The developing brain and the environment – psych notes continued. Malnutrition and HIV

The developing brain and the environment – psych notes continued.

                                   Malnutrition and HIV

                                   Interactive Model

Under nutrition ------------------------------------------------------------------Health factors

‘                                                                                                                             ‘

‘                                         Impaired Brain and                                                     ‘

‘                                         Behavioral Development                                            ‘

‘                                                                                                                              ‘

Psychological        ………………………………………………………….External                                                                                               

Parental education, level, toys, lethargy                                          health care available

                                                                                                      Environment (eg pollution)

                                                                                              Home environment, economics .

                                                                                               Housing, sanitation, etc …

Many things may have direct or indirect effects – no fine line- Especially for chronic marginal nutrition  - on going – generally through lifetime and through generations.

Type of Studies:

Retrospective:  looks backward in time from effects to causes

Prospective:  looks forward in time, assessing outcome

Both are correlation.  Studies can look at nutrition level or mothers’ report of toys, of what she ate……You can’t say that A led to B.  Correlation is not causation. 

     Intervention Studies:  eg drug trial – don’t know if placebo or drug assigned randomly.  Different to conduct random assignments. One is in readings and other adds on to first one. 

The INCAP study Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama

     - Two Protein villages (atole). ( Atole is a corn based drink.)

    -   Two control villages (fresco) (something like koolade with sugar)

     Supplemental vitamins (both groups)

      Minerals to both

-add libitum supplementation two times per day

(four villages – all poor, very rural and agrarian, limited education esp. women

   Children under seven and pregnant women and then focused on children under three years of age.  (Could be differences in Families – what eat at home, status within)

Five year study – born and developed, birthrate, head circumference, psychological testing when older- ran out of money?  Ten years later follow-up (1986 or 7)- assessed

Early Results 

Protein did not cause any difference between groups

Total Caloric intake was

.effect of total caloric intake on:

-Height

-Weight

-head circumference

INCAP preschool battery

Overall score and some subtests

Follow up results (1988-9)

“psycho educational tests”

Vocabulary

Numeracy

Reading

Knowledge

Suggests long term effect  (lots of things wrong with this study)

.information processing tests

. raven’s progressive matrices

Interactions between nutrition and socio – economic status (SES)

What does Mother's Day mean to you?

     I remember reading a passage from a huge resource book that Mother's Day started with a single woman wanting to celebrate her mother.  I wish I had asked for that resource book because I used to love reading from it.  It was thick and big and wonderful.  I used to have a bit of time to spare where I was working and used to enjoy going through the pages of tid bits.

      Several years ago, an elderly woman told me that when the priest at mass ask the women who are mothers to rise and go to the front of the church to receive a flower for Mother's day, she tries to become invisible because she never could have children.  She does not want the entire congregation to know.  She told me that every year when she goes to celebrate mass, this is the day she hates to go.  This is the day she suffers - Mother's Day.  That gave me a new perspective about Mother's Day.  I had to look outside of myself and my view of Mother's Day to those who suffer on that day because that is what I am conerned with, the happiness and suffering of others.  That is my work.  If I can not look beyond myself, than how can I help others?
     This year I went to Mass on Mother's day and I observed.  First two elderly people who were celebrating their birthdays were honoured.  Both were blessed and given a bouquet of carnations.  They were very happy and a tad embarrassed at the attention. Then a woman from the rear of the church approaches them as they are about to return to their seats, takes the bouquet from them and removes one carnation from each to give to them and hands the remainder to one of the men who is holding carnations to give out.  She is quiter perturbed.   "How embarrassing" I remarked to someone nearby.  Then all the mothers are asked to rise and go to the front of the church.  One woman ahead of me is asked by another why she is not going to the front of the church? She has risen to leave.  The older woman wanted to direct the younger middle aged woman to the front, assuming her a mother.  This woman explains that she is not a mother and seems to need to say this a few times as she leaves the church.  Her discomfort is clear to me, but not to others as she is stopped several times to be directed to the front of the church.   I notice older women leaving the church and there are so few sitting down that it becomes a refection of who does not want to be a mother, can't be a mother or is simply too young..............One woman stops walking down the aisle, to tap me on the shoulder and tell me, that as a mother I should go to the front of the church.  She wants to ensure I understand because she does not think I understand the Italian language.  I find this all very interesting and continue to sit and observe.  Finally, I find all this tiring and leave the church as well before final blessing.  There are only girls left sitting down now and very few of them.  All the women have either reached the front of the church for their flower or left.
     I have discovered that for many, there is a problem of looking beyond themselves.  There is a naieve psychology that everyone thinks they know how people tick.  They read an article and based on that article and their frame of reference they know the answers.  What I have learned is that the more I learn, the more I realize how much I do not know.  It was an elementary substitute teacher who taught me that and I never really knew what he meant until I grew and continue to do so.  I am a life time student.  My need is to grow, while appreciating what I have around me.
     When the elderly woman first told me about how much she dreaded going to church on Mother's Day, I shared with a long term friend that perhaps the church should not be selecting women apart from others.  Perhaps, they should just honour the mother's without having all go to the front.  Perhaps they can ask the mothers to take a flower as they exit.  Perhaps they can just give everyone a flower without going on about all women as if they know all women.  When did this start in the church?  Who's idea was it?  Were all women considered?  Are all women mothers?  When I told my friend about how some women may experience this, such as the elderly woman, I learned something.  She was horrified that something like this could be taken away from her.  This carnation and having her go to the front of the church was an honour she deserved.  I pondered and was surprised by the hostility directed at me.  I pondered some more.  I thought of my PHD canditate TA, in psychology who helped the prof teach us stats.  I knew she knew nothing about stats.  It is incredible how people can learn when they teach, what they are supposed to know already before teaching it.  It is quite motivating.  She said that she felt like an outsider in her family.  She felt that she had outgrown them.  I thought at the time, that she was perhaps arrogant.  I had often heard other students say that they can no longer reconnect with their families.  They have become too different from who they were.  They have grown, and by growing, they have grown apart from the families who raised them.  Normally there is a difference in culture or education.   I now understand that perspective as well.
     I believe that to help others, we need to understand the suffering of others, the world of others as they see it.  For some who are not mothers by choice, all she may need is just to be around some screaming children to confirm that she made the right decision and that is why she is not in prison (humour required).  For others who have tried so hard to have children and cannot, being a mother may have been the only thing she really wanted and it is tearing her up inside.  For others who have had an abortion, they may be suffering the loss of that child and not able to forgive themselves, while blaming others.  For children who are sexually, mentally and physically abused, mother's day is no day to celebrate but to be haunted by it.  Their mother may have committed the act or allowed it to happen.  There are mothers who have suffered the loss of a child and what greater grief is there, than a parent who had their child die?  This is not according to the plan of the circle of life.
       Give me a day to celebrate and I shall.  I celebrate my mother on Mother's Day.  Mothers Day is to me, a day to celebrate my mom.  However, I am not everyone.  Everyone has had a different life, some better and some unimaginable.  Not all mothers are wonderful.  Some are absolutely horrible.  I think that Mother's day should be celebrated.  There are wonderful mothers out there.  Why not spend some time today, the day after, reflecting what Mother's Day means to you.  This includes men.  Feel free to leave a comment.  I am interested to know.  Is it a day of joy and celebration?  Is it a day you dread?  Is it a day you can come to terms with?  Is it a day that perhaps can allow you to think about it differently?  Is it a day that you can learn to forgive yourself?  Is it a day that you can just be yourself and pleased with who you are regardless of what is forced upon you?  To all the Mothers out there, I hope you had a wonderful day and that you deserved that day.  What do you think?   

Federal Retirees want respect

    I went to another association meeting for federal retirees.  I joined this organization when I retired the first time.  I realise that many member have died as I see them replaced by a lot of new faces.  I was so young when I joined that I was asked for ID.  They were very old school.  Now there are fresher faces and some look a lot younger than they used to.  There is another generation of Seniors.  One remarked that he does not think seniors should be called grey power because so many have no hair.  I found that cute.  Most of the jokes were not.  This has been a week of everyone telling me jokes that I wish I had not heard.
    What stood out for me in this meeting was that several people complained about how some people talk down to them in the helping fields or otherwise.  I paused to think.  In this room there are so many people who were leaders in their field, who are educated, who have worked for many years.  This is a room of professionals and I am humbled in their presence.  I take what they say very seriously.  Here is the voice of experience.  Their benefits are decreasing while the government is mismanaging funds.  Look a what the previous premier has done.  I was stunned when he was re-elected.  I was stunned when he said on the news that people approach him about some sport that is going on now, rather than the closures that cost tax papers so much.  I would really like to see jail time for misappropriation of tax payer dollars.  The government took the military pension surplus to pay down the national debt.  After much time spent to have the money returned in court, the retirees lost.  How does this happen in a seemingly democratic society?  Can the government do what it wants without consequences?  Is the Premier correct that people are more interested in some sport than the cost of so much money wasted?  When does condescending behaviour begin and when does it stop?
     As I focus on two women who complain about wanting respect to those perhaps too young to understand (as one mentioned) and not in any position of importance where they can make a difference, I wonder if the intensity of the problem would be addressed.  I remember a senior casually tell me how horrified she was at a Senior Community Centre when staff had the elderly hold hands and play ring around the rosy.  I remembered that from my kindergarten days or was it grade one?  This woman told me that at the centre there are seniors who had been and are quite prosperous and important and now they are treated like children and not respected.  She quit.  I told her she should complain and she said she was getting the message towards those who can make a change.  However, I saw this particular centre being recommended on a handout.
       People have their own perspective of the elderly.  I have heard so many opinions,  some I find most amusing and others rather disturbing.  However, for those who do not die young, will age and then they will realise that, perhaps they will not like how some people consider them.
       I have the gift of having a mentor, director and favourite profs who are all in their seventies and eighties.  I have learned so much from them and am still learning.  I have always been in awe of people who have lived much longer than I and who can relay just a bit of that wisdom my way.  However, I appreciate all ages and have learned from them all.  I am a student for life.
      Some elderly are very vulnerable.  They are physically fragile, they are cash poor, they are dependent on family.   There is much abuse towards the elderly.  Children may take advantage of them for their money, their inheritance, etc....  Children may be abusive towards them phyisically, mentally and financially.  Elderly men have the highest suicide rate in Canada. 
      So the next time you see an elderly man or woman, why not look at them as people who have lived a long life and perhaps treat them with a little bit more respect as you would your own peer?  At least, do not speak to them as a child, but as an adult.  What do you think?
       

The Dutch Famine Study

The developing brain and the environment – psych notes continued.

The Dutch Famine Study

  

     “Famine and Human Development” by Stein, Susser, Saegen and Morolla, 1975.

Period of Famine:  Oct 44 – May 45

Daily caloric intake:

1939 to 1944 – 1800 cal.

1944 to 1945 -  < 700 cal.  (due to war)

   Malnutrition on early life – not effect on adult in this study

   Part of Netherlands was completely cut off  and therefore there was a consumption of  700 cal for six months and then they were liberated.

    All in a sudden there was famine.  The Dutch kept good medical records.  All nineteen year old males went through medical and intelligent testing because of the draft at the time.

Study Groups = 9 months gestation period

Pre-famine                                              Post famine

               1943       1944        1945      1946

     

Assessment

-  all 19 year old males tested

-RAVEN’s Progressive matrices

    - Raven is visual spatial IQ test,

Gets harder and harder – culturally neutral, cognitive visual ability

Result -  no difference between affected and unaffected parts of the country.  At any time, though did find it in class.  No effect on nutrient.  Infant mortality went up. 

Did they treat pregnant women differently?

Blond and blue

Could really malnourished died or not be tested?  

Only men tested therefore how about females?

Very different in sex, culture – gender difference and sensibility – racial

Enriched environment with malnutrients.  Think about all reasons.

Reading:  Long term effects.  What do you take from this study?

    Always think about IQ tests and how appropriate it is.

Pay attention

Easy to measure corpus collusum

Lot of discussion difference between corpus between male and female

All of this is correlational

Group that is malnourished characteristics and unnourished

Screening – what did they rule out?

Chose people who graduated high school, no history of drugs, alcohol etc…self reports.

What factors are ruled out?  One group malnourished and one not. 

Difference because malnutrition but not always – Multifactual

        One of the most dramatic factors in this study, maternal education wants this to be assessed.

 Social – look out. 

     All the same in the two groups- when dealing with large groups there can be so many other variations.  At bottom, correlations.  

to be continued........

My weekend of peace

     I find that people usually ask me what I am going to do with my weekend.  Now that I have retired twice, returned to school, wrote a book that does not sell very well, am writing another that should get people going and counsel, I don't think weekends are too important because I can claim any days of the week unless I have scheduled them as a weekend.   Have I made sense?  But, I have decided to take weekends and utilizing them as such.  Saturdays therefore will be a Saturday where I will either do chores during the day or go out, give back, and have fun.  Sunday will be my quiet day used for reading, basking in the sun or going out with no concept of work.  I have worked shift for a great part of my life and weekends were more of a chore than anything else.  I would love to go to a movie or museum or amusement park when it was much more quieter.  However, most people do have weekends where they like to celebrate.
      This Saturday, I returned to school to help with a book sale.  I greeted people as they entered my school and gave them a breakdown of the price list and categories of where the books were.  I met many interesting people and new students.  I was humbled.  One woman said she had returned to buy books several times and had accidentally bought one she had written.  Others shared what they had bought and I realized that I had missed this so much.  I missed speaking to others about books and what they were learning.  I missed the academic life.  It was fun reconnecting and some of my previous fellow students were still there.  As I got my fill of people, I wondered if I was really suited to the country.  Yes, I would love one year away to just write, but would I be able to do that in isolation?  I am a people person.  I love people and I love meeting new people and having discussions and connecting.  Do you see yourself anywhere in here?  Do you like people or try to get away from them?  Do you like to read?  What do you do with what you learn?  What situations do you thrive in?  What makes you feel stifled?
     When I returned from the sale (I bought four myself, which I don't need but want).  It was easy reading with Stephen King and Robin Cook.  The Dean of Students recommended one book and I took it.  Why not explore new authors.  Anyhow, when I returned home, I received a call from the past.  He told me he was retiring, he was going to rent a hall, have an open bar and lots of food.  He also told me he expected me there.  I assured him, if there was food I would be there.  I told him that I could not drink however, since I cannot seem to drink enough to be able to hold the alcohol.  One drink and that is enough to keep me in a haze for a few hours.  Food however, no problem.  I shared that I had turned into a vegetarian but I would eat anything else that was not meat.  He is big on meat. 
     "If you don't come.  I will hunt you down and kill you!"  I assured him I was coming and felt happy that he threatened to kill me.  He belonged to my days of political incorrectness and I was amused and enchanted because I know that what he was really saying was that it was important for him to have me at his retirement party.  This man will really be retiring! 
     "Are you going to go live in Jamaica?"  I asked.  He loved his homeland.
His family is all here and so here is where he will remain.  Besides he is a Canadian now.  He threatens to kill me again.  I laugh.
     "Make sure no one kills me at the party!"  I know that I can say that to him as easy as it is for him to tell me about my own demise, if I do not go.  I tell him I would like to sit with the old team and he assures me that I will.  I tell him I will bring him a copy of my book because he will see the humour in it.
      I realize that I miss that life which he belongs to which I left when I retired.  It seems to me that I have missed much of my past and that is because it was so good.  Yet, I love my life now.  I am in a place where I can do what I want to do and just need to weigh my options.  That is what I have done most of my life.  How did I get from my early life to where I am now?  Who formed me and shaped me?  Who am I today?  These are all questions I suggest you ask yourself. 
     I am reading a document for a book that was sent to me.  The author's are targeting a Catholic teenage audience.  Do I like the book?  Well, I am not used to targeting teens.  I am still reading it.  However, they have excellent questions and one was to write down five things that you like about yourself and five things that you would like to change.  I wrote down five things I liked about myself without effort.  When it came to five things I would like to change, I could only think about not having patience.  Then I was stuck.  I shared that with a friend of mine and she said it was good.  But it bothered me that I could not think of anything else that I would like to change about myself.  When I went to school, I saw a statue of a homeless man laying on a bench at the front of the school.  Initially, I though it was a homeless man and not a statue.  Different people who came to the book sale told me that the statue was rejected by different institutions.  "Politics" one academic summarised.  I continued to look at the "Homeless Jesus" and watched people, mostly tourists taking pictures of him.  At one point I went out for some fresh air and sat next to the homeless Jesus and rested my arm on him while drinking my coffee.  "Homeless Jesus" followed me home because I could not stop thinking of him and the next day while I was sitting in MacDonald's because I was too early for an event, a homeless woman came into the restaurant and approached me.  She asked me for money to buy a coffee and I gave her two dollars.  I don't normally give money.  I would rather buy the food so I know where the money is being spent.  She took the money and she told me that I was beautiful and then she continued to ask others for money for a donut.  She left without buying the coffee.  I wondered why I was more lenient with women than men when they were homeless.  I realized that this woman could not get employment.  I realized that there are different expectations when it comes to employment.  A man who is rugged and unkept may still get some work.  How about a woman?  Where will she work?  I kept thinking of the homeless people I encounter on the street and my experiences with them.  I remembered a homeless woman I met at a government seminar where the homeless were invited to ask about their needs.  She told me how beds were infested with bugs at the shelters she had been at and so she would not stay there.  "Could I blame her?"  She asked.  "No" I replied. 
   I remember the last person I bought a meal for was wearing running shoes with no socks and he appeared frozen while selling his homeless paper.  Him I bought a meal.  I went to my event and then went to what I thought was a community centre for the homeless.  A woman inside was not appreciating that I was asking about a homeless centre.  The man was more obliging when the woman turned away from me.  I always see a crowd of people here that appear homeless so I thought...............By searching about what I would like to change about myself I wondered about how I could make a difference  to the homeless.  Can I not give half a day a week to reach out and counsel the homeless? 
     So, it was a weekend of discovery for me.  As I went to visit my parents, I sat in silence and remembered the words of my mom.  "You make money from the misery of people."  No mom, I do not.  Thanks for inspiring me.         
     

Attended Seminar

     I love attending seminars.  I love interacting with the people I meet and catching up with previous school mates.  I saw no classmates yesterday.  Yesterday I attended a morning seminar which was relatively inexpensive and breakfast was included.  That is always a motivator.
     The speaker yesterday is a Rabbi who has experience working as a Chaplain.  She is a training supervisor as well and spoke  about a book which included a chapter she has written regarding multi faith.  There were no handouts and my notes were restricted to what I felt I needed to dwell on.  I have sufficient books regarding multi faith.
      It is no secret that I have an admiration for the Jewish community.  How can I not?  Jesus was a Jew.  Jesus was persecuted and the Jews have been persecuted forever.  What an analogy.  Why not?  Who prosecuted the Jews?  Prejudice is not spared among people from organized religions.  How many Christians persecuted and continue to do so thinking it is ok, regardless of what the institution believes in?  Selective selection perhaps of the desired religion?  For what motive? 
      Initially, while I sat and listened to the speaker, I thought I was not really learning anything and wondered if my time was wasted.  However, I was able to identify with the speaker even though I am far from being a Rabbi or any religious for that matter.  I am strictly a lay person and quite comfortable in that position.
       I perked up as she mentioned Catholics and forgiveness.  She spoke of Holocaust survivors and how there may be something else besides forgiveness.  She indicated that a Catholic student indicated that forgiving others is beneficial to the person that is forgiving.  She suggested that there may be another way, which I took to mean is not forgiveness.  As I ponder, I wonder how much of an imposition forgiveness is?  Is it practical to forgive people who literally try to eliminate you from the human race?  Is it possible to forgive those responsible who have destroyed and killed every member of your family?  I don't know.  There are so many tragedies going on all the time but the Jews have been exiled over and over again. 
     There was more that I pondered on which I will turn over to you at another time.  In the mean time, have you suffered and feel the need to forgive?  Is it premature to forgive?  Can you really forgive?  I have lots of notes from classes about forgiveness.  I have chapters that I have read about forgiveness.  I have the theory, but my question is about the spirituality, the feelings, the despair, the destruction of innocence?  Can you forgive?  And if not, why not?  What do you think?  I really would like to know.    

Take that day of rest

     In a fast pace society that operates seven days a week and twenty-four hours, it seems harder for people to get that quiet relaxing time they are starving for without realizing it.  At times something happens such as a physical disability or a mental health breakdown which causes all else that comsumes us to become trivial in comparison.
     Growing up in Toronto, I always made an effort to leave the city at least once a week to relax in the country.  This seems harder to do nowadays since urban extends further out, demolishing greenery and forcing the wildlife to relocate.  However, if one can not seek refuge in the country for whatever reason, why not find it somewhere closer to you?  Some find their oasis in their gardens, their balconies, and even their bathrooms.  In their bathrooms, by candlelight and scented bath salts, one may soak away the days tension.
     The point is that everyone needs to take that time to rest from the hurried life and adjoining stresses.
      More people are forced to work longer hours and more days.  Many have stressed full days or nights and do not even know they are experiencing this heightened level.  However, stress will eventually breakdown on the body some how.  How do you relax?  Do you?  Can you relax for a full day once a week?  How about a few hours and escape at least once a month?  What is important to you?  How do you balance your life in an inbalanced environment?
     Why not take the direction to easing some pressure off you and enjoy what life has to offer you?  Why not take that break, to relax, reflect and enjoy once again?  What do you think?