mental health | Silver Magazine

Mind

How to deal with digital exhaustion

Wonder why your brain hurts and you feel mentally exhausted at the end of the day? It’s called Digital Exhaustion and it’s more than just being tired from video meetings on Zoom and Teams or Google Meet every day. It has to do with that, but also with cognitive overload. Or more precisely, how our brains deal with attention. If your job entails spending a lot of time in front of a computer and your switching between this, your mobile and maybe a tablet too, this can impact your productivity through attention overload. Think about how you switch and move between apps, emails, video meetings, notifications and periods of multitasking and focused work. This is called temporal attention, it’s when we’re paying attention to things that are happening, such as emails and video meetings or phone calls. When we’re out and about, working out, hiking or walking and even moving

Alex Hurst December 22, 2021

Mind

Mental Health for the Holidays

COVID-19 changed our predictable routines, necessitating remote work arrangements, physical distancing, and wearing masks. Everything from shopping to attending sports and social events now necessitates planning. Add workload, traffic congestion, home schooling, and alcohol to the mix and you have a sure-fire recipe for frayed nerves and lost tempers. According to a Canadian Association for Mental Health survey of 1000 adults in March 2021, 20.9 per cent of respondents indicated moderate to severe anxiety levels, 20.1 per cent reported feeling depressed, and 21.3 percent reported feelings of loneliness. Mental health and addictions admissions in Nova Scotia Health Central Zone more than doubled between April – June 2020 (191) and April -June 2021 (458). These mental pressures often worsen during the Holiday Season as people try to maintain family traditions, shop for gifts, and socialize at home and at work. As waiting lists for mental health treatment are often years long,

Ian MacVicar November 15, 2021

Longevity

Fighting the good fight: the first shooting

When I first sat down with my editor to write this memoir, the Darren Roode shootings were the first stories I needed to write. It was as if they were the cap on top of the well, and unless I exorcised them, I felt nothing else would come forward. There are always a limited number of cases that mark one’s career as an RCMP officer. The Darren Roode shootings are part of those cases. I was on afternoon patrol in Colchester County, Nova Scotia. Truro, where I’d first been stationed, is the shire town of Colchester County. We had an area of just over four hundred kilometres to patrol with a population of roughly thirty thousand. I had entered the small village of Bible Hill where my current detachment was situated. Bible Hill is a small community on the north side of the Salmon River. It had a population of

Patrick Roy November 10, 2021

Health

Dementia research and what we’re learning

Dementia, such as Alzheimers, is of top concern for Canadians as they age and for their parents, especially those in their 50’s and dealing with aging parents. A recent study by Baycrest a teaching hospital in Toronto, found Canadians are unsure about available resources for them and their parents and find it difficult to get the right information. The study also found that less than one in five people are confident about their knowledge in preventing dementia. One in four Canadians over 45 don’t know when to start taking steps to prevent dementia and only 16% of study respondents indicated having any type of plan ion place to deal with it. “Almost 80 per cent of our long-term care residents are living with dementia. Through Baycrest’s ground-breaking research and innovations, compassionate care and renowned educational programs, we are striving to take critical steps forward in paving the way towards a

Simone Waters October 18, 2021

Mind

Mental Health and Artificial Intelligence

It seems Artificial Intelligence (AI) is finding uses across every aspect of life these days. And it is. Now, AI is being applied to mental health across all ages. In Canada, by age 40, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), 50% of people will have had a mental illness. Depression affects 5% of the population and around 4.6% of Canadians suffer from an anxiety disorder. The pandemic hasn’t helped. One of the challenges of the pandemic was being able to connect with a psychiatrist or psychologist as well. Many people rely on their employer-based benefits or bear the personal cost of private services. Canadians spend an estimated $950 million a year on psychologists in private practice. About 30% of this is paid out-of-pocket while the remainder is paid through employment-based private health insurance plans. Now, some technology companies are seeing some degree of success using AI to help

Alex Hurst September 3, 2021

Health

Celiac Disease and Mental Health

Celiac disease is major public health problem worldwide. It’s an autoimmune condition that affects 1 in 100 people. However, most people with celiac disease don’t fully understand it, or even realise they have it! New research on the condition is emerging left, right, and centre. Scientists are working hard to learn what causes celiac disease, how best to diagnose it, and which mental and physical health consequences can arise if it isn’t managed appropriately. Before we get onto discussing some of the mental health challenges that celiac disease can provoke, first, let’s consider whosuch challenges apply to. In other words, who is classified as “celiac”? Many people claim to be gluten intolerant. However, this is very different to having an autoimmune reaction to gluten. One of the major differences is that the long-term health consequences of consuming gluten can be much more severe if you are celiac. Considerably more women

Sophie Ash August 16, 2021

Health

Top 10 Brain Foods for Canadians

Keeping our brains healthy as we age is important to deter cancer, dementia and other brain diseases. You brain needs exercise, especially as we age. Yes, physical activity that helps maintain good blood flow, but also mental activities like puzzles, reading, learning a new language and of course, good food. After all, your brain is the control centre for your brain. Your nerves s…

Simone Waters August 3, 2021

Health

COVID-19: What would Churchill do?

“Watch out now. Take care, beware the thoughts that linger Winding up inside your head. The hopelessness around you…” Beware of Darkness – George Harrison When Prime Minister Churchill made his radio broadcasts during the Battle of Britain during the Second World War, he told his audience, in effect, to chill. Britain might not be winning the war, yet, he admitted, but they had the right stuff. They were tough. They were brave. They could laugh at adversity. The forces of good would win over evil. It would not be easy, but it would happen. Attitude would be a key part of this. Keep a stiff upper lip. Don’t take all this too seriously. Today, we get the opposite message from those in power — not without some justification. Just today I was speaking to two accomplished women. They are talented, responsible, and well balanced. But they have a problem.

David Holt June 18, 2021

Health

The controversy over the new Alzheimer’s drug

Just last week, the FDA approved a new drug for treating Alzheimer’s in the United States, Aduhelm. It is not approved in Canada yet, but there’s a storm of controversy over whether it is even effective at all, or at least in the ways intended. This week three scientists on the FDA’s independent neurological drug advisory panel resigned however, stating that the clinical trial data was flimsy at best with one scientist telling the New York Times, “This might be the worst approval decision that the FDA has made that I can remember,” Dr. Aaron Kesselheim. The independent panel had voted to reject the drug with ten “no” votes and one “uncertain” vote. The FDA doesn’t have to listen to the panel, they’re there for a secondary opinion only. Actual regulation of drugs and medical devices is made in-house by FDA scientists. The claim by the manufacturer is that the

Simone Waters June 16, 2021