28.04.2010 Lifestyle Coaching: Changing Your Path No Comments

San Diego Psychologist: New Study Supports Vitamin E for Liver Disease

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that Vitamin E may help improve non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (otherwise known common liver disease).  As reported by the article, the principle researcher Dr. Arun J. Sanyal, M.D. stated, “This clearly shows that Vitamin E is effective for treatment of patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis who don’t have active diabetes.”

According to the article, patients were given 800 IU of Vitamin E daily, and “a significant rate of improvement in markers of the disease, such as inflammation, was seen in 43 percent of those getting vitamin E, compared to 19 percent of those getting placebo.”

The article is available at : http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=638542

As always, please check with your primary care physician or other health care provider before making any decisions about your health.

Dr. Schwartz

San Diego Psychologist

www.integrative-health.net

01.03.2010 The Darkness of Depression, The Heaviness of Weight Management No Comments

San Diego Psychologist: Chicken or the Egg?: Obesity and Depression

In a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) multi-study, researchers found a significant link between obesity and depression.  “We found bidirectional associations between depression and obesity: obese persons had a 55 percent increased risk of developing depression over time, whereas depressed persons had a 58 percent increased risk of becoming obese.” Available at: http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=636477

Dr. Schwartz

San Diego Psychologist

www.integrative-health.net

13.01.2010 What is Biofeedback? No Comments

What is Biofeedback?

Biofeedback is one of many tools that Dr. Schwartz utilizes to treat health conditions and improve quality of life.  It is a very basic, yet extremely effective physiological monitoring tool.  It is a non-invasive “treatment” in which patients are connected to a computer via electrodes to obtain information such as temperature, sweat gland activity, muscle tension, breathing, and heart functioning [NOT for treating or diagnosing heart conditions]. These measurements represent common physiological reactions to anxiety, stress, chronic pain and discomfort; even depression and trauma.  This data is then “fed back” to the individual via information displayed on a computer monitor. This information can be monitored while performing relaxation exercises, hypnotherapy sessions, during psychotherapy, etc; thus making it an outstanding learning and awareness tool.

13.01.2010 Services Posts No Comments

What is Biofeedback?

Biofeedback is one of many tools that Dr. Schwartz utilizes to treat health conditions and improve quality of life.  It is a very basic, yet extremely effective physiological monitoring tool.  It is a non-invasive “treatment” in which patients are connected to a computer via electrodes to obtain information such as temperature, sweat gland activity, muscle tension, breathing, and heart functioning [NOT for treating or diagnosing heart conditions].

Read more

13.01.2010 Services Posts No Comments

The Heaviness of Weight Management

Weight management is your ability to sustain or manage a certain weight that you, or one of your resources, has determined for your daily living. Two of the most important factors (aside from how you chose your optimal weight for yourself) are diet and exercise.  Although being underweight can have health risks, much of the research focuses on excessive weight and obesity.

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13.01.2010 Services Posts No Comments

The Ball and Chain of Anxiety

Anxiety (and even fear) can be helpful.  It can motivate us, keep us focused, alert, and increase our performance in tasks.  If, however, the anxiety doesn’t go away after the situation, increases significantly in intensity, or just remains “hanging” like a cloud all the time, the consequences can be harmful.  They can considerably affect your everyday functioning or even affect your physical health with problems such as cardiac symptoms, reduced immunity, Gastro-Intestinal symptoms, excessive fatigue, and many of the other stress related physical symptoms.  According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately 18% of all U.S. adults have an anxiety disorder.

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13.01.2010 Services Posts No Comments

Stress Management: Maintaining Balance

Stress can be summarized as one word: Strain. As noted above, it can be Mechanical, as in force or load on a system (pounds per square inch (PSI); Physiological, as in a reaction by an organism to a stimulus that destabilizes the balance of the physical functioning of that organism; or Emotional or Cognitive strain, such as a person reacting with anxiety, fear, or other emotional or cognitive distress to a situation he or she is in.

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13.01.2010 Services Posts No Comments

The Wounded Heart: Heart Disease and You

Heart disease is a general term that describes a wide variety of diseases that affect you heart and you blood vessels. These conditions include coronary artery disease; heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias); and heart defects you’re born with (congenital heart defects). The most common cause of heart disease is cardiovascular disease — a condition involving the narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries (blood vessels that supply the heart) that can lead to chest pain (angina), heart attack, or stroke. Other forms of heart disease may include infections and conditions that affect your heart’s muscle, valves, or rhythm.

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12.01.2010 Home Posts No Comments

Overview

Derek T. Schwartz, Ph.D., BCIAC

Clinical Health Psychologist

Certified Biofeedback Practitioner

License # PSY22176


Contact Information

8813 Villa La Jolla Dr.

Suite 2002

La Jolla, CA 92037-1937

Direct Line: (858) 877-0770
Fax: (858) 452-1517
E-mail: drschwartz@sandiegopsychologist.com

[Serving the San Diego region]


What is Biofeedback?

Biofeedback is one of many tools that Dr. Schwartz utilizes to treat health conditions and improve quality of life. It is a very basic, yet extremely effective physiological monitoring tool. It is a non-invasive “treatment” in which patients are connected to a computer via electrodes to obtain information such as temperature, sweat gland activity, muscle tension, breathing, and heart functioning [NOT for treating or diagnosing heart conditions]. Read more