I suppose there might be people out there who can file their annual tax returns stress-free. Congratulations! For the rest of us, condolences!
Money and Stress
In 1943, the US government enlisted the help of Donald Duck to educate Americans about how to pay their income tax and why it was important to the war effort.
“Money is a major source of stress on people, and what tax season does is shine a great big spotlight on the issue,” Michael McKee, a Cleveland Clinic psychologist and president of the U.S. branch of the International Stress Management Association, told WebMD. “Money takes center stage at tax time, even if you might have been able to push it to the wings the rest of the year.”
A 2004 survey sponsored by the American Psychological Association found that nearly three-quarters of Americans cited money as a significant source of stress. Money is also consistently among the top causes of marital contention, says Olivia Mellan, a psychotherapist and financial self-help author based in Washington, D.C.
Heightened Tax Stress
And nothing focuses us on money like tax time. Anyone can face the stress of having money due and too little money on hand. For those who itemize, there are additional sources of stress:
eFiling comes with the risk of computer glitches or internet lag affecting your tax returns.
The frustration of the forms’ language
Finding time to do the work
Filing for an extension
Missing documents
(This is a biggie. It could be anything, but it’s often receipts. I won’t go into the time my husband inadvertently threw away all of our 1099s.)
Then there are miscellaneous stresses:
You finally wedged a CPA appointment into a jammed schedule only to discover that said CPA has moved, you can’t find the office, miss the appointment, etc.
Your CPA retired last summer
A bigger accounting firm absorbed your old one and now communications are via a headquarters in South Carolina (or wherever)
Sources of Financial Stress
But virtually every item on the topic index is rife with sources of stress. These may or may not be directly related to the taxes due, but dealing with them at tax time could well trigger strong emotions. Here is a select list:
Tax season causes everyone financial stress. These stacks are just some of the $110,000,000 worth of stamps the IRS used to send out tax forms in 1914.
Alimony paid or received (or not)
…and associated hostility
Business use of home
…and the strain it puts on family
Casualty or theft loss
…and the aftermath of being a victim of crime
Child and dependent care expenses
…meeting them, but also finding such services in the first place, and possibly the precariousness of arrangements
Contributions
…a willing tithe to church, or possibly being pressured to support your alma mater
Education expenses
…and doubts about whether the degree is worth it
Foreign assets, expenses, taxes, and income
…and what to do about off-shore accounts and tax shelters, should you be one of those people
Gambling winnings (or losses)
…and whether to join Gamblers Anonymous
Gifts
…to whom and what and whether they were freely given
Medical and dental expenses
…and the trauma of diagnosis, surgery, recovery (or not)
This income is from an Etsy shop, right? Nothing nefarious to report here!
Miscellaneous income and adjustments
(They really expect people to report illegal income??)
Mortgage or education loan interest paid
…and the continuing burden from years ago
Moving expenses
…and whether the move was up or down, willing or forced
Sale of home, stock, or other capital assets
…and why the sale? Was the market down at the time or up?
Unemployment compensation
…and whether it was enough, whether it ended too soon, whether filing for it was humiliating
Sale of home, stock, or other capital assets
…and why the sale? Was the market down at the time or up?
Unemployment compensation
…and whether it was enough, whether it ended too soon, whether filing for it was humiliating
Whether taxes are justified …and if you ought to throw tea in the harbor to protest.
If you are filing a joint return, remember (and remind your spouse if necessary) not to displace anger/frustration rooted in the process.
Other Sources of Tax Stress
The Darius Vase depicts, among other scenes, the Royal Treasurer receiving taxes from conquered nations of the Persian Empire, circa 340 BCE.
Then, too, sometimes there are ongoing issues about money. For example, if one partner is a spender while the other partner is a saver and a worrier. This can result is resentment at tax time, when a couple may examine how their habits are affecting their lives and marriage.
“Of course, we all bring our individual emotional baggage to tax preparation. Fear of the government also emerges at tax time. Some clients of financial counselor Karen McCall are so afraid of the IRS that they won’t take even the most innocuous deduction. “They’re paralyzed because the IRS is an authority figure, and if they have unresolved issues around authority figures in their lives, that can cause a lot of fear.”
Sometimes, that fear of filing taxes stems from is understandable. As Michael McKee says, people who have been through audits can suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome during tax season for years afterward.
Avoiding Tax Stress
You may not be able to avoid all stress at tax time, but consider ways to lessen it. Mellan and McCall offered these tips in a WebMD article on coping with tax stress.
Little known fact: if you set all your money and assets on fire, you won’t have to declare them as assets to the IRS!
To avoid last-minute stress, file early and break up the job into little pieces, Mellan suggests. Do your taxes while listening to music or whatever else makes you feel relaxed.
For filers with math anxiety, Mellan recommends hiring a preparer or investing in tax software. Tax software typically collects information through an “interview” and the computer does all the calculations.
Fractious couples should strategize on ways to avoid chronic money fights, Mellan says. For example, try communicating financial information through notes or other modes that won’t carry an accusatory tone.
McCall suggests channeling tax-time stress into a resolution to track your finances more carefully. Better money management is the best way to avoid unpleasant surprises each year, she says.
Finally, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can turn to your buddies at the IRS. Options include filing an extension or setting up an installment plan for tax payment. For more details, visit the IRS website at www.irs.gov.
This would all be so much easier if the IRS explained taxes like they would to a preschooler.
Bottom Line: Tax time is stress time. You’ll just have to deal, starting with recognizing the danger zones and ameliorating as best you can.
I enjoy watching athletes in a variety of sports, and basketball is one of my favorites. In honor of March Madness, I started looking into what goes on off the court. Some of the elements that make basketball so entertaining are relatively recent developments, but many have been around since the very beginning.
B-Ball History
James Naismith with the peach basket and soccer ball from his early game
Basketball began in 1891, invented by James Naismith, a 31-year-old graduate student and instructor at Springfield College. Luther Gulick (then the College’s physical education superintendent, today renowned as the father of physical education and recreation in the United States) charged Naismith to come up with a new game. The goal was to create an indoor activity that college students could play during the long New England winters. The bonus was that it’s a less injury-prone sport than football. Students quickly adopted the new pastime, and it’s grown in popularity since.
Naismith’s creation was an amalgamation of many games of the time, including American rugby (passing), English rugby (the jump ball), lacrosse (use of a goal), soccer (the shape and size of the ball), and something called duck on a rock, a game Naismith had played with his childhood friends in Bennie’s Corners, Ontario. Duck on a rock used a ball and a goal that players could not rush. The goal also could not be slammed through, thus necessitating “a goal with a horizontal opening high enough so that the ball would have to be tossed into it, rather than being thrown.”
The First Game
Naismith nailed two peach baskets to the lower rail of the gymnasium balcony, one at each end. An assistant stood at each end of the balcony to collect the ball from the basket and put it back into play. It wasn’t until a few years later that someone thought to cut the bottoms out of those peach baskets so the ball could fall loose. (I’ve abbreviated this history of basketball from the Springfield College website.)
James Naismith with the 1899 University of Kansas basketball team
The first game ended in a brawl. “One boy was knocked out. Several of them had black eyes and one had a dislocated shoulder,” Naismith said. “After that first match, I was afraid they’d kill each other, but they kept nagging me to let them play again so I made up some more rules.” (Quoted from a National Geographic article on the history of basketball.
1. The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
2. The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands (never with the fist).
3. A player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man who catches the ball when running at a good speed if he tries to stop.
4. The ball must be held in or between the hands; the arms or body must not be used for holding it.
5. No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking in any way the person of an opponent shall be allowed; the first infringement of this rule by any player shall count as a foul, the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made, or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game, no substitute allowed.
6. A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violation of Rules 3,4, and such as described in Rule 5.
7. If either side makes three consecutive fouls, it shall count a goal for the opponents (consecutive means without the opponents in the mean time making a foul).
8. A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stays there, providing those defending the goal do not touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edges, and the opponent moves the basket, it shall count as a goal.
9. When the ball goes out of bounds, it shall be thrown into the field of play by the person first touching it. In case of a dispute, the umpire shall throw it straight into the field. The thrower-in is allowed five seconds; if he holds it longer, it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shall call a foul on that side.
10. The umpire shall be judge of the men and shall note the fouls and notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made. He shall have power to disqualify men according to Rule 5.
11. The referee shall be judge of the ball and shall decide when the ball is in play, in bounds, to which side it belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made, and keep account of the goals with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.
12. The time shall be two 15-minute halves, with five minutes’ rest between.
13. The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winner. In case of a draw, the game may, by agreement of the captains, be continued until another goal is made.
First draft of James Naismith’s rules for “Basket Ball”
Changes
The website HoopTactics chronicled the major changes in basketball since those earliest years. Here are the areas of change, in chronological order. You can look them up. Virtually everything has changed!
The gender, nationality, race, location, and equipment of these college basketball players have all changed from that first Springfield game. (from the 2015 World University Games, held in South Korea, USA playing Canada)
Note: These changes apply to men’s basketball, and vary somewhat by level: high school, college, professional, international.
Women’s Basketball
Women have been playing basketball almost from the very beginning. However, the road to the WNBA’s creation has not been an easy one.
Senda Berenson
Senda Berenson, a gymnastic instructor, at Smith College, Northampton, MA, introduced women’s basketball in 1893. She proposed changes to Naismith’s rules for several reasons. The original rules encouraged what many saw as unsportsman-like conduct, including violent fouls and “star playing.” (from Senda Berenson, “The Significance of Basketball for Women.” Spalding’s Official Basket Ball Guide for Women: 1901-1901 (1901)) Berenson’s changes attempted to curb this behavior and to encourage a uniform set of rules to allow for intercollegiate tournaments.
Women originally played with three zones sections with two players stationary in each section. In 1938, the three court sections where reduced to two, with two stationary guards, two stationary forwards, and two “rovers” who could move around the entire court. For decades, people commonly referred to this system as women’s half-court basketball, six-on-six basketball, or basquette.
1903 official rules for women’s basketball (from Vintage Basketball)
Early organizers of collegiate women’s sports also had to confront society’s expectations of women. They had to adjust their play style to be allowed to play at all. Social mores of the time also forbade male spectators at practice and games.
Early discussions among female athletes and coaches illustrate the extremely difficult position they faced when trying to promote women’s basketball. As historian Mercedes Townsend writes, “[T]hese women largely focused on navigating through the social ideals and expectations that defined womanhood and, in turn, affected popular opinion on women’s participation in sports.” In a time when women were increasingly organizing and protesting for more economic, political, and social participation, many saw basketball as a useful tool for gender equity. “Proponents of women’s basketball considered the sport an important opportunity to showcase both the physical and intellectual ability of women, and to further validate the growing opportunities for women in the country.”
The University of California at Berkley and Stanford University played the first intercollegiate women’s game in 1896. Two teams in Illinois played the first known interscholastic women’s high school basketball game that same year.
University of California at Berkeley Women’s Basketball Team of 1899
The Amateur Athletic Union conducted the first ever women’s national championship in 1936. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) held the first women’s world championship in 1969. In 1971 women were (finally) allowed to play full court. Louisiana Tech won the first NCAA championship in 1982. In 1995, Oklahoma was the last state to switch from court sections to full court play in high school games.
Perhaps the most important event to occur in women’s basketball, as well as all women’s sports, was the enactment of Title IX in 1972, equalizing men’s and women’s sports. Today, women’s teams play basketball with the same enthusiasm and intensity as men’s teams.
Michael Jordan reportedly wore his college basketball shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform for every game as a good luck talisman.
Michael Jordan wasn’t always great. In his sophomore year, Jordan tried out for his school’s team. He has often spoken about not seeing his name on the team list and bursting into tears. Instead of dwelling on it, though, he used the fact his name was not there to push himself harder.
In 1949, the NBL and BAA leagues merged, changing their name to the National Basketball Association. While the NBA describes it as an “expansion,” the two groups combined to create a 17-team league across several cities.
Organized basketball first recorded a dunk in 1936, performed by a Texan named Joe Fortenberry. In the ’60s, the NBA banned dunking in games altogether, though they rescinded this rule in 1976.
It wasn’t until 1966 that any NBA team hired a black coach. The Boston Celtics hired Bill Russell, a well-known professional player, to lead their team.
In 1976, women’s basketball became an Olympic sport. In 1978, America started the Women’s Basketball League. That league collapsed in 1981. Starting in 1996, women play in the WNBA.
Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues (5’3″) with Manute Bol (7’7″)
Over approximately 16,000 games against the Harlem Globetrotters, the Washington Generals have only ever won 4 games.
The three-point line didn’t exist before 1979. For decades, it moved back and forth in test games before ending at its current location of 23 feet, 9 inches from the basket.
As of now, the tallest NBA player ever is Gheorghe Mureșan at 7-foot-7. He played from 1993 to 2000 and scored 3,020 points for two teams, starting with the Washington Bullets/Wizards and New Jersey Nets.
[My addition: Yasutaka Okayama, 7’8” is the tallest player ever drafter for the NBA, but he never played in the NBA,]
At 5’3” Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues is the shortest NBA player. He played for four different teams during his 14- season NBA career.
Jameson Curry signed a ten-day contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. The coach finally subbed him in as a game was about to end. He played 3.9 seconds, the record for shortest time played. The team released him from the contract shortly thereafter.
None of the rules really apply for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Basketball Fun
And then there are these fun facts from across the web:
Lisa Leslie at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Players in the first basketball game played with a soccer ball rather than a basketball.
During the inaugural game between the Los Angeles Sparks and the New York Liberty on June 21, 1997, basketball legend Lisa Leslie made history by scoring the first basket in the WNBA.
The WNBA started with 8 teams and expanded to 12. The NBA has 30 teams.
The Harlem Globetrotters, famous for their entertaining tricks and stunts, have been around since 1926.
In basketball, players can make shots worth different numbers of points – one point for a free throw, two points for a regular field goal, and three points for a shot made beyond the three-point line.
The highest-scoring NBA game ever took place on December 13, 1983. The Detroit Pistons defeated the Denver Nuggets by a score of 186-184! Was anyone playing defense?
With specially designed chairs and a few adaptations to the rules, wheelchair basketball has been popular since its creation in 1944.
The average NBA player runs 2-3 miles per game!
In recent years, the WNBA has become a leading advocate for social justice, with players and teams using their platforms to champion important causes and promote meaningful change. It is a beacon of diversity, equality, and athleticism, showcasing the immense potential of women in sports.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics marked the 30th anniversary of basketball’s debut as an official Olympic sport.
Wilt Chamberlain currently holds the single game point record. He scored 100 points in a single game for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks in 1962.
In 2015, Stephen Curry became the first of the NBA players to make 400 three-pointers in one season.
Stephen Curry has been an NBA All-Star ten times, 2014-2024.
Male athletes in basketball (as well as golf, soccer, baseball, and tennis) were still earning anywhere from15% to nearly 100% more than females in 2023. Well, this one isn’t such a fun fact!
Bottom Line: Basketball is more complex and interesting than most viewers realize.
Why not? There are now upwards of 50,000 named species worldwide, on every continent except Antartica. Chances are you cross paths with spiders frequently.
The vast majority are harmless. They’re actually helpful to humans. Without spiders to eat pests harmful to agriculture, it’s thought that our food supply would be at risk. And there would be a heck of a lot more mosquitoes, ants, and flies around!
Some people actually leave spiders alone in their houses to take care of these other household pests.
Is Everyone Afraid of Spiders?
Even so, spiders are far from popular. We all try to avoid things that make us feel uncomfortable, and most people are not comfortable with spiders!
If you give children a free option to tell researchers what sorts of things they fear the most, both boys and girls report “spiders” as their top fear (the second fear is being kidnapped, third is predators, and fourth is the dark).
Insight Pest conducted a survey about people’ fears, with the following results:
The first question we asked in the survey was on the most frightening pests in general.
Interestingly, the most frightening pest for most people is actually a snake.
Spiders are second, followed by wasps.
Men are more scared of snakes and wasps than women are, and women (24%) are more scared of spiders than men (17%).
Level of spider fear (1-10): men 4.4, women 5.6
Fear of spiders by age: 26% of those 18-34; 20% of those 35-54; 13% of those 55 and older.
Level of spider fear (1-10): 5.1 for those 18-34, 5.0 for those 35-54, and 4.70 for those 55 and older.
Telaprocera Joanae
Visit the website for more info on the worst place to find a spider, how people deal with spiders, who would tolerate a house infested with spiders, sleep problems related to spiders, etc.
FYI, to remove a spider in the house, put a clear plastic cup over it, slide a thick paper sheet under the cup and spider, and let it go outside.
Based on the literature, arachnophobia affects 2.7–6.1% of people in the general population and is significantly more prevalent among women than men. Arachnophobia differs from a fear in that a phobia is an intense and irrational fear. Most spider phobias are completely unwarranted. Only 0.5% of spiders are potentially harmful to humans and most of those are in Australia and South America.
Why Do We Fear Spiders?
Daniel Frynta at Charles University, Prague, and colleagues posit that we evolved to fear not “essentially harmless” spiders but a dangerous close relative with a similar body plan. Scorpions do pose a real threat, killing an estimated 2,600 people every year. Their data don’t prove that people generalize an evolved fear/disgust of scorpions to spiders. Unlike the vast majority of spiders, scorpions are also an ancient group, and species with a venom tailored to mammals are native to Africa and the Middle East — so our distant ancestors and dangerous scorpions could have evolved side-by- side. “Fear of scorpions therefore seems to be better warranted than fear of spiders,” the team writes. The corresponding conclusion is that our brains over-generalize, reacting to spiders in the same way.
Other explanations of spider fears include classical conditioning following a traumatic incident, and learning from parents and those around the child.
Don’t Be Afraid!
Fun facts that may (or may not) make spiders seem less creepy.
The tiny Samoan moss spider is .011 inch long (smaller than a typed period).
The Goliath birdeater is a tarantula with a leg span of almost a foot.
According to National Geographic, most species are carnivorous, either trapping flies and other insects in their webs, or hunting them down. They can’t swallow their food as is, though—spiders inject their prey with digestive fluids, then suck out the liquefied remains.
Spiders are arachnids—i.e., their skeletons are on the outside—so they aren’t insects. They have eight legs, a body in two segments, a spinneret to exude incredibly strong silk, and fangs generally able to inject venom.
Though all spiders have venom to one degree or another, only a handful are dangerous to humans. Those include the black widow and the brown recluse, both found in the United States.
Though not all spider species build webs, every species produces silk, a strong, flexible protein fiber. They use the silk to climb, to tether themselves for safety in case of a fall, to create egg sacs, to wrap up prey, to make nests, and more.
Most spider species have eight eyes, though some have six. Despite all of those eyes, though, many don’t see very well.
A notable exception is the jumping spider, which can see more colors than humans can. Using filters that sit in front of cells in their eyes, the day-hunting jumping spider can see in the red spectrum, green spectrum, and in UV light.
Bottom Line: Wherever spider fears come from, they are as common as they are irrational. And spiders are fascinating!
March is one of those in-between months, not really winter and not yet reliably warm. But there are literally hundreds of occasions for celebrating in March so, much to enjoy! Here are some you probably hadn’t considered.
For example, March is Adopt a Rescued Guinea Pig Month. I will abstain, thank you very much, because I have a severe anaphylactic reaction to guinea pig dander. On the other hand, eating guinea pig—as I did in Peru—is perfectly fine. In Peru, guinea pig is a major source of protein, analogous, perhaps, to chicken in the United States.
And there is March 10, when we “spring forward” and set the clocks ahead one hour—as if anyone wants to celebrate “losing” an hour.
Celebrating Days in March
Dress in Blue Day, 3/1 (fundraiser/ awareness for colorectal cancer)
I’m sorry to say, we’ve already passed several great days, but feel free to mark your calendar for next year.
Of course, March has St. Patrick’s day, (3/16) and Easter (3/31 in 2024), but they are so well-known they need no reminders. But if you haven’t already started observing the United Nations’ International Year of Camelids, you can start now. You still have ten months to celebrate llamas, alpacas, camels, dromedaries, vicuñas, etc….!
Bottom Line: There’s always a reason to celebrate in March—or at least to get involved and expand your awareness.
Circadian rhythms are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle. The word stems from the Latin “circum” (approximately) and “diem” (day). Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them. Most living things have circadian rhythms. In humans, nearly every tissue and organ has its own circadian rhythm—which is why I’m talking about your body’s clocks, plural—and collectively they are tuned to the daily cycle of day and night.
Circadian rhythms influence many functions, such as:
Sleep patterns
Hormone release
Appetite and digestion
Temperature
How Long is a Circadian Rhythm?
Early research suggested that most people preferred a day closer to 25 hours when isolated from external stimuli like daylight and timekeeping. However, this research was faulty because it failed to shield the participants from artificial light. Although subjects were shielded from time cues (like clocks) and daylight, the researchers were not aware of the phase-delaying effects of indoor electric lights. The subjects were allowed to turn on light when they were awake and to turn it off when they wanted to sleep. Electric light in the evening delayed their circadian phase.
More recent research has shown some more specific things:
Adults have a built-in day, which averages about 24 hours
A study by Czeisler et al. at Harvard found the range for normal, healthy adults of all ages to be quite narrow: 24 hours and 11 minutes ± 16 minutes.
In normal subjects in the real world, the body’s “clocks” are reset, primarily by exposure to light, so that they follow the 24-hour light/dark cycle of the Earth’s rotation.
When the Body’s Clocks Break
Circadian rhythms can fall out of sync with the outside world because of factors in the human body or environment. For example
Neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, can disrupt circadian rhythms, causing poor sleep quality and changes in symptoms from day to night
Drowsiness, poor coordination, and difficulty with learning and focus may occur when circadian rhythms fall out of sync short term.
Working swing shifts can also disrupt the body’s clocks. Forcing oneself to wake up and go to sleep at varying intervals from one day to the next leaves the body confused. Shift Work Sleep Disorder (SWSD) can cause trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, sleeping deeply, and waking up. People who work as nurses, late-night retail workers, overnight hotel staff, or fire fighters (just to name a few) often experience insomnia, hypersomnia, or both.
Jet lag causes disruptions in the circadian rhythm because modern travel allows the body to cross time zones faster than the body’s clocks can adapt. Earlier methods of travel, even early air travel, were slow enough that the body could keep up with changes in sunrise and sunset times. That’s why you won’t get jet lag on a boat!
Long-term sleep loss and continually shifting circadian rhythms can increase the risks of obesity, diabetes, mood disorders, heart and blood pressure problems, and cancer, and can also worsen existing health issues.
Consistent with the transition to a morning chronotype in older adult humans, the circadian phase of sleep onset and wakening advances with age, whereby older adults (mean age of 68 years) report preferred bedtimes 1 to 2 hours earlier, on average, compared with younger adults (mean age of 23 years) (National Institutes of Health (NIH).
With age, people are less able to recover and recover quickly from disruptions to our circadian clocks. Changes to the circadian rhythm are a common cause of sleep problems in older adults .
Bottom Line: Be aware of your body’s clocks and work with them, not against them, to maximize your physical and mental well-being.
Not body language—facial expressions, gestures, movement, etc. Rather, body parts used in clichés and idioms that mean more than the words. Keep your nose to the grindstone or Have a silver tongue.
Linguists have noticed that English is not the only language with idioms full of body parts. Czech, Korean, Malay, Pashto, Turkish, Igbo, and Vietnamese (just to name a few) are full of body part phrases that mean more than the literal sum of their parts. It seems, no matter what language you speak, your brain reaches for parts of your own body when looking for interesting ways to express yourself.
So, head to toe, here are examples.
Head
Hard-headed
Soft in the head
Bang your head against a brick wall
Keeping your head above water
Able to do something standing on your head
Keep your head down
Hold your head high
Bite someone’s head off
Head in the clouds
Head in the sand
Bring something to a head
Can’t make heads or tails out of something
Drum something into someone’s head
Head to toe
Keep your head in the game
Fall head over heels in love
Get a head start on something
Get someone or something out of one’s head
Give someone a head’s start
Go over someone’s head
Have a good head on your shoulders
Head someone or something off
Hit the nail on the head
In over your head
Lose your head
Keep your head
Off your head
Scratching your head over something
Brain
Right brain/left brain
Brain storm
Brain fart
Brain buzz
Brain freeze
Brain dead
Braining (to hit someone on the head)
Neck
A pain in the neck
Stick your neck out
Neck and neck
Breathe down your neck
Dead from the neck up
Up to your neck
Neck of the woods
Millstone round your neck
(Competitors are) neck and neck
To save your neck
Risking your neck
Wring his or her neck
Rubber necking
Shoulders
A chip on your shoulder
Come straight from the shoulder
Give someone the cold shoulder
Put your shoulder to the wheel
A shoulder to cry on
Stand shoulder to shoulder
Shoulder a burden
Arm
Arm of the law
Cost an arm and a leg
Give your right arm
Up in arms
(Keep) at arm’s length
Strong arm someone
Hands
Give a hand
At hand
Out of hand
Bite the hand that feeds you
Change hands
First hand
Hands down
Have a hand in
A firm hand
Hand something over
Hand in glove
Heavy handed
Hand holding
In your hand
Lend a hand
Out of your hands
Wash your hands of
Get your hands dirty
Hands full
Hands tied
Live from hand to mouth
All hands on deck
Chest
Something will put hair on your chest
Get something off your chest
Keep your cards close to your chest
Chest thumping
Spine
Spineless
(Send) a shiver down someone’s spine
Spine-tingling
Spine of steel
Heart
Change of heart
Heart of gold
Eat your heart out
Know/learn something by heart
After your own heart
Cross your heart
Lose heart
Follow your heart
Heart skips/misses a beat
Take heart
Follow your heart
Break your heart
Have your heart set on/against something
Heartbeat away
My heart bleeds
Bleeding heart
Heart of stone
Soft-hearted
Young at heart
Wear your heart on your sleeve
Big-hearted
A heavy heart
From the bottom of your heart
Get to the heart of the matter
Be halfhearted about something
Have a heart-to-heart talk
Heart in the right place
Pour your heart out
Guts
Gut feeling /reaction
Gut punch
Beer gut
Blood and guts
Bust a gut
Go with (one’s) gut
Gut feeling /instinct
Gut it out
Gutted
Gut-wrenching
Hate someone’s guts
Have someone’s guts for garters
Have the guts (to do something)
No guts, no glory
Puke (one’s) guts out
Slog/sweat/work your guts out
Spill your guts
Split a gut
Leg
Not have a leg to stand on
On one’s last legs
On the last leg (of a journey)
Pull (someone’s) leg
Put your pants on one leg at a time
Have/find your sea legs
Get/give a leg up
Break a leg (theater)
To have hollow legs
To leg it
To talk the hind leg off a donkey
To pull someone’s leg
Knees
Bee’s knees
On one’s knees / bring to one’s knees
Knee-high to a grasshopper
Weak in the knees
Take a knee (football)
Feet
Cold feet
Foot in the door
Have two left feet
Get off on the wrong foot
Have itchy feet
Put your foot down
Feet on the ground
Foot the bill
Get back on your feet
Feet of clay
Get your feet wet
Swept off your feet
Best foot forward
Have a lead foot
One foot in the grave
Bound hand and foot
Dead on my feet
Foot in both camps
Jump in feet first
On the back foot
Heels
Achilles heel
Bring someone to heel
Cool one’s heels
Dig in your heels
Be a heel
Toes
Dip one’s toes in (the water)
Keep someone on their toes
Step/tread on someone’s toes
Toe the mark
Bottom Line: When words about body parts don’t literally mean what they say, they can be used in an infinite number of ways.
The first thing I’ll say about life’s simple pleasures is that with age I am more conscious of them. That’s probably because I have more time to notice—and this is a good thing! These are among my pleasures, in no particular order.
Weather and seasons affect me daily, and always have. In the past, mostly that’s been for practical reasons: do I need an umbrella? A snow shovel? Extra sunscreen? While those questions are still relevant, now I’m also aware of breezes on my face, and the skyscape—bare branches against “Carolina” blue sky—seasonal changes, and the varied faces of clouds.
I have stained glass panels hanging in the window over the sink and in my study window. Sunlight through those windows gives me great pleasure, more than either sunlight or colored glass alone. This underscores my preference for daylight over dark.
Drinking many mugs of water every day has made me aware of the pleasure of ice cubes—one of my favorite things! Our old refrigerator wasn’t dispensing ice well for months, so the contrast with the new one is stark.
And speaking of sensory pleasures, I enjoy flannel sheets and down comforters, and lying in bed deciding whether to get up then or later. (It’s usually later.) Even better is turning off the alarm and going back to sleep. And in a similar vein: I like to nap in my recliner in late afternoon.
This is not my bedroom, but it sure looks pleasant!
With the exception of high winds and rain, virtually every breakfast and lunch brings the pleasure of bird and squirrel watching. I’ve now learned the names of our resident bird species: house finches, gold finches, bluebirds, blue jays, titmice, chickadees, robins, mourning doves, mocking birds, cardinals, white-throated sparrows, catbirds, grackles and starlings, and the occasional sharp shinned hawk. I can usually remember them! But I enjoy them regardless.
The other kitchen table pleasure is watching squirrels. I admire their athleticism. It’s amazing what having back feet that can rotate 180 degrees allows them to do! All the males I call Stanley and all the females, Olive.
Speaking of kitchen pleasures reminds me of coffee—strong, black, and moderately hot. Mocha java, Moka Batak Blend, and Columbian Supremo are among my favorites. Three particular coffee pairings bring pleasure: cranberry-nut bread with plain goat cheese, crusty bread with havarti, and anything chocolate!
Reading. I read every day—sometimes long into the night. Having more books on hand than I’ll have time to read is wonderful. I’ve often said it’s like money in the bank. Should I ever be laid up for three months, I’m prepared!
Read what? It scarcely matters. Mysteries, action/adventure, romance, creative non-fiction, memoirs, popular science… Not much poetry. But a related pleasure is finally allowing myself to not finish a book that is boring or poorly written.
And then there is laughter. It can be any sort of laughter, from giggles to guffaws, tinkling to belly laughs, as long as it comes from joy and pleasure.
Life’s small pleasures are nearly limitless. Blooming plants. Mah Jong tiles, the look as well as the feel of them. Playing computer solitaire. Playing with my jewelry, organizing “sets” of pieces that I find make pleasing combinations.
Rocks, stones, shells, sticks. A completely silent house. This list could run on, but I won’t let it.
You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned family, friends, love, good health, writing or other big pleasures—because they are big—but pleasurable they are.
Bottom Line: Stop and smell the honeysuckle. You will be glad you did.
The United States has no standardized system for food dating, and only 20 states actually require perishable foods have dates on them. Manufacturers put dates on products for their own benefit, not yours. But how do you know if something is actually too old to be beneficial?
Last week I blogged about expiration dates. In my opinion, the ones that really matter are medicines, cleaning products, and safety gear, such as infant/child carseats, and kevlar vests—anything we count on for health and safety.
But even things without an expiration date can be too old. How are you to know?
Shoes
Running on cement will wear out shoes more quickly than running on grass or trails.
Running shoes can start to lose their cushioning after about 250 miles of running, which means more stress on your joints. Most walking shoes start to break down after 350 to 500 miles.
Shoes for housework, hanging around, gardening, running errands, etc. vary wildly by design and materials. Very fancy, formal shoes may fall apart after one outing. Cheap sandals might keep going for years.
Ballet shoes break down astonishingly quickly.
Advice: For hard runners, get new shoes every 200 to 300 miles. For less strenuous runners, replace workout shoes every six months to a year. Walkers or occasional joggers, pay attention to the feel of your shoes. The wear pattern on the tread of your shoes can be a very good indicator of how much life your shoes have left.
Power Strips
Cheap power strips or ones that have been overworked can be a fire hazard, and use a lot of energy. Only buy surge protectors and power strips with an OSHA rating. But even good-quality surge protectors are designed to last for a certain amount of joules (the amount of excess electrical surges they absorb). They typically do not come with an expiration date, but the product warranty is a good way to gauge how old they are.
If your power strip looks like this, it might be too old for safe use.
Signs of age: If they start to get discolored or hot to the touch, get a new one. It’s generally a good idea to replace them every couple of years just to be safe.
Razors
Please do not give razor blades to babies. Babies are notoriously full of bacteria.
Disposable razors are supposed to be thrown away. But how often? To prevent bacteria buildup and razor burn, you could toss your razors every week, or every three to four shaves.
Alternatively: Don’t cut yourself shaving and get a new razor when the blade begins to drag, requiring several passes to get smooth. Make sure to let it dry between uses.
Warning signs: Things like cracks in the hose and low pressure can affect how well they work. Check the pressure in the gauge often.
Batteries
Batteries start to expire as soon as they’re made. The shelf life differs between types and sizes of battery, as well as where they are stored.
Store batteries in a dry, room-temperature location. It does not depend on whether they are used.
Signs: Check the date, and discard when there is any sign of corrosion (the white stuff along seams or ends).
Scrubbing Devices
Not to be confused with sponge cake, which should be consumed as soon as possible because it is delicious.
Sponges and natural loofahs can start to breed bacteria in just a couple of weeks. Plastic mesh loofahs are safe for up to eight weeks.
Suggestion:Rinse and dry all your loofahs after each use. Replace natural loofahs every couple weeks, and mesh ones every other month.
Household Danger Alarms
Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors can stop working after 10 years, even if you replace the batteries. Most have the expiration or manufacture date listed somewhere on them.
Staying safe: If you don’t know the age, it’s safer just to replace them.
Bug Spray
Commercial insect repellent loses effectiveness after about two years from the manufacture date, which should be marked on the bottle. Check the date before you buy to make sure it isn’t already old. Don’t let the bugs bite!
If you make your own insect repellent, the mixture will lose effectiveness at varying times depending on the ingredients.
Advice: Get new spray every couple of years.
Skin Care Products
Most skin care products are safe to use for six months to a year after opening, although maybe a bit less for eye products. Moisturizers in a jar that you use your fingers to apply can become a breeding ground for bacteria in a matter of months. (Wash hands before applying.) Lotions and moisturizers in a tube should be good for a couple of years after opening, and after that will start to dry out and lose effectiveness. Powder makeup can last up to two years before the preservatives in it start to break down. Lipstick that’s exposed to air starts to dry out and change consistency after around two years.
If your makeup contains lead tablets and was made in the 5th century BCE, it’s probably too old.
Signs that a product has degraded:
If it’s an emulsion (a mixture of oil and water), separation is often one of the first signs that a product has past its prime, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Changes in color or texture might signify that a product is no longer effective or safe to use. A good rule to follow before rubbing something on your skin is that if something seems off, don’t use it.
If products smell badly or differently than they should, that could be a sign that bacteria or contaminants could be lurking inside. According to Dr. Bruce Brod, a dermatologist at the University of Pennsylvania, “That’s a red flag that a product may not be safe.”
Spirits
Unlike wine, which continues to age even in the bottle, unopened liquors will stay good indefinitely. Keep opened and unopened bottles in a cool place.
Signs of age: An opened bottle of liquor will begin to lose its taste and potency after about a year. But unless you’re a connoisseur, you likely won’t notice a big difference until much later.
Food
And then there is food.
Generally speaking, expiration dates have more to do with the food’s overall quality and texture instead of when it is safe or not safe to eat. According to RealSimple, as long as there are no signs of spoilage, you can eat it, but it might not taste as fresh as it once was.
Fresh Foods
Things like milk, cheese, fresh vegetables, and fruit should not be eaten past their prime because they can harbor bacteria that can be dangerous. This is caused by the natural breakdown of organic matter.
You’ll be able to tell that these foods have gone bad based on their appearance and smell.
A string of murders could be another sign that one of your potatoes is bad.
The common potato and other plants of the nightshade family (like tomatoes and eggplants) contain traces of a toxic chemical called solanine that can be very dangerous and even deadly. The toxin is minimal in raw, unspoiled potatoes, but if sprouted, overexposed to the sun, or stored near other vegetables that increase spoilage (like onions) for a long period of time, the concentration of this chemical can become harmful. When stored correctly, ripe potatoes should stay good for two to three months. Store potatoes in a cool, dark place.
Solution: Don’t eat green (unripe) or sprouted (overripe) potatoes.
Frozen Foods
Frozen foods do not have the same time limitations for safety as fresh foods.
As Marianne Gravely, Technical Information Specialist, Food Safety and Inspection Service in Health and Safety says, “Food poisoning bacteria does not grow in the freezer, so no matter how long a food is frozen, it is safe to eat. Foods that have been in the freezer for months may be dry, or may not taste as good, but they will be safe to eat.”
Shelf-Stable Foods
Some foods have been treated to last indefinitely without needing refrigeration or freezing. Salted, dried, freeze-dried, or cured foods, like nuts, jerky, or oatmeal can last for years as long as they are in moisture-proof, sealed packaging.
Most canned foods are safe indefinitely as long as the can itself is in good condition (no rust, dents, or swelling).
Packaged foods (cereal, pasta, cookies) will eventually become stale or develop an off flavor.
See FSIS’ Shelf-Stable Food Safety fact sheet for more information. Before eating, check the packaging for signs of damage and the food itself for signs of spoilage or contamination.
Seasonings
Dried herbs and spices usually last for two to three years, but it depends on the kind, how they were dried, and how they are stored. You can find charts of how long different herbs and spices last online.
Signs of age:Taste and smell have faded. When they no longer pass the taste test, get rid of them. In the interim, for dried herbs, you can sometimes boost them by adding finely minced fresh parsley.
Salt by itself doesn’t expire; however, when salt includes iodine it may reduce shelf life. Even so, iodized salt has a shelf life of about five years. Keep your salt free of moisture, perhaps going so far as to repackage it in glass jars.
Sweeteners
Sugar does not have an expiration date. White sugar lasts almost indefinitely if properly stored—though pests can contaminate your sugar and spoil it. Brown sugar may become hard as it loses moisture, but a piece of apple or bread in the container will restore softness.
Honey does not expire. It will last indefinitely! Be sure to buy 100% pure honey in glass. A lot of the honey on the market contains stuff other than honey. Honey found in King Tut’s tomb was still edible after more than 3000 years!
Bonus:Raw honey also has antibacterial properties.
Bottom Line: In most cases, you can be guided by your eyes, nose, tongue, and sense of touch.
After a recent trip to the dentist, I noticed that the little sample size Colgate dental floss has an expiration date of 01/07/2025. Really? Dental floss?
It turns out that dental floss is pretty sturdy stuff, meant to last long. The floss itself does not go bad, though the string might begin to fray a bit. The wax coating of waxed floss might start to break down. Any flavoring agents can start lessening after a long period.
So that made me wonder about the usefulness of other expiration dates.
Please note: what follows is information I found online—i.e., generally available information, not advice or recommendation.
How About Cleaning Products?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires all disinfectants to publish expiration date information for all formulations that change significantly over time.
So, yes, cleaning products can expire. “Like many products purchased at the grocery store, cleaning products can degrade over time,” says Brian Sansoni, senior vice president of communications, outreach & membership at the American Cleaning Institute (ACI). “Even if they contain preservatives, that doesn’t mean they last forever. As they begin to break down, it might affect how well the enzymes work or change the pH, resulting in a less effective product,” Sansoni explains. You might need to scrub longer or harder.
Once it has expired, some of the claims a product makes (such as the percentage of germs it kills on a surface) may no longer be valid.
Bleach: Once opened, bleach has a surprisingly short shelf life and starts to become less effective after 6 months.
Manufacturers create over-the-counter and prescription medication dosage instructions that reflect the product’s strength, quality, and purity when stored properly. This is indicated by “Expires: [DATE]” or “EXP: [DATE]” on the bottle or packaging. Think aspirin, neosporin, etc.
Beyond the expiration date, the manufacturer cannot guarantee the product will work effectively when taken as directed, and there is no easy way to determine the potency of the expired medication.
Rarely but more seriously, the drug manufacturer cannot ensure that the product will not degrade and produce toxic compounds that could cause harm.
The FDA has recently begun allowing manufacturers to extend specific medication expiration dates for the purposes of national emergency preparedness. However, you generally shouldn’t take expired medications without consulting a state-licensed, board-certified medical professional like a pharmacist or medical doctor.
The FDA has extended printed expiration dates for at-home COVID tests. Before throwing away an expired test, check with a pharmacist to see if it might still be accurate.
What About Skin Care Products?
Unless the product is classified as a drug, as acne treatments and sunscreen products are, you probably won’t find an expiration date on it, said Dr. Bruce Brod, a dermatologist at Penn Medicine. Still, if you can’t remember when you bought, you should probably toss it. Like cleaning products and medications, the effectiveness of active ingredients in these products can start to break down over time.
And Then There Is Food…
Generally speaking, it is safe to buy food on its expiration date. Expiration dates have more to do with the food’s overall quality and texture rather than whether it is safe or not safe to eat. As long as there are no signs of spoilage, you can eat it (though it might not taste as fresh as it once was).
What Foods Can You Not Eat After the Expiration Date?
Most shelf-stable foods are safe to eat much longer than their expiration date. But things like milk (and other dairy) should not be consumed past its expiration date unless frozen. One can tell that these foods have gone bad based on their appearance and smell.
Posted by Marianne Gravely, Technical Information Specialist, Food Safety and Inspection Service in Health and Safety: “Food poisoning bacteria does not grow in the freezer, so no matter how long a food is frozen, it is safe to eat. Foods that have been in the freezer for months (recommended freezer times chart) may be dry, or may not taste as good, but they will be safe to eat. Often seasonings and additional ingredients can make up for loss of flavor.
Before you throw out limp lettuce or brown bananas, consider the possibilities! Wilted herbs can infuse oils. Turn mushy fruit into pie or compote. Almost any vegetable past its prime can still make great soup. Leftover milk or cream make great ricotta or milk jam. Recently expired milk can even substitute for buttermilk in baked goods. You can even use expired food as cleaning agents or skin care ingredients!
While not food per se, baking powder and baking soda both have expiration dates that should be heeded—assuming you want your baked goods to turn out right.
Things You Never Knew Had an Expiration Date
They’re meant to keep you safe or to ensure that the product will still work, so don’t blow them off.
Infant/child carseats: every one has an expiration date, usually printed on the bottom of the seat. The longevity of a car seat varies by manufacture date and brand. For example, Graco and Britax car seats tend to expire after six to ten years, depending on the type of seat you have.
IOSAT (Potassium Iodide) Nuke Pills expire but have a shelf life of around 5-6 years. They are relatively inexpensive and provide assurance for nuclear accidents and attacks. Be sure to check the expiration date of your supplies of this “must have” if you are prepping for a radiation emergency. Ensure you have one packet for everyone in your household.
Condoms have an expiration date, usually printed on the package. Generally, a condom expires about five years after manufacture if stored under proper conditions—i.e., in a cool, dry place. Condoms with spermicide will last just two years. Heat, light, and humidity will affect condom integrity.
Disposable respirators (the majority, anyway) have expiration dates. The respirator mask should not be used after this date.
Bottled water has a date stamped on the bottle, though this is sometimes a sell-by or use-by date rather than an expiration date. Water, of course, does not go bad or expire. However, the bottles can start to break down and leak antimony and microplastics into the water when stored at high temperatures or for a long time.
This is information for the store for their own stock rotation to let the stores know how long to display the food. It helps them keep track: out with the old, and in with the new.
“Use by” dates
Best if used by dates are for the consumer to advise about the texture, color or quality of the food. This totally voluntary information a manufacturer passes along to protect their brand. Generally, you can stretch the date and still enjoy the food.
Bottom Line: Pay attention to expiration dates, especially on products related to one’s health and well-being.
According to Harvard University School of Public Health, 33% of adults in the U.S. are overweight and 36% are ob⁶ese. Although percentages vary, several sources claim two thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.
With these numbers, one might expect a certain amount of heft to be perceived as acceptable, perhaps even desirable. But not so. Instead, in the United States, labels like fupa, lard, chunker, fatso, and jelly belly are slapped on. And how is this for humor? A collective noun for a group of overweight/obese people: A blubber of fat lads.
Even people who are trying to be polite or helpful say things that sting:
Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, the man responsible for the obesity epidemic (in a way).
Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, a Belgian mathemetician, developed Quetelet’s Index (later called the Body Mass Index or BMI) in the 1842 as a method of determining the average measurements of French and Scottish men. Quetelet prized homogeneity and thought that the ideal person should be as close to the center of the statistical bell curve as possible. At the time of its creation, Quetelet was very clear that “Quetelet’s Index” was useful solely as a means of predicting the average body size of a population, not to measure or predict anything for an individual, including health.
In 1867, Mutual Life Insurance of New York started using an adaptation of Quetelet’s BMI tables to determine how much to charge policy holders. Within a few years, every insurance company in the market was using different BMI tables with wildly varying numbers to define “healthy” weights, which they then used to set prices for clients.
Even when Ancel Keyes adapted Quetelet’s original findings as a way for doctors to use during medical consultations, he admitted that the BMI was only accurate as measure of obesity about half the time. He also included data only from men, almost entirely white men from relatively wealthy countries.
These early limitations of the BMI calculator continue to cause serious challenges for those trying to use it as a diagnostic tool. Women’s bodies store fat differently than men’s bodies. The cut-offs for defining someone as overweight or obese vary widely among ethnic groups. Scientists created the BMI for children by simply extending downward the existing trend lines for small adults, which makes the data for children particularly unreliable. Older adults have different metabolic needs and may benefit from having a higher BMI altogether.
In 1995, the World Health Organization change the definitions of overweight and obese according to BMI. The American National Insitute of Health (NIH) adopted those standards in 1998; overnight, millions of people became overweight or obese without gaining a pound. This marked the start of the “obesity epidemic” and the “war on obesity” (which has not really had any effect on actual health.)
Obesity Today
“It’s not fat. It’s floof!”
Today, the NIH classifies about 1 in 11 adults (9.2%) as having severe obesity.
As a rule of thumb, you are likely morbidly obese if you are more than 100 lbs. over your ideal body weight or have a BMI of over 40.
Other obesity data reflect much of the data on other health issues.
Recent national data show that 54.8 percent of Black women and 50.6 percent of Hispanic women are obese compared to 38.0 percent of White women. Rates of obesity are also higher for Hispanic men, in the South and Midwest, in nonmetropolitan counties, and tend to increase with age. However, as discussed above, inherent problems in calculating BMI may misrepresent actual health of people in these populations.
Who Is Fat? Who Is Obese?
Kimberly Truesdale and June Stevensfound that perception of one’s own weight may be skewed. Surprisingly, to me, only 22.2% of obese women and 6.7% of obese men correctly classified themselves as obese.
How can this be? Fat people have all kinds of euphemisms for fat. (Curvy, plump, voluptuous, plus-size, zaftig, heavyset, Rubenesque, queen-size, large, thick, plush, stout, hefty, buxom, portly, ample-bodied, curvaceous, puffy, fluffy, etc.)
In the Media
As I reported in an earlier blog (September, 2020) Greenberg et al. reported on their findings of television actors’ BMI after analyzing 5 episodes of the top 10 prime time shows.
“The ears add ten pounds.”
In comparing television actors’ BMI to that of the American public, they found that only 25 percent of men on television were overweight or obese, compared to almost 60 percent of American men.
Almost 90 percent of women on TV were at or below normal weight, compared to less than 50 percent of American women.
Popular television shows that include people who are obese portray them as comedic, lonely, or freaks. Rarely if ever are they romantic leads, successful lawyers or doctors, or action stars.
In addition, shows like The Biggest Loser promote the perception that obesity is caused by individual failure rather than a mixture of individual, environmental, and genetic sources.
Weight and Mental Health
“Do these feathers make my bum look big?”
Defensive self-labeling aside, the results of fat shaming are apparent in many correlates of mental health. Societal stigmas and biases mean that carrying extra weight is hard on one’s mental health.
Socially competent people using better strategies for solving interpersonal problems are more readily accepted by peers and valued by adults. Obese individuals, especially teenagers, have deficits in several social skills, which lead to damage to relationships, lower self-esteem and devaluation by social agents.
Many individuals who are obese also struggle with issues related to their mood, self-esteem, quality of life, and body image. This emotional distress likely plays a role in treatment seeking but also can impact successful treatment.
Obesity is associated with a higher risk of having certain mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders. Often, this relationship is due to the effects of weight discrimination.
People with a weight problem are more likely to feel alone and describe themselves as lonely. They may feel they might not ever meet the ‘right person’, feel uncomfortable with intimacy, feel they are being judged for their weight, and just want to hide sometimes.
Medical professionals are often guilty of fat-shaming. Patients seeking treatment for problems that have nothing to do with size are instead lectured about why they need to lose weight. As Aubrey Gordon says, “It is one of the great fears of my life, that I will die of a totally treatable or preventable thing because my doctor can’t conceive of me having any other health problem than just being a fat person. That is a fear that follows me every time I go into a doctor’s office.”
“Just getting ready for winter.”
The vast majority of people who are overweight or obese according to BMI also have some form of eating disorder, according to Dr. Erin Harrop at Denver University. However, because these patients don’t fit the common perception of looking dangerously thin, the medical establishment classifies thesm as having “atypical anorexia.” This distinction makes it much more difficult to receive an accurate diagnosis. Not only are doctors more reluctant to treat overweight patients with disordered eating, insurance companies are reluctant to cover those treatments.
The social and emotional effects of obesity include discrimination, lower wages, lower quality of life and a likely susceptibility to depression.
To be clear, the mental health issues that are correlated with being overweight or obese are caused by our fat-shaming culture. In societies where people value weight, these stigmas are not prevalent.
Does Personality Cause Obesity?
Who are these overweight and obese people?
In analyses of separate personality traits, openness and conscientiousness were significantly associated with obesity in men, and only agreeableness was associated with obesity in women.
“It’s just feathers. I’m cold!”
Introverts are more likely to be at a healthy weight. They have lower rates of obesity. In one study of nearly 2,000 people over a span of 50 years, extroverts were heavier than introverts, with more body fat, larger waists, and bigger hips.
The BIH has found positive associations between obesity and the personality traits neuroticism (OR: 1.02) and extraversion (OR: 1.01), and negative associations between obesity and openness to experience (OR: 0.97) and agreeableness (OR: 0.98). (Recall, a positive association means as one goes up, so does the other; a negative association means as one goes up, the other goes down.)
“It’s water weight!”
Although there is no single personality type characteristic of the morbidly obese, they differ from the general population as their self-esteem and impulse control is lower. They have passive dependent and passive aggressive personality traits, as well as a trend for somatization and problem denial.
Over-eating may be the result of self-sabotage. A person gets into a cycle of low self-worth and shame, using food to soothe. Obesity can also be seen as a way of showing the world ‘I am worth nothing, stay away, because I am bad.’
Researchers have found four characteristics that typify the ”overweight personality.” You may have low self-esteem, poor self-control (or even eat compulsively), experience mood swings, or be prone to depression and anxiety.
Physical Causes of Obesity
Genes contribute to the causes of obesity in many ways, by affecting appetite, satiety (the sense of fullness), metabolism, food cravings, body-fat distribution, and the tendency to use eating as a way to cope with stress. Some researchers believe they may have identified “missing” genes that potentially contribute to obesity.
It’s important to remember that obesity is a disease, and we shouldn’t blame individuals for it because the causes are not always something they can control. In other words, it’s not your fault if you are obese.
Obese and Healthy
Obesity is definitely a physical health hazard, but poor health is not necessarily inevitable. In a database at McGill University, about 15% or slightly over half a million people were categorized as being obese and metabolically healthy.
If a person is 300 pounds and does not have any other diseases or health complications, then that person is considered healthy. However, the chances of staying healthy with 300 pounds weight are low. Around 99% of individuals weighing this much suffer from several other health complications.
“There is a lot of data that says that fat people generally and fat women in particular postpone care because they know that they are going to be overtly, directly judged by their health care providers and they know that they will get substandard care because of that judgement.”
Essentially, people with obesity can still be healthy. However, what a McGill University study, and prior research, shows is that obesity even on its own carries a certain cardiovascular risk even in metabolically healthy individuals.
Some People Do Manage to Lose Weight
The annual probability of achieving normal body weight was 1 in 210 for men and 1 in 124 for women with simple obesity. The probability declined with increasing BMI category. In patients with morbid obesity, the annual probability of achieving normal weight was 1 in 1290 for men and 1 in 677 for women.
Good news! Children who successfully reduced weight may have equal levels of self-esteem or even better social self-esteem than those being always underweight/normal weight.
The disease of obesity, no matter what it means for your physical body, is not your whole self or your whole life. Obesity does not define you as a person.
Bottom Line: For many people, too much weight is a fact of life. Be aware of the possible (probable) effects of fat shaming on your mental wellbeing!
