Do you usually eat yogurt for breakfast? If you do, it’s likely because you know it will keep you regular. Many people eat yogurt for the probiotics, the healthy bacteria, which helps keep the digestive tract functioning well. Your gut is full of bacterial cells. These little organisms are there helping you to break down…
Psychopathy is a common term used to describe a grouping of personality traits that includes such things as impulsive behavior, lack of regard for others, lack of a normal range of emotional responsiveness and frequent deception or manipulation of others. People who have these traits are known as psychopaths or sociopaths. However, the American Psychiatric…
Doctors use the term obesity to describe levels of body weight that are high enough to seriously endanger one or more aspects of a person’s health. Specific problems linked to the presence of obesity include type 2 diabetes, strokes, hypertension, arthritis, high cholesterol, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Obesity is also frequently a…
Do you remember the woman who sued McDonald’s in 1994? Stella Liebeck, 79, ordered coffee from the giant fast food chain then spilled it in her lap while she was attempting to mix in the cream and sugar. The burn from temperature of the coffee, which McDonald’s required each restaurant to hold at 180 to…
To look at Jude’s fingernails, you’d think she had an unfortunate disorder, something that affected nail growth and left only jagged bits of rough and misshapen keratin on the ends of her fingers. She chewed at them mercilessly when she thought no one was watching, and though she’d tried everything to quit what she believed…
There is a relatively new treatment for addiction on the market. It isn’t a new type of therapy or a variation of a 12-step program and it isn’t a replacement for a drug, like methadone, which acts as a replacement for heroin. The new drug, called Vivitrol, is an injection that prevents addicts from getting…
Millions of people in the U.S. struggle to get a good night’s sleep on a regular basis. In some cases, insomnia is caused by physical ailments, such as seasonal allergies or chronic pain. For many others, however, sleep disturbances are directly linked to mental health problems, such as depression or anxiety. Unfortunately, frequent or chronic…
It’s often been said that depression is the “common cold” when it comes to psychiatric disorders, while schizophrenia is likened to “cancer.” While those metaphors may be oversimplified, they’re not far off the mark in many ways. Schizophrenia is one of the most serious — and often one of the most disabling — types of…
The message that drinking and pregnancy poses considerable risk to the unborn fetus appears to be getting through. Over the last decade, alcohol use among pregnant women has decreased, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. More troubling, however, is that during that same 10-year period, illicit drug…
Through the teachings of Christine Bates, MA, therapist at The Ranch, clients discover that they are not alone, that the puzzling things their minds do are universal.