Feelgood March 30 2012

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Feelgood

Friday, March 30, 2012

Drastic measures

Restricted diets often produce quick weight-loss results but can lead to an eating disorder: 8,9

Picture: Getty Images

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KEEPING WATCH

PRICELESS GIFT

Children treated for cancer to be Sister offers brother new lease offered better long-term care: 4 of life by donating a kidney: 6

CHOCS AWAY

Eight Easter eggs are put to the taste test: 12

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2 News front Kate O’Reilly WHAT’S ON ■ BE A DONOR: There are over 650 people in Ireland awaiting life saving organ transplants. The focus of Organ Donor Awareness Week organised by the Irish Kidney Association (Mar 31 until Apr 7), is to raise awareness and seek support from the public to make an informed decision to carry an organ donor card. IKA volunteers will be selling fundraising ‘forget me not flower’ emblems (the symbol of transplantation). Donor cards are available from pharmacies, GP surgeries and Citizen Information Offices. You can also now store one on your smart phone. For more details call the Irish Kidney Association on 1890 543639; www.ika.ie (See page 6).

■ BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT: Anam Cara is a national charity that offers bereavement support services to parents and families after the death of their child. Anam Cara is facilitating a Professional Bereavement Talk on Wednesday next at the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork. The guest speaker is Una Boland and her talk will cover The Seasons of Grief. The event runs from 7.30 to 9.30pm. To attend next week’s talk, please confirm by email to info@anamcara.ie before Monday, or call 01-4045378.

■ EARTH HOUR: Head to CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory tomorrow from 8 to 10pm, as staff unite with millions around the world to support Earth Hour. The event is part of Cork’s Lifelong Learning Festival which runs until Sunday. Full details: www.corkcity.ie/learningfestival ■ EAT SMART: The Nutrition and Health Foundation’s (NHF) Eat Smart Week is from Apr 2 to 8 and as part of this, the NHF in association with Mykidstime.ie, have produced a free recipe book. The eBook can be downloaded from Apr 2 at www.mykidstime.ie and www.nhfireland.ie ■ EGG HUNT: PARENT 2 PARENT is group of parents who strive to support, inform, encourage and befriend families across Cork whose children share a diagnosis of ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder).

This Sunday there will be an Easter Egg Hunt in Ballincollig Regional Park from 2pm in aid of P2P, tickets €10 per family.

There is also a fun table quiz tonight at 8.30pm in Ballynoe Inn, Cobh, €20 per table. Tel 085-2164364.

■ MONTHLY MEDITATION: A Twin Hearts Guided Meditation takes place on Tuesday next in Dervish, Cornmarket St, Cork at 8.15pm. Donations go to Cork Penny Dinners. Details at www.pranichealinginireland.com ■ OPEN EVENING: There will be an open evening at The Natural Healing Centre Thompson House MacCurtain Street, Cork on Monday from 5 to 8pm. Visitors can find out more about spring courses in reflexology and therapeutic massage, etc.

Call 021-4501600; www.nhc.ie ■ SIMON CONCERT: There will be a concert in St Peter’s Church, Bandon on Tuesday next at 8pm, featuring the Minnetonka Choir from Minnesota and the Glaslinn Ladies Choir. Admission is free with a collection in aid of the Simon Community; www.corksimon.ie Items for inclusion in this column can be sent to koreilly8@gmail.com

FeelgoodMag

Feelgood

FeelgoodMag

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A new study confirms that sleeping six hours a night can improve your exam results, Arlene Harris reports

Top results W

E are all aware of the need to study before an exam, but new research has shown that students will get maximum benefit from their revision if they get a good sleep before answering their questions.

A team from Notre Dame University in Indiana tested over 200 students who usually have six hours sleep a night. They were shown a number of words and asked to remember them in pairs. Results showed those students who went to sleep shortly after learning the pairs remembered significantly more than those who didn’t.

Speaking about the study to specialist science journal PLOS One, psychologist Jessica Payne said: “Our study confirms that sleeping directly after learning something new is beneficial for memory. This means it would be a good thing to rehearse any information you need to remember just prior to going to bed — in some sense, you may be “telling” the sleeping brain what to consolidate.”

Dr John Ball, chairperson of the Irish College of General Practitioners, says that getting enough sleep is a vital tool in helping teenagers to get better exam results.

“The average 16 year old needs around eight and a half hours sleep a night as fatigue reduces conentration, and if they don’t get enough sleep they will not be able to do themselves justice in an exam the following day.

REST UP: Not getting sufficient sleep will impair your memory.

“If the resting period is undisturbed and long enough, the body will go through different phases of sleep, and it is these phases that are essential for refreshing the mind and body. This is why having naps isn’t ideal as it takes 30 to 40 minutes to get

into “deep sleep”, or slow wave sleep, which is the refreshing phase. It may also disrupt your ability to sleep at night.”

With final exams just around the corner, he advises students to set a routine and try to stick to it for the duration of the examination period.

“During this time it is advisable for students to get enough sleep, eat at appropriate times, devise a study plan in advance of your exams, take study breaks and get plenty of outdoor exercise,” he says. “These are realistic goals and good habits which can be kept up for life.”

Psychologist Peadar Maxwell believes a lack of sleep can be detrimental to exam students. “On a brain level we all need sleep to process the new information and learning we have been exposed to during our waking day,” he says. “We use that ‘rest and digest’ period to get recently learnt information into long-term memory so that it can be reproduced at another time.

“The psychological effects of sleep deprivation can affect an individual on cognitive and emotional levels. Some of the effects are subtle, affecting the person emotionally or their ability to perform mental tasks – such as irritability and general moodiness or concentration, memory, and creativity.”

Other symptoms include: slower response time — taking longer to read and write; reduced short-term memory; impaired judgement and lethargy.

HEALTH NOTES TURNING to drink can help men live longer after a first heart attack, a study has shown.

Two alcoholic drinks a day over a long period gave attack survivors a 42% lower risk of dying from heart disease than non-drinkers, researchers found.

Their risk of death from any cause was reduced by 14%.

But the benefits were seen only with “moderate” drinking. Higher consumption wiped out the survival gains and increased the chances of dying so they matched those of non-drinkers.

The findings are broadly in line with evidence that controlled drinking levels can protect the heart and arteries.

Study leader Dr Jennifer Pai, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, said: “Our findings clearly demonstrate that long-term moderate alcohol consumption among men who survived a heart attack was associated with a reduced risk of total and cardiovascular mortality.”

The findings are published in the online edition of European Heart Journal.

UPMC Beacon Hospital launched Ireland’s first hospital patient and visitor app this week.

The app offers users easy access to many of the services available at UPMC Beacon Hospital, including a ‘Find a Consultant’ feature and an innovative ‘Appointment Tracker’.

www.irishexaminer.com www.irishexaminer.com

KICK OFF: At the UPMC Beacon Hospital launch of a hospital patient and visitor app was Leinster and Ireland rugby star Jonathan Sexton.

Picture: Iain White Photography

All the key hospital contact numbers are provided and can be called from within the app.

Developed by MedMedia Campaign, the app is free to download from the App Store

The Irish Tag Rugby Association wants to get hearts pumping on pitches around Ireland and raise vital funds for the Irish Heart Foundation charity fighting heart disease and stroke by promoting tag rugby. See: www.itra.ie More than half of Irish adults have clothes that they have not worn in a year, with three in every five being women. The research was conducted in support of the Enable Ireland/TK Maxx initiative, Give Up Clothes for Good, which aims to

www.irishexaminer.com feelgood@examiner.ie

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

raise €250,000 for the charity throughout April.

Give Up Clothes for Good is asking people to drop in their unwanted quality clothing, accessories and household items to any TK Maxx store during April. Donations are then sold in Enable Ireland shops, to raise funds for vital services for children with disabilities.

The survey, conducted by Amarach Research, found that over 40% of Irish adults experience buyers’ remorse. Some 20% of Irish women have more than 6 pairs of trousers they have not worn in over 12 months. Those who do their bit by bringing in a donation will enter a draw to win €1,000 TK Maxx gift card via www.tkmaxx.ie.

Editorial: 021 4802 292

Advertising: 021 4802 265

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In profile

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THE SHAPE I'M IN

Pamela Flood

Every day’s a joy T V presenter Pamela Flood turned 40 soon after she gave birth to Harrison just over a year ago. Her first baby’s arrival marked a sea-change in her life. “Life as we know it completely turned on its head. But motherhood is a joy. Every dirty nappy is a joy, every cry at 3am is a joy.”

Living in Clontarf with her restaurateur partner Ronan Ryan, Pamela says Harrison is generally a very happy child. “He loves to giggle and laugh.

He’ll be looking at me and at Ronan as if to say ‘who’ll make me laugh?’”

While she envies the energy of younger mums, Pamela says: “At my age, you have a hell of a lot more patience than you had when younger.

You acquire patience as you get older.”

She always loved babies, but says this affection has now taken on a new momentum. “I want to cuddle all babies, smell their heads. I just love them.”

Harrison is her partner’s second son. “Zach is 10. He lives with us half the time and he’s amazing with Harrison. He’s so patient with him and a real pal to him.”

Understandably, the former Off The Rails presenter doesn’t have a lot of time these days to indulge her love of fashion. “There’s very little ‘me’ time now. I wouldn’t change that but I have learned to value the free time I have. Superficial stuff like fashion has to take a back seat for the next few years and that’s fine.”

■ Pamela is the face of this year’s Pregnancy & Baby Fair, which takes place in Dublin’s RDS on Apr 14 and 15 and in Cork’s City Hall on Apr 21 and 22.Check out www.pregnancyandbabyfair.ie.

What shape are you in?

I can honestly say I’m in the same shape now as I was before getting pregnant. I stayed really active during the pregnancy. I walked the dogs most days and swam a few times a week. I didn’t really care if I gained weight though — I was having a baby. I breastfed Harrison for seven months — he was a big baby and a hungry baby and all that helped me get back in shape.

Do you have any health concerns?

Nothing to speak of — my back is a weak point. It’s why I make sure to swim two to three times a week. I can go for weeks without a twinge, then I’ll wake up and go, ‘oh, I’m very stiff today’. My osteopath is amazing. I go every six to eight weeks for maintenance and straightaway if I have a particular issue.

What are your healthiest eating habits?

I eat breakfast. I’m a porridge convert. I eat a great big bowl of it and add crushed nuts, sultanas and a bit of honey.

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?

Where do I start? I love my healthy food. I love salads and I wouldn’t be a big red meat eater. But

Feelgood

that’s balanced by my chocolate and pizza habit. I don’t see chocolate as a major vice though. Ten years ago I would have been drinking two or three nights a week and smoking. That’s all gone now.

What would keep you awake at night?

If anything would keep me awake, it would be finances. But very little keeps me awake these days — by the time I hit the bed, I fall into a semi-coma.

Things that would have stressed me before aren’t issues now. Since having Harrison, what I deem important has completely changed. On a daily basis, my priorities are that the people I love are well and happy.

How do you relax?

By having a nice lunch with a good friend.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

George Clooney. I just love him — he’s the complete package. I’d invite Sandra Bullock — I’m a major fan — and also David Attenborough.

What’s your favourite smell?

The smell of Harrison after he has had his bath.

What would you change about your appearance?

I’d love not to be so pale. I’m not asking for a tan, just not to be so ghostly.

When did you last cry?

Tears are never far from me. I’ve always

Ten years ago I would have been drinking two or three nights a week and smoking. That’s all gone now been quite emotional. Recently, I cried several times while watching the Sandra Bullock movie, The Blind Side.

What trait do you least like in others?

Rudeness. For some people it’s just a habit.

What trait do you least like in yourself?

I used to hold onto to grudges. It’s something I’ve chosen to work on over the last year. I don’t have too many grudges now but there are still a few keepers. I think bearing a grudge comes from a place of hurt.

Do you pray?

I pray of sorts. I’m a lapsed Catholic. I do believe there’s something bigger than us. I don’t think we just happened — we’re too amazing for that.

What would cheer up your day?

Getting a call or text out of the blue from someone I haven’t seen in a while. I’ve got a small handful of close friends and a lot of pals. It’s lovely to hook up with one of them, when they ring and say ‘are you free on Saturday for lunch?’.

Helen O’Callaghan

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

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4 Children’s health

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Treating childhood cancer can result in ongoing complications for patients. Medics are

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now working towards better follow-up practices, says Sharon Ní Chonchúir

Time to improve their long-term healthcare C ANCER is a terrifying word for the parents of children diagnosed with the disease. How many children are diagnosed with cancer in Ireland each year and what are their prospects? This is an under-reported topic, says Jennifer Carpenter, development officer with Hand in Hand, an organisation supporting families affected by childhood cancer in the West of Ireland. “Children with cancer are a somewhat forgotten group as most people would rather not think about such a terrible thing happening to a child,” she says.

The National Cancer Registry of Ireland shows 150 new cases of cancer each year in children and teenagers, aged up to 19-years-old. The most common cancers in this age group are leukaemia, lymphoma and brain cancer.

Although these are life-threatening, there is hope. Thanks to improvements in treatment, most children diagnosed with cancer live long and productive lives. “Overall, there’s a 79% five-year survival rate,” says Dr Julianne Byrne, of the Boyne Research Institute in Drogheda, and an expert in childhood cancer. “This means they live at least five years from diagnosis.”

Five years is a critical time in cancer.

Children who survive to this stage are considered cured. “But this is just a benchmark,” says Dr Byrne. “There are still questions to answer at the five-year stage and even when these children are 40-years-old.

Three quarters of those who become adults have long-term complications.”

Chemotherapy and radiation can cause difficulties. “Because children’s organs are still growing when they are exposed to chemotherapy and/or radiation, they are vulnerable,” says Dr Byrne. “They are unique in that way.”

Radiation to the brain can cause learning difficulties and growth problems. Radiation, some forms of chemotherapy, to the pelvis can lead to infertility.

“It’s serious,” says Dr Byrne. “Long-term complications can include blindness, deafness, stroke, joint replacement and heart and kidney failure.”

The consultants at the National Centre of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin have concerns about this too. “With more effective treatment strategies over the years, survival in childhood cancer is increasing,” says a spokesperson.

“However, as the numbers of childhood cancer survivors increase, there is a growing body of evidence reflecting that survivors are at an increased risk of developing other complications, including other cancers, as a result of the treatment they received.”

Little research has been done in Ireland and doctors have relied on international data to guide them. Learning from the experience of others, Irish oncologists now modify their treatments to ensure as little long-term impact as possible.

This means different things in different circumstances. One chemotherapy agent can be replaced with another, more efficient, or one that is as efficient but has less potential side effects. Radiotherapy may be reduced in dosage or volume. The type of radiation may be changed and it may even be omitted.

“All involved in the treatment of childhood

Feelgood

She’s home now and doing very well. In fact, she’s flying it. Before this, she was going to playschool and looked just like any other little girl but we had to look after her very carefully. Now, life can start to go back to normal for us and Sophie can look forward to starting school in September

Children with cancer are a somewhat forgotten group as most people would rather not think about such a terrible thing happening to a child

Bright future: Teresa Morrissey has fully recovered from non Hodgkin’s Picture: Andrew Downes lymphoma and considers herself to be very healthy.

T

Left, four-year-old Sophie Phillips, who is recovering from Wilm’s tumour, a rare type of kidney cancer; above, Sophie at home in Ballymote, Co Sligo, with mum Helen, dad Tom and her brother Darragh.

Picture: James Connolly / PicSell8

cancer have concerns about chemotherapy and radiation treatment,” the spokesperson for Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin says. “It is the balance between survival, and quality of life following treatment, that is at the heart of this question.”

New research into this issue is now underway in Ireland. Dr Byrne and the Boyne Research Institute are taking part in a pan-European project investigating the long-term impact of treatment and what can be done to minimise it.

This research can be difficult to compile as

‘I didn’t care, as long as I was going to get better’

many survivors of cancer want to forget all about it. “They want to put the experience behind them,” says Dr Byrne.

“We need to allow them to do so, but we also need to balance that with our duty to give them a quality of care into the future.”

Ms Carpenter has seen this desire to move on in parents too. “Fear of the consequences of treatment comes much later,” she says.

“Survival is all that matters at first.”

It is what matters to Helen Phillips. In January 2009, she and her husband Thomas brought their then 16-month-old daughter

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

Sophie to hospital.

“She’d been off form and we brought her to Sligo for tests,” remembers Helen. “We were sent to Crumlin and she was diagnosed with tumours in both kidneys within a week.”

Sophie had Wilm’s tumour, a rare type of kidney cancer that affects children. Treatment started immediately and consisted of six sessions of radiotherapy as well as three days of chemotherapy every three weeks for a year.

Although the treatment stopped the cancer from spreading, both Sophie’s kidneys had to

be removed. This meant that she had to spend three days a week on dialysis in Temple Street in Dublin.

Life for the family, which also includes Sophie’s seven-year-old brother Darragh, was lived on tenterhooks for the next two years.

Helen and Thomas brought Sophie to and from Dublin every week and kept a close eye on her recovery, all the while trying to live a normal life.

“The staff at Crumlin and Temple Street and the people at Hand in Hand were great,” says Helen. “But it was difficult. It’s tough

Feelgood

travelling to and from Dublin every week.”

This February, Sophie had been free of cancer for two years which meant that she could go on the transplant list for a kidney.

Both her parents were tested for compatibility and on February 15, Sophie received one of her father’s kidneys.

“She’s home now and doing very well,” says Helen. “In fact, she’s flying it. Before this, she was going to playschool and looked just like any other little girl but we had to look after her very carefully. Now, life can start to go back to normal for us and Sophie

ERESA MORRISSEY was diagnosed with a non Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 11.

“I remember having a bad pain in my stomach,” says Teresa who is now 25 and works for the Marine Institute in Oranmore, Galway. “I had no appetite and no energy.”

The cancer took three months to diagnose.

“It was once they booked me in for an endoscope that the rollercoaster started,” says Teresa. “They found a tumour and rushed me to hospital in Limerick and from there to Crumlin.”

It took Teresa a while to realise what was happening to her.

“I was brought to the oncology ward but I’d never heard that word before,” she says. “All I knew was that you lost your hair when you had cancer. I said

can look forward to starting school in September.”

Dr Byrne wants to ensure that the 150 children who are diagnosed with cancer each year remain healthy into the future. While she commends the quality of care at Crumlin, she wants adults who had cancer as children to receive a high standard of care throughout their lifetimes.

“We do quite well in our care of children with cancer in Ireland,” she says. “The system in Crumlin is excellent. But once you are discharged from Crumlin into the adult

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

to my mother ‘this place is full of sick kids with no hair, I don’t have cancer, do I?’” The answer didn’t frighten Teresa.

“I’d been sick for months by that stage,” she says. “I didn’t care as long as I was going to get better.”

She started chemotherapy at the end of August 1998 and by November, the cancer had disappeared. Her follow-up care started then.

“I had a check-up every week for two months, then every second week, every month, six months and finally once a year,” she says. “I had my last visit four or five years ago.

My cancer is all in the past now.”

Teresa considers herself to be very healthy. “I’ve had no major issues since then and could count the number of times I’ve taken antibiotics on the fingers of one hand,” she says.

system, there is no standardised model of care and there ought to be.”

According to the consultants at Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin, guidelines are now being introduced into practice to direct healthcare professionals about the level of follow-up care required of survivors of childhood cancer.

Dr Byrne has high hopes for such guidelines. “A lot of countries are struggling with how best to provide a model of care to adults who had cancer as children,” she says.

“Hopefully, we’ll develop best practice here in Ireland.”

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4 Children’s health

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Treating childhood cancer can result in ongoing complications for patients. Medics are

5

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now working towards better follow-up practices, says Sharon Ní Chonchúir

Time to improve their long-term healthcare C ANCER is a terrifying word for the parents of children diagnosed with the disease. How many children are diagnosed with cancer in Ireland each year and what are their prospects? This is an under-reported topic, says Jennifer Carpenter, development officer with Hand in Hand, an organisation supporting families affected by childhood cancer in the West of Ireland. “Children with cancer are a somewhat forgotten group as most people would rather not think about such a terrible thing happening to a child,” she says.

The National Cancer Registry of Ireland shows 150 new cases of cancer each year in children and teenagers, aged up to 19-years-old. The most common cancers in this age group are leukaemia, lymphoma and brain cancer.

Although these are life-threatening, there is hope. Thanks to improvements in treatment, most children diagnosed with cancer live long and productive lives. “Overall, there’s a 79% five-year survival rate,” says Dr Julianne Byrne, of the Boyne Research Institute in Drogheda, and an expert in childhood cancer. “This means they live at least five years from diagnosis.”

Five years is a critical time in cancer.

Children who survive to this stage are considered cured. “But this is just a benchmark,” says Dr Byrne. “There are still questions to answer at the five-year stage and even when these children are 40-years-old.

Three quarters of those who become adults have long-term complications.”

Chemotherapy and radiation can cause difficulties. “Because children’s organs are still growing when they are exposed to chemotherapy and/or radiation, they are vulnerable,” says Dr Byrne. “They are unique in that way.”

Radiation to the brain can cause learning difficulties and growth problems. Radiation, some forms of chemotherapy, to the pelvis can lead to infertility.

“It’s serious,” says Dr Byrne. “Long-term complications can include blindness, deafness, stroke, joint replacement and heart and kidney failure.”

The consultants at the National Centre of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin have concerns about this too. “With more effective treatment strategies over the years, survival in childhood cancer is increasing,” says a spokesperson.

“However, as the numbers of childhood cancer survivors increase, there is a growing body of evidence reflecting that survivors are at an increased risk of developing other complications, including other cancers, as a result of the treatment they received.”

Little research has been done in Ireland and doctors have relied on international data to guide them. Learning from the experience of others, Irish oncologists now modify their treatments to ensure as little long-term impact as possible.

This means different things in different circumstances. One chemotherapy agent can be replaced with another, more efficient, or one that is as efficient but has less potential side effects. Radiotherapy may be reduced in dosage or volume. The type of radiation may be changed and it may even be omitted.

“All involved in the treatment of childhood

Feelgood

She’s home now and doing very well. In fact, she’s flying it. Before this, she was going to playschool and looked just like any other little girl but we had to look after her very carefully. Now, life can start to go back to normal for us and Sophie can look forward to starting school in September

Children with cancer are a somewhat forgotten group as most people would rather not think about such a terrible thing happening to a child

Bright future: Teresa Morrissey has fully recovered from non Hodgkin’s Picture: Andrew Downes lymphoma and considers herself to be very healthy.

T

Left, four-year-old Sophie Phillips, who is recovering from Wilm’s tumour, a rare type of kidney cancer; above, Sophie at home in Ballymote, Co Sligo, with mum Helen, dad Tom and her brother Darragh.

Picture: James Connolly / PicSell8

cancer have concerns about chemotherapy and radiation treatment,” the spokesperson for Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin says. “It is the balance between survival, and quality of life following treatment, that is at the heart of this question.”

New research into this issue is now underway in Ireland. Dr Byrne and the Boyne Research Institute are taking part in a pan-European project investigating the long-term impact of treatment and what can be done to minimise it.

This research can be difficult to compile as

‘I didn’t care, as long as I was going to get better’

many survivors of cancer want to forget all about it. “They want to put the experience behind them,” says Dr Byrne.

“We need to allow them to do so, but we also need to balance that with our duty to give them a quality of care into the future.”

Ms Carpenter has seen this desire to move on in parents too. “Fear of the consequences of treatment comes much later,” she says.

“Survival is all that matters at first.”

It is what matters to Helen Phillips. In January 2009, she and her husband Thomas brought their then 16-month-old daughter

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

Sophie to hospital.

“She’d been off form and we brought her to Sligo for tests,” remembers Helen. “We were sent to Crumlin and she was diagnosed with tumours in both kidneys within a week.”

Sophie had Wilm’s tumour, a rare type of kidney cancer that affects children. Treatment started immediately and consisted of six sessions of radiotherapy as well as three days of chemotherapy every three weeks for a year.

Although the treatment stopped the cancer from spreading, both Sophie’s kidneys had to

be removed. This meant that she had to spend three days a week on dialysis in Temple Street in Dublin.

Life for the family, which also includes Sophie’s seven-year-old brother Darragh, was lived on tenterhooks for the next two years.

Helen and Thomas brought Sophie to and from Dublin every week and kept a close eye on her recovery, all the while trying to live a normal life.

“The staff at Crumlin and Temple Street and the people at Hand in Hand were great,” says Helen. “But it was difficult. It’s tough

Feelgood

travelling to and from Dublin every week.”

This February, Sophie had been free of cancer for two years which meant that she could go on the transplant list for a kidney.

Both her parents were tested for compatibility and on February 15, Sophie received one of her father’s kidneys.

“She’s home now and doing very well,” says Helen. “In fact, she’s flying it. Before this, she was going to playschool and looked just like any other little girl but we had to look after her very carefully. Now, life can start to go back to normal for us and Sophie

ERESA MORRISSEY was diagnosed with a non Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 11.

“I remember having a bad pain in my stomach,” says Teresa who is now 25 and works for the Marine Institute in Oranmore, Galway. “I had no appetite and no energy.”

The cancer took three months to diagnose.

“It was once they booked me in for an endoscope that the rollercoaster started,” says Teresa. “They found a tumour and rushed me to hospital in Limerick and from there to Crumlin.”

It took Teresa a while to realise what was happening to her.

“I was brought to the oncology ward but I’d never heard that word before,” she says. “All I knew was that you lost your hair when you had cancer. I said

can look forward to starting school in September.”

Dr Byrne wants to ensure that the 150 children who are diagnosed with cancer each year remain healthy into the future. While she commends the quality of care at Crumlin, she wants adults who had cancer as children to receive a high standard of care throughout their lifetimes.

“We do quite well in our care of children with cancer in Ireland,” she says. “The system in Crumlin is excellent. But once you are discharged from Crumlin into the adult

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

to my mother ‘this place is full of sick kids with no hair, I don’t have cancer, do I?’” The answer didn’t frighten Teresa.

“I’d been sick for months by that stage,” she says. “I didn’t care as long as I was going to get better.”

She started chemotherapy at the end of August 1998 and by November, the cancer had disappeared. Her follow-up care started then.

“I had a check-up every week for two months, then every second week, every month, six months and finally once a year,” she says. “I had my last visit four or five years ago.

My cancer is all in the past now.”

Teresa considers herself to be very healthy. “I’ve had no major issues since then and could count the number of times I’ve taken antibiotics on the fingers of one hand,” she says.

system, there is no standardised model of care and there ought to be.”

According to the consultants at Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin, guidelines are now being introduced into practice to direct healthcare professionals about the level of follow-up care required of survivors of childhood cancer.

Dr Byrne has high hopes for such guidelines. “A lot of countries are struggling with how best to provide a model of care to adults who had cancer as children,” she says.

“Hopefully, we’ll develop best practice here in Ireland.”

TERAPROOF:User:marjoriebrennanDate:28/03/2012Time:16:38:57Edition:30/03/2012FeelgoodXH3003Page:6

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Forty years after a boyhood accident damaged his kidneys, Michael Kiely was undergoing gruelling dialysis and needed a transplant, says Áilín Quinlan

Sister’s gift of life M

ICHAEL Kiely was seven years old when a tractor rolled over him, breaking his pelvis, injuring his bladder and damaging his kidneys.

Four decades on, and after years of recurring kidney infections and months on dialysis, Michael received a kidney from his younger sister, Annette.

On Jan 10, Annette’s kidney was transplanted to Micheal within the hour as the siblings lay in separate operating theatres in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital.

The road to the transplant was a long one — despite the damage caused during that long-ago accident, Michael’s kidneys did Trojan work for 33 years.

However, Michael was plagued by kidney infections. These eventually left him immune to oral antibiotics: “That meant that when I got a bad kidney infection, I had to go to hospital for five to seven days to have the antibiotics intravenously. That was heavy going,” says the 48-year-old, who describes the pain caused by the kidney infections as “excruciating”.

Years of recurring infections resulted in a serious deterioration in his kidney function and at the age of 40 the haulage contractor had to go on dialysis.

“Eventually, my kidneys stopped working properly and toxins started to build up in my body. I went on dialysis in Jan 2009, following another kidney infection,” says the Cork man who is married to Mary.

The dialysis was a gruelling experience — three sessions a week, each lasting four and a half hours — left Michael, from Kilglass, Mitchelstown, exhausted and bound to the hospital for months.

The following autumn, however, his kidneys were finally removed in two separate operations three months apart.

After that, Michael became eligible for a kidney transplant.

In 2011, 192 kidney transplants took place at Beaumont Hospital, 27 of which were from living donors. In the same year there were 248 transplants — kidney, pancreas, heart, lungs and liver — from deceased donors.

There are more than 650 people in Ireland awaiting life-saving organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas, but Michael was lucky.

When the news broke that he was a transplant candidate, friends and family queued up to take the test to see whether they were compatible.

His younger sister Annette, 44, who lived in Mitchelstown, was also tested and was deemed to be most suitable. Her children, aged 21, 17 and 10, and her husband, Mike, strongly supported her decision to donate a kidney to her older brother.

Last January, Annette went under the surgeon’s knife.

“She was still in surgery when I was brought down to have the transplant — the organ was literally removed from Annette’s body and transplanted to mine within an hour,” he says.

Having the operation was a big decision, says Annette, adding that the unstinting support of her parents, husband and children

Feelgood

Organ Donor Awareness Week ■ The Irish Kidney Association’s Organ Donor Awareness Week runs from Mar 31 — Apr. ■ Volunteers from the organisation’s 25 branches will be selling ‘forget me not flower’ emblems, brooches, magnetic car ribbons and pens and distributing organ donor cards.

Each of the 25 branch networks of the IKA is organising local activities to coincide with the week.

■ Proceeds will go to the Irish Kidney Association’s support programme for patients on dialysis and those who have had a kidney transplant.

■ Free information fact-files which accompany organ donor cards are obtainable from the Irish Kidney Association and are available nationwide from pharmacies, GP surgeries and Citizen Information Offices.

■ Organ Donor Cards can also be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association LoCall 1890 543639 or Freetext the word DONOR to 50050. Visit website www.ika.ie

BROTHER’S KEEPER: Annette Beston donated a kidney to her brother Michael Kiely.

■ It is now possible to store an organ donor card, the ‘ecard’ on Smart mobile phones.

Simply search for ‘Donor ECard’ at the iPhone Store or Android Market Place.

Picture: Dan Linehan

helped enormously. “I’m thrilled to have done it — it’s fantastic to see how well he recovered and the change in his lifestyle.

Michael has more energy and more life,” she says.

The siblings have always been very close, she says, and she was deeply grateful to be able to help her brother: “It was a gift from me to him.”

While Michael noticed a slight overall improvement in his wellbeing immediately after the operation, it was not for some weeks that the benefits of the operation made themselves known.

“I was in hospital for about 10 days. About three weeks after the operation, I began to notice that I had more energy. I was also able to eat a normal diet as opposed to the very restricted renal diet I had been on for dialysis — I was able to drink things like coffee and milk.”

After years of illness, and months on dialysis, Michael is now enjoying a new freedom.

“Now I come and go as I like, as long as I take my medication,” he says.

Michael always loved skiing, but had to stop while he was on dialysis and awaiting the transplant. “I’m still going in to CUH for

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

blood tests every fortnight, but I hope to be back at work full-time by June or July, I have much more energy — and I’m hoping to go skiing in France or Austria next winter,” he says.

Annette, too, has made an excellent recovery. She has not experienced any problems as a result of donating one of her kidneys: “I don’t notice having just one kidney. It’s amazing. I was very fit and healthy going into the operation and have recovered very well.

A lot of people I have met since the operation say they only have one kidney and can manage perfectly well,” she says.

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The Mahon Report forces us to reflect on the people we promote to positions of leadership

Mature reflection

Spring Courses in

ARTHRITIS IRELAND DOUGLAS CHIROPRACTIC CLINIC

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Wed 4th April at 8pm Brú Columbanus

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HE level of corruption revealed by the Mahon Report challenges us to reflect on how so many of our leaders secured major positions of responsibility with such a low level of personal maturity and social conscience. What has struck me regarding the journalistic responses to the Mahon Report is the lack of any psycho-social analysis of its alarming findings.

Personal maturity means you are one with yourself and have a strong sense of your own and others’ innate goodness. In this mature state you are loving, fair, intelligent, just, expansive and creative and duly concerned for the wellbeing of others. However, when you are not one with yourself, you can be powerfully and frighteningly defensive.

In this insecure place defences such as aggression, control, dominance and narcissism, being judgmental, critical, greedy, manipulative and arrogant, are unconsciously created and mask your true nature.

All defensive behaviours pose a threat to the wellbeing of others — nonetheless, the purpose of these unconscious defences is to reduce the experience of threats from other people’s defences. It is for this reason that human behaviour is paradoxical and, as a result, confusing, particularly for those who are not at one with themselves. Personal maturity is a responsibility for each person — maturity is on a continuum from very low to very high — and it is a responsibility with which we all struggle and one that requires considerable support.

The Mahon Report indicates that many politicians, councillors and property developers were not at one with themselves. However, it would be unwise to believe that such a lack of integrity was solely limited to those individuals identified in the report. After all, the kind of irresponsible behaviours involved were also evident in the banks, financial institutions, the Catholic Church, and in many organisations. The defensive behaviours include: individualism, greed, superiority, depersonalising of others, cynicism and lies and more lies. Those of us who stood idly by — inside and outside the political, financial, religious and property development arenas — were also in defensive places. The whole sad saga begs the question, “Where were the good men?” Such men would not have stayed silent and let the ‘evil’ thrive. To be fair, there were some good individuals who did cry wolf, but in what was a predominantly dark ethos they were dismissed, rubbished or aggressively sidelined.

The Mahon Report raises serious questions. The first enquiry needs to be how individuals in key leadership positions engaged in such profoundly immature and defensive actions. The second enquiry should focus on how those leaders were supported by their party members or by their work colleagues and, by and large, by the general public.

Furthermore, how did Irish society get to such a place that materialism, money, wealth, status, power and success replaced the dignity, worthiness and wellbeing of the individual person?

As regards leaders and managers there needs to be a compulsory requirement to examine their lives before they dare to take on responsibilities that profoundly affect the lives of

Feelgood

The first enquiry needs to be how individuals in key leadership positions engaged in such profoundly immature and defensive actions.

The second enquiry should focus on how those leaders were supported by their party members or by their work colleagues and, by and large, by the general public others. The key leaders and managers are parents, teachers, school principals, politicians, clergy, third-level educators, chiefs executive of organisations.

The training needs to be of a face-to-face nature and carried out by professionals who themselves have faced, or at least are facing, their own demons and know how best to provide the safe and dynamic ethos for others to do likewise.

It is a painful process — it raises the ghosts of the past — and invites radical shifts in consciousness in the present. However, when we fail to examine our lives, we cannot bring a maturity to those areas and the consequence is that everybody suffers, including the person who stays stuck in denial.

When we live out from the fullness of our nature we bring maturity to what we do. When we operate from an inner void that we attempt to addictively fill with money, power, success etc, we rob those towards whom we have leadership responsibilities of the possibilities of a fulfilling life.

■ Dr Tony Humphreys is a clinical psychologist, author and speaker. His book Leadership with Consciousness is relevant to today’s topic.

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

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To reach them, advertise in‘Feelgood’.

Call Lori Fraser

Tel: 021 4802265 lori.fraser@examiner.ie

TERAPROOF:User:jaycarcioneDate:28/03/2012Time:16:52:53Edition:30/03/2012FeelgoodXH3003Page:8

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8 Cover story

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Extreme measures

9

‘Disordered eating’ is a new diagnosis describing weight-control behaviour less serious than anorexia or bulimia. It could also describe you, says Helen O’Callaghan

What’s eating you?

Celebrity diets fail to deliver results in the long term

S

HOULD their day jobs ever fail, many celebrities could give classes on how to do disordered eating. Dr Daniel McCartney, dietician with the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, comments on some of the extreme celeb approaches to weight management.

Uma Thurman’s a fan of the raw food diet, the theory being that raw food contains live enzymes which are destroyed by cooking, but Dr McCarthy says this is complete nonsense.

“When you eat, the protein contained in food gets broken into its constituent amino acids. The idea that you’d have enzymes that could survive intact the normal digestive process is very unrealistic.”

Sarah-Michelle Gellar is reported to eat only cabbage soup for a week at a time. This gets short shrift from Dr McCartney.

And so does Beyoncé’s penchant for drinking lemonade concocted from fresh lemon or lime juice, maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper, something she does for a 10-day period — with no consumption of solid foods.

“These diets aren’t effective in the long term and are potentially hazardous. Reducing calorie intake to a very low level over a seven-day period or more causes a shift in electrolytes that can lead to cardiac arrest in severe cases. It’s not advisable to go on a very restrictive diet. You lose muscle tissue rather than fat tissue — ultimately you regain the lost weight and probably more besides.”

In following a 100% natural food-only diet (eliminating also meat, fish, eggs and dairy), Gwyneth Paltrow’s doing herself no favours, says Dr McCartney. “Avoiding foods that are major sources of nutrients like iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc, creates problems. Young women who adopt a macrobiotic or vegan diet are more likely to become anaemic and to develop osteoporosis early in life.”

Jennifer Aniston is reported to eat jars of baby food in a bid to reduce calorie intake and portion size. “Baby foods are variable in quality, though some are nutritionally quite complete but we’d never recommend them as a replacement for a healthy adult diet,” says Dr McCartney.

However there’s some merit in Kim Cattrall’s habit of eating salmon three times daily. “There’s truth in the suggestion that inflammation is a key component of many disorders such as heart disease and certain types of cancer. There’s also no doubt that omega 3 oils in oily fish, like salmon, can help control inflammation... The recommendation is to eat it two to three times weekly.” In fact, eating too much of an oily fish like tuna can lead to over-production of urea in the body, thereby causing kidneys to work harder, warns Dr McCartney.

Dr McCartney says it’s better to have a high-fibre cereal for breakfast, lots of fruit, vegetables and wholegrain foods, keep an eye on portion size and alcohol intake and take a brisk 35-minute daily walk than follow the stars’ diets.

Helen O’Callaghan

Y

and, at the other, an eating disorder, disorOUR diet’s healthy during the dered eating falls between the two, says week, but you binge on junk Ruth Ní Eidhin, communication officer at food at the weekend. Guilty, Bodywhys. you eat too little for the next five days, or “It’s when you pass the compulsive point you wait until 6pm to eat a solid meal.

— where you have to do something to Perhaps you’ve replaced meals with the feel okay and where it’s impacting on you lemonade diet (water mixed with maple on a daily basis. It may be affecting mood syrup, lemon juice and cayenne pepper) a or whether or not you meet friends. You la Beyoncé, or resorted to Elizabeth Hurneed to watch out if it’s developing a reach ley’s tip of eating food with small cutlery beyond just meal-times,” Ms Ní Eidhin off tiny plates. says.

You haven’t lost much weight — your Celebrity practices around food often BMI’s nowhere near the 17.5 that would verge on the obsessional and behaviours label you anorexic — and you’re not that would most likely fall within the pabingeing-and-purging twice a week for rameters of disordered eating include the three months, as a bulimic would. So you boiled-egg-only diet, the baby-food diet don’t have a problem. Right?

(Reese Witherspoon, now pregnant with Well, not exactly. You may not have an her third child, and Jennifer Aniston are eating disorder, but you could be a disorreported to have used this) or the dered eater. colour-food diet, where you eat foods of a A classification within the USA’s Diagdifferent colour each day (such as red on nostic Statistical Manual of Mental DisorMonday, yellow on Tuesday — this is a ders describes disordered eating as a irregfruit-and-vegetable diet). ular or unhealthy eating and weight-conMs Horgan says another manifestation of trol behaviours that don’t warrant diagnosis disordered eating is pathological obsession of an eating disorder. with biologically pure food, or orthorexia.

“A person may feel bad about their “The person insists on no chemicals, adweight and comfort eat or binge eat, and ditives or preservatives. It starts as a health then purge so as not to put on weight. kick or detox, but ends up being very This may happen only once a month and rigid. It’s a distorted relationship with as such it wouldn’t fit the criteria of food. It’s quite common and can ultimately binge-eating disorder. A person may chew become so rigid the person can’t eat in and spit out their food,” says Suzanne someone else’s house or in a restaurant, Horgan, director of the Eating Disorder because they don’t know how food has Resource Centre of Ireland, who estimates been prepared. Some people end up that 20% of people presenting to her pracbingeing because their body can’t tice do so for disordered eating. maintain the restrictions,” she says.

About 200,000 people in IreSo, has a particular food beland are believed to have an eathaviour become obsessive (can’t ing disorder, but there are no stop thinking about it), compulsive statistics on how many people (urge is so strong you’re compelled suffer from disordered eating. In to do it rather than wanting to) or the US, a University of North impulsive (happens so quickly it’s Carolina study found 65% of done before you realise)? If you’re women aged 25-45 reported ticking these boxes, alarm bells having disordered eating beshould ring, says Ms Horgan. haviours.

“With media messages telling If behaviours around food are A lot of disordered us, one day, a particular food is considered along a spectrum, fine, the next day it isn’t, there’s where, at one end, a person has eating is going on, a normal relationship with food, says Suzanne Horgan probably a lot of disordered eating

Feelgood

Disordered eating patterns may be a way of managing anxiety in other areas of life.

coping mechanism, a way of managing the going on. People don’t even realise, beemotions through food behaviours, disorcause they feel it’s in some way the norm,” dered eating patterns may play a similar she says. role, says Ní Eidhin. “It may be useful to Ms Horgan says food avoidance emolook at when it started — was their some tional disorder is in the category of disorbackground issue?” dered eating. “This is marked Disordered eating may be a prefood avoidance. Weight loss can cursor to an eating disorder. be as severe as with anorexia, but “Many behaviours that would there’s no preoccupation with be part of an eating disorder start weight or shape and no distortion off as disordered eating. If a perof body image. Food avoidance is son starts restricting their diet or a result of anxiety, depression and cutting out substantial food stress. The sufferer’s appetite cengroups, they’re not dealing with tre gets switched off by anxiety — food in a healthy way,” says Ms Ní they physically can’t eat. They feel Eidhin. It’s not surprising that this full all the time and feel really bad should be so, says Ms Horgan. if they eat anything. I think “The more a behaviour’s repeatthere’s a fair amount of it about in Disordered eating these stressful times,” she says. becomes norm, says ed, the more it becomes ingrained and the norm.”

While an eating disorder’s a Ruth Ní Eidhin.

Picture: Getty Images

So what should you do if you suspect you’re a disordered eater? Experts advise asking if you’re using food to distract from something that needs attention in your life. Are you using food for comfort or reward when it might be more appropriate to exercise, ask for a hug or go for a nap? Ms Horgan urges becoming mindful around eating behaviours.

“Take at least 20 minutes to eat a meal, without distractions. Be mindful of what you’re having and how it tastes. Come out of your head, go into your body, tune into your hunger and your full signals. These enable you to know what to eat, when to eat and how much. In that way, your body’s in harmony,” she says.

■ Visit www.eatingdisorders.ie; www.bodywhys.ie.

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston are not doing themselves any favours with diets.

These diets aren’t effective in the long term and are potentially hazardous.

Reducing calorie intake to a very low level over a seven-day period or more causes a shift in electrolytes that can lead to cardiac arrest in severe cases

Enjoy your food and don’t worry, author says ROB Lyons, author of Panic On A Plate, believes whole societies in the developed world are suffering from an eating disorder. Lyons says that until relatively recently there was only one question regarding food: how will we get enough to survive?

“It seems to me a shame that — at a time when we have so much food available, so much better quality, greater variety, lower prices and more convenience — that we spend so much time fretting instead of enjoying our good fortune.”

In today’s affluent world (recession notwithstanding), he lists our food-related worries:

We’re eating too much. We’re eating the wrong foods. We’re producing food in a way that’s harmful to the environment.

“This outlook is every bit as irrational and self-loathing as that of anorexics who see themselves as fat even as they starve to death.”

The topic of food, he says, has become a hook on which to hang all sorts of prejudices and panics. “Parents fret about the food they give their children. When my mother was growing up in Dublin they had jam sandwiches for dinner. The idea that everybody ate lovely, fresh, homemade meals all the time is a version of the past.”

Foods go in and out of fashion, he suggests. “People think French fries are empty calories.

They can contain more vitamin C than apples — people underestimate the poor potato. People think tomato ketchup is bad. But it’s simply puréed tomatoes with salt, sugar and vinegar. It has a lot of vitamins C and A.” Lyons also questions the widespread belief that “fatness equals an early death” and cites a study by Katherine Flegal and colleagues from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found “there were more premature deaths among those with BMIs of less

than 25 — the so-called normal weight — than those with BMIs in excess of 25”.

Lyons’s wish for people around food? That we get more perspective. “Enjoy your food.

Judge it based on whether it’s good food, whether it tastes nice and whether you’re enjoying it. Stop worrying about whether in 40 years’ time it will give you a heart attack.”

Panic On A Plate: How Society Developed an Eating Disorder by Rob Lyons

TERAPROOF:User:jaycarcioneDate:28/03/2012Time:16:52:53Edition:30/03/2012FeelgoodXH3003Page:8

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8 Cover story

XH - V2

Extreme measures

9

‘Disordered eating’ is a new diagnosis describing weight-control behaviour less serious than anorexia or bulimia. It could also describe you, says Helen O’Callaghan

What’s eating you?

Celebrity diets fail to deliver results in the long term

S

HOULD their day jobs ever fail, many celebrities could give classes on how to do disordered eating. Dr Daniel McCartney, dietician with the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, comments on some of the extreme celeb approaches to weight management.

Uma Thurman’s a fan of the raw food diet, the theory being that raw food contains live enzymes which are destroyed by cooking, but Dr McCarthy says this is complete nonsense.

“When you eat, the protein contained in food gets broken into its constituent amino acids. The idea that you’d have enzymes that could survive intact the normal digestive process is very unrealistic.”

Sarah-Michelle Gellar is reported to eat only cabbage soup for a week at a time. This gets short shrift from Dr McCartney.

And so does Beyoncé’s penchant for drinking lemonade concocted from fresh lemon or lime juice, maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper, something she does for a 10-day period — with no consumption of solid foods.

“These diets aren’t effective in the long term and are potentially hazardous. Reducing calorie intake to a very low level over a seven-day period or more causes a shift in electrolytes that can lead to cardiac arrest in severe cases. It’s not advisable to go on a very restrictive diet. You lose muscle tissue rather than fat tissue — ultimately you regain the lost weight and probably more besides.”

In following a 100% natural food-only diet (eliminating also meat, fish, eggs and dairy), Gwyneth Paltrow’s doing herself no favours, says Dr McCartney. “Avoiding foods that are major sources of nutrients like iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc, creates problems. Young women who adopt a macrobiotic or vegan diet are more likely to become anaemic and to develop osteoporosis early in life.”

Jennifer Aniston is reported to eat jars of baby food in a bid to reduce calorie intake and portion size. “Baby foods are variable in quality, though some are nutritionally quite complete but we’d never recommend them as a replacement for a healthy adult diet,” says Dr McCartney.

However there’s some merit in Kim Cattrall’s habit of eating salmon three times daily. “There’s truth in the suggestion that inflammation is a key component of many disorders such as heart disease and certain types of cancer. There’s also no doubt that omega 3 oils in oily fish, like salmon, can help control inflammation... The recommendation is to eat it two to three times weekly.” In fact, eating too much of an oily fish like tuna can lead to over-production of urea in the body, thereby causing kidneys to work harder, warns Dr McCartney.

Dr McCartney says it’s better to have a high-fibre cereal for breakfast, lots of fruit, vegetables and wholegrain foods, keep an eye on portion size and alcohol intake and take a brisk 35-minute daily walk than follow the stars’ diets.

Helen O’Callaghan

Y

and, at the other, an eating disorder, disorOUR diet’s healthy during the dered eating falls between the two, says week, but you binge on junk Ruth Ní Eidhin, communication officer at food at the weekend. Guilty, Bodywhys. you eat too little for the next five days, or “It’s when you pass the compulsive point you wait until 6pm to eat a solid meal.

— where you have to do something to Perhaps you’ve replaced meals with the feel okay and where it’s impacting on you lemonade diet (water mixed with maple on a daily basis. It may be affecting mood syrup, lemon juice and cayenne pepper) a or whether or not you meet friends. You la Beyoncé, or resorted to Elizabeth Hurneed to watch out if it’s developing a reach ley’s tip of eating food with small cutlery beyond just meal-times,” Ms Ní Eidhin off tiny plates. says.

You haven’t lost much weight — your Celebrity practices around food often BMI’s nowhere near the 17.5 that would verge on the obsessional and behaviours label you anorexic — and you’re not that would most likely fall within the pabingeing-and-purging twice a week for rameters of disordered eating include the three months, as a bulimic would. So you boiled-egg-only diet, the baby-food diet don’t have a problem. Right?

(Reese Witherspoon, now pregnant with Well, not exactly. You may not have an her third child, and Jennifer Aniston are eating disorder, but you could be a disorreported to have used this) or the dered eater. colour-food diet, where you eat foods of a A classification within the USA’s Diagdifferent colour each day (such as red on nostic Statistical Manual of Mental DisorMonday, yellow on Tuesday — this is a ders describes disordered eating as a irregfruit-and-vegetable diet). ular or unhealthy eating and weight-conMs Horgan says another manifestation of trol behaviours that don’t warrant diagnosis disordered eating is pathological obsession of an eating disorder. with biologically pure food, or orthorexia.

“A person may feel bad about their “The person insists on no chemicals, adweight and comfort eat or binge eat, and ditives or preservatives. It starts as a health then purge so as not to put on weight. kick or detox, but ends up being very This may happen only once a month and rigid. It’s a distorted relationship with as such it wouldn’t fit the criteria of food. It’s quite common and can ultimately binge-eating disorder. A person may chew become so rigid the person can’t eat in and spit out their food,” says Suzanne someone else’s house or in a restaurant, Horgan, director of the Eating Disorder because they don’t know how food has Resource Centre of Ireland, who estimates been prepared. Some people end up that 20% of people presenting to her pracbingeing because their body can’t tice do so for disordered eating. maintain the restrictions,” she says.

About 200,000 people in IreSo, has a particular food beland are believed to have an eathaviour become obsessive (can’t ing disorder, but there are no stop thinking about it), compulsive statistics on how many people (urge is so strong you’re compelled suffer from disordered eating. In to do it rather than wanting to) or the US, a University of North impulsive (happens so quickly it’s Carolina study found 65% of done before you realise)? If you’re women aged 25-45 reported ticking these boxes, alarm bells having disordered eating beshould ring, says Ms Horgan. haviours.

“With media messages telling If behaviours around food are A lot of disordered us, one day, a particular food is considered along a spectrum, fine, the next day it isn’t, there’s where, at one end, a person has eating is going on, a normal relationship with food, says Suzanne Horgan probably a lot of disordered eating

Feelgood

Disordered eating patterns may be a way of managing anxiety in other areas of life.

coping mechanism, a way of managing the going on. People don’t even realise, beemotions through food behaviours, disorcause they feel it’s in some way the norm,” dered eating patterns may play a similar she says. role, says Ní Eidhin. “It may be useful to Ms Horgan says food avoidance emolook at when it started — was their some tional disorder is in the category of disorbackground issue?” dered eating. “This is marked Disordered eating may be a prefood avoidance. Weight loss can cursor to an eating disorder. be as severe as with anorexia, but “Many behaviours that would there’s no preoccupation with be part of an eating disorder start weight or shape and no distortion off as disordered eating. If a perof body image. Food avoidance is son starts restricting their diet or a result of anxiety, depression and cutting out substantial food stress. The sufferer’s appetite cengroups, they’re not dealing with tre gets switched off by anxiety — food in a healthy way,” says Ms Ní they physically can’t eat. They feel Eidhin. It’s not surprising that this full all the time and feel really bad should be so, says Ms Horgan. if they eat anything. I think “The more a behaviour’s repeatthere’s a fair amount of it about in Disordered eating these stressful times,” she says. becomes norm, says ed, the more it becomes ingrained and the norm.”

While an eating disorder’s a Ruth Ní Eidhin.

Picture: Getty Images

So what should you do if you suspect you’re a disordered eater? Experts advise asking if you’re using food to distract from something that needs attention in your life. Are you using food for comfort or reward when it might be more appropriate to exercise, ask for a hug or go for a nap? Ms Horgan urges becoming mindful around eating behaviours.

“Take at least 20 minutes to eat a meal, without distractions. Be mindful of what you’re having and how it tastes. Come out of your head, go into your body, tune into your hunger and your full signals. These enable you to know what to eat, when to eat and how much. In that way, your body’s in harmony,” she says.

■ Visit www.eatingdisorders.ie; www.bodywhys.ie.

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston are not doing themselves any favours with diets.

These diets aren’t effective in the long term and are potentially hazardous.

Reducing calorie intake to a very low level over a seven-day period or more causes a shift in electrolytes that can lead to cardiac arrest in severe cases

Enjoy your food and don’t worry, author says ROB Lyons, author of Panic On A Plate, believes whole societies in the developed world are suffering from an eating disorder. Lyons says that until relatively recently there was only one question regarding food: how will we get enough to survive?

“It seems to me a shame that — at a time when we have so much food available, so much better quality, greater variety, lower prices and more convenience — that we spend so much time fretting instead of enjoying our good fortune.”

In today’s affluent world (recession notwithstanding), he lists our food-related worries:

We’re eating too much. We’re eating the wrong foods. We’re producing food in a way that’s harmful to the environment.

“This outlook is every bit as irrational and self-loathing as that of anorexics who see themselves as fat even as they starve to death.”

The topic of food, he says, has become a hook on which to hang all sorts of prejudices and panics. “Parents fret about the food they give their children. When my mother was growing up in Dublin they had jam sandwiches for dinner. The idea that everybody ate lovely, fresh, homemade meals all the time is a version of the past.”

Foods go in and out of fashion, he suggests. “People think French fries are empty calories.

They can contain more vitamin C than apples — people underestimate the poor potato. People think tomato ketchup is bad. But it’s simply puréed tomatoes with salt, sugar and vinegar. It has a lot of vitamins C and A.” Lyons also questions the widespread belief that “fatness equals an early death” and cites a study by Katherine Flegal and colleagues from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found “there were more premature deaths among those with BMIs of less

than 25 — the so-called normal weight — than those with BMIs in excess of 25”.

Lyons’s wish for people around food? That we get more perspective. “Enjoy your food.

Judge it based on whether it’s good food, whether it tastes nice and whether you’re enjoying it. Stop worrying about whether in 40 years’ time it will give you a heart attack.”

Panic On A Plate: How Society Developed an Eating Disorder by Rob Lyons

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10 Medical matters

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Q

I had to stop breastfeeding my first baby after a few weeks due to painful mastitis.

It was a very distressing time. I am pregnant with my second child and plan to breastfeed again. Is there anything I can do to prevent the mastitis from developing?

Dr Julius Parker is a GP with HSF Health Plan’s free 24 GP advice line.

For more information visit www.hsf.ie or lo-call 1890 451 451

If you have a question about your health email it to feelgood@examiner.ie or send a letter to: Feelgood Irish Examiner City Quarter Lapps Quay Cork

A. Mastitis represents inflammation of the breast tissue, and, as you say, is often a painful and distressing experience. There are two main causes, an infection — which tends to cause more severe symptoms including a high fever, nausea and vomiting — and engorgement, which occurs if the breast doesn’t empty properly at each feed; the affected breast then becomes swollen and feels tense and painful.

There are several approaches to avoiding this situation. Try to ensure your baby is properly latching on to the breast, your midwife or health visitor can help. This encourages the breasts to fully empty at each feed. If one breast starts to become sore, gently massage the area and use a warm (or cool) compress. Offer the affected breast to your baby first. It’s quite safe to use a mild pain-killer such as paracetamol, only tiny amounts pass into the breast milk. If your breast still feels full, gently express some milk.

You should also try and drink plenty of fluids.

It’s really important to try and continue to breast feed, or, if this is too painful, to try and continue to express breast milk. This is true even if you need to take antibiotics for an infected mastitis — your GP will choose an antibiotic which is safe for your baby.

Stopping feeding makes it much more difficult to restart, one approach is to feed (or express) for short periods but more frequently during the day until your infection starts to clear, which often happens within 48 hours.

Although mastitis is a miserable experience, I’d encourage you to try and breastfeed again, as it’s a great start in life for your baby.

Q. My 16-year-old daughter had an emergency operation for a ruptured appendix two weeks ago. She is making a steady recovery but recently started to complain about a nagging pain around the site of the operation. Should we be worried?

NEWS UPDATE

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A British research group is urging people to make the most of the recent fine weather and soak up the sunshine.

Arthritis UK says vitamin D deficiency can cause bone loss, muscle function problems and, in some cases, rickets in children. Experts recommend vitamin D supplements for pregnant women and children aged under five.

But according to Arthritis UK, a few minutes outdoors should achieve the same result. Figures show that up to a quarter of the British population have low levels of vitamin D in their blood and the majority of pregnant women do not take vitamin D supplements.

Vitamin D is essential to help the body absorb calcium from food and low levels can result in serious problems in the health of our bones.

The medical director of Arthritis Research UK, Alan Silman said the advice was simple: “When the days are sunny, go out for a few minutes and expose your face and arms to the sunshine.”

The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) says it follows the World Health Organisation’s recommendation for vitamin D needs: five to 15 minutes of casual sun exposure to hands, face and arms during the summer.

The ICS also warns against the dangers of skin cancer — the most com-

A. I’m sorry to hear that your daughter needed an operation, but the good news is appendix operations are almost always straightforward. If her appendix had burst she will probably have had a traditional operation leaving a two to three-inch appendix scar.

It’s quite common to have aches and pains around the appendix area after the operation.

Tummy muscles need time to heal, and it’s important not to overdo things and avoid stretching, lifting and any significant exercise for several weeks.

If your daughter is getting more persistent

SUN WARNING: Sunshine is good for your health, but only in moderation. mon form of cancer in Ireland with 8,900 cases diagnosed in 2010 with 133 people dying from the disease. It advises that you should never let your skin redden or burn.

pain then check the operation scar. If the skin is looking red, the scar shows signs of oozing, or if the scar area is tender to touch she may be developing a wound infection. This should be seen by your GP and treated with antibiotics. If the pain seems more extensive and your daughter develops a fever, or perhaps starts to feel nauseated or vomits, she needs to be reassessed at hospital. A rare complication after an appendix operation is to develop an abscess, and occasionally this may even need further surgery.

In most cases, the pain you describe will be short-lived and should settle of its own accord.

NOTE: The information contained in Dr Julius Parker’s column is not a substitute for medical advice. Always consult a doctor first

Joe McNamee DAD’S WORLD

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Ever since the birth of Daddy’s Little Girl (DLG), I’ve been hearing the phrase, ‘fathers and their daughters’. The jist of it is that even the most formerly all-conquering alpha-male upon fathering a daughter morphs overnight into a simpering fool and takes up permanent residence, wrapped around one of the girl-child’s digits.

And though I love my two sons dearly, it is true that on returning from the hospital with DLG, I did imply a change in their status in comparison to this freshly-born queen of my universe. Which may go some way to explaining why I took a fit of the vapours the day I lost DLG, who is 22 months old.

I once lost No 1, 18 or 19 years ago, but it was in an indoor shopping centre. I remained ice-cool and calmly located him within a minute. The idea of No 2 ever getting lost is frankly laughable — though four, he has more cop-on in his big toe than I possess in my entire being. But several Saturdays ago, I was as usual at the farmer’s market, proudly squiring DLG, clearly a shoe-in for Finest Daughter in Ireland Award.

She was standing to my right as I turned left to pass a coffee to a friend. I turned back and she was gone. I swivelled a full 360 degrees. Nothing. I ran immediately to the busy road, 20 feet away. No sign.

It is often the case that a young child acquires a bizarre family pet name that

nonetheless sticks like glue, sometimes even lasting a lifetime. DLG’s is Belly, a contraction of her actual name and harking back to a protruding bellybutton in her first year. But the denizens of the market weren’t to know this so the sight of a fully-grown yet clearly distraught man roaring out “Belly!” had more than a few strangers marking me down as a simpleton with an almighty case of the munchies.

Horribly aware of the nearby very busy road, the hectic car park on all sides, I ran hither and thither, like Chicken-Licken, hoarsely hollering, “Belly!”

She was missing all of two minutes. Another stallholder recognised her, pixie face smeared in pizza sauce as she wobbled doggedly on chubby toddler legs towards one of the main thoroughfares. She grabbed her and plonked her into my arms.

DLG, utterly unfazed, observed with benign amusement as her father completed the final stages of total breakdown. Another stallholder, recognising a genuine basketcase in the making, poured something a little stronger into my coffee and insisted I drink it. It was necessary.

DLG will no longer just have me wrapped around her finger — the new industrial safety harness with in-built GPS tracking system should soon be ready. Until then, we remain barricaded in the house.

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

The denizens of the market weren’t to know this so the sight of a fully-grown yet clearly distraught man roaring out “Belly!” had more than a few strangers marking me down as a simpleton with an almighty case of the munchies

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Natural birth

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The mother of natural midwifery talks to Lucy Pearce about the critical need for low-intervention, low-cost birthing and her forthcoming visit to Ireland

Home births best

“L

ET’S say you want some advice that might help you give birth, whatever that might be. My shortest answer is: let your monkey do it.”

So says the world’s most famous midwife, Ina May Gaskin. These simple words of wisdom — which remind women that birth requires we get our thinking brains out of the way and let our mammalian instincts take over — had a huge impact on me as I prepared for my first birth at home.

Like hundreds of thousands of women around the world her two best-selling books Spiritual Midwifery and Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth were my birth bibles.

Ina May learnt to deliver babies by necessity in the back of buses in 1970, on an epic voyage across the United States with her husband Steven, a philosophy professor. They had set off from San Francisco in a convoy of 60 yellow school buses, picking up followers as they went, eventually buying land and creating an alternative community, The Farm, in Tennessee. She later trained formally as a midwife. In 2011 she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (the “Alternative Nobel prize”) in Sweden, for her lifetime’s achievement.

Forty years on, she is still delivering babies, and reviving techniques which have died out with the virtual eradication of midwifery in the US in the 20th century. At the time of our interview she had just returned from delivering a footling breech home birth, a manoeuvre which usually means an automatic caesarean section in most hospitals.

Her safety statistics are impressive — with a C-section rate at a low 2% — and she is a staunch defender of woman-centred care and the right for natural birth.

HAPPY ARRIVAL: According to Ina May Gaskin, birth is controlled by a naturally produced cocktail of hormones and brain chemicals.

“Modern industrialised societies are quite disconnected from nature. Not many of us were reared on farms, where we could have a chance to know how well birth works in various species and the conditions under which it works best. We are the only species of mammal that has the capacity to frighten our female members about their ability to give birth, and we see a lot of fear-mongering these days.”

She sees the rise of popular real-life birth programmes on television, such as One Born Every Minute, as a mixed blessing. “Prudery keeps some of the best, most effective midwifery care from being seen on television,

We are the only species of mammal that has the capacity to frighten our female members about their ability to give birth, and we see a lot of fear-mongering these days

— Ina May Gaskin

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because most woman-centred care does not require that a woman keep her body covered as she labours and gives birth. Modern television standards in most parts of the world would not permit a camera shot of normal labour if her breasts were exposed or of a birth, because the woman’s vulva must not be seen. At the same time, there is no such taboo keeping people from watching the abdominal and uterine incisions during a caesarean.

“When young women can’t see the bodily changes that permit birth to happen, they can’t even imagine that it could be possible, and many develop a pathological fear of their own bodies. The same goes for doctors.”

Ina May is first and foremost a home-birth midwife with levels of mortality much lower than hospitals. Yet the home birth movement is often considered to be irresponsible — with critics highlighting any death at home, while overlooking those which occur in hospitals — which in the US are not required to be reported.

“There is a great deal of ignorance surrounding home birth, much of it generated by the amount of propaganda that promotes the idea that the babies of healthy mothers are in greater danger of dying soon after birth if their mothers planned a home birth instead of a hospital birth. No credible studies have demonstrated this so far.

“The plain truth is that when countries make it impossible for healthy women to plan a home birth, the old pattern of obstetricians dominating midwives is heavily reinforced. This means that obstetrical knowledge begins to disappear.”

Natural birth, says Ina May, is controlled by a naturally produced cocktail of hormones and brain chemicals, it costs less, has a lower complication rate and is the optimal biological experience for mother and child. Howev-

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

er, she recommends hospital birth as the safest option for women with medical conditions that threaten their health or that of the baby, including: heart conditions, hypertension, pre-eclampsia and related conditions, placental abnormalities and women who go into premature labour (pre-37 weeks).

Ina May is deeply concerned about what she refers to as the “witch hunt” against home birth midwives around the world — in particular the professor of midwifery in Hungary who is under house arrest. Home birth in Ireland seems under constant threat too, according to Krysia Lynch, Co-ordinator Home Birth Association (HBA). “Women in Ireland (as in the rest of Europe) are theoretically entitled to choose where they want to birth their babies,” she says. “Yet newly introduced legislation around how to categorise “low risk” mothers appears to make this an impossibility for many.

“At what appears to be the darkest time in the history of home birth in Ireland, the HBA have invited Ina May Gaskin speak at our conference to bring back hope to women and midwives alike.”

When asked how much influence Gaskin might have on birth in Ireland, Colm O’Boyle, midwife lecturer at Trinity College Dublin responded: “Maternity services in Ireland are very hospital-based and so vulnerable to hierarchical and institutional forces that can be restrictive and undermine women’s birth autonomy and choices.

“Midwives espouse a philosophy of care that is woman centred but which is difficult to fully implement in contemporary Irish maternity hospital settings.

“Ina May’s and the HBA’s focus on positive birthing experiences is not lost on hospital midwives, but perhaps does not recognise or directly address the particular challenge of providing good quality midwifery and maternity services in increasingly financially constrained and under-resourced circumstances.”

Home birth conference Celebrating 30 years of supporting home birth in Ireland.

Keynote speaker: Ina May Gaskin.

Stalls include: slings; birth preparation; books; clothes and toys.

When: Sunday, Apr 29, 10am-5pm (registration from 9am) Where: Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Naas Rd, Dublin 22 (Just off the M50) Cost: €60 non-members €50 members — tickets online or on door.

Further information: http://www.homebirth.ie

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12 Food survey

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Eggcellent selection Roz Crowley

T

HE health benefits of chocolate have been well documented on this page and many others, so Easter’s treat can be enjoyed to the full, guilt-free. We just have to hold back on quantity, allowing ourselves a little more if the chocolate is dark and has over 70% cocoa solids, leaving less room for sugar and fat.

Avoiding the added chocolates is always good advice for weight watchers and our survey has shown which ones are worth the miles that will have to be clocked up on walks and cycles afterwards.

Of course we don’t have to eat it all at

Eve a Little Temptation chocolate Easter scene, 235g €10.50 (€44.68/kg) From an excellent selection at the shop at College Road Commercial Centre, Cork, this gets top marks for presentation. A hollow milk chocolate hen with three solid praline eggs, and solid half white chocolate duck, sit on top of a solid milk chocolate disc. Shavings of coloured white chocolate make a grass effect. The Easter scene is all wrapped in cellophane tied with a brightly coloured bow. The white chocolate lover thought it the best he had eaten. The milk chocolate has that slightly toffee/vanilla satisfying flavour of quality chocolate. A top-notch product.

once — saving some can keep us satisfied on days when no other comfort will satisfy us.

The increase in VAT has made a difference to the cost of producing chocolate eggs so we must give producers credit for not putting prices up, at least not noticeably. Our trawl through supermarkets and individual shops provided huge variety and we looked to cover all tastes and prices, and have given you kilo prices to help decide on value and quality.

■ To add a splash of colour your Easter celebrations, ask the older children to paint a half-dozen eggs in zany shades. Remember to handle carefully.

Jedward Easter Eggs Twin Pack 170g €5.99 (€35.23/kg) 2 small to medium thin-shelled eggs are packaged with a disc of chocolate saying ‘No 1 Jedward Fan’. It’s a fun package with lots of images of the twins. With 30% cocoa solids the chocolate is pleasant. Quite sweet like rich drinking chocolate, was one description. Tasters would be happy to buy for those who like Jedward.

Score: 6.5

Celtic gluten-free, wheat-free, eggfree, vegetarian egg, 125g €3.99 (€31.92/kg) Many eggs are gluten and egg-free so tasters compared this egg mould with all the others. A medium-sized egg was accompanied by six foil-wrapped mint discs which were not quite minty enough for fans of mint chocolates. With 35% cocoa solids, the chocolate didn’t deliver enough flavour to make tasters want to buy it..

Thorntons Love Toffee, 310g €9.29 (€29.96/kg) A bag of toffees sits under the 30% cocoa shell which also contains honeycomb pieces. The chocolate is creamy, and the crunchy style honeycomb bright and light. Two tasters found the honeycomb slightly over-sweet catching them at the back of the throat. The toffee provides a good, old-fashioned chew appreciated more by older tasters than the younger.

Score: 7

Score: 5.5

Score 9.5

Green & Black’s organic butterscotch, 180g €9.99 (€55.50/kg) This milk chocolate egg with 37% cocoa solids has a shell with 10% organic butterscotch pieces throughout. The chocolate has quite a distinct vanilla-caramel flavour, even without the additional pieces.

All tasters liked the lively flavour and creamy texture in the mouth. They also liked the particularly satisfying crunchy crunch of the pieces which all agreed were just the right size.

Score: 9

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Choceur flame egg Aldi, 350g €4.99 (€14.25/kg)

Cadbury Crunchie egg, 167g €3.99 (€23.89/kg)

This medium to large egg has 25% cocoa solids with 13 white and milk chocolates. The egg has a nutty flavour which reminded one taster of Nutella. The chocolates were oversweet for all tasters who found the contrast wasn’t enough in the flavours. Not a favourite of tasters who found the texture a bit grainy.

Four small Crunchies and what one of the tasters referred to as a teen size (small to medium) egg, will go a long way here and will satisfy lovers of Cadburys chocolate. Value is fair and tasters liked it though, compared to other samples, found the chocolate — with a low 20% cocoa solids — was a little fatty. Crunchie fans were well pleased and all agreed the overall result was exactly what you expect from Cadburys.

Score: 4

Score: 6.75

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

Kimberleys Dark chocolate egg with dark caramel and praline chocolates, 350g €15.95 (€45.57/kg). The Chocolate Shop English Market, Cork.

Attractively packed in purple foil gathered with a paper flower and bow, the dark chocolate shell is medium thickness.

Liked more by milk chocolate lovers. Dark chocolate lovers found that in spite of a decent 78% cocoa solids, they were not quite satisfied enough with the depth of flavour. However, the 10 chocolates made from deliciously salty caramel and praline pleased everyone.

Score: 7

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Male Male health health 13

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Tackling hair loss M

ANY men are concerned about hair loss, but not everyone has the deep pockets of Wayne Rooney to seek a hair transplant. For Kyran Bracken, 37, former England rugby player and Dancing on Ice winner, a hair transplant in 2006 didn’t solve his male pattern baldness.

“It’s certainly worked to an extent, although a hair replacement can still be very limited and it won’t stop the hair you have from falling out. I still feel quite conscious of my lack of hair on the top,” says Kyran, who lives in London with wife Victoria and young sons Lachlan, Jack and Charlie.

“The rugby fraternity will always go for the weakest link and mine was when my hair started to thin out,” says Kyran, whose thick mane of curly locks earned him many admirers in the early days of his career before his hair started to thin in his mid-20s. “I was man enough for the banter, but it was annoying and left me insecure about losing my hair.”

Kyran made his first international appearance for England at age 21 and won 51 caps for his country. He was awarded an MBE by

Deirdre O'Flynn MOSTLY MEN

THICK AND THIN: Rugby star Kyran Bracken who sought treatment for hair loss after his thick mane of curly locks began to thin in his mid-20s.

the Queen for his part in England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup win. In 2007 he won Dancing on Ice, earning him a new army of fans. “Having just retired, I was conscious of how I looked on Dancing on Ice,” says Kyran, adding that he had no dancing or skating skills before going on the ITV show. “When I watched the footage back, all I could see

was these bald patches, which I hated. My hair stylist recommended I try Hair-Loss Concealer Fibres (a powder than bind to the hair shaft building density and providing greater coverage). The next week, it was as if I had a full head of hair. It made me feel much better.

“It’s becoming more acceptable for men to

Aware to beat the blues as Tesco Charity of the Year

Shorter life for male Travellers

Irish charity Aware has been chosen as the Tesco Charity of the Year 2012 and 2013. Charity money raised by the retailer this year will go to fund Aware’s secondary schools depression awareness programme Beat the Blues. And funds raised next year will support a new Life Skills programme, for people recovering from mild-moderate depression.

“Beat the Blues helps our young people to identify sources of support so that if depression is, or becomes, a factor for them or someone they love, they know where to turn for help,” said David Carton, chairman of Aware.

Average life expectancy at birth for Traveller males is 15.1 years lower than the general male population. And mortality rates among traveller men and infants are over three times higher than the general population.

That’s according to Dr Ronan Boland, president of the Irish Medical Organisa-

TAKE 1

4

“Early intervention and ongoing support are key to recovery, and we need to ensure people learn this at a young age.”

Since its inception in 2001, the Tesco Charity of the Year Programme has donated over €10m to eight Irish charities. Its The most recent Year partnership was with the Irish Cancer Society.

STAYING REGULAR: Women are three times more likely to suffer from constipation than men, but half (50%) are uncomfortable asking their pharmacist for a remedy. This new research supported by constipation remedy Senokot was launched as part of a nationwide campaign that aims to inform people of the symptoms of the condition and how easily it can be treated. see www.constipationadvice.ie. Quest TumBiotix is a probiotic combination designed to promote bowel regularity.

Each capsule contains lactobacillus plantarum and lactobacillus acidophilus to help maintain a positive balance of friendly bacteria in the gut, creating an optimal environment for digestion and absorption. Quest TumBiotix costs €11.42 for 30 capsules from pharmacies and health stores.

Feelgood

be interested in how they look. So, dealing with my hair loss is no big deal for me. Men go to the gym to lose weight or dye their hair to hide grey. My advice to guys is that if you’re losing your hair, there are options that can make you look like you have a full head of hair,” says Kyran, who is also a celebrity judge on the British tour for Dancing on Ice.

DId you know...

tion. He was speaking at the launch of a joint policy document with the British Medical Association Northern Ireland in the European Parliament, Brussels, recently.

In Ireland, lower socio-economic groups have relatively high mortality rates, higher levels of ill health and few opportunities and resources to adopt healthier lifestyles, he said. Indeed, in Northern Ireland, male life expectancy ranges from 73.5 in the most deprived areas to 79 years in the wealthiest.

The amount and type of fat in men’s diets may affect the quality and concentration of sperm in their semen (Source: Harvard Medical School, US)

Female balance

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BALANCING BLEND: Feel like a goddess with Pukka’s Harmonise Tea, a sweet fruity blend of balancing herbs with regulating properties designed to support women’s health.

Drink it throughout the month to help return body and mind to their equilibrium. Ingredients include Shatavari, a strengthening women’s herb. Rose flower, hibiscus and vanilla calm the heart spirit, and Licorice root harmonises the whole system. Pukka Teas are priced from €2.49 for 20 sachets from health stores; www.pukkaherbs.com

MOODY COW: For a pampering treat try the Cowshed Moody Cow range, a floral, oriental blend formulated to balance and restore harmony. Essential oils of rose geranium help to regulate emotions and hormones, linden blossom relieves tension, and frankincense soothes and calms.The Moody Cow range includes soap, shower gel, body lotion and massage oil. Cowshed’s natural and therapeutic products use organic and wild plants and are available in pharmacies and health stores. Prices from €9.49. For stockists contact Naturelle De La Riche on 01-8903070; www.cowshedonline.com

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FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

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40+ FORMULA: Solgar VM Prime for Women is a vitamin and mineral formula recommended for women aged 40 plus, which provides nutrients for healthy strong bones. It is tailored to help address the needs of women going through the menopausal transition including the management of symptoms, bone support and cardiovascular health. VM Prime For Women includes soy isoflavones to support bone health and lessen menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and mood swings.

VM Prime For Women costs €25.39 for 90 tablets.

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14

Beauty

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The news on...

EIGHT HOUR CREAM MINI Being small in stature, I love anything in small packages. Plus, I travel quite a lot and I’ve got to the point where I’m starting to get tired of decanting all my products into Muji travel bottles. Enter the Eight Hour Cream, mini-size. It’s quite fabulous. As well as being one of the best multi-tasking products ever, it’s now available in a 30ml tube.

The perfect excuse to go somewhere.

Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant 30ml, €19, is available from Elizabeth Arden counters nationwide.

Emily O’Sullivan

It takes patience, practice and the right product to get that perfect flick of eyeliner every time

Take three...

ALMOND PRODUCTS Hero ingredient this month? It’s almond oil, a great natural moisturiser that’s making its way into some of this month’s newest beauty products.

I

LOVE liquid eyeliner. I’ve worn it since I was 18, when I used to slick my short hair back with Brylcream, and lash on the liner. Twenty years later and I can safely say that liquid eyeliner is still one of my number one favourite items of make-up.

There is no other product that can make me feel quite so good about myself.

Okay, so it’s not like I slick it on and walk around thinking that I’m Brigette Bardot, but it does make your eyes look awesome. And because I generally wear mannish clothes at the moment (cigarette trousers, blazers, buttoned-up shirts — think Diane Keaton in Manhattan), I find the liquid eyeliner stops the crossover into a totally androgynous look.

Of course, the main thing that puts people off liquid liner is the application. The internet is full of tips and techniques on how to get it right, and even though by this stage I can apply it very well, I thought I’d give a few of them a go. Sadly, most were disappointing. (What’s with that “join-the-dots” technique? It doesn’t work!) The bottom line, as far as I’m concerned, is that practice makes perfect and the tools you use are key to whether the end result is fab or foul.

My number one tip is to avoid pens: I’m something of a liquid liner expert and even I find them difficult to use. The reason is that the nib is incredibly precise and while that

EYESTRUCK may sound like a recipe for success, believe me, unless you’re got a super steady hand, it’s not.

Number two tip: put a shadow or a powder on your upper eye before you apply the liner. This is really crucial because as your eyelids start to get slightly oilier and more moist as the day/night goes on, you’ll find your liner making a shadow on your top lid. Worse, it can all just smudge together in one big mess.

Tip number three: a gel eyeliner is your new best friend. They work fabulously, and best of all is Bobbi Brown’s Long Wear Gel Eyeliner. I know, I go on about this one a lot, but it’s an excellent product. It’s slightly puttier in texture than all the others, which means it’s a lot easier to apply. It also lasts much longer, and it has a really dark black

intense colour that works a treat.

My technique? Well, I start from the outer edge of the eye and I draw the line to where I want it to go, then I fill it in all the way back along the eye and the eyelid, making the line thinner as I reach towards the inside of the eye. Is it always perfect?

No. I’ve often gone out with insane Amy Winehouse flicks, when I was after something a lot more demure, but when it comes to this look you’ve got to be brave and just go for it.

And if you’ve never tried it before then now’s the time to start. Feline flicks are a big story this season, so it’s the perfect time to give it a go.

Wear the flicks with a lovely pink blush, pale skin and a pop of super-sheer pink lipstick and off you go.

Korres Almond Oil and Calendula Hand Cream, €11.87. Korres takes a new approach to almond and cold-presses, just like it does with olives. The thinking behind this is that most of the vitamins are concentrated in the fruit’s skin. Either way, this is a cream that feels very soothing on hands that have suffered through winter. Nice.

L’Occitane Almond Shaping Delight, €42.95. I don’t buy into shaping products — if a beauty company made a cream that could properly “shape” you, they’d hit a goldmine.

Still, this does tone up the skin, smells gorgeous and softens everything up, so it’s a great moisturiser for the summer.

Available from Apr 2.

Neal’s Yard Almond Oil, €11. Neal’s Yard takes it back to basics with almond oil just as nature intended. It’s perfect for use as a very simple body moisturiser, especially for sensitive skin and it has a very gentle and subtle sweet fragrance that it’s hard not to love.

STUFF WE LIKE Bobbi Brown Long Wear Gel Eyeliner, €21. I will wear almost any liquid eyeliner that lands on my desk, but this is one that I would pay for — over and over. It’s that good. It doesn’t have the overly silky texture of other liquid liners which makes it easier to apply and means it stays put.

Feelgood

Rimmel Waterproof Gel Eyeliner, €7.95. The first time I tried this, it stained the top part of my lid but that was because it was late in the day and my eyes were probably a bit greasy. Since then, it’s worked a treat. Yes, it’s a tiny pot, but if you’re not sure about liquid liner and you don’t want to spend a fortune in case you don’t like it, then this is a good one to kick off with.

Maybelline EyeStudio Gel Eyeliner, €11.99. Again, it’s got a very silky texture, so you do need a steady hand and a good bit of practice, but once it’s on it stays put. The colour is intense and the brush that it comes with has quite a good round point, to make application easier.

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Clinique Brush on Cream Eyeliner, €18.

This is the closest any of the products get to the Bobbi Brown gel in terms of formulation, but it doesn’t last quite as long. The tiny brush is a bit fiddly but overall a good choice.

MAC Fluidline, €17.50. Silky, glossy and deep black, this is a good one for pros. While it has amazing staying power and a real depth of colour, it can be a little too fluid, which means it can be difficult to create the perfect line.

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Natural health

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Q Megan Sheppard Do you have a question for Megan Sheppard?

Email it to feelgood@examiner.ie or send a letter to Feelgood Irish Examiner City Quarter Lapps Quay Cork

KICK BACK: An effective treatment for cracks on feet is to soak them in warm water for 30 minutes every evening.

The sole of my foot has a big crack down the centre.

What should I put on it?

Also, I have had a dry cough for two months.

A. This is one of those issues that may seem small, but can have an enormous effect on almost everything you do. It’s an issue I deal with myself from time to time as I spend a lot of time in the garden, outdoors, and barefoot.

One of the most effective treatments I have found is to soak the feet every evening in warm water for at least 30 minutes. You can add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a splash of cold-pressed oil, a few drops of essential oils (peppermint, tea tree, lavender, or eucalyptus are great choices), or some epsom salts if you like to help soften and heal the skin. For bigger cracks and splits in the heel and/or sole of the foot you should also apply a gauze pad soaked in apple cider vinegar, covering it with a sock before you go to bed (you can also wrap it in a bandage to hold it in place).

During the day, apply papaya (paw paw) ointment to the crack, and cover the foot with a cotton sock inside your regular socks.

Papaya ointment is a wonderful healing balm that can be used for everything from nappy rash, burns, cuts, or chapped lips. A 25g tube of papaya ointment costs €12.99 from local health stores.

For your dry cough, try Weleda’s Herb & Honey Cough Elixir, which contains herbs such as thyme, aniseed, horehound, marshmallow root, Iceland moss, and elderflower in a honey syrup. This formulation has been created specifically for dry and irritating coughs, and tastes very pleasant. You can take it on a spoon directly, or add the dose to a little warm water if you prefer.

Weleda’s cough elixirs are available from health stores and pharmacies nationwide (or you can call the Natural Medicine Company on 0458-65575 for stockist information).

Q. I have been diagnosed with severe tinnitus — the noise in my head is so loud it is more like a loud storm, continuous day and night. I find it very difficult to sleep and do not want to take sleeping pills. I am finding it very difficult to cope. My doctor advised me to give up salt and hot drinks, which I never took too much of anyway. I am told there is no cure. Can you give me any hope?

A. Tinnitus is the sensation of a sound in the ear or head for which there is no external source. This condition can appear as a result of working with loud machinery and musical

instruments or equipment, or as a side effect of certain illnesses and disorders. The sound is typically a ringing or buzzing in the head, but is different for each individual and can occur continuously or intermittently. It is very disturbing, but there is hope.

Vitamin B12 taken in a therapeutic dosage of 2000mcg daily is effective in reducing or eliminating symptoms. It works because B12 is important in the production of the myelin sheaths which protect the nerve cells of the inner ear. Research has shown that most tinnitus sufferers are B12 deficient. Solgar make a 1000mcg vitamin B12 (€11.85 for 100 tablets), take two tablets daily for one month, then reduce your intake to one per day. B12 is also found in dairy products, meat, and eggs.

Another treatment which has had very positive results is Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), developed by Dr Jonathon Hazell and Dr Pawel Jastreboff in the 1980s. TRT is based on the neurophysiological model of healing, and it is unusual in that the aim is not to treat the tinnitus, rather to change the perception of the sounds. This therapy has an 80-84% success rate in achieving relief from the discomfort of tinnitus.

TRT treatment is designed to assist the in-

Megan puts the spotlight on:

O

RGANIC raw sugar may not as over-processed as ordinary white sugar, but that does not make it a health food. Healthy eating begins with eating a whole foods diet. Processed foods — organic or other wise — should be kept to a minimum or, even better, avoided at all costs. A diet high in local conventional fruit and vegetables is far more healthy than a diet high in organic processed foods, such as crisps, pasta and soy creations.

The organic industry is highly profitable and, like any other industry, the standards and regulations differ between certification bodies.

There are three main organisations in Ireland today that ensure organic food is of a high standard. The largest organisation is The Irish Organic Farmers’ and Growers’ Association (IOFGA;

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www.iofga.org), established in 1981 by six dedicated organic growers. The Organic Trust Ltd (http://ireland.iol.ie/~organic/) was established in 1991, and the following year The Biodynamic Agriculture Association of Ireland began trading produce under the Demeter symbol. Ensure that when you pay for organic food it is approved by one of these three organisations.

Unfortunately, organic often equates to expensive. For some people organic food is a priority and well worth the extra money. For others, it is necessary to choose which foods to buy organic, and those which you can settle for spray-free or conventional. For meat eaters, sustainably farmed meats is a good place to start. Irish grass-fed beef not only has less fat than US grain-fed beef, but also has higher conjugated

dividual in becoming accustomed to the noise, much as you would the buzzing of a fridge. It combines low-level steady background sounds with one-on-one directive counselling so that the individual becomes effectively ‘unaware’ of the tinnitus. By using ear sound generators to enrich their background sound environment for a minimum of eight hours a day, the individual becomes habituated to the tinnitus.

TRT can take anywhere from one to two years before the ear sound generators are no longer needed. At the end of this period, the patient can still focus on the tinnitus, but will no longer find it annoying or bothersome. It is also wise to visit a specialist in order to rule out any underlying disorders such as ear infection, acoustic neuroma or Ménière’s disease — all of which require appropriate treatment. For further support and information regarding this condition, contact The Irish Tinnitus Association on 01-8723800.

NOTE: Aspirin, quinine (found in tonic water), caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol will all make the symptoms worse, and of course it is important to reduce your exposure to loud noises — carry ear plugs with you just in case.

Organic junk food? linoleic acid (CLA) levels, which have since been shown to assist with weight loss and increased muscle tone.

It is important that poultry and eggs are free-range and preferably organic — remember that some free-range regulations simply require the animal to spend a certain amount of time each day outside of a cage — the hens may still have overcrowding issues and get very little time outdoors.

If you know where you are getting your food from, and can visit the farm itself you can enjoy your food with a clear conscience and reap the increased health benefits at the same time.

RIGHT STUFF: Make sure your organic eggs are also free range, which means the hens spend more time outdoors.

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HAIR LOSS?

NOT ANYMORE THANKS TO THE HAIR CLINIC

Prevention is better than cure

WHEN 34 year old Kenneth Fallon started losing his hair 4 years ago he went to see the HairClinic and was told about a revolutionary painfree laser treatment that prevents hairloss and helps to thicken existing thin hair.

“The trichologist told me that it was important that I caught my hairloss early as when the hair is gone, it’s gone, and the laser can only work on thinning hair. I cannot grow hair on a bald head. I was also told that the condition I had, known as Androgenic Alopecia, was an inherited condition and

“The trichologist told me that it was important that I caught my hairloss early as when the hair is gone, it’s gone’’

as my dad was bald, as was my grandad, I knew I has to do something as I was heading the same way.

“Unfortunately with my work and the birth of my daughter, I didn’t go ahead with treatment straight away as recommended and my hair just got worse and worse. I kept meaning to do something about it but I just kept putting it off which I know is the worst thing to do as I know once the hair root is dead, it’s too late.

One evening, after we had been out with friends, a friend of mine posted the evening’s

pictures on Facebook and I couldn’t believe how bad my hair looked. I hated seeing myself like that and I knew I had to do something.The next day I made another appointment with the HairClinic which was the original Cork City clinic I had visited all those years ago and I was told that I has lost some hair around the crown so I would always be a little bit light in that area. But the great news was that the laser treatment would stop my hair from getting any worse and also thicken my thinning hair.

9 months on and there has been a huge improvement in my hair and I am delighted. I just wish I had done treatment earlier when I first noticed the thinning!

CALL NOW FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

Vivien’s Story WHEN 61-year-old Kerry grandmother-of-six Vivien O’Sullivan noticed that her hair was falling out more than normal she assumed that it was due to stress caused by a recent family bereavement.

“I noticed it mainly when I washed it, the plughole in the shower used to clog up with hair,” said Vivien. “I started to really worry though when I woke up one morning and noticed several hairs on the pillow, I have always had really thick hair and my hair was definitely starting to thin out.

“I was so worried about it that I went to see my GP,” says Vivien. “He said it could be a lack of iron in my diet so I started taking iron tablets.

“Over the next six months I took lots of different supple-

ments, as well as iron tablets, but the thinning seemed to be getting worse.”

Vivien went back to see her GP who this time advised her that she should seek advice from a hair loss specialist.

Vivien visited several hair loss specialists and was advised by one clinic that her best option was a wig and by another that FUE transplant surgery was her best option.

“I didn’t like the sound of either option to be honest,” says Vivien. “I was worried and unhappy with my hair loss but I didn’t feel as though it had deteriorated enough to wear a hairpiece! I basically just wanted to stop it from falling out and thicken it up.”

Vivien considered the option of surgery but again decided

this was too radical and extreme. “The most important thing to me was to stop it from falling out and to hopefully thicken it up,” said Vivien. “I was told that surgery would replace the hairs that had been lost but would not stop any further hair loss, I was at a total loss as to know what to do.

“Then one day my husband called to say he was reading an article in the newspaper about a laser that can help to stop hair loss and to thicken existing thin hair without the need for any surgery, I researched into it on the internet and I found that it was clinically proven to stop hair loss in 94% of patients after six months of treatment and was suitable for both men and women, it was also totally painfree with no side-effects.

“I then found there was a clinic in Cork offering this treatment, so I contacted them and went for a free consultation, I discovered I was suf-

Before treatment

After 6 months las er tre

atment

fering from a condition called CTE (Chronic Telogen Effluvium). I was told this causes excessive thinning down the centre of the scalp and affects the hair’s growth cycles. It can also lead to androgenic alopecia, which can cause the hairs to get thinner and thinner until they stop growing altogether.”

Vivien was informed that surgery was inappropriate as she was still losing hair, and was also unnecessary as she still had the majority of her hair which could be saved and thickened using a combination of laser treatment and medication.

“I completed my course of treatment just over nine months ago and I can’t believe the difference in my hair. It has Vivien O’Sullivan. stopped falling out and it has thickened up massively. I am delighted. I would recommend anyone who is worried about thinning hair to do something about it before it’s too late!”

CALL NOW FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

4 Stops hairloss and thickens hair in 94% of patients 4 Totally safe and painfree 4 Works for men & women 4 FDA cleared as having no side effects No 2 Camden Place, St Patricks Bridge, Cork t: (021) 4552424

OPENING TIMES: Monday to Friday 8am-9.30pm Please log on to www.thehairclinichlcc.com Feelgood

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012