It’s been one of those days. You overslept and were late for an important meeting at work. Your boss is giving you the evil eye and you are feeling physically sick. The photocopier then spits the dummy and refuses to print out the 150 sheets you need for tomorrow’s presentation. A driver cuts in front of you in the freeway almost causing you to have an accident and you realise you forgot to collect your son from his after school sport training. Your son is cross as he gets into the car, throws his muddy sports gear across the back seat and slams the car door. You react by shouting at him.

Anger is a normal human emotion. We all get angry. We see anger expressed all around us, from screaming toddlers having tantrums in the supermarket, to belligerent teenagers slamming bedroom doors, to news reports of stabbings. When we are angry we say things which can be deliberately hurtful to the intended victim, we may even be physically aggressive.

Anger is a protective emotion. It guards us against attack. It provokes a physiological change in our body getting us ready to fight or flee and is associated with a psychological change in our brain.

When angry, our emotion can be usually easily detected by others: clenched tight muscles, facial flushing, narrow focused attention on the source of anger, raised blood pressure, increased breathing and heart rate. Our testosterone levels increases as does our adrenaline and noradrenaline.

How we react when angry, varies from person to person. We all learn to handle anger differently, depending on culture, socio-economic background, gender and personality. Some people deal with anger better than others. Some people are constantly irritable, hostile, and short tempered with a short fuse. Others are slow boilers, mostly easy going but capable of blowing off like a volcano occasionally.

In order to learn how to handle anger better, we need first to understand our amygdala.

Our amygdala is part of our reptilian brain, the oldest part of our brain developmentally and it is concerned with our emotional regulation. Nestled deep in the brain the two almond-shaped amygdala (one in each hemisphere) react to potential threats. They do this so well that our body reacts and primes itself to respond before the thinking part of the brain, the cortex, can evaluate what the situation actually is and whether any or what response is actually warranted.

Losing your cool at work.

At best this may have a negative impact on the relationship you have with your colleagues. At worst you may find yourself at risk of either losing your job ( unless you are the boss where you might lose an employee) or missing out on a promotion. Women who display anger in the workforce are seen in a particularly negative light. Fair or not, anger in men in the workplace for some reason is more tolerated.

Learning to control your anger is possible and can make a significant difference to your own level of happiness and well-being. Angry people have a much higher incidence of stroke, heart disease and impaired immune function. It’s bad for your health to be angry and it also has a bad effect on your thinking skills and mental performance.

Have you heard the saying that “As emotion goes up, intelligence goes down.” ? Or, as my mother always said. If you argue with an idiot, then you have two idiots. That doesn’t mean only stupid people get angry and argue, but that when you are angry your level of reasoning and logic is greatly reduced. What you may say or how you behave, can be completely irrational and out of character.

Once the amygdala has triggered the alarm, the cortex registers this and if our thinking brain goes along with the experience of anger, several things will occur.

First up the left side of our brain becomes more active and draws us closer to the source of our anger. When we are happy or experiencing positive emotions we expect our thoughts to bring us closer to the stimulus. Conversely when we are sad or afraid we would otherwise seek to get away from what is causing us to feel negative emotions and this involves stimulation of the right hemisphere. Anger is different because it is a negative emotion and yet we are drawn closer to who or what is making us angry, rather than moving away from it.

Anger management.

There are a number of strategies we can adopt to deal with anger:

• Because being angry provokes a focus onto the source of the irritation or anger, the easiest way to defuse the emotion is to remove yourself from the stimulus. Try going for a walk or at least leaving the room before you blow your top.

• By physically moving away or trying to detach yourself emotionally from the situation gives your cortex or thinking brain time to evaluate the situation. Try counting slowly to ten before allowing yourself to say anything!

• Take six deep slow breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Use diaphragmatic breathing: put your hand gently on your tummy and when breathing in or out allow your tummy muscles to go in and out. This helps to alleviate muscular tension and calms you down.

• Journal or write down your thoughts and then tear them up, preferably the following day. Never ever,ever send an email in anger. It might come back to bite you on the bottom.

• Try smiling. It’s really hard to stay angry at someone while smiling at the same time. It helps to lighten the moment.

• If someone is displaying anger at you, remember that that is their framework that they are looking through. You don’t have to share the same frame and buy into it. Is their anger really directed at you? Or are they just voicing their frustration/irritation and you just happen to be the nearest venting post? We don’t know what is going on in someone elses head. It’s their issue and they have to deal with it. The important thing is to not allow yourself to be infected by their negativity (somehow!)

• Give your anger a time-frame. OK, so someone has really gotten under your skin or made you feel really mad at them. How long are you going to allow yourself to experience that anger? By choosing to stay with your anger/hurt pride/wounded feelings etc it impacts your ability to respond and deal with what else is going on in the world. Angry people are not fun to be around. So you’re upset, now get over it.

• None of us are perfect and even with practice there are going to be times when our hot buttons get pressed and we react badly. So don’t beat yourself up if that happens. Afterwards, look at what may have been the trigger and learn from it. Was there a way you could have handled it differently?

• Don’t forget to apologise. It doesn’t matter whether you were in the right or wrong. You are apologising for your behaviour. You may or may not be forgiven for your anger but acknowledging your reaction was perhaps inappropriate or unhelpful can help. As long as you are sincere Saying sorry can go a long way to resolve conflict.

So what do you do to handle anger?

Ref: Neus Herrero, Marien Gadea, Gabriel Rodriguez-Alarcon, Raul Espert, Alicia Salvador. What happens when we get angry? Hormonal, cardiovascular and asymetrical brain responses. Hormones and Behaviour, 2010; 57 (3): 276 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.12.008

A good friend of mine has been battling with her weight for years. She has been on every diet known to man kind, read all the diet books, cooked all the diet recipes for herself and her family and yet her weight bounces up and down like the veritable yo-yo.

I don’t think her partner has ever dieted in his life. He works hard, plays hard, exercises. He enjoys his food and stays slim and trim.

Unfair?

Perhaps. But now scientists may have discovered why repeated dieting fails.

Most dietary advice indicates that it would be prudent to cut down on known “fattening” foods and increase exercise. And yes this may produce the desired effect until the diet is stopped, old eating patterns return and so does the weight along with a bit extra for good measure.

We also know that comfort eating to deal with stress, accounts for much obesity.

Increased levels of obesity and increased levels of diabetes put us at greater risk of developing dementia as we get older.

In this research, Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute in Boston took two groups of rats. One group as the control just had their regular rodent food. The other group was fed “normal” food for 5 days and alternated with 2 days of “sweet” food, the equivalent of us enjoying a few servings of high fat, high sugar desserts.

The dieting group on their normal diet ate less and avoided stress related situations (What that is in rat terms I don’t actually know!)

When on the high sugar diet they coped better with anxiety provoking situations, but also ate more. Plus those in the diet group when on “normal” food were found a much higher level of a stress neuropeptide CRF x5 that of the control group. This stress hormone returned to normal when the rats went back onto the high sugar diet again.

Aha!

How often have you heard the excuse of people tucking into a huge bowl of ice cream or consuming that family bar of chocolate because they feel stressed?

OK I confess, I’ve done it too.

But maybe we do it not because we actually are stressed. It’s that our brain is telling us we feel stressed (by having a higher level of the stress neuropeptide CRF in our system) because you are showing withdrawals to the high sugar/fat foods that we have intermittently.

In other words, frequent changes to our diet being “good” for a period of time followed by going back to our usual eating patterns works against us big time because of the changes that occur as a result of this, in our brain.

So sadly for my friend until she can lose the diet books and choose to implement a healthy eating plan she will continue with her vicious circle of dieting and overeating. Her continued efforts of deprivation and compensatory binge eating will not only deprive her of continued successful weight management but more importantly make her at risk of heart disease and poorer cognitive function, particularly as she gets older.

The key to deactivating the stress response by our brain is losing the idea of dieting, as that for most of us conjures up deprivation and not being allowed to eat certain foods that we like. And for most of us what we know we “mustn’t have” is instantly more desirable!

By eating a varied diet including all the fabulous brain foods such as fish, fruits, vegetables and nuts we can work towards maintaining a healthy weight, enjoying  mood stability and better thinking.

Eat fish.

Simple isn’t it. Yet how may of us are

a) aware of the benefits to our brains of including fish regularly in our diet and

b) how many of us actually put it into practice even though we know it’s good for us?

So what is it about fish that is so good for the brain?

Fish Oil, lovely fish oil, full of Omega-3.

And it’s not just a case of any old fish. The recommended fish to have are the fish that are carnivorous ie they eat other fish, that don’t live too long (because they can accumulate too much mercury which is toxic!) and they tend to be cold water fish.

So, having ascertained that, it’s simple. Just pop down to your nearest fish market or supermarket and ask for the best carnivorous, short lived, cold water fish bursting with Omega-3 they have fresh today.

The fish that are particularly recommended include:

Salmon, Sardines, Herring, Tuna. Mackerel and Anchovies.

So what are these Omega-3s? Well, they are polyunsaturated fatty acids and they are essential as an essential component for all cell membranes for the whole body. The key fatty acid for our brain is DHA (or Docosahexaenoic acid for short).

The body can produce its own DHA but not in adequate quantities, hence we need to include it in our diet.

The structure of the cell membrane around each cell determines what can pass in or out of the cell. If we lack sufficient Omega-3 building blocks to maintain the normal structure and integrity of the cell membrane then the cell concerned may not function as well. If this is a brain cell then obviously our brain will not be functioning to its best level.

As we get older our ability to produce our own DHA also declines, again making supplementation through our diet increasingly important.

Can’t stand fish? Well, we can also derive ALA (alphalinoleic acid) another source of Omega-3s from plant sources including kiwifruit, walnuts, avocado, tofu and flaxseed.

Having sufficient Omega-3 will keep our brain and eyes  healthy, help in stabilising mood, and lower our risk of developing depression and dementia.

Omega-3 assists our ability

to learn

to focus

to problem solve

to remember

to improve communication between brain cells and

to protect us from oxidative damage.

Pass the tin of tuna now please.

And yes, there is more in terms of benefits for our general health. Not only are the Omega-3s good for our brains, they help our blood fats by reducing our triglyceride levels, improve the elasticity of our blood vessels and help to lower blood pressure. They help to keep the blood thin and prevent clots and have been demonstrated to be important in maintaining a normal heart rhythm.

Convinced yet?

So how much do we need?

Two to three meals of fish per week is the current recommendation.

This can be fish that is tinned or fresh, baked or grilled or prepared in any way you like.

I was brought up on “fish fingers” as a child, which can be a great way to introduce kids to fish if they are not keen on fish on it’s own.

And we always had fish on Fridays.

Fish and chips as a take away meal will add another serve each week. Many of the better “chippies” now offer grilled fish as an alternative to the deep fried, battered and crumbed varieties plus side salads as an alternative to the greasy hot chips. Though being rather partial to the occasional “hot chip” I can rationalise having them knowing the rest of the meal is good for me.

Tinned tuna, salmon and sardines are an easy way to include a serving in a roll or sandwich for lunch.

How much Omega-3 is in a regular serving of fish?

Canned sardines 2000mg per 100g
Atlantic salmon 1000-2000mg per 100g
Swordfish >1000mg per 100g
Whitebait 700mg per 100g
Canned tuna >600mg per 100g
Mackerel 400mg per 100g
Mullet 400mg per 100g
Sardine 300mg per 100g
Tuna 300mg per 100g
Snapper 220mg per 100g
Whiting 100mg per 100g
Barramundi 100mg per 100g

Mussels 400mg per 100g
Oyster 350mg per 100g
Squid/octopus 300mg per 100g
Prawns 150mg per 100g
Lobster/Crayfish 100mg per 100g

(Source: Associate Professor Peter McLennan, Smart Food Centre and Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong)

And the fish skin apparently contains three times the amount of Omega -3 of the flesh.

Eating the fish skin may be good for you, but I have to admit I’m not so keen! It has to be really crispy to entice me to eat it.

The other thing that can be done of course is to take fish oil capsules taking two 1000mg capsules per day.

And for those of you put off by “fish burp” from some capsules, keeping them cold in the fridge seems to help and there are some “burp free” varieties on the market.

Some clever marketers have also manufactured fish oil capsules for kids (enticing them with the thought that these will make them smarter and perform better at school) by making the capsules in the shape of little fish. Great idea if it will persuade the kids to take them, especially if they are fish haters and refuse to eat fish in their diet.

So what is the one thing we can do to keep our memory razor sharp?

Eat fish, preferably three times a week.

Enjoy.