Depression: Failure to Learn Depression stops you. You can’t start. You can’t think. You want to rest but can’t sleep. Simple acts become unendurable. You retreat, then hide. You can’t burden others with what you are now – stuck. In previous centuries personality changes so abrupt led depressed people to be burned at the stake. Things […]
The Pleasures of the Apocalypse
The end is nigh. So stop tormenting yourself. Presently The Apocalypse is getting mighty popular, a kind of global “don’t worry, be happy,” moment for people and the planet. Newspapers, magazines and television are inconveniently pointing out what will happen if Seoul or Los Angeles are obliterated by a North Korean ICBM, the marauding Canadian brushfires that […]
Survivor Bias and Health Care
Why should I pay for anyone else’s health care? is a sentiment frequently expressed. Congressmen like Mo Brooks point out that the “good, healthy” people should not be “subsidizing” the care of others. So how did we come to the point where leaders believe the risks of life, its uncertainty and luck, do not apply to […]
Is Much of Health Due to Luck?
Dementia and cancer have more in common than most people recognize. Two thirds of tumors appear to be the result of random mutations. And two thirds of dementia cases also appears to be basically random, with only about 35% responsive to lifestyle changes (so far.) The implications of this “odd” convergence is wide. First, for diseases with difficult or ineffective treatments, […]
Purpose Driven Sleep
Does sleep have a purpose? Certainly. Sleep is like food. Without sleep, animals die. During sleep we reorganize our brains, consolidate memories, grow skin, rejigger hormones, rebuild tissues. In sleep we continuously remake the internal information that makes us us. But does having a purpose make for better sleep? Purpose Driven Sleep Meaning matters. If people have a sense of […]