By Dr. Gaby Cora

We have known of the health benefits the Mediterranean diet provides for some time.

In fact, I always recommend it to all my clients - and patients - unless they have healthy traditional foods and a healthy heritage.

This Spanish study suggests the Mediterranean diet may have a protective role against depression after studying a group of 10,000+ people prospectively over 4+ years. Although the underlying mechanism is unknown, the diet has already been linked to beneficial effects to the heart and immunologic system.

Food for thought

Would you consider changing your diet if you learned you could live longer and healthier years?

By Dr. Gaby Cora

In this survey carried at Rutgers, two thirds of the respondents who lost their job expressed feelings of depression. Most surveyed were laid off with no advance notice. Living on a paycheck, most borrowed money from family and friends. Most responders experienced increased relational problems with their partners and family members, had trouble sleeping or increased their alcohol or drug consumption.

What can you do if you lose your job?

1.    Get organized to bounce back as soon as possible: Most of those who were laid off did not have any retraining or company-sponsored smooth transition. Although you may expect this from your employer, this is ultimately your responsibility. Update your résumé, write a list of all your best skills, write down each and every work-related positive experience or “win” that you have had and, once prepared, start searching for other positions where you could incorporate transferable skills from your previous job into a new job opportunity. Even if you had years of experience in one industry, keep an open mind and search in other industries.

2.    Talk with your spouse: you are in this together: remember, together in good and bad times? Address your own concerns and acknowledge the fact that this is, indeed, a very stressful time for you and for your family: you cannot do this alone. Brainstorm about immediate ideas or possibilities about improving your situation and think of other possibilities that may be helpful in the long-term. Assess your financial situation. Make sure that you are not spending in some areas where you could cut down your expenses and look at additional ways in which you can increase your income.

3.    Talk to your kids: our kids have been brought up in greater affluence than we were raised. Tell them you are in a tough situation and discuss ways in which everyone can contribute to improve the challenges even with the little things. May be they can help by taking on additional chores, may be they can help with their brothers and sisters, may be they can help with each other’s homework and so on.

4.    Socialize with others: one of the biggest challenges is people tend to isolate from family, friends or other business colleagues out of feeling down, unsuccessful or just embarrassed. Acknowledge these feelings but avoid dwelling on them: whatever is lost is lost and the faster you can move on the more resilient you will become.

5.    Stay healthy: smoking, drinking, using drugs, eating junk food or avoiding exercise won’t help you in any way. Use my Managing Work in Life® with LOVE formula to increase your resilience as you move on into your next opportunities.

By Dr. Gaby Cora

Do our kids stress more than we did when we were young?

Just as an example, if you feel swamped with the blessings and curses that instant technology brings to you, what about their situation? They have been born in the technology boom.

In addition, there are great disparities in the world of these children: those born into homes where they are well-taken care of and those who have experienced and lived atrocities that no adult or child should ever experience.

The stress children experience nowadays may be different to the stress kids exerienced thirty, fifty or one hundred years ago.

Back then, we would have been asked to snap out of it.

This new generation is more knowledgeable and accepting of mental health problems, medical issues and societal issues. On the other end, many worry about this generation’s work ethics, resilience and openness.

Thoughts?

By Dr. Gaby Cora

Are you interested in staying young forever? I was honored to participate on a panel with other prestigious speakers at the Anti-Aging Panel at the Florida Conference for Women in Orlando Florida, last week. The panel included Dr. Saralyn Mark, Dr. Deborah Harding and our distinguished moderator was Dr. Carol Scott.

By Dr. Gaby Cora - Executive Health & Wealth

The taboo of suicide prevails. People avoid what is hard to understand and try to make sense of what may have little sense when people feel cornered, embarrassed and frustrated to the point of no return.

As stress increases during times of recession, so does the potential for violence toward others or self.

Although suicide is connected to depression in many ways, impulsiveness plays a large role in these other situations related to company officials: suicide seems to be the only way out of what seems to be a road of no return.

To learn more about suicide prevention, please visit: Healthy Minds - American Psychiatric Association

For more information, visit my other blog: Screen for depression during financial stress and economic crisis.

By Dr. Gaby Cora – Executive Health & Wealth Institute

Good nutrition is a key pillar providing for our physical, mental, and emotional stamina. There are too many guidelines as to “what” to eat, but few to guide us as to “how” to eat in a healthy way. The bottom line is simple: implementing a healthy diet demands discipline and adhesion to a schedule. Download as an MP3: Wellbeing tip of the day: Eat Well

By Dr. Gaby Cora

In an ideal world, we would dedicate eight hours of our day to work, another eight to enjoy recreational activities and the last eight hours to sleep. The true question is, how many of you live in the ideal world?

Dr. Gaby Cora

October 10^th is National Depression Screening Day.

The current economic and financial crisis has created increased pressure on all of us. As many struggle with the uncertainty of whether or not they will continue to have a job, others deal with the challenges of laying people off, many of whom may have been colleagues and friends. With stress reaching epidemic numbers, many struggle with staying healthy during rough times. Stress affects the most vulnerable systems: some people will experience frequent migraine headaches, whereas others will develop gastrointestinal problems, and others will have high blood pressure. Stress may trigger panic attacks in some people and will affect others with clinical depression.

By Dr. Gaby Cora

Many feel gloomy with concerns about the current economy, increasing gas prices, the war, foreclosures, and the challenges of doing more with less. Everyone talks about recession depression. Many worry as they now restrict their expenses including starting the morning at Starbucks. Following my Friday television interview on Recession Depression, these are some key points to keep in mind as we deal with these challenges: