What you need to know about endometriosis
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Endometriosis affects one in 10 people with a uterus who are of reproductive age. This condition occurs when tissue similar to the endometrium—the inner lining of the uterus—grows on organs outside of the uterus, causing severe pain that impacts patients’ quality of life.
Read on to learn more about endometriosis: What it is, how it’s diagnosed and treated, where patients can find support, and more.
What is endometriosis, and what areas of the body can it affect?
The endometrium is the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus and sheds during each menstrual cycle. Endometriosis occurs when endometrial-like tissue grows outside of the uterus.
This tissue can typically grow in the pelvic region and may affect the outside of the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, vagina, bladder, intestines, and rectum. It has also been observed outside of the pelvis on the lungs, spleen, liver, and brain.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms may include pelvic pain and cramping before or during menstrual periods, heavy menstrual bleeding, bleeding or spotting between periods, pain with bowel movements or urination, pain during or after sex or orgasm, fatigue, nausea, bloating, and infertility.
The pain associated with this condition has been linked to depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. A meta-analysis published in 2019 found that more than two-thirds of patients with endometriosis report psychological stress due to their symptoms.
Who is at risk?
Endometriosis most commonly occurs in people with a uterus between the ages of 25 and 40, but it can also affect pre-pubescent and post-menopausal people. In rare cases, it has been documented in cisgender men.
Scientists still don’t know what causes the endometrial-like tissue to grow, but research shows that people with a family history of endometriosis are at a higher risk of developing the condition. Other risk factors include early menstruation, short menstrual cycles, high estrogen, low body mass, and starting menopause at an older age.
There is no known way to prevent endometriosis.
How does endometriosis affect fertility?
Up to 50 percent of people with endometriosis may struggle to get pregnant. Adhesions and scarring on the fallopian tubes and ovaries as well as changes in hormones and egg quality can contribute to infertility.
Additionally, when patients with this condition are able to conceive, they may face an increased risk of pregnancy complications and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Treating endometriosis, taking fertility medications, and using assistive reproductive technology like in vitro fertilization can improve fertility outcomes.
How is endometriosis diagnosed, and what challenges do patients face when seeking a diagnosis?
A doctor may perform a pelvic exam and request an ultrasound or MRI. These exams and tests help identify cysts or other unusual tissue that may indicate endometriosis.
Endometriosis can only be confirmed through a surgical laparoscopy (although less-invasive diagnostic tests are currently in development). During the procedure, a surgeon makes a small cut in the patient’s abdomen and inserts a thin scope to check for endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterus. The surgeon may take a biopsy, or a small sample, and send it to a lab.
It takes an average of 10 years for patients to be properly diagnosed with endometriosis. A 2023 U.K. study found that stigma around menstrual health, the normalization of menstrual pain, and a lack of medical training about the condition contribute to delayed diagnoses. Patients also report that health care providers dismiss their pain and attribute their symptoms to psychological factors.
Additionally, endometriosis has typically been studied among white, cisgender populations. Data on the prevalence of endometriosis among people of color and transgender people is limited, so patients in those communities face additional barriers to care.
What treatment options are available?
Treatment for endometriosis depends on its severity. Management options include:
- Over-the-counter pain medication to alleviate pelvic pain
- Hormonal birth control to facilitate lighter, less painful periods
- Hormonal medications such as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) or danazol, which stop the production of hormones that cause menstruation
- Progestin therapy, which may stop the growth of endometriosis tissue
- Aromatase inhibitors, which reduce estrogen
In some cases, a doctor may perform a laparoscopic surgery to remove endometrial-like tissue.
Depending on the severity of the patient’s symptoms and scar tissue, some doctors may also recommend a hysterectomy, or the removal of the uterus, to alleviate symptoms. Doctors may also recommend removing the patient’s ovaries, inducing early menopause to potentially improve pain.
Where can people living with endometriosis find support?
Given the documented mental health impacts of endometriosis, patients with this condition may benefit from therapy, as well as support from others living with the same symptoms. Some peer support organizations include:
- Endometriosis Coalition Patient Support Group (virtual)
- MyEndometriosisTeam (virtual)
- Endo Black, Inc. (Washington, D.C.)
- endoQueer (virtual)
For more information, talk to your health care provider.
This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Ayurveda’s Contributions To Science
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Ayurveda’s Contributions To Science (Without Being Itself Rooted in Scientific Method)
Yesterday, we asked you for your opinions on ayurveda, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses. Of those who responded…
- A little over 41% said “I don’t know what ayurveda is without looking it up”
- A little over 37% said “It is a fine branch of health science with millennia of evidence”
- A little over 16% said “It gets some things right, but not by actual science”
- A little over 4% said “It is a potentially dangerous pseudoscience”
So, what does the science say?
Ayurveda is scientific: True or False?
False, simply. Let’s just rip the band-aid off in this case. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily without merit, though!
Let’s put it this way:
- If you drink coffee to feel more awake because scientific method has discerned that caffeine has vasoconstrictive and adenosine-blocking effects while also promoting dopaminergic activity, then your consumption of coffee is evidence-based and scientific. Great!
- If you drink coffee to feel more awake because somebody told you that that somebody told them that it energizes you by balancing the elements fire (the heat of the coffee), air (the little bubbles on top), earth (the coffee grinds), water (the water), and ether (steam), then that is neither evidence-based nor scientific, but it will still work exactly the same.
Ayurveda is a little like that. It’s an ancient traditional Indian medicine, based on a combination of anecdotal evidence and supposition.
- The anecdotal evidence from ayurveda has often resulted in herbal remedies that, in modern scientific trials, have been found to have merit.
- Ayurvedic meditative practices also have a large overlap with modern mindfulness practices, and have also been found to have merit
- Ayurveda also promotes the practice of yoga, which is indeed a very healthful activity
- The supposition from ayurveda is based largely in those five elements we mentioned above, as well as a “balancing of humors” comparable to medieval European medicine, and from a scientific perspective, is simply a hypothesis with no evidence to support it.
Note: while ayurveda is commonly described as a science by its practitioners in the modern age, it did not originally claim to be scientific, but rather, wisdom handed down directly by the god Dhanvantari.
Ayurveda gets some things right: True or False?
True! Indeed, we covered some before in 10almonds; you may remember:
Bacopa Monnieri: A Well-Evidenced Cognitive Enhancer
(Bacopa monnieri is also known by its name in ayurveda, brahmi)
There are many other herbs that have made their way from ayurveda into modern science, but the above is a stand-out example. Others include:
- Ashwagandha: The Root of All Even-Mindedness?
- Boswellia serrata (Frankincense) Against Pain and Depression/Anxiety
Yoga and meditation are also great, and not only that, but great by science, for example:
- NCCIH | Yoga for Health: Clinical Guidelines, Scientific Literature, Info for Patients
- The Neuroscience of Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Alters the Brain and Facilitates Emotion Regulation
Ayurveda is a potentially dangerous pseudoscience: True or False?
Also True! We covered why it’s a pseudoscience above, but that doesn’t make it potentially dangerous, per se (you’ll remember our coffee example).
What does, however, make it potentially dangerous (dose-dependent) is its use of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic:
Heavy Metal Content of Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine Products
Some final thoughts…
Want to learn more about the sometimes beneficial, sometimes uneasy relationship between ayurveda and modern science?
A lot of scholarly articles trying to bridge (or further separate) the two were very biased one way or the other.
Instead, here’s one that’s reasonably optimistic with regard to ayurveda’s potential for good, while being realistic about how it currently stands:
Development of Ayurveda—Tradition to trend
Take care!
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How Many Heartbeats Do You Have Left?
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Our life is, of course, not literally measured in heartbeats—or at least not usefully so (since there are many other factors). However, there is a strong inverse correlation between resting heartrate and healthy longevity! That is to say, the slower your heart beats, the longer you’ll live.
Caveat: this is a generalization, and applies to a low resting heart rate that is the result of good cardiac health. It does not mean you should, for example, take up the use of heroin for its heartbeat-slowing effects. That will not help you to live longer!
Where’s the science?
Lest our opening claim there sound like popular wisdom rather than something backed by good science, let’s tend to that before moving on to the main thing today. There are, in fact, many papers to back up this claim, but here’s a good one:
It’s a 30-year longitudinal cohort study with 5,070 participants and baseline (as with most longitudinal studies, not everyone survived for the entire duration), and why we particularly like this one is not just its strong statistical significance, but also, because rather than simply looking at average resting heartrate and longevity, it also looked at changes in average resting heartrate and longevity, which makes the case for the link being causal much stronger.
❝In this study, we examined the association between resting heart rate and lifespan using linear regression in the Paris Prospective Study I, the Whitehall I Study, and the Framingham Heart Study. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to relate changes in heart rate over years to mortality risk.
We observed a statistically significant association between increases in resting heart rate over a 5-year period and risk of mortality in the Paris Prospective Study I (HR mortality per 10 bpm increase over time: 1.20; 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.27) and over an 8-year period in the Framingham Heart Study (HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.07 to 1.19 for men and HR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.15 for women), after adjusting for classical risk factors and resting heart rate.
Our study shows that men and women who increase their resting heart rate over time increase their risk of mortality.❞
You may be wondering: why did we say 30 years, if the abstract is citing 5 years and 8 years?
And the answer is: it has to do with the statistical modeling used; the participants were followed for up to 30 years, but the statistical analysis allows us to look at what difference a change in resting heartrate makes over the course of 5 or 8 years, which is more illustrative for most people than “this is what will probably happen when you are [your age plus another 30 years]” statements. Indeed, the very fact that we can see a statistically significant change in mortality risk in just 5 years, makes it clear how big that risk is.
And how big is the risk? Translating the hazard ratios into percentages, we’re looking at, per 10 bpm increase over time, a 20% increase in mortality risk in the 5-year period per the Paris Prospective Study, or a 10%-ish increase in mortality risk in the 8-year period per the Framingham Heart Study. As for why the 5-year period has a bigger risk than the 8-year period, it’s likely down to a slightly different methodology and what other risk factors were controlled for.
One final note: about that “…and resting heart rate”, lest that seem confusing, we will mention that this too was controlled for because the primary input variable being looked at was the change in resting heartrate, not the resting heartrate itself.
In summary: if your resting heartrate increases, so does your mortality risk, at a rate of 10–20% over 5–8 years, for every 10 bpm increase (in other words: that stacks!).
So, what’s this about how many heartbeats we have left?
Based on the above, we can infer that since a change in heartrate is associated with an inverse change in longevity, the total number of heartbeats may often not change much, it’s just that the shorter-lived people squoze more heartbeats into less time.
With that in mind, a “common sense” logic tells us that we should conserve our heartbeats in order to live longer. This is somewhat consistent with the ideas behind some meditative practices.
However, while in a sense that’s not wrong (and such meditative practices can indeed help extend healthy lifespan), this presents an apparent paradox:
Should we avoid exercise, because it accelerates our heartrate while we are exercising?
And the robust answer is no, as some recent science by Dr. Kristel Janssens et al. shows clearly.
How it works: while exercise indeed speeds up the heartrate while exercising, it also lowers one’s resting heartrate by a sufficient amount (per metabolic equivalent of task minutes), that when all’s said and done, the hearts of those who regularly exercise beat fewer times per day than those who do not regularly exercise—and the difference isn’t small:
❝Athletes had an average heart rate of 68 beats per minute (bpm), while non-athletes had 76bpm. That translates to a total of 97,920 beats per day for athletes and 109,440 beats per day for non-athletes – around 10 percent less.❞
Note: that’s average heartrate, not average resting heartrate*. So it’s still counting all the heartbeats that happened during exercise, too. The athletes’ hearts were simply beating slowly enough the rest of the time to more than compensate.
*This is also worth bearing in mind because 68 bpm would be an astonishingly high resting heartrate for a very fit person.
Read the paper in full, here: Balancing Exercise Benefits Against Heartbeat Consumption in Elite Cyclists
Want to do more for your heart?
Check out:
How To Improve Your Heart Rate Variability
…for another thing to bear in mind (and helpfully, it’ll usually lower your resting heartrate, too).
Enjoy!
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Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life – by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
We’ve talked about mindful eating before at 10almonds, so here’s a book about it. You may wonder how much there is to say!
As it happens, there’s quite a bit. The authors, a Buddhist monk (Hanh) and a Harvard nutritionist (Dr. Cheung) explore the role of mindful eating in our life.
There is an expectation that we the reader want to lose weight. If we don’t, those parts of the book will be a “miss” for us, but still contain plenty of other value.
Most of the same advices can be applied equally to other aspects of health, in any case. A lot of that comes from the book’s Buddhist principles, including the notion that:
- We are experiencing suffering
- Suffering has a cause
- What has a cause can have an end
- The way to this end is mindfulness
As such, the process itself is also mindfulness all the way through:
- To be mindful of our suffering (and not let it become background noise to be ignored)
- To be mindful of the cause of our suffering (rather than dismissing it as just how things are)
- To be mindful of how to address that, and thus end the suffering (rather than despairing in inaction)
- To engage mindfully in the process of doing so (and thus not fall into the trap of thinking “job done”)
And, as for Dr. Cheung? She also has input throughout, with practical advice about the more scientific side of rethinking one’s diet.
Bottom line: this is an atypical book, and/but perhaps an important one. Certainly, at the very least it may be one to try if more conventional approaches have failed!
Click here to check out “Savor” on Amazon today, and get mindful!
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GLP-1 Drugs vs Arthritis?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
First introduced as a diabetes medication, GLP-1 drugs quickly took hold for off-label use as weight loss aids, even when the science was still very young.
Here’s one of our first articles on that, back in the day: Semaglutide’s Surprisingly Big Research Gap
As for that popularity? Check out: 1 in 5 US Women Aged 50–64 Has Used GLP-1 RAs: What We’ve Learned
Spoiler, one of the things we’ve learned is: Most People Who Start GLP-1 RAs Quit Them Within A Year (Here’s Why)
One of the main things in their favor is, of course, that (for most people, anyway), they work (except when they don’t: Why Intermittent Fasting (& GLP-1 Drugs!) Might Not Work For You).
In other words, a rocky road with pros and cons. But today, let’s talk about a newly-identified benefit…
Arthritis relief beyond weight loss
It has previously been assumed that GLP-1 drugs help vs arthritis because of weight loss—by the simple mechanism that if you have less weight, then less weight will be stressing your knee joints, for example (knee osteoarthritis being perhaps the most well-studied form of arthritis).
However! Researchers (Dr. Amalie Dyrelund Broksø et al.) detected very small amounts of the hormone GLP-1 in the joint fluid of people with inflammatory arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis, suggesting that high-dose GLP-1 drugs directly reduce inflammation inside joints.
In particular, GLP-1 levels in joint fluid closely mirrored GLP-1 levels in the bloodstream, suggesting that increasing circulating GLP-1 with medication will indeed also increase how much reaches arthritic joints (something that wouldn’t otherwise be a given).
Nevertheless, while this much is established, what’s not yet tested (and thus not yet proven) is that this apparent cause and effect is indeed cause and effect, and not just a case of a correlation being caused by some third thing:
❝Our findings provide a biological basis for investigating whether GLP-1-based medication may have direct effects in the joints — beyond the known effects on weight and metabolism. However, we have not demonstrated that the treatment works against arthritis. This will require a number of clinical studies❞
~ Dr. Tue Wenzel Kragstrup, one of the researchers involved in this study
The good news, of course, is that if future trials confirm the effect, GLP-1 drugs could then offer a “double benefit” for many arthritis patients by both promoting weight loss and directly reducing inflammation in joints.
You can find this paper itself, here: Detection of GLP-1 and DPP-4 in synovial fluid: implications for therapeutical strategies in arthritis
If you’d like to enjoy at least the anti-inflammatory effects without GLP-1 drugs, then do check out:
And for arthritis care in general, consider:
Want to learn more?
You might also like this book that we reviewed a little while back:
Take care!
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How does the hair-loss drug finasteride work? Can it affect my mental health?
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For many men the gradual thinning of hair is about more than just their appearance. Finasteride, a drug widely prescribed for the treatment of male pattern baldness has been used effectively for many years for this deeply personal problem.
Yet, behind its use are growing concerns about its link to the development of depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts.
There is now critical discussion among both users and health-care professionals about the potential hazards associated with its continued use.
So how does the drug work? And what does the evidence say about the risk of developing a mental health problem?
agrobacter/Getty How does finasteride work?
Finasteride is used to treat androgenetic alopecia, also known as male pattern baldness. It works to regrow hair and prevent the further loss of hair.
One of the key causes of pattern baldness is the production of a hormone called dihydrotestosterone which the body makes from testosterone. When it binds to the follicles of hairs, it initiates a process called hair follicle miniaturisation. This is where the growth cycle of the hair becomes progressively shorter, resulting in thinner and weaker hair.
Finasteride works by blocking the enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. By blocking the enzyme, dihydrotestosterone concentrations can be reduced by around 60–70% for the majority of men.
Finasteride was first approved in the late 1990s as a prescription-only medicine and is taken as a daily 1 milligram oral tablet. Medications available at a higher 5 mg daily dose are not used for baldness, but as a treatment for non-cancerous prostate enlargement.
This medication is not indicated for women, even though they can also have this type of hair loss.
How can it impact your mental health?
Changes in mental health are not listed as an established side effect in Australian guidance given to health-care professionals.
Based on clinical trials, the most common effects include:
- decreased libido
- erectile dysfunction
- reduced semen production.
The guidance also describes an increased risk of prostate cancer and a potential risk for breast cancer. Yes, men can get breast cancer too.
While initial clinical trials conducted to obtain approval for the drug didn’t demonstrate mental health concerns, monitoring of patients using the drug has since indicated a potential increased risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. But as this is based on patients self-reporting symptoms, according to the guidance there is no definitive link.
However, in May 2025, the European Medicines Agency safety committee stated suicidal thoughts was a confirmed side effect of finasteride. The European Union also advises patients that finasteride can cause a depressed mood and depression.
Similarly, in a warning about compounded finasteride, the United States Food and Drug Administration stated in April 2025 that topical formulations of the drug has similar side effects to the oral version. These include depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
What should you do if it is affecting your mental health?
If you notice changes in your mental health while taking the drug, try not to handle significant mood changes by yourself. If you’re feeling unusually low, anxious or emotionally unstable, check in with a doctor so they can help you figure out whether finasteride is contributing to your mood and what support you may need.
If the symptoms are mild, they may suggest pausing finasteride to see whether things improve, or continuing with additional mental health support. If your symptoms are more severe, stopping the medication and getting prompt medical review may be appropriate.
If you are taking finasteride and are worried about its side effects, it is safe to stop immediately. Most side effects ease once the medication is out of your system, although a small number of people have reported symptoms that persist.
If you do decide to stop, this will mean that your hormone levels will gradually return to baseline and the hair growth seen with the drug will be lost over time.
If finasteride is not the right fit for you, there is another evidence-based alternative.
Topical minoxidil is a first-line treatment that can be used on its own or with other treatments and is available from pharmacies over the counter. It only works while it’s being used and may irritate the scalp, but its effectiveness is well-established and widely recommended.
While depression and anxiety are associated with minoxidil, the incidence is much lower because of their topical application.
There is also a medication called dutasteride. However, as it works in a similar way to finasteride, it may also increase your risk of developing mental health problems. So it is best to avoid dutasteride if finasteride is not suitable for you.
If this story has raised any issues for you, please contact one of the services below:
- Lifeline: 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au
- Suicide Call Back Service (ages 15+): 1300 659 467 or suicidecallbackservice.org.au
Nial Wheate, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University and Jasmine Lee, Pharmacist and PhD Candidate, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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You could be stress eating these holidays – or eating your way to stress. 5 tips for the table
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The holiday season can be a time of joy, celebration, and indulgence in delicious foods and meals. However, for many, it can also be an emotional and stressful period.
This stress can manifest in our eating habits, leading to what is known as emotional or stress eating.
There are certain foods we tend to eat more of when we’re stressed, and these can affect our health. What’s more, our food choices can influence our stress levels and make us feel worse. Here’s how.
Dean Clarke/Shutterstock Why we might eat more when stressed
The human stress response is a complex signalling network across the body and brain. Our nervous system then responds to physical and psychological events to maintain our health. Our stress response – which can be subtle or trigger a fight-or-flight response – is essential and part of daily life.
The stress response increases production of the hormones cortisol and insulin and the release of glucose (blood sugars) and brain chemicals to meet demand. Eating when we experience stress is a normal behaviour to meet a spike in energy needs.
But sometimes our relationship with food becomes strained in response to different types of stress. We might attach shame or guilt to overeating. And anxiety or insecurity can mean some people under-eat in stressful times.
Over time, people can start to associate eating with negative emotions – such as anger, sadness, fear or worry. This link can create behavioural cycles of emotional eating. “Emotional eaters” may go on to develop altered brain responses to the sight or smell of food.
What stress eating can do to the body
Stress eating can include binge eating, grazing, eating late at night, eating quickly or eating past the feeling of fullness. It can also involve craving or eating foods we don’t normally choose. For example, stressed people often reach for ultra-processed foods. While eating these foods is not necessarily a sign of stress, having them can activate the reward system in our brain to alleviate stress and create a pattern.
Short-term stress eating, such as across the holiday period, can lead to symptoms such as acid reflux and poor sleep – particularly when combined with drinking alcohol.
In the longer term, stress eating can lead to weight gain and obesity, increasing the risks of cancer, heart diseases and diabetes.
While stress eating may help reduce stress in the moment, long-term stress eating is linked with an increase in depressive symptoms and poor mental health.
If you do over eat at a big gathering, don’t try and compensate by eating very little the next day. Peopleimage.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock What we eat can make us more or less stressed
The foods we choose can also influence our stress levels.
Diets high in refined carbohydrates and sugar (such as sugary drinks, sweets, crackers, cakes and most chocolates) can make blood sugar levels spike and then crash.
Diets high in unhealthy saturated and trans fats (processed foods, animal fats and commercially fried foods) can increase inflammatory responses.
Rapid changes in blood sugar and inflammation can increase anxiety and can change our mood.
Meanwhile, certain foods can improve the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain that regulate stress and mood.
Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and flaxseeds, are known to reduce inflammation and support brain health. Magnesium, found in leafy greens and nuts, helps regulate cortisol levels and the body’s stress response.
Vitamin Bs, found in whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans and animal products (mostly B12), help maintain a healthy nervous system and energy metabolism, improving mood and cognitive performance.
5 tips for the holiday table and beyond
Food is a big part of the festive season, and treating yourself to delicious treats can be part of the fun. Here are some tips for enjoying festive foods, while avoiding stress eating:
1. slow down: be mindful about the speed of your eating. Slow down, chew food well and put down your utensils after each bite
2. watch the clock: even if you’re eating more food than you normally would, sticking to the same timing of eating can help maintain your body’s response to the food. If you normally have an eight-hour eating window (the time between your first meal and last meal of the day) then stick to this even if you’re eating more
3. continue other health behaviours: even if we are eating more food or different food during the festive season, try to keep up other healthy behaviours, such as sleep and exercise
4. stay hydrated: make sure to drink plenty of fluids, especially water. This helps our body function and can help with feelings of hunger. When our brain gets the message something has entered the stomach (what we drink) this can provide a temporary reduction in feelings of hunger
5. don’t restrict: if we have a big day of eating, it can be tempting to restrict eating in the days before or after. But it is never a good idea to overly constrain food intake. It can lead to more overeating and worsen stress.
Reaching for cookies late at night can be characteristic of stress eating. Stokkete/Shutterstock Plus 3 bonus tips to manage holiday stress
1. shift your thinking: try reframing festive stress. Instead of viewing it as “something bad”, see it as “providing the energy” to reach your goals, such as a family gathering or present shopping
2. be kind to yourself and others: practise an act of compassion for someone else or try talking to yourself as you would a friend. These actions can stimulate our brains and improve wellbeing
3. do something enjoyable: being absorbed in enjoyable activities – such as crafting, movement or even breathing exercises – can help our brains and bodies to return to a more relaxed state, feel steady and connected.
For support and more information about eating disorders, contact the Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800. If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call 000.
Saman Khalesi, Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead in Nutrition, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity Australia; Charlotte Gupta, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Appleton Institute, HealthWise research group, CQUniversity Australia, and Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, NeuroHealth Lab, Appleton Institute, CQUniversity Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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