WesWELL

From Dumb Little Man…

Remember how simple everything was back in grade school? You said exactly what you meant, you had a clear sense of right and wrong, and everything was possible. Well, those classic playground rules of your grade school years still apply to life. And best of all, they can make your life easier and possibly more fun.

Playground rules work because they’re clear-cut. If you’re anything like I was, you didn’t put up much of a fight when you got called out with one of these rules. You were busted and you knew it! The result was that you spent less time fighting verbal battles and debating rules, and more time playing. (Ah, the sweet, severely bruised intoxication of a Red Rover victory…) Take a second look at some of the classic playground rules and you might be surprised by how they still apply to your life.

• No takebacks. Once you give something, you can’t ask for it back. Whether it’s a physical gift, a gift of money, or a gift of time, asking for a takeback is pointless. It shows bad faith and makes you untrustworthy. Even more importantly, you can’t take back your words. Once they’re out there, you have to deal with the consequences, however unpleasant they may be. When you decide to give something, give it freely with no strings attached. If you don’t, be prepared for raspberries and wedgies.
• No cutting. There are very few shortcuts in life. If you find one, be sure that you’re not just cutting in front of someone else by taking it. Cheating your way to the front of the line may save you a few seconds now, but the consequences can last for years (or at least through recess). Cutting generates ill will, because it’s a clear signal that you put your own needs in front of others. Don’t be surprised when you get picked last for the next round of dodgeball… or raises.
• Take turns. If you expect to have friends to play with, you’re going to have to learn to take turns. Taking turns is about respecting your playmates and looking for the best solution for everyone involved. So in your work life and love life, it pays to take turns. This can mean sharing the spotlight. It can mean letting your partner choose the movie (even if that means seeing Bad Boys for the 80th time). It can also mean stopping to really listen to the other person’s side of the conversation. There are very few times in life when taking turns doesn’t benefit you.
• No do-overs. In four-square, there are no “do overs.” The same is true of life. If you screw up, you rarely get a second chance. Accept this and move on. Instead of arguing or pleading for a second try, figure out what went wrong and try to fix it. No one respects the kid who constantly requests a do-over, so accept your mistakes and focus on improvement.
• When it’s time to go home, find a partner to cross the street with. There’s safety in numbers and two heads are better than one. When it’s time to head in a new direction, find someone to help you. Whether that person is a family member, a spouse, a partner, a friend, or a dog, they can be your support system to get you through life’s hazards. Can you do things on your own? Absolutely. Should you lean on this person? Not necessarily. But whether you need them or not, having a friend to hold your hand as you cross the street can make the trip a pleasure.

Playground rules are about finding the easiest, most efficient way to work together. Whenever you’re in a tight jam, remember the simple beauty of kid logic. Leave the complicated justifications and rationalizations out of it. Embrace your inner kid and see where it takes you. And above all, play nice.

Mike Whaley, Vice President of Student Affairs, contributed this yummy (and very easy) vegan salad.

Ingredients

2 packages of frozen shelled edamame, microwave per directions on package and let cool
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tbsp Kosher (course) salt
½ cup sweetened rice vinegar
1 can Blue Diamond Wasabi-Soy almonds

Directions
Combine all ingredients except almonds in a non-reactive bowl. Chill for at least 1 hour.  Add almonds immediately before serving.

“We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.” - Donald Horban

From Science News…

A cup of joe or a short nap can fend off normal afternoon sleepiness, but sleeping longer in the morning won’t keep a person who’s already gotten a full night’s sleep alert, a new study shows.

Researchers from the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in England tested 20 healthy young adults for daytime sleepiness. All of the volunteers got about 7.4 hours of sleep per night, and none of them complained of feeling sleepy. But when researchers put them in a quiet room and asked them to close their eyes — something the volunteers were asked to do several times in the afternoon and evening — all fell asleep within five to 10 minutes in the afternoon, indicating sleepiness. It took longer for the people to fall asleep when tested at other times, indicating that while they were drowsy in the afternoon, the people weren’t generally fatigued.

Previous studies by other groups have shown that extending nighttime sleep by 90 minutes for two weeks could help combat afternoon sleepiness, but the Loughborough team wanted to know whether naps or caffeine might also help, said Clare Anderson, lead author of the study presented Monday in Baltimore at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

The researchers compared sleeping in for 90 minutes each morning to taking a 20-minute nap at 2:30 p.m. or taking 150 milligrams of caffeine (equivalent to about two cups of coffee) at 2:00 p.m. Each participant tried each of the three methods of combating afternoon slumps for one week. Although all of the volunteers normally drank caffeinated beverages, during the experiment they received decaffeinated drinks and took caffeine pills when tested for the effect of the afternoon caffeine kick.

When the volunteers did nothing, they fell asleep within nine minutes on average when tested at 3:30 in the afternoon. Sleeping late kept people awake only a minute longer on average than did doing nothing. Caffeine worked better, keeping people awake for about 12 minutes longer on average.

But nothing beat a nap. After a 20-minute nap, people nearly doubled the amount of time it took to fall asleep when tested later in the afternoon, indicating that they were no longer sleepy. None of the measures impaired people’s ability to fall asleep at night.

The study shows that several measures can fend off the afternoon slump, said Dennis Nicholson, a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Pomona Valley Hospital in California. But “from a practical standpoint, it’s not feasible to have those naps,” he said.

Anderson said that while napping is the clear winner in combating afternoon drowsiness, caffeine is probably a more socially acceptable alternative.

“Napping is seen as some kind of laziness,” she said, “or something associated with old people.”

Wesleyan Resources:  Sleep

File this one under “Not the way I would have gone about it, but hey, whatever works”.  According to an article released by the UPI, a cow ramming a Scottish woman’s stomach led to a cervical cancer diagnosis. Here’s the full article:

A Scottish woman said she is glad a cow rammed its head into her stomach because the injury prompted an examination that revealed she had cancer. Linlithgow, Scotland, resident Sarah Kerr, 32, was in a pasture feeling stomach pain she blamed on indigestion when a cow head-butted her in the abdomen, the Edinburgh (Scotland) Evening News reported Wednesday. Kerr said she was surprised to learn the stomach pain she felt prior to the blow from the cow was caused by cervical cancer, the report said.

“If it hadn’t been for that accident with the cow I don’t know what would have happened,” she said.

It is reported if Kerr had waited any longer to treat the cancer, the disease would have likely spread to a highly dangerous level.

The more conventional way of discovering cervical cancer, of course, is through a pap smear which is typically included in a gynecological exam. Wesleyan students may schedule an appointment during the academic year for a sexual health visit with Health Services by calling 860.685.2470.

The Internet can be a valuable tool for finding information on virtually any topic. When it comes to medical and health information though, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the vast array of information.. At times, it can be difficult to differentiate between a credible source and someone’s personal opinion without doing a bit of detective work.

CNN.com’s Empowered Patient series offers these tips on how to be more savvy when surfing the Internet for medical information.

1. Use search engines that screen out the garbage for you
There’s a lot of junk on the Internet. “It’s the wild, wild West out there,” says Alan Spielman, CEO of URAC, a company that certifies health Web sites. “You really have to be alert as you go through these sites.”

To get rid of the junk, use a search engine that looks only at reputable sites that have been vetted by health professionals. Dirline, run by the National Library of Medicine, is one such engine, as are medlineplus.gov and Imedix.com. Healthfinder.gov searches for information on government health Web sites.

2. Find smart bloggers with your disease
Some bloggers do an excellent job of linking to resources specific to your disease. That goes for advocacy groups, too.

3. Invest 30 minutes in the pubmed.gov tutorial
Pubmed.gov searches the medical literature, but it isn’t completely intuitive. It’s worth the time to learn how to use it by doing the tutorial.

Nervous you won’t understand the technical jargon in medical articles? Don’t be, says Guthrie. She advises reading the very beginning of a study and the very end. “The conclusion will tell you whether the treatment they studied was effective, moderately effective, or not at all effective.”

In addition, the Medical Library Association, has brochures called Deciphering Medspeak to help translate some of the more common medical jargon.

Tara Parker-Pope, a health columnist for the New York Times, found it useful to specifically search for review articles on pubmed when she was looking for treatments for her mother’s esophageal cancer. Review articles give an overview of the latest research on a particular subject. “Review articles are an excellent way to get a lay of the land and to get the big picture on a topic,” Parker-Pope says.

To find review articles on pubmed, go to the “limits” tab and then under “type of article”, check “review.”

4. Click on information about annual meetings
For example, let’s say you just got a breast cancer diagnosis. You could go to asco.org, the site for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and look at information on new breast cancer treatments discussed at last year’s meeting.

This is the way to get cutting-edge information, Guthrie says. “Information on new treatments is presented at conferences six to 12 months before it’s published in a medical journal.”

Guthrie says she managed to find out about a new treatment for tendonitis this way. “It wasn’t even in the medical journals yet. We found one doctor in New York who was doing it. If I had tendonitis, it might’ve been worth traveling to him,” she says.

5. When in doubt about a Web site, click on “about us”
Sometimes it’s clear who runs a Web site. Often it’s not. Clicking on “about us” should explain it. Knowing who’s behind the information you’re reading (especially if they’re trying to sell you something) helps you evaluate whether the information is biased. If you can’t figure out who runs the site, don’t use it.

Keep in mind that most medical information websites will be written with a broad audience in mind and therefore, should not be used to diagnose yourself or another person.

Wesleyan Health Resources:
WesWELL, Office of Health Education
Health Services
Office of Behavioral Health for Students

Notice: No frogs are harmed in the making of this Wescipe.

Ingredients

1 c. sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 c. fruit juice, drained from pineapple and fruit cocktail
2 T. cornstarch, mixed with a small amount of water to dissolve lumps
1 box acini de pepe pasta, cooked in salted water (also called rosa marina)
1 - 2 lb. can pineapple tidbits (drained well; reserve juice)
1 large can fruit cocktail (drained well; reserve juice)
1 large can mandarin oranges (drained well)
1 - 8 oz. container Cool Whip
1 jar maraschino cherries (sliced in halves or chopped coarsely)

 Directions 

Mix sugar, eggs and reserved fruit juice in pan over medium low heat. Heat slowly to avoid lumps of eggs. Once dressing is heated, add cornstarch/water mixture and stir frequently until thickened.  Remove from heat and add cooked pasta. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate overnight (or at least 8 hours).  Before serving, fold in fruit, Cool Whip and cherries. (I usually add more fruit than the recipe calls for but do not increase the dressing so it does not get too runny.)

Submitted by Lisa Currie, Director of Health Education/WesWELL

Click on “Submit a Wescipe” to submit your own Wescipe.

Educational efforts on sexual violence prevention typically place a strong focus on communication, especially on the giving and receiving of consent to particiate in sexual activity. As thorny as it can be to define what consent looks and sounds like, what if your attempts to communicate your intention are completely misinterpreted?

Dr. Louanne Weston Cole, in her Sex Matters blog at WebMD.com, shares an intriguing study on the differences between men and women in how they interpret words differently in sexual situations:

I was reading an article about a new book, Studies in Applied Interpersonal Communication, by Michael Motley, a University of California at Davis professor. He did an interesting study on how males and females interpret what females say when in the very early stages of sexual kissing.

When a female says, “It’s getting late,” she means that she wants to stop what they’re doing and go their separate ways. If she finished her sentence, it would go, “I should already be home in bed - alone.” Most males in this study, however, interpreted this to mean that she wants to skip the preliminaries and go forward a bit more quickly.

Or, if a woman says, “I’m seeing someone else,” (meaning that she wants to stop because her affections are really with another man), males tend to think this means, “Keep going, but let’s be discreet,” or “Keep going, but I want you to know that I’m not making a commitment.”

Motley concludes that in their efforts to not offend or upset their male partners with direct and forceful words, women are merely confusing them. He found out that men would prefer to hear it loud and clear, even if it smarts a little bit, rather than trying to read the woman’s mind and risk offending her and/or losing the sexual opportunity. read full article…

While the research is a bit locked up in the gender binary and heterosexual relationships, it still illustrates an important point: what we say may not be what is heard. It’s extraordinarily difficult to get what you want (and avoid what you don’t) if your attempts to communicate your intentions aren’t interpreted correctly.

Discussion Questions:
What does this mean for how we should be communicating with our partners?
Would being more forceful and direct in what we say solve the problem?
Or could our words continue to be misinterpreted even when said with conviction?
How do our cultural attitudes about sex and gender stereotypes play into this?

Wesleyan Resources:
Sexual Violence information
Emotional Abuse information
Sexual Misconduct Policy
Office of Behavioral Health for Students

Our reaction is usually a greater predictor of how stress will impact us rather than the stressor itself, so stress management techniques usually focus on improving your responses. Dr. Edward Creagan of the Mayo Clinic offers these three very simple ideas in how to avoid and deal with stress, taken from a spy novel!

While waiting for an airplane, an interesting thing happened to me. I picked up a novel in a bookstore at a local airport and came across a story of a James Bond-type character who lived on the edge. His work was challenging, dangerous, and vital to national defense. When queried by his colleagues about his survival tactics, he mentioned three things which I think also apply to us. Regardless of the assignment or the project, there were just three things that he kept in mind.

-  Keep it simple. The more moving parts, the more individuals involved, the more complex the program, the higher the risk of failure.

- Always be prepared for contingencies. What if … what might go wrong … how will I deal with x, y, or z? For example, as a public speaker, I always keep in mind plan B if my laptop explodes, if the projector “freezes,” or we lose power.

- Never panic. This means being prepared within reason for what may lie ahead.

As an afterthought, this agent also embraced the uncertainty of life.  Things go wrong, relationships become painful, the goal sometimes is not reached.  We need to be flexible, we need to be adaptable, and to recognize that there is great merit in staying in the day and turning over our needs and our concerns to a higher power however we may define that power.

The moral of the story? Always be open to new ideas — they can come from anywhere — and often less is more!

Wesleyan Resources: Stress Management

Discussion Questions: How do you implement these simple keys to survival in your life? Or what barriers do you believe exist to their implementation?

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sun-dial in the shade?”
Benjamin Franklin