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Why Celebrity Divorces Make Us Feel So Bad

Photo: Getty Images

The summer of 2015 might go down in history as the season in which all of your favorite celebrity couples met their demise. Jen and Ben. Miranda and Blake. Gwen and Gavin. And now: Kermit and Miss Piggy? Say it isn’t so!

Along with the rest of the Internet, we’re still in mourning.

But that brings up an important question: Just what is it about celebrity divorces that makes us so sad?

Well, one reason is that our culture puts so much emphasis on the things celebrities have: money, power, and beauty. “We’re a secular society, and we look to them as successful role models,” because they have it all, explains Andrea Press, PhD, a professor of media studies and sociology at the University of Virginia. “We can [also] construct a fantasy around them to fulfill some of the needs we have.” We love to hear the story of a celebrity with a difficult childhood who overcame the odds to make it big on the screen or stage. “We think, ‘that could be me someday,’” Press says.

As if that’s not enough pressure, with all the glamour and media spin, it’s easy for the misconception that celebrities have it easy to take hold: They have everything they need (and more), and, therefore, shouldn’t fail at anything, including marriage.

“You see [celebrities] as successful, confident, secure, and capable people, and to suddenly see them as vulnerable can evoke anxiety,” explains Jane Greer, PhD, a New York-based marriage and family therapist and author of How Could You Do This to Me? ($13, amazon.com)

On top of that, in some ways, we see celebs as idealized reflections of ourselves: We admire our favorites for their hard work and their success, and we think of our favorite stars as being reflective of our own values. Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, for example, were for many fans an ideal couple because they were traditional; Shelton reportedly asked Lambert’s father for her hand in marriage. “Celebrities are symbols of strength for many people, and to see them weak can make people insecure about their own relationships,” Greer says. Insert the “if they can’t make it, no one can!” outpourings on Twitter.

When two people who we love to watch on screen (Argo! 13 Going on 30!) announce their separation, “it’s similar to a friend breaking up,” says Greer, who explains that it’s not uncommon for people to feel personally invested in celebrity relationships.

It’s only natural that we do, Greer adds. “We cut our hair like they do, we buy their perfume and clothing. By being like them, it helps us feel better about ourselves.” And that can be a good thing in some ways, she explains: “They can encourage us to maximize as much of our personal talents as we can.”

But it can also mean we take celebrity divorce too personally—and it’s all the more common now, thanks to social media. With Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, it’s easier than ever to be connected with stars. “Celebrities’ private lives are widely available,” says Greer. “Many of them are keeping us in touch and [we’re] informed as to what they’re dealing with. People feel very much a part of their lives.”

The important thing to remember is that what you see on TV or on Instagram is not the whole story—in good times or bad.

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Skipping Breakfast a Bad Idea for People with Type 2 Diabetes

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Aug. 7, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Running out the door without eating breakfast isn’t a good idea for anyone, but new research suggests that for people with type 2 diabetes, skipping the morning meal may wreak havoc on blood sugar levels for the rest of the day.

In a small clinical trial, researchers found that when people with diabetes skipped breakfast, their lunchtime blood sugar levels were 37 percent higher than on a day they ate breakfast. And blood sugar levels were still higher at dinnertime on the day the study volunteers skipped breakfast — 27 percent higher, the study said.

“This is of high relevance since skipping breakfast has progressively increased over the past decades in Western society,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, a professor of medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

What’s more, she said, high blood sugar levels after meals are strongly associated with a rapid decline in beta-cell function. Beta cells are the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, a hormone that’s necessary for the body to use the carbohydrates in food as fuel.

High blood sugar peaks are also linked to earlier development of heart disease complications, Jakubowicz added.

Results of the study were published recently in Diabetes Care.

Jakubowicz and her team showed earlier that eating a big breakfast and a light dinner may be beneficial. In a study published in February in Diabetologia, the researchers found that people with type 2 diabetes who ate a big breakfast and a light dinner had blood sugar levels that were 20 percent lower than people who had a small breakfast and big dinner.

In the current study, the researchers recruited 22 people with type 2 diabetes. Their average age was 57 years old. Their body mass index (BMI) was just over 28. BMI is rough estimate of how much body fat a person has, and a BMI of 28 means a person is overweight, but not obese.

Over two days, all of the participants ate the same meal at every meal — milk, tuna, bread and a chocolate breakfast bar, Jakubowicz said. On one day, they ate three meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the second day, they skipped breakfast, but had lunch and dinner.

On the day they ate three meals, the average glucose peak after lunch was 192 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). After dinner, it was 215 mg/dL, the study revealed. But on the day of no breakfast, the average glucose peak climbed to 268 mg/dL after lunch and to 298 mg/dL after dinner, the researchers said. (A normal blood sugar level is below 126 mg/dL.)

Jakubowicz said it seems that beta cells “lose their memory” due to the prolonged fast. “Therefore, it takes additional time after lunch for the beta cells to recover, causing small and delayed insulin responses, and resulting in exaggerate elevation of blood glucose levels throughout the day on the no-breakfast day,” she said.

Maudene Nelson, a certified diabetes educator and nutritionist at Columbia University in New York City, also noted that skipping breakfast led to higher levels of glucagon secretion, which raises blood sugar levels. “Once blood sugar levels are high, it’s harder to clean up ‘the mess’ as the day goes on,” explained Nelson, who wasn’t involved with the study.

“In the past, I’ve been somewhat laid back when people tell me they skip breakfast or only have coffee, because we all have our habits,” Nelson said, adding that the findings inspire her to tell patients skipping breakfast is not OK.

Jakubowicz said protein is an important component of any breakfast. She said it aids in “intellectual concentration” and helps you feel full. Nelson said good sources of protein include eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese or beans. She said the tuna offered in the study was also a good source of protein, and she said lean ham, preferably low-sodium, could be an occasional option.

Nelson also recommended adding fruit or a whole grain to breakfast. But most cereals don’t have enough fiber to be a good choice for people with type 2 diabetes, she said.

Jakubowicz’ final advice for people with type 2 diabetes is simple: “Never skip breakfast.”

She said it’s not clear if the results would be the same in people with type 1 diabetes, and that she’s planning a trial to see the effects of skipping breakfast in people with type 1 diabetes. She also noted that for women with diabetes in pregnancy (gestational diabetes), skipping meals isn’t healthy for the baby, and could lead to excessive weight gain.

More information

To learn more about nutrition and type 2 diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

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Scientists Spot What Keeps Moles From Becoming Melanomas

FRIDAY, Aug. 7, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A major genetic factor that prevents moles from turning into deadly melanoma skin cancer has been pinpointed by researchers.

It’s long been known that a mutation in the BRAF gene causes moles to start growing, but it wasn’t understood why they stop growing.

“The BRAF mutation that stimulates the initial growth of moles also stimulates the production of a tumor suppressor protein, p15, which ultimately acts as a powerful brake on further cell division,” study senior author Dr. Todd Ridky, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, explained in a university news release.

“It’s this cell division that ultimately allows the transition from a normal mole into melanoma. When mole cells lose the p15 brake, cells can start dividing again and can progress into cancer,” he explained.

The study was published online recently in the journal Cancer Discovery.

The researchers plan to use this new insight to learn more about how melanoma develops and to try to develop new treatments. They’ll also study p15’s possible roles in other cancers.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about melanoma.

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Online Program Boosts Hand Washing, Cuts Infections

THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — An online program that encourages people to wash their hands reduced the spread of cold and flu viruses within families, a new study says.

The program also led to fewer gastrointestinal illnesses, doctor appointments and antibiotic prescriptions, according to the findings published online Aug. 6 in The Lancet.

“A simple, cheap internet program to encourage hand washing can reduce the risk of infection by around 14 percent,” study author Dr. Paul Little, a professor at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said in a journal news release.

“Because most of the population catches coughs, colds, sore throats and other respiratory infections, this could have an important impact on reducing the spread of these viruses in the general population, and also help reduce the pressure on [health] services during the winter months,” he added.

The free, interactive program, called PRIMIT, offers four weekly sessions that provide medical information, outline simple steps to help participants avoid catching and passing on viruses, monitor users’ hand washing habits, and provide personalized feedback.

The study included more than 20,000 people, aged 18 and older, in British households who were randomly assigned to use PRIMIT or to a control group that did not use the website.

Over 16 weeks of monitoring, 51 percent of people in the PRIMIT group had at least one respiratory infection, compared with 59 percent of those in the control group. That means those in the PRIMIT group had a 14 percent lower risk, the researchers said.

Those in the PRIMIT group had a 20 percent lower risk of catching a flu-like illness. They also had 10 percent to 15 percent fewer doctor visits and antibiotic prescriptions, the study found.

“Influenza is only one of the many infectious diseases that can affect populations. An even more important point to take from this study is therefore the promotion of hand washing as a generic routine to manage transfer of infections,” Dr. Chris van Weel, a professor at Australian National University in Canberra, wrote in an accompanying commentary.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about handwashing.

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Workplace Rudeness Spreads Like a Virus, Study Finds

Photo: Getty Images

Everyone worries about catching a cold at the office, but if you’ve got a mean co-worker you might also be in danger of catching their rudeness, according to new research from the Journal of Applied Psychology.

To reach their findings, researchers from the University of Florida tracked 90 graduate business school students practicing negotiation techniques with classmates, with each person practicing with multiple partners over 7 weeks. In the end, they found that those who rated their partner as rude were far more likely to be judged as rude themselves by a subsequent partner.

They also found that people didn’t seem to have any control over the spread. “What we found in this study is that the contagious effect is based on an automatic cognitive mechanism—automatic means it happens somewhere in the subconscious part of your brain, so you don’t know its happening and can’t do much to stop it,” the study’s lead author, Trevor Foulk, explained in an e-mail to Health.

“Anything from simple insults to ignoring a co-worker, to purposely dis-including someone or withholding information,” can create the toxic environment, he added.

This happens because experiences with rudeness leave a much bigger impression on us than you might think. When someone is rude to you, the experience creates a bias towards future experiences.

For example, if your coworker made a snarky comment about how much you eat for lunch that you just can’t let go, simply entering the kitchen where the snub occurred can make you more likely to be rude to someone else. Even just witnessing rude behavior directed at someone else seemed to have the same effect in further experiments included in the paper.

What you can do

Chances are you’ve dealt with this issue: a whopping 98 percent of workers have experienced workplace rudeness, with 50 percent of people experiencing these behaviors at least weekly, according to the study.

You can’t do much about unconscious bias, but you can of course, make an effort to not be rude in the first place. Another thing you can do is communicate as clearly as possible, Foulk advises.

“Our results suggest that what is happening is that prior rudeness is biasing people’s interpretation of future events towards rudeness. In order for a bias to have an effect, there must be ambiguity in the message,” he said. “Messages that are completely clear won’t be subject to bias.”

“I’ve used the example of a co-worker saying ‘Hey, nice shoes!’ There’s a number of ways this can be interpreted—was it a compliment, or some kind of back-handed insult?” he continues. People who’ve been on the receiving end of rudeness recently will tend to interpret it as the latter. But something along the lines of, “Those shoes are beautiful. I really like that color with your dress,” can make it clear that you really do like the shoes!

This is important because workplace rudeness has also been linked to more stress at home. By helping to break the chain of hostile behavior, you can preserve your own well-being—and perhaps your co-workers’ too.

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Bigger Families Mean More Infections, Study Finds

THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Love kids? Having a bunch may have its downside, a new study finds.

Researchers say being part of a big family boosts the risk of passing on viral infections that cause colds, flu and other respiratory woes.

“A lot families go through wave after wave of illness. In fact, some of the kids we monitored had symptoms for 20 to 25 weeks in a row,” study co-first author Dr. Carrie Byington, a professor of pediatrics and co-director of the Utah Center for Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Utah, said in a university news release.

The research included 108 people from 26 Utah families. They were monitored for one year, and provided nasal swabs to test for viruses weekly for each family member.

During that time, researchers found that people in childless households were infected with viruses an average of three to four weeks a year. That rose to 18 weeks a year in families with one child, and up to 45 weeks a year in households with six children.

However, only half of the people who tested positive for viral infection had the typical symptoms of coughing, fever and stuffy nose, the study said.

Findings from the study were published recently in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Young children are the main reason why viruses are more common in large families. Children younger than 5 had at least one virus detected in their noses for half the year, which was twice as often as older children and adults. When infected, young children were 1.5 times more likely to have symptoms, including severe ones such as fever and wheezing, the study said.

“This study helps us to understand what is normal in young children, and can help us determine when illness should be a cause for concern,” Byington said.

The researchers also found that parents of young children were sick 1.5 times more often than those who did not have young children.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about colds and the flu.

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Kidney Problems Linked to Brain Disorders: Study

THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Kidney problems can increase the risk of brain disorders, a new study finds.

The findings suggest that protecting kidney health may also benefit the brain, the researchers said.

They studied data from more than 2,600 people in the Netherlands, and found that poor kidney function was strongly associated with decreased blood flow to the brain. They also saw an increased risk of stroke and memory and thinking problems (dementia) in people with kidney problems.

The association was independent of known heart disease risk factors, the researchers said.

The study was published Aug. 6 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

“Our findings provide a possible explanation linking kidney disease to brain disease,” Dr. M. Arfan Ikram, an assistant professor of neuroepidemiology at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, said in a journal news release.

“Also, given that kidney disease and (reduced blood flow to) the brain are both possibly reversible, there might be an opportunity to explore how improving these conditions can ultimately reduce one’s risk of developing brain disease,” Ikram added.

The researchers also noted that the risk of brain disorders may not be limited to people with chronic kidney disease, but also likely extends to people with milder kidney disorders.

More information

The National Kidney Foundation has more about chronic kidney disease.

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Kidney Problems Linked to Brain Disorders: Study

THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Kidney problems can increase the risk of brain disorders, a new study finds.

The findings suggest that protecting kidney health may also benefit the brain, the researchers said.

The association was independent of known heart disease risk factors, the researchers said.

The study was published Aug. 6 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The researchers also noted that the risk of brain disorders may not be limited to people with chronic kidney disease, but also likely extends to people with milder kidney disorders.

More information

The National Kidney Foundation has more about chronic kidney disease.

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Social Life in Youth May Impact Health Decades Later

THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Having good social connections at age 20 can lead to improved well-being later in life, a new study suggests.

Previous research has shown that people with poor social links are at increased risk for early death.

“In fact, having few social connections is equivalent to tobacco use, and [the risk is] higher than for those who drink excessive amounts of alcohol, or who suffer from obesity,” study author Cheryl Carmichael, who conducted the study while a doctoral candidate at the University of Rochester in New York, said in a university news release.

The study included 133 people who enrolled when they were 20-year-old college students in the 1970s. The participants kept track of their daily social interactions at ages 20 and 30. At age 50, they completed an online survey about the quality of their social lives and emotional well-being, including questions about loneliness and depression, and their relationships with close friends.

The findings showed that frequent social interactions at age 20 and good-quality relationships — defined as intimate and satisfying — at age 30 were associated with higher levels of well-being at age 50.

The study findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Psychology and Aging.

A high number of social interactions at age 20 are beneficial later in life because they help young adults determine who they are, the researchers said.

“It’s often around this age that we meet people from diverse backgrounds, with opinions and values that are different from our own, and we learn how to best manage those differences,” said Carmichael, now an assistant professor of psychology at Brooklyn College.

“Considering everything else that goes on in life over those 30 years — marriage, raising a family and building a career — it is extraordinary that there appears to be a relationship between the kinds of interactions college students and young adults have and their emotional health later in life,” she concluded.

More information

Mental Health America offers advice on how to live your life well.

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Legionnaire’s Disease Most Deadly for Frail, Elderly, Experts Say

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — As New York City health officials work to contain an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, health experts note that the elderly, smokers and those with respiratory conditions are most vulnerable to the potentially deadly bacteria.

So far, 97 people have been infected and eight have died in the current outbreak, which has been traced to cooling towers in a Bronx neighborhood, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Of those who died, all were older individuals with other medical conditions.

And the outbreak is not over, experts noted Thursday.

“There are probably going to be more cases because the disease has a long incubation period — 10 to 14 days,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, an attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Another expert explained that the disease is more likely to get a foothold during warm weather.

“Every summer, when we are using air conditioning, the odds of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease increases,” added Dr. Debra Spicehandler, an infectious diseases specialist at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

Hospitals routinely test their water for Legionnaires’, she said. However, hotels, apartment buildings and offices are not required to test for it.

Glatter said that most of the people who are affected by Legionnaires’ are the elderly, people who smoke and those with chronic medical conditions, such as emphysema or asthma. Children and young adults are usually not affected, he said.

According to Glatter, the bacteria is commonly found in water and soil. “However, when it is able to set up shop in cooling towers where the water is warm, it can reproduce quickly and spread,” he said.

But Spicehandler noted that “it’s a very simple, treatable disease most of the time.”

Among the young and healthy, the infection runs its course without treatment, but among those at high risk, up to 30 percent can die, Glatter said.

Fortunately, Legionnaires’ cannot be spread person-to-person, Glatter said. “It is airborne and is contracted by inhaling it or, in theory, through drinking water,” he said.

Legionnaires’ causes fever, cough and chills, Glatter said. If caught early, it can be treated with antibiotics.

“Death is usually caused by respiratory failure,” Glatter said. “The bacteria overwhelms the lung tissue and reduces the ability to get oxygen into the lungs. Asphyxia [suffocation] is the main cause of death,” he said. “Death can occur within three to five days or sooner.”

Legionnaires’ disease was first seen among 2,000 American Legionnaires attending a convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1976, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak was linked to air conditioner cooling towers in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel. That outbreak sickened 221 people, and 34 died.

“People should not be alarmed at this point,” Glatter said. “The cooling towers are being cleaned and disinfected, and these measures should make the public feel safer,” he said.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on Legionnaires’ disease.

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Pages

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Why Celebrity Divorces Make Us Feel So Bad

Skipping Breakfast a Bad Idea for People with Type 2 Diabetes

Scientists Spot What Keeps Moles From Becoming Melanomas

Online Program Boosts Hand Washing, Cuts Infections

Workplace Rudeness Spreads Like a Virus, Study Finds

What you can do

Bigger Families Mean More Infections, Study Finds

Kidney Problems Linked to Brain Disorders: Study

Kidney Problems Linked to Brain Disorders: Study

Social Life in Youth May Impact Health Decades Later

Legionnaire’s Disease Most Deadly for Frail, Elderly, Experts Say