Category: A Complicated Reality

Social Determinants of Health, Social Stress, the Gut & Microbiome, the Immune System --- & Mental Health

3/13/2018

Our society is in such DENIAL about mental ill health and brain injury among men in the Criminal Justice System.
Further, is it an accident that so many women in the Criminal Justice System have histories of sexual abuse, brain injury or mental illness -- probably not.
Our Society is in such DENIAL about the reality of the people who are finding themselves in the Criminal Justice System, because to acknowledge REALITY would totally upend our Criminal Justice System.
BUT we can still have SAFETY & EVEN HIGHER LEVELS OF SAFETY IF WE ACKNOWLEDGE REALITY.
While there is an ENORMOUS amount of EVIDENCE that we don't have "mental illness" or human behavior completely figured out, there is a growing body of SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that ALL KINDS OF FACTORS affect HUMAN BEHAVIOR and can DAMAGE the IMMUNE SYSTEM leading to impaired cognition and behavior.
Let's concentrate on those factors we are aware of -- & that includes THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH & the GUT MICROBIOME.

Social Determinants of Mental Health

Social Determinants of Mental Health (2014) -- World Health Organization & Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

 http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/gulbenkian_paper_social_determinants_of_mental_health/en/

The Social Determinants of Mental Health: An Overview & A Call To Action (2014)-- in Psychiatric Annals

"Physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and social problems fall to a large extent within their jurisdiction."
http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0213-61632016000400004

Social Determinants of Health: A Review of the Evidence (2016) --- European Journal of Psychiatry

http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0213-61632016000400004

Effects of Social Stress on Mental Health

"Social Stress Leads To Changes In Gut Bacteria" -- Georgia State University http://news.gsu.edu/2018/03/08/social-stress-leads-changes-gut-bacteria-study-finds/
Social Stress & Addiction -- from the Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, reported on mentalhealthtreatment.net.

http://mentalhealthtreatment.net/blog/social-stress-addiction-connection/

The Gut & Microbiome

Gut microbiota’s effect on mental health: The gut-brain axis (2017) -- published in Clinical Practice.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5641835/

A CU Boulder-led study showing that injecting beneficial bacteria into mice can make them more resilient to stress has been named among the “top 10 advancements and breakthroughs” of 2016 by the nation’s leading non-governmental funder of mental health research.

Now, lead author Christopher Lowry, an associate professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology, is moving forward with clinical trials to see if altering the microbiome, or composition of resident bacteria, in military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder can be beneficial.
http://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/01/05/study-linking-beneficial-bacteria-mental-health-makes-top-10-list-brain-research

Immune System & Mental Health

Mind and body: Scientists identify immune system link to mental illness -- University of Cambridge (2014)

 http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/mind-and-body-scientists-identify-immune-system-link-to-mental-illnes

Groundbreaking study links immune system to mental health (2016) -- University of Sidney and Perth-based Charity Meeting For Minds [M4M], reported on Australian ABC News site.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-27/mental-health-study-a-boon-to-patients-immune-system/7455310

The Brain-Immune -Gut Triangle: Innate Immunity in Psychiatric & Neurological Disorders (2013) -- Oslo University Hospital & University of Debrecen, published in Current Immunology Reviews

https://www.researchgate.net/publication
/261994663_The_Brain-Immune-Gut_Triangle_Innate_Immunity_in_
Psychiatric_and_Neurological_Disorders

Gut Bacteria Drives Auto-Immune Diseases (2018) Yale University --reported in the magazine "Science" and on the website Neuroscience News

http://neurosciencenews.com/gut-bacteria-autoimmune-disease-8614/

Charlie Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and lyricist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He made his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York (2008), which was also well-received; film critic Roger Ebert named it "the best movie of the decade" in 2009 -- Wikipedia

New Science is Amazing & It Has huge moral implications -- Now

My experience In a Reality that is Far More Complicated Than I Want To Admit.

8/29/2015

Of the two incredibly powerful videos at right -- one of Carly Fleishman with non-verbal autism & the other of Laci Green and her courageous personal message regarding depression ---
In some ways, the person I have the most in common with is Carly.
While I am certainly verbal and became so at a very young age, my impression is that I am flooded with much more emotion than the average person.
I generally do not watch R-rated movies because they are just too much.
One of the things that can trigger an "emotion flood" is some type of perceived injustice.
I'm not sure that this is that different than anyone else, except that I usually like to be alone because it can also trigger my NOS (not otherwise specified) movement disorder or Tourette Syndrome or whatever the hell it is.
Like Carly, I don't want to freak people out.
Having said all that -- my experience is that all that Emotion tends to be Jet Fuel for Reason (or I like to think so).
Unlike Laci Green --- I don't Isolate because I'm so depressed -- I need to be alone so that I can Think & Write or Decompress.
What makes me feel better & I think makes most people feel better is ---- Finding the Fix & Implementing the Fix.
State, you want me to feel better don't you --and I've done all the reasoning for you on the CO MI Olmstead Case --
Let's Say We Just Fix It! Shall We?

The book talks a lot about the importance of "Emotion" in the "Reasoning Process."

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Social Determinants of Health, Social Stress, the Gut & Microbiome, the Immune System --- & Mental Health

My experience In a Reality that is Far More Complicated Than I Want To Admit.

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