Making decisions about our health is a posh and sometimes difficult process.

In addition to our own attitudes, experiences, and perspectives, we’re inundated with information from others (friends, family, health care professionals) and from external sources (news or social media) about what it means to be healthy.

Sometimes this information is consistent with what we take into consideration our own health. Other times it could go against our beliefs. To complicate matters further, sometimes this information is intentional misinformation.

How can we make sense of all this when making decisions about our health? What determines whether we stick to our attitude or change our mind?

Most of us can probably relate to this. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we now have had to change a lot of our behaviors to slow the spread of the virus. This meant working from home, wearing a mask, staying in our bubbles, and ultimately getting the vaccine.

Although for many individuals the choice to get vaccinated was obvious, for others it was not so easy. Tests from the period immediately before the Covid vaccine was available in New Zealand showed that a big minority were unsure or unlikely to be vaccinated.

They were mostly young, women and fewer educated, and their concerns were mainly about unknown future unwanted effects. Our latest research suggests that cognitive (mental) flexibility may have something to do with attitudes towards vaccinations.

Flexible mind

Previous research suggests that mental flexibility plays a very important role in decision-making. Imagine changing the best way you do something at work, having a discussion with someone who has a unique opinion, or being told that you must make healthier decisions (e.g. exercise more).

Some people handle these situations with ease. Others have a harder time adapting. Mental flexibility describes this ability to adjust our attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors within the face of recent or changing information.

Research shows that mental flexibility affects how our opinions are extremewhat’s the probability that we’ll do that consider in disinformation or “fake news,” whether or not we do it pro-ecological decisions or get entangled health-promoting behaviors (for instance, sun protection or exercise).

To increase vaccination coverage, governments often use educational campaigns that emphasize the security, effectiveness and importance of vaccinations. However, these campaigns it doesn’t all the time work out in reducing the sensation of uncertainty about vaccinations.

We wanted to know why and thought mental flexibility might play a job. To discover, we surveyed 601 New Zealanders about their opinions and experiences of vaccination.

Some questions asked about external aspects, resembling how easy they thought it was to access vaccines or whether or not they could purchase vaccines. Other questions focused on internal aspects, resembling personal beliefs about vaccinations, perceptions of their very own health, and the way necessary or secure they think vaccines are.

Overall, our participants reported few external barriers to vaccination, and 97% said vaccines were available or inexpensive. These percentages are promising and should reflect government values further efforts to make it easier to get the vaccine.

In comparison, internal aspects played a bigger role in vaccine uncertainty or hesitancy. Specifically, almost 1 / 4 (22%) of participants reported concerns about health risks related to vaccines. And 12% said they didn’t trust the processes or individuals who developed the vaccines.

Testing adaptive behavior

We also asked our participants to play a game designed to measure mental flexibility.

It involved matching cards based on a certain rule – for instance, match cards with the identical variety of objects. This rule modified randomly throughout the sport, which meant that participants had to adjust their behavior throughout the sport.

Interestingly, individuals who found it harder to adapt to regulatory changes (meaning they’d lower levels of mental flexibility) also reported more internal barriers to vaccination.

For example, after we divided participants into two groups based on their mental flexibility, the low flexibility group was 18% more likely to say that vaccinations were inconsistent with their beliefs. They were 14% more likely to say they didn’t trust vaccines and 11% more likely to report concerns about negative unwanted effects of vaccines.

This didn’t apply to external aspects. Mental flexibility didn’t predict whether people believed that vaccines were available and inexpensive.

Information is usually not enough

These results suggest that making decisions about our health – including whether or not to get vaccinated – is dependent upon greater than just receiving the “right” information.

Simply talking in regards to the importance of vaccinations will not be enough to change attitudes or behaviors. It also is dependent upon every person’s unique cognitive style – the best way they perceive and process information.

Since then, falling vaccination rates have been an issue all over the world, including in New Zealand long before the pandemic. Our findings suggest that health education campaigns could also be more practical in the event that they consider the role of cognitive flexibility.

One technique is to change the best way information is framed. For example, as a substitute of simply presenting facts in regards to the safety or importance of vaccinations, educational campaigns can encourage us to query our own perspectives or to imagine alternative realities by asking “what if?” questions.

Tests shows that any such framing can engage our deliberative thought processes (those that help us think deeply and critically), increase mental flexibility, and ultimately make us more open to change.

When K. Michelle recalls what led her to inject silicone into her buttocks over six years ago, the singer and tv personality says she felt it was something she needed to reach music.

“I had just signed a new record deal and I felt like the bigger the butt, the bigger the career,” she tells ESSENCE. “I already had a big butt. It was just ridiculous.”

The star couldn’t have predicted that she would talk about how the injections almost killed her. After trying to remove the silicone, she discovered it had spread throughout her body and was having harmful effects, including on her ability to walk. It took the singer years and multiple surgeries to get to where she is now, claiming she’s “probably the healthiest I’ve ever seen her.”

After going through this ordeal, K began working on making a program to help individuals with similar experiences. The result’s a brand new series, the official premiere of which can happen on February 3.

“Several people have gone through this and are just starting to feel the effects,” he says of the people in the series who want to correct mistakes after plastic surgery and whom he tries to help. “You even have women who have recently had this procedure and are feeling the effects right away.”

As the popularity of plastic surgery continues to grow, K says more conversations need to be had about the proven fact that many trips under the knife don’t end as planned.

“You only see beauty and you only see stories… after they photoshopped their bodies to death outside of surgery,” he says. “I wanted to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth about this.”

The series may even feature her ongoing journey towards health and happiness together with her body. Because silicone won’t ever be completely faraway from the body, she pays attention to her body, including what she introduces through her food plan, in a way she hasn’t in the past. When it comes to accepting where she is physically now, she truthfully admits that she struggles with the desire to undergo plastic surgery in the future.

“I am faced with a difficult decision. My doctor thinks I will probably need two more reconstructions, and they will be for cosmetic reasons, not health reasons. That’s why I fight,” he says. “Sometimes I think, ‘I’ll never come back to this table!’ But then I can put something on and then the reconstruction dent appears and I say, “I’m going to fix it.” I am human. I go back and forth.”

She adds: “I like the way I look. I feel pretty. I feel hopeful and comfortable that I’m healthy and able to function. I believe this brings one other beauty. I believe I actually have a grown woman inside me and I believe she’s beautiful, so I’m on the right path to what I believe about myself.”

However, that does not stop social media from claiming that she already had the job done, which the star only addressed in the comical way she could.

“You know how people dressed you? They subjected me to surgeries,” he says. “I had a facelift on Monday and on Wednesday I have a new face. Let them tell them, it’s always something.”

That being said, despite what people might imagine or expect from watching , K is against plastic surgery. He just wants everyone to concentrate on the risks and do their research before deciding to go on the operating table.

“I’m all for what you want to do with your body. It’s something we have to do called research, and even within the research we can still decide that we don’t expect the result. It’s just surgery and it’s something you just have to mentally prepare for and understand,” he says. “Know your medical history and what you’re going through. How does your body react to things before you go under the knife? It’s really a self-study. It’s nothing quick, you just get up and do it. Similar to researching When you want to buy a car, you should definitely consider what you are going to do with your life and body, because you only get one.”

Read more of our conversation with K. Michelle about her health journey, recent music (including her latest R&B album and first country album), her debut movie role on Lifetime’s and why you’ll be able to’t put a star in a box.

The growing epidemic is reportedly sending New Yorkers to hospitals due to severe reactions to cannabis.

According to doctors, the disease called ‘Scromiting’ comes from the mixture of ‘screaming and vomiting’ experienced by people affected by extreme pain. A potentially dangerous condition of vomiting is seeing revival amongst regular cannabis users, many find yourself in hospital, reports say.

Doctors are still working to understand a medical condition called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), which may lead to seizures, kidney failure, and in some cases even death. Experts imagine that symptoms often appear after long-term, heavy marijuana use, often for a few decade.

AND investigation revealed that the number of cases of CHS is increasing and that doctors now describe it as a “common” problem. One doctor lists CHS as a typical diagnosis because he often sees patients affected by this disease. Another said he sees him “every week, if not every day.”

The strange thing is that doctors are still working to understand how hot water often relieves symptoms. However, this solution can mockingly lead to injury as victims spend hours in hot baths or showers trying to relieve symptoms, sometimes burning themselves in the method.

Scientists are still investigating how long CHS lasts, the way it develops and why it affects some people. Early symptoms may persist for years before progressing to a “removing” phase, which can last several days before disappearing, even though it may return.

The only known way to prevent relapses of CHS is for users to stop consuming cannabis products. Quitting smoking could be a problem for individuals who have been using cannabis for a protracted part of their lives. Doctors noted that many CHS patients often began using cannabis of their teens.

Current theories on what causes this condition suggest that long-term exposure to cannabis may overstimulate certain receptors within the body, destabilizing the gag reflex. Some doctors also point to the increasing potency of cannabis products amid an increase within the use of legalized cannabis as a possible contributing factor to the rise in cases.