TOUCHING Message from A DYING MOTHER

I had to tell my children this is our last Christmas together

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:12 PM on 10th December 2010

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A dying mother revealed today how she is preparing to spend a final Christmas with her two small children after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Donna Young, 32, mother of five-year-old daughter Phoebe and two-year-old son Jack, has been given just months to live after being diagnosed with a rare, inoperable lung cancer that mainly affects young women.

The former NHS psychiatric nurse from Preston, said: 'I knew my cancer was inoperable, but deep down, I had hoped I would still be around for a few years and enjoy more time with my children.

'I did hit rock bottom when I realised I only had months left, but then I gave myself a good talking to, picked myself up, and decided to make the most of what time I had left.'

Donna Young was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable lung cancer that mainly affects young women. She has urged other women to push for tests if they think something is wrong

One of the most difficult things Donna has had to do is break the news about her diagnosis to her daughter Phoebe.

Donna said: 'It was a really difficult and agonising thing to have to do, as the last thing you want to do is upset your children.

'But a child's imagination can be far worse than the truth, and I knew I had to tell Phoebe now.

'I told her mummy had got more poorly, and that the doctors have said she will be going to heaven.

'Phoebe got very upset and said it wasn't fair, and that she would miss me and that she wouldn't be able to cuddle me any more.

'She sat there sobbing for about half-an-hour and then she asked me how I was going to get to heaven. I told her the angels would come and take me, and she then wanted to know if I would come back after they had made me better.

'I then had to gently explain that once I was gone, I wouldn't be coming back, but there would be lots of people to look after her and Jack.

'It was one of the hardest things I have had to do and it broke my heart.'

Donna remembers first suffering from a cough when she was pregnant with Phoebe, but when she mentioned it to a midwife, she was told not to worry about it as pregnant women produce more mucus, which can make them cough.

Then, when Phoebe was about six or seven months old, Donna woke up in agony with a searing pain in her side, and went to primary care where she was told she had pneumonia, but no tests or x-rays were carried out.

'Phoebe got very upset and said it wasn't fair, and that she would miss me and that she wouldn't be able to cuddle me any more.'

Donna carried on suffering from recurrent chest infections, and when she was eight-months' pregnant with Jack, she was admitted to hospital after she began coughing up blood.

However, because she was pregnant, doctors were unable to carry out too many tests.

But even after she gave birth to Jack, it wasn't until April last year that doctors did a biopsy of Donna's lung which revealed the cancer.

Donna said: 'It is a small cell type lung cancer which is particularly rare and predominantly affects young women. It is not related to smoking, but is a rare and genetic form of the disease.

'Since being diagnosed, I have been worrying about my children as I don't want them to get it in the future. I have been particularly concerned about Phoebe, as the type of cancer mainly affects women and she is very similar to me in a lot of ways.

'But doctors have told me that the kids will be screened when they are older, and this has helped put my mind at rest.'

Donna is planning to enjoy a quiet family Christmas and says she has spoiled her children more than usual, as she knows it will be her last Christmas with them.

She has already put together memory boxes for Phoebe and Jack for after she has gone. She has even bought them presents for their 18th birthdays, including a necklace with her fingerprint in it for Phoebe

Donna said: 'I know I am not lucky as I have this cancer, but I am fortunate as I have the chance to say my goodbyes and plan for my children's futures.

'Some people lose their life at my age suddenly, but I know what is coming and can do things before I go.

'I am just trying to stay as positive as possible, and hopefully prove the doctors wrong and still be here for next Christmas.'

She added: 'My advice to people would be that if you believe something is wrong, don't just get fobbed off, keep pushing and pushing until you are tested.'

Donna's mother Barbara Lawrensone, 53, said: 'We have shed a lot of tears. It is awful to see your daughter in this position.

'I look at her and just wish I could take it away from her. I wish it was me instead of Donna.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1337386/Donna-Young-tell-children-Christmas-together.html#ixzz17j2erk3R

Feeling angry? Why a spoonful of sugar sweetens your mood

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:14 AM on 2nd December 2010

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The next time you are nearing the end of your tether, consider some time out with a chocolate bar. 

High sugar levels can help control aggression and prevent loss of temper, researchers have found.

Their study compared the behaviour of sugar-starved volunteers with those who had been given a sweet drink, and concluded the latter were less inclined to snap. 

The simple sugar glucose is thought to stem aggressive behaviour by providing more self-control

Researchers believe the effect is caused by glucose, a simple sugar found in the bloodstream that provides energy for the brain.

Study co-author Professor Brad Bushman from Ohio State University said: 'Avoiding aggressive impulses takes self control, and self control takes a lot of energy. Glucose provides that energy in the brain.

'Drinking sweetened lemonade helped provide the short-term energy needed to avoid lashing out at others.'

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Professor Bushman said the finding is more than just a medical curiosity. In two published papers, he and his colleagues did several studies showing that people who have trouble metabolizing, or using, glucose in their bodies show more evidence of aggression and less willingness to forgive others.

The problem is that the number of people who have trouble metabolizing glucose - mainly those with diabetes - is rising rapidly.

'Diabetes may not only harm yourself - it is bad for society,' Professor Bushman said.

'The healthy metabolism of glucose may contribute to a more peaceful society by providing people with a higher level of energy for self-control.'

Anger issues? Sugar can calm the nerves say scientists

In the study, which appears online in the journal Aggressive Behavior, 62 college students fasted for three hours to reduce glucose instability.

They were told they were going to participate in a taste-test study, and then have their reaction times evaluated in a computerised test against an opponent.

Half of the participants were given lemonade sweetened with sugar, while the others were given lemonade with a sugar substitute.

After waiting eight minutes to allow the glucose to be absorbed in their bloodstream, the participants took part in the reaction test.

Participants were told they and an unseen partner would press a button as fast as possible in 25 trials, and whoever was slower would receive a blast of white noise through their headphones.

At the beginning of each trial, participants set the level of noise their partner would receive if they were slower. The noise was rated on a scale of 1 to 10 - from 60 decibels to 105 decibels (about the same volume as a smoke alarm).

In actuality, each participant won 12 of the 25 trials (randomly determined).

Aggression was measured by the noise intensity participants chose on the first trial - before they were provoked by their partner.

Results showed that participants who drank the lemonade sweetened with sugar behaved less aggressively than those who drank lemonade with a sugar substitute.

Those who drank the sugar-sweetened beverage chose a noise level averaging 4.8 out of 10, while those with the sugar substitute averaged 6.06.

'To our knowledge, this is the first study to find that boosting glucose levels can reduce actual aggressive behavior,' Professor Bushman said.

'To be sure, consuming sugar should not be considered a panacea for curbing aggression. But the results do suggest that people who reportedly "snap" with aggression may need some way to boost their mental energy, so they can override their aggressive impulses.'

The findings were corroborated in another series of studies, published recently in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

In that paper, Professor Bushman and colleagues from the University of Kentucky had participants complete a commonly used and well-accepted checklist that measures the number and severity of Type 2 diabetes symptoms.

These include numbness in the feet, shortness of breath at night, and overall sense of fatigue. In three separate studies, the same participants completed different measures of their willingness to forgive others.

On all three measures, people with higher levels of diabetic symptoms were less likely to forgive others for their transgressions.

'These studies are more evidence that diabetic symptoms may cause difficulty in how people relate to each other on a day-to-day basis,' Professor Bushman said. 

'It's not an excuse – diabetes does not mean people have to act aggressively, but it may shed some light on why these behaviors occur."

'With the rate of diabetes increasing worldwide, it is something that should concern all of us.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1334642/Feeling-angry-Why-spoonful-sugar-sweetens-mood.html#ixzz17LTTdHFy

Why People Like to Cheat

Why people are more likely to cheat or behave badly if it's easy to do

By Niall Firth
Last updated at 2:58 PM on 24th November 2010

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People are much more likely to cheat or behave badly if it's easy (picture posed by models)

People are much more likely to lie or cheat if it takes less effort than doing the right thing, new research suggests.

Scientists tested how willing people were to behave immorally and discovered that people will behave badly if it does not involve too much work on their part.

The researchers believe the findings could have implications for charities which rely on people’s good will for donations and help.

Rimma Teper, lead author on the study from the University of Toronto, said:  ‘People are more likely to cheat and make immoral decisions when their transgressions don't involve an explicit action.

‘If they can lie by omission, cheat without doing much legwork, or bypass a person's request for help without expressly denying them, they are much more likely to do so.’ 

In one study, participants took a maths test on a computer after being warned there were glitches in the system. One group was told if they pressed the space bar, the answer to the question would appear on the screen.

The second group was told if they didn't press the enter key within five seconds of seeing a question, the answer would appear.

‘People in the second group – those who didn't have to physically press a button to get the answers – were much more likely to cheat,’ says Associate Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, second author on the study, published online in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The team also asked participants whether they would volunteer to help a student with a learning disability do the test. One group of participants had only the option of checking a 'yes' or 'no' box that popped up on the computer. 

The second group of people could follow a link at the bottom of the page to volunteer their help or simply press 'continue' to move on to the next page of their test.

Participants were five times more likely to volunteer when they had to expressly pick either 'yes' or 'no.' 

‘It seems to be more difficult for people to explicitly deny their help, by clicking 'no,' than it is for them to simply click 'continue' and elude doing the right thing. We suspect that emotion plays an important role in driving this effect,’ says Teper.

‘When people are confronted with actively doing the right thing or the wrong thing, there are a lot of emotions involved – such as guilt and shame – that guide them to make the moral choice.

‘When the transgression is more passive, however, we saw more people doing the wrong thing, and we believe this is because the moral emotions in such situations are probably less intense,’ said Teper.

The team's research on moral behaviour is unique in that it looks at how people behave in certain situations rather simply asking them to predict how they might behave.

‘Forcing people to make an active, moral decision – a 'yes' or 'no' to donating, for example – is going to be much more effective than allowing them to passively skip over a request,’ he said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1332586/Why-people-likely-cheat-behave-badly-easy-do.html#ixzz16GKKGlmg