas neurovegetativos (p鲤ida de peso, trastornos del sue los cognitivos y emocionales son atribu���s al trastorno oncolo en s���(Mc Daniel 98)
Dolor Oncolo
El diagnco de depresie asocia con una mayor progresi mayores s���omas de la neoplasia, en particular, el dolor. La depresiomda se asocia con mayor invalidez y disminucin la calidad de vida en el curso de la enfermedad.
Habr���una relaciidireccional entre el trastorno del ᮩmo y la neoplasia. Por ejemplo, en varios estudios en pacientes con dolor oncolo, 鳴os ten��� puntajes mas altos en : Depresisomatizaciansiedad y hostilidad.
A la inversa, los pacientes oncolos con diagnco psiquiᴲico ten��� una incidencia del doble en el registro del dolor. El 15% de los pacientes significativamente dolororidos ten��� s���omas de depresiayor.
En otras palabras, la depresiodr���?amplificar? el dolor, y a su vez, el dolor podr���causar depresiansiedad y otras situaciones en pacientes oncolos. Debe tenerse en cuenta las creencias del paciente, p. ej. Que el aumento del dolor equivale a mayor gravedad.
Tratamiento:
Psicoterapia: son ?s desde la psicoeducacional hasta la cognitiva.
Fueron efectivas para evitar depresi ansiedad, lograr mejoras en el soporte social, comunicacintre el equipo terap鵴ico y el paciente y flia, el reordenamiento de prioridades vitales, mejor���de relaciones familiares.
Psicofarmacolog��� En general el uso de Antidepresivos modernos, fundamentalmente ISRSs ha demostrado ser ? en particular en depresiansiedad y dolor neuropᴩco (Gill & Hatcher 2000)Efectos del tratamiento sobre la progresincola.
Los estudios, si bien no coinciden en su totalidad, indican que pacientes con episodios depresivos repetidos tienen un riesgo relativo de 1,88 de cursar una neoplasia.
Depresi Sistema Inmune
Hay mayor riesgo de supresinmune en:
Edad avanzada
HospitalizaciR>Melancol���BR>Alcoholismo
Trast del sue>Se elevan las Citoquinas Proinflamatorias en los pacientes depresivos, su elevacira causa enfermedad cl���ca.Inter Leukina 6 se eleva en la depresiesistente al tto, al igual que la prote��� C reactiva, hay ca��� de la IL 1ߠ. Miller 2002.
Los efectos de los antidepresivos sobre las Citokinas son mixtos .El stress activa las Cytokinas, en particular las Proinflamatorias. (Maes 98) Esto se vi que a mayor Autoacusaci verg? mayor elevacin citoquinas proinflamatorias.Las citoquinas proinflamatorias permitir��� explicar la depresi trav鳠de una nueva teor���
En HIV y enolismo, con depresise via alteracie la activaciel sistema inmune, que incluye las citoquinas proinflamatorias.
El diclofenac podr���ser usado en el futuro para el tto de la depresiya que act?bre la IL 6, esta v���permitir���usar ATC Y At���cos nuevamente.-
En el Centro de Veteranos de Houston se llevcabo un estudio comparativo sobre pacientes infectados con Hepatitis C, vs no infectados, internados entre 1992 y 1999 (HC n=33.824, sin HC n=43.267), se via prevalencia aumentada de alcoholismo (77,6 vs 45%),abuso de drogas (69,4 vs 31,1%), depresi49,5 vs 39,1%), Trast Ansiedad (40,8 vs 32,9%), SPT (33,5 vs 24,5%), Hashem El-Serag Gastroenterology 200
La depression y la ansiedad estᮠpresentes en al menos la tercera parte de las admisiones neurolas, pero sson reconocidas en la mitad de los pacientes, para colmo el 20% de los reconocidos no reciben un plan de tto.
New Dietary element in Alzheimer?s Disease prevention
A chemical compound in wine reduces levels of a harmful molecule linked to Alzheimer's disease. In a recent study, resveratrol--one of several antioxidants found in wine--helped human cells break down the molecule, which contributes to the lesions found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Fortunately for teetotalers, the compound is also found elsewhere. "Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol occurring in abundance in several plants, including grapes, berries and peanuts," says author Philippe Marambaud of the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for the Study of Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders in Manhasset, N.Y. "The polyphenol is found in high concentrations in red wines."
HUMOR SALUDABLE
Recetas para vivir bien.
Dicen que todos los d��� hay que comer manzana por el hierro y una banana, por el potasio. Y tambi鮠una naranja, para la vitamina C. Y una taza de t頶erde sin az? para prevenir la diabetes. Todos los d��� hay que tomarse dos litros de agua. (S���y mearlos, que lleva como el doble del tiempo que llevmᲳelos). Todos los d��� hay que tomarse un Actimel o un Yakult para tener "L.Cassei Defensis", que nadie sabe qu頣arajo es, pero parece que si no te mand᳠un mill medio todos los d���, entr᳠a ver a la gente como borrosa.Cada d���una aspirina, para prevenir los infartos. Y un vaso de vino tinto, para lo mismo. Y otro de blanco, para el sistema nervioso. Y uno de cerveza, que ya no me acuerdo para qu頥ra. Si te lo tom᳠todo junto, por m᳠que te d頵n derrame ah���ismo, probablemente ni te enteres.Todos los d��� hay que comer fibra. Mucha, much���ma fibra, hasta que logres cagar un pul.Hay que hacer entre cuatro y seis comidas diarias, livianas, sin olvidarte de masticar cien veces cada bocado. Haciendo el cᬣulo, sen comer se te van cinco horitas. Ah, y lavarte los dientes despu鳮 Despu鳠de cada comida hay que lavarse los dientes, o sea: despu鳠del Actimel los dientes, despu鳠de la manzana los dientes, despu鳠de la banana los dientes... y as���ientras tengas dientes. Y pasarte hilo dental, masajeador de enc���, buche con Plax...Mejor ampliᠥl ba met頥l equipo de m?, porque entre el agua, la fibra y los dientes, te vas a pasar varias horas por d���ah���dentro.Hay que dormir ocho horas y trabajar otras ocho, m᳠las cinco que empleamos en comer, veintiuno. Te quedan tres, siempre que no te agarre alg?quete. Seg?s estad���icas, vemos tres horas diarias de televisiBueno, ya no pod鳺 todos los d��� hay que caminar por lo menos media hora (Dato por experiencia: a los 15 minutos andᠶolviendo, si no la media hora se te hace una). Y hay que cuidar las amistades porque son como una planta: hay que regarlas a diario. Y cuando te vas de vacaciones tambi鮬 supongo. Ademᳬ hay que estar bien informado, as���ue hay que leer por lo menos dos diarios, para contrastar la informaciTambi鮠hay que hacerse tiempo para barrer, lavar la ropa, los platos, y no te digo si ten鳠perro o mascota... hijos?! A esta altura pod鳠ir considerando el suicidio como opciᬩda. En fin: a m���a cuenta me da unas 29 horas diarias.La ? posibilidad que se me ocurre es hacer varias de estas cosas a la vez, por ejemplo: te duch᳠con agua fr���y con la boca abierta, as���ientras tom᳠agua, sal���del baon el cepillo de dientes en la boca y le vas haciendo el "t᮴rico" de dorapa a tu pareja, que de paso mira la TV y te cuenta, mientras barr鳠con una escoba metida ah쮠?Te queda mano libre? Llamᠡ tus amigos. ?Y a tus padres!! Tomate el vino (despu鳠de llamar a tus padres te va a hacer falta). El Bio Puritas con la manzana te lo puede dar tu pareja mientras se come la banana con el Actimel, y ma cambian. Y menos mal que ya crecimos, porque si no nos tendr���os que clavar un Danonino Extra Calcio todos los d���. ?ڵuuf!
Si te quedan 5 minutos, reenviale esto a alg?igo mientras disfrut᳠de una cucharadita de Total Magnesiano, que hace de bien... Y ahora te dejo porque entre el yogur Activia, el medio pomelo, la cerveza, el primer litro de agua y la tercer comida con fibra del d��� ya no s頱u頭e estoy haciendo pero necesito un bargente. Ah, ya que estᠡprovecho y me llevo el cepillo de dientes...."
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