January 2015 Issue | No Images? Click here |
| CARA Scholars At Risk UK Universities Network Newsletter | |
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Tuesday, 13 January 2015
CARA-Scholars at-Risk UK Universities Network Newsletter, December 2014 Issue
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
10 Reasons to quit smoking
Did you know that cigarette smoking is the #1 cause of preventable deaths in the US - with one in every five deaths being related to the widespread habit? Living longer is certainly one reason to kick the habit, but here are 10 more reasons to ditch the death sticks for good.
You can – and should – quit smoking
If you smoke and are part of the nearly 70 percent of smokers who want to quit smoking, there are a number of smoking cessation techniques you can use to kick the habit. Experts recommend counseling, nicotine replacement therapy and alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, as well as perseverance. Though only about four to five percent of smokers who to try to quit each year succeed in stopping smoking permanently, with repeated attempts, nearly 40 to 50 percent of smokers eventually succeed in kicking the habit for good. That means you may not quit smoking on your first try but if you persevere, you will succeed.
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10 Reasons to quit smoking for good
Puffing cigarettes can certainly shorten your life, but it can also hurt your health in many other irreversible ways. Though living longer should be motivation enough to kick the habit, we hope the following health risks will convince you to commit to quit.
Quit smoking reason #1: Reduce your risk of lung cancer
Lung cancer accounts for 26 percent of cancer deaths among women reports the Lung Cancer Alliance. Just 50 years ago, lung cancer accounted for only three percent. Though smoking is not the only cause of lung cancer, it can greatly increase your risk of developing this deadly disease. According to the American Lung Association, smoking is directly responsible for 87 percent of reported lung cancer cases.
Quit smoking reason #2: Protect yourself from HPV
In the book The HPV Vaccine Controversy, author Dr Shobha S Krishnan warns that smoking can make existing HPV infections persist in the body and even cause HPV-related diseases because smoking weakens the immune system.
Quit smoking reason #3: Save your eyesight
Dr Edward Paul, one of the world's leading authorities on macular degeneration, says smoking increases a patient's risk of developing age-related macular degeneration – a leading cause of blindness in Americans 65 years old and older – by a whopping 350 percent.
Quit smoking reason #4: Your heart-health
Smoking increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke - among other diseases – and the more cigarettes you smoke, the higher your risk. Even reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke per day can help protect your heart. A study inNicotine & Tobacco Research reports that fewer cigarettes can decrease "bad" cholesterol, increase "good" cholesterol, and improve the blood's ability to transport oxygen – meaning you will feel less winded during exertion. Kicking the habit for good delivers even more heart-health benefits.
Quit smoking reason #5: Keep your teeth
A study in BMC Public Health earlier this year indicates that current smokers are significantly more likely to lose their teeth than former smokers or nonsmokers aged 20 to 38 years old. That's too young to be losing teeth! Additionally, the nicotine in cigarettes stain teeth, meaning the teeth you don't lose will stay a dingy shade of yellow.
Quit smoking reason #6: Live longer
Don't you have family and friends you enjoy spending time with? What about your kids – don't you want to see them grow up, get married and have kids of their own? Quitting smoking will lengthen your life – as well as improve its quality – and the healthy results of kicking the habit are realized rather quickly. A May 2008 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that 61 percent of the full benefit of quitting in regard to coronary heart disease mortality and 42 percent of the full benefit of quitting in regard to cerebrovascular deaths was realized within the first five years.
Quit smoking reason #7: Improve your fertility
Having trouble conceiving? In the article Smoking adds a decade to your fertility age, experts say smoking could be hurting your chances. However, lead researcher Dr Bea Lintsen, from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, says: "The positive news from our results is that they suggest that couples – in particular, women with unexplained subfertility – may be able to improve the success of IVF treatment by quitting smoking."
Quit smoking reason #8: Stay beautiful
According to Kori Ellis, author of 8 Healthy skincare tips, studies show that the skin of cigarette smokers ages more than twice as fast as that of non-smokers. Smoking dehydrates your skin and depletes it of essential nutrients. She suggests that you detoxify your skin by quitting smoking and/or limiting your exposure to second hand smoke and other pollutants.
Quit smoking reason #9: Better your digestive health
Believe it or not, smoking can contribute to digestive diseases. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases warns that smoking can effect all parts of the digestive system, contributing to such common disorders as heartburn and peptic ulcers as well as increasing the risk of Crohn's disease, and possibly gallstones, which form when liquid stored in the gallbladder hardens into pieces of stone-like material. Smoking can even damage your liver.
Quit smoking reason #10: Be a good role model
Even though packs of smokes say smoking is hazardous to your health, your kids are going to look to you for guidance. If you smoke, chances are great they will, too. If you don't, you improve the chances they won't, either. If you quit, you are showing them that smoking is a poor choice for long-term health and, as importantly, you are showing them that you care enough about them as well as yourself to live to see them grow up and have kids of their own.
http://www.sheknows.com/holidays-and-seasons/articles/807098/10-reasons-to-quit-smoking
Saturday, 25 October 2014
We Need to Tackle Mental Health Stigma in African and Caribbean Communities
Mental health problems are extremely common across society, with one in four of us experiencing them in any year. Despite being so common, people from all communities will still experience discriminatory attitudes and behaviours that can prevent people from speaking out, seeking support and playing full and active roles in our communities. The impact of mental health stigma and discrimination will vary between communities as mental health has a cultural context that affects the way communities talk about the subject and engage with people who have mental health problems. In some cultures depression, for example, doesn't exist and in others an experience of a mental health problem can be attached to a sense of shame.For the African and Caribbean communities a key issue is the overrepresentation of young African and Caribbean men in mental health services. Misconceptions and stereotypes have led to a perception that this group is more likely to pose a risk of violent behaviour and, as a result, they are more likely to be treated as inpatients and sectioned when compared to other groups. It is well documented that this has led to a fear of talking about mental health issues more openly and a fear of using mental health services. Research by the Race Equality Foundation (2011) also highlighted fears that discrimination against Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and migrant service users will increase in the austerity climate and whilst commissioning arrangements change.The African and Caribbean community is a priority audience for the Time to Changecampaign, and having undertaken some initial work we were keen to secure more resources to pilot new approaches and scale up effective existing projects but with a more tailored focus on this specific audience.A funding boost from the Big Lottery Fund will allow us to develop a new strand of our programme with an integrated range of projects co-produced and delivered with the African and Caribbean community. Across all of this work we will be supporting and training more African and Caribbean people with mental health problems to deliver activity and lead change within communities.There will be a tailored social marketing campaign designed with people from the community to ensure it resonates and has the desired impact. We plan to work with African and Caribbean community partners to run a series of events across the country that bring audiences with and without mental health problems into direct social contact. This is an effective evidence-based approach to improving public attitudes..Some of these events will follow a similar model to the Stereo-Hype event which was a partnership with an East London mental health service provider, and community group called Mellow. The two day festival celebrated the strengths and achievements of African and Caribbean people living with mental health problems. Through its mix of music, film, drama and comedy it attracted 600 visitors, many of whom may not normally engage with the subject of mental health but who, through attending the event, learnt more about how mental health problems can affect members of their community and how to support someone experiencing a mental illness.We also hope to be able to build on a recent roundtable discussion with leaders and senior members of Black Majority Churches who were keen to support a new campaign.The Big Lottery Funding will also allow us to pilot a very new unique project to research, test and evaluate an intervention aimed at improving the attitudes and behaviour of 900 staff responding to young African Caribbean men using services in one location. Key factors for success will be to recruit and support 300 young African and Caribbean men with experience of mental health problems to help design and deliver activity. We also hope that as well as benefiting from the project, the engagement of staff from primary care, mental health services and the police will enable us to use their insights when designing the activity..Evaluation of all projects will aim to evidence the impact as well as provide wider learning for future work. With our existing programme funding from the Department of Health and Comic Relief we have commissioned a new national survey to measure the levels of discrimination experienced by people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities using mental health services across England. This will be the largest survey of its kind, and will also provide valuable data and information to guide our work and that of others. The new grant from the Big Lottery Fund will pay for a follow-up survey in 2015 to measure any changes two years later. By the end of March 2015, we will have reached 495,000 people from the African and Caribbean community.Our vision is of a society where no one should experience discrimination on the grounds of their mental health and this vital funding will help us to achieve this by developing new partnerships with the African and Caribbean communities. Visit theTime to Change website to find out more about our work with Black and Minority Ethnic groups.http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sue-baker/mental-health-stigma-in-african-caribbean_b_3364647.html
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