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Psychological Association Warns Against Blaming Mental Illness For Mass Shootings

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Mass shootings

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) issued a statement warning against blaming mental illness for all mass shootings. Following two major shootings this weekend, politicians, including the President of the United States, made statements about gun control and violence. Trump called the shooters “mentally ill monsters,” but the APA believes people with mental illness are being stigmatized.

Mass Shootings Doesn’t Equate Mental Illness

On Monday, Trump called for heavier mental health screenings. He stated that mental illness and hatred pull the trigger and even played with the idea of involuntary mental health treatment for some individuals.

“We must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence,” he said, “and make sure those people, not only get treatment but when necessary, involuntary confinement.”

Many other members of the Republican party agreed with the president. Senator Chris Murphy, however, took to Twitter correcting POTUS.

The APA stated that “the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent and far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators of violence.” Anything saying otherwise, according to the association, can discourage people from getting the help they need. It can also embolden individuals with mental health issues to act violently.

Is There An Answer To Ending Gun Violence?

“The rates of mental illness are roughly the same around the world, yet other countries are not experiencing these traumatic events as often as we face them. One critical factor is access to, and the lethality of, the weapons that are being used in these crimes. Adding racism, intolerance and bigotry to the mix is a recipe for disaster,” Rosie Phillips David, president of the APA said.

So, while increasing mental health screenings for individuals purchasing guns may be a good idea, it won’t necessarily cut down on the number of mass shootings we see in a year. It is also unlikely to help cut down on other types of gun violence occurring in the country.

The only possible “fix” to the problem is reforming our laws surrounding firearms. All in all, further regulation is needed instead of placing blame where it simply does not belong.

Readers, what do you think about the APA’s warning against blaming mental illness for mass shootings? Is it accurate?

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More Kids Are Being Placed in Foster Care Because of Drug Use

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Foster care

The opioid crisis could cost the United States more than $500 million over the next three years. Not to mention, it has already cost billions of dollars, plus lives. Now, more children are being placed in foster care because of this drug use.

Drug Use and Foster Care

The number of children being placed in foster care due to parental drug use has more than doubled in the last 20 years, a 147 percent increase, to be exact. A new study, which took a look at 5 million foster care cases, analyzed how many cases were due to parental drug use.

“A lot of the work out there [on the opioid epidemic] has focused on mortality and overdoses and how it affects adults,” said Angelica Meinhofer, lead author of the study. “[It’s] less known how the epidemic might spill over to children. And that’s something I’m trying to shed light on.”

Between 2000 and 2017, the rate of kids being removed from the home for abuse, neglect, or any other reason declined. However, the instances of children being removed because of drug use in the home increased from 15 percent to 36 percent during that period. Additionally, the children impacted by removal due to drug use are younger than kids removed for other reasons. Those removed for parental drug use were typically under the age of five.

Does This Have Anything to Do With The Opioid Epidemic?

Parental drug use was responsible for more than 1 million entries into the foster care system. That is 23 percent of all the children admitted to foster care during that period of time.

It is easy to tie the opioid epidemic into the increase. Meinhofer believes there may be other contributing factors that may help explain the upward trend. Drug use overall has increased during that period of time. Because of this, policies that increase child removal have changed and child social workers are asked to pay more attention to drug use. This, as well as other altered data collection, may have an impact on the findings.

“We hope our findings will provoke researchers to ask … what’s causing this growth, what are the implications of this growth and whether or not our system has to absorb the capacity of increasing foster care loads,” Meinhofer stated.

Is There a Solution?

For more than a decade, children in the foster care system were on the decline. Between 2012 and 2017, it began on this upward trend. During that period the number of foster care children in the system increase by 8 percent and opioid use was on the rise. But, separating children from their parents long-term through the foster care system is never optimal.

If social workers have a child removed from the home, one of the best things they could do is seek help for the drug-using parent(s). Certain special programs within the family drug court system help provide supervised treatment for substance abuse. They can help the parent(s) get clean and regain custody.

For now, Meinhofer and her colleagues are calling for follow-up studies which would take a better look at the cause of the increased drug use. This way, policymakers can better address the needs of the children.

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The FDA Has Linked 16 Dog Food Brands to Heart Disease

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The United States Food and Drug Administration has released a warning citing a possible link between 16 dog food brands and canine heart disease. Should you be taking a closer look at your dog’s food?

The Food Drug and Administration (FDA) said that investigations have shown links between popular brands such as Acana and Nature’s Variety with cases of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in pets. DCM affects the heart muscle of a dog and can cause congestive heart failure. The disease is most commonly found in larger dogs.

What Dog Food Brands Are Suspect?

Dog food brands listed among those which may be linked to heart disease are mostly selling dry dog food. Most of the time, these types of dog food are the most convenient for the owner and less expensive. However, they may also harm your pet’s health. Below are the 16 brands named by the FDA and the number of cases of heart disease were reported for each.

  • 4health, 32
  • Acana, 67
  • Blue Buffalo, 31
  • California Natural, 15
  • Earthborn Holistic, 32
  • Fromm, 24
  • Merrick, 16
  • Natural Balance, 15
  • Nature’s Domain, 29
  • Nature’s Variety, 11
  • Nutrisource, 10
  • Nutro, 10
  • Orijen, 12
  • Rachael Ray Nutrish, 10
  • Taste of the Wild, 53
  • Zignature, 64

These cases were over a five-year period. Of these cases, 119 dogs died. FDA officials are still studying the link between dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), or heart disease, and the dog food brands.

Next Steps For Pet Owners

For now, no recall is being made on any of these foods or brands. The agency simply feels it has a responsibility to inform the public about the frequency of DCM in dogs consuming these foods.

“We know it can be devastating to suddenly learn that your previously healthy pet has a potentially life-threatening disease such as DCM. That’s why the FDA is committed to continuing our collaborative scientific investigation in the possible link between DCM and certain pet foods,” said FDA Director of Veterinary Medicine Steven M. Solomon.

This is the third study done about the link between DCM and food brand. The FDA has not come out and blamed any brands outright. Instead, officials believe the ingredients may be the problem. Foods claiming to be “grain-free,” contain legumes (peas, chickpeas, lentils) or potatoes all have the potential to be the root of the problem.

Of the reported DCM cases, more than 90 percent of the dog food brands were “grain free.” Ninety-three percent were made with peas or lentils.

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Working Long Hours Increases Your Risk of Stroke by 45 Percent

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The average American works between 47 and 50 hours per week (that’s seven to 10 hours of overtime regularly). Of course, the extra cash may be nice and your salary may seem worth it. But what is working long hours doing to your health?

What Working Long Hours is Doing to Your Health


The video above talks about 42-year-old Jeff Hiserodt. Hiserodt was working upwards of 60 to 65 hours per week until he had a stroke. The entire left side of his body went numb. A new study from the American Heart Association took a look at how working long hours and your risk of stroke.

Findings showed people who spend 10 or more years working long hours have a 45 percent higher risk of stroke. For those under the age of 50, the association between the two seemed even stronger.

For the study, researchers defined “long hours” as working 10 or more hours a day more than 50 days per year. Considering the average American is working a 50-hour week, that is alarming. However, Dr. Arbi Ohanian doesn’t believe it is cause for concern.

Ohanian believes that you can’t simply tell someone to stop working because their work is stressful. Almost every job is stressful. It is more about defining what is “too much.”

“The type of work that you do, I’m sure factors into this. The type of lifestyle that you have also factors into this,” said Ohanian.

Best Ways to Prevent Stroke

Working long days is common among many Americans just to make ends meet. That isn’t likely to change any time soon. Instead, doctors point out some of the easier, more obtainable preventative measures.

For instance, if you smoke, quitting would help prevent stroke. Other preventative measures include healthy eating, regular exercise, and visiting your doctor on a regular basis for checkups. It is also important that any current health conditions you may have don’t go unchecked (i.e. high blood pressure, cholesterol, cardiac issues, etc).

Another thing you need to make a priority to decrease your risk of stroke is stress management. Finding better ways to manage stress in your life can make all the difference. Take time out of your day to do yoga, read, and unwind.

Hiserodt quoted stress management as his key to success in recovering from his stroke. “I take the time out to go to a nice painting class with my friends at my stroke group,” he said, “I work out. I ride my bike. I changed my whole life. I don’t want to take for granted the second chance that I’ve been given.”

Strokes kill more than 140,000 Americans every year, costing the United States $34 billion per year. Finding ways to prevent strokes early on could be key in decreasing these numbers.

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Processed Foods Are Adding to the Number on the Scale: New Study

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Processed foods

A new study found processed foods may actually have a more profound impact on weight gain than initially thought. Ultra-processed items led to weight gain within just two weeks. Because these foods are typically cheaper, individuals who are unable to buy organic, more expenses foods may have the highest risk of obesity due to the foods they can afford.

Previous Findings

Processed foods include things like soda, packaged snacks, meat nuggets, many frozen meals, and other foods high in additives.

Previous studies have linked processed foods to obesity, intestinal inflammation, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and possibly even death. Despite these findings, processed foods still make up 57.9 percent of the food intake in the United States.

“Previous studies have found correlations between ultra-processed food consumption and obesity,” Kevin D. Hall, from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said.

Hall and his colleagues led the most recent study to compare unprocessed and processed foods. The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism. 

The Latest Study

To conduct the study, the research team took a look at 10 men and 10 women. All study participants stayed at the clinical center for 28 days. Half of the individuals involved in the study were given ultra-processed food for the first two weeks of their stay. The rest of the participants received unprocessed foods during the two-week timeframe. After two weeks, the groups switched.

All of the participants ate three meals each day. Researchers instructed them to eat as little or as much as they’d like. Snacks and bottled water was available to them throughout the day as well.

What they found was that individuals on the ultra-processed food diet ate around 508 calories more every day than when they were eating unprocessed food. Because of this, each of them put on about 2 pounds, most of which was body fat. Those on the unprocessed food diet lost 2 pounds during the two-week timeframe. They also saw an increase in gut hormone peptide YY. This hormone typically decreases hunger.

Why Are Processed Foods Bad?

The weight gain seen in the study participants may come from several factors, according to Hall. Individuals in the processed food group ate much faster, consuming an additional 17 calories per minute than their unprocessed counterpart.

“Ultra-processed foods contribute to more than half the calories consumed in the USA, and they are cheap and convenient options,” Hall stated.

Because it accounts for such a high amount of the U.S. population’s food intake, Hall is pointing to socioeconomic changes as an answer.

He concluded the study’s paper by saying, “However, policies that discourage consumption of ultra-processed foods should be sensitive to the time, skill, expense, and effort required to prepare meals from minimally processed foods — resources that are often in short supply for those who are not members of the upper socioeconomic classes.”

What do you think about the latest findings about processed foods? 

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Here’s How to Prevent Dementia

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Prevent dementia

Dementia is a crippling disease that impacts more than 50 million people worldwide. It has been estimated that it may cost the world economy $1 trillion by 2050. Because of its massive impact, health officials have been working diligently to find treatment and prevention methods. The World Health Organization (WHO) has released guidelines to help prevent dementia.

The Perils of Dementia

Each year, another 10 million people develop dementia. Currently, it is an incurable condition. Researchers are constantly working on a way to treat it without any luck. Instead, they’ve switched their focus to preventative measures.

Many different health conditions and factors contribute to your risk of developing dementia later in life. Although age is a factor in developing the debilitating disease, it is not a normal part of aging and it isn’t inevitable either. WHO estimates that one-third of dementia cases could be prevented.

“In the next 30 years, the number of people with dementia is expected to triple,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We need to do everything we can to reduce our risk of dementia. The scientific evidence gathered for these guidelines confirm what we have suspected for some time, that what is good for our heart, is also good for our brain.”

The organization released a 100-page report with various recommendations for people to consider.

How to Prevent Dementia

WHO’s advice is common sense: take care of yourself in your younger years to prevent dementia. The health organization suggests getting an appropriate amount of exercise and having a social life. You should also avoid bad habits such as drinking too much alcohol, overeating, and smoking. Additionally, you should treat any existing health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Some research suggests sticking to a Mediterranean diet may be another preventative measure. More importantly, you should eat well. However, Vitamin B and E, and fish oil pills won’t do anything to help prevent dementia, though they claim to.

“There is currently no evidence to show that taking these supplements actually reduces the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, and in fact, we know that in high doses these can be harmful,” said Dr. Neerja Chowdhary of the WHO. You should get these nutrients through food instead.

There are no games or activities that will help you prevent dementia either, despite claims. There is also a lack of evidence to prove antidepressants will help reduce your risk of dementia as well.

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