Forgiveness, flourishing, and resilience: the influences of expressions of spirituality on mental health recovery.

The relationships of spirituality, religion, and health have been the subject of research in a variety of disciplines over the past two decades. Findings have varied: Some findings appear to have strong evidence of relationships while other findings are deemed inconclusive. A few studies have distinguished between religion and spirituality, but most investigators have treated the two as one concept with no clear lines of distinction between them. This theoretical study, focusing on the topic of spirituality, explores several related concepts, including forgiveness, flourishing, and resilience, as a basis for developing approaches to facilitate recovery in mental health clients using spiritual interventions.

A pilot study of a weekend retreat intervention for family survivors of homicide.

Homicide causes negative unintended consequences for family survivors. Family survivors face complicated grief and overwhelming loss with minimal support from others. The authors offered a retreat intervention as a way to ameliorate the effects of the homicidal death for family survivors of homicide. An exploratory longitudinal pilot study examined the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and explored the impact of the TOZI© Healing intervention on participants' distress symptoms. Eight family members participated in the 2-day retreat and completed surveys at five time intervals over 30 months. Descriptive statistics and correlations were used to analyze the data. Although sample sizes were too small to achieve statistical significance, changes on selected holistic health outcomes, supported by overwhelmingly positive focus group responses to the intervention, affirm the need for further study.

Dietary oestrogens and male fertility potential.

Reports of increased incidences of male reproductive abnormalities and falling sperm counts have prompted interest into the nature of these threats to global fertility. Xenoestrogens have been flagged as major culprits but to date, little is known about the effects of dietary phytoestrogens on male reproductive health. These non-steroidal oestrogens of plant origin are potent endocrine disruptors that modulate normal physiological functions. Phytoestrogens have become a major component in the typical Western fast food diet over the last few decades. Soy formula milk is another common source of phytoestrogens, now used increasingly as an alternative to breast or cow's milk for infants with allergies. This use is of particular concern since the most vulnerable periods for oestrogenic insult are thought to be the pre- and neonatal periods when irreversible damage can be inflicted on the developing germinal epithelium. Studies into the safety of phytoestrogens are urgently needed either to allay fears or increase awareness of the effects of our modern diet on future fertility.