Honor Flight Network ~ Memorial Day 2013

Aerial view of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Memorial Day 2013

This weekend our nation will celebrate Memorial Day with Monday, May 27th, being the day that we all take a bit of time to remember the men and women who died in service to our country while serving in the Unites States Armed Forces. It is always a solemn day, but for those of us who experienced the loss of a family member or friend due to a service connected injury and/or disability...the day can bring with it bittersweet memories...the fathers who never came home, the brothers missing in action, the grandfathers or aunts and uncles never known, and those who made it home but whose lives were cut short as a result of the service connected injury.

Remembering World War II veterans...

Of course Memorial Day recognizes our war dead from each and every conflict that the United States has been part of; however, today we thought we would take a few minutes to focus on World War II. If you are a history buff, then you probably know that 16 million Americans served in the armed forces during World War II. 405,399 were killed in action, roughly 416 deaths per day from December 1941 through September 1945. According to the Veterans Administration there are approximately only 1.2 million veterans remaining of the 16 million who served our nation in World War II; those remaining are dying at a rate of 800 per day.

World War II Memorial

According to the National WWII Memorial website, "President Clinton signed Public Law 103-32 on May 25, 1993, authorizing the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) to establish a World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., or its environs...Construction began in September 2001. The memorial opened to the public on April 29, 2004, and was dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004. The memorial became part of the National Park System on Nov. 1, 2004, when it was transferred from the American Battle Monuments Commission to the National Park Service, which now operates and maintains the memorial."

Imagine, World War II ended in September 1945 and it was 59 years later when the World War II Memorial was dedicated.

The Honor Flight Network

If you have not heard of The Honor Flight Network, "it is a non-profit organization created solely to honor America's veterans for all their sacrifices. We transport our heroes to Washington, D.C. to visit and reflect at their memorials. Top priority is given to the senior veterans – World War II survivors, along with those other veterans who may be terminally ill."

The first Honor Flight took place in May 2005; you can read more about the history of this organization here. 

The film Honor Flight - One Last Mission

Honor Flight - One Last Mission is a documentary about four World War II veterans and a Midwest community coming together to give the veterans a trip of a lifetime to see firsthand the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.  If you would like to see the entire documentary, you should know it is available on Digital & On Demand, iTunes, Amazon.com...and in theaters in some communities throughout the United States. You can see the official trailer here.


If you are having trouble viewing the video, watch it here.

In closing...

This Memorial Day take a few minutes for yourself: Remember your loved ones who served and who died for our country. Take time to thank our surviving veterans who may be living with a permanent physical disability, another chronic service connected disability like post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), depression or other mental health issue.

Wishing you a peaceful Memorial Day...

Related articles

• 'Trip of a Lifetime': Honor Flight Tallahassee [SLIDE SHOW] (wctv.tv)
• Local World War II Veterans Take "Honor Flight" to Washington (arkansasmatters.com)
• 4th Big Sky Honor Flight departs with 84 World War II veterans aboard (ravallirepublic.com)
• Honor Flight Sends 90+ Veterans to D.C. (wqad.com)

Migraines, Depression, And Smaller Brain Volume: Is there a connection?

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you suffer from migraine headaches?

Maybe you answered this question affirmatively. Or maybe you have a close relative or friend who suffers from migraine headaches. Experts suggest that the number of Americans that suffer from migraine headaches is somewhere between 12 and 16 percent of the total population. The U.S. National Library of Medicine places the number at 12%; while a study completed in 2009 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated about 16% of Americans suffer migraine headaches.

Again, if you suffer from migraine headaches then you know the signs and symptoms; additionally you are aware that the headache can last from 2 hours to 72+ hours. Wikipedia references studies that indicate:

• Migraines are a significant source of both medical costs and lost productivity.
• In the United States direct costs have been estimated at 17 billion dollars.
• One tenth of this cost is due to the cost of triptans (drugs used to treat migraines)
• Indirect cost are around 15 billion dollars, most resulting from missed work

New study examines migraine sufferers who also have depression

The results of a new study were published May 22, 2013, online in the journal Neurology, The Official Journal of the American Academy of Neurology: Migraine, depression, and brain volume. The objective of this research was: To examine the joint association of migraine headache and major depressive disorder on brain volume in older persons without dementia.

Study's parameters...

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Aging in the U.S., the Icelandic Heart Association and the Icelandic Parliament.

• Study included 4296 participants with 58% being women
• Participants were on average 51 years old when they were first tested for migraines between 1967 and 1991.
• Participants were reassessed using a depression test and an MRI brain scan between 2002 and 2006, with the average being 76.

Study's findings...

According to a HealthDay article: "Compared to those with no history of migraines or depression, those with both conditions had brain volumes about 2 percent smaller. There was no difference in the total brain volume when comparing people with only one of the conditions to those with neither condition."

Going forward...

As you can quickly determine by reading any of the related articles below, this research will initiate a lot of conversation about migraines, depression and brain volume. Even the lead author, Larus S. Gudmundsson, PhD. indicated that those with depression and migraines may not suffer brain shrinkage as it is possible their brain were smaller from birth.

Related articles

• Having Both Migraines, Depression May Mean Smaller Brain (news.health.com)
• Migraine and depression together may be linked with brain size (sciencedaily.com)
• Having Both Migraines, Depression May Mean Smaller Brain (webmd.com)
• Having Both Migraines, Depression May Mean Smaller Brain (nlm.nih.gov)
• Migraines plus depression may equal smaller brain (cbsnews.com)

CDC Report: Mental Health Surveillance Among Children In The United States - 2005-2011

 Logo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"CDC 24/7: Saving Lives, Protecting People"

How much do you know about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? For example, did you know that its roots date back to a wartime agency called the Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA)?  In 1946 the CDC had fewer than 400 employees with only seven medical officers and their main purpose was to wage war on mosquitoes. 

But that was then and now more than 60 years later almost daily the CDC impacts our lives. According to their website:

"CDC is globally recognized for conducting research and investigations and for its action-oriented approach. CDC applies research and findings to improve people′s daily lives and responds to health emergencies—something that distinguishes CDC from its peer agencies."

CDC issues first comprehensive report on children's mental health in the United States

On May 16, 2013, the CDC issued a new report, the first of its kind: "Mental Health Surveillance Among Children in the United States - 2005-2011." It is a supplement to their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and it is the "first ever to describe federal effort on monitoring mental disorders, and presents estimates of the number of children aged 3-17 years with specific mental disorders."  

Here are a few important facts from the report as described in the digital press kit provided by the CDC News Room.

• Millions of American children live with depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, Tourette syndrome or a host of other mental health issues. 
• ADHD was the most prevalent current diagnosis among children aged 3–17 years. 
• Boys were more likely than girls to have ADHD, behavioral or conduct problems, autism spectrum disorders, anxiety, Tourette syndrome, and cigarette dependence whereas adolescent girls were more likely than adolescent boys to have depression or an alcohol use disorder.

How to utilize these numbers...

Over the next few days there will be many headlines and articles written about this report. Many articles will highlight that it appears that 20% of U.S. children and teens may suffer from a recognized mental disorder. It is important to remember that according to Medpage Today's review: "The publication is the CDC's first attempt to summarize the government's wide-ranging survey data on mental health in children and adolescents." Medpage Today went on to offer two action points:

1. Note that this analysis of multiple large surveys and administrative datasets documented a higher-than-expected prevalence of mental health issues among U.S. children. 
2. Be aware that, as some children may have more than one disorder, summing the prevalences of individual disorders likely inflates the total proportion of children suffering from mental health issues. 

Parents should always talk to their child's health care provider if they have concerns about their child's behavior at home, in school or with friends. Here is a helpful children's mental health surveillance fact sheet.

Cottonwood Tucson provides mental health treatment for adults, as well as girls ages 13-17 in our Sweetwater Adolescent Girls Treatment Program.

Related articles

• CDC's First Comprehensive Report On Children's Mental Health: ADHD Ranks Most Diagnosed At 6.8% (medicaldaily.com)
• 1 in 5 U.S. Kids Has a Mental Health Disorder: CDC (news.health.com)
• Children's Mental Health (cdc.gov)
• Attention deficit leads US kids' mental health problems, CDC reports (vitals.nbcnews.com)

NTSB Recommends Lowering The BAC Limit To 0.05

English: A sobriety checkpoint in East Haven, CT. Also known as DWI Enforcement (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Approaching a sobriety checkpoint...

Have you ever been returning from dinner with friends or maybe a special event like a live theater production and happened upon a sobriety checkpoint? It can be somewhat startling even if you haven't had any kind of alcoholic beverage throughout the day or evening.

Each municipality has its own routine for setting up a sobriety checkpoint and to the novice observer it may seem they have a way of profiling those drivers who arrive at the sobriety checkpoint. The police officer will waive certain cars through without much more than quick glance and then for no apparent reason certain drivers will be motioned to enter a separate designated lane. The police might ask the driver to present his/her license and registration and also inquire where the driver is coming from and going to and if the driver has had any alcoholic beverages.

The whole point of sobriety checkpoints is to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road and to prevent horrific automobile accidents that can cause the death or serious injury of an innocent victim(s).

National Transportation Safety Board recommends lowering the BAC level for drunk driving

Currently in all 50 of the United States for one to be considered as driving under the influence and subject to arrest and prosecution his/her blood alcohol content (BAC) level needs to be 0.08 or above. This week the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended lowering this BAC to 0.05. Depending on your age you may remember a time in the United States when each year at least 20,000 people died as a result of alcohol related accidents. With a lot of hard work and education we have managed to lower that yearly figure to 10,000 deaths.

There are critics of this new proposal...

A number of associations immediately responded to the proposal set forth by the NTSB. The American Beverage Institute which is a trade organization stated that "at 0.05 individuals are as distracted as you are when you have the radio up too loud...this would have a devastating impact on the hospitality industry while having no corollary benefit for public safety."

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) stated that "the issue with lowering the legal limit is that it will take a lot of effort for a potential result that is many, many years down the line." (It should be noted that to move the BAC from .10 to .08 took 21 years for each state to implement.)

According to a USA Today article Sarah Longwell, the managing director of MADD stated: "Further restricting the moderate consumption of alcohol by responsible adults prior to driving does nothing to stop hard-core drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel." Instead, the following items need serious consideration:

• Administratively suspending a driver's license immediately when a driver is arrested for being drunk. 
• Suggesting states require steering locks on vehicles driven by convicted drunken drivers that would test the driver's breath before returning to the road. The group also recommended incentives through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to encourage states to adopt the locks. 
• Creating special courts to handle drunken-driving cases. 
• Documenting the last place drunken drivers had a drink before their crashes.

MSNBC's Jansing | &CO. filed the following report

 

If you are having trouble viewing the video, you can see it here.

Make a plan...

It really is pretty easy to make a plan to get home safely. Have a designated driver. If you do not have someone to drive you home after having a few drinks at dinner, then call a taxi. The cost of the taxi ride is miniscule when compared to the life of an innocent victim or your own.  One DUI conviction can and will be a life altering event: Your license may be revoked or suspended, your insurance may be cancelled or your rates increased, your career may be negatively impacted and your relationships with your family and friends will be affected.

It is important to remember: Alcohol is one of the most physiologically toxic of the substances of abuse. Even in the early stages of drinking, an alcoholic can suffer neurological, liver and other organ damage. Alcohol can also rob the brain of its natural ability to calm upset and anxiety. With each successive day of drinking, the alcoholic’s thinking becomes more disorganized and he or she is less able to manage the emotional stresses of life. When not drinking, the alcoholic suffers ever-increasing anxiety during the day and greater difficulty sleeping at night. This is where alcoholism treatment is essential.

Related articles

• NTSB pushes lower limit for drunken driving (usnews.nbcnews.com)
• NTSB recommends lowering blood alcohol level that constitutes drunken driving (usnews.nbcnews.com)
• NTSB Recommends Lowering The Legal Limit On Drunk Driving To .05 (boston.cbslocal.com)
• Blood Alcohol Limit For Drivers Should Be Lowered To 0.05 Percent: National Transportation Safety Board (huffingtonpost.com)
• NTSB Wants to Lower DUI Limit to .05 (ktla.com)
• NTSB Wants To Lower Legal Alcohol Limit (baltimore.cbslocal.com)

Obsessed: Mika Brzezinski Writes About Food Addiction ~ Particularly Her Own

Do you fall asleep with your television on?

This might sound like a odd question, but the National Sleep Foundation reported in 2011 that "about two-thirds of baby boomers (67%) and generation X'ers (63%) and half of generation Z'ers (50%) and generation Y'ers (49%) watch television every night or almost every night within the hour before going to sleep...light-emitting screens are in heavy use within the pivotal hour before sleep. Invasion of such alerting technologies into the bedroom may contribute to the high proportion of respondents who reported that they routinely get less sleep than they need."

Don't worry, this post is not about sleeping with the television on, but what you can learn about while the television is on.  For example, an associate confessed that her television is frequently playing throughout the night and she often awakes at 3:00AM (PDT) to the Morning Joe show. If you are not familiar with the show, it goes live at 6:00AM EDT and is co-hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. They cover the news, politics, current events, movies, authors, health issues and more. If you are a regular viewer, then you know this team and their guests often make news. Early one morning this week our associate learned about a new book by Mika Brzezinski.

Mika Brzezinski pens new book...Obsessed: America's Food Addiction - And My Own

This is not the first book that Mika has written. She has covered other topical items for women to reach their full potential in the workplace and every stage of life's journey; however, now Mika has decided to reach out to all people who struggle with food addiction. Her new book Obsessed: America's Food Addiction - And My Own was published May 7, 2013, and Amazon offers the following description:

Mika Brzezinski is at war against obesity. On Morning Joe, she is often so adamant about improving America’s eating habits that some people have dubbed her “the food Nazi.” What they don’t know is that Mika wages a personal fight against unhealthy eating habits every day, and in this book she describes her history of food obsession and distorted body image, and her lifelong struggle to be thin. She believes it’s time we all learned to stop blaming ourselves, and each other, and look at the real culprits—the food we eat and our addiction to it. Mika feels the only way to do this is to break through the walls of silence and shame we’ve built around obesity and food obsessions. She believes we need to talk openly about how our country became overweight, and what we can do to turn the corner and step firmly onto the path of health.

Morning Joe welcomes Dr. David Katz to discuss Obsessed

On May 9, 2013, Dr. David Katz of the Yale Prevention Research Center joined the conversation on Morning Joe to discuss food addiction and more.


If you are having trouble viewing the video, you can see it here.

Treating eating disorders...

At Cottonwood Tucson, our behavioral health dieticians consult with our psychiatrists and eating disorders therapists to design personalized, whole-person treatment plans that can bring safety and structure to our patients’ disordered eating. Anorexia treatment and bulimia treatment begins with a thorough psychiatric evaluation, comprehensive nutritional assessments and exercise assessments, and a body composition analysis. Our clinicians can then use these assessments and in vivo experiential activities, like mindful eating meal sessions, to help Cottonwood patients establish a healthier relationship with food.

Related articles

• MikaBrzezinski: Why I gained two dress sizes on purpose (today.com)
• Mika Brzezinski puts food obsession at the forefront (usatoday.com)
• Chris Christie, Mika Brzezinski and the Public Act of Confronting Your Weight (usnews.com)
• An excerpt from Mika Brzezinski's "Obsessed" (tv.msnbc.com)
• Mika Brzezinski's Secret Eating Disorder (cosmopolitan.com)