People over the age of 60 are the most vulnerable to heat waves, with 82% to 92% more deaths than average occurring in this age group. Risks for heatrelated illness or injury such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion and heat cramps are also heightened in people with obesity, heart disease, diabetes and respiratory conditions as these decrease the bodys ability to adapt to temperature changes. A review in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) describes the effect of heat on human physiology and factors that increase the risk of heat stress.

Physicians and their patients must be aware of the risk factors for older people and people with chronic disease in excessive heat conditions and counsel and manage accordingly.

Laboratorybased physiologic studies show that the ability to detect heat is reduced, and the physiological response to heat with adequate blood distribution and sweating to cool the body is slower, in otherwise healthy older individuals compared to younger people. Their ability to respond to thirst is also delayed and they take longer to recover from dehydration.

People of lower socioeconomic groups, lower levels of education and those who are socially isolated have a greater risk of mortality. Air conditioning is associated with a risk reduction of 80% and working fans with a 30% reduction. Housing may be a factor as lower income people often live in crowded or poorquality housing, with inadequate ventilation and cooling systems. Homeless people are at risk because of lack of shelter from extreme heat and often also by underlying physical or psychiatric issues.

However, there are gaps in knowledge that can serve as further areas for research.

“It will be essential to discern whether impairment in thermoregulatory capacity exists in terms of the wholebody response and not simply in terms of local heatloss responses (sweating and/or skin blood flow),” write Dr. Glen Kenny from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and coauthors. “New research should focus not only on filling these gaps in the sciencebased information but also on developing clinical guidelines for health professionals to facilitate the giving of advice to patients.”

American soldiers are to undergo training in mental toughness or “resiliency” as part of the Armys larger “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness” program, that aims to ensure troops mental toughness matches their physical toughness.

According to a bulletin posted on 19 August, the first part of the program has already started some 100 unit leaders and drill sergeants have just completed the first of two classes in learning to teach “master resilience training” to their units. They take the second class in November.

The classes are taught at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where Martin Seligman, renowned for his work on optimism and positive thinking, heads the Positive Psychology Center.

According to an AFP news agency report, the classes draw on over 20 years of Seligmans research and teach soldiers how to change the way they think learn to apply optimism to problems and avoid getting trapped in selfdefeating thoughts.

Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, director of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness told the press that the solider trainers are

“Learning all the different thinking skills, and how to impart them to other people.”

She said resiliency training will help soldiers put worries about money, relationships, health and even tragedy on the battlefield into perspective.

Another part of the program is selfguided learning, and soldiers will also undergo online assessments during the basic training and then every two years afterwards.

Soldiers coming into the Army will start straight away as part of basic training, while those already in will start in the middle of their career.

Mental fitness is like physical fitness lifelong and ongoing, said Cornum.

“It is not something that you can do once, any more than you can get physically fit by one trip to the gym. This is not an individual single event. It is a way of looking at your psychological health as important as your physical health,” she explained.

“Resilience is a way of thinking you apply optimistic thinking to a problem,” said Cornum.

She gave the example of when you ask someone out on a date and they say “no”. The resilient thinker will say to themselves “their loss” and “Ill do better next time”, instead of the selfdefeating “nobody will ever like me”, or “I am worthless”.

“It teaches you to remember that problems are temporary, that they are local,” said Cornum explaining that while some people are naturally resistant thinkers, others can become so with training.

“Theres a pile of people out there that just pick the first thing that comes to mind,” she said.

Cornum said every platoon sergeant and drill sergeant will undergo the master training. She said it is just another way of teaching by example in the operational environment, how to deal with fear, and disappointment.

“Its tools, thinking tools, how not to fall into thinking traps or catastrophic thinking,” said Cornum.

Cornum, a physician and soldier with over 30 years of military service, is no stranger to battle stress herself, and probably knows more than most, what its like to have ones mental toughness challenged.

Over the course of her career she has received many decorations, including a Purple Heart, and she has written a book, She Went to War The Rhonda Cornum Story, about her experiences in the Gulf War, including what happened during eight days in captivity.

She was serving as a flight surgeon when the helicopter she was in was shot down, killing five of the eight crew members. When she was captured by Iraqi soldiers she had a bullet in her shoulder, two broken arms, and a knee injury that prevented her from standing up. She was also sexually assaulted by one of the captors.

“What I learned in those Iraqi bunkers and prison cells is that the experience doesnt have to be devastating, that it depends on you,” Cornum wrote in her book.

Main source US Army News Service.

Written by Catharine Paddock, PhD

Personality traits associated with chronic worrying can lead to earlier death, at least in part because these people are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, according to research from Purdue University.

“Research shows that higher levels of neuroticism can lead to earlier mortality, and we wanted to know why,” said Daniel K. Mroczek, (pronounced MroZAK) a professor of child development and family studies. “We found that having worrying tendencies or being the kind of person who stresses easily is likely to lead to bad behaviors like smoking and, therefore, raise the mortality rate.

“This work is a reminder that high levels of some personality traits can be hazardous to ones physical health.”

Chronic worrying, anxiety and being prone to depression are key aspects of the personality trait of neuroticism. In this study, the researchers looked at how smoking and heavy drinking are associated with the trait. A person with high neuroticism is likely to experience anxiety or depression and may selfmedicate with tobacco, alcohol or drugs as a coping mechanism.

They found that smoking accounted for about 25 percent to 40 percent of the association between high neuroticism and mortality. The other 60 percent is unexplained, but possibly attributed to biological factors or other environmental issues that neurotic individuals experience, Mroczek said.

The researchers analyzed data of 1,788 men and their smoking behavior and personality traits over a 30year period from 1975 to 2005. The data was part of the VA Normative Aging Study, which is a longterm study of aging men based at the Boston VA Outpatient Clinic.

Mroczek and his coauthors, Avron Spiro III and Nicholas A. Turiano, published their findings in this months Journal of Research in Personality.

A better understanding of the bridge between personality traits and physical health can perhaps help clinicians improve intervention and prevention programs, Mroczek said.

“For example, programs that target people high in neuroticism may get bigger bang for the buck than more widespread outreach efforts,” he said. “It also may be possible to use personality traits to identify people who, because of their predispositions, are at risk for engaging in poor health behaviors such as smoking or excessive drinking.”

The National Institute on Aging and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs supported this work.

Source
Amy Patterson Neubert

In an effort to improve worker health, researchers from Michigan State University and Portland State University have created an innovative training program that calls for supervisors to better support their employees work and family demands.

The scientificbased program is featured in the upcoming August edition of the Journal of Management.

The researchers also have been awarded a $4.1 million federal grant to refine and expand the program. The grant is part of a $30 million initiative of the Work, Family and Health Network jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examining how company policies affect the health and wellbeing of employees and their families.

MSUs Ellen Ernst Kossek, who created the training program with Portland States Leslie Hammer, said the research is timely given the nations current economic crisis.

“Businesses are searching for new ways to manage in a tough economy,” said Kossek, University Distinguished Professor in MSUs School of Labor and Industrial Relations. “Our study shows that just teaching managers to be more supportive can have cost savings for turnover and lower stress, which affects the bottom line.”

Most previous research on supervisory support has focused on general measures of emotional support as opposed to specific behaviors by the boss. The new training program outlines four detailed measures for supervisors Emotional support, which is focused on perceptions that workers are being cared for and their feelings are being considered. This includes talking to workers and being aware of their family and personal life commitments.

Rolemodeling behaviors, in which supervisors, in a mentoring role, provide examples of strategies and behaviors for employees intended to lead to desirable worklife outcomes.

Instrumental support, which is reactive and pertains to supervisor support as he or she responds to employees daytoday needs such as scheduling requests for flexibility.

Creative workfamily management, which is more proactive and strategic than instrumental support and can involve major changes in the time, place and way that work is done. One example involves dealing with workfamily demands in the total work group setting by offering crosstraining within and between departments. Ultimately, the researchers say, todays managers and employers need examples of how they can change supervision and cultures to meet the changing needs and demographics of the work force. The new program helps begin this path by providing specific supervisor behaviors that offer more family supportive interactions with employees.

“Managing in a more supportive way that recognizes how important flexibility is to todays work force is a winwin economic proposition that benefits employers, workers and families,” Kossek said. “Employees no longer leave their family needs at the company doorstep.”

Source
Ellen Kossek

Caring for an elderly family member can be stressful and can pose health threats to caregivers. Steven Zarit, professor and head, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State, received a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the effects of caregiving on familial caregivers. He will look at people who care for family members with dementia and how adult day care impacts the stress levels of all individuals involved.

People with dementia experience progressive memory loss, which can lead them to act out in ways that are not always easy to handle. They may try to leave the house, struggle with dressing, reject help and become agitated. This erratic behavior requires constant surveillance and any lapses in vigilance could lead to danger. Trained professionals are more prepared to deal with these types of behaviors and often experience less stress than family members.

“Using adult day care can reduce stress for family members by lifting the burden of responsibility from them for a few hours,” said Zarit. “At the same time, day care provides stimulating activities that promote sleep and wellbeing in those being cared for.”

Zarit will interview and collect saliva samples from caregivers on eight consecutive days to test both selfperceptions of stress and physiological stress. Because adult day care is typically used only three or four days a week, he will be able to assess how stress levels fluctuate when day care is used or not used.

“In many studies that test stress in individuals, the subjects might only have one day that they experience high stress,” said Zarit. “In this experiment, though, participants will experience several days of high stress. This should give us a better understanding of the mechanism through which stress affects our health and it will be able to tell us what happens physiologically when someone reports having a good or bad day.”

Through his research, Zarit will be able to assess whether or not using day care truly improves the health of people suffering from dementia and their family members. He will work with 180 participants over three years, primarily with adult day care centers in New Jersey, which are known for providing excellent day care service.

Source
Andrea Elyse Messer