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QUOTE FOR THE WEEKEND:

“A significant challenge for diagnosing women with heart disease is the lack of recognition of symptoms that might be related to heart disease, or that don’t fit into classic definitions. Women can develop symptoms that are subtler and harder to detect as a heart attack, especially if the physician is only looking for the “usual” heart attack symptoms.

“Women are much more likely to have atypical heart attack symptoms,” says Dr. Lili Barouch, director of the Johns Hopkins Columbia Heart Failure Clinic. “So while the classical symptoms, such as chest pains, apply to both men and women, women are much more likely to get less common symptoms such as indigestion, shortness of breath, and back pain, sometimes even in the absence of obvious chest discomfort.

The first step to lowering cardiovascular risk is to raise your awareness of the risk factors and symptoms that are particular to women. The next step is to take actions and practice daily behaviors that lower the risk factors you can control.”

John Hopkins Medicine (Heart Disease: Differences in Men and Women | Johns Hopkins Medicine)

 

How women differ from men in heart disease and why!

          Women and Heart DIsease+

Many many women and their doctors don’t know that heart disease is the number one killer of women. Furthermore, the heart disease that is seen in women is often not quite the same as heart disease in men.

Let’s remember that Heart disease is an umbrella term that includes heart failure, coronary artery disease (CAD), arrhythmias, angina, and other heart-related infections, irregularities, and birth defects

These facts lead to two common (and sometimes tragic) misapprehensions held by many women and their doctors: That women don’t really get much heart disease, and when they do, it behaves pretty much like the heart disease that men get.

The truth is that not only is heart disease very common in women, but also, when women get heart disease it often acts quite differently than it does in men. Failing to understand these two fundamental truths leads to a lot of preventable deaths and disability in women with heart disease.

If you are a woman, you need to know the basics about heart disease – especially heart disease as it behaves in women.

When women have angina, they are more likely than men to experience “atypical” symptoms. Instead of chest pain, they are more likely to experience a hot or burning sensation, or even tenderness to touch, which may be located in the back, shoulders, arms or jaw – and often women have no chest discomfort at all. An alert doctor will think of angina whenever a patient describes any sort of fleeting, exertion-related discomfort located anywhere above the waist, and they really shouldn’t be thrown off by such “atypical” descriptions of symptoms. However, unless doctors are thinking specifically of the possibility of CAD, they are all too likely to write such symptoms off to mere musculoskeletal pain or gastrointestinal disturbances.

Women are more likely than men to have heart attack symptoms unrelated to chest pain, such as:

      • Neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort.
      • Shortness of breath.
      • Right arm pain.
      • Nausea or vomiting.
      • Sweating.
      • Lightheadedness or dizziness.
      • Unusual fatigue.

Heart attacks (or myocardial infarctions)  also tend to behave differently in women.

Frequently, instead of the crushing chest pain that is considered typical for a heart attack, women may experience nausea, vomiting, indigestion, shortness of breath or extreme fatigue – but no chest pain. Unfortunately, these symptoms are also easy to attribute to something other than the heart. Furthermore, women (especially women with diabetes) are more likely than men to have “silent” heart attacks – that is, heart attacks without any acute symptoms at all, and which are diagnosed only at a later time, when subsequent cardiac symptoms occur.

The Diagnosis Of CAD in Women Can Be More Difficult; Tests done to help diagnose:

Diagnostic tests that work quite well in men can be misleading in women. The most common problem is seen with stress testing – in women, the electrocardiogram (ECG) during exercise can often show changes suggesting CAD, whether CAD is present or not, making the study difficult to interpret. Many cardiologists routinely add an echocardiogram or a thallium study when doing a stress test in a woman, which greatly improves diagnostic accuracy.

In women with typical CAD, coronary angiography is every bit as useful as in men; it identifies the exact location of any plaques (i.e., blockages) within the coronary arteries, and guides therapeutic decisions. However, in women with atypical coronary artery disorders (to be discussed in the next section), coronary angiograms often appear misleadingly normal. Thus, in women angiography is often not the gold standard for diagnosis, as it is for most men.

CAD In Women Can Take Atypical Forms.

At least four atypical coronary artery disorders can occur in women, usually in younger (i.e., pre-menopausal) women. Each of these conditions can produce symptoms of angina with apparently “normal” coronary arteries (that is, coronary arteries that often appear normal on angiogram). The problem, obviously, is that if the physician trusts the results of the angiogram, he/she is likely to miss the real diagnosis.

Risk Factors for Heart Disease in Women – Those we can’t change = Nonmodifiable Factors:

Age and Family History, Gender, Ethnicity.

The risk of having heart disease increases with age and this is due to stiffening of heart muscles which makes the heart less efficient in pumping blood around the body. You can determine your heart age by using this tool, developed by the British Heart Foundation: https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/risk-factors/check-your-heart-age.

Another risk factor you cannot change is if you have a history of heart disease among family members. This can double your risk, so if your mother, father, sister or brother has suffered from heart disease before the age of 60 you are at a greater risk of developing heart disease.

Modifiable Risk Factors – Those we can change are:

1-Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death in Australia, and approximately 40% of women who smoke die due to heart disease, stroke or blood vessel disease. Smokers are 2-4 times more at risk of developing heart disease compared to non-smokers. In 2011/2012, over 1.3 million women in Australia smoked, and 89% of them did this on a daily basis. While these numbers are for women aged 15 and over, the largest group were in the 25-34 age group.

Passive smoking (exposure to the cigarette smoke of others) also causes an increase in the risk of developing heart disease, which increases further in people having high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Women who smoke and also take the contraceptive pill have a 10 times higher risk of having a heart attack.

2-Alcohol. Do you know that drinking too much alcohol increases the risk of heart disease? Excessive drinking causes more weight gain (due to increased calories!), increase in blood pressure and blood lipids. Over a long period of time it can weaken the heart muscle and cause abnormal heart rhythms. Try and not drink alcohol every day, limit it to two standard drinks at a time and aim for at least two alcohol free days a week and make sure you don’t increase the amount you drink on the other days. Periodically take a break from any alcohol for a week or more and you will notice many benefits including a better nights sleep.

3.High Blood Pressure or Hypertension. Your blood pressure is a measurement of how ‘hard’ your heart is working to push blood around your body, through the blood vessels. It can be a ‘silent’ killer and if you do not know your blood pressure then it is worth having it checked by your GP. Changing your lifestyle will reduce your blood pressure. A recent study suggests that keeping your blood pressure under 140/90 can increase your life expectancy by 5 years at the age of 50 years. You can assess your high blood pressure through your MD monthly or less expensive buy a b/p machine and check your b/p everyday especially if your on antihypertensive meds to make sure your b/p isn’t under 100/60 to prevent hypotension.

4.Diabetes. Do you have diabetes and if so, is it under control?

Diabetes doubles your risk of having heart disease. People who have uncontrolled diabetes are at risk of having heart disease at an earlier age. For pre-menopausal women, having diabetes cancels the protective effects of hormone present in women and significantly increases the risk of heart disease. Taking steps to find out what your blood sugar is and keeping it well-controlled is essential.

5.Obesity- Do you know your body fat content?  If you think that you are overweight then you put yourself at risk of having heart disease. Being overweight will increase your blood pressure and contribute to developing diabetes. In addition to that, women who carry weight around their middle (belly fat) as opposed to their hips are twice as likely to develop heart disease.

By taking the steps to reduce your weight, you can reduce your risk of heart disease. A great tool developed by National Heart Foundation of Australia calculates if you might be at risk: http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/healthy-eating/Pages/bmi-calculator.aspx

6- INACTIVE-Are you physically active every day? Recent research indicates that “sitting is the new smoking” and being physically inactive can double your risk of having heart disease. It is important to get some exercise every day, such as a 30 minute walk where you raise your heart rate. It also raises your serotonin levels (feel-good hormone) and can reduce depression

7- STRESS-We could almost ask – do you know anyone who is not stressed?! However, while everyday life is stressful, those people who are almost constantly stressed are at risk of adopting unhealthy behaviours in order to reduce their stress levels. Examples include increasing their alcohol intake or smoking in order to relax; or tending to eat more junk food because they are often short of time. All of these factors increase their risk of heart disease.

Women, stress and the risk of heart disease

Along with poor diet, lack of exercise and smoking, unmanaged stress may increase the risk for heart disease. Now medical experts are discovering that mental stress affects women in different, and in some cases, more devastating ways, especially if they already have coronary conditions. One study that

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease. The good news? Heart disease can often be prevented when people make healthy choices and manage their health conditions. Communities, health professionals, and families can work together to create opportunities for people to make healthier choices. Make a difference in your community: Spread the word about strategies for preventing heart disease and encourage people to live heart healthy lives

 

QUOTE FOR FRIDAY:

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are several deadly diseases that strike Blacks harder and more often than they do other groups, particularly whites.  There are reasons like genetic, lifestyle, diet with activities of daily living.

“Here are some of the diseases affecting African Americans the most:

1-60% more common in Blacks than in whites. Blacks are up to 2.5 times more likely to suffer a limb amputation and up to 5.6 times more likely to suffer kidney disease than other people with diabetes.

2-The death reflected a harsh reality in the United States: Asthma hits African-Americans particularly hard, and the health care system often fails them. An estimated 15.3 percent of black children have the disease compared with 7.1 percent of white children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, African-Americans are nearly three times as likely to die from asthma as white people.

3-You may not hear it much, but deaths from lung scarring — sarcoidosis — are 16 times more common among Blacks than among whites.

4-Strokes kill 4 times more 35- to 54-year-old Black Americans than white Americans. Blacks have nearly twice the first-time stroke risk of whites.

Black Americans have a higher prevalence of stroke and higher death rate from stroke than any other racial group. Stroke is a “brain attack” that most often occurs when blood that brings oxygen to your brain stops flowing and brain cells die.

5-One of the significant risk factors for heart disease is high blood pressure. Blacks develop high blood pressure earlier in life — and with much higher blood pressure levels — than whites. According to The American Heart Association, the prevalence of high blood pressure in African Americans is the highest in the world. African American adults are 40% more likely to have high blood pressure than non-Hispanic whites.

The National Institutes of Health is changing this situation. One reason for this change — as research into lung disease, heart disease, and diabetes shows — is the growing realization that the health of Black Americans isn’t a racial issue, but a human issue.”

BlackDoctor.org

(The 7 Deadliest Diseases in the Black Community – BlackDoctor.org – Where Wellness & Culture Connect)

Part I Black History Month — Read about common diseases in this ethnic group.

Figure 2: Black Population, by State, 2010-2011

The majority of Americans black or white under 67.5 have to work to have medical coverage (unless under disability), if not the majority of Americans would be rich.

Health care disparities heighten disease differences between African-Americans and white Americans.

  • African-Americans are three times more likely to die of asthma than white Americans.
  • Diabetes is 60% more common in black Americans than in white Americans. Blacks are up to 2.5 times more likely to suffer a limb amputation and up to 5.6 times more likely to suffer kidney disease than other people with diabetes.
  • Deaths from lung scarring — sarcoidosis — are 16 times more common among blacks than among whites. The disease recently killed former NFL star Reggie White at age 43.
  • Despite lower tobacco exposure, black men are 50% more likely than white men to get lung cancer.
  • Strokes kill 4 times more 35- to 54-year-old black Americans than white Americans. Blacks have nearly twice the first-time stroke risk of whites.
  • Blacks develop high blood pressure earlier in life — and with much higher blood pressure levels — than whites. Nearly 42% of black men and more than 45% of black women aged 20 and older have high blood pressure.
  • Cancer treatment is equally successful for all races. Yet black men have a 40% higher cancer death rate than white men. African-American women have a 20% higher cancer death rate than white women.

Why?

Factor 1 – Genes definitely play a role. So does the environment in which people live, socioeconomic status,  says Clyde W. Yancy, MD, associate dean of clinical affairs and medical director for heart failure/transplantation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Living in a low socioeconomic environment puts you at risk to eating fast foods or deli food (especially in the cities) and increasing, over long term eating fast foods, causing disease (DM, Obesity, Heart Disease and could go on).

Factor 2 – Another reason is that a higher percentage of black Americans than white Americans live close to toxic waste dumps — and to the factories that produce this waste.

Addressing socioeconomic groups first, Dr. Yancy says that all humans have the same physiology, are vulnerable to the same illnesses, and respond to the same medicines. Naturally, diseases and responses to treatment do vary from person to person. But, he says, there are unique issues that affect black Americans.

Like Yancy, LeRoy M. Graham Jr., MD, says the time is ripe for Americans to come to grips with these issues. Graham, a pediatric lung expert, serves on the American Lung Association’s board of directors, is associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and serves as staff physician for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

“I just think we as physicians need to get more impassioned,” Graham tells WebMD. “There are health disparities. There are things that may have more sinister origins in institutionalized racism. But we as doctors need to spend more time recognizing these disparities and addressing them — together with our patients — on a very individual level.”

A 2005 report from the American Lung Association shows that black Americans suffer far more lung disease than white Americans do.

Some of the findings:

  • Black Americans have more asthma than any racial or ethnic group in America. And blacks are 3 times more likely to die of asthma than whites.
  • Black Americans are 3 times more likely to suffer sarcoidosis than white Americans. The lung-scarring disease is 16 times more deadly for blacks than for whites.
  • Black American children are 3 times as likely as white American children to have sleep apnea.
  • Black American babies die of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 2.5 times as often as white American babies.
  • Black American men are 50% more likely to get lung cancer than white American men.  For starters this race is highier overall than caucasians in smoking in the U.S.A.
  • Black Americans are half as likely to get flu and pneumonia vaccinations as white Americans.

“The environment is involved, and there is potential genetic susceptibility — but we also have to talk about the fact that African-Americans’ social and economic status lags behind that of Caucasians,” Graham says. “And low socioeconomic status is linked to more disease.”

Of course these 2 factors put you at risk for disease, but you want to live in a better environment do your research.   Some may say it due to blacks being treated poorly or the word “racism”.  Is this the case, No not at all.  You need the facts why you blacks are highier in living in a toxic or low socioeconomic group.  One, that is where they can afford and decide to live their. Two is because they feel they can not or they decide not to move due to personal reasons like lack to apply self to get in a better environment (whether it be due to fear, lack of knowing their success in the move/challenge so they don’t want to take the chance or not wanting change and decide to stay in that toxic or low socio-economic area.  No one puts a magnum 45 to anyone’s head telling them they have to stay in these areas.  In America you can live where you want.  So its up to the individual with the family having the will to make the move in their life to be less exposed to areas poor for you health.  Its up to them to research areas less expensive or better enviroment exposure areas in America; no one else is going to do that for them or any one else.  Than there are those that simply don’t mind living in areas like toxic or low socioeconomic exposed but many don’t understand that thinking.  The risk is that individual and their family put themselves at risk for a higher chance of getting these diseases like lung cancer, heart disease, etc…   Make the move and get out of those places and live a better quality of life for you and all in your family.  Its all up to you to make the move.  Keep in mind disease is not just environmental related.  You need to look at all factors like genetic, the diet you are on, how active you are; its not just one factor in most cases.  You have to take a holistic approach on seeing what diseases you could be exposed to and why.  Don’t wait till symptoms start finding out its possibly too late.  Think PREVENTION over treatment.  Its your life and up to you!

Part II tomorrow

QUOTE FOR THURSDAY:

“In April 1999, a hush fell over the nation as we learned about the tragic massacre of 10 students and one teacher at Columbine High School. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting at a school in the United States.

Since then, gun violence has only gotten worse. In 2017, firearm violence became the leading cause of death for children aged 1–19 years, overtaking motor vehicle accidents. In 2021–2022, the rate of gunfire incidents on school grounds reached its all-time high of 328 shootings—93 of which resulted in fatalities.

The results are sobering:

  • 1453 school shootings occurred from 1997 to 2022, with the number of shootings each year increasing to a maximum of 328 in the 2021–2022 school year.
  • There were 11 total mass shootings during the study period, resulting in 122 children killed and 126 others injured.
  • Though the rate of mass shootings has not increased over time, they have become deadlier—from 7.6 deaths per shooting in 1997–2012 to 14.0 deaths per shooting in 2013–2022.

Unfortunately, these interventions have not worked. There were 135 more school shootings in the study’s final five years than the prior 20 years combined. In fact, these interventions may inadvertently be harming children by inducing trauma and unnecessarily entangling young students with law enforcement.

Despite school shootings dominating the American psyche since the 1999 Columbine massacre, our schoolchildren are still being shot and killed at historic rates. Current interventions do not work. Our children need comprehensive, evidence-backed, and effective solutions to keep them safe.”

March 6, 2024- American Academy of Pediatrics

Why still many school shootings? Gun control safety in all schools with illegal gun control, & stricter rules on permits would help decrease these shootings!!

 

  

As of October 15, 58 incidents of school shootings were recorded in the United States in 2024, impacting K-12 school grounds and college campuses nationwide.

School shootings—terrifying to students, educators, parents, and communities—always reignite polarizing debates about gun rights and school safety. To bring context to these debates, Education Week journalists began tracking shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths.

In 2025, we continue this heartbreaking, but important work. More information about this tracker and our methodology is below.

There have been 2 school shootings this year that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to an Education Week analysis. There have been 223 such shootings since 2018. There were 39 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year. There were 38 in 2023, 51 in 2022, 35 in 2021, 10 in 2020, and 24 each in 2019 and 2018.

Attack on a Florida high school 2018 is the eighth shooting to have resulted in death or injury during the first seven weeks of that year!

Wednesday’s school shooting 2018 Valentine’s day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was the 18th school shooting of 2018 — a year that’s not even two months old.

While many of these incidents — including the Wednesday’s shooting 2018, one on Feb. 8 at New York City’s Metropolitan High School — did not result in any fatalities or injuries, schools nationwide have been rocked by gun violence in recent days. There have been school shootings in 13 states so far that year.

Gun control needs metal detectors in all schools and all states having the same heavy prerequisites to getting a permit.

In NY requisites are being a NY resident or your business is in NY, (a) twenty-one years of age or older, provided, however,  that where  such  applicant  has  been  honorably  discharged from the United States army, navy, marine corps,  air  force  or  coast  guard,  or  the national  guard  of the state of New York, no such age restriction shall apply; (b) of good moral character;  (c)  who  has  not  been  convicted anywhere of a felony or a serious offense; (d) who has stated whether he or  she  has  ever  suffered  any mental illness or been confined to any hospital or institution, public or private, for mental illness; (e)  who has  not had a license revoked or who is not under a suspension or ineligibility order issued pursuant to the provisions of section  530.14  of the  criminal  procedure law or section eight hundred forty-two-a of the family court act;(f)  in  the  county  of  Westchester, … , (i), … (ii), … (g) …

NYS also requires the following:

Reference Letters Currently, I am told you are asked to supply 3 reference letters from people that have known you for at least 2 years (mine had to be from people that knew me at least 5 years, YMMV). The letter should state that you are “of good moral character.” The more detailed and personal it is, the better. This is a basic sample of a Reference Letter (PDF).  This is to prove your are of good moral character.

The Interview It’s really no big deal. Look presentable, and be prepared. One individual’s questioning went something like this (my experience was similar):

Q: Why do you want a gun? A: Home defense & target shooting.

Q: Where will you store the gun? A: Unloaded, in a locked box or safe, with a trigger lock.

Q: Where will you store the ammo? A: In a different locked box or safe.

Q: Have you ever owned a gun? A: Yes or No, if yes be ready to supply details.

Q: Is your housemate aware you are applying for this permit? A: Yes, he/she has already signed an affidavit to that end or “I live alone.”

Q: Will you be transporting the firearm? A: Yes, to and from the gun range with no stops.

Q: How will you transport the firearm to and from the range? A: Pistol in a locked box, unloaded and trigger locked. Ammunition in a separate container. Both the pistol and the ammo will be carried in a way so as to obscure their presence on my person.

Q: Have you ever been assaulted? A: Yes or No. Provide details and dates if answer is yes.

Q: Has your domicile ever been robbed? A: Yes or No. Provide details and dates if answer is yes.

Q: When is the use of deadly force permissible? A: When someone has broken into my home and has demonstrated their intention to kill myself or someone else in my home.

You are being given a evaluation on if your mentally stable or not to be even thought of given a gun in NY.

It is not so hard in getting guns in certain other states where others are just as difficult as NY.  Consistency on rules could help a lot.

If illegal guns where wiped away in America and not available in this country except legally getting a gun a lot of shooting would be decreased.  The man who did the shooting in Florida Monday was not emotionally stable.  This man was no way stable enough to carry a gun and if he was checked by NY or other states like it he would never have got a permit or license with his school history problems, no references probably with how the students talked about him on the internet, on top of getting suspended/expelled from a the school.  This would set off a red light in NY or other states like NY with the requisites in getting access of a permit for a gun.

God help these students, families, friends, people in all the states of America and those that have been hit with unfortunate gun shootings that put a big shock to America and the people of it!  Please lets make a change in making schools safer and President Trump come through with the statement he made on making the schools safer that February month, on 2/15/18!  Now back in office as President of the United States who will hopefully do better in getting rid of illegal guns as he is illegals in this country.  He has been improving our border without question since Former Bidon was in office!

QUOTE FOR WEDNESDAY:

“Although the terms “mind” and “brain” are sometimes used interchangeably, they are distinct entities. The brain is a physical organ that is responsible for coordinating our bodily functions, while the mind is a collection of mental processes that encompasses our thoughts, emotions, memories, and beliefs. The brain is the hardware that powers the mind, while the mind is the software that runs on the brain.

Kindness makes us happier and also protects against depression. That’s what the science says.

In a typical ‘kindness study’, people are asked to carry out a certain number of acts of kindness over the course of a day, a week, a month, or longer, and their happiness levels are either compared against people not doing the kindnesses or against their own happiness before they began the study.

In every version of these sorts of studies, the results are clear. Being kind makes us happy.

In longer studies, of the type that examine people’s volunteering habits, rates of depression are lower than in the general population. One of the reasons is that volunteering creates beneficial social connections. It could also be, as some have argued, that kind people are drawn to volunteering, which almost certainly contributes. But the evidence suggests that kindness itself protects against depression.

So why is this so? Why does kindness make us happier and protect our mental health? There are a few reasons.

One, is that deep in the human psyche is the sense that helping others is the right thing to do. For some, it’s spiritual. Kindness aligns us with a deep sense of spiritual purpose.

Secondly, helping others simply feels satisfying. For many, no explanation is necessary. It’s just the way it is. Kindness feels right and it feels good. The end!

In science, there’s also the fact that we have ‘kindness genes’. The main gene associated with kindness is actually one of the oldest in the human genome, at around 500 million years old. This means it has played a role in our survival over eons. As a result, we are drawn to help others and we get an intuitive sense that kindness matters.

Either way, there’s no question that kindness is good for mental health. In the brain, it produces oxytocin, the bonding hormone – aka, the love drug / hugging hormone / cuddle chemical / kindness hormone – when it involves a positive interaction between people. It also produces dopamine and serotonin. There’s even a suggestion that it might also produce endogenous opioids, the brain’s own morphine.

Another reason might be the fact that kindness can actually cause physical changes in brain matter. This is to do with both the focus on kindness and having kind thoughts, but also because of how kindness feels.

Evidence comes from kindness-based meditations, like the Buddhists’ Loving Kindness meditation, where we wish others happiness, good health, and freedom from suffering. A regular practice impacts brain regions associated with empathy and happiness.

In the long term, consistent activation of the same regions strengthens circuits there. What this means is that, just as working out muscles makes them stronger and makes it easier to lift heavy objects, so strengthening brain circuits makes it easier to access what those brain circuits do.

With consistent kindness, therefore, we come to genuinely care for others more and find it easier to access happiness. In other words, extracting happiness from the everyday backdrop of events and circumstances in our lives becomes more natural. Smiles become easier and more natural too.

This may be one of the main reasons why kindness is so protective against depression in the long term.

Another factor at play here is the fact that oxytocin – the main kindness hormone – turns down activity in the amygdala – a brain region involved in stress, depression, worry, fear, anxiety. In research where people were invited to lie inside MRI scanners and had their amygdala activated, when they were then give a dose of this kindness hormone, activation dropped considerably.

You might think of it like a dimmer switch being turned down just as you might turn down a thermostat when your home is too warm or turn down a light when the room is too bright. Only it’s kindness hormones that turn down the stress dimmer switch.

Other research backs this up. When volunteers were asked to report on their daily acts of kindness as well as their daily stress scores over a three week period, on days when kindness was high, stress was low. It wasn’t that when we’re being kind that stressful things don’t happen because experience tells us this is not the case. Instead, it’s that kindness buffers the effects of stress because of how it feels, and likely how it then affects brain circuits.

In other words, the same things can happen that might happen on any other day, but when we’re being kind, they don’t ‘sting’ quite the same.

In the long term, this stress buffering effect has enormous benefits for our mental health because we become less affected by seemingly negative circumstances that befall us.

So the moral of the story today is this: Be kind. It’s almost always the right thing to do, and it will probably make you feel better.”

Dr. David Hamilton PhD

How kindness impacts the brain and benefits mental health – David R Hamilton PHD

Part II It’s interesting how the mind works in order to allow a person to be nice to others.

Empathy and love both seem to be related to oxytocin. Dr. Zak thinks this is why we want to hear those sad love songs over and over. There is a soothing to sadness. Remember that when suffering moves us to engage with others then we get the pleasure and reduction of anxiety from the HOME system. Helping others is important to humans. He recalls last time one of his daughters had the stomach flu and he stayed up with her all night while she vomited and at one point she apologized to me. Dr. Zak told her he couldn’t think of a more important thing to do than hold the bucket and be with her. It was her suffering that moved him to help her, even though he, too, suffered with her, he felt good that I could help her.

Everything we do draws on our metabolic resources though oxytocin synthesis is metabolically cheap so we can’t love too much. Actually, eating mildly stimulates oxytocin release so that’s why we take dates (and hold meetings) at meals–it makes it easier to connect to someone.

The more oxytocin is released, the lower the threshold for its release. In other words, the more we love, the more we can love. My research has shown that those who release the most oxytocin after being trusted are happier in their lives. They are happier because they have better relationships of all types: romantic, with family, they have more close friends, and are even kinder to strangers. We’ve also shown that oxytocin release improves the immune system by reducing stress. So, love freely!

Dr. Zak recently studied loving kindness (metta) meditation and compared this to mindfulness meditation. This was for people who had never meditated before and received a month of training. Both kinds of meditation lead to greater altruism, but metta did this to a greater extent. Metta meditation was more valuable to those who received it than mindfulness meditation, and the metta group had a larger reduction in brain activity in regions associated with anxiety and self-focused attention than the mindfulness group did.

Oxytocin receptors live in areas of the brain associated with social memories (animals that cannot produce oxytocin get “social amnesia”). So, we are laying down memory tracks using oxytocin on who is safe, trustworthy, and kind. These memories are being rehearsed each time we have a positive interaction and so it can lead to us being kinder to more people more of the time. Practice is the key to activate this effect.

Based on what was previously mentioned one can make a habit of practicing loving-kindness, so that it seems to come naturally and automatically in your personal interactions. Also is seems that oxytocin circuit work below the level of conscious awareness.

Psychopaths just don’t feel the empathy, the love, and are permanently in selfish, survival mode.

One of the potent inhibitors of oxytocin release is stress, and one of those stresses is survival stress…If your body is not facing survival stress, then you sort of have the luxury of connecting to others. That connection is always costly in time or resources and not everyone can do that. All of us don’t do it all the time. As average incomes rises, there’s a pretty strong gradient of better behavior occurring on average.

Research increasingly supports the long-held belief that kindness is good not only for others, but also for ourselves. While religions have also taught the importance of kindness for millennia, we see that kindness is not a religious matter; it is a basic human value. It belongs to what both the Dalai Lama and the World Happiness Report have called a universal secular ethics.

Kindness has layers of complexity even at a conceptual level. If someone asks for something that might be harmful for them, for instance an alcoholic asking for a drink, is it kind to give it to them? Which economic policies or political agendas are the kindest? When does kindness to oneself mean pushing past one’s pre-conceived limits and when does it mean giving oneself a much-needed break?

If we look at these complex questions, we can see that kindness is supported by discernment and by empathy. In some cases, you may want to be kind to someone, but because of a failure to understand their perspective or resonate with them emotionally, you may end up saying something hurtful or insensitive.

Naturally, kindness is also supported by compassion. If you are inclined to wish another person to be happy, protected and relieved of suffering–in other words, if you are compassionate towards them–you will not want to harm them. In such a case, your actions towards them are more likely to be characterised by kindness.

From this, we can see that the cultivation of many other skills and dispositions–such as compassion, empathy and discernment–will enhance kindness. Since kindness is vital for us on both biological and social levels, we should invest in methods that help us cultivate kindness as well as the skills and dispositions that support it. This includes introducing the science, theory and practice of kindness in educational settings so that children can benefit from this knowledge and can begin the practice of self-care and care for others from an early age.

In order to have a fully formed capacity for kindness, one must first learn to be kind to oneself and practice self-compassion. When we are not emotionally aware or are unkind towards ourselves, it is very difficult to be kind to another. Learning to have greater self-compassion can put us in the right physiological, emotional and mental state to be kind to others.

We have established that kindness is supported by related skills and dispositions, such as forgiveness, empathy, compassion and discernment. Further, to develop kindness for the greatest number of people, these practices should rest on a foundation of impartiality, where we learn to see our common humanity. In other words, we must realise that what all human beings have in common vastly outweighs our differences, and that all human beings naturally seek to experience greater well-being and less suffering.

What do you think?

QUOTE FOR TUESDAY:

“The word kindness does the following:

1-It brings up thoughts of donating to charity, holding open doors for strangers, helping out colleagues with their work. One aspect that unifies most kind acts is that they are effortful. However, effort is aversive—humans and other animals generally avoid it. So why are we kind if it requires so much work? Ourselves and other researchers have shown that people are indeed willing to put in physical effort to help other people. We don’t do so as often as when our effort benefits us instead, but we will do it, particularly if the benefit for the other person is large.”

Research shows that specific parts of the brain represent how effortful an act is and these are linked to overcoming the hard work needed to help others. Next time we are faced with the opportunity to help, it is important to focus on the benefits, rather than the effort, to motivate us that being kind is worthwhile.

2-Another essential aspect of being kind is being able to learn that what we did helped another person. Research has shown that when we are learning to help someone else, there is a part of the brain in the cingulate cortex that increases its activity only when we are being kind to someone else, and not when we are helping ourselves. This suggests that we might have specific parts of the brain for being kind.

3-One factor that affects all of us is age, and this has come up in recent research as important for kindness too. Older people seem to be more willing to be kind, whether that is putting in effort for others, learning about rewards, donating to charity, and even engaging in higher daily step counts to help. Older people seem to be more kind than younger people, on average. However, who we are being kind to is also a critical predictor of our willingness to help.

4-Age seems to be an important factor in being kind to others. But, at any age, are there particular traits that affect our kindness? Several researchers have shown that an important difference between people is levels of what are known as psychopathic traits—lack of empathy, remorse, and guilt.

Both when we are putting in effort to help others and when we are learning whether we have helped someone or not, our ability to be kind seems to vary on a spectrum with our levels of psychopathy. However, on the flip side, people who are higher in empathy are faster at learning how their actions help others and more willing to put in effort to help. Cultivating our levels of empathy, and minimizing any traits linked to psychopathy, are therefore essential for the tendency to be kind”

Psychology Today (5 Core Lessons from the Science of Kindness | Psychology Today Australia)

Part I It’s interesting how the mind works in order to allow a person to be kind to others.

 

 

Kindness is a quality that seems inherent in human beings. Like most vital things, however, it is at once very simple and very complex, with multiple layers that can be explored extensively.

On the simplest level, kindness is showing consideration to others, as opposed to being insensitive, harmful or apathetic. On this basic level, kindness has universal appeal. Not only human beings, including infants and children, but also animals appreciate kindness.

The reason for this is simple. Our most basic motivation is to strive for survival, well-being and happiness. Being treated by others with cruelty, indifference or insensitivity goes directly against this basic wish. So, we want others to treat us with kindness and this is common to all humans.

Additionally, as social animals, we need others’ kindness to survive. As with all mammals and birds, we are not self-sufficient at birth, or even for several years thereafter. In infancy, without maternal care and the care of others, we would quickly perish. Therefore, this basic need for care means that even on a cellular level–deep within our biology and physiology–we respond to kindness. We are interdependent and our bodies know it.

For instance, our nervous system is wired in a way that affective touch, such as the kind or loving touch of someone we feel close to, activates different parts of the brain (the posterior insular cortex and anterior cingulate cortex). This is different from discriminative touch–the touch we use to feel something ourselves (which primarily activates the somatosensory cortex)–which activates different nerve fibres. Affective touch can make us feel relaxed, safe and calm, activating our parasympathetic or “rest and digest” response–but typically only if our brain interprets it as coming from a kind, non-threatening source. If the touch comes from someone we don’t like, it can have quite the opposite effect, causing us stress and a completely different (and less healthy) physiological and chemical response in our body. This activation of the sympathetic nervous system (the “flight or fight response”) can cause the release of stress hormones (such as adrenaline and cortisol) in our bodies, elevating heart rate and blood pressure, and increasing inflammation. This activation occurs when we perceive another’s touch as unkind.

A great deal of research has emerged on the long-term importance of affective touch for infants as well as its impact on adults. From this we can see that kindness is not a mere concept in our heads; it is also a biological reality in our bodies. There are multiple layers of complexity to the science of kindness that we have yet to explore.

We can see that kindness supports happiness and flourishing even on social, national and international levels. ‘The World Happiness Report’, a project undertaken by the United Nations, has shown that even more than economic factors, happiness and life satisfaction are facilitated by factors such as trust and social support, which are themselves manifestations of kindness. It should come as no surprise to us that kinder societies are happier societies; it may, however, be surprising to some to know that kindness is even more important than wealth. In fact, contrary to the idea that simply having more wealth results in more happiness, data from the 2019 World Happiness Report suggest that generosity (showing kindness by giving wealth away) is also positively correlated with happiness in societies. This coincides with other data showing that we tend to feel rewarded when we act kindly and benefit others.

Paul J. Zak is founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University.   He has a Ph.D. in economics from University of Pennsylvania, and post-doctoral training in neuroimaging from Harvard. Dr. Zak’s lab discovered in 2004 that an ancient chemical in our brains, oxytocin, allows us to determine who to trust.

In experiments run over the last 10 to 15 years, in Dr. Zak’s lab and in his field, he and his colleagues have shown that the brain chemical oxytocin is released when someone is nice to us in objective ways (for example, when a stranger shares money with us). Oxytocin is the mammalian signal that tells mothers (and in some species fathers) to care for their offspring. It is the chemical basis for parental love. What we’ve shown is that oxytocin release is stimulated by acts of kindness or trust by complete strangers. The feeling people get when their brains release oxytocin is one of empathy or emotional connection.

Empathy is the product of a brain circuit Dr. Zak calls HOME (for Human Oxytocin Mediated Empathy). How does this brain circuit work? Oxytocin does not work alone. It activates a brain circulate that makes it feel good to do good for others. The HOME circuit does this by giving us a feeling of pleasure when we help others and by reducing our anxiety when we have a positive social interaction. Our brains are designed to engage with strangers and to care about them. This is what it means to be a social creature.

The distinction between romantic love and non-romantic love is clear: Biologically they appear to be quite similar and to use oxytocin and the HOME circuit. They may feel differently, but nature is conservative and reuses brain circuits for many purposes.   Dr. Zak states he thinks this is good though. All love is good and valuable and important. For example, Dr. Zak with colleagues showed experimentally that touch releases oxytocin so he started hugging people instead of shaking hands at work. This earned him the nickname “Dr. Love.” At first this was a bit embarrassing to the doctor he stated but then he started to think, what better thing can he do on the planet but to give people love so now he states he is happy to be Dr. Love.

Another view on this topic is,  it’s often said that we should put ourselves in another person’s shoes in order to better understand their point of view. But psychological research suggests this directive leaves something to be desired: When we imagine the inner lives of others, we don’t necessarily gain real insight into other people’s minds.

Instead of imagining ourselves in another person’s position, we need to actually get their perspective, according to a recent study (pdf) in the Journal of Personality and Psychology. Researchers from the University of Chicago and Northeastern University in the US and Ben Gurion University in Israel conducted 25 different experiments with strangers, friends, couples, and spouses to assess the accuracy of insights onto other’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and mental states.

Their conclusion, as psychologist Tal Eyal tells Quartz: ”We assume that another person thinks or feels about things as we do, when in fact they often do not. So we often use our own perspective to understand other people, but our perspective is often very different from the other person’s perspective.” This “egocentric bias” leads to inaccurate predictions about other people’s feelings and preferences. When we imagine how a friend feels after getting fired, or how they’ll react to an off-color joke or political position, we’re really just thinking of how we would feel in their situation, according to the study.

Come back tomorrow for part 2