Acai berry – a small berry found in the Rain forests of Amazon has captured the minds of many researches and has recently become the hottest diet around. The reason for these is its unbelievable nutrition. It contains healthy omega fats and fatty acids, several minerals and vitamins, is rich in fiber and protein and on top of that it is one of the strongest antioxidants around – stronger than blueberry and red wine. And while the research on acai berry health benefits is still on going, the tests that have been done indicate that you simply can’t afford to not include it in your diet.

Whether you want to improve your general health or to accomplish a specific task, such as losing weight for example, it seems that acai berries have some kind of benefit for everyone. I will be honest, as I discover more information about acai berries in my research I am sometimes blown away by the number of health benefits these small berries seem to posses.

The vitamins and minerals are self explanatory – providing your body with minerals and vitamins from a natural food source is always great. The fiber contained in the berries helps you cleanse your colon – which has numerous health benefits associated with it. Omega fats are good for your cardiovascular system and heart. While antioxidants are linked to a number of benefits ranging from slowing down aging process to fighting free radicals in your body and flushing toxins. Flushing toxins is actually much more significant than it may sound. It improves general health, makes you feel better, increases energy levels and even results in a small amount of weight loss.

With such an array of health benefits acai berry should truly be a part of everyone’s diet. And now you can easily add it to your diet by ordering a free trial of acai berry, and with benefits like this adding it to your diet is simply a no brainer.

Have you recently decided that you would like to lose weight? If you have, you will find that you have a number of different options. For instance, you can casually decide to lose weight, develop your own structured weight loss program, join an online weight loss program, or you can become a member of a local weight loss center. Although each weight loss method is effective, you may be interested in joining a weight loss center.

If you have never been a member of a weight loss center before, you may be wondering about them. Weight loss centers are often used to describe local weight loss programs. When joining a weight loss center, you will likely attend weekly, biweekly, or monthly meetings at the “center,” location. Most weight loss centers require the payment of a monthly membership fee. Despite the possibility of a variance, these membership fees are often almost always affordable.

When looking for a weight loss center to become a member at, you should know that not all weight loss centers are the same. For instance, there are some weight loss centers that only host weekly, biweekly, or monthly meetings. These meetings are often used to record your weight, as well as socialize and communicate with others who are looking to lose weight, just like you. On the other hand, there are weight loss center that give you more membership benefits. These types of weight loss centers may have healthy eating cooking classes, instructional exercise classes, and a fully equipped fitness center for you to use.

If you are able to find a weight loss center that has an onsite fitness center or instructional classes, whether they be for eating or exercising, you are urged to further examine the weight loss center. Yes, the membership fees for these types of weight loss centers may be a little bit higher, but they are well worth it. In fact, those who join weight loss centers that have instructional classes or onsite gyms often report better results. This is because you often feel more motivated to exercise and eat healthy and you also get support from other hopeful weight loss losers at the same time as well. 

If you are interested in joining a weight loss center, the first thing that you should do is familiarize yourself with all of your options. This may include asking those that you know, like friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, or your doctor, for recommendations, using the internet, or your local phone book. Once you have the contact information for a number of local weight loss centers, you can do a little bit of research or comparison. What you will want to do is examine all of the membership benefits that you are given, like access to healthy recipes, food journals, access to an onsite gym, and so forth. Then, you will want to compare membership fees.

If you live in a larger city or town, there is a good chance that you will find at least two weight loss centers for you to join. That is why it is important that you take the time to examine and compare all of your options. Yes, any weight loss center is better than no weight loss center, but you should take the time to find the weight loss center that is the perfect match for you and your own personal needs. Doing so may result in you achieving your weight loss goal and in a fun and exciting way.

You have finally decided you want to consult a psychologist, psychiatrist or other mental health professional, but how do you go about choosing which one will meet your unique needs? There are at least 5 different types of mental health treatment providers from which to choose.

Do not just consider the professional degree when picking a counselor or therapist. Do you want a male or female?

Do you want one who is an expert in marriage counseling? Individual counseling? Substance abuse treatment? Do you want a therapist who prescribes drugs?

How about one who can X Ray your personality by using tests? One who can administer hypnosis? Electroshock?

A good first step would be to consult with a healthcare professional who knows the answers to these questions. Call the psychology or psychiatry department at a university.

Talk to a psychology instructor at a local community college or contact the behavioral health unit in your local hospital or your community crisis line.

It is important to be familiar with the training, skills and treatment philosophy of the various types of professionals, and then match what you prefer with what a particular treatment provider has to offer.

Also, talk to the representative of an organization which is concerned with issues like yours i.e. marriage, anxiety, depression etc. Their opinions are invaluable, as they are in contact with many different patients and treatment providers who are concerned with the very same issues as you and they have first hand knowledge of the characteristics and qualities of different types of counselors and therapists.

Your 5 main choices of mental health treatment providers are: The marriage and family counselor, the psychologist, the psychiatrist, the professional mental health counselor and the clinical social worker.

The marriage and family counselor has one to two years of graduate training in counseling those with troubled marriages and family problems. He or she will have a masters degree and will likely have done an internship.

The advantage of using these professionals is that you are working with someone who has intense training in this one area of counseling. The disadvantage is that some insurance companies may not cover their services.

The psychologist holds a doctoral degree in psychology. Some consider him or her to be the most highly trained of mental health professionals. The psychologist has approximately 6 years of college training in the psychological sciences; 2 years of upper division in college and 3 to 4 years of post-graduate school.

A psychologist is trained to do counseling, psychotherapy, research and mental X Rays, better known as psychological testing. They practice marriage and family counseling and therapy to eliminate anxiety, depression as well as the entire range of psychological disorders.

The advantages of using a psychologist are that he is the most highly trained in psychological practice, is an expert in providing cutting edge treatment for diverse problems and uses psychological testing to provide revealing information about how your mind works.

Also, in many cases, he or she is a trained mental health researcher, meaning, in this case, the psychologist is trained not to just practice psychology, but also to contribute to it through research.

Another advantage is that their services are covered by almost all insurance companies who provide mental health coverage.

The clinical social worker and professional counselor provide counseling to eliminate family problems and troubles arising from depression, anxiety, agitation and other emotional disorders. They have from one to two years of post-college level training in counseling and mental health.

The social worker holds a masters degree in social work while the professional counselor holds one in counseling. They both must do an internship and pass a comprehensive examination to practice independently.

Psychiatrists have most of their training in medicine, chemistry and the biological sciences. Their central training in psychiatry and mental health is usually received in the 3 year residency in psychiatry.

They hold a doctoral degree in medicine or osteopathy and receive no substantive training in counseling, family therapy, marital therapy or psychological testing.

They are mainly used to prescribe medication and administer occasional electroshock treatments. Their services are covered by all health insurance companies.

As you can see, there is a wide variety of professionals available to treat emotional problems. The one crucial ingredient, however, is the quality of the rapport you have with your provider.

It is important to check educational credentials, experience and any history of disciplinary action by your state Board. But even after all these check-out, be sure you trust and have an excellent rapport with your therapist, or you might have to start all over again!

Improving the Mental Health System

According to a news release that was dated May 9, 2006, the “Standing Senate Committee On Social Affairs, Science and Technology” in Canada recommended the creation of a Canadian Mental Health Commission that will be responsible for significantly upgrading the Canadian mental health system. As stated by Senator Michael Kirby, the Chair of the Committee, “The Senate Committee is committed to improving the range, quality and organization of health and support services that are required by the tens of thousands of Canadians who are living with mental illnesses and addictions.”

Funding The Proposed Change

Based on an extensive three-year study on mental health and addiction, the Committee determined that it will cost $5.36 billion over a 10-year period for this mental health system upgrade. Where will these funds come from? According to the Committee, the revenue will come from raising the excise tax on alcoholic drinks by 5 cents per drink.

Part of the rationale for the 5-cent increase per drink was obviously the goal of raising the needed funds for the proposed changes in the mental health system. Another justifying factor for the price increase, however, was the fact that since each alcoholic drink will cost more, Canadians will be more inclined to drink lower-alcohol products such as beer and wine instead of liquor.

Let’s Do the Math

At first glance, this proposal seems to make sense. Why shouldn’t those who drink help finance a program that will provide them with a better mental health system? Why not let those who are part of the “problem” become part of the “solution”? This logic seems sound until you do the math. If $5.36 billion is needed to help finance the upgraded mental health system, then how many drinks will have to be consumed in a ten-year period to reach $5.36 billion dollars? The answer: 107,200,000,000 drinks. That’s 107 billion, 200 million drinks.

To arrive at how many drinks this is per year, all we have to do is divide this number by 10 (for the ten-year program) and the result is 10,720,000,000. This is still a huge number that fortunately can be “massaged” even more. According to The World Factbook website, the population of Canada was estimated to be 33 million people in 2006. Dividing 10,720,000,000 by 33,000,000 equals 325. Putting this in terms that the average person can understand, every man, woman, and child in Canada will have to consume 325 alcoholic drinks per year for the next ten years to finance the new mental health system! Simply put, these numbers are not realistic.

More Flaws

The “logic” of this proposed mental health program also breaks down when it is examined more deeply. For instance, why would people drink lower-alcohol products such as beer if the increased excise tax applies to all alcoholic drinks? To help understand this better, let’s use an example. Let’s say that the average shot in Canada currently costs $3.00 and the average beer costs $1.00. Based on the proposed price increase, if Joe drinks an average of 5 shots per week, his weekly average alcohol expenditure will be $15.25. When the numbers are calculated, this figures out to be 1.7% more than Joe would have spent before the proposed tax increase. Let’s do a similar exercise with beer. Based on the projected price increase, if Pete drinks an average of 5 beers per week, his weekly average alcohol expenditure will be $5.25. When the numbers are calculated, this figures out to be 5% more than Pete would have spent before the proposed tax increase. The point: since the proposed price increase affects higher-alcohol products (such as shots) proportionately less than their lower-alcohol counterparts (such as beer), why would Canadians switch to lower-alcohol products?

Alcohol and Mental Health

Another question. What if tens of thousands of Canadians, realizing that drinking alcohol is not good for their “mental health,” significantly reduce their alcohol intake or quit drinking alcoholic beverages altogether? Where will the money come from to offset this lack of revenue? In a similar manner, what if thousands upon thousands of Canadians who drink alcoholic beverages decide that they don’t want to pay the extra excise tax and, as a result, stop drinking alcoholic beverages? If this happens, where will the government get the money needed to transform the mental health system? In other words, does the Canadian government have a realistic “plan B” for this major transformation?

A Logical Contradiction

From a different perspective, isn’t it rather ironic that those who drink alcoholic beverages will pay for the revamped mental health system? Isn’t there a contradiction in logic somewhere in this proposal? Stated differently, if tens of thousands of Canadians have mental illnesses or are addicted to alcohol or drugs, wouldn’t the government want Canadians to drink LESS alcohol in order to reduce the existing alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol-related mental health problems? Yet according to the current mental health proposal, from strictly a financial standpoint, it would appear that the Canadian government is banking the entire mental health system upgrade on historical data that strongly suggests that Canadians will continue to drink at their current or even higher levels of consumption.

Budgetary Miscalculations

What happens, for instance, if there are cost overruns in the proposed mental health system? There are, of course, two “easy” solutions to this problem: increase the excise tax on each drink or motivate Canadians to drink even more alcoholic beverages. Either “solution,” however, is predicated on the fact that in order to “work,” the upgraded mental health system needs to be funded by Canadians who continue to drink alcoholic beverages.

Conclusion

It appears logical to conclude that the Canadian mental health system is in need of a major overhaul. As with most comprehensive government programs, however, the issue of funding becomes a major obstacle to overcome. The proposed Canadian mental health system upgrade is no exception. Based on the reasons given above, it seems obvious that the Canadian government needs to come up with alternate sources of revenue generation for this worthwhile project. Indeed, to point out one of the major “flaws” in the current proposal, consider the following question: When is more drinking a “good thing?” Answer: when it finances a nationwide mental health system upgrade. Something tells me that Andy Rooney from “60 Minutes” would have a lot of fun with this.

Copyright 2007 – Denny Soinski. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and give the author credit.