Dr. Simone’s Mind Space

UNE SUR CENT mountain retreat

Concluding two absolutely magnificent days high up in the Swiss mountains and enjoying hospitality at its peak @suvrettahouse. The event for my female empowerment movement @unesurcent themed: “There’s no mountain high enough for women to climb”, is one of the best events ever. The breathtakingly beautiful nature environment, hiking, coffee breaks, breakfasts, dinners which brought endless incredible conversations, new business ideas, and connections meant the world to me and as I understood to the participants too. What a success, as the participants shared too. They described how they managed and greatly appreciated to take out time for themselves.

It’s exactly what I’ve envisioned of the retreat and in general the mission of @unesurcent to inspire and empowerment women by bringing incredible women together. Together we’re strong and can rule the world.

There’s no mountain high enough for women to climb.

 

@unesurcent 

@drschwank 

Swiss Alpine Girls: There’s no mountain high enough for women to climb!

With a great passion for mountains and an unstoppable mindset, Agi @agichristine from @swissalpinegirls talks about her upcoming trip to Nepal, where she will climb the 6119m high Lobuche East Peak.

 

The Swiss Alpine Girls want to inspire women to get into the sport of mountaineering, which is still dominated by men.

 

She talks about why they chose Nepal and the long road of preparing for the 20 day trek where they will also pass the iconic Mount Everest Base Camp.

 

@drschwank

@unesurcent

Jealously and why it’s so common

Most of us know the feeling of being exposed to jealousy. Yet, it often takes a while to understand the dynamic and what the underlying emotion is, we’re feeling, when surrounded by a jealous person. It can be incredibly destructive to a degree of life threatening, for the person exposed to jealousy. Mobbing at work, schools, universities are often related to jealousy, domestic violence another common place for jealousy, as well as among friends, and acquaintances.

 

The fairytale Snow White is one of the best examples describing basic human interactions and feelings, such as jealousy.

 

Why are people jealous?

Often, it’s a feeling of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, low self-esteem of the jealous person that lead to the strong emotion of jealousy, when encountering other people that live an outwardly perfect life in the eyes of the jealous person. They seem to have all the jealous person desires and more. To the jealous person this appears unfair and self-doubts why do I not have all of the success, the amazing partner, the beautiful appearance like to other person, they targeted. A personal insecurity can transfer into jealousy, if a person is in proximity that meets the perfect ideal of the self of the patient. Often this isn’t obvious initially and needs time to sink in.

 

What can we do, when exposed to jealousy?

Jealous people will remain jealous, no matter what we do. If we try to be nice to them, respectful, friends or distance ourselves. They’ll always return with jealousy.

An amazing Jungian colleague of mine once said. If someone is toxically jealous, the only thing that works is running away!

A wise advice, particularly because jealous people implant a feeling of inadequacy into us. A feeling of low self-esteem, second guessing of our choices and who we consider to be.

 

Who are targets of jealousy?

Strong, independent, successful, and attractive women are often a target and exposed to severe jealousy. To degrees that are life threatening. Jealousy from both other females, but also male counterparts.

 

What can we do, when exposed to jealousy?

-Knowing about jealousy, noticing the signs early, and understanding that it’s not our person that’s the core of the problem, but the jealousy of another person, is essential in order to deal with it appropriately.

-It is important, to learn already during childhood, how to cope with uncomfortable emotions, such as jealousy.

-We shouldn’t protect our children of these emotions, since without knowing the wold being cruel, the child will be much more vulnerable and an easy target for a jealous person.

-Fairytales in use for educational purpose. Fairytales, such as Snow White can be incredibly valuable sources, serving as metaphors for situations, interactions happening in the real world.

-In certain situations, the best choice is simply to “run away”. To avoid being further exposed to a toxic environment of jealous people, engaging in bullying, negative roomers, destructive behavior towards the person they’re jealous of.

 

“Surround with people that feel like sunshine”

@drschwank

@unesurcent

Endometriosis and Infertility: A review of the pathogenesis and treatment of endometriosis-associated infertility

Endometriois has been associated with infertility, however the mechanism by which it affects fertility are still not fully understood. A recent systematic review by Marcer and Taylor from Yale Medial School has reported.

 

Current treatment options of endometriosis-associated infertility include surgery, superovulation with IUI, and IVF. It’s also discuss potential future treatments for endometriosis related infertility such as stem cells transplantation and immune therapy.

 

Endometriosis has been estimated to affect up to 10–15% of reproductive aged women (1). The association between endometriosis and infertility is well supported throughout the literature, but a definite cause-effect relationship is still controversial. The prevalence of endometriosis increases dramatically to as high as 25%–50% in women with infertility and 30–50% of women with endometriosis have infertility (2).

 

The fecundity rate in normal reproductive age couples without infertility is estimated to be around 15% to 20%, while the fecundity rate in women with untreated endometriosis is estimated to be anywhere from 2% to 10% (3, 4).

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent benign inflammatory disease characterized by the presence of ectopic endometrial implants (5).

 

Treatment of Endometriosis-Associated Infertility

Expectant Management

Medical Treatment

Surgical Treatment

Combined Medical and Surgical Treatment

Superovulation and Intrauterine Insemination

Assisted Reproductive Technology

 

Key Points

• Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent disease that affects between 10%–15% of reproductive aged women
• There is a well-established association between endometriosis and infertility; however, as evidenced above, it appears to be multi-factorial involving mechanical, molecular, genetics, and environmental causes
• The optimal method for treatment of endometriosis-associated infertility is an individualized decision that should be made on patient-specific basis
• In vitro fertilization is currently the most effective treatment of endometriosis-associated infertility
• Mental health care support for couples and individual partners

 

References

1. Olive DL, Pritts EA. Treatment of endometriosis. The New England journal of medicine. 2001;345(4):266–275. 

2. Verkauf BS. Incidence, symptoms, and signs of endometriosis in fertile and infertile women. The Journal of the Florida Medical Association. 1987;74(9):671–675. 

3. Endometriosis and infertility: a committee opinion. Fertility and sterility. 2012;98(3):591–598. 

4. Hughes EG, Fedorkow DM, Collins JA. A quantitative overview of controlled trials in endometriosis-associated infertility. Fertility and sterility. 1993;59(5):963–970. 

5. Giudice LC, Kao LC. Endometriosis. Lancet. 2004;364(9447):1789–1799.

 

Macer ML, Taylor HS. Endometriosis and infertility: a review of the pathogenesis and treatment of endometriosis-associated infertility. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2012 Dec;39(4):535-49. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3538128/

 

@drschwank

@optimalperformancezurich

@unesurcent

 

Multilingualism in family settings

Multilingualism is on the rise, due to intercultural marriages becoming more and more common, in today’s globalized societies. It’s more likely to speak multiple languages at home, which comes with great advantages, but also a couple of challenges. Families dealing with multilingualism at home very differently. Linguistic research has shown great results in language acquisition, if families stick to one parent one language.

 

@drschwank 

@unesurcent 

Swimming against the stream

Through my entire life, I’ve been swimming against the stream. Life is more colorful that way, yet also more challenging. You’re very exposed to criticism, opinions, people questioning your choices, and express that often also in a rather aggressive way.

 

@drschwank 

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Me-time

While writing this podcast, I’m taking out me-time for myself. I’m getting a foot massage, as massage is my way of meditation. It’s crucial for our mental and physical well-being to have these moments of complete relaxation. Time to let the nervous system completely wind down and just be on relaxation mode. 

 

Research has shown that chronic stress, hyper arousal of our amygdala, has negativ impact on our health. Increases risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, overweight, mental health disorders, cancer, IBD, an in increase in inflammatory markers in the body, since stress causes an inflammatory response in the body. 

When stressed, especially chronically, we tend to have unhealthy habits, coping strategies, even destructive, self harming ones, and great difficulties in setting and sensing our boundaries. Difficulties to say no, in order to protect ourselves from exhaustion.

 

In times of stress:

-We can’t think rationally and clearly. 

-We act and react impulsively and emotionally.

-We have a hard time saying no.

-We can’t set boundaries to protect ourselves.

-We don’t feel our physical or mental limits.

 

—-> All these stress related aspects cause an even higher levels of stress and escalate the viscid cycle of the overall global stress burden.

—-> Outcomes vary, but in severe cases chronic stress and a longterm state of hyper arousal lead to mental or physical collapse, burnout,  severe mental breakdowns, neurological or cardiovascular emergencies. 

 

What can we do, if we have such chronic stress?

1. One of the best ways to reduce stress is exercise! Any form and any amount, simply taking time out for oneself, me-time, time to exercise. 
2. Routines rock! Changing a habits is immensely difficult! Even if we conscientiously know, that the habits absolutely don’t serve us. We still stick to status quo. It’s the place of least resistance, it’s familiar, cognitively easy, and causes the least cognitive dissonance. A state of imbalance and introspection. Routines help us a loooooong way to get out of these unhealthy habits. They also reduce the amount of cognitive dissonance: of balancing pos and cons with each option. They just make us do the thing we set out for. The more we strickt to our routines, the easier it becomes to make them our own and create new habits, your “new normal”. 
3. Seek help, changing years old habits won’t happen over night and often needs a radical change in scenery, environment, and in many cases best expert and professional support of people experienced in working with habitual changes. 
4. Change it before it’s too late and your house (your body and mind) already in flames. 
5. Seeking professional help is brilliant. Unfortunately, it’s often still stigmatised. There’s urgent need for a paradigm shift. Seeking support is a sign of strength rather than weakness. It shows an ability for introspection and self-reflection, rather then denial. 
6. Visit a retreats to set back the system and let body, mind, and soul reconnect. Ayurveda, TCM, and other forms of change in scenery, to reassess and establish new healthy routines and habits. 

 

@drschwank

@unesurecent

Staying active all the way through pregnancy: diary of a long distance runner

As a long distance runner, getting pregnant wasn’t an easy encounter. I’ve also given it a lot of thought about the amount of running I’d be able to do. Wether to be breathless, after only a short distance, feeling discomfort, due to stretched ligaments, the size of the belly, the weight gain, and general fitness.

Fact is, none of the concerns have occurred not even marginally!! 

@drschwank

@unesurcent

Living in two places with a newborn

As a global health researcher, that traveling is part of the profession, business flights facilitate the frequent long hall travels.

But now…how does traveling change with a newborn?

Obviously very much so! But yet, also not. We’ve decided to have both apartments equipped with all the baby needs, exactly as we do with our on lives.

Be flexible in your mind and expectations, but strive to continue your life lived before the baby arrived. We both strongly, strongly encourage each other to be a reminder of that! That’s why we’ve planned a long trip to  Asia, to keep up our passion for traveling, exploring exciting food, and have a highlight to look forward to, once the baby’s here.

 

@drschwank 

@unesurcent

Living in two places

Since many years back, I’ve lived abroad. In Shanghai, New York, Stockholm, and only recently returned back to Zurich for part of my professional and personal life.

Living in multiple places alway appealed to me and gave me the necessary challenge, both cognitively, learning Mandarin or Swedish, besides the cultural differences one encounters when living, rather than traveling on business or leisure trips abroad.

@drschwank

@unesurcent