Health Problems That Cause Mood Swings

Bipolar Disorder

Many people may think of bipolar disorder when they think about mood swings.  While it’s true that people with that condition have mood highs and lows, it isn’t the only thing that causes them.

Sleep Deprivation

Your brain and body recover from the events of the day while you sleep.  If you don’t get enough rest, your sleep won’t fully refresh you.  When you’re short on shut-eye, you might feel cranky.  You’re also more likely to make poor choices throughout the day, and you may snap at people more often.  If you skimp on sleep all the time, it may raise your chances of depression.

Low Blood Sugar

If you’ve ever gotten “hangry” – hungry and angry at the same time – low blood sugar may have been to blame.  This happens to some people when they go too long between meals.  You may feel angry, upset, lonely, or confused.  You may even want to cry or scream.

To feel more like yourself, eat something.

If you have diabetes, it’s important to notice sudden mood changes because you could faint if your blood sugar stays too low for too long.

Stress

Stressful situations may pop up at work, at home, or elsewhere.  Chronic stress can lead to a number of health problems, and it may make you feel sad, angry, or bitter.  You may lose sleep, which can affect your mood.  If you can distance yourself from what causes your stress, you should start to feel more like yourself.  Exercise is a good way to ease pressure, and it should also help make you feel better.

Certain Medications

Mood swings or depression can be side effects of drugs you take.  If your doctor prescribes a new medicine, pay attention to how you feel for the first few weeks, because there may be a link between your mood and your meds.

Mood swings are a common side effect of high-dose steroids.  If you take them, you may become angry more easily than usual.  You might have a hard time sleeping, too.  That can make your mood even worse.

Hormones

When you take hormone therapy for different things, you may feel upset or angry for no reason.  Whenever your body makes hormones in greater or smaller amounts than usual, your mood may rise or fall.  The same thing can happen when your body produces surges of hormones when you go through puberty.

Pregnancy

When you’re pregnant, you make more hormones than usual to help your body grow and nourish the baby.  These surges can affect your mood:  You may cry more or feel empty inside.  You might swing suddenly from happy to sad, then back again.

Some women become depressed during pregnancy or after the baby is born, when hormone levels drop quickly.  If that’s you, talk with your doctor so they can treat your depression and help lift your mood.

PMS

Many women have premenstrual syndrome (PMS) during the days right before their period.  This can bring symptoms like cramps, headaches – and mood changes.  PMS may make you feel sad or moody without a trigger.  It can be because your levels of certain hormones drop at that time of the month.  Once you get your period, your hormone levels start to pick up, which helps your symptoms go away.

Menopause

When you start menopause, your body makes far fewer hormones than it once did.  That drop can cause any number of symptoms, including hot flashes, sleep problems, and mood swings.  Lifestyle changes, like a healthier diet, more sleep, or more exercise, can help your mood.  Your doctor could prescribe medicine too.

Dementia

Dementia causes damage to the brain, which affects a person’s memory and personality over time.  People with dementia may have sudden mood swings – calm one minute, then angry or upset the next.  They may feel frustrated that they forget things or can’t express their thoughts anymore.  Some people with dementia become depressed and withdraw into themselves.  Others don’t interact with anyone, even if they had been social before.

ADHD

If you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you may not be able to control your impulses well.  You’re likely to get angry or frustrated suddenly, even for small things like long lines or traffic.  People with ADHD are more likely to become depressed or have other problems related to mood.  With treatment, you can learn to control your impulses, which can help make you fell more like yourself.

Thyroid Issues

People who have an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) make too much thyroid hormone.  People with an underactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) don’t make enough.  Both can cause a number of health problems, including mood swings.  When you get treatment for the thyroid, your levels should return to normal.  This should help your symptoms fade, and you should start to feel more like yourself.

Caffeine

Coffee, soda, and other beverages that have caffeine can boost your mood while they give you a burst of energy.  Because caffeine stimulates your nervous system, you may feel more alert than usual.  If you use it often, your body gets used to its effects.  By that point, if you try to cut back, it can make you feel tired, annoyed, nervous, or anxious.

Too Much Sugar

Many studies suggest that if you eat a lot of refined sugar, like things with high fructose corn syrup, it can affect how your brain functions.  That can affect your mood.  It can even make symptoms of mood disorders like depression worse.  Common foods with refined sugars include crackers, flavored yogurt, tomato sauce, salad dressing, most processed foods, and many choices that are labeled “low fat.”

Guide to High Blood Pressure

What is Hypertension?

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a common condition.  The older you are, the more likely you are to get it.  Blood pressure is the force of blood pressing against the walls of your arteries.  When it’s too high, your heart has to work harder.  This can cause serious damage to your arteries.  Over time, uncontrolled high blood pressure makes you more likely to get heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease.

Hypertension Symptoms

High blood pressure is often called a silent killer because it doesn’t always have outward symptoms.  The means you could have it for years and not know.  It can quietly damage your heart, lungs, blood vessels, brain, and kidneys if it isn’t treated.  It’s a major cause of stroke and heart attacks in the U.S.

What Do the Numbers Mean?

Normal blood pressure readings will fall below 120/80.  Higher results over time can indicate hypertension.  The top number (systolic) shows the pressure when your heart beats.  The lower number (diastolic) measures pressure at rest between heartbeats, when your heart refills with blood.

Elevated Blood Pressure:  A Warning Sign

Elevated blood pressure is consistently just above the normal level – anywhere between 120 and 129 for systolic pressure and less than 80 for diastolic pressure.  People in this range are more likely to get heart disease than those with a lower reading.  Your doctor may suggest lifestyle changes to help get your numbers down.

The Hypertension Danger Zone

You have stage 1 high blood pressure if your systolic reading is between 130 and 139 or your diastolic is between 80 and 89.  A reading of 140 or higher systolic or 90 or greater diastolic is stage 2 hypertension.  You may not have symptoms.  If your systolic is over 180 or your diastolic is above over 120, you may be having a hypertensive crisis, which can lead to a stroke, heart attack, or kidney damage.  Rest for a few minutes and take your blood pressure again.  if it’s still that high, call 911.  Symptoms include a severe headache, anxiety, and nosebleeds.  You might feel short of breath or pass out.

Who Gets High Blood Pressure?

Up to age 45, men are more likely to have high blood pressure than women.  Things even up as we grow older, and by 65 it’s more common in women.  You’re more likely to get it if a close family member has it.  It’s also widespread among people with diabetes.  But in most cases, the cause isn’t known.  Sometimes, kidney or adrenal gland disease can bring it on.

Race Plays a Role

African-Americans are more likely to get hypertension – and at a younger age.  Genetic research suggests they’re more sensitive to salt.  Diet and excess weight make a difference, too.

Say No to Sodium

Or at least watch how much you get.  This building block of salt causes your body to retain fluid.  That puts a greater burden on your heart and boosts your blood pressure.  Aim for less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.  You’ll need to check nutrition labels and menus carefully.  Processed foods make up the bulk of our sodium intake.  Canned soups and lunch meats are prime suspects.

Get a Handle on Stress

It can make your blood pressure spike, but there’s no proof stress keeps it high long-term.  To manage it, stay away from unhealthy things like poor diet, alcohol use, and smoking.  All are linked to high blood pressure and heart disease.

Drop Those Extra Pounds

They put a strain on your heart and raise your odds of having high blood pressure.  That’s why diets designed to lower blood pressure also aim to control calories.  You’ll cut out fatty foods and extra sugars, while adding fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and fiber.  Even a 10-pound weight loss can make a difference.

Cut Back on Booze

Too much alcohol can boost your blood pressure.  Limit drinks to no more than two a day for men, or one for women.  How much is that?

·         12 ounces of beer

·          4 ounces of wine

·         1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits

·         1 ounce of 100-proof spirits

Caffeine Is OK

It can make you jittery, so does caffeine also raise your blood pressure?  It might for a little while, but there’s no link between caffeine and hypertension.  You can safely drink one or two cups of coffee a day.

Moms-to-Be Can Get It

Gestational hypertension can affect women who’ve never had high blood pressure before.  It usually happens in the second half of pregnancy.  Without treatment, it may lead to a serious condition called pre-eclampsia.  This limits blood and oxygen flow to your baby and can affect your kidneys and brain.  After delivery, your blood pressure should return to its normal level, but it is possible for the condition to persist for several weeks.

Medication Might Bring It On

Cold and flu medicines with decongestants are one of several classes of medication that can raise blood pressure.  Others include NSAID pain relievers, steroids, diet pills, birth control pills, and some anti-depressants.  If you have high blood pressure, ask your doctor if any drugs or supplements you’re taking could affect your readings.

Your Doctor Can Cause It

You may have a high reading only in the doctor’s office.  This is probably due to nerves.  You might have one only every now and then.  This could mean you’re more likely to get high blood pressure later.  For a more accurate reading, take your blood pressure at home, chart the results, and share them with your doctor.  Bring your home monitor in so the doctor can check the device and your technique.

It Can Affect Kids

It’s more often a problem for older people, but children can also have high blood pressure.  What’s normal varies based on a child’s age, height, and sex.  Your doctor will need to tell you if there’s a concern.  Children are more likely to get it if they’re overweight, have a family history of the illness, or are African-American.

Try the DASH Diet

You may be able to lower your blood pressure by eating better.  The DASH diet – Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension – calls for more fruits, vegetables, whole-grain foods, low-fat dairy, fish, poultry, and nuts.  Steer clear of red meat, saturated fats, and sweets.  Cutting back on sodium in your diet can also help.

Get More Exercise

Regular activity helps lower blood pressure.  Adults should get about 150-minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week.  That could include gardening, walking briskly, bicycling, or other aerobic exercise.  Add in some muscle strengthening at least 2 days a week.  Target all your major muscle groups.

Diuretics Get Rid of Extra Water

Also called water pills, they’re often the first choice if diet and exercise changes aren’t enough.  They help your body shed excess sodium and water to lower blood pressure.  That means you’ll pee more often.  Some diuretics may lower the amount of potassium in your body.  You might notice more muscle weakness, leg cramps, and fatigue.  Others can boost blood sugar in people with diabetes.  Erectile dysfunction is a less common side effect.

Beta-Blockers Slow Things Down

These drugs slow your heart rate, which means your ticker doesn’t have to work as hard.  They’re also used to treat other heart conditions, like an abnormal heart rate, or arrhythmia.  Your doctor may prescribe them along with other medications.  Side effects can include insomnia, dizziness, fatigue, cold hands and feet, and erectile dysfunction.

ACE Inhibitors Open Things Up

These meds lower your body’s supply of angiotensin II – a substance that makes blood vessels contract and narrow.  The result is more relaxed, open (diluted) arteries, as well as lower blood pressure and less effort for your heart.  Side effects can include a dry cough, skin rash, dizziness, and high potassium levels.  Don’t get pregnant while taking one of these drugs.

ARBs Keep the Flow Going

Instead of lowering your supply of angiotensin II, these drugs block receptors for angiotensin.  It’s like placing a shield over a lock.  This blockade prevents the chemical’s artery-tightening effects and lowers your blood pressure.  ARBs can take several weeks to become fully effective.  Possible side effects include dizziness, muscle cramps, insomnia, and high potassium levels.  Don’t get pregnant while taking this medication.

Calcium Channel Blockers Sow the Beat

Calcium causes stronger heart contractions.  These medications slow its movement into the cells of your heart and blood vessels.  That eases your heartbeat and relaxes your blood vessels.  These meds can cause dizziness, heart palpitations, swollen ankles, and constipation.  Take them with food or milk.  Avoid grapefruit juice and alcohol because of possible interactions.

Other Medications Can Help

Vasodilators, alpha blockers, and central agonists also relax blood vessels.  Side effects can include dizziness, a fast heartbeat or heart palpitations, headaches, or diarrhea.  You doctor may suggest them if other blood pressure medication don’t work well enough or if you have another condition.

Complementary Therapies Are an Option

Meditation can lower blood pressure by putting your body into a state of deep rest.  Yoga, tai chi, and deep breathing also help.  Pair these relaxation techniques with other lifestyle changes, like diet and exercise.  Be aware that herbal therapies may conflict with other drugs you take.  Some herbs actually raise blood pressure.  Tell your doctor if you take herbal or other dietary supplements.

Living with High Blood Pressure

Hypertension is often a lifelong condition.  It’s important to take your medications and continue to monitor your blood pressure.  If you keep it under control, you can lower your odds of stroke, heart disease, and kidney failure.

Fasting: What You Should Know

What’s a Fast?

Simply put, it means you stop eating completely, or almost completely, for a certain stretch of time.  A fast usually lasts from 12 to 24 hours, but some types continue for days at a time.  In some cases, you may be allowed water, tea, and coffee or even a small amount of food during the “fasting period.”

It’s Been Around

Fasting is common to just about every major religious tradition, like Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.  In ancient Greece, Hippocrates believed it helped the body heal itself.  During Ramadan, many Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, every day for a month.  This has provided scientists with quite a bit of information about what happens to your body when you fast, and the news is mostly good.

Why People Do It

Besides religious practice, there are a number of health reasons.  First, as you might guess, is weight loss.  There’s also research showing that certain types of fasting may help improve your cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, and other health issues.

Yes, You’ll Be Hungry!

You’ll probably feel it if you fast, at least at the beginning.  But after a few days, the hunger usually gets better.  Fasting is different from dieting in that it’s not about trimming calories or a certain type of food – it’s not eat at all, or severely cutting back, for a certain amount of time.

Is It Safe?

Brief fasting isn’t likely to hurt you if you’re a healthy adult, whether  your weight is normal or you’re heavier.  Still, your body needs good nutrition and fuel to thrive.  So make sure to talk to your doctor first, especially if you have health problems or take any kind of medication.  If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or you have a history of eating disorders, you should avoid fasting of any kind.  Kids and teens shouldn’t fast either.

What Can You Eat?

When you’re not fasting, you can eat the food you normally would.  Of course, you shouldn’t load up on lots of French fries and doughnuts.  But studies seem to show that your health changes for the better when you fast, even if your diet does not.  You should still add more fruits, veggies, and whole grains, too, if you don’t already eat enough of them.

Won’t You Just Eat More Later?

You might.  Still, you should try to eat a healthy amount of food and not stuff yourself after a fast.  Quality still counts.   But even among people who eat the same number of calories, those who fast tend to have lower blood pressure, higher insulin sensitivity, more appetite control, and easier weight loss.

Intermittent Fasting

This is an off-and-on type of fasting.  There are three main types that doctors have studied and people have used for weight loss and improved health:

·         Time-restricted feeding.

·         Alternate-day fasting.

·         Modified fasting.

Time-Restricted Feeding

This means you do all your eating in a certain stretch of the day, often around 8-12 hour.  One easy way to do this is to skip one meal.  If you finish dinner by 8 p.m., you’ve already achieved 12 hours of your fast by 8 a.m.  Make it to noon for lunch, and you’ve fasted for 16 hours.  You could also stop eating after lunch until breakfast the next morning.

Alternate-Day Fasting

It’s sometimes called “complete” alternate day fasting because the time when you don’t eat lasts a full 24 hours.  You follow that with one or more “feast” days when you can eat as much as you want.  Even though the studies are very limited, the results suggests that alternate-day fasting can lead to weight loss and improve health.  But it may be pretty hard to stick to it over the long term.

Modified Fasting

This type allows you to eat around 20-25% of your normal daily energy needs on scheduled fast days – just enough to remind you what you’re missing!  One popular version, the 5:2 diet, requires 2 days a week (not in a row) of 24-hour “fasting” except for a very light meal.  On the other 5 days of the week, you can eat whatever you want.

Too Tough?

Complete, alternative-day fasting could be very hard to stick with over the long term.  But other versions of fasting seem to get easier over time.  You  and your doctor may want to look into the specific plans to see what might be best for you.

Diabetes

Studies show that fasting might help people with diabetes or prediabetes control blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, and lose weight.  If you have either of these conditions, it’s very important to talk to your doctor before you make any changes to your medication, insulin use, or eating habits.

Athletes

Weight training may help you shed more body fat, but not muscle, if you limit eating to 8 hours a day.  Aerobic exercise, like running, swimming, or biking, while on a time-restricted eating plan might help your cholesterol levels, and cut down on belly fat.  Still, you need good fuel.  Make sure you cover you nutritional needs.

Common Foods That Can Be Toxic

Cherry Pits

The hard stone in the center of the cherries is full of prussic acid, also known as cyanide, which is poisonous.  But there’s no need to freak out if you accidentally swallow one – intact pits just pass through your system and out the other end.  Avoid crunching or crushing pits as you nosh on your cherries.

Apple Seeds

Apple seeds also have cyanide so throwing back a handful as a snack isn’t smart.  Luckily, apple seeds have a protective coating that keeps the cyanide from entering your system if you accidentally eat them.  but it’s good to be cautious.  Even in small doses, cyanide can cause rapid breathing, seizures, and possibly death.

Elderberries

You may take elderberry as a syrup or supplement to boost your immune system and treat cold or flu symptoms or constipation.  But eating unripe berries, bark, or leaves of elderberry may leave you feeling worse instead of better.  They have both lectin and cyanide, two chemicals that can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg adds a nice, nutty flavor when you add it in small amounts to baked goods.  But eaten by the spoonful, it can cause big problems to your system.  Even as little as 2 teaspoons can be toxic to your body because of myristicin, an oil that can cause hallucinations, drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, and seizures.

Green Potatoes

The leaves, sprouts, and underground stems (tubers) of potatoes contain a toxic substance called glycoalkaloid.  Glycoalkaloids make a potato look green when it’s exposed to light, gets damaged, or ages.  Eating potatoes with a high glycoalkaloid content can cause nausea, diarrhea, confusion, headaches, and death.

Raw Kidney Beans

Of all the bean varieties, raw red kidney beans have the highest concentration of lectins.  Lectins are a toxin that can give you a bad stomachache, make you vomit, or give you diarrhea.  It only takes 4-5 raw kidney beans to cause these side effects, which is why it’s best to boil your beans before eating.

Rhubarb Leaves

Eating the stalk is OK, but leave out the leaf.  Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid, which binds to calcium and makes it harder for your body to absorb it.  In turn, your bones can’t grow the way they should, and you’re at risk for kidney stones, blood clotting problems, vomiting, diarrhea, and coma.

Bitter Almonds

Both types of almonds – bitter and sweet – have amygdalin, a chemical compound that can turn into cyanide, but bitter almonds have the highest levels by far.  Sweet almonds are safe to snack on, but eating untreated bitter almonds can cause cramps, nausea, and diarrhea.

Star Fruit

If you have kidney disease, it’s best to leave star fruit out of your diet.  Normal kidneys can filter out the toxins in this sweet fruit, but for a system that can’t, the toxin sticks around and can cause mental confusion, seizures, and death.

Mushrooms

They may be great on pizza, but beware of certain mushrooms in the wild.  Two types are particularly harmful – the death cap (Amanita phalloides), and the destroying angel (Amanita virosa).  Eating these wild mushrooms can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting, dehydration, intense thirst, liver failure, coma, and death.

Raw Cashews

The cashews you get in stores with a raw label aren’t exactly that.  Before they hit shelves, they’re steamed to remove a toxin called urushiol.  Urushiol is the same toxin you find in poison ivy.  Eating pre-steamed cashews can cause an allergic reaction and can be fatal if your allergies are severe.

Mangoes

Just like raw cashews, the skirt, bark, and leaves of mangoes contain urushiol, the toxin in poison ivy.  If you’re allergic to poison ivy, especially if that allergy is a bad one, biting into a mango can cause a severe reaction with swelling, rash, and even problems breathing.