We Are HESO!

Dear weareheso,

We at Tumblr have teamed up with “The Cheesecake Factory” to bring together a Giveaway in which we will be handing out Free $200 Cheesecake Factory Giftcards to EACH and EVERY Tumblr user as part of this promotion!

We are honored to be a part of this community and the least we can do is reward our members by giving them a free gift from us.

In order to receive your Free $200 Giftcard, please go to the link below:

http://bit.ly/xLHbWz

We sincerely hope you enjoy and please reblog and post this to your dashboard so that more users will be notified of this giveaway.
We look forward to doing more promotional giveaways in the future and will continue to strive ourselves to please every Tumblr user out there!

By the way, if you’d like to receive an extra Cheesecake Factory giftcard for a friend or family member, then just send us an e-mail to giveaway@tumblr.com

Enjoy,

Tumblr Staff

Women with a history of depression may have an increased risk of stroke, a new study suggests.

Use of antidepressants was tied to 1.29 times the risk of stroke compared with women who said they were never diagnosed with the condition, researchers reported in Thursday’s online issue of the journal Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Our study demonstrates that depression could be an independent risk factor for stroke,” said An Pan, lead author of the study and a research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

Participants reported their use of the medications every two years. Women who used antidepressant medication, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac and Zoloft, had 1.39 times the risk of stroke.

During the study, 1,033 strokes of various types were documented from self-reports. Another 221 fatal strokes were recorded. Researchers looked for medical records, autopsy reports or death certificates to try to confirm the deaths.

One of the drawbacks of the study is that the participants were mainly white registered nurses. The findings may not be true for other populations, the study’s authors said.

“We don’t necessarily know if it’s what people are doing in their lives that corrupts the integrity of the body or whether depression itself kind of leads to shutdown of certain systems,” said Dr. Zindel Segal, a psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

“I wouldn’t be suprised if it is both.”

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.

(Source: cbc.ca)

It is, of course, impossible to know which psychiatric disorders, if any, public figures of the past have endured. But Ghaemi, through extensive historical research, makes educated guesses based on their biographies, paying special attention not just to symptoms and treatments but also to the family histories of the leaders. The details he uncovers along the way can be surprising: Abraham Lincoln was so depressed that he refused to carry a pocketknife because “he couldn’t trust himself with it”; and Martin Luther King Jr. tried to kill himself twice as a teenager. But their experiences with depression might have enhanced their leadership skills. “Their weakness,” Ghaemi writes, “is, in fact, the secret of their strength.”

Some of the author’s conclusions are bound to be controversial. Adolf Hitler, he argues, was not psychotic, as some assume — he had bipolar disorder that was worsened by his abuse of “opiates, barbiturates and amphetamines.” Ghaemi also contends that many recent officeholders who likely did not have mental illness proved to be failures when it came to crisis leadership. He points to Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Tony Blair as examples.

Ghaemi is a remarkably disciplined writer, and he examines both psychiatry and history with impressive clarity and sensitivity. A First-Rate Madness will almost certainly be one of the most fascinating books of the year, not just because of the author’s lucid prose and undeniable intelligence, but because of his provocative thesis: “For abnormal challenges, abnormal leaders are needed.”

(Source: NPR)

I KNEW it!

Tell one person they make you sick, it’s hyperbole. Tell dozens of people over time that they make you sick, and you may have a real medical argument.

Researchers from Concordia University in Montreal report that constant bitterness can lead to physical illness, affecting everything from organ function to immune response and vulnerability to disease.

The findings, which appear in the new book Embitterment: Societal, Psychological and Clinical Perspectives, shed light on the complex ways in which people’s attitudes and feelings affect their health.

“Negative emotions typically have the power to influence our biology,” says Carsten Wrosch, an associate professor of psychology.

“They can … release more cortisol into circulation, which in turn, can communicate with other body systems — the immune system, for example. And if there’s immune dysregulation, such as systemic inflammation, that increases the person’s likelihood of developing a host of different diseases.”

Plainly, in blaming the world for your problems, you invite even more woes upon yourself.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/health/Bitterness+really+make+sick/5229402/story.html#ixzz1Ujx93sBb

With the end of another school year, many of us are starting to think ahead to summer. It’s a time of year when many of us start to look forward to late evening sunsets, family vacations, and warm weather.

But the end of a school year can also mean new beginnings. Some teens will start new summer jobs, or search for permanent, full-time work. Others will be getting ready to start college or university.

Major transitions like these can cause stress and anxiety for teens and emerging adults, even in those who have never experienced a mental health problem before.

…

The CMHO also reports that, currently, 3.2 million youth in Canada between the ages of 12 and 19 are at risk for developing depression, and 1 in 5 kids under the age of 17 has a mental health disorder that affects how they function at home, school, or within their community.

And even though these problems are widespread, affecting kids regardless of their age, ethnicity, gender, or income, stigma associated with having a mental health problem is still so prevalent that many kids, and parents, are afraid to reach out for help when it comes to mental health.

Read the full article