Health, Nutrition : Experts’ Tips to Ground a Fear of Flying
In the wake of recent air disasters, fear of flying is on the rise, local mental health experts say.
Most susceptible to increased anxiety aloft are passengers already classified as white-knucklers, said Dr. Dennis J. Munjack, director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the Los Angeles County USC Medical Center and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the USC School of Medicine.
“I haven’t seen many people with new phobias (since the Dec. 7 crash of a PSA plane in San Luis Obispo County and other recent disasters),” he said. “People who already have fears (about flying), at least for a short time, get worse.”
About one in six adult Americans fear flying to some degree, say experts, who point out that the fear can spring from several different concerns.
Many Sources of Fear
“Some people have a plain old fear of crashing,” Munjack said. “Some people have a fear of being in a closed space and not being able to get out. For others, it’s fear of heights. For others, it’s fear of having a panic attack and not being able to get to the emergency room.”
Separation anxiety--leaving behind familiar routines and environment--can play a role too, according to Gary Emery, director of the Los Angeles Center for Cognitive Therapy and a clinical assistant professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA. Loss of control can fuel fear, other experts say.
Whatever the fear’s source, nervous people with mild or moderate anxieties can often learn self-help techniques to minimize their distress, said Munjack, who suggests a three-pronged approach.
--Thought-stopping: “Be aware of catastrophic images,” he said. Without realizing it, many people begin picturing disaster in the back of their minds days or weeks before the flight. “Get those thoughts out of your head,” he advises patients.
--Respiratory control: To avoid hyperventilation, extremely rapid breathing that over-oxygenates the blood and causes dizziness or fainting, Munjack suggests passengers learn to breath from the abdomen.
Slowing Down Breathing
“People who hyperventilate are almost invariably moving their chest very rapidly,” he said. One way to practice becoming an abdominal breather: “Lie on a bed. Put a book on your abdomen and breathe so the book rises and falls. If you learn to breathe by having the abdomen puff out, it automatically slows you down.”
--Relaxation training: Before and during the flight, listen to relaxation tapes, Munjack suggested. “Some people actually lie down and relax in the terminal,” he said. Others call up a particularly relaxing mental scene.
Simple organization and planning ahead can also allay flight fears, added Emery, who advises his patients to arrange such details as parking and rental car pickups well in advance, thus reducing overall anxieties.
Best Breakfast Bets
About 74 million Americans--about one in three--begin the day with cereal for breakfast, estimates Dick Lovell of the Kellogg Co., a Battle Creek, Mich.,-based cereal manufacturer. Nutritionally, some cereals are great grains. But other flakes flunk dietitians’ tests.
How to separate the worthy wheats (and other grains) from nutritional chaff?
First and foremost, cereal should be a source of dietary fiber, advised Rita Storey, a registered dietitian at NutraCare in Newport Beach and an American Dietetic Assn. spokeswoman. Many nutritionists recommend a daily fiber intake of 25 to 35 grams, and cereals vary in their fiber content. Frosted Flakes and Special K, for example, provide just a trace of dietary fiber, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research, while All-Bran provides 9 grams and Fiber One has 12 grams in every one-ounce serving.
Avoid Sugar and Fat
Cereal should not be a significant source of sugar or fat.
“Two or three forms of sugar (in the ingredients list) are a bad sign,” Storey said. “Sugar and fat, if present, should be somewhat down on the list of ingredients (denoting smaller amounts of them).”
“If sugar or fat is listed as the first or second ingredient, pass up the cereal,” said Joan Levinthal, a Tarzana registered dietitian. And don’t be fooled by listings of “vegetable oil” or “turbinado.” “Those are still fats and sugars,” she said.
Not so important in cereals, some nutritionists say, are the amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals, assuming the consumer eats an otherwise nutritionally sound diet.
Plenty of Protein in Diet
“Most nutritionists recommend eating about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight (daily),” Storey said. “For most people, that’s about 50 to 70 grams a day. And we eat probably twice that without cereal.
“If you buy the cereals with ‘fortification,’ you’re probably paying extra for nutrients you’re getting from foods already.”
People on low-salt diets should check the sodium content of cereals, experts agreed. But others who limit their intake of table salt, processed meats and other salty foods probably shouldn’t worry much about cereal salt, they say.
Good old-fashioned oatmeal (not instant) is the No. 1 cereal choice, in Levinthal’s view. Runner-up cereal choices, she said, are shredded wheat, cream of wheat or farina. Check granola ingredients carefully, she advised, especially for amounts of sugar.
Ideals Vs. Realism
“Some people think all granolas are great--and that’s not necessarily so.”
Ideal cereal choices aren’t always realistic choices, the nutritionists admitted, especially for children.
“If you can’t get a child to eat anything but instant oatmeal,” Levinthal said, “go ahead. It’s still providing some fiber.”
And if kids won’t touch unsugared cereal, one of the lesser evils, Storey said, is Frosted Mini-Wheats. Each one-ounce serving has 6 grams (about 1 1/2 teaspoons) of sugar, according to Storey, or about half that found in the same size serving of Fruity Pebbles or Cocoa Pebbles.
Kid Bites
Two researchers who studied human bites in children discovered what many parents already know: Aggravated kids sometimes use teeth, not talk, to convey their frustrations.
But the researchers, who evaluated the emergency room records of 322 bitten children seen over a six-year period, also bared some facts that might surprise parents.
When Bites Occur
Prime biting times, for example, were from 2 to 11 p.m. That was the finding of Dr. M. Douglas Baker of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Sally E. Moore of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, who published their findings this month in the American Journal of Diseases of Children. Bites occurred more frequently during warm-weather months, the researchers found, and the most common bite sites were the arms, face, neck and trunk. Children were most often playing or fighting when the biting occurred.
Some child-rearing experts say ages 2 and 3 are prime times for biting. But the Baltimore and Philadelphia researchers found that children between 11 and 16 suffered twice as many bites as children from birth to 5 years or 6 to 10 years. They speculate that teen-agers might be “more likely to use overt, aggressive action to solve differences with their peers.”
Although 75% of the bites evaluated in the study were superficial injuries, the researchers and other experts caution that bites can be serious because of the risk of infection.
Seek Medical Attention
How can parents decide whether a bite merits medical attention? Depth and location are two criteria, said Dr. Barbara Korsch, head of general pediatrics at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and professor of pediatrics at the USC School of Medicine. If a bite breaks the skin and extends into underlying tissue, obtaining medical attention is wise, she said. And facial bites, she added, are usually considered more serious than those on arms and legs.
How to minimize biting in young children?
Parents should stop the child and say firmly: “I won’t let you bite,” Korsch said. “When you see your child getting angry, go into the situation. Divert him or her.” Biting the child back solves nothing, in Korsch’s view. “Biting back by parents shows the child that the response to biting is biting,” she said, “and that adult biting is stronger than child biting.
“A certain amount of biting is experimental, but to excess, it’s abnormal.”
COMPARISON OF SOME COMMON BREAKFAST CEREALS
In this sampling of available cereal brands, the numerals represent contents per ounce of cereal. One teaspoon of sugar is 4 grams.
Dietary Fiber Sugar Fat Sodium Protein Cereal (grams) (grams) (grams) (miligrams) (grams) Calories All-Bran 9 5 1 270 4 70 Bran Chex 5 5 0 300 3 90 Bran Flakes 4-5 5 0 220-230 3 90 Cheerios 2 1 2 330 4 110 Corn Bran 5 6 1 300 2 120 Corn Flakes trace 2 0 280 2 110 Fiber One 12 2 1 220 3 60 Frosted Flakes trace 11 0 190 1 110 Frosted Mini-Wheats 3 6 0 5 3 100 Grape-Nuts 2 3 0 190 3 110 Life 1 6 2 180 5 120 100% Natural trace 6 6 15 4 140 Product 19 trace 3 0 290 2 110 Shredded Wheat 3 0 1 trace 2 110 Shredded Wheat’N Bran 4 0 1 0 3 110 Special K trace 3 0 230 6 110 Wheaties 2 3 1 370 3 110
SOURCE: American Institute for Cancer Research.
