Mental & Emotional Health

A study by researchers in Finland found that music helps increase alertness so stimulates the brain, which helps it recover from strokes.

The fact that many are inactive after a stroke shows the need for stimulation and music exposure makes sense. Of course, it helps if the style of music is something that people actually enjoy. In this study, they were able to select their preferred music.

“We found that three months after the stroke, verbal memory improved from the first week post-stroke by 60 percent in music listeners, by 18 percent in audio book listeners and by 29 percent in non-listeners,” Sarkamo says. (Listening to Music Improves Stroke Patients’ Recovery, Science Daily, February 21, 2008)

Teppo Sarkamo cautioned others not to give up on other forms of therapy because of the study but consider using it in addition to other therapies.

• Music therapy is also known to help reduce depression and alleviate pain. This is not really breaking news and many people figure this out on their own. I listen to music constantly and use it to help motivate, soothe, and generally improve my mood. I rarely do housework without music playing and I sing so much to my kids that it probably drives them crazy.

The fact that music also seems to help stroke patients recover is promising and I imagine it generally improves their quality of life while hospitalized. It can’t be too stimulating being inactive in the hospital without music. I remember reading about a woman in a coma who when she finally awoke said the only think that saved her sanity was the fact that someone turned on the radio for her.

If you Google health information, you have the option of 110,000,000 different links to choose from. Google-ing mental health information and your results are a little more specific, but still leave you with 70,800,000 links! 110 million links? 70 million links? Where do you go to get information that you trust from experts? Where do you go when you’re looking to meet someone who deals with the same generalized anxiety disorder or the premenstrual induced migraines that you live with?

You go to WEGO Health!

You sign up***,
You read and post on the forums,
You see what sites the experts recommend and you can rest assured that you are being provided with the best health content there is on the internet.

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House Backs Plan to Reduce Vet Suicides - Congress took steps Tuesday to reduce the high rate of suicides among former members of the armed forces, but only after a gun rights senator succeeded in removing a plan to track veterans treated for mental illnesses.

The suicide prevention bill, which was passed 417-0 and sent to President Bush for his signature, comes amid growing concerns over mental health issues borne by veterans who have seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Can A Lack of Sleep Cause Psychiatric Disorders - There’s no question that people need their sleep: studies have linked a lack of shut-eye to everything from disruptions in the immune system to cognitive deficits to weight control.

In fact, psychologist Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley, says that “almost all psychiatric disorders show some problems with sleep.” But, he says that scientists previously believed the psychiatric problems triggered the sleep issues. New research from his lab, however, suggests the reverse is the case; that is, a lack of shut-eye is causing some psychological disturbances.

Marijuana Can Make Depression Better or Worse - A synthetic form of the active ingredient of marijuana acts as an antidepressant in low doses but in higher doses can worsen depression, a Canadian study said.

First author Dr. Gabriella Gobbi of McGill University said it has been long known that depletion of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain leads to depression, so antidepressants like Prozac and Celexa work by enhancing the available concentration of serotonin in the brain.

Report Links Teen Smoking, Depression - Smoking cigarettes may make teens more susceptible to depression, alcohol abuse, and illegal drug use, a new report states.

Based on data from a government drug use survey, researchers concluded that teens who smoke are nine times more likely to abuse alcohol and 13 times more likely to abuse illegal drugs than teens who don’t smoke.

More School = Steeper Slide to Dementia - “Our study showed that a person with 16 years of formal education would experience a rate of memory decline that is 50 percent faster than someone with just four years [of] education,” Charles B. Hall, Ph.D., says in a news release.

“This rapid decline may be explained by how people with more education have a greater cognitive reserve, or the brain’s ability to maintain function in spite of damage,” says Hall.

mental & emotional health, House Backs Plan to Reduce Vet Suicides, suicide bill, President Bush, Can A Lack of Sleep Cause Psychiatric Disorders, sleeping, psychological disorders, Marijuana Can Make Depression Better or Worse, marijuana, depression, coping, More School = Steeper Slide to Dementia, Alzheimer’s, education

It’s been a while since I did a news day and that’s because it’s been rather slow. I had to actively search for mental or emotional health news today, nothing much going on. Kinda strange!

Depression Pushes Middle-Aged Workers to Retire - In many cases, depression is a deciding factor for men and women considering retirement, according to new research. Middle-aged men who suffer with symptoms of depression are more likely to retire early, while retirement-age women often take the leap even if their depressive symptoms are mild.

Mental Health Bill OK’d in Senate - The Senate passed legislation last night that would require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both. The bill, passed by unanimous consent, moves advocates one step closer in their quest for mental health parity. “This new legislation will bring dramatic new help to millions of Americans who today are denied needed mental health care and treatment,” said Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. (AP) (That is the entire “article”.)

Soldiers Getting Brain Tests Before Deployment - Before they leave for Iraq, thousands of troops with the 101st Airborne Division line up at laptop computers to take a test: basic math, matching numbers and symbols, and identifying patterns. They press a button quickly to measure response time. It’s all part of a fledgling Army program that records how soldiers’ brains work when healthy, giving doctors baseline data to help diagnose and treat the soldiers if they suffer a traumatic brain injury — the signature injury of the Iraq war.

Little-Known Purging Disorder Is Often Missed - An Iowa researcher is studying a little-known eating disorder that some doctors may miss: purging disorder. Though similar to women with bulimia, patients who fit this description don’t binge-eat. Yet they feel compelled to purge, usually by vomiting, even after eating only a small or normal amount of food, said Pamela Keel, the University of Iowa researcher who led a study on the subject.

Elderly Are At Highest Risk for Suicide - Not long after 72-year-old Anne Beale Golsan had retired on disability from her job as a librarian, she put a stack of paid bills out for the mail, hung up a freshly pressed outfit and taped a note to the front of the house. “Don’t come in by yourself. Get somebody to come with you. Sorry, Love Beale.”

Sick? Lonely? Genes Tell the Tale - Lonely people are more likely to get sick and die young, and researchers said on Thursday they may have found out why — their immune systems are haywire. They used a “gene chip” to look at the DNA of isolated people and found that people who described themselves as chronically lonely have distinct patterns of genetic activity, almost all of it involving the immune system.

mental & emotional health, mental health news, retirement, middle-age depression, Senate, soldiers, brain tests, Iraq War, purging disorder, eating disorders, elderly suicide, suicide risk, lonely

Six years ago today, the nation witnessed the worst attack on American soil to date. Still, nothing man-made has created such a stir in America. (I have to say man-made as I believe that Hurricane Katrina ultimately damaged America more than 9/11.) Like the lunar landing, the Kennedy assassination, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the OJ Simpson freeway chase, I bet every one of my readers remembers exactly where he or she was at the moment they heard about planes crashing on the East coast.

Want to know my story?

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Over at Kerrie’s blog yesterday I was fascinated by an article linking depression, women, migraines and childhood abuse. Instead of writing a half-formed in-awe post about it, I’m linking you to HER blog since she does an amazing job re-formatting and emphasizing pivotal points within the article. This is prompting me to do more research on the subject as I find the connection and the idea of “serotonin dysfunction” absolutely fascinating.

So yeah, go read the blog! (And leave Kerrie a comment, I’m sure she loves ‘em like I do!)

Oh, and I drew a name last night! The winner of the contest will be featured (with his/her permission) tomorrow!!

mental & emotional health, migraines, depression, childhood abuse, women, contest, book winner, Daily Headache

Don’t Read This Too Fast, Your Brain Might Cramp Up! - Those whose hands curl into painful seizures when they scribble for too long or too fast could once tell themselves, “I scribbled for too long or too fast,” and let it go at that. Now, for the syndrome-inclined, comes thrilling news: Writer’s cramp, we learn, is associated with its very own brain abnormality. Read on. This could be you.

Literacy Linked to Survival in Medicare Patients - Medicare patients who couldn’t read a physician’s instructions, or who didn’t understand what they read had a higher mortality rate than patients with adequate reading skills. After adjusting for demographics, socioeconomic status, disability, and chronic conditions, patients with inadequate health literacy where 52% more likely to die during an average of 67.8 months of follow-up (P<0.001), according to a study reported in the July 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Phone Counseling Can Coax Reluctant Alcoholism Patients Into Treatment -
Telephone counseling might be an effective primary care intervention for men who are not seeking treatment for their alcohol dependence or abuse, according to a new study. Men benefited more from the short-term telephone counseling used in the study, which appears in the August issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Lead researcher Richard Brown, M.D., said that the study could empower time-strapped doctors to persuade reluctant alcoholism patients to seek treatment.

For girls, obesity a roadblock to success - AUSTIN — Obese girls, often suffering from negative self-images as teenagers, are half as likely to attend college as girls who aren’t as overweight, according to a new study at the University of Texas. The same trend does not hold true for obese boys, likely because American mass culture holds adolescent girls to stricter weight standards, the study’s author said.

Report: Man with Almost No Brain Has Led Normal Life - French doctors are amazed that a 44-year-old civil servant with an abnormally small brain has led a normal life with a slightly lower than normal IQ, according to a report on Physorg.com. Doctors said the father of two went to the Hopital de la Timone in Marseille with mild weakness in his left leg. He was given a CT scan and an MRI, which showed that his cerebral cavities or ventricles had massively expanded, according a case history to be published in Saturday’s Lancet.

mental and emotional health, news, brain research, writer’s cramp, brain abnormalities, literacy, Medicare patients, mortality rates, alcoholism, phone counseling, obesity, female obesity, child obesity, man with no brain, France

People Get Drunk Faster After Bariatric Surgery, New Study - A new US study suggests that people who have bariatric surgery (gastric bypass) to lose weight are likely to get drunk faster when they drink alcohol and take longer to get sober. The study was conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery by assistant professor of surgery and senior author of the study, Dr John Morton, in San Diego, California, this week. It will be published in the official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, SOARD.

The Best & Worst States for Health Care - The report is the first of its kind to rate each state in the following categories: access to health care, quality of coverage, costs and preventability of hospital admissions, how the poor and uninsured fare under a state’s particular system, and the general healthiness of people’s lives. The study ranks the states using 32 criteria.

Women Dreaming of Sex More Often - The percentage of women dreaming of sex is considerably higher than it was 40 years ago, which led researchers to believe that females are either dreaming of sex more often than they were in the past or are now comfortable reporting such dreams because of changing social roles and attitudes. Although men and women are dreaming of sex in equal proportions, the type of sexual dreams experienced by the two genders often differs, according to the findings presented Thursday at SLEEP 2007, the 21st annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

3 Million Japanese Have Mental Illness - Approximately 3.028 million Japanese were diagnosed with mental illness, according to a report on people with disabilities issued annually by the Cabinet Office. Mental illness data, tabulated only periodically, was last featured in 2002.

Anxiety Affects Obesity Surgery Success - People diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders on average lost 81 pounds six months after gastric bypass surgery compared to their counterparts who shed 86 pounds. Although both groups lost significant weight after surgery, people without mental health problems did slightly better.

Stressed-out Types At Risk for Memory Problems - They said those who most often are anxious or depressed were 40 times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, a form of memory loss that is often a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. “Not only are these individuals losing cognition, but they are showing many of the changes in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease,” said Robert Wilson of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Pentagon Says More Funds Needed For Mental Health - “We concentrate a great deal on physical health; that is how fast can you run a mile, how many sit-ups and push-ups can you do,” said Vice Adm. Donald Arthur, who co-chaired the task force. “But we don’t often concentrate on the psychological health of the service member. “Anyone who goes into combat knows that you become significantly affected by the experience, and post-traumatic stress reactions are normal. We would like to not have those reactions go on to be disorders,” Arthur said.

mental and emotional health, news, bariatric surgery, gastrci bypass, alcohol, health care, women, sex, dreams, mental illness, Japan, obesity, anxiety disorder, stress, memory problems, pentagon, US military

It’s a slow news day, so I’m adding links to my favorite health (mental, emotional AND physical) blogs as well.

Insurance Limits, Costs Keep Migraine Patients From Meds - Insurance restrictions and out-of-pocket costs cause many migraine sufferers to not take medications when needed because they’re concerned about running out of the drugs, a new U.S. study contends. This is particularly sad to me because I am one of these people. I don’t take my meds when I need them unless I REALLY need them because of the costs.

Brain Mix-up Trigger Strange Feelings of Deja Vu - The brain cranks out memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. But a new study suggests only a small chunk of it, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for “episodic” memories — information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart. Maybe this is my problem. I deal with deja vu quite often!

Mothers With Young Children Are Especially Vulnerable To Poor Mental Health - Researchers found that poor maternal mental health can result if women lack emotional or hands-on support with parenting, spend what they feel is too much time with a child or have difficulty paying for childcare. Facing one of those obstacles tripled a woman’s risk for poor mental health, while struggling with two or more such obstacles increased the risk 12-fold. The study’s authors pointed out that many families with young children have scarce resources when it comes to money, social support and health care. Their study was based on a national survey of more than 1,700 mothers.

Daily Affirmations - I dissolve thoughts that suggest there is no joy. My favorite affirmation from this week.

Depression Talk - Amanda never fails to make me giggle with her posts. I consider her an internet friend because I feel like I know her now.

Especially Heather - “They say that if you had morning sickness when you were pregnant, then you will most likely get sick on the type of chemo I am on, Temodar. I was very sick with all of my children except Elijah… and with him I was just sick. I had dinner at 7 (with a side of cake and ice cream) and I took my anti-nausea at 8:30. I then took my chemo at 9:30, and went to bed. I woke up about 3am and ran to the master bathroom, where I stayed for the majority of the night (with my anti nausea medicine).”

Master of Irony - my favorite mental health blog. I talk about her a lot. Right now Just Her needs some positive thoughts … if you have any extra, send them her way.

Ready Steddie is working her butt off (literally AND figuratively) as a new wife, a massage student and a weight loser! I love my Steddie!

Somebody Heal Me - a migraine blog done by a friend of mine. She makes me laugh, she makes me think, and she makes me mad that insurance companies are SO stupid sometimes.

Sweet | Salty has two little boys in the hospital. She writes wonderful entries about them and I can feel her love for her three little boys (four if you count the hubs) when I read.

The Daily Headache is a newsy blog written by a woman who lives with migraines like me.

Check out a new blog and let me know what you think today! Happy Friday!

mental and emotional health, news, insurance costs, migraines, migraine medication, deja vu, brains, young children, mothers, mental health, Daily Affirmations, Depression Talk, Especially Heather, Master of Irony, Ready Steddie, Somebody Heal Me, Sweet | Salty, The Daily Headache, blogs, physical health, emotional health

News Day apparently got moved to Friday this week! Here you go!

Second-Hand Smoke a ‘Killer at Large’ - The number of smokers in China has reached about 350 million, the highest in the world. And about 100,000 of the 1 million Chinese who die due to smoking-related diseases each year are passive smokers, says the report.

International Health Officials Urge Widespread HIV Testing - In issuing new guidelines, UNAIDS and the WHO said 80 percent of people who are infected with the virus that causes AIDS are unaware of their situation. An estimated 40 million people throughout the world are living with HIV. More than 60 percent live in Africa.

Pesticide Exposure and Head Blows Increase Parkinson’s Risk - People with a family history of Parkinson’s disease may be more susceptible to it after pesticide exposure or repeated blows to the head, European investigators reported. In a case-control study of nearly 1,000 patients with Parksinon’s disease or parkinsonism and almost 2,000 controls, high exposure to pesticides increased the risk of the disease by 41%, according to Finlay Dick, M.D., of the University of Aberdeen here, and colleagues.

Tea, Chocolate Chemical May Boost Memory - It may be possible to boost memory with a plant compound called epicatechin, which is found in foods and drinks including blueberries, grapes, tea, and cocoa. That’s according to a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

New ADHD Meds Harder to Abuse - Two new formulations of drugs traditionally used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), methylphenidate and d-amphetamine, last longer and have less potential for abuse, according to presentations at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Diego.

Happy or Sad? Emotional Cues Vary By Culture - Culture is a huge factor in determining whether we look someone in the eye or the kisser to interpret facial expressions, according to a new study. For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan.

Feeling Down? Refuel with Tofu & Turkey - “Food is so powerful,” says New York-based registered dietitian Joy Bauer, author of “Joy Bauer’s Food Cures,” a nearly 500-page consumer guide to treating health concerns, released last month. “By eating the right foods in the right combinations, you can help treat, manage, and sometimes cure common health concerns.”

mental and emotional health, news, education, second hand smoke, cancer, lung cancer, HIV, AIDS, HIV test, Parkinson’s disease, head trauma, environmental peticides, tea, chocolate, memory boost, epicatechin, ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, medication, emotional cues, international studies, tofu, turkey, Joy Bauer

Longer ring finger points to high SAT math score - Children with longer ring fingers compared to index fingers are likely to score higher on the math portion of the SAT college entrance exam, while children with the reverse finger-length ratio will probably do better at reading, writing or verbal, according to a new study. (I do not fit this stereotype. My ring fingers on both of my hands are longer than my index fingers … and my math SAT portion was significantly lower. Yay for continuing to be abnormal!

Heavy-drinking college kids make worse decisions - Young adults who binge drink frequently are more likely to show disadvantageous decision-making patterns than their peers who don’t drink as heavily, a new study shows. - Part of me wants to go; “aaah, dur!” with this article, since you would assume that drinking damages/kills brain cells that are used during decision making times … so it would make sense that if you’re short on cells, you’ll be short on ability.

Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells - Natural marijuanalike chemicals may direct key brain cells to make proper connections while in the womb, according to a new study. Researchers report that the molecules, called cannabinoids, serve as guideposts for young cells in the attention and decision-making parts of fetal mouse brains. - This is interesting to me when you think about rebuilding brain cells for the aged and those with Alzheimer’s disease. I wonder if there are any studies that are looking into this. No, I’m sure there are.

Epilepsy Q & A - Epilepsy is a disorder in which there is excessive electrical activity in the nerve cells of the brain, which results in involuntary movement or changes in awareness. The changes in nerve patterns can occur in one part of the brain or in many locations, involving the whole brain. The Epilepsy Foundation says more than 2.7 million Americans have epilepsy, including 315,000 children under 14. - While I normally don’t concentrate much on physical disorders that effect the brain, epilepsy has a place close to my heart. My grandpa (hero gramma’s husband) has epilepsy but has been on medication for his entire life for it. Very interesting Q & A session if you’re interested.

More U.S. Households Adopting Smoke-free Home Rules - The proportion of households with smoke-free home rules also increased in every state over this period. This proportion varied widely among the states. Kentucky had the lowest and Utah had the highest proportion of households reporting smoke-free home rules for both reported periods. The proportion of smoke-free homes increased from 25.7 percent to 53.4 percent in Kentucky and from 69.6 percent to 88.8 percent in Utah. - This is good news, no?

mental and emotional health, news, SAT, SAT math scores, drinking, decision making, marijuana, cannabinoids, young cells, babies, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, smoking, smoke-free homes, Kentucky, Utah

Machine Means Ends to Sleepless Nights - A device worn on the head could in squeeze the benefit of eight hours’ sleep into just two or three hours. Scientists in the US used a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to induce slow waves - indicative of the deepest phase of sleep and essential for learning ability and mood, in a group of sleeping volunteers. (This story is just for Mad … who has no other name but Mad. I’ve never seen him mad … so it’s all kinda weird to me. /randomness)

The face, not the body, attracts a mate - Body builders and gym buffs, look away now. It appears that the opposite sex is much more interested in your face than your bulging biceps or elegant figure, especially if you’re a man. At least that’s the upshot of the first study to assess how much faces and bodies contribute to someone’s overall attractiveness.

Gut Almighty! - Intuitions, or gut feelings, are sudden, strong judgments whose origin we can’t immediately explain. Although they seem to emerge from an obscure inner force, they actually begin with a perception of something outside—a facial expression, a tone of voice, a visual inconsistency so fleeting you’re not even aware you noticed.

A Frown or A Smile? Children With Autism Can’t Discern - When we have a conversation with someone, we not only hear what they say, we see what they say. Eyes can smolder or twinkle. Gazes can be direct or shifty. “Reading” these facial expressions gives context and meaning to the words we hear. In a report presented May 5 at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Seatlle, researchers from UCLA explained that children with autism can’t do this. They hear and they see, of course, but the areas of the brain that normally respond to such visual cues simply do not respond.

mental and emotional health, sleep, transcranial magnetic stimulation, University of Wisconsin, attraction, body building, working out, attractiveness, University of Western Australia, Psychology Today, intuition, gut feelings, inner force, The Second Brain, Columbia University, Brazilian School of Business and Public Administration, autism, facial expressions, International Meeting for Autism Research, UCLA, visual cues, children

mental and emotional health, alcohol, alcoholism, alcohol abuse, American Academy of Neurology 2007 Annual Meeting, genetics, calorie restriction, Salk Institute, PHA-4, Foxa, Louisiana State University, mental health, Margaret Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau, CBC Newsworld, medical checkups, persuasion, arguing, Thank You For Arguing, Jay Heinrichs, Three Rivers Press, book reviews, how to fight, conflict, education, interpersonal dealings, negotiating strategies, negotiation skills, phantom pregnancy, pseudocyesis, pregnancy, news

Antidepressants to Get U.S. Warning on Suicide Risks - The Food and Drug Administration asked the makers of 36 antidepressants to extend an existing precaution for children and adolescents to cover people ages 18 to 24 when they first use the drugs, the agency said in a statement today. Wyeth, Eli Lilly & Co. and other drugmakers must revise their labels within 30 days.

Analysis: Gulf War vets’ brains shrink - “We found that two regions of the brain had significant shrinking compared with other soldiers who have lower levels of symptoms,” Roberta White, chairman of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, said at the 59th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Boston.

Alzheimer’s reversed in mice - In a new study, mice bioengineered to mimic the fading memory of Alzheimer’s patients got their memories restored - either by being placed in stimulating environments or by receiving a drug most commonly used to fight cancer.

Bipolar disorder harder to diagnose in children - In the new study, researchers found that adults whose first bipolar symptoms arose in childhood typically waited years for a diagnosis — and far longer than those whose symptoms began in late adolescence or early adulthood.

Hormones may ward off dementia in women - New research suggests that hormone therapy taken soon after menopause may help protect against dementia, even though it raises the risk of mental decline in women who do not take the drugs until they are older.

Perfectionists more stressed by social pressure - In a study of 50 middle-aged men, those who measured highest on tests of perfectionism also secreted more of the stress hormone cortisol while undergoing a stressful public speaking task, Dr. Petra H. Wirtz of the University of Zurich in Switzerland and colleagues found.

Migraines can boost teen suicide risk - They said young teens with migraines, a debilitating kind of headache, are also at higher risk for other psychiatric disorders, such as depression and panic disorder.*

Migraines may be tied to brain damage - People with migraines also may be suffering from some brain damage as brain cells swell and become starved of oxygen — a finding that may help explain why migraine sufferers have a higher risk of stroke, researchers reported on Sunday.**

*I connected with this news story personally as I’ve lived all my life with migraines and ended up with depression and a panic disorder as well. Interesting.

**Does this mean I can use the handicapped parking places? I may be brain damaged! I shouldn’t jokoe about stuff like this though. Shame on me!

mental and emotional health, news, antidepressants, suicide, teen suicide, FDA, Wyeth, Eli Lilly & Company, suicide warning, Gulf War, veterans, Boston University School of Public Health, American Academy of Neurology, brain shrinking, Alzheimer’s, bioengineered mice, bipolar disorder, children’s bipolar disorder, hormones, dementia, menopause, perfectionists, perfectionism, stress, University of Zurich, cortisol, migraines, psychiatric disorders, depression, panic disorder, brain damage

First; I passed the site on to my mom; so I must say “HIIIIIIIII Mutti! Ich bin lustig!”

There are endless amounts of ways to save money if you look for it. I spent a little time at the Federal Trade Commission website reading their 66 Ways to Save Money. The FTC gives you tips on how to save money on everything including car rentals, gasoline, credit cards, major appliances, heating your home, grocery shopping and even funeral arrangements. If you need to save money on it, the FTC probably has a tip for you.

Scholarships Around the US gives us 118 Ways to Save Money in College as well. They give you tips on managing your money in a bank, how to get the best bang for your buck when it comes to drinking alcohol, buying your textbooks, eating on $0.12 (Ramen noodles!), using a school discount to buy a new computer, buying and legally sharing music and DVDs, where to grocery, birthday, and even Christmas shopping!

There are many bargain shopping places you can find online to do your shopping:
EBay
Overstock
Smart Bargains
DealCatcher, catching deals so you don’t have to
Pricegrabber will find the cheapest price for you!
BizRate shopping searches
CouponMountain will give you coupons on thousands of items
Ultimate Coupons will, too!
CouponChief

Save Money on Heating Costs
Easy Ways to Save Money on Gas and Save Money on Car Expenses
Saving Money on Home Expenses
How to Save Money on Your Credit Card and Saving At Your Bank

Lending Tree offers many ways to save your dollars!
7 Tips from MSN on how to save or make some money.

Here are some easy tips on how to save some money quickly!
1. Cut out the soda, juice & flavored drinks and drink more water!
2. Go over your grocery list. Try buying more off-brands. Most are exactly the same as their more expensive counterparts.
3. Buy clothes and shoes from the clearance racks and buy them off-season.
4. Get movies from the library instead of renting them.
5. Same with books, borrow instead of buy. We usually only read them once anyway. If you have to buy a book, buy it used!
6. Go on a picnic instead of going to the restaurant.
7. Toss all your change in a “piggy bank” of some kind and let it accumulate for a few months or longer.
8. If you have all the movie channels, cut them down a bit. Most of the movies rotate through anyway.
9. Do your laundry at night. The rates are cheaper.
10. Give your clothes an extra spin as it costs less to run a washer than the dryer.
11. Ask your credit card companies for a lower interest rate. Sometimes rather than lose a good customer, they will grant your wish!
12. Buy your holiday decorations AFTER the holiday. You can save up to 75% or more.
13. Turn down your heat a couple degrees more at night and throw on an extra blanket.
14. Clean behind your refrigerator at least once a year to get out all the dust and dirt that can cost you more money.
15. Save empty bread bags and grocery bags instead of buying box after box of storage bags.
16. Keep your car tuned and your tires properly inflated to save money on gas.
17. Buy inexpensive fabric for cloth napkins, doilies, etc. You don’t need to use disposable ones, either.
18. Be creative when it comes to decorating. Use sheets to make curtains. Use an old quilt as a cozy wall-hanging. Create an artful display with family photos.
19. Save the new, convenient plastic coffee cans with handles. Paint them, decorate them and use them for organizers for kids art supplies, your CDs, pens & pencils, food envelopes, recipes, craft supplies, etc.
20. Turn unused stuff into money. If you have a gift you haven’t used or that shirt you bought and never wore, take them back to the store. You might not get full price, but some is better than none.
21. Use petroleum jelly to remove make-up. It is much more economical then beauty products made for removing make-up. (I don’t recommend this as petroleum jelly isn’t the best for your skin. Use an generic Oil of Olay instead!)
22. Hydrogen peroxide can be used to kill germs in cuts and sores rather then expensive antibiotic medicines.
23. Make windowsill or container gardens and grow herbs and fresh vegetables.
24. Instead of a night on the town, send the kids to Grandma’s and have a romantic night at home.
25. Make and STICK TO a budget! (Remember my previous days posts?)

Do you have favorite sites that you shop at to save yourself money? What are your favorite money-saving tips?