The above photo, from the New York Times: “Isabelle Caro, a French model and actress who became the international face of anorexia when she allowed her ravaged body to be photographed nude for an Italian advertising campaign to raise awareness about the disease, died on Nov. 17. She was 28.”

Feb. 26 to March 3 marks National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. More than 10 million men and women in the United States have battled eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, and millions more suffer from binge eating disorder. The peak onset of eating disorders occurs during puberty and the late teen and early adult years. Eating disorders, however, are now being documented in children as young as kindergarten as well as older adults. This week serves as an opportunity to raise awareness for these potentially life threatening disorders, and reduce the stigma over receiving treatment.

Eating disorders are troublingly common in the college population, with disordered eating habits affecting 50 percent or more of college students. Furthermore, evidence has shown that up to one in three dieters progress to some form of disordered eating. “Disordered eating” includes a wide-range of abnormal eating behaviors, including several of the behaviors seen in anorexia or bulimia. Though disordered eating itself may not meet all the criteria for the full-blown disease state of anorexia or bulimia, disordered eating can certainly lead to these serious medical conditions. It can also have general negative effects on a person’s overall emotional, social and physical health.

Interview with Dr. Indranill Basu Ray, expert in the field of meditation and medicine. Check out his website at www.indranillbasuray.com. As discussed in the show, Dr. Basu Ray offers meditation guidance free of charge!

Dr. Basu Ray has trained in medicine and cardiology in India; in interventional electrophysiology and device therapy from the University of Toronto; and in electrophysiology research from Massachussets General Hospital at Harvard Medical School. He has been in charge of Experimental EP Lab at Beth Israel Deconess Medical Center and a faculty in Medicine (Cardiology) at Harvard Medical School. He is presently with Ochsner Medical Foundation and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans and at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Basu Ray is a Professor and Dean of the College of Integrative Medicine, HUA, in Orlando, Florida since 2008.

People often turn to several holiday vices to deal with pressure, whether that be stuffing their faces with those delicious holiday cookies or having a few extra glasses of eggnog. Recognizing my own sources of holiday stress, I’ve recently been reflecting on my personal game plan for dealing with the holiday blues. Exercise — yoga in particular — has always given me a sense of calm in times of stress, so I’ve decided to amp up my routine this season. Though exercise and yoga have always been my coping habits, I’ve often wondered why they seem to work so well. I’d like to share a little research so that maybe you too will consider rolling out your yoga mats this holiday season.

Last week, I was downloading the latest software on my smartphone and it just stopped working. I frantically began to take the battery in and out of my phone repeatedly in hopes that miraculously the strategy would eventually work. I then pressed every button on my phone several times thinking that might work too. Throughout the day, I asked everyone around me if they knew what to do or had any suggestions. Oh, by the way, I was at work and had plenty of things I could and should be doing…but I had a one-track mind…this was a crisis.

After work, I sped to my nearest cell phone service store hoping they would have a solution. Tears welled in my eyes as the service rep said “I’m sorry, this sometimes just happens, there’s nothing we can do.” You would think my best friend had just died. They couldn’t give me a phone in the store (of course not, that would be way too easy). Instead I was informed that I would be receiving my warranty replacement phone in the mail in two to three days.

TWO TO THREE DAYS?! WITH NO CELL PHONE?! I did what any rational person would do….sobbed in the middle of the store. They had no compassion. I left the store, phoneless and alone.

The next few days without my cell phone were completely unproductive. I was obsessed with the fact that I did not have a cell phone. I found myself habitually reaching into my pocket or purse to grab my phone several times a day, to no avail. It’s not that I had any particular phone call to make, but I just had this compulsion to check. I felt lost, uninformed, and overall just plain bored. I never realized how much I mindlessly checked my phone until I didn’t have one.

I’ll save the rest of the details of my sob story, but three days later I got my phone. It was a great day.

In hindsight, this sounds ridiculous and I’m a little embarrassed over my behavior. This episode made me realize how much technology, smartphones, laptops, and all the instantaneous virtual social connections we have access to can truly be habit forming and potentially addictive.

A new study released in the journal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing examines the habitual behavior of smartphone users. The article finds that many smartphone users have developed what they call “checking habits.” These are automated behaviors where the phone is quickly opened to check the standby screen or content in a specific application, such as repetitive checks of e-mail, text messages, or Facebook. The habits are often triggered by boredom or a need to stay informed and stimulated (a common attribute of Gen Y!). The smartphone is perfect for fulfilling this perceived need for stimulation as the phones have the ability to provide quick access to rewards like social networking, communications, and news.

Researchers in this particular study found that smartphones are used by some people as much as 2.7 hours per day. On average, subjects in this study checked their phones 34 times a day. The checks typically lasted less than 30 seconds and were often done within 10 minutes of each other.

The strongest habitual patterns were related to the use of the internet in various forms, such as checking e-mails, Facebook, update feeds, and news headlines. Research subjects described their use of e-mail as a way of achieving an awareness that nothing important was missed, as opposed to actively writing messages to others. Users of update feeds and news headlines appreciated the easy access to quick information and the ability to stay in touch with the world. Frequent Facebook users described their usage as an escape from boredom and to keep up with what others were doing throughout the day.

Technically, you have to be careful when calling this excessive and habitual cell phone checking an “addiction.” Addiction is defined by many psychiatrists as compulsive behaviors that exist despite serious negative consequences for personal, social, or occupational function. In other words, addiction and habits are part of the same continuum but addiction is a complete loss of control and is detrimental to one’s own personal and social functioning while a habit is much less severe. This study actually found that most frequent smartphone checkers perceive their habit as non-problematic and at the worst it is considered an annoyance. However, many do recognize that their obsession with constant virtual social connections is time-consuming and may detract from real life interactions.

As interesting as this all is, what does any of this have to do with Gen Y health?

1. Increased risk of nonsocial behavior: Connecting with people via cell phones and the internet is not the same thing as one-on-one conversations. People often interrupt family meals or social time to take a call or text. Not only does this annoy the people around you, but a lack of true social support systems can lead to depression.

2. Driving accidents: In 2010, the National Safety Council found that 28% of traffic accidents occurred when people were talking on a cellphone or sending text messages while driving. 1.4 million traffic accidents annually are caused by cellphone conversations and 200,000 are blamed on text messaging. The compulsion to check a smartphone doesn’t go away just because someone is behind the wheel.

3. Decreased concentration: Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist at UCSF describes to CNN news that “whenever you take a break from what you’re doing to unnecessarily check your e-mail, studies show, it’s hard to go back to your original task. You really pay a price,” he says.

4. Potential for withdrawal and physical effects: Although still very controversial, the psychologist in this CBS news story describes how the new emergence of cell phone “addiction” not only causes people to disconnect from reality but can also cause withdrawal symptoms when people are without their phones, such as anxiety, insomnia, and depression. He states that the withdrawal from the addiction causes an increase of the stress hormone cortisol in the body which may have detrimental effects.

So, are you a habitual smartphone checker? Here are a few tips to cut down on use and break the habit:

Acknowledge the problem 

Ok fine, this sounds a little AA, but you may be able to curb your checking behaviors by simply being aware of how much you actually check your phone.

Have smartphone-free times and places

If you are out to dinner with friends, seriously, stash away the cell phone. We have all been at a dinner where there are six cell phones sitting on the table. What’s the point? You have real human interaction going on, take advantage of it.

Also, if you are trying to have a serious study or work session, it’s a good idea to put the phone away. Award yourself every hour or two with a quick check. It’s a lot more productive than checking every 10 minutes.

Stash the phone away in your glove compartment or in your backseat while driving. This will decrease your urge to pick up the phone and text or check an e-mail. If you have to talk while driving, there are a lot of hands-free devices that can be purchased and used to decrease your driving risk, although hands-free doesn’t mean distraction-free.

It may also be a good idea to keep the phone out of the bedroom. Many people stay awake at night checking e-mails on their phone, texting, or browsing the internet. This stimulation makes falling asleep more difficult, and lack of sleep is certainly detrimental to your health (check out my radio show from 7/29!).

A recent study out this month in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity has shown that improved body image may lead to improved weight loss. In this randomized controlled trial, the treatment group that participated in group sessions covering topics such as emotional and external eating and improving body image and acceptance lost an average of 7% of their body weight after one year compared to the control group which averaged less than a 2% loss of their body weight. The body image intervention aimed to increase participants’ body acceptance and satisfaction, and decrease their preoccupation and investment in their appearance. The study concluded that body image is important to address in weight control programs.

This really makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Several factors are included in the big equation to living a healthy lifestyle, including the regulation of eating behaviors. By regulation, I mean not overindulging in food and also not severely restricting caloric intake. I’m talking about that happy medium in between that can often be so difficult to reach! But our own negative body image may actually be making that goal even more difficult to obtain.

Research has repeatedly shown that body image plays a huge role in eating behaviors and can also predict disordered eating patterns. Body image problems are highly prevalent in overweight and obese people, and a negative self-image is actually a positive predictor of poorer weight outcomes and increasing chances of relapse.

Poor body image is also associated with the adoption of unhealthy weight control strategies (i.e., severe calorie restriction) as well as binge eating. Furthermore, many models of bulimia nervosa cite body image concerns as having the most causal role in disease development.

Something I found particularly interesting in this recent study is the discussion of two different dimensions of body image that combine to form one’s total body image, and the importance this may play in weight loss. First, there is evaluative body image which refers to one’s personal appraisals and associated emotions about their own appearance. Second, there is body image investment referring to the importance that one places on their own appearance. Both of these components of body image are found to predict eating disturbances, however, it is body image investment that presents the greatest predictive power for the development of disordered eating that goes above and beyond that of only body dissatisfaction.

Of course, these “ideal” and often unobtainable body images, as well as the great importance we tend to place on them, don’t come out of nowhere. They come from the sociocultural pressures we are surrounded by in the media. Check out the video below for a great perspective on it regarding women. I’m sure the media has an “ideal” unobtainable body image for men also.

So what do we do about it? Simply ignoring sociocultural pressures is a difficult task. But I think self-awareness of the issue is a great start. As this study concludes, efforts to improve body image appear to be crucial in designing and implementing weight loss plans. So if you are trying to eat healthier and lose weight, don’t let a poor body image sabotage your goals. A little less loathing and a lot more love can go a long way!

Check out my latest article for the new incoming freshmen at Tulane University.

Leaving home for the first time and going to college is an exciting and monumental life event. At Tulane, students will meet new people from all over the country while living in one of the most unique and fun cities in the country. This also may be the first time you are living independently from your parents without any curfews or house rules. College life is full of excitement, and you are bound to have a great time.

Going to college, however, can also be overwhelming. Students are suddenly thrown into a new social scene and must develop relationships with a whole new set of peers. They may be living hours from home without the safe family structure and support system that they have had their entire life, all while dealing with the stress of college courses and seriously deciding on a career plan. Though it may feel great to assert some independence, many students are going to get homesick and yearn for a visit to their family for a home-cooked meal.

So after the excitement of orientation and moving into that new dorm starts to wear down, don’t be surprised if you start to feel a little down. You must realize, however, that you are not alone. In fact, a new study released this year in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry shows that one-quarter of college students accessing university primary care health centers screen positive for depression. Perhaps more alarmingly, approximately 10 percent of those surveyed had suicidal thoughts at some point in college. If these numbers sound large, it’s because they are. Within the past decade, depression and anxiety rates have risen on college campuses with more students seeking help for emotional distress than ever before. According to the American Psychological Association, the number of students on psychiatric medications has increased more than 10 percent in the past 10 years.

Though it is normal to occasionally feel sad, anxious or lonely, it is important to differentiate these normal feelings from symptoms of depression. Depression is a medical illness that can cause a deep feeling of sadness or marked loss of interest or pleasure in activities that you usually enjoy. Other symptoms include changes in appetite with weight loss or gain; insomnia or oversleeping; loss of energy; restlessness or irritability; feelings of worthlessness or guilt; difficulty concentrating; and thoughts of death or suicide. If you start to experience these feelings, it is time to seek help.

Tulane University offers several resources for those suffering from feelings of depression, as well as other mental illnesses. Tulane Student Heath Center Mental Health Services offers the services of both psychiatrists and therapists. Its website has several links for information on mental illness, including an online screening for depression, alcohol and eating disorders. The Center for Educational Resources and Counseling is a division of Student Affairs and is another resource that offers therapy services to students.

In addition to the many services available to help students dealing with depression, there are also several steps that you can take as preventive measures to avoid feelings of depression. A study by the American Psychological Association concluded that exercise is protective against the development of depression in college students. Luckily, at Tulane, we have the Reily Recreation Center, which offers a wide variety of fitness instruction and classes. Becoming socially engaged and avoiding isolation is another way to boost your mood and prevent depression. It’s important to join clubs, become involved in the community and create a new social network of friends that can serve as your support system away from home.

“Severe mental illness gone awry can easily lead to violence and/or the criminalization of mental health behavior which leads to imprisonment. There are people in jail in our community who really just need treatment for their mental health issues or substance abuse,” Desalvo said. ”There is violence on our streets that is the result of people not having their mental health issues or substance abuse issues adequately treated…It is important for our entire community that we tackle violence. Violence is a public health problem and it is very tightly linked to mental health and substance abuse.”

Listen to the interview below to learn more about mental health reform in New Orleans.