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Archive for February, 2011

Mentoring programs establish the self-confidence and the self-assurance of a mentee who uses it as a tool for personal and professional development. There are certainly many benefits you can expect from joining a mentoring program because you will learn from someone who has the necessary experience to coach you on what you have to do. Some of the benefits of mentoring include:

? Becoming a standout
? Leadership abilities
? Working smarter, not harder

These benefits may sound simple, but when you translate it in real life, you can definitely feel that mentoring is one of the best options to succeed in your career. Mentoring is actually a two-way relationship and both the mentor and the mentee will learn something from the mentoring program. Primarily though, mentoring programs are designed to enhance the capabilities of the mentee.

At the start of any mentoring programs, both the mentor and the mentee are encouraged to clarify their goals and expectations from the program. They need to create a well-designed plan and follow a specific course of action. There are a lot of cases wherein the mentoring program far exceeded the expectations of the mentee because the program provided the following as well:

See how much you can learn about Mentoring when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.

? An insider’s realistic perspective on his career goals and progress
? Clearer understanding of his career plans
? Exposure to varied experiences and perspectives
? Access to powerful sources of information
? Access to resources within the industry
? Greater knowledge about yourself and your goals
? A wider network of contacts
? Identification of any lacking skill that is required for career advancement
? Establishment of a foundation for a lasting professional career
? Access to a support system during the critical stages of your career growth

But the mentor would not be able to do everything for you; you need to help yourself as well. You need to do this by listening to the mentor’s ideas and suggestions, try implementing these suggestions if you feel that these can help you in your career. It is also essential for you to listen to the feedback of others especially the opinion of the mentor during this critical time so that you can adjust to the situation accordingly. In addition, you should have set realistic expectations from what you hope to achieve from the mentoring program because it is difficult to have impossible goals and then expect the mentor to help you achieve these objectives.

You likewise need to have the willingness to learn and adapt to the different situations you might be facing at work. The mentor is simply the person you should count on for advice and suggestions about the path you should take. Mentoring should not be seen as the easy way out; rather, it should be seen as a tool that will help you grow further in your career and on your personal life.

And these objectives are only possible if you learn to believe in yourself and know that you are capable of doing great things in your life. Mentoring programs can help you reach this state and once you are at this point, it would be inevitable for you to enjoy the fruits of your success. As you can see, while the mentor will provide you with guidance during the mentoring program, your success is entirely up to you.

As your knowledge about Mentoring continues to grow, you will begin to see how Mentoring fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The following article presents the very latest information on Home Security. If you have a particular interest in Home Security, then this informative article is required reading.

Lowe’s offers several products aimed at helping customers secure and protect home and property. Some of these include fire and waterproof safes, smoke detectors, and carbon monoxide detectors. Fire and waterproof safes allow homeowners and businesses to protect confidential information, collectibles and firearms. Lowe’s best safe is a maximum home security system for items to be protected.

Fire protection rating is 1400 degrees for 30 minutes. Solid steel construction and an electronic lock keep items secure. Available in black with chrome hardware, a one-year warranty is included. The interior can be configured 4 ways, allowing the owner to customize it for the best fit of documents and items.

Lowe’s mid range Sentry Safe Executive Safe has 8.2 cubic feet of space inside. This safe is a good home security system for firearms or documents and items. It has a 7-14 gun capacity. The interior can be converted 4 ways. Solid Steel construction and a 3-number combination lock with lever handle secure contents. A one-year warranty is provided.

Home and Business owners who need less space but equal protection will find the Sentry Safe Fire-Safe Waterproof Security File a good addition to their home security system. The safe protects valuables from fire and water damage.

With storage space of .7 cubic feet, the safe features molded resin construction and a tubular key lock. UL classified 30 minute fire protection up to 1250 degrees is provided. The system comes with a one year warranty and verified waterproof seal.

Smoke detectors from Lowe’s add a vital element to any home security system. Smoke detectors are required by the national electrical code. Smoke detectors come in battery operated styles and wired styles. Wired detectors will have battery backup in case of power failure.

Is everything making sense so far? If not, I’m sure that with just a little more reading, all the facts will fall into place.

Lowes stocks standard smoke detectors that are ideal for bedroom or kitchen home security systems. Powered by 9 volt battery, the smoke detectors feature low battery indicator lights and come with a 3 year limited warranty. Wired smoke detectors available at Lowes include stand-alone and interlocked systems. Interlocked smoke detectors have an added safety feature. If one alarm is activated, all smoke alarms in the building will sound. This type strengthens the home or business security system due to the added layer of fire protection.

Hardwired smoke detectors feature front-loading backup battery doors, AC quick connect power harnesses, interconnective capabilities and a 5 year limited warranty. Homeowners who wish to install interconnected smoke detectors without rewiring can use Lowe’s wireless interconnected DC smoke alarms. This product enables homeowners to update the home or business security system without the expense of hiring electricians or contractors to rewire the facility.

The 9 volt battery powered unit protects even during power outages. The 85 decibel alarm is loud enough to wake most sleeping adults should fire or smoke be detected. The smart touch button silences false alarms and low battery alerts and will test the system. A 10 year warranty is provided.

Carbon monoxide detectors have quickly become part of most home security system components. Lowes features carbon monoxide detectors alone or in combination with smoke detectors.

The digital DC Carbon Monoxide Alarm is battery operated with an easy read digital display. An advanced electrochemical sensor connects to an 85 decibel alarm. The unit comes with a 5 year warranty. Lowe’s standard Carbon Monoxide Detector is battery operated and updates every 15 seconds. Sensor is permanent and test/retest button included. The 85 decibel alarm sounds loud enough to alert home and business owners.

Home security system products at Lowes include safes to protect valuables, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Home and business owners have a wide variety of choices in product features. Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are available in combination units featuring both capabilities.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Decades of tree and biomass research jointly conducted by Florida Statue University and Shell Energy have resulted in the planting of the largest single ?Energy Crop Plantation? in the entire United States. This Plantation spans approximately 130 acres and is home to over 250,000 planted trees including cottonwoods (native to the area) and eucalyptus (which are non-invasive) along with various row crops such as soybeans. This organization of ?super trees? was brought into being as a result of the University’s joint research with other agencies including Shell, the US Department of Energy, the Common Purpose Institute, and groups of various individuals who are working to develop alternative energy sources (those not dependent on fossil fuels) for the future. This research is focused on the planting and processing of biomass energy supplies from fast-growing crops known as ?closed loop biomass? or simply ?energy crops?. The project seeks to develop ?power plants? such as wood-pulp or wood-fiber providing plants; clean biogas to be used by industries; plants such as surgarcane which can be used for ethanol development; and crops such as soybeans for biodiesel fuel production.

I trust that what you’ve read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.

University involvement in alternative energy research is also going on at Penn State University. At Penn State, special research is focused on the development of hydrogen power as a practical alternative energy source. The researchers involved are convinced that mankind is moving toward a hydrogen-fueled economy due to the needs for us to reduce air pollution and find other sources of energy besides petroleum to power up the United States. Hydrogen energy burns clean and can be endlessly renewed, as it can be drawn from water and crop plants. Hydrogen power would thus be a sustainable energy resource to be found within the US’ own infrastructure while the world’s supply of (affordable) oil peaks and begins to decline. The University seeks to help with the commercial development of hydrogen powered fuel cells, which would be usable in place of or in tandem with combustion engines for all of our motor vehicles.

When President Bush recently announced his alternative energy initiative, he determined that the government would develop five ?Sun Grant? centers for concentrated research. Oregon State University has the honor of having been selected as one of these centers, and has been allocated government grants of $20 million for each of the next four years in order to carry out its mission. OSU will lead the way in researching alternative energy as it represents the interests of the Pacific Islands, the US’ Pacific Territories, and nine western states. OSU President Edward Ray says, the research being conducted through OSU’s Sun Grant center will contribute directly to our meeting President Bush’s challenge for energy independence. Specific research into alternative energy being conducted at OSU by varios teams of scientists right now include a project to figure out how to efficiently convert such products as straw into a source of renewable biomass fuel, and another one aimed at studying how to efficiently convert wood fibers into liquid fuel.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

If you are someone who wishes to begin researching and developing alternative energy technologies and you would want to be set up as a not-for-profit organization or entity, you will want to look into getting government grants, on both the state and the federal levels. Government grants for alternative energy research and development have been highly touted by politicians on local, state, and federal levels in recent years, all the way up to the President himself. This is due to the fact that we now recognize as a society that we need to seek out and develop alternative energy sources to those of the fossil fuels that we presently depend upon, as these fuels are not only slowly but surely running out (at least cheap access to digging them up is running out), but also damaging to the environment and air quality.

There is a fairly vast array of government grant programs available for you to check into. The great and most important thing to keep in mind about a government grant is that it’s essentially free money. It is not a loan, you don’t pay any interest, and you don’t ever have to give the money back. However, qualifying for these grants, as you might imagine with something involving the government and free money, has quite a lot of restrictions attached to it. Not only is qualification based on purpose and need in the eyes and opinions of government bureaucrats, but just because you qualify does not mean that you necessarily get the grant. As Marshall McLuen put it, ?the medium is the message?. The fact of the matter is that it is typically easier to apply for and qualify to receive a business loan?but then, that would not be free money, that would be something you owed to someone, and with interest on top.

See how much you can learn about Alternative Energy when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.

There are professional grant writers who know how to write proposals in such a way that they get around the heavy load of restrictions set up by the government, and you might need to resort to one of these. Even governments employ professional grant writers to seek money from other branches of the government, such as a country government needing funding from the state or the federal government. These people also keep abreast of what government grants are still or newly available and what ones have been removed from the table. It’s an intricate web, so one must not get tangled up in when seeking needed financial backing for alternative energy research and development. In fact, it is so complex that in the last decade or so the ranks of profession writers, as both individuals and as entire companies, have swelled. It is a profitable business?and this can make it fraught with illegal actions and controversial claims.

Nevertheless, each year there are many thousands of grants awarded throughout the United States for the purpose of helping the public. And again, with the government endorsement of grant money to be given to alternative energy researchers, you could very well get what you seek.

Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about Alternative Energy into just one article. But you can’t deny that you’ve just added to your understanding about Alternative Energy, and that’s time well spent.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Some people want to take the slow boat to China deal by doing a cruise to Costa Rica leaving out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with stops in Costa Maya, Limon, and Colon, Costa Rica and you can spend 8 days on a Carnival Cruise down to Costa Rica and experiencing port of calls along the way. This is a lot more exciting than being cramped on a flight when you can spend all the time relaxing and having a good time before you get to the ports of call, which is on days 3,5 and 6. Each stop is approximately one day long and there’s only one stop in Costa Rica that is on day 5 of the trip.

You can just sit back and look out on to the ocean and take in the next breath of air so clean you forgot you’re not in the city. Par t of the fun about a cruise is the nighttime sky when you can walk out on to the deck and look at the clearest sky around. Most tourists enjoy that where they can go walking around the deck at night and the cost doesn’t come cheap you’re looking at about $3-5 grand for a week and a half or longer that’s why tourists need to plan their trip well to make sure you can get the most of out of it financially.

If you don’t have accurate details regarding Costa Rica, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don’t let that happen: keep reading.

Carnival cruises is one of the lines that does have stops in Costa Rica as their port of call and usually there’s a trip through the Panama Canal, but it’s just straight down south winding your way through the Caribbean islands and stopping in some places, but you spend more time out on the water than you do stopping on land. Sailing instead of flying just buys you more time to relax comfortably instead of being squashed up inside a plane for a few hours when you can spend a few days chilling out on the deck and enjoying a drink while taking in some rays. There are a lot of cruise ship websites out there that can tell you when you should book your trip since like the airlines prices change quickly in a matter of a day.

So it’s ideal to get email notices about the fares so you can book them quickly. Doing your homework can ensure you get the best fare possible for your money since it’s not exactly cheap to go on a ship. The average person spends a couple years saving up for a cruise and booking when the price is not so high since like flying cruises are costly at certain times of the year.

Booking a year early is your best bet in getting the dates you want so you’re not paying full fare when the reduced rate is offered to you in advance to give you a chance to book your cabin. Cabins are booked by level and are priced differently. The most expensive would be towards the front.

Those who only know one or two facts about Costa Rica can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you’re learning here.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Borderline personality disorder and bipolar are often mistaken as being the same thing. They are also often misdiagnosed, one for the other. This is because the symptoms for both illnesses are startlingly similar.

Borderline personality disorder is actually less common and less known than bipolar. Borderline personality disorder accounts for only about twenty percent of hospitalizations for mental illness each year, while bipolar accounts for about fifty percent of hospitalizations. Borderline personality disorder is most common in young women, whereas bipolar is equally common in both men and women, as well as all age groups.

Borderline personality disorder and bipolar patients both experience mood swings that may involve violent outbursts, depression, or anxiety. However, while bipolar patients typically cycle through these moods over a period of weeks or months, borderline personality disorder patients may have bursts of these moods lasting only a few hours or a day.

Borderline personality disorder patients also undergo periods of having no idea who they are in terms of personality, likes, dislikes, and preferences. They may change long term goals frequently, and have trouble sticking to any one activity. Acting with impulsiveness, going on major unaffordable shopping sprees, excessive eating, or engaging in risky sexual relationships can also be experienced. These are also symptoms of mania in bipolar patients.

If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

Borderline personality disorder patients may also undergo periods of worthlessness, feeling mistreated or misunderstood, and emptiness. These symptoms coincide with symptoms of depression in bipolar patients.

Another symptom of borderline personality disorder involves how they deal with relationships. Relationships are often viewed in extremes. Either the patient is totally in love or hates with a passion. A patient may be completely in love one minute, then hate someone totally due to a small conflict or situation. Fears of abandonment often lead to suicide threats, rejection, and depression in the patient. These relationship issues can also be found in bipolar patients.

Treatments of borderline personality disorder and bipolar are also similar. A combination of therapy and medication is typically preferred by the psychiatrist. Cognitive behavioral therapy, while successfully implemented with bipolar patients, was originally developed for use with borderline personality disorder. Various medications can also be prescribed for either mental illness with successful results.

Like bipolar disorder, little is known about the actual causes of borderline personality disorder. There is a lot of controversy about genetics versus environment in this area. However, it appears through research that, while bipolar is definitely hereditary and biological in nature, borderline personality disorder is more likely to be a result of environment and situational stimuli.

As you can see, many similarities exist between bipolar and borderline personality disorder. It can often be quite difficult to distinguish one illness from the other, even for doctors and psychologists. If you suffer any of the symptoms discussed here, it is important to obtain the assistance and diagnosis of a licensed professional for appropriate diagnosis and treatment of your symptoms. You should never attempt self diagnosis and treatment for symptoms such as those associated with bipolar and borderline personality disorder without the help of a psychiatrist or psychologist. Doing so may cause your symptoms to worsen, and make treatment less successful in the future.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Imagine the next time you join a discussion about India Travel. When you start sharing the fascinating India Travel facts below, your friends will be absolutely amazed.

You can’t travel abroad without a visa. But what is a visa anyway? Well, if you have plans of traveling to India, you must get an India travel visa.

Visa is a stamp, an official stamp, from the high commission or embassy in your traveling document or passport. It authorizes you and other travelers to go to India (or any other country) for a specific period and purpose. Take note of the word ‘official’. You see, there are a lot of scammers out there who are able to go out of the country and enter into another without having an official visa.

What can happen if you don’t have an official India visa? Your entry to India may be denied by the authorities. If in case you’re able to enter the India and later on your entry was discovered, you can be repatriated.

How can you get an India travel visa? That’s quite easy. All you have to do is satisfy all the rules and visa regulations. After doing so, you can be issued an India travel visa. Some individuals fail to get visas but not because they are unqualified. The main reason why most people are denied is because they fail to understand the visa officer. Consider the following suggestions when applying for an India travel visa or any other visa.

For the passport, first time travelers have ‘virgin passports’. To the visa officer, this may mean that this is your first time to travel overseas or your previous visa applications to other countries were denied. Your passport may also have more than one visa. This can mean that other countries have confidence in you, that is why they gave you a visa.

If this is your first time to apply for a visa, you have to determine first if India has a high rejection rate for visas. India is not that strict in the visa applications so even if you’re a first-time India visa applicant, you have a high chance to get an approved visa.

You can acquire India visa easily through the help of travel agencies. They will gladly assist you while you apply for a visa. Here are some of the questions that you need to answer personally before you go to the embassy ?

1. Do you have a convincing invitation letter?

The information about India Travel presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about India Travel or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.

2. Have you pre-arranged a place or made hotel reservations abroad?

3. Do you have a bank statement? How good is your financial status?

4. Were you denied a visa application before?

5. Were you previously convicted of any crime?

6. Do you have a travel sponsor? If yes, who?

7. What are your purposes in traveling to India?

These questions are of utmost importance. Your answers should be mostly positive so that you can be sure that your visa application will be accepted. If you’re not sure about your answers, you can ask guidance from friends, relatives, and co-workers who previously secured an India travel visa.

Getting an India travel visa is not that hard especially if you know your way around the embassy. Learn more about visa application online because you can find a lot of helpful information on the net. Prepare yourself. You can’t afford to be denied a visa application because you cannot reach India without it and not only that, your passport will be affected as well and all your other visa applications in the future.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Are you looking for some inside information on Laser Hair Removal? Here’s an up-to-date report from Laser Hair Removal experts who should know.

Are you considering laser hair removal? Are you aware of what it could cost? It will depend on what area you want treated, the clinic you use and your region.

Are you leaning towards a practice that offers only laser hair removal? Or a practice that offers laser hair removal along with other things? Surprisingly this will have an effect on the cost you spend for laser hair removal.

You will also play a factor in the cost of laser hair removal. Do you qualify for laser hair removal? Depending on your skin color, you might not qualify.

The clinic you use will play a factor in the cost of your laser hair removal as well. The clinic might base their fees on how long the procedure takes or the number of laser pulses used. Some clinics might have packages on the area you want treated. Packages may or may not be for you.

Other clinics might base their cost of laser hair removal on the following:

· Area being treated
· Size of the area
· How many sessions your treatment requires
· How much hair is being treated

If you base what you do on inaccurate information, you might be unpleasantly surprised by the consequences. Make sure you get the whole Laser Hair Removal story from informed sources.

The average number of sessions for each patient is three to five. Keep this in mind when getting a consultation.

You want to find a highly recommended laser hair removal clinic. They might be a bit pricier but you will get better and more effective results. The more experienced laser hair removal clinics can average around five hundred dollars for each treatment. The average of four treatments is usually recommended by practitioners.

Large areas considered for laser hair removal, like your entire legs or back can range higher than five hundred dollars a session. Small areas like your chin might cost less. You can only know by contacting the laser hair removal clinic of your choice.

Maybe you know someone that has had laser hair removal done. You could ask them if they can recommend the clinic they used to you. If they do not recommend this place ask them why not and go by what they say in your search.

When you visit a laser hair removal clinic ask to meet with the practitioner if possible. If they are busy see if they offer a free consultation. If so, make an appointment to go in and have a chat with the practitioner. Find out all you can about the facility itself as well as the practitioner that would be operating the treatment.

You want them to be highly qualified otherwise you could end up with results that are unsatisfying. An unqualified practitioner could even damage your skin by using the wrong laser or technique during your laser hair removal treatment.

When it comes to your skin you can never be too careful and you cannot trust just anybody like you would want to do. Ask any and all questions and make sure you are comfortable. You want to go somewhere that doesn’t give you bad gut feelings or anything. This will result in a better session.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Those of you out there who love to fish will enjoy the vacation packages that are set up for people to get a 5-day vacation and 2-day rental of a boat with all meals and equipment included. The hard-core fisherman will be in paradise when they’re out there fishing in some of the cleanest waters in the world. And some of the best fish like tuna, which is the most popular of fish to be caught.

Costa Rican laws are restrictive to the types of fish caught and ones they stipulate are asked to be released back into the waters since they have to maintain some conservation of specific non-edible fish to keep the population stable and to lower the pollution that excessive gaming and fishing brings to the waters of Costa Rica. The fish are of better quality than you would find in the United States since the waters aren’t as clean and well kept as the waters down in Costa Rica are.

You can sit out on the boat with all your meals and drinks included in the price you paid to rent the boat with a crew, but you get your money’s worth when you get out on the boat starting at 8:30am and return at 4:30pm and for the price you get to spend the whole day out on the boat and for about a grand and a half. You can get plenty of time on a boat to relax with breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks for the whole day.

It seems like new information is discovered about something every day. And the topic of Costa Rica is no exception. Keep reading to get more fresh news about Costa Rica.

For the price many pay for an entire day out on the ocean fishing, in absolute tranquility is probably the best grand well spent. You get your choice of heavy and light fishing gear and tackle so it’s easy for the amateur and experienced fisherman to partake in their favorite pastime.

It’s pretty expensive in the states to even rent a boat for fishing, but to know that in Costa Rica it’s one price and you get all your meals except dinner. This is what many avid fishers enjoy about their experience fishing and having a positive experience out on the ocean. Some of the other package options also include ground transportation so you get all your rides to and from the boat and from the hotel to the airport.

Which means you won’t have to fork out money for a taxi when you need to get to the airport, when you are leaving to go home after spending a week relaxing on the ocean with friends and family if you bring them to have fun fishing on the ocean and chilling out in a peaceful place where relaxation is the key for a trip to Costa Rica. Costa Ricans take relaxation and their love of fishing seriously, because fishing is also a part of their livelihood and culture. The ocean symbolizes tranquility and peace since much of the environment is very tropic and exotic which fits like a glove on many of the people who visit the country looking to kick back for a few days and enjoy a full vacation of fishing and forgetting about the stress in their lives.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Bipolar disorder is a difficult illness to manage and to treat. Many who have it may ask themselves, “Why me? What caused all this?” There are great disagreements as to the causes of bipolar disorder. They all tend to go back to the old nature/nurture controversy. In other words, does a thing happen to a person because of who he or she is, or because of the environment he or she grew up in?

The nature side of bipolar disorder causes has always been seen in family histories. This, however, can be misleading. Families often pass behaviors on from one generation to the next, regardless of whether family members are natural relatives or adopted ones.

The scientific concept of correlation without causation may account for shared histories of bipolar disorder in biologically unrelated siblings. This concept is easy to grasp. For example, a man could state that all summer, every time he got a sunburn he ate fish. So, did the sunburn cause the man to eat fish? No, but the act of fishing both caused the man’s skin to burn and allowed him to catch a fish, which he then ate. In a similar way, bipolar disorder can occur in families without anything in one family member’s bipolar disorder causing the bipolar disorder of another.

Also, for whatever reason, people with bipolar disorder are often drawn to each other. In this case it is unclear whether the families formed come together because of their shared genetically similar predisposition towards bipolar disorder, or whether some members of the families are genetically more prone to bipolar disorder but the illness of some other members of the family becomes exaggerated more than it would in another environment.

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you’re fully informed about Bipolar, keep reading.

Research into the genetic causes of bipolar disorder is often done using twin studies. It is assumed that twins will have environments that are as close as is possible. Identical twins are used to show the effects of genetics, since they will share the same genetic materials. Fraternal twins are used as a control group. While these twins share nearly identical environments with their twins, the fraternal twins have less genetic material in common.

It has been shown through these twin studies, and other studies where identical twins are compared to adopted siblings, that there does seem to be a genetic basis for bipolar disorder. Only one percent of the population has bipolar disorder. Fraternal twins, who share some genetic information, are 20 percent more likely to have the disease if one has it. The percentage for identical twins is even higher, at around 60 to 80 percent chance of one having it if the other does.

Environmental causes of bipolar disorder are more difficult to assess. Bipolar disorder has been proven to have a chemical basis in the brain, but the chemical reactions can be caused by any number of factors. A history of losses early in life can be a contributing factor, as can any major source of stress. Physical illnesses such as cancer and others can lead to a depressive state, which is then often followed by mania.

Neither genetics nor environment can fully explain the causes of bipolar disorder. Research is constantly being undertaken in both areas. In the meantime, the nature/nurture controversy is just beginning to heat up.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO