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8 Signs of Anal Cancer Never to Ignore

April 18, 2022 by Kristen Lawrence

While anal cancer is relatively rare, new cases are on the rise. According to the American Cancer Society, cancer of the anus occurs almost twice as often in women as men. In 2022 so far, there have been about 9,440 new cases (3,150 in men and 6,290 in women). Anal cancer typically doesn’t appear in people younger than 35, occurring most often between 55 and 65.

The American Cancer Society states that cases of anal cancer are highest in white women and black men. However, the risk of being diagnosed with this type of cancer is about 1 in 500, making it extremely rare. While deaths from anal cancer are rising, treatments are still quite effective, especially if the cancer is detected early.

What is Anal Cancer?

Anal cancer begins in the cells lining the anal canal, but it can spread to other organs and lymph nodes. Doctors categorize these tumors into two groups depending on where they start: cancers of the anal canal or cancers of the perianal skin. The perianal skin is the skin surrounding the anus outside the body.

Nearly 90% of anal cancer cases in the US are squamous cell cancer. These tumors begin in the squamous (flat) cells lining the majority of the anal canal and perianal skin. Most anal cancers start in cells in the mucosa or the inner lining of the anal canal. Glands in this region produce mucus to help stool move quickly out of the body.

Rare types of anal cancers include adenocarcinomas, basal cell carcinomas, and melanoma. Adenocarcinomas usually begin in cells lining the upper portion of the anus near the rectum and occur in the glands underneath the anal mucosa. Additionally, they can appear in sweat glands in the perianal skin.

Basal cell carcinomas are extremely rare and usually occur in areas of skin frequently exposed to the sun, such as the face and hands. If this cancer appears in the anus, doctors will usually surgically remove it.

Another type of skin cancer called melanoma can rarely appear in the anal canal. If doctors discover them early, they can remove the tumor with surgery. Early detection and treatment increase long-term survival chances. However, since melanoma isn’t easy to spot, most go unnoticed until later.

Now that you know about the various types of anal cancer, we’ll go over the signs and symptoms to watch out for.

Eight Signs of Anal Cancer to Never Ignore

According to the American Cancer Society, anal cancer doesn’t always present with symptoms. Sometimes, it may go undetected for months until your next doctor visit. However, bleeding typically occurs in the early stages of anal cancer. Most people attribute the bleeding to hemorrhoids (painful, enlarged veins in the anus and rectum that can bleed), but this isn’t always the case.

Symptoms and signs of anal cancer can include:

Rectal bleeding
Itching in or near the rectum
A lump or mass near the anus
Pressure or pain in the anus or rectum
Narrowing of stool or other abnormalities in bowel movements
Unusual discharge from the anus, such as mucus or blood
Loss of bowel control
Swollen lymph nodes in the anal canal or groin

In women, other symptoms can include pain in the lower back, vaginal dryness, or increased urgency to use the bathroom.

These symptoms usually point to a benign (non-cancerous) condition, such as anal warts, anal fissures, or hemorrhoids. However, if you experience any of these symptoms, it’s essential to inform your doctor just in case.

Risk Factors for Developing These Tumors

Several risk factors, including lifestyle habits and family history, can increase anal cancer risk. However, having these risk factors doesn’t mean developing cancer. Some people with the following risk factors will never get these tumors, while others may develop them with no apparent risk factors.

The most significant risk factors for this disease include:

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Infection with HPV is the most important, common risk factor that increases your risk level. Around 90% of people diagnosed with anal cancer have HPV. Over 150 subtypes of HPV exist, but the strains most likely to cause it are HPV-16 and HPV-18. HPV infections are common and usually go away on their own. However, a chronic infection, primarily if high-risk HPV subtypes cause it, can eventually result in anal cancer.
Anal warts. High-risk HPV types can cause anal warts and increase the likelihood of developing anal cancers.
Having certain other cancers. Women who have had cancer of the cervix, vagina, or vulva have an increased risk of developing anal cancer. This likelihood probably occurs since these cancers have similar risk factors, like an HPV infection.
HIV infection. This disease occurs 40-80X more often in those who are HIV positive.
Sexual behavior. In both men and women, having multiple sexual partners or having anal sex increases the risk of developing anal cancer.
Smoking tobacco. Smokers also have a higher risk of getting anal cancer than those who do not smoke.
Weakened immune system. People with immunosuppression are more vulnerable to various infections and diseases such as cancer.
Gender and race/ethnicity. Anal cancers occur most often in white women and black men.

Final Thoughts on Signs of Anal Cancer

Anal cancer is not prevalent, occurring in only 0.2% of the population. Still, cases have been increasing in the last few decades, signaling the need for better awareness of anal cancer symptoms. In its early stages, the most common sign is bleeding. However, other symptoms can occur, such as pain or itching in and around the rectal cavity.

Luckily, treatments for anal cancer are effective and usually consist of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy. Usually, the best approach involves two or more treatment options. Treatment depends on the type and severity of the disease.

The 5-year relative survival rate for this disease is 69%, so the chances of recovering are pretty high. If cancer remains localized to the anal cavity, the rate increases to 82%. If you notice any of the signs and symptoms listed above, make sure to tell your doctor to rule out anal cancer.

Counselors Explain Why Some Things Trigger an Emotional Response

April 17, 2022 by Lakeisha Ethans

Have you ever had an emotional response that felt almost uncontrollable? Out of nowhere, feelings gripped your heart and pushed certain behaviors out of you. Your brain fogged over with the intensity of these emotions, and it was both confusing and challenging to deal with.

These kinds of emotional responses are far from unusual. Lots of people experience them every single day. They’re nothing to be ashamed of. But problems may arise when these reactions get out of control. Understanding the psychology behind them may benefit you! Some things trigger an emotional response, but others don’t. Here are ways to manage these reactions, according to experts and studies.

1. Understanding The Chain Reaction Of An Emotional Response

Emotional responses do not occur out of the blue. Instead, they are born from a chain reaction of thoughts. In both Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy, this is referred to by experts as the ABC model. The treatment expands this into ABC-DEF, with the following definitions.

· A: Activating Event

This is the event that sets off the chain reaction. It can be anything from a post-traumatic trigger to a potentially upsetting everyday incident.

· B: Beliefs About The Event

These are the beliefs you hold about the Activating Event. They may be rational, but in the case of emotional responses, they tend to be irrational. Based on your personal experiences and thoughts, these are the stories you tell yourself about the Activating Event and what it could mean for you.

· C: Consequences (Emotional)

The Consequences are how you behave because of your Beliefs About The Event. They may also be the emotional results of the Activating Event’s stressors. In other words, these are the consequences that you face and the consequences you create.

· D: Disputing Statements

This portion is a part of treatment. To respond to ABC, you come up with DEF. D, in this case, means disputing the Beliefs About The Event. You mindfully stop the chain reaction by replying to your beliefs with a good dose of reality, this challenging your assumptions.

· E: Effective New Beliefs

These are the new beliefs you will develop and train yourself with as part of your therapy. These new beliefs will replace the former Beliefs About The Event.

· F: Future Action

This, also a part of therapy, involves planning your actionable goals to put your new beliefs into action.

Most of us find ourselves in an endless cycle of ABCs without the therapeutic benefits of learning DEF. This is why only specific things trigger an emotional response. The chain reactions only set off when you have negative Beliefs About The Event.

Experts at the Psychological and Counseling Services of the University of New Hampshire explain this with the analogy of a stop sign at an intersection. Ask yourself: what would you do if you saw that stop sign. You are likely to answer that you would stop driving simply. It’s easy to believe that the stop sign is what makes you stop.

But let’s think about reality. Numerous people blow past stop signs daily. You may have elected not to stop at particular stop signs yourself, even if you were fully aware that you should. As such, it’s not the stop sign that makes you stop – it’s you and the chain reaction of your thoughts and responses.

An Example Of An Activating Event For An Emotional Response

With the analogy of the stop sign, here are some examples of the branching ways that different Beliefs About The Event can stem from the Activating Event:

If you have been pulled over many times and are in danger of losing your license, you may stop at the stop sign. You may be afraid that you’ll get caught and get a talking to by a loved one if you break this law again. This knowledge compels you to stop.
If you have been pulled over many times and have become desensitized to legal repercussions, you may not stop at the stop sign. You may think that your record is so bad that no good behavior could change it. Or you may not care anymore because you’ve never found the legal repercussions to be that big of a deal. As such, you coast through it.
If there are many traffic cops in the area, you might feel compelled to stop at the stop sign because you don’t want to get in trouble. The risk of officers nearby outweighs any time you might save on running the stop sign. Conversely, if you know there are rarely cops in this area, you might not stop.
If you’re in a rush and have a huge emergency, you could rush past the stop signs. You might feel that the crisis justifies the breaking of this law. You may even think that if you get stopped, you may be able to get leniency from a cop by explaining your emergency.
If you’re in a rush and have a huge emergency, the last thing you want is an accident that slows you down. Even though it’s difficult, you stop at the stop sign and are careful to avoid any mishaps.
If you have just seen a video about the dangers of not stopping at stop signs, you may be incredibly anxious when you see one come up. You may stop for longer than usual and make yourself extra sure that the coast is clear before starting up again. The potential danger scares you into stopping, making you stop for longer than necessary.
You’ll likely stop by default if you have zero emotional response to a stop sign. You have no other beliefs that change your initial knowledge of the law that tells you to stop at these signs, so you follow it without thought.

In this analogy, you can see what kinds of emotional reactions get triggered based on different underlying beliefs. This applies to all aspects of life. Some things start an emotional response from you because of your beliefs. These reactions can be big or small. Meanwhile, other things have no additional context from any view, so you go about your business naturally.

2. The Key Elements Of Emotions And Emotional Response

To experience an emotional response, a series of things have to happen that make your brain and body react with feelings to the situation. These are the key elements of emotions, and they comprise what we know and experience about our feelings. Here are those elements:

· Subjective Experience

The truth about emotions is that they are very subjective. Studies show that individual people face very different experiences of emotions, even across the same basic, more universally acknowledged feelings. For example, the way you feel anger may be minor most of the time compared to others.

Or perhaps the way you feel sadness is often so overwhelming that you need to leave the room to collect yourself. The broad labels that we use for most emotions don’t adequately cover every context of feeling. The things that trigger an emotional response tend to relate to feelings that you experience more strongly or more complexly.

· Physiological Response

Emotions aren’t just in the head. They affect your whole body. If you’ve ever had a panic attack or even just been nervous, you know your body’s signs when you have an emotional response. Your heart races, your skin goes clammy, your palms sweat, and you might feel lightheaded or experience stomach pain. These physiological symptoms can be easy to overlook in the heat of emotion, but they’re a sign of a trigger sending alarm bells off in your brain.

· Behavioral Response

This refers to the way that you express emotions through action. When something triggers an emotional response, a behavioral response typically betrays those feelings. You might freeze up, lash out, withdraw, or begin to scream or cry. Or you may show things through your expressions: smiling, frowning, or looking down at the ground, for example. Sometimes, a mild emotional response can cause behavior that triggers more significant emotional responses in a dangerous cycle.

3. How To Better Manage An Emotional Response

An emotional response isn’t always wrong, but it can be out of proportion or unregulated, which may cause more problems for you. Learning to manage these emotional responses can be crucial in better understanding them and yourself. This can also help you learn to control your response to various difficult situations. Here’s how to start managing these emotional reactions:

· Acknowledge The Impact Of Your Emotional Responses

Think about all the times a triggered reaction has caused you difficulty, hurt those around you, or made you do something you regret. Use this as motivation to work on yourself and focus on finding reactions that won’t cause these events.

· Identify Your Emotions

When you feel an emotional response beginning to bubble, take a quick pause to identify your emotions. How do you feel? What are your physiological symptoms? What happened to cause these emotions? Then, ask yourself how you truly want to respond to these feelings.

· Shift Your Focus

It’s easy to get lost in emotions when all you can focus on is the intensity of those feelings. Shift your focus away by thinking of something else, stepping out of the room, or reframing your thoughts. For example, if you’re wallowing in self-pity because you performed poorly during a presentation, you can reframe by thinking of the lessons you’ve learned from the scenario.

· Let Yourself Feel

Managing emotional reactions doesn’t mean repressing feelings. It simply means that you keep yourself in control of your behavior instead of being a victim of an emotional response. You should still feel your feelings and allow them to exist. There’s a lot of power in accepting the truth about your emotions. Thus, you can better reflect on them later!

Final Thoughts On Why Somethings Trigger An Emotional Response But Others Don’t

Emotional responses are normal and healthy. What matters isn’t the response but how you react to it. Learning the psychology of your emotional responses can help you manage them better and interact with your feelings more healthily.

10 Beliefs That Hold You Back from Having an Abundant Life

April 17, 2022 by Kristen Butler

Are you satisfied with where you are, or is something missing? Maybe you have unfulfilled dreams and have yet to take the first step. What are the obstacles that hold you back from your best life?

Unfortunately, the power of believing has long been relegated to the world of fantasy. Remember in the classic movie version of Peter Pan when Tinker Bell disappeared because children no longer believed in magic? It was a representation of adult cynicism.

The actors told the young viewers to believe with their hearts and clap to bring back the beloved fairy. Of course, they did, and she reappeared. While you understand this is a children’s fantasy story, it still represents an essential principle.

Your belief system is a powerful driving force in your life. Even if you say that you believe in nothing, you’ve just affirmed a belief. It represents your perception, whether it’s based on reality or not.

How Do We Form Our Beliefs?

Your system of beliefs began at an early age. As a baby, you recognized that your parents fed and comforted you when you cried. According to an article published by the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, stimuli reside in the brain as memories and perceptions that form beliefs.

Your brain collects more memories and experiences throughout your childhood that form your entire belief system. Your parents and other adult role models ingrained their beliefs and morals in you. As a teen and young adult, you probably challenged many of these beliefs until you solidified your own system.

Pros and Cons of Believing in Positive Outcomes

Much of your belief system has served you well from youth to adulthood. These are positive ones, like you have unlimited potential or your Higher Power loves and cares for you. Positive results come from believing that something positive is going to happen.

However, negative beliefs can keep you from a fulfilling life. If your parents or other role models were verbally abusive, they might have filled your mind with cruel negativity. As an adult, you may now believe you’re worthless and will never do anything of value.

Ten Self-Limiting Beliefs That Might Hold You Back

Do you lie awake at night and wonder what’s wrong with your life? It can come from financial woes, personal relationships, family, work, or health. What can you do now to change your circumstances in the future?

Maybe one of the first things to consider is your belief system. Are they serving you well or causing more harm than good? Here are ten beliefs that could hold you back from an abundant life.

1. The Fear You Can’t Achieve Something May Hold You Back

At some point in your childhood, you tried something and failed. Maybe you fell while learning to roller skate and never tried again. Somewhere in your mind, you formed a defeating belief that trickled down into your adulthood.

Henry Ford and several others have been credited with a famous quote about believing in yourself. It says that whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re correct. In other words, your beliefs in your ability form a self-fulfilling prophecy.

2. You’re Not Ready Yet

It’s always wise to research so you can make informed decisions. Good preparation is essential for any task. Yes, timing is also crucial, and sometimes you must be patient before doing something.

However, there’s a difference between proper timing and procrastination. It can be a harmful belief that holds you back from accomplishments. Some of your dreams require you to say it’s now or never.

3. You Will Fail, if You Try

This toxic belief cannot only hold you back but also stagnate your life. There would be no discoveries or inventions if nobody stepped out on faith. Humans would still be working with sticks and stones.

Past failures don’t mean you’ll never succeed. It just indicates that you’re in a process. Don’t allow the fear of failure to stand between you and your heart’s desires.

4. The Thought That It’s Too Late for You Can Hold You Back

Age is another excuse that can hold you back from your aspirations. You’re reluctant to try anything new because you think you’re too old. Or you believe that you’ve done something for so long it’s too late to make a positive change.

Let’s say you think it’s too late for you to earn a college degree because it’ll take four years. You will be the same age in four years whether or not you return to school, so you might as well do something productive. It’s never too late to step out and do what you’ve always wanted.

5. It All Must be Perfect

One of the most extraordinary human delusions is the false notion of perfection. Unfortunately, perfectionism doesn’t exist in this mortal plane, and humans can’t obtain it. Yet, countless people are so bound by perfectionism that they can’t and won’t accomplish anything.

Perfectionism comes from internal pressures to be “perfect,” or you will fail and be judged. While it’s commendable to take pride in your work and do your best, there’s no such thing as perfection.

This delusional attitude can become toxic and affect all aspects of your life. You work so hard to be perfect that you isolate yourself. You may also avoid doing new things because you may make mistakes.

6. You’re Not Good Enough

What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see a loving and beautiful person or someone “less than?” The modern American media has done much to destroy people’s self-esteem and self-worth. Maybe you like countless others and compare yourself to Hollywood personas that aren’t based on reality.

It may have started in grade school when someone teased or taunted you. Unfair societal standards reinforced it in high school and later in adulthood. You formed beliefs that said you’re not pretty, intelligent, wealthy, skinny, etc.

This degrading belief can hold you back from reaching your potential. It lies to you by saying you’re not enough. What could you accomplish by realizing you’re not only enough but “more than enough?”

7. Nothing Can be Changed

Of course, you cannot change many things in the world. You have to accept them and go forward. On the other hand, there are things that you can change in your life if you are determined.

What beliefs hold you back because you say nothing can be changed? Is it true, or are you hiding behind a false premise because you’re afraid to take the first step? Even if you encounter things you cannot change, you still have the power to change your perceptions and attitudes.

8. The Fear That Everybody Will Judge You Could Hold You Back

It’s a sobering fact of life that you’ll always have naysayers. Someone will say something negative no matter how hard you try or what a great job you do. Even ascended masters, such as Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, had their critics while on earth.

The fear of being judged harshly can hold you back from your dreams. Realize that their opinions don’t matter, and your happiness does. You needn’t let negative people deprive you of joy.

9. You Don’t Have Enough Resources

You’re smart enough to know that you can’t write a check for a million dollars with only ten bucks in the bank. However, limited resources aren’t a reason to give up on your life-long pursuits. Anything worth having is worth working for and making the resources.

Dream boards are ideal for mapping your dreams and what you need to accomplish them. Remember that not all your goals are financially driven. What can you do today to add to your resources?

10. It Will Hold You Back If You Believe That Success is Only For Certain People

Here’s a harmful assumption that’s self-defeating for many worthy people. Maybe you believe that success and joy are only for certain people. It assumes that the divine plays favorites, and you are predestined never to have anything.

The good news is that the Universe isn’t partial and has your best interests at heart. While there are a few instances of luck in life, people can’t always hang their success on fortune alone. Some people may have an early advantage, but everyone has an equal chance of living their dreams.

This belief stems from the false notion that you’re less than others and everybody else is better. Consider real-life examples like Oprah Winfrey, who worked her way up from poverty to becoming one of the wealthiest media titans in the world.

Final Thoughts on How Your Self-Limiting Beliefs Can Hold You Back

Your belief system may be the only thing between you and a fulfilling life. Take an honest inventory of your beliefs; you may be surprised that some are pretty toxic. Replacing toxic thoughts with positive ones can make you feel better and help you reach your highest aspirations.

5 Times When Healthy Foods Aren’t as Healthy as You Think

April 17, 2022 by Chris Butler

Dieting and eating healthy have become a way of life for most folks. Very few people say they’re at the perfect weight and can eat what they want without worry. The dieting industry advertises and parades things like healthy foods that are supposed to be good for you, but what if they’re not what you need?

What might be healthy for your body could be toxic to another person. Take, for instance, eating wheat bread. It may not bother your stomach or disrupt your digestive system in any way, but your neighbor might get deathly ill when they eat anything with this grain in it.

The gut flora inside your digestive system is responsible for the breaking down your food. Since chronic diseases are on the upswing worldwide, many medical experts look to the gut for answers. The root cause of most illnesses is inflammation in the body, and it can cause things like:

Swelling and bloating
Insomnia
Chronic fatigue
Skin issues
Stomach and digestive problems
Little energy
Sore and inflamed joints
Headaches
Acid Reflux
Gastritis

Understanding Your Microbiome and the Importance of Eating Healthy Foods

It would help if you strived to reach optimal microbial function, allowing the body to heal itself from disease and thrive. You can buy an at-home test to send in to see what’s going on in your gut. The trillions of microbes interact to create a healthy atmosphere, but yours might be lacking.

While it’s worth investing in this test, you don’t need meta-transcriptome sequencing to discover what’s happening in your body. Your system will give you indications when something isn’t right. For instance, how often have you felt bloated and sick after eating dairy products?

If that cup of ice cream sends you straight to the restroom, you’re likely lactose intolerant. You don’t need a supplement or expensive test to diagnose such a problem. All you need to do is see if the situation improves once you remove dairy from your diet.

Using the process of elimination, you can quickly find what your system lacks and what it can’t tolerate.

Five Healthy Foods That Might Not Be So Good for You

Each person has a unique system with special needs. Balancing your gut flora might be easier than you think. It would be best to change your mindset that healthy foods are good for you and will make you feel fantastic. Here are some things to consider about bringing harmony to your digestive system.

1. Nuts and Greens Good for You, or are they?

When it comes to getting rid of inflammation in the body, turning from processed foods to nuts and greens is wise. However, research shows that this isn’t always the case.

You must consider the oxalate content before eating a heaping helping of spinach or slather some wheat bread with almond butter. While 70 percent of people will easily tolerate this acid, 30 percent don’t have the microbes to process it.

Sure, it’s healthy, but if your system can’t tolerate it, it will cause inflammation. A study from Michigan State University found that these foods can also cause kidney stones in people whose bodies cannot metabolize oxalates properly.

2. Protein Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be if You Have Kidney Issues

Take a quick trip to the supermarket, and you will see an advertisement for “increased protein” on almost everything. High protein helps your energy levels and can make you feel fuller for extended periods. However, too much protein can be too much.

Diets like Keto and Paleo encourage people to avoid fresh fruits and some vegetables in exchange for fat and protein. Some people take things to extremes and feel they can eat nothing but meat all day long. While it might fill you up, it can also cause you to have increased inflammation, as well as shorten your lifespan.

Now having an online test can show whether you’re eating too much or just enough protein. Your body needs protein to feed the fermenting bacteria in your gut. The problem is that sometimes these bacteria will produce things that can damage the lining of your stomach, like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.

According to Harvard Medical School, high protein consumption puts the kidneys under duress, as it takes more energy to process it. The most significant issue occurs when you consume most animal proteins.

3. Too Much Iron Can Be Toxic

If you consume a lot of sugars and processed foods, your iron levels may suffer. This vital mineral comes naturally in most vegetables and protein. Iron is an essential mineral that everyone needs. When you’re deficient in your body, you become anemic.

Anemia is something that can make you feel very sick, and you’ll be weak, pale, and short of breath. Too much iron can cause an inflammatory condition that causes salmonella to proliferate. Additionally, in some extreme cases where people have hemochromatosis, they can’t eat any extra iron because their body makes too much.

Consuming healthy foods with iron sounds like a great thing to add to your diet, except it isn’t always the case. It would help if you saw what’s going on with your microbiome before making dieting changes that could impact your iron levels.

4. Carbs Aren’t as Bad as You Think

Remember when eggs were considered harmful, and you were encouraged to avoid them due to high cholesterol? Carbs are getting a pretty bad rap right now, but all carbs aren’t bad. If your microbiome is in good shape, you can eat carbs, which won’t affect you as much.

The key is that your gut must transfer these carbs from starch to an amino acid. Now, this doesn’t mean that you can indulge in tubs of ice cream, half a cake, and bags of chips constantly, and it does not impact you, but it means regular intake isn’t as troublesome. It’s the person whose microbiome can’t process the simple carbs that is in danger of inflammation and gaining weight.

5. Low Stomach Acid and Chronic Disease Share a Direct Link to Eating Healthy Foods

The acids in your stomach are powerful; their job is to protect you from the bacteria in the foods you ingest and help indigestion. The problem is when your stomach acid levels are insufficient. This often occurs when people take certain drugs, called proton pump inhibitors, which stop some acid pumps in the stomach from working.

While these people should only use these for a short period, many do overeat them. Acid reflux will usually resolve if people change their diet and lose weight, so there’s no need for these dangerous remedies. You need stomach acid to protect you from all the bacteria that enter your mouth.

There’s a direct link between autoimmune disease and inflammation, and it could all be caused by stomach acid problems not caring for bacteria.

Checking Your Gut

Consuming healthy foods and living a good life is about so much more than avoiding sugar and processed stuff. It would help if you found out what’s going on in your gut. According to the National Library of Medicine, the bidirectional association that transpires between the central and enteric nervous systems is the gut-brain axis.

Medical experts find that many people who suffer from anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems strongly correlate with gut issues. If your gut is unhealthy, it can directly affect your brain. So, it only stands to reason that your microbiome affects your overall wellbeing.

It’s straightforward to have your gut checked to see what you lack and need to do for optimal health. Viome is one company that offers the Gut Health Test Kit, and it’s much more affordable than you might think. For a small fee, you can have your gut flora analyzed and determine what steps to take to feel and function better.

Final Thoughts on Knowing How to Tell When So-Called Healthy Foods Aren’t So Great for Your Body

Do you have chronic headaches, frequent belching, bloating after eating a meal, and chronic problems with your energy levels? It’s possible that your eating is not what you need for optimal health. Sure, you might even be consuming healthy foods that you thought were good for you, but what’s suitable for one person might not work for you.

Inflammatory conditions can cause things like heart disease, so you must find out what’s happening with your microbiome. Armed with answers, you can stop feeling ravenous all the time, lose weight, have more energy, and improve your skin and nails.

Your gut causes so much. Indeed, the one way to fix it is to change how you eat. Having your gut checked can show you the healthy foods that are good for you, and you can stop guessing whether you’re eating the right things.

Each body has different needs, and you need a roadmap to guide you from where you’re right now to reach optimal health. One simple test can put you on the right path to a better life where you feel like living and enjoying it, or you can use the process of elimination.

NASA to Retire the International Space Station by 2030, Replacing It With a Private Sector Solution

April 17, 2022 by Kristen Lawrence

NASA will keep the International Space Station in operation until 2030. Then the space agency will crash it into the Pacific Ocean. The structure will plunge into a desolate area called Point Nemo. The site is about 3,000 miles from New Zealand’s east coast and 2,000 miles north of Antarctica. It’s an ideal location since this point in the ocean is farthest from any landmasses.

NASA said that commercially owned and operated space stations would replace the ISS to continue collaboration and research. Astronauts have lived and worked on the ISS for over 20 years, orbiting nearly 250 miles above Earth’s surface. More than 200 astronauts from 19 countries worldwide have enjoyed space exploration thanks to the International Space Station.

Since the space station can’t withstand the effects of harsh space conditions indefinitely, NASA originally planned to decommission it in 2024. Scientists designed the station with a life expectancy of 15 years with a safety factor of two, meaning it could endure a maximum of 30 years after its launch in 1998.

However, Boeing certified the U.S. portions of the International Space Station through 2028 (30 years), and NASA believes an extension to 2030 is possible. Of course, a looming question the agency must consider is whether commercial destinations will be available in time to avoid a substantial gap in access to low Earth orbit.

Challenges Aboard the International Space Station

Currently, the space station faces myriad challenges from its exposure to elements in space. Ionizing radiation, significant temperature fluctuations, structural loading pressures such as docking and undocking of vehicles, and the threats of meteoroids and orbital debris all challenge the Station’s structure.

Also, NASA recently discovered air leaks and cracks in the Station’s Service Module Transfer Tunnel. This connects the Service Module to eight docking areas on the International Space Station. While models suggest the gaps shouldn’t exist, possible causes of the leaks may include structural fatigue, internal or external damage, and material defects.

This discovery warrants an updated analysis of the structural integrity and lifespan of other space station areas. So, the International Space Station may retire earlier than expected due to the numerous pressures it faces.

The Future of the International Space Station (ISS)

At the end of 2021, Congress granted NASA $17 million to replace the ISS with a private-sector solution. However, NASA says that it needs $150 million to carry out the decommissioning and restructuring of ISS. Indeed, it’s essential to have a research lab in low Earth orbit to continue deep space exploration missions.

In fact, a report by NASA’s Office of the Inspector General said this: “The Artemis mission, aimed at returning humans to the Moon and ultimately landing astronauts on Mars, is not feasible without continued human health research and technology demonstrations being conducted on the ISS and its eventual replacement. As long as humans intend to travel in space, NASA expects research and testing will be needed in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit.”

Luckily, several commercial space companies have developed strategies to replace ISS. One Houston-based company called Axiom Space offered new infrastructure for space tourism and exploration for a lower price. NASA recently approved the company’s first space station crew for a mission to the ISS. Their mission will launch on March 30.

The Private Sector Companies Stepping into the Space Race

So far, NASA has signed agreements with three U.S. companies to develop commercial space stations in low Earth orbit. The companies include Blue Origin and Sierra Space, Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, and Nanoracks LLC. In total, NASA will grant them $415 million to split amongst themselves to develop their space station concepts.

The companies plan to have their stations in operation by the late 2020s. Of course, that timing would coincide with the planned decommissioning of ISS.

“NASA seeks to maintain an uninterrupted U.S. presence in low-Earth orbit by transitioning from the International Space Station to other platforms,” NASA said in a press release. “These awards will stimulate U.S. private sector development of commercial, independent space stations that will be available to both government and private-sector customers.”

NASA’s Plans For the Next Decade

Of course, NASA will keep itself quite busy in the next decade before ISS retires. The agency will continue research for long-duration missions to the moon and Mars, including health risk mitigation and technology development. However, the space agency says it may need to delay launches for deep space missions as the research won’t be complete by 2030.

“The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity,” said Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters.

“This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit. We look forward to maximizing these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow.”

We’re living in fascinating times as we further our quest to travel through space and hopefully discover more inhabitable planets. As the International Space Station nears its retirement, other space companies have agreed to design low-Earth orbit space stations.

However, decommissioning and deorbiting the ISS will require vast resources and cooperation from many countries. NASA estimates that the overall cost of this process will total $1 billion, and each international partner will chip in.

Final Thoughts on NASA Retiring the International Space Station

Many scientific breakthroughs have been made aboard the International Space Station. In 2014, a 3D printer manufactured the first 3D printed object in space, a printhead faceplate. In 2016, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins sequenced DNA in space for the first time. And NASA’s Cold Atom Lab created the fifth state of matter, called a Bose-Einstein condensate, on the ISS in 2018.

Astronauts have also learned how to grow crops like lettuce, leafy greens, radishes, and chilis in space. This knowledge could someday help astronauts supply their food during missions. As other companies build space stations, it’s exciting to think about the scientific firsts that will occur in the future.

3 Reasons You Deserve Unconditional Happiness (and 5 Ways to Get It)

April 16, 2022 by Lakeisha Ethans

Unconditional happiness sounds like bliss. It’s something that most people strive for and hope to achieve in their lifetime. But, at the same time, many are also afraid that they may not be worthy of such utter delight.

If you’ve ever told yourself that you don’t deserve to be happy, then banish the thought immediately! The truth is that you, just like a vast majority of the world’s inhabitants, deserve to feel that way. Don’t believe me? Here are three reasons you deserve unconditional happiness and five ways to get it.

Three Reasons You Deserve Unconditional Happiness

Yes, you do deserve the best that life has to offer!

1. You’ll Have A Better Life When You Discover The Key To Unconditional Happiness

Everyone deserves a fair shot at life, and so do you. Unconditional happiness can work wonders for your everyday experience, potentially helping you achieve the life you want. It seems ironic that to be happy, you also have to be satisfied. But it works out once you get the hang of it. Being happier can help you:

Be more productive
Stay motivated
Feel rewarded for your hard work and difficult times
Get a nice boost when you need it
Feel more fulfilled
Contribute more to the world around you
Solve problems with a clearer head

In short, if you want to have a better life, unconditional happiness may not give you all the answers, but it’ll be a tremendous asset in your journey.

2. You Are Your Best Ally

You can gain unconditional happiness from any source of your choice. But the best source is yourself at the end of the day. You are the person who will be there for you to the very end, no matter what. That means you’re your most valuable ally.

You deserve unconditional happiness so that you can help yourself. Your existence is enough reason for you to be a recipient of good things!

3. Your Past Doesn’t Define You Or Dictate Future Unconditional Happiness

Many people fall into believing they don’t deserve unconditional happiness because of bad things in their past. They may find it challenging to move past things that have already occurred, leaving them trapped and unhappy.

But the past is the past. It is unchangeable, and you have grown and become a different person since then. You can’t continue to define yourself by obsolete circumstances. Here are some past things that don’t represent you:

· Your Past Mistakes Do Not Determine Your Future

These are opportunities to learn and grow into a better person. No one is born perfect, and no one makes it through life without embarrassing or big mistakes. That’s normal, and you’re not defined by the mistakes you’ve taken accountability for!

· The Trauma You’ve Been Through

You are not at fault for your trauma. Other people’s actions that have hurt you do not define you. Work with a professional if necessary to process and manage emotional trauma. Do not let it rule your life.

· Your Accomplishments, Or Lack Thereof

It’s always good to be ambitious and to want to achieve things in life. But it’s not a race, and accomplishments aren’t a tax you pay to deserve to exist with unconditional happiness. You are allowed to be without pushing yourself to your limits. You’ll find that you’re more motivated to accomplish things when you’re happy!

Five Ways To Get The Unconditional Happiness You Deserve

1. Work To Improve Yourself

There’s not a day in your life where you can’t learn a lesson that you can improve yourself with. When you open your heart and mind, you’ll realize that you can constantly learn things and work on yourself pretty much all the time.

Some people take this to mean that they must always not consider themselves good enough, but that’s not the case. In fact, you’ll find that loving yourself is often sufficient motivation for you to want to improve yourself more. When you appreciate who you are, you also think you deserve the best!

Studies reveal that most people are happiest when experiencing positive dynamic events. Static events that are positive don’t have the same effect. This means that active movement towards goals and achievements makes people happier than simply enjoying one static state.

This is not to say that you can’t be happy without forward momentum. But if you want unconditional happiness, move towards goals, a regular part of your life! Happiness is widely considered momentary, so staying in just one place can often decrease your joy. So keep learning and growing with your focus on the great things ahead!

2. Help Others To Reap the Reward Of Unconditional Happiness

It sounds almost counterproductive to make others happy for your happiness. But if you want unconditional happiness, then helping other people is an endless wellspring. There is never a shortage of people in need, so you’ll never be in a situation where you can’t help the people around you.

Studies find that happiness forms a positive feedback loop when helping others. The more you make others happy through altruism, the more content you become. The happier you become, the more likely you are to help others again in the future.

Do note that you shouldn’t overdo this to the point where you’re constantly compromising your health or energy. You have to help yourself first before you can help others. This is more motivation for you to work on yourself to be there for those around you – and, most importantly, for yourself.

How can you strike this balance? Here are a few tips:

Actively look for things to do that benefit others that don’t take you much time. What can you do in five minutes that is a big help to someone else? You might hit “share” on a friend’s artwork, give someone a genuine compliment, or grab coffee for a colleague while you’re already at the coffee machine. These things are small enough not to drain you, but they have an impact!
Aim to spend about 100 hours per year actively helping people. It sounds like a lot, but this is just about 2 hours per week. This allows you to volunteer your time and effort to causes you believe in without burning yourself out.
Group your helping activities into large chunks. In other words, do all your more involved and focused helpful acts of compassion in one day. This will give you a more considerable boost, and it’ll help you compartmentalize, so you don’t get too tired.
Aim to be kind in your everyday life. Kindness allows you to bestow happiness onto others by doing nothing more than just being yourself!

3. Surround Yourself With Happy People

It’s easy to assume that happy people naturally hang out together due to their cheerful personalities and bright outlooks. But what’s happening is that the happiness of a few people spreads to others.

Research proves that spending time around happy individuals will help you experience joy in the future. If someone you’re friends with lives close to you and becomes happy, your chances of happiness increase significantly. Similar findings were noted for siblings, spouses, and neighbors, though not coworkers.

If you want unconditional happiness, find those who are happy or are seeking their happiness. Then, work together to cultivate a happy environment, as this will rub off on each other!

4. Be Grateful: Sometimes The Littlest Things Release Unconditional Happiness

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember to be grateful, especially if you feel like you’re in the wrong place in life. But being thankful can improve your happiness, according to studies! When you focus on gratitude and appreciation, you’re training your brain to find silver linings in various situations. This positivity shifts your entire mindset, filling you with positive thinking even in hard times.

This is not to say that you become blind to reality. Instead, you learn to accept harsh truths while still seeking the good in them. You appreciate lessons from hard times and find the good side in even a bad situation. Furthermore, you live your life directed by productive positivity. It’s a beautiful state of being!

This can further flourish through mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. These practices will teach you to exist in the present and truly appreciate the world around you. You’ll enjoy the finer details in life and the world’s quiet wonder. How can you not be happier with that?

5. Get Enough Sleep To Spark Unconditional Happiness

This sounds like a small thing, but it can change so much. If you want unconditional happiness, you need to be awake enough to achieve, receive, and notice it. Sleep is central to positive thinking. When you don’t get enough sleep, you:

Are constantly exhausted and feel foggy, so you don’t have the energy even to be happy at all.
Harm the hippocampus, making it too exhausted to process stimuli. The hippocampus is crucial in processing both neutral and positive thoughts and memories. Meanwhile, the amygdala, where negative stimuli get processed, is less harmed by a lack of sleep.
Become more sensitive to negative emotions and situations, according to research. If you’re tired, you’re more likely to personally take another person’s bad mood.
Reduce your morning mood, making it harder to experience a good mood later on during the rest of the day.
Get worsened performance on everyday tasks, which only further sour the mood.

Aim for at least seven hours of sleep each night. If you feel tired during the day, add one or two more hours. You should also ensure high-quality sleep by creating a relaxing bedroom environment conducive to rest. A cool temperature, comfortable bedding, and little to no light are essential.

It’s also a good idea to wind down before bedtime by getting off your phone and not eating or drinking anything heavy in the hours before you go to bed. Try going to bed simultaneously every night to make winding down easier!

Final Thoughts On Some Ways To Get The Unconditional Happiness You Deserve

Happiness is not something that you must prove you deserve. It is something that you deserve because you exist and because happiness is the goal of most of humankind. Learning how to internalize your effort towards happiness will grant you the unconditional happiness you seek!

People With a Disabled Sibling Have More Empathy, According to Psychology

April 16, 2022 by Kristen Lawrence

A new study reveals that siblings of children with disabilities may have greater cognitive empathy. However, the research found no variations in emotional empathy or prosocial behaviors between those with neurotypical or neurodivergent siblings.

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Toronto collaborated on the study. They wanted to investigate how growing up with a disabled sibling may foster empathy and compassion. The findings have been published in the journal Child Development.

Having a child or sibling with a developmental disorder or disability often causes immense stress for families. Siblings who grow up with a disabled sibling may experience more adversity and challenges. However, few studies looked into the positive aspects of growing up with a disabled sibling until this research.

The recent study marks one of the first to investigate the connection between having a disabled sibling and greater empathy.

“The findings indicate that siblings of children with disabilities may have greater cognitive empathy (i.e., understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings), which is important as cognitive empathy is key for social skills,” said Yonat Rum, a postdoctoral researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Cambridge.

People With a Disabled Sibling Have More Empathy, According to Psychology

Researchers analyzed data from the Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins for the study. This includes 1,657 families of twins born between 2004 and 2005, with demographic traits similar to those of the Jewish population in Israel. Researchers identified 63 families who had one twin with a disability and the other with normal development.

Next, the team compared the neurotypical twin siblings of disabled children to typically developing twin siblings from the remaining sample. They measured their cognitive and emotional empathy and prosociality when the children were eleven years old.

Researchers gave participants a self-report questionnaire assessment of cognitive and emotional empathy. They also asked them to complete a computer task to determine prosocial behaviors. These are behaviors that benefit or help other people. Finally, the team gave the participating children’s parents a survey to assess their children’s prosocial behaviors.

The findings revealed that neurotypical children with a disabled twin scored significantly higher in self-reported cognitive empathy than typically developing twins. They didn’t find any differences in emotional empathy or prosocial behaviors, however.

“These positive effects might be due to the specific ‘advantage’ of cognitive empathy to better understand their sibling with disabilities and to support the sibling relationship,” said Ariel Knafo-Noam, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The authors added that the experimental findings warrant more research using different measurement methods in the future. The Israel Science Foundation and partially supported by the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an Azrieli Fellowship, helped fund this study.

Another Study Reveals Similar Findings

Having a sibling can make life more fulfilling, especially since siblings usually have a strong bond. A 2020 Tel Aviv University and University of Haifa study reveals that having a sibling with an intellectual disability further strengthens this bond. They found more positive relationships between children and siblings with developmental disabilities than those between neurotypical siblings.

Prof. Anat Zaidman-Zait of the Department of School Counseling and Special Education at TAU’s Constantiner School of Education performed the study. She collaborated with Dr. Dafna Regev and Miri Yechezkiely of Haifa’s Graduate School of Creative Art Therapies. The findings first appeared in Research in Developmental Disabilities.

“Having a child with a disability in a family places unique demands on all family members, including typically developing siblings,” Prof. Zaidman-Zait explains. “Although challenges exist, they are often accompanied by both short- and long-term positive contributions.

“Through our research, we found that relationships among children with siblings with intellectual disabilities were even more supportive than those among typically developed siblings. Specifically, we found that children with siblings with intellectual disabilities scored higher on empathy, teaching, and closeness and scored lower on conflict and rivalry than those with typically developing siblings.”

Researchers decided to measure children’s kindness using art or self-reporting for the study. This would allow them to assess the emotional health of children who had a disabled sibling.

The scientists recruited sixty children aged eight to eleven for the study. Half the participants had neurotypical siblings, and the other half had neurodivergent siblings. Through drawings and questionnaires, they asked the children to express their relationship with their siblings. The team also asked the mothers of the children to answer questionnaires about their children’s relationship with their siblings.

Prof. Zaidman-Zait says this:

“We drew on the basic assumption that artistic creation allows internal content to be expressed visually and that children’s self-reports have special added value in studies measuring sibling relationship qualities, especially in areas where parents might have less insight.”

Researchers asked both sets of neurotypical children to draw pictures of themselves and their siblings. Then, licensed art therapists used specific criteria to assign scores to the illustrations. These criteria were as follows:

The physical distance between the figures;
The presence or absence of a parent in the image;
Amount of detail invested in either the self-portrait or the sibling representation, and;
Amount of support given to a sibling in the picture.

The children also filled out a Sibling Relationship Questionnaire, which asked questions about their closeness, dominance, conflict, and rivalry with siblings. Researchers then analyzed the children’s artwork and questionnaires, in addition to questionnaires completed by the children’s mothers.

They discovered that the children who had siblings with intellectual disabilities scored much higher on empathy, teaching, and closeness. They also scored lower on conflict and rivalry in sibling relationships than those with neurotypical siblings.

Prof. Zaidman-Zait concludes that having a disabled family member makes the rest of the family more empathetic towards others’ needs.

Final Thoughts About How Having a Disabled Sibling Increases Empathy

Caring for others keeps society functioning and makes life worth living in this world. We’ve survived for millennia by cooperating to solve problems, and it’s no different in the modern era.

Studies have shown that caring for a disabled sibling increases empathy and consideration for others. Of course, many people without disabled siblings are empathetic and want to help others. But, looking after someone with a disability can help foster kindness at an early age.

13 Signs of Social Phobia Never to Ignore

April 16, 2022 by Chris Butler

Social phobias are a group of phobic disorders characterized by fear. Living with these conditions means that you’re always afraid of what others think or say about you. The most common social phobia is a social anxiety disorder, ranging from mild to debilitating.

Do you know that there are people in this country who can’t go to the mall, get on the freeway, or enjoy going out to eat with their families? It’s because the fear of not being able to escape these public situations inhibits them from living. Each person has different fears, but many social phobias follow a similar progression.

The Difference Between Shyness and Social Anxiety Disorder

If you’re a shy person and feel awkward in a crowd, it’s not as severe as someone who has a phobia of social situations. Sure, being timid can make you uncomfortable and anxious, but the difference between being shy and having a disorder is night and day.

Someone shy will experience some mild symptoms when there in certain situations. However, a person with a social fear has a debilitating mental condition impacting every facet of their life. Suppose you were to examine a scale based on the two people’s anxiousness.

Shyness would be at the lower end of the spectrum, while a social disorder would be higher. Remember that being shy means having some unpleasant symptoms, but the feelings are not paralyzing enough to keep you from returning. Perhaps you hate the doctor’s office because of all the people in the waiting room, but it doesn’t bother you enough to keep you from going back.

A person with a phobic disorder will change their life and patterns to cope with intense fears. They will take extreme measures and rearrange their life to accommodate their mental illness.

Thirteen Signs That Reveal Social Phobia

Have you ever had social fears that overwhelm you? Do you suffer from phobias that limit or impact your life significantly?

Some say that socially intelligent folks who learn to control their emotions can conquer these issues, but knowing the signs of what you’re dealing with is an excellent place to start. Here are the most observed symptoms of a social panic disorder.

Racing heart
Can’t focus or concentrate
Profuse sweating, including but not limited to the palms
Flushed or reddening of the face and body
Tremors and shaking
Choking sensations
Heaviness in your chest area
Dry or cottonmouth
Dizziness or feeling faint
Clumsy
Rapid or disorganized speech
Muscle pain and tension
Headaches

In most instances, these feelings will subside when you remove yourself from the situation. Additionally, a coping skill that many people use is to reset their bodies by taking a nap. When you’re resting, your body is at the point of total relaxation, and you can get rid of much of the angst you feel.

Emotional Indications of Social Phobia

While you know about the physical signs and how they can impact you, what about the mental issues this phobia causes? These can be just as powerful and can cause you to limit your interactions with people. You may develop such an intense fear of being judged that you avoid public places, like restaurants, concerts, or anything out of your comfort zone.

You may have a challenging time at work because you feel inferior around persons of authority. Many individuals with social phobias are afraid that people will notice their intense anxiety and judge them. It’s commonplace for these folks to let others walk all over them, as they’re too afraid to speak up for themselves.

Being asked to give a public speech or do a work report involving a demonstration can cause a commotion. The fears can be so bad that they might consider quitting their job to get out of it. These folks don’t like to be the center of attention. In fact, even praise or applause is too much to handle.

Another thing that people with these phobias do is fear stuff before it even happens. For instance, you’re taking your children to an amusement park for the day. Your anticipatory fears are overwhelming you, and you’ve already worked the situation up until a full-blown panic before you leave.

You’ve mapped the route, studied the traffic patterns and road closures, and made sure you know about the check-in procedures. You can’t handle any surprises as it sends your fears into orbit. You must remember that these anxieties are not reality, but your brain magnifies your fears and triggers painful thoughts and feelings.

Avoidant Behaviors

Avoidance behaviors become commonplace with social phobia. People who have this disorder avoid specific places and larger crowds. This disorder makes having friendships, dating, and getting a higher education extremely difficult.

While the person needs to function, they choose the path of least resistance. They have a list of “dangerous” social situations in their mind, and they do everything in their power to limit exposure. Have you ever wondered about the places and things that folks with social phobias avoid? Here are the most common:

Parties
Being with strangers
Authoritative people or those that are well accomplished
Making conversation with new folks
Large stores or ones that are overly crowded
Job interviews
Public speaking or performing
Family reunions or meeting up with distant relatives
High school or college reunions
Concerts
Banks or government offices
Social media and chatrooms where they can be judged
Checkout lines
Malls
Doctor’s offices or hospitals
Dating
Driving

If they go to these places or experience these situations, they do so with a supportive partner. This person is a family member or friend who will be there should they fall to pieces. The phobia becomes debilitating because they can’t go anywhere without that support person, and these irrational fears take over their entire life.

Common Social Phobia Scenarios

Sometimes a story can help illustrate things and put them into a better perspective for you.

According to an article published by the Mayo Clinic, both examples below could indicate agoraphobia, a social phobia. They both fear and avoid places where they feel another take may happen, and they will be trapped.

Fear of Crowded Places

Linda was a mother of three who was doing her grocery shopping. She made it through the first few aisles of the store, but by the time she turned down the cereal aisle, she knew something wasn’t right.

Her head was hurting, her chest felt heavy, and her heart was racing so bad she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Since she had her children with her, she feared they would see her die. The room was spinning, and there were people all around.

Linda managed to make it to a bench to calm herself. She felt for sure the end was near, but she had issues with panic before, so she hoped things would stop. The attack lasted for around ten minutes, and she finally felt well enough to get up and finish shopping.

Though weary, she vowed if she ever got out of that store, she would never come back. A couple of essential things happened here that will alter her views. First, Linda will forever associate the grocery store with panic attacks. Second, she will go out of her way to avoid going to the store.

Though she’s been to that supermarket hundreds of times. But all it took was ten minutes of irrational fears to change her views forever.

The Freeway Nightmare

Adrian just got her tax refund check, and she was on her way to buy a new purse. She was excited as she paid off all her debt, and life was good. She had her four-year-old daughter with her, Abby. Right when Adrian got to a busy intersection, her head started spinning.

Her heart was racing, and she felt like she was going to pass out. She decided it was better to take flight rather than fight, so she opened her car door to run down the expressway. She remembers that she couldn’t run because her daughter was in the car.

Adrian made it through the intersection and rested in a nearby parking lot. She was so weak and sick that she had to call a family member to drive her to safety. That day forever changed the mindset of this once fearless driver, as she was always waiting for another attack.

It’s been more than six years now, but she still doesn’t drive very much. She only drives on country roads, and she makes sure that she always has an easy way to exit. Though she was always a socially intelligent person, these fears have paralyzed her to the point of being nearly housebound.

Final Thoughts on Recognizing a Social Phobia

What have your experiences been with panic, and what steps have you taken to ensure it doesn’t control your life? Social phobias come in all shapes and sizes. One person might have some slight shyness that makes them nervous, while another person can’t leave their home because of their intense fears.

The most important thing to consider is that all these conditions are treatable. According to NHS Inform Health, you can do things to combat your social phobia like breathing exercises, keeping your blood sugars stable, meditating, and avoiding things like caffeine, alcohol, and smoking.

While you may experience issues with panic, it doesn’t have to control you. You’re more robust and able to conquer anything you set your mind to, even overcoming your irrational fears.

India Masters Solar Food Dehydration, Reduces Food Waste

April 16, 2022 by Kristen Lawrence

Many farmers have adopted solar food dehydration in India to preserve food and reduce waste. Plus, it’s helping rural farmers earn extra income for any food not sold in markets. They collect leftover produce that would have been thrown away and use special solar dehydrators to remove excess water. Then, farmers process the dried fruits and vegetables and resell them.

In total, the process takes just four hours and can keep food from spoiling for months. This technology dramatically benefits rural Indians since summers are brutally hot, and many don’t have refrigerators. Unfortunately, due to the lack of industrialization, thousands of tons of food go to landfills in India. However, the solar food dehydration methods could reverse this trend and lead to less food waste.

Not to mention, the simple food preservation method helps empower women by providing them with a source of income. The company that created the solar food dryers, S4S, or Science 4 Society, sets up the machines in rural villages and teaches women how to use them. So, it gives rural Indian women a purpose and offers financial independence, transforming their lives.

India Masters Solar Food Dehydration, Reduces Food Waste

Produce tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, coconut, chilies, and corn go through the solar food dehydration process. Then, they’re turned into dried fruits and vegetables and sold to over 1,100 food and beverage industries worldwide. The solar food dehydrators preserve 20-50% more nutrients than other techniques and cut carbon emissions from refrigeration and food waste.

The company states that they’ve prevented 350,000 metric tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. In addition, they’ve reduced food waste by a staggering 40,000 tons due to the solar food dehydrators. By deploying these innovative machines in India, Science 4 Society has provided 800 women in Maharashtra with economic opportunities. Average wages for women have risen by 110% from their prior employment.

Other accomplishments of the solar power food dehydration methods by S4S include:

2,600 installations in 15 countries
37,000 metric tons of annual CO2 saved
12,000 market links to 6,000 different farmers
Over 1 million people now have access to nutrient-dense foods, helping eliminate hunger
Preserves produce for up to 1 year without chemicals or preservatives
Solar food dehydrators have a drying efficiency of 22%
40,000 per year capacity for a farm-level solar food processor
Use of all modes of heat transfer (conduction, convection, and radiation) reduce air requirement 10X
The simple yet effective technology reduces microbes by 10X
Assures farmers an additional yearly income of $1000-1500

What’s on the Horizon?

In the future, the company has plans to:

Develop a hybrid solar dryer that will use a combination of solar and biomass power
Develop higher capacity solar food dehydration systems
Create a domestic solar dryer, solar seed dryer, and solar grain dryer

Other Companies Creating Solar Dryers in India

Around 80% of farmers in India live in poverty since they can only preserve food for one or two weeks due to a lack of infrastructure and poor government support. Farmers also must dispose of produce when market prices decline, which adds to the global food waste problem.

Sadly, these economic hardships lead many rural Indian farmers to commit suicide. Wanting to find a solution for the farmers, Varun Raheja, a 23-year-old mechanical engineer, decided to create affordable solar food dehydrators.

Solar food dehydration creates its heat, removing excess moisture from fruits and vegetables. This process allows for longer food preservation without adding CO2 to the atmosphere. However, Raheja says that many food dehydrators are too costly and high-capacity for most rural farmers in India. With this knowledge, he founded his own company, Raheja Solar Food Processing Pvt. Ltd. (RSFP), in 2018 to create an affordable solar food dehydration system for rural farmers.

The U.N. recognized his company for creating accessible food dryers and instructing farmers to use them. To reduce production costs, Raheja relies on local materials and utilizes a folding design to lower transportation costs. Also, the user-friendly design eliminates the need to hire someone to install the dryers. It doesn’t require electricity to operate and uses “stainless steel mesh” to dry produce. Unlike plastic mesh, this does not produce any toxic gasses.

The Cost of Solar Food Dehydration Technology Equipment

The solar food dehydration system costs only $200, which is fifty percent less than most solar dryers on the market. To help increase farmers’ profits, Raheja created a “Circulo-Economy” business model, which entails collaborating with NGOs and the government to assist rural communities. They help farmers connect with and understand the dried foods market.

Using this method, farmers can preserve their food for at least six months and sell produce when market rates increase. This leads to a profit increase of four or five times that farmers typically make.

So far, RSFP has sold its solar food dehydration system to 26 Indian states in the last four years. The innovative solar dryer has allowed farmers to sell healthy dried pineapples from Manipur, walnuts from Kashmir, cashew apples from Goa, and berries from Ladakh.

One farmer from Madhya Pradesh who grows stevia said that the solar food dehydration system improved his harvests by eliminating dust and food waste. Another dairy farmer in a small Indian village added that the dryer has helped preserve a water-grown fern for cattle during harsh winters.

The invention has allowed more than a hundred Indian farmers to increase profits. Raheja hopes to eventually bring his solar food dehydrator to other developing regions such as South America and Africa.

Final Thoughts on the Solar Food Dehydration Technology Implemented in India

Several companies in India have developed solar dryers to extend the shelf life while also creating jobs for women. In addition, these solar food dehydrators help increase profits for farmers since they eliminate food waste. So far, the inventions have provided income for hundreds of Indian women and increased profits for many small farmers.

It’s easy to see how solar food dehydrators could assist other developing regions by increasing food production and providing economic opportunities. Hopefully, struggling farmers in other areas will have access to these solar dryers in the future.

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