Eating & Exercise
What were some potential reasons for the increase in obesity? How has the definition of diet success changed over time?
Fast food, sedentary lifestyle, corn syrup, smoking, microbiome, etc.
As the years go on, the amount of weight required to lose to consider the diet a success has decreased
What is the stress-buffering hypothesis?
Stress-buffering hypothesis → social support acts as a buffer against stress that helps you avoid the negative health consequences of stress; social support is a reverse to stress and a resource that blunts the effects of stress when it is at high levels
What are active control groups?
A group that isn’t getting the actual treatment, but they are doing something else
How did writing about a trauma impact pulmonary health in patients with asthma?
Those who wrote about a trauma had better pulmonary function 4 months later
Is there a limit to the amount of income you earn to your happiness levels?
Yes! Around $75,000
(TRUE/FALSE) Those who have a BMI of 30 (which is considered obese) have a lower relative risk for mortality compared to those who are considered skinny/ healthy weight.
True
What are the four different types of social support?
Informational: advice, suggestions, and information
Instrumental: money, time, and concrete help
Emotional: empathy, concern, caring, love, and trust
Appraisal: feedback, affirmation (affirm their views), and social comparison; think of the situation this way
There are two categorizations of mind-body interventions. What are they, and what are some examples?
Traditional - cognitive behavioral therapy, support groups
Complementary - treatments added to traditional treatments, often based on ancient practices/traditions
There are three types of coping, what are they?
Problem-focused coping (change situations) - seeking information, problem solving
Emotion-focused coping (manage emotions) - release, distract, calm down
Cognition-focused coping (change thoughts) - change appraisal (denial, changing goals, social comparison) OR find meaning
True or False: Lottery winners are happier a year later than paralyzed accident victims.
FALSE
A person has a BMI in the "healthy" range. What inferences can we make about this person's health status? Why?
A BMI in the “healthy” range does not guarantee metabolic health - It doesn’t distinguish between excess fat, muscle, or bone mass and doesn’t measure body fat directly
What is the direct effects hypothesis?
Direct effects hypothesis → social support is always helpful, no matter what; stress is only one factor of poor health, so it would be helpful even when you aren’t stressed
Describe these types of control groups: no treatment, usual care, standard of care, waitlist, and active.
No treatment - control group does nothing
Usual care - control group does their normal thing
Standard of care - control group gets the best medical treatment
Waitlist - control group does the intervention at the end of the study
Active - Control groups get either education (pamphlets) or a placebo (placebo acupuncture or yoga)
What were the two hypotheses? Which one was correct?
Hypothesis 1: Inhibiting things hurts you, so disclosing things helps you
Hypothesis 2: By helping people find meaning in their circumstances (THIS IS THE CORRECT ONE)
What matters more? How much money you spend or what you spend your money on?
What you spend your money on
Describe the milkshake study.
The eating of non-dieters is influenced more by hunger
They eat less after a preload, it doesn’t matter whether they think the preload is high fat, it doesn’t matter if they are stressed because they are full!
The eating of dieters is influenced more by cognitive, social, and emotional factors
They eat more after a preload, they eat more if they think the preload is high fat, they don’t eat more if they think the preload is low fat, and they eat more after stress
What effect do insecure attachments have on health?
Higher rates of: stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, number of symptoms, health care usuage, and pain
How did mindfulness affect HIV progression?
The 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction maintains their T-cells over time, meaning that it helps combat HIV progression
How does finding meaning translate to better health?
Those who found meaning had better medication adherence
How is religion related to happiness?
Belonging to a religion may lead to more social support, and people can get meaning, leading to better health, but being prayed for does not increase health
Describe the “extreme” dieters.
Methods?
They looked at conscientious objectors (those who were exempt from serving) from WWII who lived in the dorms for one year:
Control period - 3 months
semi -starvation period - 6 months
Controlled eating rehabilitation - 3 months
Free eating rehabilitation - 3+ months
Results?
physical/Biological?
Metabolism slowed down
body weight decreased and then increased slightly above control baseline
body fat decreased severely during semi-starvation and then increased a lot during rehabilitation (way over the control baseline)
psychological?
Obsession with food, eating rituals (licking their plate, taking a while to eat, adding a lot of spices, etc.), weak, tired, irritable, no self control, anxious, nervous, self-centered, apathetic, clinical depression, psychotic reactions (in 1/6th of the subjects)
When looking at the maternal behaviors and offspring health in rats, what did we find and why?
Pups that are raised by a relaxed, high-nurturing mother become a relaxed adult (even if they are genetically predisposed to becoming anxious) and pups that are raised by an anxious, low-nurturing mother become anxious adults
Maternal behavior (like licking/grooming and arched-back nursing) changes epigenetics and DNA methylation because it silences the stress genes (and this can be passed down through generations)
It doesn’t change the code, but it changes whether something gets expressed or not based on the environment
How did hyperthermia affect depression?
Depression went down in the hyperthermia (warm, cozy) condition compared to the placebo
What was some evidence that supported the loss effect?
Days of disability
People who have lost a spouse are more likely to show disability, but this could be due to emotional problems
Symptom reports
People report more symptoms after experiencing loss, but this could be a reporting or noticing bias
Doctor/hospital visits
Widows visit the doctor four times more a year, but this could be because they stopped taking care of themselves, or were pressured to get checkups, or could be mental health visits
Mortality
Within 30 days of a spouse’s death, the risk of death for women jumped up to 61% and for men to 53%. Within a year of the spouse’s death, the risk of death for women jumped up to 17% and for men 21%, but this could be due to a shared environment
Immune system function
Study 1: Bereaved women had lower natural killer cell activity (less immune function) than non-bereaved women
Study 2: widows had lower natural killer cell activity one month after their husband’s death than one month before
What increases happiness?
Committing acts of kindness
Spending money on friends/gifts/charitable contributions
Cultivating a sense of gratitude
Visualizing the best possible self
Finding flow
Exercising
Using humor
Smiling anyway