Get Healthy

A cop attacked me last week, but he was doing me a favor.

It was the last exercise in a women’s self-defense class hosted by the Schererville Police Department. I lay on my back and Detective Patrick Rosado crouched over me and pinned my wrists to the ground. It was awkward. But my desire to free myself trumped that awkward feeling. I slipped my feet under his, lifted my hips and rolled, flipping him on his back and gaining myself the upper hand.

It was empowering. Even in such a vulnerable position, I could get away.
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From the Get Healthy Inbox—We’re committed to keeping you informed on health care news and ideas throughout the region and nation. Here’s today’s recommendation, submitted by VIA Marketing:

Nearly 200,000 business people worldwide were invited to apply; only Munster’s Jennifer Hines and 99 others were accepted into the week-long “Jack Canfield Train the Trainer Program” that took place in late October in San Diego.

Hines, certified master business coach, trainer, speaker and owner of ActionCOACH, came back energized and ready to share with the business and local community what she learned from Canfield and his team. “Studying with Jack Canfield has added immensely to my ability to get results and bring success to everyone I coach and train. I’m excited about applying my advanced training in Success Principles to my own life as well,” she said.
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Across the board, married adults are better off in nearly every measure of health.

They’re generally healthier than those who are single, divorced, widowed or are living with a partner, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control.

And that’s not all. Married couples also enjoy an increase in emotional and financial health. More benefits include lower mortality rates, less depression, anxiety and suicide, lower rates of chronic illness, fewer problems with drinking and substance abuse and much higher health self-ratings.
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Mood swings in women can be caused by a range of things—from serious mental illness to temporary situations that make one happy or sad.

“The term ‘mood swings’ is used somewhat loosely,” says Jaswinder Singh, PhD, HSSP, a licensed clinical psychologist and licensed mental health therapist at Mid-American Psychological and Counseling Services in Merrillville.

Singh explains that life’s situations—single motherhood, financial struggle, trying to balance career and home life—can bring on mood swings that are not psychiatrically based but rather resulting from stress. Stress that, if not addressed by adequate support and help, can ultimately lead to psychiatric illness.
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No one wants to be a crime victim, but there will always be criminals in society. Robert Siciliano, a personal safety expert and author of The Safety Minute:01—How to Be Safe in the Streets, at Home and Abroad So You Can Save Your Life, says it’s our job to make sure we are not chosen as the next victim. “The ‘it can’t happen to me’ syndrome is dangerous,” he says. “You let your guard down and lose awareness of your security.”

Siciliano says no matter the situation, be conscious of everything in a 50- to 100-foot range. Look for any red flags: things out of place, a window open, a door ajar, someone loitering or paying unwanted attention to you. Walk with shoulders back, chin up, looking around you. “This says you’re strong,” Siciliano says. “Walking slumped or looking down spells weakness. When running with headphones, leave one ear so you can hear your environment. Park close to the building in a well lit area. Use the buddy system when you return. Read the rest of this entry »

Ted Bundy. Handsome, charming, intelligent, and a serial killer. He seemingly killed with no remorse. When someone commits a criminal offense (not necessarily murder) and feels little or no guilt, anxiety, or remorse, this person most likely has antisocial personality disorder.

Hollywood has capitalized on this disorder many times. Think of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs or Jack (”Here’s Johnny”) Torrance in The Shining. I’m sure you can think of dozens of other antisocial personality disorders (also formerly known as sociopaths) in the movies that we simultaneously laughed and cringed at, but why do we laugh?

Antisocial personality disorders rely on their external environment to control their behaviors. They have little internal motivation to govern themselves.
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Before: This guy den lacks color and all the seating faces the television. It’s not likely to woo a woman. (Photograph courtesy of Lisa LaPorta.)

Good thing love transcends bad taste or a lot more people would live alone.

This occurred to me after I read the latest Roller Report, an annual survey by Kilz, a primer and paint company. This year, Kilz asked more than 1,000 U.S. and Canadian homeowners about gender differences in home design, including what turns men and women off. (Ask me! Dirty shower grout, filthy barbecues, sports jerseys thumb-tacked to the wall, mufflers in the sink!)

Nearly two thirds of men (62 percent) and women (63 percent) said a prospective partner’s decor revealed a lot about their personality and maturity. The survey took me back to when Dan, my husband, and I started dating. Before my first visit to his place, he rearranged the furniture to hide the carpet stains. Endearing, but the stains were the least of my worries. The carpet was lime green! And the rearranging didn’t hide the wood-laminated furniture. Now I like wood and laminate, but wood laminate should be illegal. He also had a five-gallon aquarium with one dinky fish! Does anyone else think that’s peculiar?
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From the Get Healthy Inbox—We’re committed to keeping you informed on health care news and ideas throughout the region and nation. Here’s today’s recommendation, submitted by Purina Cat Chow:

Purina Cat Chow understands the unique bond between an owner and their cat and the connection they share. Inspired by a cancer survivor’s story of how her cat helped her through her treatment, Purina Cat Chow embarked on a partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Recently, Purina Cat Chow surveyed breast cancer survivors with cats nationwide. The study results emphasized the important emotional connection and relationship owners have with their cats, and Purina Cat Chow has been raising funds for Susan G. Komen ever since.
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Craig Chalquist of John F. Kennedy University says that research shows gardening can lift depression, release stress and anxiety, and strengthen the immune system, along with many other surprising benefits. Here are his “nine lessons from the garden” that he has learned through years of working outdoors:

1. Abandon perfectionism.

“When you go out in the garden, the one thing you won’t find is perfection,” Chalquist says. Pests and weeds will invade even the most cared-for garden. It cannot be controlled, and a gardener must live with that.

“It’s an opportunity to look at one’s own imperfections.”
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Author recounts ups and downs of teen son’s rehabilitation

When Joan Ryan received a call from the hospital telling her that her 16-year-old son had been injured in a skateboarding crash, she assumed it would mean a few stitches and a lot of wasted time in the emergency room. But Ryan arrived to find that her son, Ryan Tompkins—who wasn’t wearing a helmet when skateboarding—was in a coma and close to death.

For the next few months as she watched him awaken from the coma and then struggle through a long and painful rehabilitation process, she thought about the past and her son’s long struggles with academics and social situations, his double diagnosis of autism and attention deficit disorder and the guilt that she experienced in blaming herself as a mother. These feelings of inadequacy were coupled with her exasperation and impatience with his outbursts and lack of capabilities.

Tompkins’ accident and recovery helped Ryan, who recounts this process in her book, The Water Giver: The Story of a Mother, a Son and Their Second Chance (Simon & Schuster 2009, $24), to rethink their relationship and to learn to let go of the illusion of control and to instead focus on loving and accepting him.
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