The Christmas season can take a heavy toll. Dr Muiris Houston has some tips for the physical effects, and Marie Mulvey writes about the psychological effects.
So, you've survived the initial skirmishes with the festive season - well, apart from the office party. Now the serious business begins. Between Wednesday and January 2nd food and drink will be in plentiful supply, and we will be hard pushed to resist temptation.
Before I get into the specifics of the festive physical challenges, a word about hedonism. In these times of political correctness, regular health scares and warnings of rising obesity, we all need a week when we can switch off and indulge ourselves.
If you are on a calorie- or points-controlled diet, then allow yourself some leeway in the days ahead. Letting go of regular restrictions might temporarily dent your diet, but it will have positive spin-offs for your health: the release of endorphins and other mood-enhancing neurotransmitters will boost your immune system.
So rather than focusing on the usual don'ts, let's concentrate on some healthy dos. Starting with drink, a regular moderate intake is definitely good for you. Binge drinking, however, is not. So for the regular party-goer the key is to divide the recommended weekly alcohol intake by the number of social events. For men the upper limit is 21 units a week, for women 14. A unit of alcohol is a glass of wine, a half-pint of beer or a standard measure of spirits. In a study of more than 80,000 American women, those who drank moderately had only half the heart-attack risk of those who did not drink at all. It also found that moderate drinking was almost as good for the heart as an hour of exercise a day.
Are some drinks better than others? Red wine still tops the league for health benefits. A moderate intake can reduce the risk of heart attack by at least 25 per cent, prevent cancer and boost sexual functioning. The reason for this is the presence of antioxidants. An average bottle of red wine contains more than 200 of these chemical compounds. They mop up free radicals, dangerous compounds that attack cells and cause disease.
The reason antioxidants occur more frequently in red wine is that they are found mainly in the skin of the grape; those grapes grown in warm, moist environments have the most antioxidants. White wine does contain some antioxidants, however, and it also has an antibacterial effect, so its health-boosting capacity should not be dismissed.
Beer drinking, although likely to add to abdominal obesity over time, is also healthy. A 10-year study of 3,000 Australians found that those who had a beer a day were 20 per cent less likely than teetotallers to die of heart disease. A pint of beer contains about a tenth of the recommended daily allowance of the vitamin niacin. A US study has linked drinking dark ale to a reduction in the incidence of eye cataract. Dark beers also contain high levels of folic acid. Whiskey also contains antioxidants, derived from the oak barrels it is matured in. Vodka is a pure form of alcohol with a low toxin content. Because it has almost no colouring or flavouring it is the best drink for avoiding hangovers.
Contrary to popular wisdom there is no absolute way to avoid a hangover, but here are a few tips. Always drink on a full stomach, to even out the absorption of alcohol. Red wine contains tyramine, a chemical that can produce a severe headache, so avoid the reds if this happens to you. Try to alternate alcohol with non-alcoholic drinks. Because alcohol is hugely dehydrating, try to drink a pint or two of water or fruit juice before going to bed after a party.
Is there any truth that the hair of the dog can help? The theoretical benefit of drinking a small amount of alcohol the next morning is based on the idea that the additional alcohol helps to even out the sudden shock of alcohol withdrawal following a heavy night's drinking. This sounds suspiciously like an excuse to imbibe even more, however. It's best to stick to fruit juice (and some sugary food) instead. And take some exercise.
Just to prove that you can have your cake and eat it, who would have thought that Christmas pudding is packed with potassium and a fair amount of iron and fibre? Or that bread stuffing contains cancer-fighting antioxidants?
Honey-baked ham and turkey do more than offer a sweet taste; they may be good for your heart. Honey contains antioxidants and helps prolong the freshness of meat. The range of antioxidants in honey is comparable to that in apples, bananas and oranges. Skinless roast turkey is low in fat and rich in protein. Ham is a good source of protein and also provides vitamin B, iron and zinc.
Canned corn may be healthier than corn on the cob, according to scientists at Cornell University. They have found that heat-processing sweetcorn significantly raises the level of compounds that help fight disease. Nine Brussels sprouts provide half our daily requirement of folic acid and all our vitamin C needs. Of 39 herbs tested by the US Department of Agriculture, oregano had the highest antioxidant activity. Thyme and rosemary also performed well.
And to round off the meal how about some chocolate? Stick to dark and you're on to even more health gain. Researchers have identified almost 400 chemicals in chocolate, including phenylethylamine and tryptophan. The body converts these to the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine has been linked to the experience of pleasure; serotonin is a key chemical in maintaining normal mood. Low levels of neurotransmitters are linked to anxiety and depression. Eating three or four pieces of dark chocolate makes people calmer, more relaxed and generally happier.
When Juliette Binoche, the star of the film Chocolat, was asked if she agreed with the 75 per cent of British women who said they would rather have chocolate than sex, she replied that it was better to have both at the same time. That's one way to ensure you get plenty of exercise over the festive season. Enjoy your Christmas.
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As the Christmas cards come tumbling through the letter box, their idyllic depictions of cheerful cherubs, Santa's sleigh and happy families gathered around the fireplace are in stark contrast to the stressful reality of Christmas for many people.
This time of year is so demanding that, according to clinical research, the season of mad merrymaking and general good cheer can be the least cheerful and most miserable season of loneliness, isolation, sadness and disappointment.
For many it is a time to be got over, exemplified by a well-worn new-year remark: well, how did you get over the Christmas? The question derives from the realisation that this is a time we hope to survive before returning to the relative normality of real living and realistic expectations. Christmas contains obvious sadness for those who have suffered bereavement during the year. The "empty place", the absent family member, brings an accumulation of acute grief at a time associated most with celebration and family gathering.
Christmas is the loneliest time because it is the ultimate celebration of togetherness. Men and women who are without spouses or partners, who manage to busy themselves throughout the year, often come face to face with their isolation during the Christmas season. People who are single or separated confront the stark reality of a world composed of couples, a world in which, ultimately, they stand alone.
Christmas is separated parents, one or other without their children on December 25th. It is children without both parents, grandparents without their grandchildren; it is the harsh visible reality of the confusion of the current complexity, reconfiguration and reconstitution of family life. For many children and adolescents it is the torture of divided loyalties and childhood compassion for the less resilient parent, all played out against the backdrop of the more maudlin movies of magic and perfect family life.
More acute still is the renewed grief experienced by couples struggling with infertility or learning to live without children. Christmas is childhood commemorated, venerated and celebrated.
It is, after all, the story of the birth of a baby, and the baby was the Son of God. It is the magical moment when humanity and divinity collide and coincide, it is motherhood glorified, the gentle protectiveness of fatherhood recognised and family idealised. Even in its material form it is Santa Claus and children, happy families around the fireplace, glowing faces, warm embraces and everywhere the music of When A Child Is Born.
But the cheerful family-around-the-fire scene of Christmas Eve often turns into domestic violence or the cruelties foisted by the pathological or powerful upon the vulnerable and weak. A toxic cocktail is concocted at Christmas through the consumption of alcohol and the complexity of family relationships, fatigue, disappointment and inordinate seasonal stress. Violence is more visible during the season of goodwill. Children remember it for ever.
Less visible is the silent suffering of many much older people, putting last years' cards on the mantelpiece in an empty home or a bedside locker to pretend to other nursing-home residents that they have friends and family who care. The stress of nothing to do, nowhere to go, nobody to phone and no one who will call, except, perhaps, for a brief, dutiful visit, is the seasonal experience for many of those whose work, care and commitment provided the luxury so many of us enjoy today.
Yet not all are privileged to participate in wealth. There are those who have no homes to decorate. Those who have homes but who have little else. The stress of poverty, of wondering from where and how Santa will find his way to their house, if clothes and food will appear, or if the memories of one's children will be those of being cold, hungry and poor at a time of obscene prosperity on this small, inequitable island.
Wealth is also no cushion to the distress of Christmas. There are overexcited and semi-hysterical sleepless children, frazzled mothers, exhausted dads and anxious grandparents. There is seasonal saturation, this damaging deprivation of excess, where children, confused by too many toys, are unable to concentrate on one to play with, toys that do everything and leave no space for a child's imagination, dolls that talk and leave no words for a child to provide, where too many lights dim the simplicity of the season and too many things cannot fill the need a child has for wonder and discovery.
Childhood is a very long time: the greatest gift a parent can give a child is time, the greatest developmental aid approval, the greatest emotional gifts parental attention and love.
Love is central to Christmas. This is a time when many adults try to recapture or create what they had as children, the love they wish they had.
Sibling rivalry is renewed at Christmas as adults return to their family homes to replay the competitiveness of childhood and the renewal of the wish to be the most loved, the most valued in the perennial pathological wish for parental approval.
There are also the black sheep of the family, who cannot, or think they cannot, go home; family outcasts who celebrate alone in bedsits or with other peoples' families. There are children who are ill, adolescents who cut and scratch their bodies in distress and many who run away from home.
There are people who are too depressed and depleted to engage in anything. There are people too ill to experience beyond the boundaries of their personal pain. There are families who wish that just once, this year, things could be normal and peaceful and free from stress.
And if the individual, family and societal picture is not stressful enough, there is the ever-present consciousness of global suffering, the collision of cultures, bombs in Baghdad, beatings in Belfast, needless death in Dublin and elsewhere. There is the certitude of the virtuous; the worldwide war of words where righteousness reigns and liberty is often eroded by greed camouflaged as concern.
But lest this article be just another wretched, miserable, Scrooge-like mean meander through the stresses of the season, let's get things in perspective. This is also your Christmas: you have the capacity to make it one that is wonderful, not least by following some of the psychological strategies in the panel, left.
Have a happy Christmas.
Marie Murray is director of psychology at St Vincent's Hospital, Fairview.