Do you really need mineral supplements?

Do you really need mineral supplements?

By

Dr. Leow Chee Seng

MBA (UPM), DBA (UBI), FBIH (UK), MMIM (Mal), MIHRM (Mal), MIM-CPT (Mal),CAHRP (Consultant) Mal), Certified E-Commerce Professional (Mal),Certified Professional Trainer (MIM, PSNB),Certified Stress Management (IACT, USA),Certificate Qualitative Research (Georgia, USA), Certificate in Homeopathy Medicine (Mal)

Practising Cognitive, Behavioural Therapist
Practicing Nutrition Therapist

When we walk into a pharmacy, the sale executive introduces different supplement to us. They explain the functions and benefits of each supplement. However, have we ever thought if the supplement needs by our body?

For a healthy people, supplements help us to
· Prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies when the diet does not provide adequate nutriens of all necessary nutrients.
· Supply amounts of nutrients larger than the diet can provide
· Protect against future disease

However, different individual takes supplement for various reasons. Recent nutrition surveys in United States has identified the deficiency supplement among their citizen includes calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, copper and manganese. In general, there are few groups of people need special concern on nutrition, early people premenopausal women, athletes and special care patients. Besides, weight-loss, pure vegetarian, macrobiotic, and several other diets can also place some people at risk of deficiencies that vary with the type of diet. Dietary deficiencies increase the risk for diseases.

Tips
Elderly people always stay at home. They would face deficiency of vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E, calcium, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and zinc.
Premenopausal women have found have low amount of consumption on calcium, iron, Vitamin A and Vitamin C.

Scientific prove on different vitamins
a) Vitamin A and beta-carotene.

A lot of people assume beta-carotene and vitamin A are the same. In fact, beta-carotene is a precursor to vitamin A. However, beta-carotene and vitamin A have different role in human health. When we shop in a pharmacy, it is not easy for us to buy vitamin A. Most of the supplement for vitamin A is sold in the form of beta-carotene. Deficiency of vitamin A is uncommon among healthy people except for older age groups. Several researches have proven that vitamin A is important for building our immune system but vitamin A supplementation did not help prevent infections in elderly people living in nursing homes. Bare in mind that never take vitamin A in the form of retinol more than 10,000 IU because it leads to birth defects and bone loss.

Beta-carotene increases the number of white blood cells and enhance-fighting immune functions in healthy people who take 25,000 to 100,000 IU per day. In contrast, there are some research that was conducted among smokers reported that supplements of synthetic beta-carotene increases the risk of both heart disease and lung cancer. However, a few of trials found that there is no positive and negative relationship between synthetic beta-carotene and other diseases including cancer, diabetes, angina pectoris, age-related eye disease, and intermittent claudicating. In practical, I always encourage people to take natural food as the source of beta-carotene instead of synthetic. Research has found that synthetic beta-carotene even is similar to synthetic beta carotene but only natural beta-carotene is able to reverse precancerous changes, which synthetic beta carotene does not. No studies have done to investigate if natural beta carotene could be more effective than synthetic form in preventing other diseases, but the potential harm for taking synthetic beta-carotene it should avoided by smokers.

b) Vitamins B

Vitamin B is subcategories into B1 (thiamine ), B2 (riboflavin) , B3(niacin) , B5(pantothenic acids ) B6(pyridoxine), B12(cobalamin). Western diet has adequate supply of vitamin B except vitamin B5 and B6 because the nutrition is added to white flour products and other food. There is a study shows that 49% of a group of male and female adolescents were found deficiency of vitamin B5. Vitamin B6 deficiency is common among geriatric population in western. Vitamin B12 deficiency is not common among healthy young people except vegans who also avoid daily and eggs. In US, there is about 15% of population face deficiency problem of this vitamin. One of the possibility of deficiency of vitamin B12 is due to people who take acid-blocking drugs or antacids for a long period of time. For old people, the deficiency of vitamin B12 is often related to degenerative that causing malabsorption of vitamin B12 from food among them. Another vitamin, biotin is produced by intestinal bacteria in amount that, along the typical dietary biotin intake, to prevent deficiency of nutrients.

There is no scientific research has done if vitamin B prevent disease. However, nutritionist believe that vitamin B6 is able to prevent heart disease by regulate blood homocysteine level in blood. However, there is no other research on preventive effect of vitamin B6 supplement on health. Vitamin B12 is important for control of homocysterine level in blood. Elevated homocysterine levels are associated with heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis, and some, even not all, research suggests that homocysteine has a direct role in causing those diseases.

In practice, 100 mcg per day of vitamin B12 was adequate to reverse vitamin B12 deficiency in healthy elderly people. Besides, daily supplementation with 400 mcg of folic acids, 10mg of vitamin B6 and 50mcg of vitamin B12 lowers elevated homocysteine levels in most people. Some research have shown that supplementing with one or more of these vitamins helps preventing or reverse hardening of arteries and may reduce the risk of bone fracture.

c) Folic Acids

Folic acids deficiency is quite common throughout the world. In United States, about 11% of healthy people are affected by deficiency of folic acids. Hence, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated that some grain products provide supplemental folic acids to reduce the prevalence of deficiency of folic acids. However, this increase of folic acids in food does not have effect on preventive measures for heart disease and birth defects.

The usage of folic acids in Obstetrics and gynecology clinic is common because requirement of folic acids double during pregnancy. The insufficient intake of folic acid has been associated to the low birth weight and increase in incidence of neural tube defects in newborns. Specialist would usually provide 400mcg per day of folic acid prior to and short conception to overcome of neural tube defects in newborns.

d) Ascorbic acids / vitamin C

Deficiency of vitamin C is rare in Asia but for those who consume Western diets, but insufficiency is found 6% of healthy adults especially among college students and smokers. For preventive purposes, a person is encouraged to take at least 90 to 100mg per day. Excessive concentration of vitamin C does not have any effect on concentration of vitamin C in the blood. Hence, a small amount of vitamin C is needed for prevention of disease.

e) Vitamin D

God provides us with free vitamin D everyday when exposing to sunlight, but sources can be insufficient especially for old people who seldom go out. Besides, deficiency of vitamin D also faces by vegans during winter month. In United States, there is 6% - 14% of population of healthy adult who has problem with deficiency of vitamin D. Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with bone loss and fractures in older people. In a double blind study, supplement of 800 IU per day of vitamin D prevented bone loss more effectively than 200 IU per day in postmenopausal women. Remember, vitamin D is known to be toxic in very high amounts, up to 2 000 IU per day is considered safe.

f) Vitamin E

It is reported that 27% of the US population had low blood levels of vitamin E. Research has found that 400 to 800 IY of vitamin E per day lowered risk of nonfatal heart attacks, but no fatal ones. Besides, there is another double blind trial found no beneficial effect from 400 IU per day of vitamin E supplementation on risk of nonfatal heart attacks, while another research found that 50 IU per day had no effect on heart attack. However, some double blind research has found that 50 IU per day of vitamin E is association with the reduction of risk of prostate cancer among smokers. Another recent research found that large amount of vitamin E (400IU per day or more) may result in a small increase in all-cause mortality, which another shows that there is an increase of heart failure. From all the research, some doctors are advising people not to take large amount of vitamin E.

In nutrition industries, mixed tocopherols, as opposed to the more w widely used alpha-tocopherols, may be safer and beneficial on heart-disease prevention. Supplementing of 100 IU per day of vitamin E is associated with lowered risk of heart disease

g) Vitamin K

Vitamin K is believed to help in blood clotting. Deficiency of vitamin K can cause bleeding problem but it is rare among healthy people. Besides blood clot, low vitamin K in blood is always associated to osteoporosis. In nutrition point of view, at least 1mg per day of vitamin K is used to reduce bone loss among women.

h) Calcium
Deficiency of calcium is more obvious among women. Good calcium nutrition throughout life is essential for achieving peak bone mass and preventing deficiency-related bone loss. Besides, scientific research has proven that high calcium level I the blood could reduce the possibility of bone fractures. However, very few researches conclude the effect of calcium on the protection of bones.
The needs of supplementing calcium for postmenapausal women, 800 to 1000mg is generally added to dies that commonly between 500mg to 700mg of calcium per day.

i) Phosphorus

Phosphorus plays essential roles in maintaining our health. However, our diets no matter the West or the East have adequate in this mineral. Some organisation proposed that the high level of phosphorus is hazardous to calcium and affects the metabolism of the bones. In general population, we do not need to take supplement of calcium. Hence, most multivitamins in the supplements do not add phosphorus as one of the element. However, for elderly there might be an exception because phosphorus level is associated to calcium level in our body. Hence, older person who is taking calcium supplement could be benefited when taking phosphorus supplement to increase absorption of the nutrients.

j) Magnesium

Magnesium deficiency is more commonly seen among elderly people. As the rule of thumb, at least 250mg per day may help preventing of bone lose.

k) Potassium

Modern diets have lower potassium level as compared to primitive diets. However, true deficiencies are uncommon. Some research has identified the role of potassium on preventing high blood pressure. Other research proposed that higher potassium level in diets can prevent stroke. Unfortunately, supplemental potassium allowed in each pill is only 99mg which is far below the recommended amount (2 400mg per day). However, multiple of potassium pills are recommended because it could cause stomach upset. Hence, in order to increase potassium level in the blood, the best method is to increase the frequency of taking fruits, vegetables or their juices.

l) iron

Deficiency of iron is more commonly among vegetarians, menstruating girls and women, pregnant women, female and adolescent athletes. Iron plays important roles in synthesis red blood cells (erythrocytes) in our body. Excessive of iron increases the risk factors for heart diseases, some cancers, diabetes, rate of infection and exacerbation of rheumatoid. In practice, iron supplements should be avoided unless they have been diagnosed with having, or being high risk of iron deficiency.

m) Iodine

Iodine deficiency is a major problem in many developing countries. Western countries have taken initiation to introduce iodized salt and the iodine is added to many foods. However, iodine intake has decrease in recent years. The deficiency is higher among countries where iodized salt is not available. Most people do not have problem regards to iodine unless they are avoiding seafood and sea vegetables. Patients with thyroid disease should check their doctor before using the iodine supplements.

n) Zinc

Zinc deficiency is not common but it has higher prevalence among countries with low incomes. Zink supplements (10mg per day) have prevented growth impairment in deficient American and Canadian children. Research has shown that 25mg to 150mg of zinc per day increases immune function among healthy people. Extreme level of zinc supplement impare the function of immune function and some healthcare professional recommend no more than 30mg to 50mg per day. There is a significant relationship between zinc level in blood and absorption of copper. Hence, when a person is taking zinc supplement, we would recommend them to take copper supplement to avoid zinc-induced copper deficiency.

o) Copper

The average dietary copper intake in the States has been found to below the accepted standards. Copper supplement helps to prevent bone loss. Since zinc can interfere with copper absorption, copper should be taken whenever zinc supplement are used for more than a few weeks.

p) Manganese

Although the content of manganese is low in processed food, but the dietary intake of the nutrient is adequate. Manganese deficiency has been associated with osteoporosis in unpublished studies. A double-blind trial found that a combination of mineral supplements including manganese prevented bone loss in postmenopausal women. Iron can reduce manganese absorption and cause lower body levels of manganese. So, manganese may be important to include when iron is supplemented. However, there is no other studies have studied the effect of manganese supplement to health.

q) Chromium

There is a disagreement about the extent of chromium deficiency in Western society because chromium nutrition has been difficult to study because of technical problems in analyzing foods and human body fluids for chromium content. Chromium deficiency has been associated with blood sugar and cholesterol abnormalities. A common observation is that the level of chromium in our body reduces during aging. Therefore, chromium supplements have not been tested of their ability to prevent diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Healthcare professionals recommend the supplement of chromium as a reasonable precaution because a few single case report have described possible side effects in people taking large amounts of chromium, from 600 to 2 400mcg per day, although it is not clear whether chromium was responsible for these reactions.

r) Selenium

Selenium deficiency is rare among US Citizen. According to Recommended Dietary Allowance (FDA), 70mcg per day of selenium is recommended in the diet. However, a double blind studies found that people with 200mcg of yeast based selenium per day for four and a half years had a 50% drop in the cancer death rate over seven years compared with the placebo group. For healthy people, higher amount of selenium has been used for the cancer preventive effect. The upper end of safe long-term selenium intake has been estimated to 350 – 400 mcg per day.

s) Molybdenum

Molybdenum is an essential mineral with low potential of toxicity. The deficiencies of Molybdenum is rare, estimated requirement are based on what a person usually received in their diets. A study was conducted in China found that there is no benefit for a supplement containing vitamin C and molybdenum for cancer and cardiovascular disease. There is no other study has been conducted on investigating disease prevention with molybdenum supplements.

Body Language

Body Language

Hi,

Have you ever wondered, apart from the muscle of your mouth and diaphragm, other muscle of your body too, communicates in their own way? You should realise very much that apart from speaking, your body’s movement is also a way of transmitting information. Although some people may be able to control their non verbal communication, most of us are unconscious of the information send by our body. It would be much easier to tell a lie then faking your body language.

So, what is meant by body language? Generally, body language is a non-verbal behaviour (movement and postures, facial expression, glances and eye contact, automatic reactions, spatial and touching behaviour) which is ‘meaningful’ in both natural and fictional communication. Whenever you are in a particular situation, you can’t help but to display some kind of behaviours; posture and spatial behaviour, facial expressions, gestures, and eye behaviour, both conscious and unconscious. Such behaviour would provide me with clues to your personal traits, mental states and interpersonal relationship.

In our daily life, non-verbal behaviour plays a most important role in almost all forms of our interactions. It is our trait to ‘read’ the reactions among ourselves in as many ways as possible. Body language accompanies all speech and even when you do not speak, your non-verbal behaviour continually provides information which can be meaningful to yourself if interpreted correctly. Information that can be valuable to you is such as feelings, thoughts, attitudes or interpersonal relationships.

According to several researches, a person’s ability to encode and decode his body language –varies according to your culture, gender and personality. You could be a ‘seer’, a ‘hearer’ or a ‘toucher’ etc. We each have our own idiosyncratic pattern and hierarchy of channel-use that derives from an interplay between our relative physical sensitivity in each of those sending and receiving channels and our cultural training and conditioning.

So, would you like to interpret your body language in order to understand yourself better? All you need to do is place some video cameras around you, probably in your home (living room, kitchen, dining room, garden etc) or in your workplace (office, pantry, guess reception etc). It may not necessarily be hidden. Send us the video of yourself and we would analyse your body language at absolutely no charge. In addition to your homemade video, you also required to send us ten photos of yourself. Each video should be accompanied by a brief description of the occasion happening when taking the video shot. Please email all the materials to readmybodylanguage@yaleconsultant.com and we should reply to you as soon as we can. Please rest assured that your video and photos will be kept secured and confidential. We would not publish or use your video and photos for any other means other than to make interpretation exclusively for you only. Hope to receive from you soon.

You may get your answers by browsing this wepage.

‘One cannot not communicate’
- Paul Watzlawick, 1968

The Meaning of Dream

The Meaning of Dream

Do we dream in order to sleep or do we sleep in order to dream?

Is the dream a normal concomitant and possible preserver only of Rapid Eye Movement sleep?

Are we not yet in a position to state decisively what the relationship is between psychological dream, phases of sleep, and other altered states of consciousness?


Dream is a universal human experience. The upsurge of dream and sleep studies have spurred efforts at interdisciplinary integration and re-evaluation of psychoanalytic dream theory. Since the beginning of humankind, we have been searching to understand the meaning of dreams. The Egyptians believed dreams possessed oracular power. In the Bible, Joseph's elucidation of Pharaoh's dream averted seven years of famine. Other cultures have interpreted dreams as inspirational, curative or alternative reality.

Bo one knows for sure why we dreams but some suggests that the function of dreams is the expression of unconscious wishes, physiological function and is a process information and emotions.

Since few centuries ago, scientists have been offering various explanation and neuroscientific explanations for dreams. Evaluation of the manifest dream is one of the areas of psychoanalytic. Nowadays, human has been equating the manifest of dream with neurotic symptom. In 1900, with the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud proposed that dreams were the "royal road" to the unconscious, that they revealed in disguised form the deepest elements of an individual's inner life.

You might wonder if you can seek your fortunes in the enigmatic images of dreams. We as dream interpreters respond by shedding light on the darker realm where elusive laws of fiction give birth to infinite possibility. The phenomena of dream involves events that are not experienced in the waking world; you might experience sudden shift of time and place, changes in age, the presence of persons known to be deceased or of fantastic persons and animals that never existed.

Someone who is angry at a friend but finds the anger quickly waning may dream of being furious at the friend. Someone who was quite well adapted socially, in the community, family and work areas of life may dream that an impressive voice said “You are not leading your true life!” Such dreams would deeply affect you for very long time and may completely burdening you as you may not actually know the significant of your dream. Thus, it is important that you allow us to help to derive real meaning of your dream and ultimately, derive the benefit of interpreting your dream.

So, let us interpret your dream for you at absolutely free of charge. All you have to do is write in detail, about what you see or hear or smell in your dream. Basically, tell us as much as possible, whatever you had experienced in the dream. Send us your dream detail by emailing to interpretmydream@yaleconsultant.com. Also, it would be helpful if you can describe your physical to us, including your marital status, racial/ethnic background, socioeconomic status and health developmental stage.

When you submit your dream interpretation the following information should be given:
a) Location of the dream
b) Person involves in the dream
c) Objects you encounter in the dream
d) Time in the dream any specific time
e) Experience in the dreams (feeling)
f) Activities in the dream (what has been done)
g) Frequency of repeating of the dream
h) Any experience you encountered in the dream? Share the experience.

The answers will be published in the blog without writing your name. Come back to this blog to get your answer!!

To help you recall you memory as much as possible, you do the followings:
- Avoid alcohol
- Instruct yourself to remember your dream before going to sleep
- Keep a notebook beside your bed and write your dream as soon as you awake. You may speak about your dream into a recorder
- Try to sleep as long as you can
- Try to waking without alarm
- Rehearse the dream before getting up
- Don’t pressure to remember

Disclaimer

As no dream is directly conveyed, dream interpretation relies on the retelling of a dream that displaces whatever may have inspired it. Please understand that to recall a dream is to generate a narrative based heterogeneous material. Interpretation translates the dream to text into new texts and contexts. While no dream is ever fully transcribed or understood, an interpretation may serve limited ends when it is incites a dreamer to change.

The most skilful interpreter of dreams is he who has the faculty of observing resemblances
- Aristotle

Understanding homeopathy

Understanding Homeopathy
Dr Leow Chee Seng
MBA (UPM), DBA (UBI), FBIH (UK), MMIM (Mal), MIHRM (Mal), MIM-CPT (Mal),
CAHRP (Consultant) Mal), Certified E-Commerce Professional (Mal),
Certified Professional Trainer (MIM, PSNB),Certified Stress Management (IACT, USA),
Certificate Qualitative Research (Georgia, USA), Certificate in Homeopathy Medicine (Mal)Practising Cognitive, Behavioural Therapist

“Let like be cured with like’. The homeopathic principle is that when a substance is given to a healthy person they will show signs and symptoms in the form of the disease. If the substance is prepared homeopathically and given to a patient who is suffering with similar signs and symptoms, it is seen that health is restored through the rebalancing of energies.

History of Homeopathy

Homeopathic theory began in 469—399 BC with the Greek physician Hippocrates. He believed that by observing the individual symptoms and reactions to a disease he could prescribe a remedy that would draw upon the patient’s own powers of healing as well as the power of the remedy itself. This was in contrast to the conventional thinking of the time, which taught that the gods were the main force behind a disease and that a cure could be found by treatment with a substance that had an opposite effect in a healthy person the complete reverse of the homeopathic principle.

The German doctor Samuel Hahnemann (1755—1843) was the modern-day founder of homeopathy. His experiments with quinine proved to him that ‘like cures like’. Quinine was known to be an effective treatment for malaria so for several days he took doses of quinine Although he was not suffering from malaria, after several doses of quinine he began develop symptoms of the disease. The symptoms would begin after he had taken a dose of quinine and last for hours afterwards.

To further develop his theory he began to test other substances used in medicine at the time in the same way. This time he used groups of volunteers. He recorded the effect of each substance on the individual, noting any reactions. This was called ‘proving’ the remedy. At the end of this process Hahnemann had listed many substances which could be used to treat a variety of conditions. It was important, however, to understand the nature of each person receiving the treatment, as he found that particular ‘types’ of people showed different symptoms for the same disease and therefore needed to be matched to the remedy closest to their type.

Hahnemann also believed the remedies acted on the person’s ‘vital force’ (this is the body’s own healing potential). He believed that the remedies helped to activate the body’s vital force and trigger a reaction to fight a certain disease or condition. The type of remedy given would be the key to triggering the right reaction and stimulating the vital force to combat the disease or ailment. The remedy should therefore not only mirror the symptoms of the disease, but also the type of person taking the remedy. During his lifetime Hahnemann proved over a hundred homeopathic remedies. In 1811 he published The Organon of Rationale Medicine, which set out his theories and listed the many proved remedies.

American doctor James Tyler Kent (1849—1943) dedicated himself to homeo­pathy, continuing Hahnemann’s work. He further developed the idea of types of people and that a remedy must be matched according to the emotional and physical characteristics of a person. These types became known as ‘constitutional types’. He went on to write the Kent Repertory. The information in the repertory is stored under remedy headings, with emphasis given to mental and emotional symptoms.

Potentization – less is more!

Hahnemann believed in the vital force as a healing source and therefore wished to use the minimum amount of a substance to bring about the healing effect; this would also cause as few side effects as possible (known as aggravations). He discovered that if the substance was diluted it achieved a far better result. Thus the less the original substance remained in the remedy, the greater its potency. In order to get less of the original substance it must be diluted, so the greater the dilution, the more potent the remedy. This leads to the practice of potentization.

Remedies are potentized in the following way. An alcoholic/water extract is made from the material in question (called the mother tincture). The extract is then diluted to the required potency. The main potencies are: x = 1 in 10; c = 1 in 100; m = 1 in 1000. So a ic potency is diluted 1 part mother tincture in 99 parts water. A 2c would take 1 part of the previous dilution and dilute again in 99 parts water and so on. The terms ‘c’, ‘x’ and ‘m’ therefore denote the degree of dilution of a particular remedy.

Before each dilution the mixture is shaken vigorosly this is known as succussion. Once the potency is reached, a few drops the substance are then applied to lactose (milk sugar) tablets and the tablets are placed in an airtight, dark-glass bottle and stored away from direct sunlight.

Sources of homeopathic remedies

There are over 3000 remedies worldwide. This book covers the most used, useful and easily available remedies for common ailments. Further detailed study of remedies can be undertaken by reference to Boericke’s Materia Medica with Repertory.

I believe that the worst that can happen with homeopathic treatment is that the remedies do not work; that is to say, they do not achieve an effect. It is also prudent to state that homeopathic treatment is not a substitute for conventional medical treatment and that patients should always consult a doctor for treatment of any serious medical condition (although homeopathy can, of course, work alongside conventional medicines).

A remedy can be made from virtually any source using the above method, but the most common sources are plants, trees, poisons and minerals.

Modalities

Modalities are influences which worsen or improve the symptoms of the patient. They are an invaluable guide to the choice of a homeopathic remedy. Modalities can be in several forms, depending on the associated remedy:
· Physical modalities: movement, position” of the body, touch, rest, exertion, noise and smells.
· Temperature modalities: hot, cold, warm, wind, season of the year, damp. Time modalities: day or night, morning, afternoon or evening; hourly (e.g. 10 a.m., 1 a.m., 3 p.m.).
· Dietary modalities: foods, drinks, stimulants, alcohol.
· Localized modalities: left-handed, right­handed, left worse, right worse.


Homeopathic Aggravation

An ‘aggravation’ is the term given to a temporary worsening of the condition, which is viewed as a positive sign, meaning the remedy is working and has stimulated the vital force into the action of healing. For an acute condition the aggravation may last several hours; for a chronic case it may last up to two days. An improvement should follow after the aggravation. If an aggravation is experienced the remedy should be halted to allow the vital force and immune system to fight the condition. If the original symptom(s) begins to return the remedy should be taken again to provide further stimulation to the body’s vital force.

Not everyone experiences an aggravation, and it is not necessary to experience one for the remedies to work; many people’s conditions improve without an aggravation. If there is no improvement in the symptoms or condition, with or without an aggravation, this is an indication that a different remedy may be needed.

The vital force

This refers to the body’s own subtle energy. The vital force may be run down by many factors, for example stress, poor diet and nutrition, hereditary conditions or lack of exercise. Homeopathic remedies stimulate the vital force to enable the body to heal itself by energizing it and enabling it to return to optimum health.

How Depressed Are You?

Listed below are a variety of thoughts that pop into our heads. Please read each thought and indicate how frequently, if at all, the thought occurred to you over the last week. Please read each item carefully and indicate the appropriate response, using the scale below

5 4 3 2 1
All the time Often Moderate often Sometimes Not at all

1. I feel like I’m up against the world.
2. I’m no good
3. Why can’t I ever succeed?
4. No one understands me.
5. I’ve let people down.
6. I don’t think I can go on.
7. I wish I were a better person
8. I’m so weak.
9. My life’s not going the way I want it to.
10. I’m so disappointed in myself.
11. Nothing feels good anymore
12. I can’t stand this anymore
13. I can’t get started
14. What’s wrong with me?
15. I wish I were somewhere else
16. I can’t get things together
17. I hate myself
18. I’m worthless
19. I wish I could just disappear.
20. What’s the matter with me?
21. I’m a loser
22. My life is a mess.
23. I’m a failure
24. I’ll never make it
25. I feel so helpless
26. Something has to change
27. There must be something wrong with me
28. My future is bleak
29. It’s just not worth it.
30. I can’t finish anything.

Used with permission of Dr. Steven D. Hollon of Vanderbilt University. For more information see: S. D. Hollon, and P.C. Kendall (1980) "cognitive self-statement in depression: Development of an automatic thought questionnaire." Cognitive Therapy and Research, 4, 383 – 95.
Scoring

To find your score, simply add together your response for 30 items.


Norms

Score Percentile
60 85
55 70
49 50
43 30
38 15

Why Negative Thought appear in my mind during emotional disorder?

MBA (UPM), DBA (UBI), MMIM, MIHRM,MIM-CPT, CAHRP (Consultant),Certified E-Commerce Professional (Mal),Certified Professional Trainer (MIM, PSNB),Certified Stress Management (IACT, USA),Certificate Qualitative Research (Georgia, USA)Certificate in Homeopathy Medicine (Mal)Practising Cognitive, Behavioural Therapist

During attending a psychotherapy session with my clients, I posted the following question,

" What was going through your mind at the moment when you got to the meeting/class late?

The client replied, I'm always late. I'm undisciplined. My colleagues will look down on me."

Let's look at another example,

"What was going through your mind at the moment when you fail your exam? Break up with your partners?"

"I am a failure. I am worthless. Why I can't do it!"

The examples above shows the Negative automatic thoughts (NAT). What is NATs? NATs are situation-specific and involuntarily "pop into" our mind when we are experiencing emotional distress such as depression or anxiety. The concept appears in our mind and hard to thrun off. NATs always lie outside immediate awareness but can quickly brought to the client's attention.

In general, underlying assumptions and rules guide behaviour, set standards and provide rules to follow. Unfortunately, these assumptions and rules are often not expressed among ourselves. Most of us do not realise we have underlying assumption. The most common underlying assumption appear when we have the statement, "If.... then" construction, and rule are usually expressed in "must" and "should" statements. These assumption and rules are the means by which individuals hope to avoid face to face with their negative core beliefs. The "truth" of the assumption is not questioned and the assumption and rules serve to maintain and reinforace.

Beck et al (1985) suggested that maladaptive assumption often focus on the three major issues

a) Acceptance (I'm useless unless I am able to score high mark"

b) Competence (I'm what I accomplish)

c) Control (I can't ask for help. No one can understand me)

The assumption and rules are cross-situational and are intermediate beliefs that lie between NATS and core belief (Beck, 1995).

All negative core are overgeneralized and unconditional. They are formed through early learning experience and activated by relevant life events. Once it is activated, negative core beliefs process information in a biased way that confirms them and disconfirms contradictory information. Core belief can be about the self and the world.

Let's me link the whole concept to a practical senario. George is a university student. When he fails to get "A" grades in his exams. His dormant core belief, "I am a failure" is activated by his inability to live up to his rigid rile of living tat he must be the best at everything he does and his mind is flooded with NATS. "I can't show my face at university. Run away and hide. The whole university is laughing at me.

Hence in clinical psychotherapy, we are working at the NATS level to provide symptom-relief while tackling maladaptive assumption and negative core beliefs reduce a client's vulnerability to experience future episodes of emotional disturbance. Hence, I prefer implementing cognitive therapy as the early intervention at the NATS level and move on to underlying assumption and core beliefs.

How Do You Think When Your Emotional Distress?

MBA (UPM), DBA (UBI), MMIM, MIHRM,MIM-CPT, CAHRP (Consultant),Certified E-Commerce Professional (Mal),Certified Professional Trainer (MIM, PSNB),Certified Stress Management (IACT, USA),Certificate Qualitative Research (Georgia, USA)Certificate in Homeopathy Medicine (Mal)
Practising Cognitive, Behavioural Therapist

According to information-processing model which posits that during psychological distess, a person's thinking becomes more rigid and distorted, judgements become overgeneralized and absolute, and the person's basic beliefs about the self and the world become fixed. For example, there is a morning when I was waken up by a phone call. My emotional is disturbed. No matter what facts came to me it was transformed to a negative thought. From there, common information processing errors found in emotional distress include

a) All or nothing thinking: situation are viewed in "either/or terms". For example, you are either happy or not happy in life. Then you will choose, I am not happy.

b) Jumping to conclusions: justments are rushed. During depression or emotional disturb, we claimed that, "The therapist doesn't help me!". or "No one can understand me!"

c) Mind reading: discending the thoughts of other without any accompanying evidence. For example, "My brother didn't smile at me this morning, so means he is unhappy with me.

d) Labelling: attaching labels to oneself instead of to one's behaviour, " Because I can't cook a nice dinner, this means I am a failure."

e) Emotional reasoning: assuming that feeling are facts. This is proven from the following example, : I feel imcompetent, so it must be true."

We must identify and correct these errors in our thinking facilitates the return of information processing that is more evidence-based, flexible and relative (non-absulute).

The next writting, I will share with you the three level of thinking.

Hope you will be happy and able to control your emotion from now.