Mind-Expanding Reads for Daily Life

This article reviews five essential psychology books that simplify complex theories into practical advice for daily life. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman explores cognitive biases and decision-making processes. Carol Dweck’s “Growth Mindset” emphasizes the power of effort over innate ability. “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman highlights the importance of understanding and managing emotions. Angela Duckworth’s “Grit” focuses on resilience and perseverance. Finally, “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi delves into achieving optimal experiences. Each book, authored by experts, offers actionable insights to enhance personal and professional life. 5 applied psychology books for everyday life - Big Think.

Awe

Lori Santos covered the eight types of awe in her podcast The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos: The Power of Awe. Well worth a listen whether you are religious or not.

Gaslight, Camera, Action

Gaslighting, a manipulative tactic that makes victims question their reality, can profoundly affect mental health, leading to anxiety and depression. When confronted with gaslighting, experts recommend seven strategies to regain control and assert your truth. These include calmly stating your perspective, setting boundaries, validating your feelings, documenting events, suggesting neutral third-party mediation, using humor to defuse tension, and focusing on solutions rather than memory debates. These techniques aim to disrupt the manipulator’s control and provide clarity, helping you maintain your sense of reality and well-being. 7 Things to Say When Someone Gaslights You.

Unraveling Chronic Illness Misdiagnoses

Chronic illness symptoms are frequently dismissed as mere stress, complicating diagnosis and treatment. Amina AlTai, initially attributing her fatigue and brain fog to work-related stress, faced repeated dismissal from doctors despite worsening symptoms like hair loss and gastrointestinal issues. It wasn’t until thorough blood tests that she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease and celiac disease, severe autoimmune conditions. This case underscores the complex interplay between stress and chronic illness, highlighting the need for careful evaluation to distinguish between stress-related symptoms and underlying medical conditions. Why Chronic Illness Symptoms are Commonly Dismissed as Just Stress - The New York Times (gift article).

Weight Loss Woes

States like West Virginia are grappling with the high costs of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Despite their effectiveness, with some patients losing 15-20% of their weight, the prohibitive costs, reaching up to $1,400 a month, make them inaccessible for many. Canceling public funding programs exacerbates the disparity between those who can afford these medications and those who cannot. Critics argue that the situation mirrors past pharmaceutical crises, underscoring a broader issue of healthcare inequality in treating obesity, a condition classified as a complex disease. Some States Say They Can’t Afford Ozempic and Other Weight Loss Drugs - The New York Times (gift article).

Time for a Pill

MIT researchers have discovered that the effectiveness of medications depends significantly on the time of day they are taken due to circadian variations in liver function. Using engineered mini-livers, the study identified over 300 liver genes with circadian patterns, affecting drug metabolism and inflammation. These findings suggest that drug regimens could be optimized to enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity. For instance, Tylenol’s breakdown is more efficient at specific times, and the liver’s susceptibility to infections like malaria varies with the circadian cycle. This research opens new avenues for tailoring drug administration schedules. Drugs are more effective at certain times of day | MIT Technology Review.

The Fish Oil Debate

The article explores the ongoing debate about the efficacy of fish oil supplements for heart health. Despite early enthusiasm sparked by Inuit dietary studies, recent research reveals mixed results. Some studies suggest omega-3s reduce coronary events, but many trials show no significant cardiovascular benefits. Additionally, fish oil supplements may increase the risk of atrial fibrillation. Experts recommend obtaining omega-3s from dietary fish rather than supplements, emphasizing a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle for heart health. The article underscores the importance of relying on well-rounded dietary practices rather than supplements for optimal cardiovascular well-being. Is Fish Oil Helpful or Harmful for the Heart? - The New York Times (gift article).

Reclaim Your Work-Life Balance

In an era of remote work and constant connectivity, achieving work-life balance has become increasingly challenging. The article outlines five tech-based strategies to prevent work from encroaching on personal time. These include setting and communicating boundaries, scheduling messages during work hours, minimizing notifications, filling calendars with buffer times, and establishing emergency contact plans. By leveraging the same technology that blurs the line between work and personal life, individuals can regain control and ensure their jobs stay within the confines of a typical workday. How to get back your work-life balance with tech - The Washington Post (gift article).

AI: The Write Stuff

A recent study reveals that over 10% of scientific papers are co-authored by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, with fields like computer science showing even higher usage. Researchers from the University of Tübingen and Northwestern University utilized an excess-vocabulary method to identify unusual word frequencies in scientific abstracts. This method bypasses traditional detection algorithms, revealing the widespread integration of AI in academic writing. While LLMs enhance drafting efficiency, especially for non-native English speakers, their use raises concerns about biases, hallucinations, and the potential flood of low-quality publications. Academic policies on LLM usage remain inconsistent and evolving. At least 10% of research may already be co-authored by AI.

Are You Still the Same You?

I enjoyed the essay in The New Yorker, Are You the Same Person You Used to Be? about how our personalities and our views of ourselves often change over a lifetime. _"We change, and change our view of that change, for as long as we live."

A New Role for the Cerebellum

In medical school, we were taught the cerebellum was primarily involved in the coordination of body movement. As with the majority of the brain, reality is much more complicated: A New Function of the Cerebellum

Food as Medicine - Welcome to the Farmacy

The concept of food as medicine is gaining acceptance. How to Prescribe Food as Medicine is a quick overview on the topic. I especially appreciated the links to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine white papers .

Human Composting / Terramation

There is now an alternative to cremation or burial after death; Terramation or "natural organic reduction," turns your body into soil. In fact, human composting is now legal in five states.

Electrical Memory Prosthesis

Here is an interesting article about a DARPA-funded initiative, centered at Wake Forest and University of Southern California, to help with memory formation. Brain-zapping tech improves memory by more than 50%

The Rise of Edible Cities

Edible cities are growing in the U.S. and Europe I love the idea of an "edible city," a place where space is rehabilitated with fruit and vegetable plants with food free for the taking. Check out the Edible Cities Network to see if there is an edible city near you.

How to Strengthen your Bond with your Canine Companion

Researchers are studying the human-canine bond in part to build better robotic dogs. The article, Want a better relationship with your dog? These 7 factors are key, describes ways to bond with your biological canine companion today.

Recognizing Smell from Molecular Structure

Here is an interesting article about attempts to use machine learning to determine how a substance smells solely from its molecular structure: AI Model Links Smell Molecules With Metabolic Processes

Gaslighting in Scientific American

Scientific American is one of my favorite magazines. I was surprised to see an article on gaslighting, but How Gaslighting Manipulates Reality taught me a thing or two.

Chasing Success and Happiness

Many people chase achievement because they believe it will lead to happiness/well-being. Arthur Brooks writes most people have the equation backwards.....Why Happiness Is the Key to Success

+Arthur Brooks was also featured on The Peter Attia Drive Podcast talking about the science of happiness talking about his book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

The Real Paleo Diet

Although today's Paleo Diet is all the rage, it is historically innacurate. If you're interested in what our ancestors truly ate, the article, The “paleo” diet bears little resemblance to the real thing, offers insight from a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health.

Changing Baseball through Diet

Baseball's athletes are far behind many other professional sports when it comes to the use of nutrition to enhance performance. The NY Times article, How Team Dietitians Are Changing How Baseball Players Eat, explains.

How to Tell Good Research from Bad

The article, Psychedelic drugs: how to tell good research from bad, offers great advice on how to spot good and bad research, and not just the psychedelic kind.

Inventing Food

Meet the Man Who Invented Cool Whip, Tang and Pop Rocks talks about a General Mills chemist who invented some of the iconic (unhealthy) foods of my youth.

Left-Handedness

I hadn't really thought much about handedness. About 10% of the population is left handed. I knew that lefties are considered more creative and are statistically more likely to be president of the U.S. I did not know lefties are more likely to be elite athletes or to suffer from mental illness: Why left-handed people are likelier to be mentally ill.

The Microbiome and Brain Macrophages

In newsletter 003 - Mad Honey, Frisson, and Psychedelic Capitalism, I mentioned one of the foundational papers in Alzheimers research had been called into question. One of the alternative explanations for the cause of Alzheimers is dysregulation of the immune system of the brain. Here is a synopsis of a pre-clinical study that supports the alternative conclusion: Age-related changes in microbiome composition affects brain macrophages. And here is a link to the paper: Age-dependent effects of gut microbiota metabolites on brain resident macrophages

Lateral Thinking

I'm fascinated by metacognition, so the article, The most undervalued problem-solving tool? Lateral thinking, was catnip for me. The article starts with a puzzle that caught my attention and went on to describe the phenomenon of lateral thinking-a process highly correlated with creativity.

Quote

“Our bodies are our gardens – our wills are our gardeners.”
– William Shakespeare